Art Froelich's forum

Ok, so it’s been a while… a really long time! So where do I begin? Well let’s see what the last date posted was and try to rely on my memory to fill in the gaps leading up to tonight. I will do my best not to forget, but do post a reply if I have so that I can add it to this entry!

Since October 23, 2006 a lot has happened (I can hear a lot of you saying well obviously; right?). Well the following week was Halloween and we had a great deal of children come by the house to trick or treat. This was good to see for when we have children we would like to see that this is a kid community. For Annie Halloween was really fun. Annie grew up in the country and no one ever came to her house to trick or treat  Next year we plan to have a Halloween party and really do up the decorations here.

The next event following Halloween to discuss was Thanksgiving. This year Annie & I went to my Uncle Mark & Aunt Julia’s home to see all the Froelich’s. Several aunts, uncles, nieces & nephews were there. The food there was great as it has been all of the years I’ve been able to attend. We had so much to eat I could have exploded. When the food and drinks were threw it on to playing canasta. In the Froelich family we love to play canasta and it is rather cut throat. If you screw up it will be brought up time after time, after time, after time. The Froelich’s have a great memory when it comes to playing canasta. Annie had never played before and heard of these stories. Not wanting to be shunned from the family Annie was hesitant in wanting to play. Lucky for her she did well and will be able to attend more Froelich family functions

Following Thanksgiving with the Froelich’s it was off to Annie’s folks the next weekend. We also had great food and played various games. Fortunate for me the Burton’s do not have any canasta games that if I do poorly at they will recall for decades to come.

Well this gets us up to December folks we’re about half way up to date! December sure was a crazy month to say the least. Annie and I hosted a party at our place where we had a large selection of food, drinks & games to entertain our guests. For Christmas some of the presents I received included a pool table, dart board, tool chest and an HD plasma TV. Needless to say it was a great Christmas! The following weekend we went to my parents place to exchange gifts because my sister and brother-in-law were unable to make it down with Gregory to our place for Christmas. We had a great time there and received a lot of gifts.

After the party was over at my parents place my mom & dad followed Annie & I back to our place. Once there we had something to eat and watched Nacho Libre on pay-per-view; a rather funny movie worth seeing. Annie, Mom, Dad & I left early in the morning on January 1st to head on down to TN where my grandparents live.

On our road trip down to TN we made several stops. One of the places we drove through was Corbin, KN. Who here knows where Corbin, KN is or what’s there of significant? Well none of us knew the answers to that question either but we do now! Corbin, KN happens to be the birthplace of KFC where Colonel Harland Sanders got his start and has a KFC restaurant with museum. Needless to say this is where we had lunch on our road trip down to TN.

My grandparents had only been in their new house a few months when we visited them during the first week of January. I must say that I like this house the best out of all the homes they have had. Way to go Grandma & Grandpa! We had a great time there on New Years as well as the days to follow.

During our time in TN Annie and I had the opportunity to drive through the Appalachian Mountains and travel into North Carolina. The scenery throughout the mountains was truly breathtaking to see. From babbling brooks, raging white rapids, snow capped mountains, numerous waterfalls & an abundant wild life TN is truly a beautiful state to visit.

Annie had never skied before and I suggested that we get out to the slopes and do some skiing. I have skied in the Colorado Rockies as well as a few places in Wisconsin & Iowa. I find skiing to be very fun and an activity that you can do for 8 hours or more a day and not get board form it. Now when we were there it took us over 3 hours to get to the top of the mountain, purchase our ski rental, lift tickets, get fitted for our skies and make it to the first slope. I don’t know what the staff was doing, but I have never had to wait that long; worst case ever an hour long wait. When we got there I suggested to Annie that she take a lesson prior to going down, but Annie said that would be a waist of time & money. I did my best to teach Annie but after being off the slopes for several years myself I could only do so much. After a few times down the slope, several falls and bruises later Annie had enough. Personally I didn’t fall anytime while we were there, but Annie did a great job for a beginner with no lessons. Needless to say when we do return there or to other slopes Annie has agreed to take a few lessons.

