Up and At Them

Evening everyone. It's been an alright week with some added stress, so let's get right to it. Starting this week, Jill's able to work from home on my day off, which is nice. We're able to get some things done when possible all the while getting our own work done. For me, I'm looking at jobs, working on Mia's Christmas book and trying to get this indoor soccer team up and running. We picked up some little liquor bottles for Jill to experiment with some macarons for my parents birthday presents. She made Friday evening some Chocolate Kahlua macarons for my Dad as well as some Cherry Amaretto ones for my Mom.

The New Berlin Dragons Have all the players and now I'm in the process of getting all the money and funds for the team. We're going with a Rave Green jersey color with black socks and shorts. It'll look nice and hopefully I'll get everything in order so we can get the jerseys ordered. I'm just thrilled everyone ones to play but it's a bit stressful gathering everything.

Saturday, my brother Andy and I made plans to meet with his BFF at the Highbury Pub in Bayview to watch the Chelsea vs City match. We had to suffer through the Liverpool vs Palace match first. The pub was super packed with Gunners fans watching them struggle against the Saints, and surprisingly there were Palace fans watching the Liverpool match. They almost had them but Liverpool had a pair of ugly goals that got them the win. BOO! Chelsea was next. Great crowd of Blues fans and a handful of City fans as we watched a tight match. Sadly, they couldn't get the win but it was a great time. I don't make the Highbury that often with the fellow Chelsea fans, but we had some good fun cheering. Andy even got himself a free MKE Blues scarf. We wanted the pins, but they had nothing. Boo. It was my first time literally losing my voice at a football pub, but to cheer on our team was worth it.

While I was at the pub with Andy, Jill and Mia saw Frozen 2 and had a day at the mall. Later, the two did some reading while I worked on her book. I'm trying to knock out a page a day so we're not struggling at the end of the month. So much on my plate, so little time. We had dinner with my family at Red Robin for my parent's birthday celebration. Mia wanted me to tell the staff it was my Dad's birthday so they'd sing to him but I let it go. We had some annoying teens behind me slamming into my chair and making annoying noises so I wasn't exactly in the best mood.

Today, we did some grocery shopping and I had hoped to mulch some leafs but sadly the rider's battery was dead. Jill told me later her Dad tried to mulch with the rider but it didn't really make a difference. Ugh.

This week, Mia's got a short week of school with just Monday and Tuesday. Thanksgiving is Thursday so we'll have dinner with family at my parents. Jill will make her famous mashed potatoes and her new recipe for stuffing that's pretty awesome. Will we go get some Black Friday deals? Not sure, we'll have to see what's available.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Roll Out

Greetings! It's been a crazy week with a lot of different things to discuss so let's get to it. Sunday through Wednesday, Remi unfortunately had diarrhea. Ugh. Woke up to crap in our bedroom so we had to clean that pile up. Monday night, I was taking him out every hour and only got an average of about 3 hours of sleep, maybe. Felt like a complete zombie at work and it certainly was a horrid start to the week. Luckily by the end of the weekend, he was better.

Wednesday into Friday, I can't discuss via social media the absolute craziness that occurred but it was definitely an experience for Jill, Mia and myself. Saturday, Mia was stoked to go to her friend Charlie's birthday party at Skate Land. I had all the intentions of leaving Mia after she got her skates on and was ready to go have fun. I ended up talking a while with Scarlett's Mom for a while and after she got on her skates to join in the fun, I honestly thought I was leaving. But...when Vida arrived, her, Tenley and Ryan demanded I stick around and help them skate. Vida was super scared and Tenley struggled as well but after asking Mia "Mia, should I stay or leave?" she responded with "Stay and help, Daddy" so I would have 3-4 girls on my arms at a time. Vida would keep her eyes on the skates and and Tenley would be all over the place. She was actually doing well taking my advice about alternating feet to glide. We would also get one of Mia's new friend's, Lily's who had her first time on roller skates that day as well attach to my arm. Scarlett's sisters laughed and said "WHY are you so popular?!" I don't know. A lot of parents see me as a "fun" Dad for some reason. Only Mia really knows why her friends like me and want the help. It was hard to have so many kids all stay on their feet, but I did my very best preventing them from eating it. Overall, It was a great time and they had a blast. On our way to the party, Mia wasn't sure if she wanted to go to Cecilia's for a sleepover till we were skating and after she heard "Despacito" and I said out loud "Aw, I miss Cecilia" and Mia responds "Alright, I'll sleep over at Cecilia's".

Later, Mia went over for sushi and an epic sleepover. Jill and I wrapped gifts, watched a movie and crashed rather earlier than usual. We got up and after breakfast I went to pick up the diva. Upon arriving, she wasn't even at Cecilia's but on foot with Hayden and Harper walking down the driveway after I had been there a few minutes. She ended up sticking around to play while I ran to Waukesha to feed my in-laws cat as they hang out in Florida with Jill's Grandpa. I came back and the girls made ornaments. Cute. Mia said her goodbyes and we went home. Cecilia's Dad and I discussed the upcoming indoor season and everything going into it. The rest of the day, Mia relaxed with Jill the rest of the day while I went off to work. When I got home I discovered some amazing homemade macadamia nut cookies the girls made for me. Awesome! Before I went into work, I started getting more info for the indoor soccer team. One of the parents said she would order jerseys for the girls so for an additional $10, the kids will have matching uniforms. Totally cool. It's surreal so many kids want to play soccer this Janurary so I'm thrilled to make it happen.

