The News...

Whew...now that I am done all that tagging and such, I can get back to the news...

I just did 2 craft fairs...Bet you didnt know I was so crafty eh? Well, its Christmas money...or more like gas money right now.

Jim hit a deer in the jeep...nothing to major, but scared him a bit. The jeep is fine...the deer we cannot find.

Jim was just called to the bishopric. 2nd in command. Scarey. We dont feel like we are old enough to be in this calling. I say we, because guess who has to play Jims secretary. Did you call ____, Dont for get ______, Please be on time, ect, ect, ect. Its exciting. I am still YW president too. We will see how it goes for a while.

Janel and I have started making wreaths, its fun, messy and gets us in the mood for christmas. I am sure by the end of this, we will hate christmas and everything green. But for now, we have 14 orders to fill. And we havent even advertised yet.

Isabelle has a new infatuation with the nose. Mostly her nose. I was getting ready for a craft fair the other night and Isabelle was REALLY excited about a bag of pom-poms that I had. So I figured...what the heck, she can play with them with the understanding that they did not go in the mouth. Later in the evening, she had her finger in her nose....nothing unusual. so I grabbed it and gave her a play nibble on her nose, only to jump back in disgust. Ugh, she had something there! Poor thing, so I look...ITS A POM-POM IN HER NOSE!!! AHHHHHH. I hadn't taken into consideration that we might be hitting the phase of putting things in her NOSE! So, I pull it out. No crisis. I go grocery shopping leaving Jim home with Isabellle. I come home to find Jim sitting in the chair, a little mellow. Whats up? He had to pin Isabelle down and remove ANOTHER POM-POM from the kids nose. This time with tweezers! YIKES. she had pushed it WAY up there. I dont know if I am ready for toddler-hood.



Isabelle fell asleep to a good book... I just had to take a picture!

Tagged Part 2

Interesting things about me? Gee wiz lindsay, this is a killer. I am going to invent a tag immunity.
Luckly its only 6....

6. I am addicted to dancing with the stars. I think it is because secretly, I wish I was a dancer. I lack grace. Therefore I ski and play soccer. Both activities require minimal amounts of grace.

5. I check my email about 3,000 times a day. ha-ha, maybe not that many, but a ton. I am not sure why. Its like everytime I walk past my computer I have to check. Someone may have emailed me.

4. In all the crazy things that I have ever done...Climbing (ice and rock), skiing, jumping off bridges, years and years of soccer, A little mountain biking for a while. My worst injury ever was a broken pinky! How lame is that. I guess I should be grateful. But I am by far the lamest one when it comes to showing off scars and telling stories about horrible injuries.

3. I sing in the car. Loud too. And whats even better is...I think that I sound pretty good.

2. We have a weird family number thing in the Stanley family. It is 27. Let me show you. My dads birthday is the 2nd (of april) My moms, the 7th (2,7). 2 plus 7 equals 9... which is my birthday. The 9th of the 2nd month. My brothers birthday is the 27th of the 7th month. Crazy huh.

1. I hate to be jumped. Like someone hides around the corner and jumps out. It sets off the alarm in me and I go nuts on whoever did it. Jim has survived a number of beatings because he tried to Jump me and I just snapped. I smacked some poor teenager at church because he jumped out of a classroom at me. I just dont like to be jumped. I think it stems from my brother hiding in my closet one night when we were younger and scaring me to death. I didnt beat him that night, but boy I wanted to. I got him back though...he got up to pee in the middle of the night, and I climbed into his bed. He never even noticed till I grabbed him and he just about hit the ceiling...ahhh, that was great. I think he checked his blankets every night for a while to make sure no one was hiding in them.

So there you have it..a few interesting things about me that you may have not known before.....thank goodness it was only 6.

Tagged?

OK, Thanks Lindsey for the tag....er, not really. But here is the first of 2.

Jobs: I could write a novel. I am the queen of different summer jobs and of having at least 2 jobs going all the time. But lets start from the beginning.

High school-
Ski shop: I beg for this job as soon as I was old enough to get a job. I worked at Eaton Mountain (er...hill) I ran the rental and ski shop. It was a dirty, cold, tiny shop but it was all mine. I worked there for three winters. There were some very good times at the shop and at that mountain

Entrance Gate to the Skowhegan state fair: only lasted a week, but when you play soccer three times a week all summer, its hard to get a job.

