Nulato 3/25-28/10

Well, last thursday began the coolest adventure I've probably been on, not including floating the Yukon. Last Thursday, I went to Nulato with a school mission trip. It was soooo cool! The people there were so kind and loving! I loved it! Thursday we took off at about ten thirty (i have about 100 pics just from the flight), and we got there at about noon, oneish. It was so cool because Nulato is, literally, on the bank of the Yukon River, so as soon as we see this huge river of white in the brown terrain, we knew we were getting close. What met us there was exactly opposite of what I imagined. I imagined the middle of nowhere, ice and snow surrounding us, shanty little townhouses. This was not so. There were trees and hills and cliffs and wooden little shacks where no one lived. We piled our things in the bus and off we went. Down through trees and over frozen creeks. Soon, we came to a deserted little ghost town. No one was out and about on that fine Thursday. We reached the school, the only modern looking building in the immediate area, at about 12:40. Our first mission was to take off our snow stuff and look for things to do. Victoria, Aly, Katie, Brianna, and myself got the glorious task of straightening the library (by straitening I mean putting tons of misplaced books in their right places, reorganizing the fiction and nonfiction and removing all the uncatalogued books.) We did this for I don't know how long. After awhile, Brianna, Sarah, and myself were sent off to do another job, stripping the paper off of bulletin boards and putting new 'spring' fabric up. It was fun. Tedious, but fun. Eventually we all slowly made our way to the gym. We sat around, played basketball, play elbow tag, everything. After dinner, we put on our first program. It was so cool! We did tons of skits and clowns, we really bonded with the kids. Then everyone left, rice krispie treat in hand of course. We sat around and talked about the day. We didn't get to bed until about 11 or 12... maybe it was 1... Anyway, the girls slept in the library and the guys slept who knows where.

We were roused the next morning at about 7, 7:30. Cereal and muffins made up our lunches. All through out that day too we just looked for random odd jobs we could do (the guys were building a shed btw). We had an assembly that day, it was basically a mini program for the school. Oh! and there were tons of guitars and a piano in the library! (we used the piano for a clown skit) then we set off to work for the rest of the day till dinner and another program. And after all that we went over to the Rec Center. It was in the populated part of town (kinda like our hillside). It was so fun hanging out with the teens and playing cards (I won a Dr.Pepper because I delt a four of a kind in five card draw). The girls moved chambers Friday night to the Preschool room. It was really cool, there were parachutes hanging from the wall and a fort type of thing with two levels. It was awesome. Saturday we had a fun day for the little kids. We had face painting and balloon animals in the gym and wordless book bracelets and Easter story stuff in the cafeteria. I was doing some face panting stuff, it was fun. I even got to pant the principle's face (he was a wolf). We also got to go to a sledding party. The hill was maybe a hundred yards from the school, actually it wasn't a hill, it was the bank of the Yukon and the base was the Yukon. After that, we did a program for the teens and I shared a little about me and how stupid humankind is compared to God. It was really nerve racking and I cried... a lot. We went to the Rec Center after cleaning the school. (It was cool because some teens came to the school just to help clean so we could go to the Rec Center). We did awesomeness. It was so heartbreaking to say goodbye. We sat in a circle in the middle of the gym until one that night. It wasn't till Sunday morning (6 on Sunday morning) that I realized I didn't get to say goodbye to the little kids. Josephine (her birthday was on Tuesday), Sierra, Megan, Tommy, Jay, the ones I can't think of right now, all of them were so precious. God Bless them.

All in all, an amazing trip. I can't wait to go back, I honestly didn't want to come home. I still don't. *sigh* Oh well. Love you guys! :)

-M

M word of the Post

Miracle- n. a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency; a highly improbable or extraordinary event, development, or accomplishment that brings very welcome consequences; an amazing product or achievement, or an outstanding example of something
ORIGIN: Middle English via Old French from Latin miraculum "object of wonder", from mirari "to wonder", from mirus "wonderful"

Spring

I officialy marked yesterday as the first day of Spring, which would make today the second day. Ahhh Spring...I am so excited for school to be over! It's still a month and a half away but I CAN'T WAIT! I keep thinking of all the fun stuff we're going to do in the summer...go to Kincaid, hike the Mail Trail, hike Flat Top, go camping, to go Kincaid beach, ect. I am so ready for the outdoors...ah! I can't wait!

