Welcome Back! School Starts Tomorrow?

Yup! 8:30 tomorrow morning ---- all little people living on the Alaskan tundra will be in their classrooms. I am exhausted already! We got back to the village on August 5 and we've been on the go since August 7. I stayed home for 2 days just to get the house ready to live in again. You know there were some things I just knew we had cleaned before we left, but.....

Okay.. new year. I am teaching kindergarten and first grade. I have 16 enrolled. 14 boys and 2 girls. I will have 9 k's and 6 first graders. My room has a Dr. Seuss theme and I got a new circle time carpet. The room has changed a lot this year. I'm keeping the Lego table out for building --- Lincoln Logs and K'nects, too. And, we have a reading tent. We'll see how it goes.

The mister is teaching jr. high and high school math, biology, jr. science and U.S. History. I think he has decided he's all big now that he's over in the other building. He will hardly step foot over in my classroom now!

The girl is going to high school --- ninth grade. The boy will be in seventh! Where have my children gone to? They have both been TERRIFIC helpers with bulletine boards and moving furniture. I couldn't have done it this year without their help.

Ok --- truthfully --- have I really not written since January? I didn't think it had been that long.
Well, we'll just have to do better.

We bought the truck and fifth wheel in Oklahoma. Started back to AK on July 12. IT IS A LONG WAYS TO ALASKA!!!! We saw Yellowstone and Banff, Glacier National Park. We didn't see much wildlife. The ice heaves were dreadful. We bounced pretty good several times.

We arrived in Tok, AK, on Sunday, two weeks after we left. On Monday, the Mister went and tagged the vehicles. It was going to be $3000 in OK but in AK it was only $160 (for 2 years!)
Then we took off for Valdez.

Never turn down an offer to go to Valdez.

We were only going to stay a couple of days. We stayed a week. We plan to stay a month next summer!

We took a glacier / wildlife sightseeing cruise. Nine hours --- it was great. Next year we want to go halibut fishing.

All the pictures were taken in Valdez. From our campground --- downtown --- you can count 18 glaciers. Those are otters on the ice. We saw a glacier calving during the cruise --- now I can say that I've seen the glaciers in South America and in North America ..... another lifetime goal accomplished!

Another Trip to Bethel

I don't know why we went... I needed out of the house and the Mister will be busy with basketball until March and I knew if we didn't go yesterday we might not....

So, when the game was over he and I loaded the snow-go and took off to Bethel. We left the house about 1:00pm. The ride was good to town. The sun was still low and the sky couldn't decide if it was clearing or getting worse. We got to town and ate at the Chinese place across the street from AC ---- one of the larger groceries in town. Oh, the snow-go did get hot about 2 blocks from the restaurant. Actually, we don't know how long it ran hot as the Mister didn't realize he wasn't getting a clear look at the light.

We bought groceries and warmed up at the same time. There were no bananas, oranges, potatoes, lettuce --- well, some leaf --- there were a few carrots, onions, about 6 yellow peppers. They were really cleaned out. Cake mix was $3.00 and we paid $7.65 for a bag of Doritos. Background ---- Bethel (and us) have had crazy weather these last 2 weeks. Two weeks ago we were freezing way down below 0 with windchills in the 40's. This week has been warm and Anchorage even hit 42 on Friday morning. Anyway, snow turned to rain and rain to ice -- so much so that Bethel's airport was closed for 2 days. So, no planes, no food. I wouldn't have gone if I had put some thought into it. Live and learn.

