Merry Christmas!

Hello Everyone,

Merry Christmas! We have had a very eventful past month. I'm not sure where to start. As soon as Thanksgiving was over, it was time to start getting ready for Christmas. The day after Christmas came and I started to decorate for Christmas. Is it just me or did Christmas really sneak up on us this year? This year has gone by so fast I can hardly believe it. With Christmas comes practicing for our annual Christmas Program. My children sang Jingle Bells, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Lets Go to Hollywood. They did an amazing job. Ben also was in the program. He was Santa in one skit and a pig in another skit. He is such a trooper! I did get Strep (I get it every year) about a week before the Christmas Program. It seems like I always get it at the beginning of a weekend, and so I'm unable to make it to the clinic until the following Monday. I'm just happy I had it and got over it. Oh, that reminds me, I forgot to take my medicine.

On Christmas Eve we went over to Donni and Robs and had a brunch with the teachers who didn't go home for Christmas. There were about 6 teachers including Ben and I that stayed. It was extremely delicious. There was biscuits and gravy, cinnamon rolls, egg bake, and french toast bake. Also, I have to mention the amazing coffee. I have just become a coffee drinker. Now some of you may say I have crossed over to the dark side, but I must say I don't know how I survived 26 years of my life without it. Ben and I got some coffee beans when we first came to Alaska three years ago. Well, you guess it...that's what I have been drinking. Three year old coffee. While it isn't bad for expired coffee, the coffee at Donni's was amazing. I think it was Hazelnut. Yumm-o! We attended Christmas Eve service at our church that evening. Some of our good friends at the church gave Ben and I our first Ulu knife. It is what Eskimos use to cut fish in the summertime's. You can also use them for cutting up veggies and other meats. Ben and I came home and made some pretzels from a box that our good friend Amanda Hunt gave us. We proceeded to watch Home Alone. Oh, don't let me forget....I washed dishes like a mad women as Ben took a shower. Our water had FINALLY come back on after being off for a couple of days. Usually it isn't that bad because we keep up on our dishes, but this time I HAD to bake my Christmas cookies without water. So, needless to say, I had a mound of dishes that had just been staring at me for a couple of days. In this time we were also able to get our laundry done. PRAISE GOD for water. It's the little things people.

Over the past couple of weeks I have reflected on how much I love life here. There are SO many things that make life difficult here, but in those difficulties comes uniqueness and some serious character building. For example, going back and forth between having water or not having water. It is something we deal with every winter and it is just a part of life I guess. Something that I enjoy about living in the Bush is the simplicity. Everyone lives in a small house compared to the Lower 48. Nobody judges anyone on what they wear, what they look like, or what they have. We find joy in the little things....like running water. :) The other part that I cherish the relationships we have with the Natives.

Relationships definitely deserves its own paragraph. The people here for the most part are so friendly and genuine. You've probably heard me talk about this person before, but I must bring her up again. Mollie Long is my classroom aide and second mother. I'm good friends with all of her daughters and have taught some of her grandchildren whether through tutoring or in my classroom. I don't know where Ben and I would be without this family. It is as if they have adopted us. This Christmas, Mollie gave Ben and I this AMAZING quilt that she made in just a day and a half. I was down at their house visiting when she gave it to me. I didn't open it in front of them because I wanted Ben to be there. I'm glad I waited, because when I opened it I got tears in my eyes. Mollie had written on the card that she made it so that we would always remember her whenever we left and to stay warm. :) She is always looking out for us making sure we are dressed appropriately. Anyway, when I had thanked her she had said that she had made one for all of her kids and that Ben and I were like her kids too, so we needed one. The water works began once again. I'm just SO thankful for this woman and the amazing family that her and her husband have brought up. Ben and I decided that whenever we leave and start a family of our own, we will visit Mountain Village every summer. We are hoping to drive the Alcan every summer and fly to Mountain Village so that our kids can see what life is like out here. We want them to experience a little of the simplicity that we have experienced.

In just 2 days Ben's dad, and two brothers-Nathan and Ryan will be coming to Mountain Village. We are SO excited to have them here. We love showing this amazing place off. We live in a part of Alaska that most people will NEVER see, or quite honestly, people don't even know about. I'm sure the boys will be out on the snow machines having fun in the Alaskan wilderness. Hopefully they come across a Moose and other wildlife. Fortunately for the bears and my sanity, they are hibernating at this time of the year. The boys will be here from the 27th thru the 2nd of January. Ben is going back to Anchorage to spend a couple of days with them before they head back to the lower 48. We had them spend a couple of days in Anchorage before they go home because winter in Alaska is very UN-predictable. If the weather is poor and the little bush planes can't fly then you are pretty much stuck. This way, if they get stuck in Mountain Village for a couple of days they will still have time to make it back to their jobs. While in Anchorage Ben will probably do some shopping and eating out. Ben just found out the McRib is going to be at McDonald's when he's in town, so is is BEYOND excited! Going into Anchorage is always fun for me in theory, but usually after being there for a day I'm ready to go back to my simple life. The simple life that has no traffic, no lines, no hustle and bustle. So, I will stay back and watch our dog Moose.

