Misc:

Friday my presidency and I got together to make teacher appreciation gifts for our primary teachers. Andrea had seen this bookmark and we thought it would be cute and easy. We worked assembly line and I was the ribbon and flower puter oner 24 finished bookmarks

Six for the men and

19 for the women!

Tanner had his last band concert on Wednesday. He is not taking band in High School, so I was sad to see it over. He was kind of sad too. They played Malaguena and I tried to download it for you mom, but the video wasn't cooperating. Anyway, Taz doesn't know why that's your song. You've been slacking in your grandmother duties and not playing it enough during the summers so that Taz and Cynjyn recognize it. Get to practicing for this summer!!!

New Signature

Thanks to Carol, I have a new signature. She sent me a link to make this one myself and it just pops up in my new post box!! Love it! Thanks, Carol:)

Flashback Friday

I have very few pictures of me on a horse. But growing up I rode horses all summer long. Me and my friend Julie would spend summers at my Uncle Dennis and Aunt Peni's house on KL Ranches. We would ride almost every day. In the picture below, I'm still not on the horse, but my favorite horses are in the picture. Left to right: Blaze, Sandy, Sooner. Sooner was the horse I would ride. She got her name because she "sooner" be home than out!! Julie and I aren't actually on the horses, we're the ones on the ground (I'm in the tan pants) letting the little ones have rides). Anyway, she was a good cow horse and was the one I always rode during the round ups when we took the cows up to their summer pastures, or brought them down for the winter. The following is an excerpt from my journal dated March 19-27, 1976 entitled Spring Vacation. It tells a story of my and the horses:

On Monday we went to Jackie and Don's and Bruce and Billyie Joe in Washington. Kylene got the croop on Monday night so we went home on Tuesday if we'd have gone home on Wed. we could have been killed in a car wreck. So then I went to Edie's and we had fun. On Thrusday, we went to the movie "No Deposit, No Return". It's a neat movie, then Grandpa and Grandma came to get me on Friday and we came to Pendleton to get Julie, Rob and Randy, then we went to Pilot Rock and on to Denny and Peni's ranch to help brand and Julie, Denny and I went up the creek on horses and herded the cows but we had to leave them at the gate. We left at 1:00 and got back at 8:00 pm. The next morning we went back with the horses in the truck and we went up the creek and up a little hill. The truck started sliding back down and Sandy's reins broke and he slid out and broke the door and went right on out into the creek. So I got out to hold Sandy and then Sonner's saddle horn got stuck and Denny had to pull her out by the reins and she cut herself between the legs and it was bleeding then Blaze went to the top of the pickup and fell back and out. Her hind leg was super bad, it was bleeding like heck and then she went to the top and fell back and cut her hind hoof and it was bleeding kind of bad. But we had fun anyway!

So funny to read back over what I wrote. Just to clarify: The people in Washington were my Aunts and Uncles (My mom's sisters and their husbands). My sister Ky ALWAYS gets sick on trips and this proves it started at a ver early age (she wasn't even two yet). I don't know why we might have been in a car wreck, if I remember correctly, there was a terrible accident on the highway the day after we left! Edith (Edie) is my dad's cousin, my second cousin but we are the same age, so I would spend a lot of time during the summer with her. She lived in the same town as my Grandparents. The horses fully recovered from their injuries as we rode them for many more years to come!! (Carol, aren't you proud of me for including a journal entry!!)



I was 11 years old when this entry was written.

Day camp

Mid May, Taz had his last cub scout day camp. I went Friday from 4-8 and helped walk around with his group. He really had a good time at camp. He didn't want to go at first because all his "friends" had moved up to 11 year old scouts, but after the week was over, he was glad he went and said it was the best one he'd been to. Eating a churro from the trading post with his new friend Dylan.

Obstacle course

Bike round up

Learning how to take care of his bike

Sharpening a wooden knife so he can widdle a bar of soap. He didn't have time to finish it at camp, so he finished it at home over the week turning it into a guitar!

