What the...SNOW?!!

A first for me...and perhaps the town...

It is snowing...in May...while the tourists are here!

So, sure...we get snow on the mountains in May...but in TOWN?!!!

IT is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cold today! I am dying...and I am WET! It is raining/snowing!!! Heck...it's SLUSHING!

Lara is headed up here with her hubby, Greg, next week. Lara...bring your winter coat!!! You're going to FREEZE!!!

Study: Stay-at-Home Mom Worth Nearly $117,000 a Year

I guess that I feel I can lay claim on this...because I am a stay-at-home mom half the year. Now Jared would say... "Why do they give credit to all the women?" Well...honey...most Dads aren't stay-at-home dads for half the year, like you! Quite frankly, with Ella in these terrible 2's (I mean...3's!)...I would almost prefer to be at work! But with a baby like Maiya...I could be home all day, and actually feel like I've accomplished something!

Study: Stay-at-Home Mom Worth Nearly $117,000 a Year

Thursday, May 08, 2008 Associated Press

BOSTON — If a stay-at-home mom could be compensated in dollars rather than personal satisfaction and unconditional love, she'd rake in a nifty sum of nearly $117,000 a year.

That's according to a pre-Mother's Day study released Thursday by Salary.com, a Waltham, Mass.-based firm that studies workplace compensation.

The eighth annual survey calculated a mom's market value by studying pay levels for 10 job titles with duties that a typical mom performs, ranging from housekeeper and day care center teacher to van driver, psychologist and chief executive officer.

This year, the annual salary for a stay-at-home mom would be $116,805, while a working mom who also juggles an outside job would get $68,405 for her motherly duties.

One stay-at-home mom said the six-figure salary sounds a little low.

"I think a lot of people think we sit and home and have a lot of fun and don't do a lot of work," said Samantha Russell, a Fremont, N.H., mother who left her job as pastry chef to raise two boys, ages 2 and 4. "But they should try cleaning their house with little kids running around and messing it up right after them."

The biggest driver of a mom's theoretical salary is the amount of overtime pay she'd receive for working more than 40 hours a week. The 18,000 moms surveyed about their typical week reported working 94.4 hours — meaning they'd be spending more than half their working hours on overtime.

Working moms reported an average 54.6 hour "mom work week" besides the hours they spent at paying jobs.

Russell agreed her job as a stay-at-home mom is more than full-time. But she said her "job" brings intangible benefits she wouldn't enjoy in the workplace.

"The rewards aren't monetary, but it's a reward knowing that they're safe and happy," Russell said of her sons. "It's worth it all."

Driving to Alaska, remodeling, etc

Finally...here are some photos from our drive to Alaska this year. I just uploaded them on the computer, and realized that if I didn't post now...I probably wouldn't ever post them.

The lovely snow storm that we were in for almost a full day...

A moose standing by the water...

The best view on the trip...

When we arrived, we quickly started remodeling the store. In other words...we rearranged EVERYTHING, took apart all of the displays, and ripped out our carpet. We had the help of Will & Krista Kubie (from KS...here to work for the summer), and some of our landlord's staff came in to help in exchange for the carpet (heck, ya)!

One of the other more recent projects we tackled was hanging up new slatwall in our storage room, allowing us more flexibility with our shelves. We were given free slatwall from a neighboring business, and Ella had the duty of scraping off the paint (pretty easy, really...not child labor).
And here's Ella helping us drill (haha...helping?). She's on the WONDERFUL shelves my dad built for us a couple summers ago.
And Ella discovered a new mode of transportation. You should see her scooter around on this...it's hysterical!
Ella managed our late nights pretty well...most of the time...

