Home Sweet Home!

Greetings,

Well, after several traveling events, Ben and I are finally sitting in Dennis and Kathy's beautiful new home with the fire going and the Vikings game on. Life is good here. Let me tell you a little bit about our adventure home. It started on Friday at around 2:25 when our home school coordinator came into our rooms and told us no planes were landing in Mountain and that if we wanted to make it we would have to snow machine to St.Mary's which is about 20 miles away. So, we announced over the VHF system that there were teachers who needed to get to St. Mary's within an hour. We went outside and there were several snow machines waiting to load up teachers. I was taken back and almost got teary eyed to see the support from the people in Mountain. Ben and I weren't flying out of Anchorage until Monday morning and so we offered our snow machine spots to other teachers who had connecting flights. So, we kind of sadly and slowly walked home and figured we would ride down to the store. I called my mom and told her we wouldn't be leaving Mountain on Friday. About 10 minutes later, Ben comes running in saying, "Anne get your gear on, a plane is landing!" I didn't know whether or not to believe him, but I started getting ready anyways. There were four teachers who were already on their way to St. Mary's via snow machine on the great Yukon River. Two other teachers were at the "gas station" and heard the plane was coming as well and so they went to the airport. Long story short, a plane ended up coming and we flew to St. Mary's and everyone was ready to catch the plane to Bethel. Ben and I got put on the second plane which ended up going back to Mountain, then to Bethel. Ben and I always like to say, "only in the bush." I must say that I really enjoy bush planes and the pilots.

Well, all the teachers made it to Bethel where we enjoyed some takeout food for the first time in 4 months. I had chicken and Ben had a burger. It was delightful. Everyone made it to Anchorage and I must say...it was kind of a culture shock. There were people everywhere, cars, billboards, etc. We took a cab to The Burkels house where they had a real Christmas tree in their house. It was truly delightful to walk into their house. We stayed there Saturday night and on Sunday after church we devoted the day to Christmas shopping. Family, you have some Alaskan themed gifts coming to you this year! :)

So, here Ben and I sit comfortably at home in the lower 48. These next couple of weeks will be spent with family, friends, eating out, and shopping. :) We want to wish you a very Merry Christmas!! Thanks for reading.

Ben and Anne:)

Stuck in Kotlik

Hello Everyone,

Ben and I recently went to a Tsunami bowl in Kotlik, AK. We brought 5 Mountain Village high school students. We got there around 3:00 on Monday afternoon. As soon as we got our bags situated and ate dinner, we went to an eskimo dance that was put on at their community center. Well, little did we know, this was an eskimo dance for a bride and groom. We picked that up as they were doing the dollar dance. I felt very awkward, but Ben assured me it was ok and we just kind of giggled. It was a lot of fun anyways. After the eskimo dance we went back to the school where we were staying. The kids were practicing their presentation that they would be giving the next day. After a lot of high school girl giggles, boys chasing after the girls, the kids finally went to sleep around midnight. The next day, we woke up bright and early and ate some breakfast along with everyone else who was participating in the Tsunami Bowl. Are you wondering what the Tsunami bowl is? Well, there were three teams and each team wrote a 20 pg. paper, and made a powerpoint presentation on something related to oceanography. Mountain didn't do a paper because there was not enough interest in doing so. Following the presentation, they had a quizbowl where they were asked various science/oceanography questions. Mountain took 2nd place in this section! We got 3rd over all, but I believe that is only because we didn't turn in a paper which was a huge portion of the grading.

I have said this again, but I will say it again, I'm so not meant to teach high schoolers. I have SO SO SO much respect for my amazing husband, Ben. I have the patience for 26 Kinders, but not for 5 high schoolers. It was kind of stressful for me as I was always wondering what they were up to. They like their space and not to be bothered by teachers. :) I don't know if I will sign up to chaperon high schoolers ever again. Did I mention Ben is amazing?!? He kept me sane throughout the trip.

