I'm melting!

Its really hot outside today. I have been opening the windows to my classroom and using a fan. The kids are sweating because its too hot outside! 

And I get the full afternoon sun beaming into my classroom!

More Sun!

I have written a lot about the Sun's return to Barrow. We love the sun after all the darkness we experienced this winter. I haven't put up all of the curtains/towels/whatever I can use to block the sun yet. That means that there is some light that comes through the windows while you are trying to sleep. Its not bad and the blinds block most of it. The important thing is to not open the blinds and darken the house as much as possible. We have found this to be very helpful in the transition to more sun. 

This is a table that I found online from Alaska.org. A travel planning site for people that want to visit Alaska. They have lots of helpful information that I still use now that we live in Alaska. 

Columns are date, civil twilight, sunrise, sunset and civil twilight ends. 
Civil twilight is when the sun is below the horizon but you still get some kind of brightness. Civil twilight times are very important in the winter. It makes it feel not so dark all the time. Now we can't wait for the civil twilight to send so there is some kind of darkness. 

April 22 is an important date this year because it signifies that there is no more twilight. May 10th will be the last sunrise at 2:38am. 


There are a few in the family that are early birds and love waking up to the sun. We have discovered that those children and adult wake up better refreshed than in the winter. The sun is amazing here and we are thankful for its return. 

Christos Anesti! Happy Easter! And Passover!

I wait every year to say, "Christos Anesti!" I'm not Greek, but my children have an obsession with the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. This year we celebrated Easter and Passover. But before we talk about the holidays, I want to mention that we ate at Osaka's and loved it! We are some sushi eating people. Osaka was good food and good Barrow prices. 

Bento Box #2 Onagashimasu

Crunchy crab for the little one. 

This is what 10pm looks like right now. Its almost time for 24 hours of daylight. 

And now time for some eggs....

Eggs are $7 a dozen in Barrow. I was not going to spend that much and not eat the eggs. I opted for the $2 Walmart non-edible eggs. I bought white ones to dye and chalkboard ones to draw on. We used Kool-aid and vinegar to dye the eggs. Unfortunately, it didn't work. 

We tried a lot!

But as you can see, the eggs float! They didn't get dyed very well. 

So we gave up and did beauty masks. 

Saturday after Crafternoon we went to celebrate Passover with our Jewish friends. We love the Coleman's! They have included us in some of their holiday celebrations. This was our first Passover. The food was good. I missed the horseradish... thank goodness!

This is a series of pictures of the kids running to find the hidden Matzah bread. 

Young and old, they looked for it!

First person to find it had to barter with the hostess about buying it back. It was a fun game to play. 

This is what 5 am looks like in the arctic right now. I'm going to have to catch a picture of midnight. 

And if you are curious, the Easter Bunny does visit children in the arctic. The bunny left a tutu dress and lots of candy for Georgia. (He also visits older girls too!) 

And this is the sledding hill behind Ipalook Elementary school. This hill goes onto the frozen lagoon on the other side. People drive on the lagoon and there is now a cleared road for driving on it. I've seen many boys in their pick up trucks spinning around having fun on it. 

So, Christos Anesti Everybody! 

March Madness!

I am so sorry that I haven't been keeping up with my blog as much as I should, but things have been terribly busy! 

Please see below!

Its finally getting brighter in the morning when I leave for work! 

I finally made it to the thrift shop in town known as the Kiita Store. 

I took this picture to give you an idea of how much snow I walked through to go thrift shopping! 

This is my goodie bag from thrift shopping. You can have the duffle bags for free. I didn't want to carry all the AC store bags home. I have too many in my kitchen now!

$6 worth of goodies

This is the entertainment portion of the goodies. I decided to buy Risk. Emily and Abi are old enough now to learn how to play one of my favorite games. I miss playing Risk during high school. Books are free at the Kiita Store. 

Georgia's pile of goodies. She outgrew all of her dress up. I found a tutu outfit for her to play dress up. 

Emily and Abi's pile of clothes. 

This is the best shirt ever! I want to find this online and buy them for people back in West Virginia. 

I braved -20 degree temperatures, ice and snow to go to Kiita! And it was totally worth it! 

The Shakespeare Group from Fairbanks came to Barrow and played games with the kids at Tuzzy Library. 

Emily had Science Olympiad, but Abi and Georgia had fun participating in the workshop. 

I am concerned about the collection of documentaries at Tuzzy. (Look at the titles... one should stand out.)