Anyway, I'm sorry if this blog was a bit mumble jumble. I know I always say it, but I will say it again...I hope to blog more frequently. Maybe that could be my New Years Resolution? I've never really made New Years Resolutions, so maybe this could be my first. Well, I take that back....I made a resolution once to win the lottery...well, that didn't quite happen. :)

Thank you all for your amazing support. We love love love hearing from you!

Our emails are: Anne: anne.harvey7@gmail.com
                          Ben: b.harvey4@gmail.com

                                              A picture of my Kinders and their stockings from me.

                                               Taking Moose for a walk at about 10:15 A.M. Sun was starting to rise.

              
                                              My messy kitchen after baking cookies all day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey yall,

Happy Thanksgiving! Well, now I guess I should say Happy Black Friday. I joked around with Ben yesterday saying that we should bundle up and line up at our local AC (grocery) store just to get the Black Friday feel. He wasn't so into it. Oh well, I think if I go to the store today around 2:00 P.M. I will be able to get everything I wanted to get at 9:00 A.M. Ben and I have so much to be thankful this year. We have an amazing family who loves us and has supported us on this crazy adventure on. We have friends from home and new friends that we have made here in Mountain Village. We serve a God who is sovereign and always in control. We have a warm house with a roof over our heads and food on our plates. It is my goal to be thankful everyday. If we woke up in the morning with only the things we thanked God for the night before, would we be happy? Puts things into perspective doesn't it?

Ben and I celebrated Thanksgiving with about 10 other teachers. We had a progressive style Thanksgiving. We started out at Amanda's with appetizers, we went to Melanie and Jamie's for the main course, and ended our evening at Rob and Donni's for desserts. We ended the night by playing rock band. Who knew Ben could be such a rocker. haha, I'm joking. He did get really excited about the singing portion of Rock Band. He enjoyed belting out or shall I say screaming out the lyrics to Eye of the Tiger. Never a dull moment. Ben and I have also been watching the T.V. show Friday Night Lights. To say we are addicted would be an understatement. It is such a great T.V. show. It has taken us about three weeks to get through four seasons. We only have one more season to go and had to have the conversation about what we would do once we  were done watching Friday Night Lights.

School has been going well. My students are low this year, but they love learning and love coming to school. I'm so blessed to have a job where I smile and laugh everyday. I'm also three weeks into my tutoring program. I meet with third graders every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 3:30-5:00. Ben is still an amazing teacher and has started doing some pretty cool labs in his class.

Ben and I went into town (Anchorage) about three weeks ago and attended the Alaska Christian College Banquet. This is a "college" that is geared for Alaskan Natives. They have such a great vision and actually about 5 students are from Mountain Village. Anyway, here is where things get crazy.  My College advisor is on the school school board for ACC and one of my old professors is now a professor at ACC. The people that we stay with when we are in town also work closely with ACC. Anyway, we end up at this banquet and see all of the above mentioned people. The bonus is that we got to see a few kids from Mountain Village. One of them was blown away that we both have had the same professor. It is very uplifting to see kids from Mountain Village actively walking with the Lord.

Anyway, we have about four weeks until Christmas break. Two of Ben's brothers and Ben's dad is coming to Mountain Village on December 27th. Ben and I are SO excited to show them a bit of our life up here. Adam and Wesley got to experience Mountain Village in the fall and now the other boys will experience Mountain Village in the winter. Two extremely different experiences. In the fall it is rainy and muddy and in the winter it is COLD COLD COLD. In the fall we take a boat, in the winter we take our snow machine. I'm hoping that it won't be too cold to go out and enjoy the amazing Alaskan land. Hoping they can also see a moose and MAYBE take one down. :)

Anyway, thanks for reading and sorry it took so long to blog once again. Please keep Ben an I in your prayers as we have some pretty big decisions to make in the near future. Details to come! 

Confession

Hello Everyone,

Anne here. I just got home from Anchorage this evening. I will tell you about my trip and then fill you in on the confession I need to make. I left for Anchorage on Thursday morning at 11:45. Amanda Hunt, Hazel Walters, and some other familiar faces hopped on a 207 plane and took off for St. Mary's. It only takes about 10 minutes to get there, but boy was it windy. In 207's, you can feel every gust of wind, every sway, and every drop. It was like riding on a roller coaster for 10 minutes. Hear me out though, those aren't planes that scare me. We got into Anchorage and got all checked into the hotel and I took off straight into downtown Anchorage to get my haircut via the hotel shuttle that takes us anywhere! If you are ever staying in Anchorage, stay at the Homewood Suites just for the shuttle! I got my hair cut and I love it. It feels so much healthier and in my opinion I think it looks better. Ben even likes it too. Well, if he doesn't, he's a really good faker.

