I Moose Alaska

It's not "fat", it's...

2009-11-04T19:36:00.002-09:00

"pleasantly plump"...or so says one of the kids in my class.

We've been working with -at words lately (cat, bat, mat...) and every time we come across the word "fat" he has to point out: "It says fat, but we should really say pleasantly plump" ... Okay then! :)

Got the Job!!!

2009-10-19T19:44:00.003-08:00

Just got a call that I got the tutoring job!!! Yahoo! :) I start Weds. afternoon. Please be praying that taking on this job will not take away my sanity...if it's not totally gone already :p

Jacob's 5th Birthday Party!

2009-10-19T02:09:00.003-08:00

Jacob on the dirt bike with Rusty - what a ride! :)

Cake Time!

Anna's many outfits (and the pink cast accessorizes with them all so nicely!)

Anna's on the move!

These children look like stars in a very odd combination of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings...

Job?!

2009-10-14T20:26:00.002-08:00

Forgot to say earlier that I had an impromptu job interview after teaching today! I found out a couple days ago that there's an opening for a tutor at the after-school program at the school I teach at, and it pays pretty good too! So after I finished up for the day, I went and met with the director. I'd be working with a small group (usually no more than 8 kids at a time) of 5th-6th graders, for a few hours after school. They'll probably be able to work around the one class I still have every week (if I get the job...) and it's in the same building I teach in, which is obviously incredibly convenient. Oh yeah, and did I mention it pays good? (between $13 and $17 an hour...sweet!) So please be praying that I get the job!

Student Teacher Woes

2009-10-14T17:38:00.004-08:00

Right now I'm in the process of getting certified to substitute teach, and I personally think it's a little bit insane. We have to pay $25 for the sub. teacher training class (supposedly the $ is to cover the Handbook and lunch...okay then...better be the best Handbook I've ever read and lunch that's out of this world!) AND everything we're supposedly covering is everything that I learned in my week of in-service days the week before school started...OSHA, sexual harrassment laws, district policy, etc etc etc. So not only do I already know all of this, and have my school's handbook covering all of it, I get to PAY to hear it all again! And seeing as money's a little hard to come by, due to the lack of job, which is due to the lack of time, which is due to this whole student teaching thing to begin with...it just seems like a lose-lose situation. GRR!

Oh, and, and! When I finally AM certified to sub., I'm only allowed to sub. for my mentor teacher, and I'm only allowed to sub. 10 times this year (whereas a girl who I took classes with last year can sub. for anyone in the district, including MY teacher, as often as she wants, and she's a year behind me in the Ed. program...how does that make sense?!)

The paperwork for getting certified is a whole other story that I'm not gonna get into...but the weirdest thing to me is that I have to have yet another physical done...they can't just use the one I had 2 short months ago so that I could start my internship...doesn't make much sense to me! How much could my health have changed in 2 months...seriously...

Anyway, there is my venting for the day. Don't get me wrong...I love student teaching, I love my kids, I love my mentor teacher, and my advisor, and my school...I do...it's just all this other crap that gets in the way of that all that makes me wanna go crazy! :)

One of the Joys of Teaching...

2009-09-30T23:49:00.000-08:00

I received this drawing from one of my kiddos (among many others) today, and it just makes me laugh. This is me, with crazy purple hair, dancing in the orange flowers, under the pink stars (which is not only MY favorite color, but this particular student's as well!) Oh yeah, and she wrote "I like you" too :)

Some Pics from the Classroom

2009-09-21T17:52:00.001-08:00

During our morning "Movement" routine

Green eggs and ham!

Great Day!

2009-09-11T13:15:00.003-08:00

Today was a fantastic day at school! I was only there for about 3 hours but I got to do a lot!

I tested a few kids on their sight words, helped Miss J fill out a behavior profile for a student, and then she asked me to take them from Music to the Library all by myself (not a hard thing, but not especially easy for a beginning teacher when you have 20 1st-graders!)

The kids did great, and then from there I had to bring them back to the classroom, got them settled down to read their books, read 2 books to them, got them ready for lunch, monitored their eating (again, not easy with 1st graders...it's like pulling teeth getting them to eat!!) and they did a WAY better job eating than they usually do! Then I had to get them all cleaned up and ready for recess, and they were ready so fast, I had to come up with a game to entertain them while we waited for the recess bell, which they had fun with.

