Camping...I never!

Well, I was so excited because Mandy asked me to go camping and you all know how much I love camping! It would have been Berry's first time. I had food prepared, packed, etc. I thought I was just tired but I started feeling sick (fatiqueness) and was a little nervous about going because I didn't want to get worst. I thought walking four miles and didn't think it would help me any, so I decided to stay home. I was really bummed but have been watching movies and seasons of Northern Exposure. So maybe later this summer, I'll camping.

What is Berry up to?

Berry enjoyed a nice a long visit with Matt, her next door friend while I was in Unalakleet. She didn't poop on the floor like she did last time because she didn't know that when she is on cord outside that she needs to do her business. We've enjoyed long walks, cuddling in the morning, playing with her tug toy. She enjoys roaming and racing up and down the hallway since no one except Mandy and Matt are here.

She is heeling now without a leash and it makes me so proud of her. She is getting better at the command "back" which I have taught her to run back farther. She is good on hand signals. Something funny she did a while ago was running full speed into a little hole with water in in on the tundra and all the way under. It was so hilarious! She heard and spotted ducks before I did and wanted so badly to get them. Maybe she is ready?

She enjoys long naps on my bed but then gets a little restless when I'm not ready to play with her. She will be an outside dog for a week in Unalakleet while I'm at camp. A little nervous about how she will do, but I'm sure she will love being outside all the time.

What is orange but turns out like unuk?

Well what was your answer? Unuk is the Eskimo word for poop. One batch of the jam literally looked brown unuk with seeds in it. Mandy taught me how to make jam and we are not sure why one batch turned out dark orange and the other dark brown. The sugar? Something mixed in the berries? We are not sure. We have one more batch to do tomorrow. It tastes just like candy. I can't wait to give some to Jess, Nanna and Gramps, Mom and Dad, and Stephanie.

After 5 bags of sugar, lots of stirring, it tasted so good! I wish I could somehow share it with everyone. We are going to try blueberry jam later. I'm thankful Jason and Myra left some extra canning jars. The jam smelled delightful! It would be neat to try to make Salmonberry wine, wouldn't it Jason and Myra? I had to tell you all how fun and excited I was to tell you that I made jam.






See the first pot? That's mine and it's not unuk color. Pretty good for my first time, hey? Well the Jam came out really, really thick so we decided we cooked it too long. Well, I told Mandy to follow the recipe and keep it cooking more. Well, my mistake. We made another batch last night and it was so much better.

Mandy had a great idea. She thought about making the overcooked jam candy by rolling it into balls and pouring that bark chocolate over it. Doesn't that sound good?

Dreaming...

I've been dreaming of leaving Koyuk after this year. Can you believe I've been here for 4 years and 5 after next? I think I'm ready to move on after next year to Fairbanks. I've always had the desire to work at a Christian school and there are three in Fairbanks. I checked them out on the web and they seem very interesting. I would love to teach and teach about God at the same time. Early or Traditional Education was so much focused on God that it would be neat to experience something new. The pay would not be as much and am checking on the Teacher Retirement. Those are some concerns I am having but am not going to let them change my mind. It would probably be good for me to learn on to live on less money. So I am praying for this and waiting for God's direction. It's exciting to think about it!

Vacation has started!

Finally vacation is on it's way. It was nice to go to church, come home and read my Bible and not have anything else to do to prepare for school. I went for a walk with Berry and got caught in the rain but did it smell great or what with tundra smells. I heard ducks, cranes, and even a boat. The river is open and the most of bay is except for way out. I came home wet but warm to make lasagna and watch a movie. The lasagna was incredible and the movie was good. I actually watched two movies: Maid in Manhattan and Fags of our Fathers. Then, I read two chapters in my book and have three left to finish before I start a new Alaskan book called Ada BlackJack. Very excited!

