Sledding, Sleepover, Soccer

Good evening everyone! My! What an incredibly busy week. Plenty to discuss on this well-enjoyed day off. Here we go. My replacement glasses came in earlier in the week. Great! I was excited after work to try them out and see how they work. Bummer. The right lens was very loose in the frame. There's no way that'll work so I took them back and after several hours, they called me and told me they'd send them back and have them replaced. Can't fix them there because the frames don't have a screw to adjust. Fantastic....

We got a good amount of snow this week. You'd never guess it now because by the end of the week, it all melted but we did get snow which is perfect for the kids to play in at recess. Wednesday, I watched a bit of the Chelsea vs ARSEnal game before picking up the diva after school. The Blues lost in a lousy game that Arsenal was very lucky to win. We once again, went sledding and were joined by Noelle and sister Cora. A few other kids in the area made the trek up Pickle Pond's hill. The temp was nice so the kids had a good time sledding. Mia's been wanting to sled with a friend for quite a while so she was stoked her good friend Noelle joined her. The kids had a great time before we went home to relax and do homework. I spent the rest of the weekdays balancing graphic design work, drawing for the diva and regular Kwik Trip work. Never easy.

Saturday was the big day. Before we get to the epic sleepover Mia and Cecilia have been planning for months, we took Mia to the JANBOREE free ice skating at Eble. we've gone in past years and it wasn't as busy. Due to the incredibly nice weather, Eble was incredibly busy. My Mom was going to skate with us, but due to the overloaded ice rink, she skipped it for this time. Mia and I weren't going to let a packed rink of ice skaters ruin the experience. We had a great time. Took Mia a few laps to get her balance at a comfortable pace, but she did fine. After about an hour of skating, we went to Trader Joe's to get supplies for the epic sleepover. Mia waited by the window just watching...and watching...and watching...I got a text from her Mom that they were on her way and Mia screeched with excitement...Just as Cecilia's parents pulled in, Mia screeched even louder.

The girls played a bit before making pizzas from scratch. Mia made her classic Alfredo/cheese pizza while Cecilia made a pepperoni pizza. The had a few slices before watching maybe 10 minutes of Descendents movie. They didn't stay long on the couch before heading back to Mia's room to play. It was pretty nice that Mia had a friend to play with through the evening. Jill watched Netflix while I worked on my Monday drawing for Mia. They'd come down every once in a while to talk or see what we're doing. At some point, they got ready for bed and eventually, we talked them into going to bed. The sleeping arrangement was pretty interesting. They decided to sleep in Mia's tiny room and both somehow fit inside Mia's bed. At first they were going to sleep opposite in the bed. While getting ready for sleep, we could hear them giggling loudly. Jill reminisced about her sleepovers with her friends giggling and talking into the evening. It was pretty cute. Eventually, the two cuddled up next to each other on the same side and passed out. It was a cute sight to see when we checked on them.

The next day, both of them woke up early and immediately started playing. Mia came in by us to wake us up. Jill made the girlies pancakes and bacon. While Jill was making breakfast, the girls made "signature books" for the players to sign after the match. Later, we went to the Milwaukee Wave vs St. Louis Ambush match. Great game and the kids had an awesome time. We didn't get our free shirts because parking was a massive struggle. Literally, could not find a place to park for the afternoon. Somehow we parked inside this garage with one spot barely available. The game was close and the good guys won. After the match, the girls and myself made our way to the pitch to meet the players. There was only so much time to meet them, so the kids got as many signatures as they could before jumping into what easily could be compared to as "Disney world Character" line to meet Ian Bennett. Thy had so much fun getting signatures and were super stoked to meet Ian. He loved Mia's IB26 gear (hat/shirt) and had fun meeting Cecilia. We went back up to meet up with Jill and made our way back to the car and went home. The girls fell asleep on the ride back and gave each other nice big hugs when we dropped off Cecilia. What a weekend. The girls were a blast to have together and Cecilia's already looking forward to Mia coming over to her house again. This week, I've got a lot of Torrent work to do. We're having a friend visit us this weekend as well as Uncle Tommy.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Sleddin' Diva

Evenin' everyone. Don't know why I typed it like that, but we're sticking with it. Mostly enjoyable week was had, and we even got to watch snow appear and disappear in a matter of 7 days. 5.7 inches in New Berlin after that snow dumping, which of course means sledding on my day off after school with Mia. Before that, I watched the Chelsea vs Norwich League Cup match. It was funny, while waiting for Mia, I thought "just maybe I'll talk her out of sledding today since it's pretty cold out" she came running out of the building for the 1st time ever fully dressed in snow pants/boots/gloves/hat. There was no way I was going to talk her out. It was 1-0 when I got the kiddo with only a few minutes left of the match. As intrigued as Mia was watching, we wanted to get to the hill with whatever light was left in the evening. As soon as we arrived to Pickle Pond, Norwich tied it. Crap.

We trekked across the snowy field and discovered someone built a kicker. Awesome. While Mia made several attempts to hit the ramp, I was getting updates on the match and in the end, Chelsea won in PK's. Good. Mia and I had a blast going down the hill and a couple other kids joined us as well. Mia only hit the jump once on a longer sled which didn't give her the maximum distance she would have gotten on a smaller one. It was getting dark so we had to leave despite the fact she really wanted to get one good jump. She was getting pretty cold anyways, so when we got back, I made us dinner and we relaxed and watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory till Jill got home from work/acupuncture.  All in all, good evening.

