McMonopoly Baby!

Anyone who appreciates the fast service of a drive thru is all too aware of the latest craze. McDonald's Monopoly! Just like the traditional game this diet friendly version has the RHD office in a frenzy. Our fearless leader Rachel has the official game board with the pieces tucked in their respective pockets. This game board is placed in a safe at the end of each day. Why you may ask? Well, it is because we are not taking this series lightly and utilizing all of our resources.

First, Ranch House Designs has locations in Wharton and College Station. Although both in Texas we have got different pieces from each. Not too far from Texas is Arkansas, a state that Rachel has been visiting often. Again the potential for other pieces is growing. However, perhaps the greatest tool to our winning the million is me and the Texas A&M Livestock Judging Team.

Anyone who knows about collegiate judging realizes that we are on the road more than we are on campus. As our season starts to wrap up, we have two contests that are at great distances away. This next Tuesday we are leaving for Kansas City, Missouri in a van! What does that mean? Lots of opportunity to gain pieces from different states. Also, my family is from Indiana and they are aware of the pieces that we are missing and have been dispatched to track down the stragglers.

Once we win the big bucks and retire from advertising, I will make sure that we remember all of the little people (or big people since we are eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner at Micky D's, see Tight Fittin' Khakis) who helped us get to that beach house in the Caribbean with servants. Our competitiveness towards this game has reached such heights that we know how many pieces we will get before they even hand us the bag from the window. For example, 4 hash browns, 2 large cokes, and a chicken sandwich yield 14 game pieces and one $100,000 code that must be entered online.

So if anyone has some McDonald's Monopoly pieces sitting at the bottom of their cup holder in their car or mixed in the change cup, please send them our way!

New S2W Spotlight

I took a break from piddling (whatever!) to put up this week's spotlight on ShowToWin.com. So, take some time to see what Cally Thomas of South Dakota has to say. Click here to read more! Don't forget you can also check out our past spotlights archived at the bottom of that page.

If you want to be considered for a spotlight, send us an email using the form on the web site. We're looking to spotlight both current and past exhibitors as well as professionals in the agriculture/livestock industry.

Keep checking back every week to see who was selected as the spotlight!

Check out Sarah Stream

This is a short blog post, but we have a NEW educational spotlight this week on Show to Win...Miss Sarah Stream from Iowa. Check out her insights at http://showtowin.com/educational.html!

Antsy

I'm spending two days down in South Texas at Mr. Cannon's Ranch near Kingsville. I always look forward to a few days in the RV/cattle trailer as a restful - quiet get a way. Prior to leaving on this trip, I noticed a few little ants in my underware drawer in the trailer. I figured - no problem - I'll just take the drawer outside and dump the ants and be on my way. Surely that would take care of the little pests because if they knew what was best for them, they would certainly not want to be anywhere near my pants during the south Texas heat. I thought I won the battle and retired to bed.

The ants had other plans.

The ants took up shop in my bed. All night long the little @)#*# stung places on my body that I didn't even know I had. I got up about midnight, and smashed - pinched - and killed every one that I could find in my bed. I thought I won the battle ... but I was wrong. All night, they chewed on me.

This morning when Jim got up, his first 'honey do' was to go to the store and buy me a Ant Arsenol. I sprayed all around the trailer and then got into the shower. I thought surely I won the battle.

After getting out of the shower, I see the ants have now invaded a unforgiveable place. All bets are off now. They were in my box of apricot kolaches. At this point, I'm going nuclear on the little commie @#*) ants.

Jim and I spent two hours taking everything out of the trailer, and hunting down the little hilters and his queens. Now, I have ant bait everywhere in the trailer and I have sprayed every non-human crack possible. There's no way osama ben ladin and his ant army is alive in this trailer.

I am now retiring to bed- I have fought the good fight. I don't think there is a ant within 10 yards of this trailer. My luck - there will be some pesky skeeter buzzing around my head tonight. Ugh..

RHD Book Club

Oprah ain't got nothin' on us.

Somehow, the RHD office has created an unofficial book club. The funny thing is though, we don't really try to be diverse with our books. We don't try to read a mix of contemporary and classic authors, or mix genres like chick lit and suspense. Our book club centers around one single author: Jodi Picoult.

I should preface this by admitting that Rachel and I have always been a little bit on the bookworm side. When we were kids on car trips, we would always get to pack our own little bags with Barbies, cards, crayons, and coloring books to keep us entertained. But after a few trips with melted crayons in the car, we started bringing books on our trips and reading them to pass the time. It has always helped that we're both super fast readers.

