Visit To The Doctor's Office (Plastic Surgeon)

Well, I had a follow up visit with the Plastic Surgeon today. He said I am healing nicely and removed the bandage and staples out of my noggin' today.... now I just have to wait for the swelling in my left eye to go down...

Joe Wright Letter

Ever since my initial accident in February 2007, I have found myself becoming more spiritual. I am not a "born-again" christian or anything like that. I was raised Catholic, went to a catholic grade school, was an alter boy, and have received my sacraments but have largely been a non-practicing catholic for most of my life. Now I definitely believe that God was watching over me the night of my accident and there are so many factors that involved me learning a very valuable lesson. I came across the prayer below and wanted to post it here to share with my friends and family.

This is a prayer as delivered on January 23, 1996 by Pastor Joe Wright to the Kansas House of Representatives.

Heavenly Father, we come before You today to ask Your forgiveness and seek Your direction and guidance. Lord, we know Your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that's exactly what we've done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.

We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it moral pluralism.

We have worshipped other gods and called it multi-culturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem.

We have abused power and called it political savvy.

We have coveted our neighbors' possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our fore-fathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us oh God and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.

Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas, and who have been ordained by You, to govern this great state. Grant them Your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of Your will. I ask it in the name of Your Son, the Living Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Thank you for reading this and may god bless you and your loved ones as I feel I have been blessed.

I'm Home!

I was discharged from Loyola today and got home around 3:00pm. I have my head wrapped like any head injury patient would have and am beginning my recovery period. The doctors did not give me any restrictions, they said "Whatever you can tolerate".... I dont think I will be riding my mountain bike for a few days though.

Recovery

Well, I am recovering at Loyola right now, my surgery was a success and I am healing nicely. The doctor has hinted that I might be discharged tomorrow (Monday). A lot of people have asked how I look, I'll say this much.... my forehead is round again, but my left eye is completely swollen shut.... with time the swelling should go down.....

My Surgery

Well, as many of you already know, I am undergoing surgery at Loyola Hospital to repair my fractured skull. My surgery is scheduled for 7:00 am on Friday October 26, 2007. I will be at Loyola Hospital for 4-5 days and then sent home for recovery. I welcome visitors and I hope to see some of my friends up there! I am very excited about this surgery because this is will allow me to finally get on with my life and get back on my feet again.

I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who has given their support and well wishes. It is a wonderful feeling knowing how many people truely care.

Ciccadas Atttack!

Well the good ol' Ciccadas made their appearance this year after hiding for the past 17 years, I vaguely remember seeing the ciccadas the last time they were out. Here is a video of Trevor with a nice juicy ciccada on his hand. He was good with it but Kevin wanted absolutely nothing to do with them and was scared of any live ones.

Da Boyz

I had Trevor and Kevin this past weekend, the weather was nice so we spent most of our time outdoors. Here is a nice picture of Trevor and Kevin with my mom. It's so hard to get both T & K to both look at the camera and be able to take a nice photograph.

Here is one of them at the park.

I Awaken To A Nightmare

I cannot remember the first thing when I awoke. I do recall lying on my back in the hospital and having a nurse asking me if I knew what had happened... There were several doctors and nurses standing around me, i was in the operating room.... I replied that I did not know, the nurse then asked "do you know where you are?" As groggy as I was, I looked around and replied "In the hospital"... my head was strapped to the table so I could not lift my head up to look around... I was in surgery and then I was out again....

The Night That Will Forever Change My Life

On Tuesday, February 6, 2007 I felt like going out for a drink. Unfortunately, this had become a bad habit that I had been slowly developing over the past few months. I had consumed several Miller Lite beers and countless Jager bombs this evening. I honestly did not think that I felt overly intoxicated and mistakenly thought I was sober enough to drive. Hindsight is 20/20.... I definitely know now that I certainly was NOT in any condition to drive. (Subsequently, I have spoken with a few people who had seen me that evening and they will attest to the level of my inebriation.)

I was leaving Eden Lanes for the night (morning) on February 7th around 4:00 am, climbed into my 2000 Plymouth Neon and drove Eastbound on Cermak road through Broadview through 2 inches of freshly fallen snow. I would normally turn south onto 17th ave and drive home. I was hungry and decided to keep driving down 22nd cause I was gonna stop at Snuffy's for a Denver omelette before turning in for the night.

