Tag Archives: George

filling…

27 Thursday Feb 2014

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so, this morning I got up a bit early, packed up my soup for Souper Thursday at work and headed downtown…

my pea soup came out quite well, although a little on the runny side… usually it is so thick that I need to water it down…

dropped it off at the office and walked over to the dentist office for the filling that I needed… think the last one I had was in 2010 and likely about five years before that…

it was minus 33 without any wind chill but the walk over wasn’t too bad as I had put on long underwear…

although my dentist is wonderful I still stress before and during the process… I have this fabulous gag reflex which doesn’t help matters at all… got there before the door was even open…

door to the dental office...

door to the dental office…

today she was great and took lots of breaks in the process to be sure I was comfortable… too funny, because I am never comfortable at the dentist office…

if you live in Winnipeg and have any nervousness about seeing the dentist you should contact her office… she is exceptional with chickens, lol…

business card for a great dentist...

business card for a great dentist…

hopefully I won’t be needing any fillings for a long time… particularly as the new insurance plan doesn’t cover any dental…

good thing it is me and not George… he had two or three fillings in every tooth and also had lots of extractions…

hanging things…

17 Monday Feb 2014

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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...

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...

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...

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…

 

Olympics…

07 Friday Feb 2014

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spent a good portion of the day watching some of the overnight moguls, slopestyle and the opening ceremonies live…

lighting the torch...

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...

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…

busy evening…

29 Wednesday Jan 2014

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not very often that I have visitors in the evening… well, other than Monday nights, lol…

tonight I had two different ones…

possble picture for the purple wall...

possible picture for the purple wall…

a colleague dropped off a picture for me to check out and see if I want to use it on the new purple wall… thinking I like it, but will need to have a look at it in the daylight…

very shortly after that a friend stopped by to pick up the car to use while she is in town over the next few days…

I had made tea, but both women had things to do and places to be, so I had to drink the tea all on my own…

during the day my contractor friend was by and painted the new door upstairs purple… it looks amazing… so then I had to stage the room to get a picture for you…

purple door in the bedroom...

purple door in the bedroom…

made me giggle a bit… for quite a long period in our life I had red everywhere and it drove George a bit batty… I wonder what he would think now as the purple slowly creeps into the house room by room…

sometimes wearing those big girl pants is kind of fun…

chicken soup…

15 Wednesday Jan 2014

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just finished the chicken soup for tomorrow’s Souper Thursday…

started it last night after doing some research into the best foods to help stave off/recover from colds… chicken soup was at the top of the list…

feels like almost everyone I know either has a cold or knows someone who does… this particular variety seems to last quite some time, so I thought a little chicken soup would be helpful all around…

last night I made the broth, simmering a whole chicken with carrots, celery, onion and bay leaves… then I separated the meat from the chicken…

tonight I added the vegetables and barley and simmered that… George loved barley in his soup, so that is an homage to him…

then I tried an experiment… I cooked small dumplings and have set them aside and will try warming them up in the microwave tomorrow… I have often warmed up leftover soup and dumplings in the microwave the next day so am hopeful this will work, lol…

doing some searching, I discovered that people sometimes use ready-to-cook biscuits and drop them into the broth in the crock pot for the last hour or so before the soup is ready… sounded interesting, but I really wanted to use my Mom’s Dumpling recipe so decided to try the warming in the microwave technique… will see what happens tomorrow…

dumplings for tomorrow's soup...

dumplings for tomorrow’s soup…

just a few weeks ago was talking with someone about how delicious dumplings are, which also made me think I should give this a try…

found a great slideshow on the Canadian Living site about ten foods to eat to help beat colds and flu… also found information that sugar is very bad for you when you have a cold, sigh…

stay well…

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…

violets…

03 Friday Jan 2014

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when I got back to work yesterday, after two weeks away, one of my African Violets was blooming its little heart out… was a bit surprised because it had lots of blooms on it when I left, so I thought it would be just about done…

violets...

violets…

 

it was lovely…

violets close up...

violets close up…

one of the ways I cope with winter is by having lots of flowering plants or cut flowers around to help keep me grounded… usually George would bring home orchids for me on a regular basis… I can’t get them re-bloom, but they last a long time and are so beautiful… the weather has been quite cold and miserable so I haven’t gone over to Rona to get any but think I will see if a friend will come with me so that the car will be warm and I can bring a couple home…

my grandma...

