16 MORE DAYS!!!

So, if you look back to when I began my blog, I was counting down until I left Illinois.  Now I am counting down until I return in Illinois.  I have 16 more days in Alaska.  Then I will arrive in Illinois.  I know I will only be in Illinois for a few days, but it will be a GREAT few days.

I am so very excited to see everyone.  I cant believe these past 5 months have flew by so fast.  I cant believe I have not seen my family and friends for over 5 months.  CRAZY!!!

While I am home I hope to see as many people as I can, and do many things I want to do.  I have several Christmas events to go to and several other events to attend to... haha.. Some of you know what I mean.  I am very excited that my plans for New Years Eve involve going out with all my great friends from Olney.  I hope we have a fun night out all together again, like we did all Summer.  :)  I miss all the guys from Olney so much.

As most of you know I will have my uncle's car, (Thank you Uncle Joey) so I will be able to have my own schedule.  yey..  Yes, this is the car I sold to my uncle in July.  

I hope to have my dad's cell phone, so I can make plans and let people know where I am going to be when... or where I should be... haha, most of you know I am always late where ever I go... so just expect that.   you have waited 5 months to see me, what's another hour going to make a difference, because I am sure I will be late.

Well I hope all of you are doing well in Illinois.  Things here in Alaska are good.  It is starting to look and FEEL more like winter here.  Okay, so it has looked like winter for months now, but it is even more white now then before.  The cold weather has come to stay I think.  But as long as I dress warm, and I am not to lazy to get dressed to go outside, I will stay warm.

I want to also thank everyone for all of their support.  You have made it possible for me to survive these past 5 months away from the people I love so much.  I don't think it would have been possible without all of the support from home.

Miss you all so much, see you soon.

Lots of love from Alaska.  :)

Love Ash  :)

COLDEST DAY!!! so far.....

Well, 

I guess since it December it is time to start getting cold.  Today is the coldest day it has been here so far for me.  The temperature itself is -22, and the windchill temp is -51.  Yes, you are reading that right and I typed it right, -51 with the wind.  

I have only been outside long enough to go from my apartment to the school, which is right across the street.  About a 35 second walk.  Maybe it was a little faster today.  

We will see what it feels like when I go for a longer walk to the post office this afternoon.  Of course then I will have more clothes on, and my parka.  I will try to get a picture of myself in the weather.  

Here is a website that shows all of the weather details for AKP.

http://www.wunderground.com/US/AK/Anaktuvuk_Pass.html

Hope you are all staying warm in IL.

Miss you so much, see you soon.

Less than 21 days until I am in IL!!!!

Love 

Ash

THANK YOU

I want to thank everyone for the great Birthday wishes.  It was very very hard to be happy and try to celebrate my birthday being so far away from family and friends.  But the emails, care packages, blog posts and phone calls made it easier.  

With my family my birthday has always been a big thing, maybe because I am the youngest?  Maybe because I am loved, or maybe because I am spoiled.... maybe a combination of all three....

Anyway, I just wanted to send a big thank you for all the love....

THANK YOU!!!!!!!  :)   :)   :)

Have a great week!

Lots of love from Alaska.  :)

My Birthday

25 years ago today, 11/22/1983 at around 1:44 in the afternoon, Ashley Marie Groves entered this world to Terry and Brenda.  With sisters Amber and Lisa.......  WOW

Well I am now celebrating my 25th birthday in Alaska.  I knew this would happen, I just wasn't sure what it would be like.  

So far not too bad.  I was able to celebrate with my students on Thursday and Friday.  So that was a lot of fun.  

All week I have been receiving care packages from family and friends at home.  Which is always great.  I have received GREAT things, that I need and love.  Thank you so much for everyone who has sent package, cards, emails, and phone calls.  It really makes it easier to celebrate my birthday 3000 miles away from home.

Right now I am sitting in my class, which hopefully will only last about 4 hours instead of 7.  

After class, I am going to go home and relax.  I know when I left my house this morning I already had 2 phone calls on my answering machine, so it seems like I will prolly be returning calls.

I also want to thank my sister Amber for her dedication to my birthday on her blog.  She is the best sister I could ask for.  I know she misses me, but just think I will be home on Dec 23rd!!!

Lots of love from Alaska.

Received but not forgotten...

WOW, I got this package awhile back, but I forgot to blog about it....

I am so sorry Amber....

This is the great package my sister Amber and her GREAT husband Jason sent me...

OK, for those of you that dont know... I am scared of birds. They just scare me and I think they are gross.... so Jason had this great ideas a while back to give me birds as a gift... Kind of a long running joke with us... Well I gave him the birds back as a house warming gift when they moved into their house... Then somehow I got them all the way in Alaska... Kind of strange... I just forsee that they will end up back in Mattoon some how some way.... and who knows when... lol

Love you guys, thank you so much for the great package - minus the birds...

Lots of love from Alaska...

Care package and first bday gift!!!

Yesterday I got a wonderful care package from Valerie, Everett, and Josiah.  It was wonderful.  She included a lot of things for my students and thing I can bring into the classroom.  Which I know they will love.  

It is so nice to have support from home.  It really makes life away from my family and friends much easier.  

Now saying that I dont mean everyone needs to send me packages.  Just phone calls, emails, letters, and cards, it makes it all so much easier to be away from everyone I love so dearly.

I hope life is well in IL, I am sorry you have fell into the winter weather.  

Cant wait to see everyone in about 40 some days.

Have a great day, lots of love your way from Alaska.

Valerie hit a little bit of everything in this care package.  I plan to start sharing things with my students soon.  It was a great care package, and so much fun to open.  I had not idea what all was going to be in it!!
My first birthday gift.  I really thought about waiting to open in on my birthday next weekend, but....I couldnt.  I opened it....

