The Hamster Wheel: May 2011

Here is a lovely picture welcoming you to Women's Conference with some scrumdillyumptious spiced almonds!

The opening session was great with a wonderful talk from Virginia Pearce. I loved the part when she talked about how much coordination and planning went into making this day possible for that many women to leave their families. She said D-day had nothing on this, and I am sure she is right. Her advice was to:

Keep it small.

Keep it simple.

Give it time.

After the morning session and the purchase of my almonds I made my way down to the Wilkensen Center. As I was browsing in the bookstore, who should I happen to run into, none other than Logan Magnusson, a member of the BYU Basketball team. I was talking on the phone to my sister, and I immediately hung up upon my prey's sighting.

I said, "Hey aren't you Logan Magnusson?" To which he unwittingly said "Yes" There was sort of a look of fear on his face. Of course it was necessary to get my picture with him. His wife was with him and took the picture, and she was totally cracking up at me and my giddiness. I love how small he makes me look next to him. To say I was thrilled was an understatement. And I think you can see by the look on my face, that I am ecstatic. My first picture with a basketball player. Sigh.

Well that was all the stalking excitement on Thursday.

But not to worry because Friday was another day chuck full of opportunities for stalkers like me. After listening to a wonderful talk by Sister Beck, I admit that I raced down and was the third person in line to meet Hillary Weeks. I bought her newest book Bedtime and Naptime and got an autograph. But I love this picture I got to take with her. Other than the fact that her little tiny person makes me look kind of gargantuan. She was so kind and gracious and you could tell that she would love to really just hang out with all of us. It was very fun to meet her and I love her music.

While at the bookstore I found a great tie tack for Trent that says Jacksonville Mission on it. As well as Sweet Sixteen t-shirts that were 40% off. I had really considered buying one online a month ago, so it was a great find. And then there was this must have hat: Quite stunning, don't you think?

While you are in the bookstore, it is pretty much mandatory to go next door to the Cougar Eat and well eat something. I am still on weight watchers, but I kind of took a vacation for a few days, which meant I was free to consume this monstrosity of a mint brownie:

I don't even want to know how many points are in this baby, but it really can never be a good thing to eat a brownie the size of of ones head, now can it? I can report that each and every bite was a taste of what heaven much be like. Oh my goodness -- Delicious and worth every point. And here is a picture of my well rounded lunch: water (0 points), fruit cup (0 points), broccoli salad (3 points), BYU mint brownie (priceless, I don't even want to know how many points, but lets just say that I gained 2 pounds this week and most of it is probably due to the consumption of this confection.)

On Thursday night we went to the concert and listened to some fun people sing, play the violin and piano. This young man in named Josh Wright and he can play the piano like nobody's business. He is crazy good. After my picture with Hillary, it seemed good to get one with him as well. You should check him out on Youtube.

Elder Bednar spoke at the closing session and gave a wonderful talk about how important the small and simple things in our life are because it turns out that they are most often the most effective things we do. He used the example of a drip irrigation system getting the water to exactly where it needs to be and how that is better than wide sprinkler systems. He said that 3 days of fasting is not as good as fasting one day, once a month for 3 months. A 5 hour prayer is not as good as having daily morning and nightly prayers. It was a very good talk and you should check it out on BYU TV when they rebroadcast Women's Conference at the end of May.

After Elder Bednar's talk, was the cherry on top of the sundae. I read on facebook that the BYU football team would be at the BYU baseball game on Friday night. When I first read about it, I thought to myself, dang why can't I live in Provo and go to such events. Then it occurred to me that I would actually be there and could go. Woot Woot for meeting BYU football players.

I hurried myself from the Marriot Center to the baseball field just next door. It was ridiculously cold, and in fact started snowing before I made it to the car. I had to buy a ticket to the game, $5 a small price to pay to get close to my victims. I was there before the players even made, so I was first in line, and frankly because of the weather I was the only one in line. So let's just say I had captive one on one time with 5 football players. I showed them my BYU stalking book and they all signed it. And then the obligatory picture taking. I have to say I am a bit disappointed in the glare on my glasses, but all in all, I was very glad that it worked out the way it did. You will notice I made sure to wear blue and my BYU necklace. These guys were freezing and I felt a bit sorry for them that they had to stay for the whole hour before the game.