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herbiggirlpants

~ the new reality of a "70 something"

herbiggirlpants

Category Archives: loss

surgery…

31 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by sulis303 in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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appointment, big girl pants, cancer, CancerCare, discharged, Facebook, five years, gallbladder, surgery, widow

today in my Facebook feed the following memory came up…

I had been in the hospital for a few days with pancreatitis when I wrote the above post, and ended up there for six weeks… during that time I also had my gallbladder removed… I was very sick and when we left the hospital I was afraid, I’d been there so long I wasn’t sure how I would manage at home… I still had a drainage tube in my side and was barely able to eat…

a lot has happened in seven years… 

the tube came out just a few days before our younger daughter’s wedding and I finally started to have an appetite…

two years later my husband died suddenly in March and within a few weeks I was diagnosed with uterine cancer… I’d been waiting for hernia surgery and so there were lots of discussions with the various doctors as they figured out how they could do both surgeries at the same time…

in July of 2012 I had a combination surgery and spent ten weeks recovering…

my body does not handle drugs well and within 8 hours following the cancer surgery I stopped taking all drugs…

dealing with pain is easier than dealing with the side effects of drugs…

this afternoon I had my final appointment at CancerCare… after eleven visit… saw my surgeon, who I rarely see as they work on a rotation, and was discharged from the program…

life is pretty darn good even with all the changes;-)…

emptyful…

30 Sunday Jul 2017

Posted by sulis303 in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, Canada Summer Games, Emptyful, kids, lights, mist, Opening Ceremonies, photo, widow

on our way to the car after the Canada Summer Games Opening Ceremonies I took a few pictures of Emptyful…

I see it all the time, but usually in the daylight, so it was lovely to see it as the lights were more visible…


the kids got a kick out of it too…


the colours change quickly…

we often enjoy sitting near it during lunch as the mist is quite refreshing, particularly on hot sunny days…

hunt…

29 Saturday Jul 2017

Posted by sulis303 in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, comforter, cushions, dragonflies, garden, happy, hunt, morning glories, pillows, widow

accomplished three things today…


changed the bed and put on the new comforter that I picked up a few weeks ago… a bit of a process as I had to turn the mattress around on my own…

also climbed under the bed hunting for a couple of the dragonflies which had flown off the Love sign over the bed, lol…  

looks pretty good… although I’ve already removed some of the pillows…

then I spent time putting out all the cushions in the garden… it was hot out…

finally I took pictures of the morning glories… this is the first time I’ve had them in so many places and it is fun to hunt throughout the garden to see which ones are blooming…


they continue to make me happy every time I look at them…

great way to start my vacation;-)…

torch…

28 Friday Jul 2017

Posted by sulis303 in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, Canada Summer Games, family, garden, Prime Minister Trudeau, torch, waterfall, widow

started the day watering the plants and then enjoying a few minutes savouring the sound of the waterfall…


ended the day with dinner at Moxies and the Opening Ceremonies of the Canada Summer Games with my daughter and two grandsons…



the Prime Minister took part and showed such enthusiasm and energy…

the event ended with a very cool torch…


what a wonderful way to start holidays;-)…

buds…

27 Thursday Jul 2017

Posted by sulis303 in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized

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beloved, big girl pants, bloom, buds, Courtenay, dahlias, flowers, garden, George, widow

took this photo of a dahlia in the garden getting ready to bloom…


although I just bought these this spring it made me think about the ones we bought in 2011 in Courtenay…

we went to visit the Dahlia man… he was very old and lived on a property at the edge of Courtney/Comox… I can’t remember the man’s name, but George would have… he remembered all that type of stuff…

we must have spent two hours with him… looking at all the dahlias which were blooming and then going through his boxes and ziplock bags filled with tubers… he and my beloved talked and talked, lol…

we brought home some of the tubers and he sent more later…

they bloomed beautifully and at the end of the season we lifted them and packed them up for the next year… sadly they were put in ziplock bags and in the spring were all mushy… we hadn’t let them dry sufficiently before bagging them…

both of my girls have developed the same ability to talk to anyone anywhere and know all about them by the end of the conversation… makes me giggle… so not me…

cool…

26 Wednesday Jul 2017

Posted by sulis303 in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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air conditioning, beloved, big girl pants, cold, cool, George, morning glories, purple, widow, windows

last week I gave in and turned on the air conditioner to cool down the house…

George and I would always struggle over when to put it on, at what temperature and when to turn it off…

at night I would want to turn it off and open the windows to let in fresh air… he would want to keep it on with all the windows closed to keep the cool/cold air in the house…