It was this awesome candle, that smells great.  I love candles, it is now on the center of my table.  thank you so much to the Kitchen family.  Everything in the package was great, and very appreciated.  It will all be used well in Alaska.

Great weekend in Fairbanks

Hey everyone,

I  made it back to the village from Fairbanks.  It was a very good weekend.  We did a lot of fun stuff.  Kerri, Colby, Charlie, Teresa and myself were all able to go out and get a nice dinner.  We were also able to get some shopping done.  

Kerri and I took some time to do some sight seeing.  We crammed a lot into a little time.

We were schedule to leave Fairbanks early Friday evening, however we missed our flight.  No ones fault, it was just the way things happened.  It worked out night though, because we were able to catch another dinner out and have a few drinks.  

Then we headed to Barrow on Saturday morning for a lifeguard training.  We all passed and then caught our flight Saturday evening out of Barrow.  Arrived in Fairbanks, did our grocery shopping.  Then I went to bed, I was exhausted.  We were up early and headed to the airport early Sunday morning to return to the village.

It was a nice weekend, and nice to get out for awhile.  I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here are a few.

I hope you enjoy them...

miss you all, lots of love from Alaska.

Here is a picture from the bush plane out of the village.  It was a clear sunny day when we flew out, so I was able to get a few pictures of the mountains and ground below.
Here is Fairbanks from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks Campus.  Kerri and I went to the campus for a little while on Friday.
We also visited the museum on the campus, which was very nice.  I absolutly loved it.  I could have been there for hours....  I just thought this was awesome that is said Alaska or Bust, and that is what I decided to name my blog.  Very cute!!  I think this was about the gold rush.
Here is the entrance of the museum and me with a HUGE Brown bear behind me...  very very very big brown bear.

This was an awesome totem poll outside the museum.  It looked really cool in the snow.  

Fairbanks BABY!!

YEAH, I am so excited I leave for Fairbanks Thursday at 2:30.  We will be hanging out in Fairbanks Thursday evening and most of the day Friday. Then we leave Friday evening for Barrow, and have our lifeguard training on Saturday.  Then head back to Fairbanks Saturday evening, and have another evening in Fairbanks!!!  I am so hyped up to get out and have a little break.

I was really stressed about the lifeguard training, but it sounds pretty easy, I think I will be able to do it.  I do think the swimming has really helped prepare me though.

I plan to get lots of pictures from my trip, so I will post them as soon as I can.

Hope everyone in Illinois has a good weekend.

love of love from Alaska.

wow, October is over...

It just amazes me how fast time is going.  It seems like it was just August.  Now it is November.  Which this is my favorite month, so lets hope it doesnt fly by as fast as the others.  

I had a great October.  I have accomplished a lot in October, and now I am eager to see what November will bring.

We had a great Halloween up here in Alaska.  The community had a costume contest at the school for all ages, it was great.  Kerri and I of course dressed up and went.  As well as many of the other teachers.  My students were so cute!

Then we handed out candy at my apartment to trick or treaters.  It was fun.  we still have candy left over though, so that is not cool, because I know I will eat it.  I think I am just going to take it to school, out of sight out of mind right.... haha

Other than that, thursday night Kerri and I were bored and panted Zoey's toenails.  It was so cute.  She just laid there and let us paint them.  

Also on Thursday I celebrated Halloween with all of my students.  We had a blast.

I have so pictures from these events, I hope you enjoy them!

Lots of love from Alaska.

Zoey's nails all painted!!!  Very cute, we used Chrome purple!
Zoey laying so still while we were painting her nails.  She is a great dog.  there is noway King would have let me paint his toenails, although I may try it when I come home.  :)
My Jr. High boys having a popcorn eating contest.  They are so funny.  There was popcorn all over the floor.  But it was very very funny.
My 2nd Graders with their halloween presents.  Thank you Aunt Vicki for the cups, pencils, erasers and spiders, they loved them.  And I had enough for all of my elementary students!!  :)
Me and Kerri at the halloween costume contest.  i am a baby ready for bed.  I had on my pajamas, my cardinals blanket Amber made me last year for Christmas, my teddy bear Allen and Stacy gave me for graduation, my Winnie the pooh bath robe and my slippers.  To top it all off I had my hair in pig tails, which everyone told me looked so cute.  

Kerri was a life guard.  She had her suit on, flip flops, a life saver and a whistle.  We were so cute, and we had lots of fun.  We didnt win, but we still had lots of fun.

SUNDAY

OK, I know this is my 3rd post for the day.  BUT I hope you will get a couple good laughs out of this.... 

So I was walking to the school and I tripped over the snow.  I mean seriously... we have had like a foot of snow, and I now trip.  And it was not like a drift or I had to step over something I was just walking and tripped.  WOW, that  is just amazing to me.  And of course Kerri was there when I tripped, granted I didnt fall, but still I tripped and had to stumble to catch myself and Kerri says, "watch out for that white stuff, its kind of tricky".  It was just so hilarious, and for those of you who know the real me.  I am sure it got a laugh of picturing me walking and tripping over the snow....

OK, next....  please, make sure you are not in a public place to laugh at this...

I have lived in my apartment for over 2 and a half months now... And the bathroom, well yeah, thats a place I am in daily.  you know to use it, shower, use the sink... all that fun stuff.

Tonight when I was getting out of the shower, I noticed something with my mirror....

I just realized it was a cabinet.  I have never looked at it that closely before, or even tried to open it.  but i now know it opens and it is a cabinet.  WOW, who really lives somewhere this long and does not notice that they have a cabinet behind their mirror...

Well I am happy now, I have a place to store everything that is on my sink....  :)

I hope you enjoyed me sharing the funny things from my weekend.

Love ya