Share Your World – Week 34

Posted on August 25, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..more great questions from Cee

Was school easy or difficult for you? How so?

School was always pretty easy, especially in elementary school. I did well in school right up to grade 10 and then I was more interested in the social aspect of school. I always managed to miss the honour roll by 1% in the last three years of school. I excelled in math but after grade 10 I started to struggle and in my last year I had an English teacher whose mantra was to make his students sweat and make life as difficult as possible. The grade average in English was 50% and I sat right on the 50% line. I almost had a nervous breakdown that year.

What is your favorite animal?

My favourite animals have to be dogs. I love most of them. In the wild I’m fascinated with Panda bears and the red panda.

If you had to have your vision corrected would you rather: glasses or contacts?

I need glasses for distance and for a long time I wore contact lenses. When I had difficulty reading things close up with my contact lenses I switched to glasses and took them off when I wanted to read a book. It’s only been in the last year that I’ve also needed reading glasses.

List: Name at least five television shows (past or present) you enjoyed?

Survivor, Amazing Race, Friends, CSI (all of them), Grace and Frankie (on Netflix)Grace and Frankie

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful that my husband is recovering nicely from his surgery and that he has continued to can tomatoes. I’m also grateful that my daughter and daughter-in-law finally came up to the cottage last weekend. We had a wonderful time. Every time J comes to the cottage she becomes more and more comfortable with our rustic lifestyle. She announced that next year she wants to come up for a week. Yay!

This week I’m looking forward to getting my own car back (it’s been in the body shop) and celebrating my birthday with the family. My husband is planning a BBQ for Saturday.

Today Was a Good Day

Posted on August 25, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..Saturday, August 22, 2015

Thanks to Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge

Saturday was a great day…..sunny skies, walking/hiking/running through the woods, walking on the beach and experiencing the joy of my daughter-in-law’s first time in a canoe. I also logged in at 12 000 steps.

Share Your World 2015 – Week 33

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Mama Cormier

……thanks Cee for four more great questions

What are some words that just make you smile?

Ice-cream, babies, wine, family and friends are some of the words that will bring a smile to my face.

You’re given $500,000 dollars tax free (any currency), what do you spend it on?

I would pay off the rest of my credit cards and then take some of that money to renovate my house and cottage. I’d also put some money aside for travelling. That would still leave me with a nice sizeable chunk and I couldn’t enjoy any of that money knowing that my children also have debts so I would probably give each of them $50 000. and put the rest away for our retirement.

What subject would you like to study in depth, if given the time to do so?

I’d love to study visual art in depth. I’ve contemplated going back to university after I retire, just for the fun of it.

Would your rather be stuck in a small plane with bad turbulence for 2 hours or be a passenger in a car racing the Daytona 500?

I’d rather do neither but if I have to make a choice I think I’ll put up with two hours of turbulence. But wait! You did say ‘in a small plane’. Hmmm? Maybe being a passenger at the Daytona 500 would suit me better. I don’t know! I’m a terrible passenger in a car that is travelling at high speeds.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful that my husbands surgery is over and that the prognosis looks good. Will know for sure in a couple of weeks. I’m also grateful that our youngest daughter was able to spend some time at the cottage last week.

I’m looking forward to spending the weekend at the cottage with my older daughter and her partner. It will be the first time that they’ve made it up to the cottage this summer. I’m also looking forward to spending some time with our friends D & D, who I haven’t seen much of this summer. Hopefully the weather will be good so that I can get in some swimming and of course lots of walking. Maybe I’ll even start running again.

A Minor Setback, a Trip to Dundas and More Steps

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….a trip to the doctor, relief, enjoying the rest of the day

This morning my husband woke up with terrible pain in his foot. A quick trip to the clinic confirmed that he was suffering from gout probably brought on from the morphine he had been given after his surgery. Luckily the problem was quickly fixed with another medication.

We had planned, earlier in the week, to visit our daughter in Hamilton. K could feel the pills were starting to work so we took a chance and made the trip. It was raining when we left but by the time we drove into our daughter’s driveway the sun had come out. G suggested that we take a short drive to Dundas where we could walk along the quaint main street and take in some of the unique stores and enjoy a coffee in one of the popular cafes.

