23 Sunday Feb 2014
Posted in life, Uncategorized
lovely day…
sun shone and the wind blew… watched the last of the Olympics and organized supper… finally Jeff and I got our ham fix…
after dinner my youngest grandson and I sat on the couch and watched the beautiful sky…
we saw blue and pink and purple and gray and at one point even some green…
then we looked at pictures from our trip to Mexico and read an abc book where he pointed out the letters that make up his name and finger-drew them for me…
precious…
22 Saturday Feb 2014
Posted in life
Tags
big girl pants, crocus, flowers, hyacinth, raised spirits, Spring
was out doing errands late this afternoon, after spending the majority of the day watching the Olympics…
had the hot tub water checked and it is doing great… yay…
at Safeway came across hyacinth and crocus in little pots… couldn’t help myself, had to bring them home…
they even smell a little spring-y…
amazing what a little fresh growth makes to my spirits…
17 Monday Feb 2014
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big girl pants, chunks on driveway, George, hanging mirror, hanging things, Olympics, simple chore
lots of Olympics today…
and I hung up some beautiful glass hearts in the bedroom window… took me quite a while to get that done… searched all over for some tiny cup hooks but couldn’t find them… saw them recently but they were hiding today… ended up using screws that were too long but I wanted to get them up so that’s what got used…
hearts in window…
made me think of how long it would take George to get a simple chore done… now I know what it was that took so long… finding the appropriate tools, measuring and putting in the screws/nails, measuring the string to be used and making sure that things were hanging at the right height…
mirror on door…
then, I hung a mirror on the inside of the hall closet door… another ten minute job, which took me over an hour to accomplish… and I’m not sure it is done exactly the way it should have been…
mirror detail…
need to get a small battery powered drill as using my little screwdriver certainly added to the amount of time it took to get both these jobs done…
and finally, I went outside and moved chunks of snow from the end of the driveway… the city plows came by yesterday and cleared the street… they did a good job of clearing the end of the driveway but I wanted to be sure there was nothing blocking the car when I head out to work tomorrow morning… the sidewalk has about two feet of snow chunks at the street end, and I didn’t even try to move them… I did shovel the rest of the sidewalk and up to the driveway…
busy day wearing those big girl pants, no wonder I am ready for bed, lol…
16 Sunday Feb 2014
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Tags
big girl pants, good memories, letting go, nature books, obsession, Olympics, school yearbooks, shell collection, shelves organized, snow
can’t believe that it started to snow again not long ago…
besides watching Olympics and doing some laundry, I spent the majority of the day working on the bookshelves in the hall… two shelves are not painted and I am trying to decide whether I will paint them… I don’t like to paint, so will see…
one portion of the shelves organized…
today I was able to divest myself of another 3 boxes of books… gave up school books that had belonged to both George and I… lots of gardening magazines, cookbooks and kids books…
couldn’t give up our school yearbooks.. even found a couple from the 30’s when my parents went to my high school…
treasures…
had great fun going through all my nature books – birds, wild life, plants… kept nearly all of them… lots of books about sea shells and I couldn’t give any of those up… reminded me that I had started collecting when I was about eleven or twelve and a woman who worked with my dad brought me my first shell from Florida… it was an abalone shell and that was the beginning of my collecting obsession… just recently Crystal brought me home some lovely shells that she got in Mexico… of the two I have so far, both have purple on them, lol…
was able to let go of some trinkets from my days of angel collecting… and I found a dear little silver apple bowl that a friend had given me… now I just have to figure out what to put into it…
took one box downstairs, but will need to have the kids carry down the others as they are too heavy for me… was again very careful as I worked to be sure that I didn’t hurt my back further…
been trying to drink more water because I’ve got a new app which reminds me to drink throughout the day… so yesterday, I made some grape Kool-Aid as there wasn’t anything else to drink… it used to be my drink of choice and as I was making it, was giggling as I remembered how George knew that I only liked it once it was aged…
13 Thursday Feb 2014
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on the way out the back door this morning I stepped into six inches of freshly fallen snow…
as I struggled to get the car out of the garage and down the driveway I made up my mind that if it got stuck I would just call a cab… thankfully I made it out onto the street, and safely to work…
I texted my son-in-law, who had just been here yesterday shovelling, to see if he could come and snowblow… offered dinner as a bribe, and it worked… everyone arrived about 5:30, which gave me time for half an hour of Olympics…
when I arrived home and walked up the front I took a picture of how deep the snow was… those were the footprints of my construction fella who had been by earlier in the day…
sidewalk and front steps…
Crystal got here first and shovelled the front steps and sidewalk in about three minutes flat… oh to be young… I didn’t lift a shovel because of my back, which is feeling much better – and which I want to keep that way, lol…
