Heirs of the Magi Archives: Cassie's Journal 2013 - Part One

Heirs of the Magi Archives

Cassie’s Journal 2013 – Part One

By Steve Leggett

Published by Steve Leggett - Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 – Steve Leggett

Cover Image by Kayla Leggett - Copyright 2013 - Used by Permission

ISBN: 978-0-9867537-6-3

Books by Steve Leggett

Heirs of the Magi Trilogy

Magi Sanctuary

Magi Master

Magi Ascension (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

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 2013

February 2013

March 2013

April 2013

May 2013

June 2013

Notes

January 2013

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year again!

The snow from yesterday and the college bowl games today combined to convince our holiday weekend guests to pack up and head for home early. Even Chris and Martin were able to get motivated at the prospect of being home in time to watch the games with their buddies; and were packed and ready to go in record time for them despite the lack of sleep from too much video gaming.

Our parents weren’t quite as fired up, but Uncle Rick and Uncle Blaine really did want to get on the road early, so Mom, Dad, Violet, and I all pitched in to make that happen for them. It was still only mid-morning by the time we were done with the goodbye hugs and kisses; our outbound family members were all on the road; and we could take a little break in a suddenly very quiet house.

With the Inn closed today, Violet was busy with Dillon from shortly after we had that little snack break, and I went to meet up with Rowen for some snow play fun while Mom and Dad puttered around the house and spent the day playing with Ethan and Ehlana. As kids everywhere there is snow do, Rowen and I managed to find a place where we – and what seemed like half the kids in town – could do a little tobogganing. It wasn’t much of a run, and we could only play until the snow cover was too thin to keep sliding down without getting caught in ruts, dirt, or mud and slush. The rest of our snow play included a really fun mass snowball fight at the park; some more snowman building that we stopped to help Jessica Bassett with on our way back to Rowen’s house for lunch; and a moderately successful attempt at riding and sliding our bikes around at the park and school.

When Rowen and I stopped in to my house for our afternoon break, I found out that Ethan, Ehlana, and I were doing a dinner and sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa tonight. yes, I’m sure that part of that was so we could spend a little quality time with them before they head out on their next trip this weekend, but Mom and Dad seemed very happy about the prospect of some quality alone time too. Whatever they plan to do with their kid-free time is probably one of those things that kids-don’t-need-to-know.

That news did shorten my play time with Rowen, and we ended up staying in my room with Ethan and Ehlana after our hot chocolate and cookies break. We had a little flute and sax music practice; I packed for my sleepover; and we had a little telepathic chat with Ethan, Ehlana, and Mandy while mostly just hanging out and taking it easy. When it was time to go over to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, we did the goodbye hugs and kisses with Mom; Rowen headed home; and Dad drove Ethan, Ehlana, and me over so that we didn’t have to bother with switching the car seats to Grandpa’s van.

There really isn’t much to report for the rest of the evening. After days of too much food, Grandma and I put together a light soup and sandwiches meal; we had bakery desserts; and then spent a couple of hours playing before both the grandparents and toddlers were ready for an early bedtime. I wasn’t ready to crash at nine o’clock, so I’ve been playing on my computer since helping to put Ethan and Ehlana to bed. It’s still only ten-thirty now, but I guess getting an extra couple of hours of sleep more than usual will be nice – as long as that doesn’t just have me up earlier than usual in the morning. I’ll let you know how that worked out for me tomorrow night.

Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

It’s been all fun and games for most kids in Witch Falls today. For Ethan, Ehlana, and me, our fun started with breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa. When it was time to go home again, Mom came over to pick us up; I helped out with getting the twins and our bags inside; and then I was set free to meet up with Rowen and get on with our wintry play day.

There wasn’t more snow, but some boys had decided to try building a toboggan run by hauling nearby snow by the sled-full and filling in the bare spots left from overuse yesterday. Rowen and I watched that semi-successful operation for a while; had a fairly entertaining snowball fight that was instigated by a pair of un-named girls who ambushed the unsuspecting toboggan run builders; and went for a few slides down the hill on shared sleds before word got around, and there were too many kids all trying to get in on the unexpected bonus time on the slopes.

After leaving the hill, we went back to my house for hot chocolate and a snack, and then we spent the rest of the morning hanging out in the lounge with Ethan and Ehlana. We played our flute and saxophone; did a little telekinetic video gaming that was mostly for Ethan; and basically just goofed off until lunchtime. For Rowen and me, lunch was a picnic for four, and before you get too excited Aunt Leanne, the other two members of that foursome were Rowen’s parents; and the picnic was at the computer store. Patricia has been joking since then that our surprise lunch visit was exclusively to butter her and Owen up to get sleepover approval, but that was totally just an added bonus, and we really did put the picnic together just so we could spend a little extra time with them. Having the sleepover at Rowen’s didn’t really work out all that well for us either, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

Our afternoon included picking Ethan and Ehlana up after lunch and taking them to the park for some play time that included making toddler and tween-sized snow angels; slide action that had Ethan suggesting that wearing snow pants for that year-round would be a lot more fun; a brief, too-cold time on the swings; and a walk along the path to the falls and back. We had our afternoon hot chocolate and snack break at the Inn, and then Rowen and I took Ethan and Ehlana home again. I packed my bag for another sleepover away, and we took that, and our flute and saxophone, over to Rowen’s house after doing a round of goodbye hugs with Mom and the twins.

