Fall Greetings!

With the advent of the changing leaves and brisk weather that signals the onset of Fall have come busy times in the life of the McKenzie family! We have been making new friends, going to football games and concerts, and going to job interviews. I went to Homecoming at Baylor in Texas and got to see my family plus all of my friends from college and my aunt and uncle who live in Waco. Even though Baylor lost the game, we are still proud to always be Bears and Baylor Proud! Colin has been keeping busy with school and marching band. It looks like if MSU wins their next two games, we will be at the Alamo Bowl for Christmas, so those of you who are not MSU fans please start rooting so that our Christmas plans can include a taste of home in Texas! We have also been dog sitting for our friend's Cocker Spaniel, Bailey (see picture at the bottom), who is very cute and friendly with our dogs! On the job front, I have been substitute teaching and continuing to search for library jobs, so hopefully something will happen on that front soon. Everyone keeps telling us that it will snow soon, but it has remained just cool and fairly mild, for which we are thankful. Other than that we miss our families and love our friends, and are continuing to make a life here in Michigan!

Mandie and parents at the Homecoming bonfire

Savannah and Charlotte napping on their bed

Beauregard and Bailey taking a nap together

Colin taking a nap with Beauregard

Colin and Mandie at the MSU vs. Notre Dame game in Indiana

Colin and Mandie at the Notre Dame game (again!)

Charlotte giving Mandie a hug in her prissy argyle sweater

Savannah and Beauregard being sleepy dogs

Fall Update!

I know that it has been almost a month since you have heard from us--sorry!! Colin has been keeping busy with coursework, studying for tests, and the Spartan Marching Band with football games on most weekends. We are half-way through the season and looking forward to the holidays when we actually have time to see each other! I attended substitute teacher training last week and should be able to start subbing in a week or two so at least I will be bringing in some income for our family while continuing to hunt for the elusive professional librarian position here. Fall has officially come to town--the leaves on all of the trees are changing and it is absolutely beautiful here!! Continue to keep us in your prayers as we try to build a life here in Michigan!

School has started at MSU

School started last week for Michigan State University, and that means that Colin has been super busy! He spent the entire week before the start of school at marching band rehearsals from eight in the morning until eleven at night, which left me at home being a housewife and dog mom! Luckily, I got a reprieve from being alone and was fortunate enough to be flown to Texas last weekend by the Hooper family so that I could go to Tabitha's baby shower in Pittsburg!! I had a wonderful time visiting with Tabitha and Josh and the Hooper's, even if it was just for a short weekend! Plus it was really nice to be in the great state of Texas for a few days! Now, school has started, and Colin is taking two classes plus helping to teach a conducting class, going to all of the ensemble rehearsals, and marching band, of course! We went to our first Spartan football game on Saturday. MSU played Montana State and totally stomped all over them, but we had field passes that allowed us to be on the sideline and super close to all of the action. It was a lot of fun and we are looking forward to more football games! Now, it is just back to the school routine for Colin while I am still praying for a job! Keep us in your prayers as we get ready for the first snow here in Michigan, which they say should happen in October. :)

Mexican Food in Michigan....

Not that Colin and I were expecting the Mexican food in Michigan to be great. We actually supposed most of it to pretty terrible. However, on the recommendation of some Baylor friends who live in East Lansing we decided to try a restaurant here in town called Cancun. I think we were just a little homesick and craving some jalapenos, so when we walked into the restaurant and saw it's brightly colored booths with Corona flags on the wall, we decided it looked promising and that it sort of reminded us of a restaurant in Waco. Then, we opened the menu. What we found was a guide in the back explaining to us how to pronounce the names of Mexican dishes, such as nachos sounding like na-choz, and we knew that we were far from home. Needless to say, the food did not measure up to our expectations; however, we did get this funny picture of the pronunciation guide/food descriptions from the menu. I guess the only Mexican food we will be eating up here is the food that we make ourselves--luckily Colin is half Mexican and knows how to make some really good enchiladas!!

We are in Michigan!!

Hello! I know that we haven't updated in a little while, but we have been super busy packing and driving and moving into our new home in Michigan! We are officially here and loving the beautiful weather (the 75 degrees here is MUCH nicer than the 107 degrees in Waco when we were loading up our truck). More updates with pics of our new house to come!

We are in Michigan!!

Hello! I know that we haven't updated in a little while, but we have been super busy packing and driving and moving into our new home in Michigan! We are officially here and loving the beautiful weather (the 75 degrees here is MUCH nicer than the 107 degrees in Waco when we were loading up our truck). More updates with pics of our new house to come!

Dogs Graduated from School!

Savannah and Charlotte have been enrolled for the past ten weeks in dog training school at Petsmart. On Monday night, they finally graduated!! They are officially well-behaved dogs (haha!) who know how to sit, stay, lay, watch, come, and leave it! We had fun taking the dogs to school, but are glad that our weekly commitment is over. For some reason, only one picture of Charlotte came out well, so the rest are of Savannah (be sure to check out their cool hats with tassels and doggie diplomas made out of rawhide!):

Charlotte graduating!

Savannah and Colin

Savannah again

Savannah with a lopsided cap!

Weekend in Dallas

Colin and I drove to Denton this weekend to see our friends Cindy and Ron. We went to yummy dinner at a restaurant called Hannah's, and then Colin went home to Waco because he had high school band camp. I stayed and had a sleepover with Cindy, and then the next day we relaxed and went shopping. On Sunday, we went to a get-together with several friends from my Master's program in library science at UNT. It was so fun to get to visit with friends that I never get to see as well as visit with fellow colleagues in my profession who are at the same place in life as me. Then it was home to Waco for packing, packing, and more packing...the big move is in three weeks! AAAHHHH!!!

Free Vera Bradley Tote!

Click here to win a free Vera Bradley tote in the Betsey Pinwheel pattern! Lauren Nicole Gifts is giving one away--to enter the contest, click on the link above and subscribe to her blog! Just though I would pass the word along--she has some super cute stuff!

Astros Game and TMTA

This past week, Colin and I went down to Houston to visit my parents and to work registration at the Texas Music Teachers Association convention. On Wednesday night, we went to Minute Maid Park to watch the Astros take on the Chicago Cubs. The Astros won 2-1 and it was super fun! The highlight of the night was when the Astros marketing guys came up to our section and told my mom that because of her seat, if the Astros hit a grand slam in the next inning, she would win $25,000. Of course, she didn't win, but they did put her up on the big screen with the mascot and made her wave for the camera. She was embarassed, but it was really funny. Then, Colin and I went to work the convention. It was long hours, but lucrative, and we enjoyed seeing friends of ours who also graduated from Baylor who were also working the convention. All in all, it was another fun weekend achieved before we make the big move to Michigan!

Some pics from the Astros game:

Minute Maid Park

Dad and Colin

Mandie and Mom

Mandie and Colin!!

Mom and Dad