Thursday, July 29, 2004

Welcome to the 21st century!!!

Hey Timmy, welcome to the 21st century!!!  Good to see you finally made it here!  Things continue to go well, though I'm looking forward to having email at home and not having to come to the school for access!  Hopefully within the week. . .

OK, we now have a phone number!  (We don't have the phone hooked up until at least Monday, but we do have the number!)  It is: 6374-9387.  The country code is 65.  So, now you have a phone card you can buy and a phone number you can call!  Look forward to talking to you next week!  Just make sure you think about the time difference!  Take your time, add 3 hours, then change from AM to PM (i.e. I'm writing this at 2:40 pm, but it is 11:40 pm for you.)

Love you all!

newbie...

i'm in! i finally made it! i kept getting bad invitations, but beth and i worked it out and now i'm IN!

let's see here...what do i write? well, there's not too much new for me, except my two-and-a-half week vacation, which has started beautifully! i left the house on tuesday morning, stopped at the parents for a few hours, and spent the night at joann's new apartment. yesterday, i got some free coffee from the underground and left for beth and matt's. we did some work on the bridge matt is building across the creek (beth and i painted while matt was sawing logs). so far, so good.

of course, any time away from mcdonald's is a major blessing. i mean, i like my coworkers, at least most of them, most of the time, but the job is wearing me down because it feels like i'm the only one working while everyone else is chatting...which is the main reason that i'm thinking of moving on. please be praying for me as i'm dealing with that issue, as well as with my lodgings when the roseburg house sells.

um...oh! kim and andy...like i said, i'm at beth and matt's, and i have some stuff i would like to get to you before i go back...give me a call, email, or blog and we'll work it out.

well, i probably should cut this short before it gets too long... 

timmy

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

The OTHER house on Kalmia

The contingencies between getting the Junction City house or not seem to be going away, making the purchase increasingly a 'done deal' . . . a friend from church who is a contractor went through the house with us today and seemed very impressed with the construction - commenting 'they don't make them like this today'.  Our loan person verified that the loan process seemed to be going through OK and didn't think there would be a problem, though our income to expense ratio was marginal until the Roseburg house sells.  I'm increasingly wanting that 'domino' to also fall to simplify the entire situation.  We did commit to buy two items from the sellers today (the sellers were at the house while our friend and I looked the place over) - the awesome, unique clock mama may have mentioned to you, and the dining room table and chairs (an upgrade in quality from the one we've had - if you or someone you know is interested in our former table + perhaps the chairs - not sure if we'll keep some chairs - let us know).  We have a tentative closing date of Sept. 7th, but it will probably be a week or two sooner.  We would love to have help doing some moving - I'm guessing possibly the week of August 24 - 28th or so.  We'll be sure to let you know when we know more. 
On another front . . . we may have a realtor come give an idea of value on grandma's house this evening, plus a cousin of Mama's may come to see if this is the house they want to buy - they have expressed interest in the past and want a better look.   It's hard for grandma to go through these steps - separating from the house and yard, going through 'stuff' (grandpa's clothes, etc.) to prepare for a change . . . she needs lots of support.  Next Tuesday could be a tough day also - grandpa's birthday.  Kathy says it was a hard day for her when Don's birthday came . . . Perhaps a phone call to gramma now and then just to say HI would be very good this next few weeks.  She will be moving to Kris's as we move to Junction City.
S0 . . . pray for grandma, for the Roseburg house to sell, for Timmy finding the right new lodging for after the house sells, for the purchase in Junction City to go well . . . thanks.

oh yeah...

...and I love the adjustments you made to the template Bethy...it's much easier to see the background now and the words of the titles aren't quite so foreboding...three cheers...woot, woot, woot...

Blueberries for Sal...