And his favorite, archery. He was a really good shot and his cubmaster commented on how good he was and he told him it was because his grandpa lets him shoot the bow and arrow every summer when he goes to Oregon!

Relaxing!

I just have to say that I am loving this time of year. I am done with preschool and I feel like a kid on my summer vacation. The kids are done next Thursday!! It is nice not to have to prepare preschool stuff. My last piano lesson was yesterday. My recital is Monday and then there are only a few kids taking lessons in June. I am so looking forward to the break. I wish all you faithful blog readers of mine out there had this luxury. I am truly taking the time to enjoy it. I have done the treadmill, laundry at leisure, some cleaning, some organizing and am about ready to make a list of "projects" I want to get done this summer. But for now, I'll just enjoy sitting here at the computer doing nothing, and pondering why sliders are square (thanks Ron).

Memorial Day

We had a fun day filled with swimming and swimming and friends. We had the Miranda's and Wikle's over around noon to swim. Cohen had no problems and as long as he had his noodle, he was good to go. He stayed in the pool forever. He loved jumping in on his noodle!

Cynjyn took a moment to bond with Sandler. She wanted to spend more time with him, but Sarah had him a lot too. Here they are playing with the water toys and Cohen is jumping in again!

I love this picture of them together. Both of them are adorable!!!Sandler got braver as the day went on. He started jumping in with Lewis catching him...

Then he would jump with Lewis...

Then he was just one of the kids and had a blast jumping with the whole group!




They perfected the jump by the end of the day.

Bet ya didn't know they could walk on water!!

After the swimming at our house, the Miranda's went home to their own celebration, and we and the Wikle's went to the Imlays for more swimming and a bbq. We left there a little before 7 and Tanner went to Star Trek with Jackson, Preston and Emily (they'd made the plan at the bbq) and the rest of us just relaxed the rest of the evening. I found a Land of the Lost marathon on TV and Taz watched a few episodes with me. He wants to see the new movie coming out and I was trying to explain to him about how we watched the show when we were little and I didn't remember it being a comedy. But after watching a few episodes with him, it was quite comical (because it was so old!) anywho, it was fun to watch a few!!

Interuption

I interupt this Flashback Friday for some very sad news. Last night while we were slumbering peacefully, someone stole Garry's 1994 Honda Civic from right in front of our house. It was there when we went to bed at 11:00pm, and Talon saw it when he walked Tiffany to her car at midnight. By 6:00 am when Garry went to leave for work, it was gone, without a trace!! The police came at 7:30 and took a report and told us that 80% of stolen vehicles in Las Vegas are recovered, so we are keeping our fingers crossed. We love that little car, especially Garry as his commute is clear across town and it got 35 mpg. So, keep your fingers crossed for us and lets all hope for the best!! Flashback Friday will return next week.

Thanks

Thank you to Carol for having contests and being so generous. I got my Starbucks card in the mail today and was just tickled. It's funny how something so small can make ones day. Carol has a top notch blog and you should all check her out. She always has something to say! Go, it will make your day. By the by, it's "Just too Swift" there on the right!!

Misc.

Tanner had an end of year awards ceremony Tuesday night. He got the Presidential Silver Award which is basically honor roll for kids that had a GPA of 3.5-3.75 all three years of Middle School. He is standing by his friend Tam on the right and Jack Lund Scholfield on his left. He is who the Jr. High is named after. He got that medal around his neck, a certificate and a letter signed by Barack Obama. Good job Tanner! (Tam is a poet and an artist, she drew some pictures of Tanner, I'll have to scan them in some time and post them~they are cool!) Yesterday was the last day of preschool. I made these cake pops for each kid and turned them into little graduation caps! This batch didn't turn out as well as the first that I made. I didn't have a red velvet cake mix even though I totally remember buying one! So I used chocolate. The cake was a little underdone, so the balls were very moist and after sitting on Toni's counter for an hour, two of them had fallen through the stick, but they were done and the kids at least liked the hat part!! You can find the directions to making these cake pops here

