SNOW---BOOO

So today I got quite the surprise….SNOW…now I knew that I was not going to be excited when this day came. This morning during math my students were yelling Miss Weaver Miss Weaver its snowing.. I thought they were playing a joke on me –Snow in September? This had to be a joke. But the kids were telling the truth and it has in fact been snowing all day. I can even see foot prints! There is one un-happy camper here today and that my friends is me! I am sure I will adjust just as I have to everything else such as fifteen dollar pizzas, honey buckets, no restaurants and much more.

BRRR ITS COLD IN HERE...

So I still need to update from my weekend as an artist. Steph and I stayed in Bethel until Saturday “arting” it up. I do believe we are going to be fine artists one day.

Friday night though we once again ate dinner at a…RESTAURANT….OH HOW DELIGHTFUL. Once again I was faced with two many decisions of what I would eat for dinner, there was Mexican, Steaks Chinese, American, etc—I decided on the Mexican platter and oh I did not regret that thing even one little bit. It was quite the mouth-watering experience. I am starting to become accustomed to how things are here in Quinhagak though which no restaurants just good quality home cooking by Allison and I. But who doesn’t get a little excited when they have had a rich chocolate-y milkshake in Bethel?

So back to my art experience. I will now shower you with the many pictures of my Picasso like work. I do need some improvements, but it was fun to just laugh with friends and learn new techniques I can share with the students at my school. I got some great ideas I am going to try and incorporate into my morning duty in the gym. Overall it was a good experience and one I can use in my teaching at some point of the year.

So Saturday night we flew back to Quin and I got to sit in the front of the plane (like the co-pilot). This was my first time so man oh man was it scary. Not to mention the thought of vomiting crossed my mind several times. So made it back to Quin with what I thought was a very bumpy bumpy ride and oh how it felt nice to be back.

So it starting to get cold here, and I do not like it one bit. I have never been the cold weather type, which is quite ironic now that I live in Alaska, but hopefully I get used to get. When I first got here I wore many more layers then neccessary, but I am slowly adjusting and now only need to wear the approriapte amount. I do know that when that first snow hits, I will be crying like a baby.

Saturday night was quite the night--I swear I heard noise in our house and was beyond freaked--I turned on ALLLL THE LIGHTS and sat in front of the door where I heard the noise ready to pounce like a tiger on whatever was behind the door. To my surprise it was nothing and after two hours of sitting in front of the door--I went to sleep. You see our houses are old and they make many many noises which in fact ALWAYS freaks me out. Allison is back from Fairbanks and everything is normal. We are become quite domesticated now in our house switching roles in the dinner department and we even clean our house very well once a week. I am quite impressed with how easy it is to live on your own...haha

Shoutout to my past co-workers at Nolley- they sent me a card that really helped put a smile on my face during a difficult week!

Thats all for now---its a busy busy week--but don't fret--I have some great insights brewing for this next blog.

GO S-E-A-H-A-W-K-S

Who rocks the house, I say the seahawks rock the house and when the seahawks rock the house they rock it all the way down!

Woo—its Friday and I write to you from the big city aka Bethel Alaska. I get to hang out for the next few days and learn about art. Ladies and gentleman I think we are going to have a young Picasso on our hands when they are finished with me. Last night Steph and myself packed our bags and were on the road. Not going to lie I was super super pumped to eat at a restaurant. We arrived at our bed and breakfast, which is a cozy little joint we are staying with matching twin beds and were off to spend some quality time over dinner. My eyes were def bigger then my stomach! I had Dr. Pepper, a bacon cheeseburger, steak fries, and a milkshake. TALK ABOUT LOVE, THIS FOOD WAS UN-BE-LIEVEABLE! We spent that rest of the night window shopping online and hanging out.

ONE BRAVE GIRL: That’s right my faithful readers Wednesday night Allison left for Fairbanks and I was able to sleep all alone at my house! I didn’t even keep the lights on! Not going to lie I was trembling just a little as I lay in my bed, but I just kept telling myself it would be okay. Whew I am already making so much progress and it hasn’t even been two months!! Wednesday night we had a great family dinner at Steph and Jim’s. Shout- out to them for helping me with some important matters and cooking a great romantic dinner (ha ha ha).

