Random Stuff/Pictures

Here are some more pictures. I'm trying to catch up if you can't tell. These are pretty much random pictures... Macy "posing" for me. What a ham! Molly climbs everything now... she climbed into the chair next to Joe the other day while he was on the phone and picked up one of the cell phones (that don't have a signal for MILES) and was doing everything Joe did. I think at this point he had been put on hold... they are glaring at eachother. Then there are pictures of Molly and some kid who wanted to play with Molly (she wasn't having it!) at the picnic and one of Molly blowing me a kiss.

More of the First Day of School

Here is my (Christina) little input. (I had extra pictures.) Macy insisted when we got home that day that I take her First Day of School picture too! Ok sure... your first day of school meaning I can teach you to do laundry and fold clothes (which she loves) or we can watch some of Mom's favorite Disney (princess) movies. Oh and don't forget nap time! We learned that well! LOL. Anyway I started taking Macy's picture and Molly scooted right in too. I thought this one was just too cute. We have fun at home together just us girl's but we sure do miss the boys being around. After nap we went back to the school for the picnic and there are some pictures of that too. Gavin, Macy's kool-aid face, Gavin sliding (he was scared you could tell but now he's a pro at it), and poor Macy wanted to go with him so bad but well.. the picture says it all I think! Enjoy.

Fishing Trip

Ok, so no pictures yet, but they are on the way...The fishing trip involved me (Joe) and Gavin. We went up river about fifteen minutes into beautiful Alaskan country. It was picturesque; we cruised next to a bald eagle for about a minute, there were mountains in front of us, and we even drove by a wrecked airplane that is still sitting in the wilderness, like a 30 passenger one that crashed a decade or so ago!!! We got dropped off at the fishing spot, just me and the high schoolers, but before the boat went back they left me with the rifle (decided as a group I would give it to one of the high schoolers if a bear came). And there were bear tracks ALL OVER the little river bank. We caught two graylings within fifteen minutes! Things got really interesting when we realised that the first two boatloads were on the wrong side of the river...so we loaded two boatloads into one boat, and got stuck in the shallow part going across! One of the high schoolers and a middle schooler jumped out, so I did too (I had boots on) and we started pulling the boat. The water came up over my boots, and it about took my breath away how cold it was!!! You CANNOT swim (unless you're born in the artic) in this water, if you fall out of a boat without a lifejacket in the middle of the summer, does not matter, you will die in the river because the water will freeze you into inaction, it was that cold!!! There was only water pouring into my boot, so I was able to keep pulling, and we got the boat unstuck; but for the next three hours, I kept getting random chills, even after I dried my boots and feet out by the fire. Our school was catching fish like crazy, and I tried raw fish eggs right out of a grayling (yuck!). Kids were eating them like delicacies. Gavin was fishing with his teacher, but she asked me to fish with him on the big pole. He got bored soon, but I was having a blast...and I caught a fish!!! One of the locals came over and helped me with the fish...a student got the hook out, and I smashed it against a rock...then was instructed to bite its neck and take a chunk for bait!!! Apparently fish will go for it! I told them they were crazy, but, hell, I'm living in the Artic, sowhatthehell I did it...took too big of a bite (little bit o' blood) and had to re-bite the chunk. With the hard part over, all I had to do was slice it, gut it, clean it, cook it, and eat it! It was AMAZING! Gavin wasn't too crazy about it...prefered his sucker. He got the hang of fishing with a kid's line and was having a good time. Couple of the high schoolers checked a fishing net and found about 15 20+lb "dog salmon" in the net! They pulled them all to shore and were cutting and cooking them. A middle schooler caught one of the big dog salmon fish with a long stick and a snare. I tried to catch three that were swimming about three feet from me with a line, but couldn't...Gavin and I had a blast, though! Can't wait to get out into the Alaskan wilderness again! Possibility of going moose hunting...later!

First Day of School

Ok, so it was two weeks ago, but it feels like forever, so much has happened in two weeks...
Trick for me was not thinking too much about my "first day" as a teacher. I told myself all sorts of lies and went in completely convinced that I could get through the day, and it rolled pretty easy. Kids listened well (b/c it was the first day); the biggest problem I had was not getting kids to talk at all...seriously, a few of the girls hid their faces behind their hands...we've had a couple weeks to get to know each other since then, and I think (hope) we've improved since then...The picnic we had was a great bit of fun, lots of hot dogs and burgers, and the fish was incredible. I've never enjoyed fish so much in my life. Gavin loved running around and playing, he fit right in with his kindergarten class and is having a blast. I talked to several of the Venetie locals at the picnic (check out the picture), and everyone was very welcoming, even if it was a little hard to understand some of them...(getting better at that, too!) Some of them were very outgoing and talkative, while others just kind of stood by you and conversed every once and a while...I think that the idea of a conversation "ending" once there's a long silence is a Western concept. Along with that, EVERYTHING here is very laid-back and relaxing, even if school is a lot of work. Macy and Molly were up to their usual antics, Macy spilled kool-aid all over her white jacket and molly would not stop climbing up some sharp metal steps :-) We had to take the students back inside for the rest of the day, but we ended with P.E., which is where I was supervising 5-12th grades!!! Lots of fun though, we played a game like dodgeball but instead of hitting each other you try to knock down the opponents pins on their side of the gym. All in all, a good day, especially for teaching day #1 (out of 5,000). Now the second day was another story...;-)

Molly's New Friend

Ok we're jumping ahead here because I can not tell the stories of the first day of school and the fishing trip quite like Joe can. He is very busy right now doing grown up things (lesson plans) and I am sitting awake suffering from insomnia. Some of you are demanding more pictures and I got a few today so that's why I'm doing "Molly's new friend." I can't spell his name (because I haven't asked) but it sounds something like sir-ee-ah. He is adorable! He has big brown eyes like Gavin did/does and he is only 6 days younger than Molly. He is Mr. Stathis' son and lives next door. Everytime we hear him Molly gets really quite and points up. Weird but cute and everytime she does it I expect to hear her say "Hark!" We opened our door yesterday while we were waiting for Joe to come home and he heard us and was knocking on his door like, "Ok I know your there now come play with me." He and his mother came over today and he sat in the floor playing with cars while Molly played with her baby doll. (he wouldn't play dolls with her... typical guy.) Aren't they cute?!

