OHHHHHHHklahoma

Although I'm not really familiar with the musical "Oklahoma," I had various renditions of the song sung at me throughout the week from people who knew I was visiting there.

It was the week after their homecoming (and sadly, they lost too to Texas Tech but it broke their however long it was winning streak at home. Yikes)


It was so fun to hear about their homecoming traditions and how they were different/similar to ISU's. They do a huge "pomping" thing where they decorate these floats by tying little fabric strips on chicken wire to make the design and it is a HUGE and LENGTHY process. I didn't get to see any of the actual floats (because they were all at the fraternities and naturally destroyed after homecoming activities) but the pictures showed they were AWESOME. Kappas did a disney world theme (and called it "Sooner World)! IT was pretty entertaining at the chapter meetings, too, because two fraternities came and serenaded them to try and get Kappa to pick them for homecoming 2012. Talk about getting ahead of the game! Crazy, but funny to see the guys get so embarrassed to have to sing in front of all 250 chapter members.

Here are some pictures from throughout the week, I know my father was jealous he couldnt be there. I got to experience a lot of campus as well as many of the great restaurants in the area!

University of Oklahoma's Clocktower. You can walk under it because it has gaps between the brick columns at the base, so the rumor is you wont graduate in 4 years if you walk under it.

The flowers one fraternity brought to the chapter to try and get them to pick them for Homecoming. The adviser put them in my room for me, so thanks boys!

The Kappa House! 92 girls lived in it, and they have a "Kappa Hall" building across the street that is where they have all their meetings, etc.

The football stadium, got a personal tour from Barry (just kidding, Dad)

The outfit I almost bought for my dad and his friend Kent to wear on gamedays, but after the mental picture of them in these I decided for the good of the mankind to refrain.

Proof I actually found the stadium (after wandering around campus to all the bookstores looking for a simple postcard, how hard should that have been?!)

Notice the speakerphones on the top of the bell tower thing on the student union. Yep, no actual bells, just a recording played through those speakers! Lame

Boomer sign in Campus Corner, the shops/restaurant/bar area right by the university. Also, the Chipotle where I ate lunch one day and the quarterback from the team walked in!

Pe-et Tree. Something historical about it, dont remember. haha OOPS!

Last but not least, how I spent my Tuesday night in Norman, Oklahoma. Experiencing my first pageant that a chapter member was competing in. WOW is all I can say! 

I loved every second of my visit here because everyone was so nice and welcoming...I won't say I might be an Oklahoma fan now too until after the ISU/OU game in a couple of weeks. I tried to rub off some good luck there for my cyclones, so we'll see how well it works!!!

x's and o's and BOOMER SOONER!

Allison

11-11-11

11 Things I'm Thankful for on the day I have been waiting my whole life for! (okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but I still have been planning/getting excited for this day for a LONG time!!)

1. God and my faith that has gotten me through so many trying times
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
-Hebrews 11:1

2. My FAMILY! I honestly am the luckiest to have such great parents (as strange as they are) and the best two baby brothers that make me so proud every single day! I miss you every day, but am thankful that you are always there for me (except for maybe at 4:30am when I'm waking up to be at the airport for my 6am flights.. whats up with that?! ;) )

I think this photo explains itself.

Lovely faja and Cardboard Kyle

The look I get quite often. I know you love me, Kev (or should I call you God'sgift?)

Actually disturbing. Still my favorite panther kit kat kyle!

Oh, mother! :)

3. My FRIENDS!! I would be NOWHERE without my friends I've made each step of my life. It says a lot if you can put up with my crazy life and sometimes strange sense of humor, but I've had SO many great times, I can't even begin to name them all! :)

4. My LC team and all the support from the KKG fam! These 7 ladies (plus the ones before us) are truly the only people who understand exactly what we are going through, and their encouragement and support means the world.

