Weekly Update - Warning Gross Picture!

Last week, I went to Zumba 5 times (Monday, then 4 days in a row thru Saturday). I'm paying for it now. My back is killing me!! So, I didn't go today.

Friday night, Kaitlyn went to a fraternity party and someone opened the door back on her foot by accident. She was bleeding pretty bad and the guy that did it, did apologize and tried to "doctor" up her foot for her. She returned back to the sorority house and called Michael (it was 2:30 in the morning), who came and got her and took care of her at his apartment. The next day he brought her to our house and then he took her to the urgent care center where they taped it up and she promptly received a tetanus shot. Michael took this picture with Kaitlyn's iphone and sent it to me.Now, it seems she may be having a reaction to the tetanus shot. I've got to take her back to the urgent care this afternoon as soon as she gets out of class. Let this be a warning, don't drink and wear flip-flops/sandals!!!

This was a picture I got off of Facebook of Kaitlyn (in one of her dance costumes) and Kristin (my Kristen's lil' sis and she was the one who went on vacation with us this summer). Pretty girls!

Work is still going on in the bathroom remodel. Floor tile is supposed to come in next week, then, hopefully we'll be done!

More Sorority Bid Day Pictures

Here are some more sorority bid day pictures I bought from Party Pics. FYI, the house in the background is the fraternity Sigma Chi. This is Kaitlyn, Andrea (Kaitlyn's "big") Mel (Kaitlyn's "twin") and Cristen (my Kristen's "grand-lil"). Cristen has a sister named Caitlin. Go Figure! Someone else named their daughters Kristen and Kaitlyn too! HAH!

Mel, Cristen, and Kaitlyn

Cristen & Kaitlyn (it rained for about 2 minutes that day before bids were handed out)

Kaitlyn and her "big" Andrea

Kaitlyn and her roommate Joan

Kaitlyn and Holly (one of the new freshmen). Holly is from Norman HS and she and Kaitlyn were on POM together. Kaitlyn was her bid day buddy.

The back of their shirts were CUTE. They said "nAturally sOme leTTers are just better" with the AOTT a lot larger than the other letters.

Pictures I stole from Kaitlyn's Facebook

Today Jann suggested I go up to a decorator fabric store in the city while she took the afternoon off. I took her up on it because I've been looking for some fabric to make a shower curtain to go in our new bathroom. I found some huge Buffalo check that's black, white, and gray. It will match perfectly in our bathroom! Not going to say how much I paid for the material but let's say I could have bought one at Wal-mart (not matching, tho) for about one-third of the price!
Here's some pictures I "stole" from Kaitlyn's Facebook page. They are from rush on Tuesday afternoon before the new girls were in the picture. This young lady with Kaitlyn is from the Chicago area and Kaitlyn said a lot of people ask if they are twins! They have the same chin!

Her name is Olivia. She was in one of the dances with Kaitlyn I posted the other day.

The girl standing is Andrea, and she is the "big sis" to Mel and Kaitlyn (sorority twins).

This is Joan (kaitlyn's roommate), Gloriana (one of Kaitlyn's good friends) and Kaitlyn.

This was a really cute picture of Michael and Kaitlyn. Oh and Michael got a job! He's going to be a Graphics Producer at a local television station (KSBI-TV).

This is Kaitlyn and her roommate at the sorority house, Joan. She is from somewhere right outside of Dallas.

It's Coming Along!

This is looking into our bathroom. They have the black tile on top of the counter (with spacers in it right now) and my new sink in. We put some glass tiles on the front of the cabinet, along the window sill and as a design in the shower area. The cabinets have been painted and the new hardware installed.

This is along the windowsill.

And in our shower area....

This angle is from over by the window looking toward the door.

I'm starting to get excited. I can't wait till they lay the floor tile.

Sorority Stuff

The recruitment is 3/5 done. Day 1 (Friday) the girls in the house dress in their solid color sundresses with white heels to greet the rushees. The rushees wear shorts/jeans and the panhellenic t-shirt they were given to wear. The girls "stack" in the doorway and all across the windows of the front of the house and sing to the rushees when the door opens. As far as I know they do this each day. The first day they have to do this 14 times (for 14 parties). This is a still picture to show you where Kaitlyn is in the doorstack. She is on the far right on the third row from the bottom. She has on black gloves (for her costume). They tilt their heads and clap just perfectly in sync.

This is what it looks like when the doors open. When they finish their song, the girls move back and form a tunnel so the rushees can walk in. The girls grab their rushee as they come in and then take them to do whatever (tour the house, see the skit, have a chat, etc.)

This was the work week sign on the front of the house when the parents walked in the other night. My guess is the t-shirts they give out on bid day will coordinate with this sign somehow.

Day 2, the rushees come in and see a skit. The first skit is based on the movie Clueless. Kaitlyn was in one of the dances. Day 2 the girls wear a business casual outfit (all of them wear the same thing) and the rushees are wearing sundresses and cute shoes. The girls perform this about 10-11 times day 2.




The 3rd day (Sunday) the girls are wearing a nicer dress/sundress (I can't remember if it's supposed to be jewel toned or print) and heels. The rushees wear a nicer dress/sundress too. The rushees see a 2nd skit. This one is based on Alice in Wonderland. Great skit! Kaitlyn was in one of the dances here too. I think they do this one 7-8 times.



