Olympic Memories

Every 4 years (2 years now) growing up our family gathered in front of my grandparent's console TV to watch America's finest compete against the world for gold.

In 1976 I was 3 years old. And I sat on my Nanan's lap to watch Dorothy Hamill win figure skating gold for the USA.  That began my love affair with ice skating and lead me to take lessons and get a cute new hair cut. Also that year we sat in awe of a little girl from Romania who scored a perfect 10 on the uneven bars. Nadia Comaneci inspired me to practice and practice until I mastered the summersault and the cartwheel.  Back then I had dreams of taking center ice and performing a perfect double Salchow, or scoring a perfect 10 on the balance beam and leading my team to the Women's All-Around Gold.

By the time 1980 rolled around and as a nation we cheered when the US Men took down the USSR in Hockey in Lake Placid and then we as a nation boycotted the Summer Olympics in Moscow I had given up my dreams of being an Olympic athlete in favor of being a teacher or a astronaut, but I never stopped loving watching the games.

In 1984 when Mary Lou Retton made history with 10s in the vault and the floor to win all-around gold by a very narrow margin I was back to wishing I could take gymnastics lessons and begged and begged my mom to let me try. Unfortunately it was not to be for me, so I just practiced my heart out in the back yard, went out for cheerleading in Jr. High and got my gymnastics fix that way.

Every year forward both the Summer and Winter games were highlight for me. I can remember with near perfection every Ladies Figure Skating Gold Medalist, and every Women's All-Around Gold Medalist from 1984 forward. I remember where I was when they won gold, who I watched the competitions with, who I was dating, and so on. That is how much of an effect the games have had on my memory.

I've laughed, cried, paced, cheered for the amazing athletes. Found favorites to follow from countries all over the world.  I love learning about the host countries and cities and seeing the kids who have worked so hard step up onto the podiums to get their medals with the national anthem of the gold medalist playing proudly. Watching the open and closing ceremonies in awe of the creativity of those who put them all together.

This year will be no different. I will watch from opening to close, laugh and cry, hope and celebrate.BUT this year will be different in one very big way. THIS year one of my Olympic Dreams comes true. THIS year I will have the blessing of watching with my children. I will be able to watch figure skating with my daughter and revel in the delight on HER face that will most assuredly mirror my own. This year I will get to watch my oldest son see his own Olympic dreams in the faces of the Alpine Skiers and the Snowboarders, now that he's gotten a taste of downhill skiing and so very much wants to learn how to snowboard. This year I will get to watch my dear 6 year old marvel at the spectacle that is Curling.   This year new Olympic memories will be made and I will enjoy each and every one of them!

A new blog carnival for me!

So I found a new blog carnival that I have decided to participate in! I love doing these so much because they give me a direction for writing something even when I don't feel like I have something to say. It is also a great way for me to find new blogs to read and get new readers to come check out my little corner of cyberspace.

 If you follow this blog you know I routinely do Not Me Monday's from MckMama's blog and the universally well known Wordless Wednesday (WW).  So now I'm adding You Capture to the routine.  Like WW, it's all about capturing parts of one's life in photos, but rather than letting the photos speak and be about any subject I wish, You Capture has a Weekly Challenge and allows for words as well to tell the story of the photo.

So here we go! My first You Capture assignment is .........drum roll.....please........WORK!

Being a "stay at home mom" the concept of work is quite different for me than a lot of people.  But trust me I take me work every bit as seriously has any Fortune 500 executive!!  Probably even more so some days. I wear so many different hats during the course of my "job".  Here are a glimpse of a few.

Today my tasks were all about spending time with my 4 1/2 year old daughter Lily.

We spent 2 hours playing board games including The Ladybug Game and Triominos.  Both of which are AWESOME tools for understanding numbers, turn taking, problem solving etc etc.  So in a sense I am a part time Teacher.  And of course I forgot to "capture" that part of my job, but I did get the next part!

Next up part time Face Painting Artist!

Of course having all the supplies out we couldn't very well just stop at doing her face, so we did hands too!

And then she wanted a picture with all of "her cat friends".....

I found Fudge (the black and which tuxedo kitty), and Stormy the Girl Cat for the picture, but Stormy the Boy Cat was MIA.

But don't worry when I headed up to do the next part of my "job" I found him! Sleeping in my "too be folded" pile of laundry.

So my day isn't exactly rough, but folding and putting away laundry is certainly work, especially when your cat decides it makes a great bed.

So if you want to see what else everyone "captured" today and every Thursday, head on over to Beth's awesome blog "I Should Be Folding Laundry" and check out the links.

Wordless Wednesday--Feb 10th 2010 Welcome Spring

Wordless Wednesday