When I came back to Alaska I got to work finishing up cleaning out my house. By cleaning I mean seriously going through everything and getting rid of what wasn't used. I've never seen Marie Kondo's show but I'm sure it was something like that. Then before I knew it my aunt and cousin were coming to visit me and I got to play tourist for a week. They came out the second week of July. We packed a lot in to their short visit (only a week).
It was a pretty AMAZING week for sure!! Wish they could've stayed longer but we definitely enjoyed every minute of the week.
I will try to get to a part 2 of this summer before school starts. I start back August 12th and students come the following week. *A little note about the new tab "weighted blankets" that I added. I have added this tab, as I have really enjoyed making these blankets and people are starting to ask if they can buy them. I figure since I enjoy making them, this will help me to keep buying supplies and maybe I will even be able to save up a little for a fun trip in the future. This just gives me a spot to add all of the info for people and maybe one of these days I will get a tutorial up on how I make them.
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This past weekend I played in a hockey tournament in Anchorage with my AWESOME team!! We again, lost in the championship game in a shootout. (Last year the same thing happened.) We were very evenly matched, and our team did not go down without a fight. It was such a fun weekend!! Our coaches also dressed the best. With hockey there is always a party and with that comes a costume contest. Our team definitely had the best costumes!! We even had a party bust so we could all walk in together! It was EPIC!! I also did a little thing where I got a tattoo. Yes, it is a real one! I am so glad I joined the hockey team and now I have a permanent reminder of my time playing hockey. It is on the outside of my right foot. Yes it did hurt, but it was not more painful than other painful things I have felt. Also I had the support of these lovely ladies below who also got tattoos. It was a team bonding experience.
I did a little something tonight. I spoke at a borough meeting about funding education to the cap. This would add roughly $2.4 million to the school district budget. We are in desperate need of this money. For all of my friends and family outside of Alaska...the newly elected Governor has proposed gutting funding to many public services including education. The school district I am currently teaching in faces over a $20 million cut. This is "draconian", as many have put it. It would devastate this area, and all Alaskan schools would be in similar situations. I could no longer stay silent about how I feel about this, and wanted my voice to be heard. Here is what I said:
"My name is Sara lucas and I am an educator. I am one of these non tenured teachers and this decrease in funding could mean I will no longer have a job. This is my 2nd year with the district and 7th year teaching in Alaska. I definitely have a vested interest in increasing funding for our K-12 schools, but I am here fighting for my students tonight, not my job. I have a chemistry degree. I feel like I have plenty of options with this degree, but my students do not have a choice. I love teaching and am torn in whether to leave or stay. The students keep pulling me back. I realize I love being in the classroom with my students and can’t imagine doing anything else. However, currently my thoughts are consumed with looking at other career or school options because this is the 2nd year in a row, where at this point in time, I do not have a signed contract. I cannot wait around I need to take care of my needs first and I think it might be time for a career change. It pains me to say this, as I love what I do, but I just cannot see myself teaching for the rest of my life anymore if education is in limbo every year. I feel I am not alone in this sentiment. I have heard many young teachers that share my position fearing what this state will be like if there are major cuts. We are all considering our futures and considering a future that does not include education. Our students will suffer and I can’t imagine living in a state where our next generation is not being given the education they deserve. The schools are the heart of a community, and without good schools there will be a ripple effect that is felt by the community. It pains me to think about the education of kids in our state if education funding is drastically cut. They will be underprepared to enter the workforce creating a crisis for all Alaskans. There will undoubtedly be a decreased morale at the very least. Please fund education to the cap. Our students deserve the best."
*This weekend I also went to my final hockey tournament with the Queens, for this season. It was a blast and I will get a post up about this soon. I know many are patiently waiting.
Lately I have had a lot of fun crafting. I have made 6 weighted blankets since about the beginning of November. I really love the words and pictures on the white fabric. I have found it in flannel and soft and minky. However the JoAnn's in Soldotna has been out of the soft and minky version for awhile now. I really have loved making these and have given away all but 1 of them. The 2 below were given away to some special people who I thought could really use one!
According to Medical News Today and Bustle the benefits could include:
I have also been trying to find ways to reduce my impact on the environment. In our area there is a competition call Caring for the Kenai, that we have all students enter. A big component is to try to help the environment and I have been trying to find easy ways that I can do more. I bought some fabric quarters when they were on sale for $0.79 each to make napkins. I finally got around to making them all and now have 10. I found the perfect basket at Walmart to hold them. So that is what I have been up to. Nothing super exciting, but I have definitely been getting better at using my sewing machine. I just got it at the end of October. Bought a used one I found on Facebook Marketplace. All of my other weekends pretty much consisted of the picture below. LOL. Not sure where I found this picture but I think it came from Facebook.
