Life Update - March 2020

It's been a while since the last time I posted something other than a game review. Today, I bring you an update on the current goings on in my life!

Wife

Carley is still doing fantastic since starting her new medication back in January. If not for now being 7 months pregnant and looking after a screaming toddler, I'm sure she'd be one of the happiest people on the planet. Recently she's been finding herself to be more tired than usual and even being sore without having done too much physically. I know she hasn't been able to do as much around and out of the house as usual, so she's been going a little bit stir-crazy... not because she can't leave the house, but instead because she can't user her body as much as she wants.

So instead of going out and running around Carley has been putting more of her effort into cooking amazing meals for our family to have us eat well and keeping the finances under control. I really don't think we've ever been so organized before. We have new artwork going up around the house, things being beautified to look more bright and wonderful, and I really think this is the best we've ever been doing as long as we've known each other.

Daughter

She's going to be three later this month! I've been thinking of her as being three for quite a while now and I think that is making it seem like it's taking forever for her to actually turn three for real. She's been telling us more and more stories each day. Sometimes her brain is trying to go so fast that her mouth can't keep up and she stumbles over words and sentences until we get her to slow down and take a breath! I'm looking forward to the inevitable never-ending stream of works that come as she gets older... though perhaps she'll learn to be a little bit quieter every once in a while instead of constantly yelling her tales at me.

No matter what she just gets cuter and cuter as time goes on and I love her more and more with each and ever day.

Dogs

They're still alive and adorable! Maybe a little bit spoiled though.

House

Has there been a big update to the house? In a way, yes. We decluttered A TON of stuff from the house. Bunches of things we weren't using were donated and a ton of other junk that wasn't useful was discarded thanks to the help of a very awesome guy who made a couple runs to the dump for us.

Surprisingly, I've also managed to be somewhat handy and not only fix a broken wire in our alarm system, but also change an outlet from 2 to 3 prongs in our bedroom WITHOUT shocking myself or starting a fire! Yay!

ME!

I've tried a type of antidepressant before that didn't seem to make much of a difference if any at all. Recently I've started taking an antidepressant once again to see if it has a quality impact on my moods, though of course this one is a different one than last time. I'll admit that I'm a little bit surprised that I feel so great compared to how I've felt previously. I didn't really think about it too much but I've had anxiety over starting a day of work before where now I have none. Something that I'm quite used to, talking to people over the phone and online, and yet I was feeling anxious over it.

Now I feel wonderful! So wonderful that I'm even doing work on projects that I had pretty much stopped working on altogether such as my making videos, live streaming, and even working on my blog. Not only that, but I've started writing and colouring again. I'm even beginning to draw every once in a while. Life feels so wonderful that it's difficult to be annoyed and angry with anything or anybody. I'm getting fresh air whether it's walking with the child, the dogs, or just myself. It's so perfect!

At this point I don't even have goals that I'm all concerned about hitting other than to just have fun and live a little.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

A Working Family - Carley Got A Job!

Okay, so if you've somehow been living under a rock and are not aware of such recent events, then now is your time to find out that Carley... Got a job! Finally we are a fully working family.

I'll be honest, I was starting to think that maybe Carley wouldn't get a job, or would at least have to settle for crummy part-time minimum-wage job. I'm not really sure what it is... for some people it's really easy to get a job and for other people (myself included), getting a new job is a process that takes months upon months of constant applying to everything that a person may or may not have qualifications for. It's insane to me how hard it can be even to get a minimum-wage job while being totally qualified for everything being applied for.

So with a large amount of perseverance, my wife, the house cleaner and child a reader of the century, gotten herself a job in a retirement home as a care aide. This makes complete sense to me; she has always had a soft spot in her heart for the elderly, even more of a soft spot then she has for children. Now she gets to help care for the elderly and tells me nearly every night about how much she loves what she does and how good she is at it... I mean seriously, she's already training new people to do the things she just learned to do and getting things done that nobody else has been able to get done in a looong time.

