Writing conference, feeling blessed

This last week was crazy and amazing and uplifting. The beginning of the week was spent getting ready for my writing conference. Grocery shopping and cooking and taking the kids to the park, etc. Getting pitches and pages ready. And then Thursday through Saturday, I went to my conference. It was truly one of the most uplifting experiences I've had in a really long time. Not because anything about the conference was particularly extraordinary. There were classes and food and a couple keynotes, like any other conference. But everything ran smoothly. People connected with each other. I met people I'd been talking with online for the last year and felt like I'd known them for ages. It was the LDStorymakers conference, so we could share in our religious beliefs as well as our love of writing. We opened with a prayer, and blessed our meals and helped each other out. We worked through problems as a group. And above that, I could feel Heavenly Father blessing me. I prayed before the conference to be given an opportunity to talk to an agent. I got to talk to two. I hoped to find new critique partners, I found at least four. I hoped to have more hope that my writing would be wanted, that it would fill a need. I had a publishing company ask to have a look at it when its done because they are starting a new imprint that deals with exactly my genre. I made friends I wasn't expecting to make. And it made me feel so loved by my Father in heaven. He watches out for me and for all of us. Because he loves us. When I got home, my kids were excited to see me. I felt renewed and rejuvenated by my time away from them and I'm excited to spend the week with them. Thank you, Dad, and Anessa, and Steve, for babysitting the girls so I didn't have to worry about them. It was a wonderful experience.

• Some of my new friends. Just now, looking at this picture, I realized I have a rather small head. No wonder my kids have small heads. Haha!

There were 750 attendees.

Retreat in the mountains and everyday stuff

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Or maybe I should say it's been a normal couple of weeks. Busy is pretty normal for me.

I'll give you the highlights version and then caption the four hundred pictures.

Last weekend I got to go to a writing retreat up Ogden Canyon thanks to my marvelous mother and husband (who took care of the girls). It was beautiful and relaxing and there was no internet AT ALL, so despite feeling like one of my arms was cut off, I was incredibly productive. I got 12 days worth of writing done in roughly 28 hours (and that includes about 6 hours of sleep).

The American Night Writers Association LDS chapter sponsored the retreat, so it was 22 LDS women writers (many of which were super weird, but a few of which were totally cool and I would be friends with them) in a house they had rented. Imagine a house big enough to sleep 22 people -- all of them in their own beds. Isn't that crazy? Who can afford that? There was an excellent keynote address, some games, and some socializing. Plus meals were provided. I mostly went to be productive, so I didn't do much of the games and socializing, but I exceeded my goals and helped me relax, so it was perfect.

Jus' writin' with Jesus (and his golf tees). Gotta love the decor at rental homes. :)

Keynote in the living room.

I have had four meetings of the Creative Writing Club I got hired to advise and it's not going super well. Most of the time I have one attendee. But I am not complaining. I get paid and I get teaching hours for it, so it's the perfect job. Plus the girls are honing their art skilz.

The weather's been sort of nice, but mostly rainy. We had a few days warm enough to go to the park and blow bubbles. But mostly it's just rained. Stupid, gloomy, rain.

The closest thing to a merry-go-round since my childhood.

I got to go to the temple a couple of times, and my church stake has a Humanitarian Work Center where I went and helped sew things for ladies in Africa. The girls had dentist appointments and Mira had a well-check where the doctor and I decided Mira must have just had a growth spurt since her tallness percentage went up significantly. (She's still not tall.)

I always love the flowers at the temple.

There's lots of other every day things that went on. Shenanigans and housework, writing and game playing (Steve got a new game called The Castles of Mad King Ludwig and it's pretty fun), cleaning and reading and school.

Next weekend I get to go to the LDStorymakers writing conference and I'm super excited. La lala! I entered the first chapter contest and I'm pitching my book to a publisher, so wish me luck!

And . . . the rest of the pictures.
My kids are cute when they sleep. Well. All kids are cute when they sleep. But I love checking on them before I go to bed at night.

Cecily is not prejudiced. Winnie the Pooh sheets, My Little Pony blanket, Barbie book, Frozen microphone, plus stuffed animal roll call of Snoopy, Lamby (Doc McStuffins), Umbreon (Pokemon), and Toothless (How To Train Your Dragon).

Emilia looks so grown up in this picture.

Just call her Bright-Eyes.

Again with the grown-up look.

Marbles are picture-worthy.

The girls have taken to having church with their stuffed animals on Sunday. I love their creativity and devotion.

I made this chocolate cake for dessert tonight. If you don't hear from me, I overdosed on chocolate, sugar, and fat. Send help.

Ready for an afternoon at Grandma and Grandpa's.

I just thought this was funny. The difference between how Steve 'goes through the mail' and how I do.

