Mormon Celebrities

I'm not into celebrities - I completely avoid any magazine or news show that prattles on about the lives of celebrities.  I just seriously don't care one bit about any celebrity's latest love interest, beach body, baby bump, or children.  In fact, I have a secret desire to go on the "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" game show (and I would spend all the money I earned to take us on a Disney Cruise, of course), but I just know that I would be stumped by the inevitable questions about popular culture and celebrities.

But there are a few celebrities that I get excited about.  I wish I had been as lucky as my sister Ali and been up close and personal with President Monson and Elder Holland (at the Kansas City Temple dedication last year).  I've never been that lucky.  But, at the Time Out For Women conference last November I was able to meet one of my few celebrity idols.  

This is a blurry iphone picture, but do you see the really cool thing about this picture?  That's me in the upper left hand corner and that's Sheri Dew smack dab in the middle. Yes - that is Sheri Dew taking a picture with me and a bunch of my friends.  You might notice that Sheri doesn't look exactly thrilled to be posing with a bunch of giddy women, and I don't blame her.  After her amazing talk at the Time Out for Women event in Portland last fall, I'm pretty sure she was trying to hightail it out of the building before she was mobbed. However, my friend Kristi (to Sheri's left) used to sing with Young Ambassadors and also performed at different events for church leadership.  Apparently, years ago, Sheri Dew paid Kristi a nice compliment about her performance, and Kristi wanted to thank her for it.  Because Kristi delayed Sheri long enough for the rest of us to run up to her, we all were able to snap a quick photo like a bunch of drooling celebrity enthusiasts.

Sheri Dew is one of my favorite women who I don't even know personally.  I love to listen to her speak. She is intelligent and spiritual and she doesn't mince words.  When I listen to her talks or read her books I feel inspired to be better  - more intelligent, more spiritual, more charitable, and a greater student of the scriptures.

This was an extra fun Time Out for Women event - it included teenage girls!  I bought tickets for both Aubrey and Bailey to attend.  The TOFW event was Friday night and all day Saturday, but the promotional materials for the Time Out for Girls said that there would be no separate programming for the girls on Friday night but that they were welcome to come with their moms.  Aubrey decided to come with me anyway on Friday, but Bailey decided to stick with her previous engagement - a Mia Maid sleepover with her friends from church.  

It wasn't until we got to the convention center that we found out that the plans had changed and the girls did have their own Friday night program, which included another of our very favorite Mormon celebrities.  Just look at who Aubrey met on Friday evening. . .

John Bytheway (!!)  who is a great speaker who has done many, many inspirational and hilarious talks for LDS youth. He was the surprise addition to the speaking schedule at Time Out for Girls.  Our kids know by heart every talk John Bytheway has ever recorded and we all love them.

Like I said, we didn't realize that Bytheway would be a speaker on Friday night.

So, while Aubrey was meeting one of her favorite celebrities, this is what Bailey was doing.
 
She had fun at the sleepover, but when she heard how much fun Aubrey was having, she wished with all her heart that she could join us. This was our text conversation Friday evening:

Me:  So, I just shook Sheri Dew's hand!  I'm on cloud 9!

Bailey:  Oh my gosh, Mom!!  You're famous!

Me (one hour later):  OK, even better.  In the Time Out for Girls, John Bytheway was there!!!! We are standing near him right now!  

Bailey:  YOU ARE KIDDING ME!!!!!!  NOOOO - I WANT TO MEET HIM!

Me:  Yep, we are standing in line to meet him!

Bailey:  Mom, you are KILLING me!!  Will you please tell him I'm a big fan?!?!  Oh my gosh, Mom.  I want to be there so bad right now.  (I did pass along her message - when we met Bytheway I very awkwardly said something like, "my 15 year old daughter wants you to know that she is your biggest fan."  It was very awkward and weird and I should have kept my mouth shut!)

Me (an hour later):  So, there's a chance John Bytheway will be there tomorrow.  As we were all meeting him, he told everyone, "see you tomorrow."  

Bailey:  Did you personally talk to him?!?!

Me:  We did talk to him. And shook his hand, got an autograph and took a picture.  

The next morning we picked up Bailey at 7 a.m. from her Mia Maid leader's house.  We drove to Portland and I got the girls and their friends settled in their conference room and then joined my friends in the main room.

A few minutes later I got this message:

Bailey:  JOHN BYTHEWAY IS HERE AND I'M GOING TO GET A PICTURE WITH HIM AT BREAK!!!!!!


Me:  Hooray!!!!!!!  (We were very liberal with exclamation points this weekend)

And she did get a very grainy but awesome picture with her favorite speaker/celebrity.  It's a good thing John Bytheway was so patient with all the teenage girls!

On a related side note, I have always meant to pass along my own thank you to John Bytheway by email or something. It wasn't the right time to do so when I had my 5 seconds face to face with him surrounded by 100 other women and teenagers (plus I was busy awkwardly tripping over my words and sounding like a stalker.)   But, this is what I wish I could have said/have always meant to say to John Bytheway:

"It is a hard thing to raise kids to be righteous, strong, and immovable in this increasingly morally dissolute world. My husband and I try to take advantage of every tool available to reach our kids and strengthen them. One of these tools which has been very helpful is the recordings of talks by you and other great speakers. For many years our kids have listened to the talks over and over until they have memorized them. I don't know how many times over the years I've tucked in the kids one at a time at night and heard a different Bytheway talk playing in each of their rooms. Many times the kids will reference a scripture or story or principle they learned in one of the talks - the principles of the gospel are being written on their hearts and are becoming part of their inner governing principles.  One of the ways this is happening is that they are consistently listening to uplifting and spiritually strengthening media.  Thanks for showing the youth that learning about gospel truths isn't boring - it's fun, and it's more than okay to have a good time doing it. And thank you for giving us some great tools to use as we do our best to parent our kids."

On Saturday we had a splendid time walking briskly through the beautiful fall weather to a restaurant for lunch.

What a fun weekend with my two favorite girls in the world!  I'm such a lucky mom.

This is a photo with all my friends who were at the conference with us.  I coordinated the ticket purchasing and rides for most of the group - it was a little complicated but worth it!