The Honeymoon Adventure - Day Two - Calgary Zoo

After our long six and a half eight hour journey to Calgary thanks to driving back home and then stopping in Medicine Hat for a bit, we managed to finally get to the Days Inn hotel in Northwest Calgary. The staff were super helpful during our visit including taking our payment in such a way that our yet-to-be deposited cheques weren't an issue. We unpacked, hung around the hotel for a little bit, then decided to explore our first location of Calgary, Alberta... which happened to be an outing for food at Moose McGuire's; seeing as we hadn't really had much for food since we left home. Following this adventure was pretty much back to the hotel and off to sleep with some television to keep us company for the night.

Day 2

The next morning was a highly anticipated day for us; the day of the Calgary Zoo. After having a lovely breakfast at the hotel of a couple muffins for myself, we left bright and early for a long drive through an unknown city. As it turns out, even though getting from point A to point B takes a while, if you leave super early in the morning and arrive at your destination before nearly anybody else... the traffic is quite similar to driving around here in Moose Jaw during the day... (non-existent). We did get there and find a super parking spot right by the entrance super early in the morning and despite the dreary and rainy weather, we excitedly paid and entered the complex with gusto hoping to goodness that we would be able to see everything there would be to offer.

We made it into the Calgary Zoo!

The first thing we saw was a special exhibit they have right nearby the North Entrance which is a penguin habitat. I tried not to take pictures of everything I saw everywhere I went; if you want an idea of what it was like in there, imagine going outside in the cold of winter only to see a gathering of penguins outside your home as if you're in the middle of a Happy Feet movie... only without any singing. We even managed to witness one of the handlers removing a penguin from the area (for some reason we weren't aware of). As it turns out, these penguins are about half the size of a person and even though it looks painful to be a person getting wapped and nipped by one... the handler didn't seem to mind. I should mention that we were warned not to stick anything out over the glass because they WOULD take our things if they got the chance to do so.

From this point we started our adventure into the "Canadian Wilds" where we were about to see many animals which are out and about within our fantastic homeland if you're brave enough to go find them. I won't go into detail about each and every thing we saw out there, but I did see a lot of really cool creatures, some of which would be beautiful to see in their natural habitat, and some of which I think could be absolutely terrifying to see. Now it's hard to remember exactly what everything was, but I'll do my best to caption each picture correctly and try to tell something interesting along the way.

This I think was a young caribou?

Now I couldn't get any awesome pictures of the wolves, but here are a couple anyways.

 

Unfortunately a pack of wolves just don't really stand still very much which makes it a little bit difficult to take a good picture of them.

Something super fun that happened to us while we were near the wolves was a sudden attack of pinecones from a nearby tree. As it turns out... there was a little guy climbing around up there knocking them off for some reason and I was lucky enough to get it on video.

Here's one of the squirrels in action; I've never seen this happen before.

This picture is a little bit low-quality; apparently it's difficult to get a picture of a squirrel sitting still.

There's so much to tell about our visit to the Calgary Zoo, that I think I'll have to stop here for now and continue on again next time with another post. I'm super excited to share this all with you and I apologize for the delay in the coming posts; it's difficult having a family and starting a new job all at the same time. :P

Have a great day everybody and wish me luck with my new job! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Back to Honeymoon Adventure

=== A Neglectful Owner ===

     With being so busy over the past month of June with work and school and everything else, I've been a pretty neglectful owner to my blog. I'm definitely super happy to be done being so super busy all the time; finally I can actually sit down and think about things other than what work I have to get done at all points in time.

     Of course I'm still super busy these days. I have quite a bit of work to keep track of and a few projects I'd like to work on including finally getting my garden ready to grow something.... probably for next year at this rate. Obviously I really want to get my blog back up and running as well. There's so much I want to write about, but I just haven't had enough time recently. I wish I had just a few more hours each day... maybe if I didn't have to sleep all the time....

     Realistically though, I think I just need to work on having a better diet. I think most of my lost energy is actually because I don't really eat very well. I do have a habit of only regularly eating one meal per day. I guess that makes me a bit of a neglectful owner of myself. I really don't get plenty of exercise either; some days I only have the time to sit in the car, sit at work, and sit at home.

