Christmas 2016

A day late on my usual blogging but here we go. It's been a busy week, with Mia finishing up school before Christmas break, and my brother/SIL/Nephew flying in for the holidays. Wednesday, Mia and I did her traditional gift where she picks something out for Jill at Charming Charlies for Christmas.  Jill helped with Mia's Holiday party on Thursday. The kids had a lot of fun and did all kinds of fun crafts and games. Friday was Mia's first day off for her break so we met up with Olivia and her brother and the kids went sledding. Myself and Steve (Olivia's Dad) built a kicker for the kids to sled off. Mia had so much fun going off. Olivia on the other hand, was a bit crabby and wasn't having it. After sledding, Mia and I braved the busy stores and got some last-minute items for the feast. Later that day, my bro and his family flew in so we hung out at my parent's house. Mia and Alex were reunited once again, and they didn't skip a beat with their antics involving tackling me, Jill or anyone near them.

Saturday, we had Christmas Eve at my parent's house. Everyone came and it was a lot of fun. The kids ran around like crazy causing all kinds of havoc. The food was delicious. Jill made 4 different types of meatballs (one veggie) and we all ate basically appetizers that my Mom and my SIL Ashley made. The kids all loved their gifts and had an awesome time. We had a big family game of PIT that was a total blast.

Sunday was Christmas morning. Mia got lots of amazing gifts including a beautiful pink violin that we need to fix and adjust so she can play it. The best was saved for last. I somehow was able to complete the book for Mia that Jill and I wrote/illustrated. It came down to the wire, but it was complete and Mia LOVED it. She really liked how I drew the pictures to look like her and even included the detail of Mia wearing her Monster High winter hat. Although I felt rushed doing the book, I'm pretty content with the final product. At one point, Mia said it was her favorite present she received. Later, we had everyone over for breakfast and later dinner. Jill hand-made fettuccine noodles and Alfredo sauce(s) and they tasted AMAZING. Fresh pasta is incredible and we have so much left over, I'll be eating it for days. Jill loved the necklace we got her, and I loved the Sheldon ornament the girls picked out for me. My BIL Tommy got me some much-needed art supplies and I got some money towards my near-future purchase of a Go Pro camera.

Monday, My brothers, myself and I drove down to the Highbury for some Boxing Day soccer. We watched the first half of the Chelsea vs Bournemouth game before jetting to my brother's hotel for the 2nd half. The pub was PACKED with fans watching all of the games on the TV's. We were practically hanging out the door watching and left within a few minutes of the the 1st half. Luckily, my brother had the channel at his hotel and we were able to catch the last few goals. Pedro picked up a pair as well as a PK from Hazard to end the game 3-0. Impressive win from a team that is looking like serious title contenders. Even with out two key players (Costa and Kante) we're looking really good going into our NYE match. Later, we hung out with everyone and swam with the kids. Mia and Alex had a great time chasing and racing each other in the pool. Today, they went back to the usual "tackle Jill and I" again complete with heavy pillow beating and tackling. These cousins are so fun to watch play together. Whether it's Alex showing her apps and games, or the two just being silly together. They said their goodbyes and my brother and his family were on their way.

Later, Mia packed up and Jill's Dad and I drove the girls to Midway International Airport for their trip to Ohio. I miss the girls already but I know they'll have fun visiting Jill's aunt who hasn't seen Mia since LAST December.

My week off from work is almost done. I can't say I'm missing KT. It's been really nice having this time off to spend with family and getting some much needed relaxing in.

This weekend the girls come back. No immediate plans for NYE and we'll probably keep it that way. The girls will be too tired to do anything so we'll probably watch a movie.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Holidazed

Good afternoon everyone. Last week before Christmas. This month flew and the stress is high, but first let's look back at the week. I spent the majority of the week sick (finally feeling better yesterday). With the combination of a cold and laryngitis, it's been a really rough week. Mia's had a cough and runny nose, but that was about it. Luckily no flu or fever for her, but Jill picked it up towards the end of the week. She seemed much worse. Mia had a fun little week at school though. Tuesday was "College Gear Day" where the kids could wear the college apparel of whatever college their parents went to if they chose. Mia proudly wore Carroll College/University hat and shirt. Wednesday I watched Chelsea win 1-0 to gain another 3 fantastic points keeping us in 1st.

Thursday was "Career Day" so she wore her dolphin trainer outfit since that's all she talks about wanting to be when she gets older. She even cut out fish and brought a bucket. Friday, we got buried in snow. Lots of it. It was a sketchy drive home Friday night from work, but at least I didn't have to snowplow my car in my own drive way. Saturday, I got up early to watch Chelsea in action again, but this time it was against Palace. Another win, but with two key players banned from the Boxing Day match, it'll be a tricky one. It'll be fun on Boxing Day to get to watch the game with my brothers and Dad. Later, Mia and I went sledding. Well, SHE did. The snow was still pretty thick and powdery, so it was next to impossible to make a good sledding run. We had plans to bake with my Mom, but with another dumping of snow, we stayed home the rest of the day.

Sunday, I got up cleaned up the driveway. This time, we had to get out of the house. Trader Joe's for groceries, and soon after that, Mia and Jill left to go visit her parents and Uncle Tommy before I went back to work on Mia's book before leaving for work.

Totally stressing out about getting this done. Running out of time, but am positive it'll be ready by Christmas morning. My brother and his family are flying in this week so I can't wait to see then. Mia's been counting down the days till her cousin Alex comes visits.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

It's Snow Problem Mon!

Good afternoon everyone. Busy week per the usual with no real end in sight. Saturday was one of the busiest days ever. Mia had her last dance class for the semester to kick off the day. Jill had to work, so I got the privilege to take and watch their "open house" dancing session. Parents could watch and I've never seen Mia do tap/ballet before so I was really stoked. There are just two girls in Mia's class. Mia, and this other girl Addie Mae. They started out with stretching and ballet. Mia's apparently pretty flexible and has amazing posture and focus in ballet. The last part of the ballet portion was leaps. Mia's still learning how to coordinate your body to kick both legs out opposite with hands out. Her classmate is really good, but on her 2nd leap, fell right on her face. Lots of tears, and she basically was checked out the rest of the time, leaving Mia to continue the "performance" in front of me, and the adults that came for Addie Mae.

Mia started the tap portion and was incredible. For a girl who used to complain that she didn't like tap dancing as much, she's super impressive. Once again, great posture and form the whole time. They somehow got Addie Mae to come up next to Mia to continue the performance, but she still was pretty out of it. After wards, Mia came running to me and told me "I tried my best Daddy". She was amazing. I took video to show Jill later and she couldn't believe it either. I'm really glad she has this outside of school interest that she enjoys. Who knows how long she'll continue to dance, but for now, she loves it.

We jetted to Monkey Joe's for her pal Olivia's 6th birthday party. Mia changed quick and played and ate pizza/cupcakes.  We couldn't stay too long because at 12:30, we ran to Jill's studio for pictures with Santa. After that, We ran to Carroll University to look for a college shirt for Mia for Wednesday (it's wear your parent's college shirt day). Book store was closed so I went today and picked one up for her. After that, we decided to go to the movies to see Trolls. This was Mia's 2nd time seeing it and my first time. I was so exhausted from a sincere lack of sleep that I was nodding off during the movie. I caught the majority of it. Cute, weird and funny. Later, we made dinner and watched the snow fly.

Sunday I got up early for the game. Chelsea beat West Brom 1-0 which means they've won NINE games in a row. We've got a game this Wednesday :) Can't wait. Our stupid snow blower wouldn't start thanks to an old spark plug, so we shoveled and shoveled till I had to go to work.

This week is "Mike absolutely needs to finish the book" week. No time to lose. Saturday, we're baking cookies with my parents. That's all for now. Thanks for reading and stay warm!!

This Party is Surreal

Good morning everyone. Phew, what a busy week(end) we had (again).  The Christmas book we're working on for Mia is taking a lot of hard work and I hope I can get it done in time. Wednesday when I picked up Mia from school, she ran out with this 1st grader named Leilani who styled Mia's hair while they wanted to be released for the day. Such a nice kid. I'm always glad when Mia makes a new friend, even if its just for a little bit.  Saturday morning I got up very early to watch Chelsea take on Man City. This match promised to be a good one and the good guys won 3-1. Chelsea came from behind (on an own goal) to take the 3 points, but not before a rather nasty skirmish. Sergio Aguero lunged at David Luiz's leg with two feet causing almost a fight among some of the players. Another player from Man City picked up a red card for grabbing Cesc Fabregas by the throat and shoving him over an advertisement board. Ugly display by the home team. Both players are out for several games, hopefully causing these twits to drop in points in the upcoming matches.

