Play Ball!

Cutter decided to play ball again this year.  After 3 years doing T-ball, he is moving on up to Pee Wee.  He got to play on the regular fields, and the pitching machine had a lot more juice, and oomph.  He is a pretty good little hitter, especially when he focuses.  They really focused on the game, and how to play, watching where the ball is going, watching for where to through the ball for the best opportunity for an out.  He still isn't found of "outfield" but, I am sure he will get there.  He played Catch a few games, and loved it when he could be one of the baseman.  But, we really need to work on catching and throwing .  I loved the move up.  He couldn't just easily come over and lay on me when he got bored.  I actually enjoyed this season.  Go "A's!" (his team this year - the Oakland Athletics)

9th Grade Sterling Scholar - Choir

   It was an afternoon the end of May, the phone rings, and I didn't quite get to it, and no one left a message.  I see that it was the Junior High that had called.  So I call back to see if Kenzie was trying to get a hold of me.  No, she wasn't in the office that they could see.  "Curious" I thought, but didn't worry about it.  If she needed me she would call back.  Not to much later, C calls me.  He just had an interesting phone call he tells me.  "I just got off the phone with the Vice Principal, at the Junior High."  I have one slight moment of "oh no, what did she do?"  But, it was ALL good.  She was calling to tell us that Kenzie had been chosen to receive a "prestigious" award, and invite us to the Awards Assembly where she would receive it.  She asked us not to say anything to McKenzie because she knew nothing of it either.  She would not elaborate anymore either. So we waited for the day.  Off she went excited for the Assembly, all dressed up looking beautiful.  She was excited for it being the end of the year, the class awards, the yearbooks, the dance, and a little nervous.  She had been asked to sing the National Anthem, solo! But, we assured her all would be well, and off she went.  Less than an hour later, C and kids and I head up to the school.  We "hid" in the back, and got to hear her sing.  She did great.  And then we waited.  I looked at all the title of the awards they were giving out, try do decide what  she might be getting.  It wasn't helping though.  Who really knew.  We had to wait!  As the assembly went on, we were checking off the list, no not that, not that...we were almost to the end.  The only thing left was Sterling Scholar.  Sterling Scholar!  We didn't even know that they gave out Sterling Scholar in 9th grade.  But, then, it was the end of the assembly, except Sterling Scholar.  The Principal gets up and tells a little background about these awards, and that at least half of those that received Sterling Scholar from the Junior High 4 years ago, where Sterling Scholar recipients this year their Senior year at their respective High Schools.   Not a bad statistic!  And he begins to present the award.  The first one he gives out is for the Fine Arts, Kenzie's choir teach stands and tells what qualities the recipiant of this award had accomplished to receive this award.  3 years of choir, never missed a performance, showed dedication and leadership to classmates, and the arts.  And then she said McKenzie's name.  We all were SO surprised, and SO excited.  Our little girl, Sterling Scholar!    

Great Bounty

When we started our garden 2 years ago, my goal was to eventually be able to make Chili Sauce (a Labrum Family favorite) without having to buy anything. This year, I was able to do that! 16 tomato plants, that have produced, produced, produced, produced. half a 8 x 4 garden box full of full size onions! Awesome!!! So fun to say "hey Kenz, go out and get an onion." And 1 finally successful green pepper planted basking in the cover of a tomato plant. It only gave us 2 of the 5 needed peppers, but it actually grew fruit, that was nice and big and thick!!!

We have been so blessed, by our garden, and the gardens of others. This year I have 15 pints of Chili Sauce, 15+ Quarts of tomatoes and 13 pints of Raspberry Peach jelly, and I am not done. I have at 7 quarts worth of tomatoes still to do, pears that are waiting to ripen for Raspberry Pear jam, and Pear Sauce.

I have fond memories of canning with my mom and my Grandma J. I so appreciate them letting me help, and teaching me their talents and skills. I hope to pass it on to my one children. Cutter already loves help. He has become a pretty good tomato skinner, and squisher. He even got to go to the neighbors, and help her. He loved it.

Family Outing

Couple of weeks ago, we ventured out for a ride. We headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It had been many a year since we had gone up there. We were in search of possible colored leaves. It was a beautiful drive, not much change in the way of leaves, but just a pleasant experience, being together, and enjoying what the Lord has created. We made it all the way to the top, up to Brighton and Solitude. We got out, and decided to make our way up to Mary's lake. Supposedly a 1 mile jaunt. I am sure it is just a mile, but it sure felt forever as we made our way straight up the mountainside. We didn't make it all the way to Mary's Lake, but we made it to the waterfall, and Dog Lake. The kids had so much fun. We met a couple and started to visit with them. We found out that the woman had turned 50 in March, and had made the goal to do 50 hikes in her 50th year. I believe she was on hike 36. What a fun goal. Maybe one day, I will come up with some kind of goal like that, something to add to my bucket list.

She's amazing!

