The Good, The Bad, and the Depressing

Greetings. I'm just going to dive into the recent happenings and events, alright? Okay then. Last Friday evening post-work, we packed the car and headed down to Illinois for a weekend with the in-laws (and Jill's pals) Mia was super excited, in fact she was so excited, she crashed before we even got to Lake Geneva. Good. A nice quiet drive is always preferred when we're making the late-night road trip. Arrived at 1:15am, and got right to sleep since Jill had to be up early for her plans with her friends in the morning. Saturday, she met up with her longtime friends to celebrate one of the friends' birthday, so we didn't see her the rest of the day. Mia and I enjoyed our time with Jill's parents. We even got to watch the Penguins/Blue Jackets game. It was a great win for the Pens. Sunday, I got up at 8am to watch the big Chelsea vs Liverpool game. It was quite enjoyable to see our team, with most of our usual starting men out and injured, beat an otherwise healthy Liverpool. Even during breakfast, Mia quietly asked me in my ear "Daddy, I'm done eating, can I go watch the Chelsea game now?" Love it.

This week's game against Atletico Madrid was far more nerve wrecking. The anticipation to today, was intense and with last week's leg drawing at 0-0, anything could happen today. We had a few of the injured playing with high hopes of going on to the final against Real Madrid. Fernando Torres had a great goal that had me thinking "Okay, maybe we can pull this off, just need a few more
goals to finish the game" but Atletico responded with an equalizer. Bummer.

2nd half, the game only got more intense with Atletico getting stronger in the back, and muscling our forwards to ground. I can't remember a time when Eden Hazard wasn't getting shoved. I still don't get how they didn't call a foul on the heavy shove to Andres Schurrle. However, Eto'o's challenge in the box gave our possible new striker come Summer time (it's still in the talks of course) Diego Costa a PK. The turkey did get yellow carded for taking way too long to set up for his strike, but when we finally settled on his ball placement, he fired in the 2nd goal for AM. Crap...

A lazy move by Hazard let them finish us off with their 3rd goal. It was a tough match, especially at the end. Perhaps we shouldn't have been playing some of our injured guys, or maybe we were just making too many mistakes, regardless, it wasn't enjoyable. Mia even said "Daddy, I'm sad Chelsea lost too"

The week has been quite overcast and rainy, so me and Miss Mia have not been able to do anything outside. I did however see some sun this morning on my daily early walk with the dog. New art coming hopefully soon. Not sure what we're doing this weekend. Jill's got to work Saturday, and I've got a 7-3pm shift. That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Eggcellent

Good morning. I sincerely hope everyone got to enjoy the holiday weekend. Saturday, Jill was busy most of the morning till she got home around 2pm. Mia and I watched Frozen (for like, the 12th time) before the Chelsea vs Sunderland game. The game started out great with Eto'o getting an early goal,  but in the end, they somehow beat us. We weren't capitalizing on a lot of chances, Eden Hazard is still injured and Cech was out sick so we had to rely on Schwartzer (who we will be relying on the rest of the season due to Cech dislocating his shoulder Tuesday. The worst moment, was Altidore for Sunderland falling in the box (do to an alleged challenge from Azpi) which of course resulted in a PK that sealed the deal for the opposition. It was ridiculous. Jill could hear me in the other room flipping out. Tuesday's game against Atletico Madrid resulted in a 0-0, but with Terry and Petr getting hurt, we're gonna be in rough shape against AM next week.

Sunday, I worked 6am-2pm followed by Easter at my parent's house. When I came home and saw Mia upstairs getting her hair braided in her little Easter dress, it totally made my day. She looked heavenly.  It was definitely one of the warmest Easters we've had in a long time. Of course myself and my brothers had to kick the soccer ball around, which on again-off again we had the little kids on the game. It was a blast.

This week, My brother Andy and I took our kids to the Zoo. It wasn't as warm as I hoped, but the sun kept it at least at 50. The kids had a great time and I look forward to going again. Mia really liked the large fish and bird aviary. After, we hit the park for a short while.

This weekend, can't say too much. Some of what we're doing is a surprise for someone who might be a reader of the blog. Have a great rest of the week  and thanks for reading.

Hey, Come Back Spring!