The trip back was another story. We left town with about $750 worth of food on a $300 plastic sled. We went a little ways and had to stop to pack snow --- the snow-go is water cooled and the trail was icy, not snowy. Two guys went by with sleds and since they weren't traveling at breakneck speeds, we stayed right behind them. THEN, (I didn't see them until we were right on top of them!) we went by a group of people just standing around their snow-goes. We were in some hills and bandits have been known to stop people traveling around there. I leaned up to the Mister and yelled that I didn't care if it got hot ---- JUST KEEP GOING!!! Well, the other two guys we were following went a ways and then pulled over. We went soaring past and waved thanks. A while later we had to pull over for more snow. The mister got off and got the small shovel and put some in on the right side, then walked behind me and put some on the left side. Then he walked back behind me to put up the shovel and he said, "Our sled is gone!" We decided that we had to go back --- yes, we discussed it --- it was cold! He told me that if we went to 24 on the odometer we'd gone too far. At 25 , he stopped. We could see Bethel lights. He asked and I said go on. We went just a little farther and there it was. Those people hadn't bothered it or anything. Then (((read this quietly --- we had to pee))))) and I was hurrying to get dressed and lights came over the hill. I about died. There I wasn't quite finished dressing and the bandits were coming and I was sure we'd lose it all and get killed, too! BUT, it was a man who serves on our school board. His headlight was a great help and soon we were on our way. It was 9:15 when we walked in the house. We were exhausted and slept until 10:30 this morning.

Yep...we'll go again.

New Year's in Anchorage

2009....Who knew that nearly a decade could go by so fast? I have moved more times and more miles than I ever dreamed....I've been self-employed in a job I swore I would NEVER do when I was growing up and my parents MADE me take piano lessons (thanks Dad, I appreciate them now that I've grown up a bit)....I've been a minister's wife and a substitute teacher --- NEVER planned on those two....and now I've moved to a fly-in only village in a state that really made Texas mad about 50 years ago.... Wonder what the next ten years will bring....

Our family spent Christmas at home this year. We went to the Moravian Church across the river on Christmas Eve. It was beautiful. The Mister got the snow-go out and hooked up the sled. We put on the clothes we could possibly find and then.... just as I headed out the door.... it started snowing. What more could we ask? By the time the service was over it was like an Oklahoma blizzard. We raced home and opened the gifts from the community gift exchange. It snowed all night and day on Christmas Day, which was truly wonderful as we were getting rather short on snow around the village.

I fixed turkey and dressing for lunch and another teacher came to eat with us. We had invited V. from across the river but the white-out conditions made it impossible for her to come over. After eating, we played CLUE - the DVD version. The Boy got it from his grandparents for Christmas. He LOVES to play Clue and this version was a lot of fun. We played again on Saturday since we couldn't get to Bethel due to blowing snow.

Blowing snow --- ice fog ---- strong winds --- these are the things that shape our lives. We finally got out of the village on Sunday morning. Up here you just have to live with it... no reason to fuss.... you can't control it.... however, I'm not so sure that there's not a weatherman somewhere who just likes to tick us off!

Anchorage is gorgeous this year. There is WAY more snow this year as compared to last year. The trees look like they've been painted in icing. The mountains have been out everyday but yesterday -- the day we took off driving. I will miss the trees and the mountains next week. But the tundra has its own beauty.... you just have to look a little harder for it!

We've seen Twilight, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Valkyrie and something else.... actually parents saw two and kids saw two..... none are worth seeing again but most were entertaining at the time.

This post is becoming sort of a menagerie of stuff. So what does the new year bring to our family? The Mister and I have 3 classes to finish this semester. The Mister will begin classes in May for Site Administrator certification (lower 48 principal certificate). The Girl is working on finishing phases in Reading and Writing so she can take college classes next year. She and her dad will be busy with basketball until March, as well. I have to get jr. high Pentathlon together. The Boy has purchased so many video game and books that I doubt we will see him before the snow thaws. I have started a Christmas quilt that I promised to finish before class begins on the 14th and I've bought fabric for a quilt for our bedroom that will keep me busy for a while. The girl wants to get started on her quilt, too. We'll see....

Happy New Year to all. Come see us when you can......I know..... you're really busy...... :)

Weather Plays a BIG Part

The top picture is today. I took it after school at 4:00 from my classroom door. That's my house over there with the porch light on. I can just barely see the high school across the bridge from my class. It's about 24 degrees and the snow is blowing like crazy. I love it.

The second picture is from last week. Friday was my birthday and since I had never gone snow-going on my birthday.... we went. The kids rode in the sled behind us. It was beautiful but cold still. I tried to drive but I can't see anything without my glasses and I don't dare take off the goggles.

