There's a Light That Never Goes Out

Greetings! Gonna try to make this quick. Maybe. Last Friday, Mia and I were on our way to play group. Her friend's mom texted me and said that it was too cold and crappy out to take the girls out. Bugger. We went anyways in search of her other friend Omina. She wasn't there. Mia was pretty bummed and wanted to split early. So we roamed around the library a bit, till her friend's mom texted me again asking if she'd like to come over to play with the girls. She was super stoked. "THATS MUCH BETTER THEN THE LIBRARY DADDY!" So she hung out with the friends for a while.
Later after I went to work, her other grandma and uncle from Illinois came in. Jill's family stayed the weekend, (her dad later driving in Saturday) so it was nice that Mia got to hang with Jill's family since they didn't see her since Christmas. Friday night, I had told Jill that I was going to get up early to watch the Chelsea game. Like, 6:30am. She responded "I don't wanna hear any yelling, groaning or soccer chants! Watch it in SILENCE!" Not an easy task, but okay.

I got up early, and quietly watched the first half upstairs in the room. 0-0. At the end of the 1st half, I got hungry and wandered down for some cheerios. Ate real quiet and continued the game. Still 0-0. The game was getting more intense. 5 minutes of extra (or less) and I get a call, STOPPING the live feed on my phone. I ignored it, but had to re-sign into NBC Live Sports on my phone. A GOAL WAS SCORED!!??? WHAT? I was stoked but mad I missed it! Turns out my Dad was calling to tell me about the goal. My live feed must have been lagging a bit so he saw it before I did. In the end, Chelsea won, so I was quite happy about that.

Saturday evening, went with part of my family to watch my brother Andy play some beer league hockey. It was a good time, even though he got a penalty. They need an anger management coach in the box for those two minutes to calm the dude down. They were behind 2-0 before they came back and won it. He seemed happy we all came and cheered him on.

Sunday, early shift. Nothing too special. My family came in to visit, which was quite awesome. My sister, older bro and his people were here when I got home. It was nice visiting for a while. Later, my Mom and Dad came in for dinner. This week, I had tuesday and today off, which was quite nice. Mia and I didn't really do much yesterday. We wandered around Sports Authority some. She put on a pair of $50 soccer shoes (that almost fit her) and was booting a World Cup soccer ball around the store. It was pretty funny. She's gonna be a great soccer player as she gets older. And if she doesn't wanna play, that's fine too.

Today, Her and I went to take a visit to US Cellular. Why? Oh, because my phone has been having issues, since last week. I was told it was battery related by someone there the last time I was in. So I ordered a new battery off Amazon. Defective, or my phone has further problems, that would end up costing more then it's worth (despite the warranty) So, they told me that with all of my reward points, they could accelerate my update to basically, getting a new phone now. So my choice that I'm looking at are, the iPhone 5s, the 5c and the Galaxy s4. I could also wait till April for the new Galaxy s5. Currently, the phone seems to be fine, which is weird. As much as I'd like to leave Samsung and move to iPhone, I don't want to shell out the 199.99 plus activation for the iPhone 5s, and the 5c doesn't seem like a good move since its the same price as the s4 for me to update. I've got time to think about it.

Later, Mia and I watched Chelsea take on Galatasaray. More importantly, they were taking on former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba. Every Chelsea fan was looking forward to this. Some fans were even stabbed in Istanbul where the game took place. It's quite clear Turkey fans don't like the visitors. It wasn't the best game, in my opinion. Fernando Torres's goal at the 9th minute was perfect. Cesar passed it beautifully. With that momentum, I thought we'd be getting more, but the Turkey team was playing better. Drogba didn't register any goals, but one of his teammates did pick up a goal. There were way too many yellow cards being handed out. I look forward to when they play again at Stamford Bridge. The fans will give all of their support to Drogba, but after kick off, it'll be back to rooting for the Blues.   Last thing before I go. Jill and I are gearing up to launch our Etsy store. It's going to feature prints made by myself, as well as jewelry made by Jill and Mia. Keep posted for the store launch. Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Beautiful Things