With all that in mind...I have to admit that I am now molting, shedding, decomposing, or whatever you want to call it. It happened 4-5 months after I had Ella, too. Apparently postpartum results in my hair falling out in crazy amounts. Every time I touch my head, I pull out a whole hair ball. So, one might say..."Alisa, stop touching your hair!" If only it were that simple. Even if I DON'T touch it, I find huge hairballs on my pillows, sheets, on the floor, on my clothes, etc. I would take a photo...but you would be disgusted. When you look at my hair, you can actually see that is terribly thin (for me, at least) around the edges...and probably everywhere. The worst part about all of this is that I know what comes next: Once my hair begins to grow back, I get a lovely short tuft of hair right on my hairline on my forehead. It is just ridiculous...and results in a little fro/curl (depending on the day) right on my hairline. It takes forever to grow out. At least babies have an excuse for being bald...

Jared has reminded me that HE is working...which is definitely a polite chastisement.
So...I better get back to work!

The BIG Day...

Well...the BIG day is finally here...but it isn't quite so big...

1,200 people in town isn't quite as big as our typical summer days of 10,000 people entering our tiny town via the cruise ships. It's a quiet, nice start. In fact...I'd consider it more of a warm-up for the season. The store is presentable, although certainly not done. Half of the items aren't priced...but they're out on the shelves! The new floor looks incredible, and totally changes the feel of the store! The locals keep stopping by to tell us how much they like it. It feels classier, warmer, and just...I don't know...richer (richer in color...not money...although I'd like to think it feels richer that way, too...Let the tourists SPEND SPEND SPEND)! Just don't enter our back room. In fact, you probably won't be able to. It is stuffed to the gills! But that takes last priority...

So, it seems that our week-long of long work days has come to an end. From here on out...we will try not to work longer than 12 hours per day. Poor kids...they managed to stay at work with us until midnight (or later) almost every day this past week. For Maiya...it's no big deal...she just sleeps in her playpen. But for Ella...oh...poor girl. Yes, she has managed to take a "nap" at the store before we head home for the night. What a trooper! Seriously...is Child Services going to knock on our door? Well...come to think of it...if they went home to knock on our door...they wouldn't find us! We're at WORK! With OUR KIDS!! Until MIDNIGHT! So...perhaps we win the bad parenting award for this past week? But we'll try to turn our lives around...

Highlights of the past week?

ELLA STARTED LITTLE DIPPERS DAYCARE! WOHOOO!! Now, we should really count THAT as the BIG day of the year. That girl NEEDED some friends to play with. They have reported at daycare (and in Primary) that she is very shy and reserved. Not the Ella we know. So...perhaps she'll warm back up to her former self soon?

Jared and I had our 5th Anniversary. Don't worry...we celebrated with a kiss. Then we worked until midnight. :-) Bad timing...eh? Every year...

Hmm...so...now Jared is back with our packages from the Post Office...and it is time to get back to work. Receiving packages is like CHRISTMAS!! But with work attached...pricing, entering in the computer, displaying, cleaning, etc...

One 3-year old for sale!

For Sale

One 3-year old for sale!
One 3-year old for sale!
One crying and whining lil' 3-year old for sale!
I'm really not kidding,
So who'll start the bidding?
Do I hear a dollar?
A nickel?
A penny?
Oh, isn't there, isn't there, isn't there any
One friend who will buy this 3-year old for sale,
This crying and whining lil' 3-year old for sale?



Thank goodness for daycare. Only 2 days 'til it opens...and we're COUNTING...

Shhh...you didn't see me here!

Soo.....I am not supposed to be playing on the blog...there is a ton of work to do! Don't tell Jared I'm writing here...hahahaa....

But I wanted to let you know that we arrived safely as planned on Day #3 of our drive. We managed to hit the worst snow storm since February...although it really wasn't that bad (for me, at least...since I didn't touch the wheel as soon as that weather hit)! I will post photos later...

But since arriving a bit over a week ago, we have managed to lay down a new laminate flooring, build new displays, I have fought with printer drivers galore, and we are setting up an entirely new storage facility for our glass ornaments. There are many other projects on the list, such as installing a new small water heater for our back room, putting up humongous sheets of slatwall in our back room, so that our shelving will be more flexible (wahooo for free slatwall!), registering Ella for daycare (yay...I'm so excited for her!), receiving and pricing about 60 shipments (gasp...the sound of that is atrocious!), and clean up all of the sawdust that has covered every inch of our glass shelves and product (and we have a LOT of glass shelves)!