GO SEAHAWKS: Whew I survived my first pep rally. Now standing up in front of all the kids is not what scares me. What made me nervous was all my other co-workers watching me jump around the gym screaming like a child who has eaten too much candy. The pep rally started with the cross country team running into the gym while We Will Rock You was playing. We then introduced the team and then showed a slide show I had prepared. Once we were finished we taught the students two new cheers. Now at first I know they were looking at me like I was crazy, but I think they really enjoyed the rally. I even had different classes make posters to hang in the gym! Once we were finished I played a game with some volunteers from the audience. After thirty minutes, lots of screaming, and a little sweating my first rally was complete! I am proud of myself though because I did it. Now looking back I have been able to reflect and think of things to make the next one even better!

Thought from the day is involvement. People who know me know that back home in college I was involved in everything. I love that this experience is providing me with opportunities to plan things and become involved. I am getting to know the children so much through my different responsibilities and it is definitely making this experience worth while. Sure I could sit in Alaska like a wet blanket and do nothing, but I need to explore the opportunities this wonderful place has to offer.

Don’t worry I’ll be posting again about my weekend as Picasso!

Only Wednesday?

"The Joy of the journey is in the ride"

Whew—its already Wednesday and I feel as though this has been the longest week ever so far. I suppose there will be weeks here like that where I just dream of them being over. Just been busy plugging away at the teaching and trying to stay top of all the mess on my desk. I swear no matter how much teachers seem to be organized it just doesn’t work out. Every Friday I clean off my desk and re-discover things I have been looking for all the week. And by Monday its like there’s been an explosion. This is something I have been slowly trying to get better at and hopefully it will by the end of the school year.

Monday there was fish at our school—I was determined to at least try it since hey I am in Alaska and I have NEVER had fish before. But I just couldn’t do it. I got to afraid and backed down. I don’t know something about it but just creeped me out and I could not do it. My goal is to try fish by Christmas…let’s see how this goes.

After school program started this week, which means that after school the teachers stay and help with reading, math, and writing. I have older students so this should be fun and interesting to get to know some of the older students at my school.

Things have been going well—starting to look into flights for Christmas (which just seems more depressing everytime I look). Been enjoying the NO RAIN weather. When I first got here it rained everyday and for someone who hates having their hair messed up it was not working out for me. But last week was beautiful and so far this week is rain free as well.

Allison left for Fairbanks today and now it’s my job to be a “real adult” for the next five days without her. Last time I was alone I slept with all the lights on in the entire house. New goal: NO LIGHTS! I am excited I get to cook for myself too—Not going to lie I’ll probably be eating corn dogs and pizza rolls the next five days but yum yum yum. Oh speaking of lights--how could I forget? WE HAVE LIGHTS NOW---ITS SOOO BEAUTIFUL IN OUR HOUSE AND WE CAN SEE EACH OTHER NOW! YAHOOOO!

Tomorrow is my first ever pep rally. I volunteered and now I will conquer! We are having a pep rally for the track team. Stay tuned for pictures and stories—there are bound to be some kind of stories. Then after the pep rally its back to Bethel until Saturday for art training—here’s to hoping I don’t ride next to one caribou, but next to an entire herd!

Final thought is laughter-- I find that here if I am not laughing at the silly things that happen I would not make it. Little dance parties, dumping the honeybucket, watching shows with the family--these are all things I have to have here just to laugh and appreciate life!

That’s all—just a quick update---and also for those of you commenting on my posts—I LOVE IT….MAKES ME SOO HAPPY..Keep up the good work gang!

One dog of a weekend

The core of mans' spirit comes from new experiences—Into the Wild

Whew I survived week number five, its so exciting being a teacher—rewarding and exciting.This week has been tough because I lost my voice and struggled with talking a bit. Those who know me know I LOVE to talk but guess what I did not let this stop me. Part of being a teacher is learning to overcome little obstacles. A very wise man once told me, teachers are problem solvers. We find problems and students that need help and we solve them! So not having a voice for a few days was overcome by my excitement and perseverance to still have a great week.

So this weekend has been so exciting!! And I am writing with excitement as I sit here after a fun filled day. Allison and myself were kind of “in charge” while everyone else was either in Bethel or camping and you know what? I think we did a pretty darn good job of being responsible!! We dog sat three dogs and had quite the adventure which will come later…..

