Dog Sledding

I saw my first dog sled race! It was more of a warm up than a race. A 7 mile loop around the mountain side. It took about an hour and I stood there in a foot of snow waiting in the cool sunshine to see their return. The teams take off one by one so the dogs don't get tangled and play with one another. They all come back one by one, winners are decided by the time it took them. Each team has a timer so it isn't really a sprint at the end or anything. 

Ranting not raving

My newest pet peeve: people with dogs who don't give a shit what their dog does and totally babies them at the same time. It is like this dog could never do anything wrong. He bites someone and somehow it is the persons fault. He humps someone and she laughs. This dog could attack someone and she would watch it happen and laugh. Apparently he is such a good dog but all he does is tear the world apart. I am sick of watching him and watching him be a a menace. I am supposed to watch him 100% of the time but not even his owner watches him that much. When someone is allergic to dogs you should put your dogs in their crate when the person comes to visit. Isn't that common sense? But no this dog climbs all over and causes hives and the inability to breathe. Why is this funny? He is not a good dog. He is not a dog I want to watch or play with. I do not want to be responsible for him. I thoroughly enjoy my house when he is not here. Nothing gets chewed on. I don't have to shove him off counters or tables. It is wonderful. Stupid giant dog. UGH

Susukpin

What are you going to do? I have been so busy I forget to take time to write to everyone! So in the last forever amount of days since I wrote you there has been a lot going on. There was not only MAP testing at school but I also had literacy testing to do the last few weeks. It is terribly boring. I can only test one kid at a time so there is really only a few options to keep the rest of the kids busy: movies or free time. My classroom is a zoo! 

At home I have been knitting like crazy. I learned some new stitches: stockinette and moss. I made some new wash cloths and I am working on a hat. Knitting in a round is painful because there is no good spot to end so I am stuck knitting for hours. It is very time consuming but I love it. I like all my yarn I've gotten and I'm excited for my projects. I am going to finish my hat and then make a headband, mittens, socks, and another hat. I have to learn how to make flowers too! 

The weather has been fantastic here! The other day it was extremely windy, I almost fell over on the walk to school! We had a blizzard watch but nothing came of it. The ocean keeps freezing and the wind shoves all the ice to shore leaving more open water that freezes over night. It is amazing how many huge rifts of brilliant blue ice there are out there. I saw my first real life dogsledder last weekend too! The weather has been so nice and it is getting close to iditarod so the mushers are starting to train. I saw them on the tundra and also on the ice! It is crazy how smooth they run and go over the bumps of the tundra and weave through the ice rifts. I am beyond excited to see them come into town for the real event!

March 1 I will be in Anchorage to run with the reindeer! I'll post pics and videos after so you can all see my crazy experience! 

A day at the beach

I went back to the beach today. The sun was out and it was amazing! Despite the beautiful sun shining high in the sky the wind was insane. There are gusts of about 22mph today so it feels very cold out there on the wide open ocean. The sun is staying up much later than it was just a few short weeks ago. The sun is still out when I walk home from school and while I make dinner. It starts getting light out a lot earlier too. It is great to see the sun again. 3 hours of sunshine weren't enough especially because we went several days with 100% cloud cover. I made it through the darkest days of the year! It wasn't that horrible either. The darkness brought out the bright stars and northern lights. Every cloud has a silver lining!

Standardized Testing

I don't know who had the brilliant idea to give kindergarten children standardized tests, especially on the computer. My kids can't read the question or the answers. They don't know how to use a mouse. They can't read the tiny button at the bottom of the screen that says "Go on". Who made this test?! If the test was on a touch screen or an iPad that would be better. If the continue button was a big green sparkly arrow like on StarFall they would know what to do. If we took the test as one big group and I read the question to them all that would be better. Who makes standardized tests for 5 year olds? Every two seconds someone has a question or they froze the computer. They don't listen to the directions and they choose answers based on what they like or think is pretty or cool. Horrible experiences were had in that computer lab the last two days. It was 98 degrees in there and I was constantly fixing computers. Stupid waste of instructional time. 

