31 Thursday May 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
band, big girl pants, concert, grandparents, grandson, growth, memories, moments, widow
tonight I attended my eldest grandson’s final band concert…
when I think back to his first few performances it is amazing how far he has come…
what a treat to be able to participate in these memory-making moments…
watching these kids grow and hone their skills in music, sports and life has been such a gift…
grandparenting is one of the best jobs ever…
08 Tuesday May 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
adventure, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, blog, cathartic, daily, journey, memories, moments, posts, widow, WordPress
this is my 2000th blog post…
seems like forever since that December day when I signed in to WordPress to see how it worked… and wrote the first post… that was five years, five months and eight days ago…
over time I came to the decision that I would post something every day… and since I made that choice, have managed to accomplish that goal…
I have written about many of the processes that were involved to finish and close an estate, daily struggles and small steps in my new journey as I wear those big girl pants…
it has been cathartic…
every day is a new adventure…
06 Sunday May 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
amazing, Atlanta, big girl pants, blue, calendar, Chihuly, flipped, garden, goddess, installation, memories, next, photos, travel, widow
when I flipped my Chihuly calendar to May, I was reminded of our wonderful visit to the Atlanta Botanical Garden a few years ago to see the Chihuly Installations…
the picture is a tower and reminded me of the tall yellow one where we had a picture taken by some people walking by, lol… my daughter had taken a few pictures for them just before that… it was also one that lit up at night…
I dug through old photos and found a few of my favourites from that trip…
the goddess was the reason for the trip and we spent a fair bit of time at that installation…
of all of Chihuly’s pieces, I am always most drawn to the blues… from the very first ones I saw at Chihuly Garden and Glass… here is a blog I wrote about that amazing experience…
lovely memories… wondering what might be next…
24 Tuesday Apr 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, ear, family, fun, last day, luggage, memories, Ottawa, Outing, plane, Science and Technology Museum, vacation, widow
our last day in Ottawa…
we were up early to see my daughter off to work and say goodbye…
we packed our bags, cleaned up the bedrooms and had some breakfast…
then we walked down the street to the Science and Technology Museum… it just reopened recently so we were excited to check it out…
lots to see and do… fun in the sound area and the technology area as well… lots of time spent in the crazy kitchen… built a flying bug and wandered through the boutique…
back at the house my daughter texted to say she was able to finish early and drive us to the airport…
good flight except for the descent which was hard on my grandson’s ear…
picked up by the daddy and brother, collected wings and had supper before they headed home…
one vacation complete… now for a rest, lol…
22 Sunday Apr 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, Earth Day, family, Famous Five, food, fun, market, memories, Ottawa, Ottawa Outing, Peace Tower, widow
had another fun day…
up and out by 8:45…. drove downtown to see if we could get tickets to go up the Peace Tower and we did;-)… parked and took photos by the flame and inside… it was a beautiful day so we really enjoyed the 360 degree views…
we went to check out the locks and on our way visited the statues of the Famous Five… had fun taking pictures with each of these amazing trail blazers… clearly, my daughter took most of these…
then it was off to Lansdowne Park for brunch at Cacao 70, a wander around the Farmers Market and time at the park… my son-in-law took this shot…
on our way home we picked up a few groceries… visited for a bit and then took my son-in-law to the train station for his trip back to Kingston…
home, warmed up some leftover macaroni and cheese, along with freshly made salad and bruschetta and had dinner…
a movie and to bed… going to need to rest when I get home, lol…
20 Friday Apr 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
Atelier, Bayshore, big girl pants, Day 2, dinner, family, flowers, fun, hog, memories, Ottawa, Ottawa Outing, Peace Tower, transit, widow
it was a long night, what with my buddy, the bed hog… not only does he hog the bed, but he snuggles right up… and he’s hot…
up early and checked out a few feeds on my phone… my grandson got up about half an hour later and we had some quiet time while the others slept…
when they got up, we had omelettes for breakfast and tried to get tickets to go up the Peace Tower, but is was closed for the day due to a protest…
