Take Lots With Alcohol

Hello friends. The day off went pretty quickly. My friend Nicole and I hung out with our kiddos at Kids in Motion for a few hours this morning. Crappy weather required some much needed fun time indoors :) Mia had fun. Lots and lots of kids running amok in the facility. Mia enjoyed playing with the dinosaurs, hitting up the slides and the train room. She played her first game of air hockey against this kid before he flipped upside down and smacked the hell out of his head on the wall. Didn't know where his parents where, so I immediately checked to make sure he wasn't bleeding. Had to go to a meeting shortly after our fun, (which of course, was NOT fun) Mia was super talkative up until we walked in the door and everyone was coming up to her. I gave her a small bag of pretzels and a cup of water. After she finished both she said out loud "DADDY, THIS MEETING IS BORING!" I agree love. Before she got out of hand, we booked it. I got the info I needed for an HSA account and we left.

Other then that, Mia napped later when we got home, and after she woke up, we watched the end of that Toy Story Terror made-for-TV Halloween movie..thing. She enjoyed it. If Mia gets up at a semi-normal time tomorrow, we'll do story time and Friday, of course play group. Saturday, we've got a wedding near Madison in Sun Prairie. First time we've photographed a wedding in quite a few years. Should be fun.

Art wise, just sort of working on this portrait. Really need to get on some other projects. I want to make a new Thrill Factory logo as well as work on the Paper+Plastic commission stuff. It's going to be quite technical, but I think I can knock it out Saturday evening after the wedding. I hope. Alright, time to finish this Guinness and head off to bed. Thanks for reading! :)

Heartthrob

Hey all. Hope everyone's enjoying their week. Over the weekend, my sister had her wedding shower, while my Dad, my bro and I went mini golfing. Let me tell you, it probably wasn't the best idea for us to out when a storm was rolling through. We had the entire course to ourselves which was quite nice. Moved very fast as the heavy clouds were rolling in. Now I've played mini golf every once in a while. Like, once every few years. It's been a while since probably any of us three men. Somehow, I nailed THREE hole-in-ones. Couldn't believe it. The green on every hole was soaked, but I was able to get the best score in the end. And to make the victory sweeter, my bro took a slip in the drink. We all had a good laugh, but I felt pretty bad when later in the day, his volume on his iPhone wasn't working. Phones are expensive and I wouldn't wish anyone the bill of purchasing a new phone. It started pouring as we were heading out. What a day. When we got back, my bro was given his kiddo which promptly ended our "guys day". Didn't get to make it to the bar. Oh well.

Today, like most day offs, Mia and I bummed around visiting family and Jill. Earlier in the afternoon, we left my Dad's earlier and went to the park down the road from my parent's house. After a bit of playing and watching the boys running around, a girl showed up. Maybe, 4 or 5 years old. Probably 4. Anyways, as soon as she stepped foot on the playground, Mia made a point to follow and chase her around. She'd call out "little girl, where are you going?" "Oh Daddy, there she goes again!" "Hi, My name is Mia!" It was adorable. The girl looked a bit annoyed but eventually turned it into a game. It was incredibly entertaining. Later after she had 15 minute nap on the ride home, Jill came home from work and we headed over to Helium Trampoline Park. Jill always wanted to check it out, so we went as a family finally. Busier later in the evening. Lots of kids flipping all over the place. I had the most fun dunking on the basketball hoops. It's a lot trickier then you think.

Trying to get a grip of all the art I need to get accomplished. So many projects, so little time. I need to focus on these little record toppers that Paper + Plastic is putting out. Shouldn't be too difficult. I tend to go straight to my portrait of Mia that I've been working on for quite a while. It's looking really nice. Maybe my best portraits yet. I've done a small handful of portraits of her over the last few years. This weekend, Jill's family is coming up so I hope the weather holds out. I've got a ton of yard work to accomplish. That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Not The Same

Hey all! As I type this, I've got my little girl sitting on my lap watching an episode of Hello Kitty on Youtube. She's like a teenager, I swear. Anyways, before I get into this week, I'd like to share a first for her and I. Friday, Mia and I went to a Friday Morning Play Group at the local library. There were a good amount of kids in this little room filled with toys. The kids get an hour to play and interact with other ones. Mia was a bit timid at first. But soon relaxed and was playing with some girls. Some were older then her. As soon as her and I sat down in the room, this little girl came right up to me, sat on my lap and complimented Mia on her princess shirt. Throughout the hour, Mia became friends with her. Her name was Grace and Mia really enjoyed playing with her, and her sister Hannah (which may actually be closer to age with Mia) Mia didn't want the playgroup to end, but we'll deffinatly be coming back this Friday. Over the weekend, we were in Illinois for my brother in law's birthday. It was a good visit, and he loved Mia's one-of-a-kind painting (including her key explaining what all of the obscure shapes and colours were). Mia has proven to be a hell of a lot easier with the 2 1/2 hour drive to and from Illinois, which is fantastic.

