meltdown…

05 Thursday Dec 2013

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been a very full week…

out for lunch and dinner Monday… dinner out Tuesday and the furniture arriving… yesterday’s celebration of George…

today started with an event early this morning… and then busyness throughout the rest of the day…

just before the end of the day I had a meltdown… completely lost it over a problem with some technology…

at first I was thinking I was just a bit tired, but when I thought about it for a while I realize that maybe it was left over from yesterday… although I got through the day and evening very well, it was difficult…

probably wasn’t the best week for me to be so busy, because I do need a good amount of quiet time…

walked from the end of the street and shovelled the sidewalk when I got to the house… think all of that helped…

didn’t nap as I was waiting for a young friend to stop by but he didn’t make it so I had my dinner and watched a bit of TV…

made myself some popcorn and got ready to watch one of my favourite shows…

going to sleep early tonight and hoping for a better day tomorrow…

plan to focus on the beautiful African violet that is blooming very happily at the office…

one step forward, one step back…

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65…

04 Wednesday Dec 2013

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George would have turned 65 today…

it snowed all day long… Crystal thought it was his revenge, lol…

this morning the snow had covered the steps and the sidewalk I had cleaned twice last night…

the drive home was slow, but steady… the kids came from two directions… Crystal from her work and Jeff and the boys from home…

family all together... Cyndi and Ron are on the phone in Jeff'hand...

family all together… Cyndi and Ron are on the phone in Jeff’s hand…

Cyndi and Ron FaceTimed us… they had burgers from Burger King and little individual apple pies… we had burgers and milkshakes from the Burger Place on Portage, which was George’s favourite…

we ate together and talked about our favourite George story…

apple pie...

apple pie…

Jeff picked up an apple pie from Perkins on the way over and we had that with ice cream for dessert… George did love apple pie…

ice cream and pie getting dished out...

ice cream and pie getting dished out…

after dinner Tavin found our I Miss You storybook and we read it and talked about how we were feeling…

cleared front yard...

cleared front yard…

while we read, Jeff was outside snow blowing… and he figured out why my outside tree wasn’t lit…

a number of people have talked about year two being more difficult than year one… today was hard, but also a day of remembering and celebrating my beloved… it was very good to be with my whole family…

 

air miles…

03 Tuesday Dec 2013

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on Saturday I went to Safeway to get some groceries… a good thing, because I hadn’t been out shopping for about 3 weeks and the cupboards were rather bare…

happily it was one of the weekends where there were bonus air miles available…

I decided to do a good size shop and get some staples to be sure I spent sufficient money to get the deal…

kept track of what I was spending as I went through the store… did I mention that I got there at 7:30 am…  had them delivered which is very handy, particularly when buying lots…

after my surgery two summers ago, I couldn’t lift anything over 5 pounds for a few months and that is when I tried having the groceries delivered…

ran to Rona and picked up a few small trees instead of a large one and was able to use my air miles card there as well…

 

arrived home in time for the delivery of frozen meals from Food for Thought who do a great job with single meals… I haven’t had any desire to prepare dinner recently so haven’t been eating well… when I have some of these dinners in the freezer I can pop something into the oven, have a nap and get up to dinner…

then the furniture fiasco…

diamonds in the snow...

diamonds in the snow…

today I woke up to diamonds glittering all over the snow… even in the dark it was very lovely so I took a few pictures before getting picked up for work…

glittering snow...

glittering snow…

wasn’t quite dark when we left work and headed out for dinner at Original Joe’s where we had a great visit… but it was very dark when we blasted home so I would be here to receive my hide-a-bed…  the guys were late getting here which gave me time to go out and shovel the sidewalk for them…

finally the living room is complete…

eating out…

02 Monday Dec 2013

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good day at work…

lunch out with a couple of friends who I haven’t seen for quite some time… lovely to spend time with them and catch up on their lives…

then after work, headed to a gathering of friends where we enjoyed a wonderful dinner, had a great program and excellent conversation…

on top of all that, my daughter dropped off my Advent calendar which she put together after receiving the insides from the other daughter…

advent calendar 2013...

advent calendar 2013…

usually it is quite beautiful, but I never did find the covers for my muffin tins, so I numbered 24 small paper bags and put them in a silver snowflake basket which I gave to Crystal yesterday and she filled and delivered today…

woo hoo… I love Advent…

a year of blogging…

01 Sunday Dec 2013

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well, a year ago today I wrote my first blog… the time has both flown past and taken forever, lol…

I’ve posted nearly every day since then… lots of things have taken place over this year…

commemorated George’s birthday for the first time without him… first Christmas without George and with Cyndi and Ron not coming home… took my kids to Mexico for a winter vacation… went on an Alaskan cruise… had two unforgettable days in Seattle… spent some wonderful time on Vancouver Island… had the pond rebuilt… spent some great time in/on the water over the summer… celebrated Cyndi and Ron’s trip through Winnipeg with a fabulous Champagne Bubble Party…

today I finished the Christmas project I’ve been working on with help from a lovely young woman at a local store… then Crystal and all the boys came over early and helped me with a number of jobs around the house… we put up and decorated some small trees, and put up the snow people…

cleaaning the aquarium... took 4 boys to get the job done...

