Women's Conference

Monday (October 26th) I went to Senator Hatch's Conference for Women. I had not originally planned to go, but Saturday night I was talking to my mom who attends this every year. Her friend, who was already registered, was not going to be able to make it and so my mom was needing to find someone to take her friends spot. I told her I wished I could, but didn't think it would work since I had to take care of the kids. After getting off the phone and talking to Daryl about it, he thought I should go. He offered to get the kids ready and take Ryan to work with him in the morning and then drive him to kindergarten when it was time. How could I refuse? I tried to get a hold of my mom before church, but was unable to. I gave my dad the message to let her know I could go. By the time my dad was able to get her the message she had already found someone to go with her. Since Daryl was willing to care for the kids, I didn't want to waste the opportunity. I called the number and the message said they had a number of walk-in registrations available between 7:30 and 8:30. Since I was coming from such a long distance I didn't want to get there and find it was sold out so my goal was to get there close to 7:30. I was tempted not to go when I had to wake up at 5:00 to make it out of the house by 6:00, but I am glad I didn't give into the temptation. I caught TRAX in Sandy and made it to Abravanel Hall just after 7:30, got registered and then got behind the small line waiting for the doors to open. When the doors opened, my mom still hadn't arrived but I went in to find and save seats. There weren't many people there yet and I was able to get seats on the 4th row in front of the podium.

Speakers:

• Senator Hatch
• Jeanette Herbert (governor's wife) - learned as a young girl to try and fix everything. Never knew that there was such thing as a repair man until she was 15. Encouraged everyone to try to do things, if it doesn't work out, the worse thing you would have to do is ask for help.
• David Archuleta - Face your fears. Serve others. Be positive. Write in a journal - you are the only one that can tell your story. You don't know you can't do something unless you try. The audience kept yelling out for him to sing. He hadn't prepared anything to sing, but ended up singing "Oh Holy Night" a cappella. It was amazing! Fortunately there are people out there that record things and then put them on youtube. It makes me even more excited for his Christmas concert next month.
  
  
  
  
  HERE is the link if the video doesn't show up in the post.
  From here we separated and were able to chose to different classes to attend. The first class I chose was a class on Photography. Some encouraging things I learned:
  
  • Take chances or you won't be able to take advantage of opportunities.
  • Look for the beauty in all things.
  • Make do with what you have, you don't always need the biggest or the best to get what you need. (So in other words I can still take pictures and get some decent ones with a camera stuck together with duct tape)
  • If it doesn't work the first time, work on it until it does.
  The second class I went to talked about nutrition for kids and families. I learned that half your plate should be filled with vegetables. I have got a lot of work to do. I did come back with a great idea to encourage kids to eat and try vegetables. Take your kids to the grocery store with you (or one at a time) and give them a color. They have to choose a vegetable or fruit with that color and then you bring it home for dinner. Hopefully that will encourage them to try it the food. Hopefully.
  
  From here we met in the Ballroom of the Salt Palace for lunch. While eating I overheard some ladies at the table talking about David Archuleta signing CD's. When I was done I made my way over. My Christmas CD was on it's way from Amazon (it made it today), but I thought I might as well buy one from the little Deseret Book store they had set up so I could have a signed copy. By time I made it over to the table all of the CD's had been sold out. I looked at everyone standing in line. Many of them with multiple (5 or 6) copies. Come on people, I just wanted one! I was going to walk back to the afternoon session, but decided to get in the line. People spend $195 for VIP passes to get a picture with him, and if I stood in line for 10 minutes I could get it for free. I also figured I would never get this chance again and would kick myself later if I didn't. Lucky for you I won't post the picture. I brought it home and showed the kids and they gave me a hard time about my head being too tiny. (I did just throw my hair back in a bun because I had to leave so early in the morning). So now I have a tiny head complex.
  
  Anyway.......
  the afternoon session started with piano music from Roger Williams. I didn't know who he was, but all of the older ladies did. He was 85 years old, and I couldn't believe how fast his fingers moved on the piano. Amazing. Following him was Laura Bush. I can't quite remember what she spoke about besides her family, and she did show us a Laura Bush bobble-head that her friend picked up in the clearance section of a gift shop following the last election.
  
  I had such a great time and was glad that I was able to make it work to go. Thanks to Daryl for being Mister Mom and going to work with a 5 year old.