Christmas Season

What a busy Christmas season it was. Let me recap for you what took place. It all started with going out with Jason and Myra and getting a Christmas Tree. That is tradition. With two kids, Myra and Jason, Berry, and Kemper with a Honda and Trailer. Jason and Myra found their tree and I found mine too. It was taller than all other trees I had gotten in the past. It looked beautiful. It's not the same decorating a tree without your family but it was still fun.

In the classroom, we practiced our Christmas Songs that they were going to perform. They chose 1 and I chose the Snowflake one where they made their own snowflakes and did the actions to the song. The children chose to sing "I'm a little pumpkin." We also counted in Inupiaq from 1-10. I was so proud of them. I think I got a glimpse of how proud parents must feel when their children do something. In the classroom we did a gift exchange, had some popcorn, made cutout Christmas ornaments for their parents, read a Christmas Story, traced and decorated trees and stockings.

At home it was busy getting packed, sending out Christmas cards and emailing the wrong Christmas letter. It was a hectic week, but a great one!

Arriving in Chicago to Madison was snowy and icy weather and roads. It was fun to get a ride from another teacher in the District, who lives in the neighboring village-Elim. My parents and I went out to eat a lot of times. We traveled upnorth to see the Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins. We visited Long Slide and 12 Foot Falls (waterfalls). It was beautiful to see the ice on the waterfalls and felt so good to hike amongst the tall pines covered with snow. It was also a great time at my cousin's Sara's baby shower. I saw my three younger cousins that I only get to see once a year. They are a blessing and so much fun to play with!

I got together with two of my high school friends and had a great mexican lunch! It was fun to chat about what we are all doing.

I got to do some shopping and remembered that I don't like it. It's too loud, busy, and too many people. I got to see a movie with my sister and mom and boy was it a tear jerker. I liked it a lot and reccomend you go see PS. I Love You.

My dad and I wanted to do some snowshoeing but did not think of it until the night before and realized we didn't have enough time.

While in WI I thought about Berry everyday and wondered how she did with Jason and Myra. Here are some of the things she enjoyed doing:
1. took meat off the counter and ate it
2. Took butter of a plate, broke the plate, ate the butter, and was puking the next day
3. Got into some fish oil and persuaded Kemper join in the fun.
4. Cuddled with Ethan and Romay.
5. Went for Runs
6. Played with Kemper

When I got back, I had an awesome dinner: BBQ caribou, mashed potatoes and spinach salad. We visited, had coffee, and played scrabble. I almost won. I've been enjoying watching movies and doing a whole lot of nothing before school starts again tomorrow.

I'm learning how to be content with each day and to be content with the now and not think about the next day, week, or month. I think God is showing me to slow down in enjoy what He is teaching me, training me for what He has in store for me in the future.

I hope you all had a nice Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It was a wondeful Thanksgiving here in Koyuk, although I do wish I could have been with my family in WI. It's a tradition here for me to go to Jason and Myra's for Thanksgiving. They are like my 2nd family here. They also have two kids (Myra's younger sister and brother) who are so fun to be around. I cooked the turkey this year and it turned out pretty good along with the pumpkin cream cheese pie and sweet potatoes. Myra's Gram has also been joining us the past three years and she is the sweetest Gram you'll ever know. She calls me her adopted grandaughter. She is my Alaskan Grandma and I love her a lot! Myra's brother David and our neighbor Joe also came. I made everyone wait for 45 mintues because the turkey was not done. It was well worth the wait because all the food was delicious! It's a treat to have a fresh spinach salad with other veggies.

We relaxed, talked, took crazy photos, and some serious ones. Berry was well behaved until she peed on the floor and DID NOT MISS MYRA'S FOOT. Good thing it wasn't Gram's foot!

We played charades and that was hilarious!

I am so thankful for so many things; here are some.

*Berry
*Jason, Myra, the kids and Gram
*Good health
*God's faithfulness and blessings
*Snow to snowshoe and ski

Halloween

Halloween is a celebration here. We have costume contests, classroom parties, and trick or treating. This year I was able to get a pumpkin to carve with my class. It took longer than I though! It was way too long for the 5 year olds. Their attention span was short. They designed the pumpkin while we reviewed shape and voted on different designs. I didn't know what I was going to be until the morning of. Jason and Myra got me a grandma wig in Anchorage so I was thinking...An exercising grandma..Yes..that is what I will be. I mismatched my clothes, put long underwear under shorts, stuffed my back with a pillow to have a hunch back, and stuffed by belly with a pillow also. I have to say along with the hidieous makeup and acting like fool while parading with my class for the costume contest, it was a lot of fun. My kids are still talking about it. I guess I acted so well and looked like a darn good grandma, I won first place and got red, big Coleman cooler with a smaller cooler and thermos inside. What a blessing! Enjoy the pics!

