outside…

20 Friday Nov 2015

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last night when I got home the bathroom window looked cool…

  
the glass blocks were covered in snow on the outside…

not sure if there wasn’t any wind during the night, or whether I was just so exhausted that I didn’t hear the flapping siding… had a good sleep and didn’t even need my Fitbit to tell me that, lol…

woke up with a stuffy head and sore throat, but felt better as the day progressed…

got this shot of the drift in front of the garage as we were leaving for work…

  
glad I didn’t need to take my own car because it might not have made it through…

am so blessed with my great kids… my son-in-law stopped by on his way home from work at 7 pm to shovel so that I can get out tomorrow…

  he did the whole driveway…
  
even the backyard… so I can get out to the hot tub:-)…

and my grandson has agreed to do the shovelling again this winter… this weekend he is out of town, thus the son-in-law…

well I guess winter has arrived… 

sticky…

19 Thursday Nov 2015

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this morning I took this picture of the back door window from inside the house…

  
a bit of snow was sticking to it… not too bad considering the wind and flapping siding, which kept me awake for a good portion of the night…

  
the picture shows it mid-flap this morning as I was heading out to the car… at least it is still on the house… was wondering if I might have to run out in the night to find it if it fell off…

was at a great event after work to celebrate Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Day… it was at the Peasant Cookery and the location, food and service were incredible… delicious tiny bites to eat, with nice vegan and vegetarian options…

  
cannot thank Carly and Michelle enough for their excellent attention to detail to ensure the event went smoothly…

there was a lot of snow when I arrived home… good thing I didn’t have the car because I don’t think it would have made it up the driveway…

  
here’s the same window tonight… even more stuck to it…

  
pretty though…

glittering…

18 Wednesday Nov 2015

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started the day by taking a picture of the chair outside the back door on my way to the garage…

  
it was glittering beautifully in the light… frost…

read an interesting article today, by Travis Bradbury, on genuine people… really resonated with me…

I printed it and plan to highlight a different paragraph every day to remind myself of the important message for me… being real in whatever you do… good to have something to work toward…

hard to focus on anything tonight… the wind is blowing like crazy… and there is a piece of loose siding just outside the bedroom banging against the house… hope it is still there in the morning…

think there is going to be more than frost on the ground when I get up…

laurentien…

17 Tuesday Nov 2015

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there has been this new thing where adults are colouring in a variety of adult colouring books…

was talking with my grandson about colouring… asking if he might like one of these types of colouring books… wasn’t sure if he would find them too complicated… we were looking at a number of them… he thought he would like one of them… he usually uses markers on his projects so we talked about how he would need to use coloured pencils in these books… he thought he could do that…

since then I’ve talked with a few people about coloured pencils…

my daughter and I were talking abou what type to get if I was getting some for a present… she said not to get anything but Laurentien Coloured Pencils...

  
in a conversation with someone else, we were talking about when we were kids and getting a new package… and how special it was… usually you got them at the start of school… 

sometimes you would get a twelve pack, but if you were really lucky you might get the 24 pencil case… reminded us both of how much fun we had with them… she was flooded with memories just talking about it…

  
I checked in my craft box tonight and found this… they are still the best…

might have to get me one of them colouring books…

changes…

16 Monday Nov 2015

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weather wasn’t quite so nice today… it was cooler and rainy for much of the day…

arrived early at The Forks for breakfast with a dear friend, so wandered along the river walk before the rain really got going… took this picture of the newest sign…

  

looks pretty cool, but then I spotted the mallard ducks… 

  
and geese… I do love my birds…

  
also took a few pictures of St. Boniface Hospital… reminded me that George’s bypass surgery took place in November of 2008 and he enjoyed the next four years… seems like a different life ago…

  
then there were the six weeks I spent there in 2010… many hours of looking out onto the river…

  
was realizing how I have grown and changed over the last few years… 

after breakfast I stopped to visit with a former colleague… not something I would have done before without causing a lot of stress…

went to the mall, had a problem on my phone sorted out, and picked up a number of gifts for Christmas… very happy to have that pretty much done… stopped at a few other spots to finish up the shopping… am feeling more excited about Christmas this year I think…

went to the doctor and was thrilled with the report on my A1C and cholesterol… it was so good that we don’t have to think about drugs for at least the next three months…

he was astonished at how low both numbers were… woohoo… I am sure the cholesterol came down due to the Becel Pro Activ margarine I’ve been eating every day…

