So this week has been completely hectic. My mom and brother came to visit me last week on Thursday, bringing my new puppy Weeko with them. They came for the 1st annual Tommy Phillip NYO Tournament! It was so much fun! CRAZY BUSY but so much fun. I was the all around gopher, scoring events, measuring for events, serving food, cleaning, etc. Nick basically hung out with the boys from the village all weekend. He came and about an hour after he and mom showed up in the village Nick was hanging out with the boys, helping out at NYO practice, etc etc. I hardly saw him the entire time! Mom helped out in the kitchen and then got the happy task of filling out awards. We all had a great time :)
Here are a few pictures of Nick hanging out with the boys and the NYO events.
This is Tommy Phillip. The tournament is named after him. He is the first NYO coach for the district. He is highly respected within the sport.
This is Nick with Alexie (one of our students) Alexie won the seal hop competition. He and Nick had a lot of fun together.
This is one of the events, the wrist carry. Our students won first place for both JH and HS.
Alexie competing in the Eskimo Stick Pull.
I'll put up some more pictures of NYO when I upload them from our school server. One of the teachers took a bunch of really good pictures and I just need to upload a few.
The next big news is I got a puppy!! Her name is Weeko which is "pretty" is Sioux. Mom brought her with her. She's an Native American Village Dog, which is an actual breed believe it or not. Basically she's a mix of German Shepard and Alaskan Malamute. She is too cute! Here are some pictures of her that I've taken so far.
Last but not least is that I just got back from Bethel for the JH Speech Meet.
I took five girls to Bethel and they all did very well. I had one girl go all the way to round 3 and almost to the finals. I was so proud of all of them! They did so well! It's so hard for them getting in front of people and talking (like so many others...) but they did it and I couldn't be happier!
Here are the girls waiting for the plane to take us to Bethel!
The girls in the plane. The pilot let us take two roller costers....where the pilot goes up....and then down. It's so cool! and unlike Amanda (Ms. Frey) none of my girls cried....tehe.
The girls and me at the dance.
The meet went on for two days. We flew in on Tuesday morning and then went into the first round. We were all scrunched in the lobby of the district office. After the first round we got to go over to the high school to put our bags in our assigned classroom and then have dinner. After dinner it was round two. After that we had free time. The girls and I wandered around for a bit and then went to the room and hung out. They listened to my iPod, took a test for one of their teachers, and then we put in "The Sleepover" and watched that together. We were the only school in our classroom so that was super nice. The floor was a different matter but oh well.
Wednesday was another full day. We had to get up early and bring all our bags back to the D.O. because the high school had classes, so we couldn't keep our bags there. One of our students, Kelly, made it into the third round so we stood around to get coffee for about 30 min. and then went and supported Kelly during her round. After that we had to sit around for a long time. Luckily, we were next to the media center, so the girls just went in and checked out a couple of movies. Unfortunately, Kelly didn't make it into the 4th round so we had to sit around even longer. at 3:30 we had free time so I took the girls to the store. They had been asking ALL DAY to go. I have no idea what is so amazing about going to the grocery store but they loved it! It was SO COLD walking to the store. Strong winds. After the store we went to the movie store so that I could buy a few DVDs. I knew we would be sitting around tomorrow, waiting for the plane, so I got some movies just in case we have to stay there awhile. That night there was a dance and I swear I dance more than the girls did!! A couple of first year teachers were there so luckily I got to chat with them.
That night the girls decided that sleep was not an option. I still had girls up at 3:50 AM!! So MAD!! I was not a happy camper with those two. Later that morning, we went to the airport. We had check in at 8 AM. Unfortunately, Mother Nature decided that that would be the day we had our first snow! It was crazy! We sat in the airport from 8AM until 4:15 PM, when we finally got to go home. The girls were so happy because they missed another day of school. Our principal was at the airport with us too, also weathered in, coming from Anchorage and a training he had there. I also met the principal from Quig, our neighbor village, and had a great time chatting with his wife. Their daughter got first place for humorous interp. at the speech meet!
All in all it's been a crazy couple of weeks and it's not looking like it's going to let up any time soon. Halloween is next week, plus two training sessions. After that it's HS speech (if anyone decides to sign up seriously), school, after school program, basketball, and then Christmas! OH and guess who was signed up to help organize the Christmas Show that the school puts on....yeah this kid.
Well....as the old proverb goes....I can sleep when I'm dead.
Love and miss you all. I'll put more pictures up from speech, NYO, etc. As soon as I download them. Mom is also sending me some pics so I'll wait for those as well.
