February 13, 2012 - Sad day in my life

I was sitting at home, late evening, on my computer, going through pictures of Chris Phillips' 1000th game and the celebration when I got a phone call from my sister.

She told me my grandmother, dad's mom, was taken to the hospital and my dad was going to meet her.  My mom was waiting for my aunt and uncle to pick her up to take her to the hospital too.  I think I knew at that time it wasn't going to turn out well.

I went to my sister's house to wait for news with her.  I really didn't want to be alone and being with family is the best thing at times like this.

It really didn't take too long, an hour maybe, and my mom called us to tell us the bad news.  My grandmother had died. 

I swear, everything just stopped in that instant.  I'd never lost someone close to me before and didn't know how to react, feel, what to do.

I stayed with my sister for a little while, not sure if we even spoke. She wondered how to tell her daughters that they'd never see grand-mère again.

I eventually went home and just thought of my grandmother and everything she meant to me and how much I was going to miss her.

The next few days were pretty much a blur.  Spent lots of time with family at home, the funeral home and church.  It was all so surreal.   I thank everyone that offered us support during those difficult days.  If I never told you, thank you.

Now a year later, I still can't grasp that it happened and just how quickly.  I'd seen her not long before and she seemed fine to me.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  She asked me when I was going to find someone and get married.  She wanted me to be happy.  I told her that I was happy being single and on my own.  It brings a smile to my face when I think back on that conversattion.

I talk to her sometimes and I know she's watching over us.  I'm sure she was silently supporting my dad during his recent battle with prostate cancer.  I wish my nieces and nephew would have had more time with her.  I have so many great memories of her.  She showed me to make "Pudding Chomeur" when I was younger and I made it this year thinking of her. 

I will never forget all the good times I had with her.  All the clothes she made us, the quilts, the slippers, etc.  I still have a lot of those things at home and they have even more meaning now.

They say (who's "they" anyway) that the first year is the hardest.  I do believe that, but I'm not sure how it can really truly get "easier". 

I know she joined my grandfather after many years without him and they're both looking out of the family.  Two wonderful Angels!

Je t'aimes grand-maman!!! 

One year ago today - Meeting Chris Phillips

One year ago today, February 10th, I had the opportunity to meet my favorite hockey player.  Chris Phillips.

I've been a fan of Chris' since he was drafted by the Ottawa Senators in 1996.

During his first season with the Senators in 1997-1998, he became one of my favorites along withWade Redden.  Within his first 2 season, he surpassed Wade as my favorite Ottawa Senator player and quickly eclipsed Martin Gélinas as my all time favorite NHLer.  For those who know me, that's pretty big!

Over the years, I've been able to have him sign 2 jerseys that I have bought with his name on the back.  The first time, he was surprised that I had his name on the jersey and the next time, he thanked me for it.  You'd think that I would have actually talked to him during one of those two times, but you'd be terribly wrong.

I'm an insanely shy person and have trouble articulating any kind of thought under normal circumstances, then throw in the fact that he's my fave and that just makes me unable to formulate a complete sentence.  Heck, I probably could barely say hi.

I've had the opportunity and pleasure of meeting and talking to his wife Erin on multiple occasions prior to my meeting Chris and she's always been very warm and gracious towards her husband's crazy fan.  She'd help me buy some of the charity autographed items (trying to find Chris' for me).  She's never made me feel uncomfortable.

On this day last year, it was the unveiling of a timeline in the 100 level concourse of ScotiaBank Place of Chris' 1000 game career with the Ottawa Senators.  He'd played his 1000th game the night before.  How did I get myself invited to this event?  It's all thanks to the Senators' PA Announcer, Stuntman Stu.

I'd been emailing/tweeting Stuntman Stu for years while he hosted various radio shows in Ottawa.  I'd also had the opportunity to meet him before several Ottawa Senators games as I'm a season ticket holder.  On the day following Chris' 1000th game, I wrote Stu an email telling him just how happy I was for Chris and how proud I was to be a fan.  Chris scored 2 goals on the previous night.

I wish I still had this email because I'd like to see what I wrote.  I'm sure it was gushing and unbecoming of a 38 year old, but who really cares.  Something in the email made him send it to Cyril Leeder, President of the Ottawa Senators and that is how I got the invite.

I hurried out of work and went to print out a picture I took the night before to get it autographed.  I met Stu at the arena and off we went to the unveiling.

Erin was first to come over and say hi and she was followed by Chris.  Stu introduced me and to be honest, at this point, I'm sure I said NOTHING!!!  Yes, that's right...nothing.  My brain froze and I must have looked like an idiot really.  Chris was so nice and signed my picture and then Stu took my camera to take a picture of us.

I might have managed to say hi and thank you, but I'm pretty sure that was all I said.  Despite that, it was a great experience and to be part of an event like that was amazing.

I made up for it a little bit a couple weeks later at an autograph signing where I forced myself to say more.  What exactly I said then?  I'm not really sure, but it was full of babbling, especially after he actually recognized me and said my name.   