After that intense game, I had to wake up the diva for dance. She's starting to like this more advanced class more and after class, she had to change and go to her friend Noelle's 6th birthday party. She had an art party at her house with all of the girls from the class. Mia was the last one to arrive and when she came down the stairs, all of them screamed "MIA!!" and this girl Hayden ran up and gave her a very big hug. Popular little kid, I have. They painted, did sand art, decorated cup cakes, swatted at a piñata and all in all, had a blast.  Mia loves hanging out with her girls and once again, didn't want to leave.

Later, she someone had the energy to go ice skating at the Petit. She's been insisting on going for weeks. I'm the only one who can take her and skate so later that evening, she grabbed her skates and we went. Took her a bit to get used to skating again but after a lap or two, she refused to hold my hand and wanted to skate solo. I could tell this made Jill nervous, but she looked confident and did very well. Yes, she's on double blades, but she only really skates maybe twice a year, so this was pretty good. Some boy acknowledged her while we were skating, and said she was doing well. She didn't want to leave, but we were all hungry.

We went to MOD pizza later, put on a movie and called it a night. Sunday, we got some snow, so Mia and Jill were out playing in it during the day and later at my in-laws house while I went to work.

This week, work on the book, some IB 26 stuff, and start to plan Mia's holiday party with some of the parents. Thanks for reading!

Turkey Day 2016

Good morning everyone. I need to jet through this post as quickly as possible. I've got way too much to do today. Thanksgiving week was pretty busy. Mia had a short two-day week that finished with a fun pajama day. Wednesday, we spent the day together. Just Mia and I. First thing Mia wanted to do was wander around the mall. WHY. So we went to Mayfair. Later, we donated some food to the Feeding America people at Pick n Save and who was there collecting the goods? None other than Rosco, the dog mascot from the Milwaukee Admirals. Mia got a picture from him and thought he was pretty cool. Later, we came back home. Mia was playing around with my drums. I taught her how to keep a straight beat with the floor tom and snare, playing "We Will Rock You" by Queen. Her friend Olivia messaged Mia and the girls hung out at Olivia's house. Mia played for a while before we had to go, have dinner with Jill and go see Moana.

The movie was absolutely incredible. We've been looking forward to it for a long time. The art, the story, the music score, the characters all were perfect. Thursday morning, I went to work the early shift. After that nightmare was over, we went to my parents house for Thanksgiving. My half-bro drove in from Michigan to surprise my Dad (to celebrate his bday) Dinner was great and the next day, I had to work again 6am-2pm and we did round two Thanksgiving at my in-laws. Another fun time that ended with some games. Mia didn't like not "doing well" at Uno and probably was too tired (Jill said she woke up way too early that morning). Saturday, we set up the old tree (which the cat later knocked down and broke some ornaments) while watching the Chelsea game. Great win 2-1 for the Blues. Love when they beat a rival club. Jill had drove down to Illinois for lunch with some friends that were in town so it was just Mia and I. We met up again with Olivia and hung out at the park. My friend Nichole and her boy came out to play as well.

Sunday, we went out and got a new tree. Our old one had seen better days and we needed a replacement. It took some time, but we settled on one. We did some birthday party shopping for two back-to-back parties in the next coming weeks as well as getting some gifts for my nephew, Alex.

This week, I'm working on Mia's extra special Christmas present from both Jill and I. It's going to take a ton of work. Mia's got her friend Noelle's party this weekend. Easily, the closest we've ever had to travel for a birthday party. Mia may walk there actually. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Fun With Friends

Good morning everyone. Hard to believe Thanksgiving is just about here. Last week was an intense one for Mia. She returned back to school on Monday only to receive 15 sheets of HOMEWORK! Oh em Gee. Luckily, she didn't stress out about it, and even though she didn't have to do it all in one night, she did anyway. She didn't want to get behind and conquered it all. For the most part, homework for her is just repetitive sheets all very similar. Write this out, rhyme words, etc. She also has to read through sight words and poems every day. Seems daunting for a kindergartner but she seems to handle it just fine. I was off Tuesday and worked early Wednesday morning. Strange schedule, but it was nice to spend time with Mia on both days. Unfortunately this week, she got sick (along with Jill). Thursday, she didn't sleep much but got herself to school. We had told her that if she didn't feel good enough to stay at school, she could go to the office and have them call. She apparently was too afraid and instead, drew some pictures that said "Mom Dad, I don't feel good". The other one said "I am miserable".
Felt so bad.

She didn't make it to school Friday and took the day off to try and knock out her sickness. Her goal was to be better enough for her new level dance class and her friend Charlie's birthday party. Mia woke up super excited that we had snow in the grass. She wanted to play in it, but A-there was too little of it, and B-she had dance to get ready for. She made it to dance and really liked it. She's mentioned that its harder than her previous dance class, but she seems to like it all the same. We got home and she changed into a dress and was off to her friend Charlie's 6th birthday party. She was joined with the majority of her classmates at a fancy dress up party. When we walked up the driveway, girls ran out the door to greet her. One gave her a huge hug and they all asked "ARE YOU FEELING BETTER MIA???!!" All remembering that the previous day, Mia didn't make it to school. They did nails, make up, hair, jewelry and a fashion show. All things a Dad would excel at. I helped the the girls tie on their necklaces and was asked by Birthday girl Charlie to help judge the fashion show. They had parfaits, pink lemonade and danced like crazy. I think what was really nice, is during hot potato (or their version was pass the crown) when a kid went out, they weren't upset. They played and danced around while the remaining girls continued. Mia was the last one to leave the party. She (and Charlie) didn't want to split, but I reminded her that she is off Wednesday from school as well as her friends are and that maybe they can hang out. Charlie was Mia's first new friend when she started kindergarten. In fact, her first day they became friends. She would tell us all about her, and apparently Charlie would tell her parents about Mia. It's cute.

Later, we met up with my parents and got some Blaze Pizza for my Mom's birthday. My Dad was sporting his new tattoo (first one in over 40 years). He tries to put up a front that it doesn't hurt but he's not fooling me :) Mia, Jill and I watched Finding Dory till Mia fell asleep.

Sunday I got up and watched the Chelsea/Boro game. Great game. Tricky one but they got the win and are on top of the table once again. Boro played really well, but Costa got the best of Valdes with a quick little kick on an open side. Pedro almost doubled the lead but ended up smacking the crossbar. It's been great to see Chelsea playing so well and I hope they can continue the momentum.

Today, I'll complete my 50th picture for Mia. Haven't decided what I'll do yet, but it should be good. She's got a short week this week and I'm working back to back early shifts on Thanksgiving. Have a great holiday everyone and thanks for reading! :)

Short Vacation

Good evening everyone. Been a busy week. Mostly solo, but we'll get to that later. Tuesday was election. It was also Jill's day off before she was leaving for Florida with Mia and her parents and bro. After we dropped off Mia, we voted and spent the rest of the day together. Something we haven't done since before Mia. We picked up some birthday presents for my parents as well as her Dad's, had lunch and before I knew it, it was time to go to work. At work, I heard from a variety of people their thoughts on the election. A lot thought Hilary had it, but we were all wrong. Mia also had her first day of her new dance class she was recommended. She said it was difficult but she did like it. That night I found out Trump was ahead. I had to get up with the girls early Wednesday morning so I went to sleep when Hilary was gaining momentum winning Nevada.

The next morning at 3:30am, it was confirmed that a TV reality host would be the new leader of the free world. Worse than that, was that the Republicans took pretty much everything including senate and house. Terrible steps that will surely lead us into big trouble. I talked to a customer who was exclaiming his concern that 30 years ago, we should have been taking climate change more seriously, and with the new president and his administration he will pick, it'll set us back another 40 years that we as a planet can't afford. Mia cried that morning "How could Donald Trump win? He's going to be mean to all the cities!!" I explained that it's important to remain kind to one another and not say anything mean that would hurt anyones feelings. Jill's family arrived around 4:00am and they were off to Mitchell International to fly to Florida for a short little 4 days visiting Grandpa Gangier celebrating his 90th birthday. I attempted to go back to sleep but just couldn't. The thought of Trump as president sincerely kept me awake. Eventually, exhaustion settled in and I was able to get some sleep. Later, I did some art, drummed and hung out with some co-workers till 3:00am. We played Super Smash bros, had some pizza/beers and watched their favorite show Rick and Morty. It was a lot of fun even though I totally suck at Smash.

