Firsts

FIRSTS


1. Who was your FIRST prom date?

Sadly never been to prom

2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love?

No, but if I saw him, I would

3. What was your FIRST alcoholic drink?

Strawberry Diaquiri, yummy, I didn't know it was alcoholic when it was handed to me

4. What was your FIRST job?

My first paying job was probably through AVCP on the Summer Hire Program headed by Nus Carl and I worked at the clinic and the Council Office

5. What was your FIRST car?

My very own car that I bought and paid for myself was a Chevy Corsica, I loved that car!

6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today?

No text today, I hardly text

7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning?

My children, because I make their lunches

8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher?

Mrs. Elsie Carl along with Mrs. Elliot, I can't remember her first name

9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane?

Probably Bethel to Kipnuk a few days after I was born

10. Who was your FIRST best friend and do you still talk?

Lenna May White, and yes we talk, usually daily, but since I'm off and on work, maybe two or three times a week.

11. Where was your FIRST sleep over?

Probably at Nangyuns

12. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today?

People at work

13. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time?

Wow, I hadn't thought of that, but it was Fannie and Mista's wedding, me and Marr carried Fannie's trail thing off her wedding dress (when they used to do that, now they don't, I wonder why?

14. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning?

Opened my eyes, moved the covers off myself, shut off the alarm, took a few steps to the bathroom and started the shower.

15. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to?

Randy (OMG I forgot his last name!) had to google Travis! When he came to Fairbanks, the day before Kayla was born.

16. What was the FIRST record/tape?

I honestly don't remember, probably a recorded tape.

17. FIRST hospitalization?

Giving birth to Kayla, 18 yrs ago, how the time has flown!

18. FIRST foreign country you’ve been to?

Panama with the 962nd AACS

19. FIRST movie you remember seeing?

I think Lady and the Tramp when they used to show movies at the school when school got out for the summer

20. When was your FIRST detention?

I think in 10th grade and I can't remember for what .... oh yeah, we'd have enterprenuership (sp?) class making wooden knives and me and another girl skipped cuz we got to school late and washed our hair instead in the bathroom and a teacher aide came in and asked us what we were doing LOL.

21. Where did you FIRST meet your spouse/partner now?

In Edmond Oklahoma.

22. Who was your FIRST roommate?

Ariana White, in Tech School

23. What did you do with your FIRST paycheck?

Probably spent it on junk food, naam, wish I still had it.

Just for my friend Soph

To my friend Sofelia

.... we laughed, and we laughed hard and are still laughing

Top 10 things of laughs *of things that I've seen happen or happened to me

1. Walking so carefully in the ice, hands clenched inside gloves (and you could tell the fingers aren't in the finger parts of the gloves) and then slipping on your back super hard, like ice beneath you cracking hard, walking into church (Qussauyaq Kashatok)

2. In Sunday school when kids are gathered together, waiting for the leader to come up to the podium, two rows of kids on pews, Agnes Kugstun punches Ben Dock in the row behind us and says "We're supposed to love eachother when we're in church!"

3. Duutii "What you are you gonna eat when we have no more food?" when I didn't want to eat my Chicken Ala King from the good old Kipnuk High Cafteria lunchline, and she had eaten everything but the corn. "Ciin-mi tuakut nerenriciiki?"

4. Me and Sofe walking really fast into the dark road in Anchorage and I said "What if we run into a moose?"

5. At the famous Gaslight, Donna, Sophie and I looking around, Sofe says "Don, there's your boyfriend!" and the yucky guy came up to us three and asked Sophie to dance and we burst out laughing! Naklleng, poor guy ... Sofe, did you dance with him?

6. Leaving the Northway Mall by that bakery entrance "Did you see the big earholes on that guy?"

7. At the end of the church service, I said to Christine, "Atam Frank-aq" Frank Paul was up at the podium listening to whoever the guest speaker was with his mouth open, me and Chris were in the choir robes in the front rows and were supposed to be exiting right after Frank and couldn't stop giggling and Fannie John Amik was sitting next to us and joined in our laughter and couldn't stop laughing either!

8. In the middle of 'Bringing the Sheaves' the lights went out and everbody at church all of a sudden stopped singing. I was sitting next to Miisaq Amik and my mom and couldn't contain my laughter at the sudden stoppage.

9. My dad, exhaling away on the last of his cigarette in the woodstove as I hung up my coat on the wooden coat rack by the door. The coat rack fell from too much weight on one side, the long tip of it cut my dad's cigarette in half and he tataamallaked back while he held on to the other end of what was left of the cigarette!

