Blizzard

I knew when I moved down here that people in Kentucky may over-react some to snow. I thought that I was mentally prepared for this, but I just really didn't think it would be this bad. Last week it was forcasted for a couple inches of snow. So here in Lexington it started to rain, too warm for snow really. I was out shopping and I started to go home just when the rain started. Granted it was a little cold so there could have been some ice. Well I was driving along thinking, really this is like driving in the rain. Then I start to notice other people driving like we do in Saskatchewan when it has just snowed like 3 feet. I was going down a road where the speed limit is 55mph, and I look to my left and see this lady going about 20mph, white knuckle driving it, and she looked like she was about to cry she was so scared. There was no snow, and no ice. Then I started to see the snow plows. That day I saw 5 snow plows, no snow, but 5 snow plows. Hmmm, if Saskatoon was like that we would blow through our snow removal budget in about 5 minutes. We went to the grocery store and they were running low on bottled water and bread. Just in case people couldn't leave their houses, they were stocking up. Overnight there was a light dusting of snow. Well then they cancelled schools, daycare programs, all kinds of stuff. Our hospital sent out an e-mail making sure all staff know that they are an essential service and we have to get to work somehow no matter how bad the weather. It was ridiculous. It's not really cold out, only like -1 to -3 C, and the snow we have gotten melts in about a day or so. But there are accidents everywhere. The highways have been closed because of accidents, no one wants to leave their houses. There have now been 2 or 3 snow days for schools. And I have no idea what the big deal is. I don't want to leave my house because everyone else is freaking out so much it isn't safe to share the road!
I kinda miss Saskatchewan at times like these. But I bet when I do go home for the holidays, I'll be all stressed out having to drive on real snow and then I will be all excited to come back to Kentucky.
For everone from Kentucky who reads this the latest weather update from Saskatoon is 10F (-12C), with a windchill of -4F (-20C), and it is snowing. I've heard that the ice on some highways is so bad that people aren't travelling, and my sister can't leave her house right now beacuse they are waiting on the snow plow. Keep in mind we have no problem driving on 6 inches of fresh snow.

Oilers in Nashville

Jeff and I went to Nashville to see an Oilers game. It was a good time, and I was so excited to be at an NHL game again. Now there are some key differences between going to an NHL game in Edmonton and one in Nashville. I will limit my comment to these two cities as they are the only one's I have seen NHL games in. So in Edmonton you see kids ask their parents about rules etc., in Nashville there are key rules written in the program. In Edmonton people yell at the ref's, cheer and boo on their own with no direction from the announcer and are just all around rowdy. In Nashville, well they still cheer and boo in response to goals, and sometimes in response to ref's calls, but it just wasn't the same. Not the same at all. When the announcer has to encourage people to cheer, it's just different.
Anyway, we saw the odd Oiler fan there, and everyone who was wearing an Oiler jersey or team Canada jersey all smiled at each other and would talk to each other, but there was no distinct group of Oiler fans anywhere. So Jeff and I were surrounded by Nashville fans, all season ticket holders. Well, the first time Edmonton scored Jeff and I yell really loud and then we were like uh-oh. Everyone turned and looked at us. It was dead silent around us. Well then they all found out we were from Canada, so they got used to us cheering, especially since the Oilers won 5-1. Considering the Oilers were just on a loosing streak and the Predators were on a winning streak it was especially sweet.
Here's a top three list:
3. Hearing the Canadian National Anthem in another country
2. Listening to a lady with a very Southern accent yell "Go Pred's!", it sounded like "Go Chris".
1. Watching "Gnash" the Nashville Mascot get stuck while he was repelling down from the ceiling rafters. They had to pull him back up. Apparently it happened at the last home game too.

EEEEEEEW!

Here's a story I think you all will enjoy. So the other day I woke up after working a night shift, threw on my robe that I had left on the floor and came out to find Jeff. So I was sitting on a kitchen stool talking to him, and he all of a sudden says "Stop, don't move.". Well he was staring at the collar of my robe with this look on his face that told me I had something to freak out about and he was trying to prevent the freaking out. So I started to freak out, without moving of course. I was yelling "What is it? what is it? Get it off of me!!!!!!", then he grabs the first thing at hand which was a plastic bag and picks something off my robe. I continue to freak out, now jumping up and down and he tells me it was a banana spider. Well then I start to cry and throw off my robe and shake it out and shake out my hair while looking for more spiders. BY now Jeff thinks this is pretty funny and can't stop laughing at me.
I told my brother this story and he said "well that sounds like what you would do when you were 6, or 7 or 8."
That'll teach me to leave my robe on the floor.

