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!!