Gutted But Not Out

Evening everyone. It's totally weird being off on a Sunday, but we'll get back to that later. The week was a rough one at work with almost daily someone calling in sick but we somehow got through it. Thursday, I took some time to attempt to write a drum part to "This Is Halloween". It's a really fun song to drum to, and changes tempo and time signature often. All in all, really fun afternoon playing drums again. I really don't get to drum often so anytime I have that chance, I try to make the most of it creating covers and drumming to fun songs.

 Later, we had practice. Despite being short Alice, we had a pretty solid scrimmage which would showcase seriously good communication. The kids looked ready for the big tournament ahead. Saturday morning, I watched Chelsea beat Newcastle which gives them 3 big wins in a row. Things are looking solid so far for the Blues. Next was our first match of the tournament for the Ice Breakers. Was it the long obnoxious break in between games from poor field conditions that through the girls off the first half? Perhaps. Was it the fact we were short a crucial member of our team due to a broken toe from 3 weeks ago? Most likely. Where the refs missing way too many calls? 100% yes. Whatever it was, our poor girls were struggling and were trailing 0-3 at HT. I saw something I haven't seen for the first time this season. A group of seriously pissed off kids. Olivia through her goalie gloves frustrated that she didn't want to play goalie anymore. Cecilia was visibly angry and all in all, we just needed to get back into the game. The girls needed to focus big time. 2nd half was a glimmer of hope. They started strong and Alice got us back in the game with a quick goal. Ally, Ryan and Alice were giving it their all and with every chance they had, they just couldn't bang in all the goals needed. Linnea put a 2nd one in giving us a little more hope. It's 2-3 and the tension was growing. Girls were pushing hard on both sides. Mia was struggling with keeping up with the pace but her and Cecilia were still digging. The last few minutes, we decided to push our defense forward and then Olivia from goal. Cecilia's Dad thought "we've got a minute or so left, let's give her a chance. They caught us and despite Olivia making it back in time to dive on the ball, the ref (who wasn't shy of making horrible calls) gave the goal to the Panthers. One more goal from the light pink team sealed the unfortunate loss to the Ice Breakers knocking us early out of the tournament. The refs for some reason, didn't pay attention to the game time and it extended another 4-5 random minutes. We had some seriously upset girls and tears from Linnea who was great in defense and her goal was sick. They couldn't believe we couldn't pull off the win, but we still have a title to play for next weekend against the Lazer Hornets (yes, that's how they spell it) who would play against Mia's friend's team next after our game. Apparently, that game got out of control and after two overtimes and a shootout, the Pink Panthers beat the Hornets. The coach on that team lost it at his kids and the parent supporters were yelling at him to relax. Can't wait to play them next weekend.  Normally, I would have some photos to post from the match, but Jill wasn't feeling great and none were taken with the exception of one I snapped from the side lines and one my sis got. Oh well.

We had some dinner later and relaxed the rest of the night. I watched the Torrent beat DCFC in Detroit during the live feed. Despite the fact that DCFC already had the title, to see the Torrent beat them for the first time was awesome.  Later, Mia brought up that if Cecilia plays with her, she'd like to join SC Wave to insure she'd get to play more soccer. She's got a variety of friends that want to play as well. Ironically, I got an offer for an assistant coach role a team that would have 2 players leaving in the Spring. That would be a perfect option for Mia and Cecilia, but what about two other girls that want to play with Mia? Who knows. We'll cross that bridge come December when Spring sign up happens.

I had a hard time sleeping thinking about what could have happened if we did this, or didn't do that...Ugh. I talked to Mia the next day about being a good sport and going to the Championship match between the (dark) Pink Panthers and the (light) Pink Panthers. She brought along our DSLR Nikon to snap some photos at the match. This was a good exercise to learning how to handle a loss, while at the same time showing love and support when your friends can use it sports-wise. They were stoked she came to cheer them on and in the end, the BFF's team got the win 2-1. Great match despite a lot of heavy pushing, some profanity and losing reffing once again. It was super weird being on this side of the field, and honestly tough not to be giving advice, but it was a great time cheering with Olivia's Dad and Scarlett's Mom and daughter. In the end, Mia was excited for her friends and glad she came. On top of that, she snapped some great photos. It was her first time shooting a soccer match so it was fun to watch her in action. Seeing the girls with the trophies sparked a fire in her and gave her some motivation for our big match this coming Saturday. We'll need everyone 100% for this game and hopefully, we can grab the win and secure the title with a full undefeated season finish. I'm not going to lie, I'm totally nervous for our girls, but I'll do my absolute best at our last practice. Trick or treating this weekend as well. Speaking of which, Mia's made the decision to return her Spider Gwen costume. The material made her itchy and the mask made it hard to breath. Ugh. Oh well. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Late Night

Good evening everyone! Quite the busy week but an overall fun one. The week started pretty rough with Mia getting a gnarly fever. Sunday evening it started and kept her from making school on Monday. She spent the majority of the day just sleeping. She didn't want to eat and every once in a while, would wake up, take a few sips of ginger ale, and went back to sleep. When I came home from work Monday night, Jill had told me she was pretty dizzy and weak due to the fever and lack of food. Luckily, Tuesday she was starting to fever but we kept her home because she still had a bit of a temperature. She finally was able to eat something and started to act like her normal self. Phew. Major thanks to my in-laws for helping out with her.

