Spring Break 2011-Part 1

Since we have had a cold and snowy winter this year in Tennessee, we decided to go somewhere warm for Spring Break. We started out at the Little Gasparilla Island off the coast of Florida where Eric's mom and her husband, Steve own a house. It is a beautiful location, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves for the first few days there. We had fun playing in the water, building things out of sand, flying kites, soaking up the sun, and shell collecting. Of course, the good food was an extra bonus too. Grandma Cindi and Steve always make us great meals and we also enjoyed a night around the campfire roasting marshmallows and making s'mores. Grandma Cindi even helped me make a beautiful shell wind chime while we were there. It was a lot of fun and relaxing too.

Grandma Cindi and Steve

Their island house

Sorting shells on the screened front porch after the first day. The girls have learned the names of all the shells.

Flying kites is something we have rarely done, but Grandma had a kite, and the ocean breeze was perfect for it.

Alex built this...he called it a "sewer system"

Jarem found this big hole and had fun digging in it

On the golf cart ready to leave

All of us minus Alex who had gone on ahead ready to head back to the mainland.

Perfect

On Sunday, I still felt uplifted and inspired from Timeout for Women the day before.  We headed to church and had some amazingly wonderful talks by the Spillanes in Sacrament Meeting.  It was just like a continuation of the day before.  I was crying most of the way through Kristy's talk.  She shared some very personal experiences of her life and how the Lord's influence had helped her through.  I've always thought of Kristy as an amazing person, but had no idea of some of the hard things she has faced.  It reminded me that you never know what it is like to walk in someone else's shoes, and we should never judge.  In addition, as I remembered from the day before, "there will be angels round about us to bear us up".

As I was sitting there listening to Kristy's talk with tears streaming down my face and feeling the Spirit strongly in my heart, Jarem comes up to me and very humbly says, "Mom, I just want to be perfect everyday.  Have I been perfect so far today?"  He had been coloring and I don't think he was really even listening to the speakers, but he felt the Spirit and that made him want to be good.  This just reaffirmed to me the reason that I bring my children to church each week.  They may not understand everything, but they can feel the Spirit in the meeting.

Time out for Women 2011

Tina and I

I had such an uplifting weekend! Several women from church, including myself, decided to attend "Time Out for Women" in Nashville. This is a women's conference intended to give women a break from our busy lives and a chance to be reminded of who we are and why we are here. Also, it is a chance to rejuvenate, regroup, and catch our physical and spiritual breath. Sheri Dew (the one who began TOFW) said:

"It is our hope that during this day filled with messages of inspiration from respected authors and music artists, you will learn, you will laugh, and your spirits and sights will be lifted. It is Deseret Book’s great pleasure to invite you to catch your breath, take a break from daily pressures, “huddle” with your sisters and friends, and feel rejuvenated for the days ahead."


The Theme for the Conference was: "Choose to Become" It was connected with the scripture: "All things are possible to him that believeth"-Mark 9:23



It started Friday evening and then Saturday it last until late afternoon. A few of us friends were going to get together and go up a day early. As it turned out, it was just two of us who ended up going early, my good friend, Tina, and I. We got to the hotel pretty late on Thursday night. Then Friday, we got up and had a late breakfast/lunch and then walked around and went through the Tennessee State Museum which was very cool. After stopping by Walgreens, we rested for a bit and got ready to head over to TOFW. It was a nice, relaxing day.

There were a lot of people from church that we met up with at TOFW. It was fun to sit together with everyone. I learned something different from each presenter. Below, I have listed the lineup for Friday night and what I took away with me from each presenter.



Mary Ellen Edmunds-- is just a funny, quirky, upbeat women who enjoys the simple things in life.
I learned from her to:

1. Have a relationship with yourself. Take time to ponder. Enjoy a sunrise/sunset or walk in nature. These things are definitely rejuvenating and fulfilling for me.


2. See others as God sees them. I liked how she quoted from the hymn #292, "O my Father" 2nd verse, "And I felt that I had wandered from a more exalted sphere". This reminded me that we are all from a more exalted sphere and I need to be more accepting and less judgmental.


3. "Allow furious winds to draw you closer to Him"--when times are tough, see that as an opportunity to draw closer to the Lord.

Dallyn Vail Bayles-is a professional vocalist and musician who did several segments throughout the evening. I am very touched by music and three of his songs were most meaningful to me: , "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables (a favorite broadway of mine)"Oh Though Fount of Every Blessing", and "Amazing Grace"


Kris Belcher-Kris's story shows how God used the challenge of going blind to help her see who she was meant to become. Our life's tests and difficulties can refine us; We can become polished as we turn to the Savior. Her story helped me discover two things about myself:

1. My problems are very small compared to what others are going through and I need to appreciate my blessings,


2. I need to take steps through personal study and pray to build a closer relationship to the Savior.

After the evening conference, several women from our church got together and met at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner/dessert. We had to wait for about 30 minutes to be seated. I had forgotten how large the servings are, and I wasted about half of my meal because I couldn't eat anymore and didn't even get cheesecake. It was fun getting together and chatting with some of the women in the ward. We didn't get back to the hotel until after midnight.