I have to say, I couldn't be more proud of Carley for not only finding herself a job, but for finding one that she's great at and really enjoys being there for. I could see her making a career out of what she's doing now even more than I could with childcare. I really think this is something amazing for our family and a great start to something new that will open up many opportunities as we more forward and grow our family.

Everybody, please join me in congratulating Carley Welykholowa on her new job, and wishing her tons of good luck and good fortune as we work towards our next goal.

~ Kyle Welykholowa ^_^

What Happened Last Month

I find myself sitting here, wondering to myself... what happened last month? I'm really not going to go into the entire detail of what caused what and who did this and that. I think there's much more important lessons to learn from the events that transpired over the past month.

For anybody who doesn't know, my wife moved out for about one month and is now back home where she belongs. There are underlying issues which I believe this has brought forth and from this point things can go one of two ways: either we learn from this and become a stronger couple who work together, or we learn absolutely nothing at all except that perhaps we just don't work out as a couple. I like to think we have taken the first path of learning to be better together where rather than avoiding each other we take the time to talk and work through our issues.

My personal learning from this event has brought me to the conclusion that staying up all night long isn't the way to go, because it only makes me tired the next day and unable to function properly. As it turns out, sleeping at night definitely makes me more motivated and able to do things during the day. I suppose the fact that I start work most days by 7:00 am helps me be tired by the time it starts getting late at night... it also helps that I'm pretty much forced to get up at 6:30 or earlier every day (including days off) either because of the dogs going mental at stupid times of the night / morning, or because our DEAR SWEET baby girl now wakes up most days no later than 6:30 in the morning because she often goes to daycare before I start work... which also means I have to be up even earlier than usual.

I suppose I've also learned that I need to pay more attention to both Carley's an my own needs and emotions and we need to work at talking together instead of brushing things off and hoping that's the end of it; emotions are important and valid, even when they seem stupid. Though someone else's problems may not make sense and may seem insignificant to you, those problems may be much more meaningful to them.

On that note, I've learned things about myself as well; such as that I am important, and I can do things for myself as well as others. I still don't like going out of the house very much, but I am feeling much better about myself. The most troubling thing I'm currently dealing with is finding the motivation to get things done while I'm not on working time or taking care of Isabelle... instead of sleeping. I seriously hate sleep; I wish I never had to sleep ever again... but it feels soooooooooooooo goooooooooooooooooood to sleep and / or nap.

I do have a lot of plans on the go right now though: Dates with Carley, playing with and teaching Isabelle, cleaning and organizing the house so that we can actually find things and not feel like it (the basement) is cluttered, making blog posts and videos, and somehow finding all the time to do all of this and keep going without running out of energy! ........ Oh... I also want to get into a regular habit of taking the dogs for a walk, and playing games with friends (most importantly my wife), and drawing / doodling, maybe taking the time to colour, read some books, get into biking once the weather clears up... there's so much I want to do and so little time to do it all.

Every day is a learning experience, but we'll get there... together.

~ Kyle Welykholowa ^_^

Backyard Light Project =11=

I've been keeping myself busy these days with a few projects around the house and a short time ago my time turned into a backyard light project. It actually all started with wanting to clean off the deck, but in my doing so I found a bag of string lights which I figured I could put to good use.

I was able to find a space where I could get the string of lights out of the inside deck area and wind them under the steps and around the pole to the side. These aren't super bright lights, but they make it much easier to see the dogs in the dark and to see enough of the backyard during that time without bothering the neighbors. It's amazing what you're able to do when you get creative enough while doing completely unrelated things.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Tick Tac Toe ===

     Okay, so about a week ago I woke up in the morning and realized with jump that tick season is... already here. Winter lasted so long this year that I didn't really consider how close the ticks could possibly be. As it turns out, when you wake up with a tick crawling up your jaw, you suddenly see that the ticks are already here. So far we've only found one other tick in the house. The other one was found in our bed as well crawling on Carley as she was trying to have a nap. That freaked her out, but thankfully we haven't found any others. I conveniently gave both Autumn and Furgle tick treatments only a short time before these two events, and considering our backyard isn't growing much grass at this time, I'm not expecting too many more ticks any time soon.