Gregory turns 1; it’s time to party! On Tuesday, February 28th, 2006 at 9:01 pm my Godson Gregory William Burgess was born. To celebrate his one year birthday my sister and brother-in-law had a party for Gregory. For his first birthday Annie & I purchased for him a large turtle shaped sandbox with lid. There was plenty of food and deserts to go around. Several family and friends were there to celebrate.

Annie is VERY close to graduating in May and we are both excited. I know Annie will do well as an RN and hope she will be able to find a job in Chicago working close to me. Annie is going on her first interview for a “real” job tomorrow. Pray for her that she does well!

I hope everyone is doing well. Please post and let me know how you are doing, what’s new and if I missed something.

Pictures will be posted later in the week. I promise it won’t take months to post the pictures

Well where do I begin? So a lot has happened this summer, and most there’s been a lot of missed postings and content that should have been done. So I will begin by discussing this weekend and do my best to go back in time chronologically. For the first weekend in about the last 3 months or so Annie and I had nothing planned and it was great. I slept in until about 10 or so, and for the life of me I can’t recall the last time either of us have been able to do so. On Saturday Annie and I did some house cleaning which was pilling up on us and then went downtown Chicago around 2:00. We ate at a place called the Italian Village which was awesome. The food was delivered fast and served hot. I had lasagna while Annie had fettuccini alfredo and chicken stuffed with sausage. It was an authentic Italian style restraint and although I could have tried something new I figured I would go with what I knew was good. Afterwards we then went to the Hershey shop and had sundaes there. I had a hot fudge sundae with peanut butter cups, while Annie had one with reeses pieces. The best thing about our evening out was that everything was free. For Annie’s birthday my parents gave Annie $50 in gift cards to the Italian Village & I was given free ice cream passes to Hershey’s from some one at work. It was now around 7 at night and the rain was starting to come down. We decided we would head back home and jumped on the 7:20 train. Pictures Upon returning home we decided to go to home depot and do some shopping. We had received several hundreds of dollars of gift cards for home depot since buying our home. When we purchased our home we got gift cards from lending tree; we got gift cards from people as birthday presents; we got gift cards back from home depot for buying all new appliances from them. Let’s just say we had a lot of gift cards that we hadn’t used… yet that is. Annie and I always wanted a fireplace. So we decided to look at some electrical fireplaces Saturday night. We found a nice cherry mahogany wood fireplace that we liked and decided to give it a home. The fireplace does not eliminate having to use heat in the house, however while we are home and in the living room we do turn off the heat and just use the fireplace. It puts out 4600 BTUs and tends to keep us warm while adding an elegant looks to our living room. Pictures On Sunday we spent more time tending to the house. We cleaned, vacuumed, did the dishes, laundry, cut the grass and went food shopping. I guess you could say we were a little busy. When the night was over and about 11:00 I have now decided to try and update my site. Last weekend on Sunday September 14th our dog Sarge had his picture taken for a calendar sponsored by the Kankakee Animal Humane Society. They were taking pictures of animals that they had adopted out over the last several years and decided that they wanted Sarge as one of their pets of the month calendar. Pictures On Saturday September 15th Annie and I went to Montgomery to visit my parents. We took the jeep since my parents wanted to go out and buy a ladder while we were there. Our trip there didn’t seem too bad. However, as we kept getting closer the breaks got louder and more difficult to stop. We were lucky enough to find a farm n fleet that managed to get us in at around 7:00 Sat. night. We had our breaks and rodders replaced that night. As much as we didn’t want to part with that much money we knew it had to be done. Other than having to get the breaks worked on we had a great visit. On the weekend of October 7th and 8th Annie and I went to Charleston to visit Megan at Eastern IL University. It was friends & parents weekend. We spent a few hours with Annie’s parents Sat. then it was off to Charleston. When we got there we checked into our hotel room and meet with Megan shortly there after. Around 6:00 we went out for dinner and had some pizza, bread sticks and pop. Afterwards we went to see Megan’s place which was very nice. When we were done there we went to the school to see Foreigner whom is a rock band from the 80’s. They played such songs as: Feels like the first time, cold as ice, hot blooded, double vision, head games, urgent, juke box hero, I want to know what love is and say you will. I must say they really put on a good show. Then on Sunday we went to Rockholm Gardens and ate at an Amish restaurant