Throughout the week, the weather changed and started to warm up. So long snow. Saturday, I got up nice and early to watch the Chelsea vs Brighton match. Great 4-0 win. Jill and I drove down to Illinois to meet up with our travel companion and good friend Leanne to go over our big trip. They ended up booking a chocolate tour. Dates are good. AirBnB's are good. All we need to do is book flights. We figured out what we're doing in California as well. July isn't too far away, so we're getting pretty excited for the trip.

Drove back home, picked up a cheap couch from my co-worker and met up with our very helpful family to help rearrange the living room. We didn't exactly measure the space and sorta winged it, so the space is a bit different now, but it works. The previous couch was completely falling apart and is now in the basement. A much better place to sit comfortably when Mia's playing downstairs.

At first, Mia wasn't a fan of the new layout in the living room. Not a fan of change, but over the course of a day, got used to it and likes it now. Saturday night, I went to our Flood Supporters Group meeting to discuss plans for the 2018 season. The owner/coach joined us, so it was nice catching up on things and what he's got going on. Today, Jill and Mia went to Easton's birthday party while i went to work.

This week, Mia's got her very first sleepover at OUR house with Cecilia. Not sure what the girls have planned for our house, but Sunday I'm taking all of them to the Milwaukee Wave match. It'll be both Mia, Cecilia and Jill's first Wave game. Should be a great time. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Creativity Never Sleeps

Good evening. Snow has come back after some bizarre weather this week, but we'll get back to that later. Wednesday I watched the Chelsea vs Gooners Carabao Cup match. Not an exciting 0-0 draw, so all to play for back at the Emirates. Mia and I picked up Jill later at work before dinner and bed for the kiddo. Thursday, I met up with the Torrent coach to get my autographed Chelsea jersey he planned to give to me. Easily one of the coolest Chelsea FC item I've ever been given.  He gave me the 14/15 home jersey signed by about 12-14 players. I haven't been able to pinpoint everyone that signed it, but so far I've got two former players Nathan Ake and Ramires. Possibly Eden Hazard as well. I was looking Friday night at some signatures to compare to the signed jersey but it's still pretty tough. Love it though! The weather was pretty weird at a balmy 58 degrees. In JANUARY! The next day, it was 20. Brr.

Saturday morning Mia and I watched the Chelsea vs Leicester match. Pretty disappointing draw again. Especially because the Foxes went down a player with 20 minutes left of the match. They look exhausted and uninspired and I sincerely hope they can get their work together for the Norwich match. After taking Jill to an acupuncture appointment,  Mia later went to my parents for a sleepover. The kid really loves spending weekends at Grandparents/friends houses. It's kind of a nice little break for us as well. Jill and I had sushi later after getting a birthday gift. Watched a movie and some Netflix before hitting the bed. Before falling asleep, Jill and I looked at a few old videos of Mia as a baby. Some of those rough moments were well worth it when she'd keep us up all night.

Sunday we got up and picked up the diva. She had an awesome night watching Big Hero 6, playing checkers and having fun with her Grandparents. Nothing much happened after before I went off to work.

This week I need to work on the Torrent schedule, draw draw draw...etc etc. I imagine I'll have some late nights so sleep will be minimal at times. Saturday, we're heading down to Illinois to meet up with Leanne and I've got a Flood meeting. We're hoping to delegate duties to other members. Hope it goes well and we have a good turnout. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Snow Much Fun

Good evening everyone. First week of school of 2018 is in the books. Well, part of the week since the kids were off on Monday. Mia wasn't thrilled to go back, but had an easy week homework-wise and survived. The temps were pretty chilly so she had indoor recess all week. Not a bad thing since her good friend Cecilia taught her how to play checkers. Cool! Mia may have beat her one or two times. They didn't really keep score and just had fun, which is always really nice. The two wanted to hang out/do a sleepover on Saturday but Jill wasn't feeling good so that wasn't going to happen. We'll get back to that later.

Wednesday, I watched the exciting CFC/Arsenal game. Just really crazy end-to-end football the whole game. I had to split to go and get Mia and we ran back to see the last few minutes only to find out that two more goals happened and in the end, it was a draw 2-2. Wow. Morata blew a few major chances and it's too bad because we really need the win and many more to try and attempt to catch City and beat Man U. Oh well. We picked up Jill at the studio and had dinner before Mia crashed for the night.

Saturday I watched some of the FA Cup match Chelsea vs Norwich. An uninspiring draw 0-0 was the final score sadly. Mia did some science experiments with Jill while I watched some of the game and did some designing. Later, we went snow tubing. Mia's been looking forward to snow tubing at The Rock Snowpark all week so despite the cold temp, we did it. Jill watched as Mia and I tubed for 2 hours. Such a good time. I brought my GoPro and new stick to capture the first adventure of 2018. Love going there and Mia enjoyed watching the snowboarders and skiers perform jumps while we'd take the conveyor back up to the top. Next time we go, she'd like to go with friends. We tried to get a group or a couple kids together, but it just didn't happen. Later, we went home and made some dinner. Mia had planned to stay at my parents house for a sleepover, but it was just to cold for Jill and I to take her back out so she was content crashing at home for the night. The kid really really likes sleeping over at places these days and hopes to plan a sleepover at Cecilia's or have her come over here in the near future. The girls talk about it ALL the time at school. It's too funny.

Sunday, Mia and I hung out while Jill and her parents went to church. We went out to Panera before I went in to work.

This week, not much going on that's noteworthy. I have to send in my drone that doesn't work back to Amazon. I'm going to have to do some heavy research to find a better one that has little problems. This one was having issues connecting to the phone to shoot video/photos so tomorrow, I'll send back the faulty drone. Hopefully they won't give me any issues. That's all for now, thanks for reading!