My migration back to the mainland was fueled by the notion that my children should have the opportunity to experience traditional activities that island-life rarely afforded. So, spinning the globe before the start of the 1996 school year, Long Island, NY and Vermont were the options. As soon as the plane landed in Burlington, there was no doubt in my mind that, on the other side of Mt. Mansfield, “green acres” was the life for me!

In the fall of 1996, my son, Blake, entered third grade, and my daughter, Quincey, started first grade at Stowe Elementary School. Nina, born in St. Lucia and a toddler at the time, is now in 7th Grade at Stowe Middle School. Blake graduated from Stowe High in 2006, while Quincey has spent her high school years in Stowe, St. John, and Tilton School in New Hampshire where she will graduate in 2008. Our activities in Stowe have ranged from Little League and ballet lessons, to ski racing, snowboarding, basketball and soccer, plus school musicals, chorus, and band. Stowe also has an amazing indoor pool facility, The Swimming Hole, where Quincey trained and competed with the Stowe Swimmers, and where I taught springboard diving (17 years after I had my last bounce on a diving board as a nationally ranked collegiate diver!). We live on a country-like three acres only a mile from Stowe Village, and we can cross-country ski from our backyard. The small barn houses a stubborn pony (Tanya) and a very affectionate donkey (Tootsie); our great neighbors Nat and Caren let us pasture some of their 40 acres in the summer, and the pilgrimage of walking "the girls" up the driveway to their meadow can be pretty comical (no surprise that a donkey loses forward momentum when tempted by roadside dandelions).

There is a p.s. to our family story...there's more to come! Sebastian and I were married in 2006, and baby Conrad was born in March, 2007. Conrad already loves the outdoors - he goes pretty much wherever we do. He had his first x-country ski in the frontpack when he was 3 weeks old and spends as much time outdoors as possible (like his dad). Stowe is the kind of place where your infant is welcome at gallery openings, the Mozart festival, and on Realtor Open House tours...and where nearly everyone in town knows his name...what a great place to raise a child!

It's been 11 years since our flock came north and we have become altogether winterized. I used to look quizzically at the early season skiers and riders hiking to get a few runs, wondering why they couldn’t wait for the lifts to open…but I know now that there will be some great new memory made on the mountain each year, whether it's trekking with our dog, Calypso, in two feet of snow to the top of Mansfield for the greatest sled ride on earth, or hiking over the Nose in the spring to bask in the late afternoon sun (with a breathtaking view of Lake Champlain in the distance), and then skiing down Nosedive long after the lifts have stopped running. Aspire to becoming a ski-racer (though you are over 40)? Join the Tuesday ski-bum races and borrow someone's lycra GS suit for the finals...you may not ever catch up to the fastest, but you will look and feel the part, and you will have made another great memory in Stowe.

More work history:

My only diversion from real estate was a turn as Associate Director of Admissions at New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier. After three years at NECI, I missed being a daily part of the community in Stowe, and decided that a return to my real estate roots was the right choice. I worked from 1999 as a sales agent with McKee Real Estate (now Sotheby's), and in 2003, I opened my own firm so that I could put my creative energy and management skills to work. This marks my sixteenth year as a REALTOR; after three years on the Board of Directors, I was very proud to have served the Lamoille Area Board of Realtors as President in 2004.

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