Merry Christmas!

It's been an eternity since I posted on my blog. It's fallen by the wayside as they say. We've been doing well here. Just trying to survive all of the Christmas shopping and preparations! We're heading home this afternoon to spend Christmas with our families.

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and pray that you will have a joyous time with friends and families.

Lord, we thank you for giving us the greatest gift - Jesus!

We love you all!

Theta Weeked - Return to Aggieville

When we graduated from college, my best Theta girlfriends made a pact to return for a football game every year. This is the story of our 2009 adventure in the land of purple. This year we were missing Kandace & Matthew who live in Pennsylvania and couldn't make it back. We missed you guys!

The Varney's sign - an iconic symbol of Aggieville.

All of the girls at Fat's. I know I have more pictures of this...will have to post them later.

PEANUTS!!!!! So, I get excited when Rusty's Next Door has peanuts - they are my FAVORITE!

We ran into some of Chris' friends in town for the game. I think I have more pictures of them too...

Ross is giving the camera his seductive pose...

Rachel & Pickett are flashing their beautiful smiles!

Me & Rachel

Me & Katie

Katie Jo and Josh

Ross & Rachel in a heated paper, rocks, scissors game...I can not remember why?

Theta Weekend - Football & Tailgating

Pictures from our tailgate before and after the game and at the game. It was a great game! We beat Tennessee Tech (we should have without question, but it was an accomplishment for us!)

Josh & Katie Jo

Me & Chris

Rachel & Pickett

Katie Freese & Rachel

Our wonderful tailgate.

We were prepared this year!

Go Cats!

The student section before it filled up!

All of us except Katie & Josh - they have season tickets elsewhere.

The grill master! Katie has a wonderful grill that she shared with us!

Ross & Rachel - the newly engaged!

The whole group - lovin' that purple!

Back row: Ross, Rachel, Pickett, Katie F, Abby (Katie's sister)

Front row: Josh, Katie Jo, Me, Chris

Justin & Jessica stopped by after the game.

Rockin' the sunburn - we all were after a long day in the sun!

On Sunday, we participated in Theta's philanthropy - a 5K race for CASA called WildKAT Chase. We haven't missed a year since we were freshmen! After the race, we treated ourselves to a yummy (and not-so-healthy) breakfast at Early Edition, a local restaurant in Manhattan. It has become a tradition as well!

Welcome Autumn!

So, I was too excited about Autumn to not celebrate it in my blog...maybe I went over the top? I think autumn is my favorite season - the air is crisp, the leaves are beautiful, it's warm but not hot in the afternoon, and it even has a different sound - everything is quiet and there is a peaceful feeling in the air. I just love it!

Has anyone else decorated for Halloween? I did this weekend - I just love decorating for the holidays!

Old Friends in New Places

September 18-20

We went to visit my dot in the Theta house, Danielle and her husband, Aaron at their new home just south of Auburn, NE. Aaron is a nuclear engineer at the Cooper Nuclear power station and Danielle works is a nurse in a local hospital. They just bought a house and 10 acres of land, including a nice barn and several outbuildings. They're country folk now! They've settled in really well and even have three goats! It was so good to see them and catch up on their lives. We toured their area on Saturday and went to a nearby winery. On Saturday night, we went to Nebraska City for a nice steak buffet at a nice Arbor Day Resort there (did you know Nebraska is the home of Arbor Day?). On Sunday, we went to church with them and met the community of Auburn - it reminded me so much of my church in Plevna! It was such a relaxing trip! And they're only 2 1/2 hours away, so we plan to see much more of them in the future with visits back and forth.

Their house.

Me and my dot, Danielle.

Such a beautiful place!

Danielle and Cinch.

Their Nebraska TRUCK - it's HUGE! All of the trucks in Nebraska are huge!

Weddings, weddings and more weddings

September 12

We went to our first fall wedding two weekends ago. It was our fourth wedding of the wedding season. It's been a busy one! Chris' good friend, Travis Tozer got married in Topeka. They had a very small and simple wedding - it was really pretty! We got to see a lot of Chris' old college friends, which was great! Chris lived with most of these guys in Goodnow hall his freshman and sophomore years. So, I've pretty much known them since my freshman year - when Chris and I started dating.

Awwww...aren't they cute?

Kurt & Paul

Robert & Britney

Robert & Logan

Cutting the cake! Lisa & Tozer

Geist Family Campout

September 4-7

We had a great time at the family reunion. As you can see, I forgot to take pictures...and the ones I took weren't great. You can see our accomodations for the extended weekend, though. We took the jet ski this year, which was a HUGE hit even though the water was pretty chilly! All of the little kids were just in love with Chris and the jet ski rides and tubing!