there. The food was all made from scratch and was quite good. On October 2nd my father turned 65 so we decided to throw him a surprise birthday party at our place. The party was on Saturday September 30th. Several of my dad’s friends and family showed up for the occasion and we had a great time. There were hot dogs, hamburgers, shrimps, chips, Italian beef sandwiches (that Annie made in a crock pot for about 12 hours or so), cup cakes and many other entrees. Pictures On Sunday September 24th at 1:05 pm the white sox played their last home game of the season. I decided to buy tickets to see this game at the beginning o the season. Seeing as last season their last game of the season meant something I figured I should buy one for this season. The game was great; we had a couple home runs and a grand slam. I purchased box seats and thought that the tickets were great. However sometimes things are too good to be true. I bought them at regular price and thought “wow these are cheap for box tickets.” Well I had seats that were called “box seats” but where nothing like them! I was literally one row from the top and I had a pole in front of me going down the 3rd base line. This was the complete opposite to my prior posting of “Best Sox Game Ever – 8/16/06”. We actually moved up to the top row and moved a few seats over so the pole wasn’t blocking our view of the game. As I said the game was great, but the seats sucked! Well anyways we had a good time none the less. On Saturday September 23rd we were very busy. In the morning we went to Naperville to celebrate my brother-in-law’s birthday. We went to Olive Garden and then back to their house to open gifts and converse. After lunch and visiting Annie and I went down to Sheldon for our friends Mathew and Kelly’s engagement party. We saw all of our friends from Sheldon there and caught up on old times. Unfortunately I had forgotten my camera at home and don’t have any pictures of either of these occasions. It was nice to see everyone and we wish Mathew and Kelly all the best. On Saturday September 16th, our friends Jon & Katie came up to Kankakee and we visited for a while then went out for Chinese food. It was great to see them and had a great time. After we were done with lunch Katie needed to get some pet food for her cat. We went next door to PetCo and noticed that the Kankakee County Animal Shelter where looking for people to adopt cats and dogs. This is when we saw and fell in love with Sarge. We do not know how he got that name but for lack of a better name we kept the name given to him. Sarge was found in Kankakee near Burger King and was feed whoppers and what ever scraps he could find. When the shelter took in Sarge they could see his ribs and backbone. He had also come down with a very bad cough and cold when he was brought in. The great news is that Sarge has made a full recovery, is healthy, goes to bed on a full stomach and receives the same amount of unconditional love in return that he shows to us. On Saturday September 9th we had a birthday party for Annie who finally turned 21! We had a great turn out at our home where we had much to eat and celebrate. There were fruit trays, hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, desserts, games, activities and a fire at night. Annie received many gifts and had several people attending which made this day one which will be remembered for a life time. At night it was getting a bit cold and my dad needed a jacket. Knowing that he is a cubs fan and I am a sox fan I thought it was only fitting that he be given my sox jacket to use to warm up. At first I don’t think he knew it was a six jacket but then he started thinking that this black jacket was probably my sox jacket and muttered a few words and said to shut up and give em the damn jacket. Thank goodness for digital cameras and the internet. I’m not going to let him live this one down. Pictures On Friday September 8th Annie officially turned 21. That night we did a “bar crawl” where we went to about 10 different bars and had one drink at each one. I only had 2-3 drinks since I had to drive while Annie on the other hand enjoyed herself. Annie and I didn’t drink too much though since we were going to have a party at our house the following day. On Saturday September 2nd we cut down most of our trees. See posting below for more info. Pictures Then there was August. On Saturday August 26th we visited with my parents. On Sunday August 20th we visited with Annie’s parents. Saturday August 19th we visited with my parents. Then there was the best sox game ever on Tuesday August 15th; see posting below. On Saturday August 12th we visited my sister for her Birthday. Other events which took place this summer include: My Godson/nephew Gregory being baptized - Pictures Annie & I attending the Broadway musical Wicked; which I highly recommend seeing! Pictures Annie & I had our one year anniversary (we went to Lincoln Park zoo, had dinner downtown and went on a cruise and watched fireworks over the city). You know for saving our cake one year and eating it on our anniversary it really tasted as though it did on the night we ate it. Pictures Well that’s all for now. I think that pretty much sums up my summer. Whew!

