Camping On The Beach At Lake Diefenbaker

A little over a week ago now we camped on the beach at Lake Diefenbaker with the dogs for the second time this year. This time we stayed for a little longer than one night; this time it was four days and three nights of lovely beach weather. What a dream it was out there... I can never get tired of spewing about how amazing it is to go outside in nature where there's next to no technology and nearly no people nearby at all.

During the last time we went camping we had borrowed a tent from my parents and during that time the zipper split and there was nothing we were able to do about it. So we decided to purchase our own tent online. This is the tent which arrived which was exactly what we were hoping for. We then proceeded to spray the tent with Camp Dry spray which is to help keep everything waterproof.

We started by parking a little bit closer to our little camp than last time which was up on a hill where we were able to take things down the hill and set up on the beach which was pretty pretty much out of sight from anywhere other than the water. The water level was a little higher than last time which also contributed to where we parked the car this time. We were able to set up our new tent in about five or ten minutes and from there everything else was a matter of sorting and finding places for things to go. Autumn follow me up and down the hill for most of the journey until she finally got tired and couldn't keep up with me.

Never have I seen the dogs so incredibly tired as I did on that trip. They were constantly running around and wrestling and chasing each other and anything you could possibly imagine to run themselves completely out of energy and then they would be so tired that they would sleep in the middle of the beach. I was incredibly surprised to find that they both managed to willingly step into the water at least once each. In fact, we were both very proud of Autumn for showing Furgle how to get around when he was stuck because he didn't want to get into the water and couldn't figure out on his own where to go next without getting wet.

Day 1: After getting everything set up and taking a rest for a while to enjoy the peace, quiet, and to rest my weary feet. We went on a journey through the water around the beach much farther than we had ever gone before. We saw absolutely beautiful sights and even got a video and some pictures without falling into the water or dropping our phones and wrecking everything. It was really quite a sight; I'll share the pictures and videos, but it simply won't do it justice. We found ANOTHER beach with not a soul on it which we wanted to continue exploring, but with only one pair of water shoes, we weren't able to continue any further without risking the health of our delicate feet.

Day 2: I woke up to a wonderfully quiet morning with no wind at all. Never have I seen a more calm body of water outside. I could have stayed there and stared out at the water forever, but eventually I pulled myself away from the amazing sight.

We finally REALLY got into the water and "swam". I still wasn't brave enough to go fully under water including my head, but I did make it to my lower chest and even managed to bring Furgle in as well where I learned that he's not too bad of a swimmer if he were only able to keep up his back end. We figure he would have a much easier time swimming and might even enjoy swimming if we were to get him a doggie life jacket. Autumn on the other hand is a fantastic swimmer and once she went into the water on her own and figured it's not so bad in there, she was in and out of the water like crazy as long as we were there too.

Day 3: This was the day all about walking around the nearby town or whatever you would call it. I'm pretty sure there isn't any kind of convenience store in the area, so what exactly you'd call it I"m not too sure. As with everything else in the area... it's absolutely beautiful there. Would I consider living there? ABSOLUTELY! Though... considering there doesn't appear to be a store in the area.... I'm not so sure it would be possible to live there during the winter unless you had the capacity to store A LOT of frozen and canned foods. It was on this day that we found out there's a public washroom in the park... huh... that would have been good to know a little sooner.

Perhaps this would be a good time to mention that we had come by the idea to go for a super long walk around the village area because the dogs had run away. I swear, you turn around and look the other way for a minute, and suddenly your four-legged furry friends are long-gone. This wasn't exactly unexpected either; they normally wander away down the beach or jump up the hill and explore up top until we call them back and then they come running. This time however, they didn't come running back; they were completely out of sight. I don't know if they honestly went exploring over the hill and continued on until finally they ran into people on the far other side of the golf course you have to pass to get to the village from where we were.... or if they saw a bird and chased it until they lost it and then saw people. Thankfully people are awesome and friendly and Carley's number is on Autumn's collar so the people who caught her gave us a call and let us know where to find them. It was after all of this and we had gotten back to our camp that we figured... why not go for a walk around the place and see what it's like here?

