A quarter of a century ago….

…I was born! I turned 25 yesterday and had a great Saturday to celebrate. I first started celebrating on Thursday by going to the Aaron Watson concert.

On Friday, one of my best friends, Patricia, who now lives in Pennsylvania, finished her meetings with ConAgra and I picked her up in the afternoon. We did a little shopping and she came to Seward with me to stay for the weekend. On Saturday, we went for a long run/walk with Hank through the Plum Creek Park – the weather has been beautiful! Then we ate lunch and went to the quilt show. They had some beautiful quilts on display and some fun stuff for sale. Both Patricia and I are getting into quilting – I’m working on hand-quilting a runner and she is quilting a t-shirt quilt (her mom is an incredible quilter too, so I learned some new stuff!)

That evening on our way to RO’s Lounge for dinner, we drove by the Jones National Bank and I saw this!

If you can’t see the video, Ronny had the Jones Bank display say, “Happy 25th Birthday Kelsey Pope”. Thanks honey – but you could have left the 25 off!

He also got me a cake. White cake, nonetheless – my favorite!

And I got some good loot. Thanks to my family and friends for a great birthday – I really do feel loved!

Technorati Tags: birthday,family,friends

Aaron Watson is my favorite!

As part of my birthday, Ronny took me to the Aaron Watson concert at Uncle Ron’s in Lincoln. I’ve been to numerous Aaron Watson concerts, all at K-State, and he quickly became my favorite Texas country musician.

So it was fun to hear him at a new location and he even has a new CD out so it was awesome to hear some new songs. Here is an old favorite. :)

 

Technorati Tags: Aaron Watson,birthday,Uncle Ron's,Lincoln,Nebraska

Framed and hung

That sounds more like an old-fashioned western film for a title…but in actuality, I finally got our wedding photos framed and hung in our bedroom!

So it’s looking a little bit more like we live here. (I created a panoramic picture of our room using multiple pictures…so no, our ceiling isn’t crooked! ha ha)

Mark one for the list: Places to Visit

Yesterday I went on a tour with a trade team group from Turkey. I am definitely adding Turkey to my ever-growing list of places to visit someday. One of the Turks told me that they get over 27 million tourists every year. I probably could have listened to them talk in their native language all day. I was so surprised at it, and it is hard to describe except that it was such a smooth language. Unlike many languages that are harsh or have a lot of fluctuation in tones, Turkish was a very beautiful language and steady. I learned that the Turkish language is not an Indo-European language. It belongs to the Altay branch of the Ural-Altay linguistic family. The languages of this family are called Altaic because they are believed to have originated in the high lands around the Altay Mountains of Central Asia. So if you think of Asian languages that are usually high-pitched and twangy, this was not the case. I should have recorded them.

Anyways, here are a few pictures that I found on the Internet of where I hope to take Ronny and visit someday, and then I'll get to hear the beautiful language again:

Can’t sit still too long…

If you know Ronny and I, we’ve had a whole week of the normal grind, and of course we can’t sit still too long. :)

Unsettledness

Thinking of a word that describes my month prior, the words roller coaster, unpredictable, changeability, ebb and flow, and crazy come to mind. So I settle with unsettledness. (is that statement an oxymoron?) In my post “11 days”, I wrote about my month of September and its busyness – however in actuality, I ended up traveling all but 8 days.

Needless to say, I’m a bit exhausted, but recovering well now that I just get to sit in my office and get all caught up on emails and phone calls. Exciting stuff, I know, but really, I’m thrilled.

After traveling for State Fair, Rapid City, SD, and Husker Harvest Days, and celebrating our anniversary, Ronny and I had to unfortunately travel to Garber, Oklahoma for the funeral of his uncle, Richard Cinnamon, who was killed in a tractor accident. It makes all of my complaining about traveling so trivial. It really demonstrated to me that life is so precious and can be gone in an instant. All of this everyday stuff doesn’t matter, even though enjoying my job is important – and I really do enjoy my job – but I could also stand to change my focus on what I enjoy that matters in life. Also, the best thing to come from funerals is the call to accept Christ into your life. Nothing better demonstrates the reality of death and that you can only live after death through Christ. I hope someone was able to receive Christ through this tragedy.

Even though I’ve already been working on my travel calendar for October and November (which are much lighter than September), Ronny and I are planning time to spend together, going to see a play, heading to a couple of weddings and playing some coed softball (which is 0-2 right now – but we’re having fun!).

Technorati Tags: family,travel

Just say “NO”…to door-to-door salesmen

**Note from Kelsey: This blog post is written by my loving and hilarious husband, Ronny. He told me to put this story on the blog and I told him only if he wrote it. So he did and here is his first post. Hopefully more to come from him!**

Before reading please put your laughing shoes on...

Title: Just say “NO”…to door to door salesmen

(Russell this made me remember your story)

Yup, not going to lie, owning your own house is a learning process. I am not just talking about the maturity fact of growing up and having to pay for the bills everyday. I am talking about what I learned in second grade, Just say “NO.” Sure I learned to say “NO” to drugs back in grade school, but this is a phrase that stays with you for eternity. Just say, “NO”.

For example, tonight Kelsey and I had a first encounter with ‘Tim’ the tattoo artist that tried selling us a ‘Kirby’ vacuum. What I am talking about is this nice guy, who’s name is Tim, barge himself into our house trying to sell us a vacuum. Actually this nice girl got Kelsey tricked and Tim (the tattooed salesman) somehow came with the nice lady. She can explain? ;)

Moving on about Tim! Sure you might be thinking, ‘Tattoo,’ Ronny you are being narrow-minded. Now I am cool with my sister-in-laws' “tats” and even my friend’s tattoos. No, I am talking about people who permanently scar themselves for life and then realize they have their ex-wife initials on their arm. Narrow minded! I am talking about Tim the Kirby Vacuum salesman.

So Tim being a bad salesman like ‘ABS’ (a company that I compete with) tried selling me a vacuum. Honestly a bull semen salesman getting out sold by a vacuum salesman, whatever. I did not tell Tim I was a fellow salesman. So I let Tim do his best in giving me his memorized speech that he learned the night before. “Aw poor guy.” Yup that’s what I thought however, I am not buying his amateur speech. Tim did his best to relate his speech to my agriculture education the only problem is that I graduated from 8th grade.

Finally, I told Tim that his vacuum is better than mine, ( honestly it is) and then, "what does it cost?" Tim said $2850. “Hmmm, HAHAHAHAHA are your serious Tim,” that’s what I wanted to say. But I did what my 83-year neighbor told me, count to ten and say something nice. A half hour later I got Tim to give me a price for $750 for a brand new Kirby Vacuum. What was my answer, nope sorry that is still to much for a carpet cleaning vacuum.

Long story short, Tim made me remember that everybody who owns a house gets these guys every year. You need to be on top of your game and make sure you are driving the bus and not “Tim” the Kerby Vacuum salesman. Especially, when they can discount a vacuum down $2100 and sell this no-guarantee, never see you again guarantee, Tim don’t ever come into my house again guarantee. Have a nice day, Tim!

**I was very glad Ronny was home because I am just too nice to say no to people. A good lesson for me, too!**