This week has gone by quickly.  We continue to have no internet access at our house.  I feel crippled without it.  It’s amazing how reliant I am on the internet.  Several times this week Tim stayed home with Kaylee while I went down to the school after dinner for the sole purpose of using the internet.  In my defense, I have needed to correspond with apartment managers and banks and send in rental applications and other things.  I’ve been making myself priority lists for the next time I have internet access so I can get everything finished without forgetting things.  I’m not really a fan of spending some of the evening hours not at home with Tim and Kaylee.  I really hope we get this internet thing figured out soon.

Tim has been doing his regular routine of work, lesson planning, and homework.  He has a couple of large projects due in his college classes in the next week or two, but it sounds like his projects are coming along well.

This weekend has been full of a lot of fun.  As usual, I took the opportunity of Tim’s presence on Saturday morning to run to the post office and to the grocery store.  Afterward Kaylee and I went to Kim’s house for a baby shower.  She was throwing a shower for our neighbor Corey who has a 2-month old son.  Later in the evening we had a few friends over for game night.  I managed to scrounge up enough ingredients to make something resembling 7-layer chip dip and we ate it all up.

Today was a great Easter day.  Tim and I attended church.  I have been teaching the primary lessons (the lessons for the 3-12 year olds) this month.  The whole month has been focused on Jesus Christ.  I have really enjoyed the opportunity to focus a little more on my Savior and to study about his life, atonement, and resurrection throughout the month.  I don’t know that I’ve ever had an Easter that I personally focused on my Savior as much as this one.  I hope the kids benefitted as much from the lessons as I did.

This afternoon we got to have an Easter meal at the Crabtrees with a bunch of coworkers and friends.  Everyone that was there is leaving Togiak at the end of this school year.  We will miss the good friends that we have made here; I think many of them will be lifelong friends.

See pictures of Kaylee for the month of March.

Reviewing our Thoughts on Job Hunting
(Full disclaimer, this first part is mostly for us.  You’re welcome to read on or jump to the next section)

For the past few weeks both Kaitlyn and I have had a difficult time trying to figure out what we should do for the upcoming year.  I wish I could say that our situation was black and white (should we stay or should we go?), but it definitely wasn’t.  There were so many possibilities that we just couldn’t choose.  However, there were a few things that we did know.  First, we knew that Kaitlyn wasn’t going to teach next year and that we would look for employment for just me.  Second, I knew that I wanted to try something new.  This is where things started to get complicated.  For the past three years I have been teaching high school social studies in Togiak.  For the past two of those years I was given the job of teaching middle school students also.  I discovered that I really like teaching middle school aged students.  I’m a bit quirky, and they get my jokes, so everyone wins!  I informed my principal that I wanted to teach middle school full time and presented him with several ways a full time middle school teacher could be possible for next year.  Additionally, while I awaited feedback from my principal, I (informally) interviewed with another school district while attending the state technology conference in Anchorage last month.  (For the record, I didn’t seek them out, they enquired about me and asked to meet up me if I was going to be in attendance at the conference; so I didn’t try to jump ship.)  The meeting went very well; I think I conveyed my personality and passion for technology well with them. Unfortunately, the position they were hoping to hire me for never came to light, as funding for education across the state has been cut and they were unable to offer me a position.  I’ll be honest, if they had offered me a position, I probably would have taken it, as it would have been a great experience for me, professionally.  I was told though that the hiring director really liked me and Kaitlyn (as she sat in on our “meeting” with the school district) and was disappointed that he couldn’t hire me because he thought we had a great personality and would be great assets to their school district.  I quite liked that compliment.  I also wanted to apply for a position at school district that I work for now.  However, I wasn’t sure if it was even going to become available.  In the middle of last week, I was told that a new position at our district office was created and was urged to apply for it.  I had two interviews by week’s end and waited for other candidates to be hired.  While we awaited a response on that job, Kaitlyn and I were still in “what are we going to do” mode.  There was a high possibility that I wouldn’t get the job, and there was still the possibility that Kaitlyn’s parents, Lewis and Myrna, would come up and teach with us the next year.  We were both excited for that possibility also, as we have been planning on it since Kaylee was born.  If I were to be allowed to teach middle school history full time, Lewis and I would have classrooms across the hall from each other and would work together every day.  I’ll be honest, I was kinda hoping for that to happen also.  So many possibilities.

