Down For The Count

Good evening. A few days behind on my blogging, only because I was sidelined with a rough fever that lead to some stomach pain since Wednesday. Wednesday night I got real real sick, through up a ton but still had to make it to work Thursday and Friday. I'm doing a little better but I'd rather not reflect on this. It sucked and I'm still getting over it.

Last Saturday Chelsea marched on to a fantastic 6-3 victory over Everton. I was fortunate to watch it while Jill and her family were out. It was a total nail biter. Diego Costa picked up two great goals proving already that he was a great pick. New comer Luic Remy will be interesting to see in action in the near future. We did have to say goodbye to striker Fernando Torres as he went on loan to AC Milan. Mixed feelings for the fans since he cost quite a bit for the club and wasn't able to aptly perform to to the price tag that brought him there, but there are some solid memories of the player that we'll always have and look fondly on as he moves on to bigger things in Italy.

There's been quite a few things going on with Miss Mia as well. She's been avidly listening to Tegan and Sara every time I drive her anywhere. More specifically songs "Back in Your Head" and "Hop a Plane". She most recently began enjoying their latest single "Closer". She's got almost all of the lyrics to "Hop a Plane" down which is crazy. She's getting really good at driving her Mustang Power Wheels and can now park it in the garage. It's really handy that the battery plugs into a normal outlet because she's been driving it every other day :)

She started preschool Friday. It was a day I was both looking forward to and dread for obvious reasons. She's been talking about it for a while. Just as I was going to get her into the car and Jill was heading off to work, she got upset. She exclaimed how much she'd miss us and Remi and started crying. Great. Not even out of the driveway. We calmed her down and Jill followed us to school. She got in, and was perfectly fine. Kissed Jill goodbye and myself. For the first time in quite a while, I had some peace and quiet. Sadly, because of my health, I couldn't take full advantage of it. Did a little picking up in the living room, took care of some laundry. Would have loved to kicked the ball around the pitch or played my drums, but there will be other days. Picked her up at 11:30am, and she was stoked to see me. Told me all about school, playing with the sand table, painting a picture. She's looking forward to going back next Friday which is great. Today, I spent the majority of the day with her, as Jill did a WildTree workshop at my sister in law's house. Mia and I had a pretty good day. Did some art, played outside, she rode her bike around, she took a bath, watched a movie. Tomorrow, I hope to get some grass cut before work.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Horse Power

Greetings everyone. Hope all is well with all of my readers. So the weekend had its ups and downs, so let's dive right into it, okay? Saturday, I spent the morning cutting grass and doing some yard work. On a whim, we decided to take Mia, Remi and my Mom and her dog Chief for a hike in Lapham Peak in Delafield. Lots of different trails and of course the lookout tower, once used many years ago as tower to  search out fires. Now, people enjoy the long walk up to just relax, snap some panoramic photos and take in the scenery. So we hiked and hiked the different trails only temporarily getting turned around a few times. The hike was warm, but thoroughly enjoyable, for the most part. It made me miss hiking the beautiful rain Forrest in Oahu and the few miles up Makapuʻu. Mia got exhausted during the hike and I had her on my shoulders for quite a bit of the time. Then of course came the unfortunate accident.


 Remi and Chief had a great time hiking and exploring together, till our poor dog busted one of his nails, almost right off the paw. He lunged for something in the bushes that was moving and came right back out with his paw in the air, and bleeding. I was a bit behind Jill and my Mom so I didn't quite see what had happened. He may have slipped on a rock when he jumped in. All I know is he had a hard time putting pressure down and it made me really worried. After we got out of the park, we dropped off my Mom and Chief and headed down to the emergency animal clinic in Waukesha. They took off the nail, wrapped it up, put him on antibiotics and stuck a cone on his noggin so he couldn't lick the wound. It's been a rough few days keeping him from licking the bandage. He hates not being able to run with me and I hated seeing him in pain. Well after a lot of "stop licking that!" and having to rewrap it several times, today he's finally showing improvement. He's no longer limping and hasn't been licking the bandage. He's too smart for that stupid flimsy cone and could figure out how to stand on all 4's and lick the paw still. Both walks I took him on today he looked better and even wanted to jog. I don't wanna risk it yet, but I'm relieved he's doing better. Love my dog to death and we just want the lad to be happy.


