Christmas Break Baby!

Hello Everyone,

Well, it's Christmas break and Ben and I couldn't be having a more relaxing break. Well, I guess if we were sitting on a beach somewhere tropical we would be. We are just fine settling into our warm and cozy home here in Mountain Village. It may be warm in our house, but it is frigid outside. As I type this blog, it is -15 without wind chill and that has been the norm around here.

We went into Anchorage for a couple of days at the beginning of break. It was a really fast trip, but we were able to spend some time with the Burkels, see the Chiropractor, get some shopping done, and of course eat some sushi. Some fun facts about the Chiropractor that we saw was that the doctor grew up in Clear Lake, SD, which is right by Watertown (my hometown) and he said that I had the best spine he had seen all day. Boo yeah for being healthy! I'm really trying to be more healthy this year by eating right, exercising, and I guess taking care of my spine. :)

About a week ago we took a ride with some of our friends from the village to the next village over. It's about 17 miles and a 45 minute snow machine ride. We just went over to check out their much nicer grocery stores. It actually felt like we were in a grocery store. When we went over it was right around zero degrees, which was ok. We layered up and put face masks and goggles on.

On Christmas Eve we went to church for the candle light service (my favorite of the whole year) and celebrated the birth of Jesus. Ben and I then came home and opened our gifts that we gave each other. Oh yeah, and Moose got a new bone. Ben spoiled me for Christmas this year with some Ruby earrings, a jewelry box, a griddle, and some other things. I got him a bunch of gun stuff, and tools that I have no clue what their function is. He was happy though. On Christmas day we went over to Melanie's (another teacher) and had breakfast with Kevin, Jessica, Amanda, Melanie, and Sean. We did a gift exchange there as well. Ben and I then ventured off to church. We spent the day resting and playing with our new "toys" and at 5:00 we headed over to Sean's for Christmas Dinner. We had a lovely feast and played Phase 10 afterward, which is one of my favorite games.

The rest of break has been very restful. Ben and I usually do things around the house during the day and play Moose Farkle and Sequence in the evenings. We've gone into school a couple of times to get work done. I got all my lesson plans ready and should be able to relax the rest of break. We also have been staying up until about 1:00 in the morning and waking up around 10:30. We're going to be in for a rude awakening when school starts back up again.

Thank you everyone for the Christmas cards and gifts that you sent. We love hearing from you more than you probably know. :)

Have a very Happy New Year!



Love,
The Harvey's

ONE MORE WEEK!!!

Hello Everyone,
From the capitalized letters in the title, you can probably guess we are a little excited to share there is only one week left of school until our Christmas vacation starts! Not a whole lot has happened since our last post. We overcame having strep. In fact, Ben and I just finished our 10 days of taking pills every 6 hours a day. We would wake up with our alarms at 1 in the morning to take our pills. Usually when people get strep out in the village, the health aides just give you a shot of amoxicillin and you are good within 24 hours. Ben and I are both allergic, and that is the reason why we had to take the pills.

My Kindergartners have been working hard in the classroom. They know all of their letter sounds and are starting to form words. This is the part of the year where I absolutely love my job. You see light bulbs turning on at different times with these kids and it is just so fun to see. I wish everyone could experience this. We have also been practicing our songs for our Christmas program which is coming up this Thursday. My kiddos are singing "All You Need Is Love" by the Beatles and "I'm a Little Penguin." We are hoping to get it on tape. If we do, I will be sure to post it on here.

Ben is loving his High Octane group. They now meet on Mondays and Thursdays for a couple of hours. The kids love it and really find pride in their program. Here is Ben to talk some "logistics" of high octane as I don't truly understand all the machine parts and I don't think I could give the program enough justice if I wrote about it. So, here is Ben! :) Several weeks ago we picked up a Honda four wheeler. The elderly man who owned it had just had somebody else replace the cylinder, but he got it back and there was no compression. We tried to adjust the valves, but still no compression. We decided to take they cylinder head off and found that the valves were all in funk and the top end appeared to have been hit with a hammer several times. We ordered a new cylinder head, and swapped it out and finally got it started. Over the next couple weeks, we'll be putting it all back together and hopefully get it back to the man during Christmas break. I'm also looking forward to a dinner that Kevin and I will be having for the regular attenders over the break.

Ok, it's Anne again. Many of you that know me, know that I LOVE the Christmas season. Everything that it represents. I love the decorating, cookie making, shopping, music, etc. Most importantly though I love the Christmas story of how Jesus was born. I have been busy over the last couple of weeks decorating for Christmas, wrapping Christmas presents for Ben, baking Christmas cookies. Also, Ben and I are unable to get a real Christmas tree and so we ordered a REAL wreath from LLbean (yay for free shipping) Anyways, it came on Friday and it is absolutely beautiful. I started snapping some pictures and so you are able to see how we have decorated our igloo, I mean our home.