The rest of the week, I took care of my in-law's cat, designed some Torrent and IB26 stuff and worked on a lunch note drawing for Mia  with my brand new 72 pack of Prismacolor soft core pencils. These are total high end and different than I'm used to. I have to find an awesome paper that will work well. The one I used with my note was mostly alright. I think I need a heavier paper. Overall, it was fun exploring what these can do. I've got a lot to learn with techniques but the end result wasn't too bad. Saturday evening, I went to a house warming party my good friend Nichole had at her new house. I could only stay for a little while because my girls were finally coming home. 4 days doesn't seem that long, but for me, it seemed like 4 weeks. I asked Jill how she'd do if she was separate from Mia from that long and she was that far away, and she simply said "no way I could do that". I don't think people think its as hard on us Dads as we may let on.
Back to normal this week. School tomorrow. I'm off Tuesday and working early Wednesday. Mia's got her friend Charlie's birthday party this Saturday and I believe Chelsea is back from International Break this week. FINALLY.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Dance Little Girl

Good morning everyone. It was a pretty busy week so let's get right to it. Monday, I dressed up for work for Halloween. I was 80's hair metal drummer Metal Mike. It's the one holiday we can dress up (sorta) at work so I donned a black/blonde wig with aviators and had drum sticks in my back pocket.
I got all kinds of compliments and guesses who I was supposed to be. Bob Marley, Howard Stern and Ted Nugent were just a few of them.  Wednesday after school Mia and I hung out with her friend Noelle, and Noelle's sister Cora and neighbor Caitlyn. The kids had fun playing in the driveway despite the drab weather till Mia looks at me and says "Dad, I'm pretty hungry, but I REALLY want to play still". We went home. Jill and I stayed up and watched the World Series (which I can honestly say, I've never watched ever) in its entirety. She was so excited the Cubs won (despite being a White Sox fan) Jill believes in city solidarity. If a Chicago team can win a championship, she's stoked. Blackhawks, White Sox, Bears etc.

Mia had dance class Saturday. Apparently, it went really well because when we went to pick her up the woman who runs it pulled us aside and said "Okay, Mia's doing REALLY well and we want to see if she'd like to move up. She's got all of the technical skills down and I think she'd benefit from a more challenging dance group". Awesome. We had no idea what to expect when signing her up for dance or if she'd even like it. Turns out she likes it enough to be the best in class. To be fair, her group consists of 3-5 year olds but since it was her first formal dance class, we didn't know what to expect nor want to give her something she didn't feel confident doing. Starting tomorrow, she's in a new group at a different time. The reason why she's in Tuesday's dance class is because Wednesday, she's leaving for Florida with Jill and her family so it's a "make up day" for her. Hopefully it goes well and she likes it.

After dance class. we worked on the yard and raked leaves (despite the fact that on Sunday you could barely tell we even tried) Later, we drove to my parents house and Jill/Mia/my Mom went to a craft fair at HAWS while my Dad and I watched Chelsea thrash Everton 5-0. What a game. Hazard putting away two goals, Alonso gets his first and Costa adding to his already impressive list with Pedro grabbing the last one. It was a great performance showcasing confidence and pure raw talent that they so badly lacked last season. Conte is bringing the best out of these players and it makes watching every match more enjoyable when you see the players entering the pitch with their heads up high confident they'll bring home another victory.

Later, we drove to Milwaukee's First Stage Theater to watch the Goosebumps-Phantom of the Auditorium play. Mia loved it. Anything with ghosts and creepy singing, she enjoys. Afterwards, we're walking out and she says "I'm going to write and direct my own play called Shopkin: The Musical and have all of my friends star in it". Love this kid's creativity. Before the night ended, she completed a few sheets of homework before calling it a night. Sunday, we cleaned some of the garage before I went to work. Jill went to her parent's house and made her first batch of macaroons. She wasn't too happy with the final result so she'll have some tweaking to do with the recipe.

This week is a busy one. Tomorrow, Mia's got her last day of school and first day of her new dance class before she leaves for Florida early Wednesday morning. They'll return to Wisconsin Saturday evening. My plan is to do a lot of art, organize Mia's play area and make the most of the time. Saturday my friend is having a housewarming party so I'll probably stop over. Going to miss my girls. This is the first time she's ever flown without me.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Halloween Weekend (Blah bla blahhhhhhh)

Afternoon everyone. Quite the busy end to October with a short week for the diva (she was off Friday). Wednesday was her first conference at her new school. Her teacher praised her skills, she's in a higher level of reading group and has conquered 59 sight words. I was quite amazed as she told me all of these amazing skills. We had other grounds to cover, regarding her recent issues with a friend, playing "too rough". Mia was reminded to tell the teacher if anyone gets out of line and hurts her. Hopefully the problem is solved.

Saturday was a busy one. Dance class was first. After we picked her up, we jetted to Madison to meet with Jill's family to stroll the Botanical Gardens. Gorgeous weather made the walk oh so enjoyable. We grabbed some lunch before changing into costumes for Mia's boy, Trey's Halloween Party. The adults packed up the beer coolers full of jello shots, drunken gummies and brews and we were on our way.  It was a lot of fun walking around East Troy with this large group of kids and adults. Some houses even handed out shots to the adults. Awesome! Towards the end of the trick or treat session, I volunteered to pull the wagon with some kids in it up and down the hills. I don't know what the capacity of children for this particular wagon was, but they somehow squeezed 5 kids in it totaling the combined weight to about 250 pounds (not counting the candy). The task was difficult at times, but the kids had fun as I charged the hills thinking "WHY THE HELL AM I RUNNING??"

After wards, we ate, watched some of the baseball game and were outta there. Mia had SO much fun running around with her old preschool friends and fell fast asleep on the 30 minute ride home.

Sunday morning was an early one for me. Worked 6am-2pm so I could go with Mia and the gang trick or treating in New Berlin. Chelsea beat Southhampton while I was at work 2-0 and are back in 2nd place. We met up with my brother/sis-in-law and their kids with his bro in laws girlfriend. My in laws joined us as well. The kids had a blast. The weather wasn't as warm but they didn't seem to mind. After wards, they went home and we had spaghetti. Mia went to bed and Jill and I watched the Cubs/Indians game. I've never seen her more into a game. Probably because the game was so close.

Last night I completed my month of spooky lunch notes for Mia. Back to normal for November. I ran out of time today to draw for her so I'll have to come up with something today. This weekend, we've got the Goosebumps play we're going to so that should be pretty fun. Other than that, that's about it. Have a great week and thanks for reading :)

Trick or Treatment

Good morning ghouls. Getting closer to Halloween and I've been successfully drawing up Mia's daily lunch notes in spooky themes throughout the month. My favorite so far as been my Zero from Nightmare Before Christmas. It's tricky working with negative space, but this one turned out really well. Wednesday was a beautiful day, so Mia and her friends met up at the park and got to play for a few hours. We ironically ran into her old friends Hannah and Gracie so all of them played together. Later that night I was lucky to witness something beautiful. I was fortunate to be present at the table watching Mia read aloud a book. It was the most beautiful thing that I don't think non parents can understand. She used to be this tiny kid trying to walk and make sentences. Now, she's comfortable reading sentences.  It honestly blew me away. I love watching her grow and get smarter. Thankfully, Jill has been working with her since the Summer with the technical aspects of reading so she's really polished Mia into this intelligent student while I'm stuck at work and the hard work shows. I've seen Mia get frustrated with work books over the Summer, but she has yet to get upset reading. It's beautiful.

Over the weekend, Mia had her dance class in the morning (as usual) which was fun. Later, we trick or treated at the zoo. She dressed up in matching unicorn costumes with Jill. The weather was gorgeous and she probably could have gotten away with her Draculaura costume. Later, we trick or treated the businesses in Delafield. We brought Remi who was dressed like a pirate. The kids loved him and everyone wanted to pet our dashing dog. Next year however, we won't bring him. It was a bit stressful and tough to walk at times. They moved the pumpkin lighting to a very tight area, so Jill and Mia wandered over there and I hung out with Remi on the opposite side of the street. He graciously excepted the pets and kisses.

Sunday, I watched one of the best matches of the season. Chelsea destroyed rivals Man U at the Bridge 4-0. FINALLY a game I could watch. Pedro opened up the assault at the .30 second mark and the goals just kept coming with Cahill, Hazard and Kante all getting on the board. Later, we went to lunch at Jill's parents house with her Aunt/Uncle that drove from Sun Prairie before I worked till 10pm. Busy week this week. I've got conferences with Mia's teacher Wed after school, she's got a Fall party on Thursday and she's off Friday. Saturday, dance class, then visiting Tommy in Madison, THEN we have her boyfriend's Halloween party. Trick or Treating in New Berlin is Sunday. Phew.
Have a great week everyone. Thanks for reading!