A Great Cultural Experience

A man was hunting for seal and he got one. I'm not sure how they hunt them. It is legal for Natives to hunt sea mammals but illegal for anyone else. He offered to have it be brought to the school so two women could butcher it and tell us how at the same time. Ruby began butchering the seal by cutting of the flippers (back and front) with an ulu. Then she turned it on it's belly and cut down the middle making sure not to cut the meat. First, she had to seperate the blubber and hide from the meat. After she did that she made sure to tell us it is best not get any meat on the blubber so it is good to make for seal oil. They cut the blubber off in pieces and sometimes use a board to put the hide on so the blubber is easier to cut off. Once the blubber is off the hide, they cut it only half way and then turn it around and cut it half again. They put all the blubber in a 5 gallon bucket and leave it; this makes the seal oil. They use the seal oil to eat with dry fish, sura (willow greens eaten in early Summer), agutuk (eskimo ice-cream-berries mixed together with seal oil).

Then she cut the seal from neck to bottom. The stomach came out and then she split the stomach and all the intestines came out. Here is what one of my students said, "Are those snakes? I didn't know whales eat snakes? " I reminded him it was a seal. Then he asked, "Do seals have teeth? Is the seal dead?" It was so incredible to be part of this boy's understanding of what was happening. The Ruby and Jean (our secretary) quartered it. It kind of stunk but not too bad. The kids made a big deal about it.

Long ago, the Inupiat women used the intestines to eat and also to make a rain coat. They first blew in them, dried them, dyed them and then dried them again. Then they split them down the middle and had a piece to sew together to make a raincoat. I was amazed at how much my kids remembered and how well they listened. They told me the whole process themselves when we came back it. We then wrote stories about our experience. I also learned that they blew up the seal hide and dried it to make a waterproof bag to store berries or other food. I'm not sure if they scraped the blubber or not out. I'm guessing they would becasue I did read from studying the culturals that they used the seal oil in lanterns. This was so amazing and am glad I got pictures to remember it by.

Does it thunder in Koyuk and is it winter already?

I never thought it thundered in Koyuk because I never heard it in all the three years I have been here. At the end of August it thundered and it hailed all the while it was sunny and warm. I could not resist myself so I went outside to feel the cool rain and hail. It was the strangest thing I ever saw in Koyuk. It felt so refreshing to get drenched. Of course there was a rainbow. August is usually the rainy month but it hardly rained. OUr rainy months this year were September and July.

Last weekend was the start of winter. It's too soon for me, but I am getting more excited to snowshoe and ski. I woke up to a cold apartment and looked at the thermometer and it said 33 degrees and it was blowing. Church was cold that day because there wasn't any oil. This last week it has been getting down to 30's at night and the about 50's during the day. On Tuesday we had a nice surprise. I looked out side about 5:45 am and it was snowing! These were not just oridinary flakes. They were the size of ritz crackers! It melted quick because it rained afterwards.

First Weeks of School

What a busy, fun, and challenging first couple of weeks. I have a great group of kids. Half of my class is special ed and it's so neat to see them meet their goals. We have been learning about school: how to listen, where things are in the classroom, sorting, shapes, colors. This week we started a unit on how unique each of us for many reasons: our facial features, finger prints, likes/dislikes, etc. The next week we are going to learning feelings, how to deal with feelings. I'll be teaching I messages and listening skills. We'll do role playing.

The challenges have been is not to react emotionally to things at school. I'm thankful for God showing me when I am and I'm so thankful for his forgiveness and grace He has shown me. I've already had a miscommunication with a parent. I'm thankful that God helped me not to react negatively when some of things they said were not true. Another challenge has been is splitting my time between Solutions Team (a program that works closely with teachers, students, and families to set goals so the student acheives when the teacher has already tried interventions), my classroom, my personal life, and most important my spiritual life.