     This clearly says to me that I need to work on quite a few things. I need to work on my health, my time management, and I need to work on getting back on track to my goals of content production and successful productive use of time. Even taking the time to think about what I want to type next but not putting anything down makes me feel silly for wasting time.

I might have a bit of a time-problem. ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Happy Easter ===

     Hey everybody, just wanted to say happy Easter to everyone and I hope you all have a great day. We had our Easter celebration last night with a family supper and get together. The food was wonderful; some of it was actually Hungarian rather than all Ukrainian this time and it was actually super good in my opinion. I wish I had room for more, but unfortunately I'm not a bottomless pit as I one was when I was younger.

     It was nice seeing family and everybody wanted to hold the baby (even my brother). I'm actually incredibly surprised at how good my brother is with children. He doesn't have any of his own, but he's always been great with my sister's children and I'm sure he'll be wonderful with ours as well. Now I really have no reason to think that my brother would ever be bad with kids. I guess knowing his personality all my life has sort of made me think that he wouldn't like them or be very good with them, but I've been pleasantly surprised ever since my sister started having children.

     My grandparents, auntie Darlene, and uncle Larry have all now seen our daughter wide awake as of last night. Apparently she's super snuggly and probably gassy. My grandparents also brought easter gifts for our precious little one. She now has two stuffed bunnies to start her collection of stuffed animals and one of them has a nose which smells like chocolate. At this point, I'm sure we love the chocolate-smelling bunny much more than she does, but if the smell lives on for a while to come, she may just love the smell of chocolate when she grows up thanks to her cute little stuffed bunny.

Have a wonderful Easter everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Midterms February 2017 - Part 1

     My first two midterms are done and now I wait for tomorrow when I will do my last midterm and set up my keyboarding final tomorrow morning. I'm quite sure I did really well on my two tests today. In fact, this may be the best I've felt taking tests recently. At no point did I really feel like I had no idea what I was doing. I suppose there's not much for me to really tell other than how happy I am over today.

     It's nice really, to be able to relax and feel good about things. Classes are going well, work is going well, things at home are going well. How can I complain about anything at this time? Honestly... I can't. I'm having a great time and I'm happier than ever. Now, perhaps I'll have a nap and prepare myself for my next midterm.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

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

It's been a week!

     So we've been living in our new house for a week now. We're not completely unpacked yet, but I don't think that's a bad thing at all. Carley is working herself silly trying to unpack everything all on her own. Well... it's not like I haven't helped, but getting everything unpacked hasn't exactly been my primary concern at the moment. I'm just happy to be working and living in a new place that isn't falling apart.

     I swear, ever since we gave our previous landlord our notice that we were moving, I started finding more and more and more things wrong with the place. And everything just got weirder and weirder and weirder as the time went on. I'm so happy to be out of that place, but oh my goodness the things that happened with that guy... I'm not sure if it was real life, or if I was secretly in some sort of reality-comedy show. Everything was wonderful at first, but over time, it sort of went downhill in my opinion. I'm not going to go into detail about it other than to say, I would personally never rent from him ever again, and if I were to rent from someone else every again for some reason, I would be much more professional about it and cover my bases.

     I have to say I'm really happy to be in our new place. Carley is behind me right now making such a huge dent in everything that needs to be done. Just with my presence here to talk to, she feels so much better about doing things and has accomplished so much. She even says it doesn't seem like it's been as long as it has been. Two whole hours of mostly me talking to her about my day and a little bit of back and forth. So much done in such a short time. I'm so proud of her, and I'm so happy to be at the point that we're at. I can't wait for the new additions to our wonderful family that are coming for us.

Have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ 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

    

First Post of September

     You know, I do this sort of thing all the time where I say "I should post more" and I then continue on to forget what I said and get caught up in everything else. However, now that I'm building a routine, I think this may actually be more of a reasonable idea.

     I'm still working at Paws Claws 'N Tails and I'm loving it. Spending so much time around all those happy and friendly dogs, and I get plenty of time to talk to myself and wander around. I absolutely love it. I would also in theory have plenty of time to go over the things that I've read in my studies. My favourite shift to work so far is the closing shift where I get to drive the dogs home. Seeing how happy people are to get their fuzzy friends back is just so nice each and every day.

     A little side-note here... Seeing as I'm unable to live-stream with our current internet connection, I'm planning to upload some recordings to YouTube in the near future. All I really need is a half-hour video every once in a while. At least that would be better as a content producer than doing nothing at all. I'll definitely concoct something and see how it goes.

