Last day of winter (for us)

Hi everyone,

We had a great day of travel. We had some challenges. We had an unusual phonomena of freezing fog this morning. It left beautiful frost on the trees, but unfortunately we experienced some very slippery roads. In fact, near Wausau, Wi. this morning we saw 3 vehicles in the ditch in 2 miles. We also experienced a snowstorm in Illinois. We experienced strong wind gusts near St. Louis.


After driving through the St. Louis area, we drove completely out of the snow and below freezing weather.

We spent the night in Perriville MO. This was our planned rest stop. Most of us enjoyed the pool. We are on schedule and made the goal of 625 miles today. We plan to arrive at our destination by 6:00 P.M. tomorrow evening.

God bless each of you who takes the time to check on our blog.

In Christ

The Haines family

A nasty snowstorm

LET IT SNOW...

LET IT SNOW....

AND LET IT SNOW !!!

Hi everyone

As we write this blog this Sunday afternoon, we have received another 12 inches of snow in the last 24 hours. It has been accompanied by 30-40 mph winds. Our temps are low as well. Wind chill temps are below zero. It takes a lot to stop life in Central WI, but this storm has us paralyzed. The worst aspect of the situation is the blowing snow which caused total white out conditions. It is very dangerous to travel when it is this messy.

We did decide to cancel our Colby service today. I think it was a good idea.

We had an exciting week at work. Brian subcontracted to a large construction company to help frame up a 60 unit assisted living center 1.5 miles from our home. It is a panelized wood frame building. It is amazing what can be accomplished with a crew of approximately 10 guys, a couple of Pettibone lifts, a crane and a bunch of nail guns.

Brian took one of the boys each day, they hired us as a 2 man team. They assigned us to build interior rooms. We were able to build 20 interior units. Brian and Nicholas crawled trusses on Tuesday and tied the trusses together with 2x4 perlines. This work was about 30 feet in the air and we had frost and ice to deal with. On Friday, Brian and Nicholas were assigned to frame 2
interior rooms. After this was completed, they installed 36 large windows in 6 hours.

Joshua and Samuel helped frame rooms. Needless to say we were exhausted each evening.

Brian had the opportunity to meet the owner and general contractor. He also met the owner of the framing company. They have all been very nice and took a bit of time to visit in the midst of all the action. This center is a duplicate of one they opened in Wisconsin Rapids recently. He showed pictures and pointed out the advantages of his unit. The Center will be upscale and impresive. There are huge commons areas with high vaulted ceilings, fireplaces, even a baby grand piano will be included. We are excited that this facility will provide some jobs and a reason for some people to travel to our community.

We did have fair weather last week, but we will return to a serious mess tomorrow with the snow.

We have decided on the logistics of our return to Mississippi. We will travel New Years Eve day and arrive in Biloxi on New Years Day. We will stay at the camp that CCLA has set up. They have dedicated a portion of the facility to accomodate relief volunteers. They have a R.V. park set up right behind the church. It will work out real well for several reasons. We will partner with them and the things they are doing. The kids will be able to participate in many of the activities that go on there. The little ones will be able to play on a playground. They are also located near an on ramp to the freeway. The older kids will probably sleep in the dorms rather than tents.

One of the reasons we decided to go with this plan is that the large kitchen our family parnered with last year is shut down. This will give our family tons of opportunity to serve as Brian works.

Our Chrismas plans are simple. We will have our Christmas eve service on the 24th, we described the details in the last entry. We will get together with direct family and that is pretty much it.

In Christ

The Haines family

Sledding, Shoveling and Waterslides

Hi everyone,

Well, Brrrr pretty much sums up life in WI lately. We received a solid blanket of snow and it looks like it will be sticking around a bit. We have approximely 12 inches of snow. The kids have enjoyed playing in real snow. In fact, as we write this blog, Brian, Andrew, Ethan and Rosa just returned from our city sledding hill. It was fun. The kids also discovered that their backyard slide works well for a sled launch.

We did manage to finish the roof in Riplinger. We had to tarp the roof and shovel the snow 2 times. As we mentioned last time, Brian has had his fill of winter with the cold and the snow.

