Through Rain or Shine

Actually it was snow. . .
Last Wednesday Christy and I headed up to Provo for our yearly Women's Conference trip. Just outside of Cedar City we hit snow. And it didn't let up until just outside of Provo. Christy was glad that I was driving. I checked the weather and was expecting rain, but not snow. We were not prepared. We stayed with our husbands' Aunt. We picked up some groceries and a movie and vegged on the couch until bedtime. Thursday was the long day of conference. We went to the opening session and listened to Sister Beck speak on the theme. The theme came from Moses 6:33-34: "Choose ye this day to serve the Lord." She talked about what it means to serve the Lord (knowing your mission/priorities), and how we can choose to serve the Lord (increase faith). She likened the sisters to a lioness. A lioness protects what is important to her. If a woman believes in something she makes sure that it gets done. For example, family scripture reading is important to me--it will get done every day.

Christy and I split up for the next couple of classes. I got lost going to my first class and it was cold (I had a hard time navigating around campus this year), but finally made it. Two sisters talked on designing a righteous family. Then I went to a class on communication. My notes talk about what was important to me, but I can't give a summary of the talks from them. Next, I met Christy for a Book of Mormon class. The two sisters gave some advise on how to make the scriptures part of your life and the lives of your children. One was really big on journaling and sharing experiences with her children.

Everyone came back together for the final closing session. There was a fantastic musical number by Daniel Beck. I've never heard of him, but I definitely will try to find more of his stuff. The speaker talked about coming together and sustaining each other in righteous choices. The biggest thing I got from that was even though we all believe the same, we aren't going to do the same things to get where we want to be. We are all individuals united in the same cause.
Christy and I then went to the Scatter Sunshine service project. We made tu-tus to give to girls in orphanages.

Then we moved on to the Sharing Stations--a trade show of service ideas. There were about 50 booths that people had put together with ideas from service, to ward activities, to cheap dates, to family home evening ideas. I got a lot of good ideas.

Last was the best part of the day--the concert! We saw Hilary Weeks, Michael McLean, Dallyn Vail Bayles, Mercy River, the Fab 5 and (my favorite) Alex Boye. It was a rocking night! So much energy and enthusiasm.

After that busy day, Christy and decided that we still needed to go running. We were just going to take a short run around the neighborhood and ending up getting lost and going a lot further that we planned. We didn't get to bed until after 12:00.

The next morning was cold and it was snowing. We decided we had better find some hats and mittens. We tried 3 stores, but they had already been put away for the season or sold out. We had to suffer through the cold with just our light jackets.

The opening session was about welfare and the church humanitarian services. It's amazing how much the church has done for all the disasters that have occurred.

I then went to a class about keeping the spirit with me and another about the atonement. Then Christy and I went to a class on prayer and to the closing session by Brother and Sister Oaks. I was so tired all day. I definitely need to be better about my sleep next time. Notice my hair in this picture. The sun was shining, but the wind was blowing and it was a cold wind. Christy and I had decided to run a 5K while up in Provo, so after Friday's session, we picked up our packets and headed to DI to see if they had any beanies and mittens. Luckily we found some stuff. We headed home and worked on some crafts and watched TV.

Saturday was the day of our race. Before I left Phoenix, I had a friend who is in school to become a massage therapist give me a massage. I've been having issues with my IT band and it was painful to run very far. Someone recommended a painful massage for those muscles. It hurt, but it was a good hurt. And I was able to run my race without any pain (thanks Melanie). In fact, I feel like I ran an awesome race. I was able to keep a good pace and I beat my time from the last race (I ran it in 30:37). WHOO-HOO! We were very glad that we had bought some warm stuff. It snowed or rained the whole race. We were soaked and freezing at the end.

Jonathan's sister, Alison, met us at the race and we spent the rest the rest of the day shopping. We like to hit the DI stores and Down East and the distribution center. We found a lot of cute stuff. Then Christy and I headed back to Aunt Arlene's house and worked on our craft projects. I didn't take any pictures. We made some flower hair pins, a flower pearl necklace, and a skirt. Then we went to bed early.

The next morning we cleaned up and packed all our treasures into the car and headed home. We drove through the snow again. We were making good time when we ran into an accident just past the dam. We waited for awhile to see if it would clear, then found out it was going to take 3 hours! We turned around and went home the rest of the way through Laughlin (we'll probably go home that way every time). We got home in time to tuck our kids into bed.

It was a fantastic trip. I love going with Christy--she's easy to talk to and lots of fun. We has some good discussions on our drives up and back and I even started reading a book aloud. The speakers had stuff that I needed to hear. And it was just enough of a break to get me through the rest of the year.

What was going on at home while I was away? Jonathan was having final's week, so he was preparing for oral exams and writing papers. My dad watched the kids one day then my mother in law had them for a couple of days and Jonathan had them when he was done with school. The kids had a blast with their grandparents, but were glad to get back to normal when I came home. I hope that finals don't fall the same time as conference next year.