20 Wednesday Apr 2016
Posted in family, health, life, loss, nature, technology, Uncategorized
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big girl pants, box, chocolate, colleagues, home, New York, pictures, widow, work
nice to get back to work and see all my colleagues…
brought them a taste of chocolate from New York… they were in a cute little wooden box and no one wanted to open it…
eventually I broke the seal, removed the ribbon and took a few pictures…
finally some pieces were eaten, lol…
caught up with all the news and shared some travel stories…
nice to be home…
10 Monday Nov 2014
Posted in life, Uncategorized
spent the majority of the day at home…
did some laundry and brought in a couple of plants from the garden… saw the pictures from our photo shoot a while back… they came out very nice…
spent some time in the kitchen… made chicken soup and home-made macaroni and cheese… put together a spinach salad and picked up chocolate haystacks and raspberries…
had a nap and finished my preparations for dinner…
texted with my daughter in Ottawa who is sick with the flu… my home-made macaroni and cheese is one of her favourite meals when she is here… she was a bit sad, although she really isn’t eating…
I might have made a bit more than we needed for our dinner tonight…
it was lovely to have the day off so that I was well rested and enjoyed getting ready for our ReImagining gathering… because we meet in Mondays, I am often rushed after work…
great to spend time together and learn at the same time…
02 Tuesday Sep 2014
Posted in life, nature, Uncategorized
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this morning I woke in my own bed… it was lovely… the bed I was in over the last week was fine, but there is something about being in your own…
last night I thought about having a hot tub but could hear the police helicopter flying over in circles… usually that means they are searching for someone so I don’t like to sit out there, lol… and I was rather tired…
this morning I went out for one… sigh… I do love my hot tub and miss it when I am away from home…
relaxed for the remainder of the day although I did wander through the garden a few times…
brought in two hydrangea flowers and put them in a vase…
also got a nice pic of a hibiscus flower…
tomorrow I will have to unpack my suitcase, lol…
27 Sunday Jul 2014
Posted in life, nature, Uncategorized
Tags
Grand Forks, home, on the road, sky, sunset, treasures, wind mills
finally home after a busy and fun weekend with the kids in the States…
we got up around nine this morning and after breakfast went for the last visit to the water park… it is lovely to watch how the boys spend time together as well as separately in the water…
final fun in the water park…
then we packed up all of our stuff and headed to Grand Forks… visited three or four stores… had tacos for lunch and a very lovely dinner at a great steak house the kids had been to before… final few items picked up, and we were on the road home…
the sky was lovely…
clouds on our drive home…
the final purchase had been a few movies for the trip home…
“watching” a movie…
happily we breezed through the border and drove past the wind mills (turbines) as the sun was setting… sadly the car windows were covered in bugs again, but I was able to get a few good shots…
sunset at the wind mills…
kids dropped me off and I brought in all my goodies…
my shopping…
too late for a hot tub… I am going to bed!
01 Thursday May 2014
Posted in life, Uncategorized
final day of vacation… watched a series to the end of the first season last night, but we still got up around 6:30…
took a picture of the transit station which we have been using and which is right outside the kids’ apartment…
then I packed my bag… although there was talk that I wasn’t going to get everything in it…
but I did, with only a small additional bag for carry on…
it had been overcast and rainy but finally the sky started to clear and we went for a walk along the river…
took the bus to the airport wearing a t-shirt… no jacket or sweater… but I forgot my new scarf…
then, I waited – in a very long line at Security, and then for the airplane to arrive… eventually it did, and we were only about fifteen minutes late…
arrived and Crystal and the little boys picked me up and dropped me off at home…
the snow is gone… how cool is that:-)…
18 Tuesday Mar 2014
Posted in life, Uncategorized
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so, thirty four years ago today, our youngest daughter was born…
we made it to the hospital around nine in the morning and she was born just before noon…
George had just arrived at work when I called to tell him to come home… my parents were already on the way over…
George picked me up and we were headed to the hospital when he asked if we had time to stop for cigarettes…
by that time the contractions were between two and five minutes apart so I was feeling we really needed to get to the hospital…
we got there and it wasn’t too long until she was born…
the next day my tubes were tied and her sister came to see her… she wasn’t quite two and I remember she arrived in a cute dress and her black patent shoes… she was happy to meet her sister, but I was rather nervous of those shoes considering I had just had surgery…
we came home the following day… to this house that I still live in…
have enjoyed telling this story for many years, although it wasn’t so funny at the time, lol…
here she is on Sunday when we celebrated her birthday with barbecued steak and lobster and banana cream pie, which turned out to be frozen…
through the window you can see the snow storm…
it always amazes me how quickly the time flies by… one minute they are minutes old and the next they are in their thirties with a family of their own…
19 Sunday Jan 2014
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a year ago today we returned from our wonderful week in Mexico… we had an amazing time and enjoyed every minute…
we were picked up in an SUV limo at the airport and had to climb through deep snow (me in my sandals) and ended the vacation with dinner from Tony Roma’s…
limo, sandals and snow…
it was delightful…
today the kids didn’t make it over as the littlest one is sick…
made a crockpot stew and watched some sports and a movie…
piles of snow yesterday – more fell today…
quite a different day, lol… although there is a lot more snow on the ground this year…
statue and snow covered chair…
to the right of the statue are the arms of a chair, covered in snow… not from being shovelled, just accumulation, lol…
11 Tuesday Dec 2012
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got home last night to discover a statement from MTS (Manitoba Telephone System)… it was for my internet service – and advised that I had not paid the November bill…
if you had been here you would probably have seen the steam escaping from my ears… I have now have phone calls with MTS for about 4 months trying to get this sorted out…
previously I shared the story of how they had to do a credit check on me less than 24 hours after George died… a few months later I asked to have the main email address for the service changed from his email address to mine… seemed simple… 3 phone calls about that, being told each time that it was taken care of… then a bill arrived for the internet service… more calls, once again I was told it is fixed… then yesterday’s bill…
I felt a bit sorry for the woman that answered my call… it wasn’t her fault, but really people… after 20 minutes on the phone she assured me that it is fixed now… we shall see… after a while it really is rather funny…
before George died, he looked after all the bills, often paying them in person, or by mail…
now, with the big girl pants, I have learned to use internet banking, bill paying, and credit card tracking… lots of it has been fun, because I do love technology (most days)… and the process has made bill payment much easier and quicker…
but sometimes I wish I didn’t have to wear the big girl pants, and could go back to being looked after… George looked after me for all of those 41 plus years… he liked to grocery shop, pick up things we needed, fetch items for a variety of events I was participating in, shovel the snow when he was able, gather up and take out the garbage, ensure I had cash in my wallet, provide chocolate for my desk drawer, drive me to and from places… you know, just about anything you might want or need looked after…
it wasn’t that I couldn’t do those things, it was that he enjoyed doing them for me… George took good care of me and made sure that I would have sufficient income to live comfortably… I have enough to pay the bills, maintain the house and buy the odd treat for myself and my kids…
as I walk through these days towards Christmas, I am working at letting the little frustrations go… because it really doesn’t matter about minor problems like incorrect bills…
I put up the forest a few days ago – I have a small tree collection – and was giggling to myself because George didn’t always love all the decorations that would go up around the house, and those memories are fun too…
trees and lights up the stairs…
I continue to focus on the wonderful Christmases we have enjoyed and the ones that are still to come… I miss him every day and expect I will do so until I take my last breath – I hope that is a long time coming… truly I am blessed…
herbiggirlpants 