     Gotta go! Have a great one everybody!

~ Kyle Welykholowa

A Beautiful Thing

     I've waited so long for this to happen and now I am the happiest person in the world. I hardly know what to do with myself. It has been an adventure thus far and now I look forward to more adventures coming up in the future with a beautiful and amazing girl in my life. I'm pretty much so excited that I just want to aea;jg;LSAJDFASHGOWAHETGLJAGHAAJSFGJ!~!!! and I don't really know how else to describe it.

     Obviously there will be some work to it for things to progress properly and much better than last time, but I'm certainly looking forward to the bright future ahead of me. I'm finding more hours of work and I'll soon be signing up for the right course for me.

     In the meantime, I'll be trying to find more time to stream, make YouTube videos, and be the best boyfriend in the world. I hope you all have a beautiful day and I hope you're all happy people. Don't ruin someone else's day, make it better.

     I love you Carley Dawn Larocque.

~ Kyle

And So I Have Four Less Teeth Than Before

     Seems like I've had a pretty short day so far. Two hour drive with my mother up to Saskatoon, followed by missing out on a about an hour of my day due to anesthetic. Then I happily slept the entire way home. I really haven't done much today / yesterday and I'm perfectly alright with that. My gums hurt a it, but for the post part, I'm feeling pretty good. Maybe just a little bit groggy and perhaps a little slow likely due to the strong dose of painkillers.

     Today was a good day though. I can definitely think of a rant that I'd like to post about in the near future, but I'm going to wait on that for now until I've had more time to articulate my thoughts.

     In the mean time, I'm eating some wonderful banana bread made my by amazing mother and I'm looking forward to a feast of soft foods tomorrow for supper. If I get around to it, I'll post another video or two tomorrow and we'll go from there.

Have a great one everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle

The Girl Upstairs Listens To Some Loud Music

     Some people might find it annoying to hear the music of their neighbor going on really loudly... but as it turns out, she actually listens to good music. If not for her, I wouldn't have just found the artist Kygo. Apparently a Norwegian DJ who has made some really good remixes and things including a remix of I See Fire by Ed Sheeran which I REALLY like.

     So now I have some new music to listen to all because of my upstairs neighbor who plays her music way too loudly for any reasonable person to ever do. And oddly... I don't mind at all. Music has been pretty important to me recently. Without it, I don't know if I would have made it to where I am right now. It motivates me to get things done; to post on my blog for all you wonderful readers out there, and to make videos for anyone who likes those.

     Things feel good right now. This feels the start of a new chapter in my life story. I feel like I have something meaningful to do for the world, even if it's only for a small number of people. But it still makes me happy to have had an effect on even just one life out there. Some people might think it's silly, but I have a want, a need, a goal... to make other people happy. If this is how I can do so, then this is what I want.

     By this time next year, if I had one hundred people who enjoyed reading my words, listening to me talk or sing, watching my videos I think I would be happy. That would be one hundred people who's lives I'd have changed and made just a little bit better than before. Maybe I'll reach that goal, maybe I won't. In time, I'll see where life takes me. I have an ever-changing story that may be foreshadowing one thing, but may turn out as something completely different. The only way to find out... is to keep reading what will be written.

~ Kyle

Almost there!

     One more day of recording followed by a little bit of editing and I'm finished with my first secret project. It could be wildly embarrassing, or people might like it. As long as it provides some amount of entertainment for people, I'll be happy with it.

     Assuming nothing goes horribly wrong, everybody can expect a post tomorrow highlighting my project which will be found on YouTube where I will begin posting videos in my spare time. Possibly more like what will be done tomorrow. Possibly more of other completely different things.

     If you like my content, you are more than welcome to follow my blog, subscribe to my YouTube, follow me on Twitch, follow me on Twitter, you name it! You will also be more than welcome to send me suggestions for things you'd like to see me do. Obviously you'll have more of an idea in the future of my capabilities.

     As always, I hope you all have a lovely day and an excellent Easter Weekend! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

I haven't posted for a while.

