Oh boy are we tired.  I think it is safe to say that we are pooped!  School started this week; and even though we both exercised during the summer, (Kaitlyn competing in two Triathlons) we still came home exhausted.  We started school Monday.  I’ve never been a fan of the first day of school starting on a Monday.  There is a group that probably believes that it’s probably good to just jump in.  I (Tim) am not in the camp and would rather ease into it.  I think I would have liked a Wednesday or Thursday start. 

The actual schooling part has been going relatively well.  We haven’t had too many discipline issues and our classes are running fairly smoothly.  Kaitlyn is teaching 3 sections of Biology, 2 sections of PE, and Chemstry; and I’m teaching 3 sections of Ancient History for middle school, a Civics class, a Modern U.S. History class, and a Weight Lifting class.  I like this schedule because having three sections of one class means I can use a lesson more than once.  That’s always a plus.  I’ve worked really hard to influence the school to allow me to have my schedule like this.  When I first arrived in Togiak, each period was a different class with different lessons.  It made preparing for class very lengthy.  This week, because we never feel prepared enough, both Kaitlyn and I would go to school at 7:00 a.m. and would finally give up and come home around 7:30 p.m.  It made for a very long week.  It’s funny, because we never really see people at school when we arrive in the morning or in the evening when we come home.  I don’t know how other teachers do it.  

After only two days at school, both Kaitlyn and I woke up with a sore throat.  By Wednesday evening, we were both feeling pretty miserable.  When we arrived at school Thursday morning we found out that we weren’t the only ones having issues.  Quite a few of the staff were feeling the same way.  This particular virus/bacteria has really hit us hard; talk about a welcome back!  It’s Sunday evening now and we’re still feeling the effects of it.  

Saturday rolled around and we knew that we needed to work a little harder to have our lessons all planned out so we could have more of a life come next week.  We worked all day on Saturday, but we still feel like we have a lot to do.  Gosh, it never ends.  Saturday evening we were visited by our good friend Heather Jeffers.  She came to our house and we sat and chatted.  Even though we didn't really do a lot, it was relaxing.  

Unfortunately, this week’s report is pretty slim.  All we did this week was work and sleep with a very little bit of relaxation.  We had very little down time at home away from school.  We did, however, go to the gas station and paid $80 for about 15 gallons of fuel.  If that’s interesting to anyone.   

    This is probably going to be a very short post this week, not because nothing happened, but because it is 10:00 pm on the night before school starts and I need my beauty sleep.  Time just seems to be flying by.  August is already more than half way over.
    Monday and Tuesday we were in Dillingham at In-Service from 8:00-4:00.  This years in-service felt more productive to me than years in the past.  We were given big chunks of the day to work within our content areas.  Since I've been working on the science committee we have a lot to do and finish up, so it was much appreciated time and we did accomplish a lot.  Wednesday we were supposed to be in in-service until 3:00 or 4:00, but the weather started to get bad so we ended at lunchtime.  This way we were able to start flying back to our villages without being worried about getting weathered in. 
    I was really glad to get back to Togiak.  We had been in Dillingham for 8 days.  Luckily, when we got to Togiak our suitcases had finally arrived.  We were getting sick of the 5 days worth of clothing we had with us since we'd left Anchorage.  Wednesday evening was filled with unpacking and kitchen jenga.  Have you ever tried to fit all of your household supplies and food for 9 months in your living space at one time?  It's a bit tricky.  We have not completely finished yet.  There's still a box of Ramen noodles on the floor in the living room and two suitcases waiting to be unpacked in our second bedroom.  They'll get taken care of eventually . . . at least my dishes are done (most of them anyway). 
    Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were work days for us at the school.  I really appreciated having that many days (although I wouldn't have complained about having more).  In the past we've only had two days to prepare.  It was a bit tricky to use the time well because the schedule was still getting adjusted until Saturday afternoon.  That meant seating charts, class rosters, and other things that dealt with scheduling couldn't be completed.  I honestly felt like a chicken with my head cut off.  I did a lot of running around in three days, but I sure don't feel like I got tons accomplished.  Ready or not, students will be in my room in less than 12 hours.  Goodbye everything about my life that isn't school-related . . .
    Friday evening we had a bonfire on the beach and set out our net to catch some salmon.  Unfortunately, all day Saturday was stormy, which messed up the net a bit, and only one fish was caught. 
    Today was Sunday.  I love Sundays.  How nice it is to have a break from every day demands.  We went to church and got to talk to lots of family, more than usual.  We had a potluck and just got to spend time with one another.  Can't complain about that. 
    Now I must go to bed so I'm not a cranky teacher on the first day.  Wish us luck!