On Sat. Annie, my in-laws, brother-in-law and I took down 4 trees and extracted several stumps and roots around our house. We wanted to get rid of our fruit bearing trees which attracted several bees, wasps, hornets etc. As many people know I am highly allergic to bees and having these trees posed a problem. So allergic that for example that if I were to get stung in the forearm, my whole arm would get warm, swell up, I would have a fever and get sick. I currently have an epipen prescribed by my doctor in the event that I get stung. We had 2 chainsaws going, sheers, a few axes and shovels to complete the project. We first started with the apple tree in our front yard. After cutting down the apple tree we moved to the backyard and took down two cranberry trees. Once done with these two trees we took down the pear tree. Now that all 4 trees were cut down we moved to the side of the house and trimmed up one of our trees that were rubbing against our house and our neighbor’s home. After we trimmed up this tree we then trimmed up our other tree on the opposite side of the house and made sure none of the branches from that tree were on our roof or touching the siding. While Matt was up on the roof we also cleaned the gutters out. All the leaves, branches and debris were removed from the gutters and were washed out. Once the gutters were cleaned out we then extracted several roots that were growing along the side of the house. After those roots were dug out we then went to the back yard to pull up some roots and stumps that were left behind from trees that were planted here before we owned the house. Unfortunately we had several roots and stumps in the back yard that could not be dug up so we had Matt bring his 4x4 pickup truck to our back yard to hook up a chain to pull them out. It worked well, however there are a few ruts in the back yard. We plan on working in our backyard today to smooth out the ruts, plant grass seed and fix the ruts. Next week the town is doing tree, limb pickup and we have a lot for them. We have about a 10 foot long, 4 foot wide, 5 foot high stack of branches for them to pick up. We also have a great deal of firewood in our back yard that we plan on using for our firebowl. Since we live in town the only way you can burn wood here in Cook County is if you have a firebowl. Well that’s it for this post. Hope all is going well. Pictures

Ok so why was the best sox game ever on August 15th, 2006 you ask? Well even though the sox did loose to KC that night I had one of the best tickets you can get for that game. It all happened at my sister's 30th birthday party the previous weekend when I was talking with Rich (my nephew's Godmother's husband) about a sox game. When I was speaking to Rich he told me that his brother was a season ticket holder and he was going to be going to a sox game on the 15th and had "scout tickets". I said I would love to go and if he had an extra ticket I would be willing to take it off his hands (completely joking and not knowing at the time he had an extra ticket). Rich then informed me that he had 1 extra ticket to the game and if I wanted to go the ticket was mine. Apparently it was my lucky day! Of course I said; I would love to go! So he and his wife Laura dropped off the extra ticket and parking pass to my sister's house on Sunday for me to pick up. The seats are directly behind home plate and come with a parking pass directly in front of Comisky! When I arrived I got there way to early to get in. However as I was wondering around the parking lot I noticed all the employees going in and no one asking to see any form of ID... so what was I to do? Well as you would guess I decide to push the envelope and see if I can get in un-noticed...and I did! I was sitting in the seats with no one around just watching a few pitchers practicing. Then all of a sudden the dugout empties and all the sox players empty out onto the field as though they were being attacked by the cubs for no apparent reason. I saw the whole team go out to the pitchers mound for a team photo shoot. That was one awesome picture! Well it was getting to be that time where I felt I should go back with the other ticket holders and wait my turn to be let in... again. When I was let in I was taken in a private entrance and escorted into a private dinning area where there was all the free food you could eat. They had chefs carving turkey, beef, ham you name it, it was there. I ate so much I think I gained 5 pound durring that meal. Then I was informed by Rich not to eat to much food, there's more free food once we sit down; now that's what I'm talking about. Ohhh, I was in heaven. There was hot dogs, peanuts, pop-corn, roast beef sandwiches, pop, mixed drinks, beer and ohh yes, it was all free! Just tell the waiter what you wanted and it was yours. I felt like I was king of Comisky (for at least one day). I kept thanking Rich and Laura all night long for this once in a life time opportunity. It was by far one of the best nights ever! Pictures

When: Saturday, August 5, 2006. Starting at 1:00 pm. Ending at ??:?? Where: 1875 Reichert Ave, Sauk Village, IL 60411 MAP We will be having hot dogs, hamburgers, brats, chips, pop, keg of beer, music, darts, air hockey, horse shoe games and much more going on. Hope to see you all there!

