WU basketball, life as a coach's wife

The basketball season is under way! The Washburn University men's team is 2-1. They've played two exhibition games (University of Nevada-Las Vegas & UMKC) and three "real" games. The pic is from the KU game last Thursday. (I tried to get him coaching in the huddle but it's kinda far away). Matt's having a blast! He loves what he's doing, fulfilling his passion, coaching basketball full time! And it's definitely a full-time job. They travel a bunch and he frequently forgets to tell me that he's going to be gone overnight until the day of...but I'll adjust. It's a transitional time for us. I just can't wait until I have an actual teaching position that I can immerse myself in. :) Maybe student teaching will be good practice for that?

MHS Cheer at CheerFest 07 in Olathe

I should have zoomed in more so it's kinda hard to see, but you get the idea. There were a few stunt bobbles, but nothing I was angry about. :) This is the first time MHS cheerleaders have ever gone to a festival and only the 2nd time some of them have prepared a routine. Most were brand new to this kind of thing! Dedra's choreography is alway fabulous so I thought we got robbed a little. Their average score was 87/100 which gave them a "2" rating--think choir and band festival rating. Hopefully they learned from watching other groups and will continue to improve.

Friday nights under the lights!

This is where you can find me! Hanging out with Dedra (who I keep forgetting to take a picture with, we have the same hair so everyone thinks we're sisters) and these fine little ladies: the MHS cheerleaders. It has been a fun year so far and actually not that cold yet! (Knock on wood, I don't want to jinx it!) These are just some pictures I pulled off of the girls' facebook sites. I'm commuting an extra 2 days a week and subbing in the Manhattan district just so I can continue to coach these girls. As my third and final year coaching at MHS, I can say it has been a great experience. This year we've worked the girls pretty hard and we're headed to a cheer competition November 10. This will be a new experience for all of us so we'll cross our fingers and hope it turns out well! So, every Friday night of the school year so far has been spent in the "Blue & White, Friday night lights" and I must say...I can't wait for basketball season!!!

Matt's Birthday present!

A little background, Matt was dared in college to attempt a backflip in the yard. He landed on his head because he obviously hadn't had any training on how to do a backflip. So it was kinda a (forgotten) life-long dream of Matt's to be able to do a flip. For his birthday this year I arranged a private lesson for he and I at a gym so we could perfect some of our tumbling skills. At first, Matt was very embarassed that I had given him a lesson as a gift and was "pretending" not to be excited about it. And I'll admit too, when we walked into the gym and saw all the little girls and their parents sitting in the bleachers watching them...I felt embarassed. But they cleared out when our lesson started and it was a lot of fun! Watch the video below to see Matt's progress at the lesson. He's so talented!

More views of the new place

Scroll down to read the entry before this if you haven't already. I am orienting everyone to our new place 5 pictures at a time. :)

My new mat from K-Mart. Not to speak poorly of our neighbors...but I do check every morning to see if the rug got stolen or not.


While we're on the subject of rugs, here's the new kitchen rug that I searched high and low for. It had to be just the right shade of red to match the canisters and spoon rest. Finally, my pride and joy, the perfect shaped and perfect color rug for the hallway kitchen.

Now Matt's pride and joy...the 2nd bathroom. I never knew how much he hated sharing a bathroom with me! I can't say that I blame him though. His new bathroom is red and black (you know, GB panther colors) and it's off the living room. The black and white pictures are shots from our trip to Seattle to see Jason and Stephanie this summer. It's our tribute to the city!

In the upstairs bathroom (which is green and purple) I hung these trivets on the wall that Mom and I made at a ceramic place right before I got married. Trivets in the bathroom may be weird, but they went with the color scheme and kept me from having to buy something new. And I like the reminder of the GPhi Mom's Weekend when we made them.
Here's a shot of our bedroom. Believe it or not our bedding is a bed-in-a-bag thing that was on sale for $20! We've had it for 2 years and I still really like it. The master bedroom has a nice walk-in closet that I am loving!

The New Place

Thought I'd post some pics of the new place...mostly so my mom can see. Since Topeka is a whole hour farther up the road from Manhattan, some people (my dad) have a hard time planning a trip to see us! So I will let you see our new home virtually! ;)



The living room. I just got some new throw pillows. It's a little "God Bless America"-ish with the red, blue & tan...but we like it. Matt says it's okay because we've got American pride.

I never could get these shelves to look right at our last place but I'm quite pleased with the set up here. They are loaded with pictures...Matt's a little nervous to sit on the couch underneath the shelves.
This will be my new "corner of despair" where I do my homework. (See earlier post). This townhouse is bigger than our last apartment so there's actually a place for our kitchen table. I've turned part of it into my study corner with the computer and a place for my school books so I can study in the same room while Matt's watching TV.

This is our little hallway kitchen. It's little, but I really like it. Actually plenty of cabinet space and some drawers this time! (Last kitchen had 1 and a 1/2 drawers). The appliances are nicer too. I'm getting good at finding the positives to living here!


This is my favorite view. Our kitchen is khaki, red, green and navy. I'll upload a pic of my new prized possession--the kitchen rug--soon. It wouldn't let me add any more pics to this blog.
I'm actually starting to like living in Topeka. I'm finding my way around and we actually met some people today at church. Tonight there was a pep rally thing for Washburn University and Matt got introduced as a new assistant coach. School starts tomorrow, therefore my commuting starts tomorrow. Bring it on, the sooner it starts the sooner it ends!

The New Do!

Before

After!

I did it! After much thought and comtemplation...an impulse decision prevailed and I now have short hair! This morning I donated this 10-inch ponytail to Locks of Love (where they take donated hair and make wigs for cancer patients) after I achieved my "Victoria Beckham Look-Alike" haircut. After realizing I have had pretty much the same hair style for the last 5 years, and the fact that it hardly ever looks like it does in that before picture, it was time. I'm still getting used to it and I think I'll add some more colors to it to create a more "hip" feel..I'm not ready for a "Mom-ish" do. (No offense to mothers out there!) If you hate it...please don't tell me...I couldn't handle that yet. :)