Only Here To Disappoint

Greetings everyone. Another rainy damp week has ended so let's get right to it. The week started awesome with low 80's, but as the week went, the rain moved back in. Wonderful. Mid week, Jill and I photographed at a school in the morning. Man, 3 year olds are difficult to get to sit still for pictures!
As I was preparing for our match this week, I got word that two more players wouldn't make our match. Linnea came to practice late telling me that she was out of town, like Ally. Myself and Coach Kevin were in shock thinking "how are we going to handle this playing 6 girls with zero subs?" Practice was okay. The girls were a bit squarely, and it was raining a bit. Mia was having a rough practice and her heart wasn't in it. She hurt her leg a bit and couldn't shoot as hard as she normally does. Before practice, she was fine but they were all yelling and she was pretty upset. Later, I started thinking of ideas of Alice playing a sort of sweeper role where she could move freely from striker to defense. Made sense.

The rain cranked up Thursday evening, and I kept thinking "If enough rain comes in, will they cancel our game AGAIN..." Well, it kept raining Friday and by the time it stopped, it was enough rain to cancel all games Saturday. All fields had standing water. Talk about a big disappointment. For me and the coaches, it was a blessing in disguise. Not that we didn't have faith in the girls that were available to play, but I knew that not having subs would have sucked for them. Alice and Ryan looked like beasts that could have easily lit up the field, Elia and Cecilia would have been solid in the back but Mia was nervous with not getting a break. In the end, all of that didn't matter because the match could possibly get rescheduled and we'll have a full roster by then. Well, hopefully Ava. We'll see what happens.

Since Saturday was a bust and there's an EPL International Break (which means no Chelsea) we went to the movies at the new Movie Tavern at the mall. Mia wanted to see the new Adams Family animated movie. It wasn't too bad and she dug it. The new theater is nice as well. Later, the girls made macarons while I went to the final Torrent match of the season. It was a Halloween Night so we decided to have fans join us in costume. The Torrent pulled off a great 2-1 win. It's been a rough season at home, so it was great to see them pick up the much-needed win. They have two road matches left before the Member's Cup is complete. Not the most positive season, but a significantly better team overall.

I went home, changed and drove to a friend's annual Halloween party dressed as Spiderman. Super fun time catching up with friends like always. Made it back home around 1:45am. Today, we all slept in a bit, made some pancakes and we helped Mia with her homework before I went to work.

This week, I'll work on some drills for practice Thursday so we can prepare for the tournament over the weekend. This will be Mia's opportunity to win her first trophy with these incredible teammates. Exciting, right? That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Summer's Gone, Carry On, I'm a Ghost In the Dawn

Greetings everyone. Well, we've unfortunately hit the end of Summer Break. What an awesome but quick time off for the diva. Hopefully she can look back on the fun memories she made with the people she cares about. My personal highlights where meeting and seeing The Lawrence Arms live, going to the Fiorentina match in Chicago with my Dad, and getting Mia's drawing tattooed on my arm. Other notable moments were every time we spent together as a family, all of the art lessons I did with the super talented kids and the big surprise party we put together for Jill in Illinois. Seeing Jill cry tears of joy at the party and on the way home was something special I'll never forget so thank you everyone involved for helping with that memorable moment.

This week, I worked on the table with Micah, Mia and Gigi. It looks pretty solid and I hope they're happy with how it's looking. I've really enjoyed watching these talented kids grow in art and I hope they carry their abilities throughout the year. Gianna thinks I'll be teaching art again this school year. I don't think their school can do another major project, but maybe I'll come to art club. Speaking of which, Mia met her teacher and saw her classroom on Wednesday. She's stoked she found out her super sweet friend Scarlett is in her class as well as well as new buddy Kostadina. She digs her new teacher as well. Going to be a fun year for sure.

Thursday was our first Fall soccer practice. We were short 3 girls but made the most of the 6 that made it. We also gained a 2nd assistant coach which I wasn't super thrilled with because we really don't need more hands but his enthusiasm makes up for his knowledge of the game and I think he'll be fine. We've got a great group of girls that are really good listeners and I think plenty show a lot of potential. One girl, Elia who I coached back when she was in 1st grade definitely improved last season on whatever team she was on and at practice proved she can get around the defense to score. Awesome. Looking forward to our first scrimmage Thursday with a full roster and we'll have our team name officially picked out :)

We went to MOD later for pizza and Mia picked out a few more clothes at Target before calling it night. Saturday, Jill went in to the studio to get some major work done. She's been super busy with schools so she's got a lot of work to do back at the studio. I watched Chelsea take on Shefield United. The boys took an early lead in the 1st half 2-0 but something happened in the 2nd half where Shefield equalized on some lousy goals. Our defense was in shambles and they really need to finish a game with a win. Our friend Leanne and her boyfriend Dave stopped by for the weekend to visit. Mia and I later went to my cousin's wedding party at my aunt's house. She enjoyed running around with the kids and meeting some people she probably barely remembered meeting when she was younger. Some were a little louder than she would prefer, but that's just how my family is on that side :P

We hung out with Leanne and her dude when we got home. Sunday, they left and we just kind of relaxed till I went to work. Mia played some trumpet with Jill as I went off to work.

This week is Mia's 1st week at school. I'm off on Tuesday so I can hear all about her exciting day. We'll have practice on Thursday and our first match is Saturday. The Torrent play Saturday night so we'll see if Mia and I can make it. That's all for now, thanks for reading!