01 Friday Nov 2019
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, Facebook, family, fun, goldfish, grandsons, moments, photos, pictures, pond, transfer, widow
this morning I came across these pictures on Facebook…
they are from eleven years ago… before our youngest grandson was born…
a reminder for me that the boys have helped transfer the fish for many years…
I am able to enjoy these memories most of the time now when I come across them… not nearly so difficult to see photos of my beloved, which is a good thing…
30 Sunday Dec 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, breakfast, cake, Christmas, Facebook, family, grandsons, hot tub, lonely, memories, missing, snow, tasty, widow
I’ve been a bit lonely over the last week or so… most Christmases my older daughter and her husband have come home… it didn’t work out this year…
was out in the hot tub this morning, first time in ages… a bit later these two pictures came up in my Facebook memories…
the first is deadly chocolate mousse cake, her favourite… I always make sure to have it in the house when she comes… in fact whenever I go to visit her, I take some as well… we always have the cake for breakfast, which the grandsons think is amazing;-)…
the second is of our water boots from last Christmas… she loves the hot tub and our usual pattern is a late night dip before bed…
it was my other son-in-law who suggested water boots many years ago… they work perfectly so that my feet never get cold or snowy…
today I spent some time cooking… turkey and dumplings, and mashed potato and garlic soup…
they both came out pretty tasty, although I am not going to be able to have the potato soup for work lunches because it reeks of garlic, lol…
30 Sunday Sep 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, Chihuly, drive, Facebook, Fall, family, girls, memories, moments, return to work, September, surgery, weather, widow, work
I’ve been thinking about September… it has been a good month for me… as a kid I always liked starting school… and as a parent I also enjoyed when the girls headed back to school….
I started with my current employment on September 30, 2009…
following an eight week time away with pancreatitis and gall bladder surgery, I returned to work on September 28, 2010…
after a second surgery and being away from work for ten weeks, I returned September 27, 2012…
hadn’t realized how close those dates were until Facebook reminded me of the above facts…
usually the weather is beautiful as the leaves slowly change colour… this year there’s been a lot more rain and temperatures have plummeted…
one of the things I miss is the fall drive that my beloved and I would often take to enjoy the colours…
happily for me the sun is peeking out of the clouds off and on today;-)…
31 Monday Jul 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
appointment, big girl pants, cancer, CancerCare, discharged, Facebook, five years, gallbladder, surgery, widow
today in my Facebook feed the following memory came up…
I had been in the hospital for a few days with pancreatitis when I wrote the above post, and ended up there for six weeks… during that time I also had my gallbladder removed… I was very sick and when we left the hospital I was afraid, I’d been there so long I wasn’t sure how I would manage at home… I still had a drainage tube in my side and was barely able to eat…
a lot has happened in seven years…
the tube came out just a few days before our younger daughter’s wedding and I finally started to have an appetite…
two years later my husband died suddenly in March and within a few weeks I was diagnosed with uterine cancer… I’d been waiting for hernia surgery and so there were lots of discussions with the various doctors as they figured out how they could do both surgeries at the same time…
in July of 2012 I had a combination surgery and spent ten weeks recovering…
my body does not handle drugs well and within 8 hours following the cancer surgery I stopped taking all drugs…
dealing with pain is easier than dealing with the side effects of drugs…
this afternoon I had my final appointment at CancerCare… after eleven visit… saw my surgeon, who I rarely see as they work on a rotation, and was discharged from the program…
life is pretty darn good even with all the changes;-)…
09 Sunday Oct 2016
Posted in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
be thankful, big girl pants, clean-up, Facebook, Leo Mol Garden, Poke Balls, sky, thanksgiving, turkey, widow
wanted to write a thanksgiving message for Facebook and it took up a good portion of the morning to get it just the way I wanted…
put the turkey in the oven and then ran out for a few final groceries… relaxed and read as a few items cooked ahead of time…
kids arrived and we had dinner a bit early as my son-in-law had to leave for work around six…
the boys all helped with clean-up before we had pumpkin and coconut cream pies….
