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)

Visiting the Grandkids

There was no school on Monday, January 21 (MLK Day), so on Sunday we went up to Kim's to visit there. Then on Monday, Kim and Donny joined us as we went out to Beth's for the afternoon. What fun it was to have the babies together!!
The only thing that would have made it better was if Aaron could have been there, too (along with his mama and daddy of course! We miss them all!)


Jack was quick to come to Donny's side and greet him.
Here they are checking each other out.


Here's Grandpa -- his first time to see little Katie, who was 11 days old.

Sweet Baby Katie!

Grandpa and Grandma Whittaker with the two youngest of our grandchildren.

Oh, this Grandma loved being with the little ones! I could have stayed a lot longer, but we had to go home so Grandpa could be at his job the next day....

Just before we left, Jack pulled Grandpa into the TV room to watch "Cars" with him. Looks like all 3 of the 'boys' are enjoying the show!


We look forward to this summer when Danny and Betsy will be here with Aaron. It will be fun to have all 4 of our grandchildren together!

Katherine Pearl Twist

Our little Katie was born to Beth and Matt Twist at 11:45 AM on January 10. Grandma Whittaker got to go take care of Katie's "big brother", Jack while the big event was taking place. Then when Katie was only 2 hours old, she received her first visitor -- brother Jack. After the initial meeting, Grandma got to join the family, hold her precious granddaughter, and take some pictures. Following are some pictures of that day and the next day when Katie came home.




Katie and Beth bonding.

A sweet family picture

The Twist family

Jack is delighted with his little sister!




Grandma is delighted with her sweet little Katie!

Daddy and brother admiring Katie
About 1/2 hour before Katie arrived home, Grandma let Jack see a slide show of pictures from his visit the day before. He really enjoyed the pictures. And when they arrived home, he was excited to see Mama and Daddy and again was fascinated with his baby sister.

Sweet Baby Katie!!

You can see Beth's account and pictures of the day by going to http://thetwistfamily.blogspot.com/

Singapore report

We’ve been home from Singapore for 11 days now, and I’m finally feeling back to normal physically, though I’m still not sleeping through the night without taking drugs! It was a good two weeks. I loved being with Danny, Betsy and Aaron – especially getting to know Aaron and letting him get to know his Grandma and Auntie Jo a bit. I think he enjoyed us, too.
We did lots of different things…. Visited the tropical island of Sentosa and swam in the South China Sea, went to the zoo, shopped in Chinatown and Little India as well as some malls, ate in ‘hawker’ centers, toured Danny’s school, rode buses and mass rail transits, went to an International night at the school and watched Betsy doing Bhangra dancing, attended their church, toured a strange Chinese ‘museum’ of mythological statues, etc., walked in the beautiful riverfront area, rode a river taxi, ate a slab of corn ice cream sandwiched in multi-colored bread, got refreshment at Starbucks and Coffee Bean shops, experienced torrential rainstorms, endured very hot humid weather (every day), took myriads of pictures, laughed and played, cried and got sick, and fainted and went to an ER (at least I did that!). The journey itself was long and not much fun, but being there was wonderful… and being back home is very good, too!

Following are four more posts with pictures. I hope you enjoy them. (We have LOTS more to show you when we see you).

Aaron was a lot of fun! So cute!!

This is the apartment building they live in. Their apartment is on the 10th floor – open windows – right where the tree limb is!

A view of the apartment -- nice

‘Mr. Whittaker’ helping one of his students