We're going to Bethel tomorrow afternoon if the weather clears enough. Right now I'm sitting here stewing because the Mr. won't go check the post office ---- of course, no planes have flown today... so, I knooooowwww there's no mail, but...... and since I didn't get a birthday present and I KNOW he ordered something..... I'm pouting. Maybe it will be there on Saturday when we get back.

Notit and Bat

The Mr. and I have P.E. with our students every day. We spend 30 minutes a day in the gym and play games and run races and whatever. We have found that most games here are the same as the lower 48. However, names are different. Take for instance the name of this post. Read it. Say it. It took us a while to figure the first one out. Do you know what it is? Sure you do... Say it again. Say it slowly ..... one syllable at a time..... Not..... It...... it's what they call "tag" up here in the Bush. Cracked us up when we figured out what they were begging us to play.
Notit -- one word, don't ya know!

Bat..... this is indoor baseball / softball. Two teams.... one bat.... one foamy ball.... Team A is in the outfield and Team B lines up behind the batter (but out of the way of the bat).... Team A's pitcher stands beside the batter and throws the ball up in the air.... the batter hits or misses.... only gets one try..... BUT... he can run or get back in line....OR he may decide to run later.... There are no bases..... just run to the end of the gym and back without getting hit with the ball....You can run to the end of the gym and wait, too.....just don't get hit. Now, if someone does get hit, then team A and B change places.... unless someone from Team B hits someone from Team A before they can get lined up! Runs don't count and no one keeps score.... the winning team is whichever one is up to bat when time is called. It's crazy.... but they LOVE to play it.

Thanksgiving is over.... I'm working in my room at school... it's 6:55pm and I'm now going home to eat dinner. Kids will be here tomorrow --- 15 days of class and then it's Christmas Break! YAY!

Pilgrims, Fire Drills, Yup'ik Dancing

My class celebrated today with Pilgrims and Indians and Friendship Salad. A really good friend from Holdenville so very graciously shared her patterns and ideas. We all had a VERY good time. The fire alarm went off in the middle of it all. So you can see we were all in a hurry to get back inside.

Yesterday we ate lunch with the community. Turkey, dressing.... all the good stuff. I asked one of the teachers what a traditional meal would be this week in a Yup'ik household. She looked at me kind of funny and said, "Turkey, of course!" However, it will be white bread --- no cornbread dressing up here. Except at our house. We are going to eat with some other teachers and watch the parades and ballgames and generally veg out.

After lunch today (which was leftovers from yesterday) the kids danced for us. They were great. They wore traditional headresses and fans. The boys always sit in front and the girls stand behind. Three or four boys play the drums and sing. This picture is not typical of Yup'ik Dancing but they enjoyed themselves. It has been a good week and now everyone is out and going visiting.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!! from your Alaska Friends

Trip to Bethel

We did it! The Mr. and I made our first trip to Bethel. He plotted the trail last week when he brought the snow go back from town. We got up Saturday morning and it was -18 with no windchill. We got dressed and waited to see if the temp would go up. It didn't. So... we left Akula at 11:00 and got to Bethel at 12:54. Two hours to go 28 miles. I WAS SOOOOOO COLD!!! Wow! My helmet froze from the inside so I couldn't see the second half of the trip. I got motion sick. I couldn't tell if we were turning or going up or down. It was like being in a white balloon. I couldn't lift the face mask because I couldn't stand the cold air.

The first thing we did was go to the new Chinese restaurant across from AC. AC and Swanson's are the two grocery stores in Bethel. I walked in and ordered hot tea ---- I "never" order hot tea; but, I was frozen. We ate lunch and I told the Mr. I had to have more clothes. So we walked over to the grocery store to get some. We had planned on buying groceries at the other place. We ended up buying everything at AC. It was just easier.

Here's a glimpse of what we paid:

box of cornmeal $6.49
Honey Bunches of Oats (2) $10.00
3lbs. Folgers $17.55
Gallon of ice cream $15.99
Whole Boneless ham $20.50
Little Smokies $7.39
Tomatoes $3.99 lb.
Potatoes $1.48lb.
Celery $1.50 lb.
Lg. Tostitos $9.99
Lg. Ketchup $4.35
Eagle Brand Milk $4.65
Evaporated Milk $2.29

And, had we not gone after ourselves we would have paid a handling charge and air freight. (about a 1/3 of our total bill.)

