Sad news

I just got a phone call about 1/2 hour ago telling me that my friend Kathy Perry died today. As far as anyone knows, there was no warning. She was going on about business as usual, and then she was gone. Ralph found her when there was a phone call for her and she didn't answer.

I am in shock and am very sad. I was enjoying renewing our old friendship and was looking forward to lots of good times with her....

Please pray for her family -- and for me, too.

I'm back!

For an update in my ever-changing, and yet always-the-same life, click on the link to my website: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=JoannRenee

Turtles!

Last Monday, the 17th, since there was no school, Ralph and Kathy Perry picked us up in their motor home and we went to Florence and had lunch at Mo's, then drove up to a viewpoint to see the ocean. It was rainy, so we didn't get out (except to go into the restaurant). But what a fun day it was! I told Kathy that driving a home around is a little like being a turtle! :^). We even watched a video on the way back home, had snacks and cold drinks from their refrigerator. It was all the comforts of home -- on wheels! I think I could enjoy having a motor home. The only problem would be paying for the gas to go anywhere....

Christmas

Well, Andy, I can't picture you saying it like Mr. Burns, since I have never really watched the Simpsons, but I get the gist anyway! We prayed for you in my Bible study this morning to find a good steady job that you like- keep us posted!

On to the photos...
The Red Door
Swinging
Flying
Dogpile
Just as Andy suspected...Kimmie has a halo

"Excellent!"

If you can picture me saying that like Mr. Burns from The Simpsons, then you know I am . . . . pleased. Thank you Beth for the link. I feel better now.

I have applied for work assembling golf clubs in Tigard. That is the latest. I may have to start looking for work on other planets. So far it has not come down to that . . . . but there is always the chance that it could.

Kimmie is making me blueberry panda-cakes. I am going to go offer my support. Laters.

Untitled

Well, after long negligence on my part, I am finally posting a message again. I guess I feel most days that I don't have anything of interest happening in my life, so I don't think to blog about that nothingness. I do have some photos from Christmas that I plan to scan in for everyone to see and steal for their own digital files. But not today- it is 60 degrees outside and gorgeous. I plan to spend some time trimming dead stuff out of my flower beds, then I am going to my favorite Estacada establishment, Mike's Second Hand Store.

Regarding Andy's request: I don't know how to make a button to direct you back, but I have created a link down in the links section that hopefully will work (assuming that I understand what you are asking for!) Please give me feedback.

More later...

Package to Singapore

The package to Danny and Betsy did arrive! Due to a misunderstanding of the Sinaporian postal system, etc. it actually arrived earlier in December and was in the post office waiting pickup - but it was a different post office than normal. Once Danny figured out the situation, he was able to get the package transferred to the closer PO for pickup. So on Friday evening (our time), Danny surprised Betsy with the package opening ceremony while we watched via webcam. It appeared the cookies were still OK and not crumbled, and all items survived the trip and wait.

Our longtime friend, Twila Poe Cowden, was here this weekend. She gets free flying due to a daughter working for the airlines, so she came in Saturday AM and just left this Sunday early afternoon. She could be flying past a few of you in the Portland area about now! Was good to see her.

I'm doing a concession stand at school on Saturdays for the local youth basketball league - we earn some money for the class.

In case you haven't been following the 'saga', I have Joann's broken laptop for sale on ebay. I tried to liven up the ad a bit in hopes the guy who paid multi-thousands for a Texas snowball might like to bid . . . anyway, the item is getting lots of 'hits' - over 330 lookers so far, plus a bid of $71 for a non - starting computer. I had hoped for $50 or more, so this is a good start. I added an extra ad pointing to it and even got a $9.50 bid on the 'pointer' ad! I promised a card of 'extreme thanks' for any desperate enough for mail to bid on the pointer ad. Not sure if the bidder misunderstood or was really desperate! You can follow all the exciting bidding action by going to ebay, click on search, enter my seller name of hiskidman after going to the seller search, and you should be at my few sales.

Hope you all have a great week! God bless! Dad

An update...

