Another Step

Another step is done… kind of. We started the paperwork today for the sale of our house to the Hitchcocks. They’ll be renting for the first few months, but the sale looks good. We have some details to work out this week, and will do the final paperwork next Wednesday. Then we wait for the government program they're applying for to be processed. They say that will take from 2 to 4 months. We set August 20th for the last possible day we’ll be out, but will try for the 15th and 16th so they can start moving in over the week-end.

Jim has an interview on Tuesday, the 13th at King’s Way school in Vancouver, Washington (not far from Kim’s house). They had an unexpected opening for a 5th grade teacher. We had checked out that school in the spring, and were impressed with it. They had no openings at the time.

In the meantime, we’re packing boxes and taking loads up to the storage unit each time we’re up there. We plan to store most of our things in the shop here until we find a place to move into up there – wherever that may be. If Jim gets the job, of course, we’ll look to buy a house near the school. If he doesn’t have a job yet, we may get an apartment temporarily. But will have to live with Kim or Beth for the time between leaving here and finding a place to live.












Now we have to squeeze some other things into our final days here (besides trying to squeeze all our things into boxes and into the shop). We have friends and family to spend time with and the Scandinavian Festival to attend this Thursday through Sunday. I’m really looking forward to that! I may even work in our church food booth one shift. Jim and I did that last year, and it was fun.

A Moving Story....

July 17th, we took a U-Haul and van load of 'stuff' to storage. It's nice to have the boxes we've packed go away instead of being stacked in the house here! But if you were to visit us today, you wouldn't really see evidence that we're moving until you went out to the craft room and/or shop. those rooms actually have lots less in them. we're packing the things you don't see first. that way we don't feel like we're living in a half-empty house!





Kim, Andy and Donny met us at the unit to help unload. Donny wasn't a lot of help, but he sure was cute!!

Beth took me to a quilt show on Friday, and I was surprised to see the quilt I made for her and Matt on display! It's the blue and white one, and looked very nice hanging there with all the other quilts. Unfortunately Jack wasn't interested in looking at quilts. So our looking was cut short. I did get to browse a little longer though, while Beth took the little ones and went for lunch. I was in 'Quilt Heaven'!!

Here's our sweet little Katie, at 6 months old.

She looks like she's about ready to take off flying....

Kind of like her Auntie Jo -- when she was 6 months old!!

Progress Report

I'm having a hard time believing we're actually moving, but we really are! (Maybe it would help if we knew WHERE we're moving to!)

On Monday, July 14, we rented a small U-Haul truck to take as much of our stuff to the storage unit in Vancouver as possible and make the final move (probably about August 15) easier. Heather brought Timmy down and they had dinner and spent the evening with us. Timmy helped with a few of the heavy items that evening. Then he spent the night while Heather went home so she could go to work the next day.

Megan joined us to spend the night Monday, which just happened to be her 13th birthday! Can you believe that?!! Happy birthday, Megan!! Then on Tuesday morning she and Marie passed boxes and things down from the attic so the guys could load them into the moving truck. Amazingly we got it pretty full and are ready to go take it up on Thursday. We'll pack up some more things and load them into the van or more into the U-haul tomorrow.

Joann has also taken more stuff to the storage unit, so it will be a lot fuller in a few days.

Now we need to find out where we're going to be, and get a place to move into....

Moving update

This is our 10X20 storage unit in Vancouver after the first van load up there. We've added some more things, plus Joann has brought a car load from Bend for HER move and has it in there, too.

It doesn't look like much, but we ARE making progress. We plan to take another van FULL on Thursday on our way to visit the Kaplans.

The latest is that it seems that we have a sale of our house in the making. Friends from our church here came over yesterday and proposed it to us. They need to be out of their rental house in two weeks, and would like to rent our house until their financing comes through. Then they would buy it. Their financing is in the works now and could be up to 6 months before it happens. They would love to make a deal with us, and we are feeling that with the housing situation as it is now, it would be better to do this with them than to have the house sitting empty after we leave -- for 'who knows how long?'. We meet with them again Wednesday evening to talk about the particulars, and will probably go ahead with the deal unless something comes up to show us we shouldn't.

But that doesn't mean moving in two weeks. They have a place they can stay temporarily. We're thinking mid-August would work for us. Still not having a job in the Portland area makes us a little reluctant to 'up and move' when we don't know where we should settle up there. If nothing comes up in the meantime, we would probably keep most of our stuff in storage and rent an apartment or something until there's a job.

'Time will tell' with all of this. By mid-august, Jim may have his job and we can buy the house we want to stay in. We're not excited about moving twice, but will do it if necessary.

For Sale -- for sure!

Today the sign went up.... Our house is officially for sale.

It was a strange feeling putting that sign out. It makes it seem so final.

We still don't know what's next... where the next job is, where we'll live, etc. We trust that God will direct us to the right place at the right time. I'm hoping we'll know before long, but that we will still be here for the Scandinavian Festival, which this year is August 7 thru August 10.

I haven't done much on packing, but have been focused on clearing out clutter and getting the house ready to be shown. There is still a lot of work to be done, but we're chipping away at it.

Stay tuned for more. We'll try to keep you updated on our progress.

Transitions

Well, it's finally happening....

School is over for the year. Jim has given his notice, and we're moving to be closer to our girls and the grandchildren! It's rather bittersweet because we love our home and living in Junction city, and have enjoyed being close to Marie's family. BUT... We are so looking forward to being with our own family.

Again we're leaving Timmy behind. But this time he has a wife (and a baby on the way). We'll miss being close to them, too. But are hopeful that when he finishes school in March that they too will be moving to the Portland area.

No job yet, though there is an interview set up for this week. We'll see what happens on that. We'd really like to be somewhere between Beth and Kim....

Now begins the monumental task of sorting, packing, getting the house ready to sell, etc. Today we loaded the van with the first load of things to go to a storage unit up there somewhere. We figure that each time we go we can take a load of things and make the final move a little easier. Plus, we'd be getting the extra clutter out of this place so it will show better for selling.

Tomorrow we'll go up, get a storage place and unload our things, spend a couple of nights at Kim's and go to the interview. Then on Wednesday Jim will go to put in a few days of tractor driving for his brother while Marie goes out to visit Beth and her little ones. We'll head back home on Friday and try to get the house ready and up for sale.

It seems like we'll have a pretty busy summer. 'Wanna come help?

Small Beginnings

The kids at school asked for baby pictures of Mr and Mrs Whittaker. So I scanned and printed these for them. I thought you might like to see and download them too.

Baby Mr. Whittaker!! (Jim)

















Baby Mrs. Whittaker (Marie Kjosness)