Does this need words? Yes, Creatively Silly

 

Things that are worth it...

Currently,

1. Training Katie that blanket time which is now room time is good and necessary.

2. A good cup of coffee, 1/2 decaf, 1/2 caff.

3. Menu planning. I SO need to get back into this, but it makes meal time non stressful. I just ordered Living Cookbook and I think this will help!

4. Playing outside with the water hose.

5. Craigs list, especially to sell things.

6. Online shopping-I don't mind doing a few errands with Katie and like yesterday she was terrific as I did my "to do" list, but if I can avoid getting her in and out of the car by using Amazon or other sites....it is worth it!

7. Doing one chore a day. For me that is the only way to keep up!

8. Dates with Katie every month and dates with Justin every other week (hopefully every week at some point in our life :)

9. Other moms to talk with on a daily bases. This keeps me focused on what is most important because it is breath of fresh air with adult conversations. It gives me energy to stay at what the Lord has called me to.

10. Listening to Katie share about her day! She TALKS all day long!

11. Playing with Katie and having tea parties, singing Ring Around the Rosie, or dancing to the Symphony.

12. Having my quiet time each day. I don't want to live on crumbs from Sundays or other peoples relationship with Jesus. I need this daily!

Mr. and Mrs. Seago

 
 
 
 


Yeah! We had the blessing of seeing one of "our" college girls a last week or so ago. John and Brandy were in town on a short visit, coming from a conference they attended in DC. It was a TREAT!

This couple is so precious to us and we are So excited to see what the Lord does in their lives. John and Brandy are also expecting their first miracle in March!! Brandy are you over your morning sickness?? Oh I hope so!

But you two are wonderful. WE LOVED CATCHING UP AND TALKING ABOUT PARENTING! We WILL see you again. We don't know when, but sometime we will!

Thanks for taking the time to stay with us and for loving on Katie too. Miss ya, but go TX! :)

Love the 4 Himes

Dear Nana..while we were on the phone...

Nana-Enjoy watching Katie talk to you. :) This is what we saw as you were talking to her on the phone yesterday. It was quite cute.
See ya soon!

Click on the album to watch it play. Sorry it is a bit distorted...I can't figure out how to change that.

Thanks Nana and Papa

 
 

Katie received a package in the mail from Nana and Papa on Wednesday and she was EXCITED!
She was blessed with two new shirts and shorts, a box of hop hops (cheddar bunnies), two tootsie roll suckers, bracelets and new PJ's.
She was uber excited to show everything to anyone in the house and has worn her PJ's every night so far.
Here she is sporting them!
Then there were two very adorable outfits for the little guy. This is one of my favorite clothing items yet for him. I can't believe he will be here in Oct and then wearing this next spring!
Thanks Nana and Papa, it was a huge treat!

Oh and when telling Justin about her suckers this is her pronouncement said with HUGE eyes and her mouth in an O shape. "Daddy, Nana sent me two suck-poppers!" :)

A date with Momma

 
 
 
 


Justin and I have committed to taking our kids on dates throughout the years. Yesterday was my turn and Katie and I went to all her favorite places (minus the pet store :).

We did some grocery shopping in a little cart ending with a free balloon. *See the little pink ball in the cart? That was an extra special treat...$0.50 at Harris Tetter, end of the summer deal!

We went to the park to play with the ball, sliding, climbing and riding the rocking lion.

We got new books from the library, and received a "deleting of our book fines" because I filled out a survey. I am determined to have no more fines since I received this free break!

We split a wild berry smoothie at Wake Forest Coffee Company and read our new books.

We went home for lunch, peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

What a morning!

Love you Katie! Love, your Momma

Our new appliance for $93!

 

Story...
We purchased a new refrigerator last May. It was a LG, side by side. Bought it at Sears and received a great price during a Memorial Day sale. They delivered it and I was so excited not to have the small apt size one we had been using, but this huge 27 cubic feet one. But things went down hill from there.

Over the course of this past year we have had the service people out here 5 times! They replaced 4 parts and it never seemed to work right. It either would freeze the damper door shut between the freezer and frig. causing the frig to become very warm spoiling everything. Or it would freeze the damper door open and therefore freeze all our refrigerator stuff. When we returned from FL this past July it was frozen open and everything was frozen solid. Agggg! I pulled out all our warrenty papers and called Sears, again.