Today, Mia and I visited one of my best friends Jay, his wife Erin and their brand new baby Caleb. Mia didn't feel like talking, but it was good catching up and seeing their new little addition. Mia seemed more impressed with the wild turkeys wondering his back yard. She also liked Caleb's jungle nursery.  Other then a visit to Grandma and work and Grandpa at home, nothing too exciting to report. This weekend, my sister is having her bridal shower. Lots of family coming in, so it should be a lot of fun. Lastly, Chelsea FC's doing great (which is always wonderful) and the hockey season just started. That's all for now! I've got some NEW interesting freelance art I'm working on, but more on that later Thanks for reading.

Jump Around

Greetings! Keeping this one sort. Gotta get up very early to get Jill up for an early day at work for her. Not fun, but it's that busy time of the year at her studio. Friday I was off, which was great so my Dad, Mia and I watched my lil bro play some beer league hockey. Great time. Especially when Mia would yell "ANDY I CANT BELIEVE YOU KEEP DOING THAT!" in regards to him falling/not getting a goal. Saturday, we watched Chelsea beat Fullam. AWESOME :) Today, Mia had a check up. This was the very very first time I had to take her to the doctor solo without Jill. Ever since Mia was born, we've gone to the doc together, but today she had too much work to do. I was not stoked to have to wake her up. Luckily, she wasn't upset or anything. We had a very
lengthy discussion on our doctor appt and how there will be NO shots. Today, when I got her up, I reminded her that the appt will be fine. At first, she didn't wanna leave, but I said I'd hold her hand. She was talkative to the nurses, and sat through the basic check up like a champ. Wasn't a fan at first of the blood pressure test device, but noticed that she had the same contraption in her doctor kid at home. So, I was quite happy that everything went well.

Later, we FINALLY got to the Helium Trampoline Park. Once again, at first she was a bit timid. Sorta confused that we were not at the back up hangout AKA the library. So she gets on the trampoline "Dadda I don't know about this" but when she realized that these are for jumping she got SO excited. Jumped and jumped and jumped. Finally 35 minutes in, "Daddy, I'm thirsty! Later after a little water, I wanted to jump in the foam pit. Well of course Miss Mia wanted to as well. The pit was pretty deep and difficult to get out of. But, she didn't care and wanted to get in. So I held her hand, and she crawled INTO the pit, instead of jumping. After I got her out of the pit, I got back on the trampoline and did a 360 into it. So much fun. Earlier on a 360 spin that I was trying to rotate to a 540, I landed my knee straight into my wrist head on, so it's been hurting the rest of the night. Looks a bit swollen. Hopefully it'll go down. This weekend, we're off to Illinois for some family time with Jill's group. Her brother's birthday is coming up so we've got to spend some time with him :) Should be a good time. If you notice the picture way way in the background, you can see Mia waiting for me to kick the ball to her. :) That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Breaking Us In Two

Good morning. Didn't feel like writing last night. We all went to bed kind of late. Mia had taken a late long nap from 5pm-7pm so she clearly wasn't that tired when we were :( Was going to take Remi out for a run this morning but the lazy pooch doesn't wanna go out. Looks like rain, which will suck. It's been a rough few days here. The last few days in the morning, she's been oh so crabby. Jill's getting ready for work (or already there) and she wakes up screaming horribly. Doesn't want to get dressed, nor cooperate for about 10 minutes. It's quite painful. Breaks your spirit and gives you an instant headache. Hopefully, she'll get through this, like many other phases she's gone/going through.

