It's Snow Problem Mon!

Good afternoon everyone. Busy week per the usual with no real end in sight. Saturday was one of the busiest days ever. Mia had her last dance class for the semester to kick off the day. Jill had to work, so I got the privilege to take and watch their "open house" dancing session. Parents could watch and I've never seen Mia do tap/ballet before so I was really stoked. There are just two girls in Mia's class. Mia, and this other girl Addie Mae. They started out with stretching and ballet. Mia's apparently pretty flexible and has amazing posture and focus in ballet. The last part of the ballet portion was leaps. Mia's still learning how to coordinate your body to kick both legs out opposite with hands out. Her classmate is really good, but on her 2nd leap, fell right on her face. Lots of tears, and she basically was checked out the rest of the time, leaving Mia to continue the "performance" in front of me, and the adults that came for Addie Mae.

Mia started the tap portion and was incredible. For a girl who used to complain that she didn't like tap dancing as much, she's super impressive. Once again, great posture and form the whole time. They somehow got Addie Mae to come up next to Mia to continue the performance, but she still was pretty out of it. After wards, Mia came running to me and told me "I tried my best Daddy". She was amazing. I took video to show Jill later and she couldn't believe it either. I'm really glad she has this outside of school interest that she enjoys. Who knows how long she'll continue to dance, but for now, she loves it.

We jetted to Monkey Joe's for her pal Olivia's 6th birthday party. Mia changed quick and played and ate pizza/cupcakes.  We couldn't stay too long because at 12:30, we ran to Jill's studio for pictures with Santa. After that, We ran to Carroll University to look for a college shirt for Mia for Wednesday (it's wear your parent's college shirt day). Book store was closed so I went today and picked one up for her. After that, we decided to go to the movies to see Trolls. This was Mia's 2nd time seeing it and my first time. I was so exhausted from a sincere lack of sleep that I was nodding off during the movie. I caught the majority of it. Cute, weird and funny. Later, we made dinner and watched the snow fly.

Sunday I got up early for the game. Chelsea beat West Brom 1-0 which means they've won NINE games in a row. We've got a game this Wednesday :) Can't wait. Our stupid snow blower wouldn't start thanks to an old spark plug, so we shoveled and shoveled till I had to go to work.

This week is "Mike absolutely needs to finish the book" week. No time to lose. Saturday, we're baking cookies with my parents. That's all for now. Thanks for reading and stay warm!!

Two Little Monkeys

Good evening.
Hope everyone is keeping warm and got to enjoy the weekend. It was an overall enjoyable week over here. Wednesday after school, Mia and her BFF Olivia met up and went to Monkey Joe's together. When I went to pick her up at the end of her day, Mia and Olivia came out of class bouncing with excitement. It was adorable. Anyways, Olivia's Dad and I brought the kids to the jump joint and they had a total blast. They would hold hands going down the big slides, race and shot some hoops at the arcade-style basketball game. It was cute. Mia's definitely a lefty and made quite a bit of baskets. They play so cute and act like sisters when they interact. I love it. Despite the fact that they will be in different kindergartens next year, I hope they can continue being best friends.

The Christmas tree is already set up. Jill and Mia tackled that traditional set up that I usually get to help with. I was a bit bummed. Oh well. Saturday, I watched the Chelsea vs Norwich game. It was a long international break. Everyone did well individually for their country so I was quite amped for this game. Chelsea needed this win and they got it. It most certainly wasn't a blowout, but the win was so well-deserved. They all played so well, and it was a great result. I was quite occupied with helping Jill with her Wild Tree sale preparations and getting Mia breakfast but what I saw was great. Pedro, Hazard and Willian performed fantastically. Although I will not get to watch the 2nd leg of the Champions League game, I feel like they can get the win. Every one's feeling good, JM is feeling good, the team looks solid and that's all what matters.

