The Sickmiller Express

This has been one long month. One looooooong month. I can't wait for May. I don't have too many exciting things happening in May but I don't think it could get much worse. I'm so stressed and I don't consider myself a stressful person (as in full of stress not one who causes stress, either way though). A college friend is coming out to the area at the end of May so we'll get to do some camping and he might come up to Silverton for a night so I can't wait for that.

The train starts up next weekend and I'm excited for the town to fill up with people again. Locals think I'm a bit mad for wanting the rush of people and supposedly I'll change my mind by the end of the season. For now though, I'm excited.

ALSO for the finale of things I'm looking forward too. I just got an email confirmation from my parents. They have bought plane tickets and will be coming out in the beginning of June. CAN'T WAIT for that. YAY.

The last few days? Bought a bed, went and picked it up in Grand Junction (longest day ever), then got sick and missed three days of work. Decided it was time to head to warmer pastures and ended up at Chaco Culture National Park near Nageezi, NM. It was our first time visiting New Mexico and was well worth it.

The park was very isolated and we spent a good 8 miles bouncing along a dirt road to get to the gate. Before that dirt road there was a sign that said the campground: FULL. Uh oh. We didn't spend too much time worrying about it though because the sign was so far away from the actual entrance to the park that I wouldn't imagine anyone would go and change it during the day. We headed straight to the campground (it was technically outside the park limits), grabbed a sign in envelope, and started scouring the sites. While looking someone alerted us that they were leaving and we could park outside their spot and wait for them. Yay! It was one of the neatest campgrounds we've seen in a NP. Our site was awesome, the perfect place to sit around a fire and appreciate the park. We didn't do any real hiking because I was still feeling kind of lousy but since it is a culture park a lot of the features didn't require too much walking. Here are a few pics for your enjoyment! (Click to enlarge)

If you only want to look at a few make sure you choose 'Pueblo Bonito from the inside' and 'Fajada Butte'. Those are the best two for getting an idea of the park as a whole.

Not much going on this weekend. I've been looking forward to it after the last two weeks. We were VERY busy two weeks ago and this last week has just been generally a little stressful. My plans for the day? Do some sewing, play Mario and Sonic Olympics and then on to dinner and our Netflix movie.

In a panic to not let a stain set in my jeans I treated them with Tide and then threw them into the already in-use washing machine. What did I find when I went to do another load the next day? Our cell phone. In the washing machine. I don't do things like this! I have yelled that about 4 times since then. I opened it up, took out the battery, and laid it in front of the stove for the last two days. I pushed the power button this morning and the lovely little gadget started right up! YAY.

I bet in the next few days we'll see a comment from my mom saying that she was the first person I called. She's right. She's free to call because it's Verizon to Verizon. The only other person who I know that has Verizon would have been at work at that time. As a teacher. Unable to answer her phone. That had nothing to do with the choice to call my mom though, I promise.

I realize it is pretty late at night and Stef is probably sleeping but maybe she'll see it tomorrow. Love you!

This is going to be a long week I think. We just got home from a town meeting and we both had pretty long days at work. Tomorrow night is the candidates' forum for those who are running for mayor and town board. Voting will be on April 1. Exciting. Again another meeting for me on Wednesday and Adam has at least one more this week.

We have been house hunting for the last few months. Keeping our ears open around town and it's been quite a process. There are only so many rentals around town and there is quite the demand, it seems to be all about who you know/being in the right place at the right time. Which is both extremely discouraging and invigorating, obviously depending on if you know the right people or get word quickly. So far we seem to know the right people, kind of. We have a few leads, none of which are perfect. The biggest factors for Adam and I are price and location. Space isn't too much of an issue. I would also kind of like to have a washer and dryer. You would be surprised how much those requirements limit us. Price through the winter is a huge consideration and you really just can't take into account the monthly rent but also how well insulated and what kind of heating method is used. I am constantly thinking about moving and it's exhausting.