With the holiday rush over for another year, the computer store was back to normal winter hours, and Patricia came home early to start making dinner. She had two volunteers to help with the work, and that’s when we found out that there were going to be two sleepover guests at the Emersons. I’m not sure if it was worse tonight because this had been the first chance Patrick and Scott had to unleash their pranks and jokes on us since the start of the Christmas break, but the two boys were in top form all night – and still are even as I write this between interruptions.

Patricia, Rowen, and I had dinner ready by the time Owen got home with the junior jokesters, and for the next forty-five minutes; Patrick and Scott entertained themselves by trying their best to gross the rest of us out with their food analogies, jokes, and a display of dining skills that would have amazed any pack of starving wolves. I won’t go into the details, and Rowen and I were both very glad to help her parents when it was time to clean up.

Doing the dishes didn’t give Rowen and me a reprieve from Patrick and Scott, since they quickly volunteered to help too. Their help probably added ten minutes to the work time, and they didn’t actually get anything useful done while trying to splash Rowen or me with water; putting clean dishes back into the dirty stack; and an attempt at a leftovers food fight that Owen thankfully stopped immediately after two spoon-flung pieces of pasta hit their marks. Getting a noodle and sauce in my hair was gross, and so was getting it out, but Rowen was more annoyed because she needed to change her top so that her Mom could spray it with stain remover.

The hits, mostly metaphorically, have continued all night. Our music practice was constantly interrupted by things like the boys playing YouTube videos of screeching cats or of them staggering into Rowen’s room and pretending that our music was killing them – over and over again. Rowen was already wishing she had a dart pipe to blow on instead of her flute by then, but there was still much more to come. While watching a movie in the living room, Patrick and Scott spent all of their time pranking us. Creepy-crawlies would brush up against our feet and ankles from under the sofa, or on our shoulders and hair from above. The list went on and on, and though Rowen and I managed to get through the movie, we came back up to her room for the rest of the night right after it was over.

Unfortunately, the boys came upstairs too, and they had a large cache of weapons of mass annoyance available to them in Patrick’s room that they were not afraid of using. Prank and joke delivery systems included a remote-control monster truck and a micro helicopter; rubber worm and spider-throwing slingshots; water guns; a robot; and a squadron of paper airplanes.

Short of using a little Magi power, there doesn’t seem to be anything Rowen and I can do to put an end to the little brother and sidekick games tonight – even bribery didn’t work – so I’m going to wrap this up and we’re going to turn the lights out and at least pretend to go to sleep. It might work – or not.

Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Pretending to be asleep wasn’t enough to keep Patrick and Scott from their mission to annoy us last night; and it took a cease and desist order from the parents to put an end to their warped sense of fun – until they resumed hostilities again this morning. Our solution to the problem was to escape the house shortly after helping Rowen’s Mom with the clean-up; and doing our next holiday sleepover at my house.

Other than the change in overnight accommodations, and the welcomed end to our latest episode of being prank targets number one and two for Rowen’s little brother and his trusty sidekick; the rest of the day was pretty much a repeat of yesterday. We played outdoors a lot; had a couple of snowball fights; took Ethan and Ehlana to the park; practiced our flute and saxophone in the lounge; and some Magi-shielded fun time with the twins too. Dinner with my parents, little brother and his best friend, Ehlana, was much easier for us; and we’re both very glad that dodging food during the clean-up wasn’t an issue either.

Violet was at Dillon’s house for dinner and the evening, and it was a fairly quiet night around here. Rowen, Ethan, Ehlana, and I watched a movie in the lounge while Mom and Dad worked in the office; Rowen and I helped Mom with the full bath and bedtime routine for Ethan and Ehlana; and then we got ready for bed too, and have been playing on our computers and cuddling with Mandy for the last hour or so. Once I have this finished, we’re going to call it a night early – mostly because we were a bit sleep-deprived last night, and partly because we want to be rested up and ready to enjoy the last weekday of our Christmas holiday. Let’s not even think about the fact that we only have three days left before it’s over and we’re back to school again on Monday!

Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Friday, January 4, 2013

The top news story of the day, for just a very few of us, is that Liz Seager is pregnant with her second child! Mom found that out when she saw Liz while dropping Ethan and Ehlana off at KidZone; and I got to ‘see’ for myself when Rowen and I coincidentally needed to drop off an afternoon snack for Liz and Vicki at our favorite hair salon. The hard part about knowing things like this early is having to keep the secret until Liz can find out ‘officially’ from Uncle Adam in about a week and change. Aunt Leanne suggested that some girls have apparently had happier holidays than most, but I’ll just pretend that I don’t know what she means by that.

Compared to the expecting mother story from the Seager family, my day has been fairly uneventful. The snow has been melting a little more every day, so there weren’t even any boys out on the ridge trying to do any sledding today. Snowball fights were still breaking out here and there, but Rowen and I stayed away from that action because while I love snowball fights as much as the next kid, I don’t like throwing – or getting hit by - ice or slush balls.

