Tim was in Dillingham on Monday and Tuesday this week for Social Studies meetings.  He was able to look at another apartment while he was there.  Hopefully, we will secure a place soon so we can stop worrying about it. 

Kaylee had her first sickness this week.  She woke up pretty congested on Sunday morning and it progressively got worse through Tuesday.  She was coughing, had watery eyes, threw up a few times, and had raspy breathing.  I felt so bad for her.  I was amazed though that she still found at least a few minutes each day to smile and squeal even through those watery eyes.  After Tuesday, she started getting better each day.  Today I feel pretty comfortable saying that she’s back to normal.  She seems to be herself once again and is only slightly congested and coughs only every now and then.  Having a sick kid is kind of scary at times and heartbreaking.  I just wanted her to feel better.

By the end of the week, I started realizing how sleep deprived and tired I was after having a sick kid.  I’ve been trying to catch up on sleep for the past few days.  I also realized how terribly long it had been since I had even taken a step outside of our apartment.  I decided to venture to my friend’s house on Saturday just to get out of the house before another week started.  Heather and Kim were having a “garage sale” so we didn’t get to talk much and people were coming in and out the whole time, but it was still fun to see them and get some fresh air.

This past week Kaylee has suddenly taken an interest in toys.  Before she would look at them and swing her arms at them, but not until recently has she actually held on to them and sucked on them.  I'm shocked at how quickly she has made the change.  It's been fun to watch.

Click here to see pictures of Kaylee from the month of April.

This week was a bit unique because it was culture week at the school.  Culture week is an annual event in the elementary wing of the school, but as long as Tim and I have been in Togiak the middle and high school haven’t participated in culture week at all.  Locals were asked to come up to the school and teach some skill throughout the week.  Some of the activities included net mending, harpoon making, kuspuq sewing, knitting, beading, string stories, story knives, and native dancing.  No regular classes were held.  Instead the students signed up to do a few culture classes and spent the week working on those skills.  I imagine it was probably nice for Tim not to have to worry about lesson planning after being gone last week, but it also sounds like it was a bit of a rough week behaviorally.  Some of the presenters didn’t show up and there were no clear expectations made to the students.  It was likely a record high in suspensions in one week.  Tim did mention that the more suspensions there were the better the week got. I would have liked to participate in some of the classes.

Friday our adoption caseworker flew out to Togiak to do a home visit.  The main purpose is for them to observe us with Kaylee in our own home to make sure that things are going well.  This should be a last visit.  Starting on Monday our paperwork for finalization should be underway.  We’re hoping that things can be finalized within a month.  Once the adoption is finalized, Tim and I can take Kaylee to the temple to be sealed to us.  For those of you who may be unfamiliar with a sealing, it is the way that Kaylee is linked to Tim and I so that we will be a family for eternity, not only for this life.  It is similar to the sealing that took place when Tim and I were married in the temple.  We were linked together for eternity.  We will be husband and wife in this life and the next.  Kaylee will be our daughter in this life and the next.

This week was busy for me at home.  Prior to going to Healy, I spent days packing as many boxes as I could.  There was a bit of left of mess to clean up from that as well as the house cleaning to do that was neglected during that time.  I also was busy packing a few more boxes to be sent over to Dillingham with some teachers midweek and some boxes to send with Tim today.   On top of that I had primary packets to prepare, print, and mail out for teaching my Sunday lessons for the month of May and a talk to prepare for church today.  Needless to say my daily exercise didn’t happen this week. 

Today Tim and I both spoke in church.  We were the only speakers for our sacrament meeting.  I had good intentions of preparing well in advance, but I ended up doing the bulk of my preparation yesterday.  It went well though, I think.  I guess we would have a more accurate idea by asking someone who was listening.  I was assigned to speak on our relationship with the Savior.  I was actually a little grateful for that topic because it has been something that has been on my mind the past few months.  I’ve recognized that it is an area of great importance and that I should definitely be improving in that area. 

Tim was off to Dillingham this afternoon once again.  He has social studies meetings for the next two days.  Hopefully he’ll be able to find some time to look at some houses and apartments while he is there. 

Kaylee is doing really well, although I think she has come down with her first cold.  She’s been a bit congested today but seems to be in relatively good spirits.  In the past few days she has started playing with toys.  Before she would stare at her toys and bat at them occasionally, but now she is actually grabbing and holding them.  It’s fun to watch.  She has also had several ponytails these past couple of weeks.  Check out the picture.

This last week was full.  Tim flew to Dillingham last Sunday afternoon for some Social Studies curriculum meetings.  His meetings were Monday and Tuesday.  While he was at his meetings Kaylee and I were at home packing as many boxes as we could.  I've managed to get a total of 24 boxes packed so far.

Tuesday afternoon our vice principal, Nate, came to pick Kaylee and I up as well as all of our boxes.  We needed to get to the school to meet the student council so I could take them on a trip.  Since we had chartered a plane for the trip Nate had told us we could fill up all the extra room on the plane with our boxes to move to Dillingham.  This was great news since otherwise we would have to pay to have them shipped.  I wasn't sure how much the plane would carry so I just packed as much as possible.  It turns out that only about half the boxes I packed fit on our chartered plane, but the company said they would put the rest on the next plane free of charge . . . um, okay, that's fine with me.  Thank you Grant Air.  The search for a home in Dillingham is still underway, but we are able to store our belongings at the district office until we find a place.

