Happy Holidaze

Good evening everyone. Going to bang this one out quickly because I'm barely keeping myself awake at the moment. It's been a crazy busy week but mainly a ton of fun. My brother and his family arrived last week via railway so I picked them up and brought them back to our house for pizza. My half brother Todd and our good friend Leanne also met up at our house for a few days of fun. It was great catching up and there was even more fun in store the next day. We went to StoneFire Pizza for lunch. The kids had so much fun playing all the games on Christmas Eve morning. We had a go at the VR game but Luke and Alex kept having issues walking so they ended up giving us credits. Mia and I attempted to do some rock climbing as well. Super fun and reminded me how much fun my friend Andy and I had at Adventure Rock a handful of years ago. The wall I climbed at StoneFire seemed to be more difficult since you had mainly window sills to pull yourself up on.

While I wait up top for Mia to try to catch up, I heard a girl crying from behind me. I turned around and saw a small child dangling from the rope climb. The entire staff looked confused so I repelled down the wall and switched clamps to carefully rescue her. I climbed the rope climb carefully and calmed her down. I released her foot and slowly we made our decent. The Mother was so relieved I jumped into rescue her and throughout the rest of our time at StoneFire Pizza, she would smile and thank me. Just happy she was okay. Later, Jill and I had a Christmas Party to attend to for her boss. Great food and fun times.
The next day, we had Christmas Eve dinner at my parents and everyone opened gifts. Lots of fun playing card games and having an all-out indoor snowball fight (soft balls). Christmas Day, Mia was SO happy we had a dusting of snow. She immediately got up and gave us our painted glassware she made on her own. "DO YOU KNOW HOW DIFFICULT IT WAS TO KEEP THESE A SECRET??!" She did great. She also gave me a pencil holder and Jill a clay giraffe. She loved all of our presents, especially her new snowboard and her Mia and Red Panda Adventures book. She always looks forward to reading them. Jill's family came over and gave out some gifts to us.  My family came over later and we had some delicious pasta as well as Jill's tiramisu (I assume is was good). Awesome evening. The kids decorated cookies which were super fun.

Boxing Day, I picked up Bryan and the family and we watched the first of two soccer games. Fiorentina unfortunately lost to Parma, but at least Chelsea got the win against Watford. Later, we suited up and did some much-needed snow tubing. Alex really wanted to have snow here after the long train ride so this was the closest thing we could deliver. Bryan joined us as well as we raced the iced tube trails. We had a blast racing and the highlight was Bryan slipping out of the tube and having to run down the tube run chasing after it. We didn't last too long as the kids were getting pretty tired but it was a fantastic time. We had some leftovers when we got home and called it a night. This whole week has gone by so quickly...

Today, Mia and Jill traveled to Ohio to visit Aunt Gail. It was an early and rainy drive to Midway Airport but Mia was excited to see her aunt that she sees about this time of the year. They'll return on New Years Eve so I'll work and try to get everything ready for my week off in a few weeks to lead art classes for the big school-wide art show coming in March. So much to do, so little time. For now, it's time for a shower and to hit the bed. That's all for now thanks for reading!

Chef Mia

Greetings and good morning everyone. Hard to believe December has been flying by and Christmas is literally right around the corner. Certainly doesn't look like it around here, but what can you do, right? Going to try and complete this rather quickly and get back to the Chelsea vs Brighton match. I completed the illustrations for Mia's book this week. Very stoked about that, considering how much work goes into Mia's traditional book we enjoy creating for her. Every year she gets more and more excited about it, so we try to come up with fun adventures that get her hooked. Jill worked on the writing part and should be able to finish it in the next day or so. We have a LOT of wrapping still to do and have to find time this week to work on it.

This week, Mia had Career Day where she dressed in the career she wants. For the last 3 years from 4K-1st grade, Mia's always wanted to be a dolphin trainer. She recently changed her mind to a more reasonable field of study. Mia wants to be a baker and own a cafe. She was learned a lot this year in baking and even created and baked macrons this week to decorate her 4-layer cake that she also made all by herself. I'm super impressed with her patience and technique with baking and I think she could easily fulfill this dream. Thursday, we had an art meeting for the massive art gala night at Mia's school. We have a ton to do before the week I take off from work and lead classes in January but if all this comes together, it'll be one amazing night. Friday, Mia had College Week this week and proudly wore her Carroll gear to support where her parents went to. Go Pios! Friday was the Step into your Future thing, where different parents come to school and discuss their careers with everyone. Mia went to a hairdresser, a firefighter, and engineer and someone in marketing/advertising.She LOVED it and waited up Friday night to tell me about all the different careers. She really liked the engineer but I  bet with all the math, she'd not be excited about that career.

Saturday, I did the finishing touches in the kitchen, painting-wise. We just have to complete and hang the cabinets and we're good. Later, we went to my in-laws for an early Christmas dinner. Super tasty crab legs and homemade pasta. We ate Mia's cake and it was absolutely amazing. We played some Family Feud and this musical game that was new before heading home. Mia crashed on the way and remained asleep upon arriving home.

This week is her last week of school, so she'll have a holiday party. Lots of art for the gala night to complete. That's all for now, thanks for reading.

Believe

Good evening everyone. Going to try to make this a quick one. Getting a late start on the blog so bare with me. This week was the "week from hell" from me. 6 days straight of late-shifts till 10. I especially wasn't digging it because it meant I'd only see Mia an hour a day which was to get her ready for school. We hardly get a lot of time to talk in that time and by the time I see her the following day, asking her "how was school" usually gets responded with "I dunno, I forgot." I had told myself "If a survive the week, I'll go to lunch with Mia on Friday" so with that, I surprised her on Friday by lunch time. She totally didn't see that one coming and was stoked I surprised her. We ate lunch with all her crazy friends and had a good time.

