Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and enjoyed spending time with friends and family. This was my first Thanksgiving away from home and although I missed my family like crazy, I am very thankful for the family that I've made up here. Macy and I spent the day at LeEsia and Ryan's house, cooking and playing and just hanging out until everyone came over for dinner at 3. It was a fun, busy house but there were lots of laughs had and a good time spent not discussing school or work. : )

I got a new camera recently, one that I've wanted to buy for a very long time! So I've been snapping them like crazy. This post will be filled with pictures, just a warning!

A busy few weeks are coming up! A full week of school after this break is over, a volleyball tournament the next weekend as well as a holiday bizzaar and a movie night. The next weekend looks like I'll be making a visit to another village and then the following weekend, Macy and I start our journey home. Time is flying by, before I know it, I'll be home! 

It's been cold here and we've had a good amount of snow. Unfortunately the snow has disappeared a little and we're left with a sheet of ice. I have taken my first fall for the winter. Those of you that truly know me and my clumsiness won't be surprised by that but I have to say, it did hurt. 

 Thanksgiving day sunrise. 

 Macy watching her parade. ; )

 Pop-pop, these pictures are for you. Instead of gardens, we have these things that you can grow veggies and lettuce in.. they are awesome! 

 What we went through to get the next picture..... 

 Happy Thanksgiving from Macy and I. :)

 Macy and her bff, Mia!

 Mom and son bonding.... thankful for this family! 

 I carved it.... 

 And had two beggers!

 Aurora... so cute!

 Thanksgiving day sunset! 

 We played taboo for quite awhile last night. I'm usually not a game person but this was a very fun game! 

 My kids picked someone to write a biography on. After they did those, we spent a few days learning how to use oil pastels and doing abstract portraits of their person! 

 Practicing symmetry and making snow flakes to decorate the classroom and hallway!

 Macy's Christmas collar from Aunt Jodi. ;) We both love it and I may be obsessed with the moose! 

 Not getting out of the bed the other morning! 

 My awesome aid and one of my students practicing their symmetry! 

 Craziness before break.... 

 Our first icing! 

 Four some friends at lunch time! 

 We wrote acrostic poems about snowflakes and put them on our symmetry ones! 

 Love this family that has made me and Macy feel like a part of theirs. 

See those of you at home in about 22 days. : )

Thursday is Friday this week!

I know it's been quite a while... but just a quick update before school starts this morning! It's only Thursday but for my kids, it's Friday! Tomorrow is a day off for them and an inservice day for us. Then starts a busy weekend of scoring for the volleyball tournament! Then as soon as that ends, a student council retreat starts which we will be helping with! Busy, busy, busy! 

I just have a few pictures to update you with as well as some fun facts that I borrowed from Megan's blog that she posted. They're pretty neat facts and I thought you'd all enjoy them. So thanks to Megan for letting me steal them from her. :)

If you place Alaska, with all of its islands, on top of the “continental” United States, it spans from the Great Lakes to Texas, and from Florida to California.

At 591,000 square miles, Alaska is larger than Texas, California,and Montana combined.

The coastline of Alaska is longer than the coastline of the continental United States.

Of Alaska’s 3 million lakes, the largest (Lake Iliamna) is the size of Connecticut.

Alaska’s mainland is only 51 miles away from Russia.

Alaska has 17 of the 20 highest mountains in North America (Mt. McKinley is the highest at 20,320 feet).

Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867 for under 2 cents per acre.

The name “Alaska” comes from an Aleut word meaning “The Great Land”

Astronauts say they can see the 800-mile Trans-Alaska Pipeline from outer space.

Due to long summer days in Alaska, giant vegetables are common, such as a 98-pound cabbage recorded in 1990.

Alaska has two of the three biggest islands in the U.S. - Kodiak and Prince of Wales

 LeEsia took this picture the other morning. I took one as well but mine was with my phone and didn't turn out this amazing. I told her this needed to be framed. I'm a little bit obsessed with it! 

 We had a carnival at school the other night. It was filled with games, tons of kids, prizes, balloons, a light up cowboy hat and at the end of the night, a pie to the face. A few staff members volunteered to get a pie in the face to raise money for the school. Each staff member had a bucket and if someone wanted to pie them, they would put their name on the back of the ticket and put it in the bucket. At the end of the night, we all picked a ticket out of our buckets and that person got to pie us. It was a fun, but tiring night. 

These next two pictures are for anyone that read my blog while I was in Port Heiden. This is the house down in old village that was hanging off the cliff. The house that my mom's float came from underneath and the one that I had numerous pictures of. Recently, this house and another one or two took the fall. It makes me really sad to see and to know those memories are now washed away. I am so thankful that a friend from the village posted these pictures so I could see them.... crazy how time can change things and how quickly erosion can occur. 