The Epic Halloween Party

Good morning everyone. Still recovering from the rather insanely busy week we had. The majority of the week, we spent preparing for Mia's Halloween party on Saturday. On top of that, work has been busy for both Jill and I so the stress level was high. Drawing up signs, making treats and trying to figure out who was coming was getting to us.  By the end of the week, we were ready to go on this party. Mia would ask every morning "IS IT SATURDAY YET??" Saturday morning I got up very early to watch Chelsea take on the EPL Champs Leicester. We prevailed with a 3-0 win, but I saw NONE of it. The NBCSN site wasn't working and I couldn't watch anything. I tried everything. I eventually settled for the audio and tuned in that way, but I seriously need to figure out why it wasn't working. They play this Saturday again and this time I have to watch.

Mia had her dance class,which was a lot of fun. When she got home, we started preparing for the party. My parents and Jill's played a huge role in helping out. We couldn't have done it without them and absolutely appreciate everything they did. Mia got in her costume, Jill and I got in our vampire attire and the party was running as soon as Irianna, the first one to arrive, showed up. Roughly 25+ kids were running all over the back yard playing the wide variety of different games we had. We had kids painting pumpkins, wrapping up friends like mummies and knocking down ghost-cups before all running at once to get some tasty food. The kids lined up for the flashlight hunt. 1...2...3....GO! They took off. One by one they all packed up their goody bags and slowly started heading out. Her last couple of friends stayed till about 8 watching part of a spooky movie. Overall, the event was incredibly fun. All the kids had a blast and she got to see some old pre school pals she hasn't hung out with in a long time. We are casually thinking about doing a "girls night" where her friends can hang out, watch movies and eat treats (more like, 4-5 friends) but if we do it, it won't be for quite a while. It's fun hosting parties. This was absolutely the biggest one. We met a lot of parents. (one dropped her kid off and picked her up later) and it was awesome catching up with some of the parents from her preschool. At the end of the night, Mia said "Wow...THIS was a lot of fun guys!" It's nice being able to do something like this for her and I hope she appreciated all the hard work that went into it.

Sunday was recovery day for us. Started taking down things, putting this back and that back. Mia and Jill later went to the pumpkin patch to get a small pumpkin to carve when we get closer to Halloween. This week, I've got a lot of Torrent work to do, and my usual art for Mia's lunch notes. I've been working on some Halloween-inspired ones to keep things fun and spooky. Not sure what the weekend holds for us.

Thanks for reading!

Short Week For Short People

Good evening. So it was a rather short week for Mia at school. The kids at Orchard Lane were granted two days off for teacher inservice or something but come Tuesday night, she wasn't feeling well. I got home from work and Jill said she was dizzy and had a fever. Poor girl. Wednesday we tried to wake her despite having a crappy night sleeping. We ended up letting her sleep in hopes the rest would help her out. After Jill left for work, Mia woke up feeling a little better. She didn't make it to school, however we did have a little adventure together.

Since she was feeling better and eating some food, we took it upon ourselves to surprise Jill. Wednesday apparently marked 16 years since her favorite show Gilmore Girls aired. Jill has been an avid fan since before I met her. She has watched every single episode dozens of times. Can quote it by heart, has researched some of the references etc etc. Netflix is doing a short one-off series based on Gilmore Girls with the same characters and they redecorated 200 different cafes across the country. Two of the 200 cafe locations were in Milwaukee, where they were handing out free coffee to the first 250 people that came. I asked Mia few times if she'd like to go and get Mommy a special coffee with Luke's on it (one of the characters). She really liked the idea of surprising Mommy, so we packed some food and headed out. We knew there would be lines so I made sure she had something to do. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, we talked to some of the people in front of us who thought getting Jill coffee was really sweet. They had Luke's signs on the building and employees dressed up. It was pretty nice. The fans were smiling with their coffee, headed back to school or work. Mia felt so glad she could be a part of this and she couldn't wait to bring the brew in to Jill at work. I personally never got into the show, but I know that it's a big part of Jill's life so I knew I had to get her something special.

After school let out, we took Remi for a walk by the bus stop where her friend Noelle gets out. She was glad to see Mia because she missed her at school. "Charlie said you were sick today Mia!" I'm glad throughout the day she felt better. It was only Wednesday and she was worried she'd miss dance on Saturday morning. She had a great day at dance and we spent the majority of our Saturday doing some yard work, cleaning the house and getting ready for the big Halloween party. Later, Jill went out with some former co workers so Mia and I visited Grandpa and Grandma whom she hadn't seen for about a week. She helped decorate their house for the spooky holiday. We left after 9:00pm and Mia fell asleep instantly in the car. I spent the rest of the evening looking up ideas to draw her for the week. Sunday, we rearranged the basement. My drums are now on the opposite side and Mia has a bigger area to set up toys and play. After the party, we're going to use a long table for her stuff. Chelsea had an international break this week and are back in action early Saturday morning. Hopefully I can watch some of it.

Busy busy week this week getting everything ready so it'll probably go fast. Thanks for reading!

The Dancing Divas

Good morning. Well, we got through the first month of a very busy school year so far with Mia. She's loving it way more than when she started. New friends, new things to learn about and a whole new routine are keeping her (and us) quite busy. During this month, I've successfully drawn her 22 different lunch note pictures every day. I hope to continue it as long as possible. It takes a great deal of time planning on what I'm going to do, but the end result is usually pretty positive.

Wednesday was Mia's first play date with a friend from kindergarten. She was super stoked to hang out with Noelle, who lives very close to our house. She lives so close that Mia rode her big wheels to her house. As soon as we got home from school, she could barely contain herself to hang out with her friend. She ate an after school snack quick and by 4:30, we were rolling to her friend's house. As soon as her friend saw us by their cul de sac, Noelle went RUNNING down yelling "MIA!!!" she showed us that she had written "Mia" several times on a sign and taped it to her door so Mia knew which house was hers. She was super sweet and her parents were just as nice. The girls played in the semi-cold weather and if they could, they would have played all night. 

Friday, I worked a very rare early shift. 6am-2pm. Trying to go to bed early Thursday night proved to be a difficult task. Between eating food and cleaning the kitchen, it was a struggle but the morning shift went super fast. I kept thinking about how I haven't seen Mia since Thursday morning when I took her to school and how stoked I was to get to pick her up later. When Jill got home, we had "breakfast for dinner" which consisted of pancakes, eggs and hash browns. Mia changed into a dress and we walked across the street to her school's dance party. I tell you, it was LOUD with about 120 kids singing to the DJ's Top 40 music. It was almost too much for Mia at first. We met her other awesome friend, Charlie and her parents. They too, were very nice and her friend is such a sweetheart. "I LOVE YOUR OUTFIT MIA!" Her and fellow classmate Ellarose kept trying to get Mia to dance and be silly, but she just wouldn't do it. Before I had to leave for Ian Bennett's launch party, Mia started to be more independent and hanging with her friends. I later learned that she eventually started dancing with the girls. "Dad, my heart kept beating loudly during the music!" She had such a fun time and it was nice to meet some more friends of hers. 

The IB26 launch party was a lot of fun. Very small bar but Ian hooked me up with some drinks. Very proud of him and his hard work. The banners I helped design turned out incredible and he's already got ideas for his next photos he'll need me for. It's fun doing different projects for Ian and I get to keep my design skills sharp, which is always a plus. Saturday morning, Jill had to work and Mia had dance class. I wasn't sure if the diva would want to go since she had hurt her head. She woke up. not feeling the best about going, but she put on her rights, I did about 3 or 4 tries at her dancer bun and she got to dance class. I went home, watched most of the first half of the Chelsea vs Hull City game before picking her up. She came out excited and immediately said "Daddy, I'm glad I went to class". They learned about counting steps with tap shoes and she absolutely loved it. We came home and watched Chelsea beat Hull City 2-0. Great to see the Blues getting all three points, even if it was against a sub par team. They have an international break and won't play next till Mia's Halloween Party.

Later, we picked up costumes for the Halloween party and went to the China lights exhibit at the Botanical Gardens. Absolutely worth it. Even in the crappy weather, the lights were spectacular. Mia was confused thinking "so do we just DRIVE through?" They had a really good turn out for their opening weekend and if you're in the area, I highly recommend checking them out.

Sunday, we did a little cleaning before they went to Jill's parent's house to celebrate Tommy's birthday.

This week, art, designing and more preparations for the party. That's all for now, Thanks for reading! 

Ripe For The Pickin'

Good morning everyone. Hope you all enjoyed your weekend and the pleasant weather (when it wasn't raining). School is going real well for Mia, she seems to be really enjoying learning new things and playing with her friends. One of her friends apparently lives nearby and wants to have a play date after school this week so we may make that happen come Wednesday. Early in the week, Chelsea played Leicester in the EFL Cup. They beat the EPL champs 4-2 which at the time, I had hoped would carry them into the weekend derby against Arsenal, but we'll get back to that later.