We got home about 7 that night. We were exhausted. My back is sore all over. We have a back rest and it makes the ride so much better, but my back.....

We can't wait to go again. However, we'll probably hold out for over "0" degrees for next time!

Fire, 15 Years and a New Snow Go

Two weeks ago we had a fire in the village. The home burned completely. We stood on the deck at school and watched it burn. That's what you do when you live in the village. Finally, someone called a neighboring village and they brought a submersible pump, cut a whole in the ice through the pond behind the house and pumped some water on to the fire. The family of 5 lost everything. That house will cost about $250,000 to rebuild. That's what my house cost 5 years ago and it was put together by the shop class so there wasn't so much paid out for labor. Everything will have to be shipped in by barge next summer when the river thaws.

Yesterday was our fifteenth anniversary. We sure have done a lot and gone a lot in our 15 years! Poteau, Louisville, Poplar Grove, Henderson, Holdenville (3 houses there) and now Kasigluk. I never would have imagined..... The Mr. gave me a necklace and bracelet made here in Alaska from jade and walrus ivory. They are beautiful.

The snow go (can't decide how that should be spelled!) arrived last Friday night about midnight. The Mr. had to go to Bethel and drive it out here. We bought it in August from a Physician's Assistant there in Bethel --- check out her blog for more info about where we live. She has a GREAT blog: TundraMedicianDreams.blogspot.com

Anyway, the Mr. couldn't bring it out here until the rivers froze. Well.... they are plenty frozen now. Last night's temp was -17 and so was the windchill. It's much colder this November than it was last year.

The natives call a snowmobile a snow go. Ours is a Polaris and it's dark red. It a touring model with an extra long seat. It rides great. Saturday when the Mr. took me out I was hanging on for dear life but now I just ride. We are going to Bethel tomorrow for groceries. 28 miles and we figure it will take us at least 2 hours to get there and 2 to get back. I hope it warms up some...

Native Dress - Kuspuq

This is Teacher Vivivan and Teacher Georgia. I caught them visiting in the gym during Eskimo Dance one Friday. Every week the kids get to practice dancing and everyone is encouraged to wear their kuspuq. They are like hoodies but are made of cotton and have the sleeves, big pocket and the hem are decorated with matching rickrack. Sometimes they are waistlength and sometimes they have a ruffle and are longer, almost like a dress. The design of the shirt and the way the rickrack is put on will let onlookers know where you come from. Different regions use different patterns. I have 2 and I love to wear mine. I hope to bring back material back after Christmas for another.

Georgia is from Oklahoma... in fact, she's the one who got us hooked up with this school district in Alaska. Did you know that Lower Kuskokwim School District is as large as the state of West Virginia? We have about 20 villages in our district and Bethel is our hub. Bethel has about 5000 people..... with about 2.5 grocery stores..... our village has about 600 people and we have a small store. Walmart is 428 miles away.

Robotics, Basketball & Sirens

This is what our family spends time doing nowadays. The Mr. is the coach for our robotics team at school. It is open to fourth through eighth graders so the Boy is on the team but the Girl opted not to join. The kids spent the first part of October playing with the Legos and getting the board ready. They also played around with the robot and the computer. They will have to learn how to program the computer and connect the robot to it. The team has to plan out how they will have the robot accomplish its tasks on the playing board. PLUS, they have to research and make a presentation on the year's theme. This year's theme is "climate." They're supposed to do a project on how climate presents a problem in our community and what would be a possible solution. Needless to say, enthusiasm was much higher before the research started! The meet is set for Bethel on Dec. 5 - 6.

Basketball practice begins on Monday after Thanksgiving. The Mr. is going to coach and I'll be team mom. My job will be to tutor kids who want to play ball but are ineligible. They will be able to work-out (exercise) with the team but when practice with the ball starts each day --- they will go to tutoring. This will be new to them and I'm sure some of them will be very unhappy this year. Eligibility is dependent on attendance and grades. Don't come to school = you don't play ball, or go to movie-night, or whatever.