Also over the weekend, I think it was Sunday Mia decided she was finally ready to drive her pink Ford Mustang Power Wheels. Santa had brought it last Christmas and she wanted nothing to do with it. She really got into it, and figured out how to shift between forward and reverse when she needed it. It looks like she's trying to drive a stick :P Today she drove her Mustang too. I was hoping a random police officer would drive through so I could talk him into parking behind her so I could photograph her getting a "ticket". Ah, another time. Yesterday was the open house at Smarty Pants Learning School, which is one of the preschools in the area we were interested in for Mia. I couldn't attend but Jill and my Mom were able to take Mia and get info. Mia's officially registered for a one-day-a-week 3k on Fridays. No more playgroup, but she's pretty stoked about school. I guess the teacher told her "go draw me something on my dry erase board" and she drew this piece of my Mom and Mia holding hands with a sun and grass and the teacher said "WOW you've got great detail!" Always nice to hear a compliment of my daughter's art abilities outside of the family.

Today, I took Mia to Cushing Park in Delafield. Technically, we went to Fort Cushing, a very elaborate and impressive castle playground. Mia and I both dropped our jaw when we saw it in person. Tuesday of next week some parenting magazine is hosting a fairies and pirates play date for kids there where the kids can dress up as either characters and play. I saw an add for this on Facebook. Mia's genuinely interested as well as my friend Nicole and her kiddo Benny. I almost was going to take Mia to the pool today, but had some errons to run.

This weekend, not sure what events we've got planned outside of myself watching the Chelsea game. First game I"ll be able to watch of the season. I missed the first game against Burnsley but watched the impressive highlights. It's gonna be a great season. Making progress on my Milwaukee MLS kit. Hopefully it'll turn out. That's all for now. Thanks for reading!!

Bring it on 2014!

Greetings. With New Years Eve coming tomorrow, I thought I'd do my traditional year end review of how everything went. Before that,  let's get Christmas out of the way first. Christmas Eve, I worked a very busy early shift till 2pm, then we headed over to my brother's house with the rest of the family. Mia got some great new stuff including an awesome doll house. She's in Illinois right now with Jill so I imagine she'll be exciting
to play with it again when they come home tomorrow. My parents got me an AMAZING Chelsea FC away jersey ( I had customized with Oscar on the back). My amazing wife got me a nice, warm and awesome Chelsea FC winter jacket. I think that I'll be truly thankful for it today when I go to work since It's -11 degrees out. BRR! I picked out a bunch of clothes for Jill for Christmas, so she was happy. I hope :) Christmas morning, Mia slept in till 11ish. She wanted to "wait" for Santa Christmas Eve, and eventually fell asleep. She woke up, opening some gifts and loved everything. Her pink PowerWheels Mustang was waiting for her in the driveway. Too much snow to thoroughly enjoy. Come Spring time, she'll get to cruise.



Back to the year end review. Last year, I had made a small list of goals to accomplish. Let's take a look.
First Goal- Play in an adult indoor or outdoor soccer league-in 2012, I started to regain my love for soccer, and really wanted to play more soccer in 2013. Well, I didn't get to play in a "league", I did play some adult pick up. Played a few outdoor games in the summer and some futsal a month or so ago as a sub. Man, playing soccer is so incredibly fun. The most amazing work out and exercise. Was hoping to play last night, but there was no need for any subs.
Second Goal- Possibly find a 2nd job. ALMOST HAPPENED! In fact, a graphic design job almost happened. Over the summer, a good friend of mine from college had told me that a woman she works out with at her gym worked at a company that designs neon beer signs for companies. So to get in with this job, I had to create a website for my art work. Which is perfect because that was one of my other goals from LAST year :) So I designed a clean site that's easy to navigate. In the end, the job fell through, but for a few weeks, I had a creative spark to design some new things and challenge myself.

Third Goal-Play pond hockey before the end of Winter with my brothers Didn't happen. Maybe this year we will.  Last two-Try to complete a killer water colour picture and Maybe do a series of some really nice photographs. Water colour didn't happen, but one rainy day, I was able to shoot some awesome photographs of Mia in the rain with an umbrella.

2014 GOALS
1-Another series of great photographs 
2-If the weather cooperates, make a Snow-Minion 
3-Draw a portrait of a Chelsea player  
4-Work on my endurance/Get in better shape 

Not a lot of goals, but how I look at it, everything on here could happen and I need to make them happen.

Real quick, the highlights of my year: 
Mia turned two, which lead to all of the wonderful new things she can say and sing with me.
We lost our Guinea pigs. Both passed away :( 
Started taking Mia to play groups and we both made new friends. 
Chelsea became the Europa Champs :) 
Turned 30 in July :/  
We took a family trip to Indiana and I got to see Chelsea vs Inter in Indianapolis 
Completed more art then last year (including that picture of Remi above next to the one of Haily Jill did for her aunt) 
Saw Alkaline Trio with my brother. First show in a few years and it was fantastic. 

Okay, that's it everyone. Thanks for sticking with me over the year. See you in 2014!!