Christmas 2016

     The end of the year has passed and the beginning of a new year has begun. I don't know about you guys... but I think my Christmas was pretty amazing. Carley was trying not to give away her gift to me for so long. She was so excited about what she had gotten for me and I felt pretty bad for kind of ruining her surprise for me. I had a feeling that I knew what she had gotten me once we had gone to the store and she kept asking so many questions about Soda Streams. Obviously I asked her if she got me a Soda Stream, and her answer was no. She was actually believeable when telling me that she didn't get me one! Unfortunately for her... I noticed that she had gotten a little bit obsessed with Soda Streams, asking all sorts of questions all over facebook and looking things up about them such as whether or not you can carbonate milk. I believed her for a bit, but I still had a little bit of a feeling that I knew what she was getting me.

     As it turns out, I LOVE my Soda Stream; I like the texture of carbonated drinks. I've made a couple drinks using the specialized syrup, and I've also carbonated water flavoured with Mio. Soon I'll probably try a regular "glass" of juice just to see what that tastes like. I absolutely love what I got and couldn't be happier with my spoils of the holidays. Just for the record... anybody reading this who may be interested in getting one for themselves... the syrup for flavouring the drinks needs to be refridgerated after opening. That would have been nice to know before I opened them all and then left them all sitting out on the counter. Turns out the syrup will stop mixing properly after a while? Ah well, the good news is that more bottles are pretty cheap, so I don't think it's too much of a concern. Just something to keep in mind.

     Other things I got for Christmas include a positionable mannequin which I can use to help figure out how to draw people properly seeing as people are one of my favourite things to draw. I also got myself a set of drawing pencils (even though I don't really know how to use them properly). I also got a couple new table top games to play; one is more family friendly while the other is more for the "gamers" (which is totally cool with me... I just need to find someone to play it with).

     I had so much more fun this year with Carley's gifts though. I left her with the impression that she wasn't getting much this year by telling her that I wasn't able to spend much on her. Oh boy did I manage to give her so much more than she expected. I made her a new jar with love notes in it to tell her of things that I love about her. I got her a Wii U with some money I had saved up over the course of months of planning (she absolutely loves this new system!). And I took the time to set up an appointment for us to get a joint account together which is so much more meaningful to her than anything else. Oh yeah... I guess the dog is technically a Christmas present to both of us as well.

     Basically what I'm trying to say here is that this Christmas in our new house together was the best experience for us. I think we are both more than happy with the end of the 2016 year and are looking forward to seeing how 2017 turns out. With an upcoming child, a puppy, school, a jaw getting broken, and so much more to look forward to, this is sure to be a fantastic year!

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Better Than Bottom of the Barrel.

     I've just started a new job two weeks ago. So far, I think it's fantastic; I get to answer phones and enter hours and do whatever other office things and such. It's pretty fun for me so far. There's a lot to learn already which is pretty overwhelming, but I'm sure I can survive and continue here for quite a while. I think the most trouble I'm having so far is that we don't have a proper trainer. I do think we're learning things pretty well, but we're actually supposed to have a mentor to shadow us for some time rather than an associate who also has to keep up with her own work.

     Regardless of that, I feel like I'm capable of doing what is needed of me so far. I think it's really just a matter of doing the work on a regular basis and getting to know how everything works. I think in time, things will make more and more sense as I use the system, solve problems and complete required tasks. Everything seems to be quite organized around here, I just have to learn where everything is.

     I'm looking forward to continuing to work here in the future and learning to do a great job of what they need. It really makes me happy to finally be working somewhere that pays more than minimum wage and rather than being an atmosphere of "do everything faster", it's an atmosphere of "do what you need to please the customer" (even if it takes an hour). At least... that's what it seems like to me.

     Both excitement and overwhelmed nervousness flow throughout me right now. I need to figure out how to properly reallocate my time so that I don't feel so rushed and short on time. I think the future looks good.

Have a wonderful day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle

    

Upcoming Midterms

     Next week will be my first set of tests for this course. I guess I'll find out whether or not I'm truly learning anything in my classes. It's a little bit exciting to get a chance to see how well I'm assimilating information. So far a lot of the information has been a review of things I've already known or previously learned, but there's still things that I need to go over and practice before I'll feel perfectly ready for my tests. If I do well on these tests, then I'll feel much better about more schoolwork coming up in the future.

     That's really my random thought of the day right now. Besides that, I hope everybody has a wonderful day. I know I've been quite happy recently even though I've had to get up so early in the morning. Actually, I really never thought I'd ever be a morning person, but I do find it much easier to wake up in the morning now since working at the kennel.

     Anywhos, that's a story for another day. Have a wonderful day everybody. You're all fantastic! ^_^

~ Kyle