Our school hosted Special Olympics for our district on Thursday the 21st. It was so fun to watch the kids bwling... They asked for staff volunteers to bowl, and you know me... I jumped right in! :) I was bowling next to Jana Mae so of course we were being a bit competitive. Haha. I bowled, strike on the first throw... Of course I turned to Jana with a grin that said, "How'd you do? I beat ya!"Haha. My students loved watching the other kids compete and cheering for them.
Potlach was on February 23rd. I LOVE Potlach. It is so crowded, full of kids, adults and elders enjoying the dancing, each other's company, and the gifts that were passed out. I didn't get many pictures from potlach, but Holly and Culea both did a nice job blogging and adding some pictures, so the links to their blogs are: http://nathanielandhollyrogers.blogspot.com/2013/02/potlatch-eskimo-dance.html and http://mynewyupikhome.blogspot.com/2013/02/potlatch-traditions-of-historic-culture.html. I didn't make it all night this year like I did last year, but I was able to watch my coworker do her first dance and watched a sweet family of kids, 2 of which are on my basketball team, and one who will be in my class next year. During the dancing, I got the joy of holding and cuddling and laughing and playing with lots of little kids. It was an evening of enjoying my new home, laughing my fabulous community, and making many new awesome memories.
b
The first weekend of March my elementary basketball team traveled to Nunam Iqua (Sheldon's Point) for the elementary basketball weekend. The kids played LOTS of basketball and I saw huge improvements between the first and last games of the weekend. It was so fun to watch the kids play and visit with their cousins and friends. I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the weekend, but it was cool. I don't have any pictures to share either because I guess I just spent toooooo much time coaching. Ha!
Obviously my favorite day of the year is March 5th. Its a great day. This year was my 25th birthday, a corner as Aunt Marge says. I never realized til this year, but Mom turned 50 and Granny Norma 75... Maybe Jinky too? Kind of cool. Anyway, it was a good day... My kids sang to me, some coworkers came in with their classes to sing to me, I had dinner at the cafe and Sarah made me birthday cake. :) Sadly, my 25th birthday marked the end of my "absolutely no added sugar" deal... I'm proud to say I went 6 months without dessert. It sure made me realize that even though the desserts might taste really good, I don't need to eat it every night.
 |
| Best wrapping job ever... :) Harry Potter complete series, hard back. :) |
 |
| Jana's students were rehearsing a "Little Mermaid" version of Happy Birthday for me... This was one of their hats... |
 |
| New necklace from Sarah... |
 |
| All in a days work... :) |
 |
| Jana's awesome birthday card for me. :) So cool and creative! |
 |
| My Badass Badge... Jana wrote my name on the back, as if anyone had any question about who it would belong to... |
 |
| Hahaha. Apparently I'm not the only thing thats old in my classroom... The date on this I think was early '90s. |
In January, Jana and I were talking about taking a weekend trip to visit some friends. We were going to do a random weekend, but were both too tired to take the 4 hour trip... So we waited until this past weekend. Friday was an inservice day so we loaded up, gassed up, sent texts to let them know we were headed, got batteries in the GPS and said a prayer that we wouldn't get lost. Ha! It took us about 4 hours Friday afternoon in WARM temperatures... I think it was around 37 when we left AUK. We drove through rain and snow. The trail was hard to find in places and slushy/mooshy/bad in other places. But we made it! It was a fabulous weekend of relaxation with some wonderful friends. There was lots of laughter, some ninja training, adults open gym at the school, DELICIOUS food, an EPIC, ABSULT, ridiculous dance party, and lots of great memories. Thanks again Sam, Josh, Jamie, Genise, Kristy, Kyle, and Jana Mae for all the good times! I've got some pictures on facebook, I'll try to get them posted on my blog too.
This week has been a week of playing catch up... Its also the last week of elementary basketball. Its sad to see the season ending, but I am also excited to have more time to devote to my classroom and my ski doo! :) We are currently sitting in Nunam for the Down River tournament. We have a few hours until gametime, and my kids are excited, but getting super tired of sitting and waiting. We were supposed to play almost 2 hours ago, but the charters are behind so teams were missing starting members... Sort of reminds me of that trip in FFA when Mr. P was driving the mini bus and the tire blew... Haha! Just one of those circumstances that you just go with the flow, right?! :)
Oh, I almost forgot to mention.... Contracts are due tomorrow. Its sad that a few of my really close friends in my village as well as others in my district are leaving. It will be interesting to see who replaces, I am super excited for the new year and what exciting changes might happen. Yes, that means that I'm back for another year or ten... Ha! I love it. All the negatives pale in comparison to the wonderful people in my community, the adorable and sweet students I teach and work with K-12, and the fabulous adventures I have around here. :)
Thats a lot of talk and not much for pictures, sorry. I'll try to post better throughout the last 9 weeks of school.
