Dawg-gone-it!

If you are familiar with the Southern U.S., then this expression may be familiar to you. It is not a happy expression. It's a replacement for cussing kind of expression. Let me express this. It's not water proof anymore.


The day after my return from Anchorage, Monday, I left Baker out and the phone on the desk. Perhaps he was attracted to the shiny red. I do realize he sneaks a peek at the desk from the couch when I am gone. From time to time he likes to help himself to various receipts, spark plug boxes, and my desk calendar. This is the way he shows his detestation b/c I leave him alone. All I know now is that 1) I am glad it still works, aside from the de-waterproofing and the flashlight has ceased to function and 2) now he's on lock down when I go to work (in his kennel).

I guess this is the true "Rugged" version. ^_^

Bio for tha' New Gig

"Everything you touch has a story." {unknown}

As I walked along the sidewalk in Sydney, Australia I noticed a small sign with this written on it. Every now and then a phrase grabs my attention and this one most certainly did too. It so simply states the significance of everything; no matter its size or status, whether we realize it or not, all of what we encounter is valuable and inevitably adds to our own “story.”

I was born in North Carolina and moved to Indiana after graduating high school in 1995. After living, working, and learning in Indianapolis and Bloomington I received my B.A. degree in Early Childhood Education (pre-K-3) from Indiana University in 2003. I student taught pre-school in Bloomington, primarily for university professors’ children. I also chose the optional route of student teaching through the fantastic Cultural Immersion program at IU. After a year of preparatory work I did my student teaching and additional fieldwork in Kayenta, AZ on the Navajo Rez. Besides student teaching, my entire teaching experience has been with LKSD. In 2003, my teaching career commenced in Quinhagak with a K-3 classroom comprised of 19 students ages 5-12. I transferred to Nunapitchuk in 2005 and remained there until 2010, teaching primarily first and second grade. In Nunapitchuk, I also dabbled with upper elementary and junior high tutoring.

That grand E.L.A.S. title above is a fancy way of saying I am the K-5 reading and writing contact person at the District Office. The title is still very new and grand to me because 2010-2011 will be the first school year that I venture into this position and away from classroom teaching. While I have had many wonderful experiences in the classroom, I do look forward to earning the E.L.A.S. title as I embark on this challenge, learning more about teaching Language Arts, working with teachers, visiting schools, and being a new member of the DAPS team. The upcoming experiences should add a lot to my story.

E.L.A.S.

You are looking at the new "Elementary Language Arts Specialist" for LKSD. {Insert mental photo image.}

After much trepidation and persuasion from others I decided to apply for this position in the district office. So, next year I won't be teaching children directly, which is going to take some getting used to. I'll be the "go to gal" for K-5 Reading and Writing for all of the schools in the district. There are a lot of responsibilities, including teacher in-services and training, implementing a new testing system that might replace our current one, introducing & coordinating training with our new curriculum, data entry onto Rubicon, random tasks... I'm going to have to be a humble bee and soak up the wealth of talent that is the coherent DAPs curriculum department, while keeping my own "stinger" sharp.

The job offer came less than 24 hours after my interview. I literally jumped in the air like you see in the movies after accepting it, and hanging up the phone, at the prospect of the shift in my life. I'm nervous, but very excited too.

Tundra Turbulence

You can see my stairs, a storage shed, the steam house & the trash house. I can't see past the pole from the school dock less than 200' away, just past the trash house.

This is the same view as that photo taken yesterday. Basically, it's useless but kind of fun to see the snow so stuck on there.

Our forecast?
The wind is coming from the SSE, which means that it's wet.

For now, we have a delayed start at school. I really think the last time I saw a storm like this John W. was our principal, which means it's been five years.


[P.S. That photo taken of me yesterday is a typical posture when I'm looking at the computer. I realized it when I was looking through photos on Photo Booth and the camera was still on. In fact, I'm sitting like that now. ^_^]

"Food, Glorious Food..."

Today I woke up with the ambition to cook. Sunday seems to be the day when this most often happens to me. I just wanted to make the mac & cheese from scratch & zucchini bread b/c I needed to use the cheese & zucchinis. I ended up making those & I pickled some cucumbers & carrots; fried a couple of zucchini w/ butter, salt, & pepper; broiled BBQ chicken; made 2 salmonberry/raspberry sour cream pies; chopped cabbage for the asian salad & soup to make later ... I also set out some salmon burger to thaw, but I need onion and more eggs before I can make that.

The only explanation is that it's almost mid-April & I have a lot of food in my freezer. I don't want to leave a ton of it over the summer like I have in the past. Besides that, cooking can be fun. The good news is that I'll be sharing & not eating all of it on my own. ^_^

{The recipe links are here, but I always modify w/ my own ingredients. Heed my changes:
* mac & cheese - used multi-shells instead of elbow pasta, powdered milk, asagio cheese, & no eggs w/ flour as a substitute
* zucchini bread - added butterscotch chips, cinnamon, powdered ginger, 1/2 c. more zucchini than called for, & a little wheat germ
* salmonberry/raspberry pies - added lavender flowers, rose hips, lime juice, & mint leaves, plus cinnamon to the topping}




Pie, pre-topping:















Here's the scope of food prepared today.













You can't really see, but it's starting to snow (big wet snowflakes). That's Maria, my dinner guest, going to cover her snow-go.

}{appy Birthday, Puppy.

Today is Baker's birthday. I just chose it arbitrarily based on the former owner saying that the people he got him from thought Bakes was born in April. I guess it was kind of contrived. I thought if I chose 4/5... 4 + 5 = 9. He was born in 2009... So, this date will be easy for me to remember. Tricks for the memory. Anyway, that's more detail than you need.

I can remember when Baker was meek, timid, and bony. He has since turned into an assertively friendly, snugly, and muscular champ (consistently running 15-20 mph w/ my snow-go). I'm so thankful to have him! Some people (other dog owners) might beg to differ, but I have the best puppy in the world!

{He's munching on his b-day bone in that photo. Isn't he so stately?}