made for interesting conversations, lol… I would be so happy to still be able to have one of those conversations…

another negative is once you get into the cool house you don’t want to go outside again…

since turning it on, I’ve been leaving the house closed up during the day and the temperature not too cold… at night I’ve been opening the windows to let in the fresh air…


this shot of one of the morning glories today reminded me not to hide in the house but to get outside and enjoy the peace and beauty of the garden…

dragonflies…

25 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by sulis303 in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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an ture, big girl pants, blessed, dragonflies, family, flowers, garden, light, memories, moments, morning glories, purple, storm, widow

every morning I am so eager to go out and see which morning glories are blooming…

when I looked out today I couldn’t see any and wondered if the huge thunderstorm in the night had beaten them down, as they are rather delicate… seems if something touches them they will mark very easily…

but, when I headed out on the way to the garage, I found lots…


I can’t get enough of the light that glows from deep within them…

my son-in-law in Cold Lake sent me some shots of a dragonfly tonight after supper… added one I’d taken a few days ago, lol…


dragonflies are so cool and beautiful… and wonderful how they eat the mosquitoes…

so important to take the time to savour the moments in life…

Habitat…

24 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by sulis303 in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, English Garden, flowers, garden, Habitat, Leo Mol Sculpture Garden, pictures, quiet, walk, widow

on my way to the Park yesterday I walked past the Habitat for Humanity Build…


made me laugh because I hadn’t realized it was happening two blocks away from my house… as it was Sunday there wasn’t any activity…

the Gardens were beautiful… I hadn’t been for a few weeks, so it was lovely to see how well they were looking…


lots of people wandering around so I had to stop and wait for just the right moment to get my shots… they are clearly ready for the influx of visitors to the city at the end of the week…

once back at home I spent the day in the garden… lots of reading and relaxing… very quiet… 


a lovely end to a wonderful family-filled weekend…

raceday…

23 Sunday Jul 2017

Posted by sulis303 in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, binoculars, blessed, clouds, family, fun, grandson, lightening, memories, moments, pictures, race, raceday, rowing, runway, sport, water, weather, widow

as we drove out to Rabbit Lake for the Regatta we stopped so I could get a shot of the runway, lol…


reminded me of driving along Ness by the airport…

it was a lovely sunny day, until it wasn’t… all of a sudden these huge dark clouds appeared and the thunder started rolling… 


our guy was at the start line for his first race ever when they announced that everyone had to come off the water…

then we waited to see if the downpour was going to stop… in the club, along with all the boats they had sandwiches, fruit, treats and souvenirs, which we might never have seen without the rain, lol…


all the grandparents stood around under the awning with the mother and son and had a snack…

there was one lighting strike right across the lake which had everyone jump about a foot off the ground… we could smell the ozone… after about 45 minutes the rain stopped and clouds broke up… 

the sky cleared and the races were back on… our boy did very well… he finished his singles… it was a long way… 


then he had to come back to the dock and jump into the boat with his doubles partner and off they went… they got a third place in that race… all in all it was an excellent start to his rowing career…

lots of fun to watch but we did learn that we are going to need binoculars for this sport, lol…

rowing…

22 Saturday Jul 2017

Posted by sulis303 in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, Boathouse Restaurant, campsite, Canada Games, chips, grandson, Kenora, memories, rowing, sunset, Tops and Bottoms Regatta, views, widow

yesterday, started our morning at the campsite… quick breakfast and my daughter, oldest grandson and I headed to Rabbit Lake, on the outskirts of Kenora… 

it is a lovely little lake that is going to be the site for rowing at the Canada Games over the next few weeks…

we spent a good portion of our day here… waiting for the boats to arrive, watching the kids get them offloaded, and then various practices as they prepared for today’s Tops and Bottoms Regatta…

we headed into town for a bit of the time where we had lunch at the Boathouse, which seemed fitting, lol… while we were there it started to pour… there was thunder, and lightning was flashing… we had to go back and get our boy, but did stop for some chips from the Ye Old Chip truck… I mean, we were in Kenora, lol…

picked up our boy, came back into town and checked into the hotel… our room had a great view of the harbour…

back at Rabbit Lake the sun came out and we actually got to see some rowing… very proud of my grandson as he prepares for his first races…

after practice it was back to town for supper and an early evening…

he went out with his teammates and we had dinner in the Waterside Restaurant which is high above the water and offered stunning views… the food was very tasty…

not sure how many pictures I took, lol…

memory-filled day…

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