cleaaning the aquarium… took 4 boys to get the job done…

finally, the boys changed the water in the aquarium and cleaned the pump… oh my, it was dirty… George would not be pleased with me, lol… still need to get a new filter but it is already looking much better…

for the last few weeks I have been struggling much more with the loss of my beloved, but today I may have turned the corner…

I’ve been working on a small gift for family and friends… George and I often produced hand-made gifts over the years… we would design them together, and he would usually be the one to make them… I decided to do one this year and enjoyed the process, but was also missing his input… the project is complete and may have helped me realize that he was with me throughout the process…

I have been wearing those big girl pants more and more and some days they fit very nicely… other days they feel enormous…

I will continue to take one step at a time on this new journey…

furniture…

30 Saturday Nov 2013

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so, I went out in October and purchased a new hide-a-bed and love seat for the living room… it was supposed to be a surprise for Cyndi and Ron as the bed they sleep on when they visit is not very good… unfortunately somebody might have accidentally mentioned it… but I still hadn’t…

empty living room...

empty living room waiting for furniture…

a number of weeks ago they delivered the hide-a-bed and in the process ripped it, and broke a few of the sand dollars on the wreath Cyndi had made me two years ago… the love seat was still on its way from somewhere else…

after talking with the company they agreed to order another hide-a-bed and replace the one with the rip, as opposed to repairing it… this made me very happy…

love seat coming in...

love seat coming in…

today, they came with both the new hide-a-bed and the love seat and were going to take the one that was here back… I had also asked if they would give my old sofa and love seat to someone who could use it and they advised they could do that…

they got out the ripped hide-a-bed without too much trouble… brought in the love seat and then discovered that they couldn’t take off one of the legs on the hide-a-bed as a nut was stripped… there was no way it would fit through the doorway with a leg still on it… so, they took it back… they also took my old sofa and love seat…

which means, of course, that my living room is a bit empty…

the invisible hide-a-bed...

the invisible hide-a-bed…

there is a possibility that they will bring the fixed hide-a-bed back on Tuesday…

this afternoon I talked to Cyndi about it and she is going to bring a few replacement sand dollars to fix the wreath…

good thing we started early so that we could have a comfortable bed for the kids at Christmas…

shadows…

29 Friday Nov 2013

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took this picture a few days ago early in the morning…

it was lovely looking outside… just too bad that we had to go out in it, lol…

reminded me of the photography classes that Susan and I took a few years back…

one of our lessons was on shadows and this picture reminded me of some of the shots I took then… we had a lot of fun and learned some great tips…

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beauty around us…

28 Thursday Nov 2013

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this morning it was so beautiful outside and I wanted to take some pictures, but it was too early…

backyard...

backyard…

everything was covered in a lovely blanket of snow… nothing had walked across it in the back yard, although cars had driven down the front street…

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when I got home I took a few pictures while it was still light… unfortunately critters had been around and about in the garden…

fun in the snow...

fun in the snow…

not exactly sure what it was that played by the pond, but there are some big marks in the snow back there…

snow on the tree...

snow on the tree…

sometimes we forget to enjoy the beautiful moments when they happen… might be in a hurry, have something on our minds…

I must remember to be in the moment…

blooming continued…

27 Wednesday Nov 2013

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today the African Violet blooms were open…

African Violet blooming...

African Violet blooming…

talked with a friend about how flowers can open so quickly…

thought about the morning glories and how they are all closed up in the morning and then by mid day are all open… hibiscus open in a similar fashion… and they are usually only open for one day…

you have to be paying attention or you can miss the whole thing…

my absolute favourite to watch though are poppies… if you sit quietly and watch you can actually see them open and the cover pop off…

always a wonder to spend the few minutes it takes for them to open…

makes me think about life and how we need to enjoy and celebrate every moment as we don’t know what is in store for us, or for others…

just spent an hour searching for four pictures of George to use for a project… was bittersweet… I miss him so much…

remember to tell the important people in your life that you love them… never know if you will have another opportunity to do that…

getting ready…

26 Tuesday Nov 2013

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tonight I spent another hour searching through the Christmas boxes trying to find the Advent calendar that Cyndi sent to me two years ago…

it is made of two muffin baking pans and twenty-four magnetic covers… I saw them in July when I was gathering items for the Champagne Bubble Party…

Advent calendar 2012

Advent Calendar 2012…

now I’ve been through everything twice and still can’t find it… last year she sent a package to the office and my colleagues filled all the spots and put on the covers… it was fun for them as well as for me…

I’ve now decided that I can use some small paper bags that she had used and were left from her business because apparently I am not going to find it, sigh…

did find some other Advent things and set them aside… have organized a few gifts but need to deal with quite a few more…

technology is also being a bit difficult as my desktop computer has died and I have to take the time to figure out how to print on the printer that was hooked up to the desktop…

a big job I have is to get the computer room tidied and organized… this will also help with being able to sort out the printer problem, lol…

trying hard not to let myself wallow in the sad place… a friend had told me that often year two is worse than year one, and that is what I seem to be experiencing…