On Saturday the 17th Ben and I will be flying into Anchorage to spend a couple of days stocking up on supplies and seeing the Chiropractor. If we see a chiropractor or a doctor while in town, our insurance will pay for 90% of our airfare. I don't know if you know this, but it is more expensive for Ben and I to fly from our village to Anchorage than it is to fly from Anchorage down to the lower 48. It costs about $1200 for both Ben and I to get to Anchorage alone, so we will definitely take advantage of our insurance and hey, we will get aligned and all will be well. We will get back to Mountain Village on the 20th and spend the rest of our break here. We are definitely going to miss seeing everyone on Christmas this year, but are still excited to have a relaxing couple of weeks without having to worry about school work.

Anyways, I didn't realize this was going to be such a long post. I will let y'all go and we will try and update our blog over Christmas break. We love you all!

Ben and Anne Harvey

Strep or no Strep?

Well,

I woke up and went to work this morning. I called the clinic and got an appointment at 9:45. I stayed with my kids until I went because I was feeling ok and was sort of in denial.

Truth has it....I had strep. When I found out I had strep, I immediately made Ben an appointment and sure enough...he has strep as well. We both are now taking some meds and will hopefully be ourselves in no time!

Thanks for thinking and praying for us!

Holiday Season

Hello Everyone,

I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving! Ben and I had a different kind of Thanksgiving. I will just go through a time line of what our Thanksgiving weekend looked like.

Tuesday night: Anne gets sick in the middle of the night.

Wednesday: Kids come to school until 10:30 and there was a Thanksgiving Feed for the community at 11:00. I loved this last year, but I went home as soon as it started to sleep and try to get well. Ben had a good time serving and was able to come home around 2:00, so it was a shortened day.

Thursday: I was starting to feel a little better and so Ben and I went to the hall where there was a collaborative church service where three pastors from three denominations gave a sermon. There was Russian Orthodox, Catholic, and Covenant church's represented. Ben and I both sang in the choir for the Covenant church. It was a lot of fun. Then I came home to prepare some scalloped corn and get read to go over to Sean's where about half the teachers gathered to celebrate Thanksgiving dinner. There was everything at this meal that we would have back home, including the turkey. Donni works at the District Office and I always call her Martha Stewart of the Tundra because she makes AMAZING dessert! We ended the evening by playing some catch phrase and spoons. Fun was had by all.

Friday: I woke up feeling kind of achy again so I rested a little bit, until I remembered I could start decorating for Christmas. So, I cleaned up the house and got all the Christmas decorations out and started decorating. I maybe overdid it because I then got worse and started to have a fever. I then noticed that my throat was starting to hurt. Oh great I thought, I hope I don't have strep! Ben took care of me and we just relaxed and watched some T.V.

Saturday: I still felt pretty sick and so I camped out on the couch for the majority of the day. I still had a sore throat and was still feeling achy. Ben went to Leaders for Life at 6:00 at the church and when he returned he started complaining of a stomach ache. The same kind I had on Tuesday night. I was hoping that maybe the spam sandwich he had for dinner just didn't settle well.

Midnight on Saturday: I hear Ben running for the bathroom. Yep, I will spare the details, but he was throwing up. This continued to go on about every two hours. In the meantime, I started feeling a little better.

Sunday Morning: Wake up for church and Ben is still feeling pretty bad. I'm feeling great on the other hand, but decide not to go to church because if I do have strep, I don't want to spread it around. Ben spent the day laying on the couch eating saltine crackers, drinking gatorade, and watching T.V. I plan on going to the clinic first thing in the morning to make sure that I don't have strep and I will keep you all updated on how Ben is.

So, it wasn't a very typical Thanksgiving break, but we still have so much to be thankful for! We are thankful that God has blessed us with an amazing family, amazing friends, a job, a roof over our heads, and each other!

Sorry no pictures for this post. Hopefully they will come soon!

With Love,
Ben and Anne Harvey

Winter?

Hey Everyone,

Ben and I are sorry that month has passed since our last post. Wow, this last month has gone by so fast! We have had several things happen in the last month. We have celebrated birthdays, Halloween, and two blizzards that brought us a couple feet of snow.

School is going great so far. I continue to love my students and have seen so much growth in their academics and their behavior. I think it also makes it easier being a 2nd year teacher instead of being a newbie. Right now my kids are where my kids were last year in January. I'd say that is pretty good. I think it helps that I know the curriculum better too. :) Ben continues to be one of the greatest teachers ever. He works so hard and I think it goes unnoticed by not only our administration, but his students as well. Although, when I was in high school it didn't even phase me to think about how hard my teacher was working to prepare lessons. Regardless, he is doing a great job!

