trying to be better

My sister Sam and I attended an awesome "Women's Conference" at BYU today. Sam called to tell me about it last week and I was skeptical but boy am I glad that I went. It was called "Confronting the Superwoman Stereotype: balancing womanhood, worship, and work." All the talks were given by ordinary women/mothers who have chosen to do play somewhat of a double role in their life by being working mothers. Being raised by a Mom who ran her own business out of our home for most of my life it was easy to connect and admire these women. I think I was skeptical about attending because for me, at this point in my life I have NO desire... I repeat, NO desire to work. I remember always saying that I knew I would likely be a working Mom because I just loved to work. WRONG! Don't get me wrong, I pride myself in my work ethic and ability to work hard (thanks Mom and Dad) but the second I had Banks, I haven't wanted to work at all.... except of course the work that goes into being a Mom. So, back to being skeptical. I guess I was worried that I wouldn't be able to relate to all these women who had the opposite desire as me, but I wasn't. If anything I walked away feeling more confident and OK with  my desire to just be at home for now. That's not to say that as I get older and develop my talents or take on new ones that I won't develop a passion for something new that could lead to a career, because I am open to that and think that will likely happen in the future. For now, I'm content being at home with Banks and soon to be baby G (name change fiasco...we've got another one in the mix now, but it also starts with the letter G so we'll stick with that for now).

The keynote address was given by C. Jane Kendrick. I had heard of her before and knew that she had a popular blog but that's about it. She did a wonderful job and talked about a lot of things that impressed me. One thing in particular that stuck was her belief that people need to write their "stories" down. She talked about how those are the only things we can leave behind in this world and we need to write them down so that others can be blessed by the lives we led even after we are gone. I've never been good at a journal so I thought that I could definitely be better at writing my thoughts down via my blog. So that's what I'm gonna do. I cant promise it's always going to be coherent or something you may be interested in, but it is what it is.

So this is me, writing my stories down.

a good quote from today...

"If you are on the right path, it will always be uphill."- Mildred G. Eyring.

and one more...

Give Give Give- what is the point of having experience, knowledge or talent if I don't give it away? Of having stories if I don't tell them to others. Of having wealth if I don't share it. I don't intend to be cremated with any of it. It is in giving that I connect with others, with the world and with the divine. -Isabel Allende

Also, this happened the other day at my Mom's house and I had to share it.

Banks is a wild man but him and his cousin Hero have a sweet little connection. He's always trying to lay in her lap so that she can pull his hair. Hero gets a kick out of Banks too as we can see. 

Cousins are pretty great.

Baby G updates, there really aren't any. I'm due on the 27th but am praying for a miracle. Unfortunately it appears that my body is progressing in very much the same way that it did with Banks...aka...it's not. Even when I went into active labor with Banks at 41 WEEKS my cervix (TMI? sooorrryy) was barely dilated and pretty posterior. Ru ro. So the Dr won't let me go past my due date this time but whether or not I get induced at 39 weeks is still up in the air. Everyone pray that my water breaks or that my cervix gets the idea and starts to open the heck up. Mmmmkay?

I'll let you in on our little name change fiasco for baby. So I'm at a church conference the other weekend and the lady across the table asks me what we think we're gonna name said baby. Without even thinking I say "George." My visiting teacher was sitting next to me and said, "you told me it was going to be Gordon." I was totally caught off guard and quickly corrected myself. Of course I go home and tell Michael because I can't get that out of my head. Why would I say George? I hadn't been talking about someone named George, and hadn't mentioned anything about a George all day...all week even. So random but it made me second guess the name so now it's in the mix. I think we're just gonna have to wait till he gets here to decide but as of now I'm leaning towards George and no, his middle name would not be able to be Michael so it would be William instead. I think it sounds very regal and British...George William Ries...very regal indeed.