01 Sunday Feb 2026
Posted in business, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, food, friends, lunch, memories, moments, Pho Hoang, sugarcane, treat, widow
had lunch out on our way to the theatre the other day…
went to Pho Hoang, which was one of our favourites when we used to go to aquasize at Cindy Klassen pool during our working days, lol…
as always, it was delicious;-)…
I had shrimp salad rolls and sugarcane shrimp…
25 Thursday Dec 2025
Posted in family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
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big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, Christmas Eve, face-to-face, family, memories, moments, Technology, treat, video, widow
all the jobs were done and the living room set up for our morning video call when I went to bed at 11 pm on Christmas Eve…
put my head down thinking I might nap for an hour and then have a Christmas hot tub around midnight…
woke up at 5:15, yikes… apparently no hot tub for me…
laid back down, didn’t really sleep, and got up at 6:30, lol…
made tea and texted a video of me banging pots and slamming doors, (possibly like I used to do when the families would be here overnight, so they would get up), to the kids in Ottawa…
we met and had a lovely time opening gifts and enjoying all of the loot…
what a gift to be able to meet with them face-to-face…
such a lovely Christmas morning;-)…
13 Saturday Dec 2025
Posted in business, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
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big girl pants, colleagues, commemorated, memories, moments, retirement, Technology, widow, work
Facebook reminded me that yesterday commemorated my last day of work six years ago… it was a special and fun day…
I spent the day saying farewell to my colleagues and had lunch out with a former colleague…
surprising to think that so much time has passed… and how much I have enjoyed these past years of retirement;-)…
04 Thursday Dec 2025
Posted in business, family, food, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
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beloved, big girl pants, birthday, blessed, Christmas stocking, family, grandson, memories, moments, Technology, widow, widowhood, WordPress
as I sit here quietly in the living room I am thinking of two big events that took place in the last few days…
the first was a congratulatory note from WordPress… on December 1st, 2012 I began writing about my journey into widowhood… and have continued that since then, moving into commenting on my life…
the second was today, which would have been my beloved’s 77th birthday… this year we had burgers here, one of his favourite foods, while the kids in Ottawa had an apple galette… he loved apple pie… we had a video visit between the burgers and galette, lol…
my grandson is going to use his Christmas stocking for the first time…
I sure do miss him🤗…
09 Sunday Nov 2025
Posted in business, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
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big girl pants, bird feeder, blessed, button, garden, memories, moments, poppy, remembering, Remembrance Day, widow
on Thursday I cleaned the poppy bird feeder and attached it to the front rail…
I noticed that I’d set it out a bit earlier last year…
I also dug out two poppies to put on my jacket and t-shirt…
last year I had purchased some little button pins to keep from losing them, lol…
I still make sure to make a donation as, before the pin, I ended up losing a couple and needing to replace them, lol…
07 Friday Nov 2025
Posted in business, family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
afford, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, cleaners, family, house, memories, missing, moments, tea towel, widow
my tea towel on the stove, folded very nicely by the cleaners who were here a few days ago, reminded me of how blessed I am…
for years we couldn’t afford a cleaner…
but for the last number of years I’ve had a company come in once a month to do the basics which makes me feel like the house is mainly clean, lol…
I am ever thankful to my beloved who made this wonderful gift possible;-)… I continue to miss him every single day…
14 Tuesday Oct 2025
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dinner, dishes, family, food, happy, memories, moments, platters, thanksgiving, Thanksgiving dinner, widow
had fun preparing the table for Thanksgiving dinner…
planning on more company than I’ve had in years, so it made me happy to search out different plates and bowls to put the food on, and in…
from a platter and covered bowl from a dear family friend, to a gifted tray, special pottery pieces my beloved and I had purchased over the years, to a tiny handmade purple bowl, to a very old salt and pepper set that was my grandmother’s…
all set on a thanksgiving tablecloth with leaf napkins…
08 Wednesday Oct 2025
Posted in life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, decorating, ghosts, halloween, hunt, memories, moments, pumpkins, spiders, thanksgiving, widow
recently I went through the Halloween and Thanksgiving boxes…
I went on the hunt for pumpkins for Thanksgiving and ended up putting out those as well as Halloween goodies;-)…
pumpkins, witches, ghosts, and spiders, lol…
glad to have set things out as I haven’t done that for a few years…
01 Wednesday Oct 2025
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
basement, big girl pants, changes, family, fireplace, friends, grandson, memories, moments, pet, redecorated, remembering, widow
last year, around this time, my housemate decided to redecorate his space…
from removing the fireplace, to drywalling, to putting in new ceiling tiles, to painting the space with two colours, and reorganizing his stuff, he worked hard with help from friends and family…
it came out very nicely…
and he has enjoyed the space…
this fall he has been preparing for an interesting pet…
21 Sunday Sep 2025
Posted in business, family, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Assiniboine Park, big girl pants, blessed, family, memories, memory stones, moments, nature, Technology, wearing, weather, widow
when I went to the Park Cafe for brunch on Thursday, I stopped to check out the memory stones that the Ottawa kids had purchased for me;-)…
I’ve visited them enough that it is easy to find them…
sadly, much of the wording on the stones is wearing away…
herbiggirlpants 