Why So Early Winter?

Good morning. Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend, and are surviving the cold. Friday, I took Mia to school, and after dropping her off, I grabbed my cleats and went to the park for one last time, before we got snow on Saturday. It was 25 degrees out, but I wanted to get 10-15 minutes of free kicks in. The cold air was hurting the lungs a bit as I was running from end to end with the ball. Mia had a great day at school, and if we get more snow this week, I'll probably have to start packing her snow pants with her for school. She painted me a picture too! Loved it. Usually she's doing pictures of Jill so this was great.

Saturday was okay. No Chelsea games this weekend due to the international break. A few friendly games here and there, but none that I could watch, so I caught up on sleep over the weekend. Jill went to a glass-making class with some old coworkers, so Mia and I got to hang out for the day. I drove to Music-Go-Round to sell an old cymbal. Mia once again, pointed at the mandolin that she wanted. We then hit up Play It Again Sports as she's been talking about how much she wants skates. We found a pair of figure skates (she doesn't want hockey skates) for $25.00. They fit really well, but what kept me from purchasing them was that she's 3, and she would out grow the skates in less then a year. She still had fun putting them on and a hockey helmet/gloves. After checking out the skates, we went home and relaxed the rest of the day.

Later when Jill came home, we went to my brother's hockey game. The snow was flying, but we went anyway. We made it through the end of the 2nd period before Mia was too tired/crabby to watch anymore. When we walked to the stands, Mia noticed they had open skating going on. This one fella, dressed in jeans, black vest with a long pony tail and sporting a goatee was figure skating. He looked like he came off a Harley, but could figure skate really well...till he fell over, but the point is, I guess you can't judge someone by how they appear. This guy was probably pretty good as he backwards skated around people with one leg up parellel to the rink.

Andy's team ended up losing, but we still had fun at the game. Sunday, we shoveled and I worked 2-10. This Saturday, Jill's busy again so Mia and I will find something fun to do. I always enjoy the days off with her. Speaking of Saturdays, a new indoor soccer/football/lacrosse place opened in West Allis not too far from here. They may start  Saturday leagues, which means I could play indoor again :) Keeping my fingers crossed for that. That's all for now. Thanks for reading

There's a Light That Never Goes Out

Greetings! Gonna try to make this quick. Maybe. Last Friday, Mia and I were on our way to play group. Her friend's mom texted me and said that it was too cold and crappy out to take the girls out. Bugger. We went anyways in search of her other friend Omina. She wasn't there. Mia was pretty bummed and wanted to split early. So we roamed around the library a bit, till her friend's mom texted me again asking if she'd like to come over to play with the girls. She was super stoked. "THATS MUCH BETTER THEN THE LIBRARY DADDY!" So she hung out with the friends for a while.
Later after I went to work, her other grandma and uncle from Illinois came in. Jill's family stayed the weekend, (her dad later driving in Saturday) so it was nice that Mia got to hang with Jill's family since they didn't see her since Christmas. Friday night, I had told Jill that I was going to get up early to watch the Chelsea game. Like, 6:30am. She responded "I don't wanna hear any yelling, groaning or soccer chants! Watch it in SILENCE!" Not an easy task, but okay.

I got up early, and quietly watched the first half upstairs in the room. 0-0. At the end of the 1st half, I got hungry and wandered down for some cheerios. Ate real quiet and continued the game. Still 0-0. The game was getting more intense. 5 minutes of extra (or less) and I get a call, STOPPING the live feed on my phone. I ignored it, but had to re-sign into NBC Live Sports on my phone. A GOAL WAS SCORED!!??? WHAT? I was stoked but mad I missed it! Turns out my Dad was calling to tell me about the goal. My live feed must have been lagging a bit so he saw it before I did. In the end, Chelsea won, so I was quite happy about that.

Saturday evening, went with part of my family to watch my brother Andy play some beer league hockey. It was a good time, even though he got a penalty. They need an anger management coach in the box for those two minutes to calm the dude down. They were behind 2-0 before they came back and won it. He seemed happy we all came and cheered him on.

Sunday, early shift. Nothing too special. My family came in to visit, which was quite awesome. My sister, older bro and his people were here when I got home. It was nice visiting for a while. Later, my Mom and Dad came in for dinner. This week, I had tuesday and today off, which was quite nice. Mia and I didn't really do much yesterday. We wandered around Sports Authority some. She put on a pair of $50 soccer shoes (that almost fit her) and was booting a World Cup soccer ball around the store. It was pretty funny. She's gonna be a great soccer player as she gets older. And if she doesn't wanna play, that's fine too.

Today, Her and I went to take a visit to US Cellular. Why? Oh, because my phone has been having issues, since last week. I was told it was battery related by someone there the last time I was in. So I ordered a new battery off Amazon. Defective, or my phone has further problems, that would end up costing more then it's worth (despite the warranty) So, they told me that with all of my reward points, they could accelerate my update to basically, getting a new phone now. So my choice that I'm looking at are, the iPhone 5s, the 5c and the Galaxy s4. I could also wait till April for the new Galaxy s5. Currently, the phone seems to be fine, which is weird. As much as I'd like to leave Samsung and move to iPhone, I don't want to shell out the 199.99 plus activation for the iPhone 5s, and the 5c doesn't seem like a good move since its the same price as the s4 for me to update. I've got time to think about it.

