Christmas Breakfast!

Not as pretty as it could be but it's our first Christmas breakfast that I made! 

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Yule Log

We're headed to Christmas Eve dinner at Paul & Kesa's and are providing the dessert.
 I had a hard time thinking of a Christmas dessert but thanks to my mom and my kids' traditions papers I thought about a Yule Log which is a French tradition. I decided to step out of my comfortable little cooking/baking box. Next time I do this I'll use a different frosting for the center but I was pretty happy with how it turned out :) 
Joyeux Noel!

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Another

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School's Out for Christmas!

My kids excited and wearing their new beanies that my mom embroidered for them!

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Just some fun pictures. . .

 We framed his eyes perfectly with the candy canes.

Him just laughing at me. (Later he told me that he probably could have caught me but thought it'd be funnier to just let me fall.) Such a sweet guy :)

Quick Update

So I've been SUPER busy since pretty much August. Scott has been busy too but he doesn't do anything with this blog except give me a smile which I know means he thinks I'm silly for doing this. Anyways, here's a break down of what's been going on in our lives!

1. I got released from Young Women's as the 2nd cousenlor. I didn't have a call for maybe an hour. I am now a primary teacher for the 4 year olds. They are adorable but a handful and WAY different from my 4th graders! :)

2. 1st Quarter of the school year is over! I've been teaching 4th grade for 9 weeks!  I know I already mention this but it's a good thing to say again. Yay for 4th grade! I have a tough group of kids (well, boys) but they are individually great kids. Just a little overwhelming when they get together. Also, I was getting buried in papers and I finally figured out an organization system that works for me :) yay!

3. Scott and I have been going square dancing! It's a blast! Next week is their Halloween dance and I'm excited to see what all the 'older' people are going to dress up as! I think there is one other couple that may be in upper 30s or lower 40s but besides them, I think Scott and I are the youngest by like 30 years! Ha ha, it's soo much fun!

4. Scott's decided to go back to school! Next spring he will be a student again! He still hasn't decided for sure what he wants to do exactly, but he's narrowed down. Yay!

5. I'm halfway through my 1st semester of my Math Cohort classes which will eventually lead to a Masters Degree! It's been kind of hard to take 2 college classes and teach full time but it's totally worth it. I'm learning a lot and it's going to make me a better teacher. Why put off being the best you can be? Plus, I got an iPad2 out of the deal. That means I can Skype or FaceTime with people now!

6. I'm coaching my elementary school's girl basketball team! It's a lot of fun. It's just 4th and 5th graders and it's teaching the basics. We don't even keep score during our games. It's tiring trying to teach the language and fundamentals of the game but someone's got to do it and it's well worth it when I see improvement! I love it!! The girls are so excited about it too!

Um...I think that's about it.Sorry that there aren't any pictures. I don't know where my camera cord is but I've been too busy to take pictures anyways! I'll try hard for next time!

Labor Day

Scott is such a sweet husband! We had a productive Labor Day weekend. We went to the Alaska State Fair (greatly lacking in my opinion but probably the only fair you'll see yak and reindeer in the livestock area.) Then on Monday we (meaning mainly Scott but I definitely helped) a shelf for my classroom and a chest for our entry way. The shelf is actually on it's end. It's about 2 ft x 6 ft.

I'm a COUGAR

A lot has happned since I last posted. I will have to add about the rest of Todd and Kristi's visit and my trip home later.

While I was home, I was sitting with Kayla at her house in Caldwell just hanging out. My phone started ringing and I noticed it was a 907 number. Earlier that week I had also recieved a call from a 907 number and got a little excited thinking it could be a principal. (I had emailed some princpals while at home.) That first call was the Alaska Unemployment Department so I didn't get excited about the call I got while with Kayla.

I answered and started talking. Kayla said that after a couple of minutes she could tell I was talking school. It's true! I was talking to the principal of Cottonwood Creek in Wasilla. She asked if I was able to come in talk with her later that afternoon. I told her I was in Oregon and she just asked if I had a couple of minutes to talk then. Of course I said sure but I had to do a 180 with my thinking. I was in vacation mode and had to quickly start thinking school. Well, the conversation went very well and I am now the new 4th grade at Cottonwood Creek! That means that I am now a Cougar! 

