The weather has calmed a bit. We got a good bit of snow last night but now it is just very cold. I took this snow photo on the way to school this morning.

My book fair is in full swing. The library just looks beautiful with valentine's hanging everywhere. Of course the books are so colorful too. The kids came in today and behaved very well. This is so special for them - especially at half price. Oh, Wednesday I have invited the 20 top readers (high circulation) in middle and high school to come in for a private breakfast snack and then they will get to choose a free book. I think they'll feel pretty special.

Saturday Maretta loaned us her snow machine. She had asked Tom several times if he would like to take it one afternoon and learn to drive it. So, finally he said yes. You just worry about borrowing these things and her machine is a really nice one - heated handles, etc. Well, Tom rode with her to the dump to empty her trash and then drove it back with Maretta on back. So that apparently was all it took to learn how to drive a snow machine. Then he picked me up and we went to the dump to empty trash ourselves. I've only been out that way a couple of times. There were hundreds of black Ravens out looking for food amongst the trash bags. I had Tom stop by the cemetary on the way back (see photo). We made our way back to teacher housing and then Carmen saw us and wanted us to go pick up her mail. So there we went again. Everyone was admiring our "new" snow machine and we had to tell the story of Maretta loaning it to us several times. We finally made our way out of town. What fun! When everything is snow covered you can just drive in any direction! It was really cold with the wind hitting us - but we loved it. After about an hour of running around in all directions, we headed home for a break - which lasted long enough to get warm and redress. This time I tapped Tom on the shoulder and told him I was ready to drive. He didn't think I could. But I could, and I did, and he was really pleased Ann could drive this thing. Remember it is very hard to drive - takes a long time to learn! (Not really there's just a press thing for going and a press thing for stopping except you don't even need that to stop. It stops by itself as soon as you stop pressing the go thing.) It was loads of fun scooting over the snow. We were out for a long time. When we finally got back home, we were exhausted and had to rest. I think we will for sure get a snow machine next year.
Last week we had the Public Safety Coloring Contest winners in for lunch in the library. We invited the principal and the supt. and the security officers from the Public Safety office. I had beautiful table cloths, made flowers for the tables and the cafeteria made us a beautiful cake.
The certificates I made for them had a view of Chevak in the background - one of my "across the lake photos". It was pretty special. I am posting several photos of our snow machine trip.