Heirs of the Magi Archives: Cassie's Journal 2016 - Part One

By Steve Leggett

Magi Master Cassie Proctor's adventures continue into 2016 as she turns fifteen and finishes Grade Ten. There is fun to be had with her family and friends; but Cassie also has her work and studies to keep up with - and juggle to balance with her 'normal' teen life. Catch a glimpse of a teenage Magi Master's viewpoint growing up in the amazing little town of Witch Falls!
As the Ascension of the Light draws nearer, Cassie will need to be prepared for her role and destiny. Sometimes, that responsibility gets in the way of having a normal life with her family and friends - and can definitely cut in on the alone time with Michael! Being a Magi Master isn't always easy, and now and then it isn't much fun at all; but Cassie will do what she must - and try to have a little fun along the way.
After all - the Ascension of the Light is about bringing more love and joy into the world; and sometimes that happens one magic little moment at a time!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steve Leggett
• Release date: Jun 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9780994002044

Steve Leggett

I've been an avid reader since my early childhood, and though I've been legally blind for around twenty years now, that love of books has continued, despite the challenges. The bug to try seriously writing books hit me in 2007, and I started with writing fan fiction stories, which was a great way to learn how to develop story lines and existing characters, as well as do research and new character creation. The feedback from readers, both positive and negative, was also a very important part of the learning process. Two million or so words, and several thousand pages later, and I was ready to start Heirs of the Magi. Fantasy epics and series are my favorite books. Whether I'm visiting the worlds created by authors like Andre Norton and Frank Herbert, or exploring the magic closer to home, like with Nora Roberts and so many other classic and contemporary writers, it's the more intimate involvement with the people and places that these books create that I love most. That's the type of story I had in mind when I began developing Heirs of the Magi, and I hope that you will love the books as much as I've loved bringing them to you!

Book preview

Heirs of the Magi Archives

Cassie’s Journal 2016 – Part One

By Steve Leggett

Published by Steve Leggett - Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2016 – Steve Leggett

Cover Image by Kayla Leggett - Copyright 2015 - Used by Permission

ISBN: 978-0-9940020-4-4

Books by Steve Leggett

Heirs of the Magi Trilogy

Magi Sanctuary

Magi Master

Magi Ascension – Part One – The Ascension Begins

Magi Ascension – Part Two – Light Your World (Forthcoming)

Heirs of the Magi Archives

Cassie's Journal 2011

Cassie's Journal 2012 - Part One

Cassie’s Journal 2012 – Part Two

Cassie’s Journal 2013 – Part One

Cassie’s Journal 2013 – Part Two

Cassie’s Journal 2014 – Part One

Cassie’s Journal 2014 – Part Two

Cassie’s Journal 2015 – Part One

Cassie’s Journal 2015 – Part Two

Cassie’s Journal 2016 – Part One

Cassie’s Journal 2016 – Part Two (Forthcoming)

The Catalyst Chronicles

The Catalyst is Born

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

January 2016

February 2016

March 2016

April 2016

May 2016

June 2016

Notes

January 2016

Friday, January 1, 2016

Happy New Year – again!

This has been another very busy day, so let’s begin with where I left off yesterday; and try to keep everything in order as much as possible.

I really enjoyed my bit of early-morning quiet in the sunroom, and while I did miss the sleep time; a cup of hot chocolate, a warm throw blanket, and a great view was all I needed to finish getting ready for the day. Surprising Mom and Dad with a work-free start to their morning was great too – even though that was only an option until they needed to start getting ready for our party. They had help for that, including from Grandma, Grandpa, and me; but Violet and Dillon got ready to head out to Woodvale for the weekend and hit the road as soon as they could to be there in time for their own New Year’s Day fun.

While I’m there, they weren’t the only outbound travelers this weekend. Uncle Mark, Aunt Grace, and Caleb are in Granite Park for the holidays and a late Christmas with Grandma Mercy’s side of the family – and visits with some of Aunt Grace’s friends there.