One of the things I noticed first hand is how hard it is for her to hang out with a particular friend for recess. If she wants to hang with Cecilia, Charlie or Vida or (insert friend here) want to hang out but don't necessarily want to do what another friend wants to do. Because Mia's such a kind kid, she has a hard time telling one friend she doesn't want to hang out with them for the day because she doesn't want to hurt anyones feelings. She ended up doing a jump rope contest with Vida, Leilani and Charlie for a little bit. Charlie didn't really care for the whole jump rope thing and wanted to play fairies with Mia but Mia was preoccupied with whatever Vida wanted her to do. I could tell Mia was torn between several friends wanting her attention. Poor kid. Eventually when it was time to go, Charlie quietly told Mia how she misses when they would just play together. She's been having issues missing her Mom at school and I think could have used a friend to distract her. Recess is always a part of my lunch time visit I loath because I see how hard it can be on her and friends when they want to all play together, but end up struggling to find things to do. She gave me huge hugs before I left and quietly asked "can you PLEASE ask Mrs Mayer if you could give our class art lessons? She wasn't the only kid begging for that. I had at least 3 of her friends asking the same thing so of course I asked so she'll figure out a good time to do it. I have to figure out what exactly I want to teach. :P

This week was difficult with myself doubting I'll ever get out of KT and into a job I thrive creatively but to hear the sincere requests just to have me come and teach art made me feel better. I've been updating my resume as well as my online portfolio in hopes of possibly getting something new in 2019. I need a job that allows me to be home in the evenings with Mia. I've gone too long working 2nd shift. I'm very grateful that I had the opportunity to hold a job at night so my parents (and later Jill's) could help with Mia. She's at a good age where I should be able to switch a career so I can spend more time with the family. Mia ultimately would be happier if I could be around more too. I truly believe that I can find a new career in 2019 and will have to work really hard to get the job I so very want and deserve.

Friday night she waited up for me which was super nice. Saturday, I watched Chelsea pull off the miracle of the season (so far) beating Man City 2-0. Earlier in the week they lost to the Wolves which really was pretty lousy. I didn't even want to watch the highlights, they were that bad. Somehow Kante and Luiz pulled out two great goals to give City their first loss of the seasons. Unbelievable. We spent the majority of the day working on the kitchen and have a little bit more to do. Getting so close.

Sunday, we drove to Jill's friend Heather's house to bake and decorate cookies with all the kids. I went to work shortly after the kids started to decorate but from what Jill said when I got home tonight, Mia had the BEST time. Arabella really enjoys spending time with Mia and she's pretty chill so Mia always enjoys her.

This week, I will continue my quest for a snowboard for myself. Almost found one on the FB Marketplace but discovered it's an all-mountain board and I need a freestyle board for park riding. Jill and I have an art meeting after school Thursday to hammer out any more details we need for the art gala night at OL. Awesome! That's all for now thanks for reading!

Laughter for Life

Good evening everyone! What. A. Week. What easily could have been a quick and painless week ended up being a pretty stressful one leading up to my incredible 3 days off. Work has just been uber stressful and it has me wanting to leave in 2019 and hopefully find a more suitable job in my field. I've never been more mentally exhausted in all my life. Just completely burned out, and in desperate need of change.

Thursday was the start of my much deserved 3 days off so it was nice to pick up the kiddo. She hung out and attempted to snowboard on her saucer in the little bit of snow we had. She fell so many times but laughed so hard. She's totally ready to start snowboarding (come Christmas time). I just need to find a board for myself + boots.

 Friday after school, I picked her up and we had the furnace guy here AGAIN fixing something. Hopefully it's good. Anyways, we packed up Mia's overnight bag and picked up Jill from work and drove to Grandma Gail's for Mia to have a sleep over. We picked up a bit of food and Jill and I were off to Milwaukee to the Conan and Friends comedy show. The Riverside is such a nice theater and provided the perfect venue for this event. The crowd was packed and Conan was absolutely hilarious. The comedians were also incredible and each of them had their own unique style of comedy. James Veitch was a definite highlight. My face hurt from laughing so hard. Ron Funches closed the night and was equally great. Conan came back out along with Flula to answer some questions. Some of the questions asked were really stupid so I was bummed that I didn't get to ask anything before they ran out of time. Bugger. Would have loved to hang around to see if he was going to come out to meet up with fans, but we ended up leaving. When we got home, we watched a bit of Trevor Noah before heading off to bed. It was a night of comedy and I sure needed it after this week.

 Saturday, Mia came back home after a successful sleepover and we went to Donuts with Santa. Mia wanted noting to do with him (she didn't think he was the real Santa) and ended up hanging a bit with her new friend this year Vida. They share a lot of similarities and is overall a really nice kid.  We didn't get our photos taken with the big man, and ended up leaving. Mia did make a nice ornament though. We drove out later to my in-laws for a great belated Thanksgiving and birthday for my father in law. It was nice to relax and have a great meal with everyone. Mia always loves it when Tommy visits :) 

Sunday, I way overslept and missed my early alarm for the Chelsea vs Fulham match. Caught 10 minutes of the 2nd half and caught RLC's goal. Great win for the Blues. Need to keep it going. Later after painting, I went to work for the night. 

This week, I have to continue working on the book, I have a store meeting Tuesday and I am literally working every day and won't be off till Saturday. Major bummer. That's all for now, thanks for reading!!