Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - September 3, 2018

Ethan:

Summer is officially over now; and we’ll be starting school in the morning.

Some parts of our day have been really great; and other parts were of the post-holiday-weekend work kind of not-so-much-fun entertainment.  One more chance for Tai Chi with Cassie and Michael was great; so was breakfast; and then we had work to do to get our guests – including Cassie – packed up and then out to do the annual Labor Day shopping tour.  We shopped until noon; went to the Inn for the first buffet; and then most of our weekend guests hit the road for home while Cassie and Michael stayed at the Inn to help out there for the second buffet and Ehlana and I came home with Mom and Dad and got to work.

Cassie and Michael stayed at the Inn until the third buffet sitting began at four o'clock; they swung by to get Mandy and do a last round of goodbye hugs and kisses; and then we went back to work – which included work or studying in the office along with the chores.  After a big breakfast and the buffet at lunch, we only had a snack-leftovers dinner.  Ehlana and I did a Magi lesson with Mom after that meal and the clean-up; we did some more studying in the office too; and then we were sent up to our rooms to have bedtime baths and make sure we have everything ready for school in the morning.  Mom spent some of that time with Ehlana so that they could pick out the perfect outfit, and then Ehlana stopped by to tell me what I’d wear to either coordinate or not with her outfit.  We had a bedtime chat too; and now I’m ready to get some sleep.

That’s all the news for this summer.  Tomorrow will be the start of our Grade Two adventures!

Yeah, that doesn’t sound all that exciting, but we will at least get to hang out with our friends; and That’ll be good-enough – even when we’ll wish we could be at the lab or archives all day instead.

It is time to play ‘normal’ school kid and go off to sleep now; so that’s all for tonight.

Ethan – out!

***

Ehlana:

What Ethan said; the shopping was great; and I really miss Cassie again already.  I hope we’ll see them once or twice before Thanksgiving, but the best we can hope for is a weekend here or there; and it’s going to feel like too-long until we’ll get to spend any quality time with Cassie and Michael.

It also seems very quiet in here tonight with all of our guests gone and back at their own homes – or still on the way there for a few; so having it too-quiet in here might actually make it harder for me to get to sleep.  I need to try, though, since we’ll be starting to add after-school lab time to the rest of our busy schedule; so I’d better get sleep when I can.

Stay tuned, as always; and I’ll try to make things as exciting as is possible for a junior Magi Master can manage while in Grade Two at school!

This is Ehlana Proctor; coming to you live from what is now my past!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - September 2, 2018

Ethan:

Happy Birthday, Miranda!

Her top gifts of the day were probably the cheerleading win over Cassie and her cheer squad during the co-ed ballgame at the park; along with the win in that game by ‘her’ Witch Falls Wasps team over ‘our’ Locusts.  I wouldn’t dream of suggesting that Cassie let her boyfriend’s mother win this edition of their cheerleading competition, but do think that everyone had more fun thanks to Miranda’s birthday victories.

We’ve had a really good day that started with Tai Chi and breakfast for ten – though Cassie was with Michael for Miranda’s birthday breakfast.  The church service at the park was fun – though a bit strange because it was the first time that Cassie and Michael haven’t been on the teen praise team since Ehlana and I were toddlers.  After the service, we had time to pick up lunch before going to watch the ballgame; the co-ed game is always one of the most-entertaining championship battles – and the actual baseball was occasionally-good too!  While the parents went home to get cleaned up after the game; we played around the park until they met up with us again; played some more until dinnertime; and then had a bit of a pot-luck dinner that was put together from the different food booths.

The dance was the entertainment highlight of the evening; we had a lot of fun there – and playing with our friends too; and then there was a premature end to the dance when the rain that had managed to hold off until then began to fall and the park emptied in record time.  We still got wet packing up our things and getting home, so showers and baths were required to get cleaned, warmed, and then dried.  Dad ‘ordered’ the guys to wait while the girls got to use the bathrooms first, so while that was going on; we took turns having hot drinks and warmed pies for our bedtime snacks.

