Happy Easter in the Village!

Easter gifts I put together for my neighbors and coworkers

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I love everything about it. My family and I usually go to our friends house and have Easter egg coloring and Easter lunch, but the past two years I haven't gone. Last year I was in the Philippines and this year I am in Alaska. I, however, made this year a special treat. I made each of my coworkers a nice little gift basket and delivered them. I also made myself some hard boiled eggs and bread. Unfortunately, I couldn't color my eggs, but they still tasted pretty good. The thing I love the most about Easter, though, is Easter services at church. I wish I could be there in person, but I'll settle on watching my church's service online. There are a few people that I know I would die for if I knew it meant saving their lives. My sister. My brother. My parents and cousins. What Jesus did wasn't just for a few people. It was for all of this that don't even deserve it! That amazes me so much and I love hearing pastors talk about it on Easter Sunday mornings because every year it seems more and more incredible that he could love me that much.

My non painted hard boiled Easter eggs

Homemade bread, yum!

In other news two things happened this week. 

First, I finished my very first scarf project. It is kind of short, and not completely straight along the edges, but other than that it turned out pretty good. I'm planning on giving it to my dad when I go visit for the summer. I'm also going to start making one for my brother this next week. 

The scarf I finished making for my dad this week.
It's not perfect, but it didn't turn out too bad!

The second thing that happened was my snow machine was fixed. I really appreciate Paul's help in doing that. Without him, I would have had no idea what to do. He also taught me a few things about my snow machine and how to properly use it. I was a little bit uncomfortable with it at first because of how different it is than a car. But then, my friend that sold it to me took me out driving and the longer we rode around, the more comfortable I became. Now, I feel like a pro and I can do anything. Okay, that is a little bit of a stretch, but I am much more comfortable on it and do trust that I know what I'm doing.

My friend taking me out for
snow machine driving lessons

Beautiful view at the dock

At the airport, watching a plane take off

Sun setting around 8:15. It was amazing

I hope everyone has a fantastic Easter! Remember, God's love was brought to save you and me :) Have a great week!

What a Week!

This week was incredibly busy! With only eight weeks of school left, there is a lot going on. We had parent teacher conferences, a community night at the school, our union meeting to prepare for negotiations, and preparing for testing coming up in just a few short weeks.

How do I deal with all of these things, you may ask? Well, it's quite simple. I do one of three things:

The biscuits I made last week. They are all gone now.

1) I try to cook. The reason try is included in that statement is because I'm a horrible cook. I've been getting mildly better as my time out here, living on my own, surviving on what food I'm able to prepare for myself, has gone on. I made biscuits at the end of last week. They tasted good, but were very small compared to what I had planned on.

Beads for our earring making

This is a perfect example of the earring i was trying to make

2) I do crafts. I've been trying to teach myself for a few weeks how to knit and I've finally got the idea. That doesn't mean I'm very good at it, though. Also, my friend showed me how to make some lovely earrings. I don't have any supplies as of right now to make them, but it was a lot of fun and I'm planning on trying to make some more. The earring I made wasn't nearly as good as the one that my friend made, but I think with some more practice I'll get better.

My earrings, I made the one on the right

3) Yoga. One of the other teachers got me involved with yoga. I never realized how much of a workout it can be. We usually start off our yoga meetings with a time of venting about school. These are the only times during the week that we might have a chance to get some of this off of our chest with people who actually know what we are going through. Then we actually do yoga, which is really a lot more fun than I thought. My kids like to look at me and laugh when they see that I'm going to yoga, but then when I show them yoga moves in class, they are impressed.

The beginning of my scarf project. Finished project pictures to come

Soon my snow machine that I bought last week will be fixed and I will have a fourth activity I can do after a crazy busy week at school. In the lower 48 a teacher may relax by going to a movie or shopping. But that isn't as easy out here as it is in those places. These are the ways I have solved my problem of needing to do something that doesn't take too much concentration and that I can do as I want. In two weeks we have testing so this week at school will be a lot of preparation for that. I hope you all have a wonderful week and if you do happen to have other ideas of activities, please let me know what they are!

Happy St. Patrick's Day in the Village

Cute little sled used to bring a child to the post office

Warming up

Learning how to bat

Well this week had lots of sunshine and good times out here in the village!! It was the last week of the quarter, so my kids got a lot of work done at school. However, outside of school was all fun and games.

This week I bought a snow machine from one of the other teacher's who is leaving. She sold it to me for a really good price. I'm going to have to improve my upper body strength, though, because to start it, you have to pull a choke. Let's face the facts, I have weeny arms! Even so, I'm sure friends will be willing to help me start it and learn how to drive it as well.

On Friday, one of the teacher's celebrated her 30th birthday! We all got together and ate cake and had a fabulous time. Her husband and another male teacher put the candles on her cake for her. After she blew them all out, she found out that they put 51 candles on it! Ah, the sources of entertainment we can find out here in the village.

