Back at it

I'm sure you have all noticed how I have not been keeping up with blogging lately. Well we've been a bit busy. First Jeff's mom came down to visit for a week in May. It was fun, and Jeff's Aunt Trudy was in Louisville for a conference at the same time. So we went up to Louisville for a day, did some shopping and went to Churchill Downs (the race track). We bet on some horses and had a lot of fun. Then I worked for three nights.
And then Jeff and I went up to Champaign, Illinois for a weekend. This is where I grew up. It was nice to show Jeff around, and see a few friends. We went to my old church and I was surprised with how much it felt like home. On the way home we visited with some friends in Indianapolis and then went to Lake Monroe to meet up with some more friends and go in their boat. We saw John Mellencamps house from the lake, and I swam up to the beach and stole a rock. And then I worked for three nights.
Next we went to Brown County park in Indiana and met up with my Mom and her husband Dwayne. It was nice camping, nice shopping, very pretty. And it was Bailey's first camping trip. He did very well and slept in the tent with us. We were right next to Lake Monroe, so we went there again. Well this time when we went by John Mellencamps house there was a big tent set up and people everywhere. So we figured soemthing big was going on. After a few hours of watching, all the guys in the group wanted to leave. Well come to find out, if we had stayed there we would have heard Jon Bon Jovi play for Mellencamps daughters wedding, and Jon Bon Jovi even came down to the lakeshore to say hello to all the boaters. I was mad. And then I worked for 3 nights.
Then my Dad, his wife Chris and my brother Tim came down to visit for a weekend. We went to Churchill Downs again, saw some horse racing, bet on a race or two. We watched game 3 of the Stanley cup finals at my house. We did some shopping, went to the Kentucky Horse Park, and had a good time. Then I worked for 3 nights.
Then Jeff and I went to San Francisco for the ROBOGAMES. Jeff made two robots and everyone liked them very much. His robots were smarted and looked better, but they just weren't as strong. The competitors from Singapore but magnets on their robots to make them stronger and well Jeff just couldn't compete with that. We also drove across the Golden Gate Bridge, went to Sonoma Vally and some wineries, and drove around San Francisco.
Now we are home. I worked 2 nights, I have 2 off, and then I work 4, then we are going camping for Canada Day.

Proud of Edmonton

I watched last nights hockey game from the couch, from the floor, from behind the couch. I was so stressed out I thought I would get an ulcer. For a team who almost didn't make the finals, Edmonton did well, very well. Here'a a story you can read about it.

NHL Playoffs

Oh I'm so excited. The Oilers are one game away from the NHL Stanley Cup finals!!! Some of you may remember how tortured I was during the last Stanley Cup playoffs. You see, of course I couldn't root for Tampa Bay, they don't even know what hockey is down there, so they shouldn't have a team. Well then I have always said either you an Oilers fan or a Flames fan, but you can't be both. And I am an Oilers fan all the way. I could not jump on the Calgary bandwagon, it was against everything I believe in as a hockey fan. Well, now Edmonton is in it and I am so happy. I just wish we could watch more of the games on TV down here. I'm hoping that Buffalo will win their series and then it will be Edmonton and Buffalo. I'd like that. You can read all about the Oilers here www.edmontonoilers.com

Old Navy

Bailey is going to be famous. I entered him into the Old Navy mascot competition. You can look at his entry at www.oldnavy.com Go to the mascot competition, and then go to see the competition. Sort the dogs by location, and make it so 48 dogs show per page. Then go to page 899. I know it's complicated, but he's on there, and he'll be famous:)

The Preakness

Yesterday Jeff and I along with Jeff's mom and his Aunt Trudy went to Churchill downs. Cheryl is here visiting and aunt Trudy had a conference in Louisville. So we went to the races, and the only race anyone could talk about was the Preakness. We bet on some races, but never got around to placing a bet on the Preakness. For those of you who aren't familiar, the PReakness is run in Baltimore and is the second race in the coveted triple crown. The triple crown starts with the Kentucky Derby which was won by Barbaro, and then there is the Preakness and it wraps up with the Belmont. Well by the time of The Preakness we were out shopping and we had heard who won, but nothing else. Well today all anyone can talk about is the very sad story of how Barbaro broke his leg on the track. They are operating right now and not sure if they can save him or not. It's sad. You can read about it here. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,379-2190876,00.html