Wednesday, I spent the majority of the day finishing some design stuff for Ian Bennett's clothing like IB26. The website launched and you can order his new gear. Friday, Mia and Jill went to see the Storks. They've been showing the trailer for this goofy movie for what seems like months and months and I never had an interest in it. Jill said it was pretty silly, but Mia liked it. Jill told me when I got home from work that a boy apparently smacked Mia in the mouth at school. Apparently during lunch, Mia was being silly and he smacked her. Today, Mia told me that "I'll let him off with this warning but next time he does it, I'm telling the teacher". I doubt he did it maliciously and since Mia was being goofy,he was most likely playing accordingly. She's fine.

 Saturday morning, she had her dance class. Still really loves it but she said she has a hard time keeping her arms up for the moves because "it makes her arms tired".  Later, we tried to go to the Halloween store to see if we could find anything she may need or Jill may need for our costumes. Mia insisted she's a big girl and can handle walking around Halloween stores. Apparently, she IS in deed a big girl, but parts of the stores are still frightening. We didn't make it more than 20 seconds. Oh well. "DADDA! WHY WOULD THEY PUT CREEPY THINGS IN HALLOWEEN STORES WHEN THERE IS A CHILD WHO GETS SCARED OF THESE THINGS???!!?!"  Oh Child...

Later, I watched the majority disappointing Chelsea vs ARSEnal match. The Blues for some reason, didn't have their heads on straight. From Cahill's poorly executed back pass to the weak mid fields, it was a game I wish I never watched. They better get their heads of their arses for the next one or we may lose Conte by the holidays. After that nightmare of a match, we went to the apple orchard. Elegant Farmer to be exact. Gorgeous day for it. Mia climbed the trees getting all of the best apples she could reach. She road a pony and also wanted to do the corn maze but it was closing soon.

Sunday, we didn't do much. Cut the grass, retrieved some sale items from the JBF sale and Mia hung out with her grandparents and uncle the remainder of the evening.

This week, more lunch notes for Mia, some light graphic designing and for the first time in several several years, I'm working a weekday shift 6am-2pm so I can attend Ian Bennett's launch party Friday night.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

The Falcon Soars At Midnight

Good morning everyone. Hope you all enjoyed your weekend and the gorgeous weather (at least Wisconsin has been having).  My week was sort of short, because I took off Thursday for one of the best live shows I've ever been to, but we'll get back to that later. School's been going really well for Mia, she's been having a lot of fun making new friends, playing and learning new things. In fact, we decided to let her host a Halloween party at our house and let her invite her Kindergarten friends and her old pre-school pals. So far, we've got 5-7 friends coming and she's going to hand out the invites to her class today. This will most likely be the biggest party we've had for her. Her 4th birthday, we had 10 kids running around which seemed intense at the time so hopefully we survive this one.


Speaking of school, she got in to a little bit of trouble during the week. Apparently a little boy was playing with something that she wanted and didn't want to play with Mia, so she decided to knock whatever it was on the floor. Naturally because she's a Justman, she got in trouble. If at all, both should have had a stern talking to. He should have included her, and she shouldn't have reacted that way. She felt bad when she got home and had a good cry about it. The next day, she said she didn't get in trouble this time so I was glad she was able to get along with him. Apparently a boy named Easton keeps giving her kisses during class that she claims she doesn't like. In a way, I was glad she didn't get upset and cry that the wouldn't include her, but at the same time my kid was in the wrong for knocking crap to the floor.

Thursday was a beautiful day to have off. It's normally a busy day at work so having that day off was fantastic. I was able to finish some art that I made for the singer, do some cleaning and laundry and it was the perfect weather for a walk to school to pick up Mia. It truly makes me wish I had a 1st shift job so I could be home with her every night. Later that evening, my co-worker Jon and I met at our work and drove down to Madison to see super-ground The Falcon headline the Frequency, a quaint little venue that the owner of Red Scare Industries claims is one of his all-time favorite places for shows. The crowd was pretty tame during the 1st of 4 acts. Not the best group (since I can barely remember their name). During the 2nd one, I saw lead singer of the Falcon (and Lawrence Arms), Brendan Kelly walking around so I walked up, and handed him the Lego drawing I made. He was stoked about it and I found out later, hung it at the merch booth. Hopefully it wasn't picked up by anyone. We talked for a while by the merch area. He's definitely one of the nicest musicians I've met in the last 20 years. The 2nd band, Help Desk wasn't too bad. More hard-core meets Joe Cape style. All of them in shirts/ties singing about work-related stuff. Not bad stuff. Last opener was local band from Eau Claire, Arms Aloft. They were okay, and had quite a mosh pit going for the majority of their set. I was more than stoked to hear some Falcon. They took the stage and dominated a 16 song set list. They opened with Sailors Grave and performed at least 10 songs off the new album, Gather Up The Chaps. They closed out the night with "Lazyboy 500". At the end of the set, they had a conga line going around the venue to the infectious 80's tune "Call Me Al" by Paul Simon. I got on stage with my buddy and we conga'ed around the whole place with everyone. The band quickly went back stage. Some came back out to start packing up their gear. I saw Alk3's Dan packing so I went up to talk to him. I thanked him for coming to Madison and he gave me a set list off of Neil's drum monitor. Never got a set list before so I was pretty stoked about that. We drove home exhausted from an exciting show at a fun venue.

Friday, I was dead exhausted all day but had to work. I was bummed to be missing the Chelsea vs Liverpool game, but later found out at work that Chelsea lost. So pissed. Saturday, Mia had dance class again. She still REALLY loves it. Later, she hung out at the park with BFF Olivia and her brother. She watched him play soccer at his game WHILE playing soccer with Olivia. While I was at the park, Jill hit up the JBF sale and picked up some fall/winter clothes at a good price.  Sunday, we gave Remi a bath and that was about it. Jill and Mia did some trial runs on some treats for the party at Mia's Grandparent's house. Majority of the week, I've been working on Ian Bennett's clothing line ads getting him ready for his big event. I've also upped the quality of Mia's lunch notes. So far, my favorites that I've done are Clawhauser from Zootopia and a Rainbow Dash. Both really turned out nice and I hope they get better and better. Today I'm starting note #14. Tomorrow, Mia brings a snack to school for her class. String cheese! :)

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Put On Those Dancin' Shoes

Good morning everyone. Well, the school year is in full swing and things seem to be going well for Mia in kindergarten. She's befriended two or three new girls in her class and one in particular she talks about ALL the time, Charlie. In fact, she had me draw two Monster High pictures for her friend because Mia was stoked that she too, loves the show/movie series. This morning I finished the 2nd one and Mia brought them to school. I've also been drawing a picture in her lunch every single day as well. Some more complex than others. My nightly routine when I get home has turned into: eat food, draw Mia a picture, shower then bed.

Tuesday, Mia was supposed to have her very first ballet/tap class. I had a missed call and a vm while at work and it was my mother-in-law telling me that Mia didn't want to do dance that day after school. She was tired, hungry and didn't want to put on the outfit. As frustrated as I was, I was glad we were able to transfer her to a Saturday morning class. It was weird Wednesday. It was my first day off while Mia was at school so I had literally 7 hours to myself in the house. Did some cleaning, some art and drumming before getting Mia with my parents to show them exactly where and how to pick up the diva. The rain was obnoxious keeping me from hitting the pitch for the first time so I'll have to try again this week.

Saturday, Mia had her dance class. It was like night and day from Tuesday. She got up, got in her tights and outfit and was out the door for dance. She's in a class that consists of 3-5 year olds which is good for her since this was her first year taking a dance class. I forgot how old some of these kids were when I saw her next to some of these girls and saw how tiny they were. We dropped her off and had about 45 minutes to do whatever we needed (which is almost always a Trader Joe's run)
We picked her up after TJ's and she couldn't have been more excited to tell us about dance. She wanted to dance more! Great. Glad she was able to do Saturdays.

Later, Mia raced the neighbor boy (and her classmate) Max in the cul de sac before we had my parent's over for dinner. We started the preliminary planning for a friend's Halloween Party at our house. Mia wants to invite friends (old and new) to our house for a flashlight candy hunt and snacks. Hopefully, we can figure it out and get her friends to come. To close out the Saturday, I watched part of the Earthquakes game and missed the Sounders unfortunately tie the game.

Sunday morning I watched the Chelsea game.  Talk about an intense match. Chelsea got the early lead with a great goal from Costa. 2nd half, two mistakes led to Swansea getting the lead but once again, Costa picked up another goal and we secured a draw. Should have won but it was pretty physical. I'm missing the Friday match against Liverpool sadly.

This week, I'm busy busy busy in the creative department so hopefully I can get all of my projects complete. I'm off Thursday for The Falcon show in Madison. I only go to concerts once every few years usually for a band I either have never seen or rarely get to see. These guys are totally worth driving for. That's it for now. Thanks for reading!

