Tim carving his turkey.
This week was wonderful. I have thoroughly enjoyed our Thanksgiving break and have made the most of it by avoiding school work as much as possible. We had school as normal on Monday and Tuesday and then had an early release day on Wednesday. Tim was still traveling back from Seattle on Monday, so he didn't make it to school until Tuesday. This week we started a new, much needed, tardy policy and a new bell schedule. We now have 5 minutes in between classes instead of 3 minutes. It has been a really nice switch. I now have time to use the bathroom in between classes if necessary.
This year we held with Togiak tradition and had a potluck Thanksgiving dinner with the other teachers. I absolutely love Thanksgiving out here. In my mind, it's a pretty ideal way to do Thanksgiving. No one person or family is bogged down with the task of making a Thanksgiving feast, yet, because everyone brings a dish, there is a feast and lots of good food. Every year Tim makes the turkey and I bring rolls. This year was no different. We did through in some mashed potatoes as well, because our normal mashed potato maker was out of town this Thanksgiving. The food was good and the company was great.
After our Thanksgiving meal, Tim and I monopolized the time of our vice principal, Nate. His family is out of town for a month while his little boy gets his tonsils out. So, I guess we can justify ourselves in taking up his whole afternoon by saying that we were just keeping him company. We asked him if we could get a dresser for our apartment so we have a place to put all of our baby clothes and supplies. He took us to the shed next to his house where all the extra teacher housing furniture is kept and let us pretty much go shopping. Three hours later we were back in our apartment with a new couch, new nightstands, new lamps, and a new dresser. We didn't have time to organize it all and rearrange furniture, because we had invited Heather and Nate over to play cards at 6:30. So, we just dropped all the furniture in the odd places it was and pushed some things aside to make room for a game of Rook. It was a really fun evening.
Friday morning Tim and I borrowed our neighbors 4-wheeler to tow our 4-wheelers down to the school. The beast still is suffering from a broken belt and Tim needed a warm place to work on it. My 4-wheeler was simply just frozen and needed a bit of a thaw. The electric start wasn't working and the pull start was frozen solid. The reverse button was also frozen. Nate let us pull our machines in under the school for the day. Once we had them under the school, I went to Evelyn's classroom. She was having a sewing class. She had prepared for us kits to make Christmas quilts with. I've never made a patchwork quilt until now. It was fun to spend the afternoon sewing and chatting with the other ladies in the class. I was amazed at how much work I was able to get done on the quilt in just 4 hours as well. The entire front is sewn together and a border is sewn on the back. Next weekend perhaps I'll have time to finish it up.
Once the sewing class was over, Tim and I went back under the school to work on our 4-wheelers. Those few hours inside were like magic on my 4-wheeler. Everything worked once again. While Tim and Greg fought with bolts that wouldn't budge on the beast, I changed the oil in my 4-wheeler. Unfortunately, Tim and Greg weren't able to completely fix his 4-wheeler, because they found a broken washer that needed to be replaced. Tim ordered the part and then put his machine half back together, so we could tow it out of the school until next weekend.
When Tim and I got home from the school on Friday evening, we started working on furniture rearrangement. We don't have a very big apartment, so adding in extra furniture and a baby is a bit of a trick. I think we did a really good job of our rearranging though and our apartment feels quite a bit homier now. I'd post pictures, but it's not quite clean enough to show the world. You'll have to wait until next week.
Tim and I did spend some time on Saturday working. It was inevitable that at some time during our Thanksgiving break we would have to do some lesson planning for the next week. For me, it went fairly quickly though and I was able to keep myself from dwelling on the work that needed to be done and enjoy my break.
This year we held with Togiak tradition and had a potluck Thanksgiving dinner with the other teachers. I absolutely love Thanksgiving out here. In my mind, it's a pretty ideal way to do Thanksgiving. No one person or family is bogged down with the task of making a Thanksgiving feast, yet, because everyone brings a dish, there is a feast and lots of good food. Every year Tim makes the turkey and I bring rolls. This year was no different. We did through in some mashed potatoes as well, because our normal mashed potato maker was out of town this Thanksgiving. The food was good and the company was great.
