Welcome to The Kelseys. Stories and memories from the Kelsey family.
Nov 14 2014
Welcome back. OK, that was more for me than you, dear reader. So what does life look like around the Kelsey camp as winter approaches in 2014? Actually winter, which starts on what December 21st?, is a long ways off. But last night we had the first snow that stayed on the ground for a bit. The pictures were taken as we headed out at 9:00 at night to go visit mommy at work.
Jan 02 2014
Since both my mom and dad are trolling through this blog from time to time and they wonder if we’re doing anything. I thought it might not be a bad idea to try to revive this place with some of our activities. Today was a “blog worthy” day - here’s what happened.
Jan 31 2012
Well, what have we been doing with our 2012? The first month of the year is over already. Time is flying.
Aug 13 2011
This happened two weekends ago. It was after church and we were having lunch. We usually go around the table and tell how our Sabbath School classes were, but that was over and there was silence as we all munched away - then this happened:
Jul 07 2011
Typically we don’t make a big to-do over most of our holidays. Things seem pretty much status quo for most of the day. However Laura usually cooks up a special meal. Independence Day (for us, that would be the 4th of July…) was no different. We had veggie hot dogs and burgers.
Jan 20 2011
Here is a short (1 minute long) video of my car’s predicament. I suppose I shared in it too.\n\n\n\nThis was from my phone, imagine if I would’ve had my actual video camera with me?\n\nRunningboards Marketing
Jan 14 2011
Monday night I was driving up to Des Moines to attend a ministers’ meeting where one of the topics was going to be Biblical Peacemaking. I left directly after work and knew I wasn’t going to get in until around midnight.\n\nThe weather was snowing, just like the weather across much of the country this week. Although it was snowing, it was so cold that the snow was very fluffy and blew around so the roads we bad, but not terrible. I did feel some sliding a bit along the way.\n\nOutside of Hannibal, I found myself behind a police officer. I has stopped to grab a burrito and was eating it. I thought that it would be safer to just stay behind him and wait until I had full control and attention before trying a passing manuver. But the officer kept slowing down and slowing down. I would’ve almost had to come to a complete stop not to be following him closely. Finally he was doing about 20 mph (which I thought there was a minimum speed on highways… whatever) and he put on his blinker and pulled to the shoulder so I had to pass him. When he pulled back on, I figured I was in trouble for following him, but I just saw him fade away in the distance.\n\nLater, up on I-80 in Iowa I was driving behind a semi. I saw another semi off in the ditch on the right. There was an off ramp to a rest stop there. The semi in front of me wanted to get off but didn’t want to sideswipe the other truck in the ditch so it weaved out into the fast lane to then make the exit. As it did so it fishtailed a bit and I moved into the passing lane hoping it would get by. I started tapping the breaks at that point. Then I realized he wasn’t getting out of the way very fast and was basically blocking both lanes. I wasn’t going to have enough distance left to stop. So I tried to move into the median shoulder and hope to squeeze by. But the shoulder was slippery and I started to fishtail too. So I had to choose between swinging right and smacking into the back of that semi or swinging left and possibly loosing down into the median valley. I chose the median jfsmoney.\n\nI ditched out into a big drift of snow. After I got my bearings I tried to drive back up onto the highway, but couldn’t get a grip. So I drove down the median a ways and tried again (and again and again). After going about 1/4 of a mile that way I finally gave up and called the police. I said if they could just send a couple guys to give me a shove, I thought I could get going again. But instead the dispatcher just said that they’d send “the deputy."\n\nTwo patrol cars arrived from different directions and they told me to just turn off my hazards, lock it up and get in their car. They had no intention of pushing my car in the middle of the night on the highway.\n\nI found out in the ride to the hotel that there was a towing ban due to the bad conditions. I had never heard of such a thing. I probably wasn’t paying attention because I need a tow so very rarely. (The last time was our stay in Bethany). So now I can add Grinnell to my list of little memorable towns.\n\nThe pastor from Newton came and picked me up and brought me to the meeting in the morning. When it was time to go, he brought me back to the towing company and I picked up my car and drove back home.
