Women's Conference

Since I quit my job in December, life has been moving fast. (Have I mentioned here that quitting my job was one of the best decisions I've ever made? It was.) Every month of 2011 has been full of so much life and activity that I feel like I've hardly been able to catch my breath. As soon as one project stops, another presents itself and I'm happy for the opportunities I've had in the last little bit.

In March I got a letter from the BYU Women's Conference asking me to be a contributor for the conference Sharing Stations. It just so happened that my mother-in-law was also involved and she volunteered me to prepare and present a booth on an assigned topic. I had to pick assistants (my sister Haley and adopted sister Emily) and off we were on yet another adventure. Our topic was Social Technology. We prepared materials on the Good, Better, and Best ways to use social technology, media, and the Internet in our busy lives as women and mothers. Putting our ideas together into a presentation format was really quite easy and things came together well during the two months we were preparing our station.

This past Thursday was the big day. I'll save my rants about how dumb Provo is for another day, but minus a little bit of traffic on the way down the day went off without a hitch and the three of us really had a good time.

We presented our materials and message over two three hour blocks. I had used the company vista print (www.vistaprint.com) to print up some business cards (of which I only had to pay for the shipping) and we made sure to give a card to every single woman that talked to us, looked at us, or just stepped into our booth and took a couple butter mints. In six hours we were able to talk to, we estimate, about 350 women. Isn't that crazy?

I talked to a great lady from Georgia, some neat people from Texas and British Columbia.  I ran into a few women from my ward and neighborhood, from my moms ward, and a friend from high school who I played volleyball and basketball with and haven't seen since high school graduation day.  I gave my e-mail address to women who couldn't figure out how to use their blog and to some women who wondered if I'd come and do one of their ward enrichment nights for Relief Society. I gave my e-mail address to a woman who just seemed to think that I was really nice and wondered if I'd tutor her and teach her how to make a photo book. My sister and I both talked to two beautiful old women. The taller of the two, will silver hair, impeccable clothing and sharp as a tack reminded me so much of my Grandma Huber that I almost started to cry and nearly asked her for a hug.

(A total side note:  I aspire to one day be a classy old braud. Is that crazy? When I'm 70, if I make it to 70, I want to be one of those old grandmas with the softest hands around who wears my shirts with the collar up and a single strand of pearls whether I'm going to the symphony, the grocery store, or the zoo with my grand children.)

Overall, it was a really great experience. I loved being able to hang out with Haley and Emily for the day. I was proud that my mom came down to see us in action and was able to tell the women that we were talking to that we were her daughters. I am grateful that my mother in law felt inspired to invite me to participate in such a wonderful event and act of service.