My Olympic Rant... The Anthem

Ok so I have turned into an absolute Olympic junkie. I can't even comprehend howI continue going without much sleep right now! UGH! But I LOVE the Olympic Games. There have been so many awesome experiences this time that just give me a real patriotism boost. However, (I feel a rant coming on) I have noticed that not many American athletes know the words to the national Anthem. Sure they start to mouth them but what on earth are the words they are singing? :) I'm watching their mouths and it is NOT the Anthem that I know :) I swear one guy was just saying the word watermelon over and over!

I have watched other countries athletes win and sing their own national anthems with such pride. It is an awesome site. We need to make it a prerequisite for athletes to memorize the anthem before they are allowed to compete. Perhaps they get a little quiz right before the step up the diving board ladder or before they are even allowed to mount a gymnastics aparatus!!!!!

Now I need to close by saying how truly impressed I was with the USA Women's rowing team that took the GOLD. They all stood on the podium and everyone of them sang the USA Anthem so loud that the camera picked them up! It almost brought a little tear to my eye! They didn't care if they could sing well or not. They cared about winning a Gold for them AND their country and showing that with their Anthem show. It was beautiful.

So I call on all parents to teach your children your country's national anthem. ( I make mine sing along each time our coutry wins a gold medal). They are getting good practice thanks to all those talented athletes.

Top Ten Reasons I LOVE summer

Shannon (my co-worker) wanted us all to write our top ten reasons we are excited to be done with summer. To which I could only say....What the?????? NO WAY can I write about the close of summer. Don't get me wrong, I do love me some of that winter.... but summer is my favorite by far. So here are the reasons I love summer and don't want it to end:

10) End of summer means school starts again, and even though I am no longer in school I still get a little anxiety when it is about to start.

9) Playing in the sprinklers with the kids.

8) I LOVE my flower garden. Ugh! I hate to see it all die back at the close of summer. It is more than I can bear... all of that hardwork.

7) My neighbors dog does a LOT of #2's on my grass. Now that I could do without. But what is fun about it (stay with me here) is making a game out of throwing it back in their yard. 5 points for their lawn, 10 points for their walkway, and 100 points for their porch. Hey it is not my dog!!!! You reap what you (and your dog) sew!

6) Awesome movies always come out in the summer.

5) Hiking on our beautiful mountain trails.

4) Body image- I am a little more concious of taking care of my body in the summer incase a passerby sees me mowing my lawn without my shirt on. However, when summer is over......bring back my beloved Poptarts.

3) I don't watch as much TV (My sweet TW will say this is not true-but it is). Because it stays late longer, there is so many outside activities we can do.

2) SOCCER season! As the coach, I love it, love it, love it!

1) Sun. The sun makes me happy- I would stay in it all day everyday if I could get a guarantee that I would not ever look like Bob Barker or George Hamilton.

NOW YOU WRITE: What do you LOVE about the summer months.

Stampin' Up! Convention 2008 SLC

I am finally getting back to normal life now that our Convention is over! Holy cow! I was so tired after Covention this year that I felt I should hibernate for a few months and get some sleep. The excitement and anticipation of Convention, new products, announcements and presentations makes it so I can hardly sleep at all!!!

I LOVED this year's Convention more than any other one ( I probably say that every year- but I mean it this year). What a great fun time we had celebrating all of our amazing, fabulous demonstrators all over the world. I love our demos! They are the greatest people in the world.

I have tried over and over to explain to my kids what I do for a living. How do you explain geting up on stage and stamping in front of 6000 women and 3 men :) Well, the kids got to come down to the Salt Palace and see me present on the maainstage. It was awesome. There they were on the front row, my little chickens and Teresa!! Everytime I saw them on the big camera screen I almost got a little teary. SOOOOOO cute. Of course I threatened to take away everything they own if they ran around all over the place :) As any good parent would. On the way home in the car Coltin asked his mom "Is Daddy famous mom?" HA HA HA HA HA - "Only one week a year sweetie!"- she said. It is good to shrink that big head of mine!

So what was your favorite part of Convention??? I am dying to know all the things that you just LOVED?