The Average Life

So I keep getting in trouble for not blogging a lot, so I am going to try and be better at it. Since I last posted a lot has happened. Drew and I have decided that we are getting married in May! So that is really exciting and stressful! Now along with trying to teach I am planning wedding. I am so grateful that I have wonderful family members that are willing to help me. My family is planning the event for Utah and Drew's family is planning the event for Arkansas. I am so thankful that they are all willing to help out because it wouldn't be as wonderful if it was just me planning. 

I also made a trip to Anchorage with Molly. We were able to stay with a family that belong to the church in Anchorage. That saved us so much money not having to pay for a hotel room and rent a car. They were so wonderful too, the night we got into Anchorage they picked us up and took us back to their house. Then they proceeded to make us the most wonderful ham sandwich I have ever had. Maybe that is because I have not had a ham sandwich in months but either way it was still wonderful. We then woke up the next morning and headed out to day one of doctors appointments. I went to my appointment then Molly and I headed out to get something to eat and do a little shopping. While we were driving around we saw a McDonalds and had to stop! It is funny how different processed foods taste when you haven't had it in a long time. After McDonalds we saw a wedding dress shop and decided to stop. I figured it was time to start looking again for a dress. Not to be rude but that was the worst dress shopping experience I have had so far. The lady that was helping me wouldn't let me try on any dress that wasn't in my size even if I wanted to try a dress on for the style. Another really bad thing about it was that she kept repeating the same things over and over again. That she had 35 other dresses coming in so they would have more later, over and over again she just kept repeating it! As we were walking out of the dress shop with no intention of ever coming back she followed us out of the shop continuing her talk of 35 more dresses would be coming into the shop soon. After that we decided it was really time to go and get our nails done. We went and got our pedicures and off to find some real mexican food. It was good, but Molly and I both decided that nothing beats southern mexican food. I really miss the mexican food back in Russellville. I have already told Drew that when I get back in 66 days that we are getting us some. The next day Molly and I went and did some grocery shopping. I really like Fred Meyer and the fact that we can do all of the shopping ourselves and they send it to us, it makes things a lot easier. Well after doing our grocery shopping she dropped me off at the dentist and headed to her appointment. My appointment with the dentist was only going to take 2 hours. It ended up lasting 4 and a half hours, and that was just half of my mouth. Needless to say I was in a lot of pain after that. It was really funny to see my face after the dentist. One half of it was numb and the other half was just fine, so when I tried to laugh only half of my face moved. It made me laugh more. Well Saturday I made an appointment with a real bridal shop to see if I could find something that I liked. I found a gorgeous dress for the right price so I now have a wonderful dress for my fabulous wedding. I went to bed Saturday night excited for the chance to actually go to church on Sunday. I woke up early to get ready on Sunday and it is a good thing I did. Molly came into my room and told me that our flight leaves at 10 instead of 2 like we had planned. It was 8:30. We rushed around and got to the airport on time for our flight and headed back to Marshall. 

Last Friday we did some fun things in our class, because my class was really good during the days I was gone we got to paint pumpkins that I brought back and watch a movie. The pumpkins turned out really fun and really painted! That night the community had a fundraiser for the search and rescue squad. They had the local band come and play and they raffled off some really cool things like a kindle and an android tablet. I didn't win anything but I had a lot of fun getting to dance with my kiddos and their parents. They also played a game called Eskimo bingo. All of the kids pay a dollar and they sit in a circle. A few adults are in the middle of the circle with dice. The timer starts and the adults move around the circle and the kids toss the dice and if you get doubles you get to grab a prize from the center if you don't they move onto the next person. Once all of the prizes from the center are gone if the kids roll a double they get to go and steal prizes from others until the timer runs out. It was really fun to watch and participate it (I was the timer)

Even though this picture is blury her face makes me laugh everytime

The kids got hold of my camera

Susan and I out dancing with the people

Eskimo bingo

May aides grandson and the masks he won in Eskimo bingo

Intervention

I don't think there is such a thing as a non exciting week teaching out here in the bush. Last Friday a lot of the teachers took out the canoes out on the river to just get away for a little. It was so beautiful. I was really sad that I didn't have my camera with me. It really gave us teachers a chance to bond a lot more. When you are all working together to not tip over it really creates a bond. It really surprised me at how calm the river was. We didn't see any wild life but thats ok. It was so cool to be able to not only see the fall colors but to be able to smell fall. I know that is weird but the smell of fall is one of my favorite smells. Saturday we got together again as teachers and we made homemade pizza for us and watched a movie. One way to keep our Saturday nights a little like home. It did make me miss the Saturday night pizza dates that Drew and I would share after the football games. I made him promise me that we would get some pizza when I came back home for Christmas. Monday came way too early like it always does. This week Molly and I have been at the school until 11 or so every night. It makes for a very long week. I have enjoyed being able to talk to Drew every night on Skype (video chat).

Some guys from Oklahoma came up here to hunt and gave us the extra meat. Molly and I and a lot of the other teachers got together for a moose cutting party. Here are some pictures from our adventure.

Molly and I all dressed up

Moose legs

Molly actually touching the moose, I was very proud

Riding the moose so it didn't fall off the cart

Cody pushing the moose around

Cleaning buckets to put moose in

Getting moose cutting training

Picking the hair off the moose

Mary cutting up the moose while Susan watched

Cutting up the moose

Moose leg

It was the same size as Susan

Molly holding raw meat

Karen cutting up the meat

We found the bullet

Cleaning up

Moose meat

Well yesterday (Thursday) I had another big blow out in my class. One of the students decided they didn't like that they weren't going to gym at that time so they decided to start throwing things around the room. It got really dangerous for me and the other students in the room. I took the other students out of the room and the student that was throwing things climbed under a table. As I was getting them out from under the table they called me some dirty words and flipped me off. It was really sad to me that the student knew what those words were and how to use them in the right context. After that fire was put out things went ok. A lot of the students decided that they didn't want to listen during story time and didn't want to play in their center during center time. It was time for the students to go home for the day. I kept a few of them back because they had not listened so much that we were going to write an improvement note so they knew the plan and I knew the plan if they didn't listen any more. Well instead of writing the improvement note they climbed up on my counter and got into the art supplies and started creating things with glitter glue and tried to take them home with them. I finally got them to put the pens away and got two of the three to head home. One of the students decided that they didn't want to go home and started throwing things around the classroom and tearing up toys. As this student was in the art cabinate they also stole some of the treats we have for good behavior. I know that wouldn't be a big deal but it was stealing to me and I didn't want them thinking it was ok. Well I started asking the student how many pieces they had taken and turned it into a math problem. This made me laugh a lot just because who would do that...turn something like stealing into something the student could do for math. Well I got the treats back and the student went home. Well I didn't like the fact that my safety was on the line again so talking to Molly, she and I decided that it was time to take drastic action. We removed everything from my room, every last toy, book, marker, table, chair. Even my teaching materials were taken out. My thought process for this is that if we can teach them how to learn then they will learn better. Sounds like a good idea right? I hope so. Today (the first day of trying it out) didn't go too bad but we still had a lot of listening problems and the second half of the day we had a movie party for Molly's birthday. We will see how Monday goes. It does help though that my aide is really supportive of the idea. I really hope this is an answer to many prayers about how to teach these kids. 

What my classroom looked like before

A picture one of my kids drew of her making fun of me and and me crying

What my classroom looked like after

I took everything, even my teaching books