The next morning, we headed back to the conference. Saturday's lineup went as follows:

Lori Deitrich and I with Mariama

Sister Abren(left) and Tina(right) with Mariama

Mariama Kallon- Survivor of war-torn Sierra Leone, she told of her experiences of losing her family, seeing her sister's and other women's arms and legs cut off, and finding faith in Jesus Christ. Mariama often says, "If someone had told me that I would be here, I would have never believed it." From her Muslim upbringing in war-torn Sierra Leone to serving as a Mormon missionary on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Mariama has learned what God can do in our lives when we give our lives to Him. She was a favorite of mine. I purchased her story on DVD, and I enjoyed sharing it with my family on Sunday.

• Once again, I learned that I should be grateful everyday for my blessings


• Second, she said Jesus came to us so He could feel what we got through. If we have the willingness and open heart to do what the Lord wants us to do, we will have angels round about us to bear us up.

Hilary Weeks-Top-selling female LDS artist; singer; songwriter. Strangely, what I enjoyed about her most was her experiments that she talked about. Although I did enjoy her music, her experiments really inspired me.

1. She did an experiment on negative/positive thoughts. She carried a clicker around with her for a week and clicked it everytime she had a negative thought. Then she kept a tally for each day. At the end of the week, she was depressed and really down. She realized that focusing on the negative had just made her feel negative, so she started focusing on the positive. She kept track of each positive thought with the clicker and found she was really able to improve by changing negative thoughts to positive thoughts and was able to clear 1000 in a day by the end of the week. After hearing this, I started paying more close attention to my words and thoughts. Although I don't consider myself a negative person, I did hear a lot of negative things coming from my mouth, so I decided if there was one thing I would change about myself after this conference it would be to look for the good and have positive thoughts.


2. Her other experiment involved praying each morning for a month to know the thing that the Lord most wanted her to do that day. She had some neat experiences during the month, and that inspired me too.

John Hilton speaking to a lady during break

John Hilton III-His presentation was, "Nothing Shall Be Impossible". He talked about working with our own capacity to make anything possible.

Don't compare yourself to others (he talks about comparing the swingset he built with 3 monkey bars to his brother-in-law's with 5 monkey bars)

1. Pray for Strength


2. Fear not, move forward. (Fear not or Fear Ye Not is used 100 times in the scriptures)


3. Do His will, and you shall know His doctrine.

Macy Robison-She entertained us with a unique “cabaret-style” performance featuring music and musings celebrating the women and mothers in our lives. The main thing that I took from her is that we never know what life has in store for us, so celebrate each day.

Merrilee Boyack-presented "Blaze Your Own Trail". Women past and present have found themselves in situations needing to do something that has never been done before. And we are no different. The life you were meant to live will never be the same life as that of the women next to you. So get prepared to do something different and blaze your own trail.

• This inspired me to look for my talents and follow them. I felt her talk particularly applied to me as she shared a story about a women who's children had all started school and was feeling an emptiness at home without children home during the day. She ended up getting involved in the "Focus on the Family" campaign and has influenced many. This just made me think...now that all my kids are in school, I do sometimes feel something is missing. I would like to choose a talent and develop it or learn a new skill.


• She gave us something to remember for each letter of "Become U". Be Bold. Be Eternally-minded. Be Creative. Be Outward Focused. Be Meek. Be Enlightened. Be Unique.

Emily Freeman- Becoming closer to the Lord is a process and a journey. And one of the key parts of that journey is coming to understand who we belong to as we recognize Him in the process. As we "write His name on our hearts," we will discover even more that He has "engraven us on the palms of His hands."

1. I liked how she talked about Paul and said that he "kept nothing back" from God.


2. I was inspired by her idea to allow each of her children to choose a picture of Christ to hang in their room that illustrated their relationship with Him. I would like to do that with my kids also.

The conference ended at around 3:45 Saturday afternoon and I left feeling inspired and ready to make changes in my own life. Tina and I talked about things that had influenced us on the way home. It was a great few days.

Welcoming Taegan

Our nephew, Taegan, was born on February 22.  We were anxious to welcome him, so on February 25/26, we took a little trip to Huntsville, Alabama to visit Kyle and Jessica and our new nephew (as well as Grandma Cindi who was there to help with the new baby).  He was just as cute and sweet as we expected.  I had to compete with Jesikah and Grandma in getting turns to hold him. :) Tessa and Jarem were mostly interested in Crookshanks (the cat).  My favorite pictures of him are: the one where he is yawning, and the one of him smiling.  I was very proud to capture the first picture of a smile.  I had my camera ready to take a picture of him and he had a sleepy smile and I snapped.  I love that one.