Good morning. Wishing the nice weather of LAST week would have stuck around this week, but what can ya do...So over the weekend, nothing too exciting for Saturday, but Sunday, I did the 6am-2pm shift (missed the Chelsea game)  followed by futsal later at 8. My family went to my cousin's daughter's baptism Sunday and it sounded like they had a good time. My brother even posted a photo of Mia eating olives off her fingers like he did for a good portion of his life. Adorable. Anyway, so it had been since January since I played futsal last so I knew I'd be rusty. First hour or so, wasn't getting through the defense or making a lot of shots. Bugger. Shortly, I had a good run with a kid that was on my team and I got the assist on his nicely placed goal. Soon, I had a run going, but got stopped. Crap. Then another moment shortly after, I received a good pass that I was able to turn into a goal :) I was stoked because I had some good chances, my last hour and a half to get some goals, but wasn't able to put the ball in the back of the net. some passes were either not connecting or I was just dropping. A few times a player who just launch the ball to me, but they were going straight over my head. As keeper, I had only let in one goal for the night. I was happy for that. The oldest man on my team (probably late 60s) plays D and is pretty good so I knew when I was keeper, he'd help. Even stopping the Messi-wannabee's he'd shut them down. At 10:30pm, I had had it for the evening and called it a night. Mia's kiss for good luck worked and I was able to add a goal to my small list. In futsal, I should be getting more goals, but since I don't play weekly like these fellas do, I do the best with what I can, and hopefully will continue to improve.

Tuesday, Mia and I went to Kids and Motion with her friends and my buddy Nicole. Because of Spring Break, the place had probably over 100 kids in there. It was intense. She had fun and we'll see her friends Friday at Hannah's birthday party :) She decided that she'd high-five her friend's parents instead of the actual kids. Don't know why. Yesterday was a nice day off. Still too cold and windy, which sucks because it would have been nice to go to the park. Last night Mia insisted on painting my nails.
Mia's been singing word-for-word Frozen's "Let it Go" just about 3-4 times  a day, and it's got to be one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. For some reason, kids singing always blows me away, and when Mia sings, it melts my heart. I tried to video record her last night, but the camera was too close to my phone which was playing the track for her. Maybe next time. Saturday, Chelsea game. Sunday, work early then Easter at my parent's house. Not sure if the kids are egg hunting. We'll see how the weather goes. Thanks for reading!

Fantastic Florida

How's it going everyone? Good? Back to Wisconsin after a wonderful trip to sunny Florida. Real quick, her birthday party was great. She had a blast painting with her family and friends.
We spent a week in Sebastian, which is about an hour and a half (give or take) from Orlando. We went down a few years ago when Mia turned one, so we wanted to go back and visit Jill's Grandpa again. It was awesome. After a great successful flight, Mia picked up an Ariel doll from the Disney store inside Orlando Airport with some birthday cash and we were on our way to Sebastian. She was wonderful with her Great Grandpa. We went to the beach every single day we were there. Mia loved the ocean. One of my favourite moments was when she was washing her hands off from sand at Wabbaso beach, a small wave came in and surprised her little face. She wasn't mad, but the surprised look was priceless. I'm not going to go into what we did every day, but overall, it was a great trip. She survived the plane ride back. A little crazy at times, but did well. Already missing the ocean.

Missed a really really good and important Chelsea game the other day. We defeated PSG and are moving on to the semi-finals in the Champions League :) Wore my Oscar jersey today in celebration.

Today, Mia and I hung out with my bro Andy and Easton at the park in Hartland. The kids loved the playground and had a blast. Always nice to have some quality time with Andy. We don't hang out that often so it was long overdue. 

Jill's busy tonight, so after a lengthy nap, Mia and I are chilling and relaxing tonight. Finally gonna be able to watch Modern Family :) Going to play futsal Sunday night. It's been several months so I'm excited to play soccer finally. Gonna feel rusty, but hopefully can get a goal or two. 

Something that I've already noticed since Mia's turned 3, is that a phrase that's becoming more common these days. "I can do it by myself". She's been going to the bathroom solo more often (one day in Florida she peed in the toilet without peeing in her diaper). She's been trying to master getting her jacket on including zipping. Makes me proud. Somethings will take a while to master, but she's determined and that's awesome. 

That's all for now. Thanks for reading.