Good morning folks, readers, and friends. I'm writing here on yet another snowy morning. Yesterday, temps were up in the mid-high 40's. Today, still warm, but with freezing rain mixed with snow. Awesome. So last Friday was Valentines Day. We haven't celebrated the "holiday" in a while, so this year I made some coconut truffles for Jill. That's right. MADE her. It was my very first time creating and putting together a dessert, so I wanted this to go perfectly. She was still ill from the week, but told me they were awesome. Friday morning, Mia had her play group. Her friends and her exchanged valentines day treats. It was pretty cute. She got some cookies from Grace and Hannah. Saturday, we didn't do much. I watched the Chelsea vs Man City game for the FA Cup with Mia. Sadly, we lost. We just couldn't get a lot of shots off.

Sunday, worked 7-3pm, then later took Mia to Kids in Motion. NEVER going there on a weekend again. MEGA busy, it's full price and there are just kids running everywhere. We saw a kid take a shopping cart full of groceries up the foam ladder into the play ground. No clue where his parents were.  Mia had fun though. Tuesday, we got a text from her friend about going to Kids in Motion again. We were gonna go to tot time at the trampoline park, but decided to do the kids place again. Mia had a LOT of fun with her friend Hannah. They chased each other around, shared fruit snacks and played quite well. This other dude from play group, Zack, must have the biggest crush on Mia. Always wanting to give her a hug, but for some reason, she's not a fan of him. At one point, I almost burst out laughing when he ran passed her, snuck a hug in, and ran off smirking. It was funny, and she had no idea what just happened. There's something about watching Mia and Hannah play, that really makes me happy. These kids get along so well. When we pulled into the parking lot, they had arrived then too and were waiting for us to get out. Mia couldn't contain her excitement and they both gave big hugs behind my car. Later inside, Mia had said "Daddy, I wanna share my fruit snacks with Hannah, so she'll give me a hug and kiss". adorable, right? We look forward to seeing Hannah and Zack at play group Friday with Grace and Omina.

Wednesday, didn't do much. Mia and I began our construction of the snow-minion. Tried rolling some balls in the front yard, but it was really glossy and icy, and everything would just crumble into powder. The back yard by our back step, however worked. Rolled two very large snow balls (50 pounds on one, 80 on the other). It was difficult getting one on top of the other to complete the 6 ft body that I originally planned to build. Mia later said "let's go inside". We didn't make a lot of progress, but we still had fun. Last night, Mia wanted gelato at the mall, so after dinner we hung around there. Saturday, Jill's brother and Mom are coming in. I'll be getting up nice and early for the Chelsea vs Everton game. Sunday, 7-3 then my brother and his fam are coming in for a visit.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading :)

The Road to Recovery

Good morning everyone. It's been an interesting few days, but I'll get to that in a bit. With Saturday and Sunday off, I had high hopes of a delightful and productive weekend with my two girls. Saturday morning I watched the 2nd half of the Chelsea FC game (because my NBCSports app wasn't working properly) Hazard secured his first hat trick, and a 3-0 win for the mighty Blues. That kid is incredible. Anyways, so that started the morning on a positive note. We went to the party store to get about 14 balloons (because its 2014) and went to go photograph Mia for her three-year photograph at the same location we did last year. Didn't work out at all. She was too cold and crabby to participate in this picture. FANTASTIC. Well, later we got some food in her (she may have been hungry) and we were able to shoot the photo in our backyard. Throughout the evening, I wasn't feeling the best. My stomach was hurting and I wasn't completely sure why. I had figured it was food related, but wasn't positive. We went off to bed earlier then usual, but I couldn't sleep.