Well, we were about to leave Kotlik on Thursday, but then got a call saying we were on a weather hold. I had been talking to Mountain teachers and they had mentioned that the weather in Mountain was awful. Snowing like crazy, blowing winds, cold temperatures. Just lovely. I still had hope though.....until the email came, planes were canceled for the night and we would try again the next day. So, that meant another night away from the high schoolers, sleeping on the floor of the school. Ben and I were jazzed about this. (note the sarcasm) We had to find ways to entertain these kids for another night. We made them nachos, put on a movie, let them go to the computer lab, and finally went to bed with hopeful thoughts of making it home the next day. So, that brings us to today. We FINALLY made it back to Mountain! The weather was still pretty bad. We got taken down to the airport and it was snowing like crazy and visibility wasn't too great. We were waiting for our plane outside on the runway and out of nowhere came the plane. We were so excited/nervous thinking about whether or not this is safe to be flying. Well, the plane ride ended up being really smooth and in no time we landed in Mountain even though the weather here was pretty awful. Apparently we were the only plane that flew today. All other planes were on weather holds and eventually got canceled. Is all I can say is that I'm SO happy to be home!

We got home around 12:30 and I couldn't wait to see my Kinders. They can always put a smile on my face. So, I walked into the room after not showering in 3 days, wearing the same clothes that I left in, and they all came towards me and gave me hugs telling me how much they missed me. It was a wonderful feeling.

Ben and I are SO SO SO excited that we will be leaving for Anchorage/Minnesota in 2 1/2 weeks! We look forward to meeting up with many friends and family! I want to say thank you to Ben's family and my family for all the wonderful Christmas stuff that has been sent to us. Our house is wonderfully decorated to Christmas thanks to you! :) Quyanna! (thank you in Yupik)

With love,
The Harvey's

Time

Hey all,

Sorry it has taken so long to post. Time has really flown by. I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving already! We have a lot to be thankful for. Well, not a whole lot has gone on since our last post. Our typical day usually consists of waking up, going to school, coming home, eating dinner, and going to bed. Ben and I really enjoy our evenings together. It's a time where we can just relax, watch some tv, talk about life, and just be together. Well, Ben officially got a snow machine. It is a 2010 Polaris Trail Touring. It hasn't arrived yet, but believe me....we are BOTH excited to get it! However, yesterday and today it has started raining and a lot of the snow is leaving us. The snow machine is being delivered to St. Mary's which is about 20 miles from Mountain Village. We need snow to get the snow machine from St. Mary's to Mountain. So please pray for snow! :) We finally have meat. Ben and I kind of experienced what it would be like to be a vegetarian. No offense Sarah or Bren, but we aren't big fans. So, we put in a meat order and about a week ago we received 60 lbs. of yummy meat! As I type this Ben is preparing his famous ribs. We don't have a smoker, but we do have a working oven. Regardless, they will be delicious!

This week is Thanksgiving week so we only have 2 1/2 days of school. On Wednesday the kids dismiss around 11:00 and go home and get their family's and return for a Thanksgiving Feast. The community comes to the school to have a Thanksgiving meal. I'm really excited for this day. As far as Ben and I's Thanksgiving plans. Well, we are going to two separate Thanksgivings. We were invited to two separate teacher Thanksgivings, so we are going to both. :) It almost feels like we are back home and are going to both families.

We will be coming back to the Midwest from the 20th to the 30th of December. We are SO excited to see low prices, eat out, see friends and family! We will be going back and forth from Minnesota to South Dakota, so if you want to hang. Give us a ring. Our house here in Mountain is starting to look more like Christmas thanks to both sides of our family. Thank you!

My kids have been behaving pretty well these last couple of weeks. There are some days where I get tears in my eyes because I'm so proud of them. The first day of school they did not know their letters or letter sounds and the majority of them do now. They have started to decode words and are reading small books. They go nuts when they see our star words (the, is, was, etc) If I'm reading a big book to them they will shout out, "Teacher Teacher star word." I can't help but smile.

