I returned from my adventure yesterday afternoon and Brennan and the kids not only survived, but had a really nice time. Brennan cleaned and entertained and cared for the kids and house like a pro. I was missed though and that's always nice.
As for me, well I had a fabulous time. It was our 2nd annual Women's Conference with my Grandma, aunts and adult female cousins (and cousin in-laws) on my Dad's side of the family. I think there were about 17 of us. This group of women consists of amazing women who are incredible examples of womanhood and motherhood, and just plain fun. I made sure I took my camera, and then managed to leave it in my bag without taking one picture.
We met Friday morning in the Temple and enjoyed a beautiful session there. Afterwards we reconvened for a nice lunch downtown and then headed to our Church's Humanitarian Center where we had a tour. I had never been there before and was blown away. For a church consisting of 13 million members to be able to render such significant service to billions of people all over the world just blew me away and inspired me to contribute more to the cause. This organization through the millions of volunteers and donations is sending clothes, food, school supplies, hygiene kits, newborn kits, wheelchairs, quilts, preventative eye care programs, training for midwives to be able to increase survival rates of newborns, etc., etc. It was so inspiring and if you haven't been to your local LDS Humanitarian Center, I highly recommend it. I can't wait to take my kids and start working with them for the cause.
After our tour we went to my Mom's house who was kind enough to host us. We made dinner and chatted and then ate, of course. After dinner some worked on tying a quilt for the Humanitarian Center while we all chatted. I think we wrapped up the chatting somewhere between 4 and 5 am. This is always my favorite part. We laughed hard and even cried as we shared our struggles and talked about the things that make women cry especially in the wee hours of the morning.
Fortunately most of us slept in until about 10 am and then woke to a yummy breakfast. After that we gathered to listen to my aunt's sister-in-law who led an inspiring discussion on how we can find joy in suffering through our Savior. Again there were tears as many opened up and uplifted us by their strength through their trials.
It was a perfect blend of uplifting, spiritual, meaningful and fun. Thanks so much to Liane who organized the whole thing so wonderfully, to my Mom for being the perfect hostess, and Melanie and Brynn who travelled some serious distances to be with us. Also, my cousin, Mandolin, even managed to join us for a little bit after having a beautiful baby girl and an appendectomy. Those who couldn't be there were GREATLY missed! Thank you Brennan for making it possible for me to go! As much fun as I had, it's always nice to come home and be hugged and loved by my own dear family whom I really missed.
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6 comments:
That's great you gals do that. Reading about your late night chatting, trial sharing, and recreational weeping, I was trying to picture a bunch of dudes doing that.
Reba was telling me about some women in relief society sharing a story and crying. The crying wasn't the point of the story, but I picked up on it and asked some question like "was that awkward for anyone?" She looked at me disbelieving and said, "are you being serious?"
"well, ya I'm being serious."
"honey, no it wasn't awkward, there are at least 2 or 3 women that cry every week in relief society. This one was actually a slow day."
That struck me as so funny, and I burst out laughing. I mean, I was raised by Ol Greg so i'm pretty in touch with emotions as far as guys go, but even so, that seemed so funny and bizzare to me.
Anyway, all Mars and Venus-ing aside, your women's conference sounds very helpful. Classy ladies. I read in a book recently that deep down swapping stories (i.e. "experience") with each other is a very primal and effective survival tactic, and I'm a big time believer in that.
Ok, Reba just read my comment and said she thought my last paragraph was weird and that I was talking about "surviving in the wild." I'm not. Just saying that stories, even entertaining ones, often have a point or 2 that, if applied, usually help us do better in the world.
"Raised by Ol Greg"-- LOL!!!
Andrea, great recap of a wonderful time together. How blessed are we to be related to such terrific people and to have the opportunities to get together with them!
Christian, I was actually thinking about coming home and telling Brennan about our night and him trying to make sense of why that would be fun to me. There's an episode on Everybody Loves Raymond where he catches his wife sitting on the couch just crying. He stresses out about how miserable she must be etc. When he finally confronts her she tries to explain that having a good cry is just cathardic and he just did NOT get it. I guess we females are a strange breed :)
sounds like such good times. wish i could have been there. (except for the 4-5am part- i would not have made it!)
Wow, that is such a great thing your family does. I still want to try and organize it in mine.
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