Friday Night in Woodland

Grandpa is now living with John and Debbie in Woodland, Washington. We went up to visit them on Friday night. Here are a few pics.

Grandpa looks excited to be reviewing financial reports that Gretchen prepared.

Victoria enjoyed spending time with the Shoup's Boxer.

My sister, Debbie, poses with Grandpa.

Uncle John seems to be enjoying the moment more than Victoria! :-)

Countdown to Lunch at Chef Tucker's

Hillary has requested that we go straight to Chef Tucker's upon her arrival in Portland (from Kazakhstan). Just thought that I would help her count down the days!

Happy Birthday, Gabby!

May 1st has several family birthdays, one of which belongs to our Eskamoan (inside joke) niece, Gabriella.

Loyd and Sheila Matthey (friends of the Levasa family and Loyd works at TWP) flank Gabriella and her parents, Roger and Kimberly.

Heidi Matthey enjoys a little time with Leila at the party.

Gabby takes time to pose with Aunt Grechen and her niece, Leila.

Gabriella has that look of anticipation as Kimberly cuts the birthday cake.

Wow, a new bicycle! Pretty good birthday, Gabs!

Bowling, Again

Last Saturday evening, the Mortensen clan, including Tucker and Jenn, went bowling, which seems to be one of our new favorite pastimes.

Don, Sandra, Lima, and Gunta Briggs joined us. We all had dinner at Buster's, then went to Tigard Bowl for two hours.

There are two pics from the lanes.

Gretchen, Tucker, and Doug at the bowling alley.

Here is the entire bowling crew, minus Lima who was taking the picture. This is us after we were done bowling. Looks like everybody had a good time (we did!).

Happy Birthday!

Adrienne, I wanted to wish you a happy birthday. I know that there are no big celebrations since Isaac missed his, but wanted to let you know that we're thinking about you!

More moving "stuff" and unpacking

Doug has done all the posts so I thought tonight I would put in my two cents even though I don't have photos. We really should have taken a couple of pics but since all we have done for the past 13 months is move and unpack photos really didn't seem interesting.

Here is a brief overview of moving stuff. In March of last year we decided to move to Branson, Missouri but purchase a condo here in Oregon as a second home since most of our family and business are in Oregon.

So I started packing and sorting my house to clear it out it make the house look better for selling and to divide our belongings between Branson, condo, or garage sale. We rented a storage unit to store all the stuff we were moving from our house while it was on the market.

In June with our house still on the market, Hillary was home from Kazakhstan for the summer and ready to plan for a repeat of her successful garage sale of 2005 to fund her next year in Kazakhstan. The donations for her sale started to pour in and with our house of the market we couldn't store the stuff at our house so it all went to the storage unit which was filling quickly with all our stuff and now garage sale donations. This meant time to rent a second unit but they only had second floor units available so not only were there many many trips to and from storage and it was on the second floor and I had the task of keeping Branson, condo, garage sale all straight.

In the mist of all the crazy moving we purchased a condo in Tualatin but it needed to be completely remodeled and updated. We hired the work out but it was still lots of shopping, coordinating, picking colors, carpets, cabinets, appliances etc.

In the mean time about the same time our house sold we were having Hillary's garage sale which of course meant hauling everything back from storage units to set up in our garage for the sale.

It was during this time we also decided we would not move to Branson but to a much smaller house in Tualatin to downsize and simplify our life. We decided to keep the condo and rent it furnished because we had so much furniture and thought maybe even Hillary would move to the condo when she returned in summer of 2007.

Since I had so much stuff I would be needing to get rid of I decided I would have yet another garage sale at our new house after we moved. With another garage sale in our future Hillary and I sorted all her left over garage sale items and made many trips to Goodwill. Everything else went back to the storage units for the next sale.

We had movers to move us but it was still such hard hard work and still so much sorting to do. We asked our adult children no longer living at home to come get all their stuff so more moving and sorting for Tucker, Marina and Hillary. Marina's stuff went to storage since she didn't appear to get her stuff, Tucker and Jenn packed up their stuff. Poor Hillary currently has stuff at our house, at our storage unit and under Kimberly's house since we didn't have the room.