New Job
Yup. That’s right.  Kaitlyn and I have officially decided what to do for next year.  I was offered the job in Dillingham at the district office for Southwest Region School District as the Secondary Education Specialist and accepted this week.  This position covers curriculum development and training for grades 6-12 in the district.  I will be in charge of curriculum development, technology integration, and state/national standards alignment.  Some of my duties are to fly to the various sites and visit with teachers and help them integrate technology into their lesson plans as well as aligning their lessons with state/national standards.  I will also give professional development classes to teachers when I visit.  My job definitely will definitely keep me busy.  I am really excited for the new challenge.

I have to say that Kaitlyn and I are really excited for this new opportunity.  For one, I found a new job, and two, we know what we are doing next year.  This job will be great for me, professionally.   A little about Dillingham.  Dillingham is our regional hub.  It is located about 60-70 miles east of Togiak.  Everyone from a village in this area flies there when traveling to Anchorage.  It has a population of about 2,500 and is located on the water, just like Togiak.  It is a fisherman’s town (a mixture of western and native cultures) and populations swell to two-to-three times when summer fishing is at it’s peak. Dillingham is an expensive place to live.  In fact, it’s one of the most (if not the most) expensive places to live in the entire state.  Food is not any cheaper and a gallon of gasoline is about $7.  Monthly rent for a three bedroom apartment is about $1,300 and utilities run about $500 per month.  Yup, it’s expensive.  Did I say that Kaitlyn isn’t going to teach next year?  It’s a good thing we have savings!  I would be lying if I didn’t say that we were a little concerned that we may not be able to afford living in Dillingham on one income.  We did some math, and we should be just fine, as long as we budget appropriately. No more wild spending sprees Mrs. Phillips! (Actually, if any of you know us, then you know that Kaitlyn is a saver and I’m a spender. So, it’ll be tougher on me.)

We are done here in Togiak on May 17th.  The district office has asked me to come in and “learn the ropes” for the week following school ending. I presume that I will be getting my office space in order and becoming familiar with the district goals for the curriculum department.  I will also be presenting at teacher inservice in the fall and will probably get my assignment then. We tentatively plan on being in the Lesser-48 around Memorial Day, (give or take a few days).


YouTube Tour
I found a tour of Dillingham, AK and haven't watched it.  Sorry if it is boring and stupid.  

Potluck at Crabtrees
Friday evening, Kaitlyn, Kaylee, and I went to a potluck at our vice principal’s house with  our friends Heather Jeffers (MS LA Teacher) and Leslie Fazio (Counselor).  It was an enjoyable evening.  Annie Crabtree made chili and cinnamon rolls, (a traditional Crabtree combination).  We played our favorite social bartering card game, Bohnanza.  Kaitlyn and I are pretty good at it, however, call it beginners luck, but we both ended up with the least amount of points at the end. :)

Afghan
Kaitlyn completed a new afghan.  She didn’t want to write up a paragraph explain her thoughts about it.  So, here’s a picture. I hope you get a 1,000 words from it. 

Update on Kaylee
Kaylee is simply fantastic! This week she has started to figure out that she has a hand at the end of her arm, or at least that she can focus on this hand.  She is actually starting to focus on a lot more of things.  She stares and plays with the stuffed animals on her mobile and takes notice of the strange looking person in the mirror.  She does, however, recognize us in the mirror.  She is growing and growing.  She is currently in some of her 6 months size clothes.  We are past the sleeping all day stage and are in the napping every couple hours stage.  If her naps are missed, look out!  She is smiling a lot more, especially when she recognizes us.  We love her.


Picture Gallery
Click on the images for captions and larger previews.

