Living the Dream

What up, FAM!

     Sorry for posting two in a row, but since no one else takes initiative in this family, I decided to go ahead and do it. Ha.

     I'm living the dream at Georgia Tech! I could not be happier with where I am. I can't believe I almost went to Erskine College in Due West, SC. I love being in downtown ATL. I love the campus, my classes, the atmosphere, the friends, the food(seriously!) and everything GT has to offer. I really am living the dream. 

     This weekend was aw

esome! I went with CCF on their fall retreat down to UGA's 4H Agricultural Center or something. For some reason, I thought that "weekend" retreats ended in high school, but I was so excited when I realized that this same kind of thing went on in college too! I'm making a ton of friends here. This pic is of me and fellow CCF'ers.

     After applying and an individual and group interview, I was chosen for the Freshman Foundation. I was told that 98 applied and 16 made it. Basically, we receive $15,000 from the Student Government Association to plan events to make Freshman feel more at home on campus. Next weekend is our Fall Retreat at someone's beach house in Tybee Island, GA, and I can't wait!

     So far, I've taken things slow as far as getting involved on campus goes-because we all know how I have a tendency to overcommit myself. So far, I'm a member of the FreshFound for sure. Others I am still trying out a

nd going to meetings, practices, etc. are Tech Triathlon Club and GT College Republicans.

     Random news 

- The only other Elias I have ever met is here in my Freshman Class. He's from Panama, and I proofread his papers for English, since English is his second language and such. He tells me that he'll help me with Spanish next semester in return.

- Yes, I vend cotton candy, drinks, and snow cones at GT home football games. It's pretty interesting. Not thrilling, of course, but it's something I've never done before. I walk up and down sections for 3.5 straight hours yelling "get your $5 cotton candy! cotton candy five dollars!" It gets old after awhile. But you'd be surprised at how many people fork over $5 for cotton candy.

- I'm addicted to the food in Britain Dining Hall. I think it's amazing. No one else will tell you that it's good food, only me. I'm not sure why, but I love eating there. I probably visit that place 4-5 times a day.

- I was running with Sam, a triathlon club member, and he almost got hit by a truck.

- I have my first test of college in the morning, and it's after midnight and I'm still up.

So i guess it's time for me to go. But I better see a post from someone else in this family within the week. That means you, Vani.

Oh, and I made Facebook Album for Tech as well. You can view it by clicking on this:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106879&id=502723738&l=5753e6fad8

Update from GT! Week 2

 Hey everyone! 

I'm now in my second week of classes at Georgia Tech, and I'm loving it! I'm taking 15 hours of classes, which includes a Computer Science class in which Joe and I sit next to each other. I’m also taking Survey of Calculus, English 1101, International Affairs 1200, and GT1000. Classes are tough, but not impossible. I'm managing my time well so far, so I'm excited to see what this semester brings. So far, I've gone running on streets on the other side of 85, fed homeless people on Sunday morning, swam laps at the CRC, had an awesome week of rushing, pledged at the Beta House, de-pledged at the Beta House, swam in the Campanile (a fountain in the center of campus), played with the Club Volleyball Team, gone to the Freshman Convocation, hung out ALOT at the Campus Christian Fellowship, had fun in the water slide and hot tub at the CRC, explored campus with Leah, walked by Irina Falconi (star of GT Women’s Tennis) almost gotten arrested for running across Bobbby Dodd & Grant Field in the rain at midnight, gone to the Campus Christian Fellowship Services, played midnight dodgeball @ the North Ave. Gymnasium with CCF, gone to Grace Midtown Church, almost touched Jonathan Dwyer, walked up and down freshman hill about 100000 times, dodged the Swine Flu (so far), hung out and studied in the MLR (Music Listening Room), and lived for almost two weeks in a dorm room with a roommate. It's crazy how much goes on down here. My guys of Matheson 1 are pretty cool. I frequently hear phrases like, "don't let him get the golden key of Dulon!" or "have you entered the Gorgon Dungeon yet??!' coming from open doors down the hall. Yes, many of them never leave their rooms, they just play video games all day. But I have made great friends on my hall as well as pledge brothers like Lee Washington (Kyle Daniel's cousin). Speaking of pledgeship, RUSH was great. It was really fun trying out all the houses on campus, and I now I am a pledge of Beta Theta Pi, Gamma Eta Chapter. Pledgeship is alot different than I thought it would be. For one, alot of my spare time now goes towards filling out informational sheets on all of the brothers, cleaning the coat of arms or whatever they call it in the doorway, hosing down a brother of the chapter at every meal, memorizing names, home towns, majors, and family information on all the brothers for the test on Sunday night, racing to answer the phone whenever it rings and practically shouting into the phone "Beta Theta Pi this is Elias, how may I help you?" Pledgeship is interesting, to say the least. I'm not sure if I like it all that much, but I'm giving it the old college try. But I've got alot of cool pledge brothers, so that makes it a bit easier I suppose. Leah and I hang out all the time, and I'm going to miss not eating meals in Brittain Dining Hall with her anymore. But I think we're all going bowling in the Student Center tomorrow night! The Swine Flu is getting pretty serious here. They quarantined 5 ZTAs and this girl I had dinner with the other night decided to inform me halfway through the meal that she just got tested for Swine Flu and was waiting on results. Let’s say I left quickly. But we get emails from campus health and safety everyday, telling us the numbers of GT Students confirmed is rising. My roommate, Billy, actually did get sick yesterday, but it was because he gave too much blood and then passed out from lightheadedness or something. I think he saw like 5 needles sticking out of his arm and had fainted. Last night one of my pledge brothers was arrested at an off campus party/concert. And about the “almost gotten arrested for running across Bobbby Dodd & Grant Field in the rain at midnight,” yes it’s true. It was me and my "big brother" from CCF. The cops stopped us, but we got off. I’ve only been here 2 weeks and almost have a criminal record! Wow.

