$10 for 4 Batteries. Wowsers

No joke, BEfore we left for florida on our vacation we bought a new camera. We bought a Nikon Coolpix  l110. We loved the camera but our whole vacation it was taking blurry pictures. We bought some 10 dollar ultimate lithium batteries and Waalaa! Our camera was taking crisp pictures again yippeeee. So apparently our new camera is very picky about what batteries it wants to eat! After conversing with Zachary P I headed to walmart and picked up some 2300 mah Rechargable batteries. So far the pictures are coming out good. Wish us luck lol :)



I like the camera but really wish it had manual controls. The iso can be changed on the camera but thats about it. Its almost entirely a point and shoot auto camera. When there is good light the shots are gorgeous. All the pictures in my gallery on this site are taken with the l110.

Dec 2010 Trip to Disney World

Sooo about 2 months ago melissa brought up the idea of taking a trip to florida to see mickey and minnie mouse. I said she was crazy it would be way too expensive. We looked it up and found out that they practically give away trips this time of year. We got our whole trip flight, rental car, and hotel for OOOObEr cheapo! We stayed in a gated Community that was very nice, and it was only 61 bucks a night. Amazing i know!
[caption id="attachment_119" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Kitchen view of hotel room"][/caption]

The room had 2 flat screen tvs on the wall, Dishwasher stove sink, washer and dryer and a really comfy bed in the bedroom. IT was really nice to be able to come home to a cozy room after being at the parks all day. This was kaylees second time flying and she did awesome. She slept most the way down to florida. We had packed tons of toys and lolipops and movies for her on the plane and she didnt need any of it!
[caption id="attachment_120" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Kaylee on the Airplane!"][/caption]

We stayed 7 days in kissimmee and it never seems like enough, I will say if you have never been to disney world DO IT! Its amazing, as soon as you enter the parks it makes you feel like a child again and all yer cares and worries in life are gone ( for a week anyways) :). Now we are home and getting ready for some christmas action. I love christmas and being with family. The tree is up and decorations are up. We didnt quite get the outdoor decorations up this year. My back feels pretty good when im out in the cold but once i come inside where its warm it hurts sooooo bad! So i try not to spend toomuch time out in the cold.
[caption id="attachment_122" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Kaylee in her Christmas outfit (thanks auntie kelly)"][/caption]

So ive been a bum at keeping up with new blog posts, I willt ry and do better than once every few months :) But no promises!

Word!

I Think i have the worst luck ever!

Wowsers is a good word to sum up the last month for me. As you all know i had a spinal fusion in april. I was really hoping this was going to fuse and i was on the way to recovery. As time went by after the surgery i knew something wasn't right. Lots of pain and Movement in my lower back. One night towards the end of September melissa and I headed to sleep around 10:30. I tried for about 30 minutes to fall asleep but My back was not cooperating at all. I could not find a good position to sleep. I went for a walk to the kitchen and came back to the bedroom and told melissa i was going to the hospital. She was suprised because i don't do hospitals. They are gross and always unorganized in my opinion.

We arrived and had to wait about 30 minutes. When we got into the room the nurse took vitals etc and I asked for pain meds and she said she could not give me any because the doc had towrite a order for them. I was in there what seemed like forever (im guessing 2 hours) before i saw a doctor. The doctor said he thought my back was just irritated and if i went home and took my pain pills at home i would be fine.. I told him NO that is not going to work. After him leaving and returning a few times i told him I wanted a Xray at least. He said since i wanted it so bad he would order it. THe pain was very bad so they admitted me to the hospital shortly after. They finally did a cT scan and an mri. They found 2 Abcesses of infection right where the surgery was done. Noone could answer why it happened. I had a fever of about 104.2 now. I think my highest i got was 104.8. My neurosurgeon drove up from springfield and decided they need to do surgery right then.

He opened me up debrided the infection and cleaned etc. He installed a cool drain bag that i actually got to play with it was neat to see my blood and Spoooge in a bag. (weird). After they decided to sennd me to icu at Mercy in springfield. I was there till the end of my stay. I was in the hospital 10 days total. Of all those days i remember maybe 3 days total. I remember seeing things and Hearing people. I just wanna say thank you so much for everyone who came and saw me. I wanted to die so bad when i had my fever, i could not even think my brain was boiling like eggs and ham... I just wanna point out that Mercy's ICU is awesome but once i got to the Med Surge floor it was a wreck. Nurseswere rude , Everyone seemed to hate their jobs and tok it out on me. I was definately seeing things and stuff so maybe it was better then i saw and heard :).


When i got sent home i was sent away with a Pic line in my arm to give myself IV antibiotics. I have to stay on those 6-8 weeks. It sucks!!!! I have to wrap it up every time i take a shower so it doesn't get wet :/. I was taking 2 doses/day until my skin fell off my hands and i was bleeding too. They reduced my dose to once a day because the skin falling off. Now im noticing my skin is falling off my feet also. Real annoying. Im on antibiotics and still getting messed up. URGH!. So now im home, Things are going ok. Every day is a tossup as to what pain ill be in. Some days are good and some days i can barely walk. Im really hoping to get this crap over and done with. My neurosurgeon says he wont operate on me now for at least a year because of the infection. So guess it will be more time at home which is nice spending time with kaylee but it gets old real quick not working! PICTURES TO COME!!!!!