Annie and I have been rather busy the last month moving in, painting, yard work, unpacking etc. We are almost done unpacking and done with most of our some what small projects. Though from what most home owners have told Annie & I we'll never be done with projects & will always find something we want to do. For now we have painted the kitchen a deep burgendy color and the living room a light brown. The bathroom has been painted light blue. Annie & I hope to have a house warming party sometime in August. More will be posted and invitations will be mailed out when the time comes. Hope everyone is doing well. House pictures

Ok, so it's been a while since I last made an entry. The reason so is because over the last 2 months Annie and I have been house shopping and we did not want to post that we had been looking and then get our hopes up on a house and not get it. We tried looking last year, but could not acquire a loan for a home up in this area. This year however was much different in that we qualified for a rather large home loan and had several homes that we could choose from and afford. I did qualify for a rather large loan, but there was no way I was going to take out a huge mortgage and get in over my head. We did find a very beautiful home in the town of Sauk Village, IL and closed on it this evening. We have a 3 bedroom, 1 bath, raised ranch with a full basement, large fenced in back yard that has a 20’ x 12’ deck. We have French doors in our dinning area that lead out to our deck. The siding is 3 years old, roof 1 year old, new paint throughout, central air 3 months old, new carpets, new windows, brand new kitchen cabinets as well as new ceramic flooring in the kitchen. We bought all new appliances (Maytag) to go with the house from Home Depot last weekend which include: refrigerator, dishwasher, range, under cabinet microwave, washer & dryer.
We have several projects that we are going to work on in our new home. The first few projects we plan to complete in the next few weeks. These projects include: paint the kitchen, living room, den, bathroom and deck. We have purchased all of the paint needed (or se we hope) to complete these projects. We have plans for our basement that include adding a second bathroom with shower and creating a 4th bedroom in the basement. On the other side of the basement that isn’t being used we plan to build a bar, purchase a pool table and create a game room downstairs. For the living room the only project planed is to save up enough money to buy a 61” plasma TV, but that ones going to be a while

Our new address is:
1875 Reichert Ave
Sauk Village, IL 60411

Pictures of the home will be posted later in the week. Come back soon to see the pictures. Take care!

***Comments are no longer allowed to this entry. I have been recieving aprox 3-5 "new entries" per day to this post from spammers (ie - people trying to post credit card offers, debt relief etc.)

Well I haven't updated in a while, but I must say though there's not too much new to report on. A few weekends ago Annie and I went to Orland Park to pick up some computer equipment. A friend of mine had her hard drive crash and I had to pick up a new hard drive and additional memory. I had been working on retrieving data from the hard drive prior to the weekend various ways, but when the hard drive is making the noise of a pinball being batted around in a pinball machine there isn't too much you can do to recover the data. The following day my friend Cindy and her family came up to pick up her computer and treated us to dinner at Chicago dough pizza. Very good pizza there if you ask me. I told her that dinner was payment enough and that I don't mind helping friends. However she told me to come by the farm next weekend and she would give me some Angus beef. Last weekend Annie & I went down to visit her family and to go see Cindy. Our visit with Annie's parents went well and we had a great time. After visiting we then proceeded to Cindy’s house to pick up some Angus beef. To my knowledge I don't think I've had Angus beef that pretty much came straight from the farmer and wow is it good! Annie and I have been eating well these last few days and I must say I am very impressed. In fact I think maybe after Annie and I run out I may need to call Cindy back and see how much it would cost to buy some angus beef from her because it is really that good. Best meat I've ever had. The following day my sister's in-laws were throwing her a baby shower. So Annie and I drove up to Dixon, IL to go to the shower. I visited there for about a half hour or so then left Annie there at the shower and proceeded into town to visit some of my old high school friends. I visited Chris Davis, Jeremy Lawson and John Day who was working at a restaurant where Annie and I went for dinner. As is with most small towns (pop. aprox. 18,000) not to much have changed since high school. Sure maybe a few new buildings here and there, but otherwise my friends are still doing well and I had a nice visit with my friends that I haven't seen in a long time. As far as things go in Chicago there’s always something going on. There’s now construction on the Dan Ryan which started on Monday and is projected to be a 2 year project. Thank god for the Metra! I would hate to have to drive the Dan Ryan to work in construction. It makes perfect sense to take the train, avoid the construction and save money! Well that's what's new with me. Feel free to reply and let me know how things are going with you. Take care - Art

