Cassie's Journal - January 26, 2016

Band practice was one of the highlights of the day for me, as was the post teen praise team practice visit with Miranda and Jacob after they got home from Garden City, but before I go there; let’s talk football!

No, I am not excited about the upcoming Super Bowl; though apparently I should be simply because I’m dating a football player.  What the guys that razzed me about my total lack of interest don’t know, however, is that Michael mostly plays football because his best friend wants him to play on the team with him.  He does like football, and is pretty good at it too, but unlike Tim; he’d be just as happy doing other sports or activities – like music.  That’s not really the point of this side trip, since I do think that some guys are living in a different era if they think that girls should just wander through life doing and thinking whatever the men in their lives thing that they should; though it is possible that they’re just totally delusional.  The only reason that I’d have to look forward to the Super Bowl is that it’ll be the end of football season until Tim puts on what is sure to be a big push to get ready for the school football season.

Yes, I could see him wanting to start that the day after the Super Bowl; but I think that Michael will manage to get him to hold off on the daily practices until July – even if he is still stuck with the daily weight training.

I really don’t want to go on and on about football, and truly don’t care whether the horsies or big cats – the Broncos or Panthers – win the championship; but other than the sexism implied in the jokes directed my way today; I’d also like to remind those boys that there are way more important things going on in the world.  While I don’t write about that much in this journal, in part because the archives have much more thorough reports on global current events than I could possibly cover in my personal journal anyway; that doesn’t mean that I’m unaware or unaffected.  I also deal with many of those issues while working on the family business; and try to help where I can.  The second point I want to make, I’m doing here in my journal because it isn’t cool to go off on a public diatribe with a bunch of teen friends; and it’s simply to point out that even professional sports are still just a game.  Take a reality check people, and while I’d never dream of suggesting that there’s a problem with sports as entertainment; that is also all that it is – entertainment.

Okay, that’s already too much ranting; so let’s get back to the report for the day.

Michael came over for Tai Chi this morning; he stayed for breakfast; and then went home to get ready for the school day and head there early-enough for his weight training with Tim, Lucas, and the few other guys that are dedicated enough to do that with them all winter.  I haven’t mentioned it in a while, but Michael’s Pushing Hands training is going really well, and while he still has a lot to learn about Tai Chi; he’s already to a point where he’d be able to handle himself well-enough if we needed to defend ourselves.  Since you’re reading this in the future, you’ll know that we’ve needed to do that by then, but while I do have some hints about that future; let’s not spoil that news for future journal updates! ;^)

Our classes today all included starting new lesson modules; and we also started getting exam results.  I’m not going to brag about how I did, since that would just be silly considering what my unofficial academic achievements are; but I am willing to accept a bit of the blame for helping our Grade Ten class to earn some of the highest group average marks on those exams in school history.  The best part of that is having my friends so happy; and they’re even happier because the results make for happy parents too.

The new study modules make our classes more entertaining, but band practice after school really was one of the highlights because we spent some of that time talking about the new marching band; and the rest was because we worked on music for the senior’s Valentine’s Day party that we’ll be doing the music for – including the duet that Michael and I have again been drafted for; and still need to pick out and learn.  We didn’t have any new band members for our little concert band, but we are expected to be leaders for the new band; and that means getting involved in all of the work.  For today, our group assignment is to brainstorm fundraising ideas that teens can get into doing; and to get those ideas back to the marching band committee by next Monday.

Actually getting to this stage of making a marching band a reality is awesome; and I especially like seeing the excitement with all of the teens.  The trip to Florida is a big deal for quite a few of my band mates; and I am going to do everything I possibly can to make that happen for them.  Okay, I won’t do everything, since buying and eating thousands of chocolate bars or whatever else we try to sell for those fundraisers would be a bit too much for even my metabolism; but I do have resources that I will use if needed.

Michael came home with me for dinner because his parents weren’t back from Garden City yet; and that was a blast of busy as we tried to eat and get our homework finished before heading over to the church for our praise team practice.  While we’re still weeks away from Valentine’s Day, and the teen praise team is doing music for that Sunday service too, Easter is early this year; so we started on that music tonight too.  Yes, that might sound crazy, but we have nearly as much music to learn for the Easter services and Palm Sunday as we have at Christmas.  Memorizing all of that isn’t an issue for me; but Michael and I aren’t the only members of the team.