Kenzie loves soccer. She is passionate about it. In May she found out that her current soccer coach was going to switch leagues, and that she would need to tryout. She was at a crossroads, as were we. We really liked her coach, and her team. She had learned and grown as a young lady from being on this team. Did she tryout for this league?, did she tryout for a different team on the league we were currently on? Should she tryout for the High School team? Trying out for this new league, could me a lot more money than what we had paid before. Her current coach had forgone his compensation, to make it cheaper for the girls. Did she try to go find a new team on the old league, maybe a team that other friends from school were on? I encouraged her to not try out for the High School team this year for many reasons, one of which was money, and time. I wanted her to be able to enjoy her 9th grade year, and not have to stress about all the after school practices, the number of games etc. She chose to follow the coach, and tryout for the new league. She tried out, and didn't make his new team...she was heartbroken. We felt so bad for her, and we weren't quite sure where to go from there. Then, she was approached by another coach from this new league. He asked if she was still interested in playing. YES! She was so excited. He would let us know more information later. We waited...and waited...he finally contacted her about practice. That was a trying experience in and of itself. She really didn't have an official team yet, we would go to the field for practices, and sometimes they were their, and other times not. But, even though we were not sure what was really going on for the summer, she learned more about playing soccer in those few months than she had in all her soccer playing. She learned foot work, and how to stay on top of the ball, she learned to hustle, and how to dribble the ball. With the other teams, she was learning plays.

Finally, after the summer was over, and the high school teams had been set, she had an official team, and he named her Captain, because she had been their all summer long. C and I finally felt at peace about this change after the parents meeting. The coaches shared with us that they are there to teach the girls skills to take them forward in their life, not just soccer skills, but skills to aid them in their life. How to set goals, how to reach them, how to not get discouraged, and to keep going. Yes, they want to win, they are competitors, but they want to help these girls grow and progress in their everyday life. I was sold! Except....we had no idea how much this was going to cost. We had not seen anything about the prices.

C and told Kenzie, that if she wanted to play, she had to earn the money. I gave her an amount that she had to reach, still not knowing how much it was going to cost, but based it on what we had paid before, and added to that for some buffer. She went to work. She and I contacted friends, family, and neighbors letting them know that she was interested in earning money, and that she would be willing to do any number of things. She prayed about it, we all prayed about it, and the phone started to ring, and the jobs began to come in. She babysat, she weeded, she took care of animals (horses, dogs and cats) and she cleaned. She worked hard, and she did not complain. Instead she was grateful! She knew that she was being blessed, and that the Lord had heard her prayers, and knew the desires of her heart.

When we finally got word of how much it was going to be, she had earned all that was necessary to cover the entire cost. She had paid her tithing, put some aside for herself for new clothes etc, and the majority went to soccer. SHE HAD DONE IT!!!!!

Such a testimony builder for her, a great blessing to us, as we are in Operation Get Dad Home, and such a special experience for a very special girl!!!! She is amazing! We love her!

Operation: Get Dad Home!

We have a new goal for our family. It has been our goal for quite sometime, but we have renamed it, reworked it and all are taking ownership of it. We have counseled together about it. We have discussed it as a family. We want dad home at night.

We have been very very blessed that in our time of need, C was able to get a 2nd job. We know how extremely lucky we are, when those close to us have had a hard time even finding any job. For many years now C has worked two jobs. We have managed without him being around at night, getting were we need to be, and doing all the regular after school, evening activities. It hasn't always been easy, but we have done it. BUT WE MISS HIM! We need him home. We need his love, his counsel, his help, his sense of humor, his teasing etc. So we have changed our prayers. We have changed our way of thinking. We have changed our goal. We still need to get out of debt, which is why he took the second job in the first place. We need that income to survive, that hasn't changed. But our outlook has.

Through our prayers, through inspiration from the Holy Ghost, we started Operation Get Dad Home. We all have had to rethink things, and are making sacrifices, and we are being blessed for it.

The kids are taking cold lunch now instead of hot lunch, saving us at least $80 a month. Cutter had a hard time at first, he was so excited to go to first grade and take hot lunch. But, we have worked it out. Each month they can pick one hot lunch that they want have. Kenzie is on board too, with some reluctance at first. There is stigma involved with "brown bagging it." But she too joined in. It is working out great, and I also am glad to have more control over what they are putting into their bodies.

The kids also gave up art. Every off track they would go to art classes. Cass and Kenz enjoyed it so much, and they both are so talented... but. It was also hard to make this decision, because it was Cutter's turn to join in on the art fun. But, we resisted. Kenzie has not said anything about missing going each week. Off track time has come and gone, and neither Cutter or Cass asked, or thought anything about the art classes. Such a blessing. We are saving $120 dollars each off track time because of this decision.

So many other things are blessing us in this goal. I will post more about Kenzie and soccer later. But, little things keep coming up that have helped us toward this goal. Expenses that we are able to cut back on, a raise from Kinkos, etc. etc. etc. There are so many little things, but great blessings too us. The Lord has had his hand in our lives, we see it, we recognized it, we love it, we have such gratitude for it. We have the faith, that when the time is right, as we continue to do the things that we have been counseled and prompted to do we will GET DAD HOME!!!!!!!

4th & 1st Grade

Both kids were very excited for this new school year, even though the last one just ended 3 weeks ago. I am very pleased with the teachers that they have. When tracks were assigned back in June, once again, we didn't get what we asked for. In fact, we got our last choice. I put in a track request change, and prayed. Prayed that whatever was the right thing for my children would come to pass, even if it meant staying with the track that they had assigned us in the first place. But, I got a phone call, and sure enough we were changed to they first choice I had requested. We are all very happy! Thank you Heavenly Father!