He now recognizes me and says hi when he sees me, mostly at his restaurant Big Rig.  I'll never forget this day.  It was so much fun.

Thank you to Erin and Chris for being such great people!!

NHL Hockey 2013!!!

I wanted to wait a couple of days before I wrote this post because I wasn’t sure how I’d truly feel, but now that the season has started…

WOOHOO!!!!

I’m so happy about it.   I watched the Sens game on Saturday vs Winnipeg and went to their home opener on Monday!  I wore my Chris Phillips jersey to work as I always do on home game nights.  There were some negative comments, but mostly they were positive!!

When I walked into ScotiaBank Place that night, even before the gates opened, it was like coming back home.

That might sound odd but I’ve had season tickets for 12+ years now and spend a lot of time at the rink, but, other than a concert a few months ago and a Season seat holder event last week, I hadn’t been in the building since April.  

I got my ticket scanned by the same person who’s been doing it for years.  The same people were standing at the gate selling the 50/50 tickets.  I loved it!

I walked around the lower concourse a few times and absorbed the atmosphere.  There was excitement all around.  I saw Cyril Leeder and he looked really happy to have the season start again.  I also saw and spoke to our PA announcer, Stuntman Stu.   It was all just very familiar.

I went up to the upper concourse where my seats are located and saw some other familiar faces.  The same people were working in the concession stand behind my section when I went to buy my food.  They were happy to be there. 

I walked through the tunnel to go to my section and felt the same excitement I always have on season opening night.  When I got to the end and saw the ice and the HD scoreboard, it struck me just how much I had missed it and was looking forward to this day

I walked up to my seats where some of the “old guard” were already sitting.  All season ticket holders I’ve gotten to know in the past few years, but hadn’t seen in months.  It was a family reunion of sorts.  Contrary to what people believed, they were all excited about the game and upcoming season.

The anticipation grew as the time to puck drop got closer.  I looked around and saw the crowd getting larger and larger.  There were so many fans, just happy to be back; so many children looking forward to seeing their idols again.

The HD scoreboard had multiple montages showing highlights of the past seasons which served to make us even more excited than we already were.  Then it started….

Stuntman Stu started announcing our 2012-2013 Ottawa Senators team one player at a time.  The biggest cheers and ovation of course reserved for our captain, Daniel Alfredsson.  I got chills I tell you.  I cheered extra loud for Phillips, as I always do.

There was a ceremonial puck drop featuring our Owner, Eugene Melnyk and a double lung transplant recipient, Hélène Campbell.  She is such an inspiration to many out there. 

We were then treated to Lyndon Slewidge singing the American and Canadian national anthems.  Sens fans know who he is.  Again, I got chills.  On a side note, I did not recognize him without his hat.

Then the moment we were all waiting for, the actual puck drop and start of the game.

It certainly didn’t take long for the crowd to get into the game.  They were cheering for the saves and the goals.  They jeered ex-Sens players on the Panthers team and they complained about Jason Spezza…one part I had almost forgotten about.  For the record, I’m not one of those complainers, I happen to love Jason.

The music was great and Stuntman Stu was on his game, not showing any rust after an 8 month break from PA announcing.

All in all, I left the arena after the game and couldn’t have been happier.  It does help that the Sens won, but the whole experience was fantastic.

I guess no matter how mad I was at the situation, I still love hockey and the Ottawa Senators and I don’t really think that will ever change.

Now on to a packed season!!!

New project - Scarf

Yesterday I wrote about wanting to learn how to crochet this year and hopefully be able to make myself an afghan.

I was derailed a little last night when I decided that I was doing something else.

About a month ago I bought a "ruffle scarf".  I'm sure you've all seen them in all kinds of different colors.  For the past week I've been looking for my scarf but haven't been able to find it anywhere..  Instead of going out and buying another one, I decided that it might be good to learn how to make it.

So, yesterday I went on YouTube and found a video showing you how to knit the scarf using special yarn.  I had already bought this yarn a while ago but hadn't gotten around to trying to use it.  I thought it would be difficult and take me a while to get it completed.

After about 4 hours of knitting, here is my new scarf.  It's around 5 feet in length and oh so cute.  It really wasn't hard to knit either once I got the hang of it.

I'm really very proud of myself.  I actually finished a knitting project which I had never done before.  I'd started many, but never go around to finishing any of them.  (mostly doll blankets as my knitting skills are about as limited as my crochet skills)

Maybe I'll make some for my family and friends.  Any request?? ;)

Now that I have my ruffle scarf, I will go back to learning how to crochet.

See you all next time

Julie / @Flip_4

New Year, New Project

I read a blog post by Gail Vaz-Oxlade the other day about how she taught herself to knit one day to keep herself busy and to keep her brain active.  I decided that I would do the same thing.

 My new project is crochet.  I learned how to about 30 years ago in grade school and we made an octopus.  That was my one and only crochet project and it was for 2 months when I was 9.  Needless to say, I was not an expert when I stopped and so I was starting as if I’d never done it before.

