About Us

Posted by livingoutsideofthebox on Nov 1, 2011 in About Us, Alaska Life |

We don’t like being put in boxes. We never have, and we never will!

We’re not saying everyone should live outside of boxes. In fact, we understand that most people feel comfortable and safest in boxes with defined edges, defined capacities, and defined outcomes.

But for the rest of us…there is a big world out there…and there are too many things to accomplish.

Our life may not be the life for others, but it is the life for us!

Our adventures started back during the turn of the 21st century when Jared was trading stocks full time, just before the stock market crashed. After losing all of his money, Jared began looking for work. He picked up a summer job in Anchorage, Alaska driving large tourist motorcoaches for a cruise line, and he explored the beautiful corners of Alaska and Northwest Canada. The next summer he requested to be based out of Skagway, Alaska–a tiny town at the top of the Southeast panhandle.

Meanwhile, I (Alisa) was in college studying musical theatre performance, and my roommate begged me to go to an audition with her as moral support. I went to the audition with no interest in the gig, until the director offered me the job (instead of the roommate). A few months later I found myself in the last frontier, performing in a small theatrical production about the Klondike Gold Rush in Skagway, Alaska. I was hooked. But not to the theater.

Alaska spoke to me. And I listened.

Jared first spotted me doing the Can-Can dance for the “Days of ’98 Show” and to make a long story short, we were married about a year later. We returned to Alaska to stake our gold claim together.

Jared continued to drive tour buses, and I began exploring the world of retail management. One day, as I was talking to a business-owner friend, I said, “I’ve always dreamed of opening up my own store.” The friends’ simple response was, “Well, why don’t you?” He might as well have hit me over the head with a shovel. “Hmm….I’ve never thought of that.”

Everyone dreams and aspires, and yet how many of us DO? Why was it such a wakeup call to have someone tell me that I should simply do what I want to do?

We welcomed a beautiful baby girl into our lives after 2 years of marriage, and four weeks later we began building a new retail store from scratch. That summer we opened a Polish Pottery store in a small location off the main shopping street, Broadway, in Skagway. We kept eying the larger retail locations on Broadway, but were scared silly by the rent. And who wouldn’t be? $50,000-$170,000 for a retail location (that you could only operate 5 months of the year) was enough to make anyone quiver in their boots!

Meanwhile, nearby store owners with a location on Broadway decided to go on a weekend trip to Juneau. They closed their store for a few days and covered the windows with sheets. After 4 or 5 days without returning, the landlord got suspicious and opened up the door…the store was empty. They had skipped town.

Our world was flipped upside down when we wiggled our way into a double lease, took over the new prime retail location, and ensnared ourselves in a wicked cycle of working for the landlord. For the next 5 five summers we slaved away doing a job we thought we loved. And I would be lying if I said we didn’t love it! We loved the growth that we experienced. We loved the first-hand experience of building something from nothing, and the personal growth that came from overcoming challenges.

We also loved living in Alaska! Sure, our summer home was a small travel trailer without popouts that we shared with our (then) 2 children. We learned that life isn’t about big houses and mortgages and granite counter tops. Our next door neighbors were RVing work campers that had traveled throughout North America, and they shared amazing experiences with us.

Sure, our typical work day was 12 hours, and we returned home in time simply to feed the kids, put them to bed, and then fall exhausted into deep slumber (after spending an hour or two doing additional work on the computer). But we learned so much! We got a first class degree in business management and operations!

Sure, we never made a dime, but it was fun, we lived in a beautiful location, and we were convinced some day we would manage to get ahead! Who cared if we were no longer able to escape the daily grind and enjoy the great outdoors and unmatched beauty of Alaska? Well, we did mind…but we tried not to think about it.

“Someday we will arrive,” we told ourselves. “Someday things would work out for us.”

We met some of the most wonderful and caring people in Alaska. Many of them were seasonal (summer) “locals.” Each summer we’d return to catch up with friends, and learn what amazing places they had been, and what amazing experiences they had had! Some had been teaching surfing lessons all winter in South America, or attending yoga retreats in Hawaii. Others had been volunteering in orphanages, or spent the winter laying on the beach in Cozumel. It opened our minds to the world!

Us? Well, we were hard-core. We saved our dollars and lived as cheap as we could. The first winter we were in business we moved in with my parents in hometown of Topeka, Kansas and tried our hand at crafts shows (a flop) and mall kiosks (worse). The next few winters we lived in Eastern Washington, while my husband returned to school and we plugged away on our winter business work (catching up on accounting that we neglected each summer and preparing orders for the coming summer). We perhaps escaped to one movie each winter, and if we were lucky, we’d get a dinner invitation or two. Wow, we had a blast (can you sense the sarcasm?).

