Our Winnipeg Adventure, 2019 - Part 1 -- Driving

Hello everybody, welcome back!

So it has definitely been a little bit since I've last made a personal post about my life, but here we go with our Winnipeg Adventure. Now this adventure, while it was definitely important and a fun time, I did not feel like it was of so much importance that I need to go on for 10 or 15 posts about it like I am still working on doing with our 2018 Honeymoon Adventure. I still want to tell you all about what we did and what it's like out there compared to living here in Saskatchewan, but the occasion connected to the trip was of less importance than us getting married; we really just wanted to go on a family trip.

Some people may think the drive to a location is the most boring part, but I feel like the drive to and from places is part of the fun. I mean, it's about a five-hour drive to get there or back in one direction. So you definitely either need to find a way to make the drive itself into a fun activity or to enjoy the scenery along the way. Whenever we go on a long drive such as this Carley likes to have herself a nap, or watch movies downloaded onto her tablet, or listen to music or some combination of the above. I on the other hand... I'm usually the one who gets to drive most if not all of the way. Now before you complain about me getting the short end of the stick, having to drive so much while she has so much fun... at no point do I actually ask her to take over driving if I'm doing well and feeling good. Surprisingly, I actually enjoy doing most of the driving. Besides, while Carley is a fantastic driver, she doesn't like to drive in unfamiliar places... especially when those unfamiliar places generally tend to be busier than our lovely hometown of Moose Jaw.

I don't know what the traffic is like for all of you readers out there where you live, but where we live in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan the traffic is just not that busy. Really, the worst part about driving in our hometown is the parked cars on the street that make it difficult to see through. Other than that, you can get anywhere in the city you want by car in about 5 minutes... maybe 10 minutes on a slow day if you hit every single red light. I mean heck, you can pretty much walk / run from one end of Moose Jaw to the other in half an hour if you're determined. So let me tell you, driving around a larger place such as Winnipeg, Manitoba is quite a bit more stressful than driving at home. I find it absolutely crazy that driving from one place to another can take you up to an hour depending on where you're going and what the traffic is like; and all of that driving is done within the city. Thankfully we live in a world of GPS rather than paper maps so it is a lot easier to find our way around places than it would have been even just 10 years ago... With all the twists and turns and u-turns included in the GPS directions just to get from our pretty central apartment location to say... The Forks Market... I can't imagine trying to figure that out by paper.

Being around Winnipeg was strangely familiar in design and layout to other places we've been and other places we have lived such as Moose Jaw and Regina. A big difference between the small town living that we are used to compared to the larger places that we go to visit is that the parking everywhere there is paid parking for like a 2 hour time limit on it. Of course it could just be because we were basically situated downtown, or maybe it's just a thing that larger places have more paid street parking. Either way, we did learn the hard way that the street we decided to park on when we first arrived did not actually have unlimited parking after I think it was about 9 p.m.? As it turns out there was a little period of time between 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. if I remember correctly where there was no street parking allowed at all in that area because of rush hour traffic. Of course, we would have known that... if the location that we had parked had actually shown that on the sign; unfortunately the sign that we parked in front of was the only sign that did not show the time period where you could not park there. Luckily we had taken Isabelle's car seat into the apartment with us that night for the purpose of washing it out as best as we could because she spent the whole 5-hour drive there puking almost constantly because it was her first time having her car seat facing forward; it did not occur to us at all that she might get carsick on the way there. Turns out this was quite lucky because as we walked towards the location where the car should have been that morning... It wasn't there. So lucky us, on our first day there in the unfamiliar place of Winnipeg Manitoba we lost our car to a towing company because we parked in the wrong spot between 7 and 9 am; hooray for unexpected towing expenses!

Thankfully after a couple days we managed to find some nearby residential parking that did not have a time limit or needed to be paid for; it only required a short walk to and from the apartment we were staying at.

So there you go, and that is all there is to know about the fun we had when it came to driving around the city of Winnipeg. Join me next time for some information on the fun that we had with the events we were able to take part in while we were there.

~ Kyle Welykholowa


Back to Winnipeg Adventure

The Honeymoon Adventure - Day One

Let us begin our new journey with a telling of our honeymoon adventure.

