Happy Valentine’s Day!
I can’t report that my day started out with
any romance, since I was at Rowen’s house, and didn’t have Michael with me for
Tai Chi today; but Rowen and I did have fun hanging out together and having
breakfast with her family until they headed for the computer store and I went
to pick up Ethan and Ehlana from the Seagers on the way home.
By the way, that’s much easier to do
without any snow on the ground. I just
walked across the back yards between Rowen’s house and the Seager’s; instead of
needing to walk around the block or trudge through snowdrifts.
Maybe Mom and Dad should be scared, because
Naomi gave Ethan a Valentine’s Day kiss and hug before breakfast – and Ehlana
hugged and kissed her Valentine this morning too. Yes, Ehlana, you made it very clear that you
kissed Aiden on the cheek; but then we both know that he might still be
speechless and blushing if you’d kissed him as enthusiastically as Naomi
apparently kissed our brother. The facts
still remain that my brother and sister were involved in kisses with their
favorite Valentine before I was with mine today; and it is at least a little
funny to think that our parents have more to worry about from their three-year
old twins than their teenage daughter! ;^)
We did a little Valentine gift exchange
after getting home; had a little chat and recap that Mom and Dad had basically
no kid-rated details to pass on about their night from about dinnertime through
to this morning; and then Dad needed to get to work in the office to get ready
for his week in the city while I spent the rest of the morning helping Mom with
the chores. Ethan and Ehlana split their
time between a bit of playing and some studying for their college courses; so
Mom and I could kick the work into high gear while warding the house anyway –
and Dad was able to work faster too.
That made the cleaning, laundry, and the rest of the work more fun; and
we had everything done by the time we stopped to have lunch at one o’clock.
Michael was busy all morning too; helping
out with the morning breakfast rush at the Inn; doing chores at home after
that; and then going back to the Inn for the lunch rush. All meals at the Inn were busy today because
of Valentine’s Day, so his only major break in the action was the couple of
hours he had off in the afternoon. That’s
when we did our gift exchange and took care of those all-important first Valentine
kisses and hugs of the day. It was
actually getting colder outside as the day went on, so we stayed in the lounge
while Michael was taking his break; and spent most of that time playing with
Ethan and Ehlana. Rowen and Tim came
over shortly before Michael left for the Inn again, and we had a bit of time to
hang out too; but then our group of kids and tweens began arriving as parents
dropped them off early enough that they could get ready for their Valentine’s
Day dinner and party plans.
Mom was already working on that by then,
and Dad wrapped up his work in time to go and get ready too; so Tim, Rowen, and
I were kept busy with the kids – and with eventually cooking dinner. We had fourteen kids and tweens with us for
the night, and though we – the babysitters – were outnumbered by more than
four-to-one until Michael came over after he was finished at the Inn for the
night; Jessica, Lindsay, and Geraldine gave us a hand with the youngest kids –
and they especially had fun with Zack, Leah, and Sebastian. Ehlana, Naomi, and Sophia stayed with Rowen
and me while we were cooking dinner; and Tim ended up entertaining all of the
boys with video gaming in the lounge.
Patrick and Scott probably helped him more with getting Ryan, Ethan, and
Aiden fired up and bouncing off the walls, but they did have fun; and mostly
stayed out of our way until the food was ready and they helped out with
demolishing more than half of the food we’d cooked up.
For some of us, getting through dinner was
a lot of work. Getting all of the
four-and-under kids fed kept me busy for an hour or so, and that was a good
thing; since feeding the kids wasn’t as scary as watching the older boys devour
their meals. Yes, I’m including Tim in
that, but Rowen and I cut him some slack tonight so that he could keep his rep
intact with the younger boys. Patrick
and Scott may try to play it cool, but they look up to Tim and Michael as much
as Ryan, Ethan, and Aiden do – though Patrick has been overheard more than once
wondering what Tim could possibly see in his geeky, brainiac, big sister.
While I’m thinking about that work, I’d
like to mention that babysitting is actually work – even for Magi and Magi
Masters. It’s not as if we can cheat and
use our talents to keep the kids under control or do the work faster; so all of
the cooking and cleaning takes as long as it does for any other teens; and
fourteen kids and tweens running around kept us busy the rest of the time too.