I swear the work weeks get longer and the weekends keep get shorter. Not too much happened last week other than the normal 40 hour work week and longing for the weekend. On Friday March 10th after work at about 6:00pm Annie and I went to Kankakee Community College. There Annie (VP of Phi-Theta-Kappa) gave a speech to the new members of Phi-Theta-Kappa welcoming them into the club. We were there from about 6 – 7:30. After that was over we continued southward to Auburn, IL where we went to visit with my parents. Getting in right around midnight needless to say my parents were sleeping. Saturday morning we had homemade breakfast that my mom picked up from Casey’s. After eating our long johns we visited with my parents until it was lunch time when we had then decided to go to Red Lobster for lunch. The lunch was great! After lunch we then headed back up north to visit the other in-laws. We arrived in Sheldon around 6 or so right in time for dinner. After we were done eating it was off to the bowling alley. It had been years since Annie and I went bowling but it was rather enjoyable. On Sunday Annie’s father gave me his motorcycle as a wedding present. He was going to give it to me last year, but it was rather late in the season when he thought of giving it to me as a gift. So on Sunday Annie’s parents took their bike out and Annie & I took my bike out. The weather was real nice and it was nice to go for a ride in the country. On our ride we stopped by and saw “tank” my English Mastiff puppy that I had to give up because of the move to an apartment. Tank has really grown! I think he’s pretty close to being 200 pounds. After our ride we had steak and chicken back at the in-laws. When we left we meet with Mathew and Kelly on our way back home at dairy Queen and didn’t get back home until around 8:00 pm or so. On our drive back home Annie and I decided to go to Olive Garden so that Annie could pick up an application to get some weekend work and make some extra money to help put away for a house. We would like to buy a house around August or so. However we would have to come up with about 10% down payment. In order to do so though we would need about $10k or so in the bank; we’re getting close though. So hopefully Annie will be able to get a job at Olive Garden and we can have enough in the bank to buy in August. As for here we are planning to move we’re still not sure. We have thought about the NW suburbs; however that would be cutting it close. We have also thought about moving to University Park which is the furthest south stop on the electric line where housing and real-estate taxes are cheap and come with a decent amount of land for your money. It’s still too early to tell. We do plan on looking seriously around June and talking with banks around then to see how things look. No new pictures this weekend. Maybe next weekend. Take care everyone!

Yet another busy weekend passed us by. As usual it was a fun weekend, but just went by to quick. On Friday the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation, Information Services department that I work for went out for dinner after work. We had a very nice turn out and went to a rather fancy steak & seafood restaurant in Chicago. Each month there is an after hours outing and this month it was at Shaw's Crab House. Annie & I had the 8oz filet minion and I must say it was one of the best steaks we have ever had. I have taken pictures and posted them under "March company outing." Here are links to the restaurant: http://www.shawscrabhouse.com/chicago.html http://www.shawscrabhouse.com/text/mdr_dinner.pdf On Saturday Annie & I went to visit my sister, brother-in-law, nephew, mom & dad in Naperville. I could not believe just how much Gregory could sleep. It was a rather interesting experience being around a new born who was only 4 days old. At such a young age his eyes had not yet developed and could only see up to 6 inches in front of him. Needless to say he did not open his eyes to much. As well for such a young child he sleeps most of the day, and he did just that while we were there. Annie & I did get to hold Gregory and watch over him giving Jen & Brian some time to relax and get a few hours sleep. We had taken several pictures of our visit on Saturday and posted them under the photos section entitled "Gregory William Burgess - 4 days old". On Sunday Annie & I went down to Sheldon to celebrate Annie's mother's birthday. We met with her brother Matt there and Matt's new puppy that he brought down with him. The puppy is a mix lab and was very playful. We had pork burgers, hot dogs & bratwurst that were cooked on the grill. For dessert Annie & I brought down a french silk pie bakers square. To my surprise my in-laws had never had pie from backers square before. Needless to say they were very pleased with the french silk pie that we had. We had a very nice visit with them returned home around 10:00 pm Sunday night. Hope all are doing well, until next weekend take care everyone!