10. After mopping my room with lots of soap, Donna dumped soapy water all over the stairs outside our house. The qerrun was full and Oscar had just had an appendectomy, Dad and both older brothers had left for fishing. Mom wanted to bring the qerrun down the stairs to make it easier for Donna and I to take the qerrun to the dumping site. The soap made the stairs really slick and Mom spilt the qerrun all over the stairs and was still sliding down the stairs while Aparlliq and Qak'aq were walking by doing their rounds after curfew and they asked "Qaill piceci?"

100th Day of School

Children everywhere (well, these parts of the world) are celebrating the 100th day of school on February 9th.

I think its a great idea to recognize how far the kids have come along in learning and achieving goals.

We never had such days when I was growing up. The most significant part of the school year were the first day of school and the final day of school.

Jeffrey's kindergarten class is doing a project to bring in 100 things that the kids can count and show off for the 100th day.

Raven's class did the same thing last year and I didn't get to see what all the other kids brought in. Raven beaded a 100 bead necklace of different colors with the tenth bead a certain color to signify 'tens' to make it easier to count.

I wanted to do something different for Jeffrey, but running out of ideas. I thought of doing a poster board and showing off 100 things he has learned since starting school. Like the 26 letters of the alphabet, the colors, shapes, etc. But that might be too time consuming for a 5 year old to do. So, I might resort to him pasting 100 pieces of macaroni or millions of little things we have around the house to some kind of shape. Or maybe we could do a 100 piece marshmallow pyramid .... maybe 100 strands of dog hair that our smelly dog sheds, ewwww (maybe not).

Around this time of the year, when I was growing up, we'd be busily coloring away printed out Valentines every chance we got. We'd put our carefully colored pieces of paper shaped beautifully and cut with care, into Valentine's Day boxes all the classes from Kindergarten through 8th Grade had displayed in their classrooms.

During class time or around recess, kids would march in with a handful of their handicrafts to drop off to the classroom box. We'd try to guess who the Valentines would be for depending on the person. And back then, we'd be so honest, well at least me, and put 'To So and So---From Ella" instead of leaving out the "from" part.

On the big day, our teacher would open up the box and pass out every valentine -- all of us sitting at our desks hoping we got the most valentines and the girls oooh-ing and aaah-ing on the beautifully colored valentines.

What I remember most of all those years is Ms Smith in 7th and 8th grade doing mini Valentine cakes with our names on them. I loved those! Happy 100th Day and Happy Valentines Day Ms Smith - where ever you are ....

Things I let bother me more than they should:

1. A busy signal on the phone line

2. Loud people demanding attention right now!

3. The dam% dog

4. Car fan blowing hot when I want cool air

5. Dirty tables at a restaurant

6. A cracked nail that snags on everything

7. Human/dog/whatever hair on unsuspecting peoples clothes (or do they know?)

8. Those individuals that can't make up their minds on simple things, like, if they want cheese on their burgers or not, or to have cream on their mochas ...

9. People who won't help themselves to make their lives better

10. Yucky looking hair cuts

11. Condescending attitudes by those who think they know it all

12. Those little things that the vaccuum won't pull out of the carpet

13. Burnt out light bulbs

14. When my car doesn't have all the mirrors and the drivers seat set to where I normally have them

This Day (January 27)

There are 348 days left in the year.


The US Congress approved "Indian Territory" in what is present day Oklahoma, forcing Eastern Indians on the Trail of Tears.



Andre the Giant died in 1993.



In the United Kingdom, it is Holocaust Memorial Day.

Bridget Fonda's birthday.

Thomas Edison received his patent for his electrical incandescent light (light bulb).

The Vatican reaffirmed their decision to ban female priests.

And last but not least -- In 1998, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, appearing on NBC's "Today" show, said that allegations against her husband were the work of a "vast right-wing conspiracy".

A Tribute

to a friend .....

Who knew?

Did you know?

You must've ....

I didn't

Thanks for the memories, especially the laughs...

Except now, I can't think of them as memories because it was just yesterday....

I didn't know you, but you showed me yourself....

And more ...

That there's good....

A better place .....

Higher beings that watch over us, when I was starting to doubt ....

May you rest in peace ....

thank you, for saying goodbye ......

and May God Bless Us All

My Friend

On January 15, 2009 at 0130 hours, Village Public Safety Officers in Kipnuk responded to a snow machine crash which resulted in a fatality. With the assistance of the Alaska State Troopers, the investigation revealed that Lewis PAUL, 30-years-old, of Kipnuk, was driving a Polaris 900 snow machine when he lost control and rolled the machine.