I had 3 schools during the week. Two in Waterford and one in Pewaukee while Mia was recovering. Both schools were pretty fun but the most intense one of the season was Pewaukee Lake Elementary. So many classrooms to capture but the kids and staff were a lot of fun. I've got one more this week and I'm done for the season.

Anyways, Mia returned on Wednesday and had a decent day. Didn't really eat much lunch throughout the week unfortunately because she was worried her tummy would hurt again. I joined her for lunch Thursday as a surprise. The temp was super nice so I figured it was a good idea. Every dropped their coats off at the door and they all had blast at recess. Her friends threw their coats at me to hold onto while they played charades. Super fun.

Friday, I took off so that after we dropped off Mia at her friend Ryan's epic sleepover birthday party, Jill and I could grab some sushi and watch a movie at night. First of all, Mia was absolutely stoked for the party and couldn't wait to go. Upon arriving, she was mugged by her excited friends before saying goodbye to me for the night. We picked up some Meiji sushi. Jill always picks out the very best at every place we go. I never tell her what I like, she just knows what sushi would be a hit for me. We watched some goofy movie with Jason Sudakis and called it a night. Saturday morning we picked up a very sleepy Mia. She said they stayed up late and she ended up waking up pretty early. When we brought her home, she passed out on the couch for hours. After she woke up, we didn't do too much. Just did a bit of art. I've been working on Mia's friend Charlie's custom fairy sketch while Mia did an animal poster for a contest. I picked up some hair dye for Mia as well so she could dye it Sunday with Jill.

Today, Mia did her traditional St Paddy's Day scavenger hunt. We made pancakes as Mia did an Irish jig in the kitchen. Later I watched a very frustrating Chelsea vs Everton match. This season has been such a nightmare for the Blues and I really don't know how they think they'll break top 4 or even 5. I watched them pick apart Dynamo Kiev on Thursday. 1st half of the CFC vs Toffee's match, they looked really good. 2nd half, they just weren't in it. It's been proven the manager just isn't the right person for the job and the players for one reason or another just aren't working with his system. Someone needs to take over and do a factory reset on everything.

This week is a really big one. Photographing my last school Tuesday and we've got the much-anticipated art show on Thursday. So much work has gone into this and I really hope the parents and school staff love the hard work we put into it, as well as their talented kids. I may be bringing Mia and her friend/Dad to a Wave game this weekend. We'll see if we can pick up some tickets. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Longneck

Evening everyone! I'm feeling pretty exhausted after a frustrating shift, but for the mean time, let's move on. Majority of the week, I spent photographing at schools. Started in Elm Grove which traditionally is a very difficult school to maneuver. Throughout the day, I would get comments on my Chelsea FC hoody and they'd ask me "did you meet the 5th grader that's a die-hard fan? His Dad used to play professionally in England!" I eventually met him and sure enough, the dude was sporting a CFC track jacket and we discussed favorite players and his Dad's career. Pretty cool that he used to play for Bristol Rovers and La Liga's Sevilla. The school ended up being alright and I stayed pretty organized so we didn't have any confusion or missed classes. All in all, good day.

Later this week, I had two religious schools to photograph. A Lutheran one and a Catholic one to close out the work week. Both were alright. I've got 3 schools left for the season. Phew. Saturday was alright, nothing major to report. We went to the zoo in hopes of checking out the red pandas. They had a behind-the-scenes event so the place was a bit busy. We didn't really have an interest in that stuff and just wanted to see how long we'd make it before it got too cold. The wind was a bit rough so it wasn't the best day. Oh well. Jill enjoyed checking out the adorable otters and the indoor area where the giraffes were chilling. We kept laughing as the male giraffe kept stretching and rolling his long neck above everyone. Mia liked the baby one, Maya.

We later spontaneously invited over my brother and his family for a Wreck it Ralph 2 movie night. The boys came in jammies and it was a pretty fun evening. The kids did some art before they had to leave. Good times. Mia crashed on the couch before we called it a night.

