Thanksgiving break 2013

It always amazes me how I go into a long weekend thinking, "Man, I've got 4 1/2 days to get this pile of stuff done, no big deal. By Sunday, I'll be done with everything and can relax..." Well, Wednesday afternoon is wasted by sleeping/being lazy from being so worn out all week... Then Thursday is Thanksgiving, so its spent skyping family, cooking, and enjoying the company of family and friends. Friday is a day of sleeping in and basketball games. As is Saturday. Then, lo and behold, Sunday rolls around and Sammy Jo hasn't even STARTED her homework, grading, planning, or cleaning...

Story of my life. Every. Darn. Weekend...

However, it was a much needed long weekend. I missed my students, of course, but it was nice to catch up on sleep and enjoy the company of some fabulous people in the community. :)

I was invited to spend Thanksgiving with my Alakanuk family, the Ayuneraks. I made 2 pumpkin pies the morning of Thanksgiving (which the family doubted my ability to get finished in time), along with a green bean casserole (missed you Amy and Aunt Susan!), and some mashed potatoes. I must admit, I didn't have time to shower, but it was okay... The hair was straight from the day before and I threw on some deodorant. :)

Thanksgiving dinner was very similar to what my family has done for years. :) Turkey and yummy side dishes... Lots of laughter and visiting... A few kids running around. Plenty of fun to warm my heart and make me feel a little less homesick for my family. Around 5 I headed to the gym to join my fellow staff members for potluck. :) It was fun to watch my coworkers' children play and just relax a little. Dinner was in the gym then the staff had some volleyball fun. However, I skipped volleyball and instead headed to TC for eskimo dance. I didn't stay long as I was with other teachers who were tired... My intent was to go home and sleep after eskimo dance, but instead I went up to the gym for a short time to watch city league play ball... Then off to Greg and Aggie's for a visit. :) After some ball in the boys' room, some akutaq (I might  have spelled it wrong, sorry!) and juice, I headed home around 11:30...

All in all Thanksgiving was a great day. I am so grateful for friends and family in so many places. :)

Here are a few random pictures... Until next time!

xoxo,
SJ

Pendleton, OR?! All the way in Alakanuk, AK?!! Couldn't believe it!

The beginning miles on season 3... Not enough snow for me to go far, but apparently
the trail to Emo is passable,  just rough in a few places.

My hair stylists. :)

For family pictures... 

For family pictures. Because who doesn't want a picture by the
above ground water/sewer pipes?! :)

SO thankful for all I've been blessed with, from awesome family and friends, to a great job
in a wonderful community, to my utter badass attitude. Here's to a FANTASTIC holiday season and a fabulous 2014. :)

November happenings

Since my last post I feel like I haven't had time to slow down and think let alone write anything...

The flood ended up not being too bad here. Some people downtown said it flooded as bad as it does in spring time. However, I don't know of any damages, except maybe some problems with snow machines and hondas. Thank goodness we didn't get hit harder. Kotlik, another village in my district, got hit HARD with ice. They were without water and sewer for a while, and I think that even now part of their village is without. But I'm not sure.

We were expecting flood again Wednesday of that week, and because of how our village is, when water began to rise quickly around noon on Wednesday we released school early. Many of the classes were around 50% attendance anyway because parents either had kept them home that morning, or had come to get them when they were concerned that water would rise to a point that they couldn't come get their children. I am glad our school was conscious of the situation and very grateful that no flooding occurred on Wednesday. I think they said water came within inches of the bank, but none spilled over on Wednesday.

On Thursday I was scheduled to fly to Mountain Village to present some training on Friday. After a phone call saying the lights were broken, and another that said our runway was too soft, I cried because I had been looking forward to catching up with some friends in MOU. Turns out everything works out. I ended up on a plane around 6 PM to Mountain and spent Thursday night prepping for presenting on Friday. After work Friday, I hung around MOU for another night and thoroughly enjoyed the laughter and conversation with some great friends. Saturday evening I went to KSM to visit some friends there and was grateful for a weekend break from work and stresses.

This week was tough. I had a few very frustrating days, and spent each evening working late into the night followed by early mornings. I wish I could say that I was completely caught up on my life--college, grading, prepped for this week--but I am not...

We spent Monday through Thursday conserving water as much as possible... For me, that meant to laundry, no dishes, and no showering. A Thursday evening text okayed us to use water again, so Friday morning brought a shower, but still no time to do dishes and laundry. Needless to say, my house is a disaster... Dishes are finally done now, I have only 2 loads of laundry left to do. And I need another day in the weekend so I can get caught up in college...

Thursday and Friday of this week our volleyball team traveled to Mountain Village for the regional volleyball tournament. I was disappointed to not be allowed to travel, but because of how many other staff members were out, I stayed behind. I was able to watch our kids play via VTC, which was nice, but its just not the same. Our team ended up second place, so season is over.

