return…

02 Saturday Jan 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, nature, technology, Uncategorized

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app, big girl pants, bunny, decorations, exercise, fun, lentils, orchid, plants, read, return, sunshine

decided that today was the day to put away all the Christmas decorations…

for the last few days I’ve taken pictures of many of the ornaments as I knew they’d be coming down soon… used one of my apps to make a nice collage…

got my exercise as I brought up boxes, put away ornaments, and took them back downstairs…

always a bit sad to take everything down… and it took a good portion of the day… maybe because I took a few breaks for reading and napping, lol… did spend some of the time thinking about the fun I had with my friend when we put all the decorations up…

the living room has returned to normal… my plants are happy because they’d been relegated to a back room for the duration…

was happy to get a few pictures of the orchid… it really is amazing…

enjoyed seeing the sunshine again…

the paths continue to be used constantly… recently the bunny spent a good portion of a day sitting in the garden so I saw it a number of times… it is really big…

tomorrow is my last day before going back to work… gonna try a lentil recipe and get in a bit more reading…

excited…

01 Friday Jan 2016

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big girl pants, Chihuly, excited, homemade, macaroni, memories, Seattle, unforgettable, white sauce

yesterday my daughter in Ottawa asked for my recipe for homemade macaroni and cheese…

it is one of her favourites and we didn’t have an opportunity to have it while they were home…

it is in a duo tang from high school home ec class that I keep on the shelf in the kitchen with my other cookbooks…

excited that she wanted to make it… came out very nice and they enjoyed it…

the white sauce in that recipe is my go to… I can’t even think how many times I’ve made it for various dishes… best thing I ever learned in home economics…

the most exciting thing today was getting to turn the calendar to January…

I purchased this calendar in August and have been waiting to get to use it… the last one I had was for 2014 and I didn’t open it until January only to discover that it had the previous November and December included… was so excited that this one would have the same thing…

but it didn’t… been waiting since September to get to a full size calendar…

I just love Dale Chihuly’s work… one of the most memorable moments for me was standing in Chihuly Garden and Glass at the base of the Seattle Space Needle and hearing his voice as he walked into the room we were in… to listen as he answered students’ questions and then get a picture with him… was like meeting a rock star…

funny what makes an unforgettable memory…

lobster…

31 Thursday Dec 2015

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beloved, big girl pants, celebration, charcoal, Cornish hen, fireworks, friends, lobster, memories, New Year's Eve, steak, tradition

for most of our married life we would celebrate New Year’s Eve with steak and lobster… started this tradition when we were newly married with a couple of longtime friends…

I can remember the first year, before we had kids, when we were in their yard and the old style charcoal bbq melted the snow all around it… the guys were in their shirtsleeves, it was giving off so much heat…

what great fun we had… over the years we kept up the tradition with appetizers early on, and then the steak and lobster very late in the evening, usually with at least one other couple… for much of the time the girls didn’t participate as New Year’s was our adult celebration…

when the girls were adults, they started to come for the dinner before going out with their friends, so we began eating earlier so it would fit with their plans…

the last few years before George died we would spend the remainder of the evening reading or watching tv and heading to bed after the midnight glass of bubbly…

last year I decided not to have steak and lobster on New Year’s Eve and instead had it on New Year’s Day with the family… I spent a quiet evening, watched fireworks at our community club from the dining room window… tonight I could hear the fireworks at The Forks…

I roasted a Cornish hen with mashed potatoes and cauliflower, with a carrot and raisin salad… a lovely remembrance… for years having a Cornish hen was a special treat for the two of us… a tasty reminder of my beloved…

the lobster is thawing in preparation for tomorrow’s dinner…

everyone in the family loves it now… not sure why we ever fed it to the little boys, lol…

likely I will be asleep at midnight…

light…

30 Wednesday Dec 2015

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bears, big girl pants, horse, lights, pasta, solar, timers, tomatoes, whole wheat, wolves, zoo

was rather proud of myself tonight… instead of tossing some overripe grape tomatoes I made sauce for whole wheat pasta… not that long ago I would have thrown them out and certainly wouldn’t have eaten whole wheat pasta, lol…

made it up as I went along with the tomatoes, herbs, garlic, and some leftover mozzarella cheese… very tasty…

while it was cooking, I looked out into the backyard and saw the solar lights glowing under the snow… so cute…

was a bit surprised because the sun wasn’t out very much today… took the boys to the zoo this afternoon and there wasn’t any sun shining the entire time we were there… saw lots of wolves and bears and spotted a new heavy horse…

even put its head over the fence so I could get a good shot…

earlier my son-in-law had fixed one of the timers for a light in the living room… somehow we had pushed a button and the light just stayed on, so I’d been turning it on and off manually…

happily it is now working perfectly…

the other light in the corner, along with the silver trees, comes on and turns off exactly on schedule…

just love it when things work as they’re supposed to…

wish I could figure out how to put the light on the fish tank on a timer, lol..