We pulled out the roof jacks and moved off this job on Monday.

The next couple of weeks will be spent helping frame up a 60 unit assisted living center in Colby only 1.5miles from our home. The framing contractor needed some more carpentry subcontractors. In addition to the weather being hard, their company had a couple of their guys hurt in a head on car crash. I suspect they may be a bit behind schedule.

Brian did another ceramic tile tub wall this week. Work included replacing the plumbing, replacing the drywall with cement board and the tile. It turned out very nice.

We set up our Christmas tree last weekend. We do not get over serious about decorating the house much other than the tree.

This past Friday evening our family decided to do a mini vacation and take our first visit to a nearby indoor water park. We spent the night and let the kids stay up very late and then we played hard all Saturday. We actually wore them all out and they were happy to return home.

Once again we had an exciting week at the Church. We had our highest attendance so far this morning with 96 in attendance. We did a music set of Christmas music and had a mini children's performance which was a teaser for our Christmas eve service. On Christmas Eve, we will meet at the Methodist Church for our service. It is at 2 P.M. and you are all invited. The Silva family, which is our new Hispanic pastor family are awesome. Their son Ricardo joined our worship band. He is a very skilled guitarist, bass player and keyboard player. He is a specific answer to prayer as he will be capable of facilitating the worship band in our absence. We had the Silva family join us today for a noon meal.

We have tentative plans to return to MS on New Years Eve day. We will take two days and make it to our destination on New Years day. We will probably do detail finishing for Joan, the last project we did in June. When I spoke to Joan, she was using her A/C as it was still warm.

We do not know what we will be doing but God does and we are trusting for all things to work out.

For those of you in MS, we look forward to seeing you.

In Christ

The Haines Family

Wanna shovel some snow?

Hi everyone,

 We had a productive week working on the Riplinger house. As of Friday we had all of the roofing removed, loaded in the dumpster and all plywood, felt paper and edging installed. We have roof jacks and 2x6 lumber installed.  All of the roofing is on the roof  jacks and about 30% of the roofing is installed. It was a 
brutally cold week with cold temps and 20-30 mph winds most days. The boys worked hard and
we are grateful to them.

We had a forecast for a winter storm on Sat. so we covered the roof with large tarps.  Thankfully we did this.

On Saturday we received our first significant winter storm with approx. 8 inches of snow followed up with some sleet and icing.

We spent some time digging out from the snow as did everyone else. We suspect the snow will stay as temps have been cold and the ground is frozen.

We had an awesome Sunday at church. We had two first time visitors at church including a young lady and her children. We have been praying and trusting God to reach her for over 1.5 years. We have been reaching into her life and helping her on a regular basis. Join us in praying for her, her children and her husband. They need our prayer and our help.

It is official that our church has now launched a hispanic ministry. We have added Pastor John Silva and his family on staff. They have moved to Colby this week. We are thrilled to see this happen as literally thousands of Mexicans have located here in recent years and the great majority of them are unchurched. They will be open to a hispanic pastor as they can relate to him.  We are also excited that their son is a capable worship leader and will be a great help in our absence this winter.

We just wanted to touch base, keep in touch.

The Haines family

The Riplinger Roof

Hi everyone

We thought you would enjoy these pictures. When Charlotte shot these pictures it was 12 degrees with a 20 MPH wind.

Enjoy.

The Haines family.

We give thanks

Hi everyone,

Wow it has been 2 weeks since we updated. The last couple of weeks have been stuffed with activity.

We were able to complete the project in Unity. We worked for a really nice family and really enjoyed the whole process.

We have started a difficult project as of Friday. In 1990 we bought a house 10 miles away at Riplinger in the Town of Unity. This is the house that Charlotte's parents and sisters lived in for about 12 years. The house had a poor roof then already. We have not been able to replace it yet
(had to use that word Susan). Our renters Dean and Martha have reported to us lately that it finally has started to leak. They have had to use buckets on a couple of occasions.

This house has one of those steep 4 sided hip roofs. It has a dormer in the front. It's pitch is 12/12 which is steeper than our house. For those of you who know, our house is a 10/12 pitch.