Later, Mia and I watched Chelsea take on Galatasaray. More importantly, they were taking on former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba. Every Chelsea fan was looking forward to this. Some fans were even stabbed in Istanbul where the game took place. It's quite clear Turkey fans don't like the visitors. It wasn't the best game, in my opinion. Fernando Torres's goal at the 9th minute was perfect. Cesar passed it beautifully. With that momentum, I thought we'd be getting more, but the Turkey team was playing better. Drogba didn't register any goals, but one of his teammates did pick up a goal. There were way too many yellow cards being handed out. I look forward to when they play again at Stamford Bridge. The fans will give all of their support to Drogba, but after kick off, it'll be back to rooting for the Blues.   Last thing before I go. Jill and I are gearing up to launch our Etsy store. It's going to feature prints made by myself, as well as jewelry made by Jill and Mia. Keep posted for the store launch. Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Dancing With Myself

Happy Halloween everyone. A lot of different things to talk about, so lets get right into it, okay? Over the weekend, my twin sister got married outside at a vary cold park. I photographed it for her as she stood frozen under a tree looking at her now-husband. Saturday evening, Me, Jill and Mia went to Andy's hockey game with my half-bro and his kids. They lost 4-2, but it was still a fun evening. Mia EVEN wanted someone to take her out on the large oval ice rink that surrounds the Petit ice arena (it's for speed skaters and open skating) so sure enough, her Dad takes her out. "MOMMY LOOK I'M ICE SKATING!" We could be in for some fun come winter :)

Sunday, I worked then we went trick or treating. Mia had SUCH a blast. The weather was better, a bit windy but temperature-wise not bad at all. She got lots of chocolate (oh great) candy. Halloween has always been one of my favourite holidays. As a kid, you get candy from strangers. As an adult, you get drunk in costumes with your friends. As a parent, you can get drunk in costumes and get your kid's halloween candy (because no kid really needs to eat that much candy right?) This year, like the last few, we just took our kid out. No parties. No big deal.

So Wednesday, Mia got a Halloween package from her grandparents in Illinois. She loved everything in it, including some tattoos. Now, we've tried doing temporary ink with her before and she ends up just putting them on Jill. Wednesday, she wanted them on HER. So, of course I did about 5 that she picked out. It was a great exercise in counting (passed her usual 20) She absolutely loved them and showed them to EVERYONE she could. Kept her sleeves rolled up all day. She also
started her very first dance class. Because she didn't nap all day, she was incredibly difficult. There were about 10 girls in the class, most were into it, others were defiant. Mia just was too tired and crabby to put up with some random lady telling her what to do. We'll see if she wants to do it next week. If it happens again, maybe we'll drop out of it. At home before she passed out on the couch, she was doing the basic ballet moves the instructor was showing her. The instructor seemed a bit scattered-brained, with no real flow to the class. So, we'll see what happens next week.

This weekend, we're doing some engagement photos up in Madison of Jill's old roomie and fiance'. hopefully the weather is good. Sunday, I work and we've got no plans so far. Have a great Halloween everyone!

Jump Around

Greetings! Keeping this one sort. Gotta get up very early to get Jill up for an early day at work for her. Not fun, but it's that busy time of the year at her studio. Friday I was off, which was great so my Dad, Mia and I watched my lil bro play some beer league hockey. Great time. Especially when Mia would yell "ANDY I CANT BELIEVE YOU KEEP DOING THAT!" in regards to him falling/not getting a goal. Saturday, we watched Chelsea beat Fullam. AWESOME :) Today, Mia had a check up. This was the very very first time I had to take her to the doctor solo without Jill. Ever since Mia was born, we've gone to the doc together, but today she had too much work to do. I was not stoked to have to wake her up. Luckily, she wasn't upset or anything. We had a very
lengthy discussion on our doctor appt and how there will be NO shots. Today, when I got her up, I reminded her that the appt will be fine. At first, she didn't wanna leave, but I said I'd hold her hand. She was talkative to the nurses, and sat through the basic check up like a champ. Wasn't a fan at first of the blood pressure test device, but noticed that she had the same contraption in her doctor kid at home. So, I was quite happy that everything went well.

Later, we FINALLY got to the Helium Trampoline Park. Once again, at first she was a bit timid. Sorta confused that we were not at the back up hangout AKA the library. So she gets on the trampoline "Dadda I don't know about this" but when she realized that these are for jumping she got SO excited. Jumped and jumped and jumped. Finally 35 minutes in, "Daddy, I'm thirsty! Later after a little water, I wanted to jump in the foam pit. Well of course Miss Mia wanted to as well. The pit was pretty deep and difficult to get out of. But, she didn't care and wanted to get in. So I held her hand, and she crawled INTO the pit, instead of jumping. After I got her out of the pit, I got back on the trampoline and did a 360 into it. So much fun. Earlier on a 360 spin that I was trying to rotate to a 540, I landed my knee straight into my wrist head on, so it's been hurting the rest of the night. Looks a bit swollen. Hopefully it'll go down. This weekend, we're off to Illinois for some family time with Jill's group. Her brother's birthday is coming up so we've got to spend some time with him :) Should be a good time. If you notice the picture way way in the background, you can see Mia waiting for me to kick the ball to her. :) That's all for now, thanks for reading!