balloon fun…

08 Monday Apr 2013

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attended a baby shower for a young friend… the baby is adorable and she is a fine mom… it was at Crystal’s and we had a lovely time…

cute mom and baby

cute mom and baby…

after everyone left the little boys had the most wonderful time with the balloons that had been attached to the ceiling…

someone is under these balloons...

someone is under these balloons…

they must have spent over an hour moving the balloons around and covering one another up and then finally popping them all…

part of the process of moving the balloons...

part of the process of moving the balloons…

following all that delightful activity, we had homemade pizza for supper, which was excellent…

homemade pizza for dinner...

homemade pizza for dinner…

then I was driven home, thankfully, because all that fun had exhausted me, lol…

hot tub antics…

07 Sunday Apr 2013

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had an early morning hot tub and then went through the slightly complicated winter process of adding water to the tub… first you take the hose off the dryer vent and run the hose through the vent…

spaghetti of hoses in basement...

spaghetti of hoses in basement…

then you go outside and grab the hose and bring it around to the hot tub and put it under one side of the cover…

then you go downstairs and turn on the water (a very stiff valve)… then you run upstairs and make sure the water is running into the hot tub… then you hang around for a while to make sure that only the correct amount of water goes in…

hose through dryer vent to get to hot tub...

hose through dryer vent to get to hot tub…

then you run back downstairs and turn off the water, back outside to take the hose out of the tub and snake it back through the vent…

then run downstairs and put the end in the washer to get the water out of the hose and loop it back up on its little hanger, which it doesn’t really want to be hanging on, lol…

everything back together...

everything back together…

then hook up the dryer vent again… and you are done…  excellent form of exercise…

no wonder George always looked after this, sigh…

contrasts…

06 Saturday Apr 2013

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been quiet and busy, kind of odd…

this morning I watched TV and did a few chores around the house…  went shopping with my daughter and son-in-law and got a new ottoman and groceries…  thought I bought a rug to match one in my bedroom but was way off… the new one will work in the basement bathroom… still laughing about how far off I was on the match…

tried to fix my laptop to no avail… which is particularly sad, as Crystal had it so that WordPress would work before I played with it, sigh…

the rest of the day I watched more TV and napped…  I am getting rather used to the PVR…

got some good shots of the snow this morning, and still can’t believe there was more on the ground when I woke up…  although I think what fell since last night has all melted by now…

flowers blooming inside and snow covered outside...

flowers blooming inside and snow covered outside…

was given information from a friend in case anything happened to her… we talked a bit about the whole mortality thing…  and then I watched a show which talked about harvesting body parts… it felt rather close to home and I was wishing I had someone to talk to about it, but didn’t think calling one of the girls would be a good plan…

well, off to bed… maybe tomorrow the computer will get fixed…

fun times…

05 Friday Apr 2013

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had a lovely early birthday dinner out with the BSers… we went to Pad Thai and had a wonderful dinner, shared a couple of cards as we celebrated my birthday and another person’s retirement, and enjoyed lots of chat and laughter…

the BSers out for my early birthday dinner...

the BSers out for my early birthday dinner…

it is always entertaining to get the cards signed… whoever they are for pretends not to notice people signing and passing items under the table, or in a menu, lol…  part of the fun…

it was a great end to a rather strange and busy week…  don’t think we’ve ever been this early for a birthday celebration, but as Pat is in town this week, and we were all available, we went for it…

sadly we came outside to discover snow on the ground… it is April 5th, for goodness sake…

really...

really…

hoping that tomorrow it will all disappear…

technology…

04 Thursday Apr 2013

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can I just say that computers can make you crazy…

for three days now I haven’t been able to get to WordPress on my laptop…  now, I have access to the desktop computer, but unfortunately it doesn’t have any of my current pictures on it…

this has given me some lovely time going through older pictures and remembering things that happened, but it also has meant that it has taken much longer to write and post my blogs…

gorgeous huge hibiscus which we grew one summer...

gorgeous huge hibiscus which we grew one summer…

today at work, our scanner and fax wouldn’t work, because apparently MTS flicked a button last night which has caused problems for many, not just us…

the laptop is a whole other problem… I can’t get some sites open, but other sites open perfectly…

so I am heading downstairs to restart the router and see if that fixes the problem…  maybe the computers at work will be happy after a good night’s sleep, lol…

garden party with some great friends...

garden party with some great friends…

planning…

03 Wednesday Apr 2013

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spent some time in the hot tub tonight thinking about the garden… realized that I didn’t move the planter boxes under the deck, and empty out the pots around the yard like George would have… I hope that none of them will be cracked when the snow finally leaves… there is definitely less every time I come home from work these days, but there is still a lot to go…

still see a whole in the sky where this elm tree used to be...

