The best part about my newest hobby is the fact that I am using completely recycled materials! The scrap yard is my new shopping-center! It’s so exhilarating, sorting through junk and getting excited over a giant spring, an army helmet, obscure nuts and bolts and just finding the inspiration with the right scrap! Generally speaking I don’t go to the scrap yard with the intent to find something specific, it’s too vast. Sometimes all the small stuff is buried by huge steal beams and industrial fans that are bigger than my car. It’s like my own version of “Where’s Waldo.”

I found with one project why these scraps are so cheap, twenty cents for each pound of steel. The re-bar branches of my coat tree took hours to sand the paint off. The lack of blood in your fingertips from hours of sanding is a bizarre feeling! And one I’ve never known before. The final feeling of a completed piece of artwork is so fulfilling, and even more so when you say, “I spent less than $2 on that moose.”

To me, this is the reincarnation of junk. To take something that is at the end of the road and maintain its shape in an interesting, creative and sometimes silly way- To strip the years of decay off and reveal an ever youthful gleaming surface- To surprise yourself at what you can accomplish when you only push it a little.

A tapastry hung form the ceiling, and orange, red and white sheets formed the walls. We put down the thickest blankets and ALL THE STUPID PILLOWS!!!!! Then, James got creative. He hung fishing line parraellel to the ceiling and hung our Christmas ornaments- red, purple, gold, blue… and then he hung snow flakes (the cutsie, hand cut ones) as well. Christmas lights lurked behind the hanging walls and the top of the tree star was placed on the ‘wall’ as well- it blinks green and blue.

It was a colorful Christmas.

Friday about three o clock we started cooking dinner, honey basted ham and roasted yams & potatoes (with fresh rosemary) and a HUGE salad. SUE would be friggin’ proud of that salad. I ended up with almost all organic produce just because we went shopping the week of, and ’twas slim pickins!

Debbie Wilcox and Joanna & Adam Rich showed up for the feast dressed to the nines. The three of us ladies consequently ended up in three different styles of black dresses and the guys proudly wore their Blue Button up’s and TIES and get this-even SPORT COATS!

We were all looking sharp, but that didn’t last long. By the time we were having EggNog and Jameson in the ‘Chill Lounge’ we’d lost the heels, ties and coats and switched into relax mode.

We had (have) lights on the house, tinsel in the living room, stockings around the fire, a Poinsettia, the center-piece of candles and ornaments, the family Menorah, but No tree- and few presents.

It was truly a Merry Christmas with great company and delicious food. It’s so hard around the holidays when we want to be with our family in Kanab and St. George, AND the family in Phoenix, and the family in Michigan and Illinois, but, I guess that is the entirety of moving away and starting up on our own. At this point in our lives, it’s fortunate we have all the things we have, a house with the capacity to hold guests, a table for all of us to sit and food to put on the table… who cares about the presents? Where the hell would I even put ‘em??

The point is, I’m Happily Humbled this year- with the presence of those we love always lingering.

Oscar is happily running laps in the back yard excited for all things winter. We have [probably] officially groomed enough Husky Hair to make a rug, or a Jorja sized sweater, or a small animal! It’s never ending- and somehow- we still love that fluffy little dog. Last Saturday snowed all day- covering the grass and out-door furniture with a fresh blanket of goose-feathers. We’re expecting snow today- but it’s just cloudy so far.

Thanksgiving looms in the air- and we’re all still undecided. We planned to be in Kanab for the Holiday but it almost seems more practical to stick around up here. It’s been months since we’ve seen the serene red hills of southern Utah and they’re taunting us to visit. All of the beloved company we miss so much awaits us in a warmer climate!

…BUT…..

…..Josh has to work early afternoon on Black Friday so, do we drive down on Thanksgiving and back again the morning after? Or is it easier to save the gas money and come on a less action-packed weekend? Not to mention the plethora of Thanksgiving Dinner Invites! Who can say yes to only one and break the others hearts?? (I know- the absence of Josh, James, Oscar and Sara is in fact, heart-breaking). Anyhow, the three- or four- of us have talked it over and to no avail!!!

WE DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO, people! So cast your votes-

Love you all- thinking of you often!!

In about thrirty minutes I’m starting my other job and Pazzo’s Deli and Esspresso Bar. When I turned in my resume the owner was thrilled to see coffee shop experience. He said,

“Well, we have this espresso bar over here, but, none of us know how to use it!”

No problemo- coffee is fun fun fun to make. PLUS I don’t have to wear heels there!

