08 Wednesday Jan 2014
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big girl pants, Christmas stocking, cold bag on my head, headache, orange and strawberry smoothie
made it through the day…
felt a bit better around 9:30 thanks to an orange and strawberry smoothie…
by about one was starting to feel poorly again… as the afternoon progressed my head started to ache…
since getting home I have eaten a little bit, slept a little bit and now I am laying down with a cold bag on my head that was in my Christmas stocking…
hope it feels better soon…
07 Tuesday Jan 2014
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a long day…
my cold has stepped up a notch and my nose is vacillating from running like a tap to being stuffed up… the least exertion and I am exhausted…
furnace guy didn’t arrive until nearly one and he did a number of things and said the furnace needed to be cleaned… showed me where the batteries go in the thermostat… was happy he turned up because the temperature had gone down three degrees… they will be back on Friday to finish the job…
finally got some sleep around 3…
had a bit of supper and am going to climb into bed and hopefully get a good night’s sleep…
took a few pictures of some of the hoarfrost out the window earlier today…
06 Monday Jan 2014
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big girl pants, brrrrrrr, cleaned filter, cleared vents, FaceTime, George, sick with a cold, sleep the cold off, temperature 56F, thermostat batteries
today, about 2:30 a cold kicked in and I felt miserable… but it was only an hour and a half until work was done for the day so I sniffled, snuffled, drank water and blew my nose frequently as the time went by…
as we rode home I was dreaming about how I was going to climb into bed and sleep this silly cold off…
walked in the door, took off my coat and went right to the thermostat with my boots on because it was cold.. yes it was… 56 degrees Fahrenheit… put my coat back on and went to check the vents outside to be sure they weren’t covered with snow… there was no snow below them, but one of them had snow in it, so I used a stick and unplugged it…
came back into the house, but the furnace still wasn’t pumping out warm air… called my son-in-law and he suggested I clean out the filter to see if that was a problem too… so then I had to move the small freezer away from the furnace so that I could open the spot where the filter goes… small freezer seems like a misnomer considering how heavy it was… we FaceTimed and he showed me what to do… my oh my, it was dirty, sigh…apparently George cleaned that out now and again and I haven’t thought about it at all…
put a call in to the furnace people to see what else I should do… by the time they called back the temperature had risen about two degrees so the man I spoke with suggested they come out tomorrow as possibly the thermostat, which is wired in, might need new batteries… batteries, who knew it had batteries in it, yikes…
I warmed up some of last night’s leftovers in the oven, leaving the door open, climbed onto my bed with blankets on me, ate, had some hot tea and then a nap…
now, more than five hours later, the temperature has finally reached 70, which I think is about 68 or 69 in the rest of the house… I am going to climb into my bed and hope I feel better by morning, and that the temperature doesn’t go down again…
as I’ve been sitting here the moon has tracked across the top of the living room window… this is odd as it is usually at the back of the house…
moon through the window at the top of the picture…
moon tonight, from the open doorway…
those big girl pants can be a bit of a pain, lol…
05 Sunday Jan 2014
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big girl pants, climb through snow, deep snow, freezing cold, no hot tubbing, Norfolk pine, shovelling, snow, snowblower, tree, window is gaping hole
took the decorations off the tree and moved it so that I could see out the window again…
Norfolk pine in its new home…
rather funny, because now it feels like there is a gaping hole and the window looks huge…
this tree ended up being filled with a garland of butterflies that Cyndi made, as well as a snowflake with my name stamped on it, and the leftover hearts which she had made as gifts for her friends…
all decorated…
today I gave one of those hearts to a dear friend who stopped by… haven’t seen her in a very long time so it was wonderful to have the opportunity to catch up… she had to climb through some serious snow to get into the house, lol…
footprints through the deep snow…
while she was here, Crystal and the boys arrived and Crystal and Kyler shovelled in the freezing cold, while the little boys visited with us…
they got the snowblower going but it stopped after just one sweep of the driveway and so they had to hand shovel the rest… took them ages and they had to keep coming in to warm up…
snowblower quit after one sweep…
the great news is that the driveway, sidewalk and back are clear and if needed I can take the car out…
shovellers at work…
hopefully it will be warm enough tomorrow so that I can go out and put chemicals in the hot tub… although, even I don’t plan to hot tub in these temperatures…
04 Saturday Jan 2014
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big girl pants, bunny tracks, deep snow, hot tub, photography course, shadows, shadows in the snow, snow
a few years ago I took a photography course with a colleague… we had great fun as we would often go out for dinner before the class… she is an artist and it was wonderful to see what she would do with the homework projects…
shadow thrown from the gate which George built to look like the sun and its rays…
one of the homework projects involved taking pictures of shadows… it was quite difficult as there wasn’t much sunshine that week… I remember arriving home on the only sunny day we had and rushing out to get a few shots… George and I went to the grocery store and I was taking some pictures of the beautiful fruit when a store representative came up and asked why I was taking pictures, yikes…
we also had fun driving around the Park to get some photos…