    This week has been a busy one.  Tim and I were in Togiak on Monday and Tuesday.  We worked on getting some things put away in our apartment on Monday.  We finished dividing up meat for the freezer and cutting up and freezing bell peppers.  We also went over to the school, but didn't spend too much time there.  Someone cut a cable in the village and it wiped out the school internet and phone lines.   Who knows when those will be back up.
     Tuesday we spent a lot longer at the school.  I updated my entire classroom inventory.  That doesn't sound like too much of a job, but when you're in a science lab and you have equipment like beakers, test tubes, strikers, and all sorts of chemicals, it can take a little while.
    Wednesday morning Tim and I flew to Dillingham.  In-service doesn't start until tomorrow, but Tim and I are helping with some additional things.  I'm still working on the science committee so we were continuing to create the curriculum, pacing guides, material lists, and district wide tests.  Tim has been helping out the on technology side of things, getting Google apps and Gaggle set up for the district.  He has been given quite a bit of freedom with it and has made a lot of headway.  He was asked today to present to the district at in-service tomorrow.
    Wednesday evening we went out to eat with a couple of principal/lead teachers from our district.  We're experiencing a little bit of sticker shock as we come back to the bush.  We paid nearly $50 for our burgers and fries.  Tim and I got dropped off at our bed and breakfast.  We were worried about it because we're pretty far from downtown, but after we saw it we weren't worried anymore.  This bed and breakfast is bigger than our apartment.  We have a full kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a washer and dryer.  The kitchen is even stocked with snacks and breakfast foods.  I would definitely stay here again.
    Thursday we worked all day again at district office.  I spent the entire day working on a materials list for Chemistry.  Chemistry is new to this district.  I didn't get much support when I first asked them about teaching it, but apparently the district is really into it now.  We'll see how it goes.  I hope they can figure out how to ship and dispose of chemicals out here.
    Thursday afternoon our friend Heather came into Dillingham.  I was so excited to see her.  I couldn't stop smiling.   To make it even better, she wasn't just catching her flight to Togiak, but spending the night in Dillingham.  We had dinner with her and spent the whole evening together.
    Friday was another full day of work at the district office.  Tim and I didn't really want to eat out again, so we picked up a pizza from the grocery store and cooked it at our bed and breakfast.  We ate dinner and then just sat around and watched the Olympics. 
    Saturday we let ourselves sleep in before heading to work.  That evening we went out to the beach with the new teachers for a bonfire.  Steve Noonkesser took a bunch of us out on his boat.  It was so hot.  It's been in the high 70's  in Dillingham this week.  I can't believe how warm it's been. 
    Today Tim and I were excited to go to church with the Dillingham branch.  It's a really small branch and we  don't get to go too often.  Unfortunately no one showed up.  We came 10 minutes early and the building was locked.  We waited for awhile and only one other car came up.  There was a couple whom we had never seen before.  We asked them if they knew where everyone was, but they didn't.  The man said other than last Sunday, he had been to church since the 1960's.  He had been inactive for a very long time.  He invited us over for lunch though.  His Philipino wife whipped us up a huge mean in no time.  She made steak, stir-fry, pansit? (a Philipino noodle dish), rice, garlic bread, green salad, watermelon, mixed vegetables, carrot cake, and ice cream.  There was so much food to eat.  After lunch we had to go back into work.  Our boss called asking us if we we could come in because he wanted to talk to Tim about presenting at in-service tomorrow.  Tim was at work until after 9:00 pm.  I came home about 6:00 pm and made dinner with some other teachers.  I guess we're adjusting back to our busy village life.  Wish us luck.  

Hello everyone.  This is our first post since returning to Alaska.  We count our years from August to July, so in a sense, this is the beginning of the New Year.  This past week was very much a “preparation” week for us as we were getting ready to make the move back to Alaska.