James is still on the hunt, we talked deeply about the “advertising job” and it felt more like a scam than anything else. He probably wouldn’t have gotten a pay check for four weeks.

Josh is coming up either tonight or tomorrow, something tells me he’ll be here as soon as he can to be with his sweet-heart.

Life is starting to come together up here, even though James and I both have constant dreams and sleeping realities that we haven’t moved up here yet. The mind is a tricky, tricky vice.

We shall see what’s to come next! Thanks for everyone’s support.

With love,

Sara, James & Oz-Pawz

Today has truly been a day of greatness for us. James got a job in advertising today, to my knowledge he’ll be setting up and explaining technical displays in various types of stores. One word: Salary. 

I went to two interviews today, one at an Aquarium about 10 miles away in Sandy. I was actually supposed to go tomorrow to see the “hiring assistant” but accidentally went today and OOPS met the actual manager instead. After a pleasant interview he let me walk around and see all the insane creatures there- including a shallow pool where you may PET the STING RAYS. (I didn’t touch ‘em!) As I was walking around an employee stopped to talk to me,

“You’re the girl that just interviewed with Max, right?…. He came into the office and said ‘This girl’s in… she’s a keeper!’”

She went on to tell me NOT TO STRESS, I’ll get the job. I like her already.

Then, a few hours later I was waiting at an open interview at the Cheesecake Factory and met SOMEONE FROM KANAB! I didn’t know her but she looked insanely familiar so I finally asked if maybe I had a class with her when I went to the University of Utah. NO. I asked where she was from and she said

“Oh, I’m from Kanab, a little town in Southern Utah……”

I stopped here there- BUT I’M FROM KANAB! She graduated about 5 years ago so we didn’t know each other but, I suppose I just knew that Kanabite look.

As for the interview, it seemed to go well. The manager interviewing me had the enthusiasm of koala bear but, said he’d pass my application on with a star next to ‘Server’

Meanwhile, on the home front, we’ve had guests and old friends over for giant sized movies on the living room wall. AND best of all, OSCAR HAS LEARNED TO BOB FOR APPLES in our awesome trough. I threw in about eight apples and he will take every single one out and lay it on the lawn just so carefully.

It’s official, the three of us are all so happy here. And I know Josh will be at peace in our home as well.

More pictures of the house will come soon….when I feel like it’s in SOME sort of order.

Thanks for all your support, Friends and Family. Always happy to hear from you!

X’s & O’s

Sara Ann & Oscar and James by default.

At long last Josh, James, Oscar and I are happy and proud to say WE FOUND THE PLACE!

We held a little ceremony on the hardwood floors of the living room and uttered the words all us Utahns know so well

“This is the place, this is the place.”

OK, maybe we weren’t on the floor uttering things BUT you get the idea.

Our land-lord was equally thrilled. His wife had talked to Josh on the phone and told her husband that we were the ones. The husband (Wilbert) told us his wife is “Very good at reading people, ya know? And she had good feelings about you!” Thank god, someone who still operates slightly out of the abstract. (Our kinda people).

