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You’ve Got Mail

I have had some lovely responses to my recent Show and Tell posts, and I even received a postcard from USA from a bloggy reader/friend following my post about postcards, which was a lovely surprise (Thanks Karen)

The film “You’ve Got Mail” was also on TV last night, so while flicking channels for a short respite from the Olympics I watched it for a moment or two. I do love romantic comedies like that however the draw of the Olympics was too great, and I was soon back, watching some obscure but fascinating sports.

This time, the whole family are enjoying the Olympics – more so than in previous Games. My youngest (soon to be 4) loves every sport that is on, and tries to duplicate them himself. For example, after the mens gymnastics, he started to leap and jump, and walked along a roll of carpet as a beam. This was followed by watching the diving. He proceeded to climb onto a wooden box and asked “How you do spinny over thing mummy?” I assumed he meant a triple summersault, double pike reverse….thingey (!) so I persuaded him to climb down and stick with some safer sports. Fortunately he missed the archery, and I think we should avoid the fencing too.

I tried to recall watching previous Olympics, and my memories associated with them. When they were staged in Greece, 4 years ago, I was 30 plus weeks pregnant, packing up our belongings and about to return to Northern Ireland with 2 kids plus bump, 2 weeks ahead of my husband. On return here, I discovered I also had gestational diabetes, so it was not just the house move and the kids on my own to blame for my exhaustion. Let’s just say – I do not recommend trying this and never plan to do it again myself! So most of the greek Olympics passed me by in a blur of cardboard boxes, masking tape and fond farewells to english friends.

My other significant Olympic memories are from 1984, when I was on a trip to USA with my brother and cousins. the trip coincided with the Los Angeles Olympics. Being teenagers on a tight budget, McDonalds etc were the main source of nutrition (!) while we travelled. McDonalds were doing an Olympic promotion where you were given scratch cards with the possibility of instant wins. We visited so often and won so much, by the end we were giving away our winning cards, as we could not face yet another extra large fries or a BigMac!

I would love to hear if you have any significant Olympic memories to share?

I have two digital layouts to share.

The first is of my “future Olympian”!

I took the photo last week, and converted it to black and white as part of my photographic course.

Then another “heritage” layout, using a photo of my Dad and 3 of this 4 siblings.

I loved this quote by Desmond Tutu

“You don’t choose your family.
They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.”

Apart from the background paper, all the elements in this layout come from a Weeds and Wildflowers Freebie which should be available shortly HERE.

If you have yet to try digital scrapbooking, why not download it and give it a go. (You will also need some type of photo editing software, I use PhotoShop Elements 4). You never know, you might like it!!

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15 Comments

  1. “by the end we were giving away our winning cards, as we could not face yet another extra large fries or a BigMac!”
    I feel your pain! That’s why I am so thankful McDonalds has some pretty decent salads now. When my kids beg me to take them there, I am actually willing to go.

    Glad you liked the postcard. *grin*

  2. Thank you! I’m bookmarkign this because I want to come back and download that freebie. I’ve never tried digital scrapbooking, but I want to. Thanks!

  3. We are loving the Olympics here also! My daughter especially is into them and loves to watch the equestrian events because she take riding lessons!

  4. Hi JanMary! Boy you’re a good writer. The story about your wee boy copying the athletes….ROFL….that was classic. I love your latest LO too – the black and red with the simple LO design – just fabulous. I might have to lift that one if you don’t mind. 😀 I’ll send you a link when I do.

  5. love your blogging! Can’t help but giggle at mc donalds part because I feel that way all the time!:)

  6. Great layouts! The only memory of the Olympics I have is back in 88 when I was in grace 6, our class did a synchronized dance to “Higher Love” by Steve Winwood for the Olympics since they were in Canada (Calgary) that year. Other than that, there’s nothing much I remember.

  7. Thankfully there’s been no acting out of the Olympics here. Although I wish there was more of an interest other than “Can I go up to my room to watch cartoons?”

  8. rofl about the somersaults and archery and fencing!! I have a dd who is a bit like that – scares the life out of me – am sure she should have been a boy!!!

  9. Hi JM –

    You know, I’d be lying to you if I said I was interested in the Olympics. I know thats bad – I’ve just got too much going on. We do watch the highlights on the news, and listen to the radio, but can’t sit to watch the individual events. I’m sure if we had relatives ‘in the running’ it might be different. Thanks for sharing your history of Olympic-ing!

    Its a good thing for your children to aspire to – and I agree about sticking with the ‘safe’ sports.

    Did you read that blip on my blog a while ago about how McDonalds is allowed to spray their chicken mcnuggets with a form of BUTANE, to preserve them? Ewww! Scary stuff!

    I am SO IMPRESSED with your b&w conversion, looks wonderful and what a great layout!

    I’ve used this very quote on a layout before too – its a good one.

    The Weeds and Wildflowers items are SO beautiful, and you use them perfectly … I think I may have to try this digital scrapbooking stuff… LOL – I might like it.

    LOL
    Barb

    PS – have a good day!

  10. I am reading another post before I move on to other show& tells. I remember when Cathy Rigby won the gymnastics competition. Boy, that dates me! We were talking about how old our son and daughter would be when the next summer olympics rolled around in 8 years. He was a teen there and had a crush on Cathy. Talking about 8 years in the future was like forever to them. Time flies though!
    I was wondering, when you do digital scrapbooking, do you actually print out your page for your album or just save it to disk?
    Mama Bear

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