The best present I could give

The only thing that I wanted for Christmas was to be able to go home to Minnesota. In November I was lucky enough to book a trip home. I got on the plane late Sunday night before Christmas. I rode between two unhappy children to Anchorage while their parents were passed out across the aisle. In Anchorage I slept on the fabulous concrete floor for a little bit before finding a slightly more comfortable bench to sleep on until my flight took off Monday morning before dawn. I dozed happily almost the entire 5 hour flight from Anchorage to St. Paul waking up when we crossed the state line from North Dakota to Minnesota. I was able to keep my trip a secret from my parents the entire time. It is difficult tricking my mom but I was smart and fooled her into thinking I was feeling under the weather. I even took a few photos after going for walks outside when my cheeks were rosy so my mom would think I had a fever. I sent her a few pics early Monday morning before boarding my plane to give me an excuse for not talking to her all day while I was actually flying. When I landed I had an anxious Joey waiting for me to take me home to my family. I walked in the door and my dad's face was priceless. His confusion and inability to speak made it amazing when I walked into the bathroom to find my mom getting ready for Christmas Eve with the family. She practically jumped out of her skin when she saw me. There was screaming and crying and hugging and squeezing. It was absolutely perfect! No one was quite as surprised as she was. It was a great gift. 
While I was home I did A LOT of shopping. I got shoes and clothes and food and toys. I went to Target (oh how I missed Target!) and the mall and MOA and IKEA. I saw so many people and ate so much food. I couldn't stop myself from eating basically everything because even though I cook a lot in Nome I know I do not make such delicious meals as I was eating in Minnesota. I went out in Minneapolis with friends and played games and walked my dogs. I visited Kevin and one of my favorite NHL players too. I saw my dear friend from Albert Lea and of course I spent time with my bestie finally. I got to sleep in my own bed and nothing is better than showering at home with excellent water pressure! Ten days flew by extremely fast and I did find myself missing Nome when I was overwhelmed with the hustle and bustle of the populated life. My mom got to take off early from work my last day home to go out to lunch with me and help me finish the last of my errands. I went home with one suitcase and a carry on duffle bag. Going to my Nome home I had two suitcases, a large rubbermaid tote, and my duffle bag. I had roughly 175 lbs of luggage coming back to Nome with me. I definitely do not travel lightly! 
I made it home and back on 4 planes with lots of great times had in Minnesota. I didn't panic or get sick, I am becoming a frequent flyer! I slept in the airport twice but I don't mind because I got to see my mom and dads faces when I walked in the door. The best gift I ever gave them I do believe! Now I am waiting for them to venture to Nome! 


One thing I do regret....getting bed bugs from sleeping on airport benches!

Break

Attempting to teach children anything in the last week was completely pointless. They all know that Santa is coming and that presents are appearing at their houses and that is all they want to talk about. If the words Santa or Christmas didn't come out of my mouth they were definitely not listening. We did a lot of crafts in the last week for the blessed holiday that gets them so amped up. We had our holiday musical program that went surprisingly well considering they are a rowdy bunch of 5 year olds this year. We saw the production of How the Grinch Stole Christmas that is put on each year by the older grades at school which was also precious. Friday was PJ day at school thanks to my wonderful idea. Santa also came to school on Friday and we were released at 12:30 for the holiday break. A much needed holiday break. The week was horrendous. The children were like a bunch of wild animals. I think at one point during the week I witnessed them playing something closely resembling rugby in our classroom. They formed a huddle, a scrum if you will, and were just pushing each other back and forth and not gaining any ground in either direction. The oddest thing to witness but no one got hurt and there was no crying so that was good! I slept the long afternoon of free time away on Friday and didn't do much yesterday either. I cleaned the tub and took a nice long soak with aromatherapy bath salts to clear up my stuffy nose and relax my muscles. I took another bath today and lounged around with Olive all afternoon. The day seemed horribly long and never ending and now it is 2:22am and I am sleepless and restless. I may need to take a hot shower to get myself to sleep. Nome sweet Nome, let me sleep through the night please!