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.

On Saturday, Sep 3, 2005 I visited a place in St. Charles, IL called Pottawatomie Park on the Fox River. They have old fashioned steamboat rides and a huge 47 acre park, we had a picnic and just enjoyed the gorgeous weather that day.

I took the boys to Brookfield Zoo the day before Labor Day. I purchased a membership this year and have been there several times, I have already gotten my money's worth! I cant get over how photogenice Kevin is, he really photographs well and always smiles for the camera.

I got four free Chicago Cubs tickets for yesterday's game from the company I work for. The Cubs lost to the Reds (3-8) but it was nice to be able to get out with my family for the day and we all really enjoyed ourselves :-)

L to R, my sister Jean, my brother Joe, my Mom and me.

So my older brother is moving to Vegas in less than a week. My Sister and Brother-In-Law are moving to Wilmington, IL which is about 50+ miles away and according to Mapquest, takes about an hour to get there. It's going to get lonely as my family has always been close. :-(

My brother Dan has his own blog, unbeknownst to me. You can find it at http://spaces.msn.com/members/hannaman/

Well, the new position with my company is going well so far and I am enjoying the workload (rather light right now.) I am hoping that they decide where my office will be as I would like to have my personal effects here at work and choose not to do so until I have a place I can call my own. I don't want to keep moving from one office to the next and have opted to occupy a vacant conference room for the time being.

My youngest son, Kevin, celebrated his first birthday last night. We had company over to celebrate and I think everyone really had a good time. Kevin received lots of clothes (which he really needed) and almost did not make it through the night, he started to fall asleep before we even opened the presents! It was very nice to get my whole family together and it has been sometime since we had been able to do so.

Well, today was lousy..... I had a potential "client" for some software work using Adobe InDesign that decided that they could not afford my work..... heck I cut my "bill rate" to $30.00 an hour (they even said that was very reasonable) but admitted to me that the amount of work that this project required would be cost prohibitive. This kinda blew my day, as I was hoping to take that money (approximately $1000.00?) and save a good chunk of the money I wanted to use a small portion of it to buy Aimee a nice Valentine's Day present too. Ah well, I guess that's life....

I am trying to overcome the creative block that I seem to have been suffering from and finally get some of Trevor's home movies rendered using Pinnacle Studio and burn them to DVD. (this has been a long standing goal of mine since he was born in May of '02!)

I am still trying to get some business as a web designer. Anyone looking for someone to do web design? If so, please contact me!

Well, here it is February of 2005, Kevin will be a year old already on the 19th! Wow, time sure does fly. He is getting so big and has been walking (quite well I might add) for a couple of months now. Trevor loves his "Kemman" more and more each day and they truely are best friends.

I can not wait until the springtime when I can take the boys to the park to play. Last year when I would go to the park Kevin would just sit in the stroller and watch Me and Trevor play catch. Now that he is walking he can run and play with us too!