After driving home the night of the wedding and sleeping in our own comfy bed for one final time before going away on our trip, we got up nice and early and finished packing so we could head on our way to the wondrous land of Calgary, Alberta. So began our drive away from our home in a direction we had never travelled before, what a fantastic time this wou--wait... forgot my wallet... Okay! And off we go again!

So we ended up leaving a little bit later than we had previously planned because we chose to be lazy and not finish packing until the day of the trip... and I forgot my wallet which was needed for ID and whatnot SO WE COULD ACTUALLY CHECK INTO THE HOTEL. It wasn't such a big deal, we still made it with plenty of time to spare before the end of the day and I really enjoyed seeing all the new sights I hadn't seen before on the drive. Carley was wonderful and drove up until Medicine Hat where we picked up a little bit of groceries to eat at the hotel; I drove the rest of the way.

I didn't realize it at the time, but driving through Medicine Hat on the way to Calgary is actually driving through three different little cities that are right next to one another, how cool is that? I can't even begin to describe the sights on the way. Around here I'm used to seeing fields upon fields of farming space and not much else. Once we got into Alberta though... it became fields upon fields of grazing land for HUGE flocks of cows. Also there were lots of trees and hills and... ugh... my words just don't do this justice.

If I could take good pictures and drive at the same time, that would be super helpful in this instance, BUT that's illegal and dangerous... and the pictures wouldn't turn out great anyways. So I guess you'll just have to take my word for it that the sights are much different than around Saskatchewan and if you get the chance, you should totally go on a trip to see for yourself. I should also mention how awesome the Alberta highways are compared to ours; the roads seem to be in better condition than in Saskatchewan and every few kilometers there are spots to pull over and dump your garbage, recycling, and sometimes even compost in bins on the side of the road with actual road space to pull over safely... kind of like when race car drivers go off the track into the little sidelane thinger to get their tires changed and whatnot.

The drive wasn't the only amazing thing though; as awed as I was by Medicine Hat with the two cities on either side which were all connected... the size of Calgary compared to the cities here is insane. Once we hit Calgary, it was still another half hour drive for like 25 km THROUGH THE CITY! Let me tell you, Carley didn't drive anywhere the entire time we were there because the amount of traffic and the size of the city was a little bit scary compared to what we're used to around here. I didn't mind the driving though because it was always an adventure to every place we went during our trip... but those are more stories for next time.

Stay tuned for more stories of our honeymoon adventure! ^_^


~ Kyle Welykholowa

Back to Honeymoon Adventure

Would You Like A Teddy Bear? =25=

I never imagined I would ever be asked the question "Would you like a teddy bear?" while walking down the street.

We had just dropped off the car at Kal Tire so they could check if there was anything wrong with one of the tires which I found was quite low on pressure. On the way back home Carley decided she wanted some Taco Time, so we made a detour to make our way past the restaurant for some lunch. As it turns out, the Moose Jaw Fire Department was just finishing up their lunch at Taco Time as we were coming down the street.

I thought it was pretty cool to see the firemen out and about. They drove towards us after getting into the firetruck and really surprised us when one of them came hanging out the passenger side and offered us a stuffed moose while asking "Would you like a teddy bear?" This totally made our day and now Isabelle owns a stuffed moose!

I've heard of awesome things happening to people on the street all the time, but I think this is the first time anything like this has happened to me. I'm so grateful for that happening and feel amazing that even though it was so hot and felt kinda lame to be walking so much in the heat, we were in the right place at the right time.

If you ever get the chance, you should do things like this to other people. It'll make you feel great! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Food Review - Burger Cabin - Burgers - 7/10 ===

Recently while out for a hike we stopped at the Burger Cabin in Wakamow Valley in the southeast area of Moose Jaw. There are always places which are talked about throughout cities and this was one of them which we hadn't been to yet; perhaps that means we don't get out enough to explore the very city we live in. No matter the reason, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food made at this location.

I'm always a fan of onion rings anywhere I go even though Carley hates anything to do with onions and would rather not be anywhere near me after they've been eaten... so I got some onion rings to see how they rate compared to other places. They're great!

