Happy Birthday Will.

10 years ago I had my last baby.

He's not a baby any more.

Happy Birthday Will!!!

We Love You.

Cougar Country.

  We ventured over to the BYU  Bookstore today where three crazy events took place:

1) I almost ran over NieNie in the parking lot (so sorry, looking for a parking spot was highly distracting).

2) I had a chance reunion with a Jerusalem friend (after 25 years). 

3) I got a 30.00 parking ticket (penance for #1)

Oh yeah, and we had this....

Good times in Cougar Country.

A Graduation Party with a Smattering of Birthday Gifts...

(BIRTHDAY GIFTS)

HAPPY GRADUATION!

School's Out. Bring On Summer.

As per tradition at Spring Creek Elementary, the last day of school is celebrated with a DANCE FESTIVAL. Each grade has a traditional dance (though every once in awhile,  teachers are brave enough to explore something new and different). This year, Will "Thrillered" and Hannah "tinickled." I have no idea how to spell that word, nor do I know what it means except that they hit sticks on the ground and other 6th graders jump through and around them. Very cool. 

Will is a Zombie complete with tattered shirt and stressed out dance moves.

Zombie? I think not.

Hannah tinickling...I googled it.Nothing

Will and his awesome teacher, Mr. Hoehne.

And as traditional in the Labit family, we hiked the Y on the morning after. Some of us declined this year (way to represent the females, Hannah) but those who went...

...felt immense awesomeness! Except for Hannah who apparently just felt tired.

Even though the temperature is hovering in the high 50's, it feels like we are ready for the impending summer adventures.

Ready or not....

Graduation: The Final Chapter

 Who's lucky to have family in Hawaii who loves her enough to 

fly in fresh, gorgeous graduation lei's?

So, we have been to a few graduations this week.
We have learned a few things.


First of all, Springville High School has the graduation thing down to a science. No one speaks longer than two minutes.  They know that people are really there just to see the diplomas handed out. Short and sweet. 

Timpview, on the other hand, oh boy. Long, long, long. Very funny  and clever student speakers but the others?
Long, long, long. 


Spring Creek? Their 6th grade graduation was almost as long as Springville High School's. Lot's of student recognitions- which is great when your child is being recognized left and right...(way to go Hannah!)
Moment of shame? When they had all the students who had never been to the SRC (the naughty kids room) stand up. That left all the others sheepishly sitting on the stage in front of us for all to see. Not so sure that was a good idea.


All in all, it was a fun two days. 


And Michaela has provided us with another first: we have our first high school graduate!


Way to go us! (and Michaela of course...)

 Thanks Grandma Brown for being able to come and 

celebrate with us!

Thanks Grandma Tomi and Cook family for the gorgeous representation of our Hawaiian heritage!

The fragrance makes me so homesick!

 Love, love, love to all!

Graduation: Part Two

Hannah graduated from 6th Grade today!

Top of her class...she had an amazing year.

Congratulations Hannah!

We LOVE you.

Graduation: Part One.

Today Meghan graduated!!! Woot! Woot! 

With High Honors by the way....

Big congratulations Meghan!

 

Tomorrow is Michaela's turn.

We came home to find this on our doorstep....

What was in it?

You'll find out tomorrow....

Tablecloths and Girls Camp

Girls Camp is coming.
Really quickly.
As the leader of a girls camp group, I have been doing much internet gathering of ideas and information. In doing so, I ran across a comment forum the other day, where all of the women were commiserating about how they were brainwashed at Girls camp. 
Seriously?
They were all pretty much mocking the big, dramatic stake event that is usually recreating some spiritual, scriptural experience.
Each woman was expressing outrage, humiliation, and indignation that young, impressionable Mormon girls are being subjected to these experiences.
As a matter of fact, one of the ceremonies they described, I am pretty sure I experienced just a couple of years ago.
It involved large tablecloths. 
It was a little weird.
However, was I shocked or offended? 
Not even close.
Girls Camp is an incredibly unique opportunity to shut out all worldly distractions and help girls learn how to feel the spirit. Sometimes, providing those experiences helps them feel the spirit more intensely. 
Maybe we can get carried away in creating those experiences,
but never have I met a leader whose heart isn't in the right place.
Our goal in  the Young Women's program is to bring girls to Christ. 
Girls Camp is one of the most sacred places to do that.
Tablecloths or not.
.

An Awkward Truth:

I am expanding.

Wearing a "wake-up call" tent dress to church has put my mind a-spinning as to why.