Jill's sale went alright. A few items sold. After break down, we stopped at my parent's for my Mom's birthday. She was totally surprised and quite happy :) Today Jill had her pal Heather (and kid Bella) as well as her Mom over to help bake a ton of cookies to raise money for a local cat shelter. Mia and Bella did an amazing job with the cookies and had a ton of fun. It was great seeing the two getting along. Heather is a sweet and genuine person so it came no surprise her little 10 year old was just the same. I have to stop over Wednesday for my Dad's birthday this week. He's going to love his gift :) Mia also has a Thanksgiving Feast at her school on Wednesday. I'm not quite sure what that means as far as "does she bring some traditional food?" or what. Guess we'll find out.

Thursday, I'm working 6am-2pm which is quite typical for me on Turkey Day (as I requested) and then it'll be off to my parents. Saturday, it'll be Jill's parent's house. Their first of many Thanksgivings in Wisconsin.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Fools In Love

A lot to discuss this bright and sunny morning (way too tired to type last night). So last weekend was a complete blur, and not in a drunk-every-night blur, just a blur because I was here, there and everywhere. Friday night, worked till 10. Came home hoping that Mia would want to get some sleep, but the kid wanted to play. I had to get up at 4:45am and at 12:30am she wants to play my drum set. Well anyways, I think I ended up getting 3 hours of sleep somehow. So while at work, I got the text from my in-laws that drove up planning to watch Mia that evening so Jill and I could go to a wedding, that Jill got sick. She finally caught what Mia and I had earlier in the week, so Jill couldn't make the wedding or reception. I ended up going to the reception solo because I didn't want the bride/groom to pay for two empty plates. Jill's parents were gracious enough to take care of both Jill and Mia. So I went to the wedding, and when I got home, both Jill and Mia were sound asleep. Reception was a total blast. Great catching up with some friends from long ago.

The next morning I went to my nephew's baptism at 9am. Too early for this uncle :P. Ended up photographing the event. Later, came home, changed and got ready for my first adult-league pick up soccer game. Jill and Mia came too. Mia ended up falling asleep in the car so both of them ended up missing the whole game :( So the first half, I realized that I didn't hydrate myself enough and found it tough running with this super dry throat (still recovering from the illness too) and I played left-mid-forward. Wasn't getting a lot of passes to me (some ball hogs) and eventually dropped back to play mid-left-back. Much more comfortable playing defense. I really don't know why, but I enjoyed it. As much as I'd love to score a goal, I felt good keeping the other forward covered making sure he didn't get any shots off. Our team ended up winning like, 7-3 I believe. It was a lot of fun, even in 87 degree heat. OH! For Father's Day I got this little NHL air hockey game thing I can play with Mia, and this amazing Mia & Jill painted soccer ball. It's beautiful. When I came home from the baptism (I was gone all day) Mia was super excited to see me and kept saying "HAPPY FATHERS DAY DADDY" with the ball in her hand. Melted my heart.

This week I took off Tuesday and Wednesday. My nephew Alex was in town so my Mom and I wanted to keep the kids busy. Tuesday we went to the zoo. I finally got to pet the sting rays. The sharks you can't reach for so I didn't get to pet any sharks. Mia was a little irritated they wouldn't come up close enough for her to reach. We didn't see everything, but we saw enough. I have been to the zoo enough times where it doesn't matter what we see, just as long as everyone leaves happy.

Yesterday we tried Monkey Joe's. I have never been there, but both my Mom and my mother in law have been there and I guess the last time Mia was there (I think was quite a while ago) she was too little to enjoy the bouncy things. Well, this time she started out timid. Wanted to watch Alex do all the big gnarly slides. Later she slowly walked through this little kids one and was totally fine. Alex went in as well to show her how fun it is. Well in the end, they both chased each other around all of the obstacles, falling and bouncing all the way. They wanted to go into this other bouncy thing were you climb this ladder and go down the slide. Alex helped Mia climb the ladder (what a great guy!) and she went down the slide like a bullet. She got up "That was TOO fast DADA!" Then wanted to try it again. So she climbs the ladder, got scared at the top and I had to go in and take her down. For dinner last night, we went to Stonefire Pizza. She was too distracted by all of the games to actually want to eat her dinner, but she ate some. Both kids loved playing the games.

Sigh, so that's it for now. Back to work today and tomorrow. No idea what's going on this weekend. Thanks for reading!