APPLE PICKING AND FALL IS HERE!@

[caption id="attachment_50" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Kaylee Riding with the apples after apple picking"][/caption]

We did it! We got to putney to do some apple picking. We almost always wait till the last second every year and end up having to reach way up in the trees to get any apples that are left. The apple orchard in putney is our favorite place to go. They have a horse drawn wagon you can ride for 2 bucks. They bring you for a ride through the fields. I felt bad because the horses were getting tired and had to rest at the top of one of the hills. Zach and michelle and elsa went with us, which works out good for them since they live right there in putneyvillesburgh :). The orchard has machines you can look at, they have antique trucks and Homade fresh apple pies and cookies and cider donuts and hot cider YUM! we had to get some to bring home with us! IT was a perfect apple picking day, it was overcast and around 74ish degrees. Kaylee was very funny to watch she didn't want to leave the trees. She Loved eating the apples. I was kinda afraid to give her an apple but she did awesome with it. Shes getting to be such a big girl. Craziness!

Last night it was like 35 degrees outside and it was sooo nice to run the pellet stove all night long. I LOVE watching the flame and hunkerin down under a nice comfy blanket.. AND NO I will not use a damn snuggie melissa. You can take your snuggie and shove it up yer BUmholiO! .... Love you :) Not that i think they are dumb or anything muhahahaha. Im thinking its just about time to think about ordering some pellets for the stove and to think about getting a snowblower before we are ten feet under snow. We have a rock driveway which will make it hard to clear but I shall get Er DonE!


[caption id="attachment_54" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Kaylee and the Pellet stove. A Harman Advance!"][/caption]

kaylee has been really good so far about not touching the pellet stove. the front gets VERY hot and im sure she will learn real fast after touching it once that its not very fun to do. And how about those patriots? haha you bastardos. Luckily the patriots are not "my" team. But i do cheer for them of course because i live in massachusetts. Can you guess what my team is? The giants but of course i have liked the giants ever since i was a little boy. They are not so hot this year either but If they finish 500 this year that would be a good year in my eyes. I absolutely am addicted to watching sunday football. And since we got HD now its super awesomly great. I was browsing craigslist for a tv for the cellar because we had a 13" down there for football and kaylee to watch while she played down there. I found a 36" for 50 bucks, I offered 40 and they took it. HOLY crapola batman that thing was out of control heavy thank god for my buddy eric or it would have never got into the cellar. Sorry for hurting yer back friend. But thats what friends are for correct?

In conclusion to this awesome blog post (yeah right kortney). I just wanna say thank you to everyone who has helped us out this last year through all the crap im dealing with. Whether it be depression or moving or watching kaylee or just being there to listen to my complaining. Thank you very much! That includes you melissa. Yer a awesome wife and sometimes i totally take that for granted, Yeah you can be moody but yer very cool and put up with a ton if my sh$t! I Love you babe!

PEACE OUT!

YENTROK!

Life is CraZy short RIP BILLY

Where do i start?   We all lost one our good friends on the 13th. Billy thomas was missing and we were all hoping for a safe return. Unfortunately this did not happen. RIP Billy jo, We love you bud,  Ive known billy my whole life. His family lived just down the road from me on hope street during my school years, The kid was a baller, just like every other thomas boy :). Billy was The most quick witted, I dont give a shit what you think guy i ever met. He said the funniest things ive ever heard.  I remember one night jermey came over for poker and In walked his brother behind him and i was like :oh great the poker star came" He always seemed to find a way to beat me even if i had quad kings! True story it happened.  I will miss billy as im sure everyone will.

I will miss helping billy set Our back yard on fire with a little help from mr gasoline. Billy dipped some rags in the gas wrapped them around some boards and pretended he was indiana jones running through the back yard. HE burnt his hands and dropped them on the ground and set the grass on fire. Billy battled his demons for a while and lost the fight, We will miss you billy jo.

Billy Jo Thomas

March 21, 1982 - September 13, 2010

Slideshow Of Billy Thomas

Wordpress In da HizzoUSE




Yup I finally decided to check out  some wordpress action. Simple blog platform but very functional. It might keep my attention for a few weeks :).

[caption id="attachment_7" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="ELSA wrote me a note!"][/caption]

This is a Photo of Elsa shortly after she was born. Melissa's sister had her baby and i wasnt able to go visit her right away because i was sick. Ive been sick quite a bit from taking prednisone and All the dumb meds i think. What an amazing awesome thing to happen to an amazing awesome couple. HAving a child is such a great experience!!!

We are in the middle of packing for our September 1st move to a new house. We will be renting a house from a friend we know and are hoping to buy this new house. Its a 3 bedroom on log plain road and we really like it. It would make a perfect 1st house.  We are ready to leave this place with its leaking front door, random fire alarms going off and Sheetrock falling off the wall  everywhere.

I go back to the doctors on sept. 3rd for another follow up. Im really hoping ive started to fuse because im getting worried ill need the surgery redone over. Theres a 25 percent chance of fusion failure. It depends on lots of factors. Smoking being the hugest one which I definately do not do. Ewww. Grosss. Smoking is disgusting!

[caption id="attachment_9" align="aligncenter" width="182" caption="Kaylees old time photo!"][/caption]

We had the old time photo taken recently at a local fair. Its fair season everyone how exciting is that! Time for fried dough, Demo derby's and Lots of live music! Fall is by far my favorite season. Im loving it so far. It helps having an awesome wife like melissa and a Amazing kid like kaylee she is such a blessing!

[caption id="attachment_10" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Long day at 6 Flags"][/caption]