And they all love icecream.. its meant to be! :)

5. Since November 11th is actually Veteran's Day, of course I am thankful to everyone who has and is serving our country!

6. SO thankful for my health during this year of travel. It's been a whole year since my last stress fracture, so I've been able to keep up running, i've lost my tonsils and my wisdom teeth, and so far no falls to rebreak my wrist ;) Hoping the next year will be uneventful!

7. 120 Lynn. Visiting all the Kappa chapters is great, and it really makes me thankful for the time I had at ISU with all my Delta Omicron Kappa sistas ;) Love and miss you all.

120 Lynn

Kappa Kakes Philanthropy Spring 2011

8. My friends in Africa and Mexico. I pray for them everyday and meeting them all changed my life and perspective, and I can't wait to return again soon :)

9. IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY! So grateful to have gotten such a great education, and had an AMAZING time there as well! Go Cyclones for life, even though I'm going to Iowa, I plan on reppin the cardinal and gold amongst the hawkeyes!

This will never get old.

cyclONEnation!

10. I'm thankful for each new day, and though I thought I would never say this: I'm thankful for change. For with change comes a new beginning. For me, it's been a slow learning process to realize that change is good, and every day is a new day!

“Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

11. NUMBER 11! Only fitting that the 11th thing I am thankful is the ability to find joy in the littlest things and to enjoy and live life to the fullest! What a boring world this would be if I couldn't celebrate things like 11-11-11 and the times 11:11am and 11:11pm or 12:34. I might be crazy, but sometimes crazy is good, right?

Lizzie's and my door when we lived in Room 11, one year ago on 11-11-10!

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
― Albert Einstein



Happy 11-11-11!!! Wish on :)
xo xo xo xo xo xo xo xo xo xo
Allison

ISU Homecoming :)

Here are some pictures from my first weekend back in Ames! Even without a Cyclone victory, it was still a PERFECT weekend with friends :)

KKG 07 Reunion :)

No big deal, only the first place banner! Woo woo started a tradition after our Greek Week banner got 1st, too. Haha

My great-grandlittle painted up for Yell Like Hell finals!!

At Yell Like Hell finals with some lovely seniors!

The Mayor

OH yeah!

Our first alumnae day as alumnae... woof.

Annette, Michelle and me with Mom Miller

The usual for us. What a perfect day for Homecoming!

Loving the reunion! Off to tailgate and the game!

Roomie reunion from summer 2009!

MY NEW FAVORITE AIRLINE!! ANIMAL PICTURES ON THE PLANE! The flight attendant even announces what the animal's name is and what type it is during her safety instruction. A little odd...

DSM-->Denver-->OKC

Ready for a week in Sooner territory. A little dissapointed my father didn't come visit Barry and me there!

Just a casual parade with Barry.

CYCLONE POWER!
x's and o's from the CyclONEnation
Allison

Ithaca is Gorges

But really, my first experience of upstate New York at Cornell University could not have been at a better time of year! Luckily, I missed most of the rainy days that the students there are used to, and had beautiful fall weather to go along with the GORGEOUS trees that were in full fall color!

The bridges used to only be made of all the green metal part, but so many students were jumping off the bridges/committing suicide that they put up the black safety fences. Depressing, eh? I guess Cornell has a reputation of being a depressing school between the hard classes and the hard winters.

Home for the week! My window is the one up and to the left of the front door.

Another view of the bridge connecting north and main campus. I was on a lower walking bridge that is right over one of the waterfalls (See below pictures)

This is a view from the footbridge

 View from the main bridge.. so you can see the little footbridge I  walked on right over the waterfall!

Famous hotel school of Cornell. They call the hotel students "hotellies"
Had to take this picture for Lizzie, since it kind of fit with her major at ISU of hotel restuarant institution management!

I got to go on Cornell's football field!

  I dont know what this building was, but it looked cool :) 

Northwestern!

