The Kohlmans

The last couple Saturdays have been good. Very good. I finally feel like myself again... meaning I do a lot on Saturdays and then wonder why I didn't relax for a while. Last Saturday was Justin's last football game. I don't know about him, but I'm ready for basketball season... when the games are inside! After we got home from the game, my mom came over. She brought us this dresser that was my great-grandma's, dad's, and mine. It's nice and large, so we hopefully won't have trouble storing clothes and diapers for Baby K. This weekend we started working on the dresser... We sanded the top and every drawer. The little decorative detail on the front is going to be a pain to sand, but I think I'll leave that for Brad. All the rest is going very quickly. Rewinding... last weekend mom and I sewed curtains and a crib skirt for the nursery. I don't have a picture of them in action because we don't have the crib, and we're wai...

I meant to post a lot more this week. But then we decided to paint our bedroom, I went shopping, I attempted to get ahead on homework, we babysat Wes, I realized I actually have homework this week (over Spring Break?! seriously?!), and just now, the whole relaxing thing sucked me in.  One of my students wears a headband like this sometimes. I first noticed it back in November. Or maybe October. She let me inspect it, and I've been meaning to make one ever since. Now that it's Spring Break I finally made time.... that's what March Madness is for - crafting in front of the TV. This is one of my new favorite breakfast things. Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake . It's amazing. (And after I declared that, Brad told me I need to be more selective with my use of "amazing," but I disagree. Lots of things can be amazing or one of my favorites, just not the best.) It's a good thing I don't go clothes shopping very often... (I do find lots of good deals, though -...

This was the view last night on the way home from house hunting in Cottonwood Falls (for Barb & Jeff, not us!)...   In contrast, this was my view for most of the afternoon today...   a bunch of homework (with a bunch left to go over the break), a little March Madness in the background, and some wistful glances at a project started but not yet finished...  (hopefully during the KU game tonight - Rock Chalk!) I have to admit I prefer last night's view to this afternoon's. Soon enough, I won't have to worry about the homework view!

You know you're a grown-up when your idea of a good Friday night is carpet shopping and babysitting your friends' toddler. We picked out what we want (Shaw carpet in Rice Bowl - it's the upper left sample on the left board) and where we want to get it (Village Decorative, a place in town). Their prices included carpet, pad, installation, and removal of the old carpet... and were still lower than other places we looked. We'll order it and schedule installation sometime this week. On Saturday Brad worked in the yard, I did laundry, and we went shopping for exciting things like new socks and running shoes (okay, so the shoes are exciting). Today we have lunch with mom, dad, Marcus, and Cynthia. Since then I've been working on homework - feeling a little bit ahead of the game this week. We'll see how long that lasts. So, all in all, a pretty productive weekend. It will be a hectic last week before Spring Break, but then... a whole week of time off!

Facebook tells me that "today is your birthday." Thank goodness. I might have forgotten otherwise. (This is funny because I actually love my birthday wholeheartedly and would never forget it or want to skip celebrating.) In celebration of my 26th birthday, I am sharing 26 random things about myself, in no particular order other than that in which they occur to me. It seems like a conceited thing to do, but, hey, you read this blog about me. Right?! I did this last spring with 25 random facts . I'll try not to duplicate any, but that might be tough. 1. I love crime shows. Love them. So far, I've watched every season of Law & Order: SVU on Hulu Plus. (Season 13 is now airing.) Now I've started watching Body of Proof and Prime Suspect. Unfortunately, both these shows are in their first season. 2. I never really saw myself as a "crafty" person until this fall. Then, suddenly, I started to find things that "I can make for less." And then it...

What's your absolute favorite meal? This is a tough one. I love food. I mean, I LOVE it. And I'm not a picky eater. Right now, I would really love broccoli cheddar soup in a bread bowl. That sounds good. Or, a Chipotle burrito bowl with chicken and pretty much every topping. Given one week of vacation and unlimited funds, where would you go? And to sort of tag off of that, where in the United States would you most like to live? (Kansas not included.) I think I would go to Northern Ireland in the spring. I was there once, in January, and it was beautiful. I can only imagine how green it would be in a different season. We didn't get to do much sightseeing, so I would love to just be able to drive around the countryside and stop to enjoy the scenery... and take millions of pictures. When I was younger I really wanted to live in Oregon. I'm not sure why; I think it just sounded cool because it was on the coast but not trendy like California. Now I know that the P...

