Now Isn't This Fun?

1. Said the night wind to the little lamb, shhhhhhhh.
2. The first Noel, the angel did say, peace to you, no matter what those silly elitists say.
3. You ride those 4-wheelers, Over the hills and everywhere.
4. It came upon the midnight clear, cold cold cold cold and Northern Lights.
5. It's Friday, Let your heart be light.
6. And the thing that will make them ring is the carol that you sing, so don't stop the music.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to dinner with good friends, tomorrow my plans include Anchorage amazing-ness, and Sunday, I want to not miss any flights!

http://fridayfillins.blogspot.com
(Thanks to Tiff for the sweet idea!)

Okay. It's Friday. I am ready to be DONE with the semester, as is pretty much everyone else. Anyway, I leave tomorrow for Anchorage - sweet!! Should be a pretty fantastic weekend. I'm looking forward to some good times with good people. Late Sunday night I will be flying to Indianapolis to visit the fam and good ole friends from my other life. :)

Happy holidays to all! I hope everyone has a fantastic break, and a safe New Year's. This is me loving the snow - snow, I will miss you for one whole week!! What will I do in all that warm Midwest weather???

One Great Night

The day was a generally grumpy one. We all agreed. I was even obviously snippy over skype. This means two things: 1) I must have been extra snippy if she could tell over skype, and 2) she was grumpy, too, which meant whatever I said was doubly harsh because of dual bad attitudes. Don't worry, words of affirmation is not our love language, so we are still friends. :) Anyway, this is the order of events after school.

1. I had a good talk with Janelle - I am SO glad she's back at work with us! I know it's hard for her having Jonah and everything, but I'm so glad she's back. :) After talking with her, I prepared to leave school while shouting out Scattergories answers with two of many students who are absolutely addicted to that game, and I am the keeper of the box, therefore my room is cool.

2. I went home. I think that is a wonderful event in and of itself.

3. I tried my hand at baking (scary...) a new kind of pumpkin bread (even scarier...) using an online recipe that I didn't have all the ingredients for (yipes stripes!). No cloves, no orange peel. Being able to substitute or feel safe in leaving things out is something bush folk have to learn pretty quickly. I enjoy cooking in general, though, and even though baking is a totally different culinary field, I had fun creating. Instead of the orange peel in the cream cheese filling, I just added a little bit of Kaluha. Mmm. :) (Really, it turned out quite good!) The recipe makes 2 loaves. Lucky me!



4. Scrabble date!! Sissy and Judie and I have been having pretty regular game and craft nights. It's been ages, though, so it was about freakin' time! I took one loaf of the sweet bread over with me, and we enjoyed eating it while playing Scrabble and getting un-grumpy. They even gave me my Christmas present!! It's awesome. I got a sweet bag that has a dancing Santa on it. Then I got a Longaberger basket that holds napkins, AND the napkins to go with it. AND I got a sweet ulu pocket knife! Merry Christmas to me!



5. We had been trying to convince Adrianna to come and play with us. She said she'd call later, mentioning something about a full moon. She called, and we (somehow) convinced Sissy to go to First Hill with us, hike up, just to sled down. It took some begging and prodding, but she loves us, so Sissy, Ryan, Adrianna, and I drove out to the base of the hill, then hiked up the powdery snowy hill with our sled. Sweet! This part of the night will be discussed in sub-categories.



A. Adrianna and I were the first two candidates to sled down. I got to be in front. This was awesome because pretty much I got snow in my face the whole way. We went wicked fast, at least compared to last time we went sledding up there, and hit every brush possible on the way down. It was amazing. We laugh-screamed the whole way. :)



B. After hiking back up, we decided to have some good conversation. We started with Truth-or-Dare - a classic. Most of us are really bad at dares, but Ryan came up with a good one - ride the sled down the hill standing up. So that's exactly what we took turns doing. We didn't get terribly far, though Sis won that competition. (Dang - she won every single freakin' game we played tonight...) Anyway, we had lots of fun trying! This is a video of Ryan going, then falling. Turn your head to the left, and watch closely. It's a little dark, but you can a bit with the flashing of the cameras, particularly the falling part.



