the greatest day ever

So after school Steph said that she was going to go snow machining. I started to freak out with excitement. You see I had never been on a snow machine before and I was beyond excited to give that baby a try. We informed Al of our plans and the three of us were very excited. Steph said she hadn't really driven it before, so I was slightly nervous, but overall super super excited.

So after school we set off for a snow machining extravaganza! I started this experience in the sled. It was a little scary and kinda bumpy. We took a pillow and a blanket so that it would be a bit more comfortable for the behind. We spent about thirty minutes driving all over the tundra and I literally was having so much fun. I kept laughing and screaming and yelling and it was a great great time. For at least the first 10 minutes my stomach was hurting from laughing so hard and trying to hang onto the sled. After about 30 minutes, Steph got off and asked who wanted to drive--we both excitedly said me and Al jumped on first. Before the drive we decided to have ourselves a little photo shoot.

Al in the sled!

view of the tundra from the sled

Al and Steph ready to ride

from in the sled, I didn't want it this close,

but here ya go.

Al decided to drive first. She was a like a pro. THen it was my turn I was very nervous and asking Steph what to do. She was helpful and I was able to cruise around the snowy tundra. I took it nice and slow and it was exciting. This was one of my favorite experiences here so far!! After we both got to drive I got to ride on the actual snow machine. It was a great time---a little scary at first but I had a great time experiencing what I see people riding on everyday around here.

When we got back I was a little sore but super happy for this wonderful adventure. On our way back to the house I reminded Al of how much fun I had yesterday making a snow angel. She was like I've made tons of snow angels I'm not making another one, but look at these:

I'm guessing she's pretty excited she made a snow angel after all.

That's all for now, 2 more days until spring break and 1 more day until someone specials birthday!! =)

Just having a Sunday

Saturday night it snowed a ton---there was wind and there was snow and it was pretty crazy for me. Sunday the girls and I decided to go for a walk: here is a photo walk of our trip.

this is how much snow flew into our

arctic entry Saturday night

a cool snow drift by the boat

my beautiful snow angel

for those of you curious, this is a picture

of the hopper where we take the honeybucket

fall #2

Things have been pretty busy here lately and I am anxiously awaiting spring break next week. Thursday is our last day of school, and the girls and I head to Anchorage on Friday. We will be flying to Fairbanks on Saturday for a few days and then back to Anchorage. After Anchorage I'll spend some time in Bethel and then end my spring break. I am going to make it my goal to take pictures, since I have been lacking in that department. I think I may even make my first ever skiing debut, stay tuned for this one---I am sure that it will be great!

OH THE FALL---so last weekend Al and I decided to take our trash to the dump. In Quinhagak we have to walk our trash to the dump which is a few minute walk away. We had been putting this task off for days because due to the cold temperatures and ice, we just didn't want to do it. We decided to gear up, and we set out for the dump. NoW Al must be like a professional ice walker because she was speed racing and I was slowly trekking behind. After my prior fall, I was nervous to go too quickly because I didn't want to get hurt again. Trip one whew, we made it back and we decided to take one more because it was that cold outside. I made it on the way there with no mishaps I literally was walking very slow. I was the tortoise and Al was the hare except in this case Al still made it back to the house long before me.

So anyways I was in the home stretch about to be home and I think I started to get too comfortable. There was a car driving in front of me and I was just smiling and looking around when BAM---I completely wiped out. I mean my feet flew out right underneath me and I fell hard. I was more embarrassed because a car load of people had just watched this happen. I quickly got back up and was limping back into my house---OH THE PAIN. I did not get seriously hurt, just bruised my hand and my back...OUCH..I think after this incident, I will continue to still walk slow on the ice.

Last week was a perfect week. In the classroom I have been teaching multiplication and division, which is going well. Steph and I also administered a speaking test this past week. It was interesting to get to sit down the students from the entire school and give this test. It allowed me to appreciate what we do in our school and learn more about the students that we work with.

It has been pretty cold here lately, our pipes at the house were freezing. We found this out one day when I did the dishes. Al heard a weird sound coming from the bathroom. When I drained our sink all the food and water drained into our bathtub. Talk about gross! Only in Alaska do we drain our sink and then run into the bathroom to see if the water has clogged it up. We had many laughs with this experience. It's getting a little warmer now, so we haven't had any more experiences with this.

I can not really think of too much more going on here in Quinhagak. It is starting to stay lighter longer now, which is until about 7:00 pm. The whole darkness thing is a lot better then I first thought it was going to be. Al and I are having a lazy Saturday which has consisted of some cribbage, bread making, walking to the post office, and just hanging out. Tonight we are all going to get together for our weekend movie gathering, which should be a good time.

Contracts are coming out for the next year soon, so I have really been thinking about that lately and considering different things. I can not believe it is already February. I can still remember August and arriving in Bethel and just thinking where the heck am I as tears rolled down my face. I look back on the growth I've made as a person and the happiness that I have experienced this year and I truly can not believe it. I am satisfied with my decision to move to Alaska, since in the beginning I was taking a huge leap and just deciding to go. It's amazing how things happen both good and bad and how they impact our lives. I am so happy for this experience and all the wonderful people that have touched my life this year. I honestly can't wait to see what happens in the next three months and look back on the skills I have gained as a teacher. Okay thats enough of my deep thinking for today---

Shout out to our boys basketball team who made it to Districts. They will compete in Bethel in a few week at districts. Great job Seahawks!

