You know when it is so late and you really should go to bed, but you just can't get yourself off of the couch, or in my case off the floor and walk to your bed.  It is nice to know that tomorrow is Saturday and that I can sleep in....just kidding that isn't going to happen!  So life in the Arctic is a bit different than the lower 48...yes that is what we call all of you!  To go on a cross country trip, or any trip you have to fly on a plane.  So, Miah, even though she is in 6th grade, has been invited because of her dedication, (or maybe the lack of participation of others) to go on her first cross country meet to Noorvik, Alaska.  (you will have to google it!)  Anyway, she flies out at 8:30 in the morning and then returns at 5:30ish.  She is so excited!  Why isn't Joshuah going?  Well he has spent the last two weeks with pneumonia.  Poor kid.  The health care here is a little different too.  He got sick on Labor day, and when I called on Tuesday to have him be seen the nurse was not there because her kids were sick.  So he had an appointment for Wednesday.  It was inconclusive on what he had so they had us wait until Friday to see how things progressed.  (the doctor is in Kotzebue and does a phone chat with the nurse).  By Friday he was pretty bad and it had progressed right into pneumonia.  That night was a little worrisome for me.  He was pretty sick.  Oh, I forgot to mention that he also had strep throat too.  No worries now, he has recovered quite quickly..and he is getting back on track.

Sorry still no pictures.  I haven't quite figured it all out yet, and it is pretty time consuming to load pictures.

A little about the village of Noatak.  It is a village of 500ish and the school has 180 students.  That is a pretty high enrollment, but it fluctuates a lot I have already lost 3 students due to them relocating to other villages.  I guess it is pretty common.  I have a class of 21 students...I am teaching 5th and 6th grade.  So yes I am Miah's teacher.  I have a rowdy bunch of boys in the 5th grade...YIKES!   I have had to pull out all the stops and be very oh what would you say...stern!  Not my normal self, and it is quite annoying but I am hoping it will pay off.  I have had most of the class buy into the idea, just have 5 more boys to go!  unfortunately my classroom is a square shape and I only have four corners.  The other teachers are very nice although I do miss my Lincoln crowd very much!  I keep trying to tell them how great Words Their Way is or Reading Success or even RTI!  We are making progress, but it is definitely different.

Some crazy things here is that I live probably 100 feet from the school.  It makes it very convenient.  I can look out my classroom window and see my house.  We live in a very nice place.  The school is an amazing building  K-12 is all in one building.  For those of you who know me know that food is very important to me, and WOW is it  expensive.  I will hopefully post a picture of our grocery shopping trip to the local Native Store, it barely covers our kitchen table and it cost $300!  The store is a bit over a mile away, and we don't have any transportation here.  So, we take our backpacks down and fill up our bags and walk home. It isn't so bad, actually I really enjoy it.  The only problem is that there has been a lot of rain, and we don't have enough boots for everyone yet.  Actually we only have one pair so far, and with all the rain it has flooded the roads.  So far we have been lucky to have it dry up enough to travel on dry ground, but we shall see tomorrow morning!

Oh, the other funny thing (I try to keep laughing about this) is that we decided to have our kids eat school lunches for the time being, until we can figure out a better food purchasing plan.  The problem is that no one can tell me how much they are!  The only clue I have is that the adult meal is $7.19 a person!  It is kind of funny too that there aren't any restaurants in town, but every day at lunch time you would not believe how many people come up to the school and leave with trays and trays of lunches, yes at $7.19 a person!  I have deemed it the local restaurant in town!  

Well, it is getting late.  I hope to post some more on Sunday.  Kind of my journal day, I can't wait to tell you all about Jonathan's big swim in the Arctic Ocean!...oh there was also the snow in August...and the bears in the village...just to keep you hangin!