So other than the dogs running away for a little while, the whole trip was very awesome and super rewarding. We managed to make multiple fires using firewood and nearby dry grass as kindling as well as some firestarters. We cooked steaks, chicken nuggets, tomato soup, and of course we found the time to roast marshmallows over the fire. Let me just say, marshmallows over a fire is one of the absolute best things ever; what made it even better than usual was the fact that we had picked up some jumbo marshmallows. Normal-sized ones get that nice crispy outside and totally melt on the inside, which is of course pretty awesome... but these ones had an even better thing about them which was a gooey center which wasn't quite totally melted. BEST. MARSHMALLOWS. EVER.

Now I find myself getting ready to head out for ANOTHER camping trip. On one hand, sure I'll probably find some way to have fun out there, and on the other hand, I just want to spend some nice time at home for a while without feeling like I'm always just trying to keep up with the next thing that's coming up. Please please please oh world of mine... could you slow down just a bit after the upcoming wedding?

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== I've been Slacking ===

     First thing's first, I have to apologize to everybody for slacking in the past month. I haven't really posted anything for nearly a month now. Ever since the holiday preparation started, I haven't been doing much of anything useful at all. With work being so busy since there's only four of us rather than five in the office, Isabelle starting to stand up on everything, and everything else going on these days... I just haven't taken the time to post anything recently.

     So, my first New Year's resolution this year is to start talking to more people and try to actually get to know some people whom I can spend some time with either playing games or going out for coffee with. As another sort of resolution thinger... I'm wanting to put more effort into the things I want to succeed at. There are many things I want to succeed at including my blog which is why I'm making this post. You can expect to see many more posts about random life, game reviews, and current events. I'm also hoping I might be able to start doing food or movie reviews or something else.

     Here's hoping for a great new year with much to talk about. I'm looking forward to having much success at many things this year. I'm hoping you'll all join me as well on this fantastic journey and share this with all your friends.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== My Extra Child - An Examination of Carley's Brain ===

     Now that's an interesting title, you must be saying to yourself. What could he possibly mean by that? Today I would like to tell you all about something very important to me. Three years ago when Carley picked me and I decided that she made me a happier person in my time of depression, I couldn't have imagined where it would bring me and what I would have to deal with to keep her in my life. Some people thought I was crazy, but I knew there was a reason why I would be drawn to her and feel a need to help her in her time of need.

     Today I find myself in a family with two adults, one dog, and two children. Those who know me would know at this point that Carley and I have only had one child together. Does that mean I've had another child with someone else previously? No it does not. See, Carley sort of accidentally brought a child of her own into our relationship. I realize this explanation isn't getting any better to understand at this point... it just sounds like one of us has an extra child, which is sort of true. See, Carley doesn't have an official diagnosis for multiple personalities, but I can confidently tell you that she absolutely has a complete additional personality.

     This personality came about when Carley was three years old and her name is Kylie. Currently through a process of having birthday whenever she has felt ready to grow, she identifies as being fifteen years old; though she will always have the characteristics of being three. So in essence, I have an extra child running around here sometimes whom I get to take care of. She's absolutely adorable and I love her in every way. It can be a little bit difficult when I'm exhausted and now I have to care for both Isabelle and Kylie at the same time, but for the most part it's really nothing at all. She started calling Carley and I mommy and daddy recently which is nice because we know she feels loved and cared for, which is something she requires to feel ready to grow as time goes on.

     How could I be so alright with this just... happening? Some may think I would have been alright with this because I was so madly in love with Carley at the time and we knew that she was pregnant, but that actually has nothing to do with it at all; well... I was madly in love with her, so that part is true. The thing is that we had already dealt with this sort of situation before. When Carley and I first met, she started having seizures shortly after getting hit in the head. These seizures left Carley in a bit of a silly state for a long time afterwords which a normal seizure event wouldn't do. We went through a whole process to finally find out that the seizures were psychological which is physically the same as regular seizures, only these tend to have more triggers as they are usually due to some traumatic event(s).

     As this process went on, I learned that she had another personality named Little Carley who was five. At first, she grew whenever she felt like she had completed some sort of milestone such as dressing herself or cooking her first sidekick all on her own, but eventually she realized she didn't really feel like she had grown and we figured out that she needed some sort of birthday celebration to make herself feel older. Yeah, sure this was weird and a bit annoying at first, but Little Carley quickly became a part of our little family and we figured it all out together.