Here is what I have come up with:


1. I am 46 almost 47 and my metabolism just ain't what it used to be.


2.I have RA and run less than I used to.


3. I am taking a steroid every other day.


4. I don't get enough sleep.


5. I eat too much.


I'm going with number five.
Weight is usually about calories in and calories out.
Uhg.


This post is just way too much information isn't it?

Oh My Goodness, Just Enjoy.

Michaela went to Prom and I took terrible, terrible pictures.

The best picture I could come up with-

has candles coming out of her head...

I failed, they just get worse from here...

But if you edit them extensively, they look kind of cool...

Hope the night goes better than the pictures did.

Her Head in the Clouds and Her Foot Out the Door.

 Since the first day of kindergarten, this girl has been ready to fly. She stepped on the bus without looking back, ready for whatever the world had in store for her. 
It's about to come full circle. 
With a summer away from home on the horizon, and college to follow, I'm the one questioning, doubting, worrying, while Michaela is wondering, dreaming, anticipating. 
And rightly so.
This is when life gets fun. 
And hard.
It's exciting.
And hard.
College shaped me. 
It pummeled me at times, 
but it also whispered beautiful truths to me ...
about me,
about God,
and about life.
I am anxious for Michaela to have some of those life experiences.
But as a mother, I wonder if I have prepared her enough.

Prayer, scriptures, temple:
The balm to every heartbreak, heartache, and battle wound.
If she knows that, really knows that, she'll be okay.

After all, He let her go first.
I am sure she left Heaven in much the same way she got on that kindergarten bus.
And the same way she will leave us in two weeks.
With a big, huge smile, ready to fly.

So Many "Best" Talks...

Some favorite quotes from The Laborers of the Vineyard:

"The race we are really in is the race against sin, not with each other."

"Coveting, pouting, or tearing others down does not 
elevate your standing, nor does demeaning someone else 
improve your self-image."


"Surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don't expect it and often feel they don't deserve it."


"His concern is for the faith at which you finally arrive, not the hour of the day in which you got there."


"Don't delay, it's getting late."

A Mothers Day First.

I almost spent Mothers Day in the Emergency room. 
Elijah decided to slit his wrist an hour before church. 
Luckily, he missed any veins or arteries. 
Dad came home and spent the afternoon with the doctor. 

After all was said and done, Elijah wrote me this Mothers Day poem:

Roses are red, blood is too. 
Happy Mothers Day.

Yowza. He'd better stick to his Chinese songs.
 

Before...

After.

Five Reasons Why I Love Being A Mother.

Michaela

Beth

Elijah

Hannah

Will

 Happy Mothers Day to me.

Fearless.

The mother: A big fat scaredy cat.
The daughter: Fearless.
How did we manage that?

Jacob Raymond Paynter's Pre-Birthday Celebration

 As per usual, we in the Labit, Backus, Paynter clan celebrate birthdays on whatever Sunday the said day falls closest to. For Jacob it was Sunday, May 6th.

He wanted a "Bird Cake" and it was a great stress in my life to come up with just the right cake. Wow, did I ever come through! (snicker, snicker)

Christine won the prize for the most creative wrapping/disguising of  a present. Brilliant, right?

And despite a little mind melding by Will, I do believe that Jake had a great pre-birthday.   Hope that May 8th is even better!

Two Hundred and Thirty-Nine Chapters.

Yesterday was a monumental day in the life of the Labit family. 
We achieved something we have only achieved twice before in the past 18 years. 
We finished the Book of Mormon.
It usually takes us many, many, many years. 
Sometimes we read 7 verses a night. One for each of us.
Lame. But better than nothing....
However.
We started a reading program in January that took us through the Book of Mormon in just 4 months. 
Difficult? Yes. 
Worth it? Yes.
Some nights were marathon catch ups with lot's of groaning and complaining. 
But we did it.

And as our tradition, we went out to eat to celebrate.

Yesterday it was Tucano's (Brazilian BBQ).

It was some good eatin' !

After Tucano's, we stopped in at a super fun toy store called Blickenstaff's. My kids proved that you're never too old....

Then we headed up to PetCo to purchase a birthday gift for Jacob's impending celebration. 

(If you can guess what we got him, please don't tell.)

It was also a good time to review the animals that would never be welcomed in our home...

Life is good.

And finally, might I leave with you 
the great power of the Book of Mormon, 

in the words of a man who thought his writing was weak ? 

"And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask of God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost."

Moroni 10:4

My heart just aches with the truthfulness of it 
and with my love for it.

 May it be the same for you.

Shabbat Shalom.