Okay, so I know that none of you remember that book, but I do.  It's been a tiring, but good past few weeks with work and camp...I finally get a day off on Friday, but then I work again on Saturday.  Oh well...summer is winding down and then my days will be full with school and work will be much less demanding.  On Monday I went out to Sandy and picked blueberries with Bethy, Kimmie, Andy, and Kathy...mmmm....then we got Matt and went to Calamity Jane's - which was a very fun place - I tried to get Andy to order the Honey Lovin' Jimmy Carter Peanut Butter Burger, but he went for something a little more traditional.

Timmy stopped by my apartment yesterday, so we watched a movie and had pizza and then he came by the Underground this morning to mooch free coffee before he went to Beth and Matt's.  I'm so excited that they accepted your offer, Mama and Daddy...I can't wait to see the place...let me know when you're going to move well in advance so I can get some time off of work to come help (I'll be gone from August 26th until the 31st though because of camp at Wildhorse Canyon). 

I'm off to see the wizard...the wonderful wizard of Oz...

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

A Home Again!

Today we made an offer on the house in Junction City, and they accepted it!!  Now if everything goes well with the 'bridge loan' we applied for on the Roseburg house, we'll have a house again.   We could be moving by the end of August!

Glad to hear that things are going well for Danny and Betsy.  Lots of love and prayers for you... for everybody else, too.  I love you all!  Mama

Hey family!

Hey guys, just a quick note to drop in! Bethie, the site is ok, but I don't read it very well in Netscape. Is it just me, or does it need some revamping? I guess it is just a Netscape thing because when I look at it in Internet Explorer it looks fine. In Netscape the sidebar appears before and of the posts!! You might try to fix that, or if I have time I might look at it later. I'm thinking you probably missed a closing tag somewhere. . .

Any ways, things are going well here. We will be moving in to our own apartment on Saturday, and should have a phone number soon thereafter so that you all can call us. (If you haven't seen it already, there is a site with cheap phone cards linked from my website!)

I love you all lots, now I must sign up for phone and try to bring S$5000 (Singapore dollars) from the US to Singapore!

Adjustments

I made a few adjustments to the layout, based on feedback from Daddy & Mama. I hope this sharpens things up for you!

Speaking of adjustments, I am glad to read that Danny & Betsy have found an apartment, and are almost green carded. I hope that you don't forsake our family blog for posting only on yours! :)

Monday, July 26, 2004

Feedback

I love the background picture!  I don't remember seeing it before, and would love to see it in person....    As for the rest of the design of the Blog, I like it, too, but I think I liked seeing more of it on my screen.  Maybe the font (especially of the titles) could be smaller or tighter?  Anyway, whatever you do with it is okay with me.  I enjoy having this spot to keep in touch with all of my kids.  Thank you for making it available to us, Beth!

I'm on my way out to the garden to help Grandma with the dahlias. It hurts her to see them so neglected.  Grandpa took such good care of things out there, and that's why it was always so pretty for all of us.  Anyway, they need to be 'dead-headed' and staked up.  We want to get out there for awhile before it gets too hot....  Daddy is planning on mowing this morning, too.  Later today we hope to get together with a man that Daddy met from our church.  He works at a bank and is going to help us figure out if there is a way to buy the house in Junction City before our Roseburg house sells.  The J.C. house was just reduced in price, so it might be easier for us to get it, but it would be easier for others, too. 

Also today we'll be babysitting Isabella for a couple of hours this morning.  She's so cute, and is a good baby.  So Grandma and I look forward to the opportunity of holding her, etc.

Love to all of you,  Mama

Sunday, July 25, 2004

Feedback Please!

I want to know what you think about my creative skills! Tell me what you think of the new blog design. You can also check out my other blog to see another design I created.

Friday, July 23, 2004

Frisbee golf on a hot day

This is for the frisbee golf lovers in the family - I went out to the local course about noon today.  On my second time around the course, I threw five discs then chose the best one to finish with.  After 8 holes I had an even par (24) with one to go.  The first four throws on the last hole were good - two within about 30 feet of the basket.  The last throw, using my putter, hit the base of the basket and stayed under it!  I was feeling really good to get a 26 - then as I was walking away to the car, one of the two guys following me hit a hole in one on the hole I'd just finished!  He was really excited - yelling, etc.  Guess I can't blame him.  So I went home and took a cool shower to deal with the heat - it was about 103 degrees today in Eugene.  God bless to all!