Spring Break

This week we had our spring break.  Tim had work off Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  It was really nice to have him home and I know he enjoyed being off the hook a little as far as things he had to do.  We took the opportunity to have movie parties at our house and movie parties at the school.  Tim still had to do homework and some lesson planning, so there was still work involved and time spent at the school, but it was nice to be a bit more relaxed.  We stayed up late every night and slept in late every morning.  It sure is nice to do that every once in awhile.  (But I would argue that it is even nicer to get back on a normal sleeping schedule . . .)

Back To Work

Thursday we started back into our normal routine.  Tim returned to school and Kaylee and I returned to our daily schedule.  Tim had early release on Thursday and Friday.  Unfortunately that didn’t mean he got to come home early.  He had to stay for parent teacher conferences.  I know the first night he had 4 parents show up.  Sadly, that is pretty normal. 

There is now only 9 weeks left of the school year.  We have hit the home stretch.  I think it is going to go by quickly.  There are 2 weeks left in March and then we hit testing month.  Our poor students have state testing, district writing assessments, and MAPS testing all in the month of April.  I always feel bad for them.  I just want to scream at the state and the district to “GIVE THEM A BREAK!”  I guess I won’t have to worry about going through those feelings too much this year.

Kaylee

Kaylee is still growing fast.  She has been a lot of fun as she’s been becoming more interactive.  I just think every day how much we need to hit the lower 48 so she can meet her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

     This week we celebrated my 31st birthday; as well as Kaylee’s 3 month birthday.  We celebrated Kaylee’s accomplishments by placing her on the couch and taking a bunch of pictures of her.  For my birthday, Kaitlyn organized a potluck and game night at the school.  We have a great group of teachers here in Togiak and we really enjoy spending time with one another.  For our game we played BANG! The Bullet which we got for Christmas this past year.  Most of the people haven’t played it before, which made it super fun.  Sadly, we forgot to take any pictures of the event.  

     One of the best parts of my birthday was fixing my four-wheeler, nick-named “The Beast”.   You see, Kaitlyn and I bought this fantastic two person four-wheeler last year and it broke down this past fall.  The break down was actually quite a small thing.  The four-wheeler has an automatic transmission and gets its drive from a belt.  Well, that belt broke.  When I went to replace it I found that part of the cord that makes the belt had wrapped around the crankshaft and had done some damage.  So, in order to fix it, I needed to order another part to replace the damage done by the belt cord.  Once that arrived and everything was put back together it was drive-able again.  Except, that something was wrong and it didn’t feel right.  Since I wasn’t sure what was going on, I parked it so I wouldn’t do any additional damage until I could figure out what went wrong.  Well, right after I parked it Kaylee came and since then I haven’t really had time to work on it, go figure!  Additionally, since it hadn’t moved in a while it had literally froze itself to the ground and was immovable.  Now that it’s Spring Break and the temperature has warmed a bit I was able to get it out.  It only took about 20 or so gallons of hot water to unstick it from the ground.  I took it to the school Friday night, let it thaw out and worked on it Saturday morning. I cleaned up all the parts I thought were the issue.  Turns out, the problem was the oil dipstick.  I had purchased a new one in the fall and failed to realized that the new dipstick didn’t come with a rubber gasket.  The lack of a rubber gasket let water into the engine.  We replaced the gasket and changed the oil and now she purrs like a kitten.  I’m so happy to have it running again.  It’s been sitting out front for nearly 4.5 months.  

     This week was also the precursor to Spring Break for the school.  This meant that the end of the quarter was coming up and all us teachers needed to get all our lessons taught and graded before the end of the week and our students left for break and forgot all the rich content we covered in class.  I don’t know what it is like for other teachers, but I always seem to be a little behind my pacing guide, so I was in a frenzy all week.  Granted, our school doesn’t actually have pacing guides for the classes I teach, so all my pacing guides are self-inflicted.  Things were going smoothly until Thursday morning. When we got to school we were informed that all telephone communication (landlines) and our internet was not working.  We soon found out that previous night’s windstorm blew down a telephone line (which also carried the internet cable).  This was problematic for us because we couldn’t enter grades, or even attendance, without the internet.  Friday was suppose to be an inservice for the teachers to enter grades, however, since the internet was still not working (and because of other storms, the parts needed to fix the problem wouldn’t be in until the following week) we were told to go find internet somewhere else and input your grades.  Kaitlyn, a few other teachers, and I went to the library to use their internet, but they were out too.  So, we simply went back home.  We just told ourselves that Spring Break started a little earlier for us. :)