While Ethan and Ehlana were at KidZone, Mom was running around town doing the usual supply and grocery runs; picking up dry cleaning; and having lunch out with Dad, Aunt Leanne, and Claire. Rowen and I had a self-serve sandwiches and chips lunch at my house, and we were there to help Mom with unloading the van; but spent most of the day outdoors except for two warm-up breaks – including the afternoon visit to the salon.

Dinner and a movie night resumed today, and Grandma and Grandpa were there too for a last visit before heading out for their trip in the morning. I so wish that I could be spending the next eleven weeks in and around Australia and New Zealand with them, but since I can’t take Rowen, my parents, brother, and sister along too; I’ll just tough it out and stay at home with them instead.

Rowen stayed with us for the evening, and we helped Mom and Violet with making dinner. Grandpa led the dinner conversation, and his review of the highlights of their travel itinerary was nearly as entertaining as his post-trip adventure tales always are. I don’t know if having a high-tech daughter-in-law and granddaughter is rubbing off, but he must be using the internet a lot these days to learn everything he can about the places they’re going to visit and do their family business and charity work.

Uncle Adam and Aunt Deborah had been late getting out of the clinic, and we took our time having our meal, so by the time we finished cleaning up, it was after eight o’clock. We all moved into the living room, picked a kid-appropriate movie; and settled in for a little quality cuddle time. Violet went out to meet up with Dillon at the Inn when Rowen’s parents and brother joined us after closing the store for the night. They stayed for the rest of the movie and our bedtime snack break before taking Rowen with them and going home when my grandparents, aunts, and uncles headed out.

Going off-recap for a moment, I’d like to mention that Patrick is usually fairly tolerable when he and Scott aren’t collaborating – and trying to show off for each other. It was even fun watching him play with Ethan while he was here. Rowen assures me that he can be very annoying without having Scott around to help him, but there does seem to be some hope that he’ll eventually outgrow this phase some day. Sooner would be nice, but I won’t hold my breath; and I’m not sure that when he and Scott hit the tween stage that it won’t just be worse.

Anyway, back to the main story; I helped Mom and Dad put Ethan and Ehlana to bed, and have been in my room with Mandy since then – starting with a little Jacuzzi time for me. (For some reason, Mandy never wants to take a turn.) Mom and Dad went to bed early too, and I doubt that Violet will be home early when she has less than two days left before she’ll need to go back to Woodvale. She’ll be sad about that, but the good news is that this will be the last semester that she and Dillon will ever spend apart.

I’ve just been puttering around the internet since climbing into bed with Mandy, and there isn’t anything else to report for today; so I’m going to shut down now and shoot for a third night in a row where I’m sleeping before midnight.

Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Grandma and Grandpa are currently flying over the Pacific Ocean on their way to Australia; and it’ll be Monday morning local time when they land. I still wish I could be with them, but spending the morning working around the house, playing with Rowen all afternoon, and doing one last holiday sleepover has likely been more fun than a travel day that still has a long way to go before it’s over.

They haven’t exactly missed much here in Witch Falls during their first day away. While I’ve escaped a lot of work over the past two weeks, that ended today; and I put in a solid four hours of house cleaning, and another hour working outdoors with Dad, before being set free after lunch. The good news with the diminishing snow supply is that Rowen and I could ride our bikes pretty much everywhere we wanted to go this afternoon. That included stops at the park and school, a warm-up break at the Inn that Miranda and Rebecca joined us for; and a handful of cameo stops to visit with some classmates and friends we met up with while touring around town.

While I’m thinking about our snack break with Rebecca, I should mention that Jenny didn’t join us for that because she’s currently spending a lot more time with Shane, and less at the Inn with Rebecca. I’ve thought about spending some time in the kitchen there to give Rebecca some company while she’s busy, but I don’t see how to do that without having Aunt Leanne teasing me about being there because of Michael instead, and redoubling her matchmaking efforts; so I just haven’t done that at all. For Rebecca and Jenny, though, I suppose this little change does at least help out with separate best friend and boyfriend time.

I really don’t want to stay on that topic for long, so let’s get back to the recap.

We had an easy-dinner night; played for a couple of hours with Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana; and have been hanging out in the lounge since the twins were tucked into bed after their bath and bedtime snack and stories. With just the family in the house, I was able to put up my wards for a while so that Rowen and I could play our flute and sax without bothering anyone else, and also include Mandy in our girl chat. After our practice, we settled onto the sofa and have been watching a movie for the last hour or so. Violet has been spending her last evening here out with Dillon, Jake, and Stephanie, but she only brought Dillon home with her; they’re in the living room now; and Rowen and I are sure that we do not want to interrupt them tonight.

I don’t want to think about that either, and there really isn’t anything else to report for today, so I’m going to finish this and get back to our movie.

Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Grandma and Grandpa are safely in Sydney Australia now, where it is already Monday afternoon; where it’s one heck of a lot warmer than here. We had a short phone call with them after they were in their hotel room. It took a fair bit of power to make it happen, but I was able to do a full link with them so we could chat telepathically – though Mom made me keep that short too so I didn’t wear myself out.

