One last thing

I forgot to mention, my last event before falling ill was Joel's 2nd birthday party last weekend. Michelle and I were the cake makers, so we had our own special shot here.

Joel's favorite is fish, so we made him a fish cake, actually we made two fish cakes and a regular cake. No fish were harmed in the creation of these cakes.

We were also celebrating the birthday of Kinka, Theo, Lisa, and Gala.

Alaskans eat cake and ice cream too. Sorry if that's too "boring" for you.

We played Eskimo Bingo and I won a little plastic container full of gum with $3 inside. Someone won a 3 lb bag of rice. I was jealous (you know how much rice costs!?)

ok, back to being sick. peace...

Memories of being healthy...

So first thing my mom says on the phone, "why don't you put more pictures on your blog?" Didn't you read my last entry!? I'm DYING!*** But, dying or not, I aim to please. So here's some crappy pictures. No, I'm serious, they're not very good pictures.

In my fragile and decrepit state, close to the brink, I sit and remember all of the fun things you can do when you're not sick... like snowshoe up mountains.

It was March 23, 2009. Unfortunately, it was doing that stupid snow/fog thing, so you can't tell really that we're on a mountain. So let me give you some perspective.

This picture is from the day at the Gull, but you can see 2 hill and 3 hill in the distance. Brenda, her brother Brad, and I snowshoed to the top of 3 hill. Yes, it's called a hill, but trust me, if you snowshoed to the top of it, you would call it a mountain. It's only 1200 ft tall, but we're at sea level and anyway, I'd like to see you climb it!

Brad and Brenda taking a breather about 3/4 up the mountain.

It was a lot of work!

When we got to the top we noticed there were lots of little bumps, so we picked one and deemed it the official top, here's Brenda celebrating our victory! We climbed all the other bumps too, just in case.

Here are my climbing buddies, Brad and Brenda, chillin with some cool rock formations.

I will always look back in this day with regret... how could I forget to bring a SLED?!


As a parting gift, I will give you a picture from my grocery store. You think your toothpaste is expensive?

Just imagine thinking that you're saving $0.29 by paying $7.10!

ok, well everything is getting cold and dark now... I must go... farewell my healthy friends... may you live to enjoy my blog, long after I am gone.***

***Disclaimer: I might not really be dying. It's probably just a really bad flu bug. I apologize if this dramatization offended you. Also, my mom does care about me. Word.

I have pneumonia

Ok, maybe I don't have pneumonia, but I'm not ruling it out just yet. I'm so close to the end of the year, I really hope I live to make it home. Maybe it's the whooping cough. Or better yet, tuberculosis. I'm very scared because there are no doctors here, so if I do happen to have a horrible disease no one will ever know. Here's to hoping I live 6 more weeks!

Only 7 Weeks left!!!!

How am I, you might ask? Well. Let me show you a picture instead of using words:

This is what happens when you are in bush Alaska for 8 months.

So, it's March 22 and it's -13 outside this beautiful sunny morning. It's so deceiving, it looks so nice and warm with all the crazy sunshine, it's just for looks I guess. We had spring break a week ago, that was fun, lots of sleeping, went to Dillingham with Michelle for some recreation, that's about it!

Yesterday (after Saturday school, yes, school on Saturday to make up for a snow day) we (Andrea and Justin Olson, Brenda and Brad Woolley, Jamie and Tim LeCount, Michelle and Dennis Schnieder and myself)

decided we'd all drive out to the Gull, this boat that has been grounded in the tundra, it's a couple miles from the village. A major tourist attraction! Here I am, with all of my layers of insulation:


Brenda, Michelle, and me:We climbed up on it, it's a little old, so I was very careful where I stepped! Here's a view from the top.
I went down inside too, found some dead bodies, ok not really, but it was pretty creepy down there. Here I'm coming back out.
I climbed up to the highest part, but I couldn't get down without help, it was very scary!Leaping for freedom:
One last shot:
School is school. Life is life. It's all good. You know the stuff. Hope you're all good, I miss you! You should call me, I lost my phone card. :)

Pictures

So I thought it was about time to post some pictures of stuff.

Here's the tundra since the blizzard, nice and snowy!

some houses and stuff

I'm decorating a butterfly shaped cake, why not?

The end result (very delicious)

This was when Brenda and I skied to the village. When you are out in the middle of the tundra there's really nothing else around except snow. What a nice day!

When Brenda and I got to the village we stopped into the Boys and Girls Club where Gala is the new director! Hi Gala!

Life is good these days. Lots of days off because of blizzards and broken plows. I have a renewed appreciation for life after having almost lost it in the blizzard. Can't wait to see everyone in a couple months!! :)

Wow

So, here's what's going on with me:

1. Brenda and I skiied to the village and almost didn't make it back because we're so out of shape. I'll post some of those pictures later.

2. I went ice-fishing for the first time and caught a trout. It was fun, in that strange yay-we-get-to-stand-in-one-spot-for-3-hours-and-hope-something-bites-my-hook! kind of way.

3. We had school, even though there was a blizzard warning, and got trapped in the school all night. Because I'm a genious, I went with a few other teachers to go to the apartment, even though you couldn't see a foot in front of your face. We made it to the apartment, but I have no idea how. I have never been so afraid. EVER.

4. It's almost spring break and I'm so excited!

So what's up with you?

Snow Day!

We had our first snow day ever yesterday. We woke up to 5 ft drifts everywhere! Even the snow plow was stuck! Sorry the pictures are so dark, this was about 10am.


That's the apartment building, snow everywhere! We had to step up a foot and a half to get out the door.

This is one of my favorite... the snow drift is taller than the steam house!

Under that 5ft drift somewhere is a 4-wheeler, you can see a little bit of the handle bar sticking out.

Doesn't everyone want to get their picture taken with the 5ft drift that appeared over night? This is right in the middle of the "road" by the way. After this was taken I tried to dig a tunnel through it, but I only got a few feet.

"Hey honey, can you take the car to go get some milk from the store?"
"Can it wait til spring...?"

You haven't seen comedy until you've seen a hotdog get stuck in a 5ft drift. Here's Michelle and Dennis taking Frankie for a walk.

Here's Michelle in her snowball barricade that Lisa and I help her build. The snow was very stick, perfect for snowball fights and snowmen.

We also did some sledding, which the camera did not participate in, sorry. We have the best hill in town right out on the backside of our apartments. It was so much fun!

There's not really a whole lot of other news. Just teaching and hanging out. Hope you are all doing good!