That's all for now. We'll try to be more prompt with our next post!

Much love,
The Harveys

Happy Halloween!

Hello Everyone,
Happy Halloween! It's been a couple of weeks since we've posted. Anyways, I want to say thank you for all the birthday wishes and wonderful gifts from friends and family! I felt very loved on my birthday! :) As I was leaving to go to school on my birthday, I noticed it had snowed the night before. I knew it was going to be a great day! Ben made dinner and baked a cake. He is the best! The day after my birthday....the 27th, it started to blizzard. I could not believe it. The wind was blowing a gazillion MPH, there was snow everywhere. I walked home for lunch that day and was walking through drifts up to my knees. Ben came home for lunch a little later with a big smile on his face. We love it here! Yes, teaching is difficult as it is our first year and we are still trying to adjust to the new culture, teaching, and being married. However, we love it here and are learning everyday!

Last week I carved pumpkins with my kiddos. For the majority of the kids, it was their first time carving pumpkins and boy did they dive right in. I carved the top and emptied out the pumpkin guts onto the ground in groups for the kids. They went through and sorted all the seeds. Previously we had estimated how many seeds were going to be in the pumpkin. A lot of the kids guessed 6, 8, 12. When we finished we counted every seed and there was 320 pumpkin seeds. The kids were astonished and a bit sick of counting. :) I took the seeds home over the weekend and baked them. I brought them back to school on Monday for the kids to try them out. The kids loved them.

Last Friday we had our Halloween party. The kids all brought treats (sugar, sugar, sugar) just what a Kindergarten teacher dreams of. :) We had Halloween relays in the gym, played Halloween Bingo, did some art, and told Halloween stories. At the end of the day the kids got to get into their costumes and have a Halloween Parade. We started off in our room, got in a line and walked to first grade...first grade then got onto the back of our line and we proceeded to the third grade etc. Our parade finished in the gym where the children's parents were waiting anxiously to see their child in their costume. Did I mention Halloween is a big deal here? Well it is, and I got a little taste of that on Friday. Rumor has it that even the adults and elders go trick or treating. Hey, free candy right? Val and Kevin are going to come over and hand out candy with Ben and I tonight.

I feel like I'm jumping around a bit but last night we had a little birthday get together at Karen and Melanie's. Melanie and I share the same birthday. Anyways, one of our friends asked Mel and I what we miss from the lower 48 to eat that we don't get up here and she would try to make it. I requested boneless buffalo wings as I had been seeing Applebees commercials on tv. Melanie had requested hush puppies because she is from Arkansas. Well, let me tell you, Donni fulfilled our cravings! :) She also went on to make oreo cheesecake, cupcakes, apple bars. Karen, my fellow Twins fan baked me a cake that had a Twins logo on it. It was pretty awesome!

Anyways, I better get home before the trick or treaters start coming. Have a great week everyone! Welcome November! :) 6 more weeks and Ben and I will be flying back to civilization!

Much love,
The Harvey's.

Still Alive

Hey All,

Sorry it has taken us so long to update our blog. Well, since our last post we have taken a trip to a Christian retreat center, we have taken out our parkas, and we have walked to and from school on snow. Yes, that's right we have about 2 inches of snow. As Ben and I were walking to church this morning, we discussed how it doesn't feel weird that we have snow. It may be October, but when we arrived to Alaska in the beginning of August, it felt like fall. We are not complaining....yet.