While I rarely think about everything that Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace gave up to move here and be together; I really do appreciate those sacrifices – even though they’d both agree that the good that came with the move is worth the things they had to give up. I’ll guess that they’re having a blast this weekend – especially when that includes getting to share the happy baby news with their favorite people there.

Back here at home, my morning wasn’t exactly all fun and games, but we did manage to keep ourselves entertained while doing the work. For me, that was mostly the post-breakfast dishes; a total clean-up of the third floor; and stocking the lounge to be ready for that room to be teen and kid central. The big screen television was going to be exclusively available to the video gamers today; I set up a smaller television so the guys could keep an eye on the football games; and my room was ready for kids to play in too – though anywhere except Violet’s room was open for playing games in. The sunroom was set up to be the hangout of choice for the girls, and while Mom and Grandma got that room ready; I did hook up a portable hard drive to the television so they’d have lots of chick flick options for a movie marathon. Dad and Grandpa were in charge of the living room and dining room; and Grandpa even had our living room looking like some kind of man-cave by the time our guests began arriving at eleven o’clock.

We had a lot of drop-in visitors today, but our main guests included the Stones; Nortons; Emersons; Bassetts; Ayres; Drapers; and a handful of adult singles or couples that were friends of the parents or grandparents. Not everyone in all of those families could stay all day either, since they had multiple commitments; but then Michael and I did a bit of visiting today too – though that was mostly just to offer some best New Year’s Day wishes to the Johnson-McEwan clan – and my aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Our lunch and dinner plans were for easy, pot-luck meals, so while I had to help out with that work; it really wasn’t tough to keep up with everything – especially when Mom had gone with paper and plastic dinnerware for the day. The oven was on most of the day; but that was as much to keep the snacks coming as for the meals. Hot snacks for each group in the living room, lounge, and sunroom were staggered to make doing that possible; and Mom just grabbed any available person when it came time to run a pizza or two upstairs or to the football fans or chick flick enthusiasts.

From the time he arrived, Michael and I split our time between hanging out together – and with Rowen and Tim – and the time we needed to be apart so that he could hang out with the guys and I either played with the younger kids or spent a bit of time with the women in the sunroom. Rowen and Tim were with her family at our house for lunch; spent part of the afternoon with us; and then moved on to spend the rest of the day with his family at his aunt and uncle’s house. Michael and I did our little round of visits when they left; and Lucas and Rebecca went out then for a few hours too – though they came back in time for dinner. Some snow play fun was an option today too; and Michael and I caught the tail-end of that backyard fun with the kids when we got back from Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house.

There was so much going on that I won’t be able to write it all down here without having another sleepless night – or by using a time phase that I’m too tired to produce tonight anyway. What matters to me is that we’ve had a really amazing family and friends day; and I’ve loved being able to spend time with people that I don’t get to hang out with nearly often-enough as we’re all usually so busy. I also really enjoyed the diversity of our group today; and there were interesting conversations going on around me all the time – whether that was talking farming and business or law and politics.

Yes, we did have a politician or three stop in for visits, and I’m sure that you could come up with some jokes about that when you also have farmers, lawyers, and computer geeks in the house; but we generally like our local politicians just fine. I don’t write about local government in my journal, but that’s mostly because most of my favorite people are too busy to add that job to their schedules; and there are better sources in the archives if you are interested in reading up on the history of politics in our little town. That’s also pretty much the last thing I want to think about as we start a perfectly good New Year; so let’s move along.

When it was play time with the girls, I had all of the younger girls with me; and help for that from Rowen, Emma, Jessica, and some of the other drop-in teens. Rebecca spent some time with the girls too; but we didn’t time that very well; and didn’t spend much time together until after dinner when everyone was ready to wind down and take it easy. I caught part of one movie during my one major visit to the sunroom; had a fun chat with Mom and the rest of the women there; and had more fun with the guys during the visits I did with Michael to watch football in the living room and talk with the guys there.

