Professionalism

Working and being a mom is hard. I'm exhausted but I have to find the strength to clean, make dinner, and then show each of my children some much needed attention.
It'll get easier, I hope. If I can get organized and on top of things at work, I can come home with a clear head and really devote myself to my family.
I do have to tell a good work story. I'm a huge worry wart and I usually think I'm failing at most things, but today I was validated. This week my principal asked if she could bring in some other principals to observe how I keep students engaged. My first thought was 'I must be that bad that she's bringing in other principals to observe me to come up with ideas to fix me' of course I'm way off, but my ridiculous brain feeds me these untruths. The day of the observation I find out that there will be 20 principals in my room. 20! You can assume that I'm freaking out. So I pair my kids up and give them a leveled reader. I had them practice a 'read, cover, share'. They would read a paragraph, cover it up, then ask their partner to tell them what they heard or remembered. The principals literally filled my room. All had clipboards and were taking copious notes. I could not make eye contact. when I did, I got all sorts of anxious. as they left I recognized several principals that I interviewed with this summer. I was sure they wouldn't remember me. So I thought it went ok. But I never heard anything back about it. Until today. According to my principal, out of the 5 classrooms they visited, mine showed exceptional student engagement. It was everything they had wanted to see. Nothing but super compliments. And the cherry on top? One of the principals that I interviewed with, remembered me, and said that she can't believe that she didn't snag me when she had the chance.
Oh yea, huge smile on my face.
And...
At the twins' check up, they are at the 50-75th percentile for everything!
I have a happy and healthy family, and a job that is going great.
Oh, and to top off our day, Adeline's birthday present from grandma came in today. A huge inflatable bounce house. Once winter really sets in, and it's dark all day, this thing will come in handy.
I'm thankful for my family, I'm thankful for my long distance friends, and I'm thankful that The Lord has really been taking care of us in the last frontier.

Time flies

It's been exactly a month since I posted. The school year has begun and all of my energy is going to that. A new school, in a new state, and in a new grade, is super tough.
The family has been sick. I brought home a nasty bug and every other person in this house caught it, from me!
We had our first storm of the fall season. Out here the fall storms are rainy and windy. This one was much windier than usual. The winds were clocked at 50 mph + where I live and just a few miles away on the hillside they had a gust of 131mph! Needless to say, trees and fences were down, and power was out, and still is in many places today.
There's even termination dust on the mountains. (the first snows before winter) I'm ready for snow and cold. I want to bundle up.
The days are getting shorter, by 5 minutes every day. The mornings are dark now, when there had been sun all night long.
I'm learning how to prepare and cook halibut and salmon. Goodness knows we'll be eating plenty this winter.
I know winter is close, because we've started seeing moose in the city again. I haven't seen any moose all summer.
I'm thankful for my friends in NC. Knowing that I can always call you up when I need encouragement and love means the world to me.

Hatcher Pass

Today is our last official day of summer. Starting tomorrow we go to endless meeting and trainings before the first day of school.
We took a shot and hoped for sun on this dreary rainy morning. Boy did we luck out. We stopped at April Bowl Trail because it looked short and sweet. We ended up at the top of a mountain and surprised by two lakes the color of the most beautiful emerald blue.
Then we explored Independence Gold Mine, and old abandoned gold mine. It was like stepping back in time.
I'll stop talking now and let you enjoy the pictures of our hike and of the mine.

Kincaid Park in July

I love sunny days! If we wake up and it's sunny, I know that we're getting out. The day before and after this were cloudy and rainy. So I'm glad we took advantage of the weather. We saw a papa moose, Denali, and wide open spaces (am I the only one who think of I Heart Huckabees?)
I've never spent so much time outside until I moved to Alaska. And I think that's a super good thing.