Time Out at last!

Alicia, Kathy, Lynette, Sharla

Summer and me

at Time Out For Women, April 2008

These friends from church and myself all drove to Oooooklahoma, where the wind...who can say that state's name without singing it? Musicals' fans -- no way.

We heard from fabulous, entertaining, and inspiring speakers: including Dean Hughes, who has become one of my favorite fictional (very historical) writers (I wouldn't read anything historical otherwise, I'm sorry to say; now I feel like I know quite a bit about WWII and the Vietnam Era of my birth); we heard from another favorite, Merilee Boyack has 2 books I am loving & getting so much from: Strangling Your Husband is Not an Option (about being a great wife, believe it or not) and The Parenting Breakthrough (how to train your kids to work, save money, and be ready for the world); also, Carolyn Rasmus who wrote a book just for me (ha ha) called Simplify; Kim Nelson, a surprisingly and amazingly funny counselor & author, who just cracked everybody up, as well as enlightened us about relationships & marriage; Camille Fronk Olson, who wrote something I bought and am in process of reading called: Mary, Martha, and Me; [can you see the themes I'm attracted to?]

Singers: Hillary Weeks, Ted's cousin (1st or 2nd?) and an admired friend from college days. Plus Mercy River, a great trio of cute girls who sing a'capella--and do it nicely.

And last, but not least, the NY Times best-selling author, who happens to also be a member of the church we attend, Jason Wright. [see photo below] Both of his recent books are in my Top 10 of books, The Wednesday Letters and Christmas Jars. Movies are on the way...He talked about the importance of letters, real, hand-written letters to those we love, to those we need to forgive or be forgiven by, to our children, to our parents, to a teacher or other person who made a difference in our life. I love that. I do love getting letters; and I enjoy writing them.

I even won a contest he has via his website and received one book on CD which Ted was made (not forced) to listen to in the car on the way home from Branson. Surprisingly, to him, he enjoyed it very much and was touched enough by a quote in the epilogue, that he asked for the book to be able to copy it down. Surprisingly to me, Jason Wright remembered me (maybe the non-so-common last name I have) from the contest as 1 of 10 winners and the next week, emailed me to ask for a copy of this photo! (website or promotional?) cool!