SO....it was a 2-year hibernation

To be honest, I had actually forgotten about this blog. It's been over two years since I've been on here, and I'm no longer "just me". I married Charles "JR" Janis on October 10, 2008. I have a beautiful step-daughter who just recently turned 2. I'm not in the elementary at the school I teach at. I LOVE being in the 5th grade, and have such a fun time everyday! I'm going to do my best to update this as frequently as possbile, and also share pictures of me and my family. As always, I'll also be sending out monthly newsletters. But, I'll also try to have this here so that you can stay up to date on what's going on in our ministry out here on the reservation.

God bless!!

Katie

it's been a while

Wow, it's been almost two months since I've updated on here. Sorry it's taken so long! Things have been great here, busy but good!! I've been doing so much since I've come back from Christmas break, that I can't really even describe everything. We've had 8th grade activities - dances, carnivals and field trips. They have all been fun and the kids have enjoyed doing those events. I've also been doing Century 21 events after school, such as reading, science fair, yearbook and studying Washington, DC for the 8th grade GT trip. At the end of April I'm going to be taking 15 8th graders to DC for a Gifted and Talented trip. It should be a lot of fun, and really, a once in a lifetime opportunity for the kids going.

I've been really exicted about this summer. I'm going to be staying here for most of the time. I plan on going home for Jr. High camp and maybe a week afterwards. And, there's a few girls who are interested in going to camp. It should be a lot of fun! I know that they will have tons of fun and love every minute of it! I'm excited and can't wait for camp. Should be good!

I will try to update this more often. I'm sorry I've been slacking on this. Please forgive me and have a wonderful day!!

Well, I've been home for about 4 days now, and I'm just about ready to head back. But, it's fun being back. I think I've gained weight, though, since I've eaten out a lot. I now realize how much we go out to eat and stuff. Crazy! It has been nice, not having a schedule and trying to squeeze tons of stuff in. My prayer and care team had a party for me last night, so that was fun, and I got to see lots of people from church. I also got to show them pictures of the Rez and it was neat for them to see where I've been and what they've been praying for.
I'm in town until the 2nd, which will be good. I'll have more time to see people and do lunches and dinners. I'll also be here for New Year's, so that will be fun. I think I'm going to be with Jr. High leaders, and that's always fun! We play cards and other games, so much fun!
It has been kind of hard, though, coming back and trying to fit in and get back into the swing of things. It's different, here. I'm used to the country and having space and a slow paced life. But here, it's fast and things are so close together and people have gone on with their lives, while I've been off, living my own life and doing ministry, and then I come back, and try to catch up with people. It's kind of hard and stressful on me. But, it's okay. I knew that going into this. It's one of those things we talked about at MTI, so I knew about it and was ready for it, for the most part. And, it's weird, because I'm different. I'm not the same Katie Parker that left here. I think differently, I look at life differently and I live differently. It's sort of hard to explain, but anyone who has lived in another place completely different from their hometown should understand.
Well, I have 4 more days here, in good ole Indiana! I'm looking forward to the time I have left. Even though I'm ready to head back, I'm going to try to stay focused on things going on here and live life in the moment.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has a great New Year!!

Almost Christmas!

Well, it's Tuesday, and I'm here at school. I like Tuesdays, but I get bored easily. A group from the University of Colorado comes in and teaches, so it's nice to have a break, but oh well. I'm excited because they decided to cancel school on Friday! Woo-hoo! I didn't really want to come on Friday, because it would have been useless, and yeah. It will give me more time to get things ready for my dinner on Friday with the kids. I'm getting really excited about it! I've been wrapping gifts and stuffing stockings and getting recipes ready. It should be a lot of fun! I've planned for a few games, so hopefully they'll like those and have fun! I know that some of the kids are getting really excited, and they love walking into my house and looking at the gifts, especially to see how many they have. Fun times!! I'll have to take pictures and put some up here so you can see what my kids look like and see how much fun we'll have on Friday.
So, I'm flying home in 5 days. Good times! I'm excited to see everyone and I'm really excited to eat at Los Bravos, YUMMY!!! It will also be fun to share pictures and stories about things going on out here.
So, just two more days of school. This semester has flown by! It's amazing how quickly this time has gone by. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel out here, I wanted to come out and I knew that God had plans, but I just wasn't sure how slow or fast the time was going to go by. I'm glad that God has blessed this time and place. It's been really exciting! See everyone soon!!

