weekly wrapup

Well it is another snowy day.  Did I say snowy?  I mean blizzard/white out, no planes, no mail, no clinic, no stores, no schools.  I am not going to complain though because the last two days were beautiful if not warm.  Isa had a blast the last two days playing out.  The giant snow hills were perfect for carving tunnels, caves, making slides, King/queen of the hill.  One of the great things about homeschooling is that we get to take advantage of every sunny day.  We stop everything if it is nice and sunny.  We put on clothes and go play out!

Isa is now doing Karate here.  She is sooo cute.  As soon as I get Jeremy's computer back I will put up some pictures in her in her outfit.  She really likes it and will do almost anything her "master" asks her to do, even eat her vegetables!  This karate program was brought here through a grant from Nome.  The Nome Karate program hired 6 college level black belts from Korea to come here and teach.  Can you imagine????  Korea!!!  What they must be thinking!  IF this weather is sending me into fits of cabin fever what must they be experiencing?  Well we will find out because Master Park will be coming over for dinner next Friday.  This is our attempt to keep him here so that Isa can continue to practice Karate!  

Digging out

If you read yesterdays post you know that we had one hell of a winter storm here in Unalakleet. It was the first time in 17 years that the school closed due to weather! Well this morning when we woke up we could not get out our front door.
















Thank god we have a garage that was a little easier to get out. After getting out of the house this is what Isa and I found. (That is Isa up in the top left with her red sled. Yes she did slide down the back side of the hill and run into the other house.)























After an hour here is what our front door looked like. It was time to go in a warm up before going back out and digging some more. I just heard that another storm is on its way. Yikes!

Winter weather

WOOOOOOOO! I thought I seen some winter weather here in the Arctic but this is crazy. There is a blizzard outside that closed the school and stopped all flying, driving, everything. The clinic closed and no one can not get the ambulance out. Jeremy is out on a snowmachine right now trying to get to some guy who is very sick, possibly dying. He is a hero, no one could make it out in this crazy mess but him, but that is why we love him. I hope that he is alright.

The snow is actually blowing under my door. I could not shovel the snow out fast enough as it was blowing in. On days like this you have to be thankful that you have a warm house and a full pantry.

One more thing that is good about all of this winter weather is that homeschooling goes off without many interruptions. Isa is currently studying ancient civilizations. We are all having a blast learning about Egypt. We made conopic jars to hold our insides when we get mummified, wrote our names in hieroglyphics, and then Isa and Jeremy made a pyramid. Here is Isa being a pyramid. Notice her bare feet, shorts and tank top. Hey you can not blame a girl for dreaming......

Inupiaq Class

So at heart I am really an anthropologist. I just can't stop. I am supposed to be learning the incredibly hard language of Inupiaq. Inupiaq is a guttural language with lots of sounds coming from your throat. What is more fasinating to me then trying to speak it is looking at all of the interesting cultural tidbits that you can learn. For example there is no "he" or "she" in inupiaq. You can just say "fishing" and that means that someone (you are just expected to know who it is) is out fishing. They also have no the, a, an, or at. What they do have is an extraordinary amount of words that describe places. As an example there is a word that means up when you are in a house and talking about something in the room with you. Then there is a word for up when it is in the house but not in the room with you. There is an up word for something outside while you are inside, a word for up in the house while you are outside. Then outside there is a word for up is you can see it and up if you can't. Up if you are talking up river and up if you are talking out on the ocean. It is amazing. Now what does it mean, you have to ask yourself, if your culture is so specific on directions but not on gender? Ahhhh now you are thinking like an anthropologist!


Here is a picture from Isa's birthday party. I just love it that Isa is friends with 6-12 year olds. We had a great time. Friends were supposed to go at 3:00 and no one left until after 5:00. I suppose that means it was a success!

Man on Wire

Man on Wire is a true story about a French wire walker who dreams of walking between the twin towers in New York. This movie is insane, amazing, but more importantly it is beautiful. We think that Phillippe is crazy stepping off the safety of a building to walk among the clouds thousands of feet above the ground. But he is not crazy his dance with death is the same dance we all do every day. Yes he could fall off his wire to his death, but so could we all every day of our lives. He has not a death wish but an embrace of life and all the beauty that surrounds it. By showing us his courage, his love, his passion for this one thing in life we must ask ourselves are we fully embracing life? Phillippe can see his death all around him, yet he walks straight into it. Do we? Can you? If I can demonstrate a fraction of the bravery, beauty, and passion he has in this one moment I will have lived a life well spent. Get the movie, read the book, let me know what you think.

Big Day Today

Today our daughter lost her first tooth. It was hanging on for over a week. She would not even let us touch it as it just flopped there. Well this morning it came right out. I love it when kids smile and they have a big hole!

Some of you have asked about the cost of living up here in the bush. Well yesterday I got a good example. These del monte peaches are the only peaches we have up here. (no fresh ones). Check out the price...That is not for a case of peaches that is for just one can!. I bought three cans of peaches and it cost me $10.00. How is that for the cost of living. Oh and gas is still $7.50 a gallon. :)

weather

I don't know if friends and family are trying to help us, torture us, or try to get us to move back home but telling me your temperatures is not helping me cope with the weather here. It is upper 50's in Garden Valley Idaho. It will be in the 60's this week in Montana. Well that is just great for all of you. I am not even going to tell you what the weather is like here. I am trying to forget that the outside even exists.

I am not bitter I am just moving through the stages of grief.
1) Shock! It can not stay this cold forever....right?
2) Pain remember those beautiful winter photos from the J Lazy T ranch in Idaho?
3)Anger This F*&%^ cold!
4) Depression......ugggggggg
5) hope....well the daylight is longer....that is something, at least we are not in the dark anymore.

I really do think that I am moving on to number 5, at least for today. Just don't tell me what temperature it is at your house. You may knock me back to at least number 3.