Preserve And Enjoy Your Family Memories! – With $50 @YesVideo GC Giveaway #DivaMemories

We'd love it if you shared it!

This review and giveaway was made possible by Double Duty Divas and YesVideo. I received the featured service free of charge to facilitate my review, but all opinions are 100% mine.

My oldest is now 18 years old. I face the fact every day that he could decide to move out and try living on his own at any given moment. He’s not ready, but when did that ever stop a young adult that thought they knew it all? It didn’t stop me. I just try to have faith that he’ll think things out and do what’s best for him when he’s ready. After all, he is technically an adult. And yet, it feels like it was just a month or two ago that he was a tiny infant.
TJ, being my first child, got the benefit of that new parent fascination that so many of us get. I have always loved taking pictures, and I took more pictures then ever after my kids were born. And being 47 years old, that also means that I was present when the video boom took place. Yes I am that old. If you’re even remotely close to my age, then you may have a few bags or boxes that look like this around your house.

We have a bunch. For years we recorded everything onto VHS tapes. VHS tapes were just becoming fashionable in the 80s. I got married in 1986 and they were still on the new side then. It was somehow comforting knowing that some of the best moments in our lives had been captured to VHS and VHS-C tapes that we could watch on our VCR anytime we wanted.
Until a couple of year ago. The VCRs slowly broke one by one. And with DVDs and Blu-rays replacing VHS tapes, we just didn’t replace them. Leaving me with boxes of recordings I couldn’t see.
Moment of terror #1, when you realize some of the things you want to preserve are rendered virtually useless.
But then I remembered reading about YesVideo, folks that convert old VHS recordings to DVD. When offered the opportunity to try the service and get video converted to DVD I gladly accepted. I knew in my mind some specific things I wanted converted, they were the things that had priority to be saved first.
Moment of terror #2, when you can’t find the tapes you want converted. Doesn’t matter that you can’t watch them the way they are, you’re still basically hyperventilating anyway.
I pulled myself together and talked to my parents, hoping maybe they also had recordings from some of the events and times that I had in mind. I hadn’t realized that they still had a working VCR. I took eight boxes of VHS and VHS-C tapes up to their house to seek out the recordings I wanted converted. I unceremoniously plopped myself right on the floor in front of the VCR and set to work. I figured it’d be fairly quick. Check the label, check the tape, put it in the convert pile or not. Turns out things weren’t quite that simple.
I weeded my way through a bunch of tapes with things like Nascar races, tv movies and episodes from popular tv series on them. Remember, back in those days you had to record everything on tapes, there were no DVRs. All of those became garbage. Then, after about a dozen VHS tapes I found the tape from my first baby shower, when I was pregnant with TJ. I was huge! I was a little sad to see an aunt of mine who recently passed away at that shower, it had slipped my mind that she was there.
Then I found lots of tapes with recordings of TJ’s early years. Most of these were VHS-C tapes. Babbling, baths, crawling, eating, playing, talking, walking, Easter egg hunting, just an endless stream of things. They were the tapes I was looking for. And as much as I thought I remembered those moments in my mind, I was wrong. It turns out that there’s no replacing the actual recording, the one with the real pictures and video footage and sound. I literally sat there on the floor crying for about three hours straight. I put the ones I wanted to convert the most aside and went home to ship the videos to YesVideo.
YesVideo had provided an easy ship kit. It’s a sturdy box with everything you need to ship them the videos you want converted.

Moment of terror #3, when you hand the UPS guy the box containing the recordings you now know you can’t bear to lose. Doesn’t matter that you haven’t watched them but once in the past few years.

I waited, heart in my throat, for a few days. I kept checking the tracking number and was so relieved on the day I saw the the box had made it to its YesVideo destination. A few days more passed and I found this in my email inbox.

I felt some relief. And then five days later I saw this.

I immediately logged in to check things out. I found each of my recordings in an individual spot in the YesVideo dashboard.

To watch video you just click on the DVD you’re interested in.
Footage from my wedding, where I was an hour late, the priest got drunk, hubby thought I backed out, and I dropped the first piece of wedding cake? Got it.

TJ’s baby shower? Got it.

First Easter egg hunt? Got it.

First birthday party? Got that too!

First time your son goes on a trampoline and says trampoline? Got it!

A few days later the box with all of my original VHS and VHS-C tapes arrived safe and sound. Each VHS tape was in a sealed envelope, along with the DVD containing the footage from the original tape. Not only had they been able to handle my VHS tapes, they’d also been able to convert VHS-C tapes to DVD as well. All of the DVDs were  labeled the same way I saw them online as well so it was really easy to know what’s what.

I’m happy to have the actual original video tapes back, even though I can’t watch them. I am thrilled that anytime I want to watch the videos I can, either on DVD or online. Not only can I watch them, but I can easily share them as well.
You just can’t put a price on memories. Be sure to preserve your memories and enjoy them, because if you don’t who will? Only by preserving and sharing memories will they continue to live on.

What’s one special memory that you would want to preserve and convert?

CONNECT
YesVideo website – YesVideo on Facebook – YesVideo on Twitter

WIN IT!

One (1) winner will receive a $50 YesVideo GC.

HOW TO ENTER.

Enter using the Giveaway Tools widget below. The winner will be selected by the Giveaway Tools widget. If you’ve entered any of my giveaways before then you know that you must complete the mandatory required entry, and that only comments containing all of the requested information will be eligible for entry. US addresses only please, no PO Boxes. Good luck to everyone!