Last night, I went to Walmart and bought a nice little “How to crochet” kit and some yarn.  When I got home, I managed to crochet a square by using a simple “Single crochet stitch”.  It’s an odd looking square because I wasn’t counting the stitches and actually dropped some, but that’s ok.  As a newbie on the first night, I don’t think I did too badly.

For the rest of this year, I will be teaching myself how to crochet.  My book and youtube are wonderful learning tools.

I’d love to crochet myself an afghan by the end of the year, but maybe a should start off smaller, like a scarf or dishrags ;).

In the meantime, I’ll continue making little squares with the different stitches I will be learning and then I’ll learn to read a crochet a pattern.  Then I’ll consider the afghan.

All this from going on a financial advice site. 

You never where you will find inspiration.

I’ll keep you posted on my progress

Til next time…Julie/@Flip_4

A difficult week

As I'm sitting here watching reruns of "The West Wing", I was thinking of the past week and everything that happened during that time.

It started last week on Tuesday with my dad having his prostate removed due to prostate cancer.  As you can probably imagine, the weeks leading up to it were filled with lots of preparations, stress and worry.  I dropped him off at the hospital with my mother at 5:30 AM and went back to my parents' to wait for my sister.

Dropping them off on the Tuesday, and hugging my dad was one of the hardest things I ever had to do.  I broke down in tears and cried most of the way home.  It was terrible.  My sister and I joined my mother there soon after and waited for news on my dad.  Well, everything went well with the surgery and the doctor was really happy. Apart from the fact that he stayed in recovery until about midnight that night due to problems getting a room, everything was good.  

On Wednesday, I visited him and he looked well.  There was a scary moment where his pressure dropped and he passed out, but doctors were not worried.  They said it often happened when a patient recovers from surgery.  They sat him up in a chair for the first time since the surgery and had him walk a bit.  That combined with a lack of solid food for almost 60 hours just did him in,  He quickly recovered from that though and was eating solid food by the end of the day..

Thursday, I picked him up at the hospital and he was home, where he's been every since. He's thriving there an I truly believe being in his own place with my mother is helping him recover. I packed my stuff because I had moved in with my mother temporarily and I came back home.

That was shortlived...

On Friday afternoon, I started experiencing intense pain in my back and also other symptoms that were similar to those I had when I was diagnosed with a UTI 3 weeks earlier.  I decided to go to the urgent care clinic to get medication for what I assumed was another UTI.

Boy, was I wrong...

The pain didn't go away.  Instead, it intensified.  I was walking around and trying everything not to throw up as the pain was making me nauseous.  When I finally saw the doctor, he examined me and told me that he suspected that I had kidney stones.  Well, I've heard horror stories about kidney stones and that's all I could think about.  He said I didn't have an infection according to the test they did when I registered.

Well, that's just great.  I live alone in my condo and I'm going to be in pain and have to call an ambulance to go to the hospital when it gets worse.

Nope, instead I called my sister who called my mother and I moved back in with my parents. There's nothing like a mother's caring to make you feel better.  I didn't sleep much for 3 nights, but I had the comfort of not being alone.  I was in terrible pain Friday night and all I did was walk around and drink tons of water.  I'm telling you, this pain was horrible.  I've felt pain before, but this was different.  More intense and scary.  It finally disappeared by Sunday.

I'm now back home again and terrified of this happening again.  It's not a matter of if...but when.  How do I know this?  I went to get an ultrasound and they found multiple stones in the left kidney and at least one in the right one.  Now I'm walking around, actually hearing a clock in my head ticking away to the time when this will be happening to me again.

I'm pretty terrified..  I want to move back in to my parents' place until this is all over so that my mom can take care of me like when I was a child.  There's no telling when that will be either.  I love living alone, but I have to say that I have now found one of the disadvantages of it.

Enough about me, the week has been hard and stressful and quite frankly, painful, but I'm so grateful that my father is doing well.  Everything is progressing great in his recovery and he's looking forward to things getting back to normal.  I hope things get better with me too.

Have a fantastic week!

Julie / @Flip_4

Movember

No, that's not a typo.  For those of you who don't know, Movember is a movement that started a few years back where men will grow or attempt to grow a mustache to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer and male mental health.

For a few years now I've been laughing at the attempt from some men to grow these mustaches.  There have been some seriously pathetic pictures, but I've always supported the cause by donating.

This year, it means a lot more to me than just a few laughs.

As I've mentioned on here a few times before, my dad currently has prostate cancer and will be having surgery on November 6th.  We are very positive and hopeful that it will all turn out great.

Now, every time I'll see someone sporting a mustache, I will be thankful for what they are doing this month to raise funds.

I am currently on the lookout for someone I can support this year.  I haven't given away my "Birthday donation" yet and  would love to give it to someone to help them reach their goal.

Send me a note if you'd like that person to be you :)  julie_auger@hotmail.com or tweet me @Flip_4

Thank you to everyone who is participating in Movember!!!  I love you all!!!

Julie / @Flip_4