Throughout all of this, Miss J just sat back at her desk working on her stuff and let me do everything! It was a blast! Of course there were a few kids who just didn't want to listen to me...seeing as I'm only there 2-3 days a week now, they kind of forget that I'm still one of their teachers and that they, ya know, still have to listen to me and do what I say :p But they did pretty good. And Miss J decided that I did such a good job, we're gonna keep up that routine every Friday now! Should be fun! :)

And I found out that I might be able to sub for her already on the 21st! Woo hoo! She'll be gone the 16th and she already has another sub lined up for that day, but asked me to be there that whole day to help her out cause I know what our routine is and will have a better idea of what needs to be done!

Quote of the Week!

2009-09-03T18:07:00.002-08:00

I did not hear this quote directly as it was aimed at Miss J, my mentor teacher, but it cracks me up nonetheless!

Now to give you a little background on Miss J, she was Mrs. E when I first met her, but she got divorced over the summer and went back to her maiden name, so she is now known as Miss J.

So, Miss J was talking to a 2nd-grader who was one of her students last year, and he said to her "I heard you got a horse and changed your name over the summer!"

She was confused for a moment and said, "Well, I changed my name, but I didn't get a horse!"

He said, "Yes you did! You told me you got a horse and changed your name!"

She finally realized she had told him she got a DIVORCE and he had been thinking she had said a HORSE!

We all had a good laugh about it in the Teachers Lounge at lunch and now we ask her every morning how her horse is doing :)

First Day of Student Teaching!

2009-08-24T17:32:00.002-08:00

Today was my first day of student teaching, and I'm not going to say much about it now because it's too long to write, but I knew inquiring minds (aka Wendy...lol) would want to know, so just wanted to say it was FANTASTIC! I love my mentor teacher, we get along great, and we've even been able to crack jokes with each other. We've got 23 kiddos, 3 of whom didn't show up today, but we had a total blast! There were lots of the usual "first day" issues, and some things that I'm sure will continue to be issues, but overall I'm feeling very optimistc about the 9 months ahead of me! Now if only all my college classes would go this well... :)

I Love You! (or do you love me...?)

2009-08-08T01:47:00.001-08:00

While at Mark & Wendy's this week, I was telling Anna I loved her, and asked her if she could say "I love you", and her response was hilarious. I showed Wendy, and we ended up videotaping it because it was just too cute :)

Tonight's Pretty Sunset

2009-07-07T00:28:00.000-08:00

Mike

2009-06-30T10:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I finally got to meet Mike, a guy Tricia works with, whom she introduced me to via Facebook about a month ago. We've been talking via e-mail & phone since then, and since he was in Anchorage for a day on his way up to the slope to work, I drove up and we finally met in person and spent the afternoon together! We went out to eat and then took the tram at Alyeska up to the top, which I have never done before. It was incredible! It had started raining after dinner, but it was absolutely beautiful and sunny while we were on the mountain. All in all, it was a wonderful date! :)

The Fence

2009-06-30T09:51:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, Mark and Wendy and I worked together to put up a new fence/dog run for Molly at Tricia & Jerry's house...14 hours later, it was done! :)

Jacob & My Shoes

2009-06-10T14:26:00.000-08:00

During one particular family get-together, many of us were sitting out on the porch at Mom & Dad's, enjoying the sunshine. I curled up in one of the chairs with a blanket as the wind was a bit too chilly! Jacob saw this as the perfect opportunity to steal my flip-flops from under the blanket and go bury them in the sandpile! It was about 2 hours before I finally saw them again, after convincing him to go dig them up. This is not the first time has found fascination in hiding my shoes, and I'm pretty sure he learned it from big brother, Andrew, who used to do the exact same thing! :)

Happy 2nd Birthday Anna! (Tomorrow) :)

2009-06-04T13:24:00.000-08:00

Make a Smilebox photobook

Summer Reading Camp - Day 1

2009-06-03T14:15:00.003-08:00

This summer I am helping teach at one of the local elementary schools as part of a practicum for the Teaching Reading online class I'm taking. Today was the first day for us interns on the job. There are about 40 kids, 4 lead teachers, and 4 intern teachers (I am one of them). The ages of the kids range from going into 3rd grade - 6th grade.