Wedding Day

Our wedding was wonderful. It was perfect, even the little things that only we would notice, were no big deal. We loved every minute of it. We were so glad for everyone who could come and share in our day, and for those of you who couldn't, check out the pictures. We partied until 1am. Then we went to the Sheraton where I had to wash my hair three times to get out all the hair spray and then we fell fast asleep. It was fun but exhausting. Thank you to everyone:)

Here is a top 5 list of the things we will never forget:
5. The HOG rally that weekend, there were Harley's everywhere.
4. That my dad got all sentimental and made me cry right before I walked down the aisle.
3. Uncle Corey winning musical chairs.
2. The best man catching the garter and the boquet, what does that mean exactly?
1. Being announced as Mr. and Mrs. Jeff and Ruth Robertson . . . I mean Karen.
Our priest told us that in his experience there is always one thing that happens at the ceremony that makes it unforgetable, well that was the one thing for our ceremony. Jeff likes to call me Ruth now to make me laugh.

I'm not too good with pictures ont he computer yet, so sorry that I didn't rotate them etc., I didn't know how and Jeff wasn't home tonight. Here they are.
http://public.fotki.com/JeffandKaren/wedding/

Welcome to Married Life

Let me tell you a little bit about how Jeff and I have been doing lately. We returned from our wonderful honeymoon back to the real world and I promptly got a cold. And not just any cold, I was glad I still had a few days off work because I felt horrible. Well then Jeff got my cold, so we were both sick. I had to go back to work anyway, which didn't help with my illness. We had been back for one full week when we were sitting on the couch one Sunday night watching movies, all curled up in some blankets with a box of Puff Plus with Lotion tissue between us, a jug of juice on the coffe table along with a pot of herbal tea, honey cough syrup, and Vicks Vapo Rub. It was romantic let me tell you. Well then Jeff started to get better, but I didn't. I have now been sick for two weeks, I"m on antibiotics for my lungs, and I have a bit of a stomach virus as well. So neither of us has had the energy to go grocery shopping for more then a few things at a time, we haven't wanted to go anywhere, we spend our days off sleeping, and all of this while stuck in our little one bedroom apartment. Happy one month anniversary to us.
On a much brighter note, we did rent a new three bedroom house and will be moving on September 24th. Hopefully we will both be better by then.
I am working on the wedding pictures etc., but it takes a long time to get them posted. As soon as I'm done I will blog about the wedding.

Stay Tuned

We Got Married:) And we went to Hawaii for two weeks. We are home now, and trying to recover. Stay tuned for pictures and blogs. I promise not to take too long.

Memorial Day Weekend

So this past weekend was the May long weekend for the US. So we got together with the other IRD roadies for the area (that would be Jeff's co-workers) and went to the lake.
Went stayed in a beautiful cabin at Kentucky lake. It was more like a house than a cabin, but a very nice place to relax. And only a 4 hour drive away, so it's not too bad.
On Friday we didn't do much but just hang out. On saturday Jeff and I went hiking at Land Between the Lakes. Then we played poker taht night. Then on Sunday we rented a pontoon boat and spent the day out on the lake.
Here's a top 5 list
5. Learning how to play poker and not loosing all of my money.
4. Yelling at Jeff for hunting snakes and salamanders during our hike.
3. Having a nice bed to sleep in after hiking, swimming, boating etc.
2. Darrenn hitting the 5 foot wave and full speed and causing a mini tsunami in the pontoon boat, way to go Darren.
1. Being in a room with a bunch of Canadians and being able to talk about home.

Definitions

So I had a little arguement this weekend with a few girls, one from Inianapolis and one from Atlanta about the meaning of the word Toboaggan. Now I got a little worked up for which I'm a little ashamed, however, I think that any Canadian can understand my frustration. For some reason some Americans think that the word toboggan means tuque or hat, and will argue with you about it. As a Canadian who knows what real snow is, I would have to disagree. So I did a little bit of research to settle this arguement once and for all.
I went to the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary and here's what I found out.
A Toboggan is a French-Canadian word meaning a long flat-bottomed light sled usually made of thin strips of wood and curved up at the end. Here's a picture.
A Sled is a vehicle on runners used for transportation, especially used my children to coast down hills. Here's a picture.
Now a Tuque is another French-Canadian word that means a knitted hat, usually pointed, but it doesn't have to be. Here's a picture of a tuque.
Now I hope this clears things up for everyone. I'll try not to get too upset when having this arguement in the future, I'll just refer people to this page instead.

