Next Installment

After the morning session was done and I had completed my mission to stalk, it was time to move on to the classes. My sister Jen and I decided to go to a class on balancing extracurricular activities for families. This was in a building right next to the Marriot Center. On our way out, we got some lunch. It was a yummy chicken salad on croissant. I also finally had one of the famous BYU mint brownies. For the past two years I heard the virtues of these confections extolled, but had resisted. Now I have gone over to the dark side. My only sadness is that I did not think to snap a picture of the delicious delicacy. Let me just say that it was perfectly fudgey and chewy, with a layer of minty, creamy frosting, topped by second frosting of chocolaty goodness. Ok enough about the food, onto the class.

This class was a little disappointing. I wanted to be told that it was OK to just sit at home instead of running around like a crazy women on a hamster wheel. Instead the speaker quoted from studies showing that children involved in extracurricular activities do better in school. Shucks. They did however caution that balance was needed. I suppose when you get right down to it, no one, not even a study, can make this choice but me. There are several factors that need to be evaluated. How my kids are doing with their act ivies, how our family is handling things both financially and time wise, and least of all how my own sanity is faring. My institute teacher is always saying that it doesn't really matter how many talents we develop in our kids, if they don't have a number 10 testimony. So I guess this was a good class because it made me think about those things. I still don't have all the answers but maybe thinking about a problem is the first step to solving it.

After that class we joined up with my sister Kris and listened to a talk while we sewed a blanket stitch around a fleece blanket for a baby. This is one of my favorite things to do. Here is a picture of us modeling our finished products. It is not very crowded and there is a lovely view outside the window. We even watched it snow for a few minutes, knowing we were dry and warm and serving. The class we listened to was about scripture study. The thing I remember from this class, is that we could text our children during the day and remind them about something we learned in scripture study that morning. I thought that was a good idea. Maybe I could even do that with my Laurels and our lesson from Sunday. The other good thing about this building is that you can go to the bathroom without waiting in line for 20 minutes. Not always a given in the Marriot Center.

After this class, my sister Jen and I met up with my mom for a family history class. This class was inspiring. One of the speakers was Julie Beck's mother, and another was Sis. Beck's daughter. This class was held in the new Hinckley Alumni building. This is a beautiful building. We took some pictures of us in front of the huge fireplace. Then there is a cute picture of Sister Hinkley and President Hinkley and it is next to Sister Hinkley's chair. So of course it was necessary to pose next to this chair. Then I took a picture of the building from the outside. My mom said it looks just like President Hinkley, and I have to agree. I think there is something kind of English about it. Anyway it was fun to be able to see this nice building that was still under construction last year.