December 21, 2016: morning stroll

I got to go for a quick walk with Meagan this morning before she headed to work.  These are some of my favorite moments on this island!  Sister time is the greatest.

December 20, 2016: Christmas Saga, part 3

This is me and Alanna.  Doing something festive that spreads Christmas cheer and that may or may not get us in trouble with the authorities.  Therefore I can't post the entire story on my blog.   The short version of the story is that we started up our Tuesday winter walks again and were inspired to bring Christmas spirit to Joel's house no matter what the cost.  Merry Christmas, Joel!

December 19, 2016: Winter hikes

Staying here for Christmas rather than going home has been tougher than I thought it would be.  Having places like this to hike all break makes it a tad bit easier.

December 18, 2016: Kevin!

I've always thought that Arthur looked like Kevin McCallister from Home Alone.  He loves that movie and calls it the movie with the funny boy.  When he put his robe on tonight, I couldn't help but make him do the funny boy face.

December 17, 2016: Frozen Old Woman

I haven't hiked Old Woman with this much ice before!  I'm thankful for my ice cleats, because there was a frozen waterfall we had to scale.  Thankful for a roommate to motivate me to do hikes like this!

December 16, 2016: cookie decorating

When you decorate cookies in first grade, a little drummer boy is bound to drown in sprinkles.

December 15, 2016: Ornaments

I know many teachers who hate the week before Christmas break, but I happen to love it.  I love the crafts, the music, the stories each morning about the newest elf in the shelf mischief.  This year we tried making popsicle stick ornaments.  They turned out really cute!

December 14, 2016: Christmas Concert

Tonight was our Christmas concert.  The kiddos did an amazing job, and Father Christmas made a special appearance for the kids at the end of the show.  Father Christmas makes special appearances at a lot of events this time of year.  His specialty is reciting "Twas the Night Before Christmas."  This was the fourth time I have seen him at an event, and the third time I have heard his recitation.  I am starting to think I could recite it myself...

"And momma in her kerchief and I in my hat, had just settled down for a long winter's nap..."

December 13, 2016: Running the USA

I got an incredibly thoughtful gift from Katie in the mail today.  She sent me a journal that allows you to keep track of each of the 50 states you have visited.  I am using it to track which of the states I have run in.  There is a big map in the front where I can write the date when I did each run.  Inside the journal, there is a map of each state and pages to record the details of your trip.  On each of the maps of the states where Katie and I have traveled together, she wrote little notes about memories of the trips.  So sweet!  I stayed up late tonight, reminiscing about all the trips and runs I have done in the USA.  I can't wait to add more to my list.  Next run:  Hawaii!!

December 12, 2016: Creepy Olaf

I have a bin of stuffed animals in my classroom.  Kids read to them or play math games with them.  Today I looked up during my planning period and saw Olaf just staring at me.  I couldn't help but be creeped out.  

December 11, 2016: Eagle's perch

You can't beat Kodiak's summer, but the winter is great for a couple reasons:

1.  Sleeping in on weekends in AMAZING since the sun doesn't come up until 9:30

2.  The snow is magical. 

3.  EAGLES!!  They come in to town more frequently in the winter.  There have been times when I drive past the cannery and see 15 of them at a time lining the roof.  This guy was perched right above the main entrance of the church.  He kept peering over the edge at the group of kids that had gathered to watch him.  

December 10: Dancing in Kodiak

Only in Kodiak do you see a sign like this on a bar's dance floor!

You may not see ice cleats, but you will see people showing up at all hours of the night dancing the night away in Xtra Tuffs, hiking boots, sweatshirts, and rain gear.  A slightly different vibe than when we went out in Chicago; this is why I love it here.

December 9, 2016: Staff Christmas Party

This is Heather as a Christmas tree.  This is also why I love being a teacher.  Only here do you have a staff party with games like this... 

December 8, 2016: Santa Claws

We have our staff Christmas party tomorrow.   The winner of the festive Christmas sweater contest gets to have his/her own spray painted, festive parking space.   Game on.

Not bad for a homemade shirt.  I made it in honor of my one student who acts like a velociraptor every day.  There is literally at least one time a day when I have to remind him that only young humans, not raptors, get to participate in certain activities.  I thought he'd love the shirt.  Turns out he didn't really care.  I forgot that 6 year olds don't really appreciate the wit behind claws/Clause.

Also, I ended up getting second place in the sweater contest.  My winning coworker was wearing a shirt with a Christmas unicorn barfing up candy canes.  Tough to beat!

December 7, 2016: Love me some Jesse

Happy birthday, Jesse!  My youngest sister turns 26 today!  I can't begin to express what a blessing she is.  She is the most forgiving, patient, selfless, humble, and kind hearted woman I know.  She also happens to be the most ridiculous human I know.  I love that she lets me laugh at her, both when she's trying to be a weirdo, and when it just happens naturally.

I miss her deeply.

Jesse, thank you for challenging me to love other people more completely, to take risks in life, and to have fun!  I love that you bring out the inner cheeseball in me.  I really hope that at some point life brings us back to the same place, but I am so thankful that even if it doesn't, we know the distance won't keep us from being close.   Love you!!

December 6, 2016: This is me.

Am I not the cutest teacher you have ever seen?  In the initial version of this "art" my head was all scribbled in and I had even crazier eyes.  My favorite part of this creation is that the small yellow band with the orange scribbles is my gold fanny pack that I wear every day.  I'm still not sure why this kid drew me with monster claws and orange chest hair.  I feel less confident about how much my kids like me as their teacher...

December 5, 2016: nailed it

When you put first graders in charge of decorating the class Christmas tree...

