Oh, and most of these kids aren't mine...
Without a hairstylist that I like to visit in Skagway (since there is only one choice!), I have resigned myself to chopping my hair really short before leaving for Alaska this year. This way, by the end of the summer (when 6 months have passed), it won't be so dreadfully long and impossible to deal with! Besides, shorter hair is so much easier to wash during my short-lived showers (before I run out of hot water every morning)!
Our hotel was directly on the water, and had a great swimming pool that we enjoyed each night. Unfortunately, we managed to get our usual fare of hotel rooms. We were awakened at 9am by a POUNDING above us. I thought that someone must be hanging picture
s, but it just kept going and going! I jumped out of bed and called the front desk, and was told that they were re-carpeting above us. OH...OKAY....SOO....UMM....WHAT?!! Were we just supposed to roll over and ignore the pounding directly above our room? I said, "So, what are you going to do about it?" They said, "Oh, nothing. It's routine maintenance, there's nothing we can do about it." So, hmm...how routinely do hotels re-carpet rooms when they are guests staying directly below? What lame customer service!
re-carpeting since it was a Saturday. OH...did we think wrong! They started at 6:30 am on Saturday!! I called the desk, and they said they'd look into it. I asked them not to call me back, hoping that Ella might sleep through the pounding this time. The next day at checkout, the hotel strictly denied that they were re-carpeting, and said there couldn't have been any noise. So...what the heck was that pounding that went on and on for hours? And why didn't they look into a customer complaint? Luckily, my parents stayed in a different building of the hotel, and they had a wonderful visit. I don't want to sound completely ungrateful, because other than being woken up early in the mornings (yes, 9am is super early by our clock...), it was a nice stay in a beautiful location.
rip with my parents was fabulous, overall! We loved seeing them, and Ella was absolutely smitten by her Nana and Papa! We celebrated Easter early by dying eggs, having an egg hunt in our apartment, and then rolling the eggs at the park. The Saville Family tradition is to roll the hardboiled eggs so they crash into each other, breaking them up, and making it easy to peel and cook them up at home into a Creamed Eggs over Toast meal. When we were older, we'd toss them in the air, with the goal to hit each other's eggs, and other similar egg-cracking games. It was wonderful to have the traditional meal for the first time in a loooooong time!
Ella is always on the left side, and Maiya is always on the right side. Just absurd how similar they look, huh?
How long have you and your significant other been together?
We have been married for 5 years in May! I still can't help but think about an experience 4 years ago when Jared went with me to a "girl's night out" at a friend's house (there were boys there too, watching sports in the other room). Anyways, the friend made a comment about how we were still newlyweds, and in several years we'll want breaks from one another. My response was probably a bit too sarcastic, as I noted that in several years, WE'LL still like each other. Thankfully, I am happy to say that we love being with each other all the time! And thank goodness for that...it is a huge blessing, since we are together 24-7! :-)
Who eats more?
It's about even...which is sad, considering he is a good FOOT taller than me! Truthfully, he eats more than me when we're away from home, but we eat pretty similarly portioned meals at home!
Who said "I love you" first?
Jared says, "I'm pretty sure I did, didn't I?" I said, "Hmmm...I don't remember..." I guess it all happened so quickly, perhaps we said it at the same time?! No, probably Jared...
Who is taller?
"Who isn't taller than me?" (Well said, Lara)
Who sings better?
Me, although you'd be surprised to know that Jared breaks into song on his own...
Who is smarter?
We're both smart in different ways. Jared's the logical planner, and I'm the logical... hmmm... something else? In fact, we're each so "logical," that our logic doesn't always match, and then there's a nice battle. No one ever wins, either :-) Luckily, Jared has a better memory than me, because I claim that the babies sucked every last inch of memory out of me (although Jared would argue I didn't have much of a memory to start...it is VERY selective)!
Who does the laundry?
