Mahalo Ono Kine!

Good evening everyone! Hope you all enjoyed the weekend. Early in the week, we noticed that Marie the cat was limping around in the morning. Turns out, she had an infection and a fever. Lucky the antibiotics helped the kitty to a quick recovery. She was feeling better the day she had went to the vet. Wednesday, Mia and I went on an exciting field trip with her class to the First State Theatre in Milwaukee to see Just a Little Critter. Mia was paired with her friend Kaylee as "bus buddy". She didn't get her recess BFF Irianna, (AKA-The Runner) because her mom attended. In fact the 4 parents that came each got kids to watch. Olivia's Dad got three crazy ones including his girl. Olivia wasn't that bad, but Alexa and Isabella were bouncing off the walls in the bus. It was cute, and they were fun. Kaylee and Mia were great on the bus ride there.

The play was fun and the kids had a lot of fun. Mia liked all the songs and fun acting. Before it started, Kaylee had to pee and Mia was FREAKING  out because she was so worried she'd miss the start of the play. It was both funny and nerve-wrecking. We had to go into the girls bathroom because I had NO clue where the guys one was. Whatever. I've always enjoyed going on field trips with Mia (this is my third since she started at  Smarty Pants in 3K) and it's just really enjoyable to see the kids in a more relaxed environment. On the ride home the kids were dead exhausted. Olivia passed out with Alexa sleeping on her. Mia was tired and Kaylee tried the same thing. She doesn't like to be annoyed when she's tired so it was a bit of a rough ride back to school. All in all, fun time.

Throughout the week, I've been working on different game announcement images for the Torrent, each one pushing my creativity to new heights. Friday morning, Mia and I had a boardgame-a-thon and played a few new ones she got for Valentines Day. While playing, it reminded me how old my 4 1/2 year old is getting. She gets concepts of games without me explaining anything to her, and can patiently wait her turn to spin or pop the bubble thing on Minion Trouble. Jill and I both agree that 4 has been our favorite age so far. She has her moments, but is sweet and kind a lot of the times.

Saturday, the ladies went to a craft fair while my Dad and I watched some of the FA Cup games. Reading beating West Brom was entertaining. Wish Everton would have lost to Bournemouth. Later for a late lunch, we went to this small Hawai'ian takeout and grocery store in Tosa'. Ono Kine Grindz. I tell you, it brought back some fond memories of our trip to Hawaii. Everything sold there was from the island including the tasty POG juice. We bought a few of those. MMM! I had gotten this cornish game hen in teryiaki sauce and a sticky rice that was super tasty. We'll have to go there again. It was cool to see my buddy Andy's photography all over their walls. Such an eye for beauty, but when you're in Hawaii, you see the beauty everywhere. Saturday night, we hung out, movie night per the usual.

Sunday I got up and watched Chelsea destroy Man City in the FA Cup on Youtube in Arabic. You could say "yeah they played the youth team because Man City wanted to rest some of the senior players for their UCL match this week" but who cares? If we win the cup, who's going to look at the game and say "well they only won 5-1 because they played the U-21 group". No. The team played creatively the 2nd half and smashed goal after goal. Hazard's free kick was solid, and Traore was able to get yet, another FA Cup goal. Everton is next and they'll be a bit more difficult. I worked my usual 2-10 that night.

This week, nothing major planned. Just graphic design work on some projects, for the Torrent and that's about it. Thanks for reading!

Friends In Fun Places

Good morning all. Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. Last week was pretty busy. Mia's been learning a lot in school and especially has been playing with a boy from 3K, Nate. Last year, she wanted nothing to do with him. He would give her a kiss while her friends would give her hugs good bye and she was totally grossed out. This year, they've become close friends. She would ask him to open her Lunchable during lunch time because "Daddy, boys are stronger and can open things I can't". They play at recess too. Just about every day. He was out last week with a fever and she was pretty bummed out. She learned that she had to open her Lunchable by herself and at recess, was just hanging with Irianna. The 3K boys at recess were playing "guns" and were annoying Mia and her girl posse. So she would simply just hang out on the bench and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Wednesday after school, Mia and I watched the UCL match between Chelsea and Dynamo. Luckily, CFC got a great win with a fantastic free kick from Willian. I'll get back to this weekend's disaster a little later. Mia and I had all kinds of fun watching them win. Her favorite thing to do when Chelsea scores, is me tossing her into the air. It's amazing.  I was supposed to go rock climbing with my pal Andy, but when I arrived there was absolutely nowhere to park, which can't be a good sign. When he got in, we walked in and saw first hand, that they were hella busy. We rescheduled for the next week during the day. Hopefully we'll be able to do it and have some fun.

