I can Curl can you?

Happy October,

 I talked Niki into going to "Learn to Curl" class with me.  It was on the other side of Ship's Creek and we had a lot of fun.  After a quick introduction to the sport and the instructors we entered the ice.  Okay for all of you who think curling is weird it is fun but the vocabulary is a learning experience all by itself.  Stone, Skipp, 1st, 2nd, 3rd (the second most important person) and the last, Biter ( a touching stone to the outside circle), bonspiel (tournaments), button (1 foot circle), hack (an immovable brace for foot in or out delivery), hammer (last rock to be delivered, Hog (stone fails to clear the line), House, Keen ice (less effort to deliver stone), off the broom, on the broom, shot rock, sheet, etc.  It keeps going and going and going.

Here I am with my one slippery slipper on the right foot and I am holding the stone in the left foot and the right hand is the "steady" stick for me to keep my balance.  You can't put any weight on the stone in the left hand and you glide on the slippery slipper foot.  Strange to get used to at first.

Then once I managed not to fall using the "steady" stick I learned to balance myself (put my weight on my right side) I advanced to the broom.  Not bad huh?  Notice I am still standing and not falling down and I released the stone "just fine" said the coach.

 Releasing another stone before I reached the "hog' line.  The stone weighs 42 pounds and made our of granite.  Each team gets to throw 8 stones to equal an "end" or what I call an inning.  The captain kept correcting me all night. What I found interesting is when teams travel to other cities and rinks (sheets) to play they play with the "hosting" rink's stones.  The team does not have to "lug" these heavy stones anywhere.  So you don't have to worry about a carrying case or broken toes from dropping your equipment!

After getting the hang of the delivery, I had to learn how to sweep.  This is the HARDEST job!  Wow, you better be "Johnny on the spot" and have quick feet and a pair of eyes behind your head.  The brooms sweep the ice only 6 - 8 inches wide in front of the stone to help it go faster on the ice.  It looks easy here because there wasn't any other stones for me to trip on.  I am so worried about sweeping fast and steady I forgot to look around.  And I am sure you can guess - you can't step on any other stones.

 Niki and I took a turn together.  We were pretty awesome sweepers.  The only problem with sweeping is that you are constantly being yelled at by the Skip.  "Sweep faster, sweep right, go faster" and then all of a sudden the Skip says "Stop sweeping"!  My brain and muscles don't work that quickly.  Don't forget there are at least 16 stones on the sheet that I don't want to trip over so it is complicated.

Well then there is the learning curve.  One must fall to learn how to reach new goals!

If you think keeping score is easy look at this score board.  If you can figure it out Hooray for you!

1st End : The Blue Team scores 2 points and the Yellow scored zero.  2nd End: Yellow scores 1 points and the score is yellow 1 and Blue 2.  And so on.  The most important thing to know about scoring no one has to understand how to score EXCEPT the 3rd.  I never was the 3rd for a reason!!!!  Niki was so good she scored our two points.  I was proud I didn't fall which is more than I can say about two of our team mates.  Sweeping is hard and takes a lot of coordination and the ability to hear the Skip yelling at you.  Well, that is what curling is all about.  I had fun!!!

The last weekend in September I met up with my entire family for the joyous event of Chris and Kerry's wedding. The bride was simply gorgeous and she glowed all night long.  Chris has his own company "Sage Enterprises" which makes beautiful wooden "Bags" game sets.  The groomsmen all received a personalized Bags set.  My brother, Chip, and Patti were so proud. 

 Aren't they happy.  Wishing you many many year of happiness.

 Proud parents of the groom.  My brother couldn't hold back the joy and tears.  Patti looked spectacular for this proud moment.

 Aren't these wonderful Bags Sets?  You too could have a set.  Check out Chris Sage's web site.

 My wonderful and dapper husband danced the night away.

 Cousin Tyler was so proud of Logan catching the Bride's garter!

My children are all grown up.  Gosh they grow so fast. 

Jenna and Jason had a fun night dancing as well.

My beautiful mom.  She was such a proud Grandma of all her 12 grandchildren, who loves to golf, sing karaoke, line dance, and have girls afternoons out.  Way to go mom! 

