Fingers crossed.

Most of my weeks here in Alaska have flown by. They go so quickly and before I know it, it's a new month... then all of a sudden I'm starting my 30 day countdown until I have to leave this place. One month from today I'll be in Anchorage doing some shopping with Kasie before we head up to visit some friends of ours that were the substitutes at the school when I first arrived. After those few days, it'll be time to head home!

 

However, this week is an exception to that. It's been a long week here for some reason. We've had awesome weather and the sun has been shining! Most of my days after school have been spent packing and cleaning... tomorrow I move out of the house I've been staying in for the past four months and I move in with Kasie and Derek. They are so great; they've made me my own little "room" that has a bed and storage along with Christmas lights and pictures hung up above my bed. I even have my own little closet at the end of the bed. I'll post a picture later but I almost cried when I saw it - those of you who know me won't be surprised. ; )

As much as I'm excited to be moving in with them and moving down here with the rest of the teachers, it makes it even more real that the time is flying by. I can't explain how much I've learned and how much I've grown from this experience and the people and kids I've met along the way.

Well, with the long week, I'm excited for tomorrow! A weekend with great friends is much needed. It sounds like it'll be a good one as usual and I'm hoping the weather cooperates with our plans! You never know with that... I'm crossing my fingers!

Kasie and I with some help from Derek and Jeff, have started another project in the library! Kasie did an awesome Earth Day craft with the kids and we decided to hang them up above the books.... naturally, this lead to us coming up with this whole plan to decorate above there. We ripped and crumpled up paper to make those flowers and the sign that turned into a sun. It really helps to brighten it up in there. I'm sure we'll add some more to it... but for now, I like it. : )

Earth Day crafts - showing me their Earths!

Very proud of his tower....

 

I may or may not have helped him with this a little bit. ; ) He was very proud of his tower, too! 

Today is Alecia's birthday and so on Tuesday before Kasie went out of town, we had a dessert get together with the staff as we've done for every one's birthday. As you guys can probably tell by now, we tend to go over board for pretty much everything so dessert should be no exception. We found this recipe on pinterest and had to make it. The bottom one is called Butterfinger Cookie Dough Cheesecake bars and the top one is the same exact thing only instead of Butterfingers, we used one of Alecia's favorites - Carmellos! Needless to say, they were probably the best desserts I've ever had. It's a layer of cookie, a layer of the candy of your choice, a layer of cheesecake, some more cookie dough dropped on top and then chocolate chips! They were so sweet but so delicious!

 

That's it for today! There's a lot of cleaning, some packing and some extra sleep in my future. : )

 

Hopefully I'll have some pictures from the weekend to share soon... until then, miss you all!