Birthdays and St. George and a pool party escapade.

I haven't posted for a couple weeks. We've had some exciting weekends, even though the weeks in between were pretty mundane.

Three weekends ago was Easter. That was the last time I posted. The day after Easter was Mira's birthday. She had her birthday party that day. She wanted a Star Wars themed party, which was really nice, because I'm a Star Wars geek and had all the decorations in my basement already. For activities, I stuck vehicle Micro Machines in a bowl of baking soda and had them use vinegar to 'sink' them like Finn and Poe's ship sinks in Force Awakens. We had them each choose a pool noodle light saber (that I made the night before) and played Yoda Says and had them practice redirecting blaster fire back at Storm Trooper Steve. Some of the girls had some talent there. :) We played musical chairs with Star Wars music, and of course had cake and ice cream before opening presents. Mira loved it.

Party favors: Force Awakens cup, coloring packs, and bubble wands. Easy Peasy.

Ships prior to being sunk.

The super easy, I-have-a-1/2-hour cake.

Yoda says.

Sinking ships in progress.

The sunken ships. Two of the kids made swamps. :)

The red ballons were the blaster fire.

The day after the party, cousins were still here, so I took them all to the dinosaur museum. Cecily's been asking to go back ever since.

Digging for bones and getting SUPER dirty.

Dinosaur ROAR.

Mira wanted a picture. :)

Cousin Kate.

Two weekends ago was General Conference (for our church). I look forward to getting the Ensign (church magazine) for May so I can read the talks, since having three small kids does not lend itself to being able to concentrate for four two-hour sessions in one weekend.

Sunday night, my family came over so we could celebrate birthdays and eat good food. Megan was in town, so it was nice to see her and her family and have everybody together.

Last weekend, we went to St. George to visit Steve's sister, Cindy and her family. Since St. George is so close to Zions National Park, we thought it might be fun to do a hike there, but then it rained all weekend. Fortunately, Snow Canyon is about 45 minutes closer than Zions, so we decided to hike there (with all six kids) during a break in the rain. The break ended up being MUCH shorter than the weather man told us it would be, and we got drenched. We got about 1/3 of a mile into the hike and the sky opened up on us. Fortunately, Steve brought our big umbrella and eight of us huddled underneath it to keep somewhat dry. Joe and Sebastian toughed it out with their hat and sun shade. It was a mini adventure in a non-threatening flash flood. Kind of cool. :)

We also went to the discovery museum there, rode on the carousel, and braved the splash pad, where we got rained on and Emilia slashed her leg open on a giant metal frog.

On the way home, we saw rainbow after rainbow after rainbow. They were GORGEOUS. I wish the photos I took could do it justice. It was a beautiful way to end the weekend.

Yesterday I took Emilia and Mira to cousin Jane's birthday party at the Layton wave pool. As Nicole astutely put it, it's like the beach, but better. No sand, no salt, but lots of fun waves (and it was under one of those white bubble things, so indoors for the cold weather). We swam for nearly three hours (we only took a break to eat a cupcake and sing happy birthday - not in that order). During that time, I only nearly drowned Mira once and I was more freaked out about it than her. I had remembered everything that it would take to drive three of us an hour and 10 minutes to a swimming pool, change, shower, attend a birthday party, and play afterwards except flotation devices for my two children who do not know how to swim. Sigh. I even bought two brand new Puddle-Jumpers, which are, in my opinion, the best swimming invention since arm floaties and plastic diaper covers (you new mothers, you should check them out for sure). http://www.amazon.com/Stearns-Puddle-Jumper-Basic-Jacket/dp/B003648O7I (They usually sell them at Costco in the spring for cheaper than that.) And then I left them at home.

But since the pool had innertubes you could rent, I got one of those and kept an eye on them and gave them a stern reminder about how to be safe. Well, I should have listened to my own advice. At one point, Mira and I were bored, so I decided since Mira was safely aboard an appropriate-sized tube (and couldn't slip through the middle) that we were safe to swim out to the wave wall and back. She really wanted to go to the deep end, so I thought this was a good compromise. All was well until we reached the wall and Mira decides she wants to touch it with her toes. Before I can stop her, she's reached her toes forward enough to unbalance the innertube, flipping it over and dumping her in the water. Ahhhh! I somehow managed to keep both of us afloat, flip the innertube back over and swim us to the side of the pool where I maneuvered Mira up the ladder. Like I said, she was fine, but my heart raced for a good ten minutes after that. Needless to say, we didn't go back to the deep end even after she got a borrowed Puddle-Jumper.

I feel so lucky to be so close to family and to have the opportunities to do so many wonderful things. I'm very blessed.

Other random pictures from the last two weeks:

Can you spot the deer? There were about 8 of them back there.

It's fresh flower time again. Most of these were from my yard.