DINNER PARTY FOR…THIRTEEN? So Friday night we decided to have my class over for a spaghetti dinner. I was having a little bit of difficulty with the students turning in their homework. After five days of everyone turning in their homework we decided to throw them a dinner party! Before the children arrived I baked a cake. Anyone who knows me knows my cooking skills are not quite to where they need to be right now—and I accidentally put in too much water—OPPS but no worries after an hour and fifteen minutes of baking the cake was quite a success! Baked perfectly and beautifully—I could probably be the next CAKE BOSS!! The cake was so delicious and one of a kind! We then got our jumbo size pot out and began to cook. I buttered the bread while Allison broke up our jumbo sized spaghetti (we are quite the team I might add) The kids started to arrive at 5:45 and played games, played with playdough, and entertained themselves which the chefs were busy at work! We served dinner and hung out and it was a swell time. If at least one of my students left happy, then I know I did my job! The kids left with their bellies full, smiles on their faces, and with brand new stickers and silly bands.

So then the real fun began: DOG SITTING. Now our goal this weekend was to be responsible and prove we can take good care of dogs. Our goal is to be able to babysit the neighbor dogs (Bela and Marley). So this weekend we had two goals 1.) Not to lose a dog 2.) Survive having three dogs at our house. After countless hours of chasing them around our house while they had various items in their mouths, and almost wiping out several times while walking…WE DID IT!

FRIDAY NIGHT WAS A TREAT! It was just Me Allison and then three dogs (Tucker Riley and Ani). Now Tucker is quite the playful dog who likes to eat…ANYTHING…We found this out when he took Al’s shoes and started to nibble on them. She tried to put them away, but the clever fellow always found a way to find the other shoe. We spent some time chasing him while he ate tissue, post its, pens, rubber bands, a plastic cup, headphones and several other random household items. No matter what we put away he was always a step ahead of the game. Around ten o clock the dogs decided they wanted to chase each other all around our house. CRAZY YET FUNNY TIMES. If we didn’t have our Quinhagak friends to hang out with us, I am glad we had their dogs! Watching the dogs gave me the ability to just laugh because of the things that just kept happening and happening. Reminding me of being a child and how my parents probably felt when I would be mischievous and just kept going and going. After countless chasings and begging the dogs to sit down we decided it was bed time. OH WHAT A DELIGHT…we wanted the dogs to just get into bed and fall asleep, but they had other plans. Allison finally just shut them in my room and I had the pleasure of entertaining our new house guests....all I have to say about it is WHAT A NIGHT…Makes me appreciate the cats I had at home…all I know for sure is that I am fine with NOT having a dog anytime soon.. =) I am thankful for the dogs though because they kept us entertained and laughing our entire Friday night.

IT WAS A SAD NIGHT IN QUINHAGAK….The slushie machine was not working and man oh man it broke my heart. We had been looking forward to a nice cold slushie all week. Who would have thought a slush puppy would be what I was looking forward to on the weekends (Only in Alaska!)

Saturday was yet another room mate adventure. We decided to take the three dogs down to the beach. Now we knew this was going to be tough, but we wanted to prove to ourselves we could do it. So we set off dogs in hand and walked down to the beach. It was quite relaxing and beautiful. I am proud to announce we made it all dogs came back happy and exercised—which brings me to another adventure. Walking back with three dogs in hand, we see yet another dog (which is another teacher’s dog) just roaming the village, but this one doesn’t have on a collar. So there we are holding three dogs trying to figure out howwe are going to get this one too. Which brings me back to my point about teachers being problem solvers. We handled it and safely with a mix of chaos got all dogs back into their respectable homes. But as we were taking Ani back, we noticed there was some random dog in Ani’s house. It was shaking and looking like it was going to die. We just began laughing and thought someone was playing a joke on us. After that dog adventure it was just timeto relax. I was DOG GONE TIRED!

ALWAYS SUNNY IN QUINHAGAK—Boy oh Boy the sun was shining and we decided we needed to get our tan on. So Allison and I got out the lawn chairs and got our sun on. It felt so nice again to be in the sun (we are pretty used to rain around here- so the fact the sun was shining was HUGE . I am proud to announce if you look VERY VERY closely at our faces we got a little kiss from the sun. I think I even saw a freckle popping out. One thing I am still adjusting to is the PASTEY SNOW like features my skin is starting to have!