So as part of the women's hockey team we had a group hangout where we attended a Pound class. If you haven't heard of Pound, it is a workout where you get drumsticks and there is choreography that goes with a song. It was super fun, even though I was off beat many times! After the class the instructor let us try on some of the boots for the Stomp class. They are like the trampoline shoes (at least I think they existed when I was a kid). Anyway they are like shoes with springs but you have to use a lot of force to get them to spring. The instructor did one song with a few of us and it was harder than the whole pound class. My legs and butt were on fire! Breaded Halibut (Grain Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free) *Adapted From Feasting on Joy Ingredients:
¾¾Directions:
This recipe was delicious!! Definitely a keeper. I use mustard as a dipping sauce but if you are into tartar sauce I'm sure it would be good too. A combo of dijon mustard and regular mustard was perfect for me. I even had some on a bed of spinach, and still it was excellent!
A couple of weeks ago I had some visitors and we went to Homer and took the ferry to Halibut Cove. We had lunch at the Saltry and walked around (as much as you can, especially with a boot). It was the most gorgeous of days too, which doesn't usually happen in Alaska. There are usually a few gorgeous days followed by many rainy/overcast days. It is definitely not proportional. Here are some pics (most taken by my Aunt Karen). Since getting back to Kenai I have been experimenting in the kitchen. I had some blood work done back in June and got the results back in July when I was back for good. Nothing was bad in the results, but I was told to cut out all dairy, including eggs. So I have been trying to cook a few dishes. Before the blood work I was told to try eating grain free as much as possible. I have had headaches for years but they seems to just be getting more obnoxious. I was told that grains are very inflammatory and this diet change could help.
So I have been loosely following the grain free diet, as it hasn't really seemed to make a difference. I have been trying to stick to gluten free and probably will try to go grain free at some point. I just keep buying stuff that I think is good but it isn't. Dairy free has definitely lessened the headaches, and is a little easier to spot. Grains are just sneaky. Packages are marked gluten free so that is easier. I would've never guessed that diet changes would help so much. Boy was I wrong. The more I read on the Paleo/Keto diets the more intrigued I am. I will try to give another update as I explore these more.
Next up is the start of school. Teachers start back tomorrow. I will try to get some pics up of my classroom when I get a chance. I got to see Denali!! Such a clear view this past weekend with beautiful weather! I just went to Denali National Park for the 1st time since moving to Alaska!! I was able to take a field course called geology of Denali through Alaska Geographic. I was offered a 75% scholarship to attend the course, and it was absolutely amazing!! Denny Capps (the park geologist) was a wealth of knowledge that kept us captivated from start to finish. I wasn't sure what to expect going into the course, as geology is not really my thing, but I was totally stoked to visit Denali nonetheless. I ended up gaining an interest in geology and having the best weekend camping out at Teklanika campground in the park and visiting sites that other visitors might not know to visit. I knew nothing about Denali going into this course so lets just say I learned a ton and probably have forgotten half of it by now. The park road is 92 miles and we went to the Toklat River which is at mile 53 in the course of the weekend. We were lucky that we had our own shuttle and did not have to take the bus, which would've have meant relying on that time schedule. You can see below why a bus system is needed as the road is only 1.5 lanes wide with no guard rails. It is quite dangerous to drive for the inexperienced.
This part of the road is failing due to a debris flow as well as other factors. You can see in the picture below where the debris is falling. This part of the road as well as many other parts of the road are difficult to keep open due to many debris flows in the area. The park is tasked with cleaning up after each instance. To try to figure out what is going on with this section of the road they are currently in the process of digging 2 wells and placing instruments in the wells to collect data. This well is down to 140 ft. and you can see the wires for the instruments. The coolest thing by far was taking a hike to see dinosaur tracks from the duck-billed dinosaur. Scientifically they are known as Hadrosaurs. Click here for more info from the park. We saw over 20 of these fossils, but these are some of the better ones. As you can imagine some of the fossils are either broken or the tracks weren't as clean as these ones. These are all cast fossils. "Cast fossils are formed when an organism dies and is buried between layers of mud and silt. The mud and silt form around what is left of the organism and slowly hardens and becomes sedimentary rock. The buried organism decays and the hardened rock leaves an impression where the organism once was. Lastly, mineral-enriched groundwater fills in the mold and hardens to form a cast fossil" (castfossils.weebly.com). In other words there was a print in the mud or some sort of soft ground that was filled in and hardened. In addition to seeing these amazing fossils and doing so much other site seeing we had some of the best views. Here is one of the only pics I took with me in the photo. After the course I did a midnight sun ATV tour with Denali ATV tours. They were great!! Not much wildlife, but with seeing wildlife on my own I wasn't that concerned. I just wanted to do something fun and not hurt my foot anymore, as I had already hiked more than I should've. Yes, I am still in a boot hoping that the stress fracture in my foot heals soon. I then stayed at the McKinley Chalet Resort. It was a great stay that wasn't too expensive. I didn't get any great views but the room was spacious and everything was clean and comfortable. I'm sure if I had payed more I could've gotten a better view, but since I was really just there to sleep it wasn't worth it. Overall it was an excellent trip, and even though the Alaska Geographic courses are a little pricey, they are totally worth it. I would consider going back and paying full price to take another course with them. Source:
https://castfossils.weebly.com/how-are-cast-fossils-formed.html
I am also playing softball when I am here in Kenai. It is a really big deal here for adults. I must say that it is not increasing my like for the game but I am enjoying having something to do and meeting new people. Kelsey got to come watch the first games and took a few pics of me. I don't think I made it to a base the first 2 games as I either missed the ball completely or hit a foul ball (fouls are counted as out).