Crystal shovelling…
all the boys arrived and the two biggest ones got to work cleaning up all the snow… while they were busy, we ordered Chinese food for dinner…
had a lovely visit with everyone and heard all about each person’s day… Gray spoke about Grandpa a bit, which is fairly unusual, as I don’t think he really remembers that much as he was so little when George died…
it was good to spend the time with them this Valentine’s eve…
12 Wednesday Feb 2014
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Tags
big girl pants, boosted, car fun, check the manual, Co-op, cruise control, extreme cold weather, strange light on
been a few interesting events concerning the car the last few days…
a couple of days ago, on our way to work, my driving buddy was flagged down as she drove up my street by someone wanting a boost… not sure if you’ve noticed, but we have been having an extremely cold winter…
the young woman’s car had a problem with the car door and trunk which meant that her car light stayed on and drained the battery… apparently she was getting very efficient at boosting the car…
boosting, well attempting to…
my friend’s car had a cover on the battery and we had to call her husband to figure out how to connect the leads… in the end it didn’t work, and the young woman said she had tried with a similar car and it had been unsuccessful…
today I had to drive to work and I haven’t had the car out for quite a while… it was very slippery and was slow going on the way downtown, but eventually I got there safe and sound… I had arranged to park in one of my colleague’s spots which was very helpful…
once I left work just after 5 I had to sweep the recently fallen snow off the car and put in the parking pass which another colleague had lent me as they are away for a few weeks and I am able to use their spot… my driving buddy is leaving for Hawaii in a few days so I was planning to drive during that time…
got into the car and there was a light on the dashboard which I had never seen before… yikes, what if it was the emergency brake, or some oil light, or that I needed windshield washer fluid… as I drove toward home I fretted about what it might be… my phone was nearly out of juice so I couldn’t even stop and take a picture and send it to my daughter or son-in-law who would likely know what it meant…
I decided that I would stop at Co-op and have them take a look at it… it is just a street over from home and right on the way… there wasn’t a car at any of the pumps when I drove up so I pulled into a spot by a pump but on the wrong side, because I didn’t need any gas… by the time I was out of the car, at least four other cars had driven up to get gas and so the attendant asked me to move ahead… when he had a minute he came over and looked into the car at my problem light and said…
cruise control sign…
“that’s the cruise control, you just need to turn it off”… easy for him to say.. I get back into the car, drive around all the other vehicles getting gas, stop and try to find the cruise control button he’s talking about… can’t find it, so I drive home and when I get into the driveway eventually, or maybe by accident, finally find the button and off goes the light…
phew, there were those big girl pants again…
think I might bring the manual in and look through all the pictures of what might show up on the dashboard, lol…
10 Monday Feb 2014
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Tags
40 years of marriage, beloved, big girl pants, death, devastated, loss, one step at a time, stay positive
a friend lost her mom… it was shocking and awful… didn’t matter that she was in her nineties…
when you lose a loved one, you aren’t prepared, even if you think you are…
we talked for quite a while and she mentioned the most difficult part was sharing the information with her children, and then supporting them as they processed it…
my girls and I this summer… they are such amazing young women…
brought to mind the very difficult phone calls I had to make when George died… one of my daughters lives here and the other lived at the coast…
I had to pull myself together and call them… I remember calling the one here in the city and praying that her husband was home because I knew she was going to dissolve into a million pieces… and thank goodness, he was home and answered the phone… I was able to know that he was beside her to hold her when she heard the news… I don’t even remember how she told our grandsons…
then I had to call my daughter at the coast… I knew that her husband was across the country and she had no one at home for support… I didn’t even have a friend’s number who I could call to go and be with her… we had to make decisions about whether she would come home right away or wait for the storm that was pounding the coast to abate… would she contact her husband who was writing an exam the following morning or wait until he was finished… would he come back to their home and travel with her here, or would he travel directly here from where he was…
the kids here came immediately to the hospital, although while I waited it seemed like it took forever… the daughter from away had to wait until the next day to come, and her husband did come directly here… finally we were all together…
and then we took one step at a time to get everything done that was needed…
speaking with my friend, I realized that I had blocked out making those phone calls…
in less than a month it will be two years since my beloved died… I am working very hard to stay positive and not fall into a funk… when I start to feel sorry for myself I put on those big girl pants and think about all the special times we had over 40 years… I am amazed that after this amount of time I can still feel devastated…