Macy has been good! And by good,  I mean she is doing well.. but she has been pretty naughty lately. We went about a week with only one accident and then all of a sudden it has stopped and it's almost back to square one. She's a stubborn little girl, that is for sure. But she is getting bigger and I still love her all the same. This picture was taken the day that she had about 6 accidents in the house... she spent most of the day in trouble and in her kennel, guess that really tired her out. 

For anyone that is wondering, Macy and I will be heading home in about 36 days! Absolutely crazy how time is flying... can't wait to see everyone. :) 

Finally, some snow. :)

The moment most of us have been waiting for has arrived… the first snow of the winter! Halloween ended up being a somewhat sunny but cold day and the rain/snow held off for the trick or treaters! The next day was a sunny, very cold day and so we knew it was only a matter of time until the snow started falling. Friday after school the snow started coming down and it was a beautiful sight. It continued through the night so this morning we woke up to a very windy, but snowy day! Throughout today, the rain has started and so the snow is slowly disappearing and turning to slush…. Not as pretty.

The past few weeks have been pretty normal – the kids have been a little crazier and having some more trouble listening than usual but they’re still not bad. I’ve had some crazy moments during school but nothing I couldn’t handle. This first year of teaching sure has a load of experience for me. Experience that I am, usually after the fact, very grateful for.

My first Halloween as a teacher was fun… knowing the day was going to be a little crazy, I planned a fun day. We did a science project and made slime, wrote some Halloween poems,  made pasta skeletons and wrote a story using adjectives about our slime, etc. It sure was crazy, as I imagined but it was a fun day and we had a good time. After school they kids started trick or treating. There’s no set time here so the kids start when they want and go until whenever they feel like it. I had my first trick or treaters around 4 and ran out of candy at around 7:30 but I was told that some teachers still had kids coming around 9:30….. with that being said, the kids up super late and full of candy made for a not ideal Friday. Lucky for me, we’re talking about the Ice age in Social Studies so guess what movie we got to watch and then compared to our textbook? Yup, Ice Age Continental Drift – perfect!

Today has been a day of cleaning, playing outside in the snow with Macy and some kids and being lazy with a four wheeler ride thrown in there. Later is our weekly Saturday dinner with friends. A pretty good Saturday, I’d say. : )

 Macy and her new friends (Jason and Crystal's dogs), Tessa and Attica.

 Otter... I can't remember if I posted this before or not so if so, sorry! 

 A cuddly Macy is my favorite! 

 Not so green anymore!

 Aurora showing off her new baby Aurora doll and her high heels. 

 Macy and I say thanks for the package, Aunt Donna, Uncle Joe, Pam, Susie, John and Jared. :)

 Love my Christmas lights up! And Macy loves her new blanket!

 Treats for my kids!

 Happy Halloween - LeEsia and I!

 Making slime!

 M.A.... my aid and some kids making slime! 

 My finished product ... love this stuff!

 A break from the rain and before the snow! 

 What I get when a 1st grader takes our pictures! 

 She was loving this! 

 Four wheeling in the snow/rain with LeEsia!

I decided to add a little Yupik to this post because I finally remembered to bring my notes home with me. But, before I go into all of that, I thought I’d say that I was given a Yupik name. All the natives, including my kids, have a Yupik name. They were given these names when they were young by their elders; usually in honor of someone who has past or someone else in their family. The Yupik names have meanings and I was given one that means pretty and beautiful. My aid in my classroom who is a native from the village gave me the name Kenegaar. That doesn’t sound at all how it looks – it’s more like ‘gu-nika-naq’. I’m still learning to say it but I was really, really excited and even honored to have her give me a name. That’s some special to me.

Here are the months:

Iralull’er – January, which means bitter or ugly moon.

Kanruyauciq – February, which means frosty moon – everything is covered in frost.

Kepnerciq – March, the breaking of winter’s hardships, some longer and warmer days.

Tengmiirvik – April, meaning the melting snow that forms lakes and rivers again as well as birds arriving and bears awake.

Kayangut Annutiit – May, time to start hunting for the wild bird eggs.

Kaugun – June, which means the fish arrive in the streams.

Ingun – July, birds gather in the grassy marshes to molt, eat and rest.

Tengun – August, which means the molting and resting are done and the feathers grow back on the birds so they can fly again.

Amirairvik – September, which happens to mean that the moose begin to shed the velvet off their antlers.

Qaariitaarvik – October, spirits are reflected by the present day trick or treaters.

Cauyarvik – November, meaning there are native gatherings and dances that use the native drums. Families have their own dances that celebrate the families food they hunted.

Uivik (wee-vick) – December, the turning point.

A few other random words that I’ve learned are:

Kemek – meat

Nutek – gun

Tuntuvak (dun-to-vak) – moose

Circunrek – antlers

Nuussiq – knife

Just a few things for now…. I can always post more later. Sorry it took me so long. : )

Macy and I start venturing home in about 48 days… woo hoo! Miss you all <3