College-
Archeology "do whatever they ask you to" person: I scrubbed dirt off bones and bit of clay by the HOUR. Not the most thrilling job. I did get to do alittle field work, but never turned up anything to fantastic. Just shovel and sift, shovel and sift.

SKI COACH: started coaching alpine racing at Kents Hill winter 2000. I am a classic cast of "those who can, do and those who cant, teach" I raced in high school, and wasnt anything fantastic and I certainly wasnt going to race in college. But I love to coach and I am actually not to bad at it. This was a great job. I still have managed to coach every winter (except the one I was HUGE with Isabelle)

Painted houses: Worked for college Pro painted houses. One of the best jobs that I still look back and laugh because we had so much fun. It was hard work, and I was exausted every day, but I loved the crew I had, I love being outdoors and I love painting. A perfect combination!

Red Oak Sports: You all remember that store, no?....thats because its now out of business. I pestered this guy for so long till he gave me a job. I sold camping, climbing and hiking gear. I dont think I made any money because I got such good deals that we always bought stuff there. when they went out of business...Jim cleaned house and we now outfit most of our friends on any expedition.

Computer tech at UMF- the night shift: I have no idea how I got this job. people brought in thier computers and I usually said..hmmm, I dont know, I will have someone look at it in the morning.

Pizza joint (whom will remain nameless...) It was so awful, I didnt last long. I quit after 3 weeks. gross, annoying and will never eat there again.

Mowing lawns for a summer: I worked for Kents Hill School mowing lawns and doing some gardening. I thought I would really like it..mow lawns, get a tan how bad could it be. Then there was the week that I pushed mowed for 27 hours.....not so fun.

Making Ice at the Ice rink here in town: Cold, Cold, Cold. We had a fire hose an thats how we made ice all night. nothing like being cold and wet. but it was easy and it was money and Jim and I got to work together. You do what you have to do. I would often come home from ski practice and go right to the rink to make ice.

Hostess at the Homestead: I loved this job, seat people, chat and make drinks. It was really alot of fun. I was sad when we moved

Post- College:

LL Bean phone sales: SNORE...this was the most boring job ever. I only lasted around a month. I was really just in it for the discount and by the end of it, the discount couldnt even keep me there (thank you micah, for letting me use yours!)

Assistant to the Financial and community relations director: This started out as a temp. job. She was tough to work for, but I really worked hard and earned her respect. She went through alot of assistants and was pumped when I accepted the full time position that she offered me. I stayed 9 months till we moved back up north.

I recently got my Real Estates license and I am now selling houses. I love it. I think I am a bit nosey so I like to see other peoples houses and imagine what I would do to it if it were my house.

OK, so there you have it. My jobs. There are a few I left out. like, cleaning peoples houses, Cleaning the Church, working at a gift shop in both Farmington and in Portland. I also still coach skiiing, but for Mt. Abram now (kents hill is to far away) So anyway, you get the idea.

The Potty Chronicles

Ode to the potty. So we hit a MAJOR milestone this week. No, not the 165 hyper, overly dressed children that graced our doorstep, begging for candy, or the first minor snowfall that left my car covered in a sheet of thick frozen ice. Our major milestone was the poop. And not just any poop. The poop, that made it into the potty. Yes folks. Isabelle went on the potty for the first time Saturday night and boy are we excited about it. Never in my entire life had I pictured my self sitting on the floor facing my...nearly 2 year old...and cheering for every toot, grunt and eventually poop that made it into that potty. We are talking some serious cheering. Cheering that I think Isabelle wasnt laughing at the fact that she was pooping on the pot, but that mom was being so ridiculous about it her pooping on the pot. Yippee for the blessed potty. We have passed through the threshold of diaperhood and are heading in the direction of real under-roo's and potties. Oh happy day.


Halloween night, Isabelle and I went to a few of the neighbors for trick or treating. She was so cute, how could I not parade her down the road in her bee costume. This is a face full of smarties..Isabelles favorite.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Here are a few pictures of our halloween activities!
Jim and Isabelle carving a pumpkin.

Isabelle was really into the "gunk" on the inside and spreading the seeds everywhere
















And here is our busy bee!