I miss everyone, alot!

elias j crist

Six Flags

Hey Family,  I'm finally posting something. Your welcome Liz.. Today me and elias got to go to Six Flags for homeschool day! It was so much fun. I have always been afraid of roller coasters but now I love them. As you can see we got to go on a lot of them. We went on the Ninja and I didn't like it very much cause you get a head ache. I loved Batman, Superman, and Goliath. We get a return pass back into the park. So Elias is giving his ticket to liz so me and her can go. It will be fun! I will probably post something later about the new kittens, But I had to post something about Six Flags! 

Update on Jeff

Hey there.  

Just wanted to give you an update about Jeff.  He and Edith returned from nearly a week in Boston.  The final test results are due back Wednesday of this week.  If the cancer has been contained in his right lung, the plan is to return to Boston within two weeks, remove the lung immediately and begin aggressive chemo treatment.

He is very upbeat and hopeful.  The doc seems to indicate that Jeff will have a "long" summer (of chemo treatments) but a full life ahead.

Please pray for Jeff and Edith.

Love to you all,

Dad

Leaving town for the summer.

So I just found out this morning that I'll be going down to Mandeville, LA for the summer to work for Harcon. Its about 45 minutes from downtown Norleans and I'll be leaving a few days after finals are over May 1st. When offered this opportunity, I was a little hesitant because I've never been down there, much less anywhere else besides atlanta to work or for an extended amount of time, but I figured it'd be a neat opportunity. This kinda puts an axe on my last post about doing a triathlon May 9th, but I'll still take my bike down there.

It also kind of worked out nice since our lease for our current rental house ends at the end of April, so I won't have to rent another pad in town. Harcon is paying for all my housing and gas expenses while I'm down there - which should be nice.

Update from Senior Prom!

Hello all.

     My Senior Prom was Friday night, and it was an experience to never forget. I asked one of my best friends, Amanda Main, and we were set on having a great night. Dad even let me drive the 1937 Ford Street Rod to the dance, which was at the Crown Plaza Ravinia off Ashford-Dunwoody. It started good enough, with me being a tad late for pictures at a friend's house over in Duluth. After pictures, I surprised her by pulling the Rod around, and we set off for the dance. After driving through 30 minutes of traffic, we saw our exit sign, and got into the far right lane. That's where things got weird. The Rod started making burping noises, as my date put it, and we freaked out. Then a green fluid started to spurt out out of the radiator just as the entire front side of the car was engulfed in white smoke. So we pulled over, on I-285 in Friday afternoon Rush Hour traffic, and apart from the waves and honks we received from onlookers creeping by on the Interstate, we had practically half of Providence's population smirking at us as they arrived on time for the Senior Walk. Luckily, Amanda's older brother was on the way to the Dance, so he picked us up and brought us, a few minutes late, to the  Senior Walk. The Dance was great, and I'm sad to have no more Providence dances to look forward to ever again!

