Older and Wiser

Another year has gone by, and last week we celebrated my birthday! The kids made me Chocolate Oatmeal Cake from a recipe found in the book "Chocolate Never Faileth" (by Annette Lyon) that my good friend, Tonya Beutler, gave me for my birthday.

 

 

I enjoyed the cards I received, presents given and the love I felt. Mike surprised me with a nice wool coat! He was also very kind to make me his least favorite meal, Spaghetti!

During the week we had a Ward BBQ and Cameron had his face painted. I just had to post his picture.

We had a craft day for Relief Society on Wednesday and I made a necklace out of Baling Wire! I'm wearing it in some of the photos in this post. I thought it was pretty cool and may even try to make a few more - SOMETIME!
Tonya invited me to go to Time Out for Women on Friday and Saturday in Richfield, Utah.

We had such a great time with four other women friends. On Friday afternoon we traveled to Richfield where we ate at Wingers and then enjoyed an evening listening to speakers Virginia Pearce, Sheri Dew, and Jenny Oaks Baker (who is a classical violinist that entertained us with many beautiful songs).

 

Sadie is a big fan of Jenny Oaks Baker so I made sure that I met her at the end of the evening. Here's a sample of what she played:

  

 

We stayed at the Hampton Inn with many others who were there for TOFW. One group of women handed us a bag full of ice creams, bowls and spoons and told us to "take some and then pass it on!." It was probably about 11pm when we passed the ice cream on. We went to bed two hours after that.
After a great breakfast on Saturday, we returned to TOFW to hear from more inspiring authors and musicians.

Ellen Winn, Maria Hall, Tonya Beutler, Me, Joyce Swyers, and Bobette Green.

 

The vocal group Mercy River spoke and sang throughout the day between the other presenters. Every speaker was inspiring and encouraging in their message centering around this year's TOFW Theme: Seek the Good. Saturday the speakers included Deanne Flynn, Emily Freeman, Mariama Kallon, Wendy Ulrich and S. Michael Wilcox. It would be hard to pick a favorite (they were all great), but I must say Wendy Ulrich's message on The Sacred Power of Apology (seeking forgiveness) struck a chord and made a lasting impression on me. She pointed out that we judge ourselves by our intentions, but others judge us by our behavior (and vice versa), we often judging others by their behavior (and not their intentions). JUST FANTASTIC!

In the middle of the day we took a break for lunch. The restaurants in town were very crowded with women who were there for the TOFW event. We wanted to try a Mexican Food restaurant, Pepper Bellys, and ended up going there for dinner before heading back home.

Our waiter, Dustin, joined us for a picture. I think we left him with a big tip too.

It was such a rejuvenating trip and I enjoyed the time I spent with these terrific and FUN women. I hope we do it again another year in the near future!