     I'm sorry I haven't posted anything for a while. I've been so busy looking for work and working on something special coming up. I don't want to give away what it is, yet... I hope to have it done in the next couple days. I have to record it and edit it and whatnot... and then it'll be out there for the world to see. I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about this thing I'm working on. It's definitely something I've never done before and it would putting myself out there even more than this blog is.

     So here's hoping it goes well. Wish me luck and all that. I want to write more, but I'm actually so excited and nervous about this that I have no idea what else to say. Hopefully I'll get it done in the next couple days, then I'll have a post about it.

     I guess I could tell everybody the good news. I got my first interview in Moose Jaw today... and managed to get a job. Yay! Oh how happy I am about that. I'll still need to get another job to actually save money, but at least I won't have to worry about paying my rent for a while now.

     That's my update for today. Look forward to seeing some more blog posts and some YouTube videos posted in the near future! ^_^

~ Kyle

Waiting For The Time To Go By

     At this point in time, yeah, I'm looking for a job, but I'm not in a hurry. Right now, I'm quite happy to take things slowly. Now that I've had the time to slow down and think about things for a bit, I can definitively say that I much prefer to take things slowly. I feel like in the past while (not sure how long exactly), things have been flying by. It's nice to finally be able to sit down and have some time to myself where things aren't trying to race by.

     Sure, I'd like to have a job RIGHT NOW, but at the same time... I'm happy that it's not happening RIGHT AWAY. I think I've needed this time to slow down and figure out what I want. Do I definitely know one hundred percent what I want right now? No, of course not. I do know that I want to be able to focus on myself one step at a time and figure things out. Take the time to get back in touch with friends I haven't taken the time to talk to in a long time. And more importantly... take the time to get back in touch with myself.

     I shouldn't have to be so worried about what someone else thinks. I only have to worry about what I think. Am I happy with myself? Do I like my choices? Where do I want to see myself? Those are the important questions I should be thinking about rather than things like: What does he or she think of me? Or what if that person thinks I'm weird?

     So now is my time to focus on myself. I'm using this as an excuse to get more into writing seeing as I like sharing my words with whomever takes the time to read them. I'm also using this as a time to relax and be comfortable with myself. I'd like to start reading some of my books again like I used to every night. I'd like to start playing my violin again... maybe learn to play some cool things. Now is my time to be me.

~ Kyle

Status Update

     I have to admit, my day yesterday was much better than I had originally thought it would be. I am still fighting within myself to be as happy as I know I should be even though my brain tells me not to be. But I truly did have an absolutely amazing day yesterday. I'm feeling happy enough even within myself to eat food rather than skipping meals. I've been feeling well enough to keep up my writing endeavors. I'm feeling pretty good.

     So all in all, I'm glad yesterday was a day the way it was. Yeah, it started out a little crummy, and perhaps I seemed like I was unhappy throughout the day... but I truly truly truly am happy. I hope for more happy days in the future.

~ Kyle

Am I really worth it?

     I know I should easily think the answer to this question is yes... but I'm just so confused lately. Just when everything seems like it's getting better, I feel like I make it all worse. I just want to make a change. I want to prove that I can do a better job and be a better person. I want to prove that I am worth it, but I don't know how. I don't know how to be what is needed of me when it seems like what's already there is so much better, even though I know it shouldn't be.

     I can be told ten times that I'm worth it; that I am what is needed or wanted, but then... when things are still in question even after being told that... I don't know how to respond. I don't know how I'm supposed to feel. Nobody should feel obligated to do anything for me, or feel a certain way for me. It shouldn't matter if I've known somebody for any length of time. I don't want special attention just because of knowing someone previously, or because of how I'm feeling now. I just want to be seen as a regular person and given a regular chance to be what I know I can be... even though I probably don't deserve that chance.

     I guess what I'm saying, is that I'm miserable. There are times when I feel happier than the rest of this past month all put together... and then there are time when that comes crashing down and I feel worse than before. I'm sorry to anybody my mood affects. I'm sorry for bringing other people down. And I'm sorry for making things more difficult. I wish everything could just be made so much easier. I wish I could prove that I have what it takes to make everything better without taking a huge chance... but I can't. Believing in me would be taking a chance in the unknown. Trusting in the words that I say. Trusting in me.

     I can only hope that you have what it takes to believe in me, and that together we can be stronger. I hope that I can make you confident enough to trust me, and maybe... just maybe I can be what you need.

~ Kyle