Christmas 08

Hi everyone,

It is hard to believe that Chrismas is once again here. We have had our fair share of snow and cold. It is hard on those of us who have been spoiled going down south. We are expecting even more snow this evening. It never reached zero today.

Yesterday was awesome for Charlotte and I. Our kids were involved in the music and skit at church. The morning service featured a typical nativity kids skit. Our 3 little ones were so cute and well behaved. Rosa was Mary, and at age 2.5 anything is possible. She behaved perfectly and even tried to sing "Go tell it on the mountain" It was too cute!

Brian, Joshua, and Samuel played in the worship band. It was a nice time.

We are getting close to finishing Nathan and Amanda's house, today we installed the kitchen cabinets.

Thanks for checking in, we will post a bunch of pics soon.

Remember to keep Christ in your Christmas, He is the reason we celebrate this season!

In Christ,

The Haines family

Back to work at home

Hi everyone,

Sorry for not updating for a while.

We have returned safely home. Our trip to Lake Ozark, MO was nice. It is a tourist area, but we were in the off season. It was amazing how completely shut down the area was. We were blessed by a very nice mechanic shop who helped us with our vehicle issues. They were competent and honest. Our van ran perfect all the way home.

We returned Friday evening about 10:00 P.M. On Saturday Brian sprayed primer at Nathan and Amanda's. On Saturday evening we had worship band practice, as Brian, Nicholas, Joshua, and Samuel were all involved on Sunday.

We are working hard on Nathan and Amanda's house. We are finished with the drywall and spraying of texture, primer, and ceiling paint. We have most of the hardwood floor in and most of the windows are trimmed.

Tomorrow, we close on a house we are purchasing in Abbotsford. It will be rented to Pastor John and Rosangela, and family, our Brazilian missionary family.

We have received commitment from our church regarding remodeling. Brian will be a contractor involved in the updating of our new building. He will be doing the bathrooms and entrance and perhaps more. This commitment will delay our return to Mississippi for a while. We still plan to return there after the work is complete.

This Sunday will be a bit interesting, we will be playing three different music sets, 2 at Colby Sunday morning and a joint service at Abbotsford at 5:30. If you are interested in attending, contact us.

Thanks for checking in, we love hearing from each of you.

In Christ

The Haines Family

Ha Ha Tonka State Park

Hi everyone,

We made it to Lake Ozark, MO Friday evening.

It has been refreshing getting away. Today was particularly enjoyable. We had very nice weather, with the day highs in the 50's and tonights low is 48. We went to a Missouri State Park called Ha Ha Tonka State Park. It was a great outing, it featured a castle ruin, a huge spring fed stream, great hiking and a huge natural bridge.

The weather will take a turn for the worse by tomorrow.

We have our 22 year old van on the trip, we had a bit of trouble with it running poorly. The area is mountainous, so it was not a good situation. We were able to do some tune up basics on Saturday and had it looked at by a mechanic on Saturday, but on Monday the same mechanic worked on it again. It turns out that we probably got some bad gas. We cleaned the carburator and it corrected our problem. The van ran fine on most of the trip down before the difficulties began.

We are staying at a very nice resort. We have a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom condo. The unit has lakeside view and is situated on a steep hill. There are 44,ooo boat docks in the area. It is a slow time of the year, obviously, but the benefit to us is no crowding. We enjoyed the pool and hot tub yesterday, and had the place to ourselves.

We do not have many crazy plans for the week, mostly to enjoy the time as a family. Last evening we watched the movie "Winter Wonderland" in the resort's own theatre. We enjoy showing the kids about the past times when life was a little more simple.

We just wanted to touch base, hope all is well with each of you.

In Christ,

The Haines family