After our tanning session we set off to have a bonfire at the beach aka the BERING SEA. We had a legit buffet down there! We had pop, hot dogs, polish dogs, onions, cheese its, pasta salad, cake, and smores. Better than any buffet in Ohio I’ve been too. So the ones of us left in Quin built a fire and just enjoyed the beautiful environment Quinhagak has to offer. I put the 12 years of girl scouting to use and collected some wood for our fire. We ate dinner and HOT DOG HOT DOG HOT DIGGITY DOG IT WAS GOOD. I ate til I felt I was going to burst.

PHOTO SHOOT AT THE BEACH—Connie told us how she used to take the pictures of when you try to jump in the air and how cool it looked. So me thinking about my blog and how much fun it would be gathered the gang together for one heck of a photo shoot. Now close your eyes for a minute and imagine 5 grown adults jumping frantically in the air yelling did ya get it? Did ya get it? (QUITE THE SCENCE) There we were jumping up and down up and down like crazy fools. I don’t think I have laughed so hard. We would jump and then look at Connie to ask if she had captured the moment and every time she just started to laugh. Needless to say after about 50 jumps in the air and a belly ache later we got some GREAT ONE OF A KIND photos! Just doing the little things like that really makes me appreciate the people that are going through this journey with me.

That was pretty much the extent of our weekend, and we were worried we would have nothing to do this weekend! Which brings me to my final thought. Out here we really have to work together and see the positive side to things. Sure we could have just sat in our house bummed out because everyone was gone. But instead we took the time to explore the surroundings and have a good time. We used the resources around us like the beach, the sun, etc to have a good relaxing weekend. Being out here makes me appreciate everything it has to offer. Honestly if you asked me a year ago if I would be living in bush Alaska using a honeybucket, riding next to caribou, paying fifteen dollars for a pizza while being pale as milk I would have laughed at you.

But I am sticking by the mentality that everything happens for a reason and there are bigger plans for me being here this year. I really am beginning to see a bit of a change in my willingness to appreciate things around me and trying to be more positive. I’ll update you on that thought though when its-40 and I have windburn instead of sunburn!

That’s it for now! So happy our family Steph and Jim are back and its Sunday! Thanks for reading my blog =)

Miss you all

paydayyy

So friends, I sit here just happy as ever. I’m at my house with INTERNET with my family Gill and Allison just simply happy listening to some tunes. I am probably the happiest I have been the entire time I have been here and it is just a great feeling. We came home today and saw that we now have the internet…nothing has made me more proud. It’s the little things here that truly brighten your days.

Today was pay day and BOOTA BING BOOTA BOOM! It was great! I rushed to school this morning to find out how much I would be making. Man oh man I was not disappointed. It is great to be getting a normal real paycheck and not having to get called at 6am to get it or bag groceries. Finally the reality is setting in that I have my first big kid job. Now all I will need is someone to hide my bank account so that I can not shop anymore!

I feel as though things are finally starting to fall into place and it’s a great feeling. I started bible study this week and I have really been trying to crack down and get things situated in my classroom. It’s week five and I’m getting into the groove. The only thing that is missing is getting the children to call me Miss Weaver and not Weavers. I have been trying various teaching techniques to really make the children get the most out of my teaching.

I am proud to announce that I have been exercising even more now with little complaints. Actually took a beautiful walk tonight with great friends. The people here are truly making this experience quite a good one thus far. Had a great walk with the dogs and ladies the other day! The sun has really been shining lately…Oh Mr. Sun Sun Mr. Golden Sun Please Shine Down On Mee!!!

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN…I feel as though myself and Allison will have great stories this weekend. We are going to be the only two here on Friday night out of the teachers. Oh we will be so brave. And we are going to be in charge of not one dog but THREE…people must have confidence in us!

My pictures are not uploading for some reason…GRRRRR …Hopefully tomorrow!!

T.G.I.F.

So it’s the weekend in Quin again— but before I forget I failed to mention in my last post that I Alicia Weaver ate MOOSE the other night…it is becoming official, I am becoming quite brave here in Alaska. Now at first I was pretty skeptical about eating moose meat, but it was pretty good…I tried to not think about it and just PLOP, decided to try it. It was quite chewy but pretty darn delicious. Ate quite the home cooked meal made by Rachel, I have high hopes that I too can cook that well someday!