Today we were supposed to go to the post office, but apparently they got way behind schedule the past two days, so they're going tomorrow...but us interns won't get to go cause we're only there M, W, F. Sad day :(

My favorite funny story from today happened first thing this morning. We all met in a big group and we were looking at Google Earth on the SmartBoard and talking about what a community is. Joe, one of the lead teachers asked for examples of a community, and one kid said France. About 30 seconds later another kid said Paris. (What is up with these kids' obsession with France?!)

Finally we got them to think of S., and then we started listing jobs that people have in our community. Trying to get them to think of police and firemen, one of the other lead teachers asked "Who helps keep us safe?" The littlest guy in the group put his hand up and shouted out "GOD!" :)

I thought it was so cool, we all busted up laughing about it, but it totally put me in a good mood for the rest of the day. These kids are way too stinkin cute :)

Baby Moose!

2009-06-02T20:37:00.000-08:00

A little bit ago, I noticed Molly was pacing and whining, so thinking she needed to go out, went towards the door to let her out and noticed a baby moose only 3 feet from the back of the house! By the time I grabbed my camera, the baby and mama had made their way to the front of the house, and hung out in the yard for a couple minutes. They started making their way down the street, but changed their mind when the guy across the street came out of his house too. That baby is too cute! :)

Night out on the Town!

2009-05-25T04:14:00.000-08:00

I'm kinda slow in posting this, but here are the few (somewhat) good pictures from my 21st birthday! Biggest sister Tricia took me out along with friends Yetz and Dave. We went to the new-ish brewery in town - the beer was good and the pizza was even better! A grand time was had by all! :)

Mom Talk

2009-05-25T03:57:00.000-08:00

D captured this series of me giving a stern talk to "the boys" a couple weeks ago. I forget what they were being admonished for, but the way they sat/laid there made us both laugh :)

Louie at the Cabin

2009-05-25T03:50:00.000-08:00

Louie and His Food (Try #2!)

2009-05-13T14:47:00.002-08:00

I took this video a couple months ago...when the boys get fed, Buck usually wolfs his down, and poor Louie takes his sweet time, savoring each tiny bite. When Buck is done with his bowl, he almost always comes preying upon Louie. Louie eventually became tired of it, and you'll see (well, more like hear...) his reaction if you watch the video. He only does this to Buck, not if I, or any other human, comes near him when he's eating. Plus, I'm sure he doesn't realize that the fact that his tail is wagging the entire time really doesn't make him seem all that scary and ferocious :)

Jacob from Long-Long Ago!

2009-05-13T14:44:00.001-08:00

I found an old video I had from December 2006 of Jacob, when he was wee and tiny, and it makes me laugh to hear how he used to talk and how much he has grown! :)

The Duck Queen On Her Train

2009-05-13T14:29:00.000-08:00

Molly and the Brownie

2009-05-04T06:03:00.000-08:00

Last week, we went on our first camping trip of the year, and since I'm housesitting for T and J, I'm in charge of Molly so she came along to join in the fun! She proved to be a very good watch dog, not to mention an amazing bear dog... About an hour after we got there, I noticed she was perked right up, whining, staring straight across the river. We thought it was just birds at first, but she would not break her concentration for anything, so we checked it out, and sure enough, there was a little brown bear across the river! Not a baby...but not full-grown either. And the funny thing is, it only had 3 legs! Talking to another guy in the campground, I guess it's one that hangs out in that area a lot.

This wasn't the first exciting thing that happened on this camping trip...about 15 minutes after we got there, a helicopter came over the trees across the river, and proceeded to land in the middle of the campground, less than 40 yards from our tent! There were a couple Fish & Game guys in it who had gone out to check out the lake and streams and see how much of the ice had melted off already. They managed to blow up quite a bit of dirt in the process, so much that our campfire almost went out, and my contacts weren't the same for the remainder of the trip!

So it was definitely a very eventful camping trip, not to mention the weather was beautiful, sunny and around 70, which is better than most of the weather we had for the entirety of last summer! :)

Fishing with the Boys

2009-03-11T21:51:00.000-08:00

Once Upon A Cloudy Midsummer's Night...