Dad even stood up too!! Super proud of him for giving it a try! (Mom you're next!!) Now I am back in Kenai, but only for another day before my next adventure to Costa Rica. I got in last Thursday for our local Hockey Tournament. I am so happy I came back for it as it was a blast!! I was lucky to have such great women on my team! We may have lost, but we definitely had fun. The theme for our team was golf. For whatever reason hockey tourneys always have themes and there is a costume contest at the party. We went as characters from Happy Gilmore. I was the alligator. I think my teammates and I nailed our characters.
This past weekend I flew to Juneau to attend commecement at the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS). I graduated with my Master's in Learning Design and technology. It took me 3 years to complete the degree, but I am so happy that I chose the program that I did. All of my work is stored on teachinginak.weebly.com, if you are interested in viewing it. It was definitely a whirlwind of a trip but totally worth it. I flew in Saturday. I left Kenai at 7 am and arrived in Juneau around 12:30 pm. Once I arrived in Juneau, I drove around a bit as I was a little early to check into my hotel. Unfortunately Saturday was very rainy (no pictures from Saturday for this reason). Sunday on the other hand, was gorgeous! Graduation lasted 3 hours and was very long! I was hoping for more time to hike after the ceremony but did not have any time. I left Juneau at 8 pm on Sunday and arrived in Anchorage a little before 10. By the time I got to the hotel, checked in, and showered it was after 11. I then proceeded to get up at 2:45 am so that I could catch the 5 am flight with RAVN. This way I was able to teach Monday. I arrived at school around 5:40 am and didn't leave until about 10 pm. We had track boroughs in Homer and I had to prepare for a sub for part of the day. I am still exhausted but slowly catching up. Can't wait for the weekend, and even better my parents are flying in to visit!
So I have opened this post and been ready to type it for a couple of weeks. It just hasn't happened. So today here it goes. We got into Fairbanks just after 8 pm and headed for our Airbnb. It was tucked up in the woods and was a great little escape. The next morning we headed to Chena hot springs where we were able to have lunch, go on a tour of the ice museum, and hang out in the hot springs. We jam packed this day by also signing up for an aurora snow machine trip back in Fairbanks. So when we got back we had a few hours to rest up before heading for our tour at 10pm. We lasted until about 1:30 am. Unfortunately the auroras were not very active but we did see a few white bands. It was a great experience but again I probably would not do it again. Even with temperatures above freezing we were both a little cold. On Monday we slept in and then hopped on a flight back to Anchorage. We took a taxi to get to our car at the train station and then headed off to Alyeska. We spent the night there and got up to ski the next morning before heading back to Kenai. In 6 years of living here I have never been to Alyeska in the winter. It was a blast! Both of us wished we had planned a few nights there instead of just one. We both agreed that it was the best skiing we had ever experienced. Nothing is better than having a fresh layer of powder to start the day of skiing. After getting back to Kenai we rested up with Nali. We took a day to try out cross country skiing at Tsalteshi Trails. We were not very good but definitely got a good workout. Enough so that we could have a great dinner at St. Elias Brewing Company. We most definitely cleaned out plates that night. The next day Rachel was supposed to leave out of Kenai at 10 pm after watching me play hockey. We thought the end of Rachel's trip was perfect as we had some visitors to the house. Nali was really excited!! Unfortunately RAVN had some technical difficulties that night and her flight was cancelled. So she got a whole extra 24 hours in Kenai. (There is only one flight from Seattle to Indy and if you miss it you have to wait for the the next one.) We both got some time to get work done and I had a few appointments that I had scheduled before she got stuck. So it was a relaxing and work filled day. It was a great trip and I am so happy she was able to come visit!
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