First Day of School

Good morning everyone. Having a very slow Labor Day after a night of drinking and dancing with some old college friends of mine last night, but we'll get to that later. This week was the official last week of Summer before school started Thursday. My goal was to enjoy it as much as I could with the diva. Wednesday, we met up with some friends of hers at the park. Hannah and Gracie met us so the girls had a great time playing and running around. They won't get to see each other much during the school year so I figured it would be great the day before school to hang out, tell secrets and play one last time.

Mia had high hopes her BFF Olivia would join as well since she had a Best Friends necklace she wanted to share with her. She didn't make it. I guess the past few days she wasn't feeling great. Mia was missing her greatly, and well after FaceTiming with her and her Dad, it appeared she was feeling better so we went BACK out to the park (different one) and they hung out for one last time. She gave Olivia the necklace and they played. I love seeing Mia care for her friends like this. To have these special friends that she loves so much, it makes me very happy. Wednesday evening we got the very excited girl to sleep a little after 9:00pm. I packed her lunch for her and drew her a small picture for her to see at lunch time.

Thursday we got up early, got the sleepy diva awake, dressed, fed and out the door. It was a very emotional walk to school. To think how fast the last 5 years have gone, and where we're at right now, is surreal. This little child will be at this school for the next 6 years, making new friends and experiencing new things. Mia was determined as ever as we walked in with the other misty-eyed parents. We waited in the gym for the teachers to meet with the kids. They told them to say their goodbyes, and that was it. I wouldn't see Mia till the very next morning. 7 hours of school. It seems like a lot to take on but that's what kindergarten is these days. Jill and I walked home, both sad and somber about our little girl growing up. We were relieved when we learned the neighbor boy was going to be in her class with her so at least she knew ONE kid. Jill went to work and I went home, but luckily had a freelance photography job to go to at 10:00am to keep me busy. I can't talk much about it till things are published, but it was a lot of fun and you should see something in the near future.

Mia and Jill stopped in by me at work and I couldn't have been more stoked to hear how school went. Mia didn't say much because I was hella busy, but it sounded like she liked it. She said the girls liked her pink/blue hair piece she had in and they thought it was dyed. She simply told them "no, but the blonde hair is natural!" Adorable.

The next day, we walked across the street again and dropped her off but this time at her class. When I saw her Friday night after work, it sounded like she had made some new friends. Saturday she did her homework while I helped my sister move some chairs with my brother to her new apartment. We cleaned and spent some time outside with Jill's pal that drove up to visit. Jill and Leanne conspired a plan Saturday to get early Sunday and drive down to Indiana to visit a friend for her birthday. Sort of a surprise, and thats exactly what they did. They left at 5:00am yesterday and should be home today. After I got out of work last night, I drove over to Bullwinkle's to meet up with some old college friends to celebrate my friend Shawn's wedding. We drank, danced and had an awesome time. It's pretty rare I get to drink with friends these days so this was a pretty fun night. We always have an awesome time, and I expected nothing less than pure drunken debauchery from Shawn and his new wife.

This week, back to school tomorrow for the kiddo,  she starts ballet and tap tomorrow after school, I'll probably squeeze in some drumming and I don't know what else is going on. Thanks for reading!

Double Feature

Hello everyone! hope everyone enjoyed the weekend and the gorgeous weather. This week, Mia got to hang out at the park with a couple of her crazy friends, Irianna and Nate at the always busy; Malone Park. I swear, it is super easy to lose a kid at this place. There had to be at least 50+ kids running around. They chased each other around, climbed the monkey bars and swung from a large saucer swing. All three of them needed my assistance getting them off upside down from the monkey for most of the time we were there. I'm sincerely glad she's got such great friends and hope they can all hang out during the school year (when possible). It's going to be tricky with all of the kids doing different activities during the school year, but we'll just have to try.

Wednesday was Tattoo Day, but first a quick photo session for the Torrent at Jill's studio. Her boss took a few photos of me in jersey/scarf and as well as some with my mask/drum for their social media sites. Basically, it was to announce I'll be continuing to work for them in 2017. Later, it was tattooing time. It was my very last session of my gorgeous Hawaiian half-sleeve that I've been working on all Summer, and I couldn't have been more excited to finish it. My amazing tattoo artist, Marcus put about 4 hours into coloring the shark, finishing the blue around the bicep and above the turtle and tightening any lines that needed it. The painful areas were defiantly "the ditch" or the hinge of the forearm and upper arm, but that wasn't nearly as rough as the last 15-20 minutes of coloring up my arm. He was going to stop where the shark tail ended but I insisted he kept going and finish it. "Are you sure? I figured I would do you a favor and stop." No, let's do this right and finish it. So, he did. It was real rough and sorta reminded me of my 1st tattoo (2nd session) when my artist was pulling from the inner arm. I'm proud of myself for sticking it out and couldn't have been more happier with the final results. This tattoo captures my sincere love of Hawaii, the marine animals and my beautiful family. I've had a slew of people asking me about his work and where to find him and I've happily given them all his info. He gave me a product called tegrederm that he's never used before in any session. It's mainly used for burn victims, but tattoo artists are starting to take advantage of this wrap that apparently helps with the healing process. You can leave it on up to 5 days at a time. Friday, I took off the first wrap and boy did it hurt. I put a new wrap on it and tomorrow, will be removing it. I'm excited to clean this arm, get all the adhesive off and let it heal.

Thursday, Jill and I had a biometrics test. My results were great and we'll have a better cheaper insurance for another year. Saturday, I finally got to watch Chelsea play a match in the 16/17 season. They beat Burnley 3-0 comfortably. Hazard got the first goal, Willian put away the 2nd and Victor Moses completed the day with the final goal. It's great to see them playing well again and on top of the league. There's an international break so no games for a little while. Later, we went to Mod Pizza and went to the movies. Jill's parent's met us and took Mia to see the highly anticipated animated movie called Kubo and the 2 Strings. Mia said it was really good, dark with some scary parts. We went and saw Florence Foster Jenkins. It's a true story about a woman who is awful at singing, with Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant. I It's pretty rare that we get to enjoy some time like this, just the two of us and the movie was actually pretty good. It was fun that Mia got to see a movie while we saw one for us. When we got out, she was waiting eating Gelato.

Today, we went to the zoo briefly to enjoy the gorgeous weather before I had to work. This week is a busy one. Mia's got her orientation day on Tuesday, which she'll bring in her supplies, meet her teacher again and see the classroom. I'm trying to get some of her friends together to hang before they all go off to Kindergarten. Thursday will be her first full day of Kindergarten. Jill's taking part of the day off and I have to work so I won't hear how it went till the next day :/.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Fish Are Friends Not Food

Morning everyone! Hope you all enjoyed the weekend. Monday started with the FIRST EPL game of the year for Chelsea taking on West Ham. I missed the game sadly, but Mia asked my Dad throughout the afternoon who was winning. The Blues picked up the win and started the season out well :) Tuesday, Mia went fishing with her Grandpa Chicago. She went to a place in New Berlin and caught 7 bullheads. She had a blast and I wish I could have been there to see her bagging fish left and right.
Wednesday, she met up with Olivia and her bro at the park. What would normally be a typical day at the park was anything but that. The girls started with playing Pokemon Go! on Olivia's Dad's phone and soon moved to the playground. We were hanging out in the shade while the kids played. Every once in a while, I'd hear "LEAVE US ALONE OKAY??" coming from Olivia. Wasn't sure what was going on. Turns out some boys were being sassy with the girls, and they were yelling at them. We kept a close eye on the situation. Eventually Gavin came over and was telling us his sister was being sassy to the boys. This kid has no problem sticking up for herself. Both girls came over soon after exclaiming that they were being mean, that one boy laughed at Mia when she "almost fell" and that they weren't playing nice. THEN Mia says "IM GONNA GO TELL THOSE BOYS TO KNOCK IT OFF!" Apparently Mia gained some sort of a backbone to obnoxious boys. In this moment, we realized that the girls were just as much in the wrong as whatever the boys were doing. They weren't letting the boys off without getting an ear full. Sigh. They soon left to their picnic and the kids went back to playing.

Saturday morning, we packed up the car and left for Illinois to visit some friends. They live very close to Iowa so we spent some time there as well. The kids had a lot of fun, and Mia LOVES their little dog that would fetch the ball every time.  Mia really wanted to swim, but the weather was pretty iffy. Both kids ended up playing in the undies in this lake. They had a total blast. We went to the Children's Museum yesterday and it was pretty close to the big one in Milwaukee. A little smaller but just as nice. All of the buildings were connected and had telephone lines so you could call the kids vet, grocery store, etc etc. Mia really liked the Think Station where everyone in the room had to wear safety glasses, they get their own REAL work bench and got to hammer, glue, saw, etc whatever they wanted. It was fun watching Mia become "Tinker bell" and build something straight from her head. She made something to carry her rock collection and a piece of wood to hang items from. Turned out pretty cool. We had lunch and soon got on the road and headed home. It was about 3 1/2 hours back to Wisco. Mia fell asleep in the first 10-15 minutes. Tired little girl. Spent the rest of the night hanging out and figuring out the rest of the week.