This was such a blessing for me to be hire before I returned to Alaska. Up to that point of summer, I hadn't really worried about getting another job. There was nothing I could do at that point that would make a difference. (I got laid off in May due to budget cuts and I was 3rd from bottom of the senority list. I was put on the Recall list and was pretty optomistic about getting rehired but hadn't really thought about it too much.) When I was in Oregon, Scott went to work in Rexburg. He is currently still there and will be until mid-Aug. I knew that as soon as I got home on Sunday night, I was going to start worrying and freaking out about whether or not I'd get a job and have no one to comfort me or tell me to quite worrying, which Scott does frequently :). I had to be in Anchorage for class the whole next week so I wouldn't have been able to go to schools to drop off my resumes. I would be at a disadvantage compared to all other applicants. Luckily, blessedly, I was called and got a job before I got back. There are no words to truly convey how I feel about this new job.

I'm so happy to be a Cougar!

Musk Ox

The only animal alive that was alive during the Ice Age is...the musk ox! Although it has ox in it's name, the musk ox's closest relative is the mountain goat. They only live to be about 15 years old and 3-4 ft tall. I'm by a 2yr old and Todd is by a full grown musk ox. 

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Bears, Bears, and Bears

We saw a total of 11 bears when we went fishing from about 10pm til 2am. It actually became pretty nerve racking, not knowing where the bears were going to pop up. Scott had a pretty good scare when he and 4 other guys were fishing facing the bank and out pop a brown sow and her two cubs right in front of them!
We saw 2 brown bears each with 2 cubs, 1 male brown bear, 2 black bears each with 1 cub.
Here's a few pictures I got:

Brown Bears

I have a video of them coming down into the water but I was backing away so it's kind of bumpy to watch.

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Black Bears

My phone isn't great for nature shots but of course I didn't have my video camera with me.

Brown bears video coming...

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...Continuing Vaca

I LOVE the beach!  Growing up I went to the Oregon Coast for 2 weeks almost every summer. The smell, the feel of the air, the sand, the sound of the waves and being with people I love!

 Some cute flowers growing at the base of the sand cliffs on the Kenai Beach

We had a good walk on the beach! About 2-3 miles I think :)

Scott and I went on a half day halibut charter out of Homer. It was a lot of fun :) We didn't catch any monster halibuts because we weren't able to go deep enough but thats ok. It was harder than I thought it'd be to reel in just the small halibut! Here's pictures from our charter on the Irish...

 Reelin' in a halibut!

 Yes, my hair is all over my face but that happens when its windy.

 I don't remember what range those mountains are a part of but the Aleutians were on the other side. We could vaguely see the "AIR" volcanoes that are part of the Ring of Fire. Augustine, Iliamna, Redoubt

 Me with one of the halibut we caught

 JR filleting our halibut (yup, I waited until he was filleting one that either Scott or I actually caught :)

 Standing on the Homer Spit after our charter

Mini Vaca :)

Yay for a mini vacation! Scott and I went down to Kenai this week (we're still here as I'm posting). We're staying at the hotel that his boss owns and he works at sometimes. For the most part we're just haning out and fishing but Scott is doing at least one day of work...Which is today so I've been just lounging around today reading and now blogging!

 We came down Monday afternoon and then on Tuesday we went fishing on the Russian River. Scott's boss's family was down for a family reunion and they let us tag along for fishing. They had a pretty decent day. Scott  wasn't sure how to set up his fly pole because fishing on the Russian and the Kenia Rivers aren't like any fishing I've ever seen! They call it 'Combat Fishing' because you can be shoulder to shoulder with other fishermen. Also, its not a 'Cast and Reel In' kind of fishing either. I would call it more of a 'Snag and Drag'. You throw your line out, which has a weight and then some leader line with a lure/hook, and then you let it drift for like 5 seconds and you jerk it out and hope you snag a salmon in the mouth. (You have to snag it because they don't really chase the lure so you won't really get a bite.) Scott snagged a salmon with his first cast after lunch but it wasn't a mouth snag so he had to let it go. After that he wasn't having the best of luck for awhile, but then me being the friendly person I am, had a nice chat with an older guy from North Carolina who comes back every summer to fish. He helped Scott set up his pole and land his first Alaskan salmon! 

Combat fishing (and this actually isn't that crowded!) 

 Scott's first snag that he had to let go

 The one that Scott got to keep

 I didn't fish because we're still technically non-residents until Aug. 7th and I didn't want to buy a multiple day non resident tag just to fish for 2 days. We're going halibut fishing on Friday so I'm going to just buy a one day tag for Friday. Also, we only have 1 pole and 1 set of waders and I'm not going into that cold water without waders!

