Eye Contact

Good morning. Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. Last Monday, Mia went on a field trip to the Elegant Farmer with her Grandpa Chicago and her 4K class. They had a great time, and got to taste-test some apples. Mia really liked the Gala ones (provided that Grandpa bit off all the skin) They brought home a couple of small pumpkins, but since the weather has been in the 70's, they're already getting soft and squishy. Tuesday, she had her very first "show and tell" at school. The letter was A, and the kids had to bring in something that started with that letter. She brought in her Anna doll from Frozen. She really liked it and has been looking forward to the next one.

Wednesday after I picked her up, we jetted over by my Dad and attempted to watch the Chelsea vs Walsall game for the Capital One Cup first round. They didn't broadcast it in the states, but I got a little feed on their computer. We won 4-1. It was also the first day of Fall. Mia's been looking forward to all things Halloween lately, and playing in piles of leaves. Speaking of which, last week I decided that this year, I was going to make an attempt at 3D pumpkin carving. The end-result of these pumpkins looks absolutely amazing and I've always wanted to try it. Hopefully I can pull it off.

Saturday, I watched most of the Chelsea vs Newcastle game in between helping Jill clean and organize every single toy Mia's owned since arriving at our house. That's 4 1/2 years of toys and junk. We tossed everything on the lawn and organized. Chelsea was down 0-2 at one point, but somehow came back and tied it. Great goals from Ramires and Willian. For some reason, we always struggle at St James Park. We'll beat them at home the next time they play. We play Porto Tuesday (I'll probably miss it) and Southhampton on Saturday. I may try to get my little bro and dad to go to 3 Lions Pub to watch that.

So after spending 5-6 hours cleaning and organizing Mia's stuff, tossing old stuff out and putting together "give away" boxes, Jill and I went out on a very rare, but super enjoyable date. Mitchell's Fish Market. We had the gift card for almost two years. Delicious dinner! Having a conversation over amazing food was wonderful. Just like old days. I love spending time with Mia, but the occasional date night with my beautiful wife is always a nice little treat. It was quite adorable when we were leaving the house, Mia says from the other room "eat something good". Almost like "go ahead guys, have a good time". Sometimes, she can be unselfish :P

Sunday, I finished cutting grass. Both of us absolutely exhausted from all the work we did Saturday. It was a good feeling to finally get the crap organized. During my crazy busy night at work, I was getting glimpses here and there of the rare super blood moon. When I got home, I was going to photograph the eclipse, but the battery died. Oh well.

This week, nothing major planned. May try to start some new art. I've been obsessed as of lately with listening to the newest Dan Andriano in the Emergency Room record. Super solid album. Thanks for reading!!

ADA Walk

Good morning everyone. It was once again, a very eventful week over here with lots to discuss. Early in the week, my Dad went in for eye surgery. His retina was detached so they had to place a gas bubble in, and four hours later, he was out of surgery and on his road to recovery. It means no PS3, and watching TV with his face down looking at a mirror. All kind of fun for my poor Mom who has to help put in multiple drops a day in that eye. When I picked up Mia from school on Wednesday, she was excited to go over by him and bring him a surprise milkshake to help him feel better. We watched the Champions League game between Chelsea and Tel Aviv. Great game. 4-0. Great to see Chelsea back in a winning form. They were the only English club to have one the first game in the UCL. Mia especially loves it when they score because I toss her up in the air. Just like I did when they WON the UCL when she was a much smaller diva.


Thursday, she was off from school, so I had promised that we'd check out M&M Gymnastics in New Berlin. Her friend Olivia goes there and had strongly recommended it. Thursdays for one hour, it's $4 and you have total freedom to the massive place. The first floor had a wide variety of gymnastic equipment including pummel horses, rings and foam pits. Mia mostly enjoyed the semi-trampoline that she jump across to the crash pad. We ventured upstairs to the balance beams and kid-sized rings. Overall, she really liked the place and could probably handle gymnastics. She gets very defeated when she can't do something first try. *Ahem* soccer, ballet...The other day, she was talking about how much she misses swim class. So I don't know yet if we'll sign up for gymnastics. Possibly.

Friday, we packed the car and made the 4 hour, 45 min trip to Indiana for the ADA walk in the city. Mia did pretty decent on the way down. Slept part of the way, drew some pictures. The next day, it rained and rained and rained. Great day for rain in Indianapolis. :( Luckily, most of the 5K the rain had stopped or was just a cool mist. I had carried Mia 85% of the time, the other percent, she was chasing Caleb or walking on her own. It was a great turn out and a lot of fun. I've always wanted to do some sort of walk before and since this was going to a cause close and personal to Jill's friends, I was more than happy to do it :) It was a really nice weekend, and most of the drive home, Mia slept. Well, at least 2 hours. She'd wake up every once in a while and ask if we were still in Indy. No, we're still 3 hours from home...Okay back to sleep. Saturday, Chelsea played Arsenal and won! 2-0! I watched the highlights last night and it looked like they were back to their same old winning ways. Costa was a target for his antics and Arsenal fans were throwing a fit. Back to normal as usual :)


Today, she's on a field trip with her Grandpa Chicago at the Elegant Farmer for school. I'm hoping she has a lot of fun. She's always loved field trips and has a very special bond with her Grandpa. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Say "Cheese!"