That second winter in Washington we decided it was time to make a change. We had shopped online to find the RV of choice, and we sold most of our belongings in an effort to rid ourselves of the baggage that kept us tied down. We planned to spend our usual summer in Alaska, and then go RVing to Texas that coming winter.

But then we were reminded of an experience at our cash register a few years previous:

An elderly, but very chipper and sharp, woman stepped up to the register to make a purchase. As I began to ring up her items, I asked her the question I asked almost all of our customers. “Where are you from?” “Mexico,” she replied. I looked at her inquisitively. After all, she was clearly American, and didn’t look an ounce Mexican. I urged her to tell me the details, and she leapt into an explanation about how she retired to a small Mexican village with her husband. Her children thought they were nuts until they arrived south of the border for a visit. They immediately realized the appeal, and also began to make plans to move there, as well. She told me about the grand lifestyle she enjoyed with maids, gardeners, fresh produce, great friends, and all at a fraction of the cost of her former neighbors still living in California. She signed the guest book “Ajijic, Mexico” and told me I had to look it up.

So, amidst our plans to RV, we turned to each other and said, “What if?” We returned to our computers and began to do research on Ajijic, Lake Chapala, and the neighboring areas of Guadalajara. The web pages beckoned to us.They begged us to come. They oozed of warmth, love, and freedom. And we were sold. After all, we could drive all the way down to Mexico, live there for 4 months, and return on the normal (minimal) winter budget!

We gave it our all in our store that summer, and as soon as October rolled around we packed up our van and drove the 5,000 mile trip South, down to Central Mexico. We found a rental house online, made some new friends via blogs (thank goodness for the internet), and enrolled our 3 1/2 year old in a bilingual preschool. Within the first two weeks of arriving, we had several dinner invites and had made many wonderful, lasting friends.

It was the winter we dreamed of.

We explored so many different areas, and absorbed the Mexican culture as best we could. Of course, we did our normal winter work, too…but in the warmth and sunshine instead of holed up in an apartment in snowy Eastern Washington!

Sadly, we had to go back to work. We returned to Alaska refreshed and energized, but part of our hearts were left behind in Mexico (as well as half of our van’s back seat…there simply wasn’t room with all of the products we purchased in Mexico for our store)! Of course we had full intentions of returning to Mexico the next winter, “unless our world fell apart,” we told our friends.

That summer business was down for most, but we fared well. We were learning so much each year, and were simply getting better at doing our business. But we wanted to renegotiate our lease…so…after 5 years, we finally looked at the numbers, and unattached ourselves from emotion. The numbers were clear. We weren’t getting anywhere, except for into more debt.

The next day we met with our landlord and told him we were done. He tried to find a way to make it work for us, offered to lower our rent, and even offered his general managers’ help to evaluate our costs and help us reduce our expenses. We looked at each other and wondered, “How can we lower expenses when our purchases are already minimal and always second-hand, we don’t eat out, and we don’t spend money on entertainment or babysitters?” No, it was a final decision. Our wonderful landlord (also a mentor and father-like figure) then wished us luck and bid us on our way (of course he kept our very hefty security deposit–after all–it was still business).

So, we made the decision to escape the rat race, and moved forward with faith. At this same time we were given the opportunity to become sales reps for the best-selling product from our store. We used all of the sky miles we had saved up over the 5 years of business purchases, and took a two week business trip to Hawaii without children. It was not a pleasure trip–in fact, quite the opposite (I was pregnant with our 3rd and throwing up every meal on the roadside). We packed our suitcases with sleeping bags, a tent and we even spent a night or two in our rental car. We searched high and low throughout the islands for a fitting business for the product, and came home with only one new account.

But we did not lose sight of the goal. Six months after our trip to Hawaii, we managed to convince the dream business in Hawaii to give our product a try. We also began to move forward with plans to develop our own wholesale jewelry product line, and we invested in inventory and printed catalogs, etc. Six months later, that same dream Hawaii store decided to expand the other product line to all of their retail locations. My wonderful sister and her husband, as well as my parents, welcomed us into their homes for the following year as plugged away at our debt. Our wholesale jewelry line had a strong first summer, and for the first time in five years our debt was slowly beginning to melt away.

And then we moved back to Mexico…

And then the debt melted away entirely.

And then life began…outside of the box!