Dundas is a formerly independent town and now a constituent community in the city of Hamilton. It is home to about 27 000 people and is nicknamed the Valley Town because it is located at the bottom of the Niagara Escarpment on the western edge of Lake Ontario.

We spent a couple of hours walking around the area and enjoyed a light lunch on a wonderful outdoor patio. Here are some photos of our day trip.

We headed back to Toronto during rush hour but traffic moved fairly well. After a simple dinner of sausage and a couple of salads that we purchased at the local butcher shop in Dundas I took Frances for a much needed walk. It was another beautiful evening and we walked through the Humber College grounds. Total steps for the day: 10 500.

The Hardest Day Yet

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..one would think that the worst was over

I’m not sure why today was so emotional. My husband’s surgery was successful and he appears to be on the mend.

The morning started with text messages from the hospital from my husband. When was I coming? How was the dog? Breakfast was awful. I need a good cup of tea, etc. etc.

There were several emails asking about the outcome of the surgery that I felt I needed to answer right away so that people wouldn’t worry. Frances needed her morning walk and frankly so did I. It was a beautiful morning and I could tell it was going to be a warm day. I wasn’t going to take the dog the full distance today but I thought that I should go as far as the beach so that she could have a bit of a swim and cool off. Of course she loved it and she found a couple of spots to roll in.

After making sure that the pets had food and water for the day I grabbed the paper and K’s recharged iPod and headed out the door. I stopped at the local farmers’ market which was on the way to the hospital and I foolishly neglected to buy some parking time in the lot I parked in. I picked up a few things that I thought K might enjoy and when I got back to the car I found a ticket under the wiper blade. Rats! and I was only gone for about 15 minutes.

When I got to the hospital, K had already eaten his breakfast and lunch and he really wasn’t interested in the goodies that I brought him. I took them home again. Even though it’s only his second day in the hospital I know that not being able to get out of bed is becoming increasingly uncomfortable for my husband and it made him a little bit irritable. At least the oxygen tubes were gone. The one thing that he did appreciate was the big cup of tea that I brought in for him.

I left the hospital shortly after I arrived so that K could get some rest and I needed to do some laundry at home. I talked to a couple of friends who gave me moral support and my daughter sent me a reminder about a race she wanted me to participate in with her. I decided to register and take advantage of the early bird special. I haven’t run very much in the last year so I thought that having another fitness goal might be just the thing I need to get me out of this slump.

My daughter also asked me if I wanted to join her and J for dinner after visiting with her Papa so I accepted. I made another trip to the hospital. K was in a better mood. A friend of his had come by for a visit and when A and J arrived they brought J’s father along. What a nice surprise. My husband was truly touched.

The girls and I left for dinner and we promised to save some pizza for my husband. We walked from the hospital to the restaurant and had a very enjoyable meal. I did save half my pizza for K but when we returned to the hospital it was already pretty late and he asked my to take the pizza home and save it for him there. He will enjoy it when he comes home on Monday. It’s in the freezer as I write this so that I won’t be tempted to eat it.

The day certainly ended on a brighter note than it began on and I managed to walk 12 000 steps. Hopefully tomorrow will be easier. My daughter and I have already planned to visit my husband together, just before noon and then spend some time together in the afternoon. We’re hoping to get in a little bit of driving practice before she takes her test this Tuesday and maybe do a little bit of gardening.

Wishing you all a lovely Sunday. Cheers!

A Day of Waiting and Just Over 8000 Steps

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..a day in the hospital makes walking difficult

On Friday my husband went to the hospital to have his surgery on his lung. It was raining in the morning so we didn’t get out with the dog for a walk, not even a short one. When we did get to the hospital around 10:00 the waiting began. First in the reception area, then in the area I like to call the ‘holding area’ and finally in the Family Waiting Room.

After blood work, standard tests, visits from the surgeon, the anesthesiologist and finally the OR nurse, K got up from his comfy chair and walked to the operating room. Before he left our youngest daughter came to keep me company and then my friend AB showed up. The doctor said that the procedure would take about 1 1/2 hours so we decided to go to the cafeteria for a bite to eat.