I didn't get a lot of sleep last night due to our sub pump alarm going off throughout the night so I'm about 10 min away from passing out. Today I watched Chelsea draw Wolves. With some teams dropping points in the top 6, it would have been nice to get the win and move into a better position. Hazard 100% saved the day with the equalizing goal. Thursday they took on Dynamo Kiev in the Europa and won 3-0. They'll play them again this week. While watching today's match, I worked on Mia's sketch for tomorrow's lunch note. Taking a stab at some surrealism for the week so we'll see if I can pull it off. Short week this week since I took off Friday for Mia's sleepover birthday party at her friend's house. Jill and I are going to go out and enjoy the rare evening while Mia has fun with her friends. She worked on her friend's birthday card today that will go along nicely with the Harry Potter Legos she picked out on Thursday. She also enjoyed re-watching her goal she scored last Fall and can't wait to start soccer again. Wish she had a Spring season. Oh well.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Burn

Good evening everyone. Man, was it a busy week. Between trying to get through my work-week at KT and helping Jill with snapping pictures at several schools (another one tomorrow) I've been trying not to lose my mind. I was at Lowell Elementary early this week and at two different Waterford schools as well. I experienced my first lock-down at one of them which was pretty different. It's both important and sad that it happens. My week ended with the grade school right next to the middle school. Kids were cute and it was a pretty positive day snapping photos. We attended our first PFC meeting to tie up some loose ends for the upcoming art show. The parents and board members seem legit excited. By the end of the week, my body was absolutely burned out.

The weekend wasn't too eventful. Mia got to hang out with BFF Cecilia while Jill and I did some grocery shopping. After wards, I took the girls snowboarding and sledding at Valley View. I was stoked to have finally fixed my bindings. Now I just need to drastically improve my riding. It doesn't help that we go to a pretty good-size hill that's really kinda steep. Web both would greatly improve with some sessions at The Rock but for now, we're just trying to master Valley View. Mia flew off one of the ramps accidentally on her first run down and landed a bit rough. Luckily, she was fine. Cecilia even made two attempts and did really well! Mia was so impressed and overall, had a great time with her friend. The two are planning a sleepover at some point this month. Later, I finished spraying the artwork for the art show and we watched a movie with pizza and Jill's hand-made sushi before crashing for the night.

Backing it up a bit, it was a positive week for Chelsea as they defeated the dreaded and godawful Spurs and Sunday, they took down Fulham 2-1. Two great matches that seem to have the good guys on a role. Maybe they can move out of 6th place? Who knows, but anything is possible in the EPL To close out my night, my older bro texted me a picture of a sleeve-logo design I made for his hockey team sweater/jersey in the final product form. Looks great!

Tomorrow, I'm photographing in Elm Grove before my 2-10 shift. Not sure what else is up for the week, but slowly we're getting things ready for Mia's birthday party. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Shutterbug

Good evening everyone. Going to try and make this late-night post brief. It's been a busy day and I'm exhausted thinking about tomorrow's busy day too. The week was a busy one per the usual. I got my rental car this on Tuesday which is ridiculously fun to drive. It's a 2018 Nissan Rogue. This thing is loaded with features that I'm going to totally miss when my Corolla is fixed. Mia does too and she'll miss the Rogue as well.  We had a practice on Thursday that was mainly okay. With the help of Jana's Dad (since my assistant coach was at the Brewers game) we got some pass and shoot drills that seemed to work well. At the end, we were ready for our game. Sadly Friday night, we found out that it was cancelled. We've had a lot of rain for a while and unfortunately the game fields never had enough time to dry. Our make up game is all set, so hopefully we'll get a win. When I had to text the kid's parents Saturday morning, I found the sad news one of our players Ainslee was crying. She loves loves loves this team and she's missing the next game because she's out of town. Total bummer. The talented 1st grader will be missed but luckily will have another couple of matches.

We spent the rest of the Saturday taking out Mia's clothes from the Summer and replacing them her Fall/Winter apparel. We also met up with my in-laws to celebrate Uncle Tommy's belated birthday with a tasty dinner.

Sunday we didn't do much. I watched Chelsea win 3-0 over Southampton. Such a solid match. Hazard looks great and I hope he continues to keep the great form. Recently they announced John Terry officially retired from football. 22 year career with some great memories mainly at CFC.
They all came over again we mainly just hung out till I went off to work.

Today, Mia was off, so the simple goal was to go to the zoo and see the brand new baby red panda. Upon walking Remi on my morning walk, the temp seemed warm, giving me the unfortunate thought that the red pandas wouldn't be out. They only let them out if it's below 70. Mia got up, dressed, ate and we were off to the zoo. We immediately made our way to the red pandas and like I assumed, they were not out. BUMMER. It was too humid and they prefer cooler temps. Mia did enjoy snapping photos of the river otters, giraffes, penguins, bears and other animals. After my busy day at work, I pulled up the photos she took and they're actually very impressive. The kid has a total eye for photography. Loved watching her creatively get different angels of the animals today.