Our New House

The "house" we are living in is the old school building. We have industrial size sinks in the kitchen (there are 3 side by side). We have 3 bathrooms... one with a shower and sink (that one says men on the door), one with a stall and sink (that one is the womens), and one with a shower and toilet. The last is the one we use most because there is a "sink hole" (we're not sure what it really is yet) in the room leading to the other bathrooms, and we're afraid to fall through the floor. Plus it's freezing cold on that side of the house! There are 3 bedrooms and a million closets/pantries (none in the bedrooms of course!). Gavin has his own room, the girls share a room, and me and Joe sleep in a room that doubles as the living room. Gavin has the heater in his room so it is always super hot in there so that the rest of us can have some heat too. The girls have a sink and mirror in their room (probably because it used to be a school room) but the kids highlight of the house is the little water fountain in the dinning room. I know our house sounds weird. No, it is weird but it is comfortable and now that we have more of our things (almost all of it now) it's starting to look a lot more like a home. These pictures are before we rearranged things and added our stuff to the mix. I will post "after" pictures soon. Or maybe I won't and you all will be forced to come see for yourselves! ;)

The top picture is our first meal together in our new house. Notice the wonderful eggs and spinach we ate on plates we found! Oh my what a day!
The second is Gavin at the most wonderful thing here... the water fountain.
The third is Gavin's room. The black bag over the window is to keep the light out. (It is bright most of the night here still)
The fourth is a picture of the girl's room.
And the last one is half of our room. This room has nice soft carpet in it!

Venetie, Alaska

So we are here! (have been for almost 3 weeks) We just got the internet at our house a few hours ago and this is the first time I was able to sit for a minute. Let's start where I left you... on our way to Venetie.
It was a rainy day the day of our flight and I have to tell you it was a pretty scary ride. Only for me though. Everyone else loved it! The mountains and rivers we passed were all beautiful! We flew about 200 miles and passed one village (which we stopped in)! When we got here we were shocked to see Mr. Stathis (the principal) in a brand new Toyota Tacoma. It's nice. We went from the little gravel air strip straight to our new home to put our bags down. They were, after all, getting wet. And who do you think followed us in the door but a fat little mouse! We live in the old school building (more details to come). For those of you who helped us pack all up and saw how far in advance we shipped our things will be shocked to know that it took about a month for some of those things to arrive! We got here and had the clothes in our suit cases and the perishable food we brought with us from Fairbanks! *sigh* We ate eggs and spinach for 2 days. Mr. Stathis brought us over a few slices of bread, butter, cheese, oil, and salt. Thank God for that man! We got a few boxes (some of which had food in them!) two and a half days later! We have not known hunger like that before nor do I think will we ever again. We have now received almost all of the boxes we sent ourselves; but during that time we have twice run out of food (practically), toilet paper twice, and diapers once!!! And wouldn't you know God has come through at the last second EVERYTIME! For those of you who know the sermon on the mount... it has taken on a whole new meaning for us. We have learned that worrying is not going to get cash or supplies here any quicker...only God. And even if He waits literally until the last second we are taken care of! Better than most people around here too. We are one of four or five buildings that have running water. The people here are mostly Gwichin Athabascan Indian (note from Joe: they call themselves Indians, so I'm not being insensitive). They are subsistent livers (they live off the land... hunting, fishing, etc.) And they are some of the nicest people I have ever met! I love it here. The weather is wonderful (in the high 60's low 70's most days), the people are amazing, the rhythm is so much slower, and the view is what I would call breathtaking. I am so very thankful that we were allowed this experience!

Only 200 miles left to go...

Hello from Alaska! I am writing you from our hotel in Fairbanks. We arrived here this morning at 3:00 am (Alaska's time, for TN that is a 3 hour time difference)! Oh my we were/are tired. The first flight, from Nashville to Seatle, would have been perfect had poor Molly not have thrown up all over! (She was much happier afterwards.) The landscape was beautiiful! The mountains are amazing (can't say the same about the desert) and I hope to go back to visit someday. The flight from Seatle to Fairbanks was nice too but it was cloudy (and dark) so we couldn't see much. We were actually on the same flight as the band WAR... you know "All my firends drive low riders"... they were a hoot!
We love Alaska so far. The temp. was about 54 today and we still have almost 200 miles north to go! It's chilly and I would go and pack all my jackets... so thank goodness for thrift stores! I got a cute little jacket there for a couple dollars and now I won't freeze my bum off! We talked to someone today who told us that Venetie is like going to a whole other country. The culture is so different from what the "white men" are used to. I couldn't help but giggle and then I thought oh my God he is serious. We can't wait to see our new home even more now! But back to Fairbanks... for those of you who know Wisconsin or the U.P., it feels a lot like that. The trees are similar and so is the weather but there is just something about seeing those mountains in the background that make it so amazing! I will let you know more about our new home as soon as we get there and set things up! Night.
~Christina