Kako-the Christian retreat center was a lot of fun. The pilot came and picked us up around 5:00 P.M. on a Friday evening. When the pilot flew in, he came in on the opposite side of the runway. I was thinking....hmm, that's strange. Then, the plane looked like it was coming straight towards us and would not stop. Well, it did stop and nobody seemed to mind that he came in on the opposite side. The plane that we took to get there was even smaller than any plane we've taken before. Val and I climbed in first and had to climb over two seats to get to ours. My seat was right behind the pilots, and I mean RIGHT BEHIND. He could probably feel me breathing hard as soon as I got in. :) Ben sat in the back and Kevin sat Co-Pilot. It could only fit four of us at a time. The pilot had to make two trips. As we were flying there the pilot looked back at us and pointed to Kevin. He was letting Kevin fly the plane. Val and I covered our eyes while Ben sat in the back with a smile from ear to ear. Ben kept saying, "I'm so jealous." Well, we made it there alive and Ben REALLY wanted to fly the plane so he went back to Mountain Village with the pilot to pick up Melanie and Hazel just so he could fly. Kako was very relaxing. We got to go panning for gold as the retreat center is on a gold mine. We later found out that Mountain Village is supposedly sitting on a gold mine. Kevin and Ben were definitely plotting on how to make millions. We took a hike to the top of a mountain that overlooked many other mountains. We played many games of Mancala..(brought back so many good elementary school memories.) Some worked on puzzles...if you know me, you know I would rather watch paint dry than do a puzzle. There was also three meetings where we listened to a speaker. Oh, let me tell you...the food was amazing. We had some pulled Moose sandwiches, yummy salmon, pancakes etc. Moose is very tasty. It isn't as gamey as you think it would be. Ben and I are big fans. Ben got to fly on the way home from Kako as well. We flew really low on the way home and were able to see about 5-10 moose on the tundra. It was really neat. It ended up getting very windy though, so by the time we got home we were all feeling a little green. Those little planes bounce up and down and from side to side. I would like to say I've gotten used to it, but have not. Maybe some day. :)

It's coming up to the end of the first quarter of school. I can't believe how fast it has gone. Ben and I just finished writing our report card comments. I start tutoring this week. I meet with about 15 students three days a week for 90 minutes and do tutoring sessions which is apart of a program called Alaska Learning Labs. I do this every other week. Ben is heading up National Ocean Science Bowl which keeps him busy every Monday and Thursday night from 8:00-9:30 P.M. No Dancing with the Stars for Ben. I have started going to a Women's Bible study with my church on Tuesday nights. Ben and I are trying to figure out..ok maybe just Ben what kind of snow machine to get. I'm just here for moral support as I know nothing about engines, two stroke, four stroke, or 600 or 550, one up or two up, etc.

We have received our first full circle shipment. Every month we get a box of mixed green's, fruit, etc. This week we got some spinach, pears, grapes, apples, parsnips, peaches, and lettuce. It's kind of expensive, so we are trying to figure out if it is worth it or not.

Anyways, we hope all is well. Two months from today we will be in Anchorage onward to Minnesota. We can't wait to get home and see family and friends! We love you and miss you very much!

With love,
Ben and Anne

Let it snow let it snow let it snow!

Once again it has been awhile since we've posted. Let me tell you, I knew teaching would keep you busy, but I didn't realize really how busy it would keep us. It is very difficult teaching up in the Bush. You see things here that you wouldn't imagine seeing or hearing about down in the lower 48. However, it makes our calling to be here so much more significant. Even though it is difficult and some of the children have hard lives at home, I can't help but smile every time I see them walking through my door. They are always energetic and ready to be here despite their circumstances. Ben is getting to know his students more and more each day and so it is making it easier for him. The one thing about Ben that is so neat is that he loves being around his students inside and outside of school. If we are walking home and the kids are out playing a game, Ben will stay and play with them for a little bit. Me on the other hand...I keep walking. Once I'm out of the school and on my way home, there is usually no stopping me. :) haha Ben is a much better person than I am.