Almost Christmas

It's Friday!! I love the weekends, and I'm so excited - and today, is a half day! So much fun! Well, this week has been sort of worthless at school. First of all, it's almost Christmas. Secondly, this week is LNI, which is the Lakota Nation Invitattional. It's held up in Rapid City and people come from all over - South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Montana and Wyoming. It's a huge event, and the main thing is the basketball tournament. It's even bigger than the state tournament. There's also a pow wow, hand games and an art show for the kids. I'm not sure if I'm going to make it, but I might try to go tonight. It just all depends.
Next Friday is when I'm having the Christmas dinner for my kids. I'm really excited! There's 12 that are invited, and hopefully all of them will be able to make it. I have most of the gifts, and I just need to finalize what I'm going to do for dinner. It's going to be a full house, and we'll be really cramped, but I think it will be a lot of fun for me and the kids! Whenever they come over and see all of the gifts and the stockings, they get really excited and start counting their gifts. It's fun to see them get excited about it!
Next week at school will be so hard to keep the kids' attention. There's hardly any kids here this week, and they won't want to come back, and they especially won't want to do work. I think I'm going to have them watch Elf on the last 3 days. I'd much rather show a movie than try to fight them all week, I don't really want to be stressed all week. I'm excited about Christmas. It should be fun to fly home and see everyone. It will be fun to see people and to hang out with them. I'm excited but I don't really want to get stressed about seeing everyone and not having time to relax. It will be lots of fun.
So, as I'm typing this out, I'm in class. My kids are taking a quiz, and every now and then I have tolook up at them and eye them. It's so funny because they are like "how do you type and not look at the keyboard?" It's funny how I can impress them with just this simple little thing. Oh funny.
Alright, well that's all for now. I'm going to try to post more often, but things just get crazy every now and then. Hope you are having a good day while reading this!

Ready for Turkey Day!

Here I am, at school, for parent-teacher conferences. It's been kind of a slow day. I've had about 12 parents come in so far, for about 15 kids. But, I've only had about 3 parents of my homeroom kids come in to get their report cards. It's been nice though, because I have been able to clean my room and organize things. And any of you who know me well, know that I tend to just throw things wherever, so today was a much needed day of cleaning.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I'm going to Rapid City to spend some time with some friends of mine and their family. It should be fun! I'm looking forward to it. However, it will be different, not being at home, eating cornbread and hashbrown caseroles and party mix. YUMMY!! I guess my family will just have to eat extra for me. I'm sure they won't mind that, at all!
This week has been crazy, but really nice. The past three nights, I've only got 11 hours of sleep. Yesterday was a rough day because the lack of sleep was catching up to me, but today I'm better, and my body might even be used to it. But, it was nice only having two days of school this week. And on Tuesdays, I only teach 8th grade because a group comes in and teaches a class called the Cirlce of Life, discussing all sorts of things from HIV/AIDS to expressing feelings and being able to communicate with people. It's a really neat class for these kids!
Last weekend I went to Rapid City to hang out with the people I'm spending Thanksgiving with. We had a great time! Shawna and I went to the mall- the first time that I had been since I moved out here. And then we went to the RamKota and played pool and then on Saturday, we went hunting. I had never been before, so it was a neat, different experience for me. I can't say that I'm much of the hunter, but now I can say that I have been deer hunting, and seen a deer that's been gutted (GROSS!!)
Well, that's all I really have for now. I'm looking forward to the break and it will be wonderful.
OK, Mr. Pence, the LA teacher just walked in and handed me a recorder, you know, like the instrument. He's giving them to all of the teachers so we can practice 4 Christmas songs and perform them for the kids before Christmas. Too much!! But I love it! As hard as it can be here, it's things like this that keep me laughing and going. Love you all!!

It's been a while

Well, it's been a while since I've posted anything. I've been SO crazy busy!! It's the last week of the trimester - yay! These past few weeks have been great, but really busy and stressful as well. We had a homecoming at school, so we had to plan everything and buy stuff, and then we had a homecoming dance. Fun times! And, each day had its own theme, so the kids really enjoyed dressing up. And this week, we had a half day yesterday for a concert, we have a half day tomorrow for our school's pow wow, and we have Friday and next Monday off. And if I could write everything that has been going on recently, I would just make everyone tired from just reading it. But, life has been good! I'm really starting to fit in here, and kids are always at my house. On the weekends, there's always kids over. For the past two weekends, I've had girls stay over. And, we play games outside, watch movies and just hang out. It's really tiring at times, but it's fun, and it gives the kids a safe place to hang out.
Well, I don't really have a whole lot to say. I feel like I should, but I don't. I'm looking forward to this weekend. We have to go to work on Monday and have meetings all day....yay! But, at least it will be somewhat relaxing, maybe.
Hope everyone is having a great week, and hopefully I'll be able to write more soon!!

Oh, and I added a picture of the Halloween carnival. Yes, I let the kids throw pies at my face, only if they paid double!