2009-03-11T21:26:00.000-08:00

Camping with the W's

2009-03-11T19:32:00.000-08:00

Last summer, Dave and I went camping on one of the lakes in the area with a couple from work and their dog, McKinley, who is Louie's sister. It was a beautiful weekend, and we all had fun (including the dogs!) We were also able to watch some swans on the lake as they went through their humorous mating rituals :)

Sunrise in Town

2009-03-11T19:23:00.000-08:00

Rainbow at Mom & Dad's

2009-03-11T19:20:00.000-08:00

Beware of DOG???

2009-03-11T19:18:00.000-08:00

Catch-Up!

2009-03-11T19:09:00.000-08:00

I have finally decided that 9 months is a little too long to go without updating my blog, so I am going to attempt to get everybody up-to-date! The pictures will be a little out of order, and quite random, if I may say so myself, but hopefully I'll get everything up so I can start to delete some of the 574 pictures that are currently on my camera's memory card!!! :-/

Sunrise

2008-05-11T23:09:00.000-08:00

Roman's 1st Trip to Homer

2008-05-11T11:22:00.003-08:00

This past Saturday, Lisa's mom was in Homer with her little sisters for a swim meet, so Lisa asked if I would like to join her and Roman on a little road trip. I thought it was a great idea since we've finally been having nicer weather and I haven't gotten to see them much this week since she's started work again!

We decided to walk on the beach...

...a feat much more difficult than you'd expect with a stroller on a rocky beach...

...we had to take turns. Thankfully Roman slept through the whole ordeal :)

Catching up with Roman

2008-05-01T23:39:00.001-08:00

Roman, of course, grew like a weed in the 5 days that I was in Portland, but when I got back, we had an Auntie B chat about all that I had missed.
He tells some great stories, complete with giggles and grins.
:)

JoJo

2008-05-01T23:35:00.000-08:00

This is one of the girls I met at school last year, JoJo. She was only there for the Spring semester, but in that short amount of time we became best friends and still keep in regular contact. She was nice enough to drive down from Seattle to spend a couple days with me while I was in Portland. We spent most of our time together with a friend of Dave's, Markus, who lives in Dave's hometown in Oregon, less than an hour from the school. We had fun cruising around Portland and exploring the beach, and as you can see from the pictures, we had a blast just spending time together. :)

Girlfriends

2008-05-01T23:30:00.000-08:00

Kelly, the graduate

The group of girls I was closest with last year:
Amanda, Briana, Kelly, Lauren

Emily, another close friend and fellow 3rd-Floor-er

Kelly, glad to be done with school!

Vacation in Portland

2008-05-01T23:24:00.000-08:00

I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to Portland last week for 5 days for my dear friend Kelly's graduation. It was wonderful catching up with the people I went to school with last year, and a much needed vacation! Much fun was had by all.

Portland at night as seen from Rocky Butte

Mt. Hood, captured while sitting in one of the ever-so-lovely traffic jams

Downtown

Synchronized Puppies

2008-04-13T08:13:00.000-08:00

The boys are so often in sync, they should be synchronized swimmers!

Homer

2008-04-13T07:45:00.002-08:00

I went on a field trip to Homer this weekend for my Science class. We took samples of plankton in the water at Beluga Slough, then took the samples and did a lab at the Islands and Oceans Center. It was a gorgeous day - a bit chilly - but the sun was beautiful!

Birthday Flowers

2008-04-13T07:08:00.000-08:00

Dave surprised me this week by showing up at the house with the most beautiful roses for my birthday.
How did I thank him?
A pan of lasagna :)

Easter Girl

2008-04-13T06:44:00.003-08:00

A little late in posting these, but better late than never!

Just some adorable shots of Anna in her Easter outfit.

Handsome Little Man

2008-03-12T12:35:00.000-08:00

Just had to post these new pics of Roman :)

"Property of Mom Forever"

Sleeping angel

Learning to Share

2008-03-12T12:25:00.000-08:00

I got a new rope toy for the boys this week since they totally mutilated their last one...
and for the first few minutes, they did a great job of sharing it, both perched on the steps...

But then Buck got a little greedy...

So Louie decided to make a move...

But unfortunately for him, Buck is still bigger and can pin him down, no problem :)

Romie-doo

2008-03-04T00:07:00.004-09:00

A few new pics of Roman to share!