I also got myself chicken strips because I'm not really all that much of a fan of burgers (though I will eat them if there aren't any other good options). I was quite pleased with the chicken strips and honestly if they didn't make very good chicken strips, I would be concerned about the quality of the rest of the food. Carley got herself a burger which she was quite pleased with and I'm sure she would happily get another one if we went back.

The only thing that went wrong with the meal was that I asked for a large drink and only got half of one which was also somewhat flat. The good news is that me only having half of a drink was no fault of their own, but rather was because a sneaky Carley drank half of my drink on the way to the picnic table. The flat drink was obviously because their Co2 was running out and I don't blame them for that either, it happens every once in a while.

The location of the shop is what really makes this a special place for me. It's not down town or even in a residential area really. It's more of a destination place for the purpose of eating outside and enjoying fresh air at the same time because you're having a lovely meal in the park right by all the trees and water and everything else that's nice in the area.

So all in all, I would say this was a good place to go. The food isn't super special, but the location is great, which for me earns it 7/10. If you're looking for a nice place to eat in Moose Jaw, check this one out and let me know what you think.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Sidewalk Days 2018 =18=

Sidewalk Days is finally here! This is an event in Moose Jaw that's a little bit like a giant farmer's market for a few days. A large section of Main Street gets closed off and a bunch of companies and product sellers from within and from outside of Moose Jaw all set up tents and show off their stuff. You can get quite a few free things and can enter free draws and things just from walking up and down the street. It's a fantastic way to get some free entertainment and a lot of exercise from doing so much walking.

It was at Sidewalk Days two years ago that I got a couple turtle necklaces for Carley to wear and only a couple weeks ago that the first one finally broke. We also got her first purse at that same Sidewalk Days which unfortunately didn't last as long due to the zipper breaking and then the dog chewing on it. That was our first experience with the event and now we totally love going to it. I'd even take the dogs with us, but this year it's so very hot out and we still haven't mastered having two dogs and a baby on a single walk, so perhaps we'll give that a try next year.

So far this year we've gotten two balloons (one came off the string and floated away), some cool hot pack things which are normally quite expensive but we got for something silly like 75% off, we've entered a few free draws, bought tickets for a 50/50 draw, got information for a new place which does a doggie daycare during the day and grooming as well. It's been pretty fantastic and we still have to go back to see a couple more booths later today including one which is filled with tons of lego characters made to represent many different celebrities, mascots, and characters.

If you've never been to this event, you should make plans to come to Moose Jaw next year around this time. You can find some pretty cool things going on with some cool stuff to buy or you can just walk up and down the street and learn about the stuff going on around the city.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Food Review - Aurora Sushi - Asian Cuisine - 8/10 ===

Just the other day we had a lovely dinner and a movie for a date day where we decided to go to Aurora Sushi in Moose Jaw. I'm a huge fan of Asian food and definitely don't mind doing the buffet thing, especially when I haven't had much to eat earlier in the day. If you've ever been to an I Like Sushi, this place is pretty much exactly that... without the cool iPads... and I think it costs a little more.

I'm not a fan of sushi, so that part of the place doesn't really appeal to me, but the buffet here is very good. The selection of things to choose from isn't as big as I Like Sushi, but the quality of the food is good and there are enough options that you should be able to find something to keep you happy. If you are a person who likes sushi, they do offer a selection of sushi you can order with your mean which doesn't cost anything extra unless you order extra things and don't eat it.

For the cost of about $25 per person for an endless buffet, bottomless drinks (which they refill OFTEN by the way), and a selection of sushi, I do think this is a pretty good place to eat. You aren't getting to take home any leftovers unfortunately due to it being a buffet, so you do have to go when you're hungry to make it feel like you've made good use of your money.

I'm scoring this place as a 8/10 because the food is very good and they're super diligent about refilling your fountain drinks compared to other restaurants where they tend to forget about you. If you're not going for sushi then there are other options for an Asian buffet which cost a little bit less than Aurora Sushi though the cost may be made up just by the refilling of the drinks. I would definitely highly recommend this place for a dining experience, especially for anybody who likes eating sushi.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Jaw Surgery Adventure - The Aftermath =8=

We entered an empty hospital bright and early in the morning and mentally prepared ourselves for the upcoming surgery. Carley did pretty well coming up to the surgery and didn't seem all to agitated even while we were in the waiting room right beforehand outside the surgery area. We were given a patient number so that I could wait in the waiting room and see what point she was at in her surgery. I didn't pay too much attention to it as I figured everything would go well and didn't have anywhere to go anyways. As it turns out, the chairs in the waiting room are wonderfully comfy... so much so that I was able to fall asleep and have a good nap while I was waiting for the procedure to be completed.