still see a hole in the sky where this elm tree used to be…

considering changing the side garden… still getting used to the fact that it isn’t a shade garden anymore, now that the elm tree is gone… the barrel running into the kidney shaped pool just isn’t working and I am thinking about possible alternatives… hoping that the big pond will really get redone…  this might happen in June if all goes well…  I don’t want to get too excited about it after last year’s fiasco… but I do have a good feeling…

barrel and pond...

barrel and pond…

will need to find a gardener who can help me get everything in shape, and then I should be able to manage it for the remainder of the summer… last year I had a wonderful woman named Lynn, but I think it was too much for her… she did a great job of weeding and cleaning up the side garden particularly, as well as trimming the virginia creeper so that it didn’t get right out of hand…

must be spring, lol…

support…

02 Tuesday Apr 2013

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was talking with a woman who is coming up to the anniversary of her husband’s death… her colleagues have not been at all understanding or supportive of what she has gone through this past year…

made me realize how blessed I am to have such a wonderful work place… my colleagues have been there for me from the very beginning of this leg of my journey… I think about the visits by small groups of them during those first days, and how they brought all my favourite foods to try to temp my appetite… how they offered to do anything that would make our lives easier… how they welcomed me back into the fold with open arms when I returned to work…

and how they have been there for me every day as this year has unfolded… how they wore purple on the anniversary to let me know they were all thinking of our family on that fateful day…

wow… I wish that everyone worked in such a supportive environment…

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the garden…

01 Monday Apr 2013

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spent a lovely half hour in the hot tub this morning while the birds were singing in the sunshine… I love it when it is warm enough that the jets don’t run and I can enjoy the sounds…

then I did absolutely nothing for a good part of the day…  it was absolutely wonderful…

later I met with Byron, who is a landscaper and is going to redo the big pond in the garden… I am looking forward to seeing some designs in the next few weeks and hopefully the work will happen mid-June…

this is very exciting as last summer I thought I had a company to come and redo it but they never showed up…

the before shot...

the before shot…

George and I have designed and built (well mostly he did the work) our entire garden…  this particular pond is the focal point of the garden…  it has been there for at least fifteen years but for the last few the main portion has been leaking and we haven’t been able to fix it…

checking out the fish with the boys...

checking out the fish with the boys…

George always went on about how they were my ponds, but he spent a lot of time making sure the pumps were working, the plants were growing and that the fish were doing well… he enjoyed them just as much as me… he built a lovely deck that is sculpted to match the edge of the pond and this is my favourite spot to sit and relax and contemplate life…

looking forward to sitting back there soon… if the snow ever melts, lol…

Easter…

31 Sunday Mar 2013

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was a bit odd today…

spent a good portion of the day getting ready for dinner with the kids and our young friends… I do enjoy preparing the space and food and it was great to use the new table…

it was the first time in over thirty years that the Easter Bunny didn’t stop by… I had got some cute puppets for the boys from the Zoo store, but the Bunny never came by to hide any treats around the house…

Easter puppets for the boys...

Easter puppets for the boys…

we had a lovely dinner which everyone enjoyed and all the boys ate very well, which doesn’t happen that often… certainly not at the same meal…

Easter dinner with family and friends...

Easter dinner with family and friends…

we all cleaned up and the house is all tidy again…

after some wonderful conversations, everyone headed off, and I had a rest… four boys between the ages of two and seven can wear a person out, lol…

I am looking forward to resting up tomorrow…

 

 

putting things together…

30 Saturday Mar 2013

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bought a new dining room table from Ikea today… it was on special (not a sale, my daughter tells me)… it is replacing one we purchased from SuperValu (which tells you how long ago it was) a number of years ago…  that table is still good, but the top is badly scratched and marked up… it will go downstairs for crafts and games… we could put ten people at it but I think we can actually fit a few more at this new one…

things from Ikea come in many, many pieces and have to be put together… my son-in-law came by after work to help me… well, mostly he did the work and I stood there to provide support and pass tools or bits and pieces…

panorama of new Ikea table...

panorama of new Ikea table…

we talked about how George liked to put things together and when the two of them worked on something, it always went swimmingly…  sometimes when I would help him, it wouldn’t go so great…  why is it that often one’s partner just can’t do the correct thing when trying to work on a project together…

another view...

another view…

the exciting thing was that when we were finished we didn’t have any leftover pieces…

last Easter fun in the hot tub...

last Easter fun in the hot tub…

looking forward to having Easter dinner at the table tomorrow with family and some young friends…

last year was the first dinner we had since George died… I think that this year we will be able to celebrate him a bit easier…