Tomorrow, Jill and I've got an early meeting for the epic art show we're putting together. A few days ago, we started going over artists we were going to focus on and some pieces we'd like to use for inspiration and I swear, it felt like we were back in college doing research. Totally a lot of fun.

Practice on Thursday (unless our weather is crap again) as well as a game Saturday. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Winter Break pt 2 (Or Spring Break 2018)

Good evening everyone. Spring break has come and gone in a blink so a few notable things to mention tonight before diving into my upcoming crazy week. Early in the week, we voted in hopes of changing the Justice and school board. We picked up a new Justice of the Supreme Court but didn't get the guy the district needed for the school board. Bummer. Mia desperately wanted to hang out with friends early in the week as well. but a lot where busy so she was pretty bummed. She knew however, she'd get to go hang out and swim with BFF Cecilia, Hayden and Harper at the Princeton Club. First of all, really nice gym that literally has something for everyone. We where got in as guests because Hayden's family are members. Mia swam with her friends for about 2 hours while Hayden's Mom and I chatted in the pool as well. Leading up to the hang out, Mia just couldn't contain her excitement. Mia and Cecilia gave each other the biggest hug and it turns out while Cecilia was on her vacation in Mexico, she missed Mia. Mia excitingly brought her new underwater camera, however, after a few attempts to get the kids, the lifeguard told us "NO PHOTOGRAPHY". Fine, ya punk.

All the fun and swimming wore out Mia and she passed out on the drive into Waukesha. She had the best time, so I'm glad she got to have at least one really fun part of her Spring Break. Later in the evening, we got MOD pizza for dinner. Always tasty. The rest of the week, we didn't get to do a whole lot. Thursday, Mia hung out with Arabella, our friend Christina's little 4 year old at the studio and they colored together while Jill took photos of Arabella's little pineapple sister Penelope. She's adorable, and even Mia enjoyed watching her dance. The kids played really nice and it wasn't long before I had to split and go to work.

Friday, Mia showed me her break dancing skills after painting a couple of canvases. One was to hang by my drum set of a penguin and a drum, the other was a nice family portrait.

Saturday, we cleaned some of the house before I had to split to paint part 2 of The Flood's tifo. Upon unrolling the tifo, myself and one of our Flood brothers discovered the unfortunate damage due to rolling it too early. It needed a couple days to breath before rolling it up. So, we had plenty to touch up and fix. Had to cut off a couple feet from the top and re-do the top of the letters. I put in the swords and I think overall, it's looking pretty good. One more session left. I honestly don't think I'll have a time to go back in and complete it. The rest of April is booked and May is filling up very fast.

Later, we completed cleaning our bedroom, had some late dinner and called it a night. Today, I watched Chelsea blow a win against a team we should have had any problems beating. This season is such disaster and I sincerely hope we can figure out how to adjust and improve over the Summer. Something needs to change big time. We have 6 matches left and I don't think we'll get above 5th place either.

This week, I've got a busy one. Mia's back in school tomorrow, Wed I have to photograph a Waukesha school, after Mia gets out of school, I have a Journey to the Arts meeting. Later, Jill and I are going to raise hell at a school district budget meeting. The district is rumored to be closing Mia's school because of budget issues. Throughout the week, I'm going to continue working on the Footy collection for Ian Bennett as well as an attempt to win $5,000 to design a new NPSL women's team logo.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Bring on Spring

Good evening everyone! Certainly wish we had warmer temps over the weekend, but we'll have to deal with it as we close out March. Not an overly exciting week to talk about. Throughout the week, Mia unfortunately was counting down the days till her best friend Cecilia was leaving for her family vacation. "I just don't know what I'm going to do when she's gone! Like, who will I eat lunch with and play at recess with??!!" Originally, I had planned to see if she wanted me to take her by her parents house after school on Wednesday to say one more goodbye, but they were leaving soon after school so Cecilia said her goodbye to Mia when school ended. Mia didn't want to go to school the rest of the week.

I could tell her "just get over it" but that'd be insensitive to a child that actually does feel like this is a big deal to her. They've become inseparable at school and when one isn't at school because the other is sick or on vacation, that kid at school is pretty sad. She didn't enjoy her lunch/recess on Thursday and the next day, the boys she sat with were being obnoxious dipping their cantaloupe in their tomato soup. I'll take this opportunity to once again, really applaud the kiddo for her attempts to try new things. She knew she wouldn't like the tomato soup on Friday, but she actually did try it, so that's great. Friday morning,  I photographed at a Catholic school. Really different than most places I have photographed at. The school was very quick and efficient. The kids were pretty nice and staff was mostly friendly. The experience was overall fun.