We've got a short week ahead of us, 2 1/2 days... Here's to some Thanksgiving crafts and fun coupled with some delicious food toward the end of the week! :)

xoxo
SJ

Front row seats... Go Braves!

Fans of all ages enjoyed the game. :)

Winter Storm 11/9/13

Yesterday afternoon was pretty windy, maybe rainy, I can't remember. About 7:45 last night Paul came to my door and said there was flooding by AVEC and we could potentially lose water, sewer, and power. So I filled a few totes of water, and began preparing for an evening (or longer) without water, power, sewer...

At about 8:15 I decided to go explore. Many friends who live on the other end of town were posting about flooding at their houses, and a friend told me it was knee deep at his place. So, I slapped on my knee brace, jumped into my rubber boots and went for a walk. It wasn't long before I decided that I was going to seriously freak myself out in the dark, so I wandered to Theresa's to see if she wanted to join.

We walked to the UUI building, right by our houses and water was HIGH, getting pretty close to the road... Then we walked down past the school, then to AVEC. Here are some pictures and videos. It was dark, so they might be pretty hard to see. The last picture is from today, I walked to the UUI building on my way to school and water is WAY down... 

I am so thankful that everything turned out okay here in AUK. However, please pray for the other villages. Kotlik was hit pretty hard, they're out of water and sewer because of the flooding. Nunam lost power, but I don't know of their status right now.

The current by my old house. Right by the school.

Current was pretty strong. 

Water across the road where the road hits the main road, I guess?
Where you turn to come to laundry instead of going around by PO...

Pretty smart idea, I'd say!

Akleng! Someone's bike.. :(

Current at AVEC, I think.

The current by my boots right by AVEC. Hondas made it through fine, though.

Water on the road by water treatment plant.

Getting the hondas up on higher ground. And water by water treatment.

The bucket on the right took a tumble with a gust of wind. Scared Theresa and I. :)
In the middle of the road...

Some crazies tried to run us over! Haha.

Headed back to the house. Water went down a LOT. You can't see very well in this picture.

Only about 35 minutes after we first walked past here. Water was down a lot.

35 minutes. water down. You can see where it was (the dark) and by this point it was
 back down to the side of the road...

This morning... Last night, we walked to here and the water was just inside the frame of this picture.
You can see the water in the slough. On the other side of that little hump is probably a few feet down to the bank.
I was in tennis shoes not rubber boots otherwise I'd have gone closer to the slough to check it out.

End of Quarter 1

So. Imagine that. Sammy Jo procrastinated report cards and grades until the final week. No wonder it was a  71 hour work week...

She vowed to be better about entering grades daily or every other day, then received an email that said not to enter any grades until further notice... Some bug with the gradebooks they're working on...

Ho hum. What's a girl to do? Well. Teach her hiney off, to start with... Mid-week boat ride to Emo for eggs. Handing out candy. Boat ride to check net. And halloween carnival. That brought me to a Sunday to catch up on college, lesson plan, and clean my house. I am not super proud to say that the only thing I did today was vacuum, dishes, laundry, and catch up on one of 2 classes... Here's to an early night and an early morning at work.

xoxo,
SJ

My in-boat TV entertainment was a little snowy Weds afternoon. 

So exciting to see white on the bank!!

Winter is coming!!!

Kinsey and Holly bundled up to go shopping. :)

Hope freeze up comes fast!

Lesson learned: Paper cupcake liners, no matter how squished they are
or how quickly the go in oven, they don't work like foil ones...
Spookly the Square Pumpkin, anyone?

The coolest costumes... 

Boat ride, home games, pep rally

Its been another busy week! I am having a hard time believing we're 2 short weeks away from the end of first quarter. Yikes! Guess I better get caught up on grades and such, eh?

Last Sunday, after I finished my last blog, I got a phone call to go out on a boat ride. Well, who am I to turn down a fun afternoon chasing maqlaq? :) We chased a few and John caught one. It was awesome get some fresh air. We had fish over campfire and I went hunting with boys for birds and mice.

Makes me miss my cousins!

Mouse hunting.

Supper time!

Cousins.

Headed home.

The week was smooth, uneventful, and fun. The kids are I spent a lot of time talking about what pets need, how to treat them, etc. It was fun to discuss different kinds of pets and made me wonder about getting a class pet... I'll keep you posted.

On Tuesday a box of zucchini and banana muffins came, courtesy of Aunt Toni. The kids loved them!!!

Thanks Aunt Toni!

Thursday afternoon the Natural Helpers had a pep rally for the volleyball team since we hosted games this weekend. The team members had a contest to see who could eat a cool whip pie fastest and the winner would get to pie a teacher in the face. The high schoolers voted on which teacher and, much to my disappointment, I was 2nd place. (Culea said she was highly entertained reading the votes... "Sammy I joke Nathan" or "Nathan I joke Sammy" were common choices... The kids school wide seemed to really enjoy the pep rally.

Winner!

Nathan... Waiting for his pie in the face.

