Double Feature

Hello everyone! hope everyone enjoyed the weekend and the gorgeous weather. This week, Mia got to hang out at the park with a couple of her crazy friends, Irianna and Nate at the always busy; Malone Park. I swear, it is super easy to lose a kid at this place. There had to be at least 50+ kids running around. They chased each other around, climbed the monkey bars and swung from a large saucer swing. All three of them needed my assistance getting them off upside down from the monkey for most of the time we were there. I'm sincerely glad she's got such great friends and hope they can all hang out during the school year (when possible). It's going to be tricky with all of the kids doing different activities during the school year, but we'll just have to try.

Wednesday was Tattoo Day, but first a quick photo session for the Torrent at Jill's studio. Her boss took a few photos of me in jersey/scarf and as well as some with my mask/drum for their social media sites. Basically, it was to announce I'll be continuing to work for them in 2017. Later, it was tattooing time. It was my very last session of my gorgeous Hawaiian half-sleeve that I've been working on all Summer, and I couldn't have been more excited to finish it. My amazing tattoo artist, Marcus put about 4 hours into coloring the shark, finishing the blue around the bicep and above the turtle and tightening any lines that needed it. The painful areas were defiantly "the ditch" or the hinge of the forearm and upper arm, but that wasn't nearly as rough as the last 15-20 minutes of coloring up my arm. He was going to stop where the shark tail ended but I insisted he kept going and finish it. "Are you sure? I figured I would do you a favor and stop." No, let's do this right and finish it. So, he did. It was real rough and sorta reminded me of my 1st tattoo (2nd session) when my artist was pulling from the inner arm. I'm proud of myself for sticking it out and couldn't have been more happier with the final results. This tattoo captures my sincere love of Hawaii, the marine animals and my beautiful family. I've had a slew of people asking me about his work and where to find him and I've happily given them all his info. He gave me a product called tegrederm that he's never used before in any session. It's mainly used for burn victims, but tattoo artists are starting to take advantage of this wrap that apparently helps with the healing process. You can leave it on up to 5 days at a time. Friday, I took off the first wrap and boy did it hurt. I put a new wrap on it and tomorrow, will be removing it. I'm excited to clean this arm, get all the adhesive off and let it heal.

Thursday, Jill and I had a biometrics test. My results were great and we'll have a better cheaper insurance for another year. Saturday, I finally got to watch Chelsea play a match in the 16/17 season. They beat Burnley 3-0 comfortably. Hazard got the first goal, Willian put away the 2nd and Victor Moses completed the day with the final goal. It's great to see them playing well again and on top of the league. There's an international break so no games for a little while. Later, we went to Mod Pizza and went to the movies. Jill's parent's met us and took Mia to see the highly anticipated animated movie called Kubo and the 2 Strings. Mia said it was really good, dark with some scary parts. We went and saw Florence Foster Jenkins. It's a true story about a woman who is awful at singing, with Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant. I It's pretty rare that we get to enjoy some time like this, just the two of us and the movie was actually pretty good. It was fun that Mia got to see a movie while we saw one for us. When we got out, she was waiting eating Gelato.

Today, we went to the zoo briefly to enjoy the gorgeous weather before I had to work. This week is a busy one. Mia's got her orientation day on Tuesday, which she'll bring in her supplies, meet her teacher again and see the classroom. I'm trying to get some of her friends together to hang before they all go off to Kindergarten. Thursday will be her first full day of Kindergarten. Jill's taking part of the day off and I have to work so I won't hear how it went till the next day :/.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Early Bird Wedding in the Windy City

Good evening everyone! MY was it a busy week! I'll try to jet through this quick since there is a lot to discuss. 4th of July was a busy day. Mia rode her (new) bike in the mini parade which consisted of kids who decorated their bikes all patriotic around a parking lot following an old woman in a golf cart. They had to get there early as well to participate. There were a TON of kids and Mia had a pretty good time. She loved the guy who made balloon animals. These were balloon animals to the next level. He did a Ghostbusters pack, a giant hot dog and a large octopus all while joking around with the kids. He was very fun to watch. She and Jill went to the fireworks later while I made time and a half at work. When she got home, she discovered the harsh reality that she had some gnarly mosquito bites. The one that bothered her the most was right on the bridge of her foot.