Michael and I helped with dinner, and while taking your food with you to the living room, lounge, or sunroom was an option; Mom convinced the younger kids to eat in the dining room; so Rebecca, Lucas, Michael, and I stayed with them so that the parents could enjoy that meal without needing to worry about kid control too. That was a modestly messy and entertaining break that was followed by another easy clean-up that the teens and men were responsible; and then it was back to the lounge for Michael and me so that we could again keep an eye on the kids until it was time for most of them to get some sleep. We used the guest bedrooms as needed on the second and third floor when Hailey, Eli, and the other toddler visitors were ready to crash; but Ethan, Ehlana, and their friends stayed awake until most of the parents began heading home for the night.

For some guys, that meant bending their precious man-laws so that they could take their families home instead of stoically waiting for the end of the last bowl game of the day; but it’s also a work day for a lot of my favorite people tomorrow; so staying up half the night doesn’t work when your work day starts at three, four, or five in the morning.

Aiden’s father was first to leave, and he took Hailey with him; but Hannah stayed a bit longer to watch the rest of the movie the girls had been watching when he’d decided to call it a night. Jacob and Miranda were next, so the Nortons decided to head out then too; since Rebecca and Lucas were splitting up then anyway – for the night. Michael stayed, but that’s only because we were ready to sit down in the lounge and wrap up our day with a movie; and he didn’t want to miss out on the cuddle opportunity. A sofa sleepover wasn’t really an option tonight because he’s working the breakfast buffet at the Inn and will be heading there with his Dad in the morning; but maybe we’ll see about doing that tomorrow night!

Ethan and Ehlana are keeping Aiden, Naomi, and Sophia tonight, and they’re all sleeping now as I write this; but they stayed in the lounge for the movie – and Michael and I got to have Sophia for our cuddle buddy because Ethan and Aiden supposedly aren’t as brave as Michael when it comes to cuddling with more than one girl at a time. After the movie, I helped the girls get ready for bed; Michael did the same with the boys; and then we went down to the living room to hang out there for the bowl game wrap-up until Michael needed to get home and get started on the few hours of sleep he’d have time for ahead of his early-morning work wake-up call.

As the last of our guests headed out then, it was time to join the clean-up crew for me; and it was closing in on one o’clock by the time I was changed and in bed with Mandy. There was some family business work waiting for me to deal with, along with quite a few email to answer; so I’ve been working on my computer for an hour and a half or so while winding down. I am exhausted, and would have been sleeping right away if not for the work; but I won’t need to do that work tomorrow – and I want to have as much of the day off as possible so that I can play with my family and friends. That’s going to include spending time with Uncle Adam’s family; and I’m really looking forward to that too.

I can’t go two days with no sleep, though, and we have covered at least a few of the highlights for my day; so let’s wrap this up and I’ll get started on my nap now.

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, January 2, 2016

I’ve had a fun, busy day, but Michael’s coming over soon to spend the rest of the evening with me, and I’m planning on keeping him for a sofa sleepover; so let’s keep this update short and sweet while I’m getting ready for what will hopefully be a really amazing end to our day!

Since Michael worked the breakfast buffet, he wasn’t here for Tai Chi; but we had fun with that; and then even more fun when we got ready and went to the Inn to get in on that buffet instead of doing all of the work at home. We followed that up with some girl-time shopping around town with Aunt Leanne, Aunt Deborah, and most of the Johnson and McEwan family girls. I got to spend some quality time with Kara, Nicole, and Robyn while doing that; and they kept me entertained while I helped to play dress-up with them – and with most of the younger girls.

We split up to do our own thing for lunch; Michael was off from the Inn for the afternoon in time to have lunch with us; and then we had a major outdoors play afternoon for the kids and teens that included some sledding on the ridge and play time at the park. With the temperature hovering around forty by this afternoon, we might not keep what snow we still have here for much longer; so it was great to be able to do that today – and even have quite a few of the parents around for some of that play time.

