This week was pretty fun.  Tim and I left on Tuesday evening with the student council.  We chaperoned them on a trip to Wasilla to attend the Fall AASG conference.  AASG is the Alaska Association of Student Governments.  There were over 400 students from across the state at the conference.  The conference is almost entirely run by students.  They have workshops and roundtables where they learn about specific subjects like suicide prevention, ice breakers, anti-bullying, etc.  They also attend a lot of region meetings and general assembly meetings.  These meetings mostly consist of discussing and debating resolutions that students at the conference have written themselves.  After debating and discussing the students will vote on whether or not to pass the resolution and then the resolution is sent to the appropriate party.  Last spring at AASG the students passed a resolution stating that their should be mandatory suicide awareness and prevention training for all teachers.  It was sent on to the legislature.  Since then the legislator has passed a law requiring teachers to have suicide awareness and prevention training.  We completed our training at our district in-service at the beginning of the year.  Some resolutions are less "serious".  For example, one school submitted a resolution to change the rule at their school about not being able to wear spaghetti strap or strapless dresses.  The AASG students passed this resolution as well, so it will be sent onto the administration of that specific school. 

The students Tim and I took with us are all new to student council, so I think it was a really good experience for them to see how student government works.  One of the highlights for them was meeting Craig Scott, the brother of Rachel Scott, the first student killed in the Columbine shooting.  He travels around the country speaking at events for Rachel's Challenge.  For those of you who are not familiar with it, Rachel wrote a paper before she died.  Within it she urged her reader to start a chain reaction.  She said that if you do an act of kindness to another person that it would start a chain reaction of the same.  Rachel's father and brother now travel around speaking of kindness and urging people to follow Rachel's advice: www.rachelschallenge.org.

Judson Laiplly was another highlight.  Some of you have probably seen his Evolution of Dance on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg.  I had seen his youtube video, but didn't know before that Judson was a motivational speaker.  He spoke to us, danced for us, and taught us to dance.

The conference lasted three days (Thursday morning-Saturday afternoon) and it was nonstop.  Every second of the day was scheduled from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm and we even ate breakfast and lunch in meetings!  Needless to say we are all very sleep deprived.  (Tim and I took a three hour nap as soon as we got home.)  I thought our kids handled the endless meetings fairly well.  We did almost miss our flight this morning  because we all slept in.  (I always feel really stupid when I sleep in as a chaperone . . . so much for being the responsible one.)

I was really grateful for the opportunity to get out of the village for a few days and have a break from teaching.  It's amazing how much that can help my mental health.  On Tuesday evening, we stayed with the kids at the district bunkhouse.  This is basically a large trailer house the district owns for the purpose of overnight trips.  The students thought it was pretty awesome.  Tessa had to try out each and every bed before deciding which one to sleep in (there are 9 of them).  Tessa and Shushu taught me the Yup'ik way to eat a bowl of frozen blueberries and laughed at me every time a winced because my teeth were cold.  Tessa's trip was made within the first two hours because of the frozen blueberries.

Wednesday morning we flew to Anchorage.  We were able to spend the whole afternoon and evening in Anchorage.  We rented a big Expedition XLT, which the students thought was great.  I let the students vote on what activities to do and where to eat prior to leaving.  They voted to go to the mall and go to the other mall.  So, we went shopping.  Tim and I gave them 1.5 hours in the 5th Avenue mall and once making sure they all had a proper buddy and cell phone we took the opportunity to meet with our birth mother in the food court while they were off spending hundreds of dollars.  It was good to see her again and talk over some things.  (Only two more months to go!)

Afterward, we headed to the Dimond Center mall where we ran into Sandi, last year's student body president, and Amy, an old coworker of ours.  We also met up with Michael Lee, the middle school science teacher and Charlie's father.  He was in Anchorage for a training, so he spent the evening with us.  Shushu decided to get her nails done while we were in the mall, so I joined her by getting a pedicure.  It would have been relaxing except for the fact that I was panicking that it was taking longer than I expected and I was late for our meet-back time.  Luckily Tim stalled for me and took the rest of the group over to Wal-Mart while Shushu and I finished up.  At Wal-Mart he ran into Robin, another old coworker of ours.  It was a lot of fun to run into all these people.

