Christmas letter from Nancy and Mary Kay

Nancy Bolsen and Mary Kay Siefers
2009 – The year of change

Happy Holidays to all. We hope you are enjoying the holiday spirit and are surrounded by loving family and friends. This is our first holiday letter, but we thought we needed to send one because of so many changes occurring in our lives.

As you know, Nancy retired from her job at K-State in June of 2008 after 17 years as director of Adult Student Services. Nancy decided she wanted to experience something new and challenging to follow her illustrious career at K-State so she hired a personal trainer and started an intensive fitness program. The not-so-surprising result of the hard work has been a 40-pound weight loss during 2009; however, the somewhat-surprising result is that Nancy has competed in two fitness competitions. Yes, she does rub oil on her body and wears a two-piece swim suit to show off her well-defined muscles. Nancy excels in the fitness dancing and flexibility portions, but she is working to improve her muscle definition and bulk for the bodybuilding portion. She recently mastered the back flip and is committed to include 10 consecutive one-handed push-ups. She can do three right now, so at ten minutes after every hour Nancy hits the floor and does as many one-handed push ups as possible. We are proud to announce that Nancy earned a gold medal in the senior women’s division of SAG, Seniors in Action at the Gym. Nancy loves the competition and pressure and has found a new meaning to the word intensity. When Nancy’s name was announced as the winner, she gave a fist pump that rivaled any Olympic champion. We are just as surprised by this new found love of fitness as you are.

To maintain balance and serenity is Nancy’s life – and to make a few dollars – she has started her own small business called Nancy’s Fancies. After a long workout at the gym, she loves to spend time painting. It is a great way to balance the intensity of the fitness work with the creativity and calmness of painting. Actually, Nancy has focused most of her creative energy on one product – This Loo’s for You. Nancy loves the idea of going green and recycling so she scours the alleys and dumps around Manhattan to find old toilet seats. She paints the toilet seat with a beautiful nature scene and then installs a mirror in the center of the toilet seat. Most people are hanging them above their fireplaces; it seems to be a perfect piece of original art that draws attention to the fireplace. They really are quite the work of art; she is having a difficult time filling the orders because they are coming in so fast. We are hoping to get one to our family and friends before we fill too many ‘outsider’ orders because we want all of you to have one of these before they become ‘the thing’ to have. Just let us know what you want as your nature scene and the color scheme and we will get one made for you as soon as possible. As a gift from us, we will not charge you shipping and handling.

Even though 2009 has been the year of change for Nancy, Mary Kay also had a few significant ‘ah ha’ moments as well. Mary Kay has resigned her position at K-State so that she can pursue a lifetime dream to become a professional yodeler. The moment of truth came during one of her lectures to K-State students. She was talking about living a life that matters and it hit her at that moment that she should also live each day as if it were the last. Mary Kay stopped in the middle of the class and walked outside, got on her knees, looked up to the sky with her arms stretched out wide, and said ‘I want to yodel today and everyday!’ She said she heard a chorus of Hallelujah and her Dad saying ‘Mary Kay is the best damn yodeler west of the Mississippi.’

Mary Kay has been diligently training in the evenings with an online free professional yodeling class. We are proud to brag that she has graduated from the YO section and has progressed to the second level. We hope she will graduate in late January from the DEL section. After attending graduation in Yodelville, Wisconsin, Mary Kay will be able to join the professional yodeling circuit in late March. Of course, the ultimate goal of any yodeling enthusiast is to attend the World Yodeling Summit in the Swiss Alps. If she doesn’t make it there, she plans on yodeling at local events in and around the Czech capitals of Kansas and Nebraska.

As you can imagine we’ve needed to rethink our finances with both of us retired. Of course, we will have some funds from the prize money of Nancy’s fitness/bodybuilding meets and income from Nancy’s Fancies, but we realized we needed a little cushion to cover our journey. We sold our house and all our belongings and have purchased a used RV as our new home. So, if you see an RV with a Nancy's Fancies sign parked in your driveway, please don't be too surprised.

Thanks for indulging us in our humorous try at a Christmas letter. Actually, all is well with us. Nancy really is retired and Mary Kay still works at the School of Leadership Studies at K-State.

Happy New Year 2010!
Nancy and Mary Kay