The condo wasn't near ready the buyers of our house agreed to let us use the storage shed at our old house for the furniture that was to go to the condo.

Trying to fit into our smaller house has been an ongoing challenge and I still have aways to go. We moved in August and I had a garage sale in September. You are getting the picture.. this involved many trips from our two storage units to our house. The sale was a total flop. I was way too unorganized and not into it.

Oh yeah I almost forgot my two month September - November side moving I was doing just in case I wasn't moving enough. I purchased a storage unit full of books.(This was at a different storage facility than our personal belongings units) It was the inventory of a used book store that went out of business so I was also taking books to the large used book store here in Portland that buys used books, I was advertising the books on CraigsList and meeting people at the storage unit and selling some that way. so more and more packing and unpacking of books. At this point my family members thought I was pretty much nuts but I was actually having fun with my books. I made a little money of the books are paying the storage unit rent.

So after the garage sale it was many trips to Goodwill and to and from storage units again. At some point in the early fall Marina showed up for her things.

In late September the condo was finally ready to move in, so I called a couple of my brothers and nephews and moved furniture from the shed at our old house to the condo this turned out to be easier said than done and several doors in the hallways of the condo building had to be removed. I am not moving the couch from the condo it stays with the condo for future renters or buyers. I had to go through all the boxes I had marked "condo" to sort our personal items I was going to leave at the condo when I thought we were the ones going to be living there. I even purchased bedding and linens so it was really a 'completely furnished" rental.

At this point I was down to one storage unit (plus the unit full of books) and a garage full of unpacked boxes. I shut down and simply quit unpacking. Doug has taken some stuff from our garage to the storage unit and I occasionally unpack a box or two.

In December we finally got part our home office furniture (our old house had a great built office so no need for furniture). It was great to finally get our computers of boxes and/or tables onto real desks. I had room to unpack a couple boxes of our books. In February we got the rest of our book shelves for our home office. I hate to admit it but they are mostly still empty because I simply can't seem to get motivated to move and unpack any more boxes!

From December to March Doug spent most of this time looking for new office space for The Watch Prince. We have a very unique need of warehouse, office, and retail space at a reasonable rate without a 5 year lease. We are opening our first retail showroom and didn't want to be tied into a 5 year lease if the retail store front idea doesn't work. Anyway he leased a space so another move.

During this time Doug's sisters and I were making many trips to Doug's dads house to help him move and clean out. He was sorting and giving his children anything they wanted from his home so more boxes and stuff found its way to our house. His house of 30 years was for sale and he was also downsizing and cleaning out. His house sold in March so more moving packing, garage sales,tears etc and all the emotions that so with moving an aging parent from their home.

We moved our business from Sherwood, Oregon about 10 miles away in Beaverton, Oregon March 30 -31 It was a hard move and I left right in the middle of it to spend 5 days in Kansas City when my darling grandson, Isaac was diagnosed with diabetes and was in the hospital. It was taken us a few weeks to get settled in the new space and our employees to get used to their new commute. We had a few bugs to work out but things are going pretty well. The showroom isn't open yet but should be in a couple of weeks. Doug had decided we should have a, gulp "Garage Sale" at the new office because we have "too much stuff" and excess inventory. Sooo...yesterday we borrowed a truck and moved stuff from our garage to our storage unit and./or our new office, stuff from the storage unit to the office, pick up our tables and racks that had been used for Grandpa's garage sales and took it all to the new office for next week end garage sale. So this week I will be cleaning and sorting at the office and at home to prepare. Which brings me to why I started this terribly, horribly too long blog this evening I had a huge accomplishment this evening I wanted to share with you. I had decided that between now and Friday of this week I would unpack a minimum of one box each day. I will find more more the garage sale and I might actually someday be unpacked. Well tonight I not only unpacked one box, not even two, I unpacked three boxes!!! Which is huge for me with my mental block about unpacking another box! I refilled one box to take to the sale and threw away about half a box of stuff but these were not just three little boxes I got unpacked but three BIG boxes. I am so proud of myself I just had to share it!!

