"I went to a bachelorette party and all I got was lice."

The only other person who might love birthdays more than Natty B is my friend Julia Dewolf. Julia gets excited for everyone's birthday, in addition to her own, and has a countdown of how many more sleeps until the big day. All week I've been getting texts of THREE MORE SLEEPS! ONLY TWO MORE SLEEPS! ONE MORE SLEEP! Today Julia's 16th birthday arrived. I knew I wouldn't see her at all tonight but wanted to wish her a happy birthday in person. I conspired with her mom and showed up before school with Julia's favorite Starbucks drink. I was there in time to see her blow out the candles on her birthday pancakes and sing Happy Birthday with the rest of her family. We can't wait to really celebrate this weekend. 

Thursdays mean Friendship Bracelet Club. Our crew was small but mighty this afternoon as we gathered in the LGI room after school. We know KCraig and Jesses would show up soon and be our entertainment so we started making bracelets right away. Mer and Hannah learned the 3-braid, Maggie flew through a Sharkteeth, Elise worked on Railroad Tracks. At this point, most of them can teach themselves to make most of patterns which is pretty cool.

I love that friendship bracelets are such a part of the culture of the school. It's not uncommon for girls to have a bracelet taped to their assignment notebook or wrapped around a roll of tape that they carry with them to every class. So many kids have bracelets on their wrists. I really love it.

Next year when our school splits FBC will be at the school where I teach. Today we talked about building an underground tunnel so girls at the other school can walk over to do FBC with us every week.

Tonight I had dinner with Rachel Ardery, Emily Glanders, Shelby Barrett and Molly Henry--some of the best counselors I've ever worked with. I wasn't looking at my watch so when we got up to leave I discovered we'd been sitting there for over two hours. These friends made me laugh hard tonight, I needed that. I've lost touch with everyone from HS and so many college friends but my Tecumseh friends have always been the constants in my life. I'm so thankful for these people.