PFO??

PFO?? --
'Sorry. Daddy and I are confused. What does' PFO mean?

Praying For Othello?
Proud Fathers' Organization?
Paper-Free Onions?
Playing For Ovation?
Poor fellows' Organization?
Pre-Feathered Ostrich?
Pray For Offspring?
Please Feed Ours?

Any more ideas anyone?

PFO

Hey all, just a quick note to let you know that all is going well. About 77 of us here learning all kinds of things. It is a great time. I'll post more later, just letting you know I love you!!

Got the pictures

Hey, Beth! I got copies of the pictures. Thanks for posting them! Love you! Mama

Looking today....

Daddy and I have an appointment with the realtor today at 4:00. We don't expect to find the house we'll buy because the market is moving so fast. Since we haven't gotten our house in Roseburg sold, we really can't make any decisions yet. But we felt that if we start looking, we'll get an idea of the housing in the area, and will better know what we want. So when the time comes to really buy something, we'll know it when we see it. More than that, though, I think it's encouragement for me to know that there is hope that someday I will have a home of my own again.

Daddy leaves tomorrow for his two weeks in Roseburg doing the McMahan's sale security job. I don't know what I'll do with myself and Grandma.... I'd like to make plans at least for the fourth, but know she won't want to do anything, and don't feel good about leaving her and going away for any length of time. Kris and her family will be at the coast for several days, and I don't expect to hear from any of the other siblings. They don't seem to understand the need for support here.... So, as you can tell, I'm feeling sorry for myself!

I look forward to tomorrow when Kim and Andy come down for a visit. They're going to get Grandma's queen sized bed for themselves. It will be nice to see them again.

I love you all and pray for you always.
Mama

Hillsboro, eh?

Well, Mama, I feel your pain as far as Hillsboro and getting lost are concerned. I think the road systems were made by a very silly and whimsical person. My Freshman year of college my friend Carrie and I were trying to get to a concert that we had free tickets too in Hillsboro, but it took us THREE hours to find it! It should only have taken a half hour from Newberg, but it took six times that! We even stopped for directions 4 times and we only got more lost with the directions. Basically I don't think anyone really knows how to get around Hillsboro. Very queer. Hmmmm.

Home Again....

I just got back from my week-end in Hillsboro helping with Annie's wedding. It all went well, but it wasn't fun! I drove our car, and Jenny came up and went with me. We got lost so many times that I never want to see Hillsboro again!! Every time we went anywhere we got lost unless we were following someone who knew what they were doing. I don't know if it was bad maps or if Jenny was reading the instructions wrong or what. It was very frustrating!! Besides that, it was lots of work. They put us up at the Red Lion for two nights, which was nice, and I loved spending time with Jenny. Friday was good with Cheryl, too. She had made the cakes, and I frosted them. Then she put on Fondant icing, which went surprisingly well, and didn't taste too badly. It was the third recipe she had tried (she's been working on perfecting the technique for weeks -- ever since I told her that I had never done it and really didn't want to try it). I'll try to get the recipe. You'll have to ask Kim about it, Beth. She said it was even good! She came today to the reception to help me cut cake (she had to work before that, so couldn't make it to the wedding). As I said, it was lots of work, I'm tired, and SO GLAD it's over!!

I missed the Woolley Family reunion, which was today. I got back here at 7:30, and nobody is here yet, though I see Kathy's car and Timmy's car here. It's 8:30 now, and I expect it won't be much longer before they come back. I hope they had a good day.

I think I will start looking for houses this week. I'll call the realtor and see if she can find anything for me to look at. I'm so ready!

I love you all and hope you've had a good week-end.

Mama

Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art translated.

In Norway, today is Midsummer's Eve. In honor of this prestigious holiday, I have collected some quotes for your reading pleasure:

Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That in a spleen unfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say, "Behold!"
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion.
-- A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 1.

I 'll speak in a monstrous little voice.
-- A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 2.

And the imperial votaress passed on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
-- A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act ii. Sc. 1.


I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.
-- A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act ii. Sc. 1.


Lord, what fools these mortals be!
-- A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Wedding Photos

Mama and Joann- here are links to the photos you wanted copies of:

Sisters One
Sisters Two
Ande & Kris
The Bride
Matt & Beth
Giggle Giggle

Please let me know when you have taken copies of them, so that I can take them off of my server. I left them in rather large sizes, so they are taking up lots of space. Enjoy!

Back online

Hey all, sorry it has been so long. . . We've been in Northeast Washington (Deer Lake, near Spokane) with Betsy's parents moving our things into their new home, and just relaxing. Glad to hear that July 16 will work out for everybody!!! We'll be there as well!

As for our webpage, I tried updating it from Othello last Monday and it wouldn't accept my upload. . . I'm going to try to fix it tonight, if not I'll get it tomorrow. Also, there is a good chance I will be finding a new site to host our page!!

Look forward to seeing you all this week. . . Some tomorrow, others on Sunday!

WHewe!

I'm sitting on my lunch break at the Underground with five minutes left...I opened this morning and got the joy of opening the store all by myself! It was so much fun! Until my boss came in at 7 and stood over my shoulder all morning...I guess that's what I get for being new here, eh? I'm looking forward to monday seeing the family, well at least part of it, and playing frisbee golf...it's been years for me.

I have the 16th of July free for family beach day and then I leave for my last year at Camp Crestview the next day and am there for 6 days (this is New Life's last year at Crestview). And then the end of August I'm heading to Wildhorse Canyon for counseling at another New Life high school camp...it's out towards Bend...I'm super excited, but I just found out that going will mean missing the first two days of school. :).