Anyway, after running around downtown I met back up with Hazel, Amanda, and Mae at the Glacier Brewhouse. Once again, if you are ever in Anchorage....eat here! I had delicious Herb Crusted Alaskan Halibut with a yummy salad and of course an Alaskan Amber beer. If you are ever in Alaska, try all of the Alaskan beers. Alaskan white is probably my favorite, but I chose Amber this time.

The next day I had a full day of training for the after school program that is run by SERRC. After training I took off for Wal-Mart to do a Bush order. Let me tell you, I spent a total of 3 1/2 hours at Wal-Mart. Nobody in their right mind should ever spend that much time there. I had to go through and get the items I would be shipping out. I then took it back to the Bush counter. I then went through and picked up some items to bring back with me on the plane. Some of my favorite items being Cilantro and Brussel Sprouts. :) Later on my other friends Katie and Essie made it into Anchorage and they wanted to eat at the Glacier Brewhouse, so we went AGAIN. Same people as before plus Katie and Essie.

Anyway, the next day it started snowing a beautiful Christmas Day type of snow and we went around downtown and ended our night at Barnes and Noble. I really miss being able to go sit at coffee shops being able to drink coffee and read a good book. It was very relaxing. This morning we got to go to church at a GOOD church that we used to go to with the Burkels. It was so refreshing. Ok, onto the confession part....

I get SO nervous flying on the Dash 8 twin prop planes that fly from Anchorage to Bethel or St. Mary's. First of all, this plane is straight up loud. It makes strange noises. When we take off from Anchorage you can see the city and the inlet and it just makes these noises that make you think...ok, we may go down any minute. It will go from being really loud to really quiet all of a sudden and vice versa. I know it is completely normal for this plane to do this an sound like that because that is how it always is. Whenever I feel nervous about the sounds I usually look at the flight attendant to see if she looks nervous. Today I think I witnessed another person like me though. Her face probably looked about like mine....big eyes and looking all around trying to be nonchalant, but who are we kidding, she looked nervous...just like me. :) The funny thing is that every flight goes completely smooth and should not make me nervous. My confession: they scare me.

I may be scared of the Dash 8 Twin Prop planes, but give me a 207 ANY DAY. Remember from above what I said about feeling every move in a 207 plane. I would be ok if the only time I ever had to fly again was in a 207.

Also when I was gone was Mountain Villages first viewing of the year of the Northern Lights. Look at the really great picture that Ben captured of the Northern Lights with the big dipper above. :) I also included a video of a 207 landing at Bethel and a picture of the plane that I dread.  

Here is the video of the 207 landing in Bethel. Be sure to watch it all so you can see the village. Usually we land on a dirt runway, but they have a paved runway in Bethel. Just click on the link.

207 Landing in Bethel

Thanks for reading! 

Fall or Winter?

Hello Everyone,

Well, we have had a very interesting last couple of weeks weather wise. A couple of weeks ago the tundra started turning a beautiful rustic orange with hits of brown, meaning our short "fall" was here. I also saw that our fire weed that blooms from the bottom up was all bloomed out. The tale says that once the flowers reach the top, summer if over. Well, summer is definitely over here. Last weekend we had some thunderstorms and hail. Yep, you heard me...thunderstorm. Well, let me say there was only a couple of rumbles, but I will have you know that EVERYONE was surprised by the sound of thunder. I've never heard thunder in Alaska and the natives were saying that it usually doesn't thunder in September. I was pretty excited to witness it though. And then there was snow....

This last Wednesday I got on a bush plane with the other elementary teachers in Mountain Village to attend an all district inservice in Hooper Bay. The elementary teachers were in Hooper and all the middle school and high school teachers from the district were in Mountain Village. So, Ben stayed here with the dog and I went to a village I had never been to before. Hooper Bay is a coastal village, so I got to see and fly over the Bering Sea. I had heard that it is always windy in Hooper Bay, but man oh man is it ever windy. We had a pretty smooth flight over to Hooper, but when we got closer and closer it started to get really windy. You can pretty much feel every wind gust from the plane. Anyway, as we were about to land we were making a turn to head towards the run way and at one point I could see the ground on one side and the sky on the other. Not because of the wind, but that's just how we were turning to land. We arrived and some of the newbies faces were looking a little green. There were times where they were holding on to their seats. I was probably the same way when I first came out, but you eventually get used to bush flying. In fact, I would much rather fly on a bush plane than a big commercial plane. I get nervous on those planes now every time the seat belt sign comes on and it always takes FOREVER to land. On Bush planes you can always see the ground, you are never too far up and it's just fun. :)

Poor Ben had inservice on Thursday and Friday for high school teachers and then he also had a tech inservice on Saturday and Sunday. Ben is the lead tech guy at our school if y'all didn't know. I'm glad Ben is the tech guy because I"m probably the least techy person out there. One of these days I will learn how to use a smartboard, but as for now, I will continue to use my doc-cam. My inservice went pretty well. I didn't learn a lot of new things as a lot of what they were teaching us was way too hard for our Kindergartners. So, all of the Kinder teachers just kind of collaborated our own ideas. It was a lot of fun to see some of the teachers I hadn't seen since Ben and I first got to Mountain Village.

