Keepin on keepin on

Hey you! It’s been almost a month since vacation and I can’t decide if time has crawled by or if it’s sped by! Ha, I know that sounds crazy, but honestly, so much has happened…I’ve been ridiculously busy, and it feels like it we should be close to March by now!

Yesterday I took about a 2 mile hike away from Newtok with the snowshoes I got for Christmas. It wasn’t too cold – I was able to wear a sweatshirt and my carhartt, and of course my snowpants. I took my backpack with a thermos of peppermint tea :-) which was great when I was a ways off and stopped to rest and got cold. The husky that always goes with me found either a moose or caribou vertebrae and was playing with that while I drank the tea and took some pictures (that I will post on facebook).

I’m the “designated chaperon” for all the trips that I’m not going on as a coach. The first week back the junior high basketball team was supposed to go to Toksook Bay (pronounced “took sook”), so like always, we pack the night before, take all our stuff up to the school, pile it in the hallway, and go to class, waiting for the plane to tell us how close they are. Sometimes we get out early, sometimes we don’t leave till after school. So it’s very inconsistent. But the wind was blowing pretty bad that whole weekend and we weren’t even able to fly. I felt bad for the kids but they’ve made that trip up since then. Last weekend we went to Tununak (pronounced “tuh-noo-nuck”) and it was fun. Except when they stuffed all 4 teams of girls into one classroom to sleep. The room was actually freezing, sleeping bags were laid side by side after we pushed all the desks along the walls, and there was still not enough room to sleep comfortably. By the time the kids were all settled, the only room left was a small piece of tile floor, so I was extra cold! I’m just glad I brought a blanket. But anyway, the kids played good and we had fun. This past weekend my room mate went instead of me (I was thankful for a weekend off) because she taught there in Kipnuk for the past 10 years. They were able to get out fine, but were stuck an extra 2 nights because of fog. They got back today after lunch. We already used up our sub money, so we had to combine classes in order to have enough teachers today.

Next week (Feb. 8-12) I’ll be in Anchorage for some training and I can barely wait! I can go to a restaurant, a store, have a shower every day if I want, see cars again… yes, I’m excited :-) We also don’t get a spring break like lower 48 schools, so I’m considering this an early vacation.

I guess that's about it for now. Thanks for reading my blog and please keep praying for the people here!

Kim