I do not remember any driving that I did east of 17th street......

Well, here is another weekend with the boys, I captured this cute picture when Trevor asked me to take his picture. I figured if he is in a photogenic mood, I'd better make use of the opportunity! Kevin will be two in a week... WOW! Time flies....

My brother Joe celebrated his 31st birthday last week. I had the boys over this past weekend and we had a little cake to celebrate. I bought those "Magic candles" that relight automatically so Joe enlisted Trevor's help in trying to extinguish the inferno. After a few unsuccessful attempts the room started getting quite smokey.... Here the candles appear to have been defeated but they did relight on their own right after I snapped this picture. Kevin was getting a kick out of watching them fail and suprisingly did not sing a peep of his favorite song "Happy Birthday" which he sings all the time in the car. I guess he got stage fright and wound up in silence.

Today my mom and I took the boys to Holiday Magic at Brookfield Zoo today. They really enjoyed themselves although it was a tad bit chilly and Trevor ended up falling asleep in the wagon we were pulling the boys in. I think we stayed a total of 90 minutes before the cold and sleeping boys persuaded us to call it a day.

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas this year. Trevor and Kevin spent Christmas Day and the following day with me. They both really enjoyed themselves and got clothes, toys and games from my family and Santa Claus.

On Monday we went to my Uncle Bob and Aunt Linda's house and the boys got to play with my cousin Nicole's daughters, Nina and Natalie and also my cousin Deanna's son Owen. I know that all of the kids had a wonderful time playing with each other.

A special thank you to "Uncle Dan" for the clothes for the boys, they were not the only ones matching (check out Nina and Natalie).

I went to the Kohl's Childrens Museum with my brother Joe and the boys today. It was really nice. I took my Sony Handycam along with and took some video which makes me want to get going on the DVD for the boys again. Ah well, I will get it done soon enough :-) This was a perfect thing to do with the weather being so cold outside.

Trevor and Kevin's former Babysitter, Lisa, had her baby yesterday. This is her third and she did not know the sex of the baby until it was born (she has a daughter and a son already). Joseph Albert weighing 7lbs. 12oz. and 21 inches long was born via C-Section.

Congratualtions to Michael, Lisa, Kelsie and Joshie on the newest addition to their happy little family.

Trevor and Kevin love playing with "Joshie", and now they will have Josh's little brother to play with too.

I was offered the chance to watch a Chicago Bears football game in Detroit at Ford Field when they played the Detroit Lions, the Bears won in OT 19-13 which made the trip worth it. I went with my coworker Andy and we got a little lost on the way out of Detroit. We wound up seeing miles and miles of dilapidated houses, burned buildings, and boarded up windows. Jeez, talk about a pimple on the butt of America....




Here's me in front the Detroit Tigers stadium (which is right across the street from Ford Field)

Trevor and Kevin got some Halloween Motif pillows from "Uncle Dan", they really enjoyed them....

Trevor has a pumpkin and Kevin has a ghost.

Way to go White Sox!!!!

Game 2 of the World Series was awesome, I wanna go on record with my prediction... I think the southsiders can SWEEP the Astros! I was upset that I missed "Pauly's" Grand Slam, they changed pitchers right before he was up to bat, I had changed the channel and by the time I switched back to the game Konerko was crossing the plate....

Podsednik's game winning homer was unbelievable, this one of the best games yet this year.

I took Kevin and Trevor to an open house at the LaGrange Fire Station. They had a blast and didn't want to leave. They were even photographed for the local paper (their 15 minutes of fame).

Trevor was very interested in the Ambulance and has a tremendous desire to learn and ask questions. He is 3 1/2 now so the questions come at a barrage sometimes :-)

Kevin kept running back to the refreshment table and helping himself to more free cookies, you would think that I didn't feed the poor child.

Morton Arboretum Children's Garden

This picture was taken on September 10, 2005 at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. They just opened a 4 acre children's garden that day and Trevor and Kevin really enjoyed themselves.
I had purchased a brand new Canon Powershot A95 to replace the Canon Powershot A110 that I purchased for $30.00 from someone. I have lots of photos and will be uploading them periodically as time allows.