This week was our second 5-day week of the school year. I must admit I quite liked the 4-day week thing, but I guess we can’t have holidays and in-services every week. We did put in a few 13-hour days this week trying to keep up. We were, however, successful in saving some time on Monday evening for Family Home Evening. I felt like that was a feat in and of itself.
Tuesday, Tim and I left the school around 4:30 pm. Tim had to pick up some ice cream to serve to the winning class from spirit week. The class who participated the most in dressing up was considered the winning class, which was not a hard task, since I only had 3 students dress up all week. Needless to say, my class was not the winning class. Tim found 2 gallons of ice cream for $30 at the AC store. On our way back home, I drove in front of Tim because I don’t have a windshield on my 4-wheeler and I don’t like getting dust in my face from Tim’s 4-wheeler. When I parked in front of our building I was completely confused to find that Tim was nowhere to be found. I couldn’t figure out where he went. After about 5 minutes he rode up, looking a bit flustered. The ice cream and fallen off his 4-wheeler and he had stopped to retrieve it. The container had ice cream and gravel all over it. I took the ice cream inside and started cleaning it up, so I could find the crack and tape it up before it melted any more. I only found two very small cracks and had it all fixed up before Tim even made it inside . . . at least I thought I had. Tim then told me that the lid had fallen off and the ice cream had landed top down, so there was gravel inside the ice cream. Since the ice cream cost $15 a gallon and the store was a 3-mile 4-wheeler drive back to town, we spent the next 15 or 20 minutes meticulously spooning out all the chunks of gravel. The good news was that if we missed any, it would just looked like Oreo chunks. The bad news is that if we missed any the kids would likely chip a tooth.
Thursday Tim took his first sick day. Corey Cejka, our English teacher, also took a sick day. So our staff of 5 was down to 3. Tim was able made it to school for our after-school meeting and our college class. We are taking a class over distance delivery once a week. I didn’t get to start lesson planning for the next day until 5:30 pm. I made my lesson plans a lot faster than usual. Tim, on the other hand, had another class to attend from 6-8 pm. I don’t even know how he got things ready for Friday.
Friday I got a big package in the mail: a new full-size piano keyboard! I was so excited. I have always been against electrical pianos, but I finally decided a keyboard is better than nothing at all. So far I love it. It is definitely not an acoustic piano, but it’s pretty good. The best part about it was that I got a $100 discount because it was “blemished”, but I have yet to find the blemish.
This weekend we witnessed our first basketball tournament. They are probably the most popular fundraiser in Togiak and most the village gets involved. Anybody will host a basketball tournament to earn money, the basketball team, the yearbook staff, the cross-country team, the volleyball team, or the wrestling team. People live for basketball here. Originally I was supposed to play on a staff team. I was a little nervous about it since I haven’t played a game of basketball since I was 12 and to top it off, I already had 2 things scheduled on Saturday on top of my regular lesson planning. It turned out that some of my teammates were sick, so we cancelled. Later I found out that my team just got replacements and played anyway. I felt like a jerk for “backing out”, except I had no idea that they were still playing. In the end, I was not too sorry that I was replaced.
Friday night and Saturday night Tim and I played Killer Bunnies with our friend Heather. I am so glad there is someone else in Togiak who loves to play crazy games. To top it off, we also had a Chinese potluck dinner on Saturday night, which was so good.
Saturday evening, I watched the Relief Society broadcast online. Sister Thompson spoke about visiting teaching. I thought it was pretty cool when she shared the story of the sisters in Alaska who could only visit each other by traveling by bush plane, so they communicate by letters, email, and phone calls. She was talking about my relief society! Just earlier this week I dropped my visiting teaching letters off at the post office. It was my first time making a visiting teaching “visit” in this manner, so I’ll have to let you know how it went after I receive (or not receive) a replies.
Tuesday, Tim and I left the school around 4:30 pm. Tim had to pick up some ice cream to serve to the winning class from spirit week. The class who participated the most in dressing up was considered the winning class, which was not a hard task, since I only had 3 students dress up all week. Needless to say, my class was not the winning class. Tim found 2 gallons of ice cream for $30 at the AC store. On our way back home, I drove in front of Tim because I don’t have a windshield on my 4-wheeler and I don’t like getting dust in my face from Tim’s 4-wheeler. When I parked in front of our building I was completely confused to find that Tim was nowhere to be found. I couldn’t figure out where he went. After about 5 minutes he rode up, looking a bit flustered. The ice cream and fallen off his 4-wheeler and he had stopped to retrieve it. The container had ice cream and gravel all over it. I took the ice cream inside and started cleaning it up, so I could find the crack and tape it up before it melted any more. I only found two very small cracks and had it all fixed up before Tim even made it inside . . . at least I thought I had. Tim then told me that the lid had fallen off and the ice cream had landed top down, so there was gravel inside the ice cream. Since the ice cream cost $15 a gallon and the store was a 3-mile 4-wheeler drive back to town, we spent the next 15 or 20 minutes meticulously spooning out all the chunks of gravel. The good news was that if we missed any, it would just looked like Oreo chunks. The bad news is that if we missed any the kids would likely chip a tooth.
Thursday Tim took his first sick day. Corey Cejka, our English teacher, also took a sick day. So our staff of 5 was down to 3. Tim was able made it to school for our after-school meeting and our college class. We are taking a class over distance delivery once a week. I didn’t get to start lesson planning for the next day until 5:30 pm. I made my lesson plans a lot faster than usual. Tim, on the other hand, had another class to attend from 6-8 pm. I don’t even know how he got things ready for Friday.
Friday I got a big package in the mail: a new full-size piano keyboard! I was so excited. I have always been against electrical pianos, but I finally decided a keyboard is better than nothing at all. So far I love it. It is definitely not an acoustic piano, but it’s pretty good. The best part about it was that I got a $100 discount because it was “blemished”, but I have yet to find the blemish.
This weekend we witnessed our first basketball tournament. They are probably the most popular fundraiser in Togiak and most the village gets involved. Anybody will host a basketball tournament to earn money, the basketball team, the yearbook staff, the cross-country team, the volleyball team, or the wrestling team. People live for basketball here. Originally I was supposed to play on a staff team. I was a little nervous about it since I haven’t played a game of basketball since I was 12 and to top it off, I already had 2 things scheduled on Saturday on top of my regular lesson planning. It turned out that some of my teammates were sick, so we cancelled. Later I found out that my team just got replacements and played anyway. I felt like a jerk for “backing out”, except I had no idea that they were still playing. In the end, I was not too sorry that I was replaced.
Friday night and Saturday night Tim and I played Killer Bunnies with our friend Heather. I am so glad there is someone else in Togiak who loves to play crazy games. To top it off, we also had a Chinese potluck dinner on Saturday night, which was so good.
Saturday evening, I watched the Relief Society broadcast online. Sister Thompson spoke about visiting teaching. I thought it was pretty cool when she shared the story of the sisters in Alaska who could only visit each other by traveling by bush plane, so they communicate by letters, email, and phone calls. She was talking about my relief society! Just earlier this week I dropped my visiting teaching letters off at the post office. It was my first time making a visiting teaching “visit” in this manner, so I’ll have to let you know how it went after I receive (or not receive) a replies.
