Ethan and Ehlana:
Welcome to the town family, Dane Wildes!
Congratulations, Shane, Tegan, and Dane’s families – it’s a boy!
Our day wasn’t that exciting, and we’ll guess that Tegan wouldn’t equate football or cheer squad tryouts with giving birth to her son, but we are sure that she’s happier tonight even after a few hours in labor before getting around to the welcoming their baby into the world! We got some details from Cassie and Michael, since they checked in with their high school friends and have already met Dane, but didn’t get most of the details yet and probably won’t hear much more until Sunday at church.
Since we’ve mentioned Cassie and Michael already, we can report that we had a lot of fun last night with them and our four best friends. Our fun included a grilled dinner with cold salad sides; some live music play time; a Magi lesson in healing ourselves from football and cheer squad strains and pains; and some bonus talk about everything from dealing with potential game play injuries to all of the travel stories that included two weddings, a vacation, and all of the work adventures. We watched a movie too, but not really; since we talked our way through the entire show. The co-ed cuddle time was great; and so was the co-ed nap time that followed once we did eventually get to bed.
Tai Chi by the river was chilly again compared to what we’ve been used to most of the summer; Cassie and Michael made sure that we bulked up on calories ahead of tryouts day two; and then we were kept busy at the school all day with those football or cheer squad tryouts. The official news for Ehlana won’t come until tomorrow, but Naomi is sure that the squad has been picked and that Ehlana and Sophia will be the two additions to the squad – and the other Grade Nine girls are likely sure of that too. Coach Robinson won’t officially announce the members of his team until Thursday, so I’ll only report that Aiden and I impressed again today, and while we might still be a couple of years away from being among the tallest players; we are already the fastest; and being smaller can be an advantage when the target of the defense! Let’s mention that we can do some good on defense too and that is part of our workouts, but only when we play as safeties; since Coach Robinson doesn’t even try to use us on defensive or offensive lines when we’d just get crushed by those much-bigger guys. Yes, Aiden and I could actually do those jobs, but not without using our Magi talents and doing things that guys our size shouldn’t be able to normally accomplish. Coach Robinson is happy with us, though, so we’re feeling pretty good about our chances – and we’ll be even-more motivated once our girlfriends officially make the cheer squad. It would seriously suck to sit out the season and watch them cheer from the sidelines – a fact that I can attest to after doing that with Naomi last season! ;^)
Ehlana and I came home after our workouts without any guests; had a quiet dinner and work evening with Mom and Dad; and now we’ve been winding down toward nap time with bath or Jacuzzi breaks and our usual bedtime computer checks and twin chat wrap-up fun. Getting a bit of extra sleep would be good for us – though we’ve also already done a round of self and co-healing – another advantage we have over the other players or cheer squad contenders. That’s true for the other Magi that don’t have the healing gift, but we will help our friends when that is an option. We don’t have any Cassie and Michael news – unless you include the travel-related chats from last night. They’re getting busy with the normal ‘home’ work that includes getting ready for their next trip and ongoing work with everything they’ve been doing over the past month. They’re also paying back a bit this week with yard chores help; since Ehlana and I can’t do very much this week while busy with football and cheerleading. That works for all of us; so we won’t feel too-guilty about basically getting to play for most of this last week of the summer break.
As for world and political news; we’re still waiting on any good news to report with no signs of that actually happening anywhere in sight. There aren’t any new meetings booked for the Ukraine peace talks and the Ukraine and European leaders in particular are talking more about war than peace. News flash to all of those leaders – more weapons won’t end the killing and destruction; and attempts to inflict more death and damage on Russia will only lead to more-serious consequences. Nobody should want that – or continue to risk expanding the war beyond Ukraine; yet the tough talk continues while the Ukraine army is being destroyed. There isn’t much talk in western media about the Middle East right now and that’s bad for all of the people being attacked on various levels by Israel with support of their allies. Not focusing on those horrors doesn’t stop them from happening; and the western hypocrisy is on full display throughout the Middle East. It is really too-bad that most of the rest of the world is too afraid of our country to stand up and insist on an end to the horrors in Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, and elsewhere. Ehlana and I are sickened by all of that; so we also are not impressed by the leaders in our country that claim to be peace-makers while backing the worst atrocities in the world.
Let’s stop there, since we need to wrap this up; and don’t want to head off to dreamland with nightmares at the forefront of our thoughts! We’ve had a good day; hope for more of the same through the end of the summer; and now we’re ready to rest up and get back to full power again by morning. We’ll need to do that to be ready for day three of our respective training camps; so we’re out of here starting right now.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