For the rest of the week, she whined and complained about it which unfortunately, made our lives miserable. Wednesday, she was to start her dance class and I had a 2nd tattoo session. The whole morning, she just went through ice pack after ice pack totally unsure if she'd be okay to dance. My in laws came over to take her to class when I left for my tattoo session. I was "under the needle" for about 3 1/2 hours totally 7 1/2 so far. Another 4 1/2 to go most likely. Can't wait to get the water, shark, turtle and Diamond Head filled in next. When I got home, Mia explained that she had a blast at dance class but didn't do any dancing because of her foot. I totally understand and hope this week she'll be able to dance. I'm taking her this time and will wait in the hall for her. I also hope she meets some nice friends since she apparently was pretty shy.

Thursday was a rough recovery day on my tattoo. I wrapped it up just to be safe to keep any bacteria out. Made it easier too when people wanted to see what it looked like. Friday afternoon, we left for Chicago. The traffic was all kinds of fun, and when we arrived at the hotel late, we found out that the hotel we set up a reservation to was under construction, and that the whole wedding block moved to a DIFFERENT location. Awesome... They didn't have any open rooms at the new location and didn't transfer our names, but they ended up giving us a recently renovated room at the hotel (under construction). Good. We almost didn't have a place to stay for the night. Almost. The room was very nice and thanks to some Chicago traffic, we missed the dress rehearsal but luckily found them and got to enjoy the picnic. The sunset over the city was gorgeous as we ate and enjoyed the beach.

The next morning, we woke up at 3:30am. Yes, that's right. The wedding was at 6, so we had to get up super early. Mia wasn't a fan of it. "WHY IS IT STILL DARK OUT!? ITS NOT MORNING" Yes it is kid. Luckily, she didn't put up too much of a fuss, and we got out the door and made it to the beach. The sun was beautiful as we watched from a distance Matt and Whitney getting photographed in the early hours of the morning. There were probably 25 people on the beach in a very intimate ceremony. It was real nice and probably the last beach wedding I'll attend. We had some donuts and bagels and were on our way. With the reception not for 10-12 hours, we had a LOT of time to kill, so we hung out for a while in Downtown Chicago. There wasn't a lot opened and Mia had her heart set on going to the infamous Dylan's Candy Store. We spent some time roaming around Michigan ave and luckily the Disney store was opened. What was funny, is that the employees there, act the exact same way as the ones in Florida at Disney World. They treated Mia like a princess and were very courteous to her. It was fun.

Finally, Dylan's was opened and Mia had a blast going through their crazy candy store. She picked out a bag's worth of candy to enjoy. We went back to the parking garage, paid our enormous parking bill and left. Napped on an off at the hotel before checking out, and switching to the OTHER hotel. After that mess was cleared, we went to the reception. The food was incredible. Mia didn't care for it and during the speeches she fell asleep. Yes. Right on Jill's lap. The long day wore her out and she slept for about an hour before we woke her for a little square of chocolate cake. The crab was too cranky to bowl or do anything so we left. Sunday morning, we got up and had breakfast with the wedding group. Absolutely delicious veggie omelet made right in front of me. After breakfast, we went home. First, we stopped at Gurnee Mills to see what all the hype was. It's actually pretty disappointing. From what I hear from everyone that goes, it's this amazing mall that's a blast to shop in. No, not even for Jill. When we got home, we had a quick dinner and went to Secret Life of Pets with both sets of parents + Tommy. It was very funny and well worth watching. Over the weekend, the Torrent won their home game thus clinching the Midwest Central Championship. Very proud of these guys.

This week, Mia may hang with her friends Tuesday. Hopefully the weather is good. Dance class is weds and my half brother is coming in for the weekend. That's all for now, thanks for reading!