-K

Whoo!

Hey! Me, A, and S just had a super fun overnighter! We missed M but we survived...barley. We watched Quest for Camelot and talked about characters a lot, stayed up till about 2 and slept untill 11.
Oh yeah, and we went to see the Three Musketeers production at Dimond today :) It was cute but not their best. Lots of quotes have been added to the quote book...umm...I have to go because I think I'm having company soon but I'll let everyone tell you about it too!
-K

Meow

"We have a friend at the window!" my sister called, running upstairs for some unknown reason.
What?
I walked to our huge front window and greeted our "friend".
A wittle baby moosie! *squeal!*
We watched it eat our plants and look at us curiously. I then traveled outside to our porch and watched it some more. It came over and was munch-munch-munching on some MORE plants. I wanted to touch it. And I could have, but it got spooked.
It turned and started walking away and I was like, Noooo!!!
So for some strange reason that makes up half of my being, I started meowing at it.
And it stopped.
It turned and looked at me.
I kept it up, turning my meowing into a sort of "pleading" meowing, like a kitten whose lost it's mother. *sniff*
It shifted on its legs and I could tell it was thinking about coming back. Some part of it's brain (at least, I'm guessing)wanted to come rescue the little lost kitten, but then it was like, "That's a kitten?! Pssh!" I threw a couple of "kissing" noises, like you do with horses, along with the meowing. It turned around and nibbled on some more plants, all the while keeping tabs on me.
Some kids came and rode past on their bicycles and it walked off, a little spooked. Ah, *sigh*.
Anyway...
I am.....MOOSE WHISPERER!! MUahahahahaha!!!
So, next time you see a moose....meow.

Adios, Flamingos!
-A

Soccers

I just witnessed that moment in the evening when all the streetlights turn on. Pretty cool stuff.
-K

P.S.
Last night me, M, and S played broom ball with the youth group and it was fun! :D I'm pretty sure S was born to play that game. Me on the other hand...not so much. They didn't actualy have real brooms to play with which bummed me out, I told M it was like trying to play basketball without baskets or trying to play soccer ball without soccers. But it's not called soccer ball, it's just called soccer. So that just makes me crazy. Whatever.
I am having a hectic week and it's only Tuesday! Arg! HSQEs are next week...blehh.

By His Side

So, I know about lots or people this week that need prayer, so this is a place to post your prayer requests and hopefully I'll have time to later post these prayer requests on the side bar to remind all of us.

My prayer requests are for:
1)my mom, who at this moment is getting out of a small surgery, she'll have to stay at the hospital overnight.
2) My Sister-in-law, who is going to be having first son in about a month!! (Which I am VERY excited!)
3) M who, as K said, is going to be leaving on her missions trip!
and 4) What went on last night at "the house", pray that eyes are opened, hearts are set and we(as Americans) know what is and is not constitutional

I had planned on posting this a looooong time ago, but Kept having other things to do, sorry.

Love,

~Spirited Sarah

Random

Sooo...on Friday night me and S went to see Blind Side and it was really good, I liked it but I think S liked it more. Then on Saturday we all went to see Sherlock Holmes which M and me had already seen but S and A hadn't and of course it was amazing. I love that movie. The music is especialy captivating and the lines are well written. Later Satruday A and me went to the Banff Mountain Film Festival which was super duper cool. It's like all these really cool outdoor films and now me and A are convinced that our passion is mountain biking, if only we weren't depreived of the chance to develope it.
I would so so so so so totaly mountain bike if someone gave me the chance. Awesome!!
Anyway..just a little update about us. M leaves this week for her mission trip and I already miss her D: This week is a three and a half day week at school so we'll probably get together and do something crazy :)

I looooove your idea M, it's so far off and yet so cool! But...the permits to have those coffee stands are like a billion dollars a year. Hey, my dad says that the tanning place next to Dimond is open and we should make an offer :P He says a lot of teachers would take their classes and study groups there and we could call it the "Lynx Den" or something. Clever. But I told him I didn't quite think we were ready for a whole building yet. Anyway...I gotta go.
-K

Impossibility

Ok, I know this will sound far fetched and impossible, but what if we started our own "cafe"? And, taking it a step farther, what if it was specifically to help those organizations who need it most? Just picture it: a little coffee shack on some central parking lot, with tons of posters everywhere, laminated, of course. Just think! If we learned how to work one of those espresso machines, and set a shack up, it could be so cool! I can just imagine little jars lined up on the window sill with the names of organizations like Invisible Children, the Red Cross, Help for Haiti, Chili, etc. I think it could really work. We could do it. I know we could. Well, that's just a little vision I had, something for the future, or the present, either one. Think about it.

