Entertaining Olympic Quotes

I found these on msnbc.com. (Does that mean msn owns nbc, too? Probably!)

"At first, I couldn't stop touching (my jersey). I was like, 'Oh, my gosh! Is this mine? Are you sure it's real? The USA isn't going to fade into my sports bra, is it?' I still kind of look down and ask, 'Are you sure I'm supposed to have this?'"
-- Softball player Monica Abbott, on wearing the U.S. national jersey for the first time.

Yes. That would definitely be me - at least she's athletic, though.

"I think with her own family she's competitive, everybody. Like if she was racing for an ice cream cone with a little kid, she'd probably push the kid out of the way."
-- Beach volleyball player Misty May-Treanor, on her teammate Kerri Walsh.

Wow. She sounds kinda mean. It's a good thing she has to stay on her own side of the net.

"It's very awkward and weird. I train six to eight hours a day to be the best athlete that I can be for my team and my country, and then people want to talk about my looks...I don't feel like a celebrity. I'm still just a little dork.
-- Softball player Jennie Finch, on her off-field fame.

I love that. She really is quite pretty, but she's a dork. Cool.

"It's the Olympics. If you can't get up to swim in the morning, don't go."
-- Swimmer Michael Phelps, on finals being scheduled for the morning, Beijing time.

Ain't that the truth. Meagan only swam competatively for one year and that was ALOT of early mornings!

It was funny watching swimming events with Meagan. She would critique all the swimmers' form and let us know how they could swim faster. She did have really good form though - her coach always used her as the example for the rest of the team - even though it was only her first year. If only it weren't for her bad knees. C'est la vie.

A Good Service Man is Worth His Weight in Gold

Our washing machine started making a horrible, metallic noise last Saturday. I thought that it was a belt or chain going out. Not sure what to do about it, I went online to see if I could find anything about d.y.i. washing machine repairs. I found an exploded drawing of our washing machine model. After looking at the pictures and the machine, we decided it was probably the bearings going out. It looked like it would be difficult to get to.

We were wondering if we should call in a repair person or just get a new machine. I went on-line again, this time to try to find a repair person to talk to. I found the Service Magic(tm?) website. They found me 3 repair companies in SLC. The first one called and said it would be $55 for someone to come out and look at the machine. From what I described, they said it was either the pump or the bearings. If it was the pump, it would cost about $140 to repair; if it was the bearings, it wasn't worth fixing. The second company said they would come out and look at my machine for $29.99. I went with the 2nd company, because if it wasn't worth fixing, I didn't want to spend $55 finding that out.

The service man was great! He showed up 5 minutes early, answered all my questions, had my washing machine fixed in less than 30 minutes and only charged me $100 to replace the pump in my washing machine - service call, parts and everything. That was $40 less than the other place! Thank goodness it was only the pump, and thank goodness I DID decide to get my washing machine checked instead of giving up on it! Meagan was happy, too, because she hadn't been able to wash any clothes in 4 days.

Oh, yeah - and word of advice - don't overload your washing machine or the bearings on it will wear out faster than they should. I asked about front load washers, because I've heard they're better for the environment (take less water, etc). Joe (the service guy) said they are really good at getting clothes clean, but very tempermental. Once you start a load, don't open the door! And if they break down, they're much more expensive to repair.

Whew!

Youth Conference is over, YW Camp is over, Cameron and Jarom are off at Scout Camp, Meagan and Cameron are registered for High School. BIG sigh of relief! Now all I have to do is get the kids ready for school - as in clothes. That will be ok except for Cameron, who hates clothes shopping with a passion.

Youth Conference was fun, but I am glad it's over. I have slept SO well the last few nights. Yesterday I got to work full time, which reminds me why I don't work full time. Between that and the busy weekend, I was exhausted. I came home, ate 1/2 pint of Ben & Jerry's and crawled in bed and didn't get up until 8:30 this morning. It was very nice.

This morning Meagan, David, Amber and I went to get Cameron and Meagan registered for school. We did mail-in registration, which was very nice because we only had to stand in line 5 minutes instead of 2 hours. David said, "Why did we never do mail-in registration before?" Meagan got her Senior pictures taken, too - and it was probably 1/4 of what it would have been had she gone in to the studio to get them taken. Good thing she was at camp the week of her appointment. She even liked how her pictures turned out, which is awesome. Digital photography is amazing, isn't it??

American Idol - or Somethin'

Cameron and I have been playing Kailien's copy of American Idol. I had never played it before. It's kinda fun, 'cept now my throat is sore. I guess I'm gonna hafta have Becky teach me how to sing without injuring my vocal cords if I wanna keep playing. I actually did better than I thought I was gonna do.
Funny thing is, my favorite part is seeing if Simon's gonna say something really mean to me. Amazingly, he hasn't. When he does say something kinda mean, I just laugh. Know what else is funny? I sing way better on the songs women sang originally. For some reason that surprises me. And Cameron's favorite song to sing? Piano Man.
So...that's what I've been up to. That, and getting ready for Youth Conference - which I am really relieved that it is happening this weekend and it's all starting to come together. At least my part of it is. Yay!