The Moments that added up…

Posted by livingoutsideofthebox on Oct 25, 2011 in About Us, Featured, Living in Mexico, Traveling Family Posts |

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This month’s blogging challenge from my online family travel group was to do a blog post that answers this question:

What was “The Moment” when you knew you wanted to travel or change your lifestyle?

After thinking about this project for a good three weeks, I’ve determined that perhaps there never was “THE moment”, rather an assortment of many moments that brought this realization to life.

For example, as a child I was never very attached to a single place. I was the kind of kid who literally begged my parents to move, simply because I wanted the adventure of a new home, new city, new school, etc. When I was thirteen I went to a theater camp for two weeks at a University two states away. My parents came to pick me up at the end of it, and I remember my Mom being very hurt that I didn’t really seem to care about returning home. It wasn’t that I didn’t like my home or love my family (because both were exceptional), but I really had this strong desire to do something new, meet new people, and be challenged in a new way! Some psychiatrist out there will surely say I have issues of some sort…(right?!) but the truth is that I’ve always been drawn to something outside of the norm. I’ve never liked to conform. Can’t you tell?

My parents actually did quite a bit of traveling during some of my formative years (Canada, Mexico, etc), and I remember my dad returning from a trip to Russia, and sharing stories and photos that had me chomping at the bit. I was born to get out. In high school I found myself drawn to many of the exchange students. I felt that I had an ability to communicate well with foreigners, even when their English wasn’t developed and I certainly couldn’t speak their language. I guess you might say that I learned to speak simply, pantomime if necessary, and adjust my overall communication for foreigners without even thinking about it or trying hard (I am naturally a very high speed speaker that even my family has a difficult time understanding).

Next, when I was in college I determined that I would be open to the doors that opened in front of me. I was a theater major, and was often auditioning for shows. I wasn’t the type that went into an audition dead-set on making it in the show…as if my whole life depended on it (as some drama people tend to do!). I simply prayed that I would do my best, and that if it was the right opportunity I would be given the role. Yes, this was a step of faith…but I do believe in God, and I do believe in faith, and I do believe that God directs us when we strive to do what is right.

It was one fateful day spring day in 2002 that my college roommate announced she was going to an audition, and she desperately wanted some support (in the form of an audition-companion). I had no interest…but in the end she won. Long story short…we went to the audition and I got the job (and she didn’t). I called my parents to announce that I was going to Alaska that summer to do a theater production as a Can Can dancer (yes, really). “What?! That’s great! We’ve always wanted to go to Alaska…we’ll have to come see you!” My parents were always supportive like that (well, almost always)!

That summer Alaska changed me profoundly…it changed my desires and goals in life, and it helped me connect to an entirely different mentality. I learned there that material possessions are insignificant, and that relationships and my spirituality should be the focus in life. It was in Alaska that I met my husband, and we were married the following year. Our goals and life outlooks aligned, and we were so grateful to find each other. We returned to Alaska for two more summers, and explored many of the the roads-less-traveled throughout Alaska and the Yukon Territory.

We did so much exploring and absolutely loved every inch! I ditched performance and turned my focus to business and business management. On summer 3 of being married, my husband and I had our first child and simultaneously opened our first retail store in Alaska.

Our explorations of Alaska stopped immediately. We were swamped with work, and spent ridiculous hours at the stores. We were challenged to the extreme, and learned first-hand about the world business. We met tourists from all over the world, and associated with “seasonal Alaskans” who lived in Alaska in the summers, and traveled the world during the winters. Meeting other travelers opened our eyes to the possibilities of an alternative life plan…one that included discovery, growth, and adventures!

One day, a tourist walked into our store who was visiting from her home in Mexico. She was clearly an American retiree, so I insisted an explanation as to why she ended up in Mexico. She told us all about the area she lived, the beautiful weather, laid back lifestyle, and low cost of living. She signed our guestbook with her name and city, and encouraged us to look it up in the future. She walked away, and I immediately Googled the name of the city in Central Mexico that she had named: Ajijic.

We asked ourselves, “Why not go somewhere more fun in the winter?” Then we started dreaming big. We looked at Costa Rica, Belize, and some other far-off places. My husband and I had always spent our winters in cold climates…Kansas, Utah, and mostly Washington. We began to look at the cost of living expenses in the winter, and evaluated how miserable we were stuck inside while it snowed outside. So we began looking more seriously at some exotic winter locations such as Costa Rica, we realized the expenses would be too much. UGH. We couldn’t afford it, after all! We ditched the plan, and started looking for an alternative.