The doctor / surgeon woke me up once the operation was complete and I promptly made my way to the post-surgery observation unit. Carley was wheeled in and given a place and set up for her stay for the night. My first impression of seeing Carley was one of "Oh my goodness, what have they done to her?" She had a couple ice packs tied around her head so there was one on each side of her jaw and there were elastics keeping her jaw shut so she couldn't move her mouth.

At this point, the nurses then came in and started going through everything she would need to know including how to feed herself with her syringe, how to use the mouthwash every morning and night, and how to press the button to get some morphine into her system if she were ever in pain at all. The recovery in the observation ward wasn't too interesting other than a lot of sleeping and water drinking and whatnot. There was a point where the morphine ran out and was replaced with another container of morphine... but Carley thought it was replaced with Tylenol, so she proceeded to use quite a bit of it. This led to the nurses and doctor being unsure whether or not she should be leaving the following day as they weren't sure if she would be able to handle the pain after the large amount of morphine she took throughout the night.

We did manage to get ourselves home the following day after surgery. The following days included a lot of switching ice packs around the freezer and managing all of Carley's medication for pain and antibiotics. The only real bump in the road we hit was that the hospital seemed to get Naproxen and Dilauded mixed up and told us everything was available in Moose Jaw except Dilauded. So we got to Moose Jaw and found that they didn't have Naproxen which was a bit of an issue because Carley's face and neck at this point was slowly expanding into a balloon and she was having issues breathing because of this. We got through the first night using Children's Advil and got some Naproxen from a different drug store the next morning.

What has been the hardest part about this process so far? I would say... the pain has been manageable for her, so that wouldn't be the hardest. Probably the really most difficult thing has been the food... or lack of. As it turns out, Carley isn't terribly interested in only having liquids every day and it really is pretty hard to make liquids interesting to eat. As a result, Carley has lost quite a bit of weight in the past two weeks... around 20 lbs I believe.

Well, tomorrow is now the big day when the elastics SHOULD be removed and she can start eating soft foods once again. Wish us luck and find out soon what's on the menu and how the recovery is going. ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Jaw Surgery Adventure - The Day Before =5=

With nerves at an all time high, off we went to Saskatoon one day before surgery day. I enjoy the drive of a road trip, but Carley decided she was in the mood to drive us there; I have no complaints about her wanting to drive places so that I don't have to drive all the time.

Carley driving gave me the perfect opportunity to search for a place where we could stay for the night. Honestly I just looked for something less expensive that wasn't a bed and breakfast or some kind of weird shared kitchen and washroom sort of thing. As it turns out, I picked the perfect place right across the street from the Cheesetoast Restaurant. Carley wasn't allowed to have anything fatty to eat the day before her surgery so we figured why not have some cheese toast along with whatever else we decided to order? She didn't even eat the cheese toast that came with her meal... But it was very tasty for me.

After food we found there was a Ruckers only a couple blocks down the street from the motel we stayed at. We definitely spent a couple hours there and probably could have spent a few hours more if we had more money to burn; some of those games are pretty fun and addicting. Let me just tell you, there's a Crossy Road game at the Ruckers there which is basically a slightly dumbed down version of the Crossy Road mobile game which is SUPER fun and I would have gladly spent the entire time there playing that if I had my own tokens... but I let Carley have most of the tokens to play the games she wanted to play. I now have Crossy Road on my phone to play in my spare time thanks to that experience.

I think we successfully distracted Carley from the coming Surgery and kept her spirits quite high that day before heading to the hospital. We finished the night off with some cake we took home from the Cheesetoast Restaurant and watch The Shawshak Redemption from start to finish because it was conveniently starting right as we got back to the motel and I had never seen it before. Then it was off to dreamy sleepy land for the rest of the night.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Jaw Surgery Adventure - The Beginning =2=

     We have been through quite a crazy jaw surgery adventure in the past few weeks. I don't know yet whether it has been all worth it to go through, but I think once all the healing is compete that Carley will be much happier with the events than she currently is right now.