-M

M Word of the Post

Motivation- n. the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way; the general desire or willingness of someone to do something

Journal Entry #78

This is a little blurb I wrote.

Monday, March 15, 2010
I hate Mondays. And with declarations like this one, my mind wanders to the fact that Garfield and myself are truly, very similar. We both have ginger coats, we both love lasagna, and we both have this dually singular loathing for the first day of the week. But, that’s not the point. I hate Mondays, this one in particular, because it is the first day of school after Spring Break. They taunt us, allowing us but one taste of what life without school would be like, a life in the sun. We still have fifty days of school, and everyday, every period, even during lunch, I dream of all the things I could do with the time I’m wasting by daydreaming about the things I could do. And so, I’ve come to the conclusion that summer has a certain psyche, if you will, about it. Especially in a place where half of the year is spent in the dismal world of winter where we must survive like bats, clinging to the hope of one day seeing the sun again. You can’t help dreaming of summer days because of the distasteful things they force upon us. For example, just as the sun peaks above the mountains they allow us a week of freedom, a week when you can sleep until you are awaken by the light of the sun gently caressing your cheek. And then BOOM! Darkness, blackness, dull comprehension of your surroundings and what time it is. This is the torture the school board puts us through. And now, when the end of school is so close yet so far, they have the nerve to expect us to pay attention. Summer. Ah, beautiful lady come and sit beside me once more! Come, warm our hearts and tan our skin. You are like a long-lost lover who must go away when ice cages us every winter. Dear summer, if only you could stay and make the flowers blossom year round! *cough* Sorry, as I was saying, summer has a sort of psyche that makes us lose it. You see, she, I mean it, comes around and we can do whatever. Ya know? Soccer, gardening, camps, sleep, we can do it all! And then, just when we learn to control our longing for more things to do (as not to get overwhelmed), it leaves and the sun goes away and the snow falls and the ice covers the roads wishing us harm in every sense of the word and... and... and then we are PLUNGED INTO THE DARKNESS THAT GRIPS OUR SOULS AND SQUEEZES UNTIL THE VERY LAST DROP OF SANITY IS DRAINED!!! *ahem* Yeah, it does stuff... to your mind.
Sincerely,
Your-once-sane-self.

-M


M Word of the Post that doesn't start with the letter M

quince-n. a hard, acid, pear-shaped fruit used in preserves or as flavoring; the shurb or small tree that bears this fruit, native to western Asia

Driving

Yay! I went driving today. I drove to Stacy's house and then to Belles and then home. I also got rubber bands on my braces and found out that I can't write a story. I am seriously incapable of it. Fragments of a story, sure, I can do that. But a whole story? No. Impossible.
It is Thanksgiving today...did you know that? We are having turkey and mashed potatoes and everything. Yum.

-K

OH! Happy day! Happy Day

Well, lets see. Dispite a half gloomy (mouth hurting and food deprivation. And finishing all my big projects for school monday night at, like 2:30 or something) and Half the-most-awesome-totally-most-restful-weekend-ever (sleepover, movie night with family and picking up Kosy at the airport!) Today I can't help but have a overjoyed view of the world. Days like today (its 38 degrees and sunny and everything is melting) make me feel like I'm walking in the cloud. The sky is blue and beautiful! So basicly I'm in a wonderful mood. Have a good day everybody and pray that this sun stays for the week end!!! (or at least visits during the weekend)

Loye yal!!

~Sappy Sarah

America!

