Time Out For Women

The week before Halloween I drove to the airport to pick up my friend Amy so that we could head to Nebraska for a "Time Out for Women" conference. Neither one of us had ever gone before and heard it was totally worth it and so we paid our money and committed to finding out what it meant to live a "Joyful Life". It was a fun 3 hour drive with never a dull moment--lots of good conversation, Subway Sandwiches, crazy "country" collectibles, vanilla coke and Dr. Pepper, etc. We got to our hotel which sat right next to the conference center and got ourselves settled into our room. We enjoyed the first talk given by Ardeth Kapp. She spoke of a few things that hit home with me. She said that the first attack in any battle is to destroy the communication system. Good things like t.v., computers, and the phone can disrupt our ability to communicate with those around us that need and love us. She gave 4 ways to re-charge our batteries as wives and mothers. 1st: Thoughtfully ponder--think about your possibilities--not your inadequacies. 2ND: Earnestly pray--Counsel the Lord in all your doings. 3rd: Carefully Prune--I LOVED THIS PART--She said that the pioneers had to decide what was most important to take in their wagons. Today, we have to decide what we make time for. 4Th: Plan with a purpose--What do we want to see happen in our families--then plan backwards.
That night I left feeling like I'd been given some great thoughts and was so excited to take in more the next day.

So Amy and I went to dinner at a Brewery which was super D duper delicious and then stayed up talking until 2 or 3 am (can't remember at this point--it was late, you catch my drift). We got up before 7am and got ourselves ready so that we wouldn't miss the first speaker and then.......It was a day full of "not so great speakers" and really bad music (for the most part). Here is Amy being forced to go back in because I was certain that one of the speakers would say something that would make our entire trip. She thought that if she pointed her "banana gun" at her head I might take pity on her, but NO. We went back in anyway. The speakers did not impress us but the final musician got us to get up in the middle of her performance to buy one of her Cd's. Her name is Cherie Call. She writes her own music which seems honest and real. We both really liked her. On the way home we listened to a CD that I bought called "Teaching Your Children to Fly" by Merrilee Boyack. She also wrote a book called Parenting Breakthrough which is an absolute must for parents. Anyway, we learned more from that CD than we did in the entire conference so it was well worth it. We also shopped which always makes up for anything that doesn't work out as expected.When we got back into town we met a bunch of friends for dinner and had a great night laughing and eating. Amy stayed with me until Monday afternoon and we had so much fun. Thanks for coming--I'll road trip with you anytime!!!! (BTW--I have no idea why this is underlined but I can't get it off, so here it will stay!