We also had a fun day playing in the sun. One of the married couples received wiffle balls and a bat, so we set up a field in our little courtyard between all the teacher housing area. Everyone came out to play, including two of the children who hadn't ever played before. It was a lot of fun. We didn't keep score or anything, just a fun day playing outside in the beautiful sunshine.

One more quarter and then this school year will be over!! It sure has flown by!! I can't believe my first year of teaching is coming to an end. I've learned so much from my amazing group of students, from the teachers in my village, and from the culture I live in now. I've also become more confident in my abilities as a teacher. I'm more sure of myself and what I can do. It has been an amazing experience and a great year.

Our cheering section

Contracts were due on Friday and I had turned mine in. This means another year of living in the  good old white north. There will be some changes, though. For instance, instead of teaching seventh grade, I will be teaching kindergarten or first grade. It's quite a big leap. There are also many other changes going on in our school district next year. I'm excited to be a part of it all. Thank you everyone for your continued support and prayer. Hope you enjoy the rest of the pictures in this week's update!

Running the bases with a baby on her hip :)

Daddy helping bat and run the bases

My new ride!!

Happy Birthdays, All Around!

Special Olympics was held here a few weeks ago.
This was the snowshoe race competition.

Despite a week that wasn't overly busy, we had a fairly busy day yesterday! Let's start with a few things we did this week:

One of the teachers had a visitor. Her boyfriend came to the village for the week. It was interesting to see the village through another person's eyes. The kids were obsessed with him! When we went to the cafe for a different teacher's birthday, the two little girls that were there kept staring at him and saying hello to him. It was a lot of fun. Later that evening we had a game night and just had fun.

Birthday dinner at the Cafe.

Also, three of my students went to district in another village for the science fair. They were there for two days and did a very good job. One of them received second place in her category, but we aren't sure yet if she is going to state. Another student from our school is going to be going to state, and we are all very proud of him.

Then there was another teacher with a birthday. He is the teacher that has been in our village the longest and has two children. We went over to their house and had cake and hung out. His oldest child is so adorable. We played with him and danced with him and had a good time.

Playing cards with an oversized lap dog

There were two other birthdays this week. One of them was a student of mine. She was so excited about her birthday. We didn't have school on her birthday, either, so that was fun, too. The other birthday was the grandpa of one of my other students and the father of a coworker. He turned ninety years old yesterday.

Sorry it is so blurry, but it is a piece of
whale meat. It tasted pretty good

Joe's birthday was a big celebration. It isn't every day that a village member turns ninety! It was such a fun party. Everyone in the village came out, plus a few people from another village flew over for the day. We all brought food and had a huge potluck. The elder ladies made some delicious cakes and there was an Eskimo dance after we ate. I didn't stay for the dance, though, because my students were playing ball at the gym.

My kids playing basketball

It was sort of a pick up game with the closest village. Unfortunately, I only made it to the boy's last game, but the girls did good and won both of their games. The boys didn't win, but I really enjoyed cheering them on and watching them play. My students are very talented and as I was talking with a few of the parents, we said that when my students are old enough to play senior high basketball, we should have a really talented team.

All in all, it was an eventful week. Unfortunately, I didn't take lots of pictures, especially of what we did Saturday and the birthday party of the older teacher, but it was a lot of fun. Some of the pictures this week are older that I meant to put on a long time ago and just hadn't. I hope you enjoyed this week's blog!

Science Fair in the Bush

Spring is on the way! March is here!! It was quite an exciting week. We had the Science Fair, basketball games, and a Lap Game all in one day! I wish I could have made it to all the events, but I did get to judge the Science Fair for the first time, which was quite fun. Our students did a great job on their projects.

All the Science Fair boards set up

We've been working on these projects for a long time, basically all of February and a little bit of January. A few of the studets were extremely excited about it, others not so much. My students had a total of four groups- one of three students, one of one student, and the other two each had two students in the group. 

Two of these groups were so excited about it that I hardly had to do anything to help them. They did the whole project by themselves. It was very interesting to watch them work, and it also freed up my time to help the other two groups.

Handing out awards

One student did a project titled, "Does Listening To Drums Alter Your Heart Rate." This student wond first place in district last year, but because of the grade the student was in, was unable to go to state. This year, however is different. This student put in a lot of work, coming in every day after school for a few hours to get more done on the board for the project. My student was correct in her hypothesis that your heart rate is altered by drumming. This student won first place for Junior High in our village. 

My students' project demonstrating how lungs work

The second group I didn't have to help did their project on "What is Different in Three Types of Water?" The students tested three types of water- Brita, straight from the faucet, and snow. They tested these types of water three different times with a zero tester. They also looked for slime on top of the water. My students were right in their hypothesis that snow had the least amount of particles in it. They also put in a lot of work and were able to get second place in the Junior High group for our village. 

My students' Science Fair projects set up for judging

Both of these groups of students will be going to districts next week. Please pray for safe travel and I'm hoping that they win. If they place in district, they will earn a trip to Anchorage for state Science Fair. My students are smart and I think they have what it takes to go all the way. I hope you enjoyed reading about my student's projects.