I'm Back!

Well, the beach day was a blast and camp was awesome, but I'm back again at work for 7 straight days (ickey!).  I ended up singing on the worship team at camp this year which was so amazing.  There were 15 girls in my cabin plus Teresa Skinner (who was almost like a camper:).  Among the campers in my cabin were Jenine Hurtienne, Robi Bonebrake, Iris Graham, along with several other girls who go to UVC that I have never met before. 

Good to hear from you Danny & Betsy!  I'll chat at you more later (when I'm not supposed to be getting back to work:).

Time Lapse

This is funny- because of the Singapore time difference, even though Danny wrote his blog question first, it is posting after mine in time order. I think that I will take editor's license and go in to manually change his times to match ours each time he blogs on the Whittaker page.

A-Blogging We Will Go

I am so glad that I started this thing! Danny- go to your template page and scroll down until you find the sidebar content. You will see how they created the titles- duplicate this, but call it "links" or whatever, and then use this text:
  • TheWhittakerTimes
  • as a template for as many links as you want.

    Okay, so that didn't work. It recognized the link text and created a link! Um, I figured it out by looking at other templates and just copying the info into the template that I liked. It really is fun to figure out html! I am in the process of creating an entire blog template of my own (no easy feat to this html beginner!). Expect the unveiling sometime soon...

    New blog!

    Hey all, I just wanted to let you know that we are going to be doing our webpage via the blog.  So, here is our site.


    Oh, Bethie, how did you add the links to the page??

    Wednesday, July 21, 2004

    We love Danny and Betsy!

    'So glad to hear from you Danny.  Thanks for writing so promptly.  'Glad you and Betsy got there safely.  We're praying for your settling time.  I know you have lots to do and to get used to -- including changing your sleep times, etc.  We're looking forward to hearing how your trip went and what you're seeing and doing.  We're all thinking about you and praying for you.  We love you.  Mama for the whole family.

    Snapshots from Friday

    Some of my photos from the beach have been developed. The other half are still in the camera. Here are a few snapshots for your viewing pleasure.


    Singapore!!!

    Just wanted to let you all know that we made it to Singapore safely this morning.  Things are going well so far, we went in and got physicals today in order to get our green cards, and we got a tour of Chinatown and our first use of the busses and train system (MRT)  We are staying in a great apartment, on the 14th floor!  We have a pool too!  We'll send or post pictures later when I get access with my laptop.

    Love you all!
    Danny

    Tuesday, July 13, 2004

    Home again, home again . . .

    Home again, home again
    Jiggity Jog
    Can hardly wait for Friday
    To relax and saw a log (zzzzzzzz...)

    McMahan's job went well - got to see Timmy each night (or morning!) - he was great! Let me sleep about 2 hours most nights. 'Worked'a total of 185.5 hours in 13 days, plus did some frisbee practice and worked on our 'for sale' house. No offers yet, but a few scheduled lookers this week. Mama and I have found a place that would work well for us, but would feel better about making an offer if we had a deal going on the house in Roseburg . . . we'll see how this all progresses.

    See you all in a few days or sooner!

    Monday, July 12, 2004

    S'mores

    Mama, all the info for the place we are going can be found in the link behind the words Fogarty Creek.

    We will bring our little camp stove for roasting the dogs. I don't think that marshmallows roasted over propane fumes will be very good, though. So Joann, maybe you should just stick with cookies! As for bringing a salad, I will try to be creative, since I won't have a refrigerator in the tent to keep it cool, and a salad to feed 11 will be pretty big. :)

    WooHoo

    All that sounds good to me, I'm assuming we will be riding with Mama & Daddy from Eugene, so we'll get there when they do!

