The Hines Herald

New Year . . . New Looks

2011-01-13T16:02:00.004-05:00

The Master Bathroom

Before: the shrine to blue!

After

The In-Between:

We peeled the wallpaper (which I HATE doing) and painted. We changed out the sink top, but only painted the white cabinet and updated the hardware. We also updated the lights and the mirror.

To update the ceramic tile, we used a glaze that is designed to re-glaze tubs. We had to clean the tile real well and paint on the glaze. It made a huge difference and helped to cure the little blue tiles that just didn't fit into our decor at all.

The Utility Room

Before: Our dark paneled junk room!

After: A Laundry/Exercise/Craft/Godiva's Room!

The In-Between

When we remodeled the kitchen, we saved our old cabinets to hang in the utility room. We also switched the laundry area from the garage to this room. After two to three coats of primer and two coats of paint, we updated the panel and the color in the room. Instead of purchasing a counter top, we just used another scrap piece of wood from our kitchen remodel and painted it to save a few pennies. The next project may be the peel and stick tile flooring. But for now, it is a much more enjoyable room to work in and store things!

The Entertainment Center

Before:

After

We found a really great deal the day after Thanksgiving this year on a new TV. We got it home and realized (even after measuring multiple times) that it would not fit in our entertainment center; however, we didn't want to start the snowball of "needing" to buy this or that to accommodate our new splurge. So, we kept the receipt and decided to think and pray about a solution. After many days, we had pretty much resorted to taking the TV back and just being content with the working TV we had. Then, we got an idea: we could take the top off the center, take out the doors and storage surrounding the old TV, and re-attach the top to what was the middle of the entertainment center. It worked and we were truly thankful for this simple pleasure the Lord allowed us to get. And we really couldn't BELIEVE the difference . . . we could actually see the dirt and grass or turf as we watched football that weekend - so cool!

Claire's 1st Birthday Party

2010-12-30T11:07:00.006-05:00

The Lady of the Day

The Theme: Claire's Winter ONE-derland!
The Decorations

The Guests: Her Nursery Pals & their Families
.... Daddy & Sister too ...
... and let's not forget Grandpa Hines who made a special trip from Michigan!

The Menu:
Eskimo Stew (White Chili)
Polar Bear Soup (Potato Soup)
Melted Snowflakes (Cheeseball - which was created by one of the Mom's)
Mini Snowman Delight (PB&J) & Snowmen Noses (Carrots)
Snowman Buttons (Peanut Butter Balls)

The Cake & Eating it too!

Snowgirl Cake

The Gifts

All of the gifts she received are not pictured. Along with the shoes and some board books, she also got a phone that talks and rings (which we have tried to convince Kate that it is not hers), and a bag of Mega Blocks.

Thank you to those of you who were able to celebrate her birthday with us, and also a big thank you to those of you who celebrated her birth from a far. We had a fun time playing a few games, eating, and watching the birthday girl devour her cake and stare at her presents.

We love our little Claire-bear and are thankful for her easy smile, her fun personality, and how we see God's grace in your development already. We look forward to the next few years ahead where we will really get to know you better. We pray that you would come to a knowledge of Christ very early in your life and put your trust in His goodness in EVERY circumstance that comes your way. Love, Your Mama & Dada!

Traditions

2010-12-17T10:02:00.003-05:00

I never realized before marrying Don how many wonderful traditions would also come with the promise of "I Do". It has been so much fun to look forward to these special times and now as our family has grown we are adding new traditions and adjusting old traditions to accommodate our little ones. We have come to LOVE the day after Thanksgiving as a day to go and snag some great deals, check off our Christmas lists (usually all in one day), and then proceed home for a long winters nap, followed by decking the halls with our Christmas decorations (all except the tree). The tree has its own day during the first weekend in December. This day we make a homemade soup in the crockpot, run to the store and purchase some apple cider, break out the yeast and knead some homemade bread (or throw it in the bread maker!), and usually pick up a dozen donuts for dessert. However, this year, I found a recipe for homemade donuts and thought we would give it a try. They turned out FANTASTIC. This will definitely be added to our traditions portfolio for the years to come . . . and will be more enjoyable as the girls get older and can really get their hands dirty in the dough! Here are a few shots of our family fun night. What are your traditions and do you have any tips on making Christ the center of your holidays?

Thanksgiving Cards

2010-11-30T16:43:00.003-05:00

I love fall! I love the beautiful colors that God uses to ignite the sky during this time of year. I love football and the ability to watch it throughout these few months. I love the comfy sweatshirts and jeans that get dusted off and snuggled into. I love the crisp air that feels like it is cleansing out your lungs from the heat and humidity of the summer. I love filling my home with the colors of the season and celebrating this great time of year. So, last week, I decided to sit down with the girls to spread some of this cheer and make our own Hines Hallmark creations to send to their loving grandparents for Thanksgiving. The following are a few snap shots of the fun we had getting messy!

I also included an interview with Katelyn to entertain those awaiting grandparents. I've seen this great idea included in several of my blogger friend's blogs. I thought it was such an original way to document the growth of the children, that I went ahead and developed a few questions just to see what Katelyn might say.

The Interview of Katelyn Jane Hines - Age 2 1/2 years old (November 19, 2010)
1. What is your favorite food? Peanut Butter & Jelly
2. What is your favorite color? Tree (Can you guess what the picture was right in front of her at the time of this interview?!?!)
3. What are you thankful for? The Suns, The balloon
4. What are you glad God gave you? What makes you happy? Me! And I make Mommy & Daddy happy too!
5. Who's your sister? Noelle (we've been working on middle names lately!) What do you love about her? Like to color with her, at church too.
6. What's your doggy's name? Godiva What do you like about her? Godiva's birthday's coming. (We've also been discussing the fact that Claire's birthday and Jesus's birthday is coming up . . . and that leads into a discussion of all of our birthdays!)
7. What would you like for Christmas? Snowflake, hat, shirt to go in the snow (a real Michigan girl!)
8. What are your favorite things to do? Play with birthday toys
9. What are your favorite places to go? Sunday School & Busch Gardens (whew - at least she's got her priorities right! Ha!)
10. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Blow bubbles
11. What is your favorite thing to play with in your room? My dishes

What we did this summer . . .

2010-10-26T16:03:00.009-04:00

I know, I know - it's almost NOVEMBER and I'm now getting around to posting our adventures through the summer. But in my defense, it started getting into the 80's around here in May and we are experiencing another one of those days today. So, technically, it's still FEELS like summer to me. I'm striving hard to pull out those sweatshirts, jeans, and pumpkin spiced candles to make my brain tell me it's Fall (which I adore!).

Here's a quick look back at our summer:

Kate's Two!

Fun in the Outer Banks, NC with the Logsdons!

Went for a ride - in the AIR!

A Live Museum!

Kitchen Remodel - Complete!!

Cleveland Zoo with the Dea's!

Fun with Family!

Home Sweet Home!

The Birth Stories

2010-04-08T21:57:00.009-04:00

This post is designed for two purposes a) to rejoice in and glory in God's miraculous creation with all of you in bloggy-land and b) to serve as a way to remember the details of these two wonderful days for our family. I know now that I have officially entered motherhood and have a "Birth Story" to tell, I am always excited to walk in another's shoes as they explain the details of their births as well. So, for all of you moms (and dads alike) who love a good birth story get a cup of coffee and snuggle in for TWO stories from the Hines Herald.

Katelyn Jane - May 10, 2008

From the very beginning, I began praying specifically for the arrival of Katelyn. Don was in his final year of seminary and planned on graduating May 4th. Our due date for Kate was May 1st. We had taken a great birthing class, being that this was our first delivery, had taken a baby-moon to Ireland, and were in the process of praying that God would work out the details to her arrival so that Don and I would both be able to be in attendance to his graduation. The end of April (my specific date I desired her to come) came and went. Her due date came and went. Don's graduation came and on that evening I began having contractions. We had spent the evening with our good pals TJ & Shannon Logsdon who were also expecting their first girl in two weeks. Little did we know that evening, that Shannon, not I, would be in the hospital the next day delivering their little lady, Ariana, a little earlier than her due date. Don's family was in town this week to celebrate his graduation and we planned on spending some great time with them and hoped to introduce Miss Kate to them before they left.

Tuesday, May 6th - I had my 41 week appointment where they informed me I still hadn't made any progress. So, I pulled out my notes to my birthing class which gave instructions to naturally induce labor with an herbal remedy. I headed to the organic store to pick up my blue and black cohosh to begin my regimin. That day, contractions began. All through Tuesday afternoon, Tuesday night.

Wednesday, May 7th - contractions continued sporadically morning-noon-and night.

Thursday, May 8th - I had another appointment to monitor the baby and to check to see if we have any progress and then to make final plans for an induction. The ultrasound came back fine, and the stress test had some complications until I got something cold to drink that got Katelyn moving. We left the office with the knowledge that I was now 2-3 cm dilated, 80% effaced, and if nothing happened before Sunday evening, we'd be headed to the hospital for the beginning of their induction process. All day Thursday we continued the herbal drops and the contractions continued, making sleep since Tuesday a rare and desired commodity.

Friday, May 9th (1 AM) - we began making preparations to head to the hospital. The contractions were anywhere from a minute to eight minutes apart and lasted anywhere from 30 to 90 seconds. Basically, I was still all over the board.

2 AM - We arrived at the hospital. Before admitting me the nurse checked me and said I was 2-3 cm and 80% effaced. I was so disheartened. I had just endured another 14 - 16 hours of sporadic contractions and no change! She then informed us that this day they had only had boys born, and since we were having a girl, Katelyn was going to have to wait until tomorrow. Don and I looked at each other with the thought that we have 22 more hours to this day . . . surely she will be born on this "boy day". The call to admit me was postponed until my midwife could come and check me in the morning. So, our extremely long night of walking the halls began. It was long and exhausting.

8 AM - my midwife, Pat Collier, came and checked me again. I was somewhere between a 4-5 cm. She said she would be back in at lunchtime and officially admitted me. In the meantime I sat on the ball, I walked the halls, they monitored the baby, I watched the Today Show, I drank my juice, I walked the halls, I bounced on the ball, they monitored the baby, etc.

Noon - When she came back at noon, there still wasn't a whole lot of change. So, she decided to break my water to really try to get the contractions consistent.

2 PM - they began a petocin drip to again try to regulate the incredibly inconsistent contractions.

4 PM - I had jumped in the shower to try to relax. The nurse came to check on me and said that I was now at 9 cm dilated and to give them a call when I felt the urge to push. No more than 30 minutes later we made that call, the nurses had brought in all the stuff to ready for the arrival of Katelyn, and I thought this was it - I had made it! They helped me back in the bed and checked me again, only to tell me that I was only really at 7 cm because a woman's anatomy is different when she is standing and when she is lying down. By this point, I thought I had just made it through the toughest part of labor - transition - and was going to get to push. But instead, I'm being told that I hadn't even begun the hardest part yet. I was exhausted from contracting for days and said I needed some kind of medicine to help me get through. They gave me someStadol. Which gave me some much needed sleep, but also made me really loopy. By this point Don's family had arrived at the hospital hoping that their precious little granddaughter would have arrived by then.

9-10 PM - Still no Katelyn, the medicine is worn off and I am unable to handle any of the contractions. Being hooked up to the monitor I could see the degree at which the contractions were hitting and the contractions were only half the strength of what they were before the medicine was administered and now I was unable to control the pain. So, I then called for the epidural.

10 PM - Epidural given. Life is now good! They pumped up the petocin to get my labor completed. Meanwhile, I slept off and on until it was time to push. I am thankful I called for it when I did, because I don't know if I would have been able to push without the rest I was able to get and who knows how much longer my labor would have gone without the help of the petocin to speed it up.

11 PM - Time to push!! My midwife was awesome. She had slowed down the epidural enough so I would be able to feel where and how to push. However, it still took me a while to really get the hang of pushing.

Saturday, May 10th 12:24 AM - Katelyn finally arrives! We missed the "boy-only" day by 24 minutes. I guess that nurse was right, and she reminded us of it that night too. By this point, Don and I were exhausted. We were certainly thrilled that Kate was finally here, but we both needed to rest! But first we were able to share her with Don's family before we caught some shut-eye.

Claire Noelle - December 21st, 2009

Around November 10th, a month before my due date for Claire, I didn't know how I could possibly make it another month before she would be here. She was sitting right on one of my nerves, making it hard to change positions or sometimes even walk (especially at the end of the day). But the Lord gave grace to handle that month plus another 10 days.

Tuesday, December 8th - 40 week check up - Dr. Robertson gave me hope with what she called a "fingertip" dilation and some effacement.

Tuesday, December 15th - 41 week check up - Dr. Isbell stated that there was no change since last week and I would have to come in again on Friday to monitor the baby and scheduled the induction for Tuesday, Dec. 22nd.

Friday, December 18th - Dr. Jenkins (my favorite in this practice) said that I was dilated to at least a 2 and he gave me what they like to call a "whirly-bird" which is a stretching of the cervix which many times can begin labor. He gave the instructions about the induction, but also mentioned he would be on call Sunday evening and he hoped to see me there. He also said since there was a low-pressure system bringing in a snow storm this weekend, there is a good possibility that I would go into labor myself this weekend.

Sunday, December 20th - Awoke to a couple contractions in the morning, but have had quite a few this time around and didn't think much about it. Readied for church and had a few contractions through the service. We also had plans that day to go out and enjoy a meal and do some window shopping at the outlet mall.

12:30 - 4 PM - Chili's for some yummy food and outlet window shopping. All the while having contractions probably every 10 - 15 minutes. I would just tell Don "I'd like to stop and look at this for just a second" until the contraction passed.

5 - 7 PM - Don and Kate went home and watched a movie while I laid on the couch and caught a nap.

7 - 8 PM - Don reheated some leftovers to eat and we all sat down and ate a quick, lite dinner. About this time I started feeling quite feverish. Inside I felt cold, and despite the fact that I had three layers of warmth, I couldn't get warm.