After our Thanksgiving meal, Tim and I monopolized the time of our vice principal, Nate. His family is out of town for a month while his little boy gets his tonsils out. So, I guess we can justify ourselves in taking up his whole afternoon by saying that we were just keeping him company. We asked him if we could get a dresser for our apartment so we have a place to put all of our baby clothes and supplies. He took us to the shed next to his house where all the extra teacher housing furniture is kept and let us pretty much go shopping. Three hours later we were back in our apartment with a new couch, new nightstands, new lamps, and a new dresser. We didn't have time to organize it all and rearrange furniture, because we had invited Heather and Nate over to play cards at 6:30. So, we just dropped all the furniture in the odd places it was and pushed some things aside to make room for a game of Rook. It was a really fun evening.
Friday morning Tim and I borrowed our neighbors 4-wheeler to tow our 4-wheelers down to the school. The beast still is suffering from a broken belt and Tim needed a warm place to work on it. My 4-wheeler was simply just frozen and needed a bit of a thaw. The electric start wasn't working and the pull start was frozen solid. The reverse button was also frozen. Nate let us pull our machines in under the school for the day. Once we had them under the school, I went to Evelyn's classroom. She was having a sewing class. She had prepared for us kits to make Christmas quilts with. I've never made a patchwork quilt until now. It was fun to spend the afternoon sewing and chatting with the other ladies in the class. I was amazed at how much work I was able to get done on the quilt in just 4 hours as well. The entire front is sewn together and a border is sewn on the back. Next weekend perhaps I'll have time to finish it up.
Once the sewing class was over, Tim and I went back under the school to work on our 4-wheelers. Those few hours inside were like magic on my 4-wheeler. Everything worked once again. While Tim and Greg fought with bolts that wouldn't budge on the beast, I changed the oil in my 4-wheeler. Unfortunately, Tim and Greg weren't able to completely fix his 4-wheeler, because they found a broken washer that needed to be replaced. Tim ordered the part and then put his machine half back together, so we could tow it out of the school until next weekend.
When Tim and I got home from the school on Friday evening, we started working on furniture rearrangement. We don't have a very big apartment, so adding in extra furniture and a baby is a bit of a trick. I think we did a really good job of our rearranging though and our apartment feels quite a bit homier now. I'd post pictures, but it's not quite clean enough to show the world. You'll have to wait until next week.
Tim and I did spend some time on Saturday working. It was inevitable that at some time during our Thanksgiving break we would have to do some lesson planning for the next week. For me, it went fairly quickly though and I was able to keep myself from dwelling on the work that needed to be done and enjoy my break.
Our new washing machine
Saturday Heather and Kim through a baby shower for Tim and I. They had Kim's classroom all decorated in pink with table cloths, balloons, and banners. (Those things aren't easy to come by in Togiak.) They had games to play and lunch for us to eat. Several people brought us gifts as well. Thank you everybody. Kaylee is going to be spoiled!
Tim and I have just started getting baby items purchased and our first one arrived this week. We are now the proud owners of a portable washing machine. We have decided that we are going to be using cloth diapers. Since we share a washer and dryer with the other 3 apartments in our building, we decided it would be best to get our own small washing machine. That way we're not washing dirty diapers in someone else's washing machine that might not want us to and we can control what kind of laundry soap is used. We haven't washed any cloths in it yet, but I think we're going to love it. It fits right next to our bathroom counter and when we want to use it, we just hook a hose up to the bathroom sink. We'll keep you posted on how it works.
Tim and I have just started getting baby items purchased and our first one arrived this week. We are now the proud owners of a portable washing machine. We have decided that we are going to be using cloth diapers. Since we share a washer and dryer with the other 3 apartments in our building, we decided it would be best to get our own small washing machine. That way we're not washing dirty diapers in someone else's washing machine that might not want us to and we can control what kind of laundry soap is used. We haven't washed any cloths in it yet, but I think we're going to love it. It fits right next to our bathroom counter and when we want to use it, we just hook a hose up to the bathroom sink. We'll keep you posted on how it works.
