Merry Christmas!

So christmas is over. I am really enjoying having all the family home. we are pretty much just lying around. It is great. Harold got me Momma Mia, Into the woods and The five pennies(you know with Danny Kaye). All of them are great movies. I just have to fight for the t.v. My kids think they are all super lame movies.
I think all in all the kids are happy with what they got. Logan is my new favorite child because he asked Santa for tomatoes. He totally got them. I love it when they make my job easy.

The Christmas Toy shop!

The cast.
After the play.
Miranda and 3 other girls from the branch.
During the play.
Hold that pose.


Miranda is in a community play right now. I went last night. Here are some pictures of her. Someday I really want to be in a play. It looks like fun. In my younger years I always wanted to be in 7 brides for 7 brothers. Not now, I would just be one of the fat moms in it and not even get a cute dress. Not fun. So I guess I will have to find a new play.

Besides the gas masks in the closet, life here is pretty much the same.

I have been thinking that life doesn't change much no matter where I live. Even here in South Korea it is business as usual. We have been here a year and I feel like we are finally back on track again. So this is my life in a nutshell, no matter where i live.
My kids keep me busy.
My church callings keep me stressed and fulfilled .
My house is always a mess.
My Husband is always gone( I am being dramatic). Harold, I hope you are enjoying the weather there. It snowed here today!
and..
the best part, I always find friends to party with.
Y.M.C.A.

Lets Party!

Tiffany, Darsha, And Jody way past bed time. Jody you look pretty awake. (I think she is a vampire and therefore needs no sleep.)

Aint she sweet

When my family was here I went out with my sisters and mom. I left the kids with my dad and Harold. Which is to say I left them pretty much on their own. When I came home Emma greeted me with"Come she what I did." .
I swear she did this all by herself.(I am pretty sure she learned it all from her big sister, at least the video part the rest, Hummm, I am not sure who taught her that.) Anyway Ana, here it is.

Family comes to visit.

these are silk worm larva.
Yes, You eat them.(Never again!) Juliana eating silk worm Larva
Shopping And seeing the sights.
Anna and Gwenna with the palace guards.
Mom And Dad great a pre-school class. (We don't even get that dressed up for church)
At a Korean Folk Village.
Grandma with Logan And Emma.

So Two of my sisters(Juliana & Gwenna) and my parents came to Korea for a visit. It was a surprise to me when my parents decided to come. When I left the U.S. my mom told me to go see Korea for her because she didn't think they(mom &Dad) would ever make it over. They came! My Dad 75 and my mom 71 got on a plane and came to Korea. It was a great experience for all of us. Here are some of the highlights.

Sew Much Fun!

How they get the material in the building
Need some thread?


Maybe like a million zippers
It just goes on and on and on.......................

I am ten minutes away from the fabric market here. There is a 5 story building there full of everything you need for sewing plus more. And the prices are great! I get so distracted every time I go I really am not sure what all is there. I find something new every time. My heart is racing just thinking about it.
Here is the down side. I can't understand a word they say. I wish I had the gift of tongues(for purely selfish reasons). So when I go,there is a lot of hand gestures and them holding up calculators with the prices typed out for me.(I feel like such a "stupid american") I am too scared to go alone so I drag Amber along. My awesome, smart, fun, adventurous, beautiful(I hope she reads this) friend who can communicate pretty well with the locals. She even pretends to be happy even though she doesn't sew and it is probably wasted time for her. What a great friend. I need to pay her more.

Happy Halloween!

We made it through another Halloween. Randa was a hippy, Caleb a Mummy, Logan a Jedi knight( note the hair he was very proud.), and Emma was an Egyptian Princess.

Are they slowly cooking us?

So the other day I filled up the van and it came up to 50$ and I thought"only 50$ " What the heck A few years ago i would have sat down and cried. So I was thinking about that story you hear about the frog in the pot. You know the one. Something about slowly cooking the frog without it being aware. In a few years will we even blink at a 90 $ tank of gas. Or maybe will run on corn by then.

Be proud of your burnt toast!

That is what I got from the relief society Broadcast this year. It was a great eye opener for me. We are too tough on ourselves. Sure there is room for improvement but we women need to chill. I loved the broadcast and the company I went with. Thanks for a fun day.(yes, in Korea it took us all day, most of that day in the car. The time went pretty fast because we were solving all the worlds problems) So my sisters,next time you serve up slop for dinner, be proud. It is good enough.

Homecoming

Brief Miranda update~ I went to homecoming on Saturday and had a ball!! My dress, in my opinion, was absolutly gorgeous!!!! I have some pictures on my other blog if you want to go look. There are also pictures of Gender Bender day... an awesome day at school were everybody dressed up as the opposite gender...the boys did a whole lot better job then the girls it was really funny :D

Miranda
p.s. mom wants me to clear up that those boys in the back are NOT our dates, they just brought all of us flowers they are like our bros!!

Improper use of chopsticks!

So this is how my kids use chopsticks. Does this mean we watch to much Harry Potter? Or is it just common sense that a chopstick looks more like a wand the an eating utensil? I don't know.
I m also sad to say that I heard them shouting at least two of the unforgivable curses. Is nothing sacred? Man I love these kids but if I got a letter from Hogwarts tomorrow I would pack their trunks and put them on a train.

Happy Birthday Harold Dewain Stanley Jr.

So guess who turns 36 today.
The man with 4 first names.
Happy Birthday Harold! Thanks for coloring our lives.
If anyone was wondering, Yes we know how lucky we are to have him as a friend,father,and husband.

