Time Out For Women

This last weekend I met my college roommates in Atlanta for Time Out For Women. We've been talking about getting together for a long time now. When Sarah got married, 11 1/2 years ago, Cathy, Synthea, and I went, but it wasn't the same since Sarah was getting married. We didn't have that quality time together like we did at BYU. Plus, I had brought 1 1/2 year old Victoria, and Synthea brought her 6 month old.

 This was a very memorable weekend! The last time I even went anywhere without kids (besides a one-night stay with Jason at a hotel here and there to celebrate our anniversary), was when my friend from high school, Jessica, got married. I left my girls (2 and 4) and went for a quick weekend on some red-eye flights. This was a needed "time out" for me!

My roommates and I were pretty close as freshmen and then lived in the same apartment for two years after that. We prayed together, read scriptures together, cooked and ate together, and even celebrated holidays together a little early so we could have our own Christmas and Easter before being with our families. We were family! We had some super fun birthday celebrations together as well. After getting together this weekend, I could see that we all have very similar views on many things, like politics, religion, and finances, which are big areas to have four people agree on! We spent some great moments creating more memories and reminiscing about the old ones. Sarah, who's from the Atlanta area, picked us all up and booked a hotel near the convention center where TOFW was. She packed snacks and lunch items to make, as well as her very good scrap book from our time at BYU. We laughed very hard at times looking at some of those pictures!

At Chick A Biddy for a Sounthern lunch.

Sarah and Cathy shared a room.

After Cahty and I got married, Synthea and Sarah shared a room for another year.

Synthea and I shared a room.

Some icing on the cake for the weekend that, I already knew would be great was, first of all, I had no idea how awesome TOFW is! I highly recommend it! Not only were there great speakers who uplifted and inspired me more than I thought possible, but there was fabulous music! I didn't pay much attention to the happenings at TOFW before I left. I knew it would be fun with my roommates and that was all I needed. A couple days before I left I decided to see what the program looked like. When I saw that David Archuleta was going to be there, I got even more excited! I don't think I ever voted for anyone on American Idol, but I believe I actually picked up the phone for him. He was so talented and had such a great spirit about him at such a young age. Then, he served a mission and I was just so impressed! I own one of his CDs and have some CDs with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir that include him singing with them as well. I wanted my kids to enjoy his music and learn about this talented musician who put his career on hold to serve the Lord. It has worked! My kids all say he's one of their top favorites. I didn't tell them he was going to be there, so when I returned to tell them he was and that I had gotten his autograph, they all screamed, even Austin! And yes, I was a little star struck myself while we were there. We sat in the fourth row to get better shots of him, though that was still hard because of the bright lights. Also, when I heard the first 200 people to buy his CD would get a ticket to get it signed, I quickly picked up a CD and the DVD about his mission. Since I bought two things, I got 2 tickets! Synthea and Sarah got to stand in line with us to the end, but Cathy got the other ticket, so Synthea snuck some shots of us as we got his autograph, since we weren't allowed to take any pictures with him.

The best on stage pic I got.

That's me getting his autograph  and acting very star struck!

I'm sure all these moms were amusing to him, the way we were bubbling about.

David sang beautifully and surprised us with some good insights and uplifting words and experiences. His speaking wasn't quite as polished as his singing, but really, when you sing like that, how can it be?!

More exciting people to meet included Michael McLean, a very talented composer, musician, and speaker. I grew up on his Mormon music and videos (Together Forever and Mr. Kruger's Christmas). You're Not Alone and The Forgotten Carols  are some of my absolute favorite uplifting songs! Since he's not a "rock star" as he called David Archuleta, we were able to just go line up to meet him. It was was a long line, but we still waited and got a picture with him. He made a joke about us posting it on FB as being his Mormon wives. He shared his amazing story about his 9 year struggle with his faith. Look it up and read it, it will strengthen your testimony!

Michael McLean 

 Mary Cook, Emily Watts, Lisa Valentine Clark and a local Atlanta sister shared wonderful messages about overcoming their unique challenges and how they strive to live better and "Arise", which was the theme for the whole event, in their eloquent and hilarious descriptions. I learned about Timothy Ballard, who was there, and is an extremely talented man who is currently rescuing children from trafficking. His story was heart wrenching, as was Alyssa Parker's, who had lost her daughter in the Sandy Hook shooting. Her daughter was an angel before she was even taken from her family! Alyssa's words were so uplifting and comforting. She's an inspiration to all!


Two more favorites of mine before the event were Brad Wilcox and Hilary Weeks. David was the musician on Friday night and Hilary on Saturday. I own some of her CDs as well and "knew" her from my high school days. She has had some #1 hits in the religious music genre and is so beautiful and talented. We got to meet her and take a picture with her also.

Hilary Weeks

Brad Wilcox is like my friend. I first saw him speak to my ward when I was about 14 at probably my first Youth Conference. He was so funny and entertaining then and still is! He is such a great speaker! He can have you laughing so hard one moment, and the next you can feel the Spirit so strongly that you're in tears. He is an educator and worked many years with the McKay school of education at BYU, so I saw him in many class settings and own a children's book written by him. Of course we had to shake his hand and I guess we didn't take a picture with him, looking back on it (boo). We told him we had all met up from different states to attend the TOFW event and he was so impressed that the next morning in his opening welcome remarks he announced how great it was that four college roommates met up from Georgia, Virginia, Michigan, and Virginia to be there. We felt like movie stars after that!

Last, but not least, as I walked in from the restroom during the first break on Saturday, I came in a different way and I heard someone call my name. I turned around and saw my mom's brother Craig and his wife Jill at the Southern Virginia University booth! I knew the booth was there, but didn't think they would be the ones manning it! It was such a sweet surprise! I had to keep walking over to chat with them every chance I got, after I realized they were there.

Craig and Jill!!

Final group pic

Under a magnolia tree

I can't get over what a great weekend I had. I'm still on a high from it! I guess I need to do that more often!

(Here's two short clips of David Archleta singing. My battery was running low :(