A huge success was the parent night I had called Snacks and Stories. I have 11 students and 9 families and students showed up to fill out paper work, eat snacks, take photos, and suggest ideas on how to help their child become a better reader. It was great to hear their excellent ideas. Then I did a demonstration on how to help your child read and fill out the read and respond. Our reading curriculum requires students to read 20 minutes every night K-12 because research shows that is effective for children becoming good readers.

We have a potluck hosted by Solutions Team coming up after Labor Day. We have updated the Read and Responds to meet reading standards that are hard to cover in the SFA curriculum. I will describe the Solutions Team, introduce the team members. Then the parents will scatter to the child's SFA teacher to explain the new read and responds. Then we will have a potluck and visit with the community.

I've been having to work on Saturdays to get Solutions Team things done and plan for my classroom. I hope this ends soon.

On Monday we are having a staff picnic on top of Devil's Hill. It's a Labor Day tradition.

Take Care Everyone!

Fish or Seals?

I was asked to go fishing as deal that Myra suggested. They owed me some money so they asked if they could use the money to buy gas to go up Koyuk River. I've been wanting to go fishing for a long time so I jumped and squealed with joy when they asked. It was a beautiful morning with lots of sun and warm. We got in the 16 ft. lund boat: Myra, Jason, Romay, Ethan, Gram (Myra's gram/mom), and me. IT was a little crowded but so much fun. It took us 50 minutes to get there. What a gorgeous ride with lots of "loon ducks" and flocks of canada geese. This got Jason and I excited for duck season to start. We got to East Fork where Jason and Myra set the net. It was funny to watch Gram tell Jason how to set the net. She didn't want to tell Jason to do it one way so she kept saying, "You can do it that way." We climbed back in the boat and head to the middle of the river to start rod and reeling. Jason caught a nice pike within 10 minutes. We were fishing for Silver Salmon so Myra said throw it back. Gram said, "I like to eat Pike." So we kept the fish. Ethan had a silver follow his Pixie but didn't bite it. I had no bites.

We travelled up river and took a rest on a beach. I fell asleep with all the fresh air I've gotten so far. I do remember Jason and Myra discussing who would be a good husband for me. I pretended I was still sleeping. We went back to check the net and what do we see? We see a seal upriver! Since Natives are the only ones to hunt Marine Mammals Myra and Gram had a discussion on wheather or not to shoot it with the pistol. Poor cute seal! The reason for the discussion was because butchering a seal is an all day event. That would be a lot of work for Gram who was staying for only a few more days. So I was covering my ears and watching and waiting for the seal the come up again. We took turns spotting it with excitement. At one time it looked at Myra and she would have a great shot but still didn't know if Gram wanted it. So she didn't shoot it. After we decided to not follow the seal anymore because we didn't know how much gas we had, Jason said, "Didn't you put the bullets in?" Myra, "I thought you did?" So there was no ammo in the pistol. So we got to the net and no fish, except for the dead rotted Humpe if that counts. We were so bummed. I asked Jason and Myra for my money back. I jokes! I had a great time getting out and enjoying God's creation.

Gram wanted to go Berry picking so she led us to a place where she thought there were a lot. Well, there were tons and almost grape size. I got another quart and that makes three gallons of blueberries so far. I'm going tonight with Joon to the spot I found on accident while trying to untangle Berry from the willows. Sorry...I got off topic. So as we were picking berries, it started to sprinkle and then the rain came. I wasn't cold at first but after the first 1 1/2 hour I was and wanted to be home in a nice hot shower. As we were boating home slowly because we didn't know if we had enough gas, I start hear singing: Gram and Myra, and then Jason were singing. I wish I had the desire to sing while I was soaked through my raingear. On the way back we saw another seal!

We got back in 2 hours and the trailer was broken when Jason went to get it. So we had to anchor the boat and load the gear in the Honda. I have never been as wet as I was when I came back. It looked as if I had peed my pants. After taking a hot shower and warming up, Myra calls and says she's making pizza at 10 pm. So it was a nice snack after my dinner of leftover chicken salad sandwhich. I ate a lot because it was so good! Myra makes the best pizza in the world. I'm not just saying this either so she fogives me for making fun of her for "accidently" putting a hot pad in the oven along with the pizza. The whole apartment hallway was up in smoke. She won't live this one down. Hey, I figure it's about time I have something to make fun of her about since I'm always the one being made fun of. I jokes! Hopefully, I'll get to go out soon and get at least 1 or 2 fish.

It's moose season now and yummy....I put some moose in the crockpot that I got from someone.