Now, I must get back to decorating the porch and getting the candy ready...last year we had 130 kids in 2 hours. We had to shut off all the lights because we ran out of candy. We will see how many we have this year!!!

Mama?

Toddlers never cease to amaze me. Isabelle has learned the power of NO, as in NO I dont want juice, No I dont want to go to bed and the ever favorite, No I dont want a diaper change. She has learned to sing...we cant quite figure out what song we are singing...but she belts it out anyway. She has learned that if she wakes up sad at night, and cries Mama...mom will come running and rock us back to sleep. We had a particullary diffcult night a few nights ago (Usually she sleeps beautifully through the night, so when she does get up, I tend to go in and check). She would wake up sad, and I would go in and rock her and cover her (and her bears) back up and off to sleep she would go. Then it takes me 45 minutes to go back to sleep, only to soon to be called back into Isabelles room with tears and more snuggling. So morning finally comes, Isabelle is in a great mood and is singing in her room, playing with her bears in bed. I feel like I haven't slept...oh wait, I didnt sleep. I go to her room and what does she say...DADDA! pointing out the door. DADDA down! (she wants to go down stairs and see if Dad is still here). I ask, can I get a good morning kiss?...the answer, NO! She seems to forgotten her nightly saviour and is more interested in Dad this morning. I give up, what does Mom have to do to get alittle recognition around here.



A little tribute to the Red Soxs making it to the World Series....

This is a sign

So I woke up the other morning to find the temperature at a balmy 31.5 degrees. And then it struck me. My gosh we are done with summer and have moved straight onto winter. I had been enjoying the color of the leaves, the cheers of the soccer games and the lack of bugs. But all of these are signs. They are signs for the onset of snow, they are signs of cold, runny noses, buying oil, buying winter jackets and the need for cleaning out the gardens. There is quite a list of "to-do's" with the arrival of winter and with theses few signs and a toddler running around I have suddenly come to the realization that I am painfully behind. I need to get the house ready, I need to start christmas shopping, I need to be ready for ski pre-season with includes a 6 mile run (YIKES) ...sugarloaf has snow on it...... I need, I need, I need.... more time.



And what post wouldnt be complete with out alittle Isabelle..who is also enjoying the change in seasons. Isabelle is a going to start her own baby yoga class.

What the....?

So, I know you have all experienced it before. You buy toys from the small and zippy to the large and plastic, hoping that your child will love and cherish and hopefully spend a few blissful moments entertaining themselves. My child however (like many of yours, I'm sure) prefers milk jug caps, boxes and lately the dryer. Yep, thats right, the dryer. I was washing a few dishes at the sink and heard a strange noise. Like someone trying to blow into a screen. I peeked around the corner to see where it was coming from. I see no Isabelle, but I still hear the noise. Then as I walk past the dryer...there she is. Perched inside the drying blowing into the holes at the back of the dryer. What the heck! She grinned with her accomplishment of climbing into the drying and finding such exciting treasures at the back (apparently, I had been holding out on her!) and proceed to blow into the holes some more. Ahh, the adventures of a toddler.


Recently Pop-pop made us a new toy box. This was quickly emptied and replaced with "blankie, mick" and a few books to read. What pop-pop didnt know, was that he was making a new reading corner.

Why buy toys when you have a box of packing peanuts????


Is this normal? Do normal children really enjoy clear glass plates this much..no joke, this was entertaining for at least a half hour! Not only for her, but the faces were pretty funny for us too!

About Us

So here is a bit about us. Jim and I have been married 6 years. We are outdoor enthusiest, camping, hiking, climbing and kayaking. 2 years ago we decided to embark on the next greatest adventure...parenthood. Isabelle Rose was born in the middle of the night, January 31st, in the middle of a snowstorm. The last year and a half has been a whirlwind of of diapers, baby food and oversized plastic toys. Jim and I have traded in our lightweight camping gear for a 20 year old pop-up camper and an offroading stroller. We couldnt be more satisfied. This blog is a dedication to this crazy little adventure we have embarked on. So be prepared for a few good chuckles.

Testing...1...2....3

This is a classic case of..everyone else is doing it, so why don't I. In all seriousness, we have tons of family and friends that live everywhere but here. So we figured, what the heck, lets try this and see if we cant keep people posted on the little happenings of our household, which seem to range from the boring to the bazaar.