Which somehow makes me think..... Have I told you about the siren? Every night the VPO (village police officers) runs their siren to signal curfew. Weeknights right now close down at 9:00. Weekends are 10:00. In the summer it will be 11:00. Kids wander the village until these times and sometimes even later. During Slavik (Russian Orthodox religious celebration) kids and adults will be out all night, even though the siren will go off. Anyway, we love the siren at our house. The playground is right outside our front door and kitchen window. Some nights it's a real relief when everyone goes home.

Out on the Tundra

I took these pictures back in September. We borrowed the school four-wheeler and trailer and went out to Fox Lake. We picked berries and went sight-seeing. The rest of the family had been out there last year but it was my first time. It was very interesting walking on the tundra. The ground was VERY spongy - sort of like the moonwalk at the fair. You really can bounce. And the colors were gorgeous. These pictures don't show it but when you're out there and looking down at the ground, it's amazing how many different plants there are and each one is a different color. So... our fall here is much different than Oklahoma. No trees but still a lot of color if you know how to find it.

We got the snow-go on Friday night. Joe hitched a ride into Bethel with a couple of teachers from a nearby village. We are 28 miles northwest of Bethel. The trip on a snow-go is almost 2 hours. He said the trip there was pretty rough and it wasn't much better on the way back. Closer into Bethel they ran into overflow --- where the tidewater pushes up through the ice. And, he said they actually saw open holes in the ice on the river at one place. Auggghhh! Anyway, we had to work at school on Saturday but when we finished ----- we were out and playing on the snow-go! It's great. Now we are so bound into the village. At least we can visit other villages and go to their stores. Yay! It costs about $240 to charter a flight into Bethel. Now we can for a lot less.

Family

Grandma and PaPa came to visit us last month. They flew to the village and stayed with the grandkids while we were in Anchorage for J's hand surgery. Grandma got to substitute for me that week. I was so glad she was here and able and willing to help out. My students really enjoyed having them here. We talk about D and C a lot now in class.

The bottom picture is from the summer. Those are the grandkids. Two in Oklahoma, one in Missouri and two in Alaska. That will keep the grandparents busy in retirement---- just traveling!

He's My Helper

The boy is my really good helper. Many times he will dry while I wash the dishes. Here he is helping out all by himself. Last night he was all lovie-dovie with me on the couch. He's a special boy.

Akutaq

This picture is from earlier this fall during berry picking season. These are basically blueberries from the tundra. The kids picked them one day and we made Eskimo Ice Cream (Akutaq) the next. You mix crisco, sugar and berries and in this instance fruit cocktail to make it go farther. Sometimes they will add white fish to it. You mix by hand --- no spoon --- whipping it until it is creamy. Then you add the berries. Everyone enjoyed it.

Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin ..... now that's a name you are going to hear a lot in the next few months. She's governor of Alaska and we think she's going to be great. We especially hope that she can shed some light in Washington about education in our state.

It's Saturday and I'm at school laminating all the stuff I bought over the summer. It's amazing. I went to the store and oohhhed and ahhhhed and then we shipped it out. Now we've spent this week opening tubs and oooohing and ahhhing once again. What fun! Of course, I don't have space in my room for all this..... gonna have to get creative.

It's 53 degrees and wet and rainy. Joe's hoping for early snow. I want freeze-up so he can go to Bethel and pick up the snow-go!

Back in Alaska

We arrived in Anchorage on August 6. We spent the summer in Oklahoma and enjoying the heat. NOT!!!! I definitely do NOT miss that Oklahoma heat. We did like getting to see all our friends and relatives. Everyone wanted to know more and more about Alaska so I will try to blog more regularly. No promises. :)

We bought groceries and such for a few days in Anchorage and shipped them out to the village. We flew out to Bethel (400 miles west) and spent a couple of days going to 2nd year teacher orientation. We rented a van in Bethel this time and really enjoyed our freedom there. Otherwise, we would have to pay for a taxi everytime we wanted to go somewhere. They charge by the person so the fare for the four of us was $20 one way anytime we wanted to go some place. And out to the airport was $28!!! So with the van we got to see how the city is laid out and we spent some time at the port just watching the fishermen.

