Basketball.... Snow.... Wind....

Wow, with that title its almost as if I'm back in Lake County again. :) Haha. We're headed into our last weekend of basketball, most likely. Tomorrow around noon we'll leave for Chevak for the regional basketball tournament. The wind has been crazy here though, so I don't know if we'll get out.

Basketball has been very frustrating for me. I have a hard time understanding how many kids here aren't completely dedicated and focused on something they supposedly love so much. Its been a struggle getting girls to come to practice or at least call before practice to let me know if they'll be missing practice. We started in November with 16 girls. Now we're down to 7 girls and at one point we were at 3. The other super frustrating part is that my assistant coach Jana and I have tried to set guidelines for the girls regarding missing practices and being respectful letting one of us know if they'll miss practice. After many signed a contract and failed to live up to their part of the deal I was forced to "give them one more chance"... Its frustrating because 1. I was completely undermined in my position as a coach. My boss completely went over my head to the girls and told them "I'll beg for her to give you one more chance." and 2. thats only teaching the girls that they can do whatever they want and still get another chance.

Oh well, off my soap box. We've got a team and we're off to do the best we can! :)

It hasn't snowed a ton since Christmas break. We've had a bit here and there, but nothing outrageous. This weekend, particularly yesterday and today the wind has been awesome. Yesterday I came to school for a few hours. Sarah had left the house about 11 she said. When I went home at 3 I couldn't tell if she'd been out the front door or not... The wind whips the snow into a nice peak right at my front door. I spent about an hour shoveling mostly just the steps and also stomping back and forth to pack down the snow a bit. I was expecting to have the same peak to shovel this morning on my way to school but was pleasantly surprised that my steps still looked good. :)

Last week I also was without my other half, Jana Mae. She had the awesome opportunity to go to Juneau for a week for Alaska Close-Up with a group of high school students.  She got to work with lots of kids and with state government officials in our state capital. Needless to say, she had an awesome time. I was bored for the majority of the week, but I was able to get plenty of sleep and get all rested up from our ridiculous idea last friday... I'll post another blog about that later. Ha!

I was invited to go moose hunting with Paul last monday after inservice. We took off and planned to be gone not terribly long because we had school the next day. We headed out toward Lamont Slough and Sunshine Bay. It was a beautiful day for riding. We didn't see any moose but we did get Paul stuck and unstuck in some pretty deep powder. I didn't get any pictures of being stuck, but I do have a few I'll throw in here showing the beauty of this place I live... And the beauty that Sammy Jo is too. Ha!

I'll try to post this week while at Chevak and keep you updated on our games. Looking forward to catching up with many of you this summer!!!