    A couple of things I would like for our little get together: Bring your Bible! (It would be good if everyone has one for the activities that I have planned!) Also, that is all!

    I love you all and will see you on Friday!

    Oh, Joann, check out this site!

    Deal.

    10am sounds glorious...leaving Newberg 8 to 8:30ish...mmmmm...that means sleeping in three whole hours more than normal! Woot! Joann's my name, cookie's my game - question...if i'm making cookies do i need to bring graham crackers and chocolate as well? or will we just smoosh the roasted mallows in the cookies?

    also, dinner is fine wherever for me, as long as i don't have to spend over $5 on my meal...and everyone had better bring a warm change of clothes because it's high time we returned to our childhood adventures waist deep in the good ol' Pacific Ocean!

    and, kimmie and andy...if you are so inclined and the day gets done earlz enough (anzone else who wants is also welcome) the drive-in theatre in newberg is showing some awesome movies on fridaz night...

    can't wait for our rendevous

    My two cents

    Plans for Friday sound good to me. I think we can make the 10 AM time unless we have to wait for Timmy and Heather. Hopefully they'll be here Thursday night and ready to go with us Friday AM.

    Thanks, Kim for doing the thinking and assignments. We will comply! :)
    I may also come up with some additions. One thing to think about is fuel, matches, etc. for roasting hot dogs. I'll add that to our list unless Beth and Matt already have that covered since they'll be camping there.

    It would be nice to know the exact place of our meeting. Does anyone know?

    As for pizza, that sounds good to me, too. We can go 'Dutch' unless someone is needing a help with the finances for that.

    Daddy gets home tomorrow. I'll be so glad to have him back! We've been talking every day, but it's just not the same!

    We're both looking forward to our day with all of you. We're also looking forward to having Danny and Betsy here on Wednesday until Saturday.

    See you all soon. Lots of Love!! Mama

    Weeeeneeeee Roast

    I vote for a weeeeneee roast for lunch and pizza for dinner as Beth suggested. We are good with the 10 am arrival. We will leave as early as needed, and as Joann has to ride with us, she has no choice but to do the same! hee hee, o bored one!

    So, rather than spend the next two days figuring it all out, here is my suggestion:
    Tim and Heather: bring soda enough for everyone all day and marshmellows
    Joann: bring the other smores ingredients and/or cookies
    Danny and Betsy: bring hot dogs and buns
    Beth and Matt: bring a potato salad (or other salad)and potato chips
    Kim and Andy: bring a jello salad and/or pork n beans, and hot dog condiments
    Mama and Daddy: bring table cloth, silverware, plates, napkins, cups, hot dog roaster stick thingys, and anything else I forgot to include in our list (like homemade sweet pickles).

    Please reply to this blog by Wednesday morning or I will call and hound you. If you do not want to bring what I assigned you, then arrange to trade with someone else!

    We, for one, cannot wait to see you all at the beach!
    Don't forget to bring frisbees, shovels, and a change of clothes!

    Love,
    Mrs. Shire

    Sunday, July 11, 2004

    This Weekend

    First of all, Joann, I want to thank you for a wonderfully entertaining web experience. I had no idea what weird things are out there on the www.

    Down to business... I think we all unanimously agreed that Fogarty Creek was the beach of choice. Danny and Betsy think that we should shoot for a 10am-ish gathering time. Those of you that have farther to travel, please chime in if that is too early for you! So, now that leaves meal planning. If we do gather earlier, that means both lunch and dinner. So, maybe we have sack lunches or hot dogs for the noon meal, and "real" food for dinner? Or an inexpensive restaurant for dinner (pizza, anyone?). Let's start conversing now so that we aren't scrambling at the last minute for details...

    Saturday, July 10, 2004

    Our travel schedule

    Bethie! Just wanted to confirm that we are on the same page as to our arrival time this evening.