That little reach out and touch someone moment happened shortly before we had dinner, but there was a fair bit going on today before then. With Violet heading back to Woodvale today, it was a busy morning around the house. She did most of her packing this morning, and we had Dillon over for breakfast so they could have a little extra time together. While she was busy, Mom, Dad, and I juggled shower time; cooking and cleaning up from breakfast, and taking care of Ethan and Ehlana.

Things were pretty much back to normal at church, and Pastor Lewis was on a roll that lasted until shortly after Jacob needed to leave and get to the Inn. Our congregation is quite happy to give the Pastors all the time they need on Sunday mornings, but that might just change if lunch at the Inn was delayed a half hour or more because of it!

That wasn’t a problem for us, since we were having lunch at home. Dillon was with us for that too, along with Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam. It’s hard to believe that the week and a half Violet’s been here is over already, and even at lunch time, it didn’t really feel like I’d spent much time with her when her attention was mostly on Dillon – and they both talked a lot with Uncle Adam and Mom about what they don’t even yet know is their part in our future plans. I should probably just get used to that, since five and a half or six years difference in age is a lot when it’s between eleven or twelve and seventeen or eighteen. Cameo moments are likely all Violet and Dillon will have time for with me for the next five or ten years.

Dillon had to do his goodbyes with Violet right after lunch, and get to the Inn, and I went to meet up with Rowen then too; though I did my goodbyes with Violet first. She wasn’t leaving quite yet, but was going to be busy doing a last lesson with Mom before getting on the road; so I wasn’t really going to have a chance to do anything with her anyway. Rowen and I spent most of the afternoon biking and playing at the park. Now that the computer store was again closed on Sundays, we were able to have our warm-up break at her house and have a little music practice before playing outside again until we both needed to be home for dinner.

I’ve already covered the long-distance call and link; dinner and the clean-up were both quick and easy; and then Mom and Dad had an hour or so of play time with Ethan, Ehlana, and me before Dad needed to get to work in the office again, and I helped Mom with the bath and bedtime routine for the twins that included a short Magi lesson. Once Ethan and Ehlana were in bed, it was time for me to hit the Jacuzzi. I spent about an hour and a half in the bathroom by the time my hair was done and I was ready for bed. A little telekinetic packing had everything I’d need for school in the morning ready to go, and then I went down to the office to say goodnight to Mom and Dad – and to get Dad to sign off on my report card. He still hasn’t gotten tired of showing off my straight A+ reports, and I’ll never get tired of seeing my Daddy proud of me – even if he doesn’t get to brag about the really big things we do.

The impending return to ‘normal’ in the morning also meant that I got back to my usual nightly computing and studies tonight; though I’m also trying something different for a while to see whether a little time-phasing makes a difference; or just ends up leaving me more tired from the extra power exertion. Doing that is the main reason I’ll be sleeping before midnight, and have all of my archive and language work done too plus the usual email, news, entertainment, and sports checks. I’m not starting my next new language until tomorrow night, but I even managed to get everything set up for that so I can just jump in with my first lessons and go.

That’s it for tonight, so...

...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Monday, January 7, 2013

Having the kids back in school again might be the top news story among students and parents, but the most important event in Witch Falls happened when Sharon Palmer officially joined the family business this morning; and started working with Mom to learn everything about her new, multi-billion dollar investment portfolio. Sometime within the next two or three months, she’ll take over most of the banking, financial, and insurance industry interests we own; along with a few related businesses. I’m sure that even if you’re reading this in the distant future, you’ll know that the whole banking and insurance industry didn’t exactly have a rosy reputation for the past four or five years, but you can be sure that our companies are the exceptions; or we wouldn’t own them.

While things weren’t nearly that important or exciting at school today, it was still a really good day. My morning started out great too, starting with Tai Chi, breakfast, a little dress-up and hair time with Mom and Ehlana, and a ride to school for Rowen and me from Dad so I didn’t have to try carrying two saxophones and the rest of my usual gear. Holiday news dominated the school grapevine all day, and kept everyone entertained as well as informed. The boys, of course, were also talking football all day too, with both the pro and college games on the weekend topping their chat interests. As far as I’m concerned, the only good news there is that college football will be done after tonight; and, sort of like groundhog day, that means four weeks left in the NFL post-season before football gets shelved until next summer.

The best time of the day for Rowen and me was getting to play our new flute and saxophone in music class. Michael and I were both teased about having matching saxophones, with a few new lines related to what could happen if we get them mixed up and use the wrong one. Since Michael and Lisa seem to have ‘officially’ joined the couples club now, you can guess that Lisa wasn’t at all amused by any of the sax jokes directed at us, but there wasn’t much that either Michael or I could do about it once a few of our classmates got on a roll. The only thing that saved us a bit was having that class near the end of the day instead of the beginning. By tomorrow, there will be other targets and jokes.

The fun for Rowen and I continued after school. We had another warm day – warm for winter – and after finishing our homework; we took Ethan and Ehlana to the park to play. Ethan was happy to find out that the warm weather also meant that the guys were playing football too, and Michael was there to help him get one more football moment before Rowen, Ehlana, and I were able to escape the testosterone zone and split the rest of our time between the playground and a walk by the river. There were a lot of kids and teens hanging out at the park today, and we spent nearly as much time chatting as playing before it was time to get home again – or to the computer store for Rowen.