He is still doing his "High Octane" group on Thursday nights. It's going really well. So far they have been working on a Honda and two snow machines. There are usually 5-10 young men who come each week and the best part about it is they have been sticking around for the devotional. I have started my tutoring program as well. We meet Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30 to 5:00. It is through a program called SERRC. I love working with the 3-6th graders after school. It is kind of relieving being with them because they don't require every second of my attention. :)

Well, we've gotten snow and I'm 99.9% sure it is here to stay. Let me tell you, Moose our dog absolutely LOVES the snow. He will go and pounce through the deep snow and stick his head underneath and bring his head up full of snow. If you can imagine going swimming in snow...that is what Moose does. When we come in from being outside Moose will sit on our couch looking out the window sometimes whining to go back out. He has such a funny personality. We played pretty hard today, so Moose is currently laying on the floor looking almost lifeless. Don't worry, he's still breathing! :)

Thanksgiving is coming up and Ben and I still aren't sure what our plans will be. I'm sure we will have a Thanksgiving celebration with all of our teacher friends. As for Christmas this year, Ben and I won't be making the trek back to Minnesota. It is just too expensive and was not as relaxing as we thought it would be. We LOVE seeing our friends and family don't get us wrong, it was just too much money for too little time. Several of our friends that we teach with will also be staying in the village, so we won't get lonely. :) We are going to go into Anchorage for a couple of days and do some shopping for the spring.

Anyways, that's all for now. We think of everyone often and hope to write again soon! Speaking of writing, I have a new email address. Feel free to write me. It is anne.harvey7@gmail.com

With Love,
Ben, Anne, and Moose

First snow was September 28th!!! The snow machine will come out soon :)

Kevin and kids working on a honda at High Octane

Rainbow over the airport at Mountain Village.

Well, it has been quite a long time. We are both extremely busy and when we do have a minute, we like to veg out and be lazy. I don't even know where to begin for what's been going on the past few months. I'm writing this late in the evening and I'm pretty tired, so if it doesn't quite make sense at times, that's why.

For starters, I'll explain my hunting trip from the beginning of September. Kevin and I went out for Labor Day weekend with a guy from church here in Mountain. He took us out in his boat and supplied us with the knowledge and resources to "catch" our moose...yes we catch them up here. To make a long story shorter, here's how it went down: we took off Friday after school for a long weekend. As we went along the river, we would check meadows to see if there was a moose. Along the way, we saw a cow (we can only take bulls) swimming across the river, so that got us pretty excited. After that cow, we saw nothing for several days. We sat in rain at one particular meadow, checked a few more, and slept a couple nights in a small cabin. By small, it was maybe 5 feet tall and wide enough to sleep the three of us and nothing more. My birthday went by without seeing a moose, although we shot at a few beavers and ducks/geese, but we didn't catch anything. The next morning we decided to go to two different meadows, Kevin and I at one and Ted at the other. At the meadow Kevin and I were at, we had a few hundred yards to walk until we reached the meadow, and just as we reached it, we saw two bulls. They were tiny (for moose) and over 400 yards away. Being first timers, we unloaded on them. After about a dozen shots between the two of us, both moose were down...and the fun really began. It took a total of 12 hours to butcher the 2 moose and carry them 1/3 of a mile from the field to the boat. Luckily, a few friendly people came by and helped us carry some of the meat out. By that time, it was 10pm, and we barely made it back to camp before it got dark. Let me say, I've never slept that good on a plywood floor. The next day we got back to the village and gave most of the meat to many of the elders in town. So far we've had moose tacos, moose jerky, and some moose spaghetti. All turned out great.

In other news, Anne went for a trip berry picking with her kinders. They picked several berries and made muffins with them. Luckily, I wasn't in the room next door this time because I was at a technology in-service. I still remember last year when she made the muffins next door, and I had to smell them the whole time.

Last Thursday, Kevin and I began a new club for high school boys called High Octane. I did this for a year while in college, and it's a great club. What we do is invite high schoolers to come work on snowmachines and hondas for a few hours, and follow it up with a devotional. The two weeks that we've had it, all the boys have stayed for the devotional after, and most of them were talkative. So far, we have two hondas that we're going to meld together and two snowmachines that we'll also combine. The kids are really excited and they're always begging to spend more time working on the machines. In fact, one student said, "Why can't we do this every day of the week?" They don't really understand that teachers work and have lives outside of the school day.

Other short tidbits:
1. There was a rainbow here this afternoon
2. This past weekend there was a small grass fire. The siren goes off 3 times and everyone runs to the fire. I almost got to be a fire fighter.
3. Snow came this week and puddles are freezing, Morgan (our snow machine) will be out soon.
4. Kako retreat is next weekend, Anne will be going and I'll be staying home with Moose.

I'm sorry for the rambling in this post, and I'm hopping we can start posting more often.