After a great weekend at home for UNI homecoming, it was a little bittersweet to get on the Megabus to Chicago for my next LC adventure. I luckily avoided the marathon traffic, and met up with my ride to Evanston at Union Station on Sunday.

The sorority quad there is interesting in that they are all together and owned by the university, so they all are unified looking (all made out of stone) and the fraternities are all together and made out of brick. The inside/floor plan of each is different though, which I thought was interesting.

My Home for the week (literally, the window to my room was the one to the right above the front door, it was interesting to hear some late night conversations from my room [especially when they were about me, "the LC" as I am so affectionately called by the chapter members, God forbid I actually have a name!])

Unfortunately, the week did not start out well as I got EXTREMELY sick Sunday night and all of Monday. No further explanations are necessary, I dont think anyone wants to hear the gory details ;) Haha. The president and VP-Organizations were so sweet to me, and made sure I had everything I needed (which quite honestly, was to lay and recover/sleep all day!). Not ideal, but I am thankful it wasn't worse.

I had some opportunities to run on campus and along Lake Michigan. Campus was absolutely gorgeous and I LOVED the skyline view of Chicago!

Remind me again, why ISU wasn't located on a lake?! They had a BEACH!

Painted rocks along the shoreline on campus. Pretty cool, but not sure I would want to be Jennie, "the Beautiful Dinosaur" or one of the hundred " (_insert name here__) Will You Marry Me" rocks.

My favorite! haha :) even though I hate sharks. 

Northwestern truly was a beautiful campus, and I got a tour from an official tour guide who was a Kappa. She was from London, so I was LOVING her accent, too!

Main gates to campus: Incoming freshman have a ceremony where they walk through them, and after seniors graduate they have a walking out ceremony! Full circle :)

The Fraternity quad

Campus Building that holds the original lyrics to the Beatles "Yellow Submarine

Took this picture for you, Mom :)

Where the original football field was! This has to count for me seeing their field, since the actual football field is further away from campus

The famous Northwestern Rock, different school organizations paint it, so it literally is different every single day!

The Library! It is supposed to look like books on a bookshelf.

The campus lake, literally right next to Lake Michigan

Quote from the tour.. "The only orange building on campus!".. how many orange buildings on campuses are there normally?

Campus building that I thought looked like First United Methodist church in CF! I dont know what it was for, I should have been paying better attention :)

Also, KKG's Founder's Day occurred during my time at Northwestern. I got to celebrate with the chapter, and there were even 3 alumnae who came to receive their 50 year pins and a 65 year pin! Whoa, can't wait til this is me in 50 years and I'm telling everyone about my Kappa traveling experiences :) It was a great way to truly see the big picture of Kappa and its 141 year history and 138 chapters across the US and Canada (A little bit of the LC speech coming out there)

Lovely Kappa Founder's Day cake.. gotta love the blue and blue and the key of course!

Came with her daughter who was also a Kappa to receive her 65 year pin. She went to Purdue!

New Member Pledge Class Sisters from Northwestern with their 50 yr pins!

I was anxious for the weekend, since I was going to stay in Chicago with my friends Annette and Lizzie from school! Our friend Ryan came up from the Quad Cities to spend the weekend in Chicago as well. Annette has an internship in the city, so she was off on Friday to hang out with me once I got dropped off at their cozy studio apartment. Lizzie is in culinary school, and sadly has class on Saturday morning so she was busy with that.

I had so much fun being in the city with them, and we went out on Saturday night to meet up with more of the ISU Kappas who are in Chicago now. I had a GREAT weekend, but after a sudden wakeup call to catch my 8am flight from O'Hare (lets just say I missed my alarm, and GOT to O'Hare at 7:15 for my 8am flight, and made it. I'm officially an expert traveler for SURE) I was on my way to Ithaca, NY (Along with Lizzie and Annette's TV remote... oops!)

ISU Kappas in Chicago!



x's and o's from Upstate New York!
-Allison and the infamous TV remote