Womens’ Conference IV

Yep, that time of year again!  This was our 4th annual Bell Women’s Conference.  Good times!!!!

Tiff, Kristen, Me, Eliza, Melanie, Allyson.  Front:  Mandolin, Mom and Liane

My aunt Allyson was in charge this year and did a fantastic job.  Thursday night all of the aunts gathered and 3 of them proved their hardcore-ness by staying up til 4 am!!!!  The next generation got to join in the fun the  next day.  Friday started with about 6 of us, Ally, Mel, Liane, Me, Lize and Mandolin at the temple.  It was so neat to be with these women and after our session we younger girls got to stand around with our aunts and ask them a thousand questions about the temple and what they’ve learned.  That meant the world to me and was a definite highlight. 
After the temple, we joined up with quite a few more (Mom, Becky, Kristin, Tammy, and  Jan) for lunch.  Good food, good company, good fun.
We finished lunch and drove to Ally’s house to unload our things and change our clothes.  We walked down to her church and had a fun surprise.  Ally’s friend was there to teach us some line dances.  Pretty creative idea, and a great workout.  Kristen, Tiff, Tasha, Megan, Diane and Sara joined us there.

my cousin, Mandolin

Tiff and Melanie taking a break

When we were too hot and exhausted to dance anymore, we shifted gears to play some very exciting games of volleyball.  Volleyball is a big deal in our family, it’s serious business and gets very intense.  My uncles and male cousins/brothers are notorious ball hogs so over the years a few of the women have opted out.  This time everyone played and hidden talents were revealed.  Liane, for instance, was our secret scoring weapon.  Eliza, got everything that came her way except when she and my mom couldn’t decide who’s ball it was and did a series of alternating short yells and startled movements. 

We left the church and went back to Ally’s for a great dinner where her husband, Mike aka Jeeves, waited on us most attentively.  Brittany and Ashley joined us there.  After dinner Allyson gave a beautiful presentation on “The Errand of Angels”.   Before we came we were each supposed to write a paragraph describing our personality.  We all put ours into a big bucket and then drew someone else’s out.  We took turns reading each paragraph and guessing who it was.  It was kind of amazing how quickly we knew, but was so much fun to hear everyone’s description of their own personality. 

Next Ally broke out the sparkling cider and fancy plastic goblets for a toast after which we settled in for a long night of chatting and laughing that went all too quickly.   We sprawled all over the basement floor and couches and chairs and mats.  We listened to Melanie describe her harrowing trip to Egypt right when the protests broke out.  We discussed our church callings, marriages, parenting, confidence, dating, personality types and everything in between.

I didn’t look at the clock when I finally dragged myself to bed.  I think it must have been around 3 or 4 (Eliza has reported it was 4:45).  Liane, Ally and Jan had gotten about 2 hours of sleep the night before but still stayed up with us.  Amazing, love them!

Most of us slept in the next morning til about 10 and then went up for a fabulous breakfast.  Some of us got ready and we all tidied up a bit and then started our service auction.  We were all supposed to come prepared with something kind of service to be auctioned off.  We wrote down our service and then we had a sheet with questions having to do with being angelic which we answered to see how much currency we’d have to spend in the auction (things like have you done your visiting teaching this month?  Did you read your scriptures yesterday? etc.).  Megan was our auctioneer and read off all the services we could bid on.  We had things like: crochet a scarf, bring family over for dinner, overnight babysitter, will plan and host a girls’ night, help set up a blog, teach how to use google calendar and docs, help organize a room, lunch and spa, art, sugar cookies, math tutoring session.  It was very difficult to choose.  I won the lunch and spa day from/with Jan! 

Finally, Mandolin shared her beautiful testimony about angels in our lives and beyond the veil.  It was the perfect ending to a perfect womens’ conference.   I feel so blessed to have so many exemplary women to learn from.  I know that sometimes the men in our lives roll their eyes that  these gatherings are just a big excuse to party, which it is in part, but few things motivate and inspire me like feeling understood and loved and like I’m in good company in my efforts as a disciple, wife and mother.   Thank you so much, Allyson, for all your hard work and your amazing hostess skills!  Thank you everyone who was there for such a great weekend!  Major kudos to Bren for holding down the fort 2 weekends in a row!