Well, the job search has resumed. I sent an application to The Home Depot and sent my resume to a Florida company that sets equipment up in peoples' homes to do the viewership ratings for the Neilsen folk. They have branches all over the US. The only difficulty if hired is 10 weeks of training in Florida, without Kim. Still, she is welcome to visit me whenever she wants. :-) Will keep y'all posted on that job stuff.

Kim is subbing today, and we will be going to the Friday Friends group from Northridge tonight. To pass some of the alonely time here I have been building a city on the computer with Sim City 3000. I named it Kimerica. I think Kim feels honored.

For Beth. I noticed that on some other Blogger pages there is a "button" I can click on to go right to the publish posts screens. I don't know which one to use when I come directly to the Whittaker page from my IE Favorites list. Is there such a "button" already, or can you add one? Any info/help on this would be especially grandy.

To All. Right now, I am very cheeseburger hungry. That is not good. Wish me luck. :-)

News from Joann's "other site":

Since Joann hasn't been able to get into the blogsite, I decided to enter her last comments from her "other site" -- partly to see if it can be done, and partly to let those of you who have forsaken our family site for other sites of your own, that you can easily write in the one and paste it into this site, too. That way you can have the fun of your other site, and WE can have the joy of more often hearing from you here....

Joann says:
I've decided to add a new and exciting portion to my entries called "Things I learned in school today." But the information I'm adding today is actually from the reading I did last night for my theatre history class:
Tragedy comes from the Greek word which translates to "goat song." The reason it was called this is because all of the choruses would compete to win a goat, or the chorus would dance around the goat and then sacrifice it.

In other news, my first real intermediate photography class meets tonight and I'm so excited. Our first assignment has something to do with "spy photography" (taking pictures without the subject realizing it) and then the pictures are going to be used in some kind of slide show during a symphony performance in Portland!

Just a note . . .

About supper time but thought I could get a quick one out first -
We had a major break-through recently - got both cars in the garage! I was spurred on by the cold and ice in the mornings and decided to see if it could be done, and a few hours later, it was done! Still some adjustments to make, but it works.

Hope your week is going well. God bless, Dad

Love to all!

'Just wanted to tell you I love you! Does anyone check this site anymore? I know Beth and Danny do sometimes. It's disappointing to not have any more posts here.... Just a hi once in awhile would be nice.

Last night Timmy and Heather were here. Timmy and Danny played games on the internet and talked via webcam, etc. Timmy says he was up til 4 AM, but Danny would probably tell you it was only 8 PM.

This morning Timmy and Heather joined us for breakfast at IHOP with Barby Keating and her new fiance, Pat Green. They were on their way to Spokane where she will help him get his things together, and in two weeks they will move him to L.A. They will be getting married around March 12. (I probably won't be able to go to the wedding because my brother Dave will probably be getting married on the 11th. I should call him to find out for sure the date....)
Anyway, Pat seems like a really good guy for Barby. I'm very happy for her!

Timmy and Heather went shopping after breakfast and then were going to take in a movie before they go back to Roseburg. We, on the other hand, went to church (a bit late).

'Hope you're all having a good day. I love you!

New Year's Day

Well, today we continued our family tradition. We had fondue on New Year's Day! A couple nights ago we were having dinner at some friends from school and mentioned the whole fondue thing, we thought it sounded like a good idea, so we made plans and had that today. The Lawrence family is another family of seven with kids ranging from kindergarten to 10th grade. Betsy and I, and Joe (school administrator) and his wife went to their place for the day. Got there at about 12:15 and left at about 10:15. We had a wonderful assortment of foods for the fondue. Of course we had the standard fare of hotdogs and bread, but we also did broccoli and califlower, and the best addition by far was little baby potatoes (cooked ahead of time).

In the chocolate we had just fruits, of course being in a tropical place we had fresh pineapple instead of canned. We also had bananas, oranges, and apples. Oh, and we had pretzels that could be dipped into either one.

All in all it was much fun with food and lots of games! (Boggle, Zigity, Nerts, Uno Attack, Speed, and Bang!)

Love you all, hope your New Year's Day is equally fun!