21 Below

Yes - the title means exactly what you think it should...it is NEGITIVE 21 DEGREES here!! It's a little crazy, but honestly I would not have known it was that cold just by feeling it on my skin. I have not gone out much today, but the walk over to school (all 40 feet) was not too bad. I only have a sweatshirt and gloves on - I am sure that doesn't shock anyone! Usually, I am getting teased because I always have snow pants and long underwear on. It must be cold though because Puffin feet were too cold so I carried her most of the way.

So, I went to another village for Thanksgiving - Manacottic (KMO). I have a bunch of friends that I met at in-service (orientation) live there so I went there for thanksgiving. It is closer to Dillingham, only a 10-minute flight. So, I flew from New Stu to Dillingham (about an hour) and then from Dillingham to KMO.


Here are some pics of KMO -



This is my friend Whitney, who I stayed with while I was there. We are walking through the village to the post office -

Here are some pics of Thanksgiving there -


Don't you love the Birthday Turkey Cake -






So I found a house for my Aunt Gracie, it is just a nice as the one we found in Bermuda!!

It's getting darker

We are definitely getting shorter days here and the sun may not rise until about 9 am, but this is the view of the sun rise from my classroom window:


It is really beautiful and it is like that EVERY morning.

Puffin and I had a pretty relaxing weekend. I made lesson plans and she slept. I baked some bread and she slept. I did my homework for some classes I am taking and guess what Puffin slept!

She probably slept so much because we were out hiking twice this weekend. We had a really good time and now that the tundra is pretty frozen it a lot more fun. We were able to hike up through some trees and saw the river freezing. Here are some pics from us standing on a precipice overlooking the river. We are probably 30 or 40 feet up from the river bed here.





Here are some big pieces of ice bumming into each other at the river bed:

This is Puffin looking over the ledge...if she thinks I am getting any closer she is CRAZY!!


When we were out hiking, we saw some hair like stuff on trees. I (madame nature) had NO idea what it could be so I took some pics and asked Alex. He explained that this is beard lichen and it is similar to Spanish moss, which is found down south.


Puffin is a hiking machine!! Here she is hiking right out of her sweatshirt -


But, I guess we were out for too long because our hike ended with me caring Puffin for a while. Once we were out of the woods and back on the trails, she was ready to run like a little maniac again though!!

Halloween

I had a wicked crazy week here, but it was VERY fun!!

We had a reading day here at school. We let the kids read all morning and then in the afternoon they paired up with elementry kids and read to them. It was really so cute!

Then there was some Drug-Free assembly, and the little kids did some native dancing to "scare the drugs away from the Villiage". That was really cool - I had never seen native dancing before.


Yesterday, I went 4-wheeling with my nieghbors. It was really fun - I even got to drive one!



Here is my neighbor teaching his daughter to shoot. They are Puffin's Babysitters when I go away. Roberta, the wife, has learned that Puffin will do ANYTHING for Chicken! HAHAHAHA

Here I am learning to shoot my nieghbors gun.

Here I am learning to shoot Terry's gun too! I know when I come back I am going to have to live in NH!! hahahah


We also had a Haunted House for Halloween. It was VERY fun! I was a skelton. I stood in a dark room with only a black light so I glowed, and I looked like only bones when I walked. I was VERY Scary! :)

Here I am Dancing in my costrum -
Here I am with one of the students who was a Mummy for the Haunted House -

I have been sick so there are no hiking pics this weekend, maybe next week...we will see!

trip to ANC

I went to Anchorage this past weekend to meet up with a friend and do some shopping. I never thought going to Old Navy could ever be so exciting!! I got some new jeans and sweaters there. I also picked up ton of winter cloths from the Amy Navy store so I should be all set for the winter up here now; we will see if I turn into a popcicle :)

The mountains pics here are all taken on the plane ride to over to ANC. It was really a breadth taking ride.







I know that all of you have missed seeing my smiling face so here is a pic for you -

Aren't the mountains really amazing in back of me?!?!

Playing in the snow

Here is Puffin really enjoying the snow - don't worry she always wears a sweater.  She is getting really good at following me.  I have even let her off leash around the school and she stays right with me.  I am still worried about letting her be free when we are around other dogs because she is just WAY too friendly and doesn't realize that a growling husky chained to a tree may not be the nicest dog to make friends with.  She also still thinks she is a bear.  We went hiking this weekend and she kept sticking her nose in the snow covered berry bushes looking for berries.  She would just look at me like "where are my berries?".  It was VERY cute.  She also got cold or the snow got too deep so just like when she would swim at Revere and would get cold - she just would jump on me until I held her and carried her through the deep snow.  She is sooo funny!!!

These are icicles already forming on the roof kinda crazy huh!!

This is ice flowing down the river - those are HUGE pieces of ice!!  The smaller streams and rivers are all frozen so the ice is just rushing through.

Here are some kids sledding down the main street.  

I called my mom yesterday and said it was so warm here that I didn't even have a jacket on - she said it was so cold there she had to put on the heat - it was 40 here and 45 there!!  

SNOW

OMG (that says Oh My God!!!) - I woke up today and it snowed! Just a light dusting, but still SNOW...don't the weather gods know this is NOT allowed! It is only Oct 3rd...hmmmm...I don't think I can do too much about this...

Oh By the way...it is still snowing!

Happy Birthday!!

Well...my baby turned 1 today!! She got some wonderful toys and had a great time tearing them apart. John also got her the cutest hoddie ever, and she looks so happy wearing it! We had a birthday diner of chicken and rice, but Puffin was so excited about digging the squeaker out of her now toy she let the rice wait. No worries she devoured the chicken, but left the rice until her toy was sufficiently destroyed.







Before -


After -





Other than Puffin's B-day nothing much is going on here. The weather is changing here and it is getting a bit colder, but that is what long john's are for, right?

Also THANK YOU all very much for the care packages. They are the highlight of my week - it is sooooo great to get them and the food really wonderful! The lady at the post office always comments how much my family must love me and I just "Yes, they do!"