Jayden’s already sleeping now as I’m writing this; Dawn is with Violet and Dillon tonight; and everyone else is either still snacking, in bed, or taking their turn having tub or Jacuzzi time.  Cassie and Michael are in the office doing more homework; and they’ll be up late doing that while the rest of us get some sleep.

We have had another really great day, and while I’m not looking forward to saying goodbye to Cassie and Michael tomorrow; we do at least still get to spend some time with them before they’ll be heading back to college.  That is all of my news for today, though, and I’m ready to get some sleep now; so I’m going to go and do that while I can.

Ethan – out!

***

Ehlana:

Happy 51^st Birthday, Miranda!

Ethan might be afraid to put a number on her special day, but I think that Miranda doesn’t care about that number – and anyone that doesn’t know her would never guess that she’s in her fifties at all.  I did hear some jokes along those lines, and Miranda might not get mistaken for Rebecca’s sister as has happened with Mom and Cassie, but she is amazing!

Okay, I’m enjoying some quality Jacuzzi time, and Ethan covered enough of the rest of the news of the day that I don’t need to repeat any of that; so I’m going to get back to enjoying the tub time and then go and get some sleep.  Ethan might not need the rest for the same reason that I do, since he just isn’t into the shopping we’ll be doing tomorrow, but I am going to have fun with the girls; so I want to be rested and ready to play!  Stay tuned for the last-day-of-summer update; and I’ll wrap up this report and then my Jacuzzi fun and day soon too.

This is Ehlana Proctor; coming to you live from what is now my past!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - September 1, 2018

Ethan:

This report is coming to you during a quick break before we get started on the big holiday weekend campfire.

Tai Chi by the river with Cassie and Michael home to do that with us again was really great.  So was the big family breakfast.  Ehlana, Naomi, and the Pixies won their championship game too, so that was great too; though I didn’t get to see them do that while busy with the not-so-much-fun ballgame that Aiden and I were busy with this morning.  It isn’t fair to say that we didn’t have fun; since we did – right up until we lost to the Pizza Goblins.

While that didn’t end as well as we’d hoped, the ice cream treats after the game were good; we had fun playing until lunchtime after that; and then the family trail ride at the Ridge River Ranch was a fun way to spend half of the afternoon.  We played at home, the park, and in the river during the rest of the afternoon; the family and friends dinner was at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house; and there was more games and play time after that through until now.

Ehlana and I both wanted to get cleaned up a bit and changed before the campfire – not to mention that it was easier to take washroom breaks at home because there are a lot of people over at the Carrington’s house right now; and I’m not just doing this so that I look my best for Naomi!

I’m mentioning that last part because Aunt Leanne teased me about that before we came over here; and I’m sure she’ll have another comment or three for me once we’re back again – especially if Naomi and I sit together at the campfire.

We do need to get back over there, though; so I guess that’s it for tonight; and I’ll add in any news from the rest of our night with the next update.  Other than losing our ball game – and the championship; this has been an awesome day; so I’ll call that mission accomplished for the first third of our holiday weekend adventures.

Ethan – out!

***

Ehlana:

Top news of the day – the Pixies are champions for our little division in the town baseball league!  Having Cassie there to support us for about half of the game was the best part of that for me; and while I’m sorry that Ethan and Aiden didn’t win today too; I’ll still be happy that Cassie was there to cheer us on to a come-from-behind victory!

Ethan’s already mentioned most of the other activities of the day, but I’ll add that Cassie and Michael spent the rest of the morning studying in the office while the rest of us played, and while we were all on the trail ride together; they were paired up with Jaimie and Kaitlyn; so Ethan and I didn’t get much of a chance to talk with them while we were out at the ranch.  Cassie helped out with the work for dinner too while we played; so we haven’t really gotten to spend a lot of time with her except this morning.  I’m going to make sure that we get to hang out with her at the campfire, though, and that’ll be starting any minute now; so I need to wrap this up and get over there again to make sure that I’m at least sitting with her before she ends up surrounded by others – like all of our cousins.