8 - 9 PM - After getting Kate in bed for me, Don filled up the tub for me to soak for a while. The contractions continued to get closer and closer throughout these activities and it was during this time that my mind officially thought that I really was in labor.

9 - 11 PM - After the bath, I finally shook the chills and was feeling really comfortable out by the Christmas tree. Don watched a football game for a while, then popped in a movie, then finally went to some relaxing Christmas music. He timed my contractions a few times throughout this time, the last time being around 10:45. He recorded the lengths as being somewhere between 40 - 50 seconds in length and about 1 1/2 - 3 minutes apart. So, on paper it looked like we should be headed to the hospital or actually probably already there, but by what he was witnessing in my face told him we still had time. After one of the contractions I looked over at him to see what the time was like and it confirmed what I was thinking. I was coming to the end of what I could handle and knew we needed to call the Doctor and see what he said, but Don was being skeptical. So, I finally communicated to him that I was having hard contractions and they were getting worse, but I am being able to control them so much better because I am so relaxed. So, my face is not showing the expression of pain, but I am in pain and I'm ready for this pain to be over. I think it's time we at least called. He was doing exactly what I asked him to do, which was to try to keep me home as long as possible, because laboring in the hospital did not help me relax. We finally called, and Dr. Jenkins said to come on in.

11-12:15 - Don packed up the rest of the things needed in our bags, packed up the car, helped me to the potty (but I couldn't go because I was beginning to feel more pressure down there and was afraid to go! Tee hee), got me in the car (after having about 5 contractions from the couch to the car), got Kate in the car, and off we went. I made the call to our babysitter in the car (timed it just right so when she answered, yup, I was in the middle of a contraction and could barely talk to her).

Monday, December 21st 12:15 - 12:45 AM - On our way to the hospital. Half way there, I am getting the urge to push (unlike what I felt with Kate, since the epidural weakened the sensation quite a bit). We get to the hospital,make the exchange with the babysitter, meanwhile having contractions with the urge to push, making me vocalize since I am feeling more out of control than when I was sitting on the couch watching my twinkle lights on the Christmas tree. We enter the ER section of the hospital, Don is trying to figure out how to open the wheelchair that is seemingly broken and finally decides that he needs to get his wife in the next best option - a REALLY narrow wheelchair with no place to rest my feet. He thought, she'll never fit in there, but let's give it a try. I squeeze in and we are off to admissions. They have our old address still on record, even though I filled out the pre-registration papers already and handed them in to avoid this type of situation. What type of situation you ask? Well, the situation where I am contracting now at a rate of maybe a minute apart with the incredible urge to push with people CONSTANTLY telling me not to push. While the FULL Emergency Room patients look on in either horror or disbelief as the quite shy reserved woman is screaming to help control her body and tell it to NOT push when everything in her is telling her TO push. All the while being asked to write my name and my address and phone number. That situation . . . that was the one I was trying to avoid! =) 12:45 - admitted.

12:45 - 1 AM - The next obstical to arise was the nurse that was to escort me from the admissions department to the maternity ward. He was, well, how could I say this properly . . . um . . . he had an alternate lifestyle, or limp wristed, or he would be right at home with many of the fashion shows on TLC or HGTV, or as I've heard one person put it he bakes his bread in a different oven (or something to that effect =). Anyway, to a lady in labor, he was not the guy I needed to be escorting me telling me not to push because he didn't want to deliver my baby in the elevator "after all we have just met". (ha ha ha ARG!) Or why was I having another girl, I was suppose to be having a boy, so I could have one of each. (ahh yes, I put my order in next time!) Needless to say, arriving in the maternity ward couldn't have happened any sooner. With much help from Don and from a nurse, they got me from the wheelchair to the table to check me. (caution gentlemen - labor words soon approaching) Don said she really couldn't check since my bag of waters was hanging out of me, but hadn't burst yet. The labor & delivery nurse grabbed the phone on her hip to call the Doctor who was headed to a C-Section to stop him because he was "going to have a baby and have one right now". They attempted to get me back into the wheelchair, but the nurse soon aborted that idea and just rolled the table/girny I was on into the closest available room, where I was promptly moved from the girny to the bed. The doctor soon walked in and I told him I had the urge to push. He said, "you can go ahead and bear down" these were the best seven words I had heard in a long time! Hurrah! He threw on some gloves and in between pushes adjusted the lights.

1:05 AM - With less than five minutes of pushing and less than 20 minutes in the hospital Claire Noelle made her entrance to this world. Talk about really just having the doctor there to catch the baby!

Afterwards Don and I were actually giddy with how the events transpired that day. When Don finally went back to the car to get our bag and camera (since she came too fast and he didn't have a chance to do it before she arrived) and they had taken Claire for some initial testing, we decided we needed to get some rest, but we just sat in the dark, quiet hospital room recounting God's goodness. We just kept saying "I can't believe she's here" and "I can't believe I just did that." God truly was gracious in answering so many specific prayers . . . I went into labor on my own without herbal remedy or their induction method, I was able to relax at home and had a pretty easy time relaxing through contractions, I was able to get the Doctor I loved, and even though I wasn't resigned to the fact of not having any medication - I was able to enjoy this birth without it, Claire arrived in enough time for us to be home in time for Christmas, and even though she was born in the early morning - we didn't miss a whole lot of sleep like we had with Kate.

So, although the birth stories to our little ladies are like night and day, we can say we are truly thankful to our God for entrusting us with raising these precious little souls to be His worshippers, no matter how the Lord had them enter this world.

We're Back!

2010-03-04T15:06:00.005-05:00

The Hines Herald has taken an almost two year hiatus from entering the blog-world, mainly brought on by some technical issues, followed by life. But, we would like to hop back in by introducing some of the great changes that have happened over the past two years.

The greatest of these changes is the addition of our two lovely daughters. Katelyn Jane was born May 10, 2008. She is almost 22 months and surprising us everyday by her ever expanding vocabulary. She has been a GREAT big sister to her lil' sis, Claire Noelle. Claire was born December 21, 2009. She is just over 2 months and proving to be following in her sisters footsteps. They were both 9 lb. 2.3 oz. (yes, both of them were exactly the same size even down to 2.3 oz!!) Amazing! They have both been in the 90 + percentile in height and weight. Despite their physical development, our hearts desire and prayer for these two precious lives is that they would turn their hearts to Christ at an early age.

Another major change from the last post is our new home. We sold our home in Chesapeake, VA and moved to Williamsburg, VA to be closer to our church family. We've been helping with a "church plant" in this area for almost five years. We've been traveling an hour each way to help this ministry until last year when we made the move. Don is still working full-time as a Electronic Security Technician, but his true love (other than being the best husband and daddy) is fulfilling the role of being the Outreach Leader here in Williamsburg.

A closer look at Claire. One of her first smiles caught on camera.

Katelyn at one of her favorite perches in our home looking out at the backyard during one of the many snowfalls here this winter. This winter made our Michigander hearts smile!

"Hello" from the Newly Updated Hines Family

Issues

2008-03-26T15:55:00.002-04:00

Well, "tomorrow" has turned into two weeks later. I forgot when I promised the next round of Ireland pictures that Don was taking a block course and thus needing the computer during the day. We have all the Ireland photos on his laptop which was at school with him. Then, when that was finished we finally downloaded the newest version of iLife to our Macs which has changed the way we need to upload pics. We are trying to figure out how to upload pictures from iPhoto to blogger. We know there has to be an easier way than what we've been doing, it just simply takes time to sit down and figure it out. We have figured out how to do it on Facebook, which has turned out to be easier. So, needless to say . . . the Ireland Day 2 and following pics are coming . . . but will be uploaded to facebook before blogger. So, if you are a Facebooker - Good News! We'll have new Ireland pics to come, if not, please continue to be patient with the authors of this blog as we seek to expedite our time and be effective bloggers. =) No need to comment, there is no pictures with this post, unless you are a Mac user with insight into our issue.

Ireland - Day 1

2008-03-12T10:32:00.007-04:00

Top of the mornin' to ya!

I'm going to do my best to bring out some of the best pictures to capture our adventure to Ireland. We took well over 500 photos and it is quite overwhelming to decide which ones best illustrate the beauty of this country. I'm sorry that we can't do a slide show, which would cut down the actual length of these posts, but then our #1 fan to our blog - my mommy - wouldn't be able to see the photos. So, please bear with us as we seek to encapsulate our very wonderful trip.

Day 1 - Day of Travel and Adjustment
We met up with our good buddies and travel companions, TJ and Shannon Logsdon (who have done a very great job on their blog as well - so go here to check it out from their vantage point). We drove to DC and ate a scrumptious last American meal made by our friends Ben and Carissa Smith. Carissa then took us to the airport and we started our very long day of travel. We flew out at 7:15 or so Sunday evening, and arrived in Ireland at 7:00 ish AM - Ireland time. So, in what we had read to beat jet lag, we needed to stay up until our normal bed time. So, we spent the day, getting to our accommodations and acquainting ourselves with the little town of Adare. (We did sneak in a little nap, which helped enough to make it through until 9 or 10 o'clock).

Our faithful and fun travel companions - TJ and Shannon (in green to honor Ireland!)

Don and I having fun at the airport!

Adare Manor - The mansion on the property where we stayed. We stayed at the town-homes at a separate section of the property.

Adventures on the grounds - we found a garden, the ritzy golf course, a pet cemetary, one of the oldest Cedars of Lebanon in Ireland, and a hobbit hole (or maybe it was just the firewood shed).

TJ and Shannon walking in the rain, around the gardens and stone walls.

The first Irish food at an authentic Irish Pub! The guys got real used to us girls saying "We're Hungry".

The four of us at the entrance to the Manor.

The boys having fun in the Manor.

In the library of the Manor

Prego Break - with the Peanut M&M's

The Manor at Night

Bailey's Coffee - in the library - many tired, giddy laughs were had around this little table that night! Good Memories!

Don with his Bailey's Coffee next to the fire.

. . . for day two and following . . . check back to The Hines' Herald tomorrow! (or visit Katrina's Facebook for all of day 1's photos)

Finished Projects

2008-02-23T10:11:00.004-05:00

Thanks for all the great ideas and participation on our last post. The winner of the "Guess What Don is Making Contest" goes to Tricia who was the first to give the correct answer of what Don was making. Some "Guess What Don is Making Contest" honorable mentions are the Reads, Abby, Tim & Kristen, and Julie who all had the right idea as well. We really liked the thinking outside the box of Erin, Travis & Becky and the Gartland's who all suggested an aquarium - Don has actually seen one like that which got his wheels turning with other ideas. Thanks Logsdons, for being VERY creative and trying to sway votes, even though you've known for a while what's been up Don's sleeve! =)

The Finished Product

The Before Picture Again . . .

Also, I have been working on my painting project - making diamonds on the accent wall of the nursery. First time to be this creative. Normally, I just slop some paint on the walls and call it good, but I didn't know when I would have the freedom to do painting like this again, so I searched for ideas and Jalyn Ickes gave me this one. Thanks Jalyn, it turned out awesome!

The pencil lines before paint . . .

Ever since we have had our windows replaced, I had kept two of them to refinish for decoration throughout the home. So, I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity for me. I stripped them and repainted them. I am still struggling with what to do with them. I would be open to suggestions. Here are my thoughts, initially just hang on wall to accent the diamonds, but eventually add some photos of our little Kate when she arrives.

Any Guesses?

2008-02-20T10:25:00.003-05:00

This is the before picture of Don and "his project" for the nursery. I thought we would make this a little interesting and give you an opportunity to see if you can guess what the outcome of this will be. What is Don making from an old TV? The first contestant to guess what he is making will be given the esteemed title of "The Hines Herald Guess What Don is Making Winner"! The winner will be showered with the right-to-brag and the sense of pride that comes from knowing they were right! The contest will run through Saturday, when I will reveal Don's finished project as well as some of the nursery updates - which are quite exciting. Now, some contest rules . . . 1. If you know what Don is making because we have told you - you are automatically disqualified from winning (but have the bragging rights that you knew before others); however, you may try to sway voters by giving ridiculous, hilarious, or other types of wrong answers 2. Only one vote per person, but not per household 3. Finally, have fun thinking outside the box as my awesome hubby did!

A Visit to the 700 Club

2008-02-18T21:41:00.005-05:00

A few days ago, Don was drawn to a small 1" x 2" add in our local paper that announced the need of a studio audience for the taping of the 700 Club with guests MercyMe. It simply gave a number to call and that was about all the information listed. When I called, they took my name and how many guests would be attending. I was able to get my good teaching buddy and carpool friend, Emily Flatt, to commit to go with me as well as her friend who was visiting for President's Day, Abby. We headed to the studio and found it without much need of help. We were whisked into the studio, through the metal detectors, to our third row seats. We watched the behind-the-scenes work of the camera men, producers, and assistants as they taped Monday's show. It was complete with Pat Robertson and co-anchor Kristi Watts (who was a quite hilarious off camera), Q & A time from the audience to Pat, news reals, and stories from around the world. By half-way through the hour program, the main guests we came to see walked in during a commercial break - the members of MercyMe. We ended up being seated right next to where they were playing and had front row seats to this part of the show. They sang "God with Us" from their latest CD "All That is Within". It was really wonderful to hear their testimony in song as well as during the short interview section. They spoke of their families and the importance of that role to them and how they make it a priority by not traveling more than four days in a row away from wife and kids. I was truly thankful to see these guys who desired to reflect Christ in their songs, in their humility, and in their call to ministry to others through music. Afterwards, we were almost first in line to get autographs and pictures.

The studio - sorry it's a dark photo, if you look cross-eyed and squint, you may be able to see Kristi Watts at the news desk above the bald headed man in front row (she is wearing red).

MercyMe - while at commerical break

Photo Op with Pat Robertson (blue jacket) - they put their guitars around his neck and made for quite the picture!