bunny tracks through the garden…
this afternoon I got a few great shots of some lovely shadows in the back yard…
you can see how high the snow is on the pergola by the garage…
there is still a lot of snow out there… it is quite beautiful but I am looking forward to my kids coming over tomorrow and getting some of it cleared away… can’t even get out to the hot tub, lol…
03 Friday Jan 2014
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African Violets, big girl pants, cope with winter, George, great pianist, maternal grandmother, memories, orchids, Violet May, violets
when I got back to work yesterday, after two weeks away, one of my African Violets was blooming its little heart out… was a bit surprised because it had lots of blooms on it when I left, so I thought it would be just about done…
violets…
it was lovely…
violets close up…
one of the ways I cope with winter is by having lots of flowering plants or cut flowers around to help keep me grounded… usually George would bring home orchids for me on a regular basis… I can’t get them re-bloom, but they last a long time and are so beautiful… the weather has been quite cold and miserable so I haven’t gone over to Rona to get any but think I will see if a friend will come with me so that the car will be warm and I can bring a couple home…
my grandma…
my maternal grandmother’s name was Violet… Violet May… she was an amazing woman… she had a rare calcium deficiency and had to take numerous pills to stay mobile, but she worked until she was well into her sixties… she was a very snappy dresser and had the most interesting hair… it was very short and she brushed it up from the sides… among other things she was a great pianist and I can remember sitting around in her living room singing songs with my family…
amazing what memories come up when looking at a flower, lol…
02 Thursday Jan 2014
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bookmarks, calendar, Chihuly Garden and Glass, Dale Chihuly, electronic picture frame, exceptional customer service, gifts, gratitude, savour them, Staples, take a moment
as I sit here watching the fish swim happily about in their clean aquarium (thanks to my son-in-law) I looked over and saw my daughter and grandson on the electronic picture frame…
reminded me of just a few of things that I have to be grateful for… one was the amazing experience of visiting Chihuly Garden and Glass at the base of the Space Needle in Seattle this summer… and getting to meet Dale Chihuly in person…
January from my Chihuly 2014 calendar that I found just last week…
for many years George and I would make gifts to give to family and friends… this year I decided to do that again…
I spent time thinking of some of the things I am grateful for, as well as the people who fill my life… made a list of all those and put them in alphabetical order and produced a bookmark with the word gratitude and all of the things/people…
front of bookmark…
then I went through the pictures I took at Chihuly Garden and Glass and chose some for the back side of the bookmarks… I chose enough so that every bookmark had a different picture on it, making it unique, like the people who would receive it…
back side of one of the bookmarks I still have…
took the pictures and list to Staples where I had an exceptional customer service experience… the young woman helped me get three of the gratitude pieces onto a single 8 1/2 by 11 sheet and then printed the pictures on the back… she also cut each one, laminated it and cut that as well… she took great care as she worked and I was very impressed with the final product…
today I was touched to see that two of my colleagues have them in a place where they can be seen all the time as they work at their desks… one has hers right on her screen so it reminds her of gratitude every time she looks at her computer… the other is on a ledge at eye level where another can see it whenever she looks up…
gratitude is such a simple thing that we tend to forget, or rush past…
wishing you the opportunity to remember the things you are grateful for, and take a moment to savour them…
01 Wednesday Jan 2014
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the first day of a new year…
been very cold and the furnace seems to be playing a few games… hope it settles down overnight…
mainly a relaxing day watching tv and doing a few chores…
made some lovely biscuits to have with the turkey soup tonight…
ready to head back to work tomorrow…
31 Tuesday Dec 2013
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tonight, I have a glass of Baileys and a fiddle diddle cookie by my bed… if I am awake at midnight I will toast a new year…
no hot tub as it is bitterly cold and I don’t have the energy to go out…
the kids are off at a sleepover party just outside of the city and I won’t see them until some time later tomorrow…
it has been a full year…two wonderful trips and time with all my kids… some down times missing my beloved, but also lots of great opportunities to reminisce with others…
I truly have been blessed… looking forward to 2014 with a goal to enjoy each moment…
to the new year…
30 Monday Dec 2013
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was busy today… dropped Cyndi off to meet a friend for breakfast and we went to Best Buy to pick up a new printer because mine called it quits yesterday… perfect timing as Ron was here to help pick one out and get it all set up…
sun dogs this morning…
got a few great pictures of the sun dogs which were spectacular in the crisp morning air…
now I can print from the desktop, the laptop and even my phone… woo hoo…
we went for one last breakfast at “the A” before I went to pick up Cyndi… after a few errands we got home, made cookies, had a short nap and they packed up all their stuff…
stuffing the bags with all their goodies…
also got a few photos of their Jets gear, lol…
front and back of their jackets…
a quick early supper and some final visiting, and then off to drop them for their trip home…
came home to a very quiet house, tidied up and visited with two friends…
now off to bed… looking forward to a couple of quiet days before heading back to work…