Hey guys, I'm home!! S, A, and M all met me at the airport with their lovley sign :) That seriously made my day guys, thanks so much!
My trip was absolutley amazing, I'm not going to write all about it here because that would just take up space and I am too tired, but all in all it was a good trip and I'm really happy to be home. I think I will definitley go back again.
All I can think about now is summer, a time where life can be what I want it to be and school isn't constantly dictating me...ugh. Not looking forward to two more months of school.
So I'm off! I'm not sure where to be I will talk to you later!
-K

The Spring Break of M

Well, I had Friday off and just lazed around and did nothing. Then we (mom, pops, bro, sis-in-law, kids, dogs, etc) drove down to Soldotna to visit my Gma for a few days. It was pretty fun. We ate and slept and the kids watched movies while we played game upon game of pinochle. Five handed, four handed, all the time. It was really fun. We drove back on Monday and I "cleaned" my room ish. Then I totally did nothing on Tuesday, and on Wednesday my mom and I went all the way out to Kohl's 'cause they were having this huge sale and shopped around for awhile. But we had to leave early because I got nauseous, sorry mom. :) So yeah, we went home with me threatening the car with a new interior design and I took a nap. I felt soooo bad Wednesday night... ugh. I was slightly chilled, but shaking like none other and my skin was sensitive to touch and my shoulders and neck ached sooo badly. Diagnosis: flu. And to make matters worse I got about two total hours of sleep, the rest where tossing and turning in and out of my covers until, finally, I threw up at 4:30 am. Thursday was spent lying on the couch, sleeping, eating crackers, drinking unheard of amounts of water and watching movies. I still felt a little whoosy Friday morning, but got over it by the afternoon and went to go party with A and S. It was fun, we watched three movies, two of which I only saw the beginning and ending because I kept on falling asleep, until three oclock in the morning. We slept 'til eleven, though I woke up at eight, nine thirty, and ten, and had an excellent breakfast made by S's mom. We took a walk, went up to feed horses, then went to the airport, arriving five minutes before K. Oh! and we made her a poster! It was loverly, wasn't it K? So yeah, that was my week, except today I went to church, almost hit a parked car, and will possibly go on a walk or skiing. School's tomorrow.... XP I think I'm gunna be sick again.

-M

M Word of the Post
Maiolica- n. fine earthenware with colored decoration on an opaque white tin glaze, originating in Italy during the Renaissance.

S's spring brake

Well, where should I start? hummmmm.
Monday! Well, on Monday I went to the dentest and got my teeth checked out and cleaned. You'll be glad to hear my teeth are in very good health, except that my teeth get to much accid from oranges, apples, pears, guava, soda, and cranbarry juice so after I eat/drink such things I must have this other tictac thing, which is wierd, but dental work is wierd. The rest of that day I wrote some stuff for my essays(Homework).
Tuesday... that was and interesting one. As you might already know, I really don't like needles, dentel work or med. type stuff. But on Tuesday I had an appointment to go to a Oral sergen (who I've never met) and he was going to either 1)Take out all four of my wisdom teeth right then and expose this other tooth, or 2)Take out one wisdom tooth and expose the one infront of it, or 3)just expose the the one tooth that needs exposing. So, after ten minutes of consideration, my mom and the sergen decided with option 2. Ten minutes later I was in a seat with a clip on my finger and someone stuck a I.V. in my arm and a second later I was out. And I mean OUT!!! What seemed like 2 minutes later, a nurse told me to stand up. I saw my mom(I saw dubble of her which was... odd)and I got in the car and according to my mother talked non-stop the whole way home. All I can remember is trying to convice my mom I was in my right mind and having a drug in my blood for half-and-hour didn't effect me at all (yeah right!).
Yesterday. All my trouble seemed right in my face. I only wished that I could hide away! well, anyway Yesterday the Left side of my face was swollen "like a squirrle with it's face stuffed with accorns"(someone's intrepritatrion of something my dad said about dumplings. :D lol). I pretty much sat on the couch all day doing nothing.
Today... Well, my sister had a friend spend the night last night and so she was with us all day. I had made plans to see a friend from school as well. We had planned to go see Percy Jachson casue she haddn't seen it yet and wanted to. But My mom was going to pick her up and while doing other things with the car (picking up my sister form something, shoping ext.) she found that the car would do this very strange "Shinnying" (shakeing, almost like a massage chair) So we traveled slowly not wanting the car to shake apart totally. So we endded up picking up my firend later then we wanted to and arrived at the theater at 2:14 (the movie started at 1:50) So, we went to Alice in Wonderland (which came out last week). it was very good. the S.E.'s were quite amazing. Then, waiting for our parents to pick us up we went across the way to the library. After hanging out their for an hour we both went seprate ways. My cheek is/was still quite swollen and the medicien I've been given has made be very tiered.

