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)

Brrr!!

Hey Everyone,

Well, the busy week is over. We had conferences on Thursday. Well, I had them on Wednesday and Thursday since I'm up to 27 Kinders. My kids seem to be quite rowdy lately. I'm starting to believe in that whole full moon saying. As I was walking home after a crazy day...I looked up at the moon and it was as full as it could be and shining like I've never seen before. I felt like I could just reach up and touch it. One of my favorite moments of the day is walking to school with Ben in the bitter cold and looking up at the stars.

This week it has been very cold. I don't feel like such a pansy when an eskimo comes in saying it's really cold out. I'm kind of sad that we haven't had a good snowfall in about 2 months. It has snowed here and there, but nothing substantial. It has put a damper on going out riding the snow machine. The snow is really packed down and is like ice. When you hear snow machines going across it...it kind of makes you cringe. I will be excited to get out soon and see some more of Alaska. Ben was able to go out hunting on Monday (during the day) as a field trip. They went out in hopes of catching a moose. They left around noon and got in around 6:00. It was below zero when they went out, so I was worried about them being warm enough and what not. Ben was fine, but our principal got frost bite under his eyes. I went in to talk to him on Tuesday morning and he looked like he got into a fist fight. I'm glad Ben has thick Minnesotan blood. :) They went out with about 5 other guy's. They had split up so it was Ben and 2 other guy's and our Yupik teacher with a 7th grader. When Ben got back he was worried because he didn't know where the Yupik teacher. It ended up being 8:00 and they still weren't back, so Ben and a few other guy's were going to go out looking for them. Well, just as they were leaving, Elmer came back and they had caught a moose! The 7th grader had caught his first moose. That night him and his dad came over to give us a moose leg. When I say moose leg...I mean it was literally a moose leg. I about gagged, but Ben my manly husband had no problem cutting it up. In fact, we had moose stew today and it was absolutely delicious! The day after the 7th grader caught his moose he was walking around so proud. It was really neat to see. He was very proud.

My Kinders and I have been working hard in math doing a unit on measuring. So, I thought we would use up the last of the muffin mix and have a fun Friday activity. It was indeed fun and the Kinders got to feel like high schooler's. We had to go into a room in the high school that had an oven in it. As I said before, we had conferences this last week. I had a really good turnout and I really enjoy my parents. They seem to be very impressed and shocked with their kids improvements. It makes me feel good that they appreciate what we are doing in here. Ben and I really like it here. We feel like this is home for now and that the people are more accepting of us everyday. Especially when we tell them we are coming back next year.

I'm thinking and praying about teaching and older grade next year. Our fourth grade teacher is going to teach in SE Alaska next year and so I'm thinking about teaching 4th. There is something about not having to zip coats, put on snowpants, button pants for kids that sounds wonderful. I really love my Kinders, but it is very exhausting. We'll see though. I might go observe 4th grade and see what it's all about before I make any decisions. I guess it's up to my principal anyways. :)

Anyways, that's all for now. I hope you are all doing well. If you have any snow...please send some up to us! We love and miss you all!

P.S. the pics are of the kids while they were waiting for the muffins to bake and our kitchen while it was being worked on when the pipes were being fixed.

Ben and Anne

What a Week!

Hey Y'all,

Last week was probably the worst week being up here in the village. I was so excited to see my kids on Monday at school. I know I can always count on my Kinders to make me feel good. They were all excited to be back at school, in fact, my aide asked who missed school and they all raised their hands. Ben and I both had really good days at school. We went home to find that we still didn't have water. Turns out their new plan was to put all new pipes in our house. So, we bought some bottled water down at the store and sucked it up. Tuesday came along and my kids behaved so well I couldn't believe it. It is so much easier and more enjoyable to teach when you have children who listen. We went home and the water was still not on. So, we went to bible study and then over to a friends afterward to do some laundry and take showers.

When I went to bed on Tuesday night I thought that my throat kind of hurt. Well, when I woke up in the morning I had the chills and it killed to swallow. I knew that I wouldn't be able to go to work. Well, I went to work and got everything together for a substitute and came home and layed in my bed from about 9:30-8:00 at night. I was absolutely miserable. After talking to my mom, she convinced me to go to the clinic. They were able to do a strep test and what do you know...I had strep. They gave me some medicine that later on did not agree with my body. I went to bed and woke up around 12:30 a.m. with severe stomach cramps. I ended up staying up until about 6 in the morning. I eventually ended up throwing up and as soon as the clinic opened, I was there getting new medication. The new stuff is much better! Today is the first day that I feel better.

Ben has been so good to me lately. When I was sick he would come home and make me soup at lunch time. He would cook for dinner, he would rub my back when I was achy. He is just wonderful!! Well, as of Friday, we finally have water. We are able to wash dishes, brush our teeth at home, go to the bathroom without having to load water from a tote, cook, wash our hands. I think we have a more appreciation for water now!

These next couple of weeks are going to be busy as it is the end of the quarter on Friday..we have report cards due on Sunday, and conferences the following week. There is a Alaska State Trooper coming into the Mountain tomorrow to deal with the break ins that happened over the Christmas break. There ended up being 5 houses broken into. Apparently this kind of thing happens every year, but this is the year they are going to do something about it. Thank goodness.

Thanks for reading! Will try and write frequently!

Ben and Anne Harvey

P.S. will try and get some pictures up on the next post.

Interesting Return

Waqaa,

Well, we are back in Mountain Village. We left on Friday and I must say, I smiled all the way to Bethel and smiled even more on the way to Mountain. On our flight from Bethel to Mountain Village I did a bit of reflection. I didn't know how I would feel coming back. However, as I was on the plane, I felt like things were right and that we were going home. There was just a sense of calmness and belonging that came over me. Of course it was hard to leave our families. It kind of felt like our Freshman year of college. Being home for a month during Christmas and then having to go back.

Ben and I were shopping in Wal-Mart in Anchorage before we left for Mountain and we had talked to a guy from here saying that someone had broken into our house. He said that it looked like nothing was stolen. This kind of put an unsettling feeling in Ben and I as we didn't like the idea of someone going through our house. We had figured it was kids though, and we were right. There were some kids who broke into 5 houses over Christmas break. They didn't steal anything important. Just odds and ends of things. It seems as though they came in and just hung out, ate our pineapple and peanuts, and played our Wii. The only really negative thing they did was turn our heat way down so our pipes would freeze. They also turned our water off under our sink. So, as I'm writing this we are still out of water because our pipes froze and burst. There are two maintenance guys working on them now. They were here last night until midnight and have been here for a couple hours today. I'm hoping by the time they leave today that we will have water to wash dishes, do laundry, and of course shower. Someone asked me if I was still happy to be back and I said yes. :)

We flew into Mountain on New Years Eve. After Ben and I finished sorting through all the mischief that had gone on in our house while we were gone we had given each other our stockings. We then went over to our friend Carol's house to wash our sheets and watch the New Year go down in New York City...which was 8:00 our time. At midnight everyone in Mountain started shooting off fireworks. It was a better/bigger firework show than the 4th of July and some of you who know me know that I love the 4th of July. So, I might argue that New Year's is better in Mountain than the 4th of July. The other funny part was that everyone and I mean EVERYONE was out riding their snow machines and honda's. They were cruising the Mountain Village strip. It was pretty awesome.

School starts tomorrow and I can't wait to see my kiddos. I have missed them and their little personalities. I will try to continue to update our blog as often as I can. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Until next time,
Ben and Anne