     It's times like these that make me think back on past events and remember that only a year ago we were trying to get a tick off of Isabelle's face while she laid there as if she didn't even know there was anything there. Both Carley and I were totally freaked out and stressed, but we did manage to get the tick off without any injuries or blood or anything too crazy. If I remember correctly, we pulled something like 10 or 20 ticks off of Furgle last year... ugh... that was awful. He took it really well (and he did have long fur at that time which didn't help I'm sure). I wasn't able to do a tick treatment on him last year either because it was too late by the time I had thought about it.

     After a while you get used to having so many bugs and things around. I used to get super freaked out over ticks and other bugs, but now for the most part I don't mind having them around. I would absolutely prefer NOT to have to deal with them, but they're not as bad now as they used to be for me. I can hold most bugs in my bare hands now without freaking out ever since I spent a day killing and cleaning up mosquitoes in our old apartment. Now with my trusty tweezers by my side, I don't have any issues with ticks either.

Have a fantastic day everybody. Hopefully you aren't all feeling as creepy and crawly as me! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== What A Good Doctor ===

     So we've been watching this awesome show recently which has just been an absolutely amazing watch called The Good Doctor. is show follows some surgical residents including one by the name of Sean Murphy who has Autism. So far throughout the show, there have been a lot of cases of both patients and doctors who don't think he's capable of doing things the same as a regular person, but he continues to prove people wrong in many of the episodes.

     One of my favourite things about watching this show (usually with Kylie) is how much I learn about people with autism... and about my dear Carley. I won't go into super detail about it, but it turns out that Carley shares a lot of the characteristics as the main character in the show. For the most part, Carley is a pretty normal person and I love her very much. There are a few things which seem to make a little bit more sense to me as I realize she could be described as a high-functioning person with some level of autism.

     I don't know if I've explained this idea very well at all, but it certainly makes sense to me. Knowing more about our situation certainly makes things much easier for me to understand how Carley works and helps me to be much more calm in situations I wouldn't normally understand. Basically, this show is not only a fantastic show to watch, but it has also helped to change my life and my understanding of things in it.

     Now would be a wonderful time to go into great detail about how awesome the Fall finale was for the show, but I don't want to ruin anything for anybody who may be watching or may be interested in watching the show. So... I think I'll just leave you all to go look into it with the recommendation that you should all watch this series as it seems to have been accepted as the number 1 show at this time and I can personally say that it's the best show I've watched in a while. For anybody who used to watch House, this show was made by the same creators... so you can imagine this one is pretty awesome as well.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== What's The Date Today? ===

     Carley and I went on a date today for the first time in a while. Today I remembered that it's really easy to forget to spend proper time together outside of the house. We tend to get into habits where we watch TV and play games and do the same old things over and over again. Now that's not a bad thing to be happy with what we have and what we do.

     Sometimes we get so busy with me working, Carley taking care of Isabelle, and then trying to spend the rest of our time with friends, that we run out of time to spend doing special things together. So today we finally got a chance to go to a movie together and we had a wonderful time. It was really nice to be able to do something for once rather than just sitting around (though I do really enjoy the regular things we do as well).

     Having dates together is something so easy at first when you start dating somebody. It's so simple to make anything into a date when you don't live together. You actually have to try to plan things out and spend time with each other at someone's house or outside somewhere. A little tip for everybody out there who may be in a relationship or thinking about getting into one: it's way too easy to forget how to spend that special time together once you live together. As simple as it might seem to hang out together in the same room, that's not always good enough. Sometimes you have to go out of your way to do something special for your partner; make breakfast in bed for them, get some flowers, or maybe write a poem.

