The Frozen Water Experimentation

Greetings. Hope everyone survived the crazy snow we got yesterday into today. The freeway was a nightmare, but my Corolla prevailed and I made it home. Today, Mia and I made a decent size snow-penguin. Everyone always has pictures of snow men and I thought it'd be fun to do something completely different and challenging. So we built one in the front yard. It was a lot of fun. After I took the picture of her standing next to it and posted it, I started thinking of ways I could have improved it: Maybe slim the side down, carve the beak or add a scarf. Oh well. I'm content with it. Mia wanted to go back inside, so I had to call it quits. The picture even got on the TMJ4 local news kid's section of their website. Rad :) Decided not to try the whole sledding thing again because every time I even mention the word "sledding" she says "NO NO Daddy".

Mia's already outgrew her shoes, so we picked up some nice ones that fit better. Can't believe how big she's getting. Her vocabulary is insane. She can say so much, ask questions, says thank you, remembers people's names,etc. My Dad told me today that she's growing up too fast. I can't agree with him, sorry fellow parents. I am absolutely loving how smart she's getting, the independence, the fact that she's actually getting the whole potty training thing!! Just today, I took her to her potty seat AND the toilet at my parent's house. She's really getting it. Hard to believe, but it's happening.

Sort of on a whim, Mia and I went on our classic adventure around the area: Surprise visit Jill at work , surprise visit Grandpa and catch the majority of the Chelsea FC game, then after go see Grandma. Mia and I cheered on our Blues to a 2-0 victory (FINALLY!) Shortly after we headed over by Grandma. She was happy to see us, per the usual. As soon as I start to leave the parking lot, she was out FAST. Overall, it was quite a nice day off. Makes up for my last Wednesday when I was stuck working. Love these days off. They're the best. Especially spending time with Jill after work. We barely see each other so we try to enjoy our time together if possible. This weekend, my older bro and his familia are coming to town so we'll get to visit with them. Also we're going to try to make some custom shirts for Mia through Vista print. Should be rad :) Thanks for reading!

Navigating the Windward Passage

Greetings. Been an interesting few days. Over the weekend, we ended up going to Stone Fire Pizza again. Mia bowled for the FIRST time. yes, they have bowling for little kids. Only one bumper was up, so gutter balls frequent, but she still had some fun. The place was super packed, which reminds us not to go there on a Saturday evening. The lines for food were insane and the game room was littered with people. Overall, great evening :) Not excited to post this, but Sunday, my lovely wife Jill hurt her back again. Luckily, she's on he slow recovery, and as of today, feeling a little better. Even after an 11 hour shift. But man, that Sunday when I left work early to get home and take care of her. She couldn't move, walk or do anything. I could easily ramble about how unfair it was that she hurt her back again after suffering with a bulging disc most of 2012, but that would take me quite a few hours. Plus, no one wants to read a long ass rambling. Anyway, so this week, she's recovering and I hope she can get better soon. It isn't easy trying to take it easy on the back and chase Mia around. She's a sweetheart, but can be a challenge at times.

Been thinking about Spring lately, on my early run/walks with Remi. Can't wait to go on bike rides, hit up the park as a family (or with my friend Nicole and her kiddo) play soccer, family walks with Remi...etc It looks like we've got some snow in the forecast for the next day or so. Exciting right? Nah, I'm over Winter. Good riddance.

While Tommy and Mia napped on the couch today, I did some drawing before work. Haven't done anything real serious lately. Sorta wanted to try something different. My friend Jaci does some real cool and adorable art work and it inspired me to do a little sketch of Mia playing soccer. It's nothing super exciting, and I'll probably do another one much cleaner and post it when I can. Normally, I'm off today but ended up working 6 hours to make up for the time lost Sunday when I left early to take care of Jill. So my day off will be Saturday, which still feels far away. Haha.
That's all for now, thanks for reading. Sorry for another week without a fun picture. Nothing on my sad laptop :(

Boarders and Boundaries

Ever have one of those days, that just everything goes wrong, whether it be something small, or something quite large? Like, the entire day is full of mini catastrophes? Today, was one of those days. Surprisingly, on a day that we were off together. Weird, right? The night before, Mia was having issues staying asleep. Actually throughout the week she hasn't been going to sleep at a reasonable time. Last night, she fell asleep around 1:30am, and got up around 8am. Throughout the night she would still wake up. It's almost like she's an infant again. We have no idea what the problem is, but we're partially blaming the day on her wacky sleep schedule. It's almost like we have to cut out naps to get her to sleep earlier then 12am, but then she's cranky for my Mom who babysits from 1:40pm-5:30pm.

