It's Official...We live in Alaska!

Today began like any other Friday. Brandon woke up at his regular time, while I slept in until seven o'clock, then hit "snooze," also known as telling Bran to wake me up in fifteen minutes, until I finally rolled out of bed around 7:20. With the sun rising well after going to work, I think my body's on the sun's work schedule, but nevertheless, I'm still getting to work on time, and day by day, my job is getting easier to go to, stay at, and enjoy.

Every Friday, I have four students volunteering at Head Start to help out and figure out if it'd be a career choice down the road. I drive them down and drop them off for about an hour and drive back down and pick them up. As excited as the girls are to miss school and volunteer, I'd say they're about ten times as excited to ride in an SUV. The girls journal about their experiences, and almost every journal discusses how much they want a car of their own some day so they can go driving and listen to music without their headphones. It's funny, but I doubt, prior to this Friday volunteer day, that they've been in a car more than a dozen times.

With the weather change, I now have to go start the school vehicle about ten minutes before we leave to warm it up, but this interferes with one my classes. Instead of sending my student to another teacher, I asked him if we wanted to walk with me to start the car. He had no idea what I was talking about, so I told him to go get his coat. He grabbed his coat and walked the 30 seconds it took to the SUV. His eyes lit up when he realized I had keys in my hands. After explaining that we were only starting the car, my student became confused, asking why he couldn't ride in the car that we just started. After a few minutes of talking him through it, he finally understood there wasn't room, but requested that next time he makes it all five days to school, instead of playing basketball in the gym, he wanted to go for a ride in the car. It's amazing how different the incentives are from lower-48er kids to the ones out here.

After dropping off my students at Head Start, I was on my way back to the school. When I pulled up to the intersection, I was greeted by a team of dogs pulling a four-wheeler up the hill, being followed by a snow mobile with a tobboggan on the back. Now call me crazy, but it's not every day you're passed by a team of dogs pulling a "honda" up the hill and a "snow-go" pulling a tobboggan. This was when it finally hit me that we're not in Kansas anymore, or Iowa to be more specific.

The rest of the day went as any other day has gone thus far. After school, Brandon and I were signed up to work the wrestling meet. And while everything was just as normal as could be there, there was a moment where Brandon and I had yet another reality check that this is thousands of miles from home. Taking tickets, we made small talk with a number of people coming through the gate. Most were asking where the 50/50 drawing was held, and the rest were just plain being polite to the newbies. But one man came over, nudged Brandon and asked if he'd be interested in buying a wolf.

Brandon: Excuse me, a wolf sir?
Man: Yes, a wolf. Are you interested?
Brandon: Are you serious?
Man: Yes, you want a wolf?
Brandon: Uh...no...

The man walks away, and Brandon looks at me and says, "Was he serious? A wolf? I mean it'd be cool, but a wolf?"

WTA...Welcome to Alaska. :)

Although I don't think Brandon's the biggest fan of volunteering all the time, I sure have a good time. I met an older woman that gave me the names of about fifty people she was related to, I, however, understanding maybe two or three of them, but she was also one of the sweetest ladies I've every met, smiling and patting my back when I'd admit to miscounting someone's change. She kept me company while Brandon was away. But the ones I enjoyed interacting with the most, were the little ones running around playing hide and seek, tapping me, tickling me and asking me all sorts of questions. I had one little girl playing with my hair and counting to a hundred for me, while the rest of her friends were showing me their nail polish, asking me where my crayon box was, and trying to figure out how I made the lines on my eyelids (make-up not wrinkles). The more I interact with them, the more I love their little giggles and their big brown eyes. Don't be surprised if I come home with a dozen of these kids come summer. Between these little ones, my high schoolers, and a stray dog outside, I may become the old woman who lived in a shoe by the time Alaska's finished with me, not to mention a missing husband who's avoiding his sucker of a wife.

Anyway, between dogsleds and wolves, we've had our fair share of differences with this life, but we're thankful everyday for the opportunity to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, with some of the most beautiful people.

Love to you all,

Brie