Good Evening. I'm eating a big bowl of mac and cheese with extra mozzarella as I type this blog posting tonight. SO....hungry. It was a pretty good week. Mia's doing great with school and even had homework. Well, tracing letters and coloring in what the word that it spells. What is supposed to be fun homework but it sort of frustrates her. She had picture day on Tuesday and swears she smiled. She's been meeting new people and even was invited to a little girl's birthday party. I don't know if that was a real invite, but at least she's meeting new kids to play with at recess. When we came home, Mia rocked on my drums. I swear the kid loves my kit. It's been a while since she's played, but she did a great job.

Saturday, I got up nice and early to watch the Chelsea vs Everton game. Last season, the won 6-3. It was the highest scoring game of the season, and easily one of my favorites to watch. This game was pure garbage. We lost 3-1. WHY? Why is Chelsea performing so poorly. I think some of the mistakes were starting Mikel and the holes that the forwards were getting through on defense. Ivanovic was so bad. Begovic, the backup keeper who will be starting every game since Courtois got sidelined with a knee injury did his best. It's his uninspired defense that left him stranded at times. I sincerely home we can win this first Champions League game Wednesday. We're sitting in 15th or 16th place of the Premier League table, 11 points behind Man City which is just unheard of. Hazard needs to find his magic, and Costa needs to show that he wants the win.

So it was a very frustrating rest of the Saturday for me. Just thinking "what is going on with the team? How do we win the whole thing last year, and this season we can barely win"? We went to the Farmer's Market as well. Didn't get too much this around. I got a very lackluster caramel cashew muffin. Later, we took Mia to the Imagination Station in Oconomowoc. I've heard from countless people that this place is purely amazing. It was. It's a massive park with a ton of different things kinds of all ages can play on. Ran into some old friends too. Tons of kids everywhere. Mia didn't want to leave. She also wanted to join a birthday party that was going on near the park as well.

Later, we made a nice dinner. We had plans to go out for dinner, Jill and I and have my parents watch Mia. We haven't gone out on a date since the Winter, so I was looking forward to this. Her head felt a little cloudy and I wasn't feeling that great, so we stayed home. Hopefully, we'll have a chance to do it  some day. This week Friday, we'll be Indiana-bound for the Step Out for Diabetes event. Jill's excited to see her best pals again. Mia will get to play with long distance friend Caleb as well.

I finally completed the dog portrait. It turned out pretty good. She was happy with it and I was too. Now, onto other projects. Mia wants me to paint a sea turtle in her room on a blue wall. We'll see if I can do it. I also want to do some water colour work too.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

School Days

Good evening! Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend. It's been quite busy around here. Mia started her very first day of 4K (or K-4 however you wanna go) last Tuesday. It was the longest she's gone, so I was hoping it went well. It did. Mostly. She told me everything she did, she loves word association exercises and "bought" her own hot lunch. Buying lunch at school won't be an every day occurrence for her (let's face it, school isn't cheap) but if it's something I know she'll wanna eat, then she can. Her friends from last year apparently didn't want to play with her during recess, and since it was so very hot out, she told me she just hung out in the shade on the playground. Wednesday, she had a much better report. She had music class, played with friends and even met a boy during recess. She didn't catch his name, but told what hers was. They played with chalk and drew bubbles on the playground. It made me so happy that she was able to play with a boy and not make a big deal that he's a boy and she prefers to play with girls. She's broadening her friend circle and that's awesome. She needs to work on writing her name out with some lower-case letters for the "i" and "a". She's been writing upper case for a while, and I know she can nail the lower case "i" but is struggling a bit with the "a". She gets quite hard on herself at times, and it's frustrating for her, but we keep reminding her that you will improve with practice.

While she was at school, I cut grass all morning in the 90 degree heat. It was great to get it done so I didn't have to waste a Saturday cutting all morning. After I picked her up, we spent the rest of the day together. Friday, Mia and I were off. My parents are in Tahoe for the weekend, so I had to take care of the cat for the day. We spent the morning with her friend Olivia at the Zoo. I swear, those two act like their sisters. They argue, play and complain like total siblings. Mostly, we had a good time and it was nice that she got to spend the day with her buddy. We went over to feed my former-cat from back home and had a bit of an issue. When I was locking the doors, Mia wandered upstairs to say a quick "bye" and what I heard, was the loudest scream. I assume, she startled Misty and when she came down the hall way, blood and tears were running down her face. Misty attacked her. After tending to my traumatized kid, I noticed 3 punctures to her face, one by her ear and later I saw she got her on the forearm. I assume the cat grabbed her by the side of the face with one paw and scratched her with the other. I felt absolutely horrible for Mia. She just couldn't stop crying. She wanted out of the house so badly. I bandaged her up and we got out of there. In the middle of her total breakdown, she remembered she had class picture day coming up and was worried she wouldn't heal before then. My poor Mia...She wanted nothing to do with Marie when we got home.

Saturday, we went to the farmer's market with my in laws. Mia was feeling better and took off some of the bandages. They still hurt but she wanted them to heal faster. We ate at this little art cafe in Downtown Waukesha. We've seen the bright colored house for many years and never went there. The food was pretty good. Later we went with them to Colders and tagged along as they looked for a couch. Mia wanted to test every one of them.

Sunday I worked. Mia went to the pool with Jill. Today, we did some cleaning and I worked again. They went to a BBQ with my in laws. I came home tonight and every one's asleep. Good. The kid needs to get some rest before school tomorrow. Going to try to finish this dog portrait in the next few days. Hoping Jill and I can go out for dinner Saturday. Chelsea was off for the weekend for International duties so I'm quite looking forward to this weekend's game :)

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!