     The couple weeks leading up to the surgery turned into stress-city around here. I had no idea Carley would get so worked up about something she had been looking forward to for such a long time. She had previously told me about how huge of an effect this would have on her and how she would have a much better self-image. I'm all for supporting her through something that would make her feel better about herself; she fought for this and wrote countless letters to get this whole process started years ago before she even met me. The worst part about the experience for me has been how stressed she started to get leading up to the surgery.

     We reached a point where pretty much everything set Carley off and either started a fight, or she would yelling at me because tasks weren't being done right away or not going her way immediately without questions. I absolutely understood her being in such a stressed position; she was about to go through a very intense process including pain and weight-loss. I think anybody would be stressed knowing they would have to be going through that in such a short time.

     As much as I wanted to explode sometimes, I did my best to keep clam and be as supportive as I could be. We got through the bad feelings by indulging on things that she wouldn't be able to have for a while after the surgery, like pizza, steak, and other fast foods. There are people out there who think stress is nothing and can be pushed aside no problem. Unfortunately that's not the way it is for everybody and that does include my dear sweet Carley. It's really hard sometimes to handle the levels of stress that pour out of this beautiful lady, but I just remember what she is willing to do for me and I put myself next to her to support her and lift her up. We can get through anything together.

~ 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's Wrong With People? ===

     The first thing that comes to mind right now is simply... what's wrong with people? I hardly know how to start telling you all about this other than to simply hang my jaw open in disbelief at the sorts of things that go on in the world. Now don't get me wrong, I love it here in Moose Jaw; there are just some things that are a little bit odd happening of late. Let's just get right into story-time shall we?

     This past week, we've had a couple odd things go on while I've been gone to work. It seems like this first started when my parents were over and Carley saw a man walking down our back alley. Naturally, she didn't think much of it; there's no reason to give much thought to a person walking by. The real oddness starts a couple days later when someone walks by unlocking the back gates of every house in the area. What makes sense for someone to ever do that? As strange as that was, we didn't think too much of it other than to realize that we should put a lock on our back gate just in case something like that were to ever happen again. It certainly wouldn't be fun to have Furgle run away especially since we lost his tag and need to get him a new one.

     Do you think that's strange? You'll never guess what happened the very next day. Someone walks by (whom Carley thinks is the same guy all three of these days), reaches over the fence, and gives something to Furgle. Carley didn't think much of what it could have been at the time, but was pretty pissed about someone doing something like that. Now, when we have company over and Furgle is being too crazy, we put him downstairs in the office to chill out for a while. Usually he voices his opinion on how he would rather be with us by howling like a banshee in the basement being chased by a cop car, but on this night he sounded like he was going mental. Almost like he was throwing himself at the door.

     It wasn't until later on that night after company had gone home that we let Furgle out and Carley noticed his heart was pounding and he was pacing so badly that he just couldn't lay down for longer than a minute. At this point, Carley thought about it and asked what the symptoms of a dog eating chocolate are. I didn't know, so we looked it up and realized what the man gave him earlier Carley believes was about a cup of chocolate in total. I'm so flabbergasted that someone would do that I'm unable to process what even could go through the mind of someone to want to do that. The good news is that Furgle is fine now and he isn't having any issues of any sort. He just needed a little bit of time and rest to get back to normal.

At this point, all I can say is... what's wrong with people?

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== When Are The Ducks Coming? ===

     I know it's a little bit early to look forward to the ducks coming back, but I think we're looking forward to spending our second spring and summer in Moose jaw. One of our favourite things to do in the nice weather is feed the ducks all of our large supply of bread. The beautiful place in Moose Jaw known as Crescent Park is a lovely place with a man-made waterfall contraption which takes the water from the bottom of the park and pushes it out a waterfall at the top. Along this sort of man-made river quite a bit of wildlife has actually made their homes here including ducks, groundhogs, and even a beaver.