Friday evening when I came home from work, Mia was working on math! That's right. She's actually pretty good at it, which is awesome because I always hated it. With that, I'm trying to encourage her to keep working on it since it's actually something she enjoys. Saturday, Mia and I watched the Chelsea vs Stoke game (most of it) before taking her to her pal Alexa's 5th birthday party. Kids in Motion was absolute madness. At least 7 birthday parties going on at once with at least  100 kids running around the indoor play place. Mia's entire 4K class attended and she had so much fun. She played quite a bit with her friend Audrey in the market, the kitchen, submarine and the jungle gym. Alexa loved her present and Mia's hoping she will make her a friendship bracelet in the near future. I love watching her play with her friends. They're so fun to watch running around and being imaginative.

During the party, I found out that Chelsea once again, blew the game losing 0-1. They are in dire crisis. JM was absent for the game with a stadium ban, and they just couldn't win. Defense was a mess, with Azp making a rare mistake leaving the attacker open for an acrobatic shot at Begovic. They're in an international break for the week, and I hope they can pull a win next week against Norwich. JM doesn't deserve the sacking that is surely coming. Patience is key, and the Blues need to strengthen every bit of their squad to stay out of the relegation zone.

Saturday evening, we watched Inside Out. Such a solid and intriguing movie. One of Pixar's best in my opinion. Sunday, I worked 2-10 so nothing too exciting to discuss. This week, I'm going to try to rock climb again and I have a Flood meeting for the Torrent Saturday afternoon. Should be fun. That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

School Days

Good evening! Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend. It's been quite busy around here. Mia started her very first day of 4K (or K-4 however you wanna go) last Tuesday. It was the longest she's gone, so I was hoping it went well. It did. Mostly. She told me everything she did, she loves word association exercises and "bought" her own hot lunch. Buying lunch at school won't be an every day occurrence for her (let's face it, school isn't cheap) but if it's something I know she'll wanna eat, then she can. Her friends from last year apparently didn't want to play with her during recess, and since it was so very hot out, she told me she just hung out in the shade on the playground. Wednesday, she had a much better report. She had music class, played with friends and even met a boy during recess. She didn't catch his name, but told what hers was. They played with chalk and drew bubbles on the playground. It made me so happy that she was able to play with a boy and not make a big deal that he's a boy and she prefers to play with girls. She's broadening her friend circle and that's awesome. She needs to work on writing her name out with some lower-case letters for the "i" and "a". She's been writing upper case for a while, and I know she can nail the lower case "i" but is struggling a bit with the "a". She gets quite hard on herself at times, and it's frustrating for her, but we keep reminding her that you will improve with practice.

While she was at school, I cut grass all morning in the 90 degree heat. It was great to get it done so I didn't have to waste a Saturday cutting all morning. After I picked her up, we spent the rest of the day together. Friday, Mia and I were off. My parents are in Tahoe for the weekend, so I had to take care of the cat for the day. We spent the morning with her friend Olivia at the Zoo. I swear, those two act like their sisters. They argue, play and complain like total siblings. Mostly, we had a good time and it was nice that she got to spend the day with her buddy. We went over to feed my former-cat from back home and had a bit of an issue. When I was locking the doors, Mia wandered upstairs to say a quick "bye" and what I heard, was the loudest scream. I assume, she startled Misty and when she came down the hall way, blood and tears were running down her face. Misty attacked her. After tending to my traumatized kid, I noticed 3 punctures to her face, one by her ear and later I saw she got her on the forearm. I assume the cat grabbed her by the side of the face with one paw and scratched her with the other. I felt absolutely horrible for Mia. She just couldn't stop crying. She wanted out of the house so badly. I bandaged her up and we got out of there. In the middle of her total breakdown, she remembered she had class picture day coming up and was worried she wouldn't heal before then. My poor Mia...She wanted nothing to do with Marie when we got home.

Saturday, we went to the farmer's market with my in laws. Mia was feeling better and took off some of the bandages. They still hurt but she wanted them to heal faster. We ate at this little art cafe in Downtown Waukesha. We've seen the bright colored house for many years and never went there. The food was pretty good. Later we went with them to Colders and tagged along as they looked for a couch. Mia wanted to test every one of them.

Sunday I worked. Mia went to the pool with Jill. Today, we did some cleaning and I worked again. They went to a BBQ with my in laws. I came home tonight and every one's asleep. Good. The kid needs to get some rest before school tomorrow. Going to try to finish this dog portrait in the next few days. Hoping Jill and I can go out for dinner Saturday. Chelsea was off for the weekend for International duties so I'm quite looking forward to this weekend's game :)

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Sharks, Lobsters and Squids OH MY!