Mike Scheuchzer (guitar), me with eyes closed and baby bump barely noticable due to outfit (it changes day to day with the outfit selection!), Jim Bryson (keys)

Drummer - Robby Shaffer - captured by lead singer. Funny story - my camera was having issues, it wasn't taking pictures and I stood posed next to them for a some time, while poor Emily tried to fix the camera. Lead singer, Bart Miller, took the camera to fix it and eventually took this picture of Robby to see if it worked - well it did - and he captured the next self portrait of us too! It was quite funny and very "real" of them.

The self-portrait pose with Bart Miller

Nathan Cochran (bass), Me, Emily, Abby, Barry Graul (guitar)

Oh - and did I mention that this was FREE?! It was a lot of fun and quite the experience.

And just so you all know, a week ago, I turned one year older - I am currently, um, let me think about this, I was born in 81, subtract from 08 . . . borrow . . . uh, so I guess that makes me . . . 27. Yeah - I'm having problems remembering how old I am already! Thanks for all the birthday wishes from my Facebook buddies and also to those buddies who sent me cards! I really appreciate it!

Announcing . . . (Drum Roll Please!)

2008-02-08T15:53:00.000-05:00

. . . THE BRINK'S HOME SECURITY TECHNICIAN OF THE YEAR FOR 2007 IS . . . (drum roll climaxes and cuts off)

DON WILLIAM HINES III

That's right, my husband, Don Hines (A.K.A. Don, Donny, Dono, etc.) earned the esteemed title of Technician of the Year! He has been working for Brink's for the past four years with MANY awards for his contributions to his company by being awarded Tech. of the Month for several months (we have a stack of plaques from this), but this is the first time he was awarded this title. The managers keep track of all the tech's numbers that represent how they are doing on the field. Each month they are given a little bonus if they achieve the tech of the month, and at the end of the year they compare all the techs numbers for the whole year, and your's truly came out on top! I am so proud of his accomplishments!! He works very hard to be a great testimony by the way in which he deals with his customers, his bosses, his co-workers, and his company. He has come home many times with compliments and I am so glad that he has been recogized in this way, since this will most likely be his last opportuntiy to recieve this reward, because it is probably his last full year of being an employee of Brinks.

And I saved the best for last . . . what has he won?!

A four day vacation to FLORIDA! He gets free airfare, free food, free tickets to several theme parks, give aways, and HE GETS PAID TO GO! I'm so thrilled for him! He will have a great time! There has been talk of me being able to go with him, but as of right now, we are still unsure. If so, while he is playing, I'll spend my time lying by the pool and reading some great parenting books! =)

Merry Christmas To Me!

2008-02-06T10:39:00.000-05:00

For part of my Christmas gift this year Don gave me tickets to a professional beach volleyball tournament, called AVP Hot Winter Nights Tour. They transformed the Old Dominion University Basketball Center into a sand volleyball court - which was quite amazing! They had four men and four women from the AVP that competed in a round robin tournament, which basically means that they switched partners to play with each round and were playing for individual reward as opposed to playing with a specific partner (as they normally do). They had a final game, where the player that won the most amount of times in the round robin would choose their partner to try to win the whole tournament. It was quite fun to see these unbelievable players at such a close level and really see the speed and agility!

The arena transformed to hold the sand volleyball court in the middle!

Don - up close and personal with some of the guys practicing. The guy immediately behind him is Stein Metzger. He was a 2004 Athens Olympian and took fifth place with his parter. He was the guy that was highlighted on this tournament, although, I don't think he was playing his best this night!

Katrina - getting up close & personal with some of the girls practicing - Behind me to my right is Tyra Turner (yellow headband) - she is heading to the 2008 Beijing Olympics to represent the USA. The other girl to my left (next to the guy holding the camera) is Rachel Wacholder who also will be representing the USA in the 2008 Olympics.

The Serve

Another shot of the serve taken my my awesome photographer husband, Don!

The Happy Couple

Me and the S.W.A.G. (Stuff We All Get). I was so excited when they started passing these around for the final rounds!! I see them all the time when I watch the games on TV and even told Don that I hoped they would pass them out for this too, but I didn't figure they would. Surprise, surprise! (Godiva had fun popping them when we got home! Merry Christmas to her too!)

A picture with Barbra Fontana - the 1996 Atlanta Olympian who took 4th place for the USA. She is a mother of two boys and a lawyer! She passed the California Bar exam in the 80's! Quite the lady!

Thanks again, Donny, for the great Christmas gift! It was a lot of fun and great to spend some nice time alone with my best friend! I love you!

BONUS MATERIAL:

For all those baby bump addicts out there, I have posted my 27 week photo or entering my third trimester!

Notice the nice Cotton Candy Pink walls!

The full side shot! Sorry, I have been so bad with this!! I wanted to be good with this, since I am always curious what my friends look like pregnant too! And I vowed I would post pictures of myself, no matter how huge I felt or looked, because I know how badly I want to see others like that too. Everytime I think about taking a picture, I always have an excuse as to why I can't at that moment, and then I forget. I'll try to keep you more up to date with the changing of my pregnant body! Thanks for your patience! =)

. . . Since Thanksgiving . . . Part Four

2008-01-30T10:23:00.000-05:00

We've been decorating the nursery!!

When we found out we were having a baby girl, I already had in my mind what I wanted to do with the nursery! We are doing pink (of course), white, and black accents. So we began with storing our guest bedroom furniture with our church (thanks Pastor and Jalyn) for my mom to get when she comes down. Then we began painting. Our first project was a crib that was given to us. We wanted black furniture, so we got some spray paint and began. I must admit that it really turned out great!! We were also pleasantly surprised that when putting the crib together without instructions, that we were able to complete it in about 45 minutes with only one or two re-dos. Don was even recovering from a cold!

Step #1 - Slight sanding and priming

Step #2 - Paint Black

Step #3 - Move to inside - touch up.

Step #4 - Assemble!

Don has had an itch, since we found out we were expecting, to put his creativity to work and build something nice for the baby. When he was on Christmas break, he was able to work on "his creation" without the pull of school as well. It is almost finished, but I think we will wait for it to be finished for the big reveal - I know, I know, I'm aweful!

I've also had a crafty idea that I've been meaning to do for a while that I am also working on for the nursery. I've started, but the Virginia yucky winter (if you'd call it that) has put a damper on my creativity. So, I will also reveal that with the before and after pictures. . . Later. =)

Lastly, we had the daunting task of picking out fabric for the bedding, which Grandma Katie is going to be making for her namesake, Kate. Then following that, we picked out the paint. I've got one coat of the "cotton candy" pink done and it will need another coat to be completely finished with that. Then, I spoke with my Pastor's wife, Jalyn, about some possibilities of what to do different with the walls, since she is a paint/decorating queen. She gave me the idea of doing some diamonds on an accent wall. So, we have a shade darker pink that we will alternate with the wall color pink in the diamonds. I am really excited to see what it will look like. Again, I will post pictures later.

So, I guess the theme of this post, is that we are working on our nursery, and as things finish up (within the next three months - since I am entering my last trimester this week!!!!) we'll be posting our before and after pictures of our projects. Stay tuned!

. . . Since Thanksgiving . . . Part Three

2008-01-22T15:23:00.000-05:00

We found out we were having a baby GIRL!!!

Don and I had plans of being surprised by the gender of our baby at the birth, but many of those reasons were trumped by the reasons for finding out the gender early. We had heard from a some good friends that if you don't find out, you are more likely to get the things you NEED at showers rather than cute, frilly outfits. Right now, I have a church shower planned, but the bigger showers with our families will be after the birth anyway - so that reason was completely knocked out.

Another reason we had for waiting and being surprised was that we were planning on moving quite soon after the baby was born, since Don will be graduating in May. If that was the case, then I wouldn't really spend much time in putting decorations up for just a month or two. However, the earliest we would be moving would be August/September with also the possibility of staying for another whole year (depending on which way the Lord directs our family). So, another reason to not find out hit the fan.

Many other factors brought us to the point of choosing to find out. So, we had our ultrasound December 20th and had the nurse put the results in a little red box (the one we are holding in front of the Christmas tree on the last post). We decided that we would open up the results on Christmas morning as a reminder of our precious gift from God. We celebrate God's provision of His Son as a gift that we can receive, and we were able to celebrate the wonderful gift of our child that He has given to us as well. It was very special for us as well as our extended family who were all involved in receiving the news as quickly as we could dial the numbers.

The photos are from our ultrasound. The first one is just the profile picture of our daughter, Katelyn Jane. The second one is the picture that the nurse put into the box for us to open. She said it would be obvious what it was, but I didn't think it would be that clear! She did a great job for us and we were thrilled!

. . . Since Thanksgiving . . . Part Two

2008-01-17T15:48:00.000-05:00

We had a lovely holiday season celebrating with friends!!

Since we had a longer vacation around Thanksgiving and were able to go home and visit family and friends. And we were able to get away for another week on the cruise, Don was limited in the time-off department, and so we stayed home and enjoyed some fellowship with some great friends. Don had the Sunday before Christmas through Christmas day off. Christmas Eve we had the Logsdons over for Don's two favorite things - Food and Games!! Christmas Day, the Logsdons had us over for a yummy dinner complete with ham, potatoes, salad, bread, veggie cassarole, jello, and an assortment of desserts.

The pregnant ladies trying to be patient for the meal!

One view of us on Christmas day - Baby Bump somewhat noticeable.

Alternate view of Baby Bump - Check it out ladies, it's there, but still just a minor bump.

For New Years, Don had to work on New Year's Eve, but got the next day off. We had some plans fall through, but at the last moment decided we would see what a few of our friends were up to. They accepted our invitation to come over for pizzas and some more games. We had a great time enjoying time away from school and just hanging out. We ended the night with watching the ball drop in New York City.

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are enjoying being back in the routine again. We desire for our God to be magnified through us this year as we seek His wisdom with the coming life-changing events. We have entitled this year "New Beginnings" since we will be adding new and great responsibilities in becoming parents. We also are beginning the next stage of life, out of school, come this May. Don will be finished with his M.Div. and will be seeking opportunities to use his degree to fulfill God's call on our lives. Please pray with us as we desire His direction. On our way home from Wiliamsburg two Sunday's ago, Don recalled a list of things that he was thankful for, beginning from when He was very young up until now. It was such a blessing and reassurance to us as we once again saw the grace of God's leading in our lives even since before we had trusted Him. He is so faithful and will continue to be faithful throughout these transforming events to come in our lives. We serve a true and living God who will be glorified!!

The Gang - Including Godiva (who loved our choices of invites - Her very favorite people, her dog sitters!!)

The Logsdons - showing off her baby bump!

The Branines

Me & My Love!

. . . Since Thanksgiving . . . Part One

2008-01-14T19:08:00.000-05:00

So, this is what happens when you have things happening and you keep saying to yourself that you will blog that post tomorrow. Before you know it, you have three or four bloggable life events take place and you haven't revealed the first in the blogosphere. Some I guess would say that would be procrastination, (I would be in that number too!), and the result of that - Segmentation! Here goes part one of a innumerable segments. Thanks for your patients. Tune back later for later installments of the same theme, just different things that have happened with the Hines!

. . . Since Thanksgiving . . . We Went on a Cruise!!!

The Hines side of the family decided that we would try to do a family cruise this year in celebration of Don's great uncle & aunt's anniversary. We were offered this instead of our normal Christmas gifts. So, we opted for signing up! There were 38 others of Don's extended and immediate family that came along. This was the first cruise we had been on and hopefully it won't be the last! We loved it! We went to the Bahamas. We had two ports of call - Coco Cay (the Island that Royal Caribbean owns) and Nassau. We also had a day out to sea to finish off our five day cruise.

Some of our favorite things included: snorkeling, buffets, soaking up some sun in December, buffets, corny cruise ship shows, CHOCOLATE buffet at midnight, our waiter, buffets, towel animals, chocolate on our pillows, men's belly-flop competition (which we can proudly claim was won by Don's very own cousin) and of course lots and lots of food!

Grandma at the first meal - she was quite thrilled!

Grandma on the last night! Whew! What a hum-dinger! Just kidding! She just allowed us to mess with her a bit!

Safety First! Don is ready for the mandatory evacuation drill before we shove off!

Upon entering Coco Cay

The ship and us . . . This is December?

The guys.

The gals.

Captain's Dinner - Don, Katrina, Grandma (a little more presentable), and Dad

The Towel Monkey!

The Atlantis Resort - Nassau, Bahamas

The immediate family.

I'm relaxing on the beach, doodling, while the guys were playing in the water.

The one, the only, Jordan - Bellyflop winner for our cruise! He was up against about 10 other guys all out-weighing him by at least 100 lbs. Jordan sealed the victory with a moved called the "flying squirrel". Hilarious!

Mountain climbing? Yup! On the ship!

The best waiter on the ship - Glendon from Jamaica! He was amazing! By the first night, he had our names memorized! It somehow got out that Don was in seminary and preparing to be a pastor. From that time on he was known as "Reverend" by Glendon! It was so cute and funny (since that is Don's least favorite term of endearment for that position!)

Uncle Tim & Aunt Carol

Tabitha & I - The minor & the pregnant lady - yup - alcohol free! =)

The final food farewell - our last breakfast together on the ship!

Tourists!

Thanksgiving Weekend

2007-11-30T12:08:00.000-05:00

This Thanksgiving we had the opportunity to go home to Michigan. We normally head home for Christmas, but Don's job passed a new set of rules that prohibit employees from taking the same holiday off two years back to back. So, with my freedom of working from home, we packed up and headed north! We arrived late Wednesday night. Thursday morning, we woke up with anticipation as the weather forcast had called for SNOW overnight. Don's first reaction was to open the blinds and sure enough - SNOW! It continued to snow for the remainder of the morning. It was a great welcome home from "mother nature".

I had turkey duty, since Mom was working that day. This only being my second one to stick in the oven in the history of my life, I was a little nervous, but all went well.

My Audience

Godiva's Thanksgiving Dinner - Licking our nephew, Braden, until his hair was wet!