As I said before, it has been an emotionally end of the year. Myra, Jason, and kids moved to Galena. They will both be teaching next year. They have been amazing Christian friends and I cried so much when I just thought about it. I'm thankfulf for God for giving me strength to say goodbye. I know this happened for the best. God is wise and I trust that he knows what He is doing. It was a little different coming home from Unalakleet and not having your best friends to go talk with. Of course I"ll miss Kemper (Harrris' huge yellow lab). I'm thankful I will be able to see them in June when my sister, her friend and I are in Anchorage.

Labor day is today and I plan to make salmonberry freezer jam, ice-cream, get mail together, laundry, and other important things done. I will exercise also even though my body is quite tired and on the verge of being sick.

Look forward to BIble Camp coming up at the end of the month.

Enjoy your summers!

Hooray, No Kids!

It was a busy end of the year: assessments, toggling (like grading), cleaning the classroom, etc. This is the first year that I've actually been chomping at the bit to get rid of kids. I loved this year but it was one of the most challenging and emotionally draining years since I've been teaching here. The kids and I finished up our classroom memory book titled, "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Did You See?" That took us three months to finish and the kids and I were both glad it was done! We had a picnic on the beach two days before school ended and had the rest of the day to toggle. The picnic was fun. We played with the bat and ball, ate lunch together, watched a HS student skid across open water on his snowmachine. (If you ask me, it's so stupid because you can ruin your machine.) We also roasted marshmallows. (It brings back memories of campfires with the Grandparents). On our last day the kids wanted to make muffins so we made chocolate chip muffins because we were reading a phonetic book called Hot Muffins. They enjoyed it. We finished Firday May 16th and the teachers had a work day on Saturday. I had a lot to do and unfortunately I did not finish.

On Sunday, I left for an extra week of work in Unalakleet. I was asking myself, "What was I thnking? I don't want to go. I"m exhausted!" I kept reminding myself it is $1,200 for my trip this summer. When we go for inservices or workshops we usually sleep in teacher's classrooms. For two nights we had to sleep in the gym because Unalakleet was still having school. I didn't sleep both nights because everything noise echos! So the third night I got to sleep in an Elementary classroom and was that nice or what.

This wokshop focused on making scoring guides for a lot of the standards in each of the 10 content areas. I worked on the Cultural Awareness standards and had an awesome group of paraprofesstionals and teachers to work with. We worked well together and it was fun. It was very challenging also because as the levels got higher my knowledge of the standards decreased. I teach level one of cultural awareness so at one point it got challenging and a little frustrating because it took 1 1/2 hours to understand what the standard was asking students to know and do. We made a total of 24 scoring guides for standards in levels 1-7. I don't want to look at another scoring guide until September!

It was also nice to see Becky and Barb (former teachers in Koyuk). I enjoyed meeting new people, eating at a pizza restaurant, eating cheesecake. I'm so glad I did not gain a pound each day I was there like the last time I had inservice in April. I watched carefully what I ate and maintained my weight. I also had fun exercising with Becky using DVD's. We also went for a walk on the beach and found green, purple, white, brown beach glass. Becky is an expert at finding it. I on the other hand cannot spot it as quick as her.

Koyuk Prom

Well let me catch you up on some events that happened in May. These are pictures of prom. The first photo is of the Harris Family that have been and will always be very special to me. Jason, Myra, Ethan, Romay. This was the most decorated prom that I've seen in Koyuk. It actually looked like a real prom with lots of neat decorations. I guess the big star that people walked through took 2 days for the students to get up. Let me describe a typical Koyuk dance. The elementary kids enjoy dancing with each other. They get about two hours to dance and then they go home. The student store was opened most of the night and that is where I helped making Nachos, selling drinks, and candy. I had two fun girls help me that night also. It was HS/JR high time and no one danced except for the king, queen, prince and princess. They are too embaressed to dance. So I left at 9 or so and then I went to visit Jason and Myra for awhile. The high school dance ended early because the high schoolers wanted to. I've never heard that before! It's kind of funny if you ask me. I did enjoy myself even though I really don't like proms, dances, etc.