Potlatch Already?

I cannot believe this year has flown by so quickly. I look around the village and realize just how much we have gone through this year. To start, there was a gigantic flood in November. I have never seen the water come as high in the village as it did then. A large portion of our village ended up living in the school while the water went back down. The flood brought large chunks of ice through the village, destroying anything in its path. About half the village was without water/sewer for a few months due to the damage from the flood. Most of the village has water/sewer now, but some residence have to wait until summer for their water and sewer to get reconnected. I took some wonderful high school students to the Lead On! conference at the end of November. It was a wonderful opportunity to connect with some students I do not have very much contact with on a regular basis. It was great to see them step up and learn how to make a positive impact on their community. We are working on a community project as I am writing this blog. More details about that to come! We hosted the Junior High Downriver Basketball Tournament. The students here really played their hearts out! The girls made it all the way to second place overall. Their second to last game ended with a heart-stopping 3 point shot literally in the last second, which ended up winning the game for them! The cheers were deafening!!! I am getting ready to take two students to the State Science Fair in Anchorage at the end of this month. My daughter and her best friend really worked hard on their project and are excited to go present to the state judges. I know they will do fantastic! I am excited about Potlatch coming up this weekend here in Kotlik. It is a wonderful celebration of the Yupik culture and I look forward to listening to Yupik songs and watching the wonderful dancing. I view Potlatch as a milestone in our school year. This event signals the end of the school year. Shortly after Potlatch we will be giving the state tests, which are followed by the end of the year wrap up. I cannot believe this time of year has snuck up on me already. I look forward to posting pictures of the wonderful Potlatch our village will be hosting. I will try to stay on top of more postings throughout the next few months. I can't believe it has been so long since I have posted. We have had a crazy, busy year as a family and I am just getting a moment to collect my thoughts here. Jacqueline :)

Thanksgiving Week

I try to take as much time every year around Thanksgiving to really reflect about what I am thankful for. I have been so blessed in my life, I feel one day is just not enough. This week was a fun week at the school. Our school does something special each year, they offer a family Thanksgiving meal during school on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Everyone in the community is welcome to come in and eat with the students. The kitchen staff puts together a traditional Thanksgiving meal that is very yummy! It is one of the nice things about living in bush Alaska, there is a strong sense of community here unlike anywhere I have ever lived.

Ethan's class put on a little song for the families. It was quite adorable! The kids were doing their best but in first grade, you can't expect too much! Some of the kids forgot some words, others forgot some motions but they all tried their best! We went to their class after their performance and had snacks with the children. Ethan was so excited for the performance that I caught him singing their song a few times during the week.

Like last year, the teaching staff got together to celebrate Thanksgiving together since we are all up here without our families. It is nice to know that you have people to celebrate with. The food was delicious and it made the day so much less stressful knowing that we only had to make a few things instead of the entire feast. The meal was great and the company was even better. After our meal, many people hung around and played some games and just sat back and talked. It was so nice to spend time with such wonderful people outside of work. Theres enjoyed being loved on by so many people at the dinner and was completely wiped out when we came home. She got into her Christmas pajamas and went straight to bed! I can't wait to share Christmas with our newest addition!

What did you do for Thanksgiving?

The Grand Party is Over

Last weekend we hosted our daughter's 11th birthday party at our house. All went well. We had some great food and fun times. Morgan wanted to play Just Dance 3, so the girls went and then some of the teachers played. I got to say, it was very entertaining. Especially since the girls had some previous experience and the adults didn't!!!

The dancing went on most of the night for the girls and then the sleepover started. Morgan had a few friend stay the night. They watched Troop Beverly Hills from WAY back in the day and were finally forced to go to sleep! I know, I'm mean for making the night come to an end and forcing them to sleep but I have to think about myself and the crabby kids I would be dealing with the next day.

See what I mean? Some kids just can't handle the fun! Ethan was playing video games the next day, when he fell over, fast asleep!

On a side note, did I ever mention our oven of death? Well, our oven leaks gas when it is turned on. Which is totally safe, I know! So we are trying not to use it this year. We bought a Super Wave oven, from the infomercials. It works really well, but the cake kind of took a beating in it. We had just bought it and weren't used to the quick cooking. I tried cooking the cake in it and ended up with a burnt on top and gooey in the middle cake. I had to do some cake surgery and cook it more. It ended up looking rather pathetic. So I had to heap on a ton of frosting to even it out and make it look good. Morgan did the decorating once the pink frosting was on. I think it ended up looking rather awesome! What do you think?

Birthdays in the Bush

Our daughter is turning 11 on Monday and we are preparing for her birthday, which will be held at our house tomorrow. As I am getting ready, I am thinking of all the differences between a "typical" birthday party and what we do here. First of all, there is nowhere to go to have the party. That leaves our house as the destination every birthday. This is nice because we aren't running around in traffic, trying to host the party somewhere. But this stinks because that means we are stuck cleaning all night after the party ends. LOTS of dishes... And did I ever mention that we don't have a dishwasher here? That means all those dishes get washed by hand. Another great thing about birthdays here is everyone brings food to share. We aren't doing all the cooking ourselves. We make the main dish and everyone shows up with a side. It doesn't always translate to a great combination but the food always gets eaten. Sometimes you might have 3 or 4 carb options, which is totally fine by me! I like how laid back the birthdays are here. It seemed like I was always stressed out getting ready for one of the kids' birthday but now I sit back and enjoy them with everyone else. I will post some pictures in the next few days to show our lovely birthday party for our precious daughter!

Halloween Goodness

Halloween is a huge deal out here! People of all ages go trick-or-treating and most of them are dressed in costume. The Student Council put on a Halloween Carnival this year and that brought in almost the entire village. The games were fun for those who were playing and for those who were watching.

The carnival allowed the kids to have some Halloween fun inside where it is warm. There wasn't much snow this year for Halloween but it was very cold and the wind was blowing like crazy. I had to put all of Ethan's snow gear on him, underneath his costume. He was the chubbiest skeleton ever!

Costumes are hard to get out here. Ethan and Morgan both picked out costumes online and we ordered them. Ethan's came, Morgan's did not. So Morgan ended up putting together a costume with what we had around the house and ended up being a boxer. I think she looks pretty good, don't you? Theres' costume was bought by my parents and sent up here. Living up here takes a little bit of planning for the holidays! Now the planning starts for Christmas before we even get to Thanksgiving!!!!

Back to the Daily Grind

Coming back to teach after the first quarter has ended was a little stressful! I came back to Kotlik to discover that my long-term substitute was horrible and taught my students nothing! But thankfully, my partner teacher, did a lot of work in my classroom to help keep my students learning a little bit. My students basically lost an entire quarter of the school year. I came back to school and had to conduct parent-teacher conferences on my forth day back at work. Despite all the stress, I am thankful to come home to our new little addition.

Isn't she adorable? Going back to work is so easy when you have a job in a place like I do. I go home each day for lunch. I walk to and from work, which takes literally one minute. I don't sit in traffic for half an hour to an hour each way. I have an amazing husband that watches our daughter while I work. He is so amazing! I come home for lunch or after school and he's playing with her and ready to tell me all the cute things she did that day! What a life!

Over 100 Degrees!

It's amazing just how a few degrees can make such a huge difference in my comfort level. I do not like being in 90 degree heat but the difference between 100 degrees and 105 degrees will take your breath away! Just walking from your car to your door in 105 degrees is like being punched in the stomach and melting all at the same time. I grew up in Las Vegas and never grew accustom to the heat. It is simply unbearable! My advice for anyone visiting Las Vegas in the summer is to stay inside as much as possible. Or spend a lot of time in a pool.