     As much of a homebody I tend to be, I do enjoy getting out for adventures and things sometimes. It'll be a little bit more difficult now with our baby in tow, but I'm sure we'll still manage anyways. I still have plans for us to get out and go on some hikes and things and get some nice fresh outside in our lungs. I know it's quite surprising for a person such as myself (who would generally much prefer to sit in a dark hole and play games rather than go on a road trip) to enjoy going outside on adventures. Who knows, maybe I'll let Carley take me camping one day?

     In the mean time, I think we'll just make more trips to the park and enjoy ourselves in the beautiful weather and throw pieces of bread at the birds. Now that I think about it though, we should make some more trips over to the dog park. Moose Jaw has a dog park split into a small dog side and a large dog side. We've driven by there before, but we haven't yet had a chance to go there on a nice day when there are other people there. I think it would be really good for Furgle to get some doggie socialization time.

     Now that I really think about it, it would be a great idea to get some active time in somehow. I haven't had much time to do anything besides work and be at home with the baby. I just found out that I'll be able to use an active reimbursement thinger from work to get a bicycle, so I'm thinking I'll do that next month if possible and then I'll bike around Moose Jaw whenever possible. I'm also thinking I need to get the DDR things hooked up for something a little more active I can do at home as well. Hmm... something to think about.

Bye everyone! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Almost Two Weeks Already.

     It's hard to believe it has already been nearly two weeks since the birth of our daughter. Personally I'm not a fan of all the crying and loud noises, but so far it hasn't been TOO bad. I think Carley and I are starting to get a sort of rhythm going. Surely there will be much more challenges to come, but at the moment, I think we're doing pretty well.

     Both of us have been on and off tired at different times and let me tell you... when you have a baby, there isn't much time to have everything planned out like you may have used to do. I like to plan things out and get things done at certain times, so on, and so forth. Now... I try to get everything I'm hoping to done during the quiet times that I have until the next time I hear that familiar crying sort of whining thing. It's not all cries and awful noises though, she's really not all that bad. I'm absolutely looking forward to days when she's more communicative and talkable and things.

     The best news is that Furgle is amazing with her. He likes to sniff her a lot and get his nose right up in her face, but he doesn't lick her too much or try to bite at her and things. He still likes to hang around with us and normally isn't too much of a pain. Carley takes him out for a walk almost every day because she's trying to get back into shape and healthy before having her jaw surgery and then doing this process all over again. Furgle is definitely still our baby and will continue to be as long as we have him.

     I'm glad it seems like we've figured out something that works for all of us before my finals for this semester and the start of next semester. With work, school, and our daughter, it's certainly a lot of work to handle each and every day, but it's all working towards getting what we need for our family. Soon enough I'll be able to start applying for a better-paying job so we won't have to live so tightly when it comes to spending.

We'll get there for sure, it's only a waiting game now. Have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Incoming Baby!

     You really don't realize how unprepared you are for an incoming baby to pop into your life until you end up in the hospital twice either thinking you're going into labour or thinking you may have to be induced if you've managed to hurt yourself. Let me just say, first of all... it's just not fun to sit in the hospital for four hours. Luckily, our lovely hospital in Moose Jaw gets us in and looked at nice and quickly and they have touch-screen TV things that make the stay so much nicer than every other trip we've ever made to the hospital in Regina.

     Recently we've been into the hospital twice for two different reasons. The first time, Carley lost her mucous plug and started having a constant pain and consistent tightenings which made everything seem pretty real. We got a hospital bag and a snack bag packed and went off to the hospital. Turns out the baby just turned or dropped in a funny way which caused all the pain, but that along with the loss of the mucous plug certainly seemed like a reason to think it could have been going on. That... and we have no idea how much pain or what the feeling SHOULD be like once Carley ACTUALLY goes into labour.

     Our second trip to the hospital was because Carley fell down the stairs. I know! That's crazy, right? Don't worry, she's alright. At the time we were quite worried about the baby because Carley hadn't felt much movement if any since the fall and she normally feels lots of movement pretty often. She was also a little bit dehydrated because she wasn't feeling well and couldn't keep anything down throughout the day; not even water. This was concerning to us because she was leaking clear fluids after the fall which we thought could have been a ruptured bag of waters. The doctor came to take a look and found everything is well, so we stayed for another hour and a half which totalled four hours of sitting in the hospital to make sure everything was alright.