That’s totally rude and selfish of me; but I need some in-person time with my big sister too; so I’m not in a sharing kind of mood tonight – even though that’s totally wrong of me.  There is also no way that I’ll be able to keep Cassie to myself, but I’ll keep you posted on how the rest of our night goes for us with the next update.  For now, it’s back to the real world for me again; and I really hope that the campfire will be as much fun as the rest of our day has been so far.

This is Ehlana Proctor; coming to you live from what is now my past!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 31, 2018

Ethan:

The last day of August, and the start of our holiday weekend, has been an adventure – and a very long day.

Mom still had work to do to get ready for the weekend, but could do the supply and grocery shopping more-quickly without Ehlana and me around; so we were set free to go and play for the day after breakfast.  We met up with Naomi and Aiden to do that; spent a lot of time biking the trails at the park and around town; and had a picnic lunch at the park too.  Swimming, ice cream breaks, and some playground hang-out time with other friends kept us busy all day; and then we were home in time for dinner and to help out as family began arriving for the weekend.

We have the Rice clan with us – without Chris and Martin, since they’re away at college already and too-far away to come home for a weekend; and Jayden will be hanging out with me too – though we’ll see if that’s here or not each night.  While some of us needed to be home all evening, the first game of the high school football season was tonight, and since our team is defending champions – for the small school division; we had the home game against Grand Summit.  Unfortunately for us, we don’t have Michael and Tim on the team anymore; the Grand Summit players and fans have not been happy with our recent successes; and they took it out on us tonight on the way to a decisive win that wasn’t very sportsmanlike – or at least not in a good way.

After watching a lot of that game, it was great to be home to welcome Cassie, Michael, and Mandy; we had fun with everything from helping them with unloading their car and hauling luggage around to them getting to see the remodeled third floor and the long bedtime chat we had with everyone in the living room.  That last blast of fun lasted for more than an hour; Michael went home with his parents after that; and the rest of us came up to our beds.

Jayden is already sleeping as I write this; I need to get some sleep now; and that’s all of the news I have for today.  Expect a whole lot more over the next few days; since we have a very busy weekend ahead of us; and I hope that the start for September will be even better than August just ended for us!

Ethan – out!

***

Ehlana:

I have Mandy for my bedtime cuddle buddy tonight, and while I’ll pretend that she chose to stay in my room because she’s missed me; it’s really because of the fuzzy accent blanket on my bed that she’s really loving the most right now!

I see that Ethan’s already covered the highlights from our play day with our friends, so I won’t twin-up on that; and will only add that I’m glad that we got to play with some friends that we won’t likely get to hang out with much again before we go back to school on Tuesday while we’re all busy with our own families.  That won’t be true for Naomi and Aiden, since three of their parents will be busy with work for two out of three days this weekend, and we will see our other friends around; but I’m also sure that we’ll spend as much time as we can with Cassie, Michael, and our families while we can.

Ethan covered Cassie’s homecoming too, but I can add that she loves the redecorating for my new room; and she’s happy with her new room too – though she won’t actually get to use it very much over the next five years.  That might sound wrong to some readers looking at this journal in the future – but only if you haven’t read about her college plans for earning her doctoral degree in five years.  She will not get four and a half months off from college a year like most students – including study weeks.  She’ll be going to college for the summer sessions full-time too.  I don’t want to think about that tonight; and just be glad that Cassie is home for a few days.

We’ve stayed up too-late, though, and have a busy day booked for Saturday, so I need to wrap this up; and get some sleep.  We really have had a great last day of August; and I’ll hope that the First of September will be even better – starting with a couple of baseball championships for Ethan and me in the morning!

This is Ehlana Proctor; coming to you live from what is now my past!