my grandma…

my maternal grandmother’s name was Violet… Violet May… she was an amazing woman… she had a rare calcium deficiency and had to take numerous pills to stay mobile, but she worked until she was well into her sixties… she was a very snappy dresser and had the most interesting hair… it was very short and she brushed it up from the sides… among other things she was a great pianist and I can remember sitting around in her living room singing songs with my family…

amazing what memories come up when looking at a flower, lol…

wrapped…

20 Friday Dec 2013

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had a meeting with my finance guy this morning… we made a few adjustments to my portfolio (sounds way more impressive than it is) and put some money back into the slush fund…

sleigh full of presents...

sleigh full of presents…

then I finished the wrapping and labelling of the parcels… all done…

spent a bit of time preparing for the guests who will be arriving tomorrow…

kids came over at supper time and we picked up subs for the boys and after they ate the grownups ran over to Costco for a few groceries and maybe a present or two…

lights in the base of the Norfolk pine...

lights in the base of the Norfolk pine…

I got some lights to put at the base of the Norfolk pine and after Jeff put them up it looks great…

put out the wooden nativity that George made and thought of him in the process… Crystal was missing his shoulder massages today…

been a full day and I am looking forward to bedtime…

wrapping…

15 Sunday Dec 2013

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had a lovely day… shortly after I got up the sun rose in the back and I got a few pictures…

sunrise...

sunrise…

it continued to shine all day, which was very nice…

popping up over the houses...

popping up over the houses…

gathered up all the gifts that needed to be wrapped… put some Christmas music on the computer and spent a lovely couple of hours preparing the parcels…

quite a stack of parcels ready for ribbons and bows...

quite a stack of parcels ready for ribbons and bows…

also searched out some fabric and put some under the Norfolk pine in the front window… set out some decorations and made the space feel more cozy…

the kids came by and we went out and picked up the ingredients for our Christmas dinner and a few other items I needed… then we had pizza and all of the Advent chocolates from the reindeer since they’d last been here… I’ve been saving them as I’ve been having a Ferraro Roche every day, lol…

the tree outside looks lovely with the fresh snow and lights shining…

tree shining bright with fresh snow for decoration...

tree shining bright with fresh snow for decoration…

during the day I was playing a Rita McNeil album and thinking that we lost her this year… remembering our visit to her tea house in Big Pond and getting to meet her while we were there… I have enjoyed her music for many years and will continue to remember her through all the music…

thinking about George as well, and how much he would have liked the presents for each of the kids this year… have a few bits to pick up that would have been his prep, but will now become mine…

traditions continue, but in a slightly new way…

 

 

 

music, music, music…

12 Thursday Dec 2013

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Crystal picked me up from work tonight and took me home with her…

once we got there we had a lovely dinner of tortellini with mushrooms and shrimp and Alfredo sauce… very nice, although just a bit spicy for my taste, lol…

while our musician was getting ready, I helped with homework and watched video games…

then we were off… dropped the musician at school and ran over to Starbuck’s to get some coffee and hot chocolate… another lovely treat because I never even think of getting something from there… I particularly like their white hot chocolate… it has lots of whipping cream in it…

found a great parking spot and joined a large gym full of family and friends to see and hear the concert… bands from grade 7, 8, and 9 played with a few songs from a choir and a final piece from the grade 9 jazz band… the first song that the grade 8s (our boy) played was spectacular and the final piece by the jazz band was very nice as well…

for whatever reason, this year the band members were not on risers or a stage and so the only picture of our guy was a tiny bit of hair sticking up from the crowd of young people… the director told us that the 85 member grade 9 band practices in three separate groups and they had only played together as a whole band since yesterday… quite a feat…

gym full of family and friends...

gym full of family and friends…

back to their house where I was turned over to another driver for the ride home…

our musician...

our musician…

before we left I got a couple of great shots of the musician, who was happy to comply…

our musician with his sax...

our musician with his sax…

on the ride home I was reflecting on all the band concerts that George and I attended over the years while the girls were in school…

I was very pleased that Jeff brought me home, because once here, he shovelled out the sidewalk at the street where the plows had piled up big chunks of snow…

now it is all clear, and I am heading to bed… been a busy day…