a young friend recently asked me how I was doing and I burst into tears… not that great I guess, lol… some days it feels as though everyone has moved on with their life… and I have too, until the gaping hole opens…
truly I have been blessed, and that helps me take the next step…
08 Saturday Feb 2014
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Tags
big girl pants, books, bookshelves, cookbooks, divesting, give away books, hallway, packed up boxes, poetry
between watching the Olympics and doing laundry, I spent some time cleaning off the bookshelves in the hallway…
it is always difficult to give away books… I had to look at each one and make a decision… most of them had an inscription because I always write in a book when I give it to someone… a few had been given to George and it was a bit hard to give them up… but, I have decided to only keep ones that the little boys will want to read, or ones that I will read again…
hall bookshelves with lots of empty space…
today was a good day and I was able to let go of many… can see the shelves with some books on them and some of my treasures and this is helping with the divesting process…
nearly all my cookbooks went… really, these days you can find just about anything on the internet, if it isn’t already in my green binder (which holds all my family favourites )… I also gave up some of the books I have had since I was a teenager… including some great poetry books…
was able to fill 3 boxes and started a box of other give-away knick-knacks… managed to get them downstairs even though they were a bit heavy…
still lots to sort through, but I am rather proud of how much I got done… hopefully tomorrow will also be a good day for divesting…
07 Friday Feb 2014
Posted in life, Uncategorized
Tags
bad reaction to drugs, big girl pants, George, happy and healthy, hysterectomy/hernia surgery, last Olympics, life is good, Olympics
spent a good portion of the day watching some of the overnight moguls, slopestyle and the opening ceremonies live…
lighting the torch…
it was lovely… the TV had been on all night but I did sleep through most of it… which was fine because I had PRV’d everything…
as I was watching the opening ceremonies the sun was streaming through the window… I do love the sun, lol…
sun on the garage…
napped for a while, and then watched more TV and worked on a project…
reminded me of the last time I was watching the Olympics… it was the summer Olympics in 2012, and I was watching from the main floor bedroom… we had brought in a bed from my daughter’s house and had purchased a new TV… I had just had my hysterectomy/hernia surgery… got out of the hospital earlier than planned and my nephew came and stayed with me for the first few days…
this was the first time in my adult life that George wasn’t there to look after me… big girl pants can be a drag…
I have bad reactions to drugs of any kind and within 12 hours of my surgery had stopped taking meds as the side effects were worse than the pain… but it did mean that I was hurting and had trouble getting up and out of bed for a while… my nephew was amazing and took great care of me… then my friend arrived and spent a wonderful week with me… she found treats to encourage me to eat as I really had no desire for food… eventually I was able to walk to the back of the garden and sit by the pond…
my friend headed off and I was on my own… and then the Olympics started… I was able to get in and out of bed, but needed lots of rest… so, I would watch for a while and sleep for a while and then watch for a while and so on… it was a perfect distraction…
I am very happy that I had today and have the next few days to watch all I can and then I will PVR all the overnight shows and watch them in the evenings…
and I am very happy that I am healthy and able to work…
life is good…
05 Wednesday Feb 2014
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my daughter just arrived at the house from the airport, where she just returned from her week away in Mexico…
she walked into the house to discover a pair of men’s shoes at the front door, and heard his voice and mine upstairs, coming from the bedroom…
it didn’t take her more than a few seconds to recognize the shoes as those of my contractor (one of her friends), but for those precious seconds it was too funny…
she and her friend were eager to get home to see their families so they didn’t stay for more than a few moments… they had come by to pick up my car, as while she was away, her car had an oopsie and can’t get in to Autopac until the end of February… there have been so many accidents over the past month due to the bad weather that getting cars in for estimates is taking ages… I’m wondering how long it might take to get it fixed too…
usually lending them the car is not a problem at all, but my travelling buddy is heading off to Hawaii in a week and the other two people who might give me a ride are also going on vacation around the same time…
not quite sure how it will all work out… those big girl pants again…
my contractor was here to discuss our next project – repairing some cracks and painting the stairwell and the inside of my closet…
now I have to move about 40 feet of books so he can get the work done… this might be just the time to divest some of them, although I always find letting books go very difficult… I was hoping the kids could help me this weekend but just discovered they are going to be away, yikes… will have to think about how I might get this job done…
was telling my guy how everyone loves my new purple wall… he had been laughing because we had just talked about how the stairwell wall and closet will all be painted white and he said something about all he would ever need here was white and purple paint… and, of course, he’s right…
purple wall with new picture hanging…
