Week 4 Update

June 1, 2009

Greetings sports fans on an absolutely gorgeous day in Klemtu! The temperature is in the 70’s, the sun is shining, and a nice, cool breeze is blowing the leaves on the trees outside my window. AND it’s my day off! All in all, today couldn’t be any better (unless you all could be here to share it with me).

Week four has come to a close and it’s on to week five, which crazy enough, marks the halfway point of my time here. As I mentioned in the last blog, last Monday was my first time ever cooking fish. To answer your question you posted on the blog, Amber, I have not been formally trained in halibut cooking, but I was able to use my resources to serve up what turned out to be an almost perfect fish. I started with the internet to find out how long and what temperature to cook a fish like halibut, called my parents to confirm, and used the most essential ingredient, which is Old Bay seasoning mixed with butter, and brushed it on the halibut. I invited Brian and Mary Crumback and Tara over to share in this delightful meal, and they all agreed that it was outstanding. I share this with you not to show off (although I was quite proud of myself) but to encourage everyone who is afraid to cook fish that if I can do it, anyone can. The fact that it was caught the day before right out of the Pacific didn’t hurt either. Tim and Scott, you will also be proud to know that my brown rice turned out just right this time. That extra 25 minutes made all the difference. My company stayed for a couple hours and we had a nice conversation, then they headed home for the evening and I enjoyed the rest of my night off with some Monday night television and some reading.
Tuesday was my first weekday at the youth center without Tiffany, and I had high hopes that it would go as smoothly as the weekend. There were no problems in the afternoon, but the evening was a bit more challenging as I think the kids were starting to realize that Tiff would be gone for awhile and that I was the equivalent to a substitute teacher in school. No major problems, I just learned that I would have to be a little more forceful with them than I had been in the past. As many of you know, I struggle with confrontation and have a hard time getting kids to stop doing something they’re not supposed to be doing. With these traits, you may be wondering why I spent four months as a substitute teacher. But once I got a few of the kids to stop getting out of hand, they all seemed to settle down and I had no problems the rest of the night, and I had absolutely no problems on Wednesday.

Thursday was another day off, and like most days off I decided to cook a meal and invite some friends over. It was time for spaghetti in the meal rotation, and I invited Melody and the Crumbacks over. It had been pouring down rain all day, so I had planned on moving Thursday night soccer into the Hall, but I found out that the Hall was closed so they could set up for a birthday supper being held the next night. With no other place to play, I went ahead and cancelled the game and instead hung out with Melody awhile longer. This was apparently an unpopular choice with the kids, as I had about five of them come to my door and ask why we weren’t playing soccer. I guess they are way more hardcore then I am when it comes to playing soccer in wet, muddy sand. I promised them that we would play the next night for family fun night, and this seemed to appease them for the time being.
Friday I got an invitation to attend my first Klemtu supper. It was one of the little girl’s birthdays and the community had a big dinner to celebrate up at the Hall. There must have been 100 people there and the Hall was decked out in birthday decorations. Like many people in Klemtu, the young girl loves Elvis and so there was plenty of Elvis paraphernalia and even an Elvis cake. It was a pitch-in, so there were about eight long tables full of every kind of yummy food you could imagine. There was also a wide selection of desserts, which I had more than my fair share of. I even got to eat some ice cream, which I have been missing! After the supper, I opened up the school gymnasium for a nice game of indoor soccer. Although it was a little crowded in there, that didn’t stop the kids from having fun and we played for almost three hours. I even introduced them to a game of hand ball, which they enjoyed as well. Instead of watching a movie afterward, the older kids conned me into letting them play Rock Band for the last couple of hours, which ended up being a good thing because there were way more kids there than would have been if we had watched a movie.

I got up Saturday morning to a beautiful, sunny day, and so I went for a run down my favorite running path. I took some pictures while I was out on my run, which I have already posted for you all to see. The views are incredible! I don’t think it will be quite the same running around the trail of Bridgewater (although the trail around Bridgewater is lovely, Steve.) I then opened up the youth center for a couple of rounds of Rock Band. After eight hours of Rock Band, I headed straight home and was asleep in no time.

Sunday morning was freight morning. It was a good thing that I didn’t need much, because by the time I got there around 11:00 most of the goods were gone. As I was leaving the store, I ran into Brian Crumback and he invited me out on his boat for a cruise up the channel, which I gladly accepted! On the boat were Brian and Mary, Tara, nanny Violet, and me. It was another beautiful, sunny day and the water was so calm. We cruised out to the tip of Swindle Island and back. I was also able to see my running trail from the water and see just how far away I have been to the end of the trail. It looked like I had made it a little over halfway, but I would still have a long way to go to get to the end. I took lots of pictures and will post them soon. After a nice cruise, we came back in time for me to open up the youth center for the final round of weekend Rock Band. Later that night, Brian preached a wonderful sermon at the church that seemed to resonate with all of us. I then headed back to the youth center for movie night before ending another busy, but fun weekend.

Tiffany, Brent, and the girls got home today and I couldn’t wait to see them! I headed down to the dock with Tiff’s mom and Brent’s grandma and we waited for them to come in. It took a little longer for them to land than they had anticipated, but we didn’t mind too much because it was such a beautiful day and nice to sit out on the dock. I am so glad they are home as I have missed them so much! They have practically adopted me as a member of their family and it just wasn’t the same without them here. I have a meatloaf in the oven right now and am getting ready to head over to their house for a welcome home dinner. I better get going, but I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, and congrats to all of my teacher friends who have finished the school year!