Laughter for Life

Good evening everyone! What. A. Week. What easily could have been a quick and painless week ended up being a pretty stressful one leading up to my incredible 3 days off. Work has just been uber stressful and it has me wanting to leave in 2019 and hopefully find a more suitable job in my field. I've never been more mentally exhausted in all my life. Just completely burned out, and in desperate need of change.

Thursday was the start of my much deserved 3 days off so it was nice to pick up the kiddo. She hung out and attempted to snowboard on her saucer in the little bit of snow we had. She fell so many times but laughed so hard. She's totally ready to start snowboarding (come Christmas time). I just need to find a board for myself + boots.

 Friday after school, I picked her up and we had the furnace guy here AGAIN fixing something. Hopefully it's good. Anyways, we packed up Mia's overnight bag and picked up Jill from work and drove to Grandma Gail's for Mia to have a sleep over. We picked up a bit of food and Jill and I were off to Milwaukee to the Conan and Friends comedy show. The Riverside is such a nice theater and provided the perfect venue for this event. The crowd was packed and Conan was absolutely hilarious. The comedians were also incredible and each of them had their own unique style of comedy. James Veitch was a definite highlight. My face hurt from laughing so hard. Ron Funches closed the night and was equally great. Conan came back out along with Flula to answer some questions. Some of the questions asked were really stupid so I was bummed that I didn't get to ask anything before they ran out of time. Bugger. Would have loved to hang around to see if he was going to come out to meet up with fans, but we ended up leaving. When we got home, we watched a bit of Trevor Noah before heading off to bed. It was a night of comedy and I sure needed it after this week.

 Saturday, Mia came back home after a successful sleepover and we went to Donuts with Santa. Mia wanted noting to do with him (she didn't think he was the real Santa) and ended up hanging a bit with her new friend this year Vida. They share a lot of similarities and is overall a really nice kid.  We didn't get our photos taken with the big man, and ended up leaving. Mia did make a nice ornament though. We drove out later to my in-laws for a great belated Thanksgiving and birthday for my father in law. It was nice to relax and have a great meal with everyone. Mia always loves it when Tommy visits :) 

Sunday, I way overslept and missed my early alarm for the Chelsea vs Fulham match. Caught 10 minutes of the 2nd half and caught RLC's goal. Great win for the Blues. Need to keep it going. Later after painting, I went to work for the night. 

This week, I have to continue working on the book, I have a store meeting Tuesday and I am literally working every day and won't be off till Saturday. Major bummer. That's all for now, thanks for reading!! 

Sing Out! Sing Out! Sing Out!

Good morning everyone on a very rainy disgusting Monday. It was a very busy week with all kinds of things to discuss. Here we go. Monday, Miss Mia went on a field trip with her class (and Grandma) to Apple Holler. It's about 45 minutes away for a play called Mrs. Claus. They got to meet Santa and his better half. From the pictures, it looked like they had fun. Tuesday was the big day. It was her Christmas Concert. 8 people came from mine and Jill's family. Our parents, her brother and my sister plus us, of course. We took up an entire row. Anyways, as the class came out into the gym, I got nervous. "Is Mia actually going to go through with this and sing? Or, is she going to stand there and not want anything to do with it" Turns out, the diva did amazing and sang her little heart out.

I stood there in the back, with Olivia's Dad videoing our little blond divas. His kid singing as loud as possible (which was funny). I couldn't get over the fact that my little peanut was actually singing in front of a group of probably 50 people. It was great. She sang every single song. When the whole thing was over, I said "I am SO proud of you for singing!" She responded with "I TOLD YOU I could do IT!" Smart ass. Anyways, afterwards she gave Jill and myself a beautiful ornament she made in the class. Three snowmen painted on the ornament. Thanks kid :) After a few pictures with some of her friends, we headed home. Wednesday, she didn't have school because she was going on Thursday for the holiday party. Well, actually it was a Pajama Day. She picked out her Chelsea PJ's (honestly, I had nothing to do with it) They watched Elf and exchanged books. All in all, great time.