Surprisingly, you know how Joe was supposed to be the first one to drive the Rod to the dance, well then when he graduated, and Liz wanted to drive it to Sadie Hawkins? Then it got sent back to Wyo-Tech, and Liz never got it for a dance...well I actually tried driving it to Homecoming earlier this year, but it broke down on the way to my date's house. Haha so this year it breaks yet again, and maybe Emma will be the lucky Crist to drive the "great" car to a dance and impress her friends.

Pics from the Final Four last weekend

Point of inquiry from Colorado: Did Elias just use the word 'altruistic'? I dont even know what that means...please explain.

I'm a Wramblin' Wreck from GT!

Hey family! Things are crazy here at the Crist House. We just got back from the best Spring Break ever in Rosemary Beach, Florida! I'm pretty sure I'll have a vacation house there when I grow up. My news is that I've decided on going to Georgia Tech in the fall! It was a hard decision (Tech vs. Erskine), but I'm confident I've made the right choice. I've found a roommate and we'll be rooming on East Campus, near Bobby Dodd and the good dining halls!

Around last year's election, I started getting very interested in politics and the future of America. Very altruistic of me, I know. haha. But seriously. I had grown up listening to Sean Hannity in the car with Dad, and that left a big impact on me. In Senior English, we read 1984, which warns of the inevitable disaster of giving the government too much power, and the monster that it can become. And what do you know? I'm hooked. I love reading books of conservative political thinkers like Hannity, Coulter, Limbaugh, Levin, and I want to fight for the conservative movement in America. I want to fight for the nuclear family. I want to fight for the unborn. I want to fight for Christianity. And I want to fight for Reagonomics.

That being said, I'll most likely go into International Affairs or Public Policy. (Tech's excuse for a political science major). This will be interesting, because Tech is the most liberal college in the Southeast.

Well that's it for me! I'll keep everyone updated on more Senior Year news as it happens!

Brace Face

Hey family! I put off posting for awhile now because i didn't want to go through all the trouble of making a google account. It really wasn't that time-consuming though..So here I am! Let's see..New things going on in my life:

1.) Elias and I had a bonfire/manhunt joint birthday party for our 16th and 18th birthday. It was a ton of fun. We had about 60 total people at our house.

2.) My birthday was tuesday the seventeenth and that saturday I went to get my driver's license! I have been informed that for every other child in the family, dad has taken them himself to the DMV. But since dad was out of town that weekend, mom had to take me. She vows never to go again. Long story short, it was a nightmare. First of all, they couldn't find our name on the appointment list. So after an hour of finding out that we did indeed have one, we stood in another line and was told we couldn't write the 40-hour driving log in pencil. A teary-eyed mother re-wrote the whole thing in red pen (the only pen in her purse). So we stood in line for another 45 minutes only to find out you can't write in red! So finally, after 3 hours, I was able to take my test. I passed with an 89 and was/am very excited! Though half the family has never experienced my driving, i seem to be notorious for being an awful driver and i am somewhat confused. Yes, i ran into the garage door in my FIRST SIX MONTHS of driving. So can we all just laugh and move on?? Even dad said I was a good driver recently and I think i deserve some respect....

3.) I got braces.......................For some reason, our entire family has to wait until we are at least almost out of high school before getting "banded". This I don't understand...My friends are encouraging to me, however, Elias has made some insensitive comments. At dinner one night, "Hey Emma! Why don't you take a big bite of that burger and then smile for us???"...I will have them for a year.

4.) I got asked to prom!! If Elias were to have his way, I wouldn't be going. But fortunately this guy he actually "approves" of.  His name is Mookie Demoss. Most of you have probably already heard of him..But I am very very very excited! Prom is the Friday we get back from spring break (that's the 17th). 

So, I hope this informed ya'll of a few things that are going on in my life. I'll be a Junior very soon! Can't wait! 

Love to everyone,

~Emma

  

Update on Joseph

Hey everyone... sorry I've been MIA in this blog, but the first time I got the email about the site I thought it was some spam mail. Anyways, life is going good downtown, I still have one more semester to finish before I graduate in december. Hopefully there will be more jobs available etc when I get out. That being said though, the company I am currently working for (Harcon Concrete) has told me that I will have a job when I graduate, so I'll just have to see if that is the best fit for me.