This is a sweet picture of Adrianna giving it a go.



C. We decided it was time for the Truth part of the game, so we asked some questions that everyone had to answer. We started with a good one. Feel free to reflect on it yourself - and even answer in the comments if you feel so inclined. :)

"If you were to write a book, what would it be about, and why?"

We had some pretty sweet conversation. We also talked about living on other planets and traveling in space and ultimately, how cool Earth is. We gave examples, talked about some of the amazing things on our planet, and so forth. Here's another question for you to ponder:

"What is a picture of a place that you have in your mind, a photograph of something you will never forget?"

D. After all of this, we had to get back down the hill. We started with the four of us on the little sled. Too much weight with all of us, so we basically scooted a few yards, then stopped. Ryan and Adrianna got up and pushed Sissy and I down the hill. We did okay until we veered sideways and fell off. It was pretty much hilarious. Ryan and A took over, and made a pretty sweet dash down much of the way. They stopped, then gave us back the sled. We made another amazing run down, sideways, through a bunch of brush, then finally, and I'm not kidding you, crashed STRAIGHT into a bush. By the time we stopped I was laughing so hard I could not breathe or move.

Everything was right in the world, all the stars were aligned, and even though it was cloudy, I am pretty sure it was a beautiful night. Thanks, yous! :)

This, That, and Theirs

Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving.
The original day was declared for just that - giving thanks. I am thankful for lots of things, particularly alliteration and words that begin with "th." I am also grateful for synonyms and pictures that document the world around me. I think I'll copy Adrianna on this one and show you exactly the things for which I gave thanks last Thursday.

Babies, those things which remind all of us of the sustainability of life and the uncanny ability for humans to withstand trials of all kinds and still survive. I'm also thankful when they sleep, because that means they aren't crying.



Daniel turned three - Happy Birthday, Daniel! I am thankful that I have this opportunity to watch him grow.



This is the official Auntie Adrianna picture, at least in my baby book. And by that I mean, the baby book that I don't have. I am thankful that Janelle trusts us to hold her child.



At our Thanksgiving celebration, Jake and Janelle broke out the Wii and their brand new games. I am thankful for video games that require movement as well as competition. This was super, super much fun!



This is Adrianna cracked out on Thanksgiving dinner. I am thankful for turkey, stuffing, yams, salad, rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, artichoke dip, and pie, among other things. :)



My dog's house has been drifted in by snow. I am thankful that I do not live in this house.



Anyway, she now lives inside with me. I am thankful that she is house trained.



It has been too windy to ski lately, but I am thankful that I have the means to ski when it is not so windy. Okay, not just a little breeze, but around 30mph. It's been some adventurous walks between school, home, the post office, and the Snyders'. :)



I am thankful for big boats.



I am thankful for good friends, and well, I am just thankful. :) I hope everyone had a relaxing Thanksgiving! After today, just two more weeks until Christmas break, at least for those of us still living on a semester schedule via school... I am anxious to see those of you whom I have not seen in far too long!!



Peace to you, and Happy Holidays!

Friends Who Monopolize My Time

Instead of simply doing an update on what I've been doing, it might be more interesting to just tell you who I've been doing things with. Whether it's interesting or not, these are the people that have monopolized my time away from work for the past few weeks. Don't worry, it's all good. :)

It was Adrianna's 23rd birthday on November 19th, so the weekend before it we had a black and white celebration with all cool people. This is Kira (who has been gone a lot lately, traveling, doing counseling things - but when she's here we hang out), Adrianna (birthday girl), and David. David was Janelle's long-term sub. He has definitely made his mark on us, and we have had good times, good conversations, good laughs while he has been here. On Tuesday, however, he must leave us to go back to the obviously-more-exciting Wisconsin.