On Friday we were able to tear off and prepare the first side and start the second side.
Nicholas, Joshua and Samuel were all in the activity. We are praying for safety and good weather. Yes, we are working safely and using safety precautions. We will do other projects when the weather turns bad.

We have been working very hard improving the worship band. This Sunday we played some difficult songs including 3 awesome songs we brought home from the church we attend in Mississippi. The congregation has been supportive and appreciates the effort. It is amazing how Joshua and Samuel are improving every week. I invite each of you to come and see for yourself.
Nicholas is in the action as well, he is helping with the sound and computer work. Our regular sound and computer people were out for hunting these last 2 weeks and his help was valuable.

We have an interesting situation with this family band. It seems as we have grown working together over the last number of years, we have an offer to record a CD from a friend from our old church. Steve makes his living providing recording services in a studio he owns in Marshfield. He has offered us to record this work at 10% of his normal fee to bless us as his friends. We are considering and praying about this opportunity. We would want to do this before we leave for MS and before Peggy leaves for CA.

We have had a lot of time with Charlotte's side of the family over the last week. We were all able to be together for Thanksgiving . Becky came down from Duluth from Wed through Sunday and stayed with Nathan and Amanda. Michael flew here from Bakersfield, CA and stayed in our home from Thursday through Sunday. We are excited to get to know him better and all enjoy him.

We decided as family to participate with the community Thanksgiving dinner. It truly was an awesome time as we partnered with our local VFW, Chamber of Commerce, and Smith Brothers Catering. Our whole family along
with Peggy and Michael,
 Nathan and Amanda, and Becky served meals to those who came. 
 Our group was 13 volunteers and we know that we made a big difference. People who were in need or lonely came to this event. 
What a blessing to serve those whom Christ loves. I think it helped make it our best Thanksgiving ever. We were able to serve almost 100 people. It is so true that it is more blessed to give than to receive!

Nathan and Amanda are so excited as Nathan has landed a first shift job at Welcome Dairy in their Lab. Nathan and Amanda both worked third shift at Marathon Cheese for the extra dollars to pay for their wedding. They will now enjoy a more "normal" life.

We wanted to share a profound thought we picked up from a Point of Grace song that applies this Thanksgiving. A key to happiness and joy is to have what you want, but want what you have. We encourage each of you to be thankful for all the blessings we take for granted.
Remember, all of us in America, even the poorest among us are actually in the very top percentage on the wealthiest people who have ever lived on this planet. The scripture reminds us that to whom much is given, much is required. Praise God for his goodness!!

The latest update regarding us going to Mississippi is the same. We plan on spending Jan, Feb, and March in the Katrina disaster. After finishing the roof project, We will have had a great plenty of winter.

This past Wednesday night Amanda and Brian had the honor of providing music for a most sad occasion. A friend of Amanda's named Allison and her boyfriend both lost their lives in a vehicle accident in Upper Michigan. Allison is from Colby and in fact her family lived 2 houses from us when we first moved to our house in 1987. We did the funeral service at the funeral home in Abbotsford with Pastor Mark from Zion Lutheran in Colby. It was an awesome time and our prayers continue to go out to these families.

We did find some time to have a bit of fun together. On Saturday, We went bowling. We will not share the scores, but we did have fun and plenty of gutter balls. On Saturday evening, we went to a large light display in Marshfield sponsored by their Rotary Club. If you have not seen this display, please do. It is very nice. It is at Wildwood Park.

We are introducing Charlotte's parents to the world of E-mail and blogs so they can keep up with all of you knowing what is going on and staing in touch in this busy world. With Peggy also leaving town, 3 of the 4 girls will be out of town at times.

Keep in touch.

The Haines Family

November Update

Hi everyone,

It has been a week since we updated you.  It has been a busy but relatively ordinary week.

Last Sunday afternoon,  we enjoyed the nice weather and did some yard catchup work.
The older kids had youth group Sunday evening. They watched "The Ultimate Gift". Once again we recommend that everyone see this great movie.