Last night at 9:01pm my sister gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby boy. Gregory William Burgess was born 7 pounds 8 ounces & 19" long. Both Jennifer & Brian were of course very excited as were my wife, father & I who where at the hospital last night. I had received a call from my mom around 1:30 saying that Jen had called around 1 and her water had broke. Then around 3 or so I got another call from my parents saying that the contractions were about 2 minutes apart. I didn't get off work until 4 pm and the next train out of Chicago to Richton Park didn't leave until 4:38. After I arrived home Annie & I threw some left over pizza in the microwave, scarf down our food then left at about 6 pm. With my sister being only about 2 minutes apart around 3 pm I figured there would be no way I was getting to Naperville on time to see the child immediately after Jennifer gave birth. Well apparently I was wrong. Annie & I arrived at Edwards hospital in Naperville around 7 pm. On our way in my Dad & I were calling each other to see if either one of us had heard anything about how Jen was doing. We both had assumed that neither one of us were going to make it on time. To our surprise we did. When Annie & I arrived we visited with Jen & Brain for about 10 minutes. My dad had arrived shortly there after and spent some time with Jen & Brian as well. A few minutes after my father had arrived my sister was saying that she could feel the head coming and to go get the Dr. & nurse quick! Well that was our queue to get out. We went out to the waiting room and sat for what seemed to be an eternity. Well at 9:01 while we were sitting in the waiting room we heard a lullaby melody playing over the intercom for a few minutes. Apparently when some one has a baby the hospital will play a lullaby melody to signify that some one has given birth. Well there were 2 other families in the waiting room with us and we were all wondering who the lucky family was that just had a child. Everyone was looking at the door leading into the delivery area with anticipation waiting to see the new father come out to announce that their wife had given birth. At about 9:45 Brain comes out to announce “it’s a boy”! Brian was grinning from ear to ear with excitement and could blame em! We all congratulated him and then were lead into see Jen and the one hour old Gregory William Burgess. For just giving birth Jen really looked good. Gregory looked very good as well & was very quite when we held him. We were all very relieved that both Jen and the child were healthy and that all went well. I have posted pictures under the photos section entitled “Gregory William Burgess”.

There seems to be a bit of a flue going around and last Thursday & Friday I was definitely affected by it. On Wednesday I was told by some of my co-workers to go home because I looked so bad, but managed to make it through the day. However, when I woke up Thursday I was in no condition to go in to work. Most of Thursday was spent sleeping and recovering from this cold which consisted of headaches, sinus problems and sore throat. When I woke up Friday most of the same symptoms were around along with a fever of over 100. On Saturday when I awoke most of my cold had gone away and I did start to feel much better.

Cub tickets went on sale this weekend. Unfortunately I missed the opportunity to buy tickets the day they went on sale for Comiskey Park and I did not get the chance to buy tickets to see the sox VS cubs. I did however manage to get 4 tickets to see the Cubs VS Sox at Wrigley Field. Dad & I spent about 2 hours in a "virtual waiting room" to get a chance to buy cubs tickets. Dad didn't ever get in to have the chance to buy tickets, I however was picked and managed to buy 4 tickets to see the Sox beat the cubs at Wrigley Field. This will be a fun time. Not only will the Sox win, but at Wrigley Field and I get the chance to rub it in my parents & wife's face; oh it's going to be a good day.