I've always been a little behind the current cool book trends. Rachel on the other hand, even as a elementary school kid, has always been 'with it.' While I was still reading the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary, Rach had moved on to The Baby-sitter's Club. When I finally, caught up with those, she was into Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield and Sweet Valley High. When I finally started reading about the SVH drama, she'd moved on to R.L. Stine's Fear Street series.

Well it has happened again. On any plane ride, I always visit the airport bookstore and pick up whatever mindless chick-lit fiction is available. My favorite authors of past have been Jennifer Weiner, Jane Green, and Sophie Kinsella. Well, probably about May, I was at an airport looking for my latest read, and I wanted something with a little more substance. I happened to pick up Plain Truth, by Jodi Picoult. The author's name sounded somewhat familiar to me, but I couldn't place it. Upon reading the back of the book, I found out that she is the author of both My Sister's Keeper and Nineteen Minutes, both of which were New York Times bestsellers. Well, I bought the book and could not put it down. This book happened to be centered around the Amish culture, which I found fascinating. On my plane ride back from wherever I had been, I picked up another Jodi book, Salem Falls. Same thing... I was hooked.

When I got back, I couldn't wait to tell Tricia and Rach about my new favorite author. Well, of course, Rachel was like, "Oh, I've read Plain Truth already." She beat me to it! Of course she did, though, because at this point she'd been laid up with that broken ankle for 2 months, so she'd been catching up on her reading. Well, during our aimless conversation at the office one day, we discovered Tricia is also a fan. She loved Nineteen Minutes.

For those of you who aren't familiar with her work, I would say these books are a combination of several genres. The main subject is usually something that has been in the news recently. For example, Nineteen Minutes is about a school shooting. There's always something law-related in it. Usually, a trial takes place, so there's courtroom drama. And of course, there's always a fair share of romance. But my favorite part of these books is that they always leave me thinking about what would each of us do when placed in similar difficult situations that her main characters are placed in.

Of her books, here's the ones that, between us here at the RHD office, we've read:

• Harvesting the Heart
• Nineteen Minutes
• Perfect Match
• Salem Falls
• Plain Truth
• The Pact
• The Tenth Circle
• My Sisters Keeper

There's a whole other part of this Jodi Picoult fascination that I haven't even gotten into yet, which is the the fact that a lot of her movies have been made into made-for-TV movies by, you guessed it, Lifetime TV. So, I really am looking forward to a lazy Saturday afternoon where I am flipping through the TV and stumble upon the familiar title of one of my favorite books.

So, next time you happen to be in your local Barnes & Noble, be sure and stumble over to the fiction area and look for all the Jodi Picoult books. After all, you can't go wrong... the RHD book club recommends it!

School Bells Ring in 12 Days

Technically it's 12 days and about 18 hours, but who's counting? School starts for most schools in Texas August 25. And it's time. In fact, it may be past time. This is the first year for a long while that school hasn't started in the middle of August. I was one of those parents who thought starting later in the month was a good idea. Now, I'm not so sure.

My younger kids are bored. My oldest daughter is in athletics so in reality her summer ended two weeks ago and my oldest son will be a senior. "Hurry up and get this over with" is his attitude. One of his many attitudes.

And now school won't be out until June. I'm betting the month of May is going to drag by ever so slowly.

I'm sure that we will adjust. A few years from now this will be the norm -- school starts in late August, school finishes up in early June. About the time students, parents and teachers condition themselves to this routine, our legislator will, no doubt, take it upon themselves to tweak the system once again.

At least when school starts my kids can't call me 27 times a day with their random questions. Like what can I eat for lunch or do you know where my tennis shoes are?

On the other hand, I'll missing having our college students here at the office around. While they're taking classes, their work schedule and my work schedule don't often overlap, so we don't see each other much. It's been fun being around them this summer and getting to know them better.

And once summer ends, it will be time for football! Followed closely by Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then Spring Break, then it will be summer again -- yea!

Our first Texas Music client...