At the beginning of the week, Tim and I were still in Anchorage.  Tim’s technology conference was still in session on Monday and Tuesday, so Kaylee and I were left alone to hit the town.  We spent all day on Monday shopping.  I discovered that I am a painfully slow shopper.  I really didn’t have that many items left on our list to get.  I would just think and think about whether or not to buy this or that and then in the end get neither because I didn’t want to spend the money.  Our shopping for the day consisted of 6 stores, 5 hours, and 1 peed on mom.  Yes, I did shop in Target with wet pants.  I didn’t wet my pants; Kaylee wet my pants.  It was my own fault though.  Never put an undiapered child on your knee. 

Monday evening, Tim worked on homework for his graduate courses while Kaylee and I went to the Petersen’s for dinner.  It was fun to spend the evening with them.  They always treat us to great food and great company.  They seem to love Kaylee too, which is great fun.

Tuesday I was happy to have a day at the house, without many errands to run.  I was starting to feel a bit bad for whisking Kaylee around in her car seat from store to store.  However, I did discover on Monday that riding in the car or in a shopping cart immediately puts Kaylee to sleep.  I was glad to give Kaylee a chance to just lie on a blanket on the floor, kick her legs, and fall asleep for her nap.  I think she appreciated it too.  I spent the day washing sheets and towels, doing the dishes, packing our totes, and watching television.  We don’t have television at our apartment so it’s a bit of a treat. 

Tuesday afternoon Kaylee and I met Tim downtown and joined him for the last half hour or so of his conference.  Afterwards we all headed to the post office to mail our totes full of groceries and household items and then went to dinner.  We decided to eat at the Olive Garden.  Oh it was good.  Kaylee needed to eat at the same time so I had to figure out how to feed her and have a free arm to feed myself all while sitting in a booth.  We managed, but eating was a bit slower than usual. 

Even though it was late and we should have gone to bed, we decided to see a movie after dinner.  We don’t get that opportunity often and the movie theater was right next to the Olive Garden.  We saw Life of Pi.  It was good, but I felt bad that it was so loud.  I don’t think Kaylee particularly enjoyed the noise level.  She stayed awake the entire movie.

Wednesday morning we flew back to Dillingham and then to Togiak.  I love being home.  It was great to have our own things and our own beds and our own space.  It seemed that Kaylee even was more content.  For the rest of the week, we just got back on our normal schedule.  Tim went to work and I stayed home, took care of Kaylee, and did some housework. 

Saturday we had a movie and pizza party in Tim’s classroom with Heather and Mike.  The appeal to watching movies at school is that we can use the projectors and have a nice big screen.  Tim even has a couch in his classroom so we had a semi-comfortable place to sit. 

Today we attended church like usual.  The past few months Tim and I have been attending the gospel essential class rather than the regular Sunday school class.  This class is particularly tailored for new members and investigators.  It teaches the basic doctrines of the gospel.  I must admit.  I love this class.  There is something wonderful about studying the simple truths of the gospel and being reminded about what is important without things to complicate it.  It is also my turn this month to teach sharing time, which is the lesson for the children ages 3-12.  We learned today that Jesus is an example for us.  Teaching the children is another opportunity for me to review over basic truths.  I love to hear from the children.  They are so willing to participate and offer their thoughts and experiences.

Well, I think that’s about all for this week other than a Kaylee update.  She has been particularly fun the last couple of weeks.  She is really starting to smile and “talk” a lot.  She definitely gets excited to see her dad and she loves to kick her legs.  Tim tells me that she is a daddy’s girl and I think he just might be right.  I can’t believe how much she’s already changed in 3 short months.

Check out our February Pictures of Kaylee!