On Friday, the day that we were supposed to fly home, Hooper Bay was going through what seemed to be blizzards every couple of hours and would only last about 5-10 minutes. One minute we would look outside and the sun would be shining and the next minute we would look out and see whiteout conditions. Well, guess what....we flew right through it. :) The teachers who were nervous on the way to Hooper were definitely a lot more nervous on the way home. Like the weather in Hooper, we flew through white out conditions, bumped around a little, flew through rain, sleet, and sunshine. It was like flying through all four seasons in one 30 minute flight.

Anyway, that is all I have to report right now. Enjoy your warm weather for us because I think winter is right around the corner for us! 

Fall Adventures

Hello Everyone,

     I know this will be real shocking for all of you to hear, but it has been really busy these last couple of weeks. A good kind of busy though. We are about three weeks into the 2012-2013 school year and everything seems to be going ok. We have a new Assistant Instructional Leader who is just awesome. My Kindergartners love when he comes into our classroom. He is a lot more visible around the school then administrators we've had in the past. I've had to call him a couple of times this year so far and he has always been there within seconds. Ben really enjoys him as well and gets good results when he needs to call him. Things just seem a little calmer all over the school. I'm up to 17 kids now, which is pretty high. Our school has a total of 232 students and 103 of them are in just K-3. If you remember from my first year, I had 28 Kinders, this last year I had between Melanie and myself 25, and this year there are 25 students. So far so good though, we are making progress. For the most part, most of my students are getting the hang of school. I still have about three kids who don't want to listen. They can really drive me nuts, but I have to take a deep breath and take things into consideration like them not going to head start, their family life having no structure, to not getting enough sleep at night. The majority of my kiddos are academically very low as well, probably the lowest that I've ever had. It will be fun to see their progress throughout the year.

 I'm in the black holding the gun ready to see moose.  The one in the orange is our good friend, Sarah Peterson.

     Anyway, enough with school...Ben caught his 2nd moose this year and it was huge! He went out on a BEAUTIFUL Saturday night with Chris Redfox and Tony (one of the construction workers.) Last year Ben was out for 3 days. This year they took off around 5:30 and got home around 1 in the morning. I opened the door when Ben knocked and I could tell by the grin on his face that he had caught his moose. What I hadn't realized was they had left the moose out there. They gutted him, but had to leave early because it was getting dark. They were back really far in these very narrow sloughs and it gets tough to maneuver the currents when you can't see. This was also good news to me because Ben asked if I wanted to come the next day to help bring the moose in. I was hesitant at first, but let me tell you, I had a blast. It was rainy all day, but that is what good rain gear is for right? Anyway, we pulled up to the location and walked back an there was the moose...the HUGE moose. Ben looked at me to make sure I wasn't crying and to my surprise I was totally ok and proud of my many husband. Chris Redfox was the native we were with and he just started going to town on the moose. He knew exactly where to cut and how to cut and what we needed to keep and what we would be leaving out there. It was a lot of fun and now our freezer is jammed packed with moose meat, and we only kept HALF of the meat.

     The following weekend, Ben and I went out with Matt and Sarah Peterson and this time I was prepared that if I saw a moose, I would try and get him to. Now, many of you that know me are probably thinking there is no way that Anne could shoot an animal. Believe me, I thought that too and still kind of do. I've decided to believe the way the natives believe, that these animals "give" themselves up for you. So, if you catch it, that animal wanted you to have it. Now trust me, deep down I know this is not true, but please just let me pretend. Ah, who are we kidding...I will probably just stick with manaqing in the winter. I will give you $10 if you remember what that means. :)

     The weather here has been a lot like Minnesota's weather. One day it will be sunny and beautiful and the next day it will be rainy and cold. In Mountain Village we will have a couple of really nice days followed by about a week of rainy days. Mountain Village held the district XCountry meet yesterday and my job was do drive our Honda behind the last runner. It was pretty fun, except my hands were freezing. Those poor kids were running in 34 degree weather with shorts and tank tops on. Tough Eskimos I tell you! When the boys were done running I rushed home to get some mittens in time for the girls race. Today was a strange day on the weather front as well...we witnessed hail for the first time. For a split second I thought I heard thunder, but I think that was just the big tractor thinger magig that wakes Ben and I up at 7:00 in the morning on the weekends. Yep, construction is still going on and right now it is going on right outside our window. Bummer!

     In about two weeks I will be going to Hooper Bay (one of the coastal villages) for teacher in-service. The K-5 teachers in our whole district are going to Hooper Bay and 6-12 teachers will be here in Mountain Village. I'm excited to see the Bering Sea and see some of the teachers that I met our first year at new teacher in-service. I will also be going into Anchorage in October for training on the tutoring program that I run for 3rd-6th graders. As I say every blog, I will try to update this as much as possible. Thank you for reading!

