Tag Archives: FaceTime

pattern…

04 Monday Dec 2017

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today marks six birthdays without my beloved…

it always felt that he lost out because often his birthday and Christmas would be lumped together… particularly for the many years that we really lived hand-to-mouth…

for all of our family birthdays, the birthday person got to choose what we would have for dinner… for the last number of years we have had burgers, French fries, milkshakes and apple pie in his memory… he especially liked the burgers just down the street…

the first few years we Skyped with the out of town kids… one year we had a phone and an iPad so we could get both of them in the room with us…

last year everyone was busy so I had a quiet day remembering so many fun times we had over the years…

our plan was for the city kids to come over tonight but the momma is sick so they stayed home… wasn’t planning to connect with the out-of-towners but was able to FaceTime with my daughter while she had her supper…

I was going to stop and pick up groceries and then a burger, but it was miserable outside so in the end I drove straight home and then ordered a thali platter…

time with my BS buddies and now to bed… life has settled into a pattern and I wear the big girl pants more and more easily…

not sure if that is a good thing or not…

snuggles…

25 Sunday Sep 2016

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another fall day… overcast with rain off and on…

drove to the Formal Gardens at the Park and walked two loops… it was drizzling about half the time I was walking…

needed poke balls and this is a great place to find PokeStops and get in the walking, all at the same time… 

the actual garden always looks lovely and you can see how the wind was blowing…

the trees are starting to change colour and it was hard to decide which picture to put up…

last time I walked in this spot a friend shared that her family had a memorial bench for her husband there, as they would walk this circle and he often needed to stop and take a break… 

the bench says stop and rest awhile so I sat down for a few minutes and listened to the geese flying overhead… a special moment… reminded me of George and my special bench in the Leo Mol Garden and the memories that fill my heart when I sit there, even now…

still haven’t seen the trees turning red in the East so I’m always looking for bright colours here, lol…

when I got home after running a few errands I had the marvellous gift of spending an hour with this lovely baby and her mom… and my Ottawa daughter via FaceTime… we had a wonderful visit and lots of baby snuggles…

snuggled up on the bed, watched tv and read while my dinner was cooking…

butterflies…

08 Monday Aug 2016

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this morning I was closing the curtains in the dining room and caught sight of a swallowtail on one of the hostas…

so pretty, but I didn’t move fast enough to get a picture…

part way through the morning my daughter texted me to see if I could FaceTime with her… very unusual for her to want to do that when I am at work, but I said okay…

she wanted to show me the Monarch that was just emerging from its chrysalis… she knows how I love them… a neighbour of hers had brought them a twig with some chrysalides on it so the family could watch the process…

around noon she sent me a picture of them letting it go in the backyard…

it reminded me of the August that I was on vacation and was able to document the caterpillars growing, turning into the chrysalides, and then emerging as butterflies… 

I made a wonderful PowerPoint of the experience and keep thinking I should make it into a picture book…

we didn’t see many butterflies last week at the Shirley Richardson Butterfly Garden, but did get a picture of this little one…

visit…

03 Sunday Jan 2016

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quiet day… 

had my first hot tub of the year… the birds were twittering and the squirrel was busy running back and forth in the cedar trees at the back of the yard… 

made some red lentil curry and it came out great… will certainly make that again, which is good because I bought four different types of spices to make it, lol…

  
had a lovely visit with a good friend and spent some FaceTime with my Ottawa daughter… we are starting to consider some lakeside vacation time in July for the whole family… 

got in a bit of reading…

supper with most of the kids… one was on a play date, so only four of them were here…

  
relaxing after dinner…

FaceTime…

04 Friday Dec 2015

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very happy the day is nearly over… been a long one…

this morning the sky was quite lovely… got a few pictures as we were driving to the office… also enjoyed the sun streaming through the windows throughout the day…

 
had supper with all the kids… technology is an amazing thing… we FaceTimed over burgers… we had A&W and they had Burger King… besides a teenburger, I had a few onion rings and two of their apple pies…

  
have had this picture on my phone for quite a while but hadn’t found the right time to use it… today seems like the right time… George loved to bring me orchids all the time and so when I see them I always think of him…

  
this has been blooming for weeks…

haven’t been able to talk about him all day… not even over dinner… our usual pattern is to share some grandpa stories during our meal, but I just couldn’t do it…

  

five!

02 Sunday Feb 2014

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today the littlest guy turned five… can’t believe it… his mom is away on a trip right now, so the guys were having a boys fun weekend…

we chatted on FaceTime this morning at which time he advised me that he wanted homemade hamburgers and salad for supper… our family tradition is that you get to choose your dinner… all very nice except his daddy and I had been planning ham for dinner, lol…

they came over just after lunch time and he, his daddy and I went shopping for the birthday dinner ingredients…

riding under the grocery cart...

riding under the grocery cart…

 

he decided he was riding underneath the cart, and seeing as it was just the three of us, we didn’t complain, and his method of travel brought smiles to the faces of most of the people who passed us, lol… 

 

birthday cake...

birthday cake…

 

we spent quite a bit of time in the Bakery section while he examined every cake and finally made a decision… based completely on the strawberries on top…

once we got home all the boys headed out for a birthday hot tub and I started working on supper, although Jeff had already made the burgers… the interesting thing about all of this is that the little guy has been going through a no meat phase…

birthday dinner...

