Happy Halloween/Happy Nevada Day (for those who celebrate)

 If I could bottle up the energy at the school the past few days, my mom could stop worrying about me drinking caffeine.

I could drink that instead.

Here's hoping we survive the day (and tomorrow, which will be worse).

It is happy to be around happy and excited children though.  It's contagious and even though Halloween lives at the very bottom of my favorite holiday list, here I am, sort of excited right along with them.

I helped decorate the hall a little after the faculty meeting.  We don't enter into things lightly.

(Speaking of the faculty meeting, I got a shout out--and the gift card that goes along with it--from Maren, who had been testing ML students in the classroom next to mine for the past two weeks.  She said she wanted to give me a shout out because she had eavesdropped on me the whole time and "it was hilarious."  I'm not 100% sure how to feel about that, but hey, I got a gift card.)

Also, besides being beside themselves with excitement, my students have been delighting me.

One was looking for a book recommendation and he had just finished reading Christopher Mouse and loved it.  I showed him the Beverly Cleary shelf and handed him The Mouse and the Motorcycle. I told him a 30 second book review and a huge smile spread on his face and he grabbed the book and went straight to reading it.

Adam gets bonuses at work and I never do, but I felt like I did in that moment.

Here are some other good things:

At the faculty meeting, we were asked to submit names of students who could use some extra holiday love. Being part of a school that cares so much about their students and families makes me happy.

At the end of the day, my students were coloring Halloween pictures and I played Ghost Girl for them which is my very favorite song of Emma's.  They were stunned.  They said things like, "Wait, you know her?!?" and "Is that actually her singing?!?" and, "She made this song up?!?"

They are a very easy crowd (but it's a good song, says her mother).  

Some of them walked over to look at my family picture on the wall, suddenly more interested in Emma.

They make me laugh and often I have to suppress it like when a girl came mournfully to my desk and asked in an injured voice if she could go to the wellness room.  (And the Academy Award goes to....)

I asked her why she wanted to go and she paused and then said, "I can't remember."

I told her to go sit down.

The final thing delighting me is that I got an email from one of my room parents and she said they had the entire Halloween party handled and hopefully I could "just sit back and relax."

Usually the Halloween party feels like juggling flaming torches, so I will take it!