Skiing during Thanksgiving

Well, I made my first ski trip yesterday with Mandy. It was so flippin cold I was debating whether or not I should even go. I'm glad I went. I was sweating the whole time but it felt good to get harder exercise rather than a walk. I'm getting a little bored with just walks. I was surprised my arms were so tired from using the ski poles. I'm ready for a big hill!

I of course could not catch Berry to take a photo with me, so these will just have to do. As you can see I live in a beautiful village. I'm so blessed. It was so cold out that my camera battery died. I was too bad because at the end of our ski, there was the most beautiful sunsets. Bright, bright, orange with the mountains silloueted! It was breathtaking!

Today is a snowshoeing day! I'm hoping to plan it right so I can get a photo of the sunset.

Enjoy

Random Photos

First Photo:
This is Leona. She's a sixth grader who has an amazing sense of humor. We go for walks and she comes and visits often. She asks "How come?" for obvious things. Example, "How come you have a table?"

Second Photo:
My Seal Skin, beaver slippers. They were made by a woman in Shishmiraff. They are so comfy!

Third Photo:
One of Berry's friend. Spanky. A German shepherd. He so sweet!

Fourth Photo:
Berry and Me. She is a lap dog. When I'm on the floor. She gets up on my lap and sits there. I love her!

Fifth Photo:
Juno is another friend of Berry's. She belong to Sarah the preschool teacher. We go on walks mostly every night. Little Juno copies Berry by jumping like a rabbit. I get to watch Juno when I come back from Galena. She is seems more hyper than what Berry was when she was a puppy. It will be interesting.

Sixth Photo:
Berry in the Fall time.

Seventh Photo:
Leona and her sister brought their new puppy over and it was so cute to see Berry so curious. Berry would bark softly and then back away. She would also try to play with it but knew when to be careful. The little puppy was cute because it batted Berry on the nose.

Eighth Photo:
This is Berry in the Valley outside of Anchorage: Palmer, Wasilla area. She was staying there while I was on my trip with Jessica. Crystal took her and her daughter up to this mountain. Crystal said Berry just loved her daughter. Berry does love kids a lot. Funny...so do I.

Ninth Photo:
Alison with the green blanket and Anna is behind her. I promised these girls they could sleepover. They randomly asked one Friday night and figured I better follow through with my promise. They are such sweet, kind, fun girls. I had them both in Kindergarten and they are now in 3rd and 4th grade. As you can see Berry is showin some lovin. She loves to cuddle.

Also check out the Halloween post and Thanksgiving post for photos.

Check back later for photos on my first ski this winter.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, Thanksgiving was finally here. I have so much to be thankful for. Let me list some things:

The four day break away from school.

Extra Time with Berry

Good food

My Relationship with God

The snow to go skiing

For God working in my life

For plans to work out at Christmas to go see Myra and Jason

Friends and Family

The women in the Bible Study

It was a nice, quiet, small Thanksgiving. I loved it. Every year the community does a Thanksgiving feast. I usually don't go because I feel like staying home and being by myself. I love to cook so it was nice to spend time by myself cooking the turkey, baking the pies and sweet potatoes. I went for a walk with Berry down to the beach. It's pretty funny seeing her slip and slide on the ice when she gets excited and runs really fast. The wind made it really cold..12 below.

Matt and Mandy, Sarah came over to my place for Thanksgiving dinner. We had fresh salad ( a real treat since we don't get romaine lettuce), fresh green beans, biscuits, mashed potatoes, perogies (cheese and potato stuffed inside a pasta), pumpkin pie, stuffing. We had enough food to feed 8! So thankful for leftovers too. That means I can take a break from cooking! I do plan to make some soup with the carcus though.

We played Catch Phrase, watched Berry and the puppy-Juno play. Man that little pup is wild! Constantly on the go. Was Berry really like that when she was a pup? I guess I forgot! I get to watch this little rascal when I come back from Christmas. That should be interesting and tiriing.

It was a little disappointing not spending Thanksgiving with Jason, Myra, Gram, and the kids, but I keep telling myself three more weeks!

I plan to do some skiing over this break, get Christmas presents bought, get Christmas gifts gathered and wrapped, write my Christmas letter, watch movies, take time for myself!

I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

A quick note

Hello All,

Can you believe I'm sick again! Ugh! It was my own fault for staying up late Friday and Saturday. I had a sleepover with three amazing, kind, fun girls. Berry enjoyed cuddling with them. I have the cutest pictures. I'll have to post. It's kind of a pain to post because I can't post pictures when I am home because there is a bad internet connection so I have to do it at school. Then, I really don't feel like staying later when I am through with work.

What a nice day to veg. A movie, talking with family and Betty. Some friends took Berry out for me. Nice. Nothing new except I'm getting excited for Christmas but more Thanksgiving because it means a break from school. I'm feeling a little weary with school. The saturday work days are getting old. It seems like 1 day to myself is not enough.

Later.

Home sick

Well, after weeks of the flu going around, I finally got it. I'm so thankful that I didn't get the puking kind, just the other one if you know what I mean. I went to work on Thursday and that was a huge mistake! I felt awful all day and felt like passing out when I got home at 3:35. I laid down and watched a movie and got up the next morning to do sub plans for Friday. It's such a pain to do sub plans but well worth it in the end. I had a relaxing day. Rested a couple hours. It's hard for me to sleep during the day. Read, got some laundry done, dishes put away, watched two movies.

Amazing Grace and Pride. They both excellent movies if you have not seen them!