Mom had another New Year change to announce tonight, and that was the end to our weekly healing lessons with Uncle Adam. After two years, they’d decided that he could continue his training on his own, and just get help from Mom whenever he needed it. My healing lessons will continue, but probably won’t be on a specific night anymore. Since Mom was going to be spending a lot of time with Sharon Palmer, and Aunt Leanne was busy with the real estate end of our future plans, they didn’t have a meeting tonight either, and it seemed really quiet around here without any company.

We did have Magi lessons tonight – elements for Ethan and Ehlana, and transmutation for me. I was in bed shortly after Ethan and Ehlana were tucked in, and thanks to another time-phase, I’m finished my work for the night; and it isn’t even eleven o’clock yet! The only news from my work tonight is that I started learning the Polynesian-Malayo languages; and that should keep me busy through to the end of the school year in June. If I’m going to really find out whether using the time-phase helps or not, I’ll need to get to sleep soon, so...

...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

The Crimson Tide rolled to their third National Championship in four years last night, and from what I heard around school today; it wasn’t a good night for the fighting Irish and their fans.

Yes, I did need to check the score this morning before going to school, though Dad could have given me the update too since he apparently watched the game on and off while working in the office. I’m not really interested enough to add the game details, but if you, dear future reader, really want to know them; wiki it!

For me, today’s highlights were Tai Chi with Mom and Dad and lunchtime music practice with Rowen and Michael. Don’t go there, Aunt Leanne – we were just having fun playing music. Rowen and I were a bit surprised when Michael joined us in the music room for the first time since he started hanging out with Lisa, but he wants the extra practice time enough to put up with more saxophone jokes and jabs from the guys. Lisa didn’t look happy with either Michael or me the next time Rowen and I saw her in our first afternoon class, but there wasn’t much that I could do about that except keep my mouth shut and stay away from her boyfriend for the rest of the day – which I did.

I was also glad that it was an after-school work night. My end of the family business wasn’t neglected at all over the holidays, since I did deal with anything that absolutely couldn’t wait while I was ‘on vacation’, but there’s always more to do; and I managed to keep busy from the time I sat down at my work station in the office until dinnertime. With Alicia working with Mom, using a little Magi power to help out wasn’t an option, but I did still manage to get enough done that I didn’t need to keep working after dinner.

Instead of doing that, Mom had more lessons for Ethan, Ehlana, and me; we all had a little play time with Dad; and then I helped out with getting Ethan and Ehlana bathed and in bed before coming up to my room for the night. Another time-phased study and nightly computing blast followed, and I’m again ready to hit the pillows before eleven o’clock. I could get used to the extra sleep, but it’s still to early to say for sure whether the trade-off to using the extra power is worth it or not. Time will tell, but for now...

...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

It sure hasn’t felt like January – at least during the afternoons – for the last few days; and it’s going to get even warmer before the colder temperatures return again. That’s good for getting outside at lunchtime and playing after school; and Rowen and I had fun biking and playing at the park once we had our homework out of the way.

There actually isn’t really much of anything for me to report today. We’re getting right back into more serious studies in our classes; after-school play time was fun, but there isn’t anything special to write about there; it’s been a quiet night at home; and my nightly bedtime computing and studies were quick again, and not particularly exciting.

Mom’s keeping busy with all the usual work plus training Sharon Palmer; Dad’s getting ready for his week in the city; and Ethan and Ehlana are excited about getting started on Grade Ten material, Magi lessons with Naomi and Aiden, and KidZone visits. I may even have the easiest schedule right now, but even though that could be true; I’m still ready to wrap this up and get some sleep, so...

...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Thursday, January 10, 2013

It’s been a rainy day in Witch Falls, but that hasn’t kept us from having fun.

For our class, while I’ve actually been trying not to think about it all week, Gretchen’s birthday party tomorrow night topped the conversation list – her first boy-girl party. I know I should just relax and deal with things like this, but don’t seem to be able to handle the fact that I have a very low tolerance for tween weird very well.

A good example of that happened at lunchtime. Rowen and I escaped to the music room so we could avoid the worst of the chat among our friends about how cool it was going to be having a Friday night party with minimal adult supervision. Michael and Lisa had both joined us by the time we’d gotten our instruments out and were warming up, and the weird got stranger – and more annoying – from there.

This first comment isn’t going to sound particularly great, but to be honest; Lisa doesn’t really have either the interest in or aptitude for playing music. Trying to practice along with the three best students in our class just makes that more obvious; and I’m sure she realized that as quickly as I did today. While Lisa and I haven’t really gotten to be friends, we have always gotten along just fine, but she isn’t happy about how Michael acts around me; and really gets annoyed anytime the sax jokes start flying. The difference in our musical abilities certainly put her off, and if that wasn’t bad enough; Tim and Nora stopped in too, and though their teasing was meant to be fun, it probably moved Lisa along from being annoyed to borderline angry; and pushed the weird scale way too far for me to find anything funny about the situation.