Good day all.
Ben

Busy Busy

Hello Everyone,

Once again, we find ourselves a couple weeks late on the blog writing. I'm writing this blog from Anchorage as I'm in town for a training. It's nice to be in the city, but I can't believe I'm saying...I miss the village. I'm going to just post some pictures of our lives lately and let Ben blog about his Moose hunting adventure. For now, I hope these pictures will hold y'all over!

Back to School!

Hello Everyone,
Sorry it has taken so long to write once again. Well, a lot has happened since we last posted. Let me start at the beginning. We left Minnesota on August 1st and spent the week in Anchorage at the Burkels. While in Anchorage we did all of our shopping for about 5 months. That means trips to Costco, Fred Meyer, Wal-Mart, Target, Mr. Prime Beef, etc. I think you get the picture, we did a lot of shopping. Shopping that was followed by several trips to the post office. I don't think the postal workers are too fond of us, mostly because we come in with nine totes at a time all weighing anywhere between 35-50 lbs.

Ben and I were very excited to get back to our simplistic way of life in the village. We had a WONDERFUL summer, but when we got to Mountain Village, we just felt like we were "home." Over the summer they were supposed to put in new cabinets in our kitchen. When we walked into our house for the first time, all the furniture was pushed to one side of the house and there were boxes everywhere full of cabinets, counter tops, and other various parts. Needless to say, the kitchen was not done yet. So, we went the weekend without a stove and about a week and a half without a kitchen. We ate a lot of sandwiches, cereal, and canned fruit. I'm happy to say now though, our kitchen is done and it looks great!

The first weekend we were back, Ben and Mike Stark (2nd grade teacher) went out fishing and Ben caught 8 Silver Salmon and Mike caught about 11. It was a very successful fishing trip. We haven't eaten any fish yet, but when we do I will let you know how AMAZING it is. :) Ben and I have also been utilizing our Honda and driving out a ways to pick berries. We have found our own hot spot where we pick mostly blueberries, some salmon-berries, and some cranberries. So far we have made blueberry pancakes and blueberry muffins. I think I might splurge at the store and get some yogurt tomorrow and make blueberry smoothies. Ben has made a good friend here in the village. His name is Ted and they plan on going Moose hunting over Labor Day Weekend. If any of you know Ben, you know Ben is SO excited to go Moose hunting. I'm looking forward to seeing Ben's face when he comes back with a moose. I think his chest hair will be thicker when he returns. ha ha.

On the 15th we started to go back to work. We had a week full of in-service and were given some time to work in our classrooms. We start school tomorrow, (the 22nd.) I'm very excited for this year. As of right now, I have 10 kids on my roster, yes....10 kids! Wahooo! If any of you remember, I had 28 kids last year all by myself. I did split them into morning and afternoon groups, but still. I have already done a little dance in the copy room when I only had to make 10 copies instead of 28. Life is good! Ben is also optimistic about this year. He only has to prep for 4 classes instead of 8. He is also very excited about getting all of his green house projects under way. The community is excited about his project as well. I'm very proud of him! Go Ben!

I've started running on the treadmill at school and I'm proud to say I haven't fallen of yet! In the past I used to always get tripped up and usually made a fool out of myself at MSU. Let's just say that Ben and I didn't meet at the gym. My goal is to be able to run out to the airport and back which is about a 5 mile run. I've never been much of a runner, so I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Well, that's all we have for you right now. We hope to post weekly, but I can't make any promises. We miss you and think of you all often! Love, The Harvey's

Summer!!!

Hello Everyone,
After receiving several comments about not updating our blog, I thought it was probably time to do that. Well, summer is in full swing and boy have we been busy. We left Mountain Village on the 24th of May and spent some time in Anchorage at the Burkels. We then attended a writing conference at UAA from the 30-1st of June. We flew back to Minnesota on June 2nd and stayed the night with Ben's parents. It felt really good to be at home and with family. However, we left the next day to go down to Mankato as Ben was in our good friend Jake and Sara Seward's wedding. After the wedding we spent some more time at Ben's parents house. Did I mention that we brought Moose back to the lower 48 with us? Yep, we did and let me tell you...he sure is like a moose. The name fits him perfectly. He loves playing with other dogs and children. The neighborhood kids are always coming over and asking if they can play with moose and take him for walks. We gladly let them. Anyways, after spending some time with Ben's family we went to Watertown on a Thursday and attended one of my best friends from high school's wedding on that Friday. (I'm giving you days to help you understand how busy we have been.) The next day (Saturday) my mom and I drove Ben down to Sioux Falls to meet up with his church team who goes to Pine Ridge in South Dakota doing mission work every summer. Of course, after my mom and I dropped Ben off we went and did what we do best...shopping. Let me tell you, it felt good to be in a mall again. However, with being in the Bush and not spending a lot of money, you would think I would have no problem spending...but it's been a little difficult which makes Benjamin very happy. :) Don't worry hunny, I'm coming around. ;) The following week I was in Watertown staying at my parents house with Moose. I got caught up on Dentist and doctor appointments. So far I'm healthy and had no cavities! This brings us to Wednesday the 22nd when my mom and I drove back to the cities. My mom was picking up my Grandma at the airport and I was going back to be with my hubby in Norwood Young America, MN. The last couple of days we have been relaxing and then today, the 25th we drove down to Mankato for wedding number three of the summer. Needless to say, we have been very busy, but have been enjoying our time with friends and family!