I'll now add a joke in by Allison-- A mushroom walks into a bar--the bartender says hey get outta my bar-- and the mushroom says hey I'm a fun guy. And thats just one of the many reasons I love Al.

Week four has ended and I can’t believe I have been teaching for 18 days already in Quinhagak, its unbelievable actually. My reading program is finally starting to get off to a good start and I am becoming more comfortable. Friday was a great walk to school, there was a beautiful sunrise. I sipped on my hot chocolate on the way preparing for Friday at school. I am proud to announce after 4 weeks of trying, I got my entire class to turn in their homework. I am so proud of them. It shows me that when you put your mind to something and believe in the kids they can do anything!

Friday I discovered a website that Steph told me about. It is called etsy.com . It has homemade jewelry and home made everything you can imagine. IT IS FANTASTIC!! Once again my shopping addiction is taking over—and I’m continuing to get many packages of great online purchases. My style is going to be impeccable when I arrive back in good ole Canton, Ohio.

So this weekend I was back in Bethel for more teacher training. Allison and I said goodbye to Gill and then were on our way to the big city of Bethel! After about what felt like 34i3i943 miles, we arrived at a friend’s house where we stayed the night. It was a hilarious night—Allison introduced me to a youtube video called Kitten Inspired by Kittens (if you have never seen it before be sure to check it out, you will surely laugh)

I am sad to announce that my plane ride did not have a dead caribou on it this time, which saddens me quite a bit. BUT I did in fact smash my head on the door of the plane. Allison being a good friend reminded me to un-do my seat belt this time. BUT she did not tell me to watch my head and CRACK….head my head right on the frame.

My final thought for tonight is how important I feel it is to start opening my eyes more to the experiences and people around me. It will be important to be open and honest to my new experiences and the people around me. It is important to make sure I do not judge a book by its cover, yet give everyone an equal opportunity. I have come to the realization that everyone around me has something unique and worthwhile to offer during this experience, and it will be important to search for that.

That’s all =)

Random babbling about new experiences

So myself and Allison were talking today and we realized there are some quality pieces of information missing from my blogs the last couple of posts, and we felt it was important to include it. So the weather the last few days has been…CRAZY…windy and scary...and for those who know me..I DO NOT like my hair to be blown all over the place, so it has been quite the experience. We find humor has been the best way to deal with it. Honestly there usually are no dull moments around the two of us so there is always something to laugh about. The wind and rain together make for a perfect combination on my walk to school, all you people enjoying your suntans and burns should probably be jealous of these beautiful days in Quinhagak. I know that tanning is definitely one of the things I am missing most right now. Who would have known my skin could become as white as the snow.

Another thing that has been quite the laugh around here is my last name. Who would have thought Weaver could cause such a laugh. So some of my students call me Miss Weavers. I try to tell them what my name is but day after day that is what they keep calling me. I break it up for them, I show them what it looks like written, but still they are saying my name like there is more then one of me. Some of the other teachers have been telling their students to call me that, since they think I enjoy it oh so much. Always puts a smile on my face though. Around here you still have to laugh as much as possible and try to embrace the small things.

One word….CORNDOGS…

Oh yes oh yes, we finally got to indulge and eat baked beans and corn dogs last night. They seriously tasted like gold. They were crispy and crunchy and better then any fast food restaurant I could even imagine. Good thing we have about 12 boxes of them now, or my little heart would be broken.

CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SPAGHETTI---so myself never have ordering bulk food before, got a little CRAZY when we ordered from Span Alaska. Apparently I got the JUMBO box of spaghetti- It was funny because when we were putting the order away and no one was claiming the enormo box of spaghetti, Allison looked at me and said that better not even be ours. Moments later I began to giggle and realized that yes we would be the proud owners of about ten pounds of spaghetti. Not to mention all the bags and bags of spaghetti I have previously bought before this box arrived. What is ironic about this all, is that neither one of us really even enjoy spaghehtti.

So we’ve been here about a month and our lights in our house do not work in the kitchen and living room. There for a while, Allison has been wearing her head lamp as our source of light. She stands in the middle while I do the dishes and moves from time to time when I cannot see. It has become quite the experience. Our lights came on for about a week and then they started to play a joke on us and stop working. It is very funny to come home after school and find random things all over the counter because we cannot see in the morning when we are getting ready. I’ve got good news though….this weekend we GOT two head lamps...I am thinking we look pretty darn good with our head lamps, but hey you can be the judge of that one. We look like coal miners, but MUCH MUCH MORE ATTRACTIVE.