Saturday, I painted with some Flood members our big Tifo. It's not as big as one would prefer, but the location we had and the free material my brother gave me works. Maybe next year we'll have something really nice and big, but it'll do. We've got one more session ahead of us, but it'll be great when it's done.

Later, I made dinner and hung out with Jill and Mia. They hit up the JBF sale with my Mom. Mia found a cute skirt, Rey shirt and a unique Monster High shirt along with a boat load of books. This morning, she got through a few of chapters of one of the books. It's always enjoyable watching her read. After I left for work, she made macarons for her birthday treat on Tuesday. One of the things she was pretty bummed out about, is that Cecilia was supposed to be her birthday treat helper that hands them out with the birthday kid and she'll be gone all week.

This week,  Tuesday I'm off so we're taking Mia to the movies. I'll be in Franksville (?) on a Wed morning at a school. I have to finish some art for the kid as well as any photo editing for IB. Chelsea is back in action this Sunday against the dreaded Spurs. Spring Break next week. Thank goodness. Have a great week and thanks for reading!

A Wizardry Birthday Celebration!

Good evening everyone! This week was by far, the most insane week I've had in quite a while. Maybe since he holidays when I was trying to bang out Mia's Christmas book. Thinking about it now makes me wonder how in the world I survived it. Tuesday through Thursday, I had elementary schools to photograph at. Tuesday, I was at Lowell Elementary for a couple hours before I went to work. Wednesday, I was at Tonawanda in Elm Grove. Let me tell you, photographing the kids isn't the hard part, its navagating the weird layouts. Every school is slightly to wackadoodle different. Tonawanda could have been filed under "wackadoodle" They have had what I was told the 1970's layout since they opened that year. A lot of schools used to do it, and they're one of the rare ones that still do. I first experienced it when I walked into the Kindergarten area and every classroom had ZERO walls and was a completely open-concept layout. It made it difficult for photographers to snap a picture of the class teacher's door to put sort of a label on the pictures you're taking of their kids. I made it work.

I thought maybe that was the end of the bizarre layout. Nope. The library was the center hub for the rest of the classes which had similar layouts. It's cool in theory but really painful for myself, PLUS every teacher switched their kids around so I had to work with that. Seriously? When I was done, I jetted down to Milwaukee for a photo session with Milwaukee Wave star Ian Bennett. He wanted some new shots for his 2nd clothing line. After getting escorted through the building, I found myself watching the Wave practicing before their Baltimore Blast playoff game. It was fun to watch them from their player's bench. After the practice ended, Ian and a few of the guys did a quick photo session. I think for the most part the photos turned out alright. Afterwards I wished them good luck and was on my way. Got home, had some luck and watched some of the UCL Chelsea vs Barca game. It was a rough one, so after I picked up Mia, I didn't watch much more of it because we did a little Harry Potter part 2 photo session. Went a lot better than the last one and throughout the week, I did some edits and have about one more left to do. After the session, we drove to Target to pick up something for her friend Ryan's birthday party on Sunday.

Thursday, I had one last school to get through before work. Swallow in Hartland. Did a good group of classrooms before encountering my first classroom of middle schoolers. They were by far, the least favorite class I've done. They were awkward and weird and totally OVER getting their photos take for year book. Get over it kids. Didn't do the other class because the teacher was doing a test and didn't really want me there oh well. After that one, I packed up and went home. The majority of the week, we made final preparations for Mia's epic Wizardy Harry Potter party. Saturday, Mia was both stoked and excited to see what her leprechaun left her and her very exciting party. After a quick scavenger hunt, she quickly got in her Hogwarts robe and tie and helped us get ready for the party. It wasn't long before the kids started arriving. Mia was so excited to see who'd be the first one. Turns out, it was Easton. His Mom said he likes to get to parties early. It wasn't long before Charlie, Noelle, Cecilia and the rest of Mia's guests arrived. We had a Quidditch tournament in the living room, a make-your-own-tie session in the den, and a Potions 101 class in the dining room. We had forgotten to do the pin the scar on Harry. Oops. Before they did the projects and tournament, they were sorted out with their own personal sorting hat. If I could find the Qudditch board, I could post which kids were in which Hogwarts house. Oh well. Mia, Cecilia and Charlie represented Gryffindor, Izzy and Ryan were in Slytherin and that's all I can recall for now.  Anyways, Gryffindor won the tournament of Quidditch. Mia, Charlie and Cecilia did really well throwing the balls through the hoop. They all had fun designing ties and participating in Potions 101. The cake turned out great and Mia loved all of their gifts. I made my best effort to take as many photos as possible. Jill's parents were a MASSIVE help with the whole party as well as our friend Leanne that drove in. We couldn't have made this happen without their help. I dressed as Severus Snape and Jill dressed up as well. Hopefully everyone had fun.