Our final destination for this trip was Healy, Alaska in Denali National Park.  The Spring AASG (Alaska Association of Student Governments) Conference was being held there.  I brought 3 students with me.  Since I had both genders of students I had to have both genders of chaperones, so we met up with Tim in Dillingham and he came on the trip with us.  I love when the male chaperone gets to be my favorite male colleague!  We spent Tuesday night in the bunkhouse in Dillingham and then flew to Anchorage on Wednesday morning.  Kaylee did really well with the flights, but she was getting really sick of being bundled up in her snowsuit.  I felt bad that I couldn't just find a nice open floor to lay her down on so she could kick her legs and squeal. 

Wednesday we were able to spend a few hours in Anchorage at the malls.  While our students shopped, Tim and I met up with our good friend Heather from Juneau.  We haven't seen her in over 6 years, so it was a ton of fun to catch up with her.  Once we rounded up all our students once again we began the 5 hour drive to Healy, AK.  None of my students had been to that part of Alaska before and they were in awe at the scenery.  They all mentioned multiple times how pretty it was.  I'm glad that they appreciated it.

Thursday-Saturday was filled with meetings.  I wasn't quite as involved with my students as I was last conference because I was playing advisor and mommy at the same time.  Luckily, the host advisor was able to find us a small room that we could have all to ourselves.  Kaylee was able to take naps in a quiet, dark room throughout the day.  I can't imagine how awful the conference would have been for her otherwise.  It tends to be pretty noisy in a gym full of 300 high school students all competing to show that they have the most spirit.  Tim stayed with Kaylee during most of her naps so I could be with the students.  The other advisors at the conference loved Kaylee and just kept commenting on what a good baby she was.  She was even gifted a Tri-Valley High School sweatshirt by one of the student council members of the host school. 

I have enjoyed being the student council advisor.  It's a little sad knowing that I'm finished with that phase and that my ideas for the future and making things better aren't really going to come to fruition, but I'm trading all of that for something even better, so it's okay.

Saturday evening we drove back to Anchorage where we spent the night in the hotel.  We got there at 10:00 pm, giving our students 1 hour to take advantage of the hotel pool.  I've never seen anyone get in their swimming suits so fast.  Unfortunately, just before we got there someone threw up in the pool so they had to close it. 

We arrived home from our travels this afternoon.  We missed all of our church meetings for the day and were really too tired to do much of anything.  We managed to make our weekly phone calls to our parents, but that was about it.  I'm sure Kaylee was relieved to be in a familiar space and not have hundreds of people around her.  Really though she did an amazing job traveling and being at the conference.  I couldn't have dreamed that it would go better.

State Testing
This week was the Alaska State standardized testing week.  That’s right, every school in the state of Alaska participated in testing this week.  Testing ran from Tuesday thru Friday (Tue-Reading; Wed-Writing; Thur-Math; and Fri-Science). As a teacher, it is my responsibility to be a proctor.  My assignment for this week was to proctor the High School Graduation Qualifying Exam (HSGQE) taken by all 10th graders.  This is a very important exam for students.  As the title suggests, they must pass this exam in order to graduate from high school.  Proctoring an exam as important as this one comes with a few extra tasks for the proctor, but the trade-offs are great because the students usually are very focused and don’t cause any trouble because they know what is at stake.  All our exams start a little before 10:00 am and run until the student is finished.  This usually takes until 2:00-2:30.  I only proctored Tuesday and Wednesday because I was sent to Anchorage. Kaitlyn dusted off her old teacher shoes and filled in for me on Thursday and Friday.  Kaitlyn asked our good friends, the Crabtrees, if they would be willing to watch Kaylee for the two days.  They love Kaylee and are always ecstatic when we ask them to sit for us, which is usually few and far between.  Apparently, Kaylee had a blast too.  Below are a few pictures from her time there.

Going Google
A few weeks ago I was hired as the district Secondary Education Specialist, which oversees curriculum development & technology integration for grades 6-12.  One of the items that I will be overseeing is the deployment and training of Google Apps for Education within the district.  The district office sent me to Anchorage, with another district office guy, Kyle Schneider, to attend the training.  

The training was titled “Google Apps Boot Camp” and was all about becoming a Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer.  This requires taking and passing a series of Google apps exams, providing a few videos of you training someone how to do something, and generally being a good representative for Google.  I must say, that I totally have drunk the Google Kool Aid.  I really like some of the stuff they offer.  This fall I will be offering Google Apps professional development to staff members and introducing them to all the wonderful things they can do with Google in their classrooms.  It’ll be great!

4 Months 
Kaylee is officially 4 months old.  She hit her mile stone on Friday of this week.  She weighed in at 16lb 4oz and a whole bunch of inches long.  She is something great.  She is a very happy baby.  She loves to smile and she’s starting to giggle and squeal a lot, which makes playing with her so much fun. Kaitlyn and I are simply having a blast being parents.  Sure there’s a little screaming, fussing, and tired mornings, but we wouldn’t trade this for nothin’!

Move to Dillingham - Update
Kaitlyn has been working hard on finding us a place to live in Dillingham for next year.  She’s lined up a bunch of apartments and houses for us to check out.  It’s getting really exciting.  We have started packing up non-essentials and begun shipping things over to Dillingham a couple boxes at a time.  One of my bosses, Steve Noonkesser, offered to let us use some of his basement space to store our belongings while we work on trying to find a place to live.  It’s great.  In addition to house shopping, we have been car shopping.  We found out that shipping a car from Seattle is the same price as shipping a car from Anchorage.  So, we’re currently looking for SUV’s to buy in Seattle to ship out in the beginning of the summer.  All in all, we’re very excited to move to Dillingham and start phase 3 in our marriage.