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Author Archives: sulis303

Missing George…

11 Monday Feb 2013

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big girl pants, filled hot tub, long week, new car lease, proud of myself, Toyota

wow, last week seemed particularly long, and I have really been missing George…

not sure if it is all the Valentine Day stuff out there, the fact that we are coming up to the first anniversary of his death, the time of year, or what, but it has been very intense…

I did put my big girl pants on and figured out how to fill the hot tub, all by myself…  George always did this and then Jeff has done it for me, but it was really low and I didn’t think I could wait until Jeff was here again to do it…

cool snow formation on the hot tub...

cool snow formation on the hot tub…

so, I figured it out for myself…  then, of course, I couldn’t use it for a day because it takes a while to heat up again… but I must say, I was proud of myself…

on top of that, the people at Toyota are wanting to buy back the car, which means I have to think about whether it is time to turn it in and get a new lease…  this feels very much like a big girl pants type of thing, so I am going to have to think about what I want to do…  I have never chosen a car on my own…

a few days ago I was looking through pictures and found some of George examining the car when we picked it up… can’t for the life of me remember when we got this car… bet if I look in that pile on the desk I will be able to figure it out, lol…

life is very full and I continue to live in the moment… this past week or so many of those moments have been low, but I continue to feel them anyway…

 

Debit card woes…

10 Sunday Feb 2013

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account, beloved, big girl pants, debit card, struggling to manage, took money, what happened

got a call on Friday that my debit card had been compromised and the Credit Union had cancelled it…

didn’t seem like that big a deal because I basically use one credit card for everything, and I had been in my account just a week or so ago and everything looked fine… but when I went and checked my account I discovered that not only had the debit card been compromised, a good chunk of money had been taken out of my account…

I tried to contact the CU person, but didn’t hear back, so expect I will have to make some calls on Monday to see how we go about getting my money back…

and, it also means I have to go down to the CU and get a new debit card and sadly they have crumby hours…

the last time I used the debit card, I was in Mexico… I don’t know if that’s where the problem was so it will be interesting to hear from the CU folks about what they think happened…

it does feel kind of creepy that someone took money out of my account without my knowing…

it made me think how lucky I am because not that long ago, if someone had taken that kind of money out of our account we would have been struggling to manage while it was being replaced…

those darn big girl pants again, sigh…

holding hands...

holding hands…

I miss my beloved…

Friday payday Chinese food night…

09 Saturday Feb 2013

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Chinese food, family, forget, time goes swiftly, tradition

many years ago, George and I would go to my parents’ house once a month on a Friday after payday and have dinner with them and their neighbour and friend Margaret…  it was before we had the kids, a really long time ago…

we would decide what we wanted and George would call in the order and it became a lovely tradition… it is always more fun to eat Chinese food with others so you can have lots of variety…  we did this for many years and the people at the Chinese food restaurant would recognize George’s voice even many years later…

I decided a while ago that this would be a good family thing to do as I certainly don’t want to order just for myself…  so I’ve tried a couple of times to get this going again, with Crystal and family and my nephew and his girlfriend…

once it worked out and we actually went to the restaurant… this week we had a lovely time with family and a friend chowing down on a lovely dinner…

Chinese food dinner...

Chinese food dinner…

it reminded me of my parents, which was funn,y because today I was going through some files and was looking at some of my mom’s poetry…

time goes by so swiftly and you forget so much of what has taken place…

I hope the picture will help remind me of the special moments in my life…

Shovelling…

08 Friday Feb 2013

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shovelling, snowblow, texted

yesterday I texted my son-in-law to see if he could come by and shovel out to the hot tub…

I did something to my arm and haven’t wanted to shovel and make it worse so the one piece I usually do – from the back door to the hot tub so I can walk out in my slippers – hasn’t been happening…

occasionally I will shovel the front steps and sidewalk, but usually when the kids come over on Sundays for dinner, one of them will do any needed shovelling…

Crystal shovelling the neighbour's sidewalk...

Crystal shovelling the neighbour’s sidewalk…

I don’t have any pictures of Jeff shovelling because when he’s doing it I am often not here… like yesterday, when he snowblowed as well… now I have a lovely open area to get to the hot tub… and he even cleared a space out in the back lane so that maybe the garbage guys will pick mine up…

tonight, while I was in the tub I was thinking I might need to consider hiring someone so I don’t have to keep calling on them…

George did nearly all the shovelling, except when his health meant we had to hire someone…

 

 

Forgot…

08 Friday Feb 2013

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Burton Cummings, colleague, disconnected, exhausted, made me laugh, phones, Technology

was so exhausted last night from the busy last few days at work and home that I forgot to write a post…

I can’t think of the last time I was too tired to even bring the house phone downstairs and put it on the charger…

my link to the world...

my link to the world…

maybe it had to do with leaving my smart phone at work and being without it until a colleague kingly dropped it off on their way home from a late shift a work…  she told me it was beeping and chatting the whole time she had it…

it was quite amazing how disconnected I felt without it… which really made me laugh this morning when I read a post by Burton Cummings about how much he disliked his cell phone…

and my kids...

and my kids…

technology, and how we make use of it, is quite funny, actually…

Dinner…

06 Wednesday Feb 2013

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be flexible, chef, dinner, life intervened, persevere, quality time together, things change quickly

my BS group meets regularly on Monday evenings at my house…

lately we haven’t been studying or reading, just taking the opportunity to spend some quality time with one another…

more quality time...

