My Husband Has a Funny Job

It's Backwards Day at Austin's School


Jill won 1st place in an essay contest on Why I Love My Community, and she got to read it to the Utah League of Cities and Towns mayors and city council conference. We got to stay at the Sheraton. She got prize money and travel money. She did a great job reading it (and writing it of course). We went swimming at night and in the morning, and she got a gift basket of great treats

This is Ernest, the bellhop/customer service/security man at the hotel who gave all of us some cool balloons. He was so funny.

We got to stay at the hotel on Jill's birthday. We went to see my Grandpa, Mom and sisters that night, too, and had some quality cupcakes. Happy Birthday Jill!


Jill rode her horse in two parades as the rodeo princess. She rode our new horse, Cheno. We need to teach Jill to do a softer beauty queen smile:)

Hanna and Austin rode on the school float.

We celebrated our 13th Wedding Anniversary. Since it was on a Sunday, we had a candlelight dinner in our living room with Jill and Hanna as our waitresses. Lucy was the dancer for entertainment. Carly just wanted to sit on my lap and eat my delicious food with me.

I love my kids!!!

Words of Advice

This is what we learned this week.
1. Don't do business with friends. (except the Campbells mortgage/real estate team)
2. Get any deals you make in writing.
3. Listen to and then follow the Holy Ghost.

In other news,
Jill is heading out on her first babysitting job. Doesn't that bring back memories of your babysitting days? And it makes me feel a bit old. She has spent the afternoon getting games and projects ready to take. She'll do great.

Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis

Lucy tops our news this month with a new diagnosis of Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis.
She has always had different shaped legs, first it was her ankle, now she has one knee that is way bigger than the other because of extra fluid on it. So we finally took her in to get it checked. After two different doctor's exams, an X-ray, an MRI, and blood work (actually we haven't gotten the results back from the blood work), they decided it is juvenile arthritis. She has a mild case because she doesn't have pain in her joints, but she will have to take medicine and go to lots of doctor check-ups until she grows out of it (we hope). The worst part (but best part about catching it early) is the chance of chronic eye inflammation, which could lead to blindness, but it is very treatable if it is monitored and medicated. So she has to go to an eye doctor every 3 months for the next few years, and get checkups from the rheumatologist.

Austin, Jill and Hanna started back to school today. We had such a fun summer.


Jill is starting 5th grade with Mr. Allen who has the theme of Survivor, and he has horses and he judged one of Jill's 4-H Horse Shows this year. Hanna has Mrs. VanSlyke for 3rd grade, and her teacher is an environmentalist who doesn't eat meat. They are both excellent teachers so they are very excited to start school.

For Waite Family Fun Days, we went camping and then we played in Tony Grove Lake in my Dad's canoes. It was super fun.

All of the Waite grandchildren (except Capri)


Grandpa Randy watching the canoe of kids come to shore

We had a fun ward party last week. The bishopric did a skit of a spoof of Rapunzel. Austin was the prince. He had a cantaloupe and a bowl of pancake batter dropped on his head. He gets himself into those kinds of situations quite often.

Then we played Limbo. No one in my family won.

HannaLucy

Kaylynn
Jill

Family Picture

July - We love summer

We have gone 4100 miles in the last 5 weeks:

*Trip to Salt Lake to see my high school friends and high school reunion

*Trip to Ogden to see my college friends

*Trip to Canada

*Trip to Salt Lake to see the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house


*Trip to Lagoon
*Trip to Huntsville for Austin's mission reunion

In between those trips,
Jill went to 4-H Horse Camp

Jill had a 4-H Horse Show

Hailey (quality cousin) stayed with us for 5 days

Sarah's family (6 kids plus parents = 8) stayed with us for 5 nights

Kid Zone Band performance

Jill, Hanna, and Hailey barrel raced in the 24th of July Junior Rodeo

Hailey on Amigo (after the injury)

Austin gets July off, and we love it. We play, we work, we do projects, we ride horses, we run errands. We are going to be sad when he has to go back to work on Monday.

But we have had a super fun summer so far. We have done lots of fun things.

Summer So Far

We have been on summer break for one week.
So far ....
*We have gotten more rain than we usually get in all of June. Our garden is growing nicely. It does need some sun to balance the rain. We even added some free raspberry and blackberry starts this week from a guy in our ward.
*Jill went to her first 4-H Horse Show. She did great. She got 1 Blue, 5 Red, and 1 White awards. (Blue is best.) She did so good considering we haven't ever even watched a 4-H Horse Show before, let alone compete in one. Austin had to leave to go to a baptism during part of the day so Jill and I had to saddle our horse. Let's just say there were tears involved (from Jill) and then Jill was in the arena warming up with all of the other girls and I hear another girl yell across the arena, "Hey, Dad, Jill needs her saddle tightened."
*Austin got to go to a calf roping jackpot. It was supposed to be outside but they moved it inside. Jill and Hanna ran the gate at the end of the arena. They liked it, and it gave them entertainment while Austin roped. (I forgot to take my camera).
*All of us have started our summer jobs at South Cache. Jill, Hanna and Lucy clean all of the lockers and scrape the gum off the bottom of the desks. Another lady and I check every locker combination to make sure it get set to the right one for next year. We like getting some extra $$$.
*Jill is at Summer Games in Cedar City with her soccer team. Can you believe I have a kid old enough to go on trips without us? We are going to go down later.
*Austin and I spoke at our ward's youth conference about dress and appearance. We told lots of stories about dating (the bike rack story) and getting engaged (the dusty roads of life). It was pretty fun.
*We may have some more news to share. We will know by tomorrow at 5 p.m. I will give you a clue that we have been hanging out with the Campbells.

Nice Buns

In Canada, this is a pan of "buns." I keep telling Austin that in America we call them "rolls." Anyway, if you have a breadmaker, you should try this recipe. We love it. I make them at least once a week because they are so easy.

Austin has honestly made these comments: "That is a nice pan of buns. I have been waiting for years for you to develop this talent."

I have used the dough for rolls, cinnamon rolls, breadsticks, and pizza dough. The rolls are really good if you brush them with melted better when they come out of the oven. Sometimes I let them raise the full time in the bread machine. Sometimes I take them out after they are done mixing and only let them raise on the pan.

Basic Roll Recipe for Bread Machine

In Bread Machine, add ingredients in this order:

1 1/4 cups warm milk (I microwave it for 1 minute)

1 egg

3 1/2 cups flour

1 t salt

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup shortening

1 T dry yeast. (buy yeast at Sam's or Costco in the square blocks - it is way cheaper)

Turn bread machine to dough setting. When dough is raised, form into dinner rolls or cinnamon rolls. Let rise until nearly double. Bake 350 for about 15 minutes or until nicely brown.

YOU HAVE GOT TO TRY THEM. YOUR FAMILIES WILL LOVE THEM!