Tomorrow is Ben and I's one year anniversary. It is hard to believe that we have been married for a year. In a way, it seems like it was just yesterday, but in another way it seems like we have been married forever. Being out in the Bush has been the best thing for Ben and I's marriage. It has forced us to lean on each other in the hard times and good times. It has strengthened our relationship with God. We have been through so much and experienced SO much in just one year, it's incredible. Ben has seen me at my lowest of lows and my highest of high's and he loves me all the same. I'm SO thankful and blessed by Ben every single day. I look forward to what our future holds.

For our anniversary we will be driving up through Stillwater, MN and going to Taylors Falls. When Ben and I first started dating we decided we would just get in the car and drive with no particular place to go. Ben being the planner that he is knew all along where he was taking me and he was taking me to Stillwater and Taylors Falls and to this day that was one of my favorite times with Ben. Then, on Monday (the next day) we are flying out to North Carolina to see my brother and his family. We look forward to spending a week with them as we haven't seen them since our wedding. After North Carolina who knows. We will be spending as much time with our family and friends as possible before we head back to Alaska in early August. I probably won't be blogging until we make it back to Alaska.

Thank you so much for reading. We love hearing your comments!

With love,
Ben and Anne Harvey

2 Weeks Left!

Hey All,

We have just two weeks left of school and I can't lie, Ben and I are thrilled. This has been such a unique year and we have loved it. It has definitely had its hardships, but we have made amazing friends, met wonderful people, and grown in our relationship with each other and with God. I am getting sad thinking about leaving for the summer, but we are just so excited to get home and have a break and spend time with our families and friends.

What's new? Well, Ben and I went with 5 other teachers to Kako which is a Christian Retreat Center. We went over Easter Sunday and enjoyed good fellowship, good sermons, and good food. It was fun to take a break and get out of the village for the weekend. It's amazing what a weekend away can do. The plane ride to Kako left us all a little nauseous as it was kind of windy outside and with such a little plane, you feel every move. Yes moms and dads, we were perfectly safe. :)

Ben and I are also new parents. Surprise! We have a new puppy. We received him on Easter Sunday when we got home from Kako. His name is Moose and he is an Alaskan Husky. He is quite adorable, even when he wants to play all the time and bite at your legs, hands, ears, you name it. :) He is a smart bugger though, he is already pretty much potty trained and today I think he learned how to "shake." The first night we had him we put him in his crate and he woke up about every 2 hours. I think he missed his sisters. 1 week later and last night he slept all the way until 5:00 A.M. and when he woke up boy was he ready to play. He has all the markings of a true Husky except for the blue eyes. We can't wait to bring him home and introduce him to everyone.

Poor Ben has been sick for the last 4 days. There has been a nasty stomach virus going around. He hasn't been able to eat anything but toast, sprite, and some chicken noodle soup in the last few days. I secretly liked having Ben sick because I was able to take care of him and serve him just like my parents served me when I was a kid. Thanks mom and dad by the way. You taught me how to make my hubby feel a little more comfortable. I am however excited that he is starting to feel better. Ben is Mr. Ambitious and to see him not be able to work on things, clean things, and be outside was kind of sad.

Like I said before, school is almost over and we will be seeing all of you soon hopefully. We will be flying back to the lower 48 on June 2nd. We have a busy 2 weeks ahead of us with final tests, report cards, prom, senior dinner, 8th grade promotion, etc. Hopefully we will give you one last farewell blog before we leave this great place.

Much love,
Ben and Anne Harvey

Manaqing and Eskimo Dancnig

Hey Everyone,

Well, while all of you were having rain showers and thunder storms, we were having a blizzard. It was actually kind of fun and Ben and I enjoyed staring out our window not worrying about having to drive in the crazy weather. It's been pretty cold lately. Today the sun is shining and it is a whopping 9 degrees out. Ben and I look forward to warm weather in a little less than two months. We will be coming back to Minnesota on June 2. As for our summer plans..yep, we don't have any really. Ben will be helping out with some projects around his parents house, visiting our families, attending some weddings, walking our dog, enjoying our time off. :) Oh yeah, Ben is going on his Pine Ridge Mission Trip and is very excited about it.

