The Story of Cat's Life: Feel the Love...

Hi my friends, family, and anyone else reading this!

So much has happened since the last time I wrote; I don't even know where to begin.

Let's see two weekends ago we had in-service training all weekend. It was not really all that fun, but it was great to see Josh and Carl again. Carl was very helpful with my second grade math, poor Becky has been having such issues with them. So Sandra decided to switch Andrea, who teaches the upper elementary math with Becky. So far it seems to be going ok. During training we learned about the STEPPS program. It's the state's school improvement plan and in theory, I think, it's a great process to make schools think about what they need to do, but the language is what really brings is down. You could spend an hour debating what each part means. It was a long weekend. To make things worst Andrea received some bad news. Turns out her ex was found dead in Nome. The poor kids, even though he wasn't much of a part of their lives, it's still very sad.

So, for the last two weeks the kids have had their ups and downs. No surprise since the some of the kids lost their father. Actually the week right after training was a horrible week. the kids were off and so were the teachers. It didn't help that there were some many things going on in the village and the teachers didn't have a weekend. I know I was in Sandra's office a couple of times because the kids were driving me nuts, but she told me that there were things going on at home and it didn't help that we didn't have a weekend. That really helped me get through the rest of the week.

The week after was a great week! It went by so fast and the kids were wonderful, at least at the lower elementary end. During the bad week, Carl and Josh had to leave us, but on that Wednesday Alan, the counselor came and was going to be with us for a week.

Well, last week we had all kinds of fun. We had Alan and Willis over for dinner and a movie. Alan made most of the dinner, we has burritos with rice, beans, and meat. We watched Paul, oh how I love that movie! It was so hilarious!! Plus it was so fun to have company over and have good conversations with two world travelers. Willis has been to many places including Australia and Alan has been to southern Africa. Then Saturday night we, Jori and I, went over to the school to play BS with Alan and Joe. Then after a hand of BS I learned how to play Texas Hold 'em and even Sandra joined in. It was a lot of fun!

After a nice relaxing weekend full of fun and games, it was time to start school again. The week was awesome! It went by so fast and the kids were great! Also Destiny and McKayla came back from Nome or Wales. I'm so happy to have them back at school because school is the best place for them to be and they are such great students! This week also brought sadness. Thursday was the day of the funeral of Andrea's ex and it was here in Diomede. Thursday afternoon my class was cut in half because of the funeral. So instead of doing what I had planned we watched Bill Nye the Science Guy, the water cycle episode. It worked out well. The week also brought the mail and oh my goodness did I get mail! I got my snow pants, a care package from our mentor, and like eight or nine boxes from my family. Granted most of it was my grocery list, but there were some surprises like October's Cosmo, don't laugh it's a great read for the situation I'm in, and the movie Bridesmaids! Love the movie!!! It's so good!

Then to end the week, today I got to Skype with my family and friends, mostly with Dede, but that's what happens when I don't think. I know I'm gonna make it up to my family at Christmas. I'll have to make the rounds, maybe around the state, but that's alright. I have to since my family has been there for me and I wanna be there for them.

Oh and I almost forgot. I received some GREAT news this week! In March I'm heading to Nome for the end of the Iditarod Race for a class trip! I'm so excited since I didn't think that was possible, but now it is and it's going to happen! Also Sandra said that she booked three room so if any of my family would like to come they are welcome to. The way it sounds is my mom, sister, and brother-in-law are going to come. We'll see about my dad, but if my dad comes we'll have to figure out the rooming situation. But either way I'm going to the Iditarod! Sweet!

Here are some pictures I've taken since I last wrote: