Eddie and I went to Florida in August to attend my 40th high school reunion where I was able to introduce him to some friends that I haven’t seen in decades. In this picture I am with my very dear girlfriends Maria, Christy and Irene. We have been friends since we started Greek School together at around age 6. We share many memories.
We started our reunion with an evening boat cruise on the Anclote River and then met again the next night for dinner and reminiscing. It was such a wonderful time of getting caught up and sharing stories of our children and life experiences. My only regret was that the others in our little group (Terry, Fontaine, Marie) couldn’t be there. We were entertained by Maggie, another Greek School buddy, who was our social butterfly and knew the whereabouts and details of just about everyone in Tarpon Springs. I have to say I am sold on reunions and look forward to our next one.
Our class president and friend, George Zissimopolous, yet another Greek School friend, was unable to attend the reunion because of a battle with cancer. We hope and pray for a full recovery for you George and am sorry you couldn’t be with us.
Here’s a short video of the reunion:
Attending the reunion was just a part of what we did on our trip. My Aunt Grace passed away days before we arrived and we were able to attend her memorial service. It was a bitter sweet time as we were reunited with two of my cousins, Kim and Harry Miradakis. Harry I hadn’t seen in 41 years ! Kim was primary care giver for Aunt Grace for 11 years and is such an inspiration to me. Aunt Grace was married to my Uncle Coacho who is my dad’s brother.
Here is a short smilebox of the family visits we had. I’m so happy we were able to see so many people on this trip. My next post will be about our Toronto trip where we celebrated Eddie’s and Bob’s birthdays - so keep checking the blog!
Ottawa has so many festivals! Bluesfest was July 8 - 19 and Eddie was able to get two tickets to see Blue Rodeo.This band has been one of my favorites for years and I was pretty excited to see them again. I have some pretty funny memories of a concert we went to as a family at Massey Hall in Toronto. There I was enjoying a Jim Cuddy solo while the rest of my family were sound asleep (You know you were ! !). I really think Eddie enjoyed the concert this time, even though it was outdoors, we were standing and it was raining - ha ha ha. Click here to see a short Utube with some of my favorite songs.
We went to Toronto July 26-28 to celebrate Jason’s, Ronnie’s and my birthday. Alice had us all over for a BBQ. Irene and Gordon couldn’t make it as they are busy packing up their things for their big move to Toronto this month. We had a BBQ feast - it was amazing - and then topped it off with a mango mousse cake. Thank you everyone!
During our short stay in Toronto Alice and I spent an afternoon shopping at Pacific Mall looking for knock-off purses for my friends Cassandra and Lisa. We had such a fun time and Alice was able to get us some great deals. I look forward to doing it again - what do you think, Alice? Click here for some pics of our family BBQ.
Vivian, a co-worker of Eddie’s at Minto, drove back to Ottawa with us. The next weeked was the Civic Holiday in Ontario and so she brought her two children over a couple of times to play in the pool. Eddie and I were smitten by Melanie and Zachary. Hope y’all come again soon! Here are some pics of our weekend.
June is here and the weather is finally getting warmer. We’ve had a good month so far. We started with a visit from our friends, Ron and Elaine and their two children Cassidy and Dakota. They brought along a friend, Mecheon. Ron is a pastor so they didn’t arrive until later in the day on Sunday. The weather was beautiful on Monday and they took the GPS and explored downtown Ottawa. They saw the important buildings and even had a horse and buggy ride. Later that day we splashed in the pool and had a nice dinner together. We ended the day playing the Wii. I think the kids had more fun creating their “Mii’s” than actually playing a game. You can see the short video here. Be prepared to smile! When most of us retired for the evening, Ron and Elaine went to see the new Star Trek movie. The visit was far too short and we hope they will come see us again soon.
Ottawa has an Experimental Farm that’s not too far from us. Last Friday Eddie and I went out for some Greek food and then were off for a drive when we decided to stop by the farm and see the flowers. What a treat! The peonies, columbine and iris’s were all blooming and it was such a show. Some of Eddie’s family is on their way here as I post this and I am hoping to take my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law to see the colourful show as there were so many blooms on the peony bushes. Here is a taste of what we saw.
I’ll be sharing about our visit soon. There is a lot on the list of things to do and I hope we can do it all.
April was so busy that I got lost in all the photos and events. It started with a trip to Florida April 5-16. Next was a visit with some friends here in Ottawa and then a trip to Toronto. I really wanted to have our photos posted sooner but this switch from PC to MAC is slowing me down.
Our trip to Florida was fun. We managed to see many of my family members and even some school friends - some I haven’t seen in 40 years! I overlapped with my sister (Nancy) and brother-in-law (George) for one day at the beginning of my visit and then at the end overlapped a day with my niece (Eleni) and her daughter (Erin). In between we had a private tour of the new culinary school at my High School. This new building/school is the result of my cousin Manuel’s vision and dream and was very impressive. Way to go, Mr. Gombos!
Eddie was able to join us the weekend of my mother’s birthday (April 11). We celebrated at Mama’s Restaurant. We were able to do a little gardening and enjoy being together. Here are the Florida pictures.
Their visit was far too short but the next weekend Eddie and I went to Toronto where we saw them again as they helped us celebrate Peter’s birthday. I also saw many of my dear friends from Ladies Group and Bridletowne that weekend. Here are those pictures.
So, you can see that April was a blur and a lot of fun. May has also been busy and I will be posting about that very soon.
Last Wednesday afternoon our friends, Marge, Malcolm, Trevor, Guy and Nicki all came to visit. The men went to the hockey game (Ottawa Senators vs the Tampa Bay Lightning [Senators won]) while we ladies watched 2 chick flicks (Moonstruck and Bella). The next morning Eddie fixed us a big breakfast and then we had a mini tour of Hogs Back Falls and downtown. It was bitterly cold so we didn’t linger at the falls but we did walk around the ByWard Market. We saw the shops that Pres. Obama visited when he was here in February. Apparently business inside the Market has gone up 25% since his visit! Guy and Nicki left for Toronto just before lunch. The rest of us had a leisurely lunch at an Irish Pub. By 1:30 we had said our good byes. It was a really short visit but we had enough time to make some nice memories.
Jason, Irene and Gordon came to visit us during the Winterlude Festival. Unfortunately the temps rose just enough to cause a mini-melt of the canal and ice sculptures so we had an indoor visit together. By Saturday the canal was open again for skating but we decided to stay in. The day they left Eddie and I did go for our first stroll on the canal with our friends Lisa and Ronni and their girls.
The following week Scott and April and their boys came for a visit and we walked the canal again while they skated. There were so many people enjoying the festivities. There were horse-drawn sleigh rides, tee pees and refreshment stands set up and colonial demonstrations of all kinds. It was so “Ottawa”!. You can see our pics here. Now, of course, the water is starting to flow again and the stands are starting to be disassembled. It’s nice to see the beginnings of spring and our next big festival will be the Tulip Festival in May. Ottawa is a very colourful town and we are having fun enjoying all it has to offer.
Everywhere we look it’s white. Snowbanks are several feet high and rooftops look like they are sagging from the weight. The other night our neighbors phoned and said they’d be over in 5 minutes to rake our roof! Sure enough, Ronni, Lisa and Rosalie came over with a “roof rake” and proceeded to tackle the mound of snow hanging from our roof. This was a new experience for me so I had to get my camera. Here are the pictures. Thanks so much, guys! It’s great to have neighbors watching out for us.
Before we even found our home my good friend Nicki booked a weekend with us. Her husband, Guy, would be taking a leadership training course (ARROW) and one of the weeks would be in Quebec near Ottawa. It took several months but the date finally arrived and the Freeman’s came to visit. Nicki and the kids came on Thursday Nov. 21and Guy joined us Friday.
Kaleb (9), Jensen (7) and Chloe (2) reminded us why we had our children while we were young. Eddie and I had several near heart attacks as we watched little Chloe climb her way into and onto, well . . . everything! Who says boys are active ? ? ? As you can see from the pictures, we had lots of fun. The kids were delightful and so much fun to be with. The Freeman’s visited the Children’s Museum. Since Eddie and I had just been there in October, we decided to stay home.
During our visit we watched movies together, read books, played pool and played with the racing set. On Sunday we all went to a Missionary Alliance Church about twenty minutes away. This is where I met a fellow ARROW student of Guy’s, Pearl. She and I had lunch together today and have much in common. I think this is the start of a nice friendship.
So if you would like to see the pictures of our weekend you can click here. The slides should advance on their own but there are arrow keys at the bottom right if you want to speed things up. Enjoy the smiles ! !
On Saturday, October 18, our friends Scott, April, Graham and baby Ethan came to visit. They arrived early afternoon and stayed until Monday morning. Our weather cooperated nicely and we were able to go to some familiar places and even have a swim. The next Friday, October 24, our friends Steve, Adrianne, Meli and Jake came to visit. They arrived at about 10 am and stayed until Monday morning. We visited the same familiar places and went to the Children’s Museum which is at the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec.
When Eddie and I moved to Ottawa we didn’t realize how many of our dear friends would make the long drive to visit us. We are so happy for this as it has helped to make the transition from Toronto to Ottawa much easier. If you’d like to see some pics of our visit please click here.
Today is November 1 and we spent the day organizing our boxes and unpacking a few more things. It was a long day that started with breakfast at Cora’s and some shopping. I’m glad we turn the clocks back tonight so we can get that extra hour of sleep.
Last Sunday our church family had a going away party for us after our morning service. It was amazing. We were showered with gifts and well wishes. The reality of our move is becoming more and more obvious to us. While we are excited about making new friends and joining a new church family, our hearts are heavy as we prepare to leave. Here are some pics of our farewell party and also some from the Ladies Group that I have been a part of since it began in 1997.
On another note and to bring a huge smile on your face check out this utube.That’s my little niece in the white T. I think we have some talent in the family!