Last weekend Ben and I got to go manaqing which is the same as ice fishing, but you literally use a stick, some twine, and a hook. One of my students mom's took us out to a place called Big Lake. It was a fun ride there and there were quite a few Eskimos out fishing. It was just like what you would picture when I say Eskimos fishing. People were out with their snow machines putting their hooks in the water and waiting for the fish to bite. Ben did actually catch one. I was very proud of him until he bashed it on the head to make sure it was dead. I screamed and the Eskimos laughed at me. However, when we got home the fish was in the bag and was still moving. I thought it was the strangest thing and Ben just laughed at me and explained to me that it was just the nerves. I don't know, I still think the fish was possessed.

This last weekend we went to Eskimo Dancing. It was our friend Sean's first dance. I'm not quite sure how to explain this, but it is kind of like an initiation into the Yupik Culture. Sean went to dance practices all year and he had to learn a dance to perform in front of the community all by himself. He did a really good job. Ben and I might do this next year. If you notice in the pictures, all the women wear quspeqs. (guspucks) I have a friend who just made me one. I love it and will post a picture of it as soon as I take one.

Well, just a little over a month left of school and we will be busy as ever. I have to give my end of level tests which take forever. For example, last week I had a sub on Monday to complete some of these tests. I only got half of my kiddos done in 8 hours and that was just their reading test. I still need to give their writing, and math test which are 8 pages long. To me it seems a bit extreme for a Kindergartner, but I gotta do what I gotta do. Last week Ben administered the SBA test which is Standards Based Assessment. It is a huge test that the whole state of Alaska takes from grades 3 to 12.

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Ben and Anne Harvey

Can We Visit?

Hey Everyone,

This will be a short blog as not a whole lot has happened in the last week. However, something humorous and very cute happened over the weekend. We got out of school on Friday at 2:30 instead of 3:30 so I came home and took a short nap and started doing some baking. I don't remember what Ben was up to at the time, but as I was kneading some dough I looked out our big front window and saw about 8 little heads just peaking into the house. When I looked over they just started giggling, waving, and making funny faces. I couldn't help but smile and take a few pictures. About a month ago our house got egged, so Ben and I paid those little kids $1 to clean it off. They were more than ecstatic to be doing this. Ben and I are always amused by what happens here in Mountain Village. We love it here and if we could bring all of our families and friends up here I think we would call this place home for the rest of our lives....and maybe if Mountain got a Target or Kohls. ha ha.

Here are some pictures of the kids peeking in and asking us if they could "visit."

Ben and Anne Harvey

Almost April?

Hello,

Let me first start off by saying that I can't believe it is almost April already. This year has totally flown by. The other day Ben was on the phone with someone and he mentioned that we would be home in a little over two months. My jaw dropped and I'm not going to lie...I got a little excited. It also put me into a bit of a panic mode. I have a lot to go through with my Kinders still, however I'm confident that they will all be ready for the first grade! Ben is working hard trying to get his students through their levels as well. I have so much admiration for what Ben does. I've said it many times and I will probably say it many more, but I could never teach high school. This week I have detention duty, so I have to put up with high school behavior for 1/2 hour and that is more than enough for me!

Not a whole lot has happened since our last post. We went manaquing which is similar to ice fishing. The eskimos use a stick and some strong thin rope as their fishing pole. It was a lot of fun and although we didn't catch any fish, we did catch some sun. People have been asking if we've gotten spring fever and I would have to say yes. It has warmed up quite a bit here almost to the point where we won't be able to cross the river on our snow machine. A couple weeks ago we crossed the river with some friends and went off the trail a little bit and made a bonfire and roasted some hot dogs. It was a lot of fun and it was good to get out of the village for a little bit.

Sorry for the short post, but that's all we have to report for now. We do have conferences coming up this week which means we have a 2:30 dismissal Wed-Friday. Yipppeee!

We are thinking about you all! Thanks for all the love and prayers you send us!

Ben and Anne Harvey

Dr. Seuss, Inservice Days, and Weekends!

Hello Everyone,

The days are getting longer and we can feel the warmth of the sun coming through our windows. Could it be that summer is around the corner? It sure does feel like it. Only 3 more months until we will be back in Minnesota. I was telling my mom the other day that I sometimes wish we were staying in Mountain for the summer. I don't think there has been a time in my life where I've been happier. Ben and I are together, we are living in a beautiful state, we have a cozy house, and God is on our side.

This last week we only had two days of school with the kids and three days of inservice. Wednesday was Dr. Seuss' birthday and so on Tuesday my kids and I celebrated by reading several Dr. Seuss books, making Cat in the Hat's, and eating green eggs and ham. The kids had fun with it and it was a good last day before a long break for them. The next three days were filled with meetings. It was kind of nice to be away from the kids and be able to relax a little bit. There were also a basketball tournament for the girls.

