Lost Necklace!!!

Yesterday, I learned something really valuable from one of our kindergarten students:

If you lose something just make a sign!

During lunch, this little girl lost her cute little "clock" necklace.

So, during free-time she told the teacher, "I think I need to make a sign."

So, we let her.

Here is her making the sign:

And here she is posting it on the front door of the school:
Of course everyone can see the poster from that level :)

So remember, if you lose something-just post a sign!

Green Thumb

Today we were able to go visit the science classroom in the high school. It's amazing in there! They have a water garden. Have you ever heard of the Aero Garden? It's like that...Only major! I'm using a lot of exclamation marks because it was so neat. See those two red tomatoes in the picture below? We had those for snack today too and man where they scrumptious!

They are also growing Sweet Baby Watermelons, jalapenos, sweet corn, and peppers! This is a watermelon:

It was a fun little field trip and we didn't even have to leave the building!

Remember....

originally from here

Hunting Muskox!

Today we went out hunting for Muskox!

11:00 a.m. we were ready to roll! Or should I say ride?!

-30 degrees and 15-20 mile an hour winds.

40 miles total.

5 layers of clothing.

2 face masks.

and no Muskox :(

A fun ride?

Yes!!

Clint getting the snow machine ready for the ride:
Clint at our first stop looking for Muskox:
It was beautiful out:
Clint standing in the windiest part of the trip:
Me, freezing my tooshie off:
It was beautiful out, but waaaay to windy and cold to keep my big gloves off (they are in between my legs in the picture so I could get the camera out).

So..

Over Christmas break we saw this movie:

During the movie, Clint was looking up the hike that these guys were on: Kalalau Hike on the Na Pali Coast in Kuai, Hawaii. I thought it was a little weird that this movie, a movie about killers would inspire Clint to go on the hike. As he was looking on the computer, he kept showing me these amazing pictures:


11 miles one way to Kalalau beach.

Strenuous hiking.

Beautiful waterfalls.

30 ft. Surf.

Bamboo Forest.

A Perfect Paradise!!

Here is a site with a LOT of nice pictures and description of the hike!

This is a dream spot-and one that we'll do in the near future!

Project 365: End of Week 2

Here is page one (if you click on the picture, it will open up larger in another window):Here is page two:

Jack and Sierra....

For Christmas, we only bought one bone to give our dogs. We figured that Sierra would go after Jack's bone and Jack would go after Sierra's bone-if we bought them two. So? They only have one bone to fight over. It has been working out pretty well until recently, I found them like this:

Sorry they have alien-like eyes, but I haven't quite figured out photoshop :) So, bear with me and just look at the way they are standing. They were growling at each other for about 5 minutes. When I said, "STOP" they both looked at me, but still had their paws on the bone!

My Heart Aches

My heart aches for those in Haiti.

Please...

Pray for the people who had their lives change forever.

Pray for those people who have lost loved ones.

Pray for those people without homes.

Pray for those children who have lost everything.

Pray...

Substituting

This week I am a substitute for the K-1 class that I am student teaching in. Let me tell you, it comes pretty easy to sub when you are in the classroom everyday. But, I am getting paid not a lot, but at least it's some. It'll help Clint out paying for our mortgage :). Anyway, I walked into the classroom on Monday morning to get everything ready for the day and while my host teacher was leaving, here is a conversation that they had:

Student: "K**** where are you going?"

Host Teacher: "I have to go on a plane"

Student: "Who's going to be our teacher"

Host Teacher: "Tory is going to be here to teach you"

Student: "Oh goodie!"

Another Student: "So, does that mean we get to have choice time...all day!"

Host Teacher gave a wide-eyed look.

Students: "Ohhhhh yea!!!!"

Me: "Are you guys in a dream?"

Students: "Noooo!"

Me: "Well we do LOTS and LOTS of work in here huh?!"

Students: "Awwww Man." They leave with their heads down.

I'm such a buzz kill aren't I? hehe!

Project 365: End of Week 1

This is what I envision each week's page to look like-scrapbook pages (although it would be nice if it were a little, well, dressier). This is my first go-around with it and hopefully I will get a little bit more creative each time.

I figured that I will end up with around 53 pages at the end of the year (365 photo's divided by 7 pictures a page = 53 pages right?). WOWZA! Hopefully I will be creative enough to find something to take a picture of each day...Only time will tell :)

Project 365

Out in blogland I came across this fun little project that many people have participated in, and continue to do it every year. This project is a little bit of a challenge as it asks you to take one picture a day for 365 days! Some days I realize it's going to be difficult to find a photo to recall the events of that particular day, but others it's going to be difficult to pick just one photo to use for that day. At the end of the year, I want to put all the photos (365 photos in all!) into a book!

So, here we go, with the first week of pictures:

January 1, 2010: We spent our New Year's day traveling back to White Mountain after a wonderful Christmas break! We left Ketchikan around 5:30 and arrived in Anchorage around 9:30. We spent the night in the airport because our flight from Anchorage to Nome left around 5:30 in the morning. It wasn't too bad of a flight, as we stayed up and chatted with some teachers from around the district while waiting in the Anchorage airport.