Me on the shore and Scott fishing

RODEO...Alaska Style

I love a good ol' rodeo. The bulls, the broncs, the cowboys and the cute little muttonbusters. Scott and I decided to have a night out and go the the rodeo. I must admit that it wasn't anything like the Caldwell Night Rodeo or the Idaho Stampede but it was still a good time. It was like a small town rodeo in the middle of Anchorage. We did happen to know one of the bull riders who actually goes to our ward for church. His name is Bobby D and he is amazing. He's been riding for a long time and he has a couple of unique tweaks. Bobby D is legally deaf and blind! He can hear a little with hearing aids and he can see shapes but thats about it. It was a lot of fun watching him take on a bull and ride it the whole 8 seconds!
They don't bring stock up because it's expensive and try getting a live animal through Canada! That means its local stock, which was kind of small and some of the steers looked like wooly mammoths! They were really shaggy! (I couldn't get a good picture to show the long hair)
Another thing that was different was some of the events they had and didn't have. Instead of Calf Roping and Steer Wresting, they had Double Mugging in which they used steers and one guy roped the steer, another on the ground wrestled it to the ground, and the roper jumped off and tied the 3 legs. They also had Ribbon Roping. One guy ropes the steer, another on the ground grabs a ribbon off the tail of the steer and runs back to the gate.

 

 As you can see, there's nothing special about the arena but it was fun to be back around the rodeo/country feel...even if most of them are wannabes 

*Girl's Camp*

Growing up, I didn't have the best experiences at Girl's Camp. Now I'm a leader in the Young Women's program and I wasn't too sure about how I felt having to attend Girl's Camp again. Luckily for me, I have a great group of girls to work with and the other leaders were awesome!

All the girls in the chorus line for our ward skit

 

 Smile girls!

 

  One of our Munchkins, "True Blue" and our Elephant  

and Mary's phone..tisk tisk*wink*

The awesome leaders!

  

Our girls ready for the Survival Skills Amazing Race

 

Happy Birthday Mary!

 Just hangin' around...

June Book Club

For the month of June (even though we met on May 31 because of summer) we read Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster. It was written in 1912. That means the copyright has past so if you want to, you are able to go to gutenberg.org and download it for free. I bought the book because I don't have an electronic reader and I don't like reading on the computer screen.
Anyways, its about a girl who is raised in an orphanage that ends up getting to go to college because one of the trustees says he'll pay for it. All he asks for in return is for her to write him once a month. Well, she writes him way more than is needed and this is all of the letters she writes. The book's actually pretty modern in its style and ideas for being written in 1912. I enjoyed it.

We're taking the summer off of book club but we'll get a new book picked out in August for us to 'discuss' in September.

Meanwhile, I'll be keeping myself busy by reading some retold fairytales by Cameron Dokey and listening to some classics on audiobook. (So far I have Little Women and The Red Badge of Courage checked out.)

Wasilla Ward Volleyball Champions!

(This should of been posted at the beginning of May.. )

For the 3rd year in the a row the Wasilla Ward took home the volleyball. In the championship match, we gave up the first game. It was best 2 out of 3 so we knew we had to win the next two. The 2nd game we won 26-24. The 3rd game was intense but we pulled it out. I can't take any credit for the wins. The youth were awesome and worked well together! Hurray!

Summer Begins!

Lazy Mountain Hike

I was feeling pretty ambitious and have been wanting to take full advantage of the mountains and the gorgeous weather we've been having. I knew Ashley Breshears likes to hike so I proposed we go and go we did. I knew I wasn't in the best shape but I didn't realize just how out of shape I am! Lazy Mountain is actually one of the shorter hikes but the first part is pretty straight up the mountain. I'm excited to try some other ones. Besides getting my butt kicked by a mountain, it was an awesome hike. Things have greened up and the view was amazing. 360 degrees of mountain views. 

These pics are from 1/2 way up... 

 The little bump in the left of the picture...that's the Butte. We thought about hiking that but decided to tackle Lazy Mountain instead. Man it looks like nothing from up here!

pics from the top...

 Matanuska Peak is behind Ashley. We think it could be  fun hike towards the end of summer :)

 I look like a giant...and it was pretty windy if you can't tell by Ashley's hair.

On the way back down... 

 

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