Christmas 2012 Season’s Greetings! In preparation for this years letter, As usual I went through all the previous years Waiss letters. I have wrote about changes, time, phases, reflecting. In trying to narrow down a theme for this year, after reviewing my notes taken throughout the year on events and happenings, I find myself without a set theme for this years offering. Our lives have all gone in different directions, how am I too pull it all together into a nice neat 2 (or 6) page letter and tie it all up nicely? I struggled with this for several days, before realizing, I cant. And so I wont. This years offering will be much like our year. Full of a bit of everything, it will wander, and it will inform, but it wont follow a path. Get out your GPS, its time for the Waiss’ to share their world. At the corner of West 57th street and 7th avenue in New York City, is Carnegie Hall Across the street from that is the hotel Cameron and I stayed for 5 days with Kaylee, Justin, Jacob and Kaylee’s life long best friend, Lexie. Our NYC adventure in the spring was Kaylee’s choice for her Senior Trip gift. We visited Times Square each day, navigated the Subway (seeing real life NY rats on the tracks was a thrill), we strolled Central Park, and had a quiet moment at Ground Zero, Walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, took pictures at midnight atop the Empire State Building, ate authentic NY pizza in Little Italy, shopped on Canal Street from immigrants running contraband stores in back rooms (but we got really good deals) and the boys discovered that Hot Dogs from a food cart are the best food ever! We connected with my childhood best friend and NYC resident Aaron, who was an excellent tour guide for a day showing the kids parts of the city and streets that no organized tour would have ever done. They got a feel for the city, and he was quizzed endlessly on his life in the city that they all fell in love with. Seeing Kaylee discover, marvel, and thoroughly enjoy what I think is the best city I’ve ever been too made many lasting memories for me, ones I will never forget. A quick jaunt to Tacoma at the end of the summer was our only other getaway, but the 3 youngest managed to make it a thrill by strapping themselves to a wire, being hoisted 125 feet into the air, then dropped. All while making me video tape it from the ground. Without shaking. Ashley took her final step in breaking away, by becoming Mrs. Brandon Shultz in front of almost 200 people this fall. With no back up plan allowed for the unpredictable gorge weather she planned an outdoor wedding in a wide open meadow, with a simple “it BETTER not rain”. As the full sun just started to drop over the mountain in the distance, vows were exchanged, some tears were shed (the entire front row of Waiss’), and the ceremony was beautiful. A huge party followed, and Ashley beamed the entire time. Of course, reality hit the next day as a certain toddler hit’s the floor running every morning! Macie has continued to be a joy in all of our lives, and her toothy grin melts all who see it flashed. Though she has ma-ma and da-da down, I am working on Pop-Pop each day. It appears I may have to settle for “Hot (Hawwt)” as that seems to be her favorite. I’ll take it. Ashley continues to make peoples bad hair look beautiful, or shaggy guys hair short and stylish again in her home salon she has set up. She loves doing hair, and loves working from home, and Macie is able to stay with her mom all day. Brandon is now a shop boss at his mechanic job for the mill. I am not sure what that means, but they were able to move to a larger, better suited house this fall and their cupboards are full, so I’m assuming it is lucrative, and he too is able to do what he loves each day. Kaylee too walked down an aisle in a gown this year. Of course, hers was maroon and she looked like the other 70 kids she has known for 13 years, all wearing the same gown. Graduation was made even better for her as she was awarded several scholarships. She is currently attending college in Vancouver, working towards an Associates Degree in Business. Her dream of owning her own coffee shop has not wavered. Kaylee recently moved into her own apartment “in the city”(much nicer and bigger than her parents first apartment), thus escaping the confines of her hometown. I have a feeling she hasn’t looked back yet! With her scarf stylishly tied, and a grin the entire time, she mastered the streets (and ignored the traffic lights) of NYC in no time and proclaimed if it wasn’t for her niece being in Washington, she’d move there in a second. This past year Kaylee has grown up so much, it is hard to remember she’s still only 19. I think. Justin too had a year of growth. He was on the Varsity Basketball team last winter, and was in the top 2 of the high scorers for his soccer team last spring. He spent 10 days in June in Mexico with a youth group, building a church. (Although the pictures all seem to involve playing with children or posing in goofy stances with his friends). He spent several hours working at Multnomah Falls Lodge in the restaurant this summer, and continues working a few days a month there still during their slow season. Discovering the lucrative world of “tips” from a restaurant has not deterred him from wanting to go into construction, and he has applied at Central Washington University to study in their highly rated program. Justin took a short trip to visit the school with some friends recently, and came home full of college stories after just a few days of experiencing it. He’s ready. I’m not. He is looking forward to winter weekends snowboarding with friends, if he can put down his video game controller long enough to get outside. Jacob a few weeks ago got a reason to smile as he became the last Waiss child to get their braces off, thus ending their mothers and mine 10 year streak of trekking to OHSU every 6 weeks for an ortho appointment. I’m not sure who was happier! Jacobs pictures from Mexico oddly enough do not include hammers or saws either, and his stories from his “mission” rarely mention a building. Basketball and soccer again took up his winter and spring, Long boarding and swimming took up his summer. He took a road trip to Central Oregon with some friends to go rafting, with no parental chaperone. I drank the alcohol I warned him not to while he was gone, as my nerves were on edge the entire time. Working alongside his brother at the restaurant, gives them extra bonding time. He is currently serving on the student council, and is involved in many school activities in his final year of High School. Our year has been busy, yes. The Schultz’s will continue to navigate newlywed life, and parenting the adorable Macie. Kaylee’s newfound independence will increase her confidence, and also decrease her reliance on her need for her parents in her daily life. Justin will graduate in June (with honors it appears) and will leave his parents homes in the fall to begin his own adult life. Jacob will walk across the stage also to get his diploma, on his way to Architecture School at Washington State University. The boys have chosen “somewhere tropical” as their senior trip destination. Which to me means “sand, and rum, maybe some foliage”. As for me, well…I’m not sure. I find myself in an odd place. I’ve been a daily, hands on dad my entire adult life (and even some of my preadult life I guess). My shift is almost over. I am not sure what direction I’m supposed to go in, as my compass’s will all be gone soon. I plan on being there as always, anytime, for any of the Waiss kids. Grandkid included. But I also know I need to work on me, and doing something, and finding my new path. This next year will be a time of change for all of us. As I reflect on the various phases our lives have taken and gone through, I am anxious to see what’s next. And with that, I realize that the Waiss’ year does have a theme after all…life. And it’s a good one friends and family! Merry Christmas~