We had fun at that practice too, but the highlight of my evening was the bedtime chat that we had with Miranda and Jacob.  They’d gotten home shortly before we got there from the church, so we helped with the unpacking; and then we sat down to trade travel and home stories.  Miranda wasn’t really terribly disappointed in us for not doing anything wrong while they were away, but she still had fun teasing us about that, and while I’m not really wishing that we had done anything that would have ‘made her proud’ of us; I have had a bit of fun daydreaming about that while doing my work and studying tonight.

That visit didn’t last very long because Michael’s parents were exhausted after two long travel days; so I came home about five minutes after Rebecca got back to their house from spending the evening with Lucas and his family.  Since then, I’ve done my Magi lesson with Mom; took care of getting Ethan and Ehlana into bed for the night; and followed that up with a major work and study session that was again in time phase so that I wouldn’t be up all night getting everything on my to-do list finished.  The extra sleep will be nice, but I’m going to need to cut back on the time phasing and extreme power drain for a while.  I should be able to do that tomorrow because Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I will all be getting back to our mid-week after school work day; and I plan on doing my work and studying early and then going to bed so that I can actually get eight or nine hours of uninterrupted sleep for a change.

Quit laughing.  It could happen!

Or not, but either way, I am done with this update, and you can always flip the digital page to find out whether that did or didn’t work out for me; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Cassie's Journal - January 25, 2016

Congratulations to everyone on the Stone side of Michael’s family – it’s a girl!

Erica Bishop was born very early this morning; she and her mother, Sally, are both doing well; and proud Daddy, Eric, is apparently having a tougher day because Erica’s big brother, Gerry, is not impressed with his new baby sister – or all of the attentions she’s getting.

Speaking of attention for Michael’s newest cousin, Jacob and Miranda hit the road early this morning to drive up to Garden City and see the new baby.  They’re staying there overnight instead of spending most of one day in the car and only having time for a short visit; and then they’ll be back sometime tomorrow evening.  Michael and Rebecca are staying at home this time, and while Jenny did apparently joke about Rebecca having a major party while the parents are away tonight; they’re being good – and Michael spent most of the evening here, or at least with me, while their parents are away.  That’s getting ahead of this update, though; so let’s back up and take it from the start of my day.

Tai Chi was more fun thanks to the baby report that Michael brought with him.  He needed to hurry back home after we exercised so that he could help out there while his parents were busy packing for their impromptu trip.  I went over to see them off with bonus hugs and kisses before breakfast because they were ready to get started on the long drive; and then the rest of my morning was a bit too busy as I got ready for school and was also in charge of the breakfast clean-up today.

While exams are over for this round of them, the work at school didn’t stop; and we began new study modules in every class today.  That was at least a change, but the big news story around school was for something that happened tonight – the first planning meeting for the marching band.  Michael, Rowen, and I are three of the teen volunteers; Tim’s at least temporarily been drafted by his girlfriend; and my Mom, Michael’s, and Rowen’s father are among the parent and adult volunteers.  We have a lot to get done between now and the first marching band practice in April; and the meeting tonight was all about getting organized – and assigning jobs to everyone.

I won’t bore you with every little detail from the meeting; but here’s a short list for some of the work we need to do over the next two months or so.  We need to plan all of the fundraiser activities and start working on the first of them so that at least the first of them will be ready to go for the first week of band practices.  We need to design and then choose uniforms; organize and plan for parades; decide on whether our new band will play at football games – and how we’d do that when so many members will also be from the team or cheerleaders – not to mention the cost of travel to away games and other issues.  The trip to Florida is going to be a huge undertaking; so we’ll have a sub-committee for that, and while we already know that we have a lot of interest in going to Florida with the teens; we’ll also need enough volunteer chaperones that the parents are going to deal with recruiting.  The full list of work seems a bit daunting, but if needed, some of us can literally make the time to get everything done; so I’m not actually worried about that.

The fundraisers are going to be the biggest issue for the Florida trip, and while Mom and I could just pay for the entire thing, we obviously couldn’t do that openly; and the teachers among us want that to be as much of a learning experience as everything else will be.  We do live in a small town, though, and we’re talking about a lot of money from a per person living here perspective.  That won’t work without a lot of fundraiser support from summer visitors and tourists, since we’re talking about at least several hundred dollars per local person to raise enough money for the trip; so getting those dollars – especially on holiday weekends – will need to be a real priority for the fundraising team.  Mom, Michael, and I will be helping with that too; but we’ll really get started on that at our next meeting.