We were living comfortably in a travel trailer in the summers in Alaska, living among full-time RV’ers (and workampers). So, naturally we began to consider the possibilities of RVing in the winter months! We even tried to reserve a campsite in a beach town in Texas (without success–they were booked!), and we had picked out the trailer of our dreams.

During the winter of 2008 (spent in Washington), we began to list almost everything we owned on Craigslist. Some of the items were admittedly hard to let go of, but if it didn’t fit in our trailer we decided we didn’t need it. I said goodbye to my 70′s Kitchen Aid mixer, most of our decorative accessories, and some wedding presents. We took photos of some hard-to-lose items, as an alternative to keeping them forever! Item after item walked out our door, and with it, a feeling of freedom began to emerge. Without all of this “junk” tying us down…we were becoming free to pursue a lifestyle on our terms. We wouldn’t have to worry about where we would store all of those kitchen chairs, the king size mattress, the baby crib, etc. Freedom!

We began to pack what was left our lives to return to Alaska for the summer. One of the last nights in our apartment, the thought struck me again…”What was the town in Mexico that the lady in our store told us about?” I dug out the old guestbook, and we decided to take another look. Quick online searches led us to find affordable rental houses listed online, and we thankfully found a blog from another American couple who had been raising their young family in Ajijic. We contacted the couple, and found ourselves switching gears entirely. Why had we gotten so distracted by all the other destinations, that we had forgotten about close and easy Mexico?! It was decided…GAME CHANGE…we were going to Mexico!

That winter was the best of our lives, thus far. Our first week in town, we had more dinner invitations than we had received in 5 winters combined in US locales. For once we did not have seasonal depression, we enjoyed beautiful sunny skies every day, our daughter was happily attending school and learning Spanish, and we began many beautiful friendships that weren’t strained by the stresses of the American lifestyle (i.e. We didn’t hear excuses such as “Sorry we couldn’t get together…we’ve just been so busy with work, school, the kid’s activities, etc”). Instead, our new Mexican friends asked us why we hadn’t dropped by more often, and spent more time in their homes. “Umm…I guess as an American we tend to wait to be asked to visit a person’s home.” “REALLY?” they replied. They couldn’t believe this was true.

Sadly, the time came that we had to return to Alaska. We bid our friends goodbye, and assured them we would return. After all, we’d left behind some important things…such as one of the back seats of our van (it just wouldn’t fit with all of the Mexican products we bought to resell in our store in Alaska!). We were excited to return to Alaska, in reality, but disappointed to leave behind the ever-perfect weather on Lake Chapala. It was a rough summer in Alaska. We had opened a second store, and hired our first employee. Tourist numbers had decreased, and we determined we needed to evaluate our numbers and perhaps renegotiate our rent. We sat down one Sunday evening and ran the numbers…then asked ourselves, “Why are we in business? We work our rears off, but we can’t get ahead…and it isn’t going to get better.” One day we had plans to live this lifestyle forever (Alaska store in the summers, Mexico in the winters), and the next day we were telling our landlord we were done. Completely done.

It was a very quick decision to change our life path forever…but we could feel that it is was the right decision for us, and we had to act immediately. There was no turning back…just moving forward in faith. We repeated the process of selling off everything we owned (this time in Alaska), the products, the price stickers, the baby gear, the extra towels, etc. It took another year of living with family, and working to sell off both of our travel trailers (long story…we had 2 by then), and even to get rid of all of our products we still owned.

It was hard to let so many things go…especially at below what they were worth. But in the end it was absolutely worth it. Selling off everything we owned lifted off the weights that held us down, not only physically, but financially and emotionally.

Sixteen months after closing our business doors in Alaska, we opened the doors to our new rental home in Ajijic, Mexico. We plugged ourselves back into the lifestyle that encourages family interaction and relationships with friends. It is a country where people do not carry iPhones on which they are constantly texting, where the children aren’t glued to video games and crap television, and the teenagers don’t walk around with ear buds in their ears 24/7. It is a country where living a healthy lifestyle and eating a healthy diet is not only possible, but extremely affordable! It is a country where people are genuinely concerned for the welfare of others and constantly offer assistance wherever they see a need. It is a country where people work for their food, humbly accepting or creating a job so they will be able to provide for their families. It is a country that is highly under-valued and under-appreciated. It is a country where my children will learn that not everyone needs to live in a picture-perfect home with a white picket fence, and an immaculately decorated interior. It is a country where my children will learn that just because people do things a different way does not make it any lesser than another way. Mexico is a country that I am happy to call my home-base.

While no single moment brought us to this point…it is at this moment that everything has aligned for us to enjoy the life we have always dreamed of.

The next adventure begins here!