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Greetings. Keeping this one short and sweet. Super tired today. Rough night trying to sleep last night. A pesky mosquito was trying to drain me of all my blood and patience. Over the weekend Jill's Mom drove up Saturday morning en route to take Jill to a wedding shower. They ended up taking Mia too because a little job opportunity came up. Last week a good friend from college had informed me of a possible second job graphic designing neon beer signs for a small company from home. I haven't applied for a job in quite some time so I didn't really think too much of it right away, until she brought up that it would be a mostly stay-at-home position. Perfect for the few hours I'm home before I work at 2. So After reconstructing and updating my resume a few days ago late at night, I began working on piecing together my website. Friday night, I pulled artwork from different places and Saturday I had some alone time to get serious work done on the site. I decided to make a real clean, easy to navigate website for clients and anyone interested in my work. Since I did the free sight, I was limited to a mere 30 images so it was a bit tough getting what I wanted on. I still may change things up. Overall, quite happy with the layout and my little logo I created for the header :) Later, we did dinner and I worked 2nd shift Sunday evening.

I was quite stoked for my day off with Mia, but for some reason it just wasn't a good day for her. She woke up earlier then usual, didn't feel like breakfast and just was a crab 80 percent of the day. I promised earlier in the week that on Wednesday we'd hit up Helium trampoline park. When we got there, they weren't open yet, so on her request, we went to the library. She played with puzzles and did some reading. After lunch, we drove back to Helium but she fell asleep on the way. So, I turned around and spent an hour or so working on a portrait of her. Hell, it may end up on my website :P Chelsea's playing friday. GO BLUES! :) Gotta love those guys. Some love the Packers, others go crazy for the Brewers. My team will always be Chelsea :)

This weekend's kind of up in the air as far as what we're doing. All I know is September is going to be busy, so bring it on :P Thanks for reading.

Life's a Beach

Greetings everyone! Been quite busy with different things going on. Over the weekend we went to a petting zoo/farm with my Mom. Mia really liked the goats, the kitties and eventually liked the chickens. Later, Jill and I went on a lovely double date with some friends at the Art-Bar, a unique bar and art gallery in the lovely Riverwest area in Milwaukee. Quite a few years ago, Jill, myself and my little brother participated in an art show at Art-Bar. We had some great art and shirts on display and up for grabs. It was an amazing night, so going back to Art-Bar was pretty fun. Julie and her hubby brought their brand new Great Dane puppy. Totally adorable! Great pizza, great drinks and an overall awesome time :) Sunday, after a crazy busy morning at work, we went to the Zoo Ala Carte. We went last year and had a blast. This year, we had a ton of fun again. Lots of great unique foods and desserts.

Today, Mia and I had a great day off together. I told her Tuesday evening that I would take her to the beach. With a high 90 degrees for the temperature for the day, it was the perfect day to go to the beach. After a bowl of Kix, she immediately said "DADDY I'M READY TO GO TO THE BEACH!!" So we packed up and hit the road to the beach. The last time we were there, she was cool in the water, but this time, the water may have been too cold for her to enjoy. She DID however enjoy walking in the sand. This is a big deal. Why you ask? Well this summer she developed a fear of sand. SAND. Don't know why. She just really doesn't like it in her toes, on her feet or in her shoes. Today she started being whiney about the sand on her feet. Later, she got off the blanket and was standing straight in the sand. "DADDY LOOK! I'm WALKING IN THE SAND!!" Yay! So we walked the beach a few times, the shoreline and she searching for "treasure" in the sand with her bucket. All in all, awesome time at the beach. Later, she slept for about 15 minutes on the drive home and woke up when I brought her in. We went to the library later to read books and play with puzzles. Hers and my first time at our New Berlin library. We may be going back to story times or play groups. We also may be signing Mia up for some sort of dance or tumble class at the local rec center. Could be fun!

This weekend, nothing too major. Jill's got a wedding shower, so I'm trying to think of something fun to do for the day. That's all for now. More to discuss next week. Thanks for reading!

Life in Embers

Greetings! Hope everyone's enjoying their week. Here's a recap of the week for me. Over the weekend, I worked the 6am-2pm shift, then had plans to play some pick up soccer. When I got home, I could tell it was a rough day at the house. Jill looked stressed & exhausted and Mia was being a winey terrible-two terror child. I knew immediately that I was going to skip it. My place was at home trying to knock the crabby attitude out of my kiddo. Today was my typical day off. Ended up hanging with my brother and parents today. My bro and I did some odd jobs for my mom. Constructed this mini shed thing, which seems like a boring chore, but was actually a bit fun to catch up while building. Mia shared her popsicle with him, which was pretty cute. Later my Mom, Mia and I hit up the park for a bit, before playing with animals at the humane society. Mia couldn't get enough of those adorable kittens.