I was laying there, clutching my stomach. Later, got up and threw up. Felt absolutely horrible. I was convinced the turkey meat in my pasta was bad. Went back to bed, still hurting. Heard Jill roaming around downstairs and met her in the hallway. Right after I told her what happened, I blacked out. She got my semi-conscious and told me I was out, then I guess I blacked out..again. This time when I came to, I could hear her crying "whats WRONG?? why is this happening??" THEN I blacked out AGAIN. Came to again, and she was just hysterically crying "do I call 911??" NO I'm fine, don't worry. She got my crackers and juice and I sat there in bed feeling like complete crap. My limbs and legs just couldn't hold body up. I had no food in my system and the blood sugar was dangerously low.

About 4am, Mia threw up. WONDERFUL. I was now convinced Mia and I picked something up from Play Group. Someone had to have been sick and shared it with us. So Sunday, we sat around all day. Jill took good care of us and it was just a delightful weekend. I've been on the slow road to recovery. Today, feeling pretty good. At work the last two days, I wasn't feeling the best. Stomach still hurting. Mia hasn't been wanting to eat much. She threw up Monday and Tuesday night. Wednesday night, finally didn't throw up. I was also able to get her to eat something last night too. Jill came home not feeling the best so I did my best effort to keep the kiddo with me so she could get some rest. Not 100% sure what the plan is for the weekend, but we'll see when we get there

Quick review of Metropole by The Lawrence Arms. Solid album. These guys never write "singles" or "hits". Songs just become the fan favorites over the last 10 years. This album just grows more and more on you, the more you listen. Some of my favorite tracks are "You Are Here" and "Beautiful Things". Lyrics are great. It's not as gritty as Oh! Calcutta which was their last album release 8 years ago. It's a bright, clever and well-writtened album that will be an instant classic. Hope they can make it to Milwaukee sometime.


Okay that's it for now, thanks for reading.

Juice boxes and fruit snacks

Hello! Gonna try to make this quick. I've got to wake up Jill for her daily morning work out before 7am. That's our new routine in the morning. I get up 6ish, walk the dog, come home, eat breakfast and then wake her up so she can work out. It seems to be working, but I'm getting more exhausted by the end of the day. Over the weekend, Jill, my Mom, my sister in law and the kid went to this big pet expo. Myself, my older bro and Dad hung out at home watching the Chelsea Fc 2011/2012 highlights. It was especially nice to relive the moments of when we took the Champions League cup. Almost goosebumps watching Drogba take that last penalty kick :) Tuesday, I took Mia to her friends house. FIRST TIME hanging out at a friend's house and she's 2 1/2 ! awesome. Can't believe how old she's getting. Hanging out with friends, soon school...Time is just flying.
So we went to hang out with Hannah, this little boy Aiden and Hannah's mom. Gracie, Hannah's sister (and Mia's other friend) had to go to preschool so she didn't get to play with the kids. Mia had a blast. Except the part where they walked upstairs to play dress up and Hannah yelled down 'Can Mia get naked?" and Mia interupts with  "I DONT WANNA GET NAKED!" I assume Hannah tried to take her hoody off or something. All in all, it was a fun experience and I look forward to play group Friday (as always) when we'll see them again.

Yesterday when I got home with the sleeping kid, I did some research on anamorphic drawings, which is basically, creating a piece that if you center it a certain way on the camera, looks 3D or floating. I would like to try and figure this thing out some day. Looks very cool, but highly technical.

So I posted last week that I'd give a proper review of the brand new Lawrence Arms record, Metropole. Give me another week. I listened through the whole thing once. I want another so I can give you a solid 100% on this thing. It's really good. Hang tight.

This weekend, we're supposed to go to Illinois to visit Jill's familia, but since they've been getting pounded by tons of snow (and probably will Saturday, as it is forecasted) we may stay home. It'll be weird having two days off and nothing major planned. I think we discussed catching up on laundry and taking Mia's 3-year photo. We did one last year when she was turning 2, photographed outside in the snow holding up red balloons. She was so pissed that day, but the photo turned out really nice and sweet.

Okay, that's gonna do it for now, thanks for reading.