Night Shift

You know, working nights can present a few dilema's. I hate working day shift because I do my best sleeping from 8-11 in the morning. I just wasn't made to get up early. So I enjoy night shift. However my husband does not work nights and he is out of town a lot. Well, last week I worked Tuesday night and then Jeff was away Wednesday. We had Thursday night together. Then he took the dog and went to Indianapolis for the weekend and I worked. So I was extra lonely. The reason we got the dog was so I wouldn't be lonely when Jeff was gone. So he got back Sunday, and I worked Sunday night. Monday I come home and he had found out he had to leave again. Well he decided to leave Tuesday morning so we could see each other. At least I got to keep the dog this time. He got back on Wednesday and I worked Tuesday/Wednesday. Now I actually have the opportunity to sleep in the same bed as my husband and I can't sleep. Sucks.
I'm planning to enjoy the next two nights before I have to go back to work, hopefully nothing comes up:)

Hiking

Jeff and I went for a nice hike last weekend. We went to Indian Fort Mountain in Berea, Kentucky. It was a nice hike. It was about 3 miles to the top and back, and it was a very nice view from the top. We also took Bailey with us and his little legs did a very good job. We would stop every now and then to give him some water, but he would just jump right over the logs on the path, and climb rocks like they were nothing. We stopped at the top to have a little snack and Bailey took a little nap in the shade on a nice hard rock.



Here's something you will all appreciate. I was walking ahead of Jeff and I almost stepped on a snake. It was little so at first I tried to calm myself thinking that maybe it was a worm or centipede. Well then it started to move, and to me the grossest part of snakes is when they move. So then I started freaking out and of course Jeff is like "what, what, I don't see anything." So I had to point it out to him, then he takes his snake hook and starts moving it, and then he starts taking pictures. Meanwhile I'm holding the dog and I ran about 50 feet away and kept telling Jeff to move the snake away from me so we could keep going. It was gross. Then later on I heard a little rustling in the trees and I saw a little lizard climbing a tree. Once again, I have to point it out to Jeff. Why is it that all the things that I think are gross I see first and have to almost walk right up to and point at them before Jeff see's them? Jeff always asks me how I see these things first, well my answer to that is that I am observant, and well, Jeff. . . . isn't. And I wish it was the other way around because I don't like snakes and lizards.

Tim in Taiwan

My brother Tim is in Taiwan right now visiting his friend Chester. I've been reading both of their blogs the last week or so and it's been quite humorous really. So go check out my brothers blog page and be sure to click on the links for the videos.

Gardening

It was a beautiful day today. It was sunny and in the 20's (that the 70's F). So I went to Lowe's and bought some gardening stuff, and then I came home and Bailey and I spent the afternoon in the backyard gardening. Bailey was very content outside, he would lay down in the sun on his side and fall asleep. Then he would get up and look at me with his little tongue hanging out, so we would go in for a drink, then back outside. I didn't even need to tie him up, he just stayed right on my heels the whole time.
Now we are inside, and he's sacked out on the couch. We watched the basketball game and I'm a little sad that George Mason lost. Now I don't know who to cheer for. I am talking about the NCAA tournament for those of you who don't follow it.
All in all, it's been a wonderful day.

Stupid Taxes

We are working on our taxes today. I hate doing taxes. I'm busy sorting reciepts and Jeff is madly typing away on the computer, and Bailey, well he's lying around looking all cute and relaxed. I'm worn out already.
I think we'll take a break, go to the gym, get groceries and eat supper.

Jeff

For those of you who have ever wondered if my family, especially my brother, get along with Jeff or not, here is a story to put your mind at ease. Today we were driving home from the store and Jeff kept rolling down my window, even though he knows I like my window up. So I would roll it up again, and he would wait until I wasn't paying attention and roll it down again. Those stupid automatic windows, and it makes me upset that he has a button to my window since he's on the drivers side, but I don't have a button to his wondow.
So anyway, then we both remembered a story from our honeymoon in Hawaii. We had rented a mustang convertable to drive all the way around the island of Oahu. So we're going along with the top down and Jeff decided to clean the windshield. Well when he hit the window sprayer, it shot up over the windsheild and I got doused in washer fluid. Well Jeff and I looked at each other, and Jeff got this mischeiveous look on his face and he did it again, and I ducked. And the rest of the trip every time I wasn't paying attention, Jeff would spray me with washer fluid.
When we are home and my brother and brother in law are there, my poor sister and I get picked on the whole time. So see they all get along just fine.