While they are here, Stacey and Carrie have been great to hang out with. And I already got the sweetest Christmas present from Carrie - her old crock pot that she never uses. :) Thanks, C!! I'll make you something yummy. Side note: Isn't crock pot a really funny phrase? Every time I use it I have to remind myself that I'm talking about a wonderful kitchen appliance and not a person.



This is Sissy. She is here at home working and living in between college and graduate school. She has become a staple in my social life as of late, and I am happy to have made such a cool new friend. And in case you were wondering, these are her real glasses (made of peanut butter cups), and Professor Sissy will be giving her lecture on the Pythagorean Theorem this Thursday at 7:00pm in Clancy Hall.



The latest addition to our family is Jonah Dathan, shown here looking cute with me. I pretty much love this picture - the official Auntie Karis picture. :) I told Jake and Janelle (the proud parents) to make sure this photo goes into his baby book. We'll see... :) Well anyway, through Jonah I get my baby fill. It's still nice to be able to give him back when he gets fussy, though. :)



This was taken at the wrestling tournament a couple of weekends ago, which always dominates our time as teachers, since the kids don't care about anything else. It's a very difficult teaching week here... This past weekend was a volleyball tournament, which was unfortunately the only home games for our students. I watched a lot of volleyball, did some books, supported our team. But I enjoy that sort of thing. :)



Welp, it's getting colder and colder here. The temperature has been between -10 and -25 this past week. I need to get my winter groove on so I can start going outside and doing exercise things again, try to stay away from those holiday pounds. ;)

Cheers for now, folks. Don't forget to comment!! :)

Halloween O Eight, and Other Fun Activities

Fortunately, Halloween was on Friday this year. Thursday night was one busy evening. I not only had 3 dozen maple bars to make, but also a pan of brownies, a mess of hair, and a pirate.

My kitchen while I cooked:



Some cookies Adrianna made at my place:



My kitchen after I cooked:



And what we did in between:



Part of the process of becoming a pirate involved making my hair as gross as possible. This meant putting lots and lots of shaving cream in my hair to give it that knotted, dreaded look. Adrianna, of course, was there to help. That's why she's my number one stunner. :)

There were several bakers that evening. Damon and Heidi came over to share their goodies, and of course sample mine. We got a nice surprise during the evening. My first Full Circle Farm order came in. It's an organic farm in Washington that has just recently begun shipping to Unalakleet, which rocks for us. We get a sweet deal on fresh, organic produce. I've already been eating better! Here we are marveling at one of our pieces of green gold: a mango!



This year I dressed up as a pirate. (Special thanks to Sissy who got sweet costume materials in town - especially my sword!) Frankly, I was an amazing pirate. I won't lie. There were also a lot of other sweet costumes, including a paper sack, a plastic bag, and a stick. Who do you think was the coolest?



Here is my awesome tattoo:



The real Captain Jack Sparrow version, drawn with permanent market by one of my students.



Thanks, dude. :) It's still there.

Also, I just thought this was a cool shot of one of my kids during the Halloween parade of costumes.



With the carnival and the costumes and the baking and the candy, we had a very full Halloween. :) Thanks to everyone who made it rock!

Other fun things I've been up to: Skiing!! Our first excursion to the out of doors in the snow on our skis took place a couple of weekends ago. David, Ryan, Adrianna, Me, and a visiting friend Robert took a ride up to the North River bridge for some good, snowy fun.

This is David, Adrianna, and I:



And of course Adrianna - this is the first time she used her brand new skis!



It was beautiful weather, and loads of fun. I'm looking forward to a good season! I also went out once with Carrie up river. It was a beautiful evening. We both decided it's high time we got back into shape... sigh. I'll ski 100 times this year, I will!! (2 down, 98 to go...)

Here's me loving my skis:



Carrie was home for a whole 10 days! As always, it was good to spend some quality time together.



