Time Out For Women

Way back in April, I took a quick weekend road trip with some girlfriends to Pittsburgh.


We went to a fabulous retreat/lecture series put on every year by Deseret Book, called Time Out For Women. It's exactly what it sounds like. It's an opportunity for moms, wives, daughters, sisters, to just take time to be women, without all the other labels. There are speakers and musical artists. It's inspiring, it's uplifting, and it's just plain fun. I'm so glad I decided to go. It was a positive experience to me, plus I got to make some new friends on the way. I knew everyone that I went with, but not well. It was a great opportunity to create new relationships.


Friday evening we went to a charming Italian restaurant called The Spaghetti Warehouse. The atmosphere was engaging, the food was delicious, the waiter was smokin'! Seriously, the food was amazing. They gave us fresh loaves of bread with a garlic-herb butter that was sooooo good.

My order was a little boring -- fettuccine Alfredo, but they have a roasted red pepper Alfredo sauce that was incredible. I loved it. The prices were pretty reasonable, too.

After dinner, we headed over to the convention center where the conference was being held. That evening we had one or two speakers, and several musical numbers from Dallyn Vail Bayles, who was a little Josh Groban-esque, yet still unique. He's very talented, and it was great to hear him perform.


Our little car full of people met up with a few other girls from the Shaker Heights Ward, which was also fun. The second day, we had more speakers and musical guest Hilary Weeks. We finished the day around 4:00pm and headed home.


One of the speakers on Saturday was Mary Ellen Edmunds, who is such a funny and uplifting lady. She's real and down-to-earth. She's in her 70s, I think, and has never been married or had children, but has so much life experience to share. In her talk, she suddenly stopped in the middle of a story and said "Where's Eleanor? Eleanor, will you stand up?" (At this point, 800 women start twisting around in their seats to try to find this singled-out Eleanor.) "Eleanor and I grew up together, and ..." I finally found her, and gasped out loud. It was my mission president's wife! She lives in West Virginia, so this was the nearest TOFW session to her. At the next break I grabbed my camera and ran over to where she was. We talked for 15 minutes and got a picture. It was great to see her again.


Overall it was a really great weekend and I hope to go again next year.