Jared. Whew! :-)
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
We actually switch sides every 6 months, when we move to and from Alaska. In fact, we've switched several times since we've been in Washington this winter. Before Maiya was born, Jared slept closest to the door (so that'd HE'D have to deal with Ella getting out of bed, since she was making a habit of sneaking out of her room in the middle of the night!). Now I sleep closer to the door, so I can get up and get Maiya easier. That doesn't mean that I usually wake up before him, though...I seem to no longer hear babies cries...so he has to nudge me...
Who pays the bills?
Jared pays all of the credit-card-type bills, and rents (more than we should have, with the biz included). I pay all of the business bills (vendors, etc). Neither one of us would want each other's jobs!
Who mows the lawn?
Hallelujah-we don't have a lawn! Well, not hallelujah that we DON'T have a lawn...just that we don't have to MOW one!
Who cooks dinner?
Me, me, me, me...unless you want breakfast burritos. Jared's very helpful in the kitchen, though!
Who is more stubborn?
Oh gee...that's a tough one. Let's just say we have each met our match!
Who is the first to admit when they're wrong?
We are both never wrong (see previous question).
Whose parents do you see the most?
Jared's parents are 2 hours away. :-) Mine are 2 days away! :-(
Who kissed who first?
Jared! The poor guy, I teased him... Now just ask who held each other's hand first...and there's a debate that will never end...
Who proposed?
Jared! He was so sweet and took me to a memorable/significant location. I, on the other hand, was a complete snot, and told him I wouldn't get out of the car, because I didn't have hiking shoes on :-) Poor guy, why did he have to end up with a feisty one like me?
Who is more sensitive?
Jared, Jared, Jared, Jared, Jared!
Who has more friends?
Me. But it's not about quantity...it's all about quality! Okay, so truthfully I have real quality friends... ;-)
Who has more siblings?
Jared has 3. I have 4...love 'em all!
Who wears the pants?
Hmmm...maybe you should refer back to the stubbornness question. I guess you should say that we are pretty equal "business partners" in life. I guess it bleeds over from our business...
So, I'm supposed to tag some more people, but I can't remember who has already done this quiz...hmm...here goes:
Yes, it is true...I am actually posting a 2nd update this month...wowee! Maybe this time I won't write a novel!
The flights to and from Seattle went without much of a hitch. We got our own row in 3 of the 4 flights (we had layovers in Atlanta, and then in Cincinnati). However, the last flight was just miserable. After leaving our hotel at 4am Philly time (1am ours), we had an early start. The last flight was about 5 hours long, and an out-of-control 1 1/2 year old (I'm guessing) kicked the back of my seat the ENTIRE time. Geee...that mother had NO control of her child, whatsoever. And when I mean that kid KICKED my seat...and I mean she KICKED my seat! She slept for maybe 1 hour of the trip, so I got a break from it just for that long. Arghhh.... LOOONNNNGGGG flight.....
The master bedroom is the biggest we've seen (see above left), with TONS of cabinets (there are many more cabinets not pictured on the right hand side of the room). The bathroom has a nice large shower, and even a closet for a washer and dryer! Yay!! Best of all, every room has huge double-pane windows, and the kitchen even has sliding double doors! Sunshine, here we come! So...this is our plan for our Fall purchase. We have found quite a few dealers in the area, and have already begun collecting data to begin a pricing war...hehehee :)
And here's Ella with her beautiful full-size quilt from Nana (her Christmas gift)! She loves it!
So, now I REALLY need to get to work on the accounting for the business. Taxes are coming up, and I have been carefully avoiding completing this project for the past 4 1/2 months (well, actually, for a full year, if you count the last time I was completely up to date with my records)! So, don't tell Jared what I've been up to...although I'll admit he suspects my avoidance! :)
We had some fun things take place this past month. But first, a little over a month ago, on December 31st, we celebrated Jared's 30th birthday! Whoa! I married an old man, huh?! We went to his brother's house in Ephrata, Washington, for New Year's Even, and had potluck festivities with his parents, aunts, uncles, and some cousins! Of course, celebrating Jared's birthday on New Year's Eve is always fun...and we are never short of festivities!