     Now I find myself thinking we need to prepare just a little bit more for the baby to get here. We have to install the car seat and get things a little bit more cleaned up; we have plans to move the furniture around in our living room and steam clean everything in the next couple days. I'm also finding that I need to get myself into more of a routine of doing things such as eating in the morning considering it'll be up to me to feel the baby in the mornings. Carley seems to like staying up later and honestly I prefer to be up late as well, but I may have to start going to be early and letting her stay up after me if I can ever get her to let me go to bed without her attached to me. I'm sure like most first-time parents we're going to be just as unprepared and clueless as everybody else and that's alright; it won't make us bad parents. I'm sure there will be times when we're just not sure what to do, or exhausted beyond belief and wanting to break down and cry, but we'll make it through. We're both stubborn people so I'm sure neither of us will let something beat us just because we're tired.

Wish us luck! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

If I Can't Stream, I'll Post To YouTube

     Hey everybody! So I've really been wanting to stream lately in some of my spare time, but it's just not something that I'm able to do. Apparently with our internet and cable both on the same line, it's just not possible to get a faster connection. They've offered to put in a second line, but considering we're going to be moving in the near future, I don't think that really makes much sense. The new fiber stuff that makes InfiNet possible with SaskTel is pretty much completely done in Moose Jaw... except for the area that we currently live in.

     So, failing that, I've been recording some videos in my spare time to post to YouTube so that I still have some sort of way to share my entertainment value with the rest of the world. If you're looking for something to listen to, or watch, or whatever, consider checking out my channel on YouTube. I'm currently posting some gaming videos, but hopefully soon I'll be able to post another song. I also have plans to read a book or two and see if people are interested in that.

     I've made a page on my blog with links to the Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne parts that I've posted so far. You can check it out at  http://intronerdedliving.blogspot.ca/p/age-of-wonders-ii_5.html. Please let me know what you think of my videos!

     Have a great day everybody! You're all awesome! ^_^

~ Kyle

Montreal Pitbulls

     So I've been hearing a lot about this lately and to be honest, it really makes me a little bit angry. I absolutely love dogs. I think they're one of the best creatures in the world and I would happily have my own pack of them if I could. Hearing about this sort of thing going on really saddens me that so many people in the world really don't understand the nature of dogs.

     I've heard it said that Pitbulls are so much more aggressive and dangerous than other dogs. I would have to agree that Pitbulls can be dangerous. They were bred for certain traits such as having large and powerful jaws. Yes, this makes them very dangerous if one were to attack you, but no, this does not make them more aggressive than other dogs. A dog is not born wanting to attack and kill humans. A dog is born being able to be trained to reinforce good behaviours and to not do unwanted bahaviours. What makes a dog dangerous and unstable so that it would attack a person is being in an unhealthy environment, whether that means being abused, or just having an owner who has absolutely no idea what they're doing.

     Speaking of having no idea what they're doing... there are so many people who think a pitbull is easily identifiable just by the shape of it's head or body. This is so incredibly untrue.

Can you tell which one of these fifteen dogs is the pitbull? I'm sure some of you can, but not everybody knows exactly what to look for. And there are some cases where a dog is in fact a pitbull, but won't look like what you'd expect. Visual identification is not recommended by the scholarly community, so why people decide they should do it anyways is beyond me.

     I'm really not sure where to go with this besides the fact that this topic really upsets me. People who don't understand how dogs work are making laws about them when the scientific facts staring them in the fact tell them they're wrong. Yet they make these terrible decisions anyways. It seems like there's a lot of questionable things going on in the world right now, and I almost feel like the majority of them are being done just because people want something to fight about.

     Anybody who's reading this, please PLEASE educate yourself on how dogs work and why labeling a dog based on how they look is a poor choice. It's basically equivalent to labeling a person based on their skin colour or how tall they are. I currently have some experience working at a kennel where I've personally seen some of our best behaved dogs are in fact pitbulls. The worst dogs we have? Usually unfixed males are most aggressive, especially when near other unfixed males. The next worst dogs are ones who are clearly not trained well; ones who don't know their own names. In fact, I've been bitten at work by one one dog so far... by an itty bitty little shih tzu.

     Have a wonderful day everybody.

~ Kyle