Jan 02 2011
As the new year dawns, we’re all at home. We didn’t travel anywhere for the holidays. Hannah has been home from academy for a couple of weeks now. And like a New Year’s in the recent past, we’ve had a flu-like bug floating around in the air. Nathan got it first, then Caleb, Joshua, and I’ve been doing battle with it for about a week now. Hannah and Laura have evaded the effects.
Sep 29 2010
No - I’m not reduced to holding a cardboard sign on the street corner.\nNo - I’m not trying to revive hopeless political slogans (well, except for maybe “I Like Ike.”)\n\nHoping for Changes is a state of mind. There’s an aphorism (I am quite fond of aphorisms … aphorisi?) known generally as BE - DO - HAVE. What is it that you really want? That’s a good question in itself, but once you get a handle on it what do you have to do to obtain that thing? The deeper question is, what kind of a person do you have to be to do that thing that gets you that thing that you want?\n\nA great example of this is given by a vMentor of mine. By vMentor, I meant ‘virtual Mentor’. I learn from people I’ve never met. You see, they leave these things lying around called books (and now PDF and MP3 files…) that you can learn from… So anyway, this vMentor’s name is Jim Rohn. He expresses this BE - DO - HAVE concept this way. He says that you should decide to become a millionaire. Why? Not for any greedy reason. In fact, if you so choose, once you become the millionaire you can give it all away and become a philanthropist. The point isn’t the money. The point is, what kind of person do you have to be in order to be a millionaire? You have to be a person of action, a person of discipline, you have to be able to get along with and team up with other people, you have to be an achiever and a dreamer. You see? If you become all these things in the march to millionaire-hood, the becoming is the real reward.\n\nOh before you get all crazy on me (actually go crazy in me, just do it in the comments), you can also marry into money, you can steal money, you can miser your way to a million. However, is that the way you want to do that? What have you become by taking such a road? This just illustrates the point further that it’s the BE’ing that is the key. There’s nothing immoral about being a millionaire, but there are immoral characters that are. In the same way that there are really quality people who have become millionaires.\n\nI think you get the point. And the point wasn’t about becoming a millionaire… right?\n\nI’ve spent a lot of time lately thinking about things I want to DO and HAVE. But I think the more important question is what kind of person do I have to BE to DO and HAVE those things. I tend towards the theoretical. I read books and collect ideas - it’s unlikely that you’d mistake me for a “man of action."\n\nBut there are actions that I can take to push my world of ideas out to others though various channels. This blog post is just one avenue of many. But even that sharing is a step of action. It takes discipline. I think I’ve consistently produced a podcast for 6 weeks. I’ve blogged consistently for 3 or so weeks. I’ve worked on two different books off and on. And as my mom’s pointed out on Facebook, my history of ’not doing my homework’ is almost legendary.\n\nI’ve spent a decade changing the way I think (2000 - 2010), now I need to get into changing the way I act. So instead of trying for sustained, persistent, focused action. I’m going to start with random but regular action. I’ve been looking for that one perfect sniper rifle shot to where I want to go. The planned rocket trajectory isn’t going to work for me. So I’m committing to the broadcast seed sowing style. Oh wait, I mixed my metaphors didn’t I? I guess I should say: I’ll drop the sniper rifle and opt for carpet bombing. Hows that for violent action? Stay tuned, I’m sure there will be updates to this news story. And if you don’t even know what I’m talking about, that’s OK. Half the time I don’t even know what I’m talking about. The key’s in knowing which half is which.\n\nBlog post accomplish - what can I do next? Oh, hey, why don’t you take some action today? Why don’t you leave a comment here? That’s a novel idea, I mean you just spent all that time reading this… what do you say?