This week, we have Mia's conferences. The little snow we had has mostly melted and with the upcoming warm up, there will be nothing left. Not totally bummed out since it's still November. I worked on my board set up and discovered the previous owner made a mistake with the ankle strap and I ended up having to order a replacement one from Burton. I'll work on Mia's book this week as well so hopefully I'll make some good progress.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

It's Coming Together

Greetings everyone. Plenty to discuss so let's get right to it. My work week was a quite one because I worked the weekend, so that was somewhat nice. Wednesday, we got some snow so I spent the majority of my day off working on art, looking at jobs and all in all, enjoying watching the weird snow in November. I also made a few concept football kits for EPL teams so that was a lot of fun. I'll design an Everton one this week as well. It was nice because anything I had to do, it could wait till Thursday because I was off then too :) Thursday, I drove to Play it Again Sports to sell my black Lamar Mission snowboard. I had picked it up off the Facebook marketplace and it just was way too heavy for any freestyle or park riding. Surprisingly, they gave me $60 for it so I was happy. When I got home, I met up with Mia for lunch. She was pretty surprised as I hung out with her and her crazy friends. It was difficult to eat because literally every one of them at our table had to ask me a million questions. I'm glad they're all intrigued about whatever is going on in my lame life but in the end, Mia was happy I was there. Of course I had to go to recess with them so we played our traditional street soccer. Some boys joined in and it was girls vs boys. Mia was proud that she nutmegged a couple boys and scored. After saying goodbyes, I went home.

I forgot the mention that about the middle of the week, I sent out information to Mia's team in search of kids that wanted to continue playing soccer. Immediately, I got a response from Alice's Mom that wanted to sign her up. Amazing. I put the info out in the community and had about 9 kids so far confirmed to play including Ice Breakers Mia, Cecilia, Elia and Alice. Bella from the Pink Panthers (and my 1st year team), a couple of girls from SC Wave, Vida the beast in defense and Adalyn from my team last year. We've got a few "maybe's" but still need 3 more kids to get a 12 kid squad. I'm stoked that so many kids want to play and really hope I can make this happen since they all want to play. I need to find a gym for practices still as well.

After pick up on Thursday, Mia immediately put her snowboard gear and wanted to go snowboarding. Since we don't nearly enough snow for that, Mia had to settle for a little PVC pipe rail setup to work on building muscle memory for grinds. I didn't think she'd be able to develop and progress that easily, but she certainly surprised me. She went from a basic 50/50 grind position to frontside lip slides, backside board slides, backside 50/50s and frontside board slides. Unreal. I know it's not the same as in motion, but for her to build the muscle memory from an ollie to twist herself was remarkable. Hopefully she can try them out soon with a regular amount of some good powder.

Friday, I got up nice and early to watch the Chelsea vs Palace match. Goal-less 1st half, but it didn't take long in the 2nd half for Tammy to net his 10th goal of the season. Pulisic picked up one as well to find the match. Earlier in the week, Chelsea played against Ajax and came from behind to draw the match. Azpi had the 5th goal that would have won it but VAR confirmed that there was a handball. Ugh. Good effort coming back though. The rest of the day, we did some cleaning, shopping and made a late dinner.

Today, Mia and I attempted to find some regular water-proof boots for playing in snow at recess, accept oops, the mall stores weren't open. Target had nothing so later while Jill and her former co-workers at tacos at our house, Mia and my in-laws and myself went out to lunch and Mia later found some boots when the mall opened. This week, I hope to complete the team, I need to reassemble my snowboard bindings and illustrate Mia's book. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Merry Halloween

Greetings everyone. Normally I write late Sunday night after a long night at work, but due to a couple of failed attempts at drawing Penny Parker for Mia's lunch note, I stayed up working on a sketch of Spidey instead. The week was manly uneventful but things certainly got interesting on Thursday. Wednesday night into Thursday we had a little snow that turned into about 2-4 inches total Thursday afternoon. Unreal. Most kids have never seen snow this early before for the majority of the trick or treaters in Waukesha, that didn't stop them. Sure, a lot of kids stayed home but if you're motivated enough for candy, you'll dredge through the snow bundled up. Mia said the kids were going around school saying "Merry Halloween!" So cute...

Friday, Jill and I volunteered at Mia's school Fall party for her class. It always goes super fast because everything is in stations. Jill ran a make your own scarecrow craft and I did rock painting. Vida's Mom did cookie decorating and Elia's Mom helped with snacks. The kids honestly only had about 10-12 minutes per station so not a lot of time for kids to come up with a rock idea. A lot of the boys just scribbled obnoxiously on the rocks while the majority of the girls carefully painted their rocks. Mia did a cute red panda (shocking). After that, we went home for the day and relaxed on a rare Friday off from work. Saturday, I watched the 1st half of the Chelsea match before heading to an even more rare Saturday shift. Luckily, they got the job done and are still in the top 4. The shift was utterly insane and I hope I don't have to do it again. Getting short shifted is all too regular and I can't even walk in the door without thinking "so who's going to call out 'sick' a gain?" After the shift, I stayed up drawing till late since it was Daylight Savings. Such a stupid thing to observe.

Sunday, Mia cleaned out her room of toys and clothes she doesn't wear anymore. I'm honestly surprised that she was able to part with a lot of her stuff so that was a positive experience. Came home last night and continued drawing till 12am.

This week, not much going on. I may have lunch with Mia this week. I'm going to also attempt to create an indoor team interest for the Jan-Feb season since I can't do futsal with the kids.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!