We returned in what we thought was plenty of time only to discover that the doctor had come to see us while we were out. We had to wait until he finished another surgery on someone else before we could find out if K was okay.

At around 3:00 the good doctor saw us and the news was good. K had done well during the surgery, no complications and the growths appear to be non-cancerous. Yay! We have to now ‘wait’ for the results of the biopsy to be sure but the doctor said he was cautiously optimistic.

When K was admitted to his room, our oldest daughter arrived and we all had a short visit with the patient. He looked remarkably good. He was alert, had good colour and was very talkative. After a short visit we all left so that he could get some rest and I drove everyone home.

My youngest daughter stayed with me and we went back to the house to take Frances for a walk. We didn’t walk as far as we would normally but I did manage by the end of the day to get in just over 8 000 steps.

I’d like to thank everyone for their kind thoughts, good wishes and prayers. My husband is already back to his old self and has been texting me to bring him a good cup of tea this morning.

Cheers!

Onesies Art

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….at the baby shower guests were invited to decorate white onesies with personal messages and art

Our daughter, A, has never been too excited about party games but for her sister’s baby shower she acquiesced and found a fun activity for people to participate in. Actually she found three activities but I’d like to share the onesie project with you.

We weren’t sure if people would gravitate toward this task because it did require some thought and creativity. Surprise, surprise….people loved it. First of all A went out and purchased about a dozen plain white onesies in a variety of sizes. She was able to get them for about $3.00 a piece. You also need fabric markers and cardboard for this project.

A and J cut up cardboard to fit inside each onesie so that the marker would not bleed through to the back. In the backyard a work table was set up and people went outside throughout the afternoon and created their masterpieces. When they were all done, G, the mother to be, judged them all and picked her favourite. The winner went home with a bottle of wine. It wasn’t an easy task (the judging that is) and some of us who organized the shower quietly took ourselves out of the mix and made sure that our designs didn’t win. I had already won the matching game, my sister had won the guessing game and A and J felt it wouldn’t look good if someone else in the family won another prize.

All the finished onesies were put on a clothesline to dry. I forgot to take a photograph of the finished pieces but my daughter kindly photographed each individual onesie from her home and sent them to me. By the way she photographed them after she washed them so it’s good to know that the marker didn’t fade in the wash.

Which one is your favourite?

Share Your World 2015 – Week 32

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..didn’t I just do this

Are you a collector of anything?

About twenty years ago I started to collect teddy bears. I wanted vintage bears or bears with a vintage feel but family and friends bought me all types of bears. It soon got out of hand and I didn’t have the space for more bears. I’ve asked people not to buy me bears anymore and I’ve even given some away.

What is your biggest fear or phobia? (no photos please)

I have two phobias. The first one is standing at great heights. I think the actual fear is the fear of falling. I could never jump from a plane or go bungee jumping. I don’t know where the second fear comes from. I’m terrified of bears. I’ve never had an encounter with bears. My aunt, who recently passed away, did buy me a book many years ago on bear attacks.

Do you prefer reading coffee table books (picture), biographies, fiction, non-fiction, educational?

I like looking through table top books but I love reading fiction.

Complete this sentence: If I Must Be Reincarnated, In the Next Life I Want to Be…

I can’t imagine being any kind of animal so I think I would like to come back as another person and probably as a woman again.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful to my oldest daughter and her partner for putting on a wonderful shower for our younger daughter, G and her husband. I came back early from the cottage to help with the preparations but the girls did most of the work. I made the lemonade and brought over the china cups and saucers for the coffee and cake and I purchased some nice disposable dishes and cutlery from Costco that we can actually reuse. I’m also grateful that my father and his wife made the trip from Oshawa along with my sister from Chatham. It was a bit of a family reunion and when I dropped my Dad off at the train station he told me that he had a wonderful time and felt like the ‘king of the world’.

The shower was a bit different from a normal baby shower in that we had a ‘taco bar’ that we had catered. We played a few games and people painted onesies with special messages for the new baby. There were about 19 people in attendance and almost the same number of people sent regrets because they were away on holidays. This is the one downside of having a shower of any kind in the summer.

This week my husband is having his surgery on his lungs. I’m looking forward to a full and speedy recovery.

For more Share Your World stories check out Cee’s blog.