Not that it was necessary for me to do it, but I took a canning class. I made some yummy canned veggies for later. This is a picture of my favorite canned relish. I now have 3 cans of this in my pantry. I really think that I was born in the wrong decade due to my obsession with canning and old fashioned recipes. 

The Shakespeare Group put on the play, A Midsummer's Night's Dream in the high school theater. I saw most of the play during school, but I wanted to make sure that the girls got to see the whole play. 

Abi and her Girl Scout friends clown around. 

Georgia really wanted the play to start! She hates to wait. 

After show pictures with the cast! 

This was a Girl Scout picture, but Georgia jumped in really quick. 

This is Titania and Hippolyta. Georgia thought she was beautiful. She spoke English and G'wichin during the play. 

Georgia and her favorite character. She wanted to get a hug from Puck and a picture with her. 

Kids from the crowd took pictures with the cast. 

several pictures

March was also the time when I flew down to Anchorage to take 3 more teacher exams.

Why?

Don't I have enough? 

Nope. 

I can teach Earth and Space Science in Ohio and West Virginia, but Alaska requires that I actually take the Praxis 2 for Earth and Space Science. I also took Chemistry and Middle School Content Knowledge. 

I am highly qualified in Middle School Generalist (any topic), General Science, Physical Science, Earth and Space Science, Biology and Chemistry. 

I am still working on the Physics. I'm putting it off due to test anxiety. 

This lovely room is a king room at the Dimond Hotel. I had the whole room to myself. I was different. I haven't stayed in a hotel by myself since 1999! 

Mini refrigerator, Kuerig and lots of coffee and tea selection. 

I want this tv. Its huge compared to my tiny baby tv at home. 

Robes! 

I thought this was a cute chair, but I wouldn't put in my house. Its just nice to look at. 

Window into the bathroom connects to the ...

TUB! A jacuzzi tub! You can relax and watch tv at the same time! I loved it. 

I loved the jacuzzi tub because I was able to shower and then soak in the tub. I miss Japanese bath houses :( 

View from the hotel and last picture I took before I dropped my phone! I have lived in Barrow and have dropped my phone several times in the snow and ice. It never broke until I went to Anchorage and dropped it once. 

My goodies from shopping at Wal-Mart. Yes, that is 5 dozen of eggs you see there on the cart. I will be carrying those on the plane with me. Laugh now, but I am not paying $7 a dozen for eggs. 

This is the final luggage picture. I stocked up on meat in the cooler. Easter goodies and miscellaneous items are in the green bag and grey box. I love Alaska Airline's Club 49 membership because I get 3 checked bags for FREE! 

This picture made me cry. This is a picture of Emily working on her Science Olympiad project. She is timing and doing calculations on my board. I kept thinking how lucky I am to have an intelligent young lady as a daughter. She loves math and science. And she is the only kid I know that is pissed that she isn't allowed to take a summer school class of Algebra 2 to get ahead in school. 

I survived my last conferences at work. This is a picture of Georgia's work. I had conferences for Abi and Georgia too! Emily's conferences were easy because I'm at the high school ;)

And I took Abi and Georgia to Anchorage the weekend after Spring Break. There was a job fair there and I had plans to attend it. I have only been to one other Teacher Job Fair. I wanted to see what a bigger one looked like. 

Pics on the way to Fairbanks. 

Anchorage. 

More Anchorage pics. Its strange to see water without ice on it. 

Anchorage airport. Georgia loves having her picture taken. She takes pictures all the time with her camera, my camera or asks to have her picture taken. 

Oh a wolf!

Roar! 

Suvat! (What's up?)

Dall Sheep noise

We ate at Subway! It was heaven in our mouths. I forgot how to order. I felt so dumb trying to remember how I liked my sandwich. 

Abi was so happy to get her tuna. 

I snuck a picture of Georgia with the Easter Bunny. The Easter Bunny promised to come to Barrow to deliver some goodies. 

Model solar system. Can you tell that she's the youngest? 

Beautiful and intelligent! It was so warm for us that we got hot with light jackets on. 

We watched a movie in 3D and we spent 3 hours at Chuck E. Cheese. 

Pics on the way back. 

Mountains!

I miss mountains. 

Barrow! 

Better picture of Barrow before we headed out over the sea ice to turn and land. 

This is ocean sea ice! 

Sea ice! The ocean is frozen! 

This is at 6pm on April 1st. The sun is still up high in the sky. 

The sun makes it look nice and inviting, but remember that there's snow on the ground and ice on the roads. It has to be below 32 for that to remain. We won't start thawing out until end of May. Then everything turns into a muddy mess.