a small Trade/Gift Show to attend there, and it was also a great excuse to see the Stegall Family. Steve Stegall is my old boss in Skagway (lives in Oregon in the winters), and he is an amazing artist who works with wood, carves fossilized ivories (wooly mammoth, and fossilized walrus ivory), and is a fabulous rock hound. His family is currently renting a home in Canby, just 30 minutes south of Portland. We stayed with them, and they treated us to some wonderful healthy home-cooked meals. They sure know how to eat right...natural, organic, and fresh! You should check out Steve's artwork on his website (http://agatheringofspirits.com/)...he is an extremely talented artist, and I love his wife, and twin teenage daughters. They used to be little girls...but they have grown into beautiful women!
way. The problem with that, is that it would cost us nearly $750 EXTRA (more than gas for a car to drive up) each way, to and from Alaska this year. We contemplated it, and decided we'd rather put that $1500 towards a larger vehicle that we could drive all the way to Alaska...and save the money in future years. So...we found an AMAZING 2001 Pontiac Montana minivan for only $4,000 (we talked the seller down!), and with less than 85,000 miles on it. (Now...trying not to stray from the order of events...I will mention that 3 weeks later we managed to sell our 1996 Saturn Wagon for $2500, which meant that upgrading to the 5-year-newer van, with HALF the miles, only cost us the $1500 that we would have thrown away taking the ferry! What a deal!)
ry...which meant that we didn't get a heck of a lot accomplished, except for in that one week! We used that last week to spend hours and hours getting orders ready for our second trade show, in Seattle. It snowed a ton that week, which is extremely unusual in Tri-Cities, Washington (lovingly referred to as the "Banana Belt of Washington" by Jared's Dad). Here is a photo of Jared trying to chip away a layer of ice under the snow on our van (Ella is to the right of the van, but very well disguised in her "snow bunny" suit)!
de road took us up a terribly snow-covered road in the mountains! Within 10 minutes the road up got so bad, we thought we might have to turn around. Jared's theory, however, was to keep going until the van could no longer keep going. I was convinced that we'd come to a standstill at any point, considering we were having a tough time going up the hill...but he managed to keep us moving for all 60 miles of that road. By the end of the road, Jared was a wreck, and I was a wreck just dealing with HIM being a wreck! The roads didn't bother me, because Jared is so capable and such a safe/cautious driver...but the roads strained his patience...and he strained mine! :) At the end of the weekend, when returning to Quincy, Snowqualmie Pass once again closed before we managed to get there. So, on the return trip, we took Steven's Pass, which was just beautiful. Here is a picture taken up there (not by us) of what the artist calls "snow blobs"...which is somewhat what all of these mountain passes looked like after the weekend! To date, Snoqualmie pass has received over 400 inches this winter! Holy cow! (I write this with a chuckle...thinking of my sister, Lara, who lives in Atlanta, and had church canceled because of a DUSTING of snow)
were at the show. Going to the trade shows is a lot of work (both physically and mentally), but is very rewarding. It seems that there are miles and miles of booths (such as these), where businesses display their wares in hopes that you will buy. We were prepared for the first year ever, and were able to hand our current vendors orders for this coming summer. They were so thankful for the organization, and so were we! We also found many new products to carry, and many possibilities. For all those of you who wonder what the heck we do all winter long (since you may find it hard to believe we do anything but sleep and watch movies), my challenge to you is that YOU should try figuring out how to spend $140,000, and YOU would be quite busy, too! We have carried over 9,000 different SKUs (that all must be entered in our POS system by hand), and have worked with over 130 vendors so far (and will likely be adding 20-30 more vendors this year). If we make a bad purchase, we end up losing...and I won't even mention accounting for all of the purchases and sales afterwards...the record-keeping involved, etc...(oh wait...I just mentioned it)!
