Hey there.  Jenny here.

Wow! This has definitely been a crazy week at Joyce Kilmer Middle School. It's the end of the semester, and that has everybody stressed out. It's not that we have more work or tests or anything, it's just that we know our report cards will be coming out soon, and that kind of freaks us out, know what I mean?

Report cards are going to be especially weird for us sixth graders. We've never had actual letter grades, like As, Bs, or Cs. The elementary schools in our area send out reports from the teachers, but they're written in paragraphs, and there are these grids with places for check marks. The grids say things like: Hands in homework on time, works independently, participates in class discussions, respects others, and stuff like that. That way you and your parents have an idea of how you're doing in school, but it's not nearly as intense as getting a letter grade.

I think I'm doing okay, especially since it's my first year in middle school. It took me a while to get used to moving all around the school all day, having different teachers for different classes, and juggling all my homework and projects and stuff. But now I love it. And besides, it feels good to switch classes every forty-five minutes - you get to see your friends in the hall, and move a little.

Speaking of grades, if I were grading my life in middle school so far, I'd have to say that it started out as a D- (it was no fun eating all by myself in a phone booth after Addie dumped me), but it's now an A- (not perfect, but real close). I have lots of great new friends, I'm president of my class (I get extra credit points for beating Addie out for the job!), and I'm doing okay in all of my classes (I just got back an English pop quiz with a huge 95% written at the top of the page!). It took a while, but I guess you could say that I'm surviving middle school pretty well these days.

How are things going for you this school year?
TTYL
Jenny

Hey there.  Jenny here.

Sorry about the lack of exclamation points, but I am too tired to exclaim anything.  I just got back from a sleepover party at my friend Liza’s.  I don’t actually know why they call them sleepovers, though.   Nobody ever sleeps.

Sleeping’s no fun, anyway.  What was fun were the games we played all night long.  We started with a sleeping bag switch.  Everyone put their sleeping bags on the floor.  Then Liza left the room.  Once she was gone, we all climbed into each other’s sleeping bags and zipped them all the way up.  When Liza came back into the room, she had to guess who was in each sleeping bag.  She got just about everybody right—except Marilyn and Carolyn.  But that’s not completely her fault.  They’re identical twins, and we can barely tell them apart when they’re not hiding in sleeping bags!

After that, we did a no-mirror makeover.  That’s when you put makeup on without a mirror and have a fashion show.  Man, you should have seen what we looked like!  I had blush all over the right side of my face.  And that was nothing compared to my friend Chloe, who had red, red lipstick on her lips and her teeth!

After all the games, we went downstairs and baked these amazing buttery chocolate chip bars and had milk shakes too.  By that time, we were all too sugared-up to sleep a wink.

So today is definitely going to be a lazy Sunday.  I’m thinking homework, a TV movie, and early to bed.  Sounds perfect, huh?  Well, except for the homework part, anyway.

Hope you had a great weekend, too.
<3
Jenny