Annie & I took a trip into Merrillville, IN this weekend which is less then 20 miles from where we live. Annie & I went to the mall there and explored a lot of the shops in the area around there. We found a very nice steak house that we plan to go to for a "special occasion" some time. It's called Rodizio's steak house located at Meyer's Castle. Click on the Rodizio's link at http://www.meyerscastle.com. Who knows maybe if Annie & I win the lottery maybe we’ll have our 25 wedding anniversary at Meyer’s Castle, but that would mean we’d have to start buying lottery tickets and that doesn’t really ever happen. It looks as though the mall near us is going to be revamped which will be much nicer then what it currently is. http://www.lincoln-mall.com/info/serious/presentation.htm

On Sat. Annie left me to go to Sheldon and then went to meet up with Megan Gooding’s parents to go down to Charleston. It was family day for the girls in Megan’s sorority at EIU. Not sure what they’re doing down there, but it gave me a day of being able to play Xbox, listen to loud music (though not to loud due to having neighbors) and just being a guy. I did of course miss my wife Annie… as well as the home cooked meals.

As for Sunday I spent a good part of the day watching TV and just relaxing. It’s nice sometimes to not have the weekend booked and to just relax. Until the next posting take care & I hope everyone is doing well. God bless.

No new pictures posted this weekend.

Well, this last weekend was a fun one! On Sat. Annie & I went to the Holiday Inn Select in Naperville for Jennifer's 1st baby shower. We had such a great time there & the food was excellent. At the shower there were several games & prizes that took place with quite a few gifts given away. I along with about 5 other guests won a teddy bear. Though some may have said it was rigged since the sister’s brother won, but I claim to have won it fair and square. I have updated the photos section with pictures from the shower under the title “sister’s baby shower.” After the shower Annie & I were headed back home to Park Forest. It was a Saturday night and only about 5:30 pm so we decided that we had to find something to do. Well, ok I decided we had to find something to do. Can’t stay home on a Sat. night with all this night life amongst us. We were passing by Oak Brook and decided to go to Oak Brook mall. I haven’t been there in a long time and would say I’ve only been there about 2-3 times. Of all the times I went there though it was in the summer. I had forgotten that it was ALL outdoors and none of the stores were connected. I would not recommend going to this mall when the temp is in the teens and wind-chills near 0 degrees. We did have fun though, which is what matters. Pictures were posted to the photos section under “Oakbrook mall visit.” On Sunday our friends Sarah and Matt came up from Gilman to visit us. Annie made some pork burgers and french-fries for lunch. Afterwards we caught the train and rode into the McCormick Place where we went to the Chicago Auto Show. After we got off the train Matt & Sarah ran into some friends of theirs they knew from back home. Lucky for us they happened to have about 14 free tickets they got from a family member who works at a dealership and had extra tickets. The four of us were given free tickets to go to the show. Thanks Matt & Sarah! The show was awesome! There were so many cars there ranging from $15k to $2.2+ million. Amongst us Matt was the only one who had been to the Chicago Auto Show. I must say I will be going again to this next year and the years to come. After the show we continued northward and hopped on the Metra to Millennium Park station. From there we went to Benigins and ate dinner. I took well over a hundred pictures of the event Sat. and have posted them to the photos section entitled “Chicago auto show.”

I have decided to have a few categories for areas of discussions and decide to create an open forum. This is where guests can post messages that do not relate to designated categories. Feel free to express your feelings of the site, current events or other issues.

Hope all have had a great valentine's day today. This evening after work Annie & I had a nice home cooked meal. We had filet mignon, potatoes soup, corn, sparkling grape juice (neither one of us like wine) and some potato soup. Annie and I have been rather busy so after work I went out to shop for her and she went out after school today to shop for me. I was going to do the typical jewelry, flowers and/or candy but could not find anything really that romantic to get her that she doesn't all ready have. We agreed to get each other something small since we each got an Ipod for each other a few weeks ago and agreed that would be our gift to each other for Valentine's Day as well as an early tax return present to each other. I could not think of anything to get Annie, and she kept insisting that the ipods were good enough gifts for Valentines Day. Annie told me that she really wanted a food processor and that's what she wanted. Yeah I know, not romantic in the least, but that's what she asked for. I went to Kohl's and got her a Kitchen Aid food processor. From Annie I got a very nice romantic dinner with all of the above items and a down comforter to go with our silk sheets that we got for Christmas from my parents. On Sunday Annie and I will be attending the last day of the auto show in Chicago at the McCormick place. More will be posted next week concerning this weekends event. If anyone would be interested in going there or meeting us at the car show please let either Annie or I know. We have ever been to the auto show but have heard great remarks about this years auto show. For being so close to Chicago, it would be a shame not to go.