Sisters, Sisters

2008-03-03T09:27:00.002-09:00

Rebecca (4th), Kimberly (2nd), Tricia (1st), and Wendy (3rd)

Pooped Puppy

2008-03-02T10:18:00.000-09:00

My mom captured this on our way back from Mark's surprise birthday party. He was one tired pup after playing with the nieces and nephews (or, should I say, his cousins...) and slept for most of the 2-hour ride home!

Boys playing

2008-03-02T10:14:00.000-09:00

For those of you who have asked how Buck likes Louie and whether or not they get along, may this picture collage provide the answer. :) Dave's logic in getting another puppy has actually turned out to be true...the boys keep each other occupied - whether it be by chewing on opposite ends of the same rope, trying to steal each other's rawhide bones, or just plain wrestling - it completely tires them out so they both sleep through the night with no problems! Louie is usually the instigator. He is completely fearless, and we often joke that we should have named him something like "Kamikaze." Buck is a champ and tolerates the constant tackling, gnawing, and not-so-intimidating growling. In fact, when I took Louie for the past two days for some "Mommy time" and so my family could meet him, Buck laid around depressed most of the time. It seems they are a perfect match for each other! :)

Louie

2008-02-21T23:36:00.004-09:00

Meet Louie! :)

Dave surprised me with this adorable little bundle of joy today! He called me from his house, home early from work, and told me that something had happened at work, and that I needed to come over right away so he could talk to me about it. He also told me to bring my camera because something had happened to his yard that I had to see. I was absolutely panicked, as he seemed incredibly serious, but I couldn't figure out what work and his yard had in common...

Turns out he really just wanted me to come see the puppy and knew I'd want my camera, so had to make something random up! It worked! :)

He had Louie sitting in the box we brought Buck home in, with a big pink bow tied around his neck.

Louie is actually a black lab / golden retriever mix, although all you can see in him is the golden, and he's about 7 weeks old. He's fluffy and sweet and loves to cuddle, and has the cutest tail!

And just in case you were wondering where we got the name "Louie" - it's after Dave's favorite author, Louis L'Amour.

He can get around a lot faster than Buck did as a puppy, but still can't quite make it up the stairs!

Buck is surprisingly being very good with him - at times a little rough, but all he really wants to play, and they get along great!

Louie holds his own and growls and barks at Buck when he's getting too rambunctious, and Buck has been following him around ever since Dave brought him home!

He's a bit jealous of course, but seems more curious about him than anything.

Dave got Louie in the hopes that having another dog around would help calm Buck down and keep him entertained, after his bouts of chewing up the drywall and linoleum (eeck!) In the hour I was there tonight, I could see that the idea actually might work!

I'll just have to remind Dave that this was all HIS idea when he complains about the lack of sleep for the next month or so ;)

Roman Isaiah

2008-02-04T04:00:00.000-09:00

Lisa finally had her baby boy, Roman Isaiah, on Sat. the 2nd, 5 days past her due date. I was blessed to be there for the birth. He is so beautiful and has the most adorable facial features and expressions, and a full head of hair to boot! He was 7 lbs. 9 oz., 20 inches long. Lisa did great and is so excited to be a Mommy. I have been dubbed "Auntie B", even before his arrival, and am so glad to have another little "nephew" to love! :)

"Mama's Boy"

2008-01-30T11:01:00.000-09:00

Dave has decided that Buck is a Mama's boy. When Dave comes home from work now, he says Buck almost looks disappointed if I'm not there too. When I'm there, I sometimes sit on the stairs, and Buck always (without fail!) takes that as an invitation and takes his "perch" on my lap. (He thinks he's still a tiny little puppy...he's a lap dog) Dave has told me that when I'm not there, Buck will go and sit on the steps and whine, and even if he goes over and sits with him, Buck turns away from him and continues to whine. After I leave, he'll usually sit at the door waiting for me to come back, and there have been times when I've gone over and he's been laying in front of the door waiting. Not only this, but if he hears my voice when Dave's on the phone with me, he goes nuts, and when Dave tells him I'm not coming over, he goes and lays down in the corner. Dave has now started calling him my dog, and we're starting to wonder if this "custody" thing should be more "joint" than it already is. ;)

Happy Puppy

2008-01-30T02:11:00.000-09:00

Buck was quite ecstatic the other day when I headed over to Dave's even tho he wasn't home from work yet to spend some quality "Mommy" time with him. We had just had warm weather, complete with rain, which created some pretty icy conditions. Buck had a great time running around, even though he couldn't figure out why he kept slipping, nor why he couldn't find the ice chunks I threw for him to fetch. :)

Happy Cheerios Girl!

