Katie's 99 in 999 (currently 55 in 555!)

Merry Christmas from Miami! Do I love Florida? Yes, yes I do.

Knitting is more authentic in a vintage lace blouse and my grandmother's necklace, surrounded by my cats. My good friend Elizabeth came down to visit this weekend!  We met up for an art festival and then she stayed the weekend in our sleepy town full of rich old folks.  After church today, she whipped out her knitting, and I pounced at the chance to get some knitting experience.  (Not literally...that would be creepy.  Although it would not be the first time I have pounced on Elizabeth.)  I've been trying to learn knitting basics from Youtube and tutorials, but that was a total failure.  For me, learning to knit is like learning algebra--don't expect me to read the chapter and figure out this nonsense on my own!  So she taught me how to knit and purl.  You can see in my tiny sample above how my stitches started out gross and gradually improved--there are few things I love more than instant results!  Seriously, practice totally bites....

Before Liz's wedding ceremony in July (see previous post), Ricky and I had some time to go into D.C.  I was eager to see the National Museum of American History--it was the only Smithsonian museum I hadn't seen, since it had been closed for renovations almost the entire time I was living in Virginia. So we finally got the chance to go!  I don't have any pictures of the inside, but I think it's just because I wasn't thinking about it and not because they weren't allowed.  You'll just have to take my word on its awesomeness.  We didn't have time to see the entire museum--I didn't realize how big it was!--but the parts we did see were absolutely fabulous.  The Museum of Natural History is still my favorite of the Smithsonians, but this one is a close second. It was SO BRIGHT outside!  Ricky's squinting because of the sun, not because he's holding my purse.  He volunteered for that job, ok? I left my sunglasses in Florida, so I had to im...

A few years ago, I had the most wonderful experience of being a summer camp counselor for a group of 16- to 18-year-old girls.  I went on to have different groups of amazing, beautiful, talented girls each week for that summer and the next, but I'll never forget how I felt on my very first day with that very first group.  Those girls changed my life! So that's the backstory.  Near the beginning of this year, I was thrilled to receive a wedding invitation from one of those fantastic ladies, but I was also sad because I was sure Ricky and I wouldn't be able to make it to Maryland for the ceremony.  Then, I was able to get the time off work (I had just finished the 60 days I needed to be officially "full-time"), but I was still sad because Ricky's internship would keep him from coming with me.  THEN, the state prosecutor that Ricky was interning for in Miami gave him the week of the 4th of July off, which just happened to be the week of Liz's wedding, so the...

Can you believe I'm actually making this post on the SAME DAY that I checked off the goal?  I can't.  I still haven't blogged about things I did over the summer, but I made my last goal the "document everything" kind so that I would ensure that I would, eventually, get them all covered. Living so close to the Everglades, Ricky and I have some pretty amazing parks and reserves nearby.  We don't take advantage of them as often as we should (read: never), but I'm always grateful to be in such a beautiful place!  One of the nearby state parks was in need of a cleanup, so our church organized a Mormon Helping Hands service day for this morning and extended an open invitation to the community.  There were hundreds of people there today!  Even FL governor Rick Scott showed up for some photo ops (with a lot of snide remarks between Ricky and myself about how he didn't do any actual work, of course).  The kick-off for the cleanup was at 7:00, but Ricky and I...

"Ricardo Jensen...& Katie!"  Aw, Jeff. :D Ricky and I got our first alumni calls from the SVU annual fund!  The funny part is that when I got called, I didn't know that Ricky had already donated, so I donated for us AGAIN.  That's how much we love our college, guys--both Ricky and I, independently, chose to give it money.  I was a caller for the annual fund, so I know the drill, and the guy who called me was awfully excited when I told him I would be paying by credit card.  (Callers get added bonuses when they get credit card donations!) Hopefully in the future our donations will be a bit more...substantial. :) Also, look at my cat!  Isn't she the cutest?