How are you enriched?

So I was thinking this week of all the enrichment activities our little branch has. I do knitting(badly we are making a dish cloth, mine looks like a Rabbi's hat), Book club, and a Scripture Study Class(out of the preach my gospel manual). I took a class on digital scrap booking, and we have also had a few lunch get togethers.
So it made me wonder what you are all doing? Anyone feeling super enriched. What are your favorite activities?
I think we need classes like ..."Oh no, my home teachers are coming where do I hide my mess". or "How to say no classes"(is that just me?) or "surviving sacrament meeting with kids, with your pride( the righteous kind) still intact". Man those little suckers are humbling. Is the secret cough syrup? I swear if it is I am going to try it. or" How to turn a bag of tatter tots into a dinner everyone will love". or " Dump the guilt" classes, or "How to feel sexy in sweatpants"the list goes on and on.
What do you all do?

Blond hair in korea.

Emma did some modeling a few weeks back. They Just approach you and say"can she model for us" They just like the hair. Sad because korean kids are so cute. We met them on post and the took us to the studio and took her picture for three hours. Gave us a 150$ and then it was over. Just type in minicamp.net. Find the one you can't read that is in Korean. You should see her pic on the top. More flashy ones below. It was kinda fun.

Dr. Fish

So on labor day we went to a water park. It was fun because it was pretty empty since it was an American holiday not Korean. The coolest part was the Dr. Fish. You pay like 3 $ And then you can put your feet in the pool. The fish eat your dead skin. It was really quite strange. More intense then I expected. If you ever get the chance try it. Although don't pay for your kids. Emma wouldn't even put her feet in and I think she is still having nightmares from seeing us do it.

My friends around the World!!!!

Hey all we certainly found a lot of people surfing the net we haven't heard from in awhile, but not all of you have contact info for us to respond to. Please if you don't have a blog leave an email so we can stay in touch. Love you all and hope we see even more people around the Stanley Portkey.

Love Darsha

What the crap is that?

Jodi, You win!!(I'll get your prize to you soon) They are piggy banks. Atleast I think they are. Sorry for the photos quality they were taken by a 12 year old. I was the one driving. We were laughing so hard and just glad to have a camera.

You might be in Korea if you see this on your way to work...............

I really wonder what the fatality rate is here for motorcycle drivers. How is that safe? I am amazed how much they can pack on a motorcycle.

Stanley's at mt. Sorak

We had the opportunity to go on a Marriage retreat last week(yes, we had to take the kids) with Harold's unit. We had a nice couple of days in a nice hotel right near Mt. Sorak. They feed us some interesting food and we saw some sites. It was all paid for. All we had to do is sit through a 3 hour class taught by the unit chaplain. It was a little painful I'll admit, but still worth the reward.
We had a lot of fun. It was great to see some of Korea. Plus now our marriage is saved!


Darsha and kids in front of Street Vendor
Logan deep in mediation at the Buddhist temple.
Miranda and Emma(who is missing 3 front teeth) on top of Mt.Sorak

Harold and Caleb at the Buddhist TempleIts Ginormous!!!! Ahhhhhh Buddha.

Holy Crap, People read my blog!!

So I have no idea what I am doing with this blog. As you can tell. I can't even get pictures on(some thing wrong with my computer not me). I guess I better kick it up a notch. You are all expert bloggers. I miss you all.

Nurture Or Nature

I have been thinking about this allot lately. I have four kids and I feel like i have raised them all the same but they are all so different. For instance the other day i was trying to figure out a way to break some bad news to the kids. Harold was going to stay for 2 extra weeks in the Philippians. I took the opportunity when we were all in the car I tried to sound up beat as I spilled the news.

What I got in return were 4 very different reactions to the same news. Miranda just got quiet, dealing with the sad news by herself. Caleb was instantly mad."dad needs to quit this job. He needs to just come home." Logan says cheerfully "It's O.K., it just gives us longer to get his welcome home poster done. Emma sits back and cries. Softly at first and then louder if we don't seem to hear. She needs us to feel her pain.

I know they are all sad about this news and all show it in there own way. I just struck me how different they all are. Some personality traits we learn, but i know some we must just be born with.

Miranda

Hi!! I'm Miranda... the oldest Stanley child. I'm the rebelious teen:D...JK well partially... im not that rebelious, but I am a teen!!

To give a short intro on me... I'm a little.... well loud, but my family has learn to live with it!!

My mom really wanted me to post on here so I'm obeying her wishes!! This blog is kinda cool cause it documents were we've been and what we've done. I've been lucky enough to be part of this military family... I've seen things that some people haven't seen in their whole lives and I feel really lucky for it :D... although to my parents some times I may complain!!

I think that my favorite place to live so far would be Germany. We travled sooo much there it was amazing!

Blog u later!!

From the Phillipines

Well all I am currently in the Phillipines, trying to fly as much as i can and waiting to head back to the family in Korea. Its really nice here everyone speaks english and they are really friendly. The only down side is the poverty, i was talking to a Filipino gentlemen today and he said their country had the worst economy in Asia, and I believe it. I live in the posh hotel and drive through some of the worst slums i've ever seen. I'll include a couple pictures of everything at the end. I've gotten to visit the Temple and its beautiful surrounded by the city clutter its very serene, i know they all are but its still wonderfull. What else I'm flying a BE20 a twin engine turbo prop for the army we do deliveries of personnel and supplies and help with relief throughout the island. Its good but I sure do miss the Fam.

Here's missin everyone

Harold