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.