Christmas Shopping

Christmas shopping has been interesting this year! There was no running around the big city getting the best deals for my money. Worrying about if I spent too much and traffic home and crowds....

All of that is gone. 

The Emily and Abi made their Christmas lists out. Georgia wrote her letter to Santa. Then I went to work on the computer. We are Amazon Prime members and that means free shipping on orders fulfilled by Amazon. It took me a couple hours on three days to get everyone's presents put together. 

My next step was to sit back and track my orders. I love that I can track my packages through USPS. I can see my packages leaving cities and arriving in Anchorage. Then there is a terrible wait for packages to get from Anchorage to Barrow. Shipping to Barrow can take a bit of time. 

I bought my wrapping paper at the AC Store when they had a Christmas sale - 50% off all wrapping paper and Christmas decoration. I thought about getting a tree, but we have a beautiful tree that the girls made! 

I liked shopping like this and I just might do it again next year! 

Merry Christmas be safe while you are shopping!

Ilisagvik College Registration

I have two courses to take to satisfy my Alaska Studies course and Alaska Multiculturalism course. I headed to Ilisagvik College to register for two spring courses. One course will be online and the other course will be every Friday night. 

I don't have cable and there's not much to do here so a Friday night class isn't going to be too bad. I'm looking forward to taking the Alaska History course. My Multiculturalism course is taught by a children's author who is also part of the school board. She has published many books and I look forward to learning from her. 

This is the college at 1pm. 

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I had a great shot of the American flag but the wind moved it on me. It was really cold and I forgot my gloves in the truck. I needed to take this and move it. 

Abi's Christmas Concert

If you haven't heard, Abi is no longer playing the viola. There are no string instruments in the band in Barrow. This is her very first concert playing the trumpet! 

She wore her fancy purple dress. That dress was Emily's 5th grade final Cotillion dress. Emily wore it to two Cotillions before passing it to Abi. Abi wore it to two Cotillions and refuses to pass it on to Georgia. 

She is currently playing with the first year players and might be getting bumped up to the second year players. She has worked very hard to learn her new instrument. We are very proud of her! 

Basketball Season!

Basketball season is here!

The bleachers get packed by community members, parents, teachers, students and more. 

The JV teams played the community teams. Varsity teams played against teams from down south. 

Georgia was having fun. 

There were games on Friday and Saturday. There was a craft fair sponsored by the Lions Club on Saturday. We stopped by before the games so Georgia could see Santa and let him know what she wanted. Emily and Abi sold lots of things for the Girl scouts. 

We found this girl outside the school on Saturday. Poor baby was cold and shaking. Thank goodness she had a collar on. I called the owners but had to wait outside for them to arrive. I put the baby under my coat. It was in the negative temps! 

Everyone lines up for the the Varsity team to run onto the court! Georgia loved it! She ran out with the other kids to get one of the players to slap her hand. 

Harlem Ambassadors

The Harlem Ambassadors came to Barrow for a fundraising show for the school. They are such an upbeat positive minded group of individuals. 

The game was fun to watch. They kept it interesting and fun with all the tricks. 

This is the hometown heroes!

Action shots weren't that great :(

Lade Majic posing for the crowd. She shared her message about overcoming a home full of domestic violence and never giving up. She spreads a message of Drug Free - College Degree. 

Georgia got some autographs. 

Each player signed Georgia's book. 

Georgia loved seeing Lade Majic. 

It was a great family event and I look forward to the next time they come to town. 

If you haven't heard...

If you haven't heard yet, my schedule for next semester is changing. I don't know if its a good change or not. Emily's schedule will be changing too. The school is not going to be offering Yearbook, so Emily will have to pick a different elective. Art isn't offered during 6th period so she might end up with gym. 

My teaching schedule will change to two sections of Earth Science, Personal Finance and two Chemistry classes. I will miss my Physical Science class. March would have started our Sea Ice lessons. :( 

I still have my favorite groups in the afternoons. I love hearing about their days and learning the Inupiat language with them. 

I am not sure about teaching Personal Finance. I have never taught it before and feel uneasy about it. It almost feels like the first time you get in front of a classroom ready to teach your very first lesson. Its just the insecurities inside me. I know that I will be fine. God won't let me fail. He has given me everything I need to succeed. 

I can do all things.... even teach Personal Finance. 

How Cold Is It?

This is the temperature when I left for work this morning. 

And this is the temperature before I went to bed.

Yes, its cold!

better late than never!

I do the majority of our shopping online from various companies. I love using Amazon Prime. Walmart charges a surcharge for shipping to Alaska. I have not bought anything from them because of that charge. I tried Dollar General and had some success with it. 

Some success.

I had no problems with my first box. My second box was ordered on Sept 30th. I waited until almost the end of October to contact the company about it not arriving. Dollar General was very nice and sent me another box that arrived in a week. It took two weeks for the old box to go from KY to Iowa. Then it sat in Iowa until the end of November. Tracking showed that it arrived and left Anchorage on November 25th. 

December 8th, the box arrived! 

I now have enough shampoo, conditioner, mouth wash and cereal to last me until June. 

Oh Christmas Tree!

There are no trees in Barrow. I can't justify buying a Christmas tree for $200 at the AC Store. Emily had a great idea of making our own this year. We thought about making a paper maiche one but thought it would be too messy. We opted for a 3D Christmas tree using cardboard, wrapping paper and bows. 

Its a little tree but the girls love it! They have started adding ornaments to it. 

This is 7pm at night with the moon shining bright. 

Leggo League Competition!

Abi is part of the Hopson RoboWolves Lego team. Here's some pictures of her first competition. 

This part of the board is used using the robotics class offered at the school. 

The white part of the board was used during the competition. 

Abi and her partner were presenting their plan for helping the community. 

Robo Wolves get a pep talk from their coach!

Georgia came for moral support. 

This is what I should have been doing but didn't do because I wanted to be only a mom today. I took the teacher hat off and enjoyed celebrating as a proud parent. 

I couldn't resist taking this one. 

The team is watching other teams compete over Alaska. 

I am so proud of these kids. They did an amazing job!

The competition was televised using teleconferencing equipment. 

One last photo. 

Warning Sign Ahead!

There have been sightings of polar bears at the point and now they are being seen at Ilisagvik College. Its still a distance from my house. Nonetheless, the girls have been taking taxis home from practice just in case. If there was ever a polar bear in town, it would be promptly shot by someone. There is a long list of people that hunt these bears and a list of people that want to get a bear. Their fur is very warm and nice. (I really don't want to hear the fur is murder argument.) This is part of the Inupiat culture. They believe in a balance of nature. They never hunt more than they need and all parts are used or serve a purpose. 

I will let you know if one gets closer to town! 

Cold is relative now...

Cold is relative. 

Today we drove home from work in our truck with our coats unbuttoned, no hats or gloves. It was a nice day. 

This is screen shot of the temperature. 7 degrees is a nice day for us with the windchill it feels like -10. Still it wasn't that bad. 

Em and I walked home from the AC last night and it was -13. That's just the temperature! It wasn't that bad. 

It gets bad when the wind really starts to blow hard. Windy days can be miserable. I think the dry climate makes the temperature bearable. Our whole sense of what is cold is changing. I wonder what it will be like if we went to the lower 48 in the middle of winter. Would we walk around in flip flops? 30 degrees would be warm for us! 

What are you eating?

One of my seniors was eating this at school. It tasted really good. The texture is different than what you would expect and its very sweet. We found it at the Arctic Grocery on the Barrow side of town.