Failed Crops

once upon a time, not to long ago, there was a small town that was like a storybook village. In this town, there were not alot of people, and the way of life was simple, and not so busy as that of the city. Most of the people in this town had fields, and they were proud of these fields. In fact, many people moved to this small town because of the land. The land turned out good crops, and the farmers were proud of what they sowed. This town was a proud town, and was very good about supporting their own, so most of the farmers went to the local supply store for their fertilzer for their farms. Now this store was held in fairly high regard by people all around the area. It was good to the people, and it sold good fertilzer and materials needed for succesful crops. The store, Supreme-Crops, Saving-Dollars had been around since the town was started, and generations used the store for thier farming needs. And season after season, the locals went to their local market, SCSD for all their supplies. And life was good.
But their came a time when the farmers began noticing their crops just werent up to par. Since the ground was still fertile, and the seeds were planted perfectly, they realized that the fertilzer that SCSD was selling just wasnt the same. they werent getting the quality they expected. At the same time, SCSD was hiring more and more fertilizer experts, and their expertise was proven by the papers tacked to the wall. When the farmers tried to talk to the managers of SCSD about the fertilzer that was getting worse each season, and thier crops that were not doing so well, they were told "these guys are the best. they have papers that show us they understand fertilzer. We pay alot for our fertilzer experts". And the farmers were sent back to their crops, to do what they could to try and help them get ready for harvest, bad fertilizer or not. And so it went. Each year, the crops struggled, some farmers had good product, some didnt. Even the good ones though did not hold up well when compared to crops from other areas, and the lack of quality showed. Due to their location and the fact that they were farmers, many of them could not shop for their fertilzer at other locations. So they were stuck. They tried again to talk to their manure salesmen, but were surprised to find a sign on the door that said "our manure experts work so hard, they have gone home early. Come back another time".
After a particulary rough couple of years on the farmers incomes due to what was known as the "great recession", and just as their nations president was pulling them out of very dark period of little prosperity, SCSD threw a huge bombshell at the farmers. they informed them that the manure they desparatly needed for their crops was increasing in price. All of the sales managers, and assistants to the sales managers, and drivers of the manure, the manure administrators began crying to the farmers that they would lose the quality of manure if they did not pay a higher price. "what quality?" the farmers asked. the manure managers then pulled out their fancy papers that showed they were experts and said "look! See how qualified we are!". Again, the farmers asked "what quality". Beginning to panic, the managers then said, "if you dont pay extra, SCSD will have to stop some things. We wont deliver to your fields anymore. We wont be able to offer the tools to spread manure. If we are sick, we wont be able to have a relief manure salesman help you. We may have to close our store down if you dont pay more. But look at our papers, we are experts at selling manure". The farmers couldnt pay more for their manure that wasnt getting the results they expected, and so they told the people at SCSD this. The sales people then said "everyone around you pays a higher price for their fertilzer than you do. you should have to pay too. What you dont understand is for years our government has given us so much money for our fertilzer, we were rolling in manure money, which allowed us to sell it to you at a cheaper price. They gave us so much money in fact, we threw it at our salespeople and our showroom, but now realize we should have planned better. But, now we have so many high paid experts (look at their fancy papers!), and so many luxuries for our store, that we need you to help more financially to pay for all of this" the farmers stood by in disbelief as they were handed their bills for their manure that they knew was not good, but they were stuck with anyway.

February 14 folks. Time to decide if we want to continue paying for the same manure, or if we want to force the adminstrators to find better quality with the money they currently are collecting.