And this was AFTER I made some kids move their ornaments because we had SIX of them clinging to the very top pokey branch of the tree.  Once we add our homemade ornaments, I am sure it will balance out, but for now, this is what we have.  Merry Christmas!

December 4, 2016: Oh Christmas Tree

Please look at our gigantic, lopsided, Christmas bush we brought home today.  I love it.  Almost as much as I love the fact that Alanna and Joel let me put reindeer antlers on their heads for our Christmas photo.  They didn't even fight me.   (Insert the emoji with the hearts for eyes).  

December 3, 2016: Thai food extraveganza

Anyone who knows me knows I don't really like to cook.  I think it's because nobody ever let me toss sticky rice in a hot steamer basket thing before.  Game changer.  When you have a friend who grew up in Thailand and wants to take a trip down memory lane by cooking up the most delicious Thai food imaginable, you join that party.  I still kind of hate cooking, but it's really fun to bust out a giant mortar and pestle and try something new once in a while.

December 2, 2016: Nutcracker

This is the Rat King.  In the Nutcracker.  He is wearing Adidas pants.  

I can't stop laughing at how amazing this is.  

The Nutcracker was truly a beautiful performance.  I have seen in done in Chicago, and I liked it a lot there, but there is something about seeing your friends, your coworkers' kids, students from your school, girls you work with during Awana, and people you recognize from church all dancing in the production together that makes it that much more magical.

December 1, 2016: Intervention

SWF searching for a man, child, dog or something to keep her from staying at school long after the rest of her coworkers have gone home to their families.  Give me a reason to stop this madness...

November 30, 2016: My dirty little blog

Alanna came into my room tonight and I was updating my blog.  After a nice life discussion, I was showing her how I recently started looking at my blog "stats" to see where some people who read my blog live, how people stumble across this blog online, and who (other than my few friends and family) actually look at this thing.  It's really fun to see that people from Russia, France, Portugal, Poland, China, and the Ukraine have looked at my little blog before.   I'm sure they never come back to read about the random happenings in some weird girl's life, but thanks for popping over for a quick look!  Anyway, we started looking at the section of the stats that tell me how people find my blog.  This site came up as one of the feeder sites for my blog.   It all makes perfect sense.  Most of my  blog entries detail the true, filthy tales of lust and evil in my own life.  :)  

November 29, 2016: Advent Calendar

Alanna's mom sent me an advent calendar in the mail!!  It's my very first one ever!!  I can't believe I have lived 33 years without at least buying one of these for myself before.  Chocolate every day for 25 days before Christmas?  How have I not done this before?  Alanna's mom has also sent me a pair of socks with Kale on them before.  She's pretty great.  Just one of the many perks of living with Alanna :)

November 28, 2016: CAAAARL

This original picture is from the murder mystery dinner party we had with my staff a few weeks ago.   There is a large group photo, and I hung a copy of it up above my desk.  One of my students was talking to me today and he saw me in the picture.  He asked me if I was dressed up like Rick from the Walking Dead.  Then out of nowhere, he did the BEST impression of Rick's scratchy voice.  "CAAARL..."  I died.  And then I got my crap together and reminded him we shouldn't talk about The Walking Dead in first grade. 

November 27, 2016: I AM CHUCKING IT!

I am dog sitting Raylan while my friend Catie has her baby!  She is Meg and Kyle's next door neighbor which works out well when I need a dog walking buddy.  We taught Arthur how to use the Chuckit today, and it was hilarious.  I think we got hit with the ball more times than we needed to, and he kept yelling, "I am CHUCKING it."  I have been dreaming about getting a dog for the last couple of years, and more so the past few months.  I don't know where I am headed after Kodiak, or how long I plan to be here, so I am not sure that getting a dog is the most responsible decision.  But I don't want to keep putting it off "just in case" and miss out on so much joy in the mean time.   I have been thinking more about being open to teaching overseas when I leave Kodiak, and I'm not sure that bring a pooch with me is going to be possible.  But I know of a sister or two that would be willing to help me out if that became the case.  :)

Did I just officially decide to get a dog? 

November 26, 2016: Peterson SAT

Meet the Mutha Puffas, Peterson Elementary's most fiercely competitive and outrageously genius trivia team.

Actually we came in last place.  We were the youngest team, and an entire round was about parenthood.  'Aint none of us got any kids. 

November 25, 2016: #optoutside

It finally happened!  I have been wanting to hike Kashevaroff since moving to Kodiak and just haven't been able to make it work.  It's a pretty substantial mountain, so the hike takes a while.  And I have been scolded for even thinking of hiking it alone since there tends to be bears on it.  So, finding the perfect combination of a sunny day and friends with free time who wouldn't rather hike something else has proven difficult.  Today, we conquered it.   What a beautiful hike!  It was icy and slippery for a majority of the hike.  Everyone except Kinsey wiped out at some point, some of us more frequently and a bit harder than others :).  The top was ridiculously cold and windy, but the views were worth it.  Snow covered mountains in all directions.  Absolutely gorgeous.  At the top, the snow was knee deep, with a nice crust of ice over the top.  Looking back, I can't believe we didn't slide right off the mountain.  At one point, on the way down, I saw Kinsey successfully sit on her feet and slide down a steep face of the mountain because it looked too slippery to handle while standing.  I tried the same method, and for a few feet I slid successfully, but I wiped out and kind of rolled down the last couple feet of the hill.

The picture below was taken about half of the way up the mountain.  I can't get over how much I love this picture.  Joel decided this should be a jumping shot without letting the rest of us know, Kinsey looks like she invested in a pair of old school hammer pants, and as Joel put it, I look like I am pushing out a fart.   Way to keep it normal, Marcus.