This week my wonderful husband is leading his team of students in the science fair which will be in Emmonak. Ben is so good at what he does and I'm so happy he gets to do these fun projects with the kids. The kids really enjoy it and they love to be able to travel. Me on the other hand will be staying at home. I better get my alarm system out in case of intruders. Yes, my man made alarm system. Thank goodness Ben will only be gone for one night.

Well, that's all I have for right now. Have a lovely week!

Ben and Anne Harvey

Longer Days!

Hey All,

I'm sitting here typing looking out the window at 6:30 and the sun is still out! I'm definitely not complaining, but I do need to remember that there will be snow on the ground until we leave in May, or at least that's what I've been told. From what we hear, it sounds like the Midwest is getting another snow storm. Lucky ducks! We have had snow here and there, but our blizzards last about 5 minutes and then it's over. I'm kind of craving a good o'll Minnesota Blizzard. I'm sure most of you are thinking, "are you out of your mind?" ha , I might be. Some friends from church are going to Hawaii in a couple of days. Ben and I could use a Hawaii trip about now. He has spring fever worse than I do.

Well, Valentines Day was last Monday. Let me tell you, I will never have any holiday parties on a Monday ever again. Two big parties on Monday made for a very long week. The kids behavior was off for the rest of the week. Although, apparently my kids were pretty well-behaved compared to the rest of the elementary. I can't tell you how many times I saw our disciplinary person walk past my room and walking back with a kid by her side, which means that child is probably going home for poor behavior. There were also a lot of things going on throughout the week such as eskimo dancing, fishery meetings, and fiddlings. On Thursday I had one of my little girls come up to me out of the blue telling me that her mom had gone to jail. When I asked why she said that she drank to much and then this little student walked away. I said her name and she came back and I just gave her a big hug trying not to cry. It's times like these where I'm reminded of what some of the kids lives are like at home. I count my blessings everyday.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned a whole lot of what we do on our weekends. We usually go for some kind of snow machine ride. I crossed the river for the first time on Friday. I was so nervous and scared, but I'm so glad we did. It was me, Ben, Kevin, and Jessica. Once we got across the river there were all these beautiful trails that were surrounded by snow covered trees. I was expecting to see a moose, but we didn't. There were all these back rivers and lakes that you would never know were back there unless you went over. It was a lot of fun and very relaxing and freeing. On Saturday nights Ben and I help out with a program at our church called Leaders for Life. It is a program for 6th graders and basic principals are taught on being a good leader with a biblical influence. It is led by our Missionary Amanda Hunt. It's a lot of fun to go hang out with the kids and talk about real things and real struggles that are going on.

Last night we had some of our friends over to play dice. We play this every Christmas Eve at the Harvey Household. Each person put in 10 dollars and in exchange were given 20 bullets. Yes, you read that right....20 bullets. Our friends had never played this before so when Ben and I were yelling out obnoxiously, SIX...SIX-FIVE...SIX-FIVE-FOUR...they were laughing and a bit annoyed, until they started to join in as well. Kevin was the big winner of $70.

Ben and I have officially signed and handed in our contracts to teach in Mountain Village for the 2010-2011 school year. We didn't think twice about signing it and are very excited for what's to come. We both feel that we are already having a much easier time after being here for 7 months. Next year will hopefully be even easier. We are getting a hang of this whole teaching thing and are feeling very well settled into our home. Now if only we could get all of you to come live here we would really be set. Sadly, that can't happen, but we really do appreciate your prayers, phone calls, letters, and care packages. P.S. if you google image search "Waqaa" which means hello in Yupik you will find a pleasant surprise. :)

Thanks for reading!

Ben and Anne Harvey

Hello everybody!!! Once again, it's FREEZING out here with a noon time temperature of -20! We're able to bundle up and not really notice the cold, but the Minnesota in me thinks I can still fill the car... I mean snow machine, with no gloves on what so ever. The good thing about the cold is that Anne won't worry as much if I (yes, this is Ben) decide to go on the river.