Oh and just a reminder to people back at home....someone specials birthday is in 4 days....but whose counting???

Happy Valentine's Day

This is a little Valentine pancake my room mate made us yesterday.

Happy Valentine's Day from Alaksa =)

Thankful for all my friends and family today =)

Welcome to February

It's already February!! I've gotten a little behind on the whole blogging thing since I've been busy with school and other things. I haven't taken pictures since I've been back, I need to get on this.

It has warmed up here a bit in Quinhagak---and today (Well Tuesday) it is around 40 degrees. I'm not a huge freezing cold weather kind of girl, so I'm glad that things are warming up around here.

This past weekend I headed into Bethel again. It's getting dark later now so it was very beautiful. The flights to Bethel are only about 35-45 minutes so its a relaxing time. This time I had my Ipod in hand and was just enjoying the view since I could actually see this time. It was a relaxing time---got to stock up on some groceries and just enjoy a great weekend. Sometimes you just need weekends like though to get ya prepared for the week.

I am excited for February due to it's my birthday month as well as spring break at the end of it! We have about 2 more weeks of school and then we are off for about a week and a half. The year is really flying. There's a count down on one of the boards in school that says we have 66 days left (it has said that for about 4 days, so all I do know is that we have less than 66 days left)

So I have blogged about this before, but lately it has been SUPER SLIPPERY---Al and I are the last two standing and neither one of us have wiped out yet, except for last night. I was sliding across Steph and JIm's holding onto the boat when BAM--feel right on my bottom. I thought Al was going to die she was laughing so hard. I just popped back up and continued onto my journey. What stinks about the whole falling thing is you see yourself as you are going down and just wonder how bad is this going to hurt. Luckily for me, it was not too bad and I was able to just get back up and keep going.

That is all for now. Things are continuing to go well. We have a basketball tournament this weekend, so that should be fun.

Oh and if anyone would like to send me mail, I WOULD LOVE THAT!

just another weekend

Well its that time again...MONDAY---today we had an inservice, I had grad class and now I'm just sitting here trying to relax before I hit the hay---I'm glad January is over and now I am looking forward to February.

This weekend wasn't too exciting but we tried to make the most of it. There were 60mph winds all day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday---talk about scary. Our house sounded as if it might just fall over. On Saturday I decided to brave the wind and head to the store. Clearly no one wanted to go with me, so I had to bare it alone. At one point I just stopped moving and let the wind carry me home.

Friday night we had girl movie night at Rachel's house. It was a great time---we watched Letters to Juliet, ate popcorn, and a delicious snack of jam and cream cheese. It was a good night of catching up with the girls.

Sunday Al and I were determined to have a fun filled day. We began our morning making a little breakfast of bacon and cinnamon rolls. Then Al taught me a skill I had been lacking up until this point in my life, SHUFFLING--It was great--now when we play all of our card games, I am able to keep up and shuffle myself---IMPRESSIVE!

After many games of double solitaire, we decided to clean our entire house. We do not always do this, but when we do we go big. After cleaning we were very tired so we took a little rest.

We decided that we were going to have a dinner party so we made some cheesy bread. Once the bread was made, we took a walk to the Bering Sea--I'll have to admit it was very very slippery. We had a lot of close encounters and it was very scary.

Sunday night around 6:30 was our dinner party. We made spaghetti (after all we have a huge 15 pound box), broccoli and cheese, our bread, and brownies. It was quite a feast we prepared.

Two things Al and I hope to improve on:

1. draining grease from the hamburger --at the beginning of the year I would just use a strainer, but now Al does not allow this. So now we hold the pan and try to do teamwork. If that does not work, I just pat down the meat with coffee filters. It is quite the thing to watch.

2.How to drain pasta when we have a ton. So Al was holding the strainer when WOOSH the steam got her in the face. Then everyone told us that we could just set the strainer in the sink---BUT then I missed the strainer and poured half of the noodles in the sink, it was a disaster.

All in all our dinner party was quite a success, we had good food, good laughs, and good friends.

That's all for now---I need to get some pictures on this thing.

I meant to add these sooner: These are the new additions to the Quinhagak family here--- born a few weeks ago!

Ode to the bucket

I've decided to get creative tonight and make a poem about my experiences this afternoon. I'm just sitting here with Al waiting on our corn dogs to cook. Took our Friday night nap and now we are ready for what the weekend has in store.

Ode to the bucket

It all started on Thursday with 60 mile per hour winds

I went into the bathroom and I was not happy my friends

You see, Al and I share this fun fun chore

And with winds this strong I didn't want to do this I was sure

I said a little prayer for the winds to stop

so to the hopper I could walk without a drop

But after school on Friday the bucket could not wait

With the honey bucket in my hand on the ice I would skate

I tied that thing up and closed my little blue eyes

Al had the spray in her hand because the smell makes you want to cry

I had many decisions to make on which way to go

I knew I didn't want to slip on the ice and the snow

With the winds a blowing and the cold hitting my face

I had strong determination to get rid of this waste

I held in my breath and walked very slow

while Al poked her head out the window enjoying the show

This trip took a bit longer then the trips normally do

because lets be honest there was no way I was falling, that I knew

I am always embarrassed when taking it out

and today there was Rachel just strolling about

So now and I had Rachel and Allison just laughing at me

I was cold and grossed out, couldn't they see?

And that is how a typical Friday afternoon goes

While living in bush Alaska things are quite different I suppose