January 2, 2010: This was taken on our way to White Mountain, we were able to fly in a new plane that Frontier received-it was really nice! The sun was just rising over the horizon and the scenery was beautiful as the glow shimmered on the ice.

January 3, 2010: This is what we ALL did today. We slept for around 17 hours! We arrived in White Mountain yesterday (1/2/2010) around 12:00 and unpacked until 2:30 put on a movie and fell asleep at 6:00. We woke up and had dinner but then again at 7:00 we fell back asleep and didn't wake up until 8:00 Monday morning!

January 4, 2010: What a good day!!! We received our Full Circle Farm package today and it brightened our week! It was such a difference having fresh salad for dinner with pear slices :) Mmm....

January 5, 2010: For our school Christmas program the staff and students participate in gift-giving. "Pick-name" is exactly like Secret Santa. On the day of the program, I get this cute little letter from one of my Kindergarten students and his grandma saying that the gift didn't arrive in the mail (it's typical for living all the way up north) it was so cute becuase he was so sad that he didn't get me a present. I had to reassure him that presents aren't important and that spending time with friends and family during the holiday is. Anyway, today I received this gift from my student :) It was a great gift, and Clint loves. absolutely loves the tea cookies!

January 6, 2010: One of the prettiest things about living up north is the sunrises and sunsets. The colors of the sky are absolutely stunning! I captured this outside of the school. It was too pretty to not remember!

January 7, 2010: While at school, during reading I looked outside and saw this glowing yellow moon through the trees! It was around 10:20 a.m. when I took this picture. I can't wait until it's light out when wake up!

January 8, 2010: This is a picture to recap my official first time skiing! It was So much fun and only took me an hour 1/2 to finish the skiing course here in White Mountain which is 3 miles long. It wasn't too slow, but I'm not an advanced yet. I had a difficult time remembering to "push then slide, push then slide". This picture was when I learned how to step into the corner so I don't fall after I come around. Clint was such a good teacher, and it amazes me that he is so good at skiing! We plan on skiing every day after school for our daily exercise. It will be a lot nicer than running around in circles in the gym!

So, every Saturday I will document and write about each picture until we are at the end of the year when I can make a book out of our memories!!

Exhausted!

This picture says it all! I'm exhausted. My body must still craving those late night food comas and sleeping in until it gets light out! It's been a tough week, not for the kiddos in my K-1 class, but for me! It has been more difficult to get back into our daily routine, and I'm not sure what has caused this lack of motivation-Maybe because I started college classes early this week?! That very well could be the source of this feeling like I can't move through out the day.

At this point, I'm really wishing I had a coffee addiction and that I actually liked coffee-just so I can get through the days. Hopefully starting next week Clint and I will be able to get back into our daily routine of working out, eating right (which hasn't been hard since we have Full Circle Farm!! :), and going to sleep at a decent hour.

I have something to share. It's a project that I have been working on and it will last all year! Yup, 365 days I'm going to keep up with it. When I have more time, and when I don't feel like I am going to fall off my chair, I will post it for you to see :)

Sunset beauty

Sunrise at 11:15

Sunset at 4:30

Musk Ox

Today during recess, we were able to go to a friends house and look at a Musk Ox hide that she was working on. The Musk Ox was shot by a couple of teachers here and they were able to get 3 all together ( I think). Anyway, one of our friends are working the hide and gathering the Quiviut (Ki-vit) to spin and make yarn. While we were talking with her, she said that she has gathered 4 lbs. of Quiviut already from one hide! It will be exciting to see what she makes with the yarn. Qiviut is considered the softest wool in the world! It's softer than the softest sweater you've ever touched. Clothing knitted from Quiviut is pretty darn expensive.

She uses a handmade "comb" (made from a block of wood and nails) and 'brushes" the Qiviut out of the hair of he Musk Ox.

One of our kiddos trying to get some Qiviut to take home. The Qivuit is the soft, lighter wool that is on the right of the picture, the hide is on the left.

This is a small sample of yarn that was spun. It's so soft.

I think I'm going to have Clint go out and get us a Musk Ox so I can participate in this project. It's amazing to me that someone out there long ago thought of taking this material from the hide and decided to spin it into yarn!

Budgeting for 2010

Kindergarten/First grade examining nickles. Jan. 2010

This year, I am going to try and use a budget for our finances. We have always been good at saving money, but we do spend quite a bit online because it's so easy to click a mouse and buy stuff rather than take your credit card out of your wallet, or that fifty dollar bill. So. In order to save even more money, I want to be consciously aware of where it goes!

I found this great website through one of the mommy/craft blogs that I read (all of them are on the right hand side). Pear Budget is a fast, easy, fun way to make a budget, enter all receipts, and review your financial status for the week, month and year! This program is created by a family, so you know that it's going to be easy and clutter-free!