Kindess Counts

Good evening everyone! Quite the busy week as usual. I just had to get to the mid-week to enjoy 3 busy days off. The previous week I had applied for a social media marketing position but unfortunately after getting the assessment test this week, I got an email that I wasn't the right fit. The test was timed and pretty difficult so I didn't feel too confident before getting the email. Ugh. The salary was perfect and the duties seemed up my alley. Oh well. Back to the grind looking for a job to replace my current one.

During the week, I did some Lightroom editing of the photos I took of Mia in her various outfits and I think they turned out pretty good. Totally stoked about it. Watched some of the Chelsea vs Frankfurt match Thursday. 1-1 draw so they'll take them on this week at The Bridge. Friday was High Interest Day at Mia's school. It's always a huge event and this was my 3rd year participating. Despite the request that Mia should wear an OL spirit shirt, we decided to rebel and wear similar Alkaline Trio shirts :) I co-lead a rock painting class. It was a super fun day teaching for an afternoon some specific rock painting and blending techniques. The kids had a great time and I'll be returning next year to do the same thing. Mia's super stoked that when she's a 3rd grader, she'll have a bigger variety of classes to chose from which will include the rock painting one. She did some string art, slime making, pony beads and some community service work. After lunch, I surprised the diva and her crazy friends at recess. They did a foot race before the recess was over.

I had a few more classes before the session ended. I had planned on returning home till it was time to pick up Mia, but I ended up helping tear down some stuff in the lunch room and waited till they were done with the assembly. All in all, really fun day. Later, we went to my nephews soccer match. The kids team didn't win, but they certainly had a lot of fun. We had dinner with my bro and his family after before calling it a day.

Saturday Mia received the Youth Community Kindness Award from HAWS at the Romp n Rally in Sussex. Unfortunately, she built up a lot of pressure and got super nervous. Way too nervous to go up in front alone to receive her award. They even tried to give her a puppy to bring up to relax her and she just couldn't do it. In the end, I went up there with her with ol' Fluttershy Mia who turned herself around so no one could look at her. We were super proud of her as well as both of our parents of all the hard work Mia's done for  the animal shelter. Ugh. We walked around a bit, picked up a few things and headed out.

Mia didn't have a lot of time before having to go do her dance photos in her 3 different costumes. They looked pretty good and she was glad when it was over. The photos turned out pretty good as well. On the ride back home, Mia stated that this will be her very last year doing dance. She said it's become too easy for her and after this June's recital wants to be done with it. Interesting. Guess we'll see what peaks her interest after dance is done. I very cautiously let her fly my DJI Spark drone for the very first time before returning to the studio to pick up Jill. She had a really good time and I had hoped to get some photos from it, but the sun blew out the image so I need to do some color correcting before flying the Spark again.

We watched some of the new Goosebumps movie before crashing. I did some drawing as well. Today, I watched the 1st half of the Chelsea vs Watford match before we drove to a church to photograph a communion. It went pretty well and even better 2nd half for Chelsea as they won 3-0 securing a spot in the UCL next season. Now we just need Hazard to sign a new deal and we're good.

This week, back to normal work. Jill's got some dance academy photos to do and from what I've heard, the weather is supposed to be hella lousy. Blah. Luckily Mia enjoyed what she could today. Thanks for reading!

Spring Time FUN!

Good evening! It was a great return to the beautiful weather (mostly). Wednesday after school, Mia got to play with her friends Noelle, Ellahrose, and  Katelyn. Perfect weather for a post-school hangout outside. Later, the weather changed and things got a bit chillier. Mia and I had dinner together since Jill had to unfortunately work late so I had to get the diva to bed. Not an easy task. Mostly because while I was trying to calm her down, a storm rolled through. Plenty of obnoxious lightning. Mia struggled to sleep, along with that she totally missed Jill. Jill made it through the rough storm and Mia reunited with her. A quick hug and goodnight kiss and she was back in bed. Luckily by then, the storm passed through and Mia was able to calm down.

Friday was the coveted High Interest Day at Mia's school. Basically, the parents at Orchard Lane volunteer as either presenters or helpers with different projects, classes and sessions. Wood making, jump rope making, surgeon and floor hockey were just a a few of the activities the kids could do. I helped with Mindfulness Rock Painting. It was a lot of fun. We had 5 sessions total. I helped with 3 of them before having to split. Basically, we had one parent relax the kids with some breathing exercises into a very zen state of mind. It was pretty amazing because it totally chilled them before we began rock paintings. The groups of kids were great and had a lot of fun patenting mandala rocks, inspirational words and galactic scenes. Later, I went off to work.

Saturday was a busy one. I drove down to Hart Park for Vendor Day to hang out with some Torrent fans and crew. Later, went home, met up with Jill's family and hung out before heading back to the stadium for the Torrent vs AFC Ann Arbor match. Our Flood crew grew in numbers and it was fantastic to reunite with old member and meet new ones. The match started out pretty even with both teams looking good trying desperately to control the match. First half ended 0-0. 2nd half things got rough. Ann Arbor picked up a goal early in the 2nd half and took control. The visitors would pick up 3 more finishing us off 0-4. Not a good start to the season. We could point out we that we were short 7 players and a coach that could have had its effect on the match, but ultimately it was just not our night. Some mistakes and questionable calls through off the Blues so hopefully they can bounce back next match. We'll have some key players return. One highlight of the evening was the brand new Torrent Ale. Really good German beer MobCraft beer designed. One of the players that wasn't playing for the evening strolled down to The Flood supporters section to join us in chanting for a goal on our side of the pitch. Hector Portillo was super nice and reassured me after the match "next game will be better, promise".

Later voice-less, I had dinner with Jill and Mia and we watched a movie till we crashed for the night. Sunday, I watched Chelsea beat Liverpool in a thrilling match. Giro's goal was fantastic and we're inching closer and closer to a Champions League spot for the 2018-2019 season. Jill and Mia later went to our friend Christina's baby Penelope's baptism. Jill texted me later that Mia had a lot of fun and didn't want to leave.

This week, plenty of photo editing to do along with Footy ads and a Torrent game on Friday. I'm going to count laps with the kids at recess for their running thing they do. Hopefully we can continue the great weather.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!