This week, we've been slowly putting together Mia's little room. After our last guinea pig passed away, we said we'd put together a really nice room for her. My mother in law painted while we were gone, so all we had left to do was get her crib/bed apart and rebuild in her room. It was quite a challenge this week. Mia would ALWAYs get in our way trying to "help". It just lead to frustration. Tonight it's together so all we need is her to love it enough to sleep there.

Friday there's a playgroup that meets every friday at the local library. If lazy bones Mia gets up at 9am, we can totally go and see what it's all about. Lately this week she's been rolling out of bed around 11 or 11:30am. Today, she was whining at 10am. Might have been too early :P This Saturday we're gonna double date with some friends in Riverwest at the Art-Bar which in 2007, we had an art show at. It was pretty awesome. That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Indiana Trip 2013 or..Road to Chelsea vs Inter Milan

How's it going? Missed a week on the blog because we took a family trip down to Indiana. I'll get back to that in a bit. So my 30th birthday was the 26th. Jill's family came up for the weekend. After I got home from work, Everyone was waiting for me with a banana creme pie. Mia said "Daddy, blow out your candles!" Awesome evening. Next day, my brother n law and I went to go see Despicable Me 2 (which was HILARIOUS). When we got back, there were a quite a few cars in the driveway. I figured "okay my family is here". Opened the door, and a TON of people were here. Friends and family came for mine and my sister's surprise birthday. Couldn't believe it. It was a great time. Jill & her friend Leanne made Minion cupcakes. They looked so rad.  I got some great gifts including the last Big Bang Theory season, some HIMYM seasons, an awesome Chelsea ball, and much more. A few days later, we packed the car up and drove down to Illinois (after work) First time EVER Mia was super happy driving down to Illinois after 10:30pm. Way cool.

Wednesday, we left Jill's family's house, and made the 4.5 hour drive to Greenwood Indiana. Mia did mostly well, but I'd like not to do any more long car rides for a while. Jill's got some friends down in Indiana, so it was great to be able to stay with them. Mia enjoyed playing their little boy Caleb. Thursday morning, we hit up the Indianapolis Zoo. Very cool zoo. Fun to walk around. Mia's favourite part was the butterfly exhibit. She walked around the little area with her arms straight out trying to get butterflies to land on her. It was really cute. So after the zoo, both kids passed out in the car, and Jill and her buddy dropped me off at Lucas Oil Stadium for the game. Man, what an exciting place to be. Indianapolis had a LOT of Chelsea fans roaming around the city. Everyone excited about the game. So I got there, picked up my ticket and my FREE Chelsea flag. They didn't allow anyone in thrill 6:30 so I had to wait outside for a while. Ended up talking to some guys for a while, killing time. Easy to make friends when everyone supports the same team :) So after I got inside, and grabbed some beer and dinner.

After eating dinner, I grabbed a program, a free sample of Guinness Black (with a souvenir cup) and headed to my seat. Met a family in front of my seat from Eau Claire (for real!) and the guys/girls who had seats next to me were from Chicago. They were super nice. The game was fantastic. Chelsea won 2-0. Both goals were amazing. Most of the people in my section were Blues fans. which was awesome. Took a lot of great pictures with the DSLR. Not an easy task, but I was happy with what I shot. So after the victory, we walked down to the area where we were supposed to be escorted to the pitch and meet the players (for an hour). Well, we
made it down, and waited. Security immediately told me and my new buddies that "NO PLAYERS ARE COMING OUT!" and they kicked us out after 30 minutes. I don't know who's more to blame here. The promoters on Living Social for false advertising that I'd get an hour on the pitch with photo opportunity (except it didn't "say" that they'd come out) just "a rare and exciting opportunity". Totally bummed about it. The seat was worth the money (thanks again Mom/Dad/Tom/Michelle/Jill) but it would have been amazing to have met the players like the ticket had said. Total BS. Oh well, not much I can do about it now. The game was amazing, met some great people and The Blues won. All in all, great evening.


Next day, we went to the fair. Jill's aunt drove in from Columbus Ohio to spend some time with Mia. She hasn't seen her since Mia was a newborn. I was quite happy that Mia really enjoyed their time together. The fair was fun. Very similar to the Wisco one (except no vendors) Mia liked the animals, but NOT the rides. She wanted to go on this slow 5mph train ride. As soon as she sat down, she FLIPPED OUT! No more rides till she's older. Way too traumatic.

She mostly survived the long drive back to Illinois. The next day we drove back to Wisconsin, and she slept the whole time :) Great little family trip. Awesome seeing some friends and family, and of course Chelsea play. Nothing too eventful going on this weekend. I probably should cut the grass since it's been a while. hope to play some soccer Sunday. We'll see. Thanks for reading!