Michael is like his father, and it takes a lot to get him angry or annoyed, so Tim at least knew when he’d gone too far with his best friend, and beat a hasty retreat. None of us were really interested in practicing after that, but we went through the motions for another ten minutes before packing up. Rowen and I left the room right away, but I don’t think that Michael and Lisa did until just before we all needed to get to our next class. Yet again, I’m left wondering why on earth Aunt Leanne thinks that I need to rush into crossing over and dealing with messes like that.

After having that little reminder that the weird can pop up when you least expect it, I was happy to focus on our classes for the rest of the day, and go home to some nice, sane, family business work. That only ended up being a break from the strange and annoying because game night was back again; and Michael and Tim were there with Lisa and Nora. I wasn’t surprised to see that Michael wasn’t mad at Tim or Nora anymore, since he’d already moved on by the time we’d gotten to our Social Studies class, but I’m sure that Lisa still wasn’t happy despite the fact that she was trying hard not to show it. Add in a couple of Aunt Leanne matchmaking nudges directed at Michael and me, and though that bugged me as much as it ticked Lisa off; there’s a good chance that she won’t be talking to me much for a while. Please tell me again why I only talk and think about skipping game night instead of acting on those impulses. Oh right – because playing with my family, friends, and neighbors is so much fun!

After getting home and coming up to my room, I should have worked in normal time, since I’m not exactly winding down very quickly, but I stuck with the time-phase work experiment, and don’t have anything left to do except wrap this up and try to get off to sleep. Maybe if I don’t think about the weird from today or the impending weird for tomorrow night at Gretchen’s party, that will happen sometime before midnight. I’ll let you know tomorrow whether that happened.

Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Friday, January 11, 2013

Mother Nature must love Gretchen a lot – she gave her beautiful spring-like weather for her birthday. Happy twelfth, Gretchen!

Since everyone in our class was going to her party, school pretty much seemed like a way to keep ourselves entertained while waiting for that to start. Rowen and I did actually have fun at school, and that’s mostly true for the rest of the day except for Rowen being more than a little annoyed with a certain boy by the time we were picked up to go back to her house after the party.

Yes, we’re doing another sleepover at her house; Scott’s here with Patrick; and they did try messing with us earlier until they found out that wasn’t a good idea when Rowen’s got her mad on for boys.

Let’s back up a bit. It was a quiet morning at home, and I was ready for school early. The sleepover was added to our plans for the day while I was picking Rowen up on my way to school. I think Rowen was already thinking that she’d need her best friend to talk to after the party. There wasn’t actually much going on at school other than the usual work, but nearly everyone was outside for lunchtime to enjoy the warm and play. My day went particularly well because I successfully avoided any close encounters with Michael and Lisa – a fact that she seemed to be very happy about – especially when I was able to do that all evening too.

Gretchen’s party was a good example of how much things have changed in a year – the biggest being that it was a girls-only party for her last birthday; and the not-yet-crossed-over group had more than one member. Everyone is taller, and the boys are beginning to catch up with the girls, though that hasn’t been as big of a deal for Rowen and me, since we started out as pixies; and never got very far ahead of any of the boys. Rowen and I are also still, um, behind the curve in other developments that are of particular interest to the guys, but I guess it’d be fair to note that we – the girls – have all made progress in that department since the last party.

Taking a little side trip, that lack of development for us bugs Rowen, but I’m fairly happy that we’re not at the top of the class for this. Some of the girls like the attention that comes with being more physically grown up than the other girls, but I wouldn’t like dealing with any of that at all. Let’s put this down as one more good reason to stay on my side of the crossing over line indefinitely.

Moving along, Rowen and I had time after school to do snack and report time with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana; pack my overnight bag; and head over to her place to get ready for the party. We walked over to the computer store to get a ride out to the party with Rowen’s Mom, and were among the first guests there. Since Gretchen’s boyfriend was already there too, we didn’t get to spend much time with her while waiting for the rest of her friends and some cousins to get there, and I guess we really didn’t spend much time with her all evening; since she was mostly hanging out with the ‘couples club’ tweens and teens.

Rowen and I were definitely in the singles minority, but we also weren’t alone either; and had other girls to hang out with and chat; and there were always groups of girls dancing to up-tempo songs later that we could join. I guess it was just during the ballads, when the couples paired up to dance, that we were left on the sidelines, but we also took some of those opportunities to go outside for short walks that were usually timed to help Rowen cool down a bit and do a little constructive venting.

Note to any future boyfriends for either Rowen or me – there will not be any making out in public with us. Not...going...to...happen – ever!

If Rowen does get ‘her’ guy some day, that’ll be a memo he’ll definitely need to get; since his current girlfriend doesn’t have that little dating restriction – and that was a big reason why Rowen was so hot under the collar tonight. There was more than one couple helping to make things weird tonight, but I must be changing a bit too, because that really didn’t bother me all that much tonight; and I really had fun all evening. Doing a barbeque dinner buffet in mid-January was great – even with the guys competing with each other to show off their incredible feats of food and drink consumption. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but there’s also something about barn dances that I really love.