The next day Don and I awoke at 4:30 a.m. to get to the stores for the great deals. We normally are able to get all our Christmas shopping done in one day and get great deals in the process! It has become our little Christmas shopping tradition and we look forward to it each year! We didn't do as well this year as we normally do, but we still did quite well. We headed home for a small nap before the excitement of heading to my first Pistons game at the Palace of Auburn Hills. That was a lot of fun. I guess, the crowd was a little lame (this came from the experts who have been to many games - Mom & Dad), but we still enjoyed being there.

Pre-game Warm-Up

Erika - Anticipating the big game!

Mom, Dad, and Sean (watching the game)

Final Score! - Michelle and Greg were there too, we just didn't catch a photo of them for some reason!

A few weeks before our trip to MI, we received an invitation to my brother's 30th birthday party. It ended up being on the same weekend we would be in Michigan. Since it was only a three hour drive to be there at this monumental occasion (which I still can't believe he's that old), we drove over to my side of the state to have some time with my family as well. We ended up surprising Shane & Patty - there were many factors that could have clued them into our arrival, but they were VERY shocked to see us there - as well as many members of my family! It was a lot of fun! It was a 70's theme and we dressed up as best we could with a quick trip to the local Goodwill!

My Jan Brady look!

Don's Saturday Night Fever Look!

The guest of honor - no, I don't mean Elvis. Shane (the big 3 - 0) and his beautiful wife, Patty!

We made it back home late on Monday night, exhausted, but still kicking! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

New Page Element - Baby Beat

2007-11-14T15:41:00.000-05:00

This post is mainly for our family members who are miles upon miles away and unable to be around for the developments of our new Little Baby Hines. My last appointment was November 8th and my midwife told me I could bring in something to record the baby's heartbeat, since she knows our family is all in Michigan. So, the only one we had was a small microcassette recorder. So the sound is a little bad, but it still captures the new little life that God has created. I'm not even half way through with this experience, but even to this point I am amazed at our God's great design and that we have the awesome privilege of seeing it first hand. I am reminded that it is all of God's work and not man's! I also liken this to our call as Christians to be witnesses. It is not what we say that saves men, that is God's doing. We are just great recipients of His grace and we are allowed to be a part of the process that God has planned to call men to Himself. What a great and glorious God we serve!!

The link to the right will hopefully open up and reveal the little recording I made. Enjoy family and good buddies! May I also add that this would have not been possible except for the help of TJ's MP3 player that was able to change my recording from cassette to digital. May it also be known that his MP3 player surpasses my ipod with its unique recording ability! Thanks TJ!

(Also, if you are having struggles opening this, I am a little techy challenged . . . but I did my best. Please let us know, so we can hopefully correct the problem! Thanks!)

Family Fun . . .

2007-10-25T11:12:00.001-04:00

I've been quite behind with posting pictures of different things we have been busy with over the summer. We have begun many different activities with the young married of our church as well as having church-wide get-togethers. The following is a pictures show of our fun times with our church family and friends.

WASHINGTON DC
We took a trip to DC recently to see Ben & Carissa. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures with them, even though we were around them the whole time!

Smithsonian

World War II Memorial

The Mall with the Lincoln Memorial in the background.

Fun with the Monument.

More fun!! Waiting for Ethan to go "fotty" (a.k.a. "potty")

PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT WITH YOUNG MARRIED COUPLES

Couple we asked to kiss! They we happy to accomodate our request!

Two Member in front of the "Golden Arches"

TJ trying to score points for being a Twin. The girls didn't let that fly!

The Guys Team

PICNIC BY THE LAKE
We spent the afternoon eating, tubing, skiing, swimming, and jet skiing! It was a great time!

Our Picnic

Ashlyn looking spectacular!

Us on the Jet Ski

Front of the boat!

Pastor Skiing!

Our wonderful Pastor & His Wife!

TAILGATING & THE WILLIAM & MARY FOOTBALL GAME

Our "table" for our tailgating. Yup, that's our boogie board from our trunk! =) You do what you gotta do!

The Gang

The Happy Couple

Kick-Off

Shannon & I with the final score after double overtime! Needless to say, we got our money's worth!!

BUSCH GARDENS - AGAIN!

Our Lunch at Red Lobster before our day at B.G. - We both had plans to tell the other couple that we were expecting! So very funny and so very exciting!!

ICE CREAM!!! YUM! - This one is for you Mom!

The guys with part of the decor for Howl-O-Scream at B.G.

Colonial Baptist Church County Fair

Pastor & His Family

Daisy & Buck

Godiva in the Petting Zoo

Daisy & The Scarecrow

Logsdon's & Hines' with the barn that they raised!

Our Baby Announcement to our church!

Hmm? What's different?

After the pie eating contest!

The Big Reveal . . .

2007-10-13T20:36:00.000-04:00

Here are some clues for you to figure out what's new in the lives of the Hines Family . . .

This is how we told our church family last weekend at our Harvest Party (thus, the Hickville getup). Figure out the mad gab and you've got the first clue!

I sent this picture to my Mom back home. She is proud to admit that Godiva is her granddog and always asks about her. Sometimes Godiva speaks back to Grandma as well. (Fine, now you know, we are a big fan of our dog . . . in case you hadn't picked up on that from our frequent mentioning of her and her happenings as well!!)

We had the blessed privilege of telling some of our family in person as they were here last month. This was their reaction . . . Don told them the news just before snapping the picture so that we could capture their expressions and post it for all the world to see! Lucky us!!

This is the last and final clue! This is how we found out the grand news!

If you haven't figured it out yet, then I am quite sure that writing it out for you wouldn't help either, but I'll go ahead and fill you in on it anyway. We are expecting the arrival of our first child! We are about 11 weeks along and were able to hear the heart beat and see our little one on the ultrasound last week. What a great honor to be able to see just a glimpse into our creative God's handiwork!! We were once again amazed at His grace for allowing us the great responsibility of raising a child. We would greatly appreciate your prayers as we enter this new stage of life as well as for the health of this "bun in the oven".

A Few Firsts . . .

2007-09-19T21:17:00.000-04:00

Mom, Dad, Erika, and Sean's First Visit to our Home in Virginia!

The family made the twelve to fourteen hour trip from Michigan to come and see us a few weekends ago. They traveled all day Friday and stayed through Monday. We were able to go and stay with them up in Williamsburg for two nights. On Saturday we made the journey to the "most beautiful theme park in America", Busch Gardens, and tried all of the major rides, since the lines were so short! Sunday we attended our church in Williamsburg, made the hour trek to our home, and then onto P.F. Changs restaurant for some yummy lupper and then to the "hurricane waters" of the Atlantic!! They visited the weekend that Tropical Storm Gabrielle came ashore in North Carolina. The effects of the storm were still evident all the way to Virginia Beach. The waves were crashing against the shore, but that didn't stop our adventure seeking family!! They endured the thrashing of the Atlantic, and then took out the boogie boards and could catch almost every wave! It was a blast!!

Thanks again Mom, Dad, Erika, and Sean for making the long trip down to see us! We love and miss you guys!!

Don & Sean are third and fourth from right!!

First Volleyball Games!!

The volleyball season is officially underway. We began our season two weeks ago. We have a much different schedule this season with many larger Christian schools that we are up against. So far we are 2 - 0 in our conference and 0 - 2 in non-conference play, bringing our record to 2 wins and 2 losses. The girls have played well this season and I look forward to seeing how they will handle the pressure of some of our tougher conference games!

A little "Bind Us Together" for the old assistant coach, Kristen Varner! We miss you Coach Varner!!

2007-09-14T22:40:00.001-04:00

Over the last couple months when Don and I had a few spare moments in the midst of our schedule, we created our own cabinet for our half-bath that is attached to our bedroom. Last summer I took on the project of stripping the wallpaper (cursed material!!!) and painting the bath to match our dark tan bedroom. We invested in a new sink, mirror, and accessories. However, since then I had been looking for a cabinet to put over the toilet to add to our much needed storage. I could not find one that I liked for less than $80. So, Don took it upon himself to create a cabinet to my specifications (because once I get something in my head, I don't compromise until I get it - even if that means I never get it - one of my positive and negative qualities combined!). This was his very first woodworking project, except for the homeschooling days when one of the dad's had him and some other boys make stools. I think it turned out great! Thanks sweetie for being brave and taking on new tasks to satisfy your "particular" wife!

Sorry for those of you who have been waiting with the drum roll slightly beating since the Godiva-killing-birds story!! I was out in the yard sanding, staining, and polyurethaning our creation when the tragedy occurred. Thanks for your patience.

The Beginning of the End . . .

2007-08-24T10:24:00.000-04:00

Today marks the first day of classes for Don's last year of seminary!!! We are truly blessed with an easier schedule for both of us. Don has only four classes to complete to be eligible for graduation. He was going to be an over-achiever and squeeze in another hard class this semester because he loves the professor, but he decided against it (to my great delight). Next semester he has one main class that all seniors need to take before the end of their seminary career and we are also planning on going to the Biblical Counseling Training Conference again this year held in Lafayette, IN. Don receives an elective credit for taking this course, and it's great because I get to attend with him and it is a really great learning time for us!

I also have a slower schedule. As many of you know, I am no longer teaching 2nd grade. It is really neat how the Lord continues to prove over and over that we are in the center of His will. I ended on a great note, I had a great class and we had a lot of fun. I am now working from home. I had a friend who got me into what she was doing. I make my own hours and the pay is not bad (especially because I can do it in my PJ's!!). I am trying to still work part time (20 hours). I am also staying busy with the volleyball girls. The volleyball season has just begun this week and this is my last year coaching them. I am already sad, and it is just the first week. I love being with these girls. They are a lot of fun and are so sweet!

Godiva is still up to the same old routine. She begins her day with a stretch outside, going potty, a little breakfast to give her the strength to make it to the office floor, where she then proceeds to lay down and nap. This basic pattern occurs all day. Thankfully she has enough energy to now follow me around as I do the laundry or other various tasks of keeping up the home! I think she is grateful that I am home too, so she is not stuck in her 2'x3'x3' cage for eight to ten hours a day.

Thanks especially to family and friends who have been praying for us as we have gone through this seminary experience. God has been very gracious and He has proven Himself over and over to us. I can't speak for Don, but I know that He would never take back these years he has put into his further education. I am so very proud of my husband as he has followed God's direction and has excelled in what he has put his hand to.

Post Dedicated to: Shannon Conley - who gave me the inspiration and idea for this post! Congrats again on your little "Jason Bourne Conley"!!

The view from my backyard . . .

2007-08-15T16:33:00.000-04:00

I am about to admit something that I found today that was absolutely horrifying in my backyard!!! Don and I are working on a project that will be revealed sometime this month on our blog (it is almost finished!!). As I was about to begin my stage of the project, I noticed Godiva shoot around to the side yard. Not completely out of the norm, since she is a huge chaser of anything that moves even grass and sticks sometimes. When she returned to the main yard, she was not alone. She was preceded by a young robin that was flying low to the ground. It was squealing bloody murder and as I continued to watch this saga enfold before my eyes, I realized why it was screeching so awfully. . . GODIVA! Out of nowhere her paw batted the bird back to the ground and continued the chase on her level. She continued to play cat and mouse throughout the backyard. The bird then brought backup. I had several other robins sitting on the tree limbs, surrounding fences and shed all squawking at the hunter and yet helpless in their attempt to free their friend. Godiva paying no mind to anything other than the prey in front of her amused herself by grabbing the bird by the wing and flinging it. (You are probably thinking, "Katrina, for goodness sake, do something, anything, for the life of this helpless bird rests in your hands!!") So being the quick and independent thinker that I am, I picked up my cell and called Don! I held the phone up in the air so he could hear the chaos coming from our small backyard and explained that our dog, yes dog, not lion, had caused this ruckus. He brought me back to the sobering reality that Godiva is a Labrador Retriever. She is bred to retrieve birds and that I should tell her "good girl" and put her in the house and we'll deal with the defeathered carcass later. To which I submissively responded, okay. But I couldn't do this before I got some good photos for those who are visual learners! =) I then had to call the mother of Godiva's best friend to explain that I don't think our dogs are good for each other anymore (completely joking!). Godiva has taught Cali some naughty habits, and now it seems as if Cali is teaching Godiva a thing or two about a dog's life (Sorry Sarah, your secret is no longer safe!)

For those of you who are still worried about the bird, I brought Godiva back into the house; I pulled out the shovel and freed the bird into our neighbor's yard. However, I don't believe this bird will make it back into the tree. I never thought of my sweet Godiva being so cruel. Fly hunter, yes! Cockroach killer, Yes, Yes! Cricket smoosher, fine and dandy! Grasshopper chomper, that is just grand! Bird torturer, I'm not too keen on this new development! This now concludes the episode of "The Circle of Life at our Chesapeake Home"! Excuse me as I go and wash out Godiva's mouth, which is suppose to be one of the cleanest mouths all of the animal kingdom, but is now infected with all the diseases that the bird might have been carrying with it!

Happy Birthday to Don . . .

2007-08-04T09:17:00.000-04:00

TOMORROW!!

But since we'll be involved with our church later on this evening and all tomorrow, I thought I would celebrate blog-style today.

Last weekend we began our celebration early. Since Don had the weekend off and his fishing buddy, TJ, was free; we did something that we have wanted to do since we moved to Virginia Beach. I decided that Don has enough stuff and no where to put more stuff, so I decided the biggest part of his present would be a charter boat fishing trip. We also found a coupon for buy one afternoon fishing trip, get one free!!! Now that is our style! =)

We had a great time pulling up fish after fish! By the time all was said and done, we had a bucket of Croakers. Each of us even caught a sand shark! A few others on the boat caught Flounders, but they had to be a specific size in order to keep them. Another guy caught a stingray! It was a lot of fun, so much so that even the less experienced fisherman could have a great time as well and even catch some fish.

Here is a few pictures from Don's Birthday Celebration Day - the week before his actual birthday!

A picture of where we will be fishing. You can not tell by the picture, but it was storming like crazy when we left the dock and in this picture. But as you can see by the rest of the pictures, we escaped the rain, thunder, and lighting when we got further out into the Bay.