Later, Jill and Leanne went out for sushi so Mia and I hung out at home. She fell asleep during Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Probably a good thing since the ending was pretty dark and creepy for her. We'll probably not watch any more of the movies with her since I have heard they get creepy.

Sunday, Mia and I drove to Ryan's birthday party with Grandma Gail. She refused to go to the Chuck E Cheese party without the both of us. Immediately upon arriving, she didn't want to be there. She got very upset and the mere thought of Chuck E showing up like he has before at parties. Since she didn't have Cecilia to hide with, she had to use us to block any view of the terrorizing mouse from hell. She got herself through it, and played plenty of games with her friends. She will always remember the moment she won 100 tickets on the Pirate Wheel game. She joined the "100 club" with Ryan and Charlie that have both won 100 tickets at Chuck E Cheese. Charlie won again before all the kids had to pick out prizes. Despite the lack of effort from the staff that gave the game cards to the kids almost 30 minutes late, they all had a blast. Mia, eventually. Just as long as the rodent didn't see her. I missed the Chelsea FA cup match but was told later they won. Quarter finals, here we go!

This week, I've got plenty of photos to edit and need to start working on a couple of drawings for an auction basket for a fundraiser coming up in April. Mia's been taking hot lunch, so I've substituted drawings for some fun #dadjokes. She likes them a lot.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Shutterbugs and Muggles

Good evening everyone! We started the week with a day off for the diva. She had Monday off, which was nice. We didn't do much during the day. She got up her normal time (ish) had breakfast and painted her nails before going to her Grandma's house while I went to work. Chelsea took on the mighty Barca and ended the UCL match in a draw. Messi got lucky to finally get his first goal at the Bridge against the Blues. Hopefully, it won't happen again. Till the next Champions League match...

This week, I lent a helping hand with some school photography for Jill and her work. Wednesday, we went to Lannon Elementary to do some "candid" photos. We visited a good handful of classes and photographed the kids in groups of 3-4. They were a lot of fun and were fun to take pictures of.

Thursday, Jill needed my help again so I met up with her boss and his niece to help take more pictures, but this time at a much bigger school. SO many kids. So many grades. Once again, I had a great time taking pictures of the kids. I mostly love helping Jill and making her workalike a lot easier.

Friday, Jill and I worked on Mia's invites for her birthday party. Narrowing Mia's list wasn't easy, but somehow she did it. The theme is Harry Potter so we put together these incredible invites and printed them out. Friday evening, Jill and Mia used her awesome stamper and melted some wax to give the final touches to these Hogwarts invites. Saturday, Mia and I decided to hand-deliver the letters. We had a slight fear that the mail sorter would destroy the invites. We went house to house. Some where home, others weren't. Monday, she'll have to bring some to school, or we'll just have to mail them out and say "oh well".

While delivering the letters, Mia was complaining about her legs bothering her and aching. I didn't think much about it at the time, but as the day went on, she started to show signs of a fever. Crap. She off and on slept the rest of the Saturday. Ate very little and sadly didn't get to hang out and visit Noelle and Charlie at their Girl Scout cookie sale at the store. The duo asked me "WHERE'S MIA!!???" Mia was more bummed that we couldn't make it to StoneFire. A fever just doesn't go well with loud noises and heavy foods. Mia was a heartbroken diva. I worked on her drawing before calling it a night.

Sunday, Mia woke up in a much better state, smiling and eating again. Phew. There's a lot of sickness going around and luckily, her fever didn't last terribly long. I watched Chelsea take on Man U in what was a bit disappointing of a game. Willian picked up a sick goal right before Lukaku got the equalizer. I would have settled for the draw, but those Red Devil's got one more goal to sink the good guys into 5th place. Ugh. Mia hilariously said "you know Daddy, when the bad guys fall, they really overreact". Nailed it. Went to work later to close out the weekend.

This week, I may be photographing another school, work on some art, and most likely Torrent stuff. Not sure what we're doing this weekend so we'll play it by ear. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

2014-A Year End Review

Good morning everyone. It's been a busy week. Holidays are just about coming to an end with New Years a few days away. Christmas Eve, Jill and I hosted dinner at our house. We decided to skip the traditional meal of turkey and sides and decided "to hell with it, let's get creative" and made a cornucopia of different items and everything was delicious. Jill really outdid herself. Next year if we do it again, we'll cut back on the excessive amount of food. Thank you Pintrest for sparking the creative juices in my culitary creative wifey. All the kids enjoyed the presents. Everything Mia opened, she really loved. All the excitement got her pretty worn out and we got her into bed at a mostly reasonable time. For the first time since she's been born, Jill and I put the presents under the tree together, and set up the food for Santa. She wanted to leave a cupcake with a ton of iced sugar she put on it earlier in the day and organic chocolate milk. Blah. Hahaha. She had a great Christmas morning opening everything, and give Jill and I our "gifts" she picked out for us. Later, we packed up and headed down to Illinois.