we drove to Bayshore Mall because my daughter said we needed to go there… and discovered a beautiful show of mannequins dressed in flowers… had a wonderful time wandering around and taking pictures while the boys did other things…
then three of us took a bendy bus, train and double decker bus to get home;-)… lots of fun…
home for a nap, a quick hair trim and then the boys dropped us off for a fancy meal while they went out for dinner and a movie… and even remembered to take the picture I asked for;-)…
we went to Atelier and had a magnificent fourteen course dinner… here are a few of the courses…
they also brought us each an adorable micro mini cake with a chocolate candle that burned…
an excellent day;-)…
18 Wednesday Apr 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, birthday, blessed, flowers, memories, sentiments, sun, widow
very early this morning, as I was waking up, I heard the geese fly overhead… what a lovely way to begin my birthday…
sunshine and warm temperatures also contributed to a great day…
had a rose and balloons and a card filled with lovely sentiments…
throughout the day texts came, phone calls of people singing happy birthday, emails, Facebook posts, a gift card…
all of which made me feel very special…
missing my beloved but wearing those big girl pants, lol…
and as I write this, more geese are flying overhead…
I truly am blessed…
04 Wednesday Apr 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, happy, memories, moments, nametags, printer, process, remembering, Technology, volunteer, widow
been working on nametags for an event I volunteer for occasionally… off and on over the last week I’ve designed, prepared a list, merged it, printed, separated and stuffed them…
it has reminded me of the first year at my current position when I would agonize over preparing nametags for any events we did… for the longest time I would lose every seventh name on a list… then the printer and I would fight over the printing process… eventually I would come out on top, but only after numerous trips to the printer and a lot of stress…
since then I have refined the process of making nametags and enjoy the various steps, which is particularly handy as I make them all the time…
no matter what, it still takes a good bit of time and energy to get a set ready, lol…
happy the job is done…
17 Saturday Mar 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, flowers, fried egg, hyacinth, memories, pink, purple, replicate, sandwich, scent, widow
thinking of my beloved a lot recently… for the past few days I’ve been thinking of his fried egg sandwiches…
this morning I made an open-faced version using some of the French bread from La Belle Baguette that I picked up yesterday…
I can’t replicate what he did… they were always especially yummy… although that might have to do with how much butter he would add to the bread, lol… and the eggs were always perfectly cooked with soft yolks…
I picked up a few hyacinths the other day… left one at work and brought one home for the bedroom… just love the scent as they open… as it bloomed, discovered that it was pink… I usually get the purple ones…
made me realize how much pink there is currently in the bedroom… I held the hyacinth up to the new curtains which have purples and pinks in them… then realized that my afghan has pink in it as well… and when I put away some laundry in the closet – which I recently hung by colour – I spotted some pink as well…
very interesting as pink has never really been one of my colours…
05 Monday Mar 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, chocolate, family, flowers, friends, girls, journey, loss, memories, missing, organs, six, step, time, widow, years
two thousand one hundred and ninety-one days since my beloved left me…
you would think that six years would make it easier…
some days it does seem a little easier… many days it doesn’t…
I do things that I’d never done before and I do them well… those big girl pants and all… but I would much rather have him beside me…
I continue to try to remember the good times and focus on them rather than feel sorry for myself… although there are certainly times when I wallow…
I’ve learned to feel those moments and sit in them and not push them aside… I believe that has helped me move forward…
as I write this the tears fall… over the last few weeks I’ve have been reminded of the days when George died and the memorial that followed… it has been very stress-filled as I have been reliving the hours and days immediately following his death…
thinking back to the police arriving at the door and my friends going with me to the hospital… not being told he had died, but walking into the room where his body was… calling my girls, and others… signing a form so that they could harvest his organs… going home to a house without him…
hard days… but today I got chocolate in the mail and bought myself a bouquet of flowers to make me smile;-)…
one step at a time on the journey…
herbiggirlpants 