frustration…

29 Tuesday Dec 2015

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big girl pants, Birchwood Toyota, car, frustration, locked, remote, Shadow, starter

trying to decide if I am just untrainable or whether Shadow is testing me…

these don’t look that difficult to work…

unfortunately they are proving very uncooperative for me… frustrating…

I had been back to Birchwood Toyota and someone walked me through the process and advised me how they should work… was told that I could use either one to open the doors… this was after the front door would not open at all the day after I brought her home…

twice today I started the car remotely, and then could not open the doors… only way I could get in was to turn it off, at which point the door locks worked perfectly…

sigh… I called and spoke with the guy at the dealership and he will check with the installers and give me a call back, likely tomorrow…

might have something to do with the valet key which my kids use…

hoping the problem gets solved soon… starting to feel like a remote starter wasn’t such a great investment…

tracks…

28 Monday Dec 2015

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big girl pants, bunnies, cats, coconut, Guylian, laundry, Lindt, shortbread, squirrels, sun, tracks, treats

sun was out again today… yay…

spent a bit of time at the window watching to see if I could spot any of the critters that have made numerous tracks through the garden…

didn’t spot any… I’m sure that some are from the squirrels and the neighbourhood cats, but maybe some are from bunnies too…

finished up the laundry from when my company was here… now towels, sheets and tablecloths are all clean and put away…

tonight I treated myself to a shortbread cookie from a friend and one of my Lindt coconut balls… they only come out at Christmas time and my daughter brought me a little collection of them…

also have some Guylian chocolates to enjoy…

being careful not to have too many treats because I don’t want my A1C to be high when I next have it tested…

windows…

27 Sunday Dec 2015

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big girl pants, KG Saigon, moments, orchid, sister-in-law, snow, sunshine, windows

this morning, while I was coming and going doing some chores around the house, I took this picture of the sun shining out the front window…

I sure do love the sunshine… and take the time to enjoy it every day it is out… we don’t get as much of it as we used to…

also put my orchid back on the table in the living room… it has been in amongst the garland in the dining room for the last few weeks while a hydrangea had the top spot in the living room… I left the greenery on the table when the flower died, but rearranged it today… the orchid has been blooming for months…

had a lovely lunch out with my sister-in-law, nephew and his friend… we had some very nice Vietnamese food at one of my nephew’s favourite places, KG Saigon… after tea here, she was heading to the airport for a flight to Vancouver for the remainder of her holiday… it was great to spend a bit of time together…

didn’t get photos of the whole table but these days I take pictures of everything I eat… really helps with recording my food intake…

another shot looking out the bedroom window as the sun was going down…

always so happy when I catch these beautiful moments…

lazy…

26 Saturday Dec 2015

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amaryllis, big girl pants, eating, lazy, sleeping, snow, sun, trees, window

this morning I wandered around and took a few pictures of the snow…

through the living room window… sun was shining… nice…

and from the dining room window… trees are very pretty…

my amaryllis is growing nicely, although no buds have started…

had a lazy day in my jammies watching tv, sleeping and eating…

seemed to be just the right thing to do…

Christmas…

25 Friday Dec 2015

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big girl pants, Christmas, colouring, French fries, gifts, house, moments, moon, Technology, tree, waffles

woke at five, then climbed back into bed to finally get up around seven…

my son-in-law worked the overnight shift and got home about 7:15 so we had tea and waited for the rest of the family to wake up… he’d seen the beautiful full moon on his way home and heard that it won’t fall on Christmas again until 2034 and that it hadn’t happened since 1977…

so I had to go out into the middle of their street to see it and get a few photos before it vanished… didn’t have my tripod so was pleased that this one came out…

then I took a few photos of their house in the early morning light…

everyone got up, with a bit of coaxing, and we opened gifts… we all did very well…

lots of technology this year with tablets and wired headphones for the little people…

and a wireless headset for the oldest, who was visibly pleased… which, for a teenager, is pretty spectacular… well done mom and dad…

my stash included some cool technology for meal prep and a few purple items, lol…

we sat down to freshly made waffles and covered them with fresh fruit and a bit of whipping cream…

by the time we finished making them no one was left at the table, so this is a picture of what I had, lol… it was delicious…

rests were had, games were played, books were read, naps were taken…

dinner was a lovely roasted chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, brussel sprouts, raw carrots and French fries made in the new fryer that only used a few tablespoons of oil…

quiet time with a bit of colouring after dinner…

home now and planning to head to bed… full day…