For the New Year

I hope happiness and contentment......
I hope for better times than the year before .....
I hope for cheaper gas prices............
I hope to find new friendships and for ones that we have already, to get closer ....
I hope for achieving goals and reaching to the skies for more....
For the new year, I hope for prosperity for all, humbleness, humanity and most of all LOVE for those around us.

30 Dec 2008

Well, another year has come and gone ... kids grew taller, a little more wiser, and me--another year older. In our little corner of the world, 2008 brought us:

• a drivers license for Kayla and her 2005 Ford Taurus (that smells of nasturtiums, even with dousings of Febreeze)
• back surgery for the dog, who without it would have been paralyzed from the backlegs and probably would have had to be put down (he's his old self now, his back legs can't keep up with him though)
• an 86 pound halibut for Stevo! in beautiful Homer Alaska. It probably weighed more, it bled out a lot before we got it weighed. Big fishy!
• Jeffrey started Kindergarten at North Pole Elementary and he loves it
• Nagyuk D grew leaps and bounds and is in the 3rd grade and did so good in soccer
• I went and worked for our Wing Commander for half a year (tomorrows my last day :( ...)
• Our whole family spent a lot of time on our boat (and on the road) traveling to where we could take it out. Spent a few weekends in Viva Valdez and Memorial weekend in Ho ho ho Homer.
• Jeffrey tried his hand at shaving and cut up his upper lip with Stephen's razor
• Raven gave herself a little hair cut, it wasnt bad at all, maybe about 20 strands of her bangs - which is much better than her first attempt at 2 when she cut to the scalp on hairs on top of her head (more than a handful and very noticeable)
• Sarah Palin ran for vice presidency and lost out
• My truck's fuel pump gave out
• Stephen got (shhhh, dont tell anybody, BIFOCALS)
• Gas was at its highest at almost $5 in Fairbanks
• Our dividends included an extra $1200 (exact amount $3269.00)
• Christina graduated from highschool
• Reached -40 on Dec 29 in North Pole and will stay cold and temps go even lower this week
• Donna moved out of mom's and into her new place
• Lenna had her beautiful baby girl Robin Leena
• Jeffrey and I spent at week in Kipnuk and went clamming in the Bering Sea and berry picking in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta

So many good memories to cherish -- another year for more memories ... Have the best one!

Christmas in Kipnuk

In my home village, for as long as I can remember, the Moravian Church has held a community wide gift exchange. Those who want to participate, write down their name and clothing sizes and turn it into a proffer for the church, who compiles that list and then goes around to each residence participating to have individuals pick a name to gift that Christmas. The little strips of paper would be separated into two separate coffee cans. One containing male names and the other female - females would pick from the male can and the males from the female can. It was an exciting time when these people came around - it was exciting just to see whose name you picked. The proffers kept track of which name which person picked, because with a village of almost 500 people, there were times when a participating individual didn't get gifted for whatever reason. Money for gift buying would run out or spent elsewhere.
All these gifts were brought out to the Sunday School house or the Mission house, both buildings housed next to the church. There they are grouped by families, and alphabetically. After what seemed the longest Christmas Eve program, the gifts would be ready for pick up. Kids fidgeting and growing impatient minute by minute anticipating the service leaders request for a final song or the benediction of the service. I wonder if some leaders purposely prolonged the service just for that reason.
Families attended church dragging wooden sleds to haul wrapped boxes of all different sizes. Back then, when most people in the community just had CB radios to communicate with, about 10-15 minutes after the service was over, the radio would come to life with chatter thanking their gifters and wishing everybody a Merry Christmas. Most of the usual gifts received would be clothing and useful items like a bath towels, etc.
That same night after the gift exchange is community wide caroling. Those 12 years old and older participate. Individuals meet at the church and are grouped by which section of the village they will be spreading Christmas cheer. At the houses, the whole group enters, sing a Christmas song, and the hosts would have candy to pass out to the singing group. In the houses, stockings would be hung up with care and the carolers, fill up the stockings with goodies they've been given out from house to house.
On Christmas Day, kids go on stage at church and recite individual verse readings dressed in their finest. There's also the candle light service after the readings. Its beautiful singing "Morning Star" in candle light (I don't know if the song's title is Morning Star, taking a guess on it) After the service, the church hands out candy bags to all those that have attended and gives out extra bags to other family members that weren't able to attend.
I miss Christmas in Kipnuk, I hope we'll be able to spend it out there next year.

Dec 6

Yay! Happy Birthday to me today