Education Week

I have always wanted to go to Education week at BYU. When we lived in Utah I never went because I thought it was really expensive and I couldn't just leave my kids for a week. This year Eric just told me to plan it and we would make it happen. Luckily Eric was able to go into work late and Hawley & John (Eric's Mom and Step Dad) picked the girls up from school and did homework with them until Eric was able to get home. It all worked out and I was so thrilled I got to go.  As for the classes being expensive... I paid $46.00 for four days and attended 24 classes so each class cost me a whopping $1.92.

Melissa, Me, Jackie & Stephanie

I drove up with four of my good friends so we had a blast the entire time.  I was cracking up watching them.  All three of them came with a stack of CD's or an Ipod and wanted to DJ the ride but they all had very different music styles. As a result we had a very musically eclectic ride all the way to beautiful Provo. 
    

Jackie was very excited to show us her new quilt blocks for the Christmas exchange.  Whenever there was a lull in the conversation she would pull them out and start talking about them.  It became a joke so every so often we would say "Hey Jackie, lets talk about your blocks".  The present block she quickly designed herself and it's so stinkin cute. I wish I had a better photo, the present is paper pieced and the bow is appliqued. 

We also stopped at the Outlets at State line and went into the Williams Sonoma/ Pottery Barn outlet to see if they had a Staub pumpkin pot that I have wanted for a long time.  They had it-  20% off the outlet price, but it was still ridiculously expensive so I left with a broken heart.

We stayed in the dorm rooms. 
This was the largest class I went to (so I figured no one would notice my taking a photo). It was by Elder Hales and the topic was Life long learning. You can read a summery of the talk here.

My Mom had told me that a dear friend of ours Kay Stevenson was at Education week with his Grandsons. I really hoped I would run into him but knew it would be impossible. Anyone on the campus that was not pregnant, had grey hair and was about 60-70. There was no way I could pick him out of the crowd. Of all the places- I saw him outside this class getting a drink of water! I was so thrilled, it made my day.

Since this is my year to "remodel" one of my favorite class series was on becoming an influencer and changing habits. Here is a quick summery of Wednesday's class.  The guys that taught this class wrote Influencer (A New York TImes best seller). They have this web site that has some of the videos they used to show how individuals influenced people to change their habits and ultimately saved thousands of lives. I took 15 pages of notes from the 4 classes they taught but I still think I want to buy their book.

I had full intention of giving a little blurb on each class that I attended, but looking at my spiral bound notebook that is full of notes, I realize that I could never do each class justice. I will say that I found every class that I went to outstanding except for two of them, they were unbelievably boring and painful to sit through. 

I attended classes on everything from raising emotionally healthy children to ancient scripture, marriage, communication and intimacy, healthy eating and financial planning.

One thing that surprised me about Education week. I have never seen so many pregnant women in my life! Seriously. I think about 40% of all the women I saw on campus were pregnant.

Steph, Melissa and Jacki- do you agree or was it more like 80% ?

When we were not in class, of course we were checking out the local quilt shops. All four of us are quilters so we loved seeing the plethora of quilt shops Utah has to offer.  I am proud to say that I only purchased 2 fat quarters of fabric on the whole trip, but look at the car.... there was plenty of fabric purchased to keep Utah's economy strong.

We drove up to Utah with just a few suitcases in the trunk. We had to put the back seat down for the ride home in order to accommodate all the purchased fabric and maternity clothes (Stephanie and Jackie are both pregnant).

On the drive home we decided to try the Outlet again to see if the pumpkin pots were say 90% off- no luck. I came home pumpkinless.  

We decided that the gas in Mesquite was too expensive and to try for Vegas. About 10 miles outside of Vegas our DTE- Distance until empty went to *.  Luckily we made it to a station before I had to kick the 2 pregnant girls out to push us!
This was such an amazing experience for me. I learned so much and received council that I needed.  My head(and notebook) is so full of things I need to change and or improve it will take me a while to process it all. I left with a full tank spiritually, emotionally and mentally. I can see why so many people have gone to education week every year for several years. I really home I can make it back next year.