2008-01-14T12:04:00.000-09:00

Just sharing some cute pics of Anna eating her Cheerios at our family birthday party for Dad this past weekend. She is quite the cutie! :)

Daddy to the rescue!

2008-01-04T11:25:00.000-09:00

On New Years Eve, Dave had quite the encounter in the woods and we almost lost Buck in the process. He had gone out in the woods on his property out back of his house to check the snares he had set for rabbit, and had taken Buck with him. On the way back, Dave heard a snowmachine coming up the trail behind them, so he stepped off the trail and into some brush. Buck went in the other direction, but still off the trail, into the trees. When the snowmachine came over the hill, the guy went off the trail and started after Buck, who took off running. The guy was obviously trying to run him down as he went OFF the trail to do so, and came within two feet of Buck at one point. Buck ended up running in a big circle and came back around towards Dave, who had not yet been seen by the guy on the snowmachine. Dave, in his rightful fatherly fury, ran out and clotheslined the guy, knocking him off his sled, and sending the sled into a tree, cracking the front of it. The other guy was obviously upset that Dave had crashed his sled, and started threatening to kill Dave, to which Dave promptly responded that he was on his property and then proceeded to beat him up to remind him not to come back. Neither of us can figure out why this complete idiot was trying to run down a puppy. Speaking of which, Buck was the perfect angel and sat right behind Dave, face peeking out from behind his legs, during the entire confrontation, and was very well behaved the rest of the night. Oddly enough, he seems much more appreciative of us as his loving protecting "parents" now...well, as much as a puppy can. :) We're just glad he's still alive!

New photos of Buck

2007-11-07T05:00:00.000-09:00

Finally, we have some new pictures of Buck! You can see his new little red collar, too! :)

Here he is playing with "Mommy" - he's getting so big! And, I'd also like to note that when I'm there, he prefers me to Dave, naturally. :)

Halloween

2007-11-06T15:36:00.000-09:00

Since our friend Royle (in picture #3) was having a Halloween "get-together" for our friends at work, Lisa and I were having quite the dilemma as to what we should dress up as. Lisa was especially frustrated since she is almost 30 weeks pregnant and could not think of an appropriate costume. Our first idea was to go as twins, since we have people tell us all the time at work (both customers and employees) that we look like sisters. But even that idea seemed dull as she's so much bigger than I am. Our solution? We'll go as pregnant twins! We made matching t-shirts and everything. We got quite a few laughs out of the whole ordeal, plus a few confused looks aimed towards me (ha!), but after only a few hours of wearing a huge pillow under my shirt, I am convinced that it will be quite some time before I take on the task of having a baby. :)

Buck Meets the Fam!

2007-10-31T14:45:00.000-08:00

Two weekends ago was Jacob's 3rd Birthday party. Dave rode along with me to attend the festivities, and we brought Buck along as well to meet the rest of the family! The kids seemed to love him; Jacob's squeals and giggles from Buck trying to lick him was absolutely priceless. Buck seems to like them, too. ;)

I am hoping to get more recent pictures of Buck posted soon, as he is quite bigger than he is in these pictures. His paws are HUGE and he's really teething now. When you go to pick him up, his mouth automatically opens so he can chew on your hand, or zipper, or hair, or whatever is closest! Dave calls him his "little alligator." :)

The first of many blogs (I hope!)

2007-10-27T15:27:00.000-08:00

Well folks, we're going to try this again. My last attempt at blogging failed miserably after lasting for only a few months. And now, I'm back home again, so its use as a way to keep the fam updated is pretty null...go figure. :) I would say this is going to be a place to post lots of fabulous snapshots from my life...but seeing as the two photography queens of the family already have blogs, that idea seems pretty null as well. But, I digress, this will be fun, I am determined. :)