After dinner, I was on the clean-up crew;
followed that up with some music play time in my room that most of the girls
joined in for; and then we played some games like hide-and-seek for an hour or
so until Michael came over from the Inn.
That was when we switched into wind-down time with a movie; though that
was also when Uncle Nick’s parents stopped in to get Sebastian after they’d
finished having dinner at the Inn. Leah
was staying with us; but they were keeping Sebastian for the night while Uncle
Nick and Aunt Deborah were enjoying their kid-free night.
That might even be a story I’ll be able to
hear tomorrow, since from what Mom told me; Aunt Deborah’s plans for her night
off from kids is to get at least eight uninterrupted hours of sleep. Only parents that have gone through the baby
stage can relate to that sentiment – though as an older sibling of twins; I
understand better than most teens would.
My thoughts are moving on to wondering why
I’m half-joking about that, and implying a lack of romantic plans for my aunt
and uncle while I’m currently sitting in my bed; writing this and chatting with
Rowen instead of doing anything romantic with my boyfriend. We did get to have a bit of alone time before
splitting up and going to our rooms, but that didn’t end up happening until
after Mom and Dad got home from Sheldon’s.
Between the time that Michael joined us until then, we watched a
kid-rated movie; Michael, Rowen, and I spent more than an hour getting most of
the younger kids off to bed while Tim led a video gaming intermission; and then
we watched another movie with Patrick, Scott, Ryan, and the older girls.
Some cuddling was involved during the
movies, but Michael and I had Zack and Leah with us for the first show; and we
definitely didn’t get too cozy during the second movie with Jessica, Lindsay,
and Geraldine giggling at us for so much as a little peck on the cheek or a
hug. For those of you who might be
reading this in the future, don’t be offended by that comment – I was one of
those giggling girls not very long ago.
Refer back to my journals from when Mom and Dad were dating for details
if you don’t believe me!
That second movie ended before Mom and Dad
got home, but the boys went back to video gaming after that instead of starting
a third show; and Rowen and I went to have some bedtime girl chat time with
Jessica, Lindsay, and Geraldine once they’d gone and gotten changed and ready
for bed. We did that in the room next to
mine that Violet usually uses when she’s here; with just one break for me while
I went to check in on Zack, Leah, and the other kids. We wrapped up that little bit of fun when my
parents got home; Rowen and I did the recap with them; they sent Ryan, Patrick,
and Scott off to bed before turning in for the night too; and then Rowen and I
split up to have that alone time with our respective boyfriends. For Michael and I, that started out with the
dishwashing and clean-up from our snacks.
We hauled everything downstairs; did that work; and then used the living
room for our mini-make-out session while Rowen and Tim stayed in the lounge.
It was really late by then, so we didn’t
play for too long; and I was back in my room, cleaned up, and changed before
Rowen joined me. Actually, I had most of
my nightly computer checks done by then too; so it’s fairly obvious to me now
that I should have spent more of that time with Michael! ;^)
I probably shouldn’t keep letting my
thoughts go there, or I’ll be tempted to go downstairs and sneak into Michael’s
room for the rest of the night – not that we weren’t very tempted to stay in
the living room and have a sofa sleepover.
With this many kids in the house, that’s really a bad idea; so let’s
wrap this up and I’ll go to sleep instead of thinking really good, if slightly
naughty, thoughts.
Rowen got ready for bed after joining me;
we’ve been cuddling with Mandy; and she’s been doing the YouTube video thing as
usual while we’re having our bedtime chat.
While we’ve decided that we need to do better next year for the romantic
side of Valentine’s Day, we are both still very happy with our boyfriends; and
it has been a fun day even with all of the babysitting work. At least we did get to spend some time with
our guys. Rebecca only saw Lucas for a
little while when he stopped into town with his parents today; since they were
both working – and he was home with his brother and sister tonight while his
parents were out with Mom, Dad, and the rest of their friends. Rebecca was probably tempted to go out to the
farm after work; but wouldn’t have asked for a ride there – especially when
that would have just cut into the time her own parents would have left to go to
Sheldon’s after the Inn closed for the night.
Okay, I could come up with more to write
about, but it’s past-three-thirty now; and we’re going to have a lot of work to
deal with starting in just a few hours to get everyone fed and ready for
church; so I’m going to end this right now and get started on that nap.
Until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