We went to Durango on Saturday because I was a delegate for San Juan County, sent to vote for the 59th and 6th judicial districts. It was very interesting and a great way to continue learning about the whole voting process in Colorado. While in Durango we took some food to-go to the park and enjoyed a warm afternoon in the sun. I suggest never leaving Silverton again. It's slightly hard to go somewhere and see signs of spring. I have come to think that spring means muddy snow potholes, I had tried to forget that it usually means plants and flowers start changing and the weather teases you by reminding you of summer weather. As we drove back up the mountain the snow grew and grew. Like a visual representation of the length of time it'll take us to get to summer. All that being said we are trying to plan an April/May vacation. I'm proposing a drive to the Pacific. I want to hit the road again, like last summer, but only for one week this time. This also stems from watching a tv show about hot dog stands last night and feeling an urge to get to the closest featured stand. Pink's in LA. I never thought I'd get adam to agree to go near LA but I think a promise of the ocean just might do it. He's never seen it and I think it's just the right time.

So, who knew this was a chick flick? Not me. I thought the movie would be about a single dad raising his kids. And that would be it. It's romantical. It's also listed as a comedy, and while funny at parts it had a sad overtone to it.

That being said I really enjoyed this movie. His family is a bit whimsical and I loved it. Who knew you could get that many people in room excited about charades? Ok, I might have known that. We used to play a lot of charades in Macedonia. Anya and Noell you better be reading this and reminiscing.

I would definitely recommend it and give it two stars. My rating system is out of two. Five stars leaves way to much middle ground. I either lean towards liking it or not. Maybe I should do three. 1- don't watch it, 2-eh, watch if you will, 3- go watch it. Ok no, I'm sticking with two stars.

As a bit of background I have taken a film class and spent a quarter analyzing films. It was a Spanish class so maybe I should write my reviews in Spanish. You would think that would come into play as a movie watcher, but it doesn't. I liked to be entertained. I know the angles, the colors, music and everything else greatly affects the film and the response of the audience but I don't pay enough attention to comment on those things. I generally have favorite scenes but my stars are given by how I feel at the end of the movie. I rarely want to watch a film twice and it takes a lot for Adam and I to sit down when we get our Netflix movies, we're never 'in the mood'. Oh and I'm ALWAYS looking for my favorite movie. I constantly get my hopes up and then am not blown over by the movie. That's how I do things.

The most watched movies of my life include:
Hoosiers (this is easily number one)
Goonies (this is what I watched as a kid, it didn't really cross over into adulthood)
You've Got Mail (for some reason this is a go-to for me. I put it on a lot when I'm doing other things around the house. It has nice sounds in it. You'd think I would just put on the soundtrack, which I do own, oh well)

The movies I most recently really enjoyed (emphasis on really enjoyed not on recently):
Pan's Labyrinth
Volver
Dan In Real Life

As some of you may have noticed I started putting up the movies we are watching on Netflix and the books I am currently reading over there on the right. I've thought about doing reviews here on the website but I never have much more to say than 'it was good', 'I liked it', or 'it wasn't any good'. We recently watched Elizabeth: The Golden Age. I liked the costumes and the story was interesting enough. It was definitely one of my movie picks. You can tell that it was one of my choices because the average American has heard of it. It's not some obscure Swedish movie that instigates an obsession for teardrop trailers.

Anyway, today we got Dan in Real Life. I put this on my queue when it was still in the theater, that's to say it is a highly anticipated movie in the Sickmiller household. We probably won't watch it until this weekend. I'll let you know how it is If you're lucky it might even be as good as the Elizabeth review.

So the day before I left to go back to Ohio we started moving our office out of my bosses house and into his truck service station. When I got back it was pretty much moved and I just had to organize (yay!). Our new office is maybe 3 times bigger and soooo much brighter. It also great to be near all the other employees. Here are a couple of photos:



When I look out the window on a sunny day I pretty much get blinded because the snow is so bright. I have makeshift newspaper curtains up right now. That'll be one nice thing about the snow melting away.




