Time Out for Women/Girls was truly a "time out" of AMAZINGNESS!!!!!

This past weekend I got a chance to cash in on my birthday present from my hubby, and I had the time of my life!!!

If you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, you may have heard about "Time Out for Women". It is an amazing program where they fly in many spiritual speakers and ladies sit around at the Phoenix Convention Center (3,000 ladies strong),  having the time of their life being enriched and uplifted. Seriously, every woman needs this

 break from everyday life.

And, also thanks to my wonderful husband, he stayed with the kids for a night and day while I enjoyed my experience.

 This was one of my roommates in our beautiful hotel suite..... Morgan's mom! Also, in our hotel room was Cassidy and her friend Lexi who attended "Time Out for Girls".

 Here is Cassidy on one end and Lexi on the other with the singing group "Mercy River" in between. Cassidy and Lexi had the time of their lives listening to inspirational speakers and singers in their conference room.

 And here we are all with Brad Wilcox who writes many books for the church and is such an inspiration. He also found out that I had cancer while we were talking and he had us meet him by the sound booth at the end of a break and he gave us all big hugs and then he gave me one of his books and wrote in the cover of it for us.  He told Cassidy that his mom had cancer too, and that she just needed to be strong that that everything was going to be o.k. When Cassidy and Lexi walked away he told me, "she will never forget this day and that she had a chance to be here with you?" I was very touched by his attention to us. We felt very special!!!

 And this is my beautiful girl that can't be a teenager yet?!!! Can she?!!

This is me goofing around with the girls. I had so much fun with these two tween-agers. On every break, we would meet up and they would go find their favorite speakers and singers and get autographs and pictures. And I would follow them around snapping pictures and smiling and paying for things, such as...........

 Yummmmmmmmm, the homemade icecream they had for sale was scrumptious!!

 Cassidy was so enamoured by this gal. She is Carmen Rassmessen who was an American Idol contestant that got all the way to the top 10 or something. Cassidy said that she sang beautifully and the best part is, that she chose to be a mom instead of being a famous singer.  Such a great thing for Cass to learn.

 This was one of the speakers for the girls that they really enjoyed. I already forgot his name, Hank something or other?  He told the girls that boys are dumb! THANK YOU HANK!!

 This amazing speaker is Kris Belcher. She is also a cancer gal. Her cancer was in her eye sockets behind her eyes and they had to remove a lot of her bone, tissue, and of course, both eyes.  She has to wear prosthetic eyes and is COMPLETELY in darkness, but let me tell you that she is a beacon of light when she speaks!!!!!!! Certainly one of my favorite speakers and I plan to buy her story soon, where she relives the cancer experience.

 And, here we have singer and all around funny speaker, Hillary Weeks! What a blessing she was!

And if you live in Gilbert, you might recognize Shawnie Porthier on the far left. She speaks with her mother, Linda Eyre (far right), and they are an amazing duo. I want to run out and buy the book "The Entitlement Trap" about how to raise kids who don't fall into this trap. I already own another book by these two. And the best part is, they live only a few houses down from my parents!

These two gentlemen were very smart and their talks gave me quite a few "ahha" moments that I haven't thought of. They both were from BYU and boy, did they know their stuff!