Famous People

So Jeff and I are in Cinicnnati tonight. We went to "Newport on the Levee", which is a very nice area along the Ohio river. I don't know if any of you have noticed this before or not, but Jeff has a habit of pointing at things in public. You should never point in public so as not to offend the moron who thinks you are pointing at them and gets mad about it. And being as we live in a country where people can carry guns, I've really been trying to convince Jeff not to point in public. Anyway, so we were sitting on this bench eating ice cream and all of a sudden Jeff's arm flies up almost hitting me in the nose, and he forgot his inside voice and yells "There's Jerry Springer" and sure enough there he was. Apparently he used to live in Cincinnati and was mayor. He just walked on by and you saw all these people stop, look then keep doing what they were doing.
Another famous person I saw recently was Leslie Neilson. He was at the airport in Saskatoon, just standing there with a luggage cart. I was like Ï know he's from here, but there is no way someone that famous would stand at the Saskatoon airport with a luggage cart like that" Well then I heard him talk, and yup that was him. No one made a big deal about it though.
DISCLAIMER: just so you all know, i may elaborate a bit on my Jeff stories, and I have to include this disclaimer so that he doesn't get offended by my elaborate stories later:) He didn'thit me in the nose when he pointed, and although Jeff does often yell too loud, he was surprisingly reserved when he saw Jerry Springer, but it still wasn't an inside voice:)

Home

Well, Jeff and I were just home. Jeff's grandma passed away, so it was a crappy reason to go home, but we did get to have a good visit with family and friends. So here's a top 5 list.
5. Going to Tim Hortons:)
4. Meeting Jeff's uncles and cousins, it explains a lot.
3. NorthWest Airlines loosing my luggage, I got a free dress out of it:)
2. Having a BBQ at Jeff's for friends
1. Jeff waking me up Sunday morning at 6:30 because he thought it was 9:30 and we had to get ready to leave. Silly Jeff.

We have now stocked up on Tim Hortons coffee, Aero bars, Oh Henry's, and iced tea mix. But of course these are good presents to send to us at any time.

We had a really good visit, and thank-you to everyone for coming out to see us:)

We have INTERNET!!!

We finally got the internet hooked up in our apartment today. So now watch for more regular blogging. You don't know how many times I tried to blog on the laptop, and then when I went to post my hard work, the computer was thinking to hard and it crashed. Anyway, Jeff took a long time to call the cable company and to call about internet. This meant that I was stuck in my new apartment with no TV and no Internet for quite a while. Annoying. So now I have both, which makes me feel better.

Kentucky-isms

Did you know that Ï don't care to" means yes? I thought it meant no thanks. You learn something new everyday.

Moving In

Our crate finally arrived!! The moving company called last night to say our shipment had arrived from Canada, so today they brought our stuff over. So Jeff and I spent a few hours this afternoon unpacking. Jeff had no idea how mnuch stuff there was, thanks mostly to my bridal shower. I was so worried that we wouldn't get enough glasses, well our cupboard is full of glasses, and we have more. So we are going to have to store some I think. It never hurts to have extra in case you break any right:) I have the rest of the week off so I am hoping to get all settled in.

Now a little blurb about Health Care down here. I had to go to the doctor last week for a bladder infection. $130 just to see the doctor and pee in a cup, then $85 for antibiotics and I'm feeling much better. Thank goodness I bought that travel insurance because my insurance from the hospital doesn't kick in until the 1st. I tell you, it's nice to be Canadian, but I think we take it for granted sometimes.

My job is going much better. I'm really starting to enjoy it now, and I'm loving being a nurse again. I am a little overwhelmed still as I have all kinds of courses and tests to take so I can work in critical care. But at least it's all stuff I'm interested in.

I hope all is well, we love hearing from everyone!

SNOW

Well, it got kinda cold here this weekend. First on Friday on my way home from work, I was trying to get out to the hotel before the huge thunderstorm hit. There were tornado's in Frankfort, which is like 1/2 hour away. So I'm driving along and it looks pretty nice out, until you look behind you and it was this big wall of black. Jeff and I discovered that Winchester has a Tornado alarm. But it was no biggie. The storm passed in about 15 minutes and then everything was back to normal. Then Saturday it was only in the 40's F, that's like around 10. We didn't mind it. But today it was snowing when we left for church. Now again it was only like 3-4 C but everyone here thought it was sooooo cold. I was looking around the church this morning and I thought, well if I was wearing a skirt and a a spring jacket I might be cold too. But I was smart and dressed for the weather, and I wasn't cold at all. Not even a little bit. These silly Kentuckians always complain that they are too cold or too hot. Well when its 25 C out, don't wear jeans and a long sleave shirt. And when it's 3 C out wear jeans and a long sleave shirt and maybe a jacket, like a fleece. I bet they wouldn't complain so much then.

