Torrential Tryouts

Good morning everyone. October is nearly over, but we've been incredibly busy (seems like almost every day/weekend) Last Wednesday, Mia had yet again, another field trip with her class. THIS time, to the First Milwaukee Theater to see a play about a square-shaped pumpkin. Jill finally got to go on a field trip with her. She loves plays and this was the perfect one to chaperone. When we dropped off Mia for school, we had an hour before Jill had to go meet for the bus to pick up the kids and drive to MKE. So, we took Remi to the park and went for a nice walk. The weather was gorgeous and absolutely perfect. Just like the good ol' days when we'd take him for walks, just the two of us. Nothing wrong with taking him with Mia or anything, but it brought back some fond memories.

After the walk, Jill soon went to Mia's school for the field trip. I had a little piece and quiet. Worked on some art and did some much-needed drumming. Mia and Jill had a great time. The play was fun, and the kids behaved nicely for Jill. Lucky. After the field trip, Mia and I had planned to go to the park with BFF Olivia. As we were leaving, Remi checked her down the stairs. She cried and cried and didn't want to go anymore to the park. When Olivia brought up that they were going to go to Chuckie Cheese, Mia jumped at the opportunity to go. So we went, and the ladies had a blast. They were the only kids there, and played all kinds of games. Mia wasn't too excited when Chuckie came out but when he went back into hiding, she was fine. It was great to see them having so much fun. We still have a boatload of tokens left for our next visit. Friday, I took the day off to photograph the Milwaukee Torrent's tryouts. Before that, Mia and I spent the day together. She was dressed up in her full tracksuit ready for gymnastics. Turns out, they don't have open gym and we had to decide whether to do a last-minute run to the trampoline park, or Monkey Joe's. We went with Monkey Joe's.

Once again, we had a blast. She went down EVERY slide including the largest slide: the halfpipe. It was a great time. She even played with a boy she met. I believe his name was Parker. Anyway, he followed us around for a while. Cute kid. Later, I packed up my bag and went over to Uihlein Field in the pouring rain. It would stop and start on my drive to the stadium, and I kept thinking "please please stop raining". It really didn't. I walked down to the field. Already getting soaked and met with head coach and owner Andi Davi. Amazingly nice guy with such a passion for this team and everything involved. He was absolutely frustrated with the heavy rain. He brought his flags and banners to be photographed, and clearly it wasn't going to happen. I was doing my best to photograph under the small inclosure and got about 20 photographs before the entire stadium's power went out.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? And was way more angry than anyone. He only was allowed about an hour and a half of time on the fields for tryouts. 34 players (which I believed included 4 keepers) showed up for this and after waiting and waiting and waiting, the tryouts were rescheduled for Tuesday. Quite a few people drove a good distance for the tryout including Minnesota and Hawaii (obviously didn't drive). They were all good sports about it, and the majority are coming back for the rescheduled date. I helped tear down everything and load up his car. It was great meeting him, his assistant coach and some of the players. I have to say, it was really surreal being introduced to his staff as "this is our graphic artist, he's the guy who designed and came up with the jerseys".  After we all said the goodbyes, I drove back home in the rain.

Saturday, I watched Chelsea crumble to West Ham. Another disappointing game. JM even got ejected from the game. I can't figure out what's going wrong. Defense wasn't there. Again. The near-goal was just SO close. They have a Capital One Cup game on Tuesday. Hoping for a win. I'm going to miss the Liverpool game Saturday due to having to work the 7am-3pm shift.

Later after the game, we got in our costumes and went to a Halloween party at a friends house. Mia had a great time playing with all of the kids, AND she even tried Alligator meat. She said it was pretty good. Jill loved it. Afterwards, we jetted over to the Delafield business Trick or Treating. We got to every business and had a lot of fun. When we got back home, we carved a couple of pumpkins. This was the first year we let Mia carve a pumpkin. With Jill's help, she did a great job carving a kitty. No stencils. Just a drawn on cat. I on the other hand, did my very best to carve a 3D pumpkin. Let me tell you, it was SUPER difficult. I really didn't take a lot of ceramic classes in HS and college. It didn't turn out that great, but I did my best. I may try painting a pumpkin next year. Do something a little different.

This week, Mia has a Halloween party and conferences. Saturday, Trick or Treating with family. Should be a lot of fun. That's all for now. Thanks for reading!!