Bailey Surprises

I figured I should update all of you on our dog. Now I've never had a dog before and Jeff has always had family dogs. But this is our first experience with having a dog of our own. Bailey has settled into our home now, and we see more and more of his little personality everyday. At first he never barked unless we snuck up on him or if a he saw another dog out the window. Now if he sees anything out the window he'll bark, and sometimes just to let us know he's out in the kitchen awake, while were sleeping. We'll come home and before we can finish unlocking the door he'll be barking and jumping at his gate wanting out of the kitchen. It's nice to have something so excited to see you all the time.
Bailey thinks he is a cat. He climbs onto the back of the couch to sleep, he'll get on the arm of the couch and lean over to the end table and take kleenex out of the box to play with. We have caught him jumping onto the coffee table to lick plates, or get kleenex or other fun things to play with. He will jump onto a kitchen chair and then onto the kitchen table if we're not looking. We came home the other day and found the candle from my birthday cake in peices on the kitchen table. If you catch him, he'll put his little head down and look all pittiful and get all cuddley.
Today I took him into the bedroom to nap with me while Jeff put some shelves together in the kitchen. Well, he didn't sleep. I woke up to a mess. Bailey finally discovered the toilet paper and he pulled it off the role out of the bathrrom and halfway accross the bedroom. He also had found every used kleenex int the room and had shredded it on the carpet. He picked up all clothing items from the bathroom dirty clothes pile and placed them artistically around the room. And some of those jeans must have been really heavy for a 7 pound dog.
Anyway, he is the cutest most cuddley little guy ever. Here are some new pictures of him.

Happy Birthday to us!

So Jeff and I each had birthdays this month. Jeff was all happy on his birthday because his cousin had a baby that morning, then we celebrated his birthday and went to Olive Garden, and then on our way home his friend Matt called and well he got engaged. So Jeff thought this was a great day, and then I had to remind him that it was also our 6 month anniversary. I also got him a Poker set which we have had much fun with since. So all in all, that was just a good day.
Then it was my birthday, and I was excited. Now most of you know that for the last few years I haven't been too happy on my birthday, but this year was different. I just decided to have fun. So in the morning Jeff took me shopping. And then we took the dog to the groomers and we went for lunch at this neat little coffee shop where I bough a pound of tea, I had no idea how much a pound of tea was, it's a lot. Then I went home for a little nap. Well Jeff came in a woke me up with a present. He had bought me some wine and then he gave me a gift bag with a cake mix in it, and frosting, and sprinkles and candles. Oh I was upset, just when I thought he was serious, he brought in a cake from the car:) Then he took me to Red Lobster for supper and then we rented movies that I got to pick. So I had fun.
Well, that's all, nothing else new:)

New Dog

We got a dog. He's a little Yorkie that we were lucky enough to find at the humane society, so he only cost us $57. They think he must have gotten lost as he was obviously well cared for but no one claimed him. We had just been to the humane society the day before and didn't see him there, but there was this precious little lab puppy that just melted your heart. We knew we couldn't get a lab so we had no intention of going back to the humane society because we were scared we wouldn't be able to resist the lab. Well on a Monday afternoon at 5:30, just 1/2 an hour before the humane society closes, we thought we would just go see what was there. We walked in and there was this little yorkie cowering in the corner of a kennel. He had just gotten nuetered and just been put out for adoption that day. So lucky us got him just in time. In fact while I was doing the paperwork another guy told Jeff that if we didn't adopt the puppy, he would. It's been 8 days now and Bailey is settling in nicely to his new home. Everyday he is a little more active, his little incision from his surgery is healing, and he's getting to know us more and more. He's a good little walker, and will walk as far as I do twice a day, he's even been barking at other dogs who walk in front of our house. From inside of course. He only barks when another dog walks by or if he wants out.
Here are some pictures:)

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.