I made it back from Seward safe and sound. The morning I was to leave, all planes were on weather hold, but being in the bush, they threw me on the back of a snow machine and I rode the 20 miles to the next village over, where planes were still flying. Long story short, the teams I was supposed to be chaperoning never made it to Anchorage that day... I was very happy. This meant I had a full 24 hours to myself without having to keep track of a bunch of high schoolers. I decided to order Domino's and stay in for the night... the urban jungle of Anchor town kinda scares me at night, especially with an empty 15 passenger van. Upon waking the next morning, I watched a Steven Seagal movie, ate some cold pizza, and stopped by the Sportsman's Warehouse to look at guns and other equipment. Looking at guns is a nice way to kill 3 hours. Eventually, I had to do what I was getting paid for, and pick up the kids and 2 other chaperons. The Tsunami Bowl was great, and we all had a great time. We played around with some crabs at a University of Alaska, Fairbanks lab, gave/watched 20 presentations, and the teams I was with each won 2 out of 5 quiz bowl rounds. That's pretty good for students who are taking integrated science when they're facing kids who have AP courses and Oceanography as a class (the questions are all about ocean science.) Eventually we headed to Anchorage where we took the kids to the mall and to the movie theater. Monday morning we left Anchorage for St. Mary's (the village 20 miles from Mountain,) and 2 hours later, we were in St. Mary's...kind of. We were circling St. Mary's for 2o minutes waiting for the weather to clear, which never happened, and eventually we turned back for Anchorage. One more night of civilization for the crew. The next day we made it to St. Mary's, and once again, planes weren't flying to most villages. One team stayed in St. Mary's (I haven't heard from them since), the other team made it home, and I had to take a mail plane to Mountain since they technically weren't flying in Mountain. I could tell why when I landed. It's normal for the planes to come in cocked to the side, but normally they straighten out when the wheels touch down. This wasn't the case on this flight. The plane slid at an angle for a good amount of time (while buzzers and red lights were flashing) and eventually we stopped. I was glad to be home.

It's funny how different people received me as I came to school 1/2 hour before the end of the day. As I walked in, a group of my students shouted from the window of their Yupik class, "Ah, Mr. Harvey's back!" This wasn't a happy "Ah," but an annoyed "Ah." On the other hand, as I walked into the room to say hi to my lovely wife, her kinders jumped from their chairs, ran to give me a group hug, and exclaimed, "WE MISSED YOU MR. HARVEY!!!" I love kindergarteners.

Contracts for next year came out on Friday, and we've already signed them. We'll be bringing them to the district office on Monday, along with some reimbursement slips for praxis tests (yup, LYSD pays for those!!) and gas from my Tsunami Bowl trip.

We decided to give our Valentine's day presents to each other a week early. Neither of us like to wait for surprises, so we ripped them open. Anne got a photo album and some pens... along with A NEW CAMERA!!! I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty excited for it too. I figured since I got a moose/deer/foreign invader rifle for Christmas, she deserved something a little nicer than flowers (which I did get her a rose!)

It's about 6:30 right now, and it's still light out... I have a feeling I'm going to get spring fever a little early, even though there won't be a thaw anytime in the near future. Anne just made me cheesecake, and I'm pretty excited. We have a few more weeks of teaching before our "spring break." Our spring break consists of 3 in service days at the beginning of March...yay (I meant that to sound like Eeyore saying it). One of these years we'll start writing in our blog on a more regular basis, but until then, enjoy the bimonthly stories from the bush.

Ben and Anne

Hey Everyone,

So, Ben and I don't have a whole lot to report. We had a pretty quiet week. I was exhausted on Friday however. My Kinders have started being mean towards each other and have been getting into fights. It has made for a long week. I ended up spending a morning teaching the kids about kindness. I had to do AIMS testing all week which I have to take kids out of the room individually and test them in a minute over letter recognition, letter sounds, nonsense words, and sounding out words. We did this in October and man have the kids learned a lot. There were some kids who at the beginning of the year knew 5 letters in a minute and this time around knew 55 letters in a minute. It almost brought tears to my eyes. I was proud of them!

Ben is going to Seward on Wednesday which is right outside of Anchorage. He will be there for 6 days as a male chaperon for the Ocean Bowl. Our school didn't make it, but some other schools in the district did and the asked Ben to chaperon. Who would turn down a free trip to Anchorage? I already have a list of fun items for Ben to pick up while in town. :) As for me, I'm already thinking up of some traps in case of any intruders. I know where the handgun is and let me tell you, I know how to use it. :) haha. I will be fine. They have security cameras up outside the schools now that start recording with motion. Last week they caught a couple of kids egging a teachers house.

Ben and I went out for a ride on the snow machine today. We went out on the tundra a little bit looking for some ptarmigan. Ben had his 22. Did I mention I shot the 22 for the first time. I almost think I could even shoot a ptarmigan without crying. Alaska might be turning me into a outdoorsy woman, which would make Ben very happy. I don't know that I will ever be able to shoot deer or moose...but who knows. We'll start with birds. After going on the tundra we went on one of my favorite trails which goes through some trees. We stopped where the trail met the river and just sat for a little bit. There is something so peaceful about being there. It's very quiet and you can see for miles. We saw quite a few snow machines going out in hopes of catching some moose.

Anyways, that's all for now. As I said before, we don't have a whole lot to report. Ben and I really enjoy it here. Every day gets a little bit easier and feels a little bit more like home. We have made really good friends here and have a great church that we go to. I'm going to start going to Eskimo dance practice with one of my friends who is from Mountain. I think eskimo dancing is beautiful and well, we'll see how much I learn. :)

Thanks for reading!

Ben and Anne

P.S. I can't figure out how to flip the pictures above, but that is our snow machine! :) (It's fixed)