Saturday, we were Chicago-bound to visit Jill's pal Whitney on the West Side. Jill and I both loved her apartment. Mia especially enjoyed spending time with Whitney. After an amazing brunch complete with mimosas, we took the L train into downtown and wandered around the German Christmas thing.  It was FREEZING cold, but it was fun. We made our way to Millennium Park and Mia played on the playground till it got dark. I always enjoy going downtown Chicago. Especially with Mia since she hasn't explored much of the city. The few times she goes to the city, it's to the Shedd. Later we went back to the apartment for hot cocoa (Mia and Jill) and said our goodbyes and went home. It was a busy little Saturday off, but we had a great time.

Sunday we cleaned ALL morning. Exciting right? Now on to soccer-related news. Thursday, Chelsea "parted" ways with fan-fav manager Jose Mourinho. Easily the best manager we had, but for some reason this season, we can't get many wins. It's been a really rough season full of lack of confidence, some injuries and one very frustrated manager. The board was sick of the losses, and had "no choice" but to let him go. He was really never to blame, but the players. The same players that one the league last season couldn't get the magic back. The players that were banging out goal after goal last season were barely getting anything in the net. The players knew it was there fault Saturday when Chelsea faced Sunderland. I missed the game, but I saw the highlights and that they won 3-1. First EPL win in 9 games. That's horrid and downright pathetic. The fans gave them a piece of their mind, and now the players who blew the season for Chelsea have something else to fight for: The fight to win back the fans. This Saturday, I'm going to watch Chelsea take on Watford with my little brother at a soccer bar in Milwaukee. It's something that has been on my list of things I want to do for a while, so I'm looking forward to it.

This week is going to be quite busy. Work today and tomorrow. Off Wed-Thurs. Back to work on Christmas. Jill and Mia leave Saturday for Ohio. I hope everyone enjoys their holiday. Thank you very much 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! :)

The Kris Kringel Photo Failure

Greetings! First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! You've always been amazing in every way to me and I'm incredibly lucky to have you as a Mom. Over the weekend, Jill went to a glass blowing class. She made an AMAZING ornament with her ex-coworker and her friends. Sunday, I worked the early shift while some of my family went to my cousin's baby shower, so after I was done working, went over to my parent's house to hang and catch up.

This week I've been thinking about my eclectic musical "career" and all of the different bands I've played in. I was going to go into it today and share some of them for you, but I don't have the time, so NEXT time I'll write about it. Anyways, I was thinking about how much I miss playing live. Being in front of crowds big and small was something I truly enjoyed. I loved it when people would come up and tell me "hey I really like your stuff, you guys sounded really good". That's typical of musicians. Some do it for the money, others want to hear the feedback. My buddy/former bandmate Nick is the same way. We loved hearing feedback, reviews and such.

Wednesday was pretty busy. I had a list of things I needed to accomplish, Mia and I went to Steffans Soccer Store to get ONE last thing for my Dad for his birthday, then went and visited Grandma at work, THEN I needed to give Mia some lunch before her santa pictures at Jill's studio. She ate a grilled cheese sandwich, and then we were off to the studio. Jill and I had very low hopes that this was going to be a successful photo shoot. She already had her sunglasses on (which meant that she didn't want ANYONE to see her) We tried putting her into the sleigh. Didn't happen, and when Santa came in, she freaked out. We got some good funny pictures, so you'll have to see when they're complete. Her VERY first santa photo was adorable. Smiling at 8 or 9 months old. Last year's photo: TEARS. This year, you'll see :P

This weekend, birthday dinner for my parents. I work 2-10 Sunday so nothing exciting going on then.
I finally found my new box of color pencils I misplaced last Spring. I think I had hid them from Mia. Anyways, soon I'm going to start a unique sting ray tattoo design for Jill's friend Leanne. Should be pretty cool. Another project on my pile. :P That's all for now, thanks for reading.