Ben and Anne
Harvey

First Day of School

Hello Everyone,

We have survived our first two days of school! I can't remember if I mentioned in my last post that we had very little time in comparison to the last two years to get our classrooms ready for the first day. Because of construction, we were unable to get into our classrooms over the weekend and so we were all a little stressed out trying to get everything ready.

The first day for me went as expected...CRAZY. Each year I forget how UN-trained these little tikes are. Sitting down for more than two minutes is seriously hard for them. Think of how many two minute's are in a 7 hour day. The morning went really well and we did some really fun activities. However, there are times throughout the day when I would be talking and children would just get up and walk over to the kitchen area and start playing. It left me puzzled. Like, "hello children I'm over here trying to teach you some ABC's." I had to make some serious modifications to my room. For example, I ziptied my play kitchen cupboards together so they couldn't get into them even if they tried. Muahhh, some call me a mean teacher....I call it training. The second day went so much better. I think the first day excitement maybe just got the best of them. Now that they are familiar with my room, they were able to sit for a little bit longer. I also put in a lot more structure in my day. I started reading groups, which they did fantastically well. I was a bit surprised. I love my kiddos this year though. They have such different personalities than my last group. This group is just funny. They make me laugh and smile at the things they say. One of my little girls will randomly just say, "Mrs. Harvey, I love you." I always tell them I love them back because out here, I'm not sure they hear those words enough.

Ben had a great first two days as well. There is the 8th grade class that is pretty difficult, but with our new Assistant Instructional Leader, I'm thinking it will be a lot better for Ben. He seems very strict, which is just what our kids need. Anyway, it's been pretty rainy out lately, but today the sun is shining and the sky is blue. It's 4:00 here and I just finished getting ready for next week. We will keep you posted on the happenings to come. Thanks for reading! God is so good!

Ben and Anne

Expiration

Hey Everyone,

Well, Ben and I are busy getting our classrooms ready for the 2012-2013 school year. I will show you some before and after pictures. Our school is still undergoing a lot of renovations, but it is coming along and students will be here on Thursday....ready or not.

This won't be a long post, but I just thought I would update you all on something that has been happening at our house. We have been using items from our shelves that have expired months...some things even a year ago. Guess what, somehow we are still alive? We are trying not to, but some things we are just like, 'ah, what they hay."

Anyway, enjoy your week and I will try to update the blog this weekend when we will have had our first days of teaching over with.

Ben and Anne

Summer Has Come and Gone.

Hello Everyone,
     Well, the summer has come and gone as I sit writing this blog back in Mountain Village, AK. I apologize for not getting a final blog out before the start of summer. If any of you are educators, you know how the end of the year can be. Hectic is not a strong enough word. The end of the year finished very well. The kids and teachers were very excited for summer to come and to relax a little. There has been a lot that has happened this summer so I think I will categorize this blog into months.

May: As some of you may know, I zoomed home right away when school was over to get home for my sisters Baby Shower. It was a lot of fun to shower her and see her and her cute baby belly! I have many nieces and nephews, but it is a lot different when it comes from  your one and only sister. Ben joined me in the lower 48 about a week later and we ventured off to Wisconsin for a Harvey vacation. It was a lot of fun. We stayed at this HUGE resort that was really cool I guess in the 70's. I thought it was still cool, even though we were the only family staying here. It was really great to hang out with all of Ben's brothers and their families. We spent some time exploring the resort, golfing, swimming, and taking a trip to Duluth, which was someplace I had always wanted to visit. I got to learn all about aggots. (spelling)

June: June seems like a blur to me right now as I'm thinking back on it. Ben and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. I don't know if it is because we have spent the last two years in VERY tight quarters or what, but I feel like we have known each other our whole lives. He is my best friend and we just get each other. I couldn't be happier with where we are in life right now. The other important even that happened in June was the arrival of my nephew, Liam Patrick Swier. He was born on June 29th and he couldn't be cuter! It has been really fun seeing my sister become a mother. I must say, she's a pretty da-gone good one!

July: Ben and I celebrated the fourth of July in Minnesota. We had a barbeque at Dennis and Kathy's during the day and then in the afternoon we went over to my brother, Jon's house and went swimming at a lake nearby with my niece Katelyn and sister in law, Nikki. In the evening we watched fireworks in Chanhassen I think. I'm not sure, all those suburbs kind of run together for me. The second week in July Ben and I got to go back to Fargo and spend more time with Sarah, Jason, and Liam. It gave me a good taste of what motherhood will be like. :) We had a blast and got to witness little changes in Liam, even though it was only a week that we were there. It was EXTREMELY hard to say goodbye to Sarah and her new family. There is something different and unique about a sisterly bond. On July 17th my mom and I ventured to Vancouver for three days to start out Cruise to Alaska.