I’ve included some pictures on here for all of you to enjoy:

n Family photo of myself, Al, and Gill

n The head lamp

n Spaghetti anyone?

n Our newly stocked freezer, notice all the pizza rolls

n Our newly stocked pantry and my beautiful cereal layout

n The very first picture we created our first weekend in Quin

Just a little update—Miss you all..I will be traveling to Bethel again this weekend, hopefully not next to any dead caribou.

Shout out to my friend Moss who had a birthday a few days ago! And to everyone else reading my blog –it helps me to know that there are people thinking about me out there. Feel free to leave a little comment on the bottom of my page. With the help of Steph I made it so you all can now!

The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad

Wooo It’s the weekend! Friday was a great great day! I finally after three weeks got my moccasins in the mail. My new Minnetonka moccasins are a beauty! It is going to feel great to give my toes a toasty treat. In the past few weeks I have developed quite the addiction to online shopping. I have already been here a month and bought two pairs of shoes, DVDs, shirts, jewelry, tank top, and various other items that I will soon enjoy.

After school on Friday it was the usual Friday night. Slush puppie time with Allison and Steph was as great as always. Rewarded myself after a difficult week with a strawberry kiwi delight and oh it was fantastic. The rest of the night was just spent hanging out with good friends and watching movies. Ordered NetFlix this week and got our first movie. We got Did you Hear About The Morgans? I am pretty sure it was one of Allison’s Favorite movies. She really seemed to enjoy it.

After Friday who would have guessed my weekend would only get better and better. Saturday was cleaning day as always. Lots of game playing and bonding with my fellow living mate. Took our routine trip to the store and picked up some tasty treats. Then something terrible happened. I was forced to watch a movie that I did not find funny. Now everyone was questioning my sense of humor, but Allison agrees, the movie was not funny. It was Nacho Libre, the only thing the movie did was give me a craving for some sweet sweet Mexican food.

Sunday was a fantastic day!! After another trip to the store, it was time for…FISHING…now let me tell you about my great fishing adventure. I got all geared up and this time my fishing partners would be Jim, Steph, and Allison. Today was the day—I just knew I was going to catch a fish. After we arrived at our spot I was given the first cast. I put my line in the water and SHABAM—I felt a little nibble nibble—I instantly started to scream and jump up and down in the water—ooh how excited I had become. And then it happened, that little fishy broke my heart and got off my line. OOH THE PAIN I FELT AFTER LOOSING THAT LITTLE GUY. So there I was still determined. I cast my line into the water again…and SHABAMM another fish wanted a piece of my line. This time I apparently did not hold my pole high enough and that little booger broke my hook right off and snapped my line. No one cared that my pride was slowly being destroyed by these little fish, instead they only cared about the hook.

So moments later after putting on a new hook, it was time for..ROUND THREE….boy oh boy how I was becoming tired. But just like the little engine that could, I did not give up! I cast my line into the water and SHAABAM…fishy number three. And if you had read the paragraph before, you can guess what happened to that little guy. The little man got away. Took my hook right off again and snapped my line. Moments later we saw a fish just jumping up and down into the water with a little pink hook. Oh how angry I was becoming. Three fish and not one had been all the way reeled in. So there I was knee deep in water getting pretty mad that there was now three fish laughing at me in this river. But you know what? I did not give up! I heard Dory in my head saying “just keep swimming, just keep swimming” After about 25 casts and still nothing, I was slowing becoming over fishing.

After still nothing we set off to a new spot. I got outta the boat more confident then ever. I cast my line deep into the water….AND THEN IT HAPPENED, IT REALLY HAPPENED---I CAUGHT MY FISH BEAUTIFUL, RAVISHING, SUCULENT FISH! Now this fish was a RAINBOW fish and man oh man it was beautiful. I would share a picture with you but someone I won’t mention any names (but it begins with a J, rhymes with him) let my fish go before I could snap a picture. When that fish swam away, it was like a little piece of my heart ran away. All I know, is that I have never been more proud. We left that fishing trip with about ten bites and one catch…the one that got away

Saturday night was pretty fun yet again. Spent more time with the family relaxing, laughing, and watching movies. Monday did about the same thing. Played every card game/board game that we have at our house, took a nap, took not one walk…BUT TWO.. And remember people I am not a walker…my little legs are aching today—but overall it was a pretty enjoyable labor day weekend. Not anything like I thought I would be experiencing on a labor day weekend, but hey, still enjoyable.