Older Than 50 Years – Cee’s Black and White Challenge

Posted on July 29, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….I’m a little late with this challenge but I’ve been away….that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it

This photo is more than 50 years old. It’s a picture of me when I was one year old.

My aunt in her late teens or early 20s. She would have been 89 this year. Miss you!

For more Black and White photos check out Cee’s challenge.

Who Does That?????

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..if I sound a bit angry, I am ! ! !

Yesterday was suppose to be a lovely day with a birthday celebration and attending our final Pan Am Games event.

The day started off well. I finally had an appointment to get my hair cut and I left the salon in a good mood. I walked to the Farmers’ Market and bought a delicious cheese and herb bread and then made my way to the gas station to fill up before our trip to Hamilton. All good!

We picked up the girls from the subway station at 1:00 and then headed out to the highway. We got into the HOV lanes because we had four people in the car and we were flying down the highway and making great time. All went well until……everything slowed down, even the HOV lanes.

We weren’t surprised when we slowed down because we were approaching the part of the QEW where Hwy 403 merges with it. In past trips to Hamilton, London or Niagara Falls we’ve experienced these slow downs before. A couple of times traffic literally stopped in all the lanes.

Unfortunately the last time we stopped the Jeep behind us didn’t and slammed into our rear bumper. Luckily no one was physically hurt but I was emotionally scarred from the experience. Now before you think I’m a complete wuss let me explain my situation.

This is the third time that I’ve had an accident with this car. All three times I haven’t been at fault. Twice, including this time I was rear ended and the other time a dump truck backed into me in a turning lane. The first two times the drivers exchanged information with me and apologized for their mistake. Damage to the car totalled over $9000. for the first two accidents.

After the Jeep hit us yesterday, my daughter and her partner, declared that the driver was laughing at us. They turned around after the impact and they saw both the driver and his passenger point at the car and start to laugh. I was sure that they had to be mistaken. Who laughs after they’ve caused an accident?

I pulled onto the shoulder, to minimize the traffic jam that would occur because of this fender bender. To my shock and horror the Jeep passed us and kept going and the driver was laughing at us. What??????????

We managed to get the license plate number or we thought we did. It was a New York State plate. We called the OPP to report the hit and run and they suggested that we stay safe inside the car and wait for a police officer to arrive.

An OPP officer did call us soon after but he was about 20 minutes away and he advised us to move to the other shoulder, four lanes over. By this time, however, traffic had picked up again and was moving very quickly. We stayed where we were until another accident took place about 100 metres ahead of us. Of course traffic slowed to a crawl, so with my husband sticking his head out of the window and directing traffic with his hands, I managed to move over the four lanes to the ‘safer’ side.

After waiting for 30 minutes and being passed by four separate OPP vehicles we were worried that our officer had missed us. Then I saw a fifth car about to pass us but I managed to get his attention as he was driving by. I watched him put on his lights and pull over to the outside shoulder and back his car to where we were parked. Well it turned out that he wasn’t the officer assigned to our case but he stayed with us. In the next five minutes two more officers arrived, one on a motorcycle and one in a cruiser. Now we had three OPP vehicles around my little blue car with all their lights flashing.

The last car to arrive was the officer we had been waiting for. He took all our information and then he gave us the bad news. After putting the license plate number into the computer it came back null and void. That number didn’t exist. I thought the girls had given him one wrong letter so I suggested that he try a ‘c’ instead of a ‘d’. This time he got a hit but it wasn’t for a Jeep. The girls were sure of the numbers but not the order. The officer wasn’t comfortable playing around with the numbers. The last thing he wanted to do was accuse the wrong person of hitting our car. I don’t blame him.

Everyone felt badly for not getting the plate numbers right but the last thing we expected was that someone would actually ‘run’ from the accident. We were in a panic and not thinking straight. I just remember swearing over and over (something I don’t normally do) and my husband was shaken up and the girls were appalled that the Jeep occupants were laughing at the situation.

So I guess in the end the Jeep driver got away with this one. The damage to my car will be at least $1000. and who knows what will happen to my insurance rates. The good news is that no one was hurt, we made it to our game and we managed to have a nice birthday dinner for my daughter-in-law.