Last week we got to work on a pretty exciting project, for an up-and-coming Texas Music artist - Brandon Dobbs. I'm betting that within 5 minutes of reading this post that my friends Shane & Gretchen Richey will find him on iTunes and download his music.....since they seem to know more about the latest Texas Music Artists than me, and they live in Indiana :)

So back to my story, I met Brandon back while we were both at Texas A&M in the animal science department. Brandon (or "Dobber" as we called him) transferred to A&M our junior year to be on the livestock judging team. We were both in Block and Bridle together, and spents lots of time together in the fun-loving town of College Station, whether it be working at the Saddle & Sirloin Show Futurities, dancing at the Hall of Fame, or hanging out in the Rolling Ridge Trailer Park where myself, Dobber, and all the "COOL KIDS" lived at that time.

Of all the times I spent hanging out with Dobber in college, never once did I hear him sing or play guitar. And trust me, there were LOTS of opportunities for this, such as our weekly Karaoke nights at the Kolle's house where I distinctly remember lots of singing by myself and Cassie to anything and everything sung by Cher, and the most memorable song -- Ralph Stokely singing Sweet Child of Mine. Did I mention most of this was occuring sometime between the hours of 1:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m??

Last year at the Texas A&M/Tech football game weekend, which also coincidentally was the "reunion" of the Habanero Hotties (me, Cassie, Tara, Kim, and Anne) 1st Place Chilifest Team....I ran into Brandon and we started talking about his music. He picked up singing and songwriting after college, and he has really taken off lately. Last week, he hired us design his ad that would be in the Lone Star Music catalog, and also some promotional posters to use around town where he can write the dates of his upcoming shows. I was totally excited to do it - since I'm a huge fan of Brandon's and also I've never done anything in the music industry.

If you like to be in the know of Texas artists, check out Brandon Dobbs on iTunes or also on myspace at http://www.myspace.com/brandondobbs. My favorite songs he sings is Boomtown, Outside of My Mind, and the title song on the album Time Will Tell.

And, keep in mind this famous person is just like a lot of us -- grew up showing and judging livestock, was a normal, down to earth, good ol' guy in Aggieland, and how he's making it as a Texas music singer!

World Pork Expo and more

Hey all! So I know I am way OVERDUE on my blog status. Lots of things have been going on in the Cooper household that have been keeping me busy! But, most importantly, for those of you that don't know yet, Aaron and I are expecting and are due around December 7th. Although, the doctor warns me that the baby is HUGE and don't go anywhere after November 1st, because most likely it will be early growing at this pace. So we are way pumped and just thinking of more names every day! AND, We just had the most wonderful nephew, Kaden Wayne Mason, born on May 28th, 2008!

Well, in the midst of all of this, Aaron and I made a very eventful trip up to Nebraska and Iowa last week and spent several days at the World Pork Expo in Des Moines. We flew in on Monday afternoon and visited a few friends in Nebraska that we haven't seen since we moved back to Texas in December! We had a great time looking at pigs and cattle and visiting with friends. Aaron and I enjoyed our rental car so much that I think I need a new car to welcome the baby!

We visited RW Genetics on Tuesday afternoon and bought a couple Dallas hogs for some friends in West Texas. Then Rick proceeded to tell me that he would like to turn all advertising services over to RHD, which is GREAT news and we are so excited to get him and his great pig operation on board with us!! On Wednesday we headed into Des Moines to enjoy the most relaxing, competetive and fun national swine show ever!

We first delivered the Hoosier State Banners to Daniel and Telynda Hendrickson and by the wa their daugher, Hadley is the CUTEST, I love her!!!!!!! They hung the banners right east of the ring where if you were sitting in either stands you could see them. I might add that they looked AWESOME and RHD received numerous compliments about them! Also, saw the Clay Farms catalogs that we designed a few weeks ago and they looked really neat too...he said that he handed out 2 boxes in a couple hours. We then watched the show and I had at least 50 and maybe even 100 people tell me they saw me in the Seedstock with RHD advertising, which made me feel very proud and I told all of them how much I loved my job and how great my co-workers are!!!! The show was wonderful, it is always interesting and very rewarding to watch Dr. Kim Brock evaluate swine and hear his way of talking them!

In addition to RW Genetics, we gained lots more interest in RHD and now have several potential customers! We are happy to have Clay Farms, Winning Enterprises, Kneese Show Pigs, Knight Show Pigs, and Wintex Farms already on board as new pig website customers for summer 2008.