Michael had to go back to the Inn to help out with the dinner rush, so he missed out on the family dinner that Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam hosted at their place. I had a great time with that too, but to be honest; the work at the Inn would have been easier than kid control was before and during dinner. I was definitely ready to go home by the time we were finished with the clean-up; but I ended up needing to do a bit of running around instead because Ethan and Ehlana had kept Naomi and Aiden with them while three out of four of their parents were busy working; and they were invited for sleepovers when Naomi and Aiden were being picked up. I helped them pack bags and walked all four kids over to the two houses; and just got back here about twenty minutes ago.

With Violet and Dillon in Woodvale for the weekend and my brother and sister out of the house for the night; I am not going to have a parental problem with that sofa sleepover. Michael’s already finished at the Inn, but stopped in at home to grab a shower and get changed before coming over here. I’ll invite Mom and Dad to watch a movie with us, but they might be interested in taking advantage of being nearly kid-free tonight too and do their own thing. I’ll be okay with that either way, but even if they do watch a movie with us first; I will definitely not be letting Michael get any sleep before we take care of some seriously overdue make-out time.

Trust me when I also admit that by the time I’m ready for the rest of our night; he will not have a problem with that part of my plan! ;^)

I think that will do for this update despite not nearly covering all of the news of the day, and I really do want to be ready to wow Michael when he gets here; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, January 3, 2016

My day started out great with Michael’s wake-up call; and that was both a great way to start the day and wrap up our sofa sleepover. Tai Chi with Mom and Dad was fun too; but the highlight of our collective morning was breakfast for all of us at Michael’s house.

Mom and Dad had apparently been invited to that last night after messaging Miranda that they didn’t expect Michael to make it home last night; so the surprise for that was only on Michael and me this morning. The parents had fun with us over the sleepover while we enjoyed Jacob’s amazing breakfast; but then we were busy again either getting ready for church or helping out with the post-breakfast clean-up. I was on that work crew, so I was ready for a break when we went to church – mostly because I was booked to help out at the Inn for the rest of the day. The church service went long again – not unusual for a holiday weekend; so Michael and I went to the Inn before Sunday school was let out so that we could help with the work for the first buffet sitting.

From that point on, our only breaks were for food and one blast of fun that was a round of goodbye hugs and kisses for our outgoing Johnson and McEwan family members. Miranda again went with three buffets instead of four, and while that worked out better for breaks; we were still tired out by the time we closed the Inn and headed home at a bit before ten o’clock. Other than stopping for goodnight hugs and kisses with Michael and his family along the way; I came straight home so that I could get to work.

A bedtime visit with Mom and Dad in the office and stops for kisses with Ethan and Ehlana as they slept in their beds slowed me down a bit on my way up to my room slowed me down a bit; but then I sped things up as I multi-tasked some Jacuzzi time with my work and studying that included starting my new language studies. Romanian will be easy-enough for me to learn since I’ve already learned other languages in that group; but then that’s true for all of the languages I’m working on during this school year. I had a fair bit of family business work to do too; which is why I needed the time phase if I wanted to have any chance of sleeping before morning.

That has exhausted me, though, and there isn’t anything else to report that’s more important than getting some sleep right now; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, January 4, 2016

We’re back to school today, and that’s the big story for the parents around here now that they’re kid-free during the weekdays again; but my top news story is about the big March Break ski trip to Colorado that was announced today – and that Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I signed up for as soon as we heard about it!

Coach and Mrs. Robinson are setting up the trip, and while it is an official school trip that’s meant to expand our athletics experience; Michael and I were also told that the Robinsons have the added bonus of being able to make the trip a family vacation that’ll be less-expensive thanks to the group and school rates they’re getting for our trip. While signing up for the trip still left the hurdle of getting parental approval, Rowen and I ganged up on our fathers after school; helped Michael and Tim out with their parents once we’d gotten our own approvals; and that gave all of our parents a fun batch of stories for the future to make up for the drain on their collective bank accounts.

Yes, I’ll be paying for my own trip, but that won’t be public knowledge – just as my part time job isn’t known by most of my friends.