    DELTA flight 3894U MEMPHIS to DALLAS arriving at 3 pm
    DELTA flight 889U DALLAS to SALT LAKE CITY arriving at 5:35 pm

    DELTA flight 600U SALT LAKE CITY to PORTLAND arriving at 7:40 pm

    We will plan to pick up our baggage and meet you on the street for pickup in front of the Delta pickup area! Thanks and see you this evening!

    Danny

    Oh, and we are planning on staying with you again tonight if that is still ok!

    PS - Love you all! PFO was great!

    Wednesday, July 07, 2004

    My Sentiments Exactly

    "Thank heavens,
    the sun has gone in,
    and I don't have to
    go out and enjoy it."

    -Logan Pearsall Smith
    (1865-1946)

    Mama speaks up

    July 7, 2004

    It HAS been awfully quiet in this Blog, hasn’t it? I keep checking for updates from all of you, but not adding anything from me. So I guess it’s time for you to hear from me again.

    Yesterday I went house hunting. I actually had an appointment with a realtor, and she showed me 3 houses in Harrisburg and Junction City. I found a house I really like. I could be happy with it without looking anymore! ‘Course it’s a bit more than the others, but not a lot more, and it doesn’t need any changes inside. It has 3 large bedrooms, a wonderful kitchen, a huge living room, lots of storage, two “shops” attached to the house (so they’re like more rooms, and would be great for work rooms and/or rooms for guests). Also a two-car garage. And it’s right across the street from a city park with a covered pavilion and picnic tables that we could use if we had a large group there. I don’t know if this is the one the Lord has in mind for us, but if it is, it would be okay with me!

    I’m excited about the prospect of having my own place again. We’ve been here for almost 11 months now, and I’m more than ready for a change.

    Thanks, Danny for keeping us posted. We look forward to time with you and Betsy next week. You are in our prayers.

    Love to all of you.
    Your Mama

    Peachy (and peary too)

    Since this blog seems a bit sad lately, I thought I'd liven it up. Check out all of these highlighted words...they lead to a world of fun:).

    Life in Newberg is consistent and casual...the way I like it...I could handle some fun things to do however. I spend my time working (which I'm loving 'cause I get to force people to listen to Christmas music if I want and I can wear Converse every day..bwah ha ha!) and watching movies (mainly at home, however I did go see The Terminal yesterday and I highly recommend it...God bless Tom Hanks) and reading and ummm...do I do anything else? Oh yes! I pester Kimmie with record amounts of voice mail and I pester Beth and Matt with my laundry and pineapple eating skills and occassionally I pester Timmy by calling him at 6 in the morning on my way to work and I (this next website is serious...consider yourself warned) pester Danny and Betsy some way, I'm sure, and I pester Mama and Daddy by either not calling often enough or by refusing to earn enough money to pay them back the oodles of money they lend to me:) It's a gift really. Perhaps a calling. Maybe even destiny.

    You ask, why? Why is Joann being so silly and boring and even predictable? I'm searching for my inner Mommy Afternoon.

    Where are you??

    Hey all, awful quiet in here! We are having a wonderful time here. Lots of learning, not enough rest. Pray for strength over the last three days! Looking forward to spending time with you all in the near future. Beth & Matt, see you on Saturday. Mama & Daddy, see you on Wednesday, everybody else, see you on Friday!!

    Love you lots!
    Danny

    Thursday, July 01, 2004

    PFO

    well, some interesting ideas. . .

    Pre-Field Orientation!

    It is continuing to go well, but it is tiring as we are in classes from about 8 am til 5 pm with little breaks for lunch and snacks.

    Pray for strength and rest for us as we learn all these things about what will be happening in our transition, and as we learn about the kids we will be working with. They are a unique group (that is TCKs Third Culture Kids) that have grown up in a different place than their passport comes from. Whether American, or Korean, or Indian, or African, or. . .

    Love you all!!

    Danny