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!

Balanced on a Shelf

Greetings once again readers. Hope every one's enjoying their week. Weather sure has sucked lately. Well, the last few weeks, really. Tried taking Mia to the park the other day because the SUN was OUT!! She was super stoked to hit the swings, but everything was very wet, and it was cold and windy. We'll have to wait for a warmer day. Over the weekend, nothing too exciting to report.  We explored and wandered around Carroll University after dropping some food donations off at the campus. Holy crap how the place has changed. Jill and I were baffled. Everything was different, but it was fun walking around. Mia enjoyed going up the stairs at the campus center. Maybe someday she'll go there. Who knows. It'll be up to her. This weekend, we're heading to Illinois, plus before we go Jill's setting up for a big sale in the area. it's a big kids sale so we're ridding Mia's old toys and clothes that don't fit. Should be a good opportunity to make some cash and minimize the clutter.

So a few days ago, Jill did some cute braids in Mia's hair. She loved it so much that the next day when she woke up, the first thing she asked me was "Daddy, do braids in my hair?!" So, of course Daddy's got to do it right? I searched Youtube up and down and could only find these advanced french braiding, princess braiding, dreads, etc etc etc...Eventually was able to get a diagram on Google and after about 4 tries, I got it right. They weren't perfect, but I swear that kid sure as hell didn't care. "DADDY YOU DID IT YEAHHHH DADDDY! Do another??" So I ended up doing three braids. Made me quite happy. Like when a kid learns to walk, ride a bike, or master an instrument. I taught myself to braid and for the first time in quite a while, I was proud of myself.

Today during the lovely thunderstorm, Mia and I watched the Chelsea game with Grandpa. It was an awesome win for the Blues. After John Terry's amazing header in the goal, Mia said "YAYYY CHELSEA SCORED! Daddy, now we clap!" Love this little girl so much. She had a great nap on the way home, and for a few hours when we got in the door. Allowed me to work on a new art project. Can't discuss much about it, because I'm not sure if my older bro reads my blog. Let's just say, its' a birthday gift for him, so he better love it.

Before I end this blog, I feel it's important to discuss what happened Tuesday with the bombing. My heart broke when I was getting in information at work from customers throughout the evening about the bombing. Running a marathon, you'd think you'd never have to worry about an attack of that nature. Of course the crazy people are trying to find a conspiracy behind this, which is not only insensitive to the people who perished, but also idiotic. That's all for now. Thanks for reading!