     So here we are having a great time together after going out to our movie this evening. We decided to finish playing The Walking Dead: The New Frontier tonight so that we can move on to different games. What a wonderful series; but that's of course for another time when I'm reviewing another game.

Have a wonderful night everybody, and don't forget to show your loved ones how much you care.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== When Is A Person Not A Person? ===

     Okay, so this strange thing has come up at work recently which has me wondering... when is a person not a person? The nice thing is that I can talk about this because I'm not revealing any personal information about anybody specific; however, this IS something which has come up a few times recently when dealing with both people who are currently living in our community and with people who are applying to live in our community.

     We can only allow 2 people per bedroom living in a suite. The only time this is different is when it is a 1 bedroom in which case there can be 2 adults and 1 child under 10. In every other case, it is two people per bedroom. This seems simple enough, right? Well... when people come in to ask if we have any places available for rent, we have to ask how many people will be living there. Most of the time this is a normal interaction where they tell us there's two or four people or however many. Sometimes people come in and ask if we have a 2 bedroom and we won't have one, so they'll ask about 1 bedrooms... then you ask how many people would be living there and they say "Two."

     I'm going to stop there for a moment and note that this would be a perfectly normal answer. Two people in a 2 bedroom apartment. But then they continue on to say "There would be two people living there, and we have two kids." Well alright then, let me ju--wait, what? HOW many PEOPLE? "Two."

     The sad thing is that I have actually had to argue and explain to people that children are PEOPLE too. They do count as people. Living human beings. PEOPLE. Like... what could possibly make a child not a person? In what way could you possibly argue that your child does not exist, or count as a living occupant under your roof? I just don't understand; this is a real mindset that some people come to us with and it will forever boggle my mind until someone comes up with an answer for me.

Until then, all of you PEOPLE should go out there and have a wonderful day! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Rollin' rollin' rollin' ===

     So recently Isabelle has decided that she understands how to roll from her back to her front and from her front to her back. Lately she's been rollin' rollin' rollin' all the time back and forth. It's kind of adorable that she just does it whenever she pleases, but at the same time it can be a little bit dangerous and occasionally mind boggling when she decides she's too lazy to roll back and then cries about it.

     We used to leave her on the couch at times to hang out in comfort rather than being on the floor, but now we can't really leave her anywhere with some height to it because she might roll right off and hurt herself. This isn't too much of a problem, we just have to be careful to remember to put her somewhere safe before leaving her for a moment to do something else. I can't imagine how awful I would feel if she fell off of anything because I forgot to put her down.

     Then there are times when she wants to roll over a bunch but she's too tired to keep going. Sometimes she will roll from her back to her front then she'll get frustrated that she can't make it back over again. She'll start to cry like a banshee in pain so we'll go help her out and flip her over only to have her do it again and again. Sometimes I absolutely don't understand what could possibly be going through her head. Unless she somehow understands that it gets her the attention that she's looking for.

     I actually watched her one morning after putting her on the bed with Carley roll over onto her tummy... then Carley turned her back and she rolled right over again... so Carley turned her back and she kept doing it again and again until Carley adjusted and picked her up. I'm pretty sure it won't be long now until she starts figuring out how to move and then it'll be all sorts of fun having her wander around the house.

Good luck to us. ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

My Amazing Girl

     There's an amazing girl in my life that I don't talk about enough. I don't have a large group of friends to talk to all the time, so not many people ever REALLY hear about Carley and how she's doing. Currently, we're doing awesome... or so I think. Carley is pretty tired lately, but we're getting quite close to the baby being born. I don't know how she does it really, she keeps on going and cleaning and taking care of the dog and now she has a cute little fish to care for as well. Soon we'll have a baby and thank goodness we're getting help from my mom and her aunt and more people or I don't know how we would handle it.

