Ethan and Ehlana:
Happy 13th Birthday, Eddie Johnson!
With Mom in the city this morning, we didn’t have any involvement in Eddie’s big day, but we did hear from Aunt Leanne that he’s having a good day; and may still be partying with his friends as we are winding down toward bedtime now.
Our day began with indoors Tai Chi for four and an Olde Bakery treats breakfast. It was very cold today with a wind chill that wasn’t just below freezing, but sub-zero too. That drop in temperature feels more-shocking when we keep flipping between warmer and colder every two or three days, but we dealt with it – mostly by staying indoors as much as p9ssible.
That was true at school, so our academic adventures were a bit on the quiet side; we were at home with Mom after school – doing a Magi lesson with her that Naomi and Aiden joined us for; and then hanging out together through dinnertime and when we went to the Inn for game night. We also had a nice chat with Mom that included news from her dinner with Dad and the Malloys and the fast food lunch back here at home with Aunt Leanne and Claire, but at least some of her travel story was too-hot for the kids to hear about. No, that isn’t my description – Naomi offered that explanation to us to explain the time gaps in Mom’s recap. Mom and Aunt Leanne won the senior team title tonight; we all had fun; and then we came home with Mom and it was time for visits to bathtubs or Jacuzzis to get cleaned up before bed. That’s pretty much all of our news for today, but since we’re still winding down toward nap time; let’s continue the update for Cassie’s and Michael’s friends – this time with a hometown friends’ news report.
This is a big year for many of Cassie’s and Michael’s friends, since they’ll all be graduating with Bachelor’s degrees; and only some of them will continue into post-grad studies. We’ll begin with Sally and Joshua Parker because they’re at Arizona State; and we can pretend to at least feel the warmth they’re getting to enjoy this winter! While Joshua will be graduating with a degree in Ag. Engineering – a popular choice for farm kids around here, and they’ll both be working their family farms together after moving home to stay again; Sally’s degree will be in Art; and she’ll also paint and create her art as a part time job. We’ll look forward to seeing her creations in the gallery or elsewhere soon; and can predict that Cassie and Michael will be two of her future customers. Sally and Joshua are also coming up on their second anniversary this summer; and they are very happy to be coming home to stay soon – even as they’ve also loved spending so much of the past four school years in Arizona.
Sticking with the warm, Marc and Gretchen are up next. After a challenging freshman year; they’re doing great in Georgia; their wedding is booked for the first Saturday in October; and they’ll be joining the family farming businesses soon-after they get home in May. Gretchen is also already developing an online media network geared toward young farmers; and Cassie and Rowen are sure that she’ll be able to turn that into a thriving business – especially with their help! Marc and Gretchen – and Joshua and Sally – will have their own homes on their respective farms, but it their cases; they’re inheriting existing homes instead of having new builds as is done whenever needed for growing farm families.
That has us turning our thoughts toward the friends that didn’t go away to school from Cassie and Michael’s class. You can guess that we’re big fans of college degrees, but those expenses actually don’t make sense for some teens; and that’s true for the two couples we’ll be writing about next. Let’s start with Lily and Reid Spencer. Lily gets special mention from us because she’ll be one of the new business owners in the Galleria. Break Time will be the only food shop in the Galleria; and she’ll be running it with silent partnership help from Miranda and Hannah. Lily also has help from her friends and family, so while she might not have the business experience yet; that won’t be a problem; and she has a lot of experience for the most-important parts of her job through her years of working at the Inn. Karla is going to be one of those friends helping Lily with her new cafe; so she’s up next – along with her husband, Brock. While Karla has been working at the grocery store since finishing high school, Brock has been working in construction; and is a really good example for alternative education that we really need to pay attention to with our own future plans; since trade apprenticeships are necessary to keep any community thriving. Brock is becoming a very talented carpenter; and those skills are just as important as having expertise in all of the different college-acquired fields that we’re usually more-focused on. Karla isn’t partnering with Lily for Break Time, but she is going to work there too, and possibly run the place when Lily needs to be off for her kids – future-plural; not present!
This update is getting long, so let’s wrap up this part of our report with one more couple; and then continue the rest of the stories sometime this weekend. Luke and Denise have the distinction of being the couple that split the difference among their friends by choosing to attend the city college in Crystal Springs for the three and two-year programs respectively. Their ‘learned’ skills were geared to help out on the family farms, but they can also help their neighbors; and Denise’s book-keepi9ng education and experience could as-easily be a full-time job for her if she wanted to be stuck at a desk all day – which she doesn’t. We won’t suggest that Cassie’s and Michael’s friends are as happy as they are, but they are all happy and doing pretty well regardless of what they’re doing for work, studies, or family; and that’s an important fact on its own; since that isn’t something that can be said for most groups of high school friends in most other places.
We are ready to call it a night now, though, so stay tuned for the rest of that update; and we’ll move on to the crash-and-nap part of our night!
Until next time, this little blast from your near or distant past is written for you with love from Ethan and Ehlana Proctor – twin junior Magi Masters of the Light!