Other hightlights from the reunion were a wedding reception for my cousin Dave and his wife Joanna, our cousin Jon was there this year - after a 20 year absence, and we had a total of 95 people - with 4 new ones on the way. I think there are more children than adults at the reunion these days!

We had a great time and didn't get too chilly - although it was wet every morning!

B-E-A-utiful is all I can say...

I think we just woke up - you can see Chris suffering from the allergens!

Our tent is the small blue one on the far left.

Lake Trip

August 28-30

We had a great weekend in Derby with Chris' family. His sister, Ashley and her hubby Justin flew back from Arizona to go boating with us! I promised some boating pictures, but then forgot to take my camera on the boat - sorry! I did get a few candid photos from the weekend. (And as always a few posed shots!)

After a nice hot shower! I thought this would be a good picture to start with...the next one isn't so pretty!

Right after we got back from the lake.

Hi Bob! (He didn't know I was going to snap a shot!)

Cheese!

Justin & Ashley - the newly weds!

We went to dinner and a movie (GI Joe) on Saturday evening. Normally we would have boated all day, but it was too cold to go any longer!

Chris & Grandma Ward

We took her on the boat for the day - we had such a great time! Chris is filling in as her wheelchair for the day! She is such a hoot!

Chris and Ashley being goofy!

Ashley and Justin made us breakfast on Sunday morning - we slept in late and had brunch with the family. Grandma Long came over for a visit while we were eating breakfast. Grandpa Long passed away shortly after Ashley's wedding this summer and Grandma is now in an assisted living place. She seemed to be doing really well and settling into her new living situation. She has such an amazing spirit and is always cheery - it is such a blessing!

That was our weekend - boating on Friday afternoon/evening - we took the afternoon off. Boating on Saturday, dinner and a movie. Brunch and good times with family on Sunday. It was good to see everyone!

Coming next...a few 62nd Annual Geist Family Campout photos...

Still alive and well...

So I'm feeling a little guilty for not keeping this updated the past couple of months...so here's a quick overview and I don't have any pictures at this time. I promise to take a few this weekend!

July Highlights

• Vacation at Table Rock the first week with Chris' family.
• Starlight Theatre begins - we got season tickets this year!
• Began my new position in the Theta alumnae chapter (secretary) with an executive board mtg.
• Karla's wedding and visit with Theta girls.
• Took the last two days of July off to go to Hays/Sylvia/Plevna/Kinsley for Mandy's wedding.

August Highlights

• Mandy's wedding the first weekend - it was beautiful and we had a great time!
• Theta Full Board meeting to prepare for our general meetings starting in Sept.
• Spent a weekend with my parents and brother in Manhattan - an end of the summer visit.
• That same weekend, Chris went to Minneapolis to go to a Twins game with his buddies.
• We went to the Sound of Music at the New Theatre last night- thank you for the tickets Kirk, Kathy, Kristin, and Ashley! We got the tickets for our anniversary and decided we wanted to wait to see The Sound of Music. It's a dinner theatre, and the food was AMAZING! We had a great time.
• We're going to one of my Theta sister's house for dinner tonight with her and her husband. She was older than me, but we met when I was president of Theta and have been good friends ever since. She's helped me to get connected to the alumnae chapter here in KC. They live right down the street from us and we've been talking about getting together, but this is the first time we've been able to make it work!
• We're going to Derby this weekend to go boating with the Ward family. Ashley & Justin are coming back from Arizona to go with us! It should be a great time! We're taking Friday afternoon off to head down there.

September Happenings:

• Chris is going to Iowa State next Wed. - Thurs. to look at their power plant. His company is doing something for them, so he's traveling there to check it out.
• 62nd Annual Geist Family Campout Sept. 4-7 at Marion Lake.
• Our last starlight show is Sept. 8 - Mamma Mia!
• First Theta General Meeting Sept. 14
• Theta Weekend Sept. 26-27. We're going to the K-State football game and WildKAT Chase. It's our traditional "reunion" weekend where I get to see all of my closest Theta girls!

I'm starting to plan my fall phone-a-thons. So far, I've only scheduled one. I will be going to Iowa State November 15-16. I'm working with Ohio State and possibly Minnesota as my other locations. We'll see!

Chris is doing well - still loving his job! His summer softball seasons are finally over this week. It was a busy summer with 3 softball games each week! He just finished arranging soccer teams for the Shawnee Soccer Club, where he volunteers as the U5 & U6 soccer coordinator.

I'll post pictures from our boating adventure this weekend. I'll see if I have any other new pictures to post too!

Karla's Wedding

The whole group - even the new husband!

Playing around with the flowers on the tables!

Oooh la la!

Aren't we cute?

Theta sisters!

We had such a blast catching up with each other! We decided that we live too far away from one another. We could have talked for hours about the "good 'ol days" but then we realized how old we were when we started feeling sleepy by 10:00 - NOT like the "good 'ol days."