At Sears they informed me our refrigerator was 53 days over the warrenty and there was NOTHING they could do. I did some research and learned that if an appliance is fixed for the same problem 4-6 times in a year it can be replaced. I called Sears back, but not give in and they would not agree.

Frustration at this point was coursing through my veins...We have had SO many issues with this frig and now that the SAME thing has happened again (4 times in one year) there was nothing they could do?! I prayed about what to do--fix it through Sears for about $200+, throw it away, call a separate repair guy to get their opinion-which I did and who told me that they can't get LG parts and he couldn't do anything either--it seemed we were stuck with a lemon.

I then called back to talk to two different managers where Sears finally begrudgingly decided they could give me a voucher that let me have one free service repair (them paying for the service, us paying for the parts) to fix it again. ...And then if I wanted, when it was fixed, I could purchase a $250 warrenty against future problems. I talked to Justin and we decided this was the only option that we could do without just throwing the frig. out and replace it with a brand new one, losing $1000 in the process.

A week went by and the service tech finally came out. He was about 2 hours late and that made me even more frustrated at the service Sears provides. He came in and did a thorough job looking at it and asking me about everything that had been done in the past year. I was very specific, had all my dates and parts lined up and told him everything that had been going on. He then proceeded to say he needed to go to his truck. ...I was all the while wondering what could possibly take him so long. Finally he came in, 20 minutes later and said Sears will be calling in a minute or so to bring us a replacement! OH MY GOODNESS! I was super excited. After all this time and all the headache of trying to have them send a replacement/fix it God used this repair man to get us a new frig. I then asked if he was a Christian, he said he, "thinks there is a good higher power". I told him I had been praying about what could be done and that God has used him to answer our prayer! Then I offered him some cookies...he took 5! :)

I talked on the phone to Sears Customer Solutions for 30 minutes and instead of them replacing this model they would give us our choice of a new one or the same model-just a working one. YEAH! But it got even better. They said that they would call me back in about 4 hours with a credit of what I would have to spend. When they called back I was floored...our credit was for $1700! That is $700 more then what we spent of the broken LG!

All in all with this credit we were able to spend another $93 and upgrade to a Whirlpool Gold bottom freezer with GREAT reviews and a recommendation from Consumer Reports. We are hopeful and so THANKFUL for what the Lord has done. Moral of the story. God works is ways that we can't even imagine. Many times he blessed us beyond what we deserved. And I can say that so far I LOVE THIS FRIG.

More beaching it with the Steins

A few more photos from our time at Wrightsville with my family.
The first photo is of me at 28/29 weeks prego. Yes, my bathing suit is riding up a bit!
The last photo is of the DELICIOUS Spanish Marcel that my brother, brother in law and dad caught on their morning deep sea fishing. They had a local restaurant prepare it for us all these different ways. I have to say it was by far the best fish I had had in a long time.

 
 
 
 

My friend...a highlight to look forward to each week

 
 
 
 

Katie and Laney each have other friends that they Love to play with. But when these two are together, well, it is never dull. I hope and pray as they grow up they have deep friendships over their lifetime like they do now at two years old with each other!

The beach and the Steins

We had the blessing of having my family out here this past week. Everyone was able to come-- Aunt Pie and Uncle Dustin (on the shore), Uncle Tommy and Ms. Julie (in the chairs) Mimi and Grandpa. :) We went to the beach for two days at Wrightsville and then hung around here.--The only unfortunate thing was that Justin didn't get anytime for a vacation. As Katie says, "It is a bummer"! :(
But overall we had beds for everyone, plenty of good hang out time, yummy seafood and belly rolling laughs over the game "Beyond Balderdash".

Oh and I even talked Mimi, Aunt Pie and Melissa into picking blueberries with me. Yeah! Thanks girls!

Dear Steins/Herrs/Ms. Julie,

We had a terrific time and are SO thankful you made the trip. Katie loved everyone and she went full force the entire time bouncing between playmates. See everyone soon in Oct!

Love, the Himes