Cruise to Alaska: I just decided that our cruise needed a section to itself. :) Anyway, my mom and I went to Vancouver, B.C. for three days before leaving for our cruise. Ever since the 2010 Olympics I had always wanted to go to Vancouver. Let me tell you, it didn't disappoint. My mom and I had the best time in this city. We rented some bicycles and road along the sea wall. We ventured into Stanley Park, which had some of the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen. We visited Granville Island, which was a really cool marketplace. We then got onto our cruise ship in Vancouver. We were so excited just to see what "cruising" was all about. We had an easy transition from land to our cruise and started meeting people from all over, many of whom had been on multiple cruises before. I could go on on and on about the cruise, but let me just say that we had an incredible time. We went to shows, comedy shows, game shows, and I had a lot of "drinks of the day." I didn't have too much, but let me just say that my favorite bartender was Lucy and she knew me by name. On the cruise portion of our trip we visited Ketchikan, Icy Strait Point, Juneau, Skagway, and Hubbard Glacier. I really loved all the places we visited. One of my favorites was in Juneau where we got to go whale watching. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. There were whales who were bubble net feeding and it was incredible. If you don't know what bubble net feeding is, you should look it up on you tube. It was absolutely amazing! When our ship landed in Seward we got on a motor coach with about 24 other people and headed up to Anchorage to catch a flight to Fairbanks. We were now starting our "land" portion of our cruise. We got into the air on our way to Fairbanks and had to turn around and land back in Anchorage because of some Hydraulic issues, which was kind of scary. Anyway, we jumped on a new plane and made it to Fairbanks just fine. It was SO nice to get into a spacious hotel room. The room we had on the ship was very small. Fairbanks was a cute little town and we were able to go on a riverboat tour down the Cheenah river and visit a Mock Athabascan Village. It was really fun for my mom to see some of the things that I live through like they do in the Athabascan villages. Visuals are always good. :) Anyway, the next day we got back on our motor coach and drove up to Denali. We stayed at another cute cabin like place in Denali and go to visit a dog mushing camp. It was Jeff King's house and camp where they train their dogs. He was a four time Iditarod musher and will be mushing in this next years Iditarod as well. The next day we woke up for a 6:20 A.M. tour through Denali National Park. It was pretty cool. We had a sunny, cloudless day which is very unusual for Alaska. We were able to see some Caribou, Moose, Ptarmigan, and even Denali itself. After we were done with our tour, we got to hop on the Alaskan train and ride down to Talkeetna. The views were spectacular. Our tour director called Talkeetna, TalCUTEna...and for good reason. I kind of fell in love with Talkeetna and want to move near there for the rest of our lives. We'll see if I can convince Ben, especially because it's kind of a hippy town. We got to go on a little river raft ride down the river there and then jump back on the train and go to Anchorage where our Cruise Vacation would end. :( It was seriously the best time I've ever had with my mom. We laughed so hard we had tears on multiple occasions and we now have memories we will never forget!

August: Ben and his two brothers, Adam and Wes came to Anchorage on the same day my mom left. So as someone put it, I lost my mother, but gained three Harvey boys. I was equally excited for them to see Alaska. We enjoyed going down town, seeing a moose, panning for gold, and of course...our Bush shopping. We dropped a good chunk of money at Wal-Mart. This year we decided to let them do all the packaging and mail it out to us. It was pretty great, we shopped, pulled our carts to the back and they did the rest for us. Wes and Adam made the trek with us all the way out to Mountain Village. They are having a blast so far. They are all out right now trying to catch a moose. Hopefully they are able to catch one!

Our school is under some major renovation, so we can't get into our classrooms yet. It stresses me out because I can't get my room ready yet. Oh well. I guess I will enjoy being in the village without having to work. Hopefully it will be nice enough out to go pick berries. Thanks for reading and I will try very hard to keep this updated. Thank you for the friendly reminders!

Ben and Anne

3 More Weeks!!

Waqaa,

Once again, we're sorry it has taken us a month to update our blog. As the year is coming to a close, we have become drastically more busy with life here in Mountain Village. A couple of weeks ago we saw a change in the weather. We went from being below zero to being in the 20's! The snow started to melt and soon we were being exposed to the dirt road and mud! We put our snow machine away and got out our Honda. Instead of going to bed to the sounds of revving snow machines, we go to sleep with the much quieter sound of Honda's cruising by.

I'm not sure if I mentioned in out last post that we got to go to Mt. Kulzivak, which is about thirty miles away. Some of our closest friends here (the Long family) let us tag along. I have SO much appreciation for the Long family. Nuka (Natalia) has been one of my closest friends here in Mountain Village. Her mom whom I've become close with as well is my classroom aide. She is like my adopted mother. She tells me when I need to dress warmer, she has made me warm socks, an adorable headband, and shared a lot of native food with us. She makes the BEST fish strips! Anyway, we went to Mt. Kulzivak to go manaqing. (ice fishing)  We left around noon and arrived home around 10:00 while it was STILL light outside. I caught three pike and Ben caught two. There were several people from other villages who were fishing at this beautiful spot. Everyone there was in good spirits and having fun on such a beautiful day. In fact, I got a sun burn on my face!