Now you are up to date. :) I'm must say it's possible I've done a terrible time of explaining myself, but just know I'm very tiered and druged and hurting, so I am very much not thinking strait. Hopefully I'll see some of you tommarow ;).

Thanks for listening to me!

Silly Swollen Sarah

Spring Break?

Alrighty!!! *claps hands together* I see that I am STILL the only one posting!! Yay!...
(that was sarcastic). Anyway, let me tell you how I am spending my spring break! YAY!! Tell us A! Tell us!! Ok. I will. If you insist.
The light is fading...falling from a frozen sky to settle behind glorious mountains. Vibrant colors shoot into the sky, creating a wondrous array of colorful clouds drifting in the light breeze above...
People oohh and aahh, watching like they would a firework show. Life is beautiful...
*scoff* Yeah. I wish. While that's going on to the people in the East, I'm crawling out of bed. It's 6:30 in the morning on SPRING BREAK!! *screams insanely*
I'm ready to leave at 7:30, just enough time to get to Church by 8. Every morning I think, "ooohhhh *moan* WHY am I doing this?!" But by the time we pile into the van and get to wherever it is we're going, I'm on FI-AH!! ....
ha. Almost.
This spring break I am joining with my home Church youth group to serve our community by whatever means possible. So far, we have helped push about....6 cars out of the snow banks. But, with 15 kids helping....it's pretty easy. It's fun, so we keep out eyes out.
Anyway, we go to different part of town, The Downtown Soup Kitchen, and other non-profit organizations and help out in whatever capacity we can. Making breakfast at a Cafe, Shoveling snow, handing out soup to the homeless, sorting storage rooms, meeting awesome people, reading to sick kids in the hospital waiting room, washing dishes, anything!
It's puuuurrdy fun!! I am enjoying it, although, right now, I'm dead tired. And it's only 7:30pm.
Spring Break? Spring WORK!
But it's all good. I feel awesome.
Anyway, how are your guyses (yes, it's a word!!) Spring Breaks? (imaginary readers and otherwise) Feel free to tell us! When I have time again, I'll be sure and read them! It'll also give K something to read when she gets back!!

Have fun! Hope you guys are sleeping hard! (losers!) Just kidding!!

Tschüß!!

-A

My week

Hey. :) I have decided to post. (obviously)
Since K's like, almost the only one that posts, I figured I'd put in my share while she's gone.
So, I have new bookshelves! They span one whole wall. They're puuurrddy!! haha. I got a cold on Friday and was pretty out of it then. On Saturday, I was still sick but I decided to go ski-boarding with the family anyway. Now, I'm paying for it. ;) My upper arms really hurt (for some reason. It's not like you use them much on a snowboard), and my knees (of course), my back, and my feet. :) But it was fun. Really fun. I'm also (I think) just a bit more sick. I sorta feel delirious. I watched this video on Facebook and I started laughing and I couldn't stop. It wasn't even that funny. ;D
Anyway, I'm not sure what's going on today. Probably just lazing around. Might stop over at someone's house for a bit. Dunno.
Anyway, I hope everyone has had a better weekend! Without the cold. Ick.
AAAANNNNDD that's my post.

-A
:P

Russia

Hey guys, I am leaving soon for Russia!! Well, not really. I'm leaving for Seattle, then Seoul, then Russia. So wish me luck! :) My friends are all being superly awesome and supportive and I am eternaly grateful.
I will put up pictures or a video or something when I get back.
Bye!! I am so excited! Farewell citizens, I shall miss you. (i dunno what that was)

Ok seriously bye now!! :D

-KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

BORED

Alright that's it, I am officialy so bored that I might die. I can stand being bored when you have nothing to do, but when you've got tons of stuff you don't want to do and can't think of anything else to do, that's when I go crazy.
I'm trying to pack but nothing fits in anything...
I had three tests to day and I have three tomorrow.
AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

-K