The week at the Expo was long, because I was more tired than usual being pregnant and all, and Aaron might have considered me a fuddy-duddy, but I couldn't help that if I wasn't at the show, I wanted to be sleeping!! We were in bad weather most of the week. The town we visited first in Ceresco, Nebraska had two F1 tornadoes pas through there on Wednesday night and flattened some of the town and had numerous roofs gone and trees uplifted. The folks we stayed with had all their windows blown out and all the surrounding houses beside them were levelled. So, we were fortunate to have left on Wednesday morning. Then on Thursday night in Des Moines, there was a tornado spotted less than a mile from the hotel, sirens were going off and we had to go to lobby hall and wait for what looked like a hurricane to pass. Once again, before flying out in Omaha, on Saturday night, sirens prevailed and we went to take cover for the final time! I was never so happy to be out of the midwest and tornado alley and was glad to see that the weather didn't follow us home, although the rain would be nice!!!

Until next time, this has been our life for the last couple weeks! See ya soon! OH and My Birthday is tommorrow, I will be 25 big years old!!!! Adios!

Summer

It seems to me that in the winter, especially at times when I am freezing to death at Denver in January, I can't wait for summer to get here. At cold times of the year, I always think back to fun times by the pool, or cooking out in the yard, or going to the beach. Then, sure enough, about 5 months later, summer sets in, and I'm envious of times when I have to break out my puff coat and gloves and run the seat warmer in my car. Now its so hot that when I get in my car I have to be careful to not get branded by any metal object that had been in there heating up!

I'm also envious of those areas of the world that get 4 seasons a year - summer, fall, winter, and spring. For you northerners, here in Texas, we really get only 2 seasons: "hot" and "not-so-hot." Winter isn't that cold at all — maybe we get about a month of cool (not cold) weather. Then we get about a week of what most people call "spring," and pretty soon, it starts heating up, and before long the air conditioners are running and we're griping about the humidity and heat. I've been thinking it is summer since about March this year. Now we're in June, and there's no question about what season we're in.

To celebrate summer, yesterday I purchased my first lawnmower. I'd been paying a person to mow my yard for the past 3 years that I have lived in Boling, and since I really do enjoy mowing on my mom's lawnmower, I decided to bite the bullet and enter the world of lawnmower owners. I decided on a Snapper Zero Turn Mower... which I fell in love with at first sight when I entered Wharton Lawn & Garden. A few negotiations (I got a free weedeater!) and a few hours later, I was watching my new mower be unloaded off of the trailer in my driveway. After a short instructional lesson from the owner of WL&G, I was mowing away!

After several hours of mowing, and several minutes (yuck) of weedeating, I was hot, tired, and covered in lawn clippings. But I couldn't be more happy to be in control of my own yard destiny. So at least I have something good to say about summer... and that is that I get to do a lot of mowing on my new mower. Now if we could just get some more rain... then I'd really get to mow!

As a reality TV buff, my lovely day was topped off by getting to watch the finale of Top Chef. Of course I was rooting for Richard to win, but I was a little disappointed that his dishes weren't as good as normal. Stephanie ended up winning, which was more than okay with me, as I have gone back and forth all season on whether I liked Richard or Stephanie best. But, now that Top Chef is over, what will I do with my Wednesday nights? Shear Genius! This is another one of our favorite reality shows, and a new season is starting in 2 weeks. Last year we loved watching all of the hairdresser drama (Tabitha vs. Theodore was our favorite, followed closely by Dr. Boogie's mullet), and I can't wait to watch again this year!

Alabama -- an old flame

If George Strait is the current love-of-my-life country singer, Randy Owen was one of my first. Randy was the lead singer of the hot country group Alabama back in the 80’s. In fact, the first date I ever had with my husband Lance, was to an Alabama concert on the Texas A&M campus.

That was back when concert tickets weren’t priced out of reach, even for starving college students. Which was pretty much the motivation for him agreeing to go to the concert. A mutual friend of ours told Lance if he would stand in line (or rather camp out in line) for four tickets to the concert, he would treat all of us to dinner before the concert. I think he was one of the first ones in line, because we had really good seats. And as an 18 year old I remember thinking Randy Owen was soooo good looking, in a very distinguished older man kind of way.

So recently when Rachel told me RHD had been hired by Tennessee River Music, Inc., Randy’s cattle business, to design letterhead and envelopes, a flood of memories came back: Cranking up the volume when “My Home’s in Alabama” came on the radio; scooting across the dance floor to “If You're Gonna Play In Texas” and singing along to “Old Flame”.

Not that all of our clients aren’t famous in their own right, but this will most likely be the closest I’ll ever come to having contact with someone I’ve admired for a long time from afar.

I wonder if George Strait needs a web site, or some business cards, or a brochure…