I missed the Chelsea/Watford match Saturday but I heard they won and watched the highlights last night. Another solid win. This week, Mia's hanging out with her favorite crazy person Irianna at Malone park tomorrow morning. Later tomorrow, she's got picture day followed by a kindergarten play date meeting new friends and parents. Jill's taking her to that so hopefully it goes well. She's pretty excited. Wednesday I'm finishing my 1/2 sleeve and this weekend, Jill's working.

Have a great week everyone and thanks for reading!

Mahalo and Aloha

Good morning! The summer is coming to a close before we know it. Not a lot of days left to enjoy before the busy school year. Wednesday was Mia's last day of Princess Dance Class, but first she got to hang with her pals Gracie and Hannah for a while at the park. It was pretty warm but the girls didn't mind and had a lot of fun.

Last day of dance was fun. The kids had a tea party and danced. Mia may be signing up for a more advanced dance class that she hope she can perform on stage in front of people. I don't know how she got so interested in dance, but it's pretty cute. At the end of the week, we had planned on attempting to watch the meteor shower, but instead got some Mother Nature showers instead. Thursday it was was too cloudy and Friday we got dumped on with tons of rain. Talk about disappointing. Saturday, we went to my good friend Andy and Jess's Hawaiian goodbye party. The couple plus their adorable dog are Miley are leaving in November for Hawaii. Mia was shy at first but LOVED their dog. "Daddy, take a picture of her so I can pet your phone later". I can't wait till we get to return to Hawaii. Mia will be 7 and it'll be her first time at the place we both love so much.

Later, we had a late dinner and made another attempt to watch the meteors. We probably went out too early but with Jill's new phone app, we could check out some constellations. Mia fell asleep while we drove around in the peaceful night. Sadly not too far from us, it was a different story. Milwaukee had some riots going on at the North Side. The BLM group had started fires, burned down the community all because an African American man was shot by a cop, who coincidently was also black. The man had a stolen gun and pointed at the police officer. Hardly a good reason to suggest that racism was in the cards that night. I can't turn on the news without some horrific incidents happening so we don't even have that on when Mia's around. Too much hate and problems.

Yesterday, Mia went to the zoo with Jill and Tommy while I went to work. She got her picture taken with a harbor seal after the show. Glad they had a lot of fun. Today is the first game of the season for Chelsea FC against West Ham. Sadly missing it, but hoping for a big win to kick off the season.

This week, sock monkey class on Wednesday, maybe hang with friends after and we leave for Iowa on Saturday morning.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Splash!

Good morning everyone. Hope you all enjoyed your weekend. Wednesday, Mia had her last day of art class. They made a picture of a lion (with the help of us parents/grandparents). It was a lot of fun. She really enjoyed these classes at the Sharon Lynn Center of the Arts. Later, Jill and Mia went swimming at Cool Waters. I hung out watching and taking some pictures of them. We haven't really done a lot of swimming lately (me, due to my tattoo sessions). Its insane how fast Summer has gone. She's got picture day in a few weeks for school and it seems just yesterday she was starting 4-K. Wednesday evening I watched the Chelsea vs Milan game. Mia even watched it with me. It was supposed to be the game my brother and Dad were going to go with me too but things got a bit complicated and we didn't go. They won 3-1. Would have been an awesome game to see live. They sold out the crowd of 66k people. The 16/17 season is right around the corner :)

Thursday, we hung out with some friends at the park. Malone was busy as usual, but Mia, Olivia and her bro Gavin had a lot of fun. Saturday, the girls did their last day of art/yoga. When they got home, we cut the grass and later and Mia did a "fashion photo shoot" at the studio. She picked out about 20 different outfits, but only lasted about 7 of them before burning out. The pictures turned out great and we even knocked out our Christmas photo already :) I think her fav one was the beach photo set up. This kid is so photogenic. I couldn't be luckier to have such a gorgeous little girl. Even on her sassiest days, her love is truly special. We made dinner later, and watched an old movie, "The Santa Clause".

Sunday, we didn't get much done. Mia and Jill went to Betty Brinn when I went to work. When I came home, she was passed out on the couch and this morning she got up bright and early and was telling me all about the museum. Glad they had fun.

This week is her LAST week of dance. Hopefully, we can hang with some friends this week. My good friends Andy and Jess are having a goodbye party this weekend so we're defiantly going to that.

I've been designing some player announcements the last 4 or so days that are really looking good. They've got some players that re-signed contracts so we're slowly unveiling who's sticking around.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Yoga, Soccer and Ink

WOW. What a week it was! Good evening everyone. So I had my 33rd Birthday on Tuesday and of course worked. I don't get that excited about birthdays (as far as getting off) but it wasn't too bad. Mia was mostly good and my shift was a normal Tuesday. What I was more excited for was Wednesday.
In the morning, Mia and I went to her art class. More kids this time, and she even was a bit more social with the instructor. We did this cute square cat that turned out really well.

Later was my tattoo session. It was supposed to be my last one but after 4 1/2 hours of some intense background work, detail on the beautiful turtle and Diamond Head, that he wanted to wait on the shark and detail to the waves for another time. As much as I really wanted to finish it, he knows what he's talking about and we decided to hold off on it. This was a more intense session with some awkward posses to get my arm the way he wanted it to be to do some back-arm stuff. That area is super sensitive and was no fun filling in with blue but I toughed it out and it looks solid. The dark blue that gradients to light blue looks really beautiful and makes the animals pop. I have never been given so many compliments in my life on a tattoo as I have with this. A woman at my work wanted to take a picture of it, despite the fact that it isn't complete.

Mia had a successful dance class and is already looking forward to her next one. Saturday morning, Mia started her art and movement class with Jill at the same venue. It's yoga first with art projects after. More kids in this one and I guess she really liked it. Later was the Torrent/Muskegon game. LAST game of the season and this was considered a "friendly" for the Wichigan trophy that I helped design. My parents, Mia and myself attended this amazing match. The weather was perfect and the crowd was the biggest they have had. 947 people! I joined my Flood members on the hill while Jill and my parents with Mia headed to the bleachers. I did my best to get the crowd chanting with every thing I had. at half, it went 2-1 with things getting a bit heated up. Both coaches were kicked out of the game! Oops. 2nd half, the battle commenced. The Torrent went on to win 4-2 and keep the trophy in Milwaukee. The crowd was incredibly amped and the kids had a blast. Something I didn't know they did, was after every Torrent goal, they get to kick or toss the ball out to the kids at the hill. Its fun and gets the kids all fired up. I got to use two player-chants during the game, which was a lot of fun. It was pretty neat to see some away fans at the game too. That means fans traveled from Michigan for this friendly, and that's amazing. Supporting your local team is great for those organizations. On our way to the game, someone at the stoplight looked over at our car, and says through the window "You guys going to the Torrent game?" During the week leading up to this game, I designed probably my very best game day image for this match. Something I'm quite proud of and will use in my portfolio when the right job comes knocking. After the game, they announced they'll be playing in an indoor league throughout Jan into March, and 11 players signed new deals for next season. Great news to hear as well as they'll be extending their season into August for 2017. I was stoked Mia could enjoy her very first professional soccer game even if I was chanting in the back. She even wore her Chelsea kit too and badly wanted to play soccer on the pitch after the game. It would have been fun and we totally could have, but we were all hungry and ready to get home

Sunday, we did a little cleaning before I went to work. This week, Mia's got her last day of Art Class with me, hopefully get to hang with some friends during the week. We're considering opening her Mia's Sweets & Treats this Weekend, but we don't know yet for sure.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

The Art of Dance

Good evening everyone. With July almost over (already?) another busy week is in the books. Mia had her first art class Wednesday morning. What I thought was a "drop off and pick up later" class really  was, was a parent-kid story book art class. Basically, you do the craft with the kid. The art center this class was at was absolutely beautiful and there was an acting class going on down the hall. It very much intrigued Mia all the silly little exercises they were doing. Class started and there was ONLY one other kid in it! The instructor said there may be another kid the following week. So she did the class. They read stories and asked questions and finally, we did this piece together of some elephants that were made of smaller pieces of paper and some water color painting. Mia actually did enjoy the art part, but not so much the "lets get the kids to sing along" stuff. The other boy was pretty shy as well.