more quality time…

every year we plan a dinner together which includes our spouses… the dinners have varied over the years from progressive dinners, to everyone bringing a dish to one person’s house, to going to a restaurant…

last February we went out for dinner...

last February we went out for dinner…

this year we decided to have a chef come in and cook for us…  we chose a date, without too much difficulty, planned the menu, and were all set to gather this weekend to pahty…

then life intervened, and the date needed to be changed…  we went through all of our calendars, called varies second halves and came up with two possible dates over the next two months…  then one of those dates was scratched off the list…  then the chef wasn’t available for the only other date that worked… yikes…

after some more wrangling the chef was able to change her schedule and fit us in for the actual date that worked for everyone…

reminded me of how quickly things can change and how important it is to be flexible, willing to consult with others, and persevere to solve a problem…

this year there will only be nine of us, but I am still really looking forward to our dinner…

good conversations…

05 Tuesday Feb 2013

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blessing, conversations, enjoy every minute, family stories, hot tub, Kingfisher Spa, normalcy, quadruple bypass, special, surgery

had three interesting conversations today…

the first one was with someone about a friend needing a quadruple bypass… it reminded me of George’s triple bypass in December of 2008…

it was a crazy time, following a couple of test results which led up to the bypass… the waiting was the worst, wondering if his already damaged heart would start to beat again once they were done with the surgery…

walking the halls of St. Boniface...

walking the halls of St. Boniface…

he came through with flying colours… in fact the doctor said his recovery was textbook perfect… within a few days he was home taking longer and longer walks and feeling so much better now that the blood was flowing freely through his heart… the worst part for him was the scar on his leg where they took the veins to use on his heart… for the longest time it caused him discomfort… he had a great time with his boy friends who would meet for walks and Tim’s coffee, well, tea for him…

those days reminded us to enjoy every minute that we had because time was a gift…

a wonderful day at the Kingfisher just outside of Courtenay, BC...

a wonderful day at the Kingfisher just outside of Courtenay, BC…

the second conversation was with a woman whose husband died last April… we were comparing feelings and the struggles we’ve been going through… both of us missing our husbands and wondering when things will settle down to some type of normalcy…  some women have told me they are just surfacing at the five year point…

the third conversation was with a young friend while we enjoyed a hot tub… we were sharing family stories and it made me realize, once again, how much we are all alike even though we often think we are special, lol…

a lovely day, to have three such excellent opportunities to remember what a blessing time with loved ones is…

 

Revisiting Mexico…

04 Monday Feb 2013

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journal notes, Mexico, produce book, trying new things, wonderful moments

had an enjoyable time over lunch today, finishing up the journal notes I made while in Mexico…

it was lovely to remember the various activities and fun we had…

at Gray’s party yesterday, folks were having a look through the Dolphin book that we purchased, and it was great fun to compare experiences, as a number of them had been to Mexico…

our plan is to produce a hard cover book with some of the 3300 pictures and comments we have written…  I want to get working on this before we forget all the wonderful moments…

I think this picture sums up my vacation…  laughing and trying new things…

dolphin kissing me while I laughed...

dolphin kissing me while I laughed…

 

Birthday party…

03 Sunday Feb 2013

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big girl pants, cake, drove there and back, missing George, pulled muscle

today was Gray’s birthday party…

couldn’t catch a ride with anyone so drove myself there and back…  doesn’t seem like that big a deal, but I needed those big girl pants…  first time I have gone over there, in the car for a birthday party, without George…

amazing how I was missing him today…  I have pulled a muscle in my arm and some movements really make it hurt…  I haven’t been doing lots of driving so was a bit worried about my reaction time if there were any problems…

on the way there I watched a truck back up at a light and just about hit a woman who was walking behind it…  a little further on the car in front of me stopped quite suddenly and I skidded on a patch of ice when I put on my brakes…  need to remember to pump them…

so, I wasn’t looking forward to the drive home in the dark…

examining one of the many presents...

examining one of the many presents…

the birthday party was great…  there were lots of people, presents, food, cake and cupcakes…

lots of yummy food...

lots of yummy food…

when the cake was cut, I headed out…  the drive wasn’t too bad, although I was gripping the steering wheel rather nicely, lol…  both the car and I were happy to drive into the garage…

cake and cupcakes...

cake and cupcakes…

had something to eat, watched some TV and am now heading to bed early… been a long day…

time flies…

02 Saturday Feb 2013

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grandson turned four, time flies, truly blessed, upheavals, waited

today my youngest grandson turned 4…

gobbling up lunch after zip lining at XPLOR...

gobbling up lunch after zip lining at XPLOR…

the time has flown by… we have had a number of upheavals in our lives since his birth… job changes, illnesses, death…

it was a waiting game for his birth… he was two weeks early… but we still waited for him to be born…

What a cute little bundle he was..

What a cute little bundle he was..

I was looking through all the pictures of his birth and came across this one of the first time that George held him…

he's named after George's mom...

he’s named after George’s mom and Jeff’s Opa…

lots of fun times together as a family at Christmas time and visits from Auntie Cyndi and Uncle Ron… our amazing trip to Mexico…

first time Kyler got to see him...

first time Kyler got to see him…

although we have gone through some things, we have also been truly blessed…

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beloved big girl pants birds blessed chocolate Christmas cold delicious dinner family fish flowers food friends fun garden George grandson happy health hibiscus hot tub light lunch memories moments morning glories nature orchid photos pictures plants pond purple rain remembering shopping sky snow sun sunshine supper Technology time treat trees walk water weather widow

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