     There was a lot of frustration and anger and many other feelings which were incredibly difficult, but we got through it all. Having someone in your life who has this going on is just... incredible. It's so hard to truly explain just how amazing of a journey this has been for us. I think it's unlikely that Carley will ever get an actual diagnosis for this because I don't think Kylie has any want to come out and introduce herself to the psychiatrist. So if you're needing some sort of documented proof by a medical professional, you're not likely to see one. However, I can tell you that this is incredibly rare and that even the medical professionals don't know very much about this phenomenon. There isn't anywhere readily available online or in easily findable books where you can learn about this. It's just not something that many people have, and I don't think there have been enough cases of this for there to be enough research to really know how this all works and what to do about it. Believe it or not, I think I'm one of the few people in the world who really has a great understanding of this phenomenon.

     As far as I can tell, at this point the psychiatrist believes this is a disassociation thing. I guess multiple personality disorder is not what the diagnosis would be called anymore, but I don't really like the thought of calling this Dissociative Identity Disorder because it's not just her acting differently or watching herself do something without being able to control herself. I can truly say this is a complete additional personality which could take control of Carley at will and has different thoughts and likes than she does. There's so much about this to talk about, but it's too much to let out all at once.

     Why am I revealing this to you? We have decided this is something we want to do for two reasons. The first is that this is a huge part of our lives and there are some situations where this can become a little bit strange. Obviously Carley and I go out places sometimes, but I also go out places with Kylie at times so some people do potentially see Carley acting in two different ways and they may have questions about this. Now, we really don't need to explain ourselves and if you don't believe us or if this makes you uncomfortable, then that's your problem; we're still going to go about our lives whether or not people support us. The second reason I feel it necessary to reveal this information is because mental health is a very difficult topic to discuss. There's so much more going on and mental health issues are so much more prevalent than anybody really knows, but we're all so afraid to talk about it out of fear that we will no longer be normal or we'll be judged so heavily if there's something wrong with us. This is the sort of thing we need to start talking about so that more people are comfortable coming forward with this valuable information.

     If anybody has any questions, feel free to comment on here, on Facebook, on Twitter, or anywhere else you might find this post. You're even welcome to email me directly with any questions at Kyle.Welykholowa@gmail.com. I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Semester 3 Begins! ===

     Hard to believe the finals of last semester just happened a week ago and now here I am completing my first couple assignments today. I definitely wasn't expecting the final semester to begin so quickly but here we are starting the last leg of the journey (for the most part).

     It's been a tough road so far getting through all the classes. These days I don't have much energy to work with where I'm not physically exhausted. Some days I'm quite mentally exhausted as well, but for the most part I'm wanting to do so much and get so much done but I'm just not able to because my body wants to sleep. I know I'll be able to get through it all in the end, but right now it feels SO bad.

     Let's use tomorrow as an example. Tomorrow I want to work on my blog by making a post and promoting it. I also want to upload a video or two on my YouTube channel. I have hopes of wanting to play with the dog, steam clean the carpets, do a bit of writing, watch a show, work on school work, spend time with Carley, bake banana bread, go for a hike, play DDR, read a book, play a game on a console that I haven't played before, and probably more. There's so much I would love to do! Unfortunately I just don't really have the energy to do all of that in one day.

     It isn't all bad though. I'm sure I make it sound all awful, but seriously I actually think we're doing quite well at the moment. I'm super proud of myself for having made about $0.40 so far through my blog (which is a huge accomplishment for me!). And I'm still managing to find some time to do things other than be a vegetable or only work so much that I have no personality. Just give me a week or so from now and I think things might be a little better. Next coming month we're actually looking to be doing much better than we have been previously and oh boy I can't wait to tell you all about it!

~ Kyle Welykholowa

So Much To Think About

     I have a lot coming up to think about in the future. I know what I want to do, but who's going to come with me? Will I have people following my blog, or my YouTube with every update throughout my journey? Will I have someone to hug and hold every night when I go to bed? Will I have a fuzzy critter to snuggle when I get home from work?

     There are many possibilities and even more that I cannot even hope to predict. I can only hope that somewhere along the way I can make someone's day. Brighten people's lives just a little bit every day. Even if it's only a couple people. I'm looking forward to seeing where things take me... now if only I could figure out how to make the day a few hours longs...

~ Kyle