I guess the last tenants were horrid to the house- SO the WHOLE kitchen is brand new (excluding appliances) but as a whole,

~~~We’re the first ones to break it in and make it feel like home. Lucky us- the previous tenants even ruined the carpet. SO they tore up the carpet

and refinished the skinny wood planks that have been hidden for years.~~~

Built in 1953, brand new PLUMBING and WINDOWS

This is the Place.

I’m not sure what this quality is I posses; I feel a need to be in constant motion. I’m not one of those people who is constantly busy with new projects springing up all the while, no, I am much more at peace. It’s my brain that craves information, analyzation, whatever. I over-think and rethink everything that enters my brain, or so it seems. I refuse to believe these terms carry a derogatory tone because I do not feel it is in bad taste to think things through. Shakespeare’s plays would’ve been shit without the double meanings and the twisted, well developed characters. So I ask, what is wrong? Why am I socially prohibited from figuring things out?                                                                                                 And there-in lies the true problem.
It seems to me thinking has becoming over-rated. Knowledge is in slow decline, giving way to stupidity. Proof is everywhere, look at any given idol of Western Civilization, the women are expected to be ditsy and men seem to be incoherent. Giving women the excuse to be  completely conceded and men the excuse to be completely detached.
Well I REFUSE. I don’t want any friends, one sex or another, who cannot hold an intelligent conversation. Even with my more “intelligent” friends I find our conversations are saturated with popular culture, holding on to views given to us instead of found by us. What is the state of youth? I want to wave a hand in front of some faces, snap my fingers behind their ears, grab them by their shoulders and shake their brains into activation.
What does it say about me that I don’t get along with anyone in my age bracket? I can’t even stand to party with them! I refuse to subject myself to idiocracy that has replaced democracy, I refuse to watch slap-stick comedy instead of intellectually stimulating entertainment. And, I will not apologize. I REFUSE. Sometimes I honestly feel sick to be a part of something in such a decline… but the decline isn’t what bothers me, it’s the lack of passion, the lack of fight left in the souls of the youth. “Protesting doesn’t do a thing” Well it did, once, when people cared.
So now, as it seems, we’ll let them deteriorate. What else can we do? We the people with knowledge, with feelings, with OPTIONS will accept the reality of the television generation; Let them rot, let them become massively obese and even more depressed. Let us, the truth-seekers, the adventurous, the free-spirited take over the world. Let’s change things. We’re due for a revolution, aren’t we? Let’s do it. Let’s ask:

WHERE IS YOUR F—ING PASSION???!?

There’s been too much drama in this small area of coverage we call our daily lives. From the apartments complaining weekly about the “overwhelming” dog shit, confusing our rent, sending us threatening letters that are not applicable, and then to work- where the drama seeds from people who are so bored they’ll create any entertainment. James’ layoff was basically the icing on the cake shoving the facts in our faces that in Beautiful Flagstaff there are; Few well paying jobs, extremely high rent, and few truly great friends. Leah and Eric’s big move into the Phoenix area was also a contributing factor. I feel a little spoiled picking up and moving under such circumstances when I think of my family in Detroit, hoping for some glue to keep their city together.

It’s always sad to say goodbye, but that feeling is quickly replaced with the enticing rush of unfamiliarality. A new city, a new path, a NEW JOB! New friends as well but most importantly, two of the closest souls to me will be in fact, in my home. These last two years Josh and I have been moving this way and that, in opposite directions…[of the country!] The fact that I will be surrounded by the people who offer the most companionship and love I’ve ever known will be more than enough solace.

Tomorrow we begin the accent to Northern Utah in hopes of finding everything we’ve been looking for; a NICE rental managed by someone with a higher intellect than a third grader, possibly a job, but mostly, a vision of what’s to come.

So, with more than enough hope, a fuel for adventure and the beauty of uncertainty

we’s a movin’!

Sara Ann Sivley

You may want to cook it at 350 instead of 400, this elevation is a mysterious thing in my oven.

I guess I can attribute my first Sara Original Recipe to my old peeps at The Inn at Four-Ten, Leroux St. Deeeelisssshhhh!

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Shopping List

1 Bunch of Asparagus, lightly steamed still firm, cut into bits

Cheese-Colby Jack.   >You can also add a tarter cheese on the top.

About 6-8 eggs

Milk but Cream will make it fluffier.

Artichoke hearts (bottled/canned), sliced.   >You can get seasoned hearts in bottles.

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I used a square pan, but circles are more… “proper” [For G-Ma Marge's Sake]

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, grease pan with stick butter.

Chop asparagus already steamed or steam it in pieces, layer in bottom of pan.

Add some grated cheese -this keeps all the pieces together so add a little extra.

Whisk your eggs, milk/cream, salt, pepper any other seasonings and pour over the asparagus.

Add diced artichoke hearts

A little extra cheese

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Cook approximately 20 minutes or until it’s firm to a little oven-mitten shake.

Count on some extra fluffage that may fall!

Add any delicious veggies of your own and let me know.

Currently reading a passed-on book, Marge probably gave it to Sue who gave it to me. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, a story written most elequently about the hard endured time served by unfortunate Chinese women in the mid to late 1800′s. What a horrible experience living must have been! All throughout the writing it seems you can feel the heartache of all generations of women who have no say, no opinions, and generally, not much of a future.

I feel humbled though, all the sudden keeping up with my household chores isn’t so bad, considering the way technology has made doing such a part time activity. I don’t have to wash every dish with hauled in water, sparing every drop, laundry hardly consists of scrubbing…. it’s interesting; How lazy and how spoiled we’ve become.

I guess, overall, my mood today is one of great respect and fulfillment to the life I lead (outside of certain department stores). No matter what happens I have decided to reject the typical American ideals that work is life, it’s altogether too depressing. My happiness, my joy, my love comes from, and is directed towards the people, (and puppies) I’ve found along this journey.

So, at least for the day, Thanks for making my life rich as you, reader, have surely done. In one way or another you have influenced the person I am- and today I like that very much.

Sara Ann W. Sivley