The Happy Couple!

Heading out of the marina and out to the fishing spot. We were fishing out by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (which has three tunnels and many miles long!!). We were out to the second tunnel and around the bridges.

Our fishing companions - TJ and Shannon! Shannon is holding up her "dukes" that have been wrapped with the "Seabands" that are suppose to prevent motion sickness. Let's just say she won't be endorsing them anytime soon!

The first shark caught - by your's truly! Look Mom, I'm holding it! Aren't you so proud!

The Birthday Boy's double catch!

TJ and his big catch of the day! This is a black sea bass.

Our bucket full of fish!

Don's Shark!

The guys in their glory!

Thanks again, TJ and Shannon, for coming and celebrating with us!

AND . . .

Don, I am so glad that I have a chance to celebrate with you another year of eldership! I love being married to you and I love how the Lord has brought us together and given us such a strong bond! Happy Birthday Donny!

A Visit From Shane & Patty!

2007-07-31T15:54:00.000-04:00

A couple weekends ago, we had the great honor to have my brother and sister-in-law in town for a few days! We had a great time just catching up and getting to know my new sister since their whole dating, engagement, and now year long marriage have been while Don & I have been here in Virginia. Not a great way to get to know the "new" family. We felt like we were attached at the hips while they were here. Since we do not have the privilege of having family around, when we do, we don't want to let them out of our sight! (Watch out Mom & Dad Turner - you're next!) It is also a great way to see the sights in our area. Most of you probably do the same thing - take for granted the things you have around you and when people come to town you get to experience it with them (most of the time for the first time as well)!! This visit was no different.

The first full day they were here, I bummed with them while Don was at work. We went to the Cape Henry Lighthouse which is north of the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. We went down to the Chesapeake Bay and chased some crabs around and found a few shells. The dolphins even came through to give Shane and Patty a little show! **Sorry, no photos - forgot the camera!**

The next day Don had the day off and we continued our journey into Norfolk, but instead of driving into the city, we took a passenger ferry over the water and walked to our destinations from there. We headed to see the USS Wisconsin - a battleship docked for visitors to tour for FREE! We then had the hunger pains growing and decided that we would walk to what we thought would be a nearby burrito bar, but ended up being not-so-nearby, which Patty's feet could testify! However, the burrito bar was a delight! And for those locals - we even saw Craig Moeller (from 13 news) enjoying his own burrito! We later made it down to the ocean and allowed Don & Shane to get a late-afternoon dip.

Shane & Don on the Ferry!

Patty & Katrina on the ferry!

Don & Katrina with one of the MANY Mermaids in Norfolk.

Shane & Patty feeding the fish by the USS Wisconsin.

We're exploring the huge battleship - USS Wisconsin.

Nice look Shane!

Thanks again Shane & Patty for spending your first anniversary with us! We had a great time with you guys and loved each and every moment with you!

Oops . . . I almost forgot . . .

2007-07-25T18:54:00.000-04:00

We have also been keeping busy with . . .

1. Camping with Logsdons

2. Busch Gardening

3. Picking Strawberries

4. Being Appreciated - (Teacher's Appreciation Week Loot)

5. Playing with Pirates

We had a costume party to celebrate the openning of the Pirates of the Caribbean III. Here is our best shot at it . . . we only spent a little bit of our life savings on these as you can tell!

The dice game that the pirates played in the 2nd Pirates Movie.

Digging for gold - another game we played that night.

T.J. is walking the plank!

The crew!

Our hosts (no, not Jack Sparrow) James & Jessica! (which I have nominated them for the following awards - Best Costumes, Best Theme Decorations, and Best All Around Hosts Ever!)

What We've Been Up To . . .

2007-07-09T17:26:00.000-04:00

. . . Cleaning out the attic . . .
I've been going through ALL of our stuff to organize the things we have accumulated the last four years. Some of it has been placed in different boxes to go with its catgory or simply given away. This was my finale!

. . . Trimming our bush . . .
As you can see, it was a monster. The new trim bush doesn't necessarily look better, but it will grow back. Thank you Flatt's for allowing us to borrow your truck.

BEFORE

AFTER

. . . Seeing Family back in the grand state of MICHIGAN! . . .

Michelle & Greg

Taylor

Braden

Grandpa & Grandma Lightfoot & Uncle Jim

Nick & Soon-to-be family

Mom, Dad, & Sean (well, the back of his head!)

Me, Shane, Mom, Patty, Doug, & Don behind the camera!

Mom & Doug

Don & I with Shane & Patty (my brother & his wife of one year - almost!)

All of us in front of our rental - an HHR (free upgrade! Wah hoo!)

. . . Congratulating Erika! . . .
Good luck with college in the fall!

After receiving her graduation gift - Concert Tickets!

. . . Going to the Langley Speedway . . .
With Nate & Emily Flatt

The Legend Cars

The Stock-Trucks

. . . Killing Cockroaches . . .
Yes, this Jurassic Park runaway was in my home.

. . . Saying Good-bye . . .
We love you and will miss you Tim & Julie Baylor!

. . . Worrying about Godiva's bestest friend, Cali . . .
She was staying at our house while her mom and dad (Stephen & Sarah Branine) went to NYC. She decided to be adventuresome and find a way out of our backyard on July 4th. Since then we have been trying to locate her. The horrible nightmare ended this morning at 5:00 when our little Godiva woke us up. I took her to go potty and she went. She still continued to whine when we got inside. That probed Don to say maybe we should look outside for Cali. Sure enough, Cali was out on the street in front of our house looking at us. She came running inside and we were finally able to break some good news to the Branines! Welcome Back Cali! We hope you enjoyed your vacation, next time tell us where you are going before you go . . . we were worried sick!

June 7, 2007

2007-06-11T10:28:00.000-04:00

Our fourth anniversary ended up being a great night!

Don was sent home by 2:30 in the afternoon - and those of you that know Brink's, know that this alone is shocking! He showed up at the door with two dozen pink roses in his Brink's uniform. I thought he was just stopping for a brief moment to surprise me with flowers and then off he goes to finish the rest of his afternoon jobs, but he was DONE!

He was excited about coming home early so he was able to squeeze in a nap before going out to eat.

We ended going to The Melting Pot. It is an all fondue restaurant. It took two hours to enjoy our four course fondue feast.

We started with a cheese fondue that we dipped three different types of bread, vegetables, and granny smith apples (strange, but yummy!)

Next, we were brought out our salads.

Then onto our entree. We could choose from two different broths that we would cook our meat in. We then were brought out our plate of meat. We had shrimp, tuna, fillet minion (spelling?), teriyaki steak, curry chicken, and potstickers. It only took 1 - 2 minutes to cook the meat in the broth and it was a lot of fun!

Finally, we gorged ourselves on the dessert fondue. We chose a smore chocolate to dip our cheesecake, poundcake, brownies, strawberries, pineapples, and bananas. This, of course, was my favorite!

We basically held our bellies all the way home moaning from the wonderful meal we had just had. Don even went to confess that this was the best meal he had ever had. I would have to agree! It was fantastic and we would highly recommend it to anyone!

Happy Anniversary to US!

2007-06-07T13:23:00.000-04:00

Today marks the fourth year of our blessed union before God and man. We woke up this morning to the sound of the song "You're Still the One" playing on our ipod. And it is so true. Don is still, I believe, the best guy ever (and I am sure all the wives out there echo this for your husbands as well!) and God has designed for us to be together. At times it seems like we have been married longer than just four years (maybe it's because we have known each other and dated for four years previous to our marriage) and at other times I can't believe it has been four years. We have had a lot of fun times together and here is just a brief picture show commemorating our previous June 7ths together!

June 7, 2003 - Our Wedding Day!

June 7, 2004 - 1st Anniversary - Niagara Falls!! As you can see, the free little garbage bags wouldn't really help against the spray from the falls!

June 7, 2005 - 2nd Anniversary - Myrtle Beach - Purchased Godiva the day before we left on this trip. She was at home by herself whining as she was depressed from having left her siblings and now we up and leave her blockaded in our kitchen. Our neighbors came over and let her out a few times a day, but she was mainly by herself. The trauma hasn't seem to affected her at all. I just remember that trip we were thinking up the name we would give her . . . Madison and Hershey made the list, but we eventually went with Godiva - the best choice - We think!

June 7, 2006 - King's Dominion - We stayed at the campground and had a two-day pass. It was a lot of fun!

Thank you, Don, for being the man of my dreams! You love the Lord suprememly, you provide for your wife not just financially, you're my best friend, and I am thrilled to celebrate once again our marriage and look forward to many more years together! I love you Donny!

(P.S. Sorry the photos are a little messed up, those were taken with our 35 mm and scanned funky!)

Teacher's Appreciation Week

2007-05-31T12:05:00.000-04:00

No, your Google Reader is not messed up, The Hines Herald is posting again! Can you tell that I am finished with school?! Before it gets too far away, I wanted to show you some pictures of things I received for Teacher's Appreciation week. Although it was not mentioned on our school calendar, I still received some nice gifts.

Don has begun his summer schedule where he gets Saturday, Sunday & Monday off one week and the next he will only get Sunday. They call it the swing shift. He actually doesn't mind it because every other weekend we have a 3-day weekend and we are able to get away to see the area. His first weekend on the swing shift, I still had to work Monday and I was feeling quite well, so I couldn't use one of my sick days =). Then, it was also the night we had a shower for Kristen, so I was getting home late. I had asked him to do one favor for me . . . to clean out my dryer vent because it was taking sometimes 3 - 70 minute cycles to dry our clothes. He did that and it works like a charm! Also when I arrived he said he did something else for me. So, he sat me in front of the computer and flashed up the following pictures that he took throughout his project . . .

Pastor Eric and Jalyn had installed lights under their cabinets and I loved the effect. So, I simply told Don about it. We tried a cheap way of doing it, by putting those battery operated lights that you push in and the lights come on. It lasted about three hours before the lights burned out or the batteries died. So, when I arrived home I was shocked to see Don had installed real lights and ran the wires through the cabinets. Thanks to Brinks, he has learned a lot about running wire and electricity. Thanks sweetie for thinking of me and giving me something that I didn't need, but something I wanted for your Teacher. And thanks for the fabulous shots of you being my handyman and allowing me to laugh at you! Your so funny!

Here is a picture of my pile of stuff that I received from school. The one special gift was the bouquet of flowers that I recieved from one of my students from TWO years ago. It is always special when they come back to see you and give you hugs!

Here is some pictures of my kids during our fundraiser - the Lions' Pride Golf Classic/Walk-a-Thon.

That same week, the second grade class went on their annual field trip to the Virginia Living Museum, SPCA Zoo, and Huntington Park. We had one little hitch, our bus broke down and were late getting back to school. But I was so thankful that we broke down in the park, so the kids had an opportunity to get out and play in the park, while we figured out what to do with them. We were headed across a major bridge in just a few moments from that place and I can not even fathom what it would have been like to be stuck on the bridge with 40 second graders who cannot get out of the vehicle when it was 80 degrees outside and stopping traffic. The only good I could have seen out of that situation would have been, that we would have probably made the news! =) However, God's sovereignty would have us break down in the park - I'm so thankful!

Tagged

2007-05-30T20:00:00.000-04:00

I've been tagged by Shannon Conley and thus, I will abort mission of catching you all up on my last few fabulous weekends full of fun and excitement to tell you a little bit about myself. After posting these rules, each player proceeds to list 8 relatively random facts/habits about himself/herself. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names. (I've edited this to only 6).

1. I attempted bow hunting when I was in late middle school - early high school. I had my bow and arrows and was quite faithful at going out and practicing my shot, which was not too bad. I remember my step-dad, Doug, encouraging me to continue on. I eventually got the guts to overcome my fear of heights and climb a tree stand and practice shooting from there. I never did end up going out to really hunt, I valued that one-on-one time with my mom too much to give it up to be cold and bored sitting in a tree, never knowing if I would actually be able to shoot an arrow at Bambi's Mom or Dad!

2. Along with that, Doug, also took me out after he had shot a doe, to go track it down and find it. That was pretty fun going through the woods tracking the blood trail left and watching my step-dad's amazing ability to find any leaf or twig that had a spot of blood. Next, I held the flashlight as he gutted the deer and drug it back to the four-wheeler!

3. I dated only ONE guy before finding Mr. Right for me!!

4. Back to my adventures in wildlife - my parents were big into "Mushroom Hunting". This takes place in the early sping, like around Mother's Day, Morell Mushrooms begin to grow and are found in Michigan. They are edible and pretty hard to spot. We would go out one weekend in the year and would find them through out the woods. Again, my step-dad's keen eyesight aided in finding many a mushroom, even zipping down the two tracks in our mini van, he would slam on the breaks, send us into the seats ahead of us, jump out and cut down a few mushrooms, and continue along the way!

5. Giving a shout out to the Carnes' side of the family - my family all own cabins very close to each other in Michigan and many weekends I would spend up there with my Dad. I have many funny and crazy stories from those times. One of which would be our annual "Stump Hunt". We would head out with at least 3 pick up trucks. The adults would ride in the cabs and the rest of us cousins would ride in the beds of the truck. We would head down the two-tracks and stop periodically, then we would turn the row-bar lights into the woods. The kids would scatter finding as much downed logs, branches, or burnable material for the camp fires as possible, haul it back to the truck beds, and back out for more before the caravan of truck would begin moving again. We ended up bringing back enough wood to last most of the summer. We would also look for a stump that we could remove to put onto the fire that night. Simple fun!

6. I have taken after my mother in the organization catagory. I alphabetize my spices! =)

7. I LOVE SPORTS!! Especially those MIchigan teams! Right now we're following the progress of our DEEETROIT BASKETBALL TEAM - The Pistons. We were following the Red Wings until they got booted. We always hope that our teams make it to the playoffs, because that is the only time our major-sport-free state of Virginia will play any Michigan teams on our regular three or four stations, since we are the 2% of the American population that does not pay for the 360 some-odd channels just to get ESPN. However, we have spent a few nights in bed listening to the games on the radio!! It was good to see the Tigers in the World Series last year and our Michigan Wolverines ranked #2 for a while so that they will televise those, especially since our neighbor is a Ohio State fan!