also feeling less concerned about checking my blood sugar more often… he had me stop testing when I saw him last and I have felt like I lost a crutch… but I can trust that I know what I can and can’t eat…

haven’t lost any weight according to their scale but I think I am actually at about 160… think I have lost about 38 pounds since last November…

during the appointment I realized that it was last November that I was diagnosed with diabetes… lots of lifestyle changes since then…

some wonderful moments to savour today…

tidy…

15 Sunday Nov 2015

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what a gorgeous day… had an urge to go shopping, but decided to work in the garden getting it ready for winter…

spent an hour taking out the last of the plants and emptying pots to tidy it up…

  
very hard to pull out the alyssum which was still happily blooming… excited to discover lots of morning glory seeds which I carefully packaged up to plant in the spring… hope I can find them then…

even brought in the parsley plant which was still alive… can’t believe things are growing and blooming in the middle of November… also brought in the orange butterfly plant which had tons of seeds that I hope will grow as well…

my grandson came and helped me finish up the work… he used the mower to pick up the last of the leaves, and put away numerous pots and furniture in the shed… great to have his assistance… he even dealt with the smelly dead water hyacinths…

closing down the garden is certainly one of the times when I miss George tremendously…

this is what we discovered when we opened up the shed…

  
the squirrel(s) stuffed many containers with tasty cedar treats for the long winter… 

made me laugh as I shared the story of the year George cleaned out a squirrel nest in the garage and put all the nest material and peanuts into the garbage can… and how the squirrel chewed right through the heavy plastic at the top of the garbage can to get their stuff back… just hoping the city doesn’t notice and want to charge me for a new container, lol…

all the boys were here for dinner… had roast beef and twice stuffed potatoes… very tasty, and we topped it off with chocolate cake, which even I enjoyed… not usually a cake fan and had a very small piece…

stood at the window and waved them on their way… this is something I do with everyone when they leave… started with my Aunty Vi who always waved to us when we left her house… now it is part of my routine…

  

wrapping…

14 Saturday Nov 2015

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did very little today but that was fine… had a really long week…

yesterday morning the sun shone onto the trees across the street and I took this picture…

  
lovely… still really enjoying the days when the sun is shining…

finished up the wrapping of all the presents that I have already purchased… they will still need ribbon added to them but are all ready for that step…

finished my list of what still needs to be picked up and had some lovely phone calls with my girls…

watered plants and put chemicals in the hot tub… it was gorgeous outside… made all my meals and lounged on the bed watching tv…

nice way to spend a day… very relaxing…

lovely sky this afternoon…

  

portobello…

13 Friday Nov 2015

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just finished my first portobello burger… amazed to say it was delicious…

  
put spinach, grape tomatoes – all that I had (and worked pretty well) – and grainy mustard on an English muffin… 

used a Pinterest recipe where the mushrooms were marinated for thirty minutes in oil, balsamic, garlic, basil and cilantro… baked them for twenty minutes at 400 degrees…

  
had heard many people say how great these burgers tasted but I figured it would just taste like a mushroom…

I will certainly have another…

footwear…

12 Thursday Nov 2015

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actually made it to aquasize tonight…

went pretty well… got through the class and moved the whole time…

  
wore these old water shoes… they used to be a bit on the small side but now they fit perfectly…

was talking with someone about wearing sandals all the time and the reason I do that… they also have problem feet although their shoes are fancier than mine…

  
used to struggle with pain in my feet all the time but once I started wearing this brand of sandals the pain evaporated…

so I wear them all the time…

service…

11 Wednesday Nov 2015

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spent the morning remembering those in my family who have served in the Canadian Armed Forces…

dug out a book which had some information on my mom and dad’s service…

it also included this poem which she wrote…

  
George’s dad also served, and he died just a few days before Remembrance Day so it added to the specialness of the day for us…

and my son-in-law is currently in the Air Force…

enjoyed watching the service on Parliament Hill which has been a tradition for as long as I can remember…

then headed to the Zoo with my kids and some of their friends – little girls, lol…

  
not everyone wanted their picture taken… although I did catch one sliver of someone…

it was very chilly and I should have had another layer on and a pair of gloves… luckily was able to borrow a pair of my grandsons’ gloves…

happily we stopped for some hot chocolate along the way and also got to see some polar bears while we were enjoying it… they are very dirty just now… not exactly white…

  

there was quite a group of us, lol…

  
thank goodness for my toque… if my head wasn’t covered I would have been absolutely frozen… although I was very cold by the time we left…

wore one out for my hot tub tonight too… definitely getting cooler out there…