I am also training for a 1/2 ironman traithlon these days. It is kind of tough though because I don't have a whole lot of free time. I work about 4 hours everyday for Harcon, and then 3 nights a week I still do valet parking, plus my 18 hours of Gatech. I am pretty sure I'll be ready for the race though, which is May 9 up in North Ga. I'm not really planning on being super competitive in it, but just trying to finish it cause it wil prob be the hardest thing I've ever done physically. I got a new road bike earlier this year to help me be a little faster on that portion of the race. Don't worry though, i'm not going to shave my legs and arms or anything, haha. But if anyone is in town and wants to come watch, it might be pretty fun. Its a really nice scenic place too - just about 30 minutes past the waterfall where we went to during t-giving.

Mom, good info...

mom. good info. birthday week was fantastic. See, this is why we need a blog like this. I had no idea about the violin, the life insurance policy, the skin condition or the Hale's moving in next door. And i dont even know who the bunny lady is!!! i must not have been born yet...I'm in the middle of completing my taxes, with the help of ben, the resident tax expert. I have the day off because there's about 2 feet of snow on the ground. I wish i had a skilled driver like emma out here to help me navigate through the icey conditions. seriously, how many Crist cars has she wrecked so far?

Birthday Blessings!

Thanks to all of you for remembering my 55th birthday! It was memorable for several reasons. One is that Liz created this website. I've wanted a better way to communicate with all of you for some time now. I grew up in the days of the old-fashioned circle letters that made their way through the families via snail mail. It was always an exciting day when the letter finally arrived after months of circulating! Then we'd take out our letter, put a new one in, and send it on! Needless to say, this is far superior. I don't know really how it works, but today is my first attempt at a post! I recieved some lovely gifts and put any cash toward the repair of my $10,000 violin. I haven't played it in 10+ years and am feeling inspired to pull it out again. It was in disrepair and cost $500 to fix! Ouch! Vani gave me a blender using her Best Buy gift cards that she recieved for her b'day. How nice is that! It's time for protein shakes for the family - especially with Vani playing tennis so much and Elias running towards Tech! Another great gift was JC buying a term life insurance policy for the family. That is a first for us, believe it or not! So he had to get stuck for blood twice and go through the invasive interview process, but he passed with flying colors! He also hooked us up with a spring break destination through his many connections and we are so excited to be going. You are all welcome to come to Rosemary Beach any time the week of Apr 4-11. It will be a last fling for Elias before graduation which is May 23. Seriously, if you want to come, there is room. There were many other birthday blessings... I have had a chronic skin condition for several years that is clearing up because of a new medication on the market. My friend Renee Harlin (the bunny lady) came into town from San Fran and we had lunch. Ralph and Vicki Hale (longterm missionaries to Russia from the Vineyard) moved back to the states and are our brand new neighbors! And Dad and I attended a most inspiring fundraising event for a place called Hillsdale College, a conservative think tank that accepts no governnment funding to educate its students and places a huge emphasis on the upholding of our constitution. I read the book Liberty and Learning and now am off to pick up the new book Liberty and Tyranny by Mark Levine. Our political climate is making me into a huge conservative! Maybe we can make some kind of difference in our country yet, esp if Dad runs for political office down the road! Of course, my best b'day blessings are you, my wonderful 8 children plus 2 most exceptional daughters-in-law. Each year that God gives me to watch you grow into God-fearing, productive adults is such a delight to my heart! Thanks again for making my birthday special! Love, Mom

Update from John

Before i even opened this i knew it was something liz would come up with. Nice work.

It's hard for me to describe what's going on in my life through words. So here's a video that may describe it better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM0DKfsrv_c&feature=channel_page

in case this looks foreign to you

In case being on here feels like you have to speak a whole other language.. let me help. the concept is for the family to keep in touch, so you all have access to this site so you can post blogs about your life accompanied by pictures so that your family around the country can feel like they are still a part of your life. click on the new post tab in the right hand corner and start typing.. you can upload videos or pictures if you'd like.. call elizabeth for help.

Happy Birthday!

Friday the 13th.. 

Happy Birthday Mom!

-Elizabeth