Happy Birthday, Dad.

Yesterday would have been my dad’s 54th birthday. I still think about him every day. I miss him very much.

Here is a picture of Troy and Wynter that I took, back in the summer. We stopped at the cemetery to put some flowers out.

I love you dad.

Happy Birthday Wynter!

We celebrated Wynter’s 3rd birthday today, and we had lots of fun!

The theme of the party was “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”. The kids had story time, went on a bear hunt, ate sandwiches and cake in our backyard picnic, and generally had a great time.

Here are pictures from the party. Enjoy!

(You may need to click the right arrow button beside the pictures on the next page that pops up).

Fall? It better be soon!

So is anyone else tired of the burning hot sun, always in your face when driving? Blasting the air conditioner does little to help when the UV rays are searing your skin cells. I’M SICK OF HOT WEATHER.

I love the Fall/Winter season. They are my favorite time of year. You get to wear jeans and long sleeve shirts. The air feels crisp and cool, and very inviting. You don’t feel like your going to suffocate if you decide to go for a stroll with the family.

So come on, old man winter, and get here as quickly as possible!

Happy Birthday to me!

#31. Woohoo!

Hefner Family Update

Well, it’s been quite a few months since my journey at Dell started back in January of 2010. The journey lasted for approximately 6 months before I was offered another opportunity at a growing Healthcare company in Brentwood, TN.

This new opportunity provided an increase in pay, as well as job title and was closer to home. The decision was easy, to say the least and I’m very happy here.

I am currently the IT Systems Manager at work, and am currently tasked with planning and growing the company’s technical infrastructure. This is truly an exciting time for me, as I’m more involved with creating and managing the company’s technical assets.

Enough about me, how about the fam? Kelly is doing well, now that she is under chiropractic care for her neck. Troy and Wynter are doing really well. Troy is home schooling and Wynter goes to pre-school 2 days a week (and LOVES it).

We’re still in our small house in Franklin and are preparing to fix it up some. The bathroom floor is in really bad shape, and the bathtub needs to be replaced. Some how we’ll come up with the money to do all of this…lol.

More pictures of the kids are forthcoming. Stay tuned!

Happier without Facebook

Isn’t it amazing how something (that originally started out as fun and exciting) can quickly become annoying, time consuming, and frustrating. This is how I feel about my experience with Facebook.

First I need to point out some positives. Facebook helped me to reconnect to people that I haven’t heard from in 15+ years. That is the only positive thing I have to say about Facebook.

What I did not enjoy was the total invasion of my privacy. I don’t like the fact that Facebook openly shares my information, without my consent (and their bogus TOS doesn’t count as “consent”). Even after I locked my account down, I still saw information, that should have been private, shared openly on Google.

I could go on for ages about this, but it isn’t worth my time.

Needless to say, I’m now Facebook free and I couldn’t be happier! I will my miss friends. I hope you can wander your way here some time.

A story from the Heart...

here's the story:

I was working yesterday (@Dell) answering calls. I stood up to pose a question to a co-worker. I literally took 6 steps from my desk to his, when my heartbeat shot sky high,at least 130+bpm, I had intense pressure in my head/ears, became disoriented and collapsed into a chair. I was still conscious the whole time, so they helped me up and I laid on the floor in another room. After about 30 minutes (and several vital sign tests) my BP was fine, but my heartrate was still elevated (between 100-129) and they couldn't get it down. My boss (and the nurse on site) decided that I needed to go to the Hospital, so I went to Southern Hills (don't EVER go there if you have a choice!) where I was stabbed in the arms numerous times by nurses (who seemed like they could care less), while trying to draw blood, AND get an IV (at the same time!). My arms look like I'm a junkie...it's awful. After 6-8 hours, I was put into a room on an abandoned floor (4th, used to be Labor&Delivery), in a room with little heat, no telephone, and I left my cell charger in my bag (which I didn't have with me).

They ran me through the gamut of heart tests (EKG, Stress Tests, Echogram). I was hooked up to these weird little boxes that looked like a reject Gameboy from the late 80s. Oh, they also gave me nitroglycerin, which gave me a killer headache. Doctor told me that all tests came back negative. My heart is perfectly healthy, my BP is excellent, but that I need to lay off the caffeine. Once burnt, lesson learnt. All I had to eat was some really gross hospital food, a pack of RANCID saltine crackers, and Sprite.

By the end of it all, I left the hospital around 8 pm on 2/24. Took a cab back to Dell (Dell policy wouldn't let me drive myself to the hospital), got in my car, went to Hardees, promptly ate a bacon cheeseburger to reward myself for the torture that I just endured, arrived at home, found my cat (who had been locked outside since I left for work the day before), crawled into bed and slept.

What am I doing now? Preparing to go back to work, as soon as I set up an appointment with my primary care physician.

Winter of 2010

Troy and Wynter had fun sledding in the front yard. The yard was completely frozen over and was a great place to sled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X56sq2NZNA

Here are some pictures of the event.