We arrived in Akula on Wednesday night, August 13. Oh! It was soooo good to be home. Everywhere we went people would come and tell us, "Welcome home." They were right. It is home for us.

The sun is still up at 10:00 and it is light at 11:00. The kids play basketball for hours and hours after school. It has been cool here all summer and dry. A front came through yesterday and we got some rain. Today has been beautiful and the temp is around 50 degrees. It feels like Oklahoma fall. I love it.

I have 21 kids this year so far. They are kindergarten, first and second graders. They are wonderful. I have lots of help and my schedule is great. 8:30 to 12:00 nearly kills me but we get so much done. I love my classroom, too, this year. I finally got rid of all the extra stuff and got it arranged so that I am comfortable with it. That helps a great deal.

Joe has 16 kids. He is teaching 3rd and 4th graders. He is SO HAPPY this year. Yes, there are problems but not like he had last year ---- we moved THOSE kids over to the main building for somebody else!!!! ;)

Son and daughter are doing very well. S is in a new class and she is letting him fly so he is not bored. Also, the new high school teacher is going to give Nathan drum lessons. D is in high school reading and writing. She is working very hard to finish phase work in math so she can be called a full-fledged high schooler! Not so happy about that (for myself) but glad she is doing well. She plans to write another speech for contest this year and is looking forward to basketball season.

Okay --- I'll stop for now. I need to save some of the more exciting stuff for tomorrow! If I really watch it, we could get 5 or 6 blogs about life here in the village! Ha!

Hannah Sings

This is Hannah singing her song, "How Beautiful," which she hopes to sing at Falls Creek Children's Camp in a few weeks. My apologies that it is long and in 2 screens. I'm buying a new camera this summer and I AM GOING TO LEARN HOW TO USE IT!!!!!! (at least that's my plan:)

Comments

I've changed a setting so I'm hoping that people can post comments now. Will someone please try to comment? My apologies for having it set "funny." I was wondering why no one was commenting! Kinda hard when the blogger-person has her settings out of kilter...

Playing Basketball

We are in Nunapitchuk today. It is a village that we can see from our front door. Usually. When the clouds settle in and I can't see it, I get kind of panicky. Just seeing this village keeps my mind from freaking out about where we are living. Kind of like a reminder that there is still more world out there than our little village.

We brought the junior high kids over yesterday by sno-go. Joe drove and I rode behind him. We had 7 kids with us for the first trip. About a third of the way here we hit a huge snow drift and over we went. He basically threw me off the machine! The kids came running up to see if we were all right. We were but I did get a little panicky. I couldn't tell where we were and if we were on land or the river. There is something about riding on the river that makes it okay. BUT, stopping on the river really bothers me. I do not want to get in the water. Not that I think there's any water out here but what if .... Anyway, I got in the sled and one of the kids rode with Joe and we finally got here. Then Joe went back for the rest of the students and H and N.

We played 2 games yesterday and will play 2 more today. We lost both of them. And we had 20 -30 point leads at half-time. I know that sounds crazy but EVERYBODY got to play. We are struggling with kids who think they are God's gift to Yupik basketball and so we are working to expand our players to a team and not just a few show-offs. Of course, better planning on the coach's part would have helped in the first game and in the second game if they had just dribbled and passed the ball around for the last 20 seconds we WERE winning. Just had to try that last shot.... Oh, well.... we'll try it again this morning.

We spent the night here. When you travel, you have to be prepared to stay over. And now this morning it is blizzarding. I think the temp is okay but you sure can't see much. Supposedly, we don't travel with temps under -25. That includes wind chill. I want to go home to my bed.

Little Girl

Where did my little one go?! This young lady can cook, do laundry and is fast becoming a basketball demon. She's taller than her mother and she loves to laugh. She'll be an eighth grader next year. Oh, my.