We weren’t the only early sign-ups for the trip; and Anna-Marie Palmer, Cal Jennings, and Erica Bassett will be going too. I’ve heard rumors that Anna-Marie’s parents are going to be two of our chaperones, and that’ll make Mom and Dad happy to know that I’ll have at least two strong Magi there with me in case I need them. There were two definite no-go’s for the trip, and I wish that Rebecca and Jenny would go along, but Rebecca knows that Lucas would never be allowed to be away from the farm for March Break when his father needed him there; and Jenny wasn’t interested in going without Peter – which he couldn’t do since it’s only open to students at our school.

While we now have our March Break adventure in Colorado to look forward to, we did actually have more important things going on at school – like jumping right into our studies – and mid-term exam preparations. We have two weeks to get ready for them, but you’ll be happy to hear that none of our classmates are starting out the New Year in panic mode over that news; mostly because they’re all going to be doing the bonus studying with their favorite resident ‘brainiacs’ – though it’s funny that we’re only the class favorites around exam time when it comes to academics!

We had stacks of exam prep work dumped on us today, so in addition to the more-important after-school job of getting our parents to agree to the trip to Colorado; we had lots of homework to do tonight too. Michael and I did that at his house; but didn’t get around to that until after we had dinner with his parents, Rebecca, and Jenny. Four of our dinner companions had fun teasing us about the methods that Rowen and I used to get those trip authorization forms signed, but that just added to the entertainment for the evening; and I definitely wouldn’t have missed out on Jacob’s gourmet dinner even if I wanted to avoid the teasing.

Michael and I did our homework in his room while Rebecca and Jenny did the same in the dining room; we followed that up with a music practice; and wrapped up my time at his house with a minor make-out session before I needed to be home for the night. All of that was fun, and so was my first Magi lesson of the year with Mom. She and Dad were working in the office when I got home; Ethan and Ehlana were getting organized to start their Master’s degree curriculum; and Mom took a break in her work to do my lesson so that I could get that out of the way and then take care of getting the twins tucked in for the night.

My lesson took an hour; Ehlana and I ended up talking for another half hour or so after we finished saying goodnight to Ethan; and then I came up to my room and was soon in bed with Mandy and my computer. I’ve had a lot of work and studying to get finished since then, and did the work in real time instead of using the extra Magi power for a time phase; and that’s why I’m still awake and writing this as it’s closing in on three-thirty in the morning.

That’s only going to leave me with enough time for a nap before it’ll be time to get up and moving again; but there are a few notes I should add before calling it a day.

Violet and Dillon are still in Woodvale, but will be back tomorrow morning after deciding to spend one more day there so that Violet could have some bonus time with friends that are also home from college. They’re going to do some more work here for the rest of the week; and then head back to school on the weekend to be there for the last week they’ll have before starting their next semester. I’ll need to try and spend a bit of time with them before they leave; but we’ll see how that goes – as usual. I will at least have a bit of extra time tomorrow; since band and teen praise team practices won’t start up again until after we’re finished exams; but then we will have the extra studying to do; so there might not be any difference at all. Finally, while this will hopefully be a quiet week compared to the last month and a half or so; Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I are tentatively setting up a movie night in the lounge on Friday; mostly because we haven’t spent much time together with just the four of us. I’m also going to take the weekend off from the Inn, since they’ll be slow there for the next month or so anyway; so maybe I’ll even manage to use some of that time to fully recharge and be ready for the extra study groups that’ll be starting next week.

Don’t laugh – it could happen!

Or not, but it is time to get started on my nap now, and I don’t have anything else to add to this report; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Congratulations Amy, Jared, Drew, and the entire White and Spencer families – it’s a girl!