Gretchen’s party had a midnight curfew, but Rowen and I were getting picked up at eleven – partly because we didn’t really want to stick around for the inevitable couples’ dances wind down and goodbyes; and because we didn’t want to keep any of our parents up for an extra hour after a long work week. I was especially glad that we made that decision when we found out that Aunt Leanne had volunteered to pick us up; and she had no matchmaking opportunities to spring on me before we were in the car and ready to go. That didn’t keep her from teasing me, and lamenting my stubborn refusal to get with the program so she could have more entertaining party reports, but I was happy to play along with that when the potential alternative scenes could have been much worse – and weirder.

Our pick-up run apparently also marked the end of dinner and a movie night at my house; so Aunt Leanne parked in her driveway, and Rowen and I stopped in to say a quick goodnight to Uncle Adam before walking next door and doing a bedtime snack and story time with her parents, Patrick, and Scott. As I mentioned already, the boys tried bugging us after we all went up to our rooms for the night; but quickly retreated and left us alone when Rowen blasted them – rhetorically, not with Magi power; though she really, really wanted to do it that way instead.

If you’ve never experienced it, since it happens so rarely, I can tell you that it’s very entertaining when Rowen lets her mad out – as long as you’re not on the receiving end of it. Patrick and Scott probably have a different opinion about that right now, but they’ll survive; and Rowen and I are both happy that they aren’t bugging us anymore tonight.

We’ve been fairly happily engaged in some constructive guy-bashing that has included some very entertaining and topic-related YouTube videos. Okay, Rowen wasn’t exactly happy, but we did manage to laugh a lot, and she does feel better. It’s getting late, and we need to think about getting some sleep, so I’m going to wrap this up; and we’re going to try and do that.

Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Maybe Rowen should get mad at Patrick and Scott more often! They were still leaving us alone this morning even though she was obviously in a much better mood by the time we sat down to have breakfast. We didn’t even get results like that with our past bribery attempts. I’ve never seen Rowen as the geeky bookworm that I keep being told she was before we met, but Patrick and Scott might; and that could explain why being on the receiving end of her anger had such an impact on them. Whatever the reason, it made for a fun start to our day, and I needed that; since there was a lot of house work in my immediate future once I got home.

I know this is shocking, but it seems that my mother actually does have limits to how much she can get done in any given week; and adding in daily training sessions with Sharon Palmer put a serious dent in how much work she could get done around the house. That meant extra work for all of us today, and I kept busy with that until we stopped for lunch shortly after one o’clock. Alicia was here working with Mom and taking care of Ethan and Ehlana, so using a little Magi power to help with the cleaning was out, but Rowen was working at the store anyway, and winter temperatures had returned overnight to Witch Falls and brought a mixed bag of rain, freezing rain, and a bit of snow along; so putting in the extra time helping out around the house really wasn’t cutting into my social life anyway.

When Rowen came over after lunch we ended up spending the afternoon hanging out in the lounge anyway. We had a music practice; played with Ethan and Ehlana; and watched a movie before she needed to head home and I was put to work again on the dinner cooking crew. It was just the five of us for the rest of the evening, and after eating and cleaning up, we had a little play time before Dad needed to get back to work in the office; Mom and I did the extended bath and bedtime routine with Ethan and Ehlana; and then I came up to my room after the twins were tucked in for the night while Mom joined Dad in the office.

There isn’t much else to report for me. I’ve had a nice, long soak in my Jacuzzi; finished a short version of my usual nightly computing; and am ready for an early bedtime and good night’s sleep.

Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Sunday, January 13, 2013

I’m going to keep this short, since there really isn’t much to report today.

Tai Chi, breakfast, lunch, and the late sitting for the buffet at the Inn were pretty much the only times I spent with Dad today; since he spent the afternoon and evening working in the office and getting ready for his week in the city. Rowen and I spent a couple of hours playing with Ethan and Ehlana after lunch, and Mom did a Magi lesson with all four of us before we met up with Rowen’s parents and brother, Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne, and Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah at the Inn for dinner.

We ended up with a fairly large group once we added in some more friends, parents, grandparents, and other family members; and had a lot of fun during the two hours and change we spent at the Inn. By comparison, it seemed very quiet once we were home again, though Mom and I still had fun while doing the bath and bedtime routine with Ethan and Ehlana. I was good with the quiet while having a long soak in my Jacuzzi after the twins were in bed, and it was even quieter while I was in time-phase mode and doing my nightly computing and archive and language studies.

Just as an interesting side note, bath water does cool down while in a time-phase, so keep that in mind if you’re thinking about trying to fit in an hours-long soak when you only have enough ‘real’ time for a shower.

Anyway, I have my work done; am ready for bed; and that’s all I have for tonight, so...

...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Monday, January 14, 2013

Happy 2nd birthday, Naomi!

She might not always think so, but finding out today that she’s going to be a big sister was her best birthday present this year.

Liz may have timed her appointments with Uncle Adam to make sure that her pregnancy test results came back today, but since she’s quickly getting into the barfy stage, I’m not sure she was thinking about that at all when she had her first appointment on Friday. Her off-and-on morning sickness is also the main reason why Mom and I spent a few hours at their apartment from the time I finished school until after Naomi’s party ended so that we could help her out with the work – and keeping up with the gang of toddlers that included Ethan, Ehlana, the kids they played with at KidZone, and a few friends they all knew from church.