Last weekend we got to go to Russian Misson for a teacher inservice. It was absolutely beautiful there. There were actual trees. I have forgotten what trees look like. Mountain Village has little bushes, but nothing like Russian Mission. In Russian they had pine trees. I found myself taking a gazillion pictures of trees. It actually kind of reminded me of Minnesota. The thing that I find so funny is that to go to an inservice in a different villiage...we don't go by car, train, or bus. We fly there. Also, there are no hotels...so we have big giant teacher slumber party in the school. It was to get out of our village for a weekend.

This weekend there is a fall festival going on in the village. Last night there was Eskimo dancing. One of our own math teachers, Joe actually got out and was dancing. It was pretty neat! Tonight there is a pot luck which there will be a plethora of moose dishes and other fine cuisine. After the pot luck there will be fiddling. This last week I took my Kindergartners out berry picking. I chose a pretty chilly day to go, so my first back of Kinders went out and were freezing by the time we got there so we picked a few and the kids ate them by the time we got back to the school. My afternoon Kinders had much better luck. It wasn't as cold and wasn't as windy. They collectively got about half of a container of berries. As we were walking back, I noticed that all my kids had blue and red faces. It was pretty cute.

Two nights ago there were about 5 of us having dinner at Mel's house. As Ben and I walked out the door I saw snowflakes coming down and I screamed out of joy. Kevin was still inside and thought I was getting attacked or something had happened. Well, I think Kevin knows now how much I like snow and Christmas as I started singing Christmas Carols on the walk home. My sister would be so proud of me.

Thank you Harvey's for sending us a care package! It is so fun going to the post office and seeing that little pink slip saying that we have a package. We love you all and miss you! Oh, by the way...Ben and I got our Bush flights to Anchorage for Christmas break. It was about $1700 for the both of us round trip just to Anchorage and back. We have yet to get our Anchorage to Minnesota tickets. We are waiting so see if prices go down a little bit.

Love from Alaska,

Ben and Anne Harvey

Here Comes the Sun

Waqaa,

The sun is finally here and it is amazing! We walked to church this morning in short sleeve shirts. The sun beating down over the Yukon is gorgeous! This last Friday we had a garbage pick up with the teachers followed by a bbq on the river. We really enjoy hanging out with our co-workers/friends. As we were walking along the side of the (gravel) road, Janna said, "I'll give the first person to find a moose part a dollar." Well, Mike won that one. He found a Moose leg/hoof. I started laughing and couldn't believe that was actually happening. The weekend was very restful. We of course watched two discs of Chuck with Val and Kevin. We only have three days of school next week because of an inservice in Russian Mission, AK on Thursday and Friday. Ben and I have been told that Russian Mission looks a lot like Minnesota. It will probably be hard to leave.
We have been getting some fun things in the mail lately. Some things I get really excited about...and some things Ben get's really excited about. For example....someone got a holster for a gun in the mail....take a guess who was excited for that. If you guessed Ben, you are right. Someone got an isotonic mattress cushion. Take a guess who was excited about that? Yep, it was me. On Thursday, there was word about two bears in our village. Unfortunately for Ben, he didn't see any bears. He would like to justify buying his big gun, Harrison, by shooting a bear that was charging him. Me, not so much. I had to run home for lunch quick that day and I ran as fast as I could. I'm sure any native that saw me had a good laugh.

Only in Bush, Alaska would you...
*Find random moose parts on the side of the road.
*See the state troopers secretly come into town on a float plane.
*Pay $13 for a 12 pk. soda.
*Pay $12 for a gallon of milk.
*Have a friend bring you to church on a Honda. (that's what they call 4 wheelers)

The pictures are of Ben and some of his students, Ben and his holster, me with the mattress topper, and Mike (who is from South Dakota may I add) with a moose leg.

Picture Blog

Hey All,

I will write more later. I thought I would show you some recent picture of my Kindergartners. As soon as I can get down to Ben's room and take some pictures of him and his kids I will! :)

Birthdays!