It was a pretty good drive down to Jill's family's house. For a short while, she'd pull the "ughhhhh this is taking SO long" but mostly, she did well. She opened all of the gifts Jill's family got and played with everything. For a few days, she practiced and practiced shooting her Merida bow and arrow (from Brave) It's hard, the coordination it takes to do it, but she's getting better. The next time I see her, she actually may be way better at it. Other then that, we just simply enjoyed the off-work time. I got up early on Boxing Day to watch Chelsea FC play. Great game. Great goals. Glad we could get the victory after the holiday.

Saturday, I drove back to Wisconsin. It was pretty hard leaving because Mia kept telling me while holding me tight "Don't let go of my hand Daddy. Please don't". As heartbreaking as that was, I had to split because I had work on Sunday. When I got home, I turned on the Pens/Caps game. I shouldn't have. 3-0 loss was terrible. Sunday, I got up early and watched the Chelsea vs Southhampton game. Not the best game, but the draw will have to do. The refs seemed to be making all the wrong calls at times. Next game is on New Years Day (that I'll actually get to watch in NBC in real time) Usually when I watch the game online, it's about 5 minutes off and starts and stops often. I was quite sad to miss two very awesome indoor soccer opportunities yesterday and today. Yesterday, they had a small tournament from 4-7 and today, they have an early afternoon game. Ughh.

Okay, time for the annual Year End Review. A lot of things happened this year, so let's look at the positives first. Mia, has truly developed into this smart little person. She FINALLY became potty trained. It took a lot of work and different techniques, but she eventually decided for herself to become potty trained. She can count to 20, knows the majority of the letters when written in front of her, and can write her own name out. She started school this year, which was awesome. Smarty Pants Learning Center 3k has developed her into being more social with kids and making new friends. She loves her teacher and always looks forward to telling me about her day after school. (most of the time). She sings ALL the time now. When she's playing with her dolls, sitting on the potty, or just playing in the bathtub, she's singing SOMETHING and it's adorable. Jill started an Etsy store Colorful Noise (the name seems familiar) where she was making jewery pieces from Mia's art and selling them. They looked awesome and we'll see if next year she'll do more. We took a trip to both Florida and Indiana this year. Both were enjoyable. Mia loved the ocean in Florida and hanging out with her friend Caleb in Indy. I got to go to a concert this year. My sister and I saw Tegan and Sara at Summerfest. I was torn between seeing The Lawrence Arms in Madison or T&S in Milwaukee. Ended up seeing Tegan and Sara. The wait was insane, but worth it. Still wish I would have seen TLA. In the Fall, I got to play a game of pick up at Brookfield Indoor. It was a lot of fun. No goals, but a few assists made me happy.

Now for some negatives (unfortunately). She's developed the attitude most kids get at this age. (hence why we call her a threenager) and is feisty about eating and what she doesn't want to eat. I swear, its like a hostage negotiation, but we're working on it, and haven't given up. Jill unfortunately lost her Grandma this year. She was a fun-spirited woman who always treated me like one of her own grand kids. Mia really liked her too.  Remi got to visit the vet emergency room twice this year. One injury while hiking (when he broke his toenail) and then recently, he got into a box of raisins.

Okay, let's look at the goals from last year and see how I did.
Another series of great photographs-Not quite. I need to brainstorm still and think of something truly awesome to do.
if the weather cooperates, make a snow-Minion- The weather didn't. Didn't have the best "snow-Minion" making weather sadly. And this winter has been peculiar since we haven't had snow since November.
Draw a portrait of a Chelsea player-DONE! My Didier Drogba picture turned out alright. I'm planning on doing another picture very soon.
Work on my endurance/get in better shape- It's a work in progress. I've been running more with Remi, and a few times, I've been able to get to the park to work on free kicks and overall, just running across the field.

2015 Goals
Create more art.
Continue working on getting in better shape.

That's it. I want these goals to be my focus all year. In 2015, we've got a trip in the spring to Florida, but this time, we'll be going to Disney for a day. Mia will be starting 4k in the Fall as well. Thanks for keeping up with the happenings in my life. See you next year!

Why, hello 2013!

