Celebrating

I love teenagers.

I said this to a class I was subbing in yesterday and a few kids thought I was being sarcastic. I'm not sure some of them ever really believed me, but those who know me know it's true.

I love their passions. Whether it's our Girls'Basketball team heading to the state tournament for the fourth time in five years (GO CADETS!) or my speech kiddos heading to districts today or victims of a tragedy rallying the country in a battle cry of #NeverAgain, teenagers charge into the world daring you to stop them. 

I think our world is in great hands.
                                              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'll be back subbing all next week for Roomie, who is now teaching English 9. It will be a crazy week full of interruptions as our basketball team plays in the tournament. Seriously. It'll be nuts. The schedule will change, depending on whether they win or lose on Tuesday. Some kids will be here, some will be gone. Mentally, they'll all be gone :)

But, I've got this. They're just excited kids, who will have more important things going on in their life for a while. But we'll get the work done with a little patience and understanding--and probably a little friendly sarcasm.

                                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our school district has a therapy dog name Howie (He has his own Twitter page if you want to check him out ). And Howie hugs are the second best way in the world to start your day (Chloe hugs, of course, are first). Howie is a black Goldendoodle and he loves his job.  I'm "Bad Grandma" because I don't always make him follow rules, but his antics always make me laugh.  It is amazing how many high school kids track him down in the morning for that morning love. When they see him walking around the school there are many shouts of "Hi, Howie". Believe it or not, he's a pretty calming presence for the kids. It's pretty great to see some of the tough guys melt and smile when Howie brings his ball to them and wants to play.


Other celebrations:

• Only two more letters of recommendation to write. Scholarships are due on Thursday!
• Even though we will get more snow this weekend, next week brings a warm-up!  Melting snow and ice!
• Hallmark movies. Sometimes in the midst of the chaos in this world, I love the simplicity and happiness of these movies.
• My plants seem to be coming out of their winter doldrums and I saved a tulip plant from Walmart's Valentine's Day clearance last week. It's looking pretty good now.
• Free HBO weekends. We were able to record quite a few good movies last weekend, so when it starts snowing today, we will be able to snuggle in and watch them while it storms outside.

And what are you celebrating this week?

•