Honoring today: KAT Founder’s Day

On this day, 141 years ago, the Kappa Alpha Theta fraternity for women was founded. In 1870, KAT was founded as the first Greek-letter fraternity for women as it was modeled after the many fraternities for men; but yes, it is a sorority for women.

Kappa Alpha Theta, or “Theta” as it’s called for short, is the sorority I joined in college, and have gained so many wonderful memories, connections and best friends. A sorority is nothing like the stereotypes, and Theta is so much more than just a sorority. Theta’s purpose is:  To support members to learn, grow, and excel, and our core values are personal excellence, friendship/sisterhood, scholarship, service, and leadership.

Theta was founded by four pioneering college women—Bettie Locke, Alice Allen, Bettie Tipton, and Hannah Fitch—who established Kappa Alpha Theta Fraternity, the first Greek-letter fraternity for women, at Indiana Asbury College (now DePauw University) in Greencastle, Indiana. Bettie Locke even has a Twitter account: @BettieLocke.

What’s even more special is my younger sister, Emily, became a Theta in 2008. I was so glad to be able to be there for initiation and help welcome her into the sisterhood! It’s so fun to know Em is experiencing the same experiences I had in college, and that we’ll have that special connection forever.

So in honor of today’s Founder’s Day celebration, here is a flashback to my four years spent in Theta at K-State!

Freshman Year:

Sophomore Year:

Junior Year:

Senior Year:

Sewing gifts...

For Christmas, I did some sewing and quilting projects to give as gifts to my sister and sister-in-law. My sister-in-law, Lindsay, always talks about going to their small group's houses for dinners and get-togethers. My brother Ryan said she didn't have a caserole dish carrier - and I use  mine alot - so I decided she needed one. :) I found the tutorial at 2 Little Hooligans, but made a couple changes - such as with the velcro.

I also made a tote for my sister, Emily, who is learning to knit. I found the pattern on the Moda Bake Shop blog and modified the sides with a wonky design. I gave her the quilting supplies and made the bag to carry them all in. I decided to use my own pattern for each of the sides.

I wish I would have taken pictures throughout, but was trying to whip this out in a few hours so didn't find time! All you do is cut two squares the same size and lay them on top of each other. Use your cutting tool and a straight edge and make two angled cuts (don't need to measure them) through both pieces. Pull the opposite middles of each fabric and sew together. Do the same thing cutting from the other direction and sew the opposite sides together again to make this kind of design.

I found the tutorial for Emily's tote on the Moda Bake Shop, but used my own pattern for the sides and used the inside-out option to help it stand better. In the inside, I put places to hold her knitting needles and a pocket to hold her smaller knitting supplies. Quilting around these made it a little difficult, but I'm glad I put them in there to help her organize her supplies.



Family Christmases 2010

This weekend we finished our Christmas celebrations for the season. We were in Colorado with my family during Christmas, and the Pope family traveled to Nebraska this year to be with us.

In Colorado, we celebrated Christmas Eve with Grams and had the traditional, 5-course Swedish dinner – lutfisk and all! My favorite are always the bruna beans and ostkaka. Christmas Day we spent together at home opening presents, enjoying a large brunch where Dad read the Christmas Story and playing Wii. I think the only time I changed out of my pj’s and got out of the house was to shoot Ryan’s new hand gun (scary btw!)

Here are a few of my favorite Frasier Christmas faces:

Here’s the Pope Family:

During our Pope Family Christmas, we have some fun traditions. We take the yearly family picture (which is fun to compare year to year!), have a walk-through on video in which Ronny usually has a quirky little comment, and then Mama Pope reads the Christmas Story to her grandkids – including the puppies!

The cousins. The little Chihuahua in the back is their “aunt”.

These two – I mean three! – are pretty cute! The pups (Hank on the left and Buster on the right – Ronny’s sister’s dog) are both blue heeler/rat terrier breeds, not a common mix, but both happen to have that breeding.

Grandma Pope was able to be with us, as well as this little guy, Rhett, that you may remember reading about here.

It was a fun Christmas season and feel so blessed to get to see so much family!

Food in Asia

This is a picture-packed post, but I wanted to share some of the foods I ate while in Asia. And I did try everything once!

In Japan, we went to a Shabu Shabu restaurant - a "hot pot" style restaurant that is very popular and even becoming more popular in the U.S. The hot pot cooks the meat and vegetables that you put in the pot - one side is original and the other side has hot spices to cook the food in, which I like best!

 

 This was Japan's version of fried pork, corn and edamame.

 Lamb on fire in Taiwan:

 Frog legs:

 "Drunk chicken" and Taiwan Beer:

 Goose liver, truffles and a baked apple:

 A "boxed" lunch:

 A Japanese grill with literally TEN courses! I was so full.

 Some kind of white fish with asparagus:

 Shrimp and broccoli:

 An oyster soup:

 Salad and fruit:

 Beef and garlic:

 Cooked cabbage:

 Custard dessert:

 Kenny's birthday cake in Taiwan - prettier than it tasted!

Bagged squid in a convenience store:

One BIG cup o' noodle at the convenience store in Japan:

Reminding me of K-State: purple potato pockets: 

 

A roundtable dinner in China:



Watermelon and sugarcane for dessert:

Apple flavored candy:

Coke in China:

Another "boxed lunch" in Japan - surprisingly, this was the only time we ate rice! They told us it was for common people and since we were guests of the government, they wanted to feed us their best food - like jellyfish and oysters!

I dont' have a picture of the eel we ate, but at this restaurant, they were proudly displayed at the front with the rest of the fish!

 And one of the best foods we had at the end of the trip: