weekend update

Here is a close-up of one of the blocks of Ryan's quilt. I hope he likes dinosaurs for a long time!!! The bottom picture is one of the whole thing. I love making rag quilts, they are so forgiving!

Friday afternoon Patty and I went seal shooting, with the camera of course. We spotted several but were only able to get fairly close to the one below. Yes Jill, unique up on 'em.


Here's Patty out on the ice. We were going to go back out over the weekend but it was pretty dang windy and decided to stay inside and warm! (Actually Patty spend time in her classroom working. This is when I finished Ryan's quilt.)
Hope everyone had a good Easter! Patty and I had a nice dinner and then topped the night off with a few movies.

An afternoon adventure

Here's Patty and Jill checking out a seal hole. It's amazing to see what these creatures are capable of doing.
Here is the hole. We are thinking the seals keep their hole open all winter. There are about 3-4 feet of ice out there right now. You can see where the seal was sunning himself when we first spotted him.
This is the CM tree that is growing in the middle of the canal, bay, ocean, whatever that body of water is called where we were. On our way over, we noted that the trail was quite well marked with sticks, etc. Cynthia, my passenger, said, "Look at that tree growing up through the middle of the ice." I laughed... and then thought... wow... I hope she is kidding. I then turned and said.. "You were joking right???" Thankfully she said that she was... this will forever be known as the CM tree!
Here's Betty! Betty, Cynthia, and I took the trail over to the tundra while Patty and Jill did some ice exploration. We climbed the hills and got some pretty great photos. We watched the other girls out on the ice but opted to stay on the land. We played around for awhile and then started to head back. We could no longer see Patty and Jill so we waited around and watched for them. No sign of them anywhere... we climbed one of the hills again and still nothing. We went back down on to the ice and waited. About an hour later, we still had no indication where they were so we decided that we should maybe head back and see about getting someone else out there to help us look for them. We hated to take the ice around, we had no idea what direction to go... and if we took that way, surely the girls would come up across the tundra. Betty headed back to SMK while Cynthia and I stayed out on the ice to watch. Not too long after Betty left Cynthia spotted this black dot that appeared to be moving toward us. Sure enough the explorers had made their way back. They had seen some interesting sights. I have much faith in Patty's decisions but she had that rebel Jill on with her... made me a bit nervous!!! (Montana rules - don't know what those rules are on the ice, but I know in UNO they suck... LOL)
This was taken from the shore of mainland Alaska. It is looking over to St. Michael Island to the left and the very tip of Whale Island to the right. I have absolutely no idea how far over it is but it was a nice ride... Lots of thick ice Dad... not to worry!

Finally an update:

Ok, this posting is just for Mark. He happened to mention the other day that my blog was starting to fail and that I really needed to update it... that being said, here it is Mark!

Let's see, I think the last post was when my room mate had left me alone to bake bread myself. She had been in Anchorage with the SBT - Student Broadcasting Team covering the state basketball finals. Patty flew home Sunday evening. I think we met in the air somewhere as I was flying into Anchorage Sunday as well. I took Monday off as a personal day and spent some time in ANC shopping and relaxing! I had rented a car and had a motel, and yes Rebecca, it was a Motel. I truly enjoyed my mini vacation.
I returned to SMK late Monday evening. Back to work on Tuesday. Let's see... the rest of the week was fairly routine I suppose.
Patty and I had rented a ton of movies for the weekend and that is pretty much all we did. Oh, aside from packing. Patty will be going to UNK next year and I will also be moving. I was offered a contract and intend to sign it but I will be moving into a new place. I am asking for a single apartment and I really don't think they will let me stay in the large house that Patty and I now have. So... I am packing. This year the decision to stay was abit more difficult than last year. First and foremost, my roomie is leaving. Secondly, I am really a bit homesick! I think this is in part to not going home for Christmas. I loved Hawaii and do not regret going at all, but I really think that is why I am as homesick as I am. I really miss my little Pickford home! I still love SMK and that is why I've decided to stay. It just doesn't feel right to leave... so this will be home for yet another year. Saturday night we had an awesome display of Northern Lights. They started out right above our house. It was an awesome display as they danced around the sky. I still look for the green and purple colors but didn't see any this time around... although they did have a pinkish hue to them. Someday... I'll see those splendid colors.
Randy now has his tickets for Alaska. He will be coming up the end of May. After spending a couple of days in SMK, we will head for Anchorage and then spend a week traveling the interior. I can not wait for him to experience the life I live. I know he is going to love it! I've booked my ticket to return to Michigan with him on June 2nd! YAHOO
Oh, that pretty much brings me to this week... The week of testing! Our students are testing Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week. It's similar to the MEAP testing back in Michigan. Each teacher has a group of students. We have several groupings, students with accommodations, students with SPED accommodations, and students with no accommodations. And that is for each testing level... It's pretty crazy at times but I think we are all going to make it! Friday will be an early out day and I think we are all looking forward to that!
Ok, I think that pretty much updates you on what has been going on... not a whole lot - but such is life in the bush!