irectly from the factory with all of our specifications of colors, and options) for well under the retail price that everyone else offers (try up to $18,000 less)! So, we'll have to sell our lovely new van in less than a year (which we can probably sell even for a profit...since we got such a steal!), and purchase a dumb passenger diesel truck (I say dumb because they eat gas even more than minivans...but what do you do?!). We are tentatively planning on driving down to Rockport, Texas, for next winter. It is right on the coast (about 30 minutes north of Corpus Christi), and has heavenly winter temperatures! Here is a photo of our future 5th wheel living room, with the exception that instead of the booth dinette set, we will get a table (with an extra leaf) and 4 chairs. It has 4 pop-outs (versus our ZERO now!). We like the interior colors in this living room, and there will be 2 bedrooms (master and a bunk/children's room in the back with 3 beds and its own entertainment center). And we'll also have a large standing glass-door shower! WOHOO!! Such a change from our miniature 1/4 size bathtub (that Jared can't stand up straight in). Although the trailer is only 4 feet longer than what we have now, having more privacy with individual rooms, and having the 4 pop-outs will probably make it feel twice the size of our current one! Something to look forward to all summer...and waiting until the fall will really make us appreciate the new amount of space we will have!
"Maiya Lynn" should be "Maiya Lyn"...of course, "Lynn" would be more normal, but she's named after Jared's mom, Marilyn, and therefore "Lyn" is the correct spelling! I'm ashamed...shouldn't a mom know how to spell her own daughter's name? Maybe she'll never notice it in her scrapbook...HAH!
Ella recently received a surprise in the mail from Nana (my mom!). .. a quilted book that illustrates the "Monkeys jumping on the bed" song. This one, however, is the "Funky Monkeys" jumping on the bed! Ella LOVES that "song" (I suppose it's more of a sing-song rhyme)...thanks Nana! Don't you love Ella's pose on the left, with the book upside down? And on the right is a picture of Ella being her goofy self. Have I ever mentioned how FUNNY she is? She has SO much personality, and she LOVES to come up with funny clothing combinations! Nana forwarded on a box of hand-me-downs from a sweet gal in Kansas who has been dressing Ella since she was 6 months old. Ella had so much fun putting on all of the new clothes...some of them are SOOO cute! So, Ella put together a goofy combo of old and new. The socks she got at Christmas from Nana (who gave her a big bag of socks that she desperately needed!), the shoes are new hand-me-downs, and too big for her now, and the warm suit she is wearing is WAY too small for her (but was great for walks and hikes in Alaska during the summers)! She was running back and forth in our apartment, saying "I'm a dinosaur!" She remembers everything...I must have called her "Barney" once in that outfit...and explained to her that he is a dinosaur. Doesn't she remind you for Barney?! So much personality!
on her doll. She puts them on, on her own, and straps them on perfectly each time. A week after this start, after I changed Maiya's diaper, I noticed Ella running to the bathroom to dump something in the trash. I went and looked in the trash, and saw that there was a PERFECTLY CLEAN diaper that she had taken off her doll, Emma, and had wrapped up, and trashed. She had it wrapped up just like Mommy & Daddy, pulling the straps tight in a ball to keep the dirty diaper closed. Suddenly I realized this wasn't the first time she had done this, and we began to have to watch the trash for clean diapers, and sneak them out when Ella wasn't looking. What a goof! Oh, and Ella is SOOO good at changing diapers. So, she is allowed to help change Maiya, and she does a very nice job. Sometimes she gets upset at Maiya, however, because Maiya's leg kick Ella away. Maiya is a very strong kicker (a future soccer player, I'm sure)!
For this picture, I had to fix the sunglasses for her, because she INSISTS that they go upside down. :::sigh::: What do you do with a 2 1/2 year old that knows more than you do? Oh, and on another funny note...we taught her to say that she is "TERRIBLE two and a half" when anyone asks! Hehehee...are we bad parents? Her 3rd birthday is in about 6 weeks, and she knows it is coming up. She looks through our family calendar on the wall, and points out the picture of her on her birthday. She has informed us that she is getting a new "Puter"...which means she is trying to convince us that is getting a new COMPUTER. Can you believe this kid?!