So much for not boring you with the details.  Let’s move on before I really start getting wound up about the whole thing.

I skipped over the after school studying at my house for Michael and me.  Rebecca was at Jenny’s for dinner; Michael stayed with me; and then Mom took us to the meeting at the school while Dad stayed home to work while the twins worked on their college classes.  In case it wasn’t obvious, Miranda wasn’t at the first meeting because she and Jacob are away, but she is on the committee; and we’ll be working with her at least as much as we’ll work with Mom.  Michael came home with me again after the meeting, we did a Magi lesson with Mom, and then had some music practice time that Ethan and Ehlana sat in on before we took care of getting them tucked in for the night.  Michael and I had a short chat with Mom and Dad in the office after that; and then Michael went home and I came up to my room to get started on my studies and family business work.  Using so many time phases is starting to wear on my, but I did that again tonight anyway so that I wouldn’t be awake until three or four o’clock.

My archive assignment for tonight really would bore you unless you’d actually find a decades-long study in Magi agriculture from a few millennia ago fascinating.  The family business work was a bit challenging because I was working on projects in Asia that require a lot of due diligence while jumping through the political hoops that always slow down progress.  The language study time was more fun with an entertaining internet chat, but since I couldn’t do that while in a time phase; I kept that part of my studying fairly short.

Band and teen praise team practices resume tomorrow, and we’ll be starting new study modules in our classes on Tuesday too; so it’s time to wrap this up so that I can get some sleep and hopefully begin to recharge my Magi batteries a bit.  I know that’s probably just wishful thinking, but it does work out for me now and then, so let’s give it a try and I’ll let you know how it works out for me with my next report.

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Cassie's Journal - January 24, 2016

Happy 15^th Birthday, Lisa!

As with a lot of my friends this past year, Lisa’s birthday party dinner was at the Inn today; though the total extent of my involvement with her big day was when Michael and I gave her our gift while we were at church this morning and a visit to her table while we were on our break to again wish her a Happy Birthday.

The rest of my day can be summed up by one word – work.

Since I did leave you with that little cliff-hanger about Tim, I’ll mention that he was wearing clothes when Rowen and I joined our boys in the lounge; but he also half-won the sofa sleepover non-battle.  What I mean there is that he and Rowen got to have the sofa and lounge for their goodnight make-out session; and they dragged that out for quite a while before Rowen sent him off to bed so that she could actually get some sleep before we needed to be awake and working kid control for a few hours.

I didn’t get to have an uninterrupted night of sleep because Brianna wanted to play for a while at around three-thirty.  After changing her diaper and feeding her a bottle, she still wanted to snuggle; so Mandy and I ended up keeping her with us until morning – and we all loved that a lot.

My lack of sleep did make my morning a bit tougher, but Mom, Rowen, and I also had fun playing dress-up with the other girls; and the entire breakfast adventure was non-stop entertainment and action even though it was also exhausting to keep up with all of the kids.  We did eventually get everyone ready and off to church; and then going to Sunday school with my friends almost felt like nap time by comparison – even with the bits of birthday fun for Lisa.

Church and Sunday school was followed by lunch at home for me with my family while Michael went to work at the Inn.  Work was still the word of the day for me then because I helped out with cooking lunch and then cleaning up because Dad had a lot of work to get done today.  Mom and I then took the twins over to the lab so that we’d be out of Dad’s way; I helped out in the lab until I needed to go home again and get ready to work the buffet shift; and then I spent the next five hours or so helping out with the cooking and cleaning for the two dinner sittings that kept all of us busy through until the Inn closed for the night.

Dad was still working in the office when I got home again, but Mom was having some quality Jacuzzi time; and the twins had been sent to bed early after a very late night on Saturday.  Since I had a lot of work and studying to do then, I went and got my computer; used a time phase; and Dad and I both finished all of our must-do work or studying by eleven-thirty.

We headed for bed then; I’m writing this while having a time-phased soak in my tub; and I still plan on being asleep as soon as possible so that I can catch up on my rest too.  This hasn’t exactly been the most-fun day ever by a long shot, but the fun moments have still helped to make it a good day; and I always feel grateful to be able to say that about even the not-so-fun days around here.