These are a few of my current favorite things... the hearts that my Scentsy warmer makes in the wall. my Scentsy warmer . my blooming African violets (all three have flowers right now). my dog... especially when she drags her blanket, bone, and squeaky bear out of the crate to snuggle with... I've learned from our experiences with Jazzy to never say never. a working display screen on the treadmill (between the part that didn't have the correct holes and the console going out, we're collecting quite the graveyard of treadmill parts. good thing proform is generous with the replacements). my Columbia omniheat coat . It's amazing. the new lightbulb in my sewing machine... it's a little tough to sew without the light, but I did several "custom orders" without it before Christmas. a printer. haven't had one since June-ish. There's my round-up of a few of the new-to-me (and some old-to-me) things I've been enjoying lately.

Nope, not the holiday season or basketball season. 'Tis the season for shenanigans. But really, who needs Christmas lights in your trees when you have toilet paper, put there by thoughtful teenage girls?! We got the worst of it down, but I'm hoping our neighbors don't mind a little tp in the 'hood. I'm totally cool with being tp'd and having the lawn silly stringed. They could definitely be up to much worse. I'm not totally cool with the ding-dong-ditch ending to these shenanigans at 12:30 am. (Yes, that's half past midnight.) Oh well.

Do you ever look at yourself in the mirror in the morning and think, Wow. I did a good job of putting myself together today! and then want to take a picture of yourself to commemorate the occasion (but don't because you hate how you look in pictures)? No? Really?! Are you sure? Maybe it's just me... (Today, I gave in to the urge to photograph.) (It only took 10 tries to get a decent self-portrait. I'm going to blame the poor lighting in my yellow bathroom.)

A few random things to keep you occupied... I have a student who sometimes raises his hand to tell me that I'm: nice, a good teacher, or fun. It's usually right at a moment when I don't feel like I'm any of these things. Things people want to buy on craigslist = dog house, ottomans, a recliner, a DVD/VCR player. Things people apparently do not want to buy on craigslist = Arrested Development seasons 1-3, The Office seasons 1-5, never used crystal beverage glasses. I am at the point in the semester where I have to bribe myself to do classwork. Last week it was... "finish the paper, and you get to put up Christmas decorations." This week it will be "finish the other paper, and you get to go shopping for craft supplies and Christmas gifts." After this semester I will be halfway done with my master's, semester-wise. But, I will have 21 of my 36 hours finished. All because of my practicums that have to be done during the school year. It's ...

Well, I don't think I have much to say today, but I haven't posted since Friday, so I feel like I should. I mean, what else are you going to do if not read my blog?! So here's a bunch of random for your Wednesday. I was asked to donate some headbands and/or a bag for an elementary school BINGO fundraiser. I said yes. It's not 'til January, so I have some time. Maybe I can experiment with a new headband idea I had a while back. The weather is driving me crazy. 85* yesterday, 54* today. Just choose, already. I did see that long-range weather forecasters are predicting that we're going to have a snowy winter , with about 50% more snow than last year. This is going to be great if I get to stay home on some snow days. It's going to be bad if  I'm working and have to travel from one school to another in 14 minutes (which is doable is good weather - I guess we'll see how it goes in snow). However, it will be tapering off a bit early... the severe storm ...

Today, we canceled our cable TV. (It's not actually off yet, because someone has to come to our house and physically turn it off. But we've officially called them out to do it.) Now we have a sweet little antenna. Seriously - no rabbit ears for us. We're too far out in the sticks for that to work. A big deal? Probably not to anyone who's reading this. But, I've been told I should mention that it's the first time in Brad's life that he hasn't had cable or satellite. And we'll be saving a nice pile of cash on a monthly basis, so it's kind of a big deal to us.  Instead of cable, we subscribed to Hulu Plus, so we can watch our TV shows the day after they air (because we do enjoy our shows... and once basketball starts and then we continue into track, we're often not home the nights of our shows...); we can stream it to our TV with our Roku (which we purchased for this purpose). We also listed a few things on craigslist today. And already so...

I've been up to a lot of random things today. Brad's gone fishin'. Literally. So I'm trying to be productive. So far, pretty good... I got groceries, took the recycling, ran other errands, did four loads of laundry, ironed, baked bread, sewed some headbands (I may be getting carried away with these), picked up, consolidated/confiscated clutter (I'm down to one box of wrapping supplies and one drawer of crafty/scrapbook stuff - which obviously doesn't include sewing supplies/fabric)... Thursday's sunrise at school. I also finished a paper this morning. It's due tomorrow. I'm not sure I've ever procrastinated like that before... I'm not behind, but I feel like I am because I'm not ahead. Maybe I shouldn't admit that. It makes me sound like a nerd. (I have to admit, I sure haven't put any effort into getting ahead this semester. I'm just working to stay on top of things. That's okay, right?!) I'm constantly in searc...