 On Sunday we all arrived at Chip and Patti's house for a family gathering.  Just my family, which I so fondly refer to as "The Crazies", is 37 people big.  It was so wonderful having siblings and our children together in one spot.  My brothers and husband are fantastic grill chefs.  That is a 16 pound beef fillet and a 6 pound of pork loin.  These were grilled outside on the Weber and smoker.  It was gone in no time.

 And here is the cooking crew!  I am sure they used some of the bottles for cooking!

Here is 12 pounds of my Alaskan Halibut!  Chip is awesome at grilling fish.

 So back to school and routine on Monday.  The military is a huge part of the Alaskan life and Alaska  has come kind of military activity weekly.  Eight of our elementary schools, including my school, collected candy in September to send to our servicemen in war.  I want you to see how much candy we collected.  1,154 pounds of candy was shipped to the airmen all over the world.  Boxes were put on military flights that had available room for the airmen to receive these treats.

This is the airmen that received the candy. They wrote the most wonderful letter back to our students.  I have included two paragraphs from their letter telling about Afghanistan and what they do.

"You see, this particular box of candy flew from Anchorage Alaska all the way
to Kunduz Afghanistan.  Kunduz is 5,844 miles from Anchorage and is in the
northern part of Afghanistan near the border with Tajikistan.  The box of
candy found it's way to my mailbox here on our tiny US Army military
installation.  I live on a FOB, that stands for Forward Operating Base.  My
Soliders and I currently work with the Afghan National Police (ANP).  We
work to train the ANP in policing skills and also work with them to make the
community better.

Kunduz is about the same size as Anchorage.  It sits in a river valley and
is rich in agricultural products.  Farmers grow wheat, corn, cotton, and
other vegetables here.  Like Anchorage Kunduz is surrounded by mountains and
some of those mountains have snow right now.  We have been lucky because it
has been warm through the winter.  It was 60 degrees today."
The children of Kunduz who will receive some of the candy that was sent to our airmen.

This past weekend I took a mini birch bark basket making class.  Let me tell you all how difficult this craft is to make.  I will never complain when I see the prices that are charged for larger sized baskets.  This was NOT my basket.  My basket has not found a place yet.  I completed it and it was fun but very challenging.  This lady choice a difficult piece of bark and then artistically placed the flaking bark outside of the basket.  I have lost all my fingernails because you have to tear away the many layers of birch bark (my piece had 7 layers) until you have about 2 - 3 layers thick.  It took me almost 90 minutes of a two hour class just to strip my bark.  I knew it was going to be a challenge when I was still stripping and many students were already sewing. 

Just so you can see how mini out baskets were, that is a clothespin next to the basket.  The clothespins hold the damp bark in place while you sew.  My fingers are a finally healing from the needle stabs to them.  You try to force a needle through a bark with no thimble!!!

Now for real neat information.  The Alaskan Natives have begun bringing in the whales for food for this next year.  Unfortunately I will not be able to attend one in person.  If you remember I have eaten mukluk (whale meat) last year.  I have had 4 young students who have attended the whale catch in their northern village. Please take a minute and view the video of the whale harvesting.  It really is quite a bountiful and communal event for the village.  The Natives are such proud people. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/us/in-sacred-whale-hunt-eskimos-use-modern-tools.html?hp

Wasn't that amazing!!??!!!

I have had a few days of rest with the flu.  I am finally back to myself and teaching.  The children made me get well cards.  I have a great substitute and loving students.  I am getting rested for my knitting class this week.  The snow is creeping down the mountain and I predict first snow fall will be by end of next week.  We have a "pool" at school for the first snow fall.   We had flurries (about 12 of them) last week but to win the lottery the snow has to accumulate on the highway.  I have a good feeling about my date.  Anchorage has never had a Halloween without snow on the ground. 

I hope you enjoyed my last few adventures.  I look forward to my last 6 months in Alaska.

BUT before I say good night, I have WONDERFUL NEWS!!!!!

My son, Tyler, asked Cara to marry him and she said YES!!!!! I don't think I have stopped smiling yet.  I will be smiling for a long time.  Congratulations Tyler and Cara.

For now, I will bid you all a good night.  Have a wonderful day. 

I will close with a quote from Emerson,

"What lies behind us and what lies before us is small compared to what lies within us"

Enjoy,

Sheryl the Nanuq of the North