Truth be told, I'm not quite sure how Pixar movies and Atlas Shrugged beat this goal to the top of the list.  Disney World is at the top of EVERYONE'S bucket list.  If it's not on yours, you have no soul.  (Yeah, I said it!  What now?) Ricky and I aren't exactly Bill and Melinda Gates, and Disney World isn't exactly a $5 stroll around the local museum, so we weren't quite sure if our Disney trip would be anything more than a one-time deal.  We did some soul-searching, however, and upon realizing that soon enough we would have children dragging us into the bottomless pits of parenthood (I say that lovingly, all you wonderful friends of mine who happen to be parents), the time was ripe to cram in the rest of our own childhood antics while we could.  Plus, babies aren't tall enough to ride rollercoasters.  I know...my logic astounds you. The moral of that story is that we took advantage of the lovely monthly payment plan available to FL residents for s...

So, Lent.  I gave up something-or-another in high school once for Lent (soda? chocolate?), but I remember not being serious enough about it to sacrifice anything on which I placed a high value, which probably defeated the purpose.  This time, I wanted to do it "right," so I picked the habit hardest to abandon: Facebook. Have I ever mentioned my Facebook addiction?  Ok, stop laughing, it's a real thing.  When you're states away from most of your pals and your husband studies a lot, Facebook and blog creeping are your pseudo-social way of keeping tabs on all the cool people you know.  You can also the non-cool people you know, but that's probably why you keep your Myspace around, right? I had a few people tease me about participating in Lent (don't worry, Robin, I'm not pointing any fingers or anything) because I'm not Catholic, but I personally think Lent is an incredible idea.  What better way to prepare for Easter than to remember Christ'...

As you can see from my lack of blogging lately, having a full-time job and going to graduate school has definitely been taking its toll!  I don't want anyone thinking I actually do homework everyday--I have a reputation to keep, after all--but when I'm not doing my homework, blogging makes me feel guilty about not doing my homework, and that just won't do when I'm trying to watch Modern Family at the same time.  I could make a bunch of empty promises about how I'll post more now that classes are over (and very few times in my life have I ever been more relieved to see them end), but I already made a few empty promises about working out this summer, so I think I'm maxed out on those. All my homework procrastination and lack of blogging aside, look what I did! Granted, it's only two (not very challenging) classes, but it still totally counts for my 4.0 goal.  I have yet to take a literature-based course in my program (weird, right?), so my two read-thi...

This is a goal I recently added to replace one I thought was too similar to another on the list, and it couldn't have come at a better time.  Lately, I've been Miss Whines-A-Lot about everything .  Class?  Boring.  Work?  Terrible.  Gas?  Expensive.  People?  Obnoxious.  Chasing toddlers around at church?  Tiring.  Never mind how fortunate I am to be in a graduate program, to have a full-time job, to own a car, to be social, and to play with adorable, loving children every Sunday.  I have serious gratitude issues, so I'm putting myself through gratitude rehab...starting today.  I'm also taking a Facebook hiatus, which will help shift the focus from the "things I want" to the "things I have." I like to keep this blog strictly as a measure of list progress, so I won't be posting daily entries here.  Those will be at my other blog .  If you ever have a day when you're feeling upset, inferior, frustrated, or a...

I've been so busy lately that I haven't been keeping up with my blog(s), but I figured this one was easy enough!  Two weeks ago, I found out that the Borders store where I work would be closing (I found another job, for those of you who don't read my other blog) and I was pretty bummed about losing my book-borrowing privileges.  Borders employees get to borrow brand-new books for two weeks!  Crazy, right?  I had pretty much plowed through half the independent reader section and wasn't about to stop just because some bookstore was going out of business, so I finally hauled my laziness down to the library.  I don't know what I was expecting when I went, but it certainly wasn't a stone building with arches and courtyards and fountains and brass lettering over carved wooden doors.  The main library here is the nicest I've ever seen.  Possibly the nicest public library in America.  I really should've taken pictures, but the children's section is fill...

I made this a goal because--let's face it--my grown-up social skills are nonexistent.  I would much rather organize a game night than I would a dinner.  It's not like I haven't had people over for dinner before or anything, but I wasn't sure how quickly I would make friends in Florida and thought I might need the motivation to be friendly and homemakery toward strange people.  Luckily, Ricky and I made friends before I had to subject myself to such terrible things, and we had the Kendalls over for vegetarian spaghetti!  It was back in November, I think, and I took a picture of the place settings and all that jazz, but I must've deleted it between then and now.  You'll just have to imagine them in all their glory.  (Ondriceks, if you're reading this, we used your plates!) After dinner, we had game night...naturally. #92 is done!