I'll go to work all day tomorrow to plan for next week.

Gosh...God is good. I prayed for plans to work out for Christmas and they did. I had to get permission from my superintendent to leave early on Friday and he let me. I never thought that would happen because I heard he wasn't letting anyone go early. I found someone to watch Berry and Jason and Myra found me a place to stay while I'm there since their apartment is so small. Even though it would be nice for at least one sleepover. My other flights cost me what I wanted to spend. So it's final...I'm going to Galena to visit the Harris family and Gram! To be honest, it's super hard for me to not go home at Christmas. I'm really missing the family. Kind of funny how time makes you change from not being homesick and then you are. Christmas is my favorite time to be with my family, but I know summer will be memorable too.

Thanksgiving won't be the same without the Harris' here. We always had thanksgiving together. We'll have to see about this year. No plans yet. But I hope I get another free turkey for voting!

Good night!

Sad...but a new puppy for me?!

Well, parents no longer have Sam or Smokey. Sam, the chocolate lab passed away late summer early fall and Smokey was put down after a great choice made by sister. He was collapsing everywhere from his hip displasia and in so much pain. I got some tears thinking I didn't even get to say goodbye. Bummer. So I thought I would get a new puppy to have Berry play with to cheer me up. Juno, Sarah's dog is one of the cutest puppies I've seen for a long time, except for Berry. So I decided to get a chocolate lab who is 8 months and her name is Belle.

I jokes! My parents were so funny. They kept telling me they weren't ready because it has been only 5 days since Smokey was put down and then they called me told me about Belle. I prayed they would find just the right dog. This dog was free, was not taken care of very well since she had mites and mange, and loosing hair. She didn't answer to her old time, jumped up on tables and counters. I was interested how this dog was going to work with my dad and mom. My dad has had a wake up call in how much time and patience a puppy takes. Man, does this make me want to get another puppy and go home for Christmas!

I just called and got an update on Belle. Wow! What a complete change. She doesn't sleep in the kennel at night anymore, house trained, sits, and loves to cuddle with my dad. She is very sweet according to my dad. Belle has gotten my mom and dad out more walking. I can tell they are loving having a puppy again! I'm excited to introduce her to Berry this summer.

Hmmm...maybe I will get another puppy!

Berry is doing well. She loves her runs and I love getting out too. I'm not sure what I will with her at Christmas. I'll still figuring out tickets for myself. I thought it would be a little easier flying in state than out of state. I was wrong! They are cancelling a lot of flights so it makes it hard to get out of the village when you need to. I hope my superintendent will let me go early because I have two free tickets to use. If I don't use them, I'm out the special deal I paid for them.

Well, off to eat a breakfast dinner!

Halloween

Well, I'm thankful that Halloween is over. It's a big celebration here. On Friday we had a costume contest a little after lunch. The kids came back dressed up in their costumes; most of them were the same as others...poor. I guess that is what you get from living in a small village.

I probably should back up. My class read three Halloween Stories: Froggy's Halloween, The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything, and There Was An Old Women Who Swallowed a Bat. We also carved a pumpkin and that was a lot harder to do than I remember my dad doing. The pumpkin broke a tooth in the process. The kids had a ball exploring and using their senses to feel the pulp and sort it from the seeds. It was a small pumpkin and I couldn't believe we didn't get more seeds out of it. I asked the kids to make a prediction on how many seeds they thought were in there. Some had good guesses...100, 30, 40, 50, 60, 2, 3. Can you tell we have been counting by 10's? Well we put the seeds on these counting mats to make it easier to see 5's and 10's. We had a lot left over when we got to 100 so one suggested we put two in each box of the ten frame. Then we still had left overs and then they decided to put three in each box. Great ideas. We had 367 seeds and it filled a tiny tupaware container. I had a bad guess as well.

We went into the bathroom, which is the darkest place when you close the door and lit the pumpkin. They were amazed that the pumpkin face shadow could be seen on the wall. IT was so neat to be excited about things, I would have been when I was that age.

We also traced pumpkins and cut them out. Then they decorated them however they wanted. Pretty creative faces! We made pattern chains with orange and black paper, and cut out picture patterns of cats, witches, and ghosts. They got a kick out of the puppet spider dangling from the classroom door as they came in in the morning.

I finally thought of an idea while talking with Myra. The idea of a dog toy popped into my head. So I tied Berry's and Juno's dog toys all over myself and made a sign that said dog toy. A lot of kids asked if I was going to be that grandma again. I guess that was a huge hit. Maybe I can think of something to do with that next year.

The costume contest was fun. It's a nice way to get the community in the school. We have judges and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prizes for each age category including the Pre-School and babies. Wow, one baby was eyore. So adorable.

After the contest, we got to break a pinata. They took some great swings but the leader of this activity just dumped it out for the kids. I was a little disappointed about that. It wasn't as fun! Then we had a classroom party. The kids and I made boo cups earlier that day. Chocolate pudding with oreos, whip cream as the ghost and choc chips as the ghost eyes. They didn't eat them all so note to self don't fill them too full. We got cupcakes and cookies from other kids and their families, along with the candy from the pinata. I didn't do well with eating that day. Come to think of it....over eating is an issue with me now these days. Yikes! That's a random though, huh?

I ran out of candy as trick or treaters came. I bought six bags and still did. Next, time one candy for each kid or give out cheap pens or pencils. I was so exhausted with my monthly fatiqueness that I didn't even want to hand it out, but did and got my dishes done that night also, along with cleaning up dog puke again.

So there is Halloween in a nutshell.