For the most part, we had a decent day off together. Watched the Chelsea vs Basel FC game yesterday. Was a rough one. Would have been a great win, but we blew it. A lot of missed chances and misfires. Low opportunities taken and some players just weren't ready for the important match. Would have been nice to have Mata starting as well as Torres as the striker. E'eto started, and since he's knew, he's still trying to get used to being the man at the helm. Anyways, hopefully we can get a win next time. During the game, Mia was showing me how amazing she is at riding this little red trike my mom got her to ride at her house. It's quite impressive :) Mia was great with Grandpa Grumpy as well
, and when she suggested getting bananas at Kwik Trip, she was very friendly and talkative to my coworkers  :) On the way home, she fell asleep, which allowed me to get some more work into a picture of her's as well as catch up on Ink Master. :P This weekend, Jill's selling a ton of toys/clothes/accessories at the Just Between Friends sale fri-sat so thankfully. I'm off Friday :) Other then that, nothing else exciting to report for now. Thanks for reading :)

The Recurring Slumber Complexity

Greetings. Going to make this one short and sweet. Very exhausted. Last week my brother Andy and I took our little ones on a little walk to the beach followed by lunch. It was a beautiful day. Mia loved walking the beach, and throwing stones in the water. Saturday, her other grandparents from Illinois came in to visit. Walked the farmer's market, found some great foods and got trapped in a lovely thunderstorm. "DADDY IT'S RAINING WE GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE!" Poor girl. Today, I wanted to do something fun. After a visit by Grandma at work and Grandpa later, we tried to go to the Trampoline park (Helium). I swear, EVERY time we get on the freeway, she's out like a light. She didn't sleep real well the night before, and woke up today earlier then she'd prefer. Sorta moody, sadly. After her nice nap, she was mostly fine. We went on a good walk with our good pal, Remi. Later, Jill came home and we had dinner and watched the last episode of Masterchef.

So I was avoiding discussing this the last few weeks, but thought "eh what the hell" so here's what I've been working hard on. My good friend had recommended me to her friend who works/owns a company that designs neon beer signs for companies big and small. I rebuilt my resume, put together my website and got a few sample ideas of some beer signs submitted. Well, it looks like I'm on file. That's about it. They are too busy to train me with LED lights so they may contact me in the near or far future. Honestly, I'm pretty bummed, but this could still lead to something. The good thing with this, is that the last few weeks, it got me to kick my self directly in the bum to get my website complete, update my resume and work in Illustrator again. There could be other jobs on the horizon, but this experience was strangely, a good one despite it not
going the way I was hoping. Today, I felt completely relaxed working on this Mia portrait. It's taking some time, but it's coming out beautifully.
As much as I'd love to keep typing, I really should hit the bed. Thanks for reading!

I Won't Be Left

Greetings. A lot of different things going on lately. Some of which I can discuss, others I'm keeping quiet on for the moment. Over the weekend we had a pretty low-key Saturday. Poked around the Waukesha Farmer's Market, and had lunch at our favourite cafe in the area, Steaming Cup. That place can never close down. Hahaha! Every time we step foot into that cafe, it brings back wonderful memories of Carroll College (or University if you wanna be technical) It was also the very first place we took Mia to, to eat. She was just a little tiny monster in a busy fantastic cafe.

Sunday, worked 7-3 and afterwards took Jill to get her onto my US Cell act and get a new phone. She's super stoked to finally have a smartphone, nonetheless a really really great one. Mia was strangely hyper and rambunctious, but at least entertaining to the sales person. This week, (well today) we attempted to go to the Helium AGAIN, and this time...they were closed again. The guy who must manage it pulled his car up to us and I said "hey it's 12pm why aren't you open?" He responded "Oh we switched to different hours TODAY.." wonderful. Guess we'll go another time. So naturally, we went to the library to play with puzzles, do some reading and of course go up the elevator. Later we met with my friend Stacy at the mall and got Gelato. Delicious! It was rad catching up with Stacy while Mia played at the toy store.

The other night, I listened to an earlier radio show on WMSE from earlier in the day of my former bandmate Nick promoting his solo record (I did a few drum tracks on). Made me seriously miss playing in a band. Some of my favourite moments in 2010 were playing shows every weekend. Ah, good to reflect on every once in a while. His new solo record sounds amazing as well :)

Jill's familia is coming up this weekend. Not entirely sure what we're doing, but I'm sure we'll find something fun to do. That's all for now. Last thoughts for the evening-The new Sundowner record Neon Fiction is amazing. Next blog post I'll give a a full review. Thanks for reading!