birthday dinner…

we had barbequed burgers, with cheese and lettuce, homemade French fries and salad… the French fries were definitely not up to Grandpa’s standards and we discussed what he might have done differently that made his so good… our other special treat was chocolate milk that we picked up while we were out…

then we had the cake, which looked way prettier than it tasted, lol…

here’s what I wrote last year on his birthday…

this year I was thinking about the turmoil in my work situation when he was born, and how within weeks of his birth I was out of work… at the time it was tremendously stressful… although, had that not happened, I wouldn’t be working at the wonderful place I am now..

ups and downs in the journey…

brrrrrrr…

06 Monday Jan 2014

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today, about 2:30 a cold kicked in and I felt miserable… but it was only an hour and a half until work was done for the day so I sniffled, snuffled, drank water and blew my nose frequently as the time went by…

as we rode home I was dreaming about how I was going to climb into bed and sleep this silly cold off…

walked in the door, took off my coat and went right to the thermostat with my boots on because it was cold.. yes it was… 56 degrees Fahrenheit… put my coat back on and went to check the vents outside to be sure they weren’t covered with snow… there was no snow below them, but one of them had snow in it, so I used a stick and unplugged it…

came back into the house, but the furnace still wasn’t pumping out warm air… called my son-in-law and he suggested I clean out the filter to see if that was a problem too… so then I had to move the small freezer away from the furnace so that I could open the spot where the filter goes… small freezer seems like a misnomer considering how heavy it was… we FaceTimed and he showed me what to do… my oh my, it was dirty, sigh…apparently George cleaned that out now and again and I haven’t thought about it at all…

put a call in to the furnace people to see what else I should do… by the time they called back the temperature had risen about two degrees so the man I spoke with suggested they come out tomorrow as possibly the thermostat, which is wired in, might need new batteries… batteries, who knew it had batteries in it, yikes…

I warmed up some of last night’s leftovers in the oven, leaving the door open, climbed onto my bed with blankets on me, ate, had some hot tea and then a nap…

now, more than five hours later, the temperature has finally reached 70, which I think is about 68 or 69 in the rest of the house… I am going to climb into my bed and hope I feel better by morning, and that the temperature doesn’t go down again…

as I’ve been sitting here the moon has tracked across the top of the living room window… this is odd as it is usually at the back of the house…

moon through the window...

moon through the window at the top of the picture…

moon tonight...

moon tonight, from the open doorway…

those big girl pants can be a bit of a pain, lol…

thankful…

13 Sunday Oct 2013

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spent a good portion of the morning preparing for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving dinner… made the stuffing, peeled potatoes and turnips… FaceTimed with the kids in Ottawa as they were preparing the stuffing and turkey for their dinner…

this afternoon the kids and I went to the Zoo… this was one of the last few days to be able to walk in an enclosure with the kangaroos… can’t believe this has been open since the spring or early summer and we just made it on the second to last day, yikes…

peacocks were everywhere, most of them having molted and having very few tail feathers...

peacocks were everywhere, most of them having molted and having very few tail feathers…

had a lovely time and we saw EVERYTHING… the little boys got to choose where to go and what to see and they wanted it all… it was cool when we started but warmed up quite nicely by the time we were done… the kangaroos were sleeping when we arrived so we stopped by again on our way out and they were awake and we got to see all three babies… it was a bit funny to read the sign as you went in which advised you were not to hop into any of their pouches…

beautiful fall colours as the family moves on the see the kangaroos...

beautiful fall colours as the family moves on the see the kangaroos…

came home and made cranberry sauce for tomorrow’s dinner… this time I used orange juice instead of water for the liquid… tastes pretty good…

am so thankful for my life… the beauty all around me, a wonderful active family, great friends, good work, a cozy home and a delicious dinner to look forward to…

wishing you a few moments to realize all the things you have to be thankful for…

what a day…

05 Tuesday Mar 2013

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this morning, as I sat at my desk trying to stay composed, my colleagues all gathered around my desk, and before they could say anything I was crying…  they were all wearing something purple, from clothing to pieces of jewellery… one had on a blue top which reminded me of how she mentally holds people in a blue blanket when they are in need of prayer…

colleagues wearing at least one purple item...

colleagues each wearing at least one purple item…

now you don’t see many pictures of me, but I am a bit purple-crazy… I nearly always wear something purple – have purple highlights in my hair, purple glasses, shoes, jackets, tops, etc, etc…

I was wearing a new top that one of them had given me the day before and she shared the story of going to one of her favourite stores and telling them she was looking for a purple top to wear for this day at work… everyone in the store went on a hunt to find her just the right piece of clothing, and then found something for me as well… and to top it off they gave her a bag of purple jewellery, in case someone didn’t have anything purple…  so now I have a collection of purple jewellery at my desk for days when people have a need to be purple-y…

it was a lovely gesture of solidarity on the part of my colleagues… I already knew that they were all thinking of me… it was a touching moment…

my kids picked me up from work and we stopped to get milkshakes to have with our dinner… George did enjoy a good milkshake… while we was warming up the leftover roast chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing – and pepperoni pizza – a couple of the boys were outside snow blowing and shovelling…

leftover chicken and pizza... with milkshakes...

leftover chicken and pizza… with milkshakes…

Cyndi joined us by FaceTime from Calgary and we all had roast chicken leftovers for dinner… Ron joined us after we were finished by phone from Courtenay…  we gathered in the living room and remembered special things about Grandpa…

everyone would have given anything to have had him with us… we remembered his grumbling, playing in the garden without a shirt, cleaning up after dinner, snow blowing and shoveling, the way he could figure out exactly what was needed to complete a project, and just having him to talk with…  some could barely talk…

Cyndi and Ron with us to remember George...

Cyndi and Ron with us to remember George…

it was a wonderful collection of memories, and a great way to commemorate this day…