Christmas Photo Contest!

Soooo don't laugh but I entered Moose in a Christmas Photo Contest! Tehehehe. I used the picture of him wearing his sweater and tie from last year. Looking at the pics entered so far I think he has a pretty good chance. If you are bored and want to vote go to mypetsandfriends.com -go to Contests and click on Christmas contest. Click on his picture and then rate him 1-5 to vote for him! Thanks!

Ice Fishing Excursion!

I went on another ice fishing excursion this year! Oscar called and invited us to fish with him-- and we saw many other friends on the lake as well. I didn't have much luck... only caught one little fish while others were catching about 15-30... but it was still a lot of fun!

When people get bored ice fishing they like to throw a fish to the birds nearby and watch them all fight-- it's actually pretty cool. One bird will get the fish try to fly away- another will attack so the fish is dropped and the cycle repeats over and over.


Dolly reluctantly smiling for a picture...

Rachel caught some fish too!

I love his parka!

A couple of students watching the fishing holes...

My little Tom Cod.

The fishing hole where I caught my one and only little Tom Cod!

I'm holding Gideon's fish- pretending I caught more than one :)

Gideon caught 2 for the price of one!

Happy Thanksgiving!

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving each year Kong School hosts a Thanksgiving feast for the community. I didn't take pictures on my camera this year because I was serving people their food but if you look at the ones from last year... it's looked about the same except we are in a new school this year. I did however take pictures at the 'teacher' Thanksgiving get-together on Thanksgiving day! We hosted it at our house this year and Garnet's dad was in town and cooked the turkey. Mr. Daugaard (principal), Michele, Dustin, Garent, her dad, Rachel, Oscar and Sheila's whole family joined us! It was a really great time. After we had lunch, Margaret called and invited me over for more food. I went to visit her then Bertha called and then Letisha- of course I couldn't say no! If you see me on Christmas and I weigh 100 lbs more than last time-- you will know why! I wish I could have been with my own family but couldn't have asked for a better Kong family!
Here is part of my Kong family--

Mmmmmm all the food-- I can't believe I forgot a picture of the dessert table though!
This is most of the crew...



Sheila's daughter and friend were having fun :)

New House Decor

We have finally finished decorating the new house (with the help of Garnet's mom who looked at the colors in our house and shopped for good deals to coordinate with everything else). I LOVE having the house look/feel a little more homey! Now if only we had flush toilets. Oh yes... luxury or running water and now the situation is worse than at the old house. For 18 days(and counting!) we have no been allowed to put any liquid down any drain of our house. The lift station below the house is broken apparently and we are waiting for a part to come in. Even when the part comes in the maintnence guys don't want to work on it because it's so freaking cold and windy all the time! They prefer to wait until spring or summer- understandably. My principal says they will do it... but I know they don't want to. I guess we will see what happens. In the mean time we can not put water down the sink drain (we could at the old house) we can not shower(we could at the old house) we can not use the flush toilet (that's right we caved after 2 weeks of walking to school in the middle of the night for the bathroom and we broke out the honeybucket again) and we can't use our washing machine! BLAH! It's just been one of those school years!!!! It can't get too much worse though right? That's what I try to tell myself at least. Anywho... here are all the wonderful pictures of our new house!

Moose on his throne in MY room-

I think he likes the new room...

Yes, Moose has his own decor too...

The curtains actually have all colors of the living room and kitchen in them!

Like our artwork?!

My mom sent a nativity from the Oldenburg Creche Shop! When the kids come over they like to play with the figurines-- I remember doing that when I was a kid.

The kitchen is still probably my favorite part of the house (big surprise there...)

Our Christmas tree table-- we are ready for the holidays!

SORRY for the wait!

FINALLY got a chance to blog again and I have pretty much spent my whole day doing so! I have heard that NUMEROUS people have been asking when I would blog again and the time has finally come! A LOT has happened since mid-September when I last posted which is why I have had so little time to devote to posting. It has been a fun but rough past month and a half. We had Cultural Heritage week, the Tommy Phillip NYO meet, the school's Grand Opening weekend. In the middle of all of that happening the barge FINALLY made it in with all of the furniture for our new school which means pure chaos. Furniture has been moved in and out of rooms for a few weeks now. I haven't taken pictures of my classroom because I'm still adding finishing touches now that it's changed around again but they will be on the next blog... I hope. Needless to say, the staff here is pure exhausted by this point in time. We have been worked and worked and worked and it has paid off-- the place looks great and we really hosted some outstanding events in the past month. I took a few pictures at the Grand Opening but I only need to post one picture because I think it pretty much sums things up.

This is the picture that was taken at the ribbon cutting for the Grand Opening. Now I know you Lower 48ers don't know the teaching staff here in Kong BUT let's just say, only two of these people are on the Kong staff. Plus, there are no Kong students in the picture. I don't know half of the people pictured here. I'm sure these people all worked hard to help us get a new school and I do appreciate that. I just think it would have been nice to have a photo of all students and staff taken in front of the new school. I'm sorry I don't have one to show you.