Bearing Fruit

The most exciting thing is happening here on Wildcat Mountain. Our trees are really bearing fruit for the first time! A few years back we got two plums and last year a few peaches, but this year we are fruiting in abundance. Plums, Cherries, Apples, and Pears galore! Canning season, here we come...

The Scoop

Matt and I are planning to take July 15th off as well as the 16th. We will be camping at Paradise Cove near Nehalem (Joel and Sharon have a "timeshare" there, so we get to stay for next to nothing). I have done some beach research, and have found two state parks that look tantalizing. Take a look at Neskowin and Fogarty Creek. They are somewhat central to each of us, though Timmy and Heather will have farther to come from Roseburg. Let me know what you think!

Beach Bums

Okay everybody.... The Twists, Shires, Joann and the Parents are planning July 16 as our beach day. I hope the rest will be there, too! Everybody pray for good weather. I know we'll have fun no matter what. But where on the beach should we go?

I'm still trying to get back to normal here (whatever that is!) I've been so busy with wedding things that I'm not sure what I should be doing now. I just put Barby Keating on a plane yesterday to go back to L.A. So now 'normal' should come more easily.

It was fun having Kim and Andy here for a few hours on Monday to open their gifts. Daddy was videoing the gift opening at the request of Andy's parents. They wanted to see it all. The only problem was that he set the camera on a tri-pod and used a remote to control it - to stop it when there was nothing happening and start it when there was something to be seen. Unfortunately, he thought it was on when it was off, so he only taped the non-happening times! Oops! ...So we sent our camera with them and told them to video all the gifts when they unpacked them.

We have plans to help move things from Danny and Betsy's to Joann's on Monday, and there is a plan for some frisbe golfing that day, too, with whoever is there. Sounds like fun, huh?

I love you all! See you soon.
Mama

July 16 is the Day (I think!)

After talking to Andy and Kim, it appears the Friday, July 16th date for a beach trip is the one to gear up for . . . now we just need to decide where on the beach to go to be easiest on the mostest (?). Dad

Glowing & Blushing

Glowing

Blushing

July 16th?

Are we talking July 16th for a family beach day? If so, I'll drop that date off in the request book and consider myself there! I assume you aren't speaking of June, since that's in 2 days and in August Danny and Betsy will already be gone. Umm...yeah. Go Newberg!

Bodysurfing and Burgers

Matt recently found that he has more vacation days than previously thought, all of which need to be used by the end of September. So, he is prepared to take Friday the 16th off so that the whole family can make the beach trip. We will most likely stay at the beach an extra day, since I haven't been there in over a year, and want to get in some antique shopping. :)

Everyone please chime in to let us know if that date will truly work, so we can start planning!

Ma and Pa in Roseburg . . .

We spent Friday through Sunday AM in Roseburg, mainly working on our house situation and visiting friends. It appears we will list the house with the same agent we bought it through 18 or so years ago. We talked to two agents and both did a bit of research as did I and we all came up with about the same price - it is quite a bit higher than we would have gotten from the people in the house at present, so that's good. The housing market is moving very fast at present, with houses selling quickly. We are probably going to list ours a bit on the high side to see if the market will go for it - if not, we'll reduce the price. I plan to go down again later this week to do some minor repairs and get the house listed.

We also visited New Life for church this morning - good to see lots of friends! We brought Barb Keating back with us - she will be here until Tuesday morning when she flies back to L.A. We also saw Tim and were glad to see his room looking a bit better since there could be potential buyers looking this week!

Look forward to seeing you all at times this summer! God Bless

wow...

Aren't we the lively bunch?

In case you don't know...

...which you already do, my new cell phone number is (503)550-3796. Can't write more...the lab is closing...give me a ring or something...hopefully I'll get my internet working soon...

What a Day!

I was a proud papa yesterday, watching my fab five in their finest duds - you make me proud! Thanks to each of you for your part in making it a special day for not only Andy and Kim, but for me too. Now we go on to the summer - house to sell in Roseburg, perhaps looking for one in the Eugene area (and selling grandma's house as well), security job in early July, Danny and Betsy casting off for Singapore in late July (with a beach trip shortly before, hopefully) - my prayers are with you in each of your situations as best I know them - perhaps this blog would be a great place to share a key request or two so we all can pray . . . mine would be for the house selling (Roseburg and perhaps Eugene) plus doing the right thing at the right time for mom here in Eugene. God bless you, everyone, and good week to you.

Home Safe

After some miscommunication which translated into me circling the arrivals portion of the airport for 25 minutes while Joann worried inside the terminal about where I was, I was finally able to successfully extract her from her world-wide travelling phase, thanks to an airport traffic person kind enough to have her paged while I illegally parked at curbside. She is currently sleeping in our guest room, though I am about to go wake her so that we can head toward Eugene and wedding preparations! See you all soon...

website update

Check out our updated webpage!

The Whittaker Times

Amour!

I'm in love! Paris was amaying (zes, i'm in swityerland again) even though (perhaps because of) the rain. Liy and I are at the Yurich airport waiting until 11am (2am zour time) to get on our plane heading home. Hooraz! It's the most amaying airport I've ever seen! There's a whole mall attached to it and it onlz takes about 13 minutes and 5.5 francs (4 dollars) to ride to downtown Yurich where Liy and I will probablz go to watch a movie or two since we have about 16 hours to kill (don't worrz it's a much nicer airport to sleep in then the last one we slept in, there's even a place to lock zour luggage up so zou don't have to carrz it with zou!).
I'm excited to be coming home soon and I would love some of zour VHS videos, Mama and Daddz...particularlz Ever After. This is verz expensive internet, so I'm going to sign off and go find Liy and see zou all in a couple of dazs!
Voila!