Category Archives: Mom

That Time Again

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Christmas

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Its time again for our annual family Christmas dinner. Every year my Mother’s side of the family gathers at the church gym to celebrate Christmas. Most of us don’t see each other through out the year and this gives us a Chance to catch up.

We all bring some food and have a meal together. The variety is amazing. A potluck is just that, who knows what will show up. We sit and chat and laugh and you can feel the Christmas spirit flowing through the room. The kids play in the gym as we adults sit in the kitchen. And Christmas isn’t Christmas until my Aunt walks in wearing her Christmas vest. Its always a happy time.

This year will be different. We will be gathering, but 2 people will be missing. Dad and Doug. I know that when I wake up on Sunday morning, my thoughts will be on Dad and how Mom will handle the day. She is a strong woman and I know that she will be putting on the smile and be full of Christmas spirit. I also know that deep down inside she will be aching. The first time is always the hardest.

I know my Cousin will have a hard time without her husband Doug there to enjoy this family time. Just like Mom, she is a strong woman and she will be ok too. The families will all be there to comfort both of them, just as we will all comfort each other on this day.

As Christmas is arriving, I know it will get harder day by day for Mom and all us kids. Dad’s Birthday is on Dec.25th. This will be a very sad day. Our first without Dad. I know we will cry that day, but we will also laugh and remember all the good times we had. Plus many more to come.

This year we are also celebrating 40 years in Canada. Mom told me the other day that she still has the bottles of wine from the airplane we were on when we arrived in Canada. I said that this is a good year to open them up. So we are getting together on Dec.20th to celebrate this day.

Mom is also doing a first without Dad this Christmas. She is heading south again. My parents had been snowbirds for about 15 years and gone south for the winter months. The last couple times my brother and his wife have been driving the motorhome since Dad couldn’t do it anymore. So this year the 3 of them are heading out on the 26th. I think it will be good for Mom.

So, as you can see, my mind is here and there today. I am feeling a bit blue. But I’m going to go dig out the tree and turn on some Christmas music and think happy thoughts. Life goes on and we start a new way of Christmas.

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Ikea with Mom

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This past Saturday I woke up feeling really good. What I mean is, I felt normal for the first time in months. Usually when I wake up I sit on the edge of my bed and wait for my brain and eyes to settle and see what kind of day it will be. Well, turns out my brain and eyes were in sync for the first time in a very long time. It was a great feeling. For my new readers I have “vestibulopathy”.

My day started off great. Had coffee with Gregg and then went to shower and there I thought about what to do for the day. I do a lot of my thinking in the shower. I got out and told Gregg I would love to hang out with Mom. He said sure. So I called Mom and asked if she would like to go to Ikea. Yup, and the plan was made.

We picked her up at 1pm and headed out. Ikea is about a 30 minute drive from home. We got there and I could see that Mom was excited. She hadn’t been to this big new Ikea. We started in the showroom area and followed the big blue arrows on the floor. Mom got a bit confused a few times as to what direction were headed, but I kept telling her “follow the blue arrows”.

I think she was a bit overwhelemed. There was so much to look at. Plus 100′s of people. Normally it would be me getting confused and dizzy. We both saw a couple items we wanted. She even picked up a mirror for her new condo.

We stopped at the cafeteria for a drink and to rest our feet. We then headed down to the checkout. We paid and got out of there. The three of us decided it was dinner time and off we drove to the Cactus Club 2 blocks down the road. When we got there they told us we would have to wait about 15 minutes. Instead Gregg saw a table open in the bar. Off we went!Chicken Rice Bowl

The Burger

The Burger

It just so happened that it was Hockey night and the bar was very loud and full of people. It was a bit hard to talk. We each ordered a drink, yes, even Mom. and then ordered our food. It was all very good. We were there about an hour. Afterwards, we headed back to Mom’s place.

Once there, we relaxed and watched the DVD we brought over for her of all her slides we had scanned into my PC. I could see that it brought back a lot of memories for her and me too. Its not see to see Dad in them. It must be really hard for Mom to see her whole life with dad in those pictures. But she held it together and didn’t cry. We finally were ready to leave and had a group hug and said good night. It was just after 9pm when we got home. I was still feeling good. :)

I am so thankful that I had this day with Mom and Gregg. I don’t get many good days like that anymore.

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Labour Day

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Gulf fritillary at the farmImage by Vicki’s Nature >> unaltered via Flickr

Its Labour day weekend and school starts again for all the kids. YIPPEE!! This means that there will be less teenagers in the stores. They drive me nuts sometimes…lol Especially when they gather in big groups and take over a store. One thing that I do like this time of the year is all the great sales. I just wish I had enough money to buy everything. Gregg and I were at super store on Saturday and they had a huge clearance sale on a bunch of summer clothing. Everything was under 3 bucks. Some nice stuff too, but I didnt buy anything. I have to learn to NOT spend money when I see a great sale going on. Just cause its on sale, doesnt mean I need it. I end up buying clothes that i really dont need even if I do like it and wear it, but I still dont need it.

Anyways, what else has been going on? We went to see Mom’s new condo. Its huge! I think it will be so nice once its finished. She is doing a total make over on it. It will be so good to be able to have the whole family together at her place again. I didnt think I would miss it when they moved from the house to the condo, but I do. Maybe we will do thanksgiving day dinner there this year? We can all bring some food and do a potluck dinner.

Just to update you on my teeth. I am finally almost happy with them. I think I will need to go in one more time for one more adjustment. I think the one tooth is still a bit long, I cant bite down without feeling some kind of pain. The Aqualizer has really been helping a lot with adjusting my bite. So things are better in that department.

My body is a whole different story. From some unknown reason I woke up on thursday with a still neck and it still hurts when I try to turn my head to the right. Left turns are fine but turn to the right and it feels like I am pulling my shoulder up to my ear. I want to do my yoga but I guess it will have to wait till this goes away.

So that’s whats going on over in part of the world.

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Its Almost Gone

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permedImage by Darwin Bell via Flickr

Thats right, summer is almost gone. We hardly even had a summer this year. Gregg and I did make it to Jericho beach once. The weather has been very different this year. Seems that each year it gets worse. Soon we wont even have a summer. It will just be winter and spring. Just another reason to move to Mexico.

So this friday will be 2 months since dad is gone. Time sure flys. Mom got the keys to her new condo this weekend. Now she is starting on all the reno’s. New flooring and paint. New appliancies in the kitchen. So many little things to get done before she can move in. It will keep her busy.

Gregg and I will be staying home and saving our pennies so that we can return to Mexico again in the near future. I was hoping to go back next year, but it looks like it wont happen. We have to come up with 3000 bucks for our share of a new roof for the condo building. So no more going out for dinners. We have to cut back on everything. Maybe we will make it to Mexico in 2010.

I have some projects I plan to finish this year. I want to get all my scrapbooking done. Get some pictures enlarged for the living room walls. Take out my sewing machine and head to mom’s so she can teach me how to sew since I totally forgot how. Get all our Mexico pictures edited and get the videos off the tapes and on to my pc and burn them to discs. I know there are a few other things I need to do too.

I also want to get back into my yoga and start walking more.

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