8. I like the taste of frozen shredded cheese. Pretty random.

I will tag the following individuals . . . however you are not binded by some kind of blogging law that you must do this or be put on blogging probation or any type of discipline proceedure, I am simply interested in your facts or random habits and such, if you are all dried up of any new blog ideas, here is your ticket to tell about you! . . . Kristen Varner soon-to-be Armstrong, Carissa Smith, Becky Gravley, Shannon Logsdon, Julie Baylor, Amanda Lee. Enjoy!

We are Still Alive!

2007-05-22T17:57:00.000-04:00

Amazingly, with Don finished with Seminary for the semester, he has been coming home from work at a decent time, giving us time to actually spend together. All this to say, the blog has taken the back burner to spending time with my man who is freed up from spending his time typing papers, reading gobs of books, or studying his Biblical languages. We will try to get you caught up with the highlights of some of the things we have been able to do with our time. Don was still on his school schedule for work during my spring break, so we both had all day Friday to spend together. We spent half of our day working on improvements to the house (what home-owners are blessed with) and the other half playing. He had the afternoon/evening all planned and I just sat back and allowed him to tell me what was next. We began our morning with Golden Corral's breakfast buffet. Then home to work. Next, Don took me to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens. This many acre garden located by the airport, was full of beautiful, blooming azaleas and other flowering plants and trees.

Next we headed to an old BBQ joint that still has the car-hops. Remarkably this place still had cheap prices as well. After we left, we realized that the waitress had left her card in our windshield wiper. This card looked like it had been there since the founding of this restaurant. It was a funny "bloggable" event!

Following our dinner, we headed down the street to the local baseball team, the Norfolk Tides. It was their opening night there at Harbour Park. They are apparently the farm team for the Baltimore Orioles. We had gone a while ago, but this was quite exciting to see an opening game.

I must preface my next story that although I don't care for the word I am about to use, I find the situation quite funny and ironic. During the game, we had the opportunity to be two or three rows above a group of guys out having a good time. One of them had been rooting against the Tides the whole game and basically trying to rile the crowd up and be a opposing view. He even went as far as to buy a Tides' T-Shirt and with a Sharpie, put a circle around and line through the name. When he turned around you could see the words: "Tides Sucks" with the -s scribbled out. Apparently got a little hasty with the marker before thinking about proper grammar! =) He ended up taking the T-Shirt off during the 6th or 7th inning when one of the Tides hit a triple that landed two other Tides at home and basically ended the game with a home-opener win!

I'm a big girl now!

2007-04-18T19:26:00.000-04:00

Our precious pup turns the big 2 years old today! Which, in dog years, she is about 14 years old (so they say). It doesn't seem that long ago, but she has grown so much in both height/weight as well as maturity. She began her years in our home with a weak bladder (Adam Thomas can testify - thanks for your graciousness with the pee on your shoe) and confusion since we left her the very first weekend we got her. We had plans for our anniversary and could not change them, so our neighbors came over and let her out a couple times a day. We believe that aided in curing her whinning at night. At eight weeks she weighed in at a whopping 9.4 lbs. Now, she has grown out of her peeing when company comes (although she still knocks people over with excitement - sorry Stephen), and she currently weighs around 50 lbs. She is a great dog and we do love her very much! She provides much excitement to our humble, child-less abode!

Happy Birthday Godiva!

Her Birthday Present of dog food from the can! I know, I know, we splurged!

P.S. Don is only 9 full days away from being finished with this year of seminary!! We have had much to blog on, but it seems like each time I have a few moments to update the blog, Don needs to work on writing his own commentary on Jonah, or his 12 book critics, or his Hebrew translation, or any of the other more important tasks then updating this site. Thanks to those who are sticking with us depite the sabatical (Adrianne!!). Look to the Hines Herald in about 10 days for a full feature of the last few weeks in the home of the Hines'!!

Bowling Party

2007-04-09T17:18:00.000-04:00

This weekend we were able to go to Williamsburg a day early and stay with Ickes family. Our Sunday School student, Ashlyn, completed a challenge for our class and won a bowling party with her teachers! She was able to bring a friend, and she chose her younger sister who had never been bowling before. We started out by going to a italian ice/frozen custard place that used to be located in Virginia Beach, but has moved to Williamsburg. Ashlyn and Abby had chosen what they wanted by going on line and had their orders ready to go; however, Don and I had some deep thinking and deciding to do. They do not have anywhere to sit, so we went to the HUGE Yankee Candle Store that has a fountain and seating.

We ended up finding a Jelly Bean guessing jar and decided we would participate in that too.

And even though we left Godiva with one of her favorite dog-sitters, Kristen (Yes, Branines - she loves you too!), we still were thinking of her and found a stuffed Godiva which we couldn't help getting a picture of.

The girls had a great time bowling. We got the bumpers which helped all of our scores. Ashlyn and Abby came up with some pretty funny moves for Don to do before he bowled. A lot of their inspiration was from the old show "Perfect Strangers" and when Balki (Spelling?) went bowling. Mom, you would have thought that Don was hilarious. He was hopping, twirling, and doing the Flinstones' twinkle toe moves. Having said this, our scores were as follows:

Don - 92
Abby - 89 (Not too shabby for her first time!)
Ashlyn - 73

and the big winner . . . (drum roll, please) . . .

Katrina - 183!!!! I had about 4-5 strikes and 3-4 spares! I was on fire! Thanks Dad for all those helpful tips growing up! This was the best game I've ever bowled!

Afterwards, we headed back to their house and ended up watching a few episodes of "Green Acres", which Don and I had never seen before, but got quite a kick out of it. It was much better than what I thought it would be. We followed that up with the game "Apples to Apples".

After Pastor Eric and Jalyn came home from their night out with friends we ended up staying up talking until 1:30. It was great! We see them every Sunday, but we had a great time one-on-one with them.

Thanks again Ickes' for your hospitality and your love towards us! We love you guys!

The Weekend

2007-03-25T16:18:00.000-04:00

This weekend, Don surprised me by taking me to the local park, called "Mount Trashmore". It is a landfill that has been transformed into a giant grass covered park, complete with picnic areas, walking trails, and a skatepark. We took a picnic lunch and sat along the Mount Trashmore lake. We listened to the honking geese and watched as Godiva loved the smell of goose poop. She enjoyed her family fun night as well. The skatepark includes a half-pipe. We sat and watched the major biffing going on and even watched a four or five year old ride his bike up and down it! We took a few moments and threw a softball around. Don thinking back to the days in Colorado Springs where he played shortstop for his church team. Whereas, I was reminicing about the high school days when I played outfield for the JV and Varsity teams. It was a lot of fun!

We then drove over and picked up Godiva's best friend, Cali, who belongs to the Branines. She had a great weekend "catching up" with her friend who she had not seen in a month or so. They played together, slept together, ate together, napped together, went potty together and were pretty much inseperable all weekend long. We are quite certain that she will be in depression mode once Cali's mommy and daddy pick her up later today.

Don is on call this week and we traveled back from Williamsburg (our church plant that we are active in) early this afternoon. We were able to stop by Ruby Tuesday's and eat a yummy lunch with a gift card my students gave me for my birthday (February). Later on tonight we plan on finally getting rid of our brush pile in the backyard and have a little camp fire.

It has been a great, relaxing weekend!

Also, thanks to all the comments we got on the last post. We were shocked and amazed by some of the people that drop in to check up on our lives. We are honored by your visits. Please continue to let us know how you are doing! Also, thanks to so many who mentioned that they are using Google Reader. We had briefly heard of this, but it made us curious and we are now hooked up with our own Google Reader, so that we can keep in better touch with your lives. Thanks again!

Blogger Spies - Identify Self Please

2007-03-21T21:16:00.000-04:00

Recently I have heard this comment by several friends, "Oh, I saw . . . this or that . . . on your blog!" To which I reply, "Why didn't you leave a comment so that I know you were checking up on us?" The answer to this question varies from my dog ate my homework to I had to wash my hair. I know that I struggle with the same thing; however, I am trying very hard to improve my spying ways. So if I stop by someone's blog (that I know), I attempt to leave a quick (no matter how dull) comment to let them know I was there spying on them. So, if you are spying on the Hines Herald, we are simply asking for a brief hello to cut down on all the stalking in the blogging realm. We have even made this easier by opening up our blog for anonymous comments to those of the "non-blogging persuasion" (quote taken from Don Hines).

When looking up the spy idea, I stumbled upon a huge website with all kinds of magnifying glass clip-art. They had bowling balls to paint brushes holding magnifying glasses. Since there has been an influx of toilet stories on friends blogs (Carissa and Shannon) I thought I would salute you with the plunger holding the magnifying glass!

Happy Commenting!

Green Day Friday!

2007-03-12T17:12:00.000-04:00

Our fundraiser kick-off began with a great amount of green. Green - I think for GO, and also for the golf green (since it's a golfing tournament) as well as green for grass (since it is also a walk-a-thon), but probably not for boogers - even though you might see a few in this picture!

Last Friday, we were able to dress down as long as we had GREEN to wear. And so our creation of green, interesting outfits came about. My whole class participated and we were awarded "the class with the most green" for the K5 - 2nd grade classes and had to putt for a pizza party. Unfortunately, I was unable to produce the party for my class, but I'm happy to announce my partner in the "pretty club" at school, Sarah Joungblood, won it for her class (Check out her hair below!!).

To get the kids excited about this fundraiser, we were also suppose to create a door advertisement for the tournament. There were awards for the first door complete and the most creative doors. I'll give my props to Miss Kristen Varner who came out on top for her age group. My door, although highly creative, apparently paled in comparison to a Kindergarten class that will remain unnamed (Still resolving with my bitterness!). Who were those judges anyway!?! Check out these doors with their fabulous teachers!

Mrs. Dillard and her incredibly awesome door, assisted by Pastor Dillard!

Sarah, the hair, Joungblood and her incredibly punctual door (just completed the night before the judging!)

Mrs. Berry and her "tacky" door. She debated upon changing her door when she saw all the other ones being created. However, she followed the rules and allowed the KIDS to complete the door!

My great look and great looking door. Still thought we had a chance!

A better look at the fantabulously fantastic door!

The Loot!

2007-02-26T21:06:00.000-05:00

I have been desiring to go "Thrifting" for quite some time now. Don currently has Friday's off and when I got home last Friday he gave me the options of some things to do that night for our "date night". One of the options was to go to a few of the local Goodwills or Salvation Army stores and to see if we could find any treasure! I gladly accepted this offer and away we went. We only had time to visit two stores in the area before our bellies were calling for dinner, but it was so much fun rummaging through a few stores and got a few steals.

Don picked up a FM tuner for his IPOD for $5 and a cable to connect our laptop to the printer for $3. I found a cute book for $.75 that Don decided he would read to me when we got home (much funnier with his expressions). I also found a cute purse for $3. We are going to be having a Golf/Walk - A - Thon as a fundraiser for school this year and one of the things we're doing to get the kids excited is having a door decorating contest. We are currently still in the "planning" stage and I picked up an old golf club for $.90 (yeah, tax deductable!!) for a little more inspiration.

I love my husband and I am so thankful for a guy who is willing to put aside his desires so that I could have a little bit of fun. Although, he would admit that he had good time as well (especially getting an extra-long cheesy coney at Sonic afterwards!!). Thanks Sweetie! Your the Best!

P.S. Sarah - Not as great of deals as those super-cool chairs, but our Thrifting days aren't over yet!!

Counseling Conference in Indiana

2007-02-19T12:12:00.000-05:00

Don and I had the great privilege of being able to attend the Faith Biblical Counseling Conference in Lafayette, Indiana this past week. We were richly blessed with the teaching and preaching of this past week. We heard the challenging statement over and over again, "In order to be a good Biblical counselor you must first be a good counselee". Don and I took that challenge and really looked at our lives through the filter of the Scripture and found many things that the Bible may not clearly talk about or may even permit, but just is not best to fill up our time and energy. We had been focusing on the desire to fulfill things that we want to do and looking for the permission from Scripture to be able to do those things, without thinking about edifying the whole body of Christ. Through God's grace we are establishing a few guidelines for our home to solidify what we are learning about ourselves. If you ever have the chance to attend this conference - it is a MUST!

Also this past week, we were caught in the snowstorm that hit Indiana pretty hard. In fact, we had a record-breaking snow fall on Tuesday. I believe the final total of snow fall was around 15 inches in a 24-hour period; they were calling it the worst blizzard since 1978. Because of this fact, one day we were snowed in and had a snow day at the home of the family we were staying with. We began the morning with a puzzle . . .

and had a few hours to relax and do some reading, and being the Michiganders we are, we couldn't help going out in it. Linda, our host, found us some snowmobile boots, some Target bags, and some hats and gloves for her adopted "children" to go and play for a while.

We also had another person staying in the same home as us. She had come all the way from Israel to be at the conference. Joanna was originally from the States, but is now a missionary to the Jews around the Sea of Galilee. It was a joy to get to know her and a little bit more about the modern day "Holy Land". Thanks again Joanna for the pictures. (We forgot our digital camera!! - I know this was a huge arrow right through the heart of all those blogging junkies out there!)

I'm going to Walmart today to get our disposable camera pictures put on a CD. More pictures of Indiana Blizzard 2007 to follow . . .

Tah Dah!!!

BBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!! YEAH! BBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

What Time of Year is It?

2007-01-30T22:32:00.001-05:00

While we are not into this whole global warming thing, it has been an extremely mild winter this year. The whole "Michigander" part of us is still longing to get at least one good snowfall in this year -- fingers crossed! But until then we will keep enjoying what the Lord has blessed us with.
This past weekend was another beaut, so Katrina, Godiva and I decided to held to a local park. It then turned out to be even more fun when a couple frineds of ours (the Branines) were able to join us as well as their dog Cali (Godivas bestest friend in the whole wide world).