We finally headed to Wasilla about 8:00 pm on Wednesday night.  We had fun singing and dancing in the car for the hour ride.  I was totally happy.  I forgot how much I love traveling with and "mentoring" kids/teenagers.  It made me miss the days of jump rope trips when I would get to spend my day with 10-20 kids/teenagers in such a positive way.  I  love being able to chaperone things like this with Tim.  We did have a few opportunities where we needed to sit down with the kids and discuss the appropriateness of their decisions (thank goodness for Tim during those situations), but overall they were well behaved and the trip was a lot of fun.  I think it's been awhile since I've laughed as much as I did this week. 

I have one last thing to share for this evening.  As teachers, we often look for opportunities for our students that will give them some experiences they can't have in the bush.  There are so many things that we consider normal or an every day occurrences that are unfamiliar to them.  For example, the cook at the school told me a story about the first time she went to the city.  She had never seen a mannequin before and was amazed at how still those people were.  After learning what they were she mistook a live person for a mannequin and was completely scared when this "mannequin" began walking toward her.  Some students have never walked on a side walk before.  All of the students I was traveling with have been to Anchorage on several occasions, so they seemed pretty familiar with everything.  However, when we arrived at Wasilla High School, there were several janitors around the building.    I haven't been able to stop chuckling at Tessa's response when she saw these janitors, "Mrs. Phillips, girls can be janitors?"  We have a few janitors of our own in Togiak, but they are all male. 

Well, I better go get some more sleep before the new week begins!  Click here to see more pictures of AASG.

    This week we got a bit of a break from the norm since we had an inservice day on Friday. It's amazing how mentally refreshing it can be to look forward to a "day off".  It wasn't really a day off because we still had to work, but it was one less day to lesson plan for.  I had huge plans of getting my room cleaned and organized, all the little things crossed off of my to-do list, all my lesson plans completed for next week, and my sub plans written up.  However, I had to attend our inservice meetings first, which ended up taking over 3 hours instead of 1 hour.  I felt like our meeting was needed and productive.  I'm glad we had it, but I never quite felt like I got back into the swing of things after the meeting.  I did get my room cleaned and organized and I did cross off a lot of little things on my to-do.  None of the grading or lesson planning got done though.  Luckily, there's such a thing as Saturday.
    Tim and I both worked most the day on Saturday at the school.  I was actually really happy with the things I got accomplished.   Usually I have an unachievable list of goals to accomplish on Saturday and then feel upset when I only accomplished the realistic amount.  (Yeah I know I need to remedy that.)  Tim and I both have an extra nudge to get our planning completed for next week because we get to chaperone a trip to Wasilla.  We leave Tuesday after school and won't return until Sunday.  I'm really looking forward to the trip and will be even more excited once my sub plans are completely written.  We are taking a well-behaved, fun group of kids.  On top of that, it will be nice to have a little break from the village and school.
    Well enough about work, how about an adoption update?  Things seem to be going well.  Tim and communicate with the birth mother regularly and we still feel really blessed to have her as the birth mother who chose us.  We wish that we could spend more of our days shopping online for baby stuff and rearranging our apartment to make room for all that baby stuff.  We'll get there.  Meanwhile, it's been so fun to receive packages in the mail from excited grandparents-to-be and aunts-to-be.  I've included a picture of just of few of the gifts we have been sent.  Thank you.  Thank you.  It's a little bright spot in our day (actually a big bright spot in our week) to receive a package in the mail.
    Last night Tim and I had Heather and Kim over for dinner and games.  I was so happy to have them come over.  It was good to relax, eat, play, and laugh.   I told Heather and Kim that it was much needed therapy.  What a blessing good friends are!

First off, I apologize I have no pictures along with this post.  Pictures will be coming, I just have to beg them off of another person and I haven't done it yet.

This week was full of a few exciting things.  First off, we were really short-handed at work.  All of the instructional aides were gone Monday through Wednesday at a district training, so substitutes were scarce.  We have five main high school teachers (2 couples and a single guy).  Both couples (ourselves and the Cejkas) are expecting babies after Christmas.  Corey has had quite a hard pregnancy and was out on Monday for an appointment and then again on Tuesday for another appointment.  The doctor she saw sent her to Anchorage for an emergency appointment, so her husband hurriedly left Tuesday after school to meet her there.  (It's not my place to go into details, but we're happy they were able to get to a hospital as early as they did.) Brian, our math teacher, left Wednesday after school for an unrelated reason.  Our vice principal was also out of town.  This left Tim and I as the only regular high school teachers for the rest of the week.  I must admit I was really worried that the students were going to be terribly out of hand.  I had thoughts of just barricading myself in my classroom and avoiding the hallways and commons as much as possible.  Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad though.  The students behaved fairly normally in my classroom and it seemed like in between classes students weren't lingering any more than usual (they linger a LOT here) or being unruly.

