Who cut the cheese?

You might be looking at the picture and wonder why I would buy such a large block of cheese. I bought this large block in Anchorage and brought it to Barrow on the plane in one of the coolers. I have enough shredded cheese so I had to slice this baby up. I ended up with four containers of sliced and crumbled cheeses to freeze and one to use now. This block should last us about 4-5 months. Shopping for the bush is different than shopping in Cincinnati. You really have to think about long term and different uses of a product. Its a different mind-set than the L48. 

Georgia helped load up the containers with cheese and nibbled on some as she worked. She couldn't stop laughing because Mom was cutting the cheese! 

What is that?

Look what my neighbor caught! She sprinkled it with baking soda to preserve it. Its going to take awhile, but its going to look awesome when its finished. 

Arctic Football!

I have lots of football players in my classes. A few of them talked me into making them cupcakes for the game. I decided that it would fun to make 28 chocolate cupcakes for the boys. 

It was a nice day! No mosquitoes to annoy us. It wasn't cold. 

TOUCHDOWN COOKIE! 

Cheerleaders half time dance. 

We were not playing very well for some reason. Too many turn overs on offense. Defense was working hard, but offense let us down. Its okay because something happened. 

SNOW!!

Our boys came alive when the temperature dropped and it started snowing. 

Crowd shot of snow and football. 

And it snowed and snowed and snowed. 

And there's the sun in all of this snow. We lost to Homer :( We are now 1-2. I still can't believe that I stood in snow and watched a high school football game. It was so much fun cheering with the crowd of students, parents, community members, fellow teachers and everyone. 

Last Friday of the Month

Last Friday of the month is movie night at Tuzzy Library. We missed July's movie night and I was determined to not miss August's movie night! Muppet's Most Wanted is a fun family movie. They served popcorn and water. There was 70 kids that showed up to enjoy the movie, but it slowly dwindled to 35. Its Friday and there's stuff to do on Friday nights! I am excited to join the Friends of Tuzzy Library in September. It came up when I started helping with clean up and passing out waters. 

All of the kids loved the movie! I can't wait to help out and watch another movie. 

I think its important for kids to have a place to go and hang out. Tuzzy Library is doing a good job of getting kids to come to the library. 

Rain, Rain Go Away

The truck wouldn't start a few days last week. There's a problem with the alternator. We are going to fix it this weekend before the football game. In the mean time, I thought I would take a picture of the roads on the way to work. Be thankful for your vehicles to drive to work or school. You could be walking in 35 degree weather with muddy roads. 

Finally... a bit of darkness

Last night while watching season 2 of Game of Thrones, I noticed that the room looked darker than usual. I normally put down the shades which is enough to block out some of the sunshine. Tonight it appeared darker. I pulled up the blinds and opened the window to snap this picture. The sky was a dark blue! I have no idea what time it was, but I am happy that finally there is a bit of darkness at night. 

Extra Duties

The Extra Duties List was posted and closed this week. I am happy to announce that no one signed up for the two things that I wanted. I am now the 9th grade advisor and Science Fair Coordinator. I am so happy that I got them and don't have to interview for them. I heard that no one likes to be the 9th grade advisor. I love my 9th graders and we are going to have the best year of fundraising yet! I will beat the record set a few years ago of $8,000. My family has trained me well with all the bowling fundraisers. Science Fair isn't as popular as I like, but I am not going to let that ruin my fun. I'm going to connect culture with science and make it the 

BEST SCIENCE FAIR EVA!

I am excited about my new duties.... hehe doo-ties. 

You Did What?!?!

Wednesday is our training day. Students are dismissed 40 minutes early to give teachers time to do various training. We have been analyzing data for the past two weeks. After the training time was finished, I returned to my classroom to get ready for Chemistry's separation lab. I was avoiding something. Something that I probably shouldn't talk about it. 

I did not something that all of my pals have never had the opportunity to do. 

I decided to do the Polar Challenge. 

Emily, Abi and Georgia watched as their mother and father jumped into the Arctic Ocean with our friend Chasity and Kim. Kim's dog joined us. It was crazy. It was fun. 

Just watch the video.

I still had my clothes on from taking school pictures today. (side note: I am wearing the same outfit from last year so I have a comparison to see any changes that have taken place.)

It wasn't too bad running in and jumping into the waves. It wasn't bad going under the water. It was rough getting up from the water. I felt like my breath was taken from me. I started to run back but my legs did not want to move that fast. I tripped with my pal Kim. I wanted out of the water fast. Quick, fast and hurry to be honest. I forgot my towel in the car so I put my down jacket back on and walked towards the car. I sat in the car for a bit before going back to the beach. Most of my students are on the football team and they were just arriving. I wanted to see who would chicken out of the challenge and who would do it. 

Its now several hours since I jumped into the ocean and I am still chilly. I took a long warm shower and took my temperature. (I'm curious!) Everything is normal but I'm chilly. 

If my mother sees this video, I love you mom and you only get this chance once in a lifetime. I might as well do this while I'm young. 

