Merry Christmas!!!!

Well it is Christmas and here I find myself typing away on my MySpace account! Damn I might regret teasing Christina about being addicted to this stuff! Oh well.

Christmas has always been am important time of the year for me. From the time I couldn't wait for Santa to get here until today. Thirty-two Baby Jesus Days under my belt. Not bad. Seems like a lifetime of memories. I reflect back over the years and wonder how did one guy get so lucky? Truly I am blessed.

Took call this week and am really glad I did. It was important for me to be here in Birmingham this holiday. Gave me a lot to time to think about why I am here and not in Minnesota. I truly do love it down here. B'ham is my home. Minnesota is where I am from. I am proud to call myself an Alabamian.

My life is extraordinary I thank God for every moment!

Springville

I have been wanting to write about this past weekend all week and I am just now getting a chance to do it. Friday night was very cool. I stopped in at Innisfree for a Guiness after work and who did I bump into but my old friend Ben. We met though my friend Liesl. It was very cool hanging out with him and Sara. There was one other guy but can't remember his name. I had planned to go see a movie at church. So after a few pints I went to church to see Conversations with God. It was a movie about Neil Donald Walsh and how he came to write the series of books with the same name.
Here is my deal. I tried to read his first book, "Conversations with God" and couldn't really get past the first chapter. I have a hard time with people who claim they "speak" with God or know what God has to say. I do believe that we all speak with God in our own personal way. I do not believe that my "Conversation" is meant for anyone else but me. SO when someone tells me that they can put spoken words to what God has to say I have a hard time with it. And when they use it to tell me how to live my life is when I have the most resistance. I never have liked being told what to do.
On Saturday Dani B came over and we went to Christina's Alabama party. It was a lot of fun. Good times good food and good drink. It was just too bad that the game didn't go the same way. None the less, it was really cool to see her house and get to watch the game on the big 50 inch.
After the game we wanted to go out and went to the grand opening of this bar in Springville called "The Gulf". We were there early and sat down at the bar to have a drink. The owner came over asked us for a five dollar cover for the band. I didn't think too much of it until the band starting playing! It was country and not very cool country at best. We looked at each other and said we paid five bucks for this and ordered another round. As the night went on things got much better. I personally had a really good time and it was so great to see Christina smile and laugh so much. (I think Dani even liked it!).
Sunday ended on a great note. After church I went and met my friend Ben for beer and football at BW3 on 280. The Packer game came on early and the Vikings came on at 315. We sat and had some beers and watched a bunch of football. The Packers won and what was even better was the Vikings kicked the Seahawks ass!!!! It was a perfect ending to a really good weekend.

In a good place.....

It is really amazing how great my life is right now. Even though I feel like I am about to lose complete control of everything, I feel great. It has been a wild ride since my surgery. Getting back to work was a blessing and it made me realize how much I missed it.

On June 30th my Dad broke his leg real bad at work. He was doing a exterior door check on one of the capital building and fell off a small retaining wall. Really messed up his tibia had to have several surgeries to try and correct it. He is still out of work till this day. I was able to go up to Minnesota and help take care of him a little bit this summer.

On July 5th my uncle Dave decided to take his own life. It really hit me hard and very close to home. I too was at that state of mind when I was 17. I wanted my life to end and even tried to take my own life. He was my Dad's younger brother the baby of the seven kids. Everyone has tried to figure out why he did it, but I doubt we will ever know exactly why. The weird thing is that he left all of his money to us nephews and nieces. There are fourteen of us who are going to receive a bunch of money. It will change my life forever. Not only will I have to get used to not having my uncle Dave around, but I won't be in debt any longer. God do I miss him and only wish I had told him how much I loved him and how much he meant to me in my life. My favorite memory I have of uncle Dave was July 5, 2005. We went tubing down the St. Croix river and I had floated a keg o beer along. I made it my personal mission to finish it by the time we hit the bank. Needless to say I failed and was so drunk I couldn't stand up. Dave came over and put his arm around me and told me everything would be just fine. He was and will always be a hero to me.

Two weeks ago I went to some spiritual training. It was three long days of some intense stuff. The entire week before my whole body was tingling and going through changes. I quit smoking and am still off the cigs. It was a wonderful experience and I am really glad I did it. I got to meet some really cool people and learn some very interesting things.

Life is great and I am very blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful people in my life. Birmingham has been a blessing for me. I made the right decision to stay. I feel like I am home here in Alabama. Who would have thunk it?

a new face......

I know that it has been a very long time since I wrote. I believe the last entry was when I crashed my car. My life has been on a wild ride since then.

Bought a new car!!!!!! Love me my VW Passat (Trigger)
Bought a tux and have been to two black tie events. FREE LIQUEUR AND FOOD
Had a very nice Christmas with the Lathams. Wonderful food and company Liesl's Dad rocks!
St. Patricks Day was a drunken haze. MMMMM BEER
Had a cute new neighbor move in downstairs. HOT HOT HOT
Had jaw surgery.

It has been eight days since my surgery. I went under the knife around 11am 3-30 and was in recovery around 4pm. The first thing I remember in recovery is that they kept telling me to breath. I guess I kept forgetting to do that. When I got back up to my room I had a wonderful Morphine pump. I when through 74ml of Morphine that night. So by the next morning I was feeling pretty good and not in a lot of pain. They took me off the pump and started me on percocet orally. I am guessing the Morphine was still in my system because I felt good enough to take a field trip down to the ER to visit my good friend Ryan. By the time I had walked down there though I knew I had bit off a little more than I could chew. About four of Dr. Louis's residents and himself saw me that next day. They all gave me glowing reports of how well the surgery had gone. Right after lunch the nurse came in with discharge papers and they let me go home around two. This was a big mistake on my part. I should have taken the option of staying one more night up on the seventh floor.

At home things went from bad to worse. The pain became almost to the point of being unbearable. I called the Doctor and they said I had the strongest pain meds they could call in. I started taking two percocet every four hours. (not supposed to do that) Needless to say I didn't get much rest that night or the rest of the weekend for that matter. Dr. Louis had called me in some 7.5 loratabs which we got filled Sun. Morning. I had gone through 20 of the percocet and switched over to the loratabs. By that time two 7.5's were kicking my ass and keeping my pain under control. By Tues. or Wed. I weaned myself down to one loratab 10 every four to six hours. That is was I am on now so forgive me if this doesn't make much sense. I discovered the hard way a really bad side effect of all that pain medicine. Can we say "constipation" boys and girls. Not taking a shit for about 6 days really sucks. I am not going to get into the details but I thought I was going to die!

My diet has luckily consists of oatmeal, apple sauce, boost, milkshakes, scrambled eggs and mac and cheese. I am not complaining at all it is way better than having my mouth wired shut and being on a liquid diet. I would however kill for some chips or a burger right now! I am going to be on the soft diet for a month.

The swelling at this point has gone down a lot but I still look like a chipmunk. The pain is also doing much better. The main time I have problems is at night trying to sleep. I am going to take some benadryl tonight and try and catch some zzzzzzz.

I took this week and next week off of work and hope to return mid April. My work has been wonderful letting me take this time so I can get this done. The surgery consisted of a bone graft in my sinus and the placement of five teeth implants plus they broke my jaw and slid it forward to correct my over bite.

I am really excited to see how everything turns out after the swelling and pain goes away. Oh yeah did I mention I can't feel any of my lower lips or jaw. That is fun watching me eat. It is amazing how much food your lower lip can hold for you.

I am going to try and get back to blogging again. I hope it will help me put my crazy thoughts into words again.