The two of them were able to explore the park together which included some pretty great exploration and even a mid-January swim.

Meanwhile, Ma and Pa were able to chat with friends and enjoy the outdoors which we love almost as much as Godiva. By the end of the evening though, we were pretty tuckered out, but as you can see . . . she was still ready to GO!

All in all it was a wonderful time. We are so thankful to the Lord for His undeserved grace which can be seen all around us when we take the time to notice it.

Remodeling - Pardon Our Mess

2007-01-27T21:35:00.000-05:00

Welcome One . . . Welcome All . . . to the newly remodeled Hines Herald website. We have been under construction here for a few weeks which has severely hampered our sweet bloggin' skills. Blogger (which hosts our website) has throw off our blogging groove as it offered a much needed upgrade. In doing so, however, we are proud to annouce that our website is no longer prejudice against readers of a non-blogger persuasion. Therefore, we now accept comments from EVERYONE!!!!

We are still trying to work out some kinks in the system (currently Katrina does not exist as a user), but for the most part we are up and running better than ever. We appreiciate your patience and look forward to hearing from you ALL!!!!

Happy New Year

2007-01-15T17:32:00.000-05:00

I know that it is actually 1/2 month after our big celebration for the new year; however, we still wanted to share our fun for that evening. We were able to have over a few couples for some snacks, games (not as many as Don had planned), and to watch the famous ball drop. Thanks to all who were able to come! We were glad to share the beginning of our new year with you. Also as you look through these pictures, you may notice a change in our living room! Don and I decided to add an accent wall to our living room and change the layout. You may be able to catch a glimpsese of it in these pictures.

Stephen & Sarah Branine

Anand Raj (and Christy in spirit) - Who made it just in time for the food and photo session!

T.J. & Shannon Logsdon

Stephen & Shannon Conley (Esther in guest bedroom - fast asleep!)

The Happy Hosts - Notice the new NYC caricature behind us!

The only game we played all night, to Don's dismay. He had a stack of games to get through and we spent much of our time talking, laughing, and eating! Don will be inviting more of you over again soon, so he can get the itch of game playing scratched!

FOOD!

The Guys!

The Girls!

The Twins! - Even down the headband! Planned? No!

The "Everyone" picture including Godiva (who had a great night being spoiled by our guests, especially Sarah)

We pray that your new year is full of growing in the grace and knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

P.S. Sarah and Shannon, Please let me know if you cannot get the group picture off of my blog and I'll e-mail it to you!

Christmas Time in the City

2007-01-06T15:18:00.000-05:00

Christmas of 2006 for the Hines' was spent in the city that never sleeps - New York. This was the first time either one of us had been to this incredible city. There was so much to see and do; which lends itself to the monumental task of blogging a huge amount of information. Because of this seemingly unsurmountable task, we have neglected to blog for a while. Our deepest apologies to those who faithfully check The Herald and find it just as they have left it a month ago. I am going to attempt to give you a brief summary of the events that took place over the course of four days in a way that you won't have to read every interesting tid-bit, but give you an overview of what happened.

Friday, December 22
* Began our trip to the city. Drove to NJ and parked car at the Lee's residence (Garrett and Amanda Lee's parents), jumped on the NJ Transit and entered NYC via train
*Arrived at our Hotel - The Hudson - and finally sat down to get our barrings
*Decided to venture out to see Times Square and find some dinner down there. We ate at ESPN Zone.

Saturday, December 23
* Attempted to get up to go to the TODAY Show, but overslept.
* Took a long subway ride down to Ground Zero and found this to be very interesting and almost surreal. It seems like such a long time ago already that this took place.
* Continued south on the subway and saw The Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, NYSE, and the famous "Bull" on Wall Street.
* Headed back uptown and went up the Empire State Building and listened to a audio tour at the observation deck that cost $6. Well worth the money!
* We also went to see TImes' Square in the daytime
* Took a LONG stroll through Central Park - figured that we had seen the entire thing, but in reality had only walked half of it!
* We headed back to our hotel for a little nap, so we were ready for the nightlife again!
* Went to a hole in the wall restaurant for dinner to get REAL NY Pizza. The pizza was great, the atmosphere - not so great. We did see an actual cat snoozing on the pizza boxes!
* Went to Times Square again to actually do some shopping this time. Bought $1.77 worth of M&M's from M&M World (basically to get the bag!). We also bought some dark chocolate from Hershey's Time Square store.
* Walked towards Rockafeller Center area to catch the Christmas feeling and got our Caricatures done for $10 by a street merchant.
*Hit the hay!

Sunday, December 24
* Woke up and went to a little breakfast place down the street from our hotel for coffee and bagels.
* Met Garrett and Amanda to go to a Presbyterian Church in the City.
* Went to Manhattan Mall for souvenirs.
* Ate some italian from a real Italian little Resturant.
* Continued to hang with the Lee's for the day and saw the big stores (Macy's, Saks Fifth Ave.) with their windows all decked out for the holidays. Saw THE TREE in Rockafeller Center in the light.
* Went and saw the FAO Schwarz Toy Store (Movie site of "Big" and "Home Alone 2")
* Lee's headed back for some family fun back in NJ.
* We headed back to Macy's to actually go inside! (Which we found closed at 6:00 on Christmas Eve!)
* Went to see the tree at night, could not push our way to the rink to even see them skating. It was crazy busy!
* Visited Trump Tower to see the waterfall and gold plated walls! Wow!
* Nite Nite Time!

Monday, December 25th - Merry Christmas!!
* Don and I wake up early again trying to make it to the Today Show. Arrive and find out that it is pre-recorded! Boo Hoo! Sorry to all who were ready to watch!
* Decided to get a snack at the coffee shop that WAS OPEN next to NBC studios.
* Decided to take a brief Seinfeld Tour.
* Went and saw the Munk's Restaurant (Actually Tom's Restaurant) where many of their deeply technical conversations take place.
* Also went to the famous "Soup Nazi" Soup Place where Elaine was told "No Soup For You".
* Find a nice little Breakfast place open to eat.
* Went back to the hotel to pack and prepare for our departure!
* Lee's pick us up from Train Station and we are insisted on staying for their Christmas dinner, which we readily accepted. Thank you Lee's for your hospitality!
* Head home!

Again, thanks for your patience! We owe a big THANK YOU to our families for allowing us to be absent from the normal hub-bub of the holidays to give us a chance to do this vacation. Thank you to the Lee Family - Mr. & Mrs. Lee, Garrett & Amanda, and the rest who included us in their special day (and busyness of the season!)! And also to Priceline that gave us the guts to go-for-it!

Happy New Year!

Oh Christmas Tree!

2006-12-04T22:11:00.000-05:00

This weekend we continued our tradition of putting up the tree the first weekend of December. The festivities included homemade soup and bread, apple cider, and donuts for dessert. We bought one of our cheapest trees from Lowe's this year (doesn't quite compare to the northern experience of actually getting to use a saw to cut your own tree down, but it works). We brought her home and made her shine. I just love this time of year! I love the decor and the times with family and friends, and the cozy feeling it brings. But most importantly I love the fact that God demonstrated his love for me in sending His Son to be the payment for my sins. A gift that can never be repaid, but only accepted by His grace and through the faith He gives. Praise Him for His work in our lives!

Another tradition Don has begun in our household is a simple competition of who can buy the first Christmas present for the other; coupled with who can be the first to have a wrapped gift for the other under the tree. I have been the reigning champ for the past two years with a win in both categories. This year he stepped it up (even though it is the busiest semester of His seminary career) and beat me to the punch with buying the first present. I retaliated with a nice big present wrapped under the tree when he came home today! Evidence of this victory if found in the photo below!

To the right of the gifts for the best hubby ever, you will notice a stack of things that need to be dropped off at the post office tomorrow. Yes, that's right. The blessing of being home during Thanksgiving is that we can be finished Christmas shopping and be ready to ship our gifts the first week of December! Wah hoo! So, incoming family!!

I wanted to also stick Godiva in the shot since she is not a part of our annual Christmas Card Portrait. She was feeling a little left out, so here is an updated picture of her. No, Grandma Katie, she is not going to be shipped with your gift, although she would like to spend a few days with you again soon! Maybe this time you can make it down here and see her cage, water bowls, toys and where she goes potty! =)

Black and White?

2006-11-29T18:25:00.000-05:00

To those of you who will be receiving our annual Christmas picture, you may be curious as to the choice of black and white? Well, the following is a brief summary of our reasoning . . . not planning ahead, wore completely unmatching sweaters, nice photo of the two of us, great background, taken at a park in Williamsburg during height of fall color, next week rain, following week no leaves! So, in summary we decided black and white was a safe option to the nice picture. Hope you enjoy!

Field Trip!

2006-11-01T21:15:00.000-05:00

Today my class and I had a great time away from the actual classroom and spent the day at the Jamestown Settlement! We learned a little bit more about the way of life for the Powhatan Indians, Settlers, and the Africans who were the occupants of Jamestown. My class really enjoyed the hands-on stuff that was offered. My picture downloading has been ultra turle-slow these last few days, but I'll try to post a few photos of my 2nd grade class enjoying the beautiful Virginian fall.

Here we are listening to a man representing the English who navigated their way to America. The man discussed the many ways to defend themselves out on the open water against other ships. Very interesting!

This is a canoe that the interpreters have been working on for the past few months. They are using the technique the indians used by slowly burning out the center of the log and scraping the ashes out with shells. Always a big hit with the kids!

Intruder

2006-10-31T20:24:00.000-05:00

As I was casually preparing to put my weary body to bed a few nights ago, I stumbled upon something very bazaar. I walked into our bedroom, closed the blinds and proceeded to walk back to my closet, but something caught my eye as I passed our wee little half bathroom. I turned on the light to see what exactly the black lump on the edge our toilet seat could be. To my shock and dismay I stared at not a cockroach (as I was dreading), not a fierce spider, nor a cricket; but I delightfully looked upon a tree frog sitting upon our throne. I casually called for Don to come and see. He reported later that my voice gave it away that something was in that bathroom and by the stance I was taking outside the door, he knew it might move, but it was not the traditional "Ahhh, ERR, Cockroach" that normally escapes my mouth as I am shocked and then retaliate in anger that it scared me. This was a delightful surprise. The question still puzzles me . . . How did he get into our house?
We have been seeing these little guys around for the past few months - normally on the outside of our home! I first saw one on our bird feeder outside my kitchen window. Then, I saw a few hovering under the ridge in the siding. Once, I even had one ride to the grocery store with me. I had gone to the store, purchased a few items, brought them back to the car and opened the back door, and there he was, behind the door, snuggled up to the seal of the door. I carefully closed the door, put my groceries in the other door, and had Don place him in our flower bed when we returned home!
Does anyone have any ideas of how our friend "Freddy 'da Frog" got into our home?

Date Night

2006-10-31T20:01:00.000-05:00

As a fun way to celebrate the harvest season, Don and I dedicated our date night to snazzing up our gourd! We attempted a new way of actually going to the internet and downloading a pattern to carve. It was much less complicated than we had originally thought. It also proved to be one of the best pumpkins either of us had ever carved! All we did was print out the copy of the pattern, tape it to the best side of the pumpkin, puncture dots all around the edges of the design, pull the paper off and carve! Don ingeniously put a nail through the bottom to hold the candle used to enlighten our art work! Wah lah! It is finished!

2006 Champs!

2006-10-24T20:53:00.000-04:00

Take a look at the 2006 Conference Champions as well as the 2006 Tournament Champions!! We ended our season 10 - 0, finishing first in both the conference and tournament. The girls earned 2 trophies for our trophy case and 2 banners to hang in our gym!

We ended our season playing our rivals and beating them in four games. The first game we lost 15 - 25, then came back to take the next three games in a row: 25 - 21, 26 - 24, and 25 - 20.

Kristen and I had a great time being able to get to know these girls a little more and being able to encourage them in volleyball as well as their spiritual walk. On Friday, after our big victory to seal the undoubted season, Kristen and I discussed just how temporal this world is. Even after just a couple hours after our defeat, we were already feeling as if it was not really as big of a deal as we thought when we were in the midst of the battle. In comparison to eternity, it was just a silly volleyball game; however, it is so refreshing to think that even in this our God can be glorified. Our girls' prayer all season was that they would continue to have a great testimony win or lose. I am so thankful for this spirit and the maturity they demonstrated in keeping the sport in perspective. I truly believe that our God was glorified in these girls actions and attitudes in the ups and downs of the game.

This is our player who received several individual awards for her playing this season. We affectionately call her our "wham bammer". She led our team with 79 kills! (Volleyball Lingo for - Spikes that were unreturnable!) She was awarded "Player of the Year" and "MVP of the Tournament"!!

Again, Congratulations girls!! You made your coach proud!!

Undefeated Lady Lions!

2006-10-16T21:12:00.000-04:00

The Lady Lion Volleyball team just wrapped up their regular season this past Thursday. We ended up being undefeated with a record of 8 - 0! The girls have worked extremely hard this season and I am so proud of them! I am thankful for these group of girls that desire to win for God's glory. We have come against some pretty tough opponants and each time we have come away the victors, these girls desire to thank their God for making it possible. This is what althetics is about - using our abilities to demonstrate Christ-likeness. It has been such a joy to coach them and I am anticipating this week when we enter the tournament for our conference! We are praying that God would give us the victory, but despite the outcome that our choice would be to use the win or loss for Him!

A Long Time Comin'

2006-10-14T20:26:00.000-04:00

Twenty-Two looonnngggg years ago (when I was just a wee little five year old), the Detroit Tigers were a World Championship Baseball Team. But, for the past several years the memory has been severely overshadowed. That was until a three run shot in the bottom of the ninth inning placed the finishing touch on an Oakland sweep and put the good ole' city of DETROIT, MI right back into the 2006 World Series. Now, the Tigers have once again made all of us Michiganders feel like that little five-year-old that I remember. So, whether from near or far (Chesapeake, Va) we're cheering hard . . . "Let's Go 'D'etroit!!!"