And the lovely sunset:



So that's pretty much it for now. Things are pretty busy here, but all is well. I've been enjoying my time with friends, new and old. Take care, and don't forget to comment. I've been averaging a whopping zero comments lately... hint hint! :)

Scenery Photos: Not For Sale

A couple of weeks ago, we took 14 seniors on a career trip around Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula, and Palmer. Basically, it was lots of driving, lots of touring, lots of listening, and lots of fun! Here are some snapshots from our drive. These are all taken on the road. Our destinations went like this: Anchorage to Soldotna; Soldotna to Seward; Seward to Anchorage. I couldn't tell you where each of these photos was taken. It was all lovely. I have to give props, though. All photos were taken by students. Since I was driving, I thought it would be safer that way. :)



















Hope you've enjoyed the scenery!

Last week was our annual October Teacher Inservice. It's pretty much my favorite week. We get to learn and collaborate and get work done. And of course our social network multiplies about a hundred times over, which is cool.

Anyway, back to teaching this week! Peas out.

Sunday Morning Adventure

On Saturday night, some of us got together and enjoyed a "Progressive Dinner" in which we all contributed some part of the dinner (mine was quite a small contribution... a bit last minute) and moved from new place to new place to see all the cool things people have done to their new homes. It was very nice, a good mix of people. That night we were all introduced to Jeremy, the new PA at the clinic (his wife and daughter are unfortunately out of town, so we haven't met them yet). He has snow shoes, Kira has snow shoes, I just like to snow shoe, so the three of us made plans for a Sunday Morning Adventure (hence, the title). He brought an extra pair for me, since I don't have any (yet).

Kira woke me up a little past 10am in the morning. I was reluctant, but I agreed to go forward with the plans to hang out. I am so glad she made me do it. :) Jeremy picked us up in his sweet Jeep and drove us out to the very very end of the 14 mile road. The snow was quite icicly, so we x-ed the snow shoeing idea and just decided to hike it. We hiked for quite a ways - it was so beautiful outside!



Along the way we found lots of tracks - moose, bunnies, fox, even bear! Jeremy and I studied them closely - he knows tons about this sort of thing, so it was cool to learn more.



This is our first group picture. Guess who's in the middle?? :)



This was the farthest we hiked to. The stacks of stones there have a Yupik name - I think it starts with an N - but I don't remember what it is. It's supposed to represent a person, I think, and also act as a marker, a known location in the middle of the tundra.



That's the coolest thing about here - when you are out, you are really OUT there. It's not even like hiking in a national park. There aren't rangers here. We're pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. It's great. :) (Don't worry, we stayed on a trail. Snow, especially when it's not windy, makes it easy to stay on track.) Once we started to go into bush areas, however, there was definitely more noise on our end. Jeremy was ahead of me, and I called out, "Maybe you should start singing now." "Yeah," he replied, "I'm calling for bears right now."



After our hike out, we decided to start a fire for lunch. Fortunately, I was prepared for this very sort of thing. :)





That's right, I had my handy dandy survival kit (thank you, Kim Hanisch), and I was able to start a fire using flint, steel, and a cotton ball coated in Vaseline. With some finagling, after only a few tries we had a blazing fire. We sat and ate and chatted for a while, munching on granola bars, apples and cheese, and hot chocolate.



It was a fantastic way to start any day! We were out for a good 5 hours or so, driving included. On the way back we did a bit of off-roading in the Jeep, up a big hill over the gravel pit. So lovely! The three of us had a great time!



There are some back pictures that I haven't quite uploaded yet, all from my trip to Anchorage. That will come later... sorry it's taking so long! This week will be good, also. It's Inservice week, so about 400 teachers from all over the district will be gathered here in Unalakleet for professional development classes and, of course, great social time. :) I'll have a full house myself, but I'm looking forward to good times with good people, and learning new things. This is my favorite week out of the whole year.