Skip to main content

TOFW

For the past three or four years my sweet mother-in-law has taken all the adult girls in the family to Time Out For Women. Deseret Book sponsors an event that features popular LDS speakers and musical artists who share their talents and inspirational messages. They do this in several cities throughout the United States throughout the year. It is always at the end of November when the finish their tour in Salt Lake.  We always have a great time. I get a break from the kids and Claudia, JuNette, Whitney and I get a little big girl bonding time.

Claudia pays for us to stay in a hotel. It is a mini vacation for all of us that I think we all look forward to. Last year we even had our picture in a newspaper article with cute Claudia front and center. We got to hear from Sherrie Dew and Ann Romney at the same time. This year I am looking forward to Noel Pikus-Pace. We are heading out this afternoon. I will be able to pick up the kids from school, get them organized then enjoy a girls night and day out.

Sadly, JuNette will not be coming. She texted Claudia last night to let her know so Claudia called me and asked if she thought my mom would like to go. I knew she had been wanting to go so I gave her a call. She is coming with us this year so we don't have a wasted ticket. She is working at the family history center in Salt Lake and will meet us at the hotel.

I am grateful for this family tradition. I'm grateful for the support of my family.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Day He Died

Thirteen years ago today I was at an aquarium in the Gateway Shopping Center in Salt Lake City. I was with my sister-in-law, JuNette; her son Andrew and my three oldest children. Spencer had just turned five the day before, Taylor was three and a half, and Emma was 22 months. The aquarium was new and small, but we enjoyed our time there. After we had been there for some time JuNette handed me her phone and said that Destry had been trying to get a hold of me for quite some time. Destry told me not to worry, but that he and Christine were driving to my childhood home in Springville to check on my dad because no one had heard from him and he hadn't shown up to pick up my mom from the hospital.  My siblings and I had been worried about my mom's welfare because she had had a gastric bypass surgery to help her to loose weight and to improve both her health and her quality of life. The surgery had gone well and she was ready to come home on this day 13 years ago. Oddly, my dad neve

Her Life was Not as Sweet

A couple of years ago at a moment when my mom was expressing her love to her children and grandchildren, she mentioned that her Patriarchal Blessing stated she would live for as long as "life was sweet for her." She told us that while she missed her sweetheart dearly, life was indeed sweet. I thought that was a blessing for her and for us. This past year has been quite difficult for her. Last November she began having pain in her upper back, arms, and shoulders. She visited a pain clinic and received a series of injections providing her with some relief. By Spring her hands and feet were swollen and misshapen and she had difficulty getting her body moving each morning. If she had a morning appointment she would wake up at 4:00 a.m. in order to get her hands moving so she could use them. In the spring her primary care physician suggested she see a rheumatologist.  In the past she has had bad experiences either with rheumatology medications or doctors and I began going to

"Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me"

As a mother stills her child,      Thou canst hush the ocean wild; From August to November of last year, Taylor has had four witnessed and likely two other grand mal seizures; all of them in his sleep. By the time he'd had his sixth the Sunday before Thanksgiving, I had reached the end of my rope. It was terrifying to see him stiffen, shake, foam at the mouth and turn purple for many minutes. This particular seizure was the worst and the longest. We were struggling to get him seen by a neurologist and I had decided to call the paramedics for the fourth time and this time to have him transported to the hospital even if he regained consciousness. He needed to be fast tracked to testing and medication.  Little did I know that that call would take me down a path I never in a million years imagined I would be on.  To summarize what happened after the paramedics arrived, they pushed me out of Taylor's room and refused to give me the time of day. Never mind, he has a complex medical h