happy father's day

We are so grateful today and everyday for these special guys:
Dad Killmon

Dad Mercado

Thank you both for being hard-working, generous, gentle, strong, faithful to family and really good cooks!! 

Happy Father's Day.  We love you and miss you!!

summer goals

I LOVE SUMMERRRR!!!  I especially love the flip flops, long hours of daylight, sundresses, road trips, fresh tomatoes, sweet corn, beach vacays, grillin', warm nights on the front porch, ice cream, and NOOO SCHOOOOOL!!!  Neither warm nights nor front porches exist in SF and we're having our second winter til July/August, but I'm adjusting. Back to the no school thing.  So what's a girl to do with two months off?  Some summers I've worked or taken classes, and other summers I've brushed up on the Spanish in paradise:  

It's a rough part of the job, but I suffer through it.  And there was this one summer I planned a wedding, got married, and moved across the country.  That one is not to be repeated.  Other summers I've just taken it easy at home and this summer is one of those.  But to avoid countless and mindless hours of aimless nothingness, I've found it's been good for me to set a few summer goals.  I try not to go overboard on the goals so that I can still enjoy the slower pace and the spontaneous ice cream run or lunch out or shopping adventure or Skype time or walk in the park.  In case you're not getting the hint, I'm happy to be interrupted.  

So here are the goals for this summer.  5 of my own and 5 I picked from the Summer Goals Challenge by my fellow teacher/goal-making friend, Kathy.  

Summer Goals 2011

1. Work out 5x a week.  I have all day. I have NO excuses!!!

2. Sort through recipes and make some kind of binder/organizational system (open to suggestions.)  I've got gobs of recipes sitting in a Ziploc freezer bag that I've moved from house to house for oh, 10 years?  Some recipes will be tossed and others, like Aunt Sue's Amazing Crab Dip, need a better place for easy access.  

3. Make vegetables the main dish of the meal 2x a week.  Gotta maximize on all the fresh summer veggies.  This was our first one this week:  Asian Noodle Salad, but went WAY light on the noodles.  (Had flashbacks to eating this at your house, Connie. Miss that. Miss you.) 

4. Read in a different spot other than my couch or bed once a week.  I've got some cafe spots already slated: Velo Rouge, Blue Danube,Tartine, Bazaar.  I need some outside spots. 

5.  Study 3 books of the Bible.  Starting with Hebrews.  

6. Plant herbs on our balcony.  

7.  Make some homemade ice cream (sans ice cream maker).  Gotta find a recipe.  

8. Say YES to summer dresses week.  Wear a dress/skirt everyday for a week.  I LOVE summer dresses and have too many sitting in my closet feeling unloved because of our cool weather.  Gonna try and scope out the weather forecast for a warm week or succumb to wearing lots of sweaters and leggings along with them.    

9. Take a picture every hour of a normal or fun day.

10. Make my own wedding photo book.  I want to make some kind of fun wall art/craft too, but I'm at number 10 and the photo book gets priority.  And making more than 10 goals is dangerous.  

here we go

Okay, we're starting a blog.  And by "we" I most likely mean the "Katherine" part of "we".  We'll see how this goes.  I make no promises.  
   
I avoided it for awhile because. . .
1. It's what everyone does when they get married.  
2. I didn't know what to write about, and didn't want to have 10 posts in a row about what we are eating for dinner.
3. I'm already self-absorbed enough. 
4. Hubs vetoed it.  Yes!!  Easy decision. 

With that being said, I do see how it would be helpful because. . .
1. I do want to have some kind of record of our life together: the ordinary, the exciting, the photos, and the random things to look back on and laugh at or say "Whhaaaat?!?!?!!!"
2. My mom (Hi mamacita!!) has taken on technology this year and gotten a laptop.  She looks at blogs now, and she'll enjoy looking at her daughter's blog, and I'll never see her on Facebook in this lifetime, and it'll help keep us close.   Oh and after each post she'll say: "Jerry, come look at this!" And dearest dad will get to enjoy it too (Hi dad!).  
3. The dear friends far, far away have asked: "What's life like in San Francisco? What's your apartment look like? How's married life? Are you still ALIVE!?!?!?!  (I'm BAD at long distance and we all know it!!).  Hopefully it'll answer some of those questions and help keep us close. 
4. Some local friends are doing some fun blogging stuff like this that I'd like to join in on.  So since I have a summer with next to nothing to do, I'm caving.  Maybe it'll keep us local friends close too.  =) 


So. Here we go.


Oh and the hubs isn't totally opposed to the idea anymore either, but he'll likely only be contributing by being in photos like this one: 


His hotness on our wedding day  

And the Gene we know and love

He said I have to have one with me in it