so great to have everything done by the time everyone leaves…
one went off to work and the rest of us headed over to the Park to collect poke balls…
just before we left, middle guy and I took a selfie…
he dressed up with a white shirt and tie for dinner…
at the Park we walked through the Leo Mol Garden gathering poke balls and took this pic of “our bench“…
then a few of us walked around the Formal Gardens while others drove/parked and waited…
beautiful sky…
great way to end a lovely thanksgiving…
10 Sunday Apr 2016
Posted in family, health, life, loss, nature, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, Elements, Facebook, grief, Gwen Flowers, snow, swirling, thinking, widow
can’t believe it but it was snowing out again… the elements are not cooperating, sigh…
hard to tell from this picture but it was coming down and swirling around thanks to the wind…
no sunshine today…
lovely view out the bedroom window last evening…
yesterday I saw a post on Facebook about grief… searched a bit and found it was written by Gwen Flowers… it talked about grief never going away, just learning to incorporate it into your daily life…
in this poem she writes… Grief is not a task to finish and move on, but an element of yourself – an alteration of your being.
an interesting take on it and something that I will have to think about…
20 Saturday Feb 2016
Posted in family, health, life, loss, nature, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
angel, beloved, big girl pants, Canada Goose, eyefi, Facebook, iPhone, mobiPRO, Nikon, North Face, purple, sunshine, Technology, Urban Trail
had a bit of fun shopping…
went to Henry’s and picked up the eyefi mobiPRO… staff there helped link it up to the app I had already downloaded onto my iPhone… I do love technology…
it is very cool…
from there we went to Urban Trail where I checked out a number of Canada Goose jackets… and then I found a gorgeous purple North Face jacket…
it is gorgeous… fits great and works to -10 C… it weighs about the same as a cute little vest I have that fits into a tiny bag…can hardly wait to wear it;-)…
wandered around a few other shops and headed home…
since then I’ve been playing with my Nikon and iPhone…
took these pictures in the living room…
and transferred them to my iPhone in a flash… so great to have the ability to get pictures from my camera to the phone so easily…
also enjoyed the sunshine…
yesterday, my Facebook showed a few memories with my beloved speaking in a video… he made a number of angels using this particular one as a sample…
I sure do miss him and loved hearing his voice…
28 Thursday Jan 2016
Posted in health, life, loss, nature, technology, Uncategorized
woke up at 1:30 am to see the moon shining through the window… just above it and off to the side was a bright planet… a few seconds later it was covered by clouds… again, amazing to wake up at just the right moment to see the beautiful view…
then, on our way to the office, I got this view…
a Facebook memory this morning from four years back showed this lovely amaryllis… I had taken the picture looking out the window at the snow…
here is a picture of the amaryllis that I bought this year around Christmas… showed a beautiful pale pink flower on the box…
sadly, not a single blossom…
but the amazing thing is that the orchid continues to bloom… I so love flowers in the depths of winter…
more beautiful moments in my life…
01 Tuesday Dec 2015
Posted in health, life, nature, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
Advent, beloved, big girl pants, blog, decorate, Facebook, health, herbiggirlpants
today marks 3 years since I started herbiggirlpants…
as I was sitting out in the hot tub tonight, gazing at the stars, I was feeling a bit sorry for myself… happy that I have kept up blogging on a regular basis, but feeling that I haven’t done as much to help others who are going through the loss of a loved one…
also missing my beloved…
the Advent fairy came this morning with a box full of boxes… spent a few minutes before leaving the house lining them up on the counter…
I love presents, which might be why I enjoy Advent so much, lol… day 1 was a lovely purple ball for the tree… which I haven’t put up yet… have plans with a friend to decorate this weekend… excited to see what suggestions she has to change things up…
this is a picture of what the missing magnetic covers looked like… I was able to download it from Facebook this morning…
thinking of so many who I know who are struggling with health issues these days…
18 Saturday May 2013
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
addictive, camera, Facebook, iPhone camera, Pinterest, tech tips, Technology, tidy, tricks and shortcuts
I am quite a fan of technology… today after reading a great article on Pinterest I purchased camera + for my iPhone… have already spent some time with it and look forward to the things it can do…
I quite enjoy Pinterest, and seeing what people I follow are looking at, as well as what others are pinning… it can be just a little addictive, lol…
one of the things I do at work is provide a monthly Tech Tip for my colleagues… it is great fun to search out new little tidbits to share… often I learn them from a colleague… it always amazes me what tricks and shortcuts each of us know and use, and just assume that everyone else knows…
one that I particularly appreciate was demonstrated by a colleague a few months ago… it has to do with Facebook and adding links to a post… the trick makes the post look so much tidier, so I thought I would share it with you…
you write the post, and then add the hyperlink… wait just a few seconds and the hyperlink goes into the post, along with the actual picture and story…
now you can delete the hyperlink and only the picture and story remain… you can see how this tidies up the look of the post… I do like things to be tidy…
give it a try…