Good evening. A little late today, but Mia and I had quite the busy morning, so I didn't have time to write. I'll explain in a bit. Last week, we tried to squeeze as much "friend time" with Mia and her friends as possible in before all of the kids go back to school. Wednesday, (despite the sort of chilly weather) we hung out with Olivia and her brother at the park. The kids were cute as always. Mia and her shared snacks and a juice box together under the stairs of the playground. I'm so glad she'll be in Mia's class this year. Friday, we went to the park with her OTHER friends Hannah, Gracie and Weston. All friends from playgroup that she's known (what seems like) forever. They had a lot of fun and we even brought Remi. It sort of wasn't the best idea because throughout the few hours we were there, they were randomly in his face. Remi's great with kids, but the parent's were nervous about him snapping. I totally understand. Saturday, we spent the day helping Jill's parent's move. Her Dad and I moved all of the heavy stuff while Jill, her Mom and Mia worked on the other boxes. Mia took great joy in being the official lever operator getting Me and her Grandpa up and down the big truck safely.

It's a bit weird seeing that they have this new house, but it's exciting because now they're 2 1/2 hours closer, and only 20 minutes away. The place is real nice. Plenty of yard like hours and tons of storage in the finished basement. Mia had a lot of fun playing with Uncle Tommy's old Legos he had saved for her. Even the Star Wars and Harry Potter ones.

Sunday, Jill myself and Mia got a little extra sleep. She went with Jill later to a party my sister-in-law was throwing. Saturday, Chelsea FC was playing Crystal Palace. At first, I was bummed I was going to miss it, but dammit, I'm glad I did. They lost somehow 2-1. Falcao FINALLY got a goal but it wasn't enough. I didn't get to see any highlights but read about it. We have got to get our act together. Defending champs don't lose to CP like that. They've got a two week break before the next game so I hope they can shake this off and win.

Today, Mia and I joined her super friends at Hoyt Pool in Tosa' for Tot-Time swimming. Basically, any kids under 6 is 4 bucks each. The place wasn't hard to find, and it was really nice. Even if it was only 65 degrees out, the water was decently warm and the kids had a total blast. Mia had fun chasing Hannah and Gracie as sharks, and hiding from Weston (the lobster) and his brother Simon (the other shark) and I was a squid. She wasn't stoked about the slides because she would get water in her mouth, so next time we're bringing goggles.

Tomorrow is her FIRST day of 4K. This will be her very last year at Smarty Pants Learning Center. She'll be in class 3 days a week from 9am-1pm. I'm sorta overwhelmed that I'll have that kind of time, but have a lot to do. Last week, the Milwaukee Torrent launched their other  online store through Admiral gear where you can purchase your very own home and away kits (as well as the keeper kits) that I took a part in designing. It's pretty cool seeing my design up for sale and I'm still waiting for my custom one to be complete. I ended up changing the number since one of their players took the number #26.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Call Mr. Plow, that's the name..

Good Evening. Hope everyone had a great weekend. The last time I posted in the blog, we were lacking some power/Internet in the house, but alas, everything is back to normal, and we even have a no light fixture installed in the kitchen (to replace the one that shorted out). Friday, Mia had school. After I gave her a hug and kiss goodbye, I registered for 4K, so she'll be staying at Smarty Pants in the Fall, and going to Orchard Elementary for kindergarten in 2016 (which is across the street from us). It was a sort of conundrum for us at first. Smarty Pants can be pricy, but the class size is smaller and the teaching staff is really nice. Mia of course, loves it there anyways. She painted me a picture of myself in blue.

Saturday, Jill had to work the Pet Expo in West Allis most of the day, so Mia and I watched the Chelsea vs Man City game. Man, was I hoping we could get a bigger gap and win that one. Rey's goal was great off a nice pass from Hazard. Mia went nuts when he scored, but quickly before the end of the first half, Silva snuck one in when Courtois was vulnerable. Ugh. We finished with a draw at 1-1. I had a feeling it would end like that. It was nice that some of the crowd at Stamford Bridge was nice to Lamps when he came on in the 77' minute. So, we're still ahead on the table. Hopefully can get 3 more points this weekend at Aston Villa. I saw today they made it official that Andres Schurrle is going back to the German league at Wolfsburg. He had some good moments in his career at Chelsea, so hopefully he can get back to form in a more familiar league. Mohammed Sallah is also departing for Fiorentina. Another guy who rarely got on the pitch. Good luck guys.

After the game, Mia and I went to the Pet Expo. Met all kinds of different dogs. She enjoyed watching the agility test for some of the dogs. They raced some fire fighters. One even beat one of the guys. Mia liked the K-9 police dog demo as well. We loved this super soft husky named Sven. Mia and I went to my bro's hockey game later. They won in a real close game. We saw him net the final goal when they pulled their goalie. Nice to see his team win every once in a while :P Last few games we went to, they weren't so lucky.

Sunday, I worked, and spent a lot of time snow blowing between last night and this morning. The drive home was insane. The freeway was fine, but the exit ramp was super sketchy. So lucky I made it home after dropping a coworker off at her house since her call literally, fell completely apart.

Other then that, that's about it. Need to get some art accomplished soon. We also have a lot of different things coming up. Our Florida trip is in June, so I need to look for some flights as well as book some things. We're only spending a day at Disney and need to make the most of it. That's all for now. Thanks for reading :)