Winter's Here (For the next 8 months!)

As I write to you, I am looking out a window across a frozen pond and the road covered with snow and ice. Winter is here! It has been snowing almost every day (at least a little bit) for a week now. I am only exaggerating a little bit when I say that I think we might have more snow right now than we did all of last year! I am so excited. Once everything becomes frozen over, it feels like Bethel is back to being how it is meant to be. Winter is definitely Bethel's season. It just fits.

Now, this doesn't mean that Bethel winters are a total walk in the park. There are plenty of hassles that come with the cold weather. For example, starting on October 1st, on all airplane school trips (i.e. volleyball trips), all participants must wear full winter gear. So, last weekend, as I headed to Nome with 17 girls, we all had to be wearing snow pants (or Carharts), winter jackets, snow boots, gloves, and hats. The coldest it got all that trip was like 25 degrees (above zero) so we were all sweating like crazy on the airplane.

But, once we got to Nome, we didn't have to wear the winter gear (which was a relief) and we had a great time. It was me with 10 8th grade girls, 7 of my JV girls and another chaperone. Because I was the only coach, that meant I was crazy busy during volleyball time, coaching teams back to back, but after that was over, we had plenty of time to just relax and have some fun in a different place. We went shopping (for food... they don't really have clothing stores in Nome either) and we took tons of pictures. The girls were hilarious and so wonderful. I'm lucky to be coaching them. On the court, I am pretty intense and I expect them to act like serious athletes, but off the court, I enjoy sleeping bag races, dance parties, gossiping about boys and all those other great teenage girl things. I don't necessarily enjoy the accompanying drama and the serious babysitting that 8th grade girls need, but it all balanced out to be a pretty fun weekend.

This week has also been pretty good. We got our actual reading program (finally!) and that has been really nice. We finally know what we should be doing during our Book Club time! High school volleyball has been a bit of a challenge, but it is almost over, so that is exciting. The varsity team (and I, as their female chaperone) go to Dillingham next weekend for Regions to determine whether they go to state. I am happy to be going with them and hope that their coach and I will be able to figure out some winning strategies for the weekend.

I also help organize a volleyball booth at the annual BRHS carnival last night. I got a bunch of the 7th and 8th grade girls to run a face painting booth and a balloon popping booth. They are a hardworking bunch of girls and I think we probably ended up raising about $300, which is awesome.

Oh! Speaking of Halloween. I dressed up for costume day on Wednesday as a grape! It was hilarious. I taped big purple balloons all over my upper body and wore a purple long underwear shirt and pants with green shorts. I couldn't walk through doors without rotating to the side, and I couldn't see my feet or clap my hands, but it was a fun costume.

Ok, that is all I can think of right now. I'm going to go head home and do a yoga class that I downloaded offline. (Since the roads are pretty icy, I don't really feel like going for a run and after all the candy I ate at the Halloween Carnival... I feel like I could use some exercise, haha)

Love you and miss you all lots and lots!