And for the record, I'm only doing this once!

Full Circle Farms

There was a fabulous Groupon for Full Circle Farms. I decided to buy one and try it out. It took awhile for me to get the email to log on and evaluate my order. My groupon was for the largest box. The Harvest box has set mix of fruits and veggies. It changes all the time and you can substitute things that you don't like for ones that you love. 

Today was the 26th and that meant I could pick up my box! It was stacked and waiting for me. 

Not too heavy!

This is what was inside the box. 

I was not happy about my beans. Not happy one bit because I dearly love fresh green beans. I have many memories of picking green beans at my Grandparent's house and learning how to string them. 

The box was packed nicely. 

I was very happy about the fire pluots. It sounded interesting. They tasted amazing!

Minus the green bean incident, Full Circle Farms is okay. I need to sit down and do the math to determine if its more cost effective to buy my fruits and veggies at the AC. Most people I know buy from the AC or Full Circle Farms. It would be nice to have a guaranteed box of fruits and veggies delivered weekly. 

Look familiar?

Who does this remind you of? 

Yep! Its Mr. Wells! My absolute favorite science teacher at OVU. I am the science teacher I am today because of his guidance and mentorship. I can never thank him enough for helping me develop my talents for science. 

Walk on the beach

This is the Beaufort Sea. 

We went to the beach to look at rocks and whatever else we find. 

Muck boots! 

ops! She bent over as I was taking the picture!

She wanted to smell it for some reason. 

She loves the sea!

This is looking towards southwest. 

Whalers vs Monroe

Cheerleaders!

Someone is warm.

The team sits in the bus during half time. 

We won! 2-0 record! Keep the touchdown cookies coming!

Lunch!

We have open campus and can leave to get lunch. I decided to try Barrow Kitchen which is located across the street from the school. Lots of places deliver to the high school during lunch. Students have been known to use a hall pass to order their food. I give the students only 4 passes a quarter so they must be used wisely. 

They have a lot of options, but I stayed with old faithful, sweet & sour chicken and white rice. It was delicious! I ate half and students wanted to finish the rest for me. I took the rest home for dinner. 

Menu and they have a lunch buffet

Osaka is my next restaurant to try! Who knew that you could get sushi in Barrow, Alaska!

Adjustments

I finished my first full week of classes and I am exhausted! I am still getting up early to make Abi breakfast because her bus comes before 7am. I technically don't have to be at work until 8:10, but I like the quiet in the morning. I have my own expresso machine that I need to figure out. Until that time comes I enjoy my hot tea and Van Halen "Dance the Night Away." I don't know why that is my favorite song for the morning. 

I am teaching Physical Science, Chemistry, Physics and Basic Chemistry. Having 4 preps seems like heaven after the all the years I had 6 plus preps a day. Every class was a new topic and I hated switching from Physical Science to Biology and back to Earth.... argh! Repeating lessons all day would great change. I like my four preps. My favorite class is my Physical Science class, first period. They are a great group of students and they work hard. I'm going to suggest next year that there is a Basic Physics class for the students that lack math skills but want to take Physics. But that's next year. 

How am I doing teaching? I am playing catch up since I haven't taught out of these books. I'm spending lots of time making my presentations, finding materials and keeping up with grading. I forgot how much grading was involved in Physics. I just need a good solid week of 6 hrs a day devoted to lesson planning and I will be comfortably ahead of the game. 

Friday I came home and nearly crashed on the couch at 5pm. Saturday was busy with Cross Country meet and Football. Emily is doing Cross Country but she needs one more practice to qualify to compete. She attended the meet and took pictures of the runners for yearbook. We all went to the football game! It was nice out at the field. It was cold enough that the mosquitoes were gone. I wore yogas and a sweatshirt with a hat for most of the game. Half time a cold wind came in and I put on a coat. We won another game and I owe some cookies to some players. 

After the game we all took a nap! The cold just zapped our energy. 

Sunday I spent most of the day working on Physics presentations and chopping veggies to freeze before they went bad. 

We are still waiting on our Fred Meyer bush order. We are now out of ketchup. Wish us luck on trying to adjust to life without ketchup. 

Bingo!

In case you were curious, Barrow has a Bingo house!

A Walk on the Beach

Beautiful day for a walk on the beach...

Proof that I'm not the only one!

Proof that I'm not the only science teacher that decorates with random toys and things. :)

Arctic Football Game

Abi, Georgia's friend and Georgia are ready for the first home game of the season.

Drive to the game

The football field is outside of town. It takes awhile to get to it. 

Barrow Whalers are ready to rock!

Valdez looks cold.

The Mayor opens the game. 

Blue turf

Abi is loving the game

Is that my mom?

I had to take a picture because I did a double take! She looks like my mom!

Condensation was a problem for the people in the booth. 

Georgia and her friend are silly. It wasn't that cold!

Yes the score was 60 to 6. We won! And we were introduced to touchdown cookies. A gentleman passes out cookies with every touchdown. Love it! I'm going to join the tradition and bring lots of cookies to the next game.