I love my students. I just, gosh, I just really love them. And I can't believe we only have 2.5 weeks left together!

I had a pretty great weekend - sleep, homework, volleyball, food, friends, talking to Brittany on the phone (gosh I love that girl! she is so smart!), emails from Bethany (perfect timing hun, I miss you!) - very well rounded. It was rough waking up this morning, but it was so wonderful to have that extra hour of daylight! I needed that. On my drive I was just thinking about what it will be like to get up every day and head to school - and I wondered if I would dread it like I have other jobs. I'm sure that just like with life, there will be good days and bad days.

In a couple of my text books I've read about how smart middle schoolers are and how interested they are in the world around them. Today totally confirmed that for me. We're back to cooking, which they totally love, and the lab was pretty short so I was walking around asking them about their weekends and what they dressed up for for Halloween. One of the girls had gone to a Mormon church with one of her friends and told us about that experience; they were so intuitive and observant. Another group of boys was talking about the U.S. getting taken over and nuclear explosions; I was so impressed on their take on the whole election. These 12 year olds were pretty opinionated in what would take place if either Obama or McCain gets elected.
"Obama is going to take away my gun rights, I love hunting, I can't handle it if he gets elected!"
"He is not! He's just going to regulate!"
ohhhh my lanta... I love these kids. They are brilliant. They are passionate. They care about each other. They state their opinions and don't think twice, and sometimes that really hurts. But they are learning, they are learning that there is more to the world than just them. And that gives me hope.