On the 4th day ("pref" night) the girls wear black cocktail dresses and heels. The rushees wear something very cocktail-y too. I don't remember if they wear black or not. They have 3 parties that night.

When the groups of rushees leave everyday, the girls sing them out the door and form a doorstack for them again.

Day 5 is bid day. Everyone wears casual clothes. The girls wear one color sorority t-shirt and they give their potential new members a coordinating color t-shirt. And group pictures follow. Party Pics already has risers set up outside of each sorority house and they just go from one to the other. Then the sororities have their first outing with their potential new members. Lots of fun and the culmination of several LONG, LONG weeks of work for the girls "in the house." School starts on Monday, August 23.

Sneak Peak - Remodel and Kaitlyn's Room at the Sorority House

The remodel is coming along. As of this afternoon, all the walls are back up and they are starting to paint them. This is looking toward the closet they took out and the front door.

This is looking at the bathtub area. The toilet is still in the bathtub!

We are having them repaint our bathroom cabinets white. So the doors are currently off. We are going with a black counter top. They will start laying the tile in the next couple of days.

Last night was Skit Preview Night for parents and alums of AOII. I can't show you the actual stuff they do for recruitment until after recruitment is over. So I'll post that video next week. Here are pictures of Kaitlyn's room in the sorority house. Everybody's door has their names on it. Kaitlyn did these letters herself with modge podge and scrapbooking paper on wooden lettering.

Their beds weren't made up. Hah! But as you can see their comfortors had a lot of colors to work with. They have light blue sheets.

Kaitlyn's "corner" of the room with her jewelry bulletin board, AOII letters and frame she made.

Here's the futon/couch.

They took one of the closets (which is normally attached to a bed which is supposed to be "lofted" only all the girls take them apart and make them bunk beds) and face the other one (which is still attached to the bed) and make a dressing room out of it. I had to hem these curtains so they wouldn't drag the floor. Kaitlyn and her roommate took their closet doors off and used one on top to store extra boots, etc. (you can see the handle hanging down). They purchased the extra mirror and cubbie thing to complete their "dressing room."

This is the composite from last year that hangs at the top of the stairs.
This will be the only time both Kristen and Kaitlyn's pictures will be on there together.

Here is a picture of Joe and Kaitlyn, with one of her costumes on.

Train Trip to Fort Worth

Saturday I got my hair cut and colored. I went back to my "roots." I just felt that everytime I got my hair highlighted, it just kept getting blonder and blonder, even when I told her not to put so much blonde in it.

Sunday, my prayer shawl group took the train to Fort Worth for the day. We rode down, ate lunch, sat around for awhile and then rode the train back. We knitted on the way down and knitted on the way back. It was a long, but relaxing day. Here's the train pulling into the station.

Here is one of the, I guess it would be porter, since the conductor is the one who drives the train, right? He was taking our tickets.

A view from over my seat. It really is very comfortable to ride the train. It's like being in first class in an airplane. You literally can stretch out in a lazy-boy type chair and lean back. It's great! You can also walk around all you want. The restrooms, and the "cafe/lounge" stuff is downstairs. The Heartland Flyer (from OKC to Ft Worth) only serves snacks (vending machine type food). You might be able to get an adult beverage, I'm not sure since I didn't go check it out.

The train station in Ardmore, OK.

Going through the Arbuckle Mountains. Yes, Oklahoma has mountains. This river runs beside the train tracks. Reminds me of Colorado (only the mountains are much, much smaller here).

Remodel Update

One of the things that is interesting when doing a remodel job on an old house is to see the things inside or behind a wall. Haven't found any riches yet (most likely won't) but have found some u-g-l-y wallpaper. This is the little strip of wall behind the front door (that we painted on July 4th!). Now that the paint and whatever else was ripped off, here's some lovely old wallpaper. I want to say this crap was on the wall when we moved in 23 years ago. The whole house was wallpapered with HUGE printed wallpaper; although this is small print. I just remember it was something very similar to this in the hall.

I've never seen this wallpaper below before. It was behind the mirror in the bathroom. The bathroom was papered in something else (think huge goldfish) when we moved in. But I don't like this either.

This shot is looking in through the foyer hall into the bathroom. The toilet is now sitting in the bathtub temporarily.

This next shot is looking through what used to be my hall coat closet. The one that had the mold in it.

They removed the dehumidifier machines this morning. We were becoming used to the loud humming noise they made and jokingly asked the restoration people if they could leave them because we didn't think we could sleep without them! HAHA

This is our view coming out of our bedroom down the hall. We have a slim (and I mean slim) walkway to get to the den. If we push our butts up against the plastic we can get through no problem.

This is our view from the den. The doorway has a zipper in it! Sugar (our Jack Corgi) has finally figured out she can slip through the bottom zipper part if we don't zip it all the way. She can't stand not being with us when we go back to our bedroom. If we don't want her back there we put up the old trusty baby gate. The cat hasn't been so adventurous. Although he has been doing weird things whenever the workmen are in the house. He's been trying to climb into open cabinet doors in the kitchen whenever I get in there and he went behind the dryer the other day. First time he's ever done that.