Hey all,

First of all...I want to give a big birthday shout out to Benjamin Harvey which was on the 3rd of September and my wonderful sister, Sarah whose birthday was on the 7th! Well, surprise surprise Ben and I remain very busy. We usually stay at school until about 6:00 P.M. In fact...I'm writing this from school. I usually go into school around 7 and Ben follows shortly after that. Our classes are getting better. My children are starting to understand routines, walking in a straight line, not punching their neighbor, how to hold a pencil correctly, etc. Ben is still attempting to meet the needs of his 100 students who are all at different levels. He's a stud though, so I have no doubt that he will be able to pull it off.

We had a long day weekend which was absolutely amazing. One of the birthday presents I got for Ben was season one of the show, Chuck. Yep, pretty sure we watched the whole first season in three days. We are patiently awaiting the arrival of season two via Netflix. :) It has been very rainy here. The temperature has lingered in the high 40's low 50's. I would be ok if it stayed this temp all year. Ben is excited to get a snow machine...yes, they call them snow machines and not snowmobiles. I would be lying if I wasn't excited for him to get one. Anyways, life is good!

Things we miss:
Family
Cars
Applebees
The Minnesota Twins

Things we don't miss:
Paying for gas
Cars/driving in traffic
Target (ok maybe that's just me)
Going to a real grocery store.

That's all for now folks. We love and miss you all!

Ben and Anne

1 week down...many to go.

Hey Yall,

Well, Ben and I have survived week one. We had our first day of school on Thursday. Let me start off my saying that Thursday was probably one of the most chaotic days of my entire life. Ben has about 100 students. He is teaching science 7-12. That's a lot of kids. He has 45 minute classes. He was quite overwhelmed on the first day as well. It is definitely going to take some getting used to! Let's just say...Ben and I were SO excited that it was the weekend.

The first day for me as I said above was chaotic. I was supposed to have 19 students coming to school. By about 10:00 A.M. I had 24. The children kept rolling in. I have heard that one child here is equivalent to 2 down in the lower 48. So, I had 48 children in my room. I was extremely overwhelmed. I had children crawling under the tables, running out the door, going to the bathroom every 5 minutes, talking to neighbors, playing with toys they shouldn't be playing with. These children have never had structure though so it should not have been surprising to me. Regardless, I absolutely love my children. They are very sweet and very bright. After day one of Kindergarten I met with our counselor and IL and AIL (principal and vice principal) and we decided to go down to 1/2 days. This was a big relief. It was far too chaotic to have 24 Kinders all day long. So, starting on Monday we will try out half day.

Ben and I really love it here. We love all of our co-workers. Everyone has been very helpful! We like our new church as well. That was something we were worried about, but our pastor dives into scripture and it has been a blessing! The community is very sweet. You can't walk to the store without talking to about 10 people. (We love that) Ben just got done filleting a salmon that we received as a gift. The thing was HUGE. We are going to eat it for dinner tomorrow night. I'll let you know how it goes. :)

Well, it is the start of a new week and we ask that you pray with us that it goes smoothly and we can get go know our students and community better. Thanks for following! There are many pictures that I posted on my facebook if you want to check those out.

All our love,
Ben and Anne

"Waqaa"

"Waqaa" is how we were greeted by several of the children as we arrived in Mountain Village meaning hello, welcome. Let me start off by saying Anchorage was beautiful, but Ben and I were excited to leave the city. We left on the 19th and flew to Bethel on a 18 passenger plane. We went and ate at a wonderful pizza place in Bethel before boarding our 8 passenger plane to Mountain Village. A mix of emotions went through our heads as we were coming here. We were anxious, excited, nervous, and curious thinking about how our lives were about to change...again. :)
The flight over to Mountain Village was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It was all tundra and so there were little lakes and rivers everywhere. We flew low enough where we could see boats along the rivers, trumpeter swans swimming.