I'm not 100% settled in but I'm getting there. They are working on a break room and a new bathroom all on the same floor. I love it!

In my spare time (almost every day) I like to browse etsy.com. I love sorting through all the shops and seeing everything that people create. I enjoy crafting and mostly spend my time quilting. I also love to dream about the stuff that I could make if I had the tools. I want to woodwork, make jewelry, design t-shirts, work with felt, paint, embroider, make clothes etc. Basically I want to do it all. Browsing through all these amazing things really brightens my day, especially when we are mired in snow and the etsy shop is starting to feature spring things.

There are a ton of really neat features. You can search by color, title, material, location (so you can help support people in your area), by category, and more. I always read the shop profile because I find it interesting to read about the people behind the shops.

Here are a few of my favorite items.

These beautiful earrings are from a designer in Maine who calls her shop Sojourn Curiosities. I love the shape and the color. Adam got me something from etsy for my birthday and the transaction was smooth and the packaging was great. It's a wonderful way to support people out there trying to be creative for a living.




I have been drawn towards all things nest related. The other day I did a search for the word nest and went through all the pages. I fell in love with this ring from the Starry Designs shop. So go, browse and be happy.

Thanks for all the condolences and birthday wishes. Adam and I have got the flu and are now slowly recovering. We plan on leaving Ohio early Saturday morning to return home.

Don't order potato chips when you live at 9,218 ft. Or if you do, be ready to east three bags right off the bat.



Well, they ARE delicious.

Every time it snows I think wow, I've never seen this much snow before, and then it just keeps coming. I keep taking pictures and then it keeps getting better! It's beautiful out right now and it looks like things are finally tapering down. The high for Saturday just might be 32 and then 31 on Sunday. I am really looking forward to having a nice gorgeous weekend. We didn't get any outdoor activity in this last weekend so I'll be ready for some this weekend.

Whatever happened to Pushing Daisies? Is it affected by the writers strike? I miss it. Maybe I'll watch some re-run episodes tonight. Oh wait, tonight is the caucus. I don't think it'll last long like some can. We're doing a straw poll. Should I admit that I haven't heard of a straw poll before? Well, I just did.


UPDATE: 8:29
Apparently a straw poll doesn't involve straw but rather.... our arms.
The votes are in for San Juan County:
2 John Edwards
2 noncommitals
8 Hillary Clinton
18 Barack Obama

Fun Fact: Had a certain unnamed someone NOT turned 18 recently I would've been the youngest one at the Democratic Caucus tonight.

While home for the holidays my family set about the task of going through my grandparent's house. My grandfather moved into an assisted living facility and my brother was in the process of trying to move into Grandpa's house. Before he could move in, my family and aunt Carolyn had to sort through their things. I chose a lot of things based on specific memories that I had of being in their house and brought them back to Colorado. I also chose a few things I had never seen before but that I really liked. The photo above shows an oval dish that we found in the kitchen. I don't ever remember it being used but I liked the pattern and thought maybe I could find some matching pieces some day. A few weeks ago I was planning a dinner for friends when I thought it would be nice to have matching serving dishes so I decided to try to find them online. After about fifteen minutes I found a hostess tray and a serving bowl on Ebay Express! I had never heard of Ebay Express before and it turns out it's a site where you can list things for a set price, no auction. So I started yelling for Adam (he has a Paypal account) and he came to the computer and we bought them. One seller replied saying that now that he looked over the item it appeared to have some glaze crackings and asked if I still wanted it. I said yes and he put in two complimentary matching saucers. Now, I don't have any cups, but oh well. Maybe some day. I haven't been able to find any other pieces but I think these three are about all you need for serving a nice matchy match dinner.

The tablecloth was also something I brought home from their house.