Amelia Spencer joined our little town today in the usual way for a Magi baby – with help from her Magi doctor and nurse; along with some bonus help for the shielding because she’s quite a strong little Magi too. I haven’t met Amelia yet, and only have the few details that Mom passed on to us tonight; so I’ll only add that Amelia is perfect and healthy; Amy is doing well too; and Jared is frazzled but managing to keep up with Drew while Amy’s busy with some help from grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

Before I move on to my personal news today, I want to comment on my lack of reporting on things like Amy’s pregnancy. She’s one of my favorite teachers, and the last nine months have been very exciting for her; yet I’ve barely mentioned her at all in my journal – just as I’ve rarely mentioned the important events going on for most people around here – no matter how important they are to me. That’s normal, and it’d be impossible to write about everything going on for everyone anyway; but it does remind me that the world doesn’t revolve around me and my family – even here in our little town.

Then again, since Amelia will be a future classmate for Brianna; it could just be that it’ll be a few years before this little event will turn out to be fairly important to our family too! ;^)

My day wasn’t new baby kind of exciting, but that wasn’t all bad; since I also didn’t have anything happen that even remotely resembled labor pains either. Some teens might disagree with that while we’re getting ready for our exams, but even though that does drag out for three weeks including actually writing them; I’ll respectfully disagree with them. Amy might be able to confirm that for us; but she’ll be off from teaching until next September – and will be busy enough with a baby and toddler while she’s off work.

Starting out the morning with Tai Chi and a hot breakfast out in the sunroom was great, and while our day at school was fairly quiet from a fun standpoint; I still enjoyed spending the day with Michael and our classmates and friends. He came home with me after school and spent the evening here, but while Rowen and Tim came over too; they only stayed to study with us until they needed to move on to his house for dinner. Our studying was all about exam review, and while we haven’t started to put together the full study group with everyone in our class yet; we will do that all next week – and may add a bonus study session or two this weekend too.

We did our studying in the lounge; dinner was in the sunroom and an easy-meal night; and then Michael and I took care of the clean-up. Mom did a group Magi lesson with us – and with Ethan and Ehlana – after that; and then Michael and I had some play time with Ethan and Ehlana while Mom went to join Dad in the office and get some of her own work done. Our play time included a music practice, some video gaming, and one television show before Michael and I took care of getting Ethan and Ehlana into bed for the night. That left us a bit of time to say goodnight to each other before Michael headed home at ten o’clock.

He left then mostly so that I could get started on my bedtime computing and not stay up half the night again; so I got right to that after seeing him out and checking in with Mom and Dad on my way back up to my room. I was getting tired by then, but decided to use a time phase to help with getting as much of my work done as I could while hopefully still getting to sleep before midnight. I had a light night for the family business work, so I did a bit more on the language studying and archive homework to get ahead of that – and hopefully help out next week when I’ll need to put in extra time helping my friends out with getting ready for their exams.

That time phasing has tired me out even more, and while it was worth doing it tonight, I’m ready to crash now as I wind down fast while writing this little report. I don’t have anything else to add, and getting to sleep now is an option; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Our Wednesday work nights have returned after the holiday break, and that worked out for me tonight because I could get my work and studying done early; and that’s going to allow me to go to sleep early too – once I’ve finished with this update.

We’re out of the extra-cold weather for a few days, but we’ll trade it off for some rain; and it isn’t warm enough for Tai Chi outdoors. Since Michael and I are continuing our Pushing Hands training for him, that works out for us; and he really likes the more intense work-outs – especially now that we’re also spending part of the time practicing some of the moves at something close to what would be full-out fighting speed. Mom’s pretending not to know why I’m taking our training there, but we still have time; and Michael will need all of it to complete his training – and I’m not just talking about Tai Chi for that.

The rest of my morning before classes started was uneventful; school was all about review for exams again; and I came home after school so that I could get all of my work and studying finished faster than I could have done if I’d gone to the Inn or elsewhere to do homework first. Mom did an easy-dinner night so that we could all work or study and get finished everything early; she took care of the after-dinner time phase; and we only did a short Magi lesson once I had the rest of my work finished for the night. Ethan and Ehlana had three of their favorite people available to tuck them in when we all came upstairs at nine-thirty; I grabbed a quick shower instead of going with a soak in the tub; and I really do plan on being asleep shortly after I wrap this up.