When we arrived to Mountain, I was pleasantly surprised. We had heard that there are no trees and flat. Well, there are bushes, but they are green and from a distance look like trees to me. There is a big hill here as well. So, coming from South Dakota and Minnesota...this isn't too flat. ha ha. Our principal came to pick us up at the airport...or shall I say dirt landing strip. He then brought us to our houses. I fell in love with our house. It is much bigger than we thought, a lot nicer than we thought. We were then able to go take a tour of our school and as we were looking around in the gym, we noticed almost all of our totes were there. So, the next hour or so we started loading up totes and bringing them to our house. Did I mention that the school is only about 30 ft. from our house. Anyways, we got all of our totes into our house and helped Kevin (another newbie) with his totes. We then came back to our house and started opening up totes. It was like Christmas. Val and Kevin came over and were quite entertained by all of our stuff. We may have gone a little overboard. :)

Today, (Friday) we woke up and went to the Post Office...we now have an address! It is..

Ben and Anne Harvey
P.O. Box 32025
Mountain Village, AK 99632

After hitting up the post office we went to the AC store. You can get pretty much get all the basics there, however it is very expensive! For example, a 12 pk of coke is almost $13. A dozen eggs were $6 Ben and I have gotten back to unpacking all of our things and hopefully getting everything situated before we head to work on Monday. We have three days of inservice and work days and we start school on Thursday.

With love,
Ben and Anne

Alive and in Anchorage

Hey all,

Sorry it has taken us so long to update our blog. Well, we have been in Anchorage for a little over a week now. We stayed with the Burkels for the first week and now we are partaking in our new teacher orientation at the Hilton. Let me just say that Anchorage is absolutely beautiful!

Last Saturday Ben and I hiked Flattop with the Burkel family. It was incredible. Greg and Tom Burkel, Ben, and Cody (Burkel dog) made it to the very top and got some nice pictures that I will share. We have also been doing a lot of shopping. Shopping for household items, rain gear, food, etc. So far, we have shipped from Anchorage 34, eighteen gallon totes full of stuff.

Our new hire orientation started on Monday the 9th and we are quite overwhelmed. We have been getting training on different curriculum, classroom management, and technology. I'm not going to lie, there have been times where I have thought in my head.....maybe I'm not cut out to be a teacher. I even asked Ben today if I could be a stay at home wife. ha ha..I'm kidding. I'm really looking forward to this experience. All the teachers that we have met so far from Mountain Village are very nice and SO helpful! We look forward to working with them more.

We leave on August 19th for Mountain Village. I'm not sure that we will get internet access right when we get there. We are able to get into the school on the 23rd and start school on the 26th. We will try and update y'all every week.

Until next time,
Ben and Anne

P.S. The pictures are of our hike up flattop. It was kind of fun being above the clouds!

2 weeks to go!

We are officially Mr. and Mrs. Harvey and couldn't be happier. I (Anne) have been sorting through boxes upon boxes of useless junk I have accumulated over the years at Minnesota State. I'm proud to say that I think I will be able to pack one suitcase of clothes and one suitcase of home decor for Alaska. That is it peeps, 2 suitcases is all I'm bringing. Ben is only bringing 2 bags as well, but we all know it is much easier for men to pack than women.

We are very excited and still don't know what all to expect. We will have a much clearer picture once we get to Anchorage. We are leaving on August 2nd and will be staying with some friends of Ben's church to start off with. We will then spend a couple of days with the Burkel family. They used to go to Christ Church in Mankato. On the 9th we will start our new hire orientation. I think we will have a lot of questions answered while there. We will be going to Target/Sams/Costco and buying enough food to last us until Christmas. (we hope)

For right now we are going to enjoy spending time with our family and friends. We will write again once we get up to Alaska!

Much love,
Ben and Anne Harvey

Welcome!

Greetings!

Welcome to our new blog. We will be blogging about our adventures in marriage and teaching in Alaska. We will try and update you weekly with how things are going in Mountain Village. Peace out girl and boy scouts!

With love,
Ben and Anne