March

Once again I was waiting for Joe to post.  He talks about posting a lot, but it just doesn't seem to happen.  So here I am.  I'm being hard on him.  He's actually at a basketball tournament in Russian Mission right now, and I know he'll want to post this weekend and write about it.  So I'll save the good stuff for him.

It's the middle of March and we only have 8 weeks of school left.  Thank goodness.  This past week was the longest week of the year.  Every day felt like it should have been Friday.  St. Patrick's Day was a lot of fun.  I read a book to the kids on Wednesday about leprechaun traps, and then gave them about an hour to work together and build their own traps.  They LOVED it.  Kids that don't normally get along worked as a team to build these really creative traps with rope ladders (because leprechauns might not know how to use stairs) and signs pointing the way to fake gold coins.  Thursday morning I went in early and sprung their traps.  I left chocolate coins on their desks with a little poem left by Larry the Leprechaun.  Unlike last year's class, these kids didn't suspect me at all.  They were ecstatic about a leprechaun being in the room.  An even funnier story happened in the kindergarten room down the hall.  During lunch time, Anne, the K teacher, tipped over a desk and left little foot prints all over the room.  She strewed paper on the floor and sprinkled candy around the room.  She thought this would be exciting for her tinies.  When she left the room, one of her little guys went in and used the restroom.  He didn't realize it, but he didn't flush.  So when the whole class came back in, they explored around the room looking at the mischief caused by a leprechaun....and then they got to the bathroom.  They opened the door and started screaming about the anuk (poop) in the toilet.  I guess even a leprechaun has to take care of business.

A couple of weekends ago Joe had a basketball tournament in Mountain.  I was super excited to be able to watch his kids play, and to watch him coach.  The boys lost their first game by a few points, and were devastated.  Joe had to coach his girls right after so he didn't have a chance to talk to his boys about the game.  I followed them into the halls and watched as one of his players totally took over and talked them down.  I went to the student store and bought them slush puppies to cheer them up.  His girls ended up winning, and then his boys were up next.  Now, let me just tell you, Joe's boys are small.  He has one boy as tall as he is, but the rest are like my size or smaller.  They always play teams that are giants compared to them.  but they play their hearts out.  The next game was awesome.  They came in strong and had a good lead by half.  3rd quarter was rough.  They started missing shots and it messed with their heads.  By the end of 4th quarter, they were just trading shots.  With 10 seconds left, the other team made a huge basket and took the lead.  Joe called a time out with 6 seconds left and told them what play to run.  It worked out perfect, and one of his boys made the winning shot with a little more than a second left.  As soon as that buzzer sounded, Joe was jumping up and down and all of his boys ran to him for a hug.  It was magical.  They hadn't won a single game all season, and they finally won on their home court.  They were sooooo excited.  And so was Joe.  That was probably my favorite moment of this whole year.

Now he's at the last tournament of the year.  I don't want to tell you about it because he'll want to, but I will tell you that he's out of town which means I'm staying at Hotel Sandra.  Joe left Thursday morning, so I moved in.  She woke me up Friday morning with a vanilla latte, and greeted me after work with eggrolls, potstickers, and rice.  There's always yummy snacks and of course, internet shopping.  But don't tell Joe, because we're suppose to be on a budget, and there was no room for Clinique, or REI in the budget this month.  Shh.  Today we slept in and now we're back on the computers and watching Sex in the City.  We're also planning our next trip to town.  We're just trying to decide which weekend to go.  If we go in 2 weeks, we don't have to wait as long.  If we wait until the 15th, there will only be 4 weeks of school left once we get back.  Either way it will be great.  Originally, Joe said it should just be a girl's weekend and that he would stay home with Merls.  But as of last night, he's thinking he needs a break and wants to go in too.  So much for male strippers and shopping.

The weather has been amazing lately.  We've had about a week and a half of warm temps (in the 20's) and sunshine.  Sandra and I have snow shoes and try to get out when it's nice.  The northern lights were active last week, and we were going out between 10-12 each night to check it out.  They weren't like the pictures you see on the internet, but they were green, and arched across the tundra.  We tried to get pictures, but they didn't turn out.  Another teacher at our school took this picture and sent it to me to share.  You're looking at the road towards the airport with the tundra behind it.  The lights weren't this bright when I was out, but he sure got a great shot.

If you haven't already heard, Joe and I signed on for another year in Mountain Village.  We had talked about transferring to a different village, but it just didn't work out.  I know, we said this was a 2 year adventure, but it's just not an option to leave Alaska right now.  We've talked to all of our contacts back home, and there just aren't jobs for us right now.  So here we are.  Hope you all understand.

Storm's on it's way in now, and Joe is suppose to be flying, so I better go.  Have a great weekend!  Check out Flying Wild Alaska on Discovery if you want to see what it's like in our neck of the woods.  They actually touched down in Mountain last week, but you only saw the airstrip.  But it'll give you an idea what it's like to live and fly out here.  Probably my mom shouldn't watch...and maybe Auntie Di too.  You two are not allowed to watch it.