I'd like to report, that I did keep one of my goals from last week.  I did go home earlier than usual.  Monday-Thursday I went home before 7:00 pm.  Sometimes I even went home before 6:00 pm.  I'm not sure how I managed it.  I guess it was a blessing that I was able to complete all my work and go home.  Now, if only I had the primary program written, perhaps I could've felt less stressed out . . .

Friday I was at the school for a long time.  Tim, Michael Lee, Mike Tozzo, Charlie Lee, and I spent several hours getting things set up for the lock-in.  Charlie is our student body president.  This was the first big even that student council has put on this year.  We've been trying to raise money to go to a student council conference in Wasilla in a few weeks.  At 7:30 pm, Tim finally told me we had to go home for a few hours.  We ate some pizza, watched some Office episodes, and then at 9:30 pm headed back to the school.  We had to stay up all night long chaperoning kids at our annual lock-in.  This is the third year in a row that I have chaperoned at the lock-in the entire night.  It's never quite that bad, but the anticipation is horrible.  I just kept telling myself this was the last time I ever had to do it. 

I guess I better interject with some of the subjects from the title.  Friday evening, while setting up for the lock-in, I saw a moose.  He (or she) was walking around on the tundra between the school and the village.  Moose hardly ever come into Togiak.  In fact, I've never heard of it happening before.  People always travel several hours up river to go moose hunting.  I haven't seen any bears this fall, but I'll take a moose. 

As Tim and I were driving back to the school at 9:30 pm, we saw the northern lights.  They were really faint, but I was excited to see them.  I've been wanting to see the northern lights the whole time we've lived in Togiak.  I did see the northern lights once before when we lived in Skagway and they were much more impressive that time, but I still thought it was really cool to see them in Togiak.  It was fun to hear all the kids talking about them and being excited about them too.  I will admit that I broke a lock-in rule half way through the night and took a group of kids out on the porch to see the northern lights.  The whistled and whistled at them.  There's a Yup'ik tale that if you whistle at the northern lights they'll come down and "get" you, which would have discouraged me from whistling at them, but apparently the students don't believe the tale.

The lock-in was very small and laid back compared to past years.  We had an attendance requirement this year that made many people ineligible to come.  Students were not allowed to have any unexcused absences the week of the lock-in and could have no more than 1 excused absence.  This may not seem like a strict rule for those of you in the lower 48, but this made about half of our student body ineligible to come.  I was worried with the low numbers kids would get bored and then get into trouble, but they were tame.  I ended up spending quite a bit of time sitting down with students and teaching them how to play different card games.  I helped some kids learn to better hit a volleyball (you know it's bad when you have to learn volleyball skills from me . . . ), and I even participated in the late night talent show.  All in all I am happy with how it went and overjoyed that I'm looking back at it now and not anticipating it. 

This week it has definitely become apparent that it is now fall.  (I know that it has been fall for awhile, but it has really stood out to me this week.)  The green is gone.  Things are turning brown and yellow and it has been wet and overcast.  We opened the windows today and I loved listening to the rain in the background as we attended our church meetings.

Speaking of meetings, this has been a week full of meetings.  The weekdays were fairly normal for me.  I went to school each day as usual (working too many hours, as usual).  Tim had his normal routine on Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday directly after school he left for Dillingham.  The social studies committee had their first meeting to review over the social studies curriculum.    I have been involved in the science committee for just over a year now.  Ever since I started on the science committee, Tim has really been looking forward to the social studies committee starting.  He was actually asked to be the committee chair.  It's not quite clear what that job entails, but it should look good on a resume anyway.

Tim had meetings Thursday and Friday at the district office with 5 other social studies teachers from around the district.  Thursday morning they discussed the philosophy of curriculum and what curriculum is.  They spent the rest of the day discussing the social studies scope and sequence from elementary to middle school.  I think Friday they spent most of the day discussing scope and sequence throughout high school.  Tim will probably be going into district office once every month or two this school year to continue working on the committee. 

