This Party is Surreal

Good morning everyone. Phew, what a busy week(end) we had (again).  The Christmas book we're working on for Mia is taking a lot of hard work and I hope I can get it done in time. Wednesday when I picked up Mia from school, she ran out with this 1st grader named Leilani who styled Mia's hair while they wanted to be released for the day. Such a nice kid. I'm always glad when Mia makes a new friend, even if its just for a little bit.  Saturday morning I got up very early to watch Chelsea take on Man City. This match promised to be a good one and the good guys won 3-1. Chelsea came from behind (on an own goal) to take the 3 points, but not before a rather nasty skirmish. Sergio Aguero lunged at David Luiz's leg with two feet causing almost a fight among some of the players. Another player from Man City picked up a red card for grabbing Cesc Fabregas by the throat and shoving him over an advertisement board. Ugly display by the home team. Both players are out for several games, hopefully causing these twits to drop in points in the upcoming matches.

After that intense game, I had to wake up the diva for dance. She's starting to like this more advanced class more and after class, she had to change and go to her friend Noelle's 6th birthday party. She had an art party at her house with all of the girls from the class. Mia was the last one to arrive and when she came down the stairs, all of them screamed "MIA!!" and this girl Hayden ran up and gave her a very big hug. Popular little kid, I have. They painted, did sand art, decorated cup cakes, swatted at a piñata and all in all, had a blast.  Mia loves hanging out with her girls and once again, didn't want to leave.

Later, she someone had the energy to go ice skating at the Petit. She's been insisting on going for weeks. I'm the only one who can take her and skate so later that evening, she grabbed her skates and we went. Took her a bit to get used to skating again but after a lap or two, she refused to hold my hand and wanted to skate solo. I could tell this made Jill nervous, but she looked confident and did very well. Yes, she's on double blades, but she only really skates maybe twice a year, so this was pretty good. Some boy acknowledged her while we were skating, and said she was doing well. She didn't want to leave, but we were all hungry.

We went to MOD pizza later, put on a movie and called it a night. Sunday, we got some snow, so Mia and Jill were out playing in it during the day and later at my in-laws house while I went to work.

This week, work on the book, some IB 26 stuff, and start to plan Mia's holiday party with some of the parents. Thanks for reading!

The Skating Diva

Good evening. A weekend has come and gone in a blink of an eye. But first, the first week of December. It used to mark the first big dumping of snow, but as I gaze out the window, all I see is super thick fog. Not a lot of snow has fallen yet, which is fine. No rushing the inevitable, really. Mia had a busy week of school. I went to pick her up on a day, and one of her friends yells out "MIA'S DAD IS HERE!" and as Mia got up to walk out the door to me, 6 friends attached themselves to her with a huge group hug. It was cute, but Mia got a bit freaked out. Monday, I did a little editing in Garage Band. That weekend I had recorded Mia and Jill singing "Rudolph" and later, I added a soft drum track to it. Sounded kinda cool but Mia hated it. Such a critic.

Friday, Mia and I went shopping for my sister for Christmas. It was actually kinda nice, just the two of us. Because Mia was so nice at the store we went to, I let her look around the ornament store at the mall. She loved it. Looking at all the different villages and decorations. "This is better than the free popcorn sample I got!" Saturday, she did her Santa pictures at Jill's studio before we watched the rather disappointing Chelsea game. I can not believe they lost to Bournemouth. They made it into the EPL this year and have a lousy record. How did we blow it? The defenders looked pretty lost and I think they mistakenly started Hazard as a striker again. It's getting to the point of "can we at least TRY to win a game?" I don't know what it's going to take for them to win a damn game. It's getting scary that we're barely above the relegation line.

Later at night, Mia and I went skating at the Petit. She got to break in her new skates Jill got for her earlier in the year ( I believe). She had so much fun. She's getting better but needs to work on her gliding. She would try to sprint across the ice at times. I would skate backwards and have her skate solo to me. It worked most of the time. A few times she fell and landed on her butt. She'd get upset, cry a little and then want to skate some more. I think she skated about 2 hours which is pretty impressive. She spent most of the night coughing and it was difficult to get her to sleep for a while. Hopefully she's feeling better come Monday morning. I worked on some Milwaukee Torrent art which turned out pretty good. I got an email this week from a woman looking for a business logo for her nail salon. I'm going to work on it after I drop Mia off on Monday.

This week: Wednesday, Chelsea plays Porto, so we'll watch that. She' got Olivia's birthday coming up Saturday so we gotta find something for her blonde BFF. That's all for now. Thanks for reading! :)

Feelin' it in Your Bones

Good morning everyone. Hope everyone had a great New Years. Wednesday, Jill and Mia finally came home. We had made plans to do a dinner & a movie and have my Mom watch Mia but since she was coming home late on Weds, we decided to reschedule it for another day. Bummed, but we still had a good night. We watched Tinker Bell-Secret of the Wings for the 20th time with Mia and she threw confetti everywhere at 12am. The rest of Jill's time off, we relaxed and enjoyed as much as we could. New Years Day, I turned on the Chelsea vs Spurs game. Ughhh...It ended 5-3 with the Spurs beating us badly. I don't know what happened, but it was awful. We could blame it on the refs making or missing calls, or just overall a bad performance. It just wasn't a fun game to watch at all. Saturday, we went to visit my great Aunt and give her a belated Christmas gift. Mia chased her old dog around and it was a good time. At this point, the snow was flying ,but we still had fun. All day Saturday, Mia talked about wanting to ice skate. We tried to find this place in Waukesha, an outdoor rink by a huge sledding hill, but it wasn't there. So we drove to the Petit, woke up the Sleeping Beauty from her nap and skated. She had a blast and could keep her self going on her own. It was pretty impressive. She mostly held my hand, but every once in a while, she'd let go "Daddy, I can do this by myself". I love the confidence in her. She insisted she wanted to figure skate, so I would spin her once or twice and she loved it. Saturday night, I sliced my thumb pretty good on Jill's new Ninja fruit/veggie thingy. It's amazing how much you use your thumbs and since I'm lefty at 88% of everything, it's making daily tasks a lot harder.

Sunday, I attempted to find the FA Cup Chelsea vs Watford game (but it wasn't online/TV anywhere). We got even MORE snow, so Mia ran out and played in it. She made the attempt to ride her bike and discovered it just wasn't possible. She goes "why did I wish for snow....??" It was a cold walk this morning, but the moon was bright and beautiful. Nothing too exciting planned for the week. If it wasn't so cold, I'd love to take her sledding. That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

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