     Carley is so wonderful. She can be pretty intense sometimes, but how can I not love her? I know she'll never have a problem saying something when anything is bothering her and I certainly know she can defend herself if necessary; no matter whether that's physically or mentally. She is so strong, I can only do my best to support her as much as I can. I don't know anybody else who keeps as clean of a house as my Carley does. Seriously, I actually wouldn't be surprised if she somehow managed to keep everything clean even with the fish, the dog, and the baby in the house while I'm gone and she's on her own at home.

     For those of you who would like to know something interesting about Carley, she's starting to make her own bath bombs. If you're interested in buying some, she's selling them for:

 -- $2 for a small one, or 3 for $5.

-- $3 for a big one, or 2 for $5.

If you're interested, here's a link to her facebook where you can message her for more info:
  Carley's Bath Bombs

You're all wonderful as always! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Using Work Skills At Home

     This isn't really something I've thought about greatly previously, but I think I may have had a wonderful brainwave. At work, we have a daily task list. I'm sure it seems simple enough, but it's a really good reminder of what we have to do each day. And of course, we have the option of adding new tasks to future days if anything comes up that isn't normally on the list. I'm beginning to think more and more that this is something I should implement around the house somewhere. I think the easiest way for me to do so would be to use my whiteboard for such a thing.

     In the past I have tried a few different things with varying amounts of success. I've tried to just remember everything in my head... which works alright, unless you get distracted by something or are tired or anything to that effect.

     I've also tried using programs on my computer like a notepad or something; this works alright as long as you remember to open and update it every time something changes. This should be simple enough, but I've notice that if it isn't visible, it can be quite difficult to remember to update continuously.

     I've also used Google Calendar; this actually works really well also if you remember to update it all the time. This COULD be what I will start getting myself into a habit of doing along with updating my whiteboard. I think both options together would be a good habit to get into.

     Anywhos, I just wanted to talk a little bit about something we do at work that I think would be a good tool to implement at home to help keep everything under control and organized going into the future. We'll see where it goes from here. I'll keep you all updated.

     Have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ 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

I just feel like writing

     I've actually been in quite a creative mood lately. Not creative so much that I've wanted to make arts and crafts... only crafting words into coherent sentences and short-stories. But I really like writing. I mean, that's why I update this blog whenever I feel like it... so that I can share my words with everybody else.

     I'm still fighting with myself most days just to get out of bed. I still haven't gotten through the vast majority of projects I have to do for school, but as long as I can try just a little bit every day, that's all that matters. And I can only hope that the people who care are able to see what I've done; even if it hasn't been a lot.

     Today I managed to get myself out of the house to go for a little bit of groceries. So that's my accomplishment for today. It's not much, but at least I can say that I had the energy and will to get myself out of the house and take care of myself.

     I really wish I had more to tell you guys about today, but that's basically it. Perhaps I'll put up some of my stories on my blog some of these days.

~ Kyle

Moving To A New Home

   So my Carley and I have decided to make the leap together into having a place of our own in Moose Jaw. We figured it would be nicer for me to live close to school, her to live somewhere that they're actually offering her jobs, and for us both to live together to avoid the driving back and forth from each other's houses.

   Now last time I was living here was also for school, but it was on my own. And I certainly don't remember it being so difficult and tiring. We rented a large Uhaul truck to carry all of our stuff together... and maybe that's why I remember it being easier. I'm pretty sure last time I only had enough stuff to pack up my old car, maybe a little bit more. This time, we had a whole 20 foot truck to load and unload... lots of heavy things.

   I had plans to do so much more today, but I was actually exhausted and didn't get it all done.  I had to take a nap today instead of going in to Regina for my dentist appointment. Carley is pretty tired from working full time the past few days, she's not used to it after not doing so for quite some time. So while she's sleeping, I'm working on unpacking some boxes and moving other ones to the rooms they're supposed to be in to make it easier to work through. It sure is dark in the living room without a light on... just gotta move a few more things until I get to the lamp...

~ Kyle