After class, we got home, ate some lunch quick and met up with some friends for her pal Alexa's "goodbye party" at the park. It was pretty warm and a ton of kids there but everyone had a lot of fun. Alexa has always been a great friend to Mia and I'm glad they'll keep in touch when she moves to Texas. Trey, Olivia, Kaylee, Maya, Nate they all came. Mia was super excited that her man Trey came. We unfortunately couldn't stay too long because we had to jet to our next class, dance. We somehow made it a few minutes late but the class didn't start :) This time, I dropped her of because I just needed a moment to chill. When I got home, I had some Torrent work to do so I worked on that for a while. I also got a message from Olivia's Dad Steve that Trey got injured at the park and required stitches. Mia would be devastated when I would have to tell her about it. I picked up the diva, who had an awesome day at class. I told her that her boyfriend fell and split his little chin open on the stairs at the park and got stitches. She was so worried about him that she told me to take a picture to send to her Mom of Mia holding a piece of paper that read "I LOVE YOU TREY" on it to make him feel better. Luckily, it did.

It was a busy Wednesday and I was glad the chasing was done. We relaxed as a family and watched Masterchef together. Mia was grossed out by the weird parts they were cooking. Saturday my family and Jill's came over to do an early celebration for mine and my sister's birthday. Jill made us cakes, got me an awesome shirt and I received some cash towards my last session for my tattoo as well as a gift card from my Mom. We went to Mod Pizza for late lunch/early dinner because I had planned on going to the Torrent game that evening. Well all week I have felt like utter crap. every time I'd eat, I felt like death and I wasn't sure if pizza would be great Saturday. I ate it anyways and immediately felt horrific. I was torn about sucking it up and going to the game, or sitting home and being miserable instead. I didn't go and the Torrent won, grabbed the trophy and won the conference in the rain. I should have gone but didn't feel good at all. Today, I woke up better and after breakfast took some stronger probiotics and felt great. Before my dinner at work tonight, I took the same things and felt great. I'm so glad that there is a possibility that this is out of my system because it's been a real hell-ish week for me. Nothing like the feeling of "why eat, I'll feel like crap" feeling for almost 7 days straight.

This week, some Torrent work, my tattoo session is finally coming to an end and Mia's got her art/dance class on Wednesday. I'm absolutely going to their final inaugural game this Saturday and hopefully will bring my Dad and maybe Mia since she's been wanting to go. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Summer Fun With Cousins

Good Morning Beautiful weather today to start the week. Early in the week Mia was reunited with some old friends at the new Malone Park. These girls have been best pals since she was two and a half years old. They had a lot of fun exploring the new playground. Wednesday, we met my friend Nichole and her boy Benny (plus sister) at the zoo. The weather was pretty hot, but the kids had a lot of fun checking out all the different indoor exhibits as well as some outdoor ones.

We couldn't stay too long because Mia has her 2nd dance class. It was my first time taking her since her injury last week. She was a bit nervous going in, but I told her that I would be waiting in the lobby for her when she's done. I sat and drew her a baby Dory (which didn't turn out so well) but she had the best time. She danced, did crafts and met some nice girls. She's already looking forward to the next dance class. If she likes dance, we'll keep her in classes, but I sometimes worry her shyness in front of large groups could give her stage fright (she'll counter that with both concerts at school that she sang beautifully) so I don't know. I'm just glad she found something she enjoys.

Saturday, we did yard work before a get-together at my parents house. My 1/2 bro and his family were on a road trip and they stopped by for the afternoon. The kids had fun chasing each other around laughing and being silly. Sunday, Mia went to her friend Irianna's birthday party while I went to work. From what Jill said, she had a lot of fun. Irianna is this adorable free-spirit kid that always broke Mia out of her shy shell. At the kindergarten assessment test, she got Mia to go into the testing room and relax while she was super nervous, and on Sunday, she got Mia to come into the gym and have fun when she was shy (again). She's very fun and full of energy and I hope Mia and her can be good friends for as long as possible.

This week's gonna be very busy. Wednesday, Mia starts her art class in Brookfield 9:30am-11:30am, THEN she's got a "goodbye" party with her friend Alexa at the park, THEN she has her dance class till 3:30. This is probably the busiest Wed we've had in quite a while and I'm sure both of us will be dead exhausted after the day is over. It's crazy how fast July has gone. My birthday is next week (along with my final tattoo session) and it feels like July just started. This Saturday, the Torrent play the Chicago Mustangs home so I'm hoping for no rain and a great crowd. My Dad is supposed to come as well so it should be a good time.

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

Early Bird Wedding in the Windy City

Good evening everyone! MY was it a busy week! I'll try to jet through this quick since there is a lot to discuss. 4th of July was a busy day. Mia rode her (new) bike in the mini parade which consisted of kids who decorated their bikes all patriotic around a parking lot following an old woman in a golf cart. They had to get there early as well to participate. There were a TON of kids and Mia had a pretty good time. She loved the guy who made balloon animals. These were balloon animals to the next level. He did a Ghostbusters pack, a giant hot dog and a large octopus all while joking around with the kids. He was very fun to watch. She and Jill went to the fireworks later while I made time and a half at work. When she got home, she discovered the harsh reality that she had some gnarly mosquito bites. The one that bothered her the most was right on the bridge of her foot.

For the rest of the week, she whined and complained about it which unfortunately, made our lives miserable. Wednesday, she was to start her dance class and I had a 2nd tattoo session. The whole morning, she just went through ice pack after ice pack totally unsure if she'd be okay to dance. My in laws came over to take her to class when I left for my tattoo session. I was "under the needle" for about 3 1/2 hours totally 7 1/2 so far. Another 4 1/2 to go most likely. Can't wait to get the water, shark, turtle and Diamond Head filled in next. When I got home, Mia explained that she had a blast at dance class but didn't do any dancing because of her foot. I totally understand and hope this week she'll be able to dance. I'm taking her this time and will wait in the hall for her. I also hope she meets some nice friends since she apparently was pretty shy.

Thursday was a rough recovery day on my tattoo. I wrapped it up just to be safe to keep any bacteria out. Made it easier too when people wanted to see what it looked like. Friday afternoon, we left for Chicago. The traffic was all kinds of fun, and when we arrived at the hotel late, we found out that the hotel we set up a reservation to was under construction, and that the whole wedding block moved to a DIFFERENT location. Awesome... They didn't have any open rooms at the new location and didn't transfer our names, but they ended up giving us a recently renovated room at the hotel (under construction). Good. We almost didn't have a place to stay for the night. Almost. The room was very nice and thanks to some Chicago traffic, we missed the dress rehearsal but luckily found them and got to enjoy the picnic. The sunset over the city was gorgeous as we ate and enjoyed the beach.

The next morning, we woke up at 3:30am. Yes, that's right. The wedding was at 6, so we had to get up super early. Mia wasn't a fan of it. "WHY IS IT STILL DARK OUT!? ITS NOT MORNING" Yes it is kid. Luckily, she didn't put up too much of a fuss, and we got out the door and made it to the beach. The sun was beautiful as we watched from a distance Matt and Whitney getting photographed in the early hours of the morning. There were probably 25 people on the beach in a very intimate ceremony. It was real nice and probably the last beach wedding I'll attend. We had some donuts and bagels and were on our way. With the reception not for 10-12 hours, we had a LOT of time to kill, so we hung out for a while in Downtown Chicago. There wasn't a lot opened and Mia had her heart set on going to the infamous Dylan's Candy Store. We spent some time roaming around Michigan ave and luckily the Disney store was opened. What was funny, is that the employees there, act the exact same way as the ones in Florida at Disney World. They treated Mia like a princess and were very courteous to her. It was fun.

Finally, Dylan's was opened and Mia had a blast going through their crazy candy store. She picked out a bag's worth of candy to enjoy. We went back to the parking garage, paid our enormous parking bill and left. Napped on an off at the hotel before checking out, and switching to the OTHER hotel. After that mess was cleared, we went to the reception. The food was incredible. Mia didn't care for it and during the speeches she fell asleep. Yes. Right on Jill's lap. The long day wore her out and she slept for about an hour before we woke her for a little square of chocolate cake. The crab was too cranky to bowl or do anything so we left. Sunday morning, we got up and had breakfast with the wedding group. Absolutely delicious veggie omelet made right in front of me. After breakfast, we went home. First, we stopped at Gurnee Mills to see what all the hype was. It's actually pretty disappointing. From what I hear from everyone that goes, it's this amazing mall that's a blast to shop in. No, not even for Jill. When we got home, we had a quick dinner and went to Secret Life of Pets with both sets of parents + Tommy. It was very funny and well worth watching. Over the weekend, the Torrent won their home game thus clinching the Midwest Central Championship. Very proud of these guys.

This week, Mia may hang with her friends Tuesday. Hopefully the weather is good. Dance class is weds and my half brother is coming in for the weekend. That's all for now, thanks for reading!