Tazalina

Taz's hair was getting quite long! He would spend an extra 5-7 min. in the bathroom in the mornings after his shower blowdrying it and "flipping" it to get the bangs to lay just right. Apparently all the girls as school loved his smooth soft hair and would come up and "pet" him at any given moment. I told him about a month ago he needed a haircut and then out of pure laziness it is now a month later. Tanner on the other hand, asked me to cut his hair Sunday and it wasnt too long. So, I made all Taz and Garry get theirs cut at the same time.

Right after the perfected flick of the head to get those bangs to lay right.

I call him Tazalina when his hair starts to get long as he is my second "girl"!


After the cut!! There's the Taz I know and love. I must admit, I did like the longer hair look, but come on, summer is upon us and this is just so much easier!! He was bummed because the girls were shocked and no longer came up to "pet" him anymore;)

Flashback Friday

After seeing my sisters blog posting about branding this last weekend, it got me thinking about when I was a kid. Branding was an annual event that we all looked forward to. So, sit back and enjoy seeing some old pictures of the Waite family branding!In the above picture starting from the right: My grandpa's brother Gerald, my grandpa (Elden), my dad (Ronald), his brother (Dennis), ?? and one of Gerald's sons.

First, the men would stand around discussing who would have which job and how it all work. Basically making a plan to make the day go as smoothly as possible when working with COWS! The cows always needed to be seperated from the calves after we paired them up to make sure each cow had a calf. Above is my dad waving his arm and carrying a big stick to make the cows behave and my grandpa is manning the gate that will separate them. Now, all of us extra people would always help out during this time making human fences and what not to assist in the seperation process.

My grandpa was dedicated to his cows, farm and for as long as he was able. Here is a later picture of him still manning the gates.
Then the branding would begin. It took a lot of man power to man those branding shutes. Often it was my job to push the calves down the fence into the waiting spot for them to enter the shutes. I liked observing much better than working!! I'm not to fond of cows as they can be unpredictable and cranky!

This is a picture of me holding my cousin Springe by my grandma. We are just watching, my favorite part!

Here is my Grandpa's brother Gerald, me, my brother Robert and my Aunt Peni's friend Donna. We are safely watching from a distance until we're needed to make a human fence.

I vividly remember the day this picture was taken. I'm holding my cousin Springe, my brother Randy, then my brother Robert, then my cousin Dieter. My brother Rob would always collect the calf ears in his pocket, when my mom got home and washed our clothes, the calf ears would always have fallen out into the washer and it would scare her to death!

My kids have only experienced branding one time a few years ago. Cows are now on Tanner's top 10 list of things that he is afraid of because of his branding experience. The year we were in Oregon for branding was intersting. There was quite a large calf that was so stupid and so ornery. It charged my dad and my uncle Reed and bashed both of them into the fence, it pushed down a fence and was just causing all sorts of grief. It was quite scary. That year we also had two big cows to brand that kept jumping over the fences and escaping. I think we left that day not ever having branded them because they had caused so much trouble, so I have included some more modern pictures of the year my kids got to experience branding. They may not like it, but I have such fond, wonderful memories of it being a time to spend with extended family members and enjoying the farm life!

I bet you didn't know branding outfits were so flattering?!Still happy, it has just begun.We had two shutes going and little man power, so everyone had a job.They are working so hard huh!Tanner is telling Taz something, Taz looks a little worried.Here are Taz and I trying to get one calf at a time to go to the shute (this is before Taz got butted by a calf and permantly decided to stay ON the fence, not IN the pen.)The fencing set up (Notice the boys are on the OUTSIDE!)Break timeI wasn't too good at getting the calves in the shute, so I got demoted (or promoted as I like to think of it to shute opener and closer!)Windy and cold, Tanner, Cynjyn and Taz by the troughLastly, my sister Ky with her own personal calf getting branded!!