Took Remi to the dog park. First time in two years, I think. Temperature-wise, it wasn't too bad out, but the entire park was pretty covered in gnarly bumpy ice. Not easy going downhill on ice. Luckily, no one fell, especially Jill. Most importantly, Remi had a good time. Mia really liked the other dogs. She didn't really wanna leave, but I just couldn't walk up and down the icy hills anymore. Later, I took Mia over the Eble Ice Arena to watch my bro play some pick up hockey. She loved it. She also got to see Easton and her auntie Ashley. Also great.

The worst issue came after Mia woke up from her nap. Jill was working on Mia's photo album in Photoshop, and after I pulled something up on the computer, it started to grind. You NEVER wanna hear grinding coming from your hard drive. Ever. The computer is old, and we sorta expected this thing to die soon, but we also didn't back a lot of folders off her computer onto an external drive. So hopefully Jill's coworker can get the files off before the machine becomes a very expensive paperweight. My laptop (which I'm currently typing this on) isn't in the best shape either, and needs the discs reinstalled again too. So unfortunatley we're gonna need a new computer. And yes, it should be an Apple again. Why? because we use every aspect of the machine an Apple user should use. We've used photoshop, illustrator, the movie editing, the music editing, EVERYTHING. Macs were built to power the heavy duty Adobe programs that PC just can't handle. So we'll see what happens, if we can pick one up.

Other then that, Valentines Day is tomorrow. We agreed not to get each other anything (but hey, Mia and I made her something cute...shhhh!!) We're going to try to go to Cafe Manna again this weekend. Man, that place had some tasty vegetarian food :)

Okay that's it for now. Have a good evening. Sorry no pictures to post tonight :(

I Held Her In My Arms

Hey everyone. Not a lot to discuss tonight. Didn't play futsal last Sunday. Worked a weird shift. 11am-7pm so it didn't give me a ton of time to eat, let the food settle and head off to work, PLUS I was quite exhausted. Sorta holding out till my lil brother gets a Sunday off for us to play together. Not playing this coming weekend because we'll be heading off to Illinois. The weather wasn't too bad so we tried to enjoy it during the day, but Mia wasn't having it. Sorta has a 'tude lately. BUT the good news is that she doesn't mind wearing mittens AND the hat now! If she wants to go outside, she's gotta wear the boots, mittens and her winter hat. So lately she's been real good about that. Loves playing in the snow while I shovel. Kinda makes the mundane and rather un-fun activity of shoveling a little bit more enjoyable. Can't wait till Spring. Bike rides, walks, playing soccer at the park, swings...all the fun outdoor stuff we miss during the Winter. Mia was on the swings today for a bit at the park.

A new Alkaline Trio single came out recently. "I wanna be a Warhol". I wasn't sure about it upon first listen but it's slowly growing on me. Hope the rest of the album is better then the single. They really don't disappoint as far as records go. Some songs here and there aren't the best, but I've stuck by them since the very beginning and they've written some of my all-time favourite songs so I've got some high hopes for the rest of the record. Penguins are doing real well. Chelsea, eh not so much but hopefully they'll beat Wigan. Can't afford anymore losses.  I seriously need to get back to work on the art. The lack of motivation has been plaguing me after work for some time now. Can't shake it. Probably won't do any art tonight before heading to bed. I know what I need to get done, it's a matter of GETTING IT DONE! Since my laptop isn't working the best right now, I can't put any work into my soccer stuff I started last Fall. Bummer. But I do need to restart the Lil Wayne portrait, maybe do some fun kid sketches of Mia as well. Eh, maybe in Illinois I'll do some drawing. I feel like I need to constantly be keeping myself busy creativity-wise. You should see the random sketches I leave at work of random objects. Oranges, a light bulb with a mustache, and whatever else I come across. Hahaha. That's it for now. Real short one tonight. Thanks for reading.