Long time coming...

So, I know that it has been a long time since we last posted, so let me fill you in on what has been going on in our busy lives!! We hosted Thanksgiving dinner for the Rhodes/Barron/Kruschwitz side of the family at our home in Waco. It was fun to have my parents, sisters, aunt, and uncle at home for our first holiday celebration as a married couple. We got to use all of those new dishes and cookware that we got as wedding presents!

Then, we were super busy as the fall semester at Baylor came to an end. Colin had finals to proctor and grade, and I worked some extended hours at the library so that students would have extra late night times to study. I worked a few shifts from 4pm-3am!! I also finished all of my grading for the class that I was TAing for online through the University of North Texas School of Library and Information Science.

Once finals were through and grading was done, Colin and I both sang in the choir at our Christmas program at church, The Word Became Flesh. The music was really good and we both enjoyed being able to participate in music at church at Christmastime. After the Christmas Eve service at our church in Waco, we loaded up the dogs and headed to Baytown to celebrate Christmas with my family at home. On the way, we stopped to see some friends, Chris and Shelley Bailey, who live in Katy. We left the dogs in their backyard, thinking they would behave while we were visiting inside, but, Beauregard managed to escape and we had to chase him around the neighborhood for twenty minutes (this happened after he had already dug out from our yard in Waco earlier that day--he has since gotten a shock collar!! :( ). We made it to Baytown late on Christmas Eve night and spent Christmas day with my parents, Amber, Alissa, my grandpa, and my Meme. Good food and lots of fun was had by all!!

The Saturday after Christmas, my parents drove up to Waco to help my sister move to Dallas to start her new accounting job (YEA!! Her stuff is finally out of our garage and attic!!), so Colin and I helped load her up and went with my parents to Dallas to move her in. After that, mom and dad went home. Colin and I bought some new furniture from IKEA while we were in Houston (a dresser, a headboard, and two new bookshelves!), so we spent the next two days putting that together and rearranging our house. Now, we are leaving to spend about a week in Georgia and North Carolina to visit Colin's family. His dad just returned from Iraq, so we are excited to see him!! We will also get to visit with Meredith, Colin's sister-in-law, who is visiting from Germany and who we haven't seen since Ian was stationed overseas, so that will be fun!! We also will spend a few days in North Carolina with the McKenzie grandparents!! Wish us safe travels and we promise to update the blog more regularly in the future!!

All-University Thanksgiving Dinner

Colin and I went with our friend Pieter to the All-University Thanksgiving Dinner tonight here at Baylor. It was fun to have free turkey and mingle a little bit with the students. YEA for real Thanksgiving almost being here and for our family coming to visit! I am so thankful that the Rhodes/Barron/Kruschwitz/McKenzie family will all get to come together for the holiday and share in the festivities at our little house!

Veteran's Day!!

Today is Veteran's Day, and we should honor our friends and family members who have served in the armed services to keep this country free!! In our family, we would like to honor Col. (ret.) Colin S. McKenzie who served in the Army (Colin's paternal grandfather), Richard Garcia who served in the Air Force (Colin's maternal grandfather), Bill J. Barron who served in the Navy Air Force (Mandie's maternal grandfather) and Gene Rhodes who served in the Army (Mandie's paternal grandfather). We would also like to send a special prayer out to Colin's dad, Colin, who is stationed in Iraq right now and to Colin's brother, Ian, who is stationed in Germany. Both are in the Army, and we hope that they stay safe and know that we love them!!

Busy Week!!

This week will be super busy!! Colin went to San Antono today with the Golden Wave Band to be an exhibition band at the UIL State Marching Contest for Texas high school bands. They left about noon and he won't be home until this one o'clock in the morning! Then, it is teaching class for him and work for me at the library as usual. This weekend is the Baylor vs. Texas game in Austin, and I will be traveling down with the band to root on the Bears. However, the game has an eleven o'clock in the morning kick-off, so that means that we will have to leave Waco at 4:30 AM to make it there in time for the band to rehearse! YUCK!! Hopefully, the football team will play well and the day won't be too long!! SIC 'EM BEARS!!!!

Homecoming!!

Homecoming 2008 was super fun! Colin directed the band at the bonfire, the parade, and the football game, and I watched and cheered him on! It was fun to reunite with our Baylor friends and take part in the traditions that we love. I even took two of the dogs to the parade!

Here is a picture of me and Savannah (the black lab) and Charlotte (the silly white dog rolling in the grass) at the parade with one of my good friends from college, Tara.

Here is picture of Colin directing the band in the parade!!

The game was even really good, for Baylor football. :) We were tied with Missouri, a ranked team in the Big XII Conference, until the last few minutes of the game, which shows to me that Baylor football is on the rise!! I played with the Alumni Band in the Script Baylor show at halftime. It was really fun to participate in the band like I did back when I was in college with all of my friends!! Below is a picture of the Script Baylor show at halftime--the people in gold shirts in the "B" are the Alumni Band! YEA alums!!

SIC 'EM BEARS!!!

New Family Member

The McKenzie family is proud to welcome the newest addition to our family, Savannah. Savannah, the black lab puppy, was adopted about two weeks ago, and we love her!! She is about seven months old and BEAUTIFUL! She gets along wonderfully with Charlotte the Border Collie and Beauregard the Beagle, and Colin and I are very happy to finally have a JOINT dog!! We will post pictures soon, I promise!!

First post to our new blog!!

So....it seems like having a blog is the newlywed thing to do, so, being the true followers that we are, we decided to make one, too!! We hope that this will be a fun way to share the happenings in our lives as well as photos with our family and friends, and we hope that you will keep in touch with us as we embark on our married journey together!!