The Neptune Festival

2006-10-14T18:13:00.000-04:00

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

We had the joy of spending a lovely evening with T.J. and Shannon Logsdon as we headed to the annual Neptune Festival. The festival commemorates the tourist giving our beach back! The celebration includes yummy food, live music, arts and crafts, amazing sandsculpting competition, volleyball/wrestling/surfing tournament, and fireworks. Last year, Don and I went with the Thomas' and attempted to see the sandsculpting and we walked for 25 blocks or so and still no sign of the castles. We ended up just sitting on the beach in time to watch the fireworks. Now, being experienced Neptune Festival goers, we asked around to see where the sculpters were. We found them with ease this year and were amazed at the artwork! We raced down the rest of the boardwalk to get some ice cream and to see the world record sandsculpture at 31st Street. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, it was too dark to get a great picture. However, we did get one in front of the sign!!

Church Family Campout

2006-10-14T17:36:00.000-04:00

A couple weekends ago, our church family put together a weekend to go camping. The Wink's family did most of the planning and invited us to join them at a nearby Naval Base where they have a camping area for large groups. The site contained our own bath house, pavilion, grills, pond, beautiful view of the river, hiking trails, and firing squad!! Yes, I said Firing Squad. Since we were on a military base, there was a training exercise right next our camp site. They were so close we could hear the commanding officer giving their orders! Don was able to take that weekend off, but as you can tell by the photo, his schooling still called. Actually, Don was really good about balancing his time of playing and school. It was a great time to get to know one another more and learn some new family games! Thanks again Winks Family!

Labor Day Picnic

2006-10-14T15:53:00.000-04:00

Labor Day weekend Don and I invited a few couples over for a picnic, play, and party before the actual semester got underway. We had the typical hot dogs and all the fixings. Don was eager to try out his new backyard game - Lawn Golf - built by Handiman Don. The guys had a lot of fun with it. We also had a couples Bocce Ball Tournament, made more difficult by our VERY uneven backyard. Godiva had a great time with Esther; especially cleaning off her very tasty face! Thanks again for all the fun Stephen and Shannon, T.J. and Shannon, and Stephen and Sarah.

The Bookworm

2006-09-26T19:11:00.000-04:00

Hey everybody, I thought I would take a break to come up for air and say "Hello!"
-- Don (a.k.a. seminary student)

Lady Lions!

2006-09-24T21:48:00.000-04:00

I have had the joy of coaching the ladies volleyball team at my school for the past three years. The first year I was entrusted with the JJV girls and the past two years I have coached the Varsity Girls. We are in mid-season right now and I am pleased to announced that we are 3 - 0. Our girls have been working very hard and recently defeated our rival school with close match scores of 25-17, 25 - 22, 16 - 25, 25 - 20. We will be seeing them one more time in our regular season and again in the final tournament. Last year, we were defeated by them in both regular season games and beat them in the final tournament, putting us in 2nd place in our conference. This year the first place team is no longer a part of our conference and for the first time in our history of volleyball, we have an opportunity to take first place. I am excited and nervous for our girls because they feel the pressure as well. God has given us such a unity in Christ that I am so thankful for and the girls are continually teaching me through their love and example on the court. It is a busy couple months, but so worth it! Please pray that I would continue to make wise choices and that Christ would be evidenced in me to these girls.

I have also had the privledge of coaching with Kristen Varner the last two years. She has been such a help and joy to work with. We work so well together and I appreciate her willingness to submit herself to my leadership even though she has more experience with volleyball than I do. Thanks Kristen, you're the best!

Hopefully, I'll be showing a picture of our team in a few weeks with us holding the trophy! Go Lady Lions!

Go Blue!!

2006-09-20T20:53:00.000-04:00

Here's props to the home team! With a 47-21 victory over the #2 team in the country, the Wolverines demonlished those "Fighting" Irish in South Bend. Way to make those maize and blue fans all over the country proud of those Wolverine stripes! Good luck against Wisconsin this week! Let's Go Blue!

Tropical Storm Ernesto

2006-09-03T19:12:00.000-04:00

The local paper, The Virginian Pilot, claims that our area had more than 10 inches of rain dumped on us on Friday. We, living in a flood zone, have the privilege of seeing this effect up close and personal. The following pictures are a testimony of Ernesto's impact in our front yard.

As you can see, that is our road with several inches of water on top of it. The highest it got, was to the top of our first step, meaning about 10 - 11 inches in the road. We were hoping (for blogging sake) that someone would stall out in front of our house, but everyone made it through. Some made it through several times creating a wake to our house and over the bank of my new flower bed.(grr!) I thought of my brother Shane, who would have completely forget the homes he was splashing water into for the sake of getting a high out of putting his truck through some water. (sorry, Shane, but you know it's true!)
This is our backyard under water. This does not flood as fast as the front, but still gets real damp!

True Story: Katrina goes to front door to look at the mayhem in the street. She notices man carrying all kinds of groceries and such and walking through almost knee-high water. Katrina thinks to herself "What a poor, miserable looking man! AND what a terrible wife he must have to make this man go out in this weather for just a few groceries". Then Katrina laughs out loud as she runs for the camera and the lightbulb goes off - that is her husband coming home from seminary! He stopped by the store on the way home because he knew we needed milk and some other goods and knew we would not be going back out in this weather! What a guy! Don had to park one block back where the flooding was much less and did not know if the car would have made it through the water without stalling.

This was Godiva's perch all day. She would watch car after car attempt to ford the flood waters. I did not have room for the drown-dog picture of her from when she had to go potty. It was pathetic looking!

You've seen it on TV, you've watched them on the news, we've had them in our front yard! Yes! This is a canoer taking his son for a little ride on the floodwaters after the storm. Funny and entertaining! Overall, it was a nice day at home! God spared us from any damage from the water and it was entertaining as well! Hope you enjoyed our little adventure with Ernesto!

Don's Birthday Celebration

2006-08-15T19:30:00.000-04:00

On the 5th of this month, Don turned the big 2-7. We did not have much planned, but we attempted going to priceline.com and placing a bid on hotel room in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, or Portsmouth. We got a nice room in the Norfolk Sheraton overlooking the skyline and the harbor. It was great! We are also attempting to go do the sight seeing thing for the area before we move to our next location. So we ended up going to see the Battleship Wisconsin which is docked in Norfolk and go through the Nautilus Museum. We had a great time celebrating Don's B-Day! Here are a few pics to show the excitement which was had!!

New Bloggers

2006-08-12T10:15:00.000-04:00

Ben and Carissa Smith were in town this last weekend and we have conviced them that blogging is so much fun. Carissa is now hooked and will be showing off some pictures of that cute new baby, Luke. Go check them out and give them some encouraging comments! You can find them in our list of contacts or go to thesmith-sonian.blogspot.com. (I am still learning, so I don't have a link right here in the post. If you know how, please extend your knowledge to me!)

Shane & Patty Carnes - The Newlyweds

2006-08-09T14:17:00.002-04:00

This will be my final post from our vacation to Michigan. Part of the reason we went to Michigan for our vacation was to take part in my brother's wedding. The Lord really worked out that whole situation. I had told my Mom a while back that we were probably going to come camping in MI for our vacation this year, and the week of July 22nd we'll be home (just so she can take a few days off work to spend with her much missed daughter - tee hee!). Then my brother announced his engagement and was discussing with my Mom when the special day was going to be. He said the day they were leaning most toward was the 22nd of July! Mom explained how we were planning on coming up already for that week, and Shane and Patty finished discussing any other dates! Well, without further ado, here are a few pictures of their happy day! (For those of you at our wedding, car look familiar - yup, yup, yup, same car!!)

Don's Excellent Adventure on the Great Lake

2006-08-03T10:58:00.000-04:00

On our last night in my hometown of Muskegon, Don got a chance to go King Salmon fishing with my step-dad, Doug. They headed out between 5 or 6 in the evening. He was so excited, but a little nervous because his last experience ended with him depositing some of his stomach contents into Lake Michigan. I must add that this is not the norm; however, he had drank some coffee (which he is not too fond of) and that was all that he had in his tummy that morning. Mom, knowing the past experience, gave him some motion sickness medicine and some leftovers before he left.

As you can see, his trip was worth while. He was able to reel in one big one. I guess, he lost a few as well. One, jumped out of the water and shook the hook from his mouth. Another, swam under the boat and broke off the down-rigger and got off. I asked Don after the Excellent Adventure if he had gotten sick at all. He said the water was much calmer and the fishing action started five minutes after the hooks hit the water - there was no time to get sick.

Doug was also was able to land one. My brother-in-law, Ed, was also on the boat driving or giving advise or just being a good monitor of all the action.

Here are the mighty fishermen as they came back with their catch. This will be Don's birthday meal! Salmon on the grill. Yum, yum! Thanks so much, Doug for the great time with Don and for the good eatin' fish!

Our Excellent Adventure on South Manitou Island

2006-08-02T18:29:00.000-04:00

You can pretty much see for yourself in the slide show what we were able to see on the island, but for the more in depth woes and excitement continue to read!!

We began the morning by being awoke in our pop-up trailer to the sound of rain at 2:00 in the morning. We continued to be wakened all through the early morning hours with the soft and then loud beating of rain until 7 when the alarm sounded. Now, keep in mind that we had already made our reservation for the ferry boat the previous day and the island is for the most part barren of any modern convinces (bathrooms or shelters). However, when we asked the workers whether rain would be a factor in our adventure - they assured us that it never rains or snows on the island (which we found out later is pretty close to truth). We stepped out into the pouring rain with hopes that our day would not be a wash (hardy har har!).

When we finally reached the Leland Harbor, they warned us that the Lake was quite rough this morning. So, we prepared our stomachs with orange juice and pop-tarts! We made the hour and a half boat trip to the island with no problems except for the periodic splash from the bow of the boat sinking into the rough seas and bringing the water back into the cabin.

Upon our arrival to the island the skies seemed to part and the day was perfect for hiking!! Praise the Lord!

We decided that we were going to make the 3.5 mile hike to see the shipwreck and then continue along the trail to see the "Valley of the Giants", finally race back the same trail to catch the lighthouse tour. The shipwreck was awesome! If you did not patiently wait and see the photos of that, go back to the slide show and look for it. If you ever go to the Island - it's a definite do - 6 thumbs up (Both Don, Katrina, and Dad's). The "Valley of the Giants" is a group of cedar trees found on the island. That's about all you need to know and you've experienced what we did - Definite DO NOT DO! We then hussled back the 4 miles (took a detour to check out a rustic campground we are interested in staying at if we ever come back). We were all but running to catch the last tour of the lighthouse at 3:30. Arrived at 3:20!! Plenty of time, Right? Wrong! The sign was misprinted and the last tour must have left at 3:15 or earlier! Boo! A sad ending to a fairly eventful day!

Some advise to those of you interested in visiting the island. One was already given - do not hike back to see the cedars. Do see the shipwreck. Possibly plan on more than just one day there - meaning stay on the island at the campground and see some of the settlements found on the island. When traveling on the boat, you arrive at 11ish and can only stay until 4 to catch the boat trip back - not leaving you much time to hike all the places and see all the sights. Too much to see - too little time!

All this said, we would rate this as one of our best adventures on our vacation! The Lord provided such beautiful weather and really only rained at night and the days were just perfect for hiking and enjoying the great Michigan Outdoors!

The Weary-Worn Travelers

2006-07-31T22:36:00.000-04:00

I Know . . . I know! Some bloggers we're starting out to be. It's been nearly 20 days since our last post. But wait . . . we really do have a valid excuse. We have been on vacation - witnessing Shane and Patty (Katrina's brother) tie the knot and soaking up the beautiful coastline of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park in Northern Michigan. Then upon our arrival back home it seemed like the karma between us and the electronic world had gone arye. First our DVD player began to malfunction right in the middle of "The Emperor's New Groove" (Katrina's favorite movie) "GASP!", then we noticing a hissing sound coming from the washing machine (we were afraid to open the door because Don had just replaced the water heater before vacation), but it held up well it was a mere pressure leak in the hot water hose behind the washing machine - a good hard wrenching took care of the problem. Finally, as we sat down to share with the world about our adventures, both the desktop and the laptop computers began repeating the horrific phrase . . . "Server Not Responding!!!!!!" We finally decided to give up for the day understanding how devastated our adoring fans would be that they have to wait yet another day to hear from us.

Now it is nearly 11 PM on the following day and we have finally got things up and running properly. So before we call it a night we just wanted to send a great big "HELLO" from your weary-worn travelers.

* Coming soon . . . . . . . the pics from Don and Katrina's Excellent Adventure. "Rock On!"

Our Family's Best Friend

2006-07-11T21:37:00.000-04:00

Godiva is our one-year old chocolate lab mix who serves the role of "child" right now. We got her when she was only 8 weeks old and has been a joy and pain all wrapped up in one. We were not quite ready for the huge responisibility of having a real child, so we started out with her. She has been great to have when Don is out late due to work and she is a comic relief in many instances. She also has been good for us to practice our "parental roles" by being consistant and working on our discipline together. In the future, we will try to keep our "Godiva stories" to a minimum; however, for all those dog-lovers out there, we might bust out the baby pictures soon!

Inaugural Post

2006-07-10T16:18:00.001-04:00

Wah! Hoo! Yippee! Hooray! We finally made it into the world of blogging . . . Oh! Hello out there. Welcome to Don & Katrina's humble little spot on the worldwide web. It's taken quite some time for us to get here, but nevertheless . . . here we are. We must dedicate this site to the Baylor's, Thomas', and the Conley's (who helped us to realize the vast, untouched potential that lay within our reach -- without ever having to leave the couch = ), as well as to all those whom we love and who will actually take the time to read our blog.

Being that this is the first post, we will keep it short and sweet and make sure this is actually working properly. But, in case it does . . . here is a picture of us saying "Hello & Welcome."