I’ve definitely jumped ahead in the daily recap, so let’s back up; and I’ll get to the party story in a minute.

We were all awake early this morning to see Dad before he left for Crystal Springs, and then Mom had four cuddle buddies, including Mandy, for the hour or so of nap time we made time for after Dad left. The rest of the morning at home was fairly quiet, though Ethan and Ehlana were fired up about Naomi’s birthday; and kept Mom and I entertained during breakfast by chatting about everything they’d be doing today.

The fact that it’s winter instead of spring might have had something to do with why we didn’t end up with a play afternoon at school today after Liz and Naomi stopped by to let Mr. Seager know that he was going to be a Daddy again; but maybe that’s just something that applies to first babies. Whatever the reason, though that did become the top news story at school, classes continued as normal; and even Mr. Seager’s class only had the bonus entertainment of having Naomi give her Daddy flowers along with the baby news before getting back to work again.

Helping out with Naomi’s birthday party replaced our usual play night, and Rowen just ended up hanging out at the store instead of going out to play without me. Since my main job was keeping up with Naomi and her friends while Mom, Liz, and Philip took care of the work end of the party. Quite a few of the grown-ups in Naomi’s family stopped by to see her, or stay for dinner; including her grandparents, Uncle Nick, and Aunt Deborah.

I’d suggest that feeding toddlers – especially the cake and ice cream – is scary, but it really wasn’t any worse than watching a gang of tween boys demolish every morsel of food in sight when they get together; and the toddlers aren’t trying to impress anyone while they’re making a mess and having fun. Ethan and Ehlana had to play along, and reminded me that there were some advantages to being a toddler when it was just Mom and me. I rarely had to pretend that I couldn’t feed myself without the mess, and since my brother and sister are both neat freaks already; they don’t really like having to make even the minimal mess they need to do for show in public.

Of course, they also have their own iPads, so I don’t feel too sorry for them!

Getting back to the party story, I led most of the pre-dinner games; we survived dinner; and needed to do a lot of kid and room cleaning after the cake and ice cream before having Naomi open her gifts. While finding out that she’ll be a big sister by sometime in mid-September would eventually rate as her best present, the iPad mini from her parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles was her favorite today. I’m sure of that because the first thing Ehlana did after getting home tonight was test out a little Face Time with her friend – with a little cosmetic help from Mom and Liz. I’ll take a wild guess that they’ll be doing a lot of that; including some chats after they’re in bed for the night.

Liz and Philip will probably get razzed about having a toddler with an iPad as much as Mom and Dad did, but even if Naomi was a ‘normal’ toddler, there are lots of games available to help teach even young kids; and this really isn’t any more radical than putting computers in primary and kindergarten classrooms was ten years ago – it’s just where technology and education is going into the future.

Mom and I were able to take Ethan and Ehlana home by shortly after eight. We were the last ‘friends’ to leave, and as I mentioned already; after getting home, Ehlana needed to play with Naomi and their iPads for a while before bedtime. I had homework to get done, along with the rest of my usual nightly computing and studies, but helped Mom do bath time with Ethan and Ehlana first before going up to my room; getting changed and into bed with Mandy; and started on my work.

With a little time-phasing help, I was able to get everything done fairly quickly – at least in real-time terms. I experimented a bit with that; adjusting how ‘fast’ I sped up so that I could measure and compare the power used. There is a lot written in the archives about the exponential function that relates to mass for all Transmutations, but the same applies to other factors too; and there isn’t nearly as much information about how Magi power use changes depending on things like how fast or slow, and length of time spent in time-phase. That isn’t something I’ll have the answer for in one evening of study, but I’ll write something up for it once I do get some answers.

That’s all I have to report for my day, but while I’ve been thinking about the Seagers a lot tonight, I should mention that their big news today will also have an impact on our future plans because they’re going to need to move to a bigger place to have room for two kids. Ethan, Ehlana, and I know what’s supposed to happen, and we’ll keep that little secret for a while longer, but I can assure you that starting out twenty-thirteen with a new pregnancy and birthday parties is just the beginning of the excitement this year for Naomi and her parents.

I’ve had enough excitement for today, and am ready to get some sleep, so...

...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

My usual Tuesday after-school work plans were changed when Mom decided that she was due for a sleepover in Crystal Springs with Dad this week.

Instead of working on the family business, I helped Alicia with Ethan and Ehlana after we picked them up at KidZone; and we kept them entertained until Aunt Leanne finished work and took us home with her for the rest of the night. I moved on from assistant babysitter to cook’s helper for a while, and then it was mostly playtime after Uncle Adam joined us and Alicia headed home.

Okay, it wasn’t all fun and games – at least for me. Aunt Leanne took the opportunity to spend a little quality time teasing me about Michael – especially at the point in my daily recap when she found out that he joined Rowen and me for our lunchtime music practice; but Lisa didn’t. I’m really getting tired of repeating the fact that I’m not interested in any boys, or in crossing over, and even if I was; Michael, and for that matter every other boy in our class, has a girlfriend.

No, Aunt Leanne, I’m not getting so tired of repeating myself that I’m going to give up, cross over, and start dating just to get you to stop bugging