One hard part about being here in the fall and spring is the light/darkness. Right now it is staying light out until around midnight. It is VERY difficult to get your body to wind down to go to sleep at night when you have warm light beams coming through your window! I haven't seen darkness in a couple of weeks. I remember last year when we came back to the Midwest and it was dark, we kind of looked at each other and thought, what is this? The extended daylight hours effects us much more than the extended darkness in the winter. It also effects the kiddos that I teach. Kids aren't getting to bed early, in fact most of them stay up later than I do and I go to bed around 11! With less sleep comes more behavior problems and crabby little children. The biggest challenge about teaching here is probably dealing with the behavior of our students. Ben's kids are much different than mine, but in some ways they are the same. This year I have been punched, kicked, and cussed at by students of mine. (Yes five and six year olds!)  It is hard to blame the child as we don't know what they live through at home. We don't know what they are going through or the things that they have to see. I treat each day as a new day and greet my kids with the love that God has called me to love them with.

Ben and I just discussed what we are most excited for about coming home. I will list my top five and his as well.

Anne's Top Five:
1. Seeing our families.
2. My sister having her baby.
3. Seeing green grass.
4. Cheaper prices on produce.
5. Eating out.

Ben's Top Five:
1. Family
2. Working on projects.
3. Cooking/Grilling
4. Sleeping in every day.
5. Driving White Lightning.

I hope to blog one more time before we leave, but I can't make any guarantees. This is what our next three weeks looks like:
Headstart kids transitioning to Kindergarten.
8th Grade Promotion
Middle School/High School Prom
Senior Dinner
Graduation
Awards Night

Thanks for reading!

 At Mt. Kulzkivak.

Hold the Phone

I was talking to my mom the other day and she said she was wearing shorts and that it was about 80 degrees. As soon as I picked my jaw up off the ground I marched over to check our temperature and it said that it was 5 degrees. I started freaking out saying that we were having a heat wave! Please note that the day before we had a blizzard and the weeks before our blizzard we were having negative 10's 15's as high temps. I don't know if any of you reading this wished you had winter this year, but let me tell you, we've had plenty and to be quite honest....I'm ready for summer. Here in Alaska we don't really get a spring, not like a Midwest spring anyway. Last year a couple of days after school got out is when the river ice broke up.

Ben just returned from Anchorage as he took his Science Fair team to state. Every one of our kids got either first or second in their category! Good job, Mountain Village Strivers!!! Let me back up a couple of weekends ago. A group of us went to St. Marys to visit some friends and we were able to catch some dog races and go to their store where they have a deli! Chicken nuggets have never tasted so good. Ha, I joke. They really weren't that great and they didn't feel so great in your stomach afterward either, but at the time it seems like a GREAT idea. It was a great day though and we were able to get out and ride our snow machine. The day before we went to St. Marys we went across the river and were just going through some of those trails and as we were going we came within 40 yards of a moose. It was just standing in the path which let me tell you...the paths are only about 10ft wide if that. The moose and I made eye contact as I was telling Ben to turn around. As we were turning around another moose came out. I was freaking out, but it was pretty cool thinking back on it. Ben had his gun, so it would have ended poorly for the moose if he chose to charge us. As we were coming home we saw some pretty good drifts, so I attempted my first snow machine jump. We have such a big machine that I hardly got any air, but it was pretty fun.

Ok, fast forward to this last weekend. Ben left on Thursday and so I had a girls night on Friday night. We all made something breakfast related and had breakfast for dinner. It was pretty fun! We also ran out of water for the 100th time this year. The water remained off until Sunday morning. The internet went out from Friday until Monday around noon. I'm kind of embarrassed to put this, but I watched SIX movies over the weekend! I couldn't do laundry or do dishes...so I watched movies. I woke up on Saturday and had no voice and had a big headache, so yep...I watched movies. ABC family really is at fault here. They had good movies one after another. On Sunday I had one of my students visit me and we made bread together. It was a lot of fun.

Ben just got back today and surprised me with flowers and a haircut. Let me tell you, he is looking fiiiiine! I'm so happy he is home. Anyway, my eyes are about to close, so I'm out. Thanks for reading y'all!

P.S. The pictures are of Ben's High Octane kids, my student who helped me make bread, flowers, and Mountain Village.

With love,
Ben and Anne

Spring Break!!

Hello Everyone,

Another busy month has gone by us. I've meant to update the blog several times, but something always got in the way...probably facebook or my new found interest called pinterest. A lot has happened since the last blog. Where to begin? Well, Ben took his Tsunami Bowl team to Scammon Bay where his team took first in the quiz bowl section. We celebrated Valentines Day which is also the day we started dating three years ago. This year for Valentines Day, I got Ben six different sampler salsa's as he LOVES chips and salsa. Really anything that will satisfy his need to set his mouth on fire. I used to be just like Dennis where ketchup was always good enough for me. However, I must say, I've been cooking and baking with more Frank's Hot sauce. In fact, I put a couple of chicken breast in about 1/4 c. of Frank's in the crock pot for a good 6 hours, shred it up and put it on a salad. It's delish! Maybe you should try it Dennis. :) Anyway, back to the salsa..it came a couple weeks late and three of the bottles were broken, so that was kind of a bummer. Ben apparently got me a head scratcher....It hasn't gotten here yet. I'll let you know how it is when I get it. I know you all are very jealous at this point.