Fun on the Tundra :)

Last Saturday we needed to take a break! What better way than to go fishing with great friends! Margaret, Rachel and I broke in the 4-wheelers again and headed down the river to find a fishing spot. NO LUCK catching fish but since the river was starting to freeze we did catch a lot of ice chunks! Sure adds a twist to fishing when the line gets caught and pulled downriver by ice. Let's just say... we broke every line and lost every hook we had BUT STILL managed to have a great time.

She's pretty much at peace when fishing begins... until we end the trip and no fish are caught :( Still fun though right Rachel?!


River with some ice chunks and Kong in the background- I love Alaska!


Gotta <3 Margaret!



It's crazy here how if you don't wath where you walk you may just step into a lake!

Rachel and Margaret fishing!

Definitely almost got swallowed by the mud as I went to rescue hooks stuck in the mud next to the river!




We went for a couple of walks this weekend- BEAUTIFUL weather to walk and the ground is frozen which means no dirty dogs! Unless of course, your dog is stupid enough to run on the VERY thin ice of the lake and fall in... then you have a frozen dog like Moose was last weekend!
I think he was having fun... :O)

Camo dog!

YAY! Frozen enough that he didn't fall in this time!

They love to play!

Puppy Love <3

I totally got attacked by Zowe when I tried to get a picture with Moose-- they both ganged up on me and whitewashed my face!

Beautiful day for a walk :)

On my walk with the pups today I saw a helicopter coming in! CRAZY! Was dropping someone off from military training apparently.

WALRUS in KONG!

This year I FINALLY got to see walrus! The river didn't freeze up as early as last year so the guys were able to go out and get 5 walrus over a span of about two weeks. The first one we (a group of us teachers) went to check out the walrus but it was pretty dark and hard to see. The next day I went with Dustin as they pulled in another walrus and cut it up. WOW is about all I can say- the pictures tell all except for the size. These things are 'GINORMOUS'!! It takes about 5 boats to tow one in. When the third walrus was caught, it was during cultural heritage week. Since this is a cultural event, Patrick and I took a group of kids on a 'field trip'. We hooked the trailer up to the 4-wheeler and took the kids through a mini blizzard to see this walrus. It was seriously the worst weather we have had so far this school year. It was a rain/snow/hail mix and extremely windy. The boardwalks were also slippery for driving but the kids were determined and didn't let the cold stop us! Needless to say we had a blast (was the most fun I have had on a field trip in my life)! Look at all of our pictures for proof :)

THESE pictures are from the first night- my first walrus (well... that I saw butchered in front of me at least)
It was a BEAUTIFUL sunset of course here in Alaska!



Here are the men pulling in their catch... they are pulling it here with two 4-wheelers to find good ground for slicing.

Here are the men that worked so hard to bring it in!


Teachers came to see the walrus- we were all so excited! Welllll most of us at least!

bloody foam coming from the mouth??

First slice of the night...






High Five! I wish you could see better the size difference but pictures just don't do it justice!



THESE pictures are from the second walrus.

This was such a graphic site that I just had to take a picture! I walked over for a picture of the walrus head and saw a knife sticking out of it. Of course I had to pose for a picture and noticed to my left some locals cracking up laughing as I held this knife in the head :/

Feel sorta bad for the poor fella...

The guys put hooks into the body of the walrus and they all work together to pull it one direction. While they are pulling it to one side, guys on the other side cut to separate the skin/blubber from the meat.

Why do you think he is smiling so big?!?! :)

So this little guy was showing me the clams! When they butcher the walrus, there are clams inside the stomach. Since the walrus is so warm inside, it actually cooks the clams! The clams are typically given to elders after a walrus is cut up.

Good walrus ;)



Last but not least, these pictures are from our field trip!
Again, pulling with the hooks...

She was chewing 'eskimo gum' and asked if I wanted to try...

So of course I said yes! Eskimo gum is actually the heart valve! The texture reminds me of cartlidge and when you chew it up it sorta breaks down... I didn't gag but I did eventually spit it out-- got tired of chewing on something that tasted like blood.

Below is part of the group of kids who went to see the walrus. Miserable weather but really an awesome experience- we all had so much fun!

While the men were all working on the walrus, the snow they were standing in got too bloody and muddy. They decided we needed to move the walrus to a better spot. They cut holes in the skin of the walrus and circled it ready to pull (as you can see below). They counted to three and all the men and boys there pulled but the thing didn't budge! I COULDN'T believe it! They had already taken off the flippers and a lot of the meat! Everyone who was there had to help the next time they pulled (which is why I don't have any pictures). It was really cool though because EVERY person there grabbed a spot on the ropes and pulled on the count of three. We began pulling it over to the new spot when one of the students fell down and she was right in the front middle of the walrus. Not everyone saw her fall and kept pulling and it actually was pulled on top of her feet and shins! She was scrambling to get up before it covered her and just started laughing once everyone stopped-- it was hilarious!

Another group photo as Patrick and I and some of the kids were chewing on heart valve... yum. I thought Pat may toss his cookies!