Oh yeah, and I need to act busy in case Jared pulls back up in the van...I'm supposed to be boxing ornaments to move to our storage :-)

I will try to post photos and stories soon, but to be honest, I don't know how much I'll get done this month, or even this summer. The nuttiness of this household is just beginning, as cruise ships begin arriving on May 5th!!

'Til then...

On the road again...to Alaska!

For the next 3 days, we will be on the road to ALASKA!! Here are some basic questions people usually ask us about this trip:

How long is the drive? Approximately 2,000 miles from Washington State. We do the drive over three days, driving about 14 hours the first day, 11 hours the next, and 7 hours the last (a nice reward on the last day)! We drive through British Columbia, up into the Yukon Territory, and then back down into Alaska. The map on the right hand shows the very tail end of Alaska (the pan handle). The road we will be taking is the upper part of the green line, and the lower half of the yellow line, as well. As soon as the yellow line reaches the path just at the upper tip of Alaska (in a pale yellow color), we head straight down across the US border in to Skagway. Skagway is at the end of the highest water inlet you can see on the map on the panhandle. Did ANY of that make sense? It's so hard to find a good map!

Isn't it still cold this time of year? Yes! We are headed back into the winter, and are expecting snow on all three days of our trip. Road conditions last year were fabulous (despite the literal 10 feet of snow on the sides of the road), but in years past we have hit some pretty nasty snow storms. We've actually done donuts in the middle of the highway before, ending up on the other side, facing the other direction. Should I have mentioned that? Oh...keep us in your prayers! We always hope for nice weather this year! I got this photo of the wild bison in April 2006.

How do you get up there? There are only two roads that take you to Alaska--The Alaska Highway, and the Cassiar Highway. Whenever possible, our road of choice is the Cassiar Highway. It is an old logging road, far west of the Alaska Highway. It is very remote, and when we get on the highway, we know we will have limited access to any types of services. There are 2 places where we can spend the night, one costs about $180, and the other $120. While the $180 "resort" is quite nice (although not what you'd expect for the money, whatsoever!), the $120 is a hole-in-the-wall. Gas stations are few and far between, and often closed this time of year. So, you fill up EVERY TIME you can!

What are the roads like? The Alaska Highway is pretty nice the entire way. It is a two-lane highway, and quite windy. You only pass through one mountain pass, and the rest is just over rolling hills with evergreens as far as the eye can see. The Cassiar Highway is not quite as nice. It is mostly paved (they make improvements every year), but there are still some gravel sections. So...are you wondering why in the world we prefer the Cassiar Highway? We choose it mostly because the scenery is more breathtaking, and it is a slight bit faster and shorter than the Alaska Highway. The photo on the right was taken just 2 miles from our home in Skagway (we live down the mountain pass those two miles, so there is usually much less snow at our place)!

Do you see a lot of wildlife? Yes, and no. It depends on the year! Three years ago we drove up in a caravan with Jared's family, and we saw a ton of wildlife! My favorite was the cow that was walking in the middle of the street. We drove up right next to him, and I have a picture of Jared looking nervously at the camera with a cow staring at him through the open window. We also saw a bear eating a carcass of some sort (he wasn't too fond of us watching, and pounded his fist at us). We've had black bears walk up to our car and smell our tire before, and we've stopped for countless amounts of Bighorn sheep (we usually just drive on by, now)! These are some of my favorite photos of wildlife I've gotten on the drive in past years.

And that's all I can think of, now. Feel free to post questions, and I'll answer them! For now, stay warm, and enjoy the coming of Spring! We expect to see Spring in Alaska in late May, but you are more than welcome to send it our way sooner!

P.S. Wish us luck with TWO kids in the van for 3 days straight!