Women's Conference

On Friday, I went to lunch with my sisters-in-law on the Trimble side. Jenny was in town, so we thought it would be fun. We met at Elephant Bar and enjoyed a nice lunch and conversation. Sarah came over to babysit, so I was able to enjoy it sans kids. When I got back Ellie helped me make caramel brownies before going down for a nap. Sarah came back over in the evening to babysit while Brian and I went out. We grabbed dinner and headed over to his sister's Laura's house for game night. His siblings came over and even some of his cousins. We played Catch Phrase to warm up, then moved on to Guts. I hadn't ever played it before, but it was a fun and easy card game. What made it "hard" was Rob inflicting "punishments" on us. If you lost a hand, you had a punishment. You could choose saltines (no water during the whole game), marshmallow or gum. I chose gum and got off to rough start having to put in a few pieces. By the end, I was up to five or six pieces. It was a mouthful. Jenny had to put five marshmallows in her mouth at once and we got a kick out of that--especially when she said something about a puff marshmallow man. We took a break to watch the incredible win by Michael Phelps. We were a little skeptical about that win, but if he did, then good for him. It just didn't look like there was any way he was going to win.

Today Brian went and swam laps with Jason, then came home in time for me to go to our stake women's conference. The theme was Believe in Yourself and we started out in the chapel where we had a little program. There were speaking/testimonies and songs after each speaker. I loved the songs "Beautiful to Him" and "Gentle". From there we got to choose 3 classes. It was so hard to choose! I went to "Raising the Next Generation" first and it was reiterated how important our role as mothers is. One quote she shared that I really liked was that raising children is a spiritual process. Knowing that, it kind of changes my perspective on things. The next class was "Personal Enlightenment: Receiving Revelation from the Scriptures" and it was mostly focused on marking our scriptures. It was such a great class! One of my favorites. I learned so much and I can't wait to apply it to my reading. The last class was called "Taking the Compliment" and was about finding inner and outer beauty taught by Rachael Thompson. She talked about examples from the scriptures of beautiful women. Here are some notes from my class:
The Lord loves diversity--just look at nature.
Confidence=Inner Beauty.
To gain confidence, we should pray, list our strengths, read our patriarchal blessing, keep a gratitude journal, develop talents and keep the commandments.
It was a great class, too! After our last class, we went into the cultural hall for lunch. It was decorated so darling with a Chinese theme. Some of the young women were the servers--dressed in black, white and red with their hair in a bun and chopsticks slipped in. The lunch was yum--teriyaki chicken, a yummy veggie salad, coleslaw and a great wafer-type cookie. Overall it was a great day--I am glad I went and could learn new things.

While I was gone Brian held down the fort and took the girls swimming. We got home at the same time and just hung out at home the rest of the day. We played a little Uno, Brian and Libby started a couple of puzzles, I watched some Olympics with Eliza before falling asleep, the girls did "pillow time"--one of their favorite activities--they take the pillows off the back of the couch in the front room and jump and roll over them. Probably not the best for the pillows, but they have fun and really love playing that together. I guess it's worth it! LOL.

Now I am working on my lesson for tomorrow and watching more Olympics!