We worked on our jobsite project this week. Work included installing and cladding doors and windows and installing cement board siding.

The weather did not cooperate quite so well this week. We had 2 days with temps in the 30's and winds gusting to 45 mph at times. This makes the jobsite less than fun. It has remained mostly cold with lows in the 20's and highs in the 30's or 40's.

Charlotte had a very unusual day of being sick on Thursday but has rebounded nicely.

On Thursday, Brian and Peggy picked up a refrigerator for Peggy's apartment. Her older refrigerator was one of those that needed to be thawed from time to time. I have never seen anything like it, but her freezer would literally completely fill with ice in a short time.
We were able to purchase a very good used one for a good deal.

Saturday was spent doing oil changes and Brian spent 5 hours mowing our 2 largest lawns. Brrrr it was only 36 degrees.
Charlotte and the boys picked up Boy Scout popcorn and did housework catchup.

On Saturday evening, we spent the evening with the Nightmare leadership team for our annual celebration party. It was held at the director's home.

This Sunday morning we once again put together a full worship band. We worked hard on some new and more difficult songs. Once again we had Samuel play bass. He is really learning quickly. He has been a great 
addition to the team.
Next weekend may be a little more difficult as a fair amount of our team will be participating in the Wisconsin holiday known as the gun deer hunting season.

Today, this Sunday we are having a mini birthday party for Rosa. We were in MS when she turned 1. We spent the day with Peggy, Amanda, Nate and Charlotte's parents. My parents were unable to make it as they were in Illinois today. She is actually 1.5 years old now.

Thanks for spending the time to check in.

Contact us anytime.

Harvest party and fall camping

Hi everyone,

We had a busy week (nothing new).

Early in the week we spent time getting ready for our halloween alternative party.  We held this at the Gathering Place. This harvest party gave the children a safe and fun option for halloween.

I am not sure who had more fun, the adults or the kids. Next year we plan on a huge harvest party and partnering with all of the churches in the community.


We are doing a garage remodel in Unity.  Work will include roof, cement board siding, soffit, gutters, leaf caps, windows, overhead doors and openers.

We worked together on tearoff and Brian was able to get the new roofing installed by Thursday afternoon.

 With an unusually nice early November forecast, we decided to go camping at one of our favorite sites, Brunet Island State park at Cornell, WI. We camped from Thursday night to Sat. morning


The weather held up to expectations and we had a real nice time. We did some hiking, had a campfire, and just plain relaxed. It is hard to beat a camping outing with kids.  

On Friday night we watched the movie "The Ultimate Gift". We had seen this movie in MS, but Nicholas won a DVD copy on 89Q. Do not miss this one, it is a GREAT movie.

For those of you watching the Katrina disaster with us, south MS got a huge blessing. The Biloxi Bay bridge was opened from Biloxi to Ocean Springs. This bridge will allow traffic to resume to normal on US 90 which is the primary economic route connecting the entire beach areas.

We returned from camping to participate in a cub scout function which was to a local farm. 
This gave the kids a great opportunity to get personal with the farm life. They got to see cattle, pigs, a horse, chickens, dogs and cats. Our kids love animals.



Samuel recently purchased a bass guitar and amp. Joshua has been telling us that he is playing well. They finally persuaded Brian to work with him. Joshua was right, he has progressed so well that we able to add him to the church band today.
We had a full worship band today. Brian was on guitar, Joshua on drums, Jesse on congas, Duane on keyboard, Samuel on bass. Vocals were provided by Peggy, Amanda A., Lori and Brian. Kevin is doing a great job for us helping with the sound.

We recently received news that Charlotte's sister Peggy will move to California. She is in a relationship with a wonderful guy named Michael. Peggy gave a 4 month notice at her job and plans to move in late February. It is bittersweet for us because we are happy for her but know that we will miss her here. We spend a lot of time together and have always been very close.

The Colby youth group will be raking leaves this afternoon, and we are showing "The Ultimate Gift" tonight.

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog. We do this for you so you can know what is going on in our world. You may share this site with people who would be interested.

Let us know what is going on in your world.

In His Service,
The Haines Family