We started the week with Tim finishing his first semester of Graduate School at Boise State University.  He spent a lot of the summer working on classes and finished late Sunday evening.  He did well and received two A+’s.   Tim really enjoys his masters program; so the long days of working on it is equivalent to him playing anyway.

Monday we went clothes shopping and found a ton of deals.  It feels so nice to go shopping for cool clothes, especially when it’s 80% off!  While we were in Idaho Falls shopping, we decided to take a break and go to lunch.  We decided to go try this new place that we had heard about in the news called Chic-Fil-A.  If you haven’t already heard of it, it is a fast food restaurant that serves nothing but chicken as the main food group (as opposed to other fast food joints that serve beef).  Another cool thing about this restaurant is that the founder is a strong Christian, and chooses to operate his restaurants based upon Christian principals namely: not going into debt, closing all the stores on Sundays, and being super kind to all of their patrons.  I have to admit, it’s pretty nice to hear a business operate with a set of values these days rather than operating based on a bottom line.  Anyway, we just have to say that Chic-Fil-A is our new favorite restaurant.  It was simply a fantastic visit.  The food was great, the service was extremely nice and polite, and the atmosphere of the entire restaurant was very mellow and calm (no buzzers or beepers going off in background).  They even had a carnation on each table in the restaurant.  Suffice to say, that we were super impressed and would very much return to eat there again (when we live in a place with restaurants).

Tuesday we picked up our car from the mechanic (we’ve been trying to get the cruise control fixed for some time now).  We picked up our car around 1:00 pm and headed for Tim’s parent’s house in Zillah, WA.  It’s roughly a 9 ½ — 10-hour trip to Zillah from Rexburg.  We passed the time listening to an audio book (which is pretty common for our traveling road trips).  This time we listened to Percy Jackson: The Titans Curse Book 3.  We like the Percy Jackson series.  We arrived pretty late at Tim’s parents house, around 10:30 pm.  We spent the next two days hanging out there.  We stored our car on blocks under their back deck, which worked out great for us.  We also got our one and only chance to watch the Olympics in London.  We flew out to Anchorage on Thursday evening.

We arrived into Anchorage late Thursday evening, around 12:30 am.  We rented a car and were lucky enough to stay at Chris and Julie Petersen’s house.  Chris is our branch clerk.   We slept pretty hard that night and awoke around 10 am.  We started our day by shopping at Costco in Anchorage.  This is one of Tim’s favorite parts. It’s really fun to go on a shopping spree. We spent three hours in Costco for round of shopping number one.  We packaged up all the non-perishable items into three totes and took them, with two of our suitcases, to the Post Office.  We must have arrived at the Post Office at an inopportune time, because we waited in line for 90 minutes before we were able to ship our stuff.  Once we got to the front of the line we were told we needed return address labels on all our totes, something we forgot; luckily we weren’t sent to the end of the line! By this time, it was pretty late in the day and we had scheduled to meet with the Alaska chapter of Families Supporting Adoption leaders for dinner in Eagle River.  We grabbed a quick bite (because we hadn't eaten lunch yet and were starved) and drove up to Eagle River for dinner.  They live just across the street from the old LDS church building that Tim used to attend as a kid.  We spent a few hours with them, and then went back out to go shopping for round two.  This time we went to Walmart, for all the smaller non-bulky items.  We spent another two hours in the Eagle River Walmart.  We filled another four totes with goodies to take back to Togiak.  Instead of going to the Post Office then, because the Anchorage Airport Post Office is open from 6am to midnight, we decided to just go home and mail everything in the morning. 

Before going to bed we packed up three more totes and one additional suitcase and then Saturday morning we mailed them to Togiak, which hardly took any time at all.  We then went to breakfast at the Village Inn and relaxed for a few minutes.  We packed up all our frozen items in coolers and used them as our checked bags.  This is a nifty little trick that saves us a lot of money!  We made it to Togiak around 6:30 pm.  We traveled with Alaska Island Air from Dillingham to Togiak where Tim got an earful from the pilot how Bellview was the original capital of Idaho.  Tim chatted with him for the entire trip. 

We are excited to be back in Togiak.  The work is hard, but we don’t really remember that so much.  We do remember how awesome Alaska is and how much we like it here.  It doesn’t matter how far away we go, Alaska seems to always call us home.