Friday and Saturday we hosted volleyball games. Teams from Nunam Iqua and Scammon Bay. I spent a total of 13 extra hours at school reffing, coaching, or supervising. It was a great time. Proud of our team for coming out of the weekend 4-0. Good work, kiddos! Thanks to the community for the support. I am very proud of the teamwork I'm seeing with our group as well as the positive attitudes and encouragement. Keep it up, Braves!

Here's to another week of first grade! So excited to continue moving forward and learning and discovering!

xoxo,
SJ

Three weeks of fun!

Whoa. So the last post was the day after our last open gym...  We had another one yesterday, but the past 3 weeks have been full of so many other fun adventures, I'm not even sure where to start...


The week of September 16th our cross country coaches, Holly and Nathaniel, hosted an informal race for our elementary students who had been practicing. Our district has cut all travel for elementary sports (don't even get me started on that...) but they wanted our students to get to compete too. So, after work and a walk to the PO, I went out to the deck and watched the munchkins run.

The following weekend I travelled to KSM to visit some friends and enjoy a pig roast BBQ. It was great to hang out and catch up with the crew after the summer. The following week was a short week at school. Thursday and Friday were inservice days. The first two years I worked here, everyone travelled to either Hooper Bay or Mountain Village for two days of training. This year, for what I assume to be budget issues, teachers were given the choice to stay at their home sites and participate in various meetings and training via video teleconferencing or to travel to Kotlik (middle and high school teachers) for district wide write grading or to travel to Pilot Station (elementary teachers) to participate in Elementary CM. Since I've done so much work with elem CM this summer and attended the training in Portland in July, I went to Pilot Station to train 22 elementary teachers in how to use this to support our English Language Learners.

It was a fabulous 2 days of training. I met some new (and VERY entertaining) friends. We shared the CM love. We ended up getting weathered in for an extra night in Pilot Station. Despite my many phone calls and texts to my pilot friend Mike, there wasn't anything he could do to get us home Friday night. The cross winds were high that night. However, because Mike is so awesome, he got us home first flight Saturday morning. Our bush order had also come in while I was gone and my friends put everything away for me. Thanks Becca and Holly!! :)

When I finally got home, I whipped up a batch of clam chowder and took a long nap to catch up from sleeping on a classroom floor for 3 nights. Sunday, rather than being responsible and going to my classroom to catch up on grading, organizing, and preparing for the week, I went out on a boat ride with Greg and Aggie to pick up Robyn's moose.

Last week flew by. It was a great week despite my lack of prior planning. Lessons went smoothly, mornings were early and nights were late, but Sammy Jo didn't go crazy on anyone or fall asleep while teaching. :) Friday was perhaps the BEST early out inservice day I have ever had. Our staff ordered moosestache shirts in response to Russian Mission's tuxedo shirts on the first early out. It was a hit. Teachers and admin were smiling and laughing at our ridiculous antics via VTC. Made the meeting go by quicker and staff morale was much higher. Looking forward to seeing what each site comes up with over the course of the year! :)

Yesterday we had our second brave buck open gym. It was a different turn out this time. The first open gym was a good mix of K-12 students. However, this time there were more elementary students and hardly any high schoolers. It was fun just the same. :)

After open gym, Theresa and I created an awesome, culturally sensitive mural for our fall reading race. One good thing that came out of being weathered in at Pilot, was a good discussion about how to change our "fall into reading" race (with maple leaves) into a more culturally sensitive plan. We decided to do "Spear a Good Book" and create a mural of a seal hunting scene. It took us more than 2 hours, and despite our lack of artistic ability, I must admit, I'm pretty proud of the finished project. I also had a conversation with my administrator and it made me feel much better about my abilities as a teacher.

Today consists of grading, blogging, planning and prepping for this week, catching up on homework, and baking bread. :)

xo,
SJ

First frost of the year...

And they're off!

A few extra students and some family members came out to support our kids!

Goofy kids (and adults!)

While the knee is feeling better, this was one particularly swollen evening... 

No coffee pot at home, so I MacGyvered it so I could take coffee with me on a boat ride.

Out seal hunting with Bummer, Steph, Shania, Gramma Mary, and John.

First snow came!! 9/22 I think...

Headed to Pilot

Me and Culea. :)

Theresa and I spreading the CM love!

In case you can't read it... "To Jamie and Sam: please lower your voices.
You are so loud, my ears were ringing."

"I love you"

Mike to save the day!

Mmmm... Mom's recipe!

So many good recipes in here. :)

VHF antennae holder. He takes his job seriously. :)

The kids doing some stretching exercises brought to you by Linus Pauling
Institute at Oregon State University. Thanks Susan for the DVD!

Post PT... 90 minutes of PT...

Assembly to celebrate perfect attendance... This is our K-6 population.

Staff meeting... "If you moosestache a question... Please raise your hand."

Culea and I rocking our outfits.

Spear a good book!

Gaaaayyyy mukluk!