I do need to wrap this up and finish getting ready for bed if I want to get to the extended nap time, though, and I don’t have anything else particularly interesting to write about; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

P.S. Judging by the smiles of the parents at Liz’s party and particularly the parents that got to have kid-free nights on Saturday; you might want to check out those Magi journals in the archives for the hottest news from Witch Falls this weekend.  I seriously don’t want to hear those details; but then I’ll likely have a different opinion about that once I’m a bit older.  That change in attitude won’t include those types of stories about my parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles; but I’m sure that you know what I mean! ;^)

Cassie's Journal - January 23, 2016

Happy 32^nd Birthday, Liz!

I’ll get to the birthday fun part of this update soon, but before I go there; let’s back up and cover the rest of the news for the day first.

Michael and I both fell asleep last night long before the movie ended, and Mom and Dad left us sleeping in the lounge overnight; so the sofa sleepover that I knew would be my favorite option for how our night ended worked out great for us.  Falling asleep early worked out for Michael in the morning too; and he was able to wake up and get home in time to get ready for the day and head over to the Inn with his father so that they could both work the breakfast shift.  While he went to do that, I went back to sleep and had Mandy for my cuddle buddy until it was time to get up for Tai chi with my parents, Ethan, and Ehlana.

After having breakfast in the sunroom, it was time for chores; and that kept me busy for most of the morning – especially since I also needed to get guest bedrooms ready for the kids and teens that are spending the night here while our parents are out celebrating Liz’s birthday.  Mom and Dad did give me the afternoon off, though, and since Michael didn’t have to work the lunch shift too; he joined us for lunch and then we spent the afternoon playing with Ethan and Ehlana – until he then needed to be back at the Inn for the dinner shift.  It would have been nice if he’d been able to join us in the dining room for Liz’s birthday dinner, but then I was assigned kid control duty anyway; so he’d have worked hard either way – even if it would have been more fun with me.

Kids were invited to Liz’s birthday dinner because I’d have needed a lot more help to get all of them fed at our house – not to mention the extra clean-up time that would have been needed.  That isn’t to say that I didn’t have some kids in need of being cleaned up once they’d finished having cake and ice cream for dessert, but in most cases; that was done by wiping them down and changing their messy clothes.  It might have been easier to just dunk them in the river; but even without very much snow so far this winter; it’s a bit chilly for doing that in January.

Rowen and Tim did not come to the Inn for dinner, but they did meet us at my house in time to help out with the kids.  Michael had needed to stay at the Inn longer than he’d hoped, but we had some parental support while we got all of the younger kids settled into the lounge to watch a movie or play with toys and games in my bedroom.  Some video gaming was an option too, but the kids did that on iPads or portables while the television in the lounge was tied up with Disney cartoons.  Tim, Rowen, and I kept busy straight through until Michael joined us, and by then; we needed to start dealing with kids falling asleep.

For me, that included some quality time with Brianna as I gave her a bottle and sang her to sleep; though I’ll admit that neither of us was thrilled with the diaper change part of that process.  I also took care of Hailey and Leah when they were each ready to crash for the night; while Rowen kept the rest of the girls entertained and Michael and Tim did the same for the boys.  The Video gaming moved to the big screen once the boys that were still awake out-numbered the girls, but then Rowen, Naomi, and I were eventually able to cuddle with our favorite boys as the younger kids dropped off – or were eventually just ordered to bed.

It’s currently a bit past one o’clock, and I’m writing this while getting ready for bed.  We just finished putting the last four kids to bed; and the four teens left standing are all getting changed before we meet up again in the lounge to watch a movie while we wait for Mom and Dad to get home from the pub and Liz’s party.  That cuddle time with Michael will be a nice way to end the day, but we won’t be doing another sofa sleepover because Tim’s already warned us that he and Rowen should get a turn for that if anyone gets to have a sofa sleepover at all.

I really hope that he’s joking about wearing what he normally wears to bed at home for our cuddle and a movie time just to make sure that he can’t leave the lounge when my parents get home, but since I also just heard him head into the lounge; I won’t be surprised to find him under a blanket with his shirt off in an attempt to make Rowen and I think that’s exactly what he’s done.

If that does happen – or if he actually did what he said he’d to; it’ll have to be a cliff-hanger for my next update because I need to wrap this up and finish getting ready so that I don’t miss out on any of the cuddle time with Michael.  We’ve had a really good day so far even with all of the work and babysitting, and I want to keep the fun going now; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!