The Kohlmans

I've been watching the Olympics all day long. It's crazy how this every-four-years international competition inspires me to watch and cheer during events that I would never normally sit down to see. Did you see the crash during the cycling this morning? How about watching Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings win their 29th straight Olympic beach volleyball set? Or the British gymnast in tears after his routine in the opening round? Or Lochte blowing away the field (including Phelps, about whom they had just had a 20-minute segment on) in the 400 IM? It's just so much fun. Sometimes I wish I had a fancy phone (meaning one that has internet) so I could have instagram and quickly post pictures from my phone on here, instead of always having to upload from my camera. But then I think about how it's $15/line, so $30/month, so $360 a year. And my mom and dad and grandma and grandpa still read, regardless of the number of pictures. Anyway, here's a random pict...

I had a dream last night that I was in a giant game of solitaire on a giant Kindle Fire. Maybe I should play that a little less... Anyway, random dreams aside... I have a few sewing projects that I wanted to finish before school started, mainly new cushions for my deck furniture. I didn't really sew anything for a long time this summer because my sewing room looked like this: I think that, at this point, I had about five different projects going. But then, we got my old bed from mom and dad to put in this room (so they could have the queen for their newly remodeled basement where guests actually stay)... and I decided it was time to clean up. This is one of the pinterest projects I've been wanting to do for a while. It's foam core board cut into rectangles to make miniature bolts for my big pieces of fabric. I found the idea for it here . The green crate has my finished-but-don't-know-what-to-do-with projects.  The orange crate (and the JoAnn bag)...

I've spent a lot of time in my new classroom the last few weeks. I'm trying to wrap my head around a new school and new people (granted, I've spent part of my time in this school for the past two years, so it's not totally new) - and around not seeing those I built strong relationships with over the past four years. Transitions are tough, in any situation. But that's real life. Things change, whether you're the decision-maker or not. (I do like to chalk up my reluctance to face this transition to the fact that I was not the decision-maker, but I'm going to have to get over that sooner or later.) We box up our things and sneak out the back door, thinking that if we don't have one final "goodbye" moment, things won't really change that much. And we say we'll stay in touch, get together, talk, text, e-mail. Yet, in the midst of that very conversation, deep down we know that it probably won't really happen. Neither of us will real...

Just because these are fun, and I'm wishing I were as creative as these farm boys (the boys in the first video are Kansans)...

It's been too long, dear blog readers. Sorry about that... summer has turned out to be busier than I'd planned. I think we've only been home two weekends since school ended. The weeks are just as full. And here we are, only a few weekends from school starting. I'm pretending that the thought of going back to work doesn't send me into a panic.There's just so much to do to get ready. In these past few weeks we.... froze a lot of corn and peaches. spent a lot of time working on classes. spent time with our dog. (really, this is just here because it's a cute picture. she thinks we bought the nice, soft rug just for her.) went to a wedding. ran a 5K (well, I did) and went to some fun baseball/softball games ( which Brad already posted about ). actually finished a pinterest project!  got a clothesline. For the record, I don't recommend a retractable line. We ended up having to stretch it out all the way to keep it from sag...

*********Brad Post********** So, this year to celebrate my birthday Megan convinced me that we should buy tickets to the Future's Game and the Legends and Celebrities Softball Game in Kansas City (and yes she was the one who had to convince me!). I said sure, since we were going to be in KC for a wedding anyway. We started the 8th of July in the Power and Light district as Megan ran in the All Star Charity 5k. It was packed....guessing somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 runners. After she finished she was awarded a medal, just like everyone else......except George Brett handed her medal to her. Yep, the Hall of Famer The Pine Tar Guy The guy with over 3000 hits. Just the best player in the history of my favorite franchise......no big deal. Just to clarify, my birthday started out by waking up at 5:30 to watch Megan, who I love dearly, run in a 5k. Then she proceeds to interact with one of the my favorite player. Lunch We met my buddy Todd for lunch at W...

My new goal in life, decided upon this afternoon, is to have one summer (maybe two, if I'm lucky) that doesn't involve daily hours (well, almost daily) of writing hypothetical program plans, budgets, library lessons, public relations campaigns, or discussion board posts and replies. My new goal for the present is to finish my budget and program plan (both due the 15th) this week. I just started them today, so it's not likely. After those are in, I'm down to two big assignments for the summer semester. And then I have four hours left until graduation in December. Until then, I may be conspicuously absent from this blog. Because I'll be under insane amounts of stress. Or I may be conspicuously present on this blog. Because I'll be making my best attempts to avoid said assignments. One of those. It's good to have goals, right?