Greetings readers both casual and loyal! Hope everyone had a delightful and safe New Years Eve. In the morning, I packed up my bag and Remi and I headed off to see my Jill & Mia back at Jill's parent's house. They were there all week and in the time I was solo, I tried to use my time wisely to accomplish some things. Sadly, didn't make the most of my time. Worked on an art project, did a little drumming, and cleaned the house some. I really wanted to visit with some friends but things sort of fell apart. I did however, get to hang my with bro and watch the Dark Knight Rises. Not as good as the Dark Knight but it wrapped up well in the end. there were some plot issues here and there but overall it was pretty great. So on my drive to Illinois I was super excited to see the girls. The closer I got to their house, the more I thought how Mia would react when I walked in the door. Would she be ecstatic? Would she be sleeping?? Well when Remi and I pulled in with Jill's Dad's car, we noticed that the entire driveway was empty. No one was home :( Turned out her Dad and bro worked, and Jill and her Mom (with Mia) went out to some stores. Remi and I were pretty bummed they weren't home. Shortly, her bro pulled in so at least he could get us into the house. Remi searching the place for Jill but they weren't home. A little later they pulled in. I could barely contain my excitement. Mia was super happy to see me and wouldn't let go of my neck for quite a while. When I was sitting on the floor with Jill, Mia did something quite cute: She got in between us and put both arms around our necks and said "Picture Daddy, GET YOUR PHONE!" So I did! Felt great to be reunited with my beloved familia.

So here we are in the new year. Every one's making resolutions and goals to try to accomplish. Today on my day off, I thought about the different things I want to accomplish this year. Last year, I didn't put together a Thrill Factory site or design a successful shirt design for Threadless. Those were the big things I didn't accomplish. They'll come together hopefully in the near future. Who knows. :) THIS year, I want to:
Play in an adult soccer league (either indoor or outdoor)
Possibly find a 2nd job
Play pond hockey before the end of Winter with my brothers
Try to complete a killer water colour picture
Maybe do a series of some really nice photographs
And of course, continue being a positive and loving father to my Mia.

This afternoon, Mia and I went by my Dad's to watch the Chelsea FC Vs QPR game. Mia was so excited for the game, she ended up sleeping through the first half. Luckily, she didn't miss much. :P

Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for sticking with me through the year peeps :)

A Praise Chorus

Hey dudes. Been super busy with art, mainly trying to knock out this birthday gift for my pop. I doubt he'll enjoy it as much as I'd like but we'll see what happens. I've restarted this sucker so many times. It's not at the level I'd like it to be as far as what I know that I can do, but overall, it's good enough, I suppose. I've got a few things to discuss so let's get right into it. Worked the early shift last Sunday because I had planned on playing some indoor soccer at 9pm that night. I was nervous and excited because my parents, my sister and of course Jill and Mia were making it out to watch me play. So we drove out in the rain and I casually looked around for any guys playing in the 9pm game. There were 3 girls league games going on so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult. Saw a guy chilling on his phone and asked "hey you playing in the next game?" He responded with "Actually I'm looking to sub". Perfect, I said I was too so we both headed downstairs to see if any teams arrived yet. We found one bunch of guys and asked them if they needed any subs. The goalie responded with "no thanks. Wonderful. We turned around and saw a large team they'd be facing shortly. Looked like kids straight out of High School or something. We didn't feel like they would want us to play so we didn't bother asking them.

We head back upstairs pretty bummed out. So we sat behind where the teams were taking the pitch to warm up. This guy next to us "who I SWEAR looked & sounded exactly like Washing Capital's Alex Ovechkin, yelled out "HEY where's the rest of your team?" to the goalie. He responded with "you wanna play, man?" Me and the dude I met were like "this guy had to see us there, what in the HELL man??" So we hoped they would lose for that BS. And sure enough, 10 seconds into the game the guys were scored on immediately. Me and my anxious family left after the kids scored 3 goals. I couldn't have been more bummed out. I just picked up some new soccer cleats (or boots) fore a pretty good price. Didn't even get to use them. Mia was looking forward to watching some soccer as well as my Dad. The other sub ended up sticking around to play at 10pm with other teams. I just wanted to head out, there was no way Mia would last till 11pm. I really hope I get to play December 2nd when Pork plays the team that rejected me and the other sub.

In other news, today I ordered a new phone. the Galaxy sii went on sale this week for super cheap for US Cellulars Thanksgiving sale. Yes, it's outdated compared to the siii but that phone is WAY too much for me. So the new phone will be here in a few days.


The picture above I took while colouring with Mia. The lighting in our kitchen was perfect and she was being super cute. A lot of photographers know that most successful photos is skill AND luck. With kids, it's a LOT of luck if you can pull off a really amazing shot. Her smile lights up my heart in ways only a fellow parent could really understand. That's all for now, it's getting late. Adios!