new job

Well, people told me it would be different working down here, and boy were they right. I was expecting some fancy new IV pump, or Vitals machine, but even the IV tubing is different, the syringes, the needles, and the oxygen tubing. I felt like such an idiot in front of my patients because I didn't know how to hook anything up, or even how to flush an IV. And here's a funny story about accents. Now since I'm living in KEntucky, the normal accent is southern. So my patient had a southern accent, and we already had enough trouble just understanding each other. Then throw in the Doctor from somwhere in South America, and the Resident from somewhere in the Middle East, and none of us knew what the other was saying.
My job is a little overwhelming at the moment, but it will get better I'm sure.

Front of the Church

So Karen and I tried to attend church in Winchester Kentucky the other Sunday. We had decided to attend the Emmanuel Episcopal Church. Karen did the research via the yellow pages and found that they started at 11am. So come Sunday morning we headed out to the church. When we arrived the main sign said service started at 10:30am and it was 11:00, so we were a half hour late. So we headed to the United Methodist Church downtown which started at 11am. When we arrived at that church they were already playing music and singing. We approached the doors to the church cautiously trying to be as quiet as possible. I gestured for Karen to open the oversized door and to lead the way. She of coarse gestured for me to lead the way so I obliged. When I opened the door it shocked me to see a good part of a 200-member congregation and the piano lady staring back at me. It seemed like that door was open for a several seconds but I'm sure it was only a second at most. By the time I closed the door and looked back to Karen she was half way to the door. I quickly joined her outside where we had a good laugh at our misfortune. We walked back to the car and found a side door that would take us to the back of the church. We stood inside the door and discussed our plan of action. I suggested that we leave since everyone in the church would know it was us that opened the door, and they would be looking at us as we entered. Hard enough not standing out in a small town church being from Canada (Eh!), let alone being the couple that almost came in the wrong way. So we left the church and went shopping. We decided we would do a better job of researching the church before going on Sunday.

Horse Races

Keeneland opened this weekend. For those of you who don't follow horse racing, that's the race track in Lexington. Keeneland is open for 3 weeks and then Churchill Downs opens in Louisville. Keeneland was featured in the movie Seabiscuit. Lots of people think Keeneland is the best race track. I like it a lot, even better than Churchill Downs. Now opening weekend is a huge thing in Lexington. Everyone, and I mean everyone goes to the races. So I thought I would make a little top 5 list about going to the races.

5. Seeing all the girls who you know know nothing about horses prance around in their fancy outfits with new shoes that don't fit being all snobby and not realizing that they look silly.
4. Watching all the little kids get so excited about seeing the horses up close that they look like they could pee their pants.
3. Seeing all the grown up men get drunk off beer and yell really stupid things during the race.
2. Going with the sure bet that if you watch them parade the horses before they saddle them, you bet on the one that poops and/or pees. That horse feels much better now and can run like the wind:)
1. If all else fails, bet on the grey horse.

Silly Karen

Silly Karen. I thought that asking for the "washroom" was the same as asking for the "bathroom". Apparently I have to ask for the "restroom" so as not to confuse any Americans.

Orientation Day 1

So today was my first day of orientation for my new job at University of Kentucky hospital. Orientation is always long and boring. But I have made a list of the top six things about my orientation today.

6. Being told that it starts at 7:45 only to arrive and find tha tbreakfast is served at 7:45 and no one knew that so no one was hungry since they already ate so we all sat around and stared at each other for 15 minutes.
5. Every speaker had to make some comment about daylight savings time like "Oh it was hard to wake up today because rememeber it's really an hour early that it is"
4. Every speaker noticed all by themselves at different times during their speaches that the clocks in the room hadn't been set yet, and every sinlge one said Öh, that clock hasn't been changed yet, they must have missed it" but of course "they"never came to fix it.
3. Finding out that for Americans the terms Ëlastic"and Rubber bands"are not interchangeable. In fact, the word Ëlastic"doesn't seem to exist down here. Also it's a line, not a line-up. Line-ups are only in baseball.
2. The annoying people who seem to be in every group who have to ask lots of questions and tell lots of stories to make everything take longer.
1. Playing "Jeopardy" after a presentation to make sure we rememeber the "key points".

well, that's all from me. Jeff is going to blog about our weekend experience very soon.

First supper

Us In Lexington