AND THEN IT HAPPENED….AT 7 O CLOCK, there was a knock on my door. Our span ordered had arrived, well part of it at least. We now have corn dogs, pizza rolls, chicken Nuggets, hot pockets, and berries. Our house kind of reminds me of a frat house right now, but hey it is D-E-L-I-C-I-O—S.

So my final thought today is change. I feel like the last few years after college have been great, but I am now looking for something else. Being here is a quite a fulfilling experience, but I am in need of some change. And there are moments here when I become super frustrated with all these changes, but I realize they are happening for a reason. I am trying to embrace this experience to the fullest and try to evaluate different aspects of my life. My friends here who I am already establishing quite the bonds with have already shown me they will be here to listen to all my probs and help me every step of the way.

That’s all for now…I would have a picture of my fish---but…SOMEONE …let that little cutie go

Miss you all =) And remember, Mail is always welcome =)

Hershey Pie Makes Me Happy

So it is Wednesday night already, which is a good thing and means only 1.5 more days until the weekend!

This week has gone pretty quickly- had lots of bonding time with various people, which makes for good nights. Lets start with Monday night. Monday night was baking night! WOOO! My baking skills are improving cookie by cookie. I decided to make peanut butter cookies—they were delicious. It was quite the task trying not to burn them this time, but I was pretty successful—I’m going to be so skillful by May that I will be able to enter baking contests. That night I also did something B-R-A-V-E…VERY BRAVE I MIGHT ADD. I know you readers are just dying to know what it was that I did, so let me tell you. I ate chicken in a can. Now the thought of chicken in a can scares me—it smells bad, looks bad, and quite frankly I was just grossed out to try it. I decided to take one for the team and eat it after all- and I might add my roomie cooked one delicious meal.

School was fun that day—my classroom smells like a musty old dirty sock –(from the water and flood that happened in my room over the weekend) I think everyone that walks into my room thinks a. I don’t bathe, or b. I can’t smell and I don’t notice the odor. So kid after kid kept telling me how bad my room smelled like I didn’t notice. I’m trying to make the best of it, hey after a while I think I will actually start to enjoy the smell.

The post office that day had four boxes for me—how delightful. I got the best- looking cup in the world, pictures, and some curtains for my room. It is kinda starting to feel fashionable yet homey in our house. We finally hung up the pictures we made our first weekend in Quin. It was quite the moment.

Tuesday was a peaceful night. We made tacos! Taco night is always the greatest night. I also went to the store and got something delicious…BACON! Oh how I love bacon! That’s pretty much all about Tuesday-- =(

Wednesday was one of the best days I’ve had so far in my classroom (minus the smell). Really makes me appreciate the children, school, and environment. My students seemed really engaged in my lesson and are starting to get the hang of things. Really makes me proud!

Wednesday night will be a night to remember—Myself, Allison, and Steph ate…Hershey Chocolate Pie..Oh how great it was! I’ve been eying that bad boy in the freezer the last couple of trips to the grocery store, so I knew today had to be the day I purchased. And Steph being the great influence told me it was in fact a good decision, so I was sold. 4 hours and a tummy ache later I still believe that was the best darn pie I’ve ever had.

So I am also pleased to announce I have taught my fellow friends something new here. I have taught them how to roast marshmallows on the stove. Now when I first told them this was possible, I do not believe that they took me seriously. But there I was standing over the burner peacefully browning my marshmallow when…WAHH LAA they smelled and saw how deliciously cooked I had make it. Smores are now our little treat we have been eating.

So my final thought for tonight before I hit the hay—lately I have been thinking about how I never really took the time before to just be thankful for what I have. A lot of times I didn’t always show my appreciation like I should have. Things here are so different and rewarding but so different then what I’m used to. It is the little things that I am thankful that I have experienced and got to do thus far in my journey called life. It’s only been a month and I’ve been pushed far out of my comfort zone. These are now the new experiences I am thankful for. I compare what I know to some of the experiences the children and the people in the village will know and they are very different. My right I am just very thankful for this opportunity and for all the people who are supporting and helping me adjust to this new change!

That is all—Miss you all =)