That’s all I have for tonight unless you’re really bored and want to check out the family business archive to read up on my work tonight; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Thursday, January 7, 2016

It’s been a wet, rainy day around here; so we spent as much of the day indoors as possible. I also don’t really have any major news today either; so this is going to be a very short update.

Our morning routine was just that; school was another day of exam review work; and I went to the Inn with Michael after school to do our homework there before helping out with the dinner rush that wasn’t much of a rush at all ahead of the first game night of the New Year. There was a pretty good turnout for that despite the rain, and we had a lot of fun; but then I needed to get home and started on my usual school night work and studying. Dad had a lot to do too, so I stayed in the office; used a time phase; and got everything from my Magi lesson with Mom to my language studying and family business work finished by a quarter after eleven. Mom worked on her computer while I was doing parts two and three of that, and Ethan and Ehlana worked on their college studies; so we all went up to bed once the work was done for the night.

None of us went straight to sleep, but while Ethan and Ehlana have only been playing on their iPads and probably chatting with each other since being tucked in; we don’t need to write about what Mom and Dad have been doing with the extra time they didn’t expect to have tonight once they were done their work for the day. I’ve only done one last computer and email check before getting to this update once I was changed and in bed with Mandy; so I’ll be sleeping before midnight again thanks to the time phasing effort that has me seriously worn out now.

We only have one school day left ahead of the weekend, and Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I are going to end our Friday with a teen play and movie evening in the lounge; so I’m glad that I won’t be awake until two or three o’clock tonight. I’ve skipped all of the fun little details that went into making this a pretty good day, but I’m choosing the nap time over writing a more extensive report; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Friday, January 8, 2016

I’ve had a really good evening here at home with my friends; and it was the kind of quiet hang out kind of time that we really needed a lot.

I’ll skip any major report about my morning at home and day at school because that was about as standard as possible for a Friday – except maybe for the bonus exam preparation study homework that was dumped on us for the weekend. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I didn’t worry about that tonight while we enjoyed getting to spend the time together without a major gang around – or with so much going on that we were too busy to actually talk and enjoy being together.

There wasn’t a family dinner and a movie night this week because everyone was worn out after weeks of too much to do, and while Mom and Dad had three extra teens at home for dinner; Ethan and Ehlana were at Naomi’s house for dinner and the evening until Liz got home from the salon for the night; so we only needed about twice as much food as normal – and that was for Michael and Tim. Mom opted for pizza, wings, and a bake-and-serve appetizer tray for our meal, so the work was easy for that; and the clean-up even easier thanks to using our best paper and plastic dinnerware.

Except for stops at home to drop off bags and pick up anything that Michael, Tim, or Rowen wanted to bring along; we pretty much came straight back to my house from school; we had a snack and played video games before dinner; and then sat down for a mini movie marathon after we had dinner in the sunroom with Mom and Dad. Since we’d seen the new Star Wars movie in Crystal Springs, the guys wanted to re-watch the rest of the movies in the series so far; so we started with episode four because that’s apparently how it should be done – unless you’re in the other Star Wars camp that believes it’s perfectly okay to watch them in order from one to six if you want to do that instead of in order of production. We did watch the extended version instead of the theatrical release, but while that’d be blasphemy for some purists; I like those extra scenes.

We watched our first movie while also enjoying the couples’ cuddle time; took an intermission that matched up with Ethan and Ehlana getting home; and then they joined us for Star Wars episode five. That also meant bonus cuddlers for Michael and me, but we were good with that; and Ethan and Ehlana were happy to have that extra couple of hours and change to hang out with us too. Thanks to my super-powered memory, it doesn’t really matter how long it’s been since I’ve seen a movie for me to remember every minute detail; but it’s still fun to watch them in real time – and it is always entertaining to watch my friends’ reactions to any show we watch. That’s true for the twins too, since I get to be around them for lots of first-time movies, but in this case; they’ve already seen the Star Wars series. They still managed to add extra fun into the second half of our movie time, and while we were