New School Year!

It has been so long since I have written! I will recap the summer in abbreviated form:
-Summer school was a wonderful experience. I taught reading and only had 15, 13, and 6 students in my classes. We all had fun...well I did any how!
-I traveled to Michigan for three weeks. What a longggggggg flight. Family, friends...it was a blast. A bit overwhelming for the first time home. Surprisingly enough I was ready to return to Alaska.

The new school year started August 12 for teachers, students arrived a week later. I moved to 8th grade and just teach Language Arts. I love it! I do have a few students from last year which is great, they know the drill! I have wonderful students--who at least, appear to be learning!!!! They just finished writing a narrative story, so I now have 105 papers to grade--and it's sunny out :(

Speaking of sunny, it rained for a record amount of days here--33 days in a row. I was ready to build an ark! Warning: DO NOT visit Alaska in August!

Once the rain subsided, I dusted off my bike and have been enjoying my surroundings on
two wheels, what fun! I can actually ride up hills now instead of walking my bike! Last weekend I rode along the Cooke Inlet and spotted a bear up on the mountains. On the drive home we saw a pod of Beluga whales...very cool!

The slide show I posted is from my ride yesterday around Eklutna Lake. It was fabulous--65 degrees and sunny! We didn't see much wildlife except the ptarmigan that flew out in front of me and almost smashed into my face, scaring the bejeepers out me. I have a picture of him after the fact sitting in the tree.

Almost two years and I am still loving it here. Time flies when you are have fun...

Black Cloud!

Just a quick little story to share with you--I thought is was pretty funny (telling?). First, I went for another bike ride yesterday around Eklutna Lake--check out my pictures on Facebook or my blog--this could be my favorite place in Alaska! The sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky--unbelievable beautiful out--65 degrees. The best day all summer--wait, it's fall! But that's not the good part--as I drove towards Wasilla to check on Larry's house (yes, he is still hunting in the wilds of AK-crazy) there was this very large, you could almost say huge black cloud just sitting directly over Wasilla--no where else, just Wasilla. Well, I thought to myself, hummmm...forest fire? No, I turned on the radio....hummmmm....oh ....Sarah must be home!!! He he he!