Whooo! Baby Luke (and his momma) gets to come home today. Right now, we have Daniel visiting with us. Yesterday Jayne was able to play with him and today he can play with Sam, Beth and Bear. We are all excited Mary and Luke can come home and get started on being a new family together. When we saw Scott this morning, the stress was gone. God is Great!

On another front – our house has the carpet in now. We are waiting on a phone call from the builder to see when our closing date is. Doesn’t seem like it will be much longer now. Can’t hardly wait.

Love and Kisses…Tracey

Well, in typical, efficient Mary Ann Style, Luke Emmett Hines is here. Born this morning at about 8:15. She went into labor last night about 1:00 am. Of course, neither Rob nor I had our phones on so we didn’t find out until about noon today. We will go visit later today after mom and dad have had a bit of a rest.

Daniel is with Jayne and I may call her to see if she needs anything. I don’t know anything more about Luke than his name and that he is healthy and so is his mom. Oh, Wait. I also know that his Daddy is awful proud and glad to meet him.

I will post photos and write more later….

Tracey

Hello Everybody! Well we have just received our first report cards for being in North Carolina and it is a wonderful day in the Hines house. Sam and Beth both received all A’s and 1 B each. Both are on the honor roll and both had very nice things said about them from their teachers. I am quite the proud mother.

AND THEN…. Beth won the class spelling bee and participated in her school’s spelling bee this morning. Rob and I were there to see and ta dah….She is the first runner up. It was down to the wire and she and another young lady were head to head and Beth missed the word alfalfa. It makes sense, she has never seen alfalfa in our house…I will try and do better, but Beth is the runner up for representing the school in the County Spelling Bee in March.

I am actually glad she is the runner up seeing as how our house should be ready by March and she won’t attend that school anymore. Yep, we are proud of the blessings we have with our children.

Tracey

Well, it is mid January and the house is coming along at a very quick rate. The girls and I went by and visited today. We have a driveway, we have a walkway, a tree in the front yard, shrubbery. Our dishwasher is in the house – not installed yet, but in the house. All the fixtures are in, lights, outlet covers, lightswitches – yep we have em. As far as I can tell, we are waiting on the stove, the countertops, the downstairs bath is missing a toilet – very important…the garage door, hardwood in the foyer and carpet. Then it needs a really good cleaning and we should be done. Whoooooooooot!

Our lives are coming along nicely too. Work, school and church all just fine. God is good and we love Him.

Talk to you later…

Tracey

Wow, what a DAY! We had a great time at Kate’s Skate Park for Beth’s party. We invited 48 people and had about 15 show up. Beth and all her friends had a blast and there were almost no tears – just a couple from a fall that quickly dried up. Even Rob skated. He was able to help some neighborhood children who didn’t know how to skate and was just a great dad today. We also got some Christmas money from Grandma Betty today that the girls had to go spend at Old Navy. We spent about two hours there and didn’t even spend all our money. The girls now look quite fashionable and the whole family is tired and worn from a very fun day.

Not only did that happen, but we went to the new house today to pick out the wood floor for the foyer and were able to really see the inside. Oh My Gosh, I am so going to enjoy living there. It is so beautiful. The kitchen cabinets are in. The linoleum is in in the bathrooms, laundry room and the kitchen. The doors are in. We are just waiting for fixtures, flooring, driveway and grass and we should be ready. I always say – my prayers are for May, but Bill Woods, our liason for Scenic Homes told us today that it may be as close as five weeks. We could be in our home by the end of February.

I took lots of photos so check out the photos in our photo album. the stone in front and the pillars are new and look great.

Talk to you later, I am going to go take a nap….Tracey

Well, tomorrow is Rob’s 36th birthday. He wants Peace and Quiet, Samantha has declared a day of silence for her Dad’s birthday. We will see how that lasts. He got a new gaming keyboard and accessories that are made just special for one of his games. He is thrilled. Sadly, I bought them today, didn’t wrap them and sat them across from him all day as he played his game. He said the temptation was TERRIBLE. I said, that made for a great gift. I am a horrible wife, glad I have a husband who loves me anyway.

Beth is now 11. Two more years until she is a teenager. I think that curse will hit early for her…we shall see.

My new job is going well. I love that I get to commute with Rob AND we don’t have to pay for parking for him downtown. Both are great bonuses for our family. We have been listening to John Piper sermons in the morning on our drive in and it has been really nice to spend that extra time, in God’s word, with my best guy.

Just so you don’t think we overlooked her, Beth had a friend sleep over last night for her first part of her birthday and then NEXT Saturday, she is having a rollerskating party. We are actually inviting her entire Sunday School class, her entire regular school class and some local hooligans from the neighborhood and some extended family in the area. All in all, we are inviting over 48 friends. We will see who shows up. I think she will have a great time.

So her special present for her 11th is that we are allowing her to shave. Whooooo hooooo. No more long hairy legs for her, now just prickly. I worried about giving Beth a razor, if you don’t know why, you really don’t need to read any of these stories….So, I was in the grocery store, I saw this product called “Veet” it is kind of like a Nair derivative, but you use a “razor-like” product to remove the “Veet” from your legs – all the grown-up feelings of using a razor and none of the stitches. Well, 5:30 Wednesday morning just before I was going to give her her present, I started reading the back of the “Veet” that I was going to give her. WARNING – do not use this product more than once every 48 hours. Do not put in “many places”. Do not get near carpet, water, chlorine, or clothing within 24 hours of use…..hmmmmmmmmm, so you use it and then can’t wash or wear clothes for 24 hours. Nope, not giving that to my 11 year old daughter. So she is still patiently waiting for her new razor. I am still debating on whether or not to go electric. What do I want to go to the emergency room for…..

Bye. Love you all.

Tracey