It turns out that we will be coming back to Alaska next year. We signed our contract for the 2012-2013 school year. Who knows if it will be our last or not. Every time I think about leaving the people here I about tear up....so we will continue to let God be in control. We still feel called to be up here. Ben bought bibles for all of his High Octane boys and they seemed to be excited about it. They have been more open with Ben in telling him what they want prayer for. I can't imagine living a day in their shoes. We have a lot to be thankful for! I celebrated Dr. Seuss Day with my kiddos on Tuesday. We made Dr. Seuss hats and ate green eggs (deviled eggs) and ham (summer sausage) Dr. Seuss day and St. Patricks day are two of my favorite holidays to celebrate with my kiddos. I can't believe how much my kids are growing both physically and mentally.

Ben and I are on Spring Break right now, which is quite awesome. We started our break on the 29th and will return to school on Monday. On Wednesday I went in to get all my work done for the next week, so that it wouldn't be lingering over me all break. It's still been about 10 below, so we haven't gotten out on our snow machine too much. We are hoping to head to St. Mary's tomorrow. I got some spring cleaning done today, which isn't the same as spring cleaning down in the lower 48. We still have snow and will have snow for a good while. I did light a lilac candle though to make it "feel" more like spring cleaning. Other than that, we have just been lazy bums enjoying each others company.

This is my last month of tutoring, so that will be freeing up my time after school. I feel like these last couple of months will fly by and it will be time for Ben and I to venture on home to Minnesota/South Dakota. Ben and I are SO excited to spend time with our families and all our new nieces and nephews. My sister Sarah is due on June 25th.

Happy Birthday to Kathy, Adam, Ryan, and Ava Harvey!!! We miss everyone so much and can't wait to be home for the summer!

With love,
Ben and Anne Harvey

Alapaa!!

Hello Everyone,
Sorry it has taken us so long to update our blog. As seen in the title, Alapaa means "cold" in Yupik. It has been nothing but cold for the last month. The coldest it got without windchill was -36. Who knows what the windchill added in. Someone mentioned the other day when we had a mandatory firedrill that it was -52 with the windchill. Needless to say, Alapaa has been apart of everyone's daily vocabulary. Since it as been so cold we have not been able to go out riding our snow machine across the river or for very long distances. The other day we went on our snow machine from the church down to the store and my nose, which wasn't covered got frostbite. So, are we jealous of all our family and friends down in Minnesota/and the Dakotas who have had very mild winters so far? Yes, yes we are! For now we will enjoy the beauty of this place we live indoors. :)

Not a whole lot has changed in school. Ben continues to be an awesome teacher. I don't think the kids realize or appreciate how good of a teacher he is. Ben is working hard now to build relationships with his students and parents and be a good role model for them, rather than the teacher who tries to force information (that they really don't care about) into their brains. I continue to love my students. This year has been completely different than last year. I have 14 students who love school and love coming to school. Often when I say it is time to get ready and go home they collectively give me an ahhhhh, but we love school. I definitely have kids who like to test my patience, but you learn to roll with the punches...sometimes literally. We have to give an AIMS test which records letter recognition, letter sounds, nonsense words, and word sorting. My kids did this at the beginning of the year in October and I just gave this test again last week and I must say, I had tears in my eyes seeing the growth they have made. The students get one minute to see how many letters they know. At the beginning of the year the majority of the kids knew anywhere from 0-10 letters. This time around they were all in the 40's-to even 80's. They are awesome!

Moose (our dog) is quite the character. He talks to us in moans and groans when he needs to go outside or when he wants something. Sometimes if he is misbehaving and we mention the k word (kennel) he puts his head down and looks up at us with the sweetest puppy eyes we can't help but smile and scratch his head. He has a lot of energy, but also sleeps quite a bit throughout the day. He still LOVES chewing on hooves and rubber bones. He is great with kids as well. We often have kids come over to "visit" and moose plays right along with them and isn't rough. Even my Kinders who are smaller than he is. Moose is probably about 60 lbs. or so. We will find out when we come back for the summer. We are both interested to find out.

The picture above is a picture of one of my students who came over to visit today. I had to take a picture of her in her parka. A lot of the kids wear parkas that are lined with animal fur. They are VERY warm! I would have a friend make one for me, but my sister might kill me. :) Well, that is all for now. Please send us warm thoughts. :) We appreciate all of you! Also, there is a youtube video that shows Mountain Village and a little bit of what the culture is like. Please take a look at it. We know a lot of the people who are in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8vKU78-nwY

Ben and Anne Harvey