A Picture I Like

Just in case you are reading this and have not been to the Terada blog for a few days, or even if you have, I have to say that this is one of my favorite pictures. A grandmother and her grandson just don't get much cuter than this!

Nosy

Victoria and Dimitri decided to try out the "Upside-down, chin-as-nose" routine.

Here is Dimitri. His pose looks awesome.

Victoria gives it try, but cannot decide...

...which photo to pick. So, she picks her nose, instead!

Church Retreat

Sherwood Presbyterian Church held its 2nd Annual All-Church Retreat at Twin Rocks on the Oregon Coast on April 13-15th.

The first photo (above) shows why they call it Twin Rocks.

Dimitri and Gretchen on the beach.

Doug and Victoria in the dining hall during Sunday breakfast.

Dimitri and other kids playing in the cool Pacific Ocean.

Victoria and her friends pose in front of the Twin Rocks, along with Shari Gillaspie, Worship Director at SPC.

Easter at Kent and Julie's House

The final episode of the never-ending Easter photograph series! The Mortensen clan got together at Kent and Julie's (Doug's niece - daughter of Jackie) house for dinner.

Gretchen converses with Carol (left) and Jackie (right), Doug's two older sisters.

Debbie Shoup, Doug's younger sister, and her husband John share some conversation around the outdoor fire. It was a cool day, at the tail end of a busy couple weeks, so Doug and Gretchen spent most of their time relaxing by the fire.

Tammy (Jackie's daughter, our niece) and Stephanie (Carol's daughter, our niece) look comfortable as they talk with Carol.

Not sure if Grandpa (Doug's Dad) is doing a little "dumpster diving" or if there are drinks in there! :-)

Grandpa and Victoria pose near the outdoor fire.

Here is Gretchen, warming herself by the oft-mentioned, but yet-to-be-seen outdoor fire.

She was actually talking with Tammy about getting their hormones balanced. The kind of conversation that us guys don't usually get involved in! :-)

Easter at Pa and Grandmother's

Looks like somebody was "camera happy" on Easter weekend. Here are a couple pics from Pa and Grandmother's house on Easter Sunday.

Easter at the Mortensen House

OK, I am sorry for boring you with all these Easter photos. I've already wore you down with egg coloring. Now, here comes Easter Sunday...

Note that the sun was actually shining on Easter morning. Had a very difficult time getting a picture without at least one of these three squinting! :-)

Of course, when it was my turn, I decided to face a different direction so the sun would not be shining in our eyes.
Here is Victoria and Dimitri looking very grown up!

Some traditions live on, although in different forms. If it looks like Dimitri just caught an egg, it's because....

...instead of an egg hunt, Mom decided it would be easier to have an "egg toss." It was quite interesting to watch. She just sat there tossing eggs at Dimitri and Victoria.

The old tradtion is dead! Long live the new tradtion! Love that Egg Toss!

Easter Eggs - Part 2

Like her sister, Aunt Kimberly thinks that family traditions are important. That's why she sends Gabriella to participate in some of ours! Might be carving pumpkins in October, or in this case, coloring eggs for Easter. Regardless, we enjoy having her join us. I promised (threatened???) more in Easter Eggs - Part 1.

The first three photos show Gabriella with her Aunt Gretchen.




















Here is a shot of the egg-coloring group at work (above).

















Of course, coverage of an important event would not be complete without this egg-celent photo from the Easter Egg cam!

Easter Eggs - Part 1

Well, it was time for the 10th Annual Last Ever Easter Egg Coloring Event at the Mortensen house. You know, I keep thinking we have "outgrown" these rituals, but somebody (name withheld to protect my wife) keeps fanning the flames of "tradition."

Here are a few pictures of egg coloring on the day before Easter:





















Part II will include pictures of our guest egg colorer. Bet you can't wait!

Bowling Night

Tucker and Jen have been bowling quite a bit, this year. In fact, they even joined a bowling league, along with their business partner, Monte. A couple weeks ago, they invited us to join them for bowling out on the Eastside. Here are few pics from our night at the alley.