Friday evening there was a community potluck in honor of the teachers.  To my knowledge, this is the first time since we've moved here that the community has reached out to the teachers.  Individuals in the community have been kind, but I was happy to see the community putting forth a nice gesture.  Tim returned as we were eating at the potluck.  Luckily he arrived before all the food was gone and was able to get some for himself too. 

I spent about 5 hours at the school on Saturday prepping for the beginning of the upcoming week.  Saturday evening, Tim spent that night at home relaxing and I went over to Heather's and Kim's apartment to play Ticket to Ride.  It's actually the first game I've played a game this school year.  I was a little shocked to realize that I haven't taken time out before now to play a game.

Other than the lesson planning and the game playing, we spent most of our weekend attending church meetings.  This weekend was General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We have General Conference twice a year, once in April and once in October.  This is a time that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from around the world gather to listen to the leadership of our church speak to us.  There are a total of five two-hour meetings between Saturday and Sunday.  Members from across the world have various methods of joining in.  Tim and I joined by telephone, some stream the meetings via the internet, others watch them on television, some listen by radio, and some attend in person in Salt Lake City.  I look forward to General Conference; it is a spiritual feast and I can always use a spiritual recharge.  The scriptures, including the Bible and the Book of Mormon, teach us much about God, Jesus Christ, the gospel, and how we should live our lives.  We can find great counsel and learn great lessons from studying the scriptures.  General Conference  gives us an opportunity to gain knowledge that compliments and expands on the scriptures.  We hear from modern day prophets that speak truths, as the scriptures do, but what they speak of is particularly relevant to our time, our struggles, and our needs.  There were several addresses on several different topics.  I want to share some of the things that stuck out to me from the conference. 

Quentin L Cook spoke of a spiritual drought.  He suggested that if we feel as if we're in a spiritual drought, perhaps we have become lax or focused our priorities in places other than the gospel.  This was a good reminder to myself to keep in mind that my relationship with my Father in Heaven and my following his will is the most important priority.  I should not allow lesson planning or other things to creep above that.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave a very powerful address.  He spoke of regrets of people who are terminally ill and gave us guidance for avoiding finding ourselves with the same regrets.  Spend more time with those you love.  Do not take pride in simply being busy.  Let yourself be happier.  External circumstances do not determine our happiness, we do.  Choose to be happy.  Don't be so focused on the finish line that you do not enjoy the journey. 

This was some timely advice for me as I have been longing for January 2nd to come and thinking about how "real" life can start then.  I've been counting down the days of 1st semester as well when I can experience a "career change".  It is okay to be excited and look forward to the future and it's even okay to count down as long as I don't forget to enjoy each day.  I need find happiness in each day I have with my students even if I feel as if I'll enjoy each day with my daughter more.  She's not here yet, so I might as well enjoy what life deals me until she gets here!

L. Tom Perry and a few other speakers addressed families and children.  Marriage and family are so important.  They are central to the gospel plan.  They are sacred.  Because of this, they are greatly targeted by the adversary.  We must be responsible and wise in our marriages and families.  They are precious and we must treat them as so.  It makes me think of a quote for David O McKay (former prophet and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints): "No other success can compensate from failure in the home."  Parents are responsible for bringing up their children and teaching them correct principles.  Parents pray for help, hold family home evening, pray as a family, and eat as a family.  Share your testimony with your children.  Have family rules, expectations, and traditions.  I can't imagine life without my family.  I am so grateful for parents who love each other and love their children.  I am so grateful for parents who expected us to behave well and do our best.  I didn't realize as I was growing up how lucky I was with my family situation.  I will also be ever grateful for the goodness of my husband's parents and family.  Where would we be without such great examples and teachers?

Lastly, I want to share some thoughts I had regarding the address of Jeffry R. Holland.  He spoke of our relationship with God and becoming disciples.  We must love God and our Savior Jesus Christ.  I asked myself about my motivation for following commandments of God.  Do I do as he asks because I fear Him or because I love Him?  The first of the ten commandments states that we should love God.  We should pray often and include God in our lives.  We can ask Him what he would have us do, thank Him for our blessings, and share with Him our fears and concerns. 

There are so many other great truths that were spoken. If you would like to listen to or read any of the addresses visit: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2012/10?lang=eng