The Early Bird Drinks His Morning Orange Juice

Greetings. It was a busy, but pretty solid weekend last week. Friday, Mia had a GREAT playgroup. ALL of her little friends were there. Gracie, Hannah, Omina, Zack and Weston. She was so stoked to she the girls. They played so well. It was the first time in a while she wasn't partially sitting on my lap to play. After play group ended, some kids hang out and run around the empty room. Mia participated this time. It looked like a toddler mosh pit. When it was time to go, Gracie had gotten her fingers slammed in the door, so she was crying. Hannah, like always was the first to give Mia a hug goodbye, and I SWEAR TO GOD my heart melted when I saw Mia hugging her back with a little smile on her face. As I type this, my heart is already melting. It was so freakin' adorable. Gracie cried in her mother's arms as we walked out. Mia INSISTED on holding on to Omina's hand, so I had little Hannah's. As we were heading to our car, Gracie was just not calming down and eventually sat in a snow bank for absolutely no reason what so ever. So she cried even more. Eventually, she ran up to Mia and gave her a big hug goodbye. One of those hugs that "I'm in pain, and I need my friend now" hugs. Mia was so sweet that day, and invited the girls to her birthday party in March.

 Saturday morning, I was awaken by a text at 6:30am explaining from my older brother "no hockey today, the ice is too slushy" from the freezing rain we had got the night before. Okay. I also knew that Chelsea was playing Hull City at 6:45am, and was hoping to get a little more sleep before match time. Sadly, Mia, who crawled into our bed, started kicking me in the ribs so I gave up on that idea and got up to take the dog. As SOON as I moved my head off the pillow, she rolled her little noodle on it. Oh well. Took the dog out for a nice quiet walk through the icy neighborhood. Came back, made breakfast and watched the game online. I gotta say, it was quite nice having a little morning to myself to enjoy my favorite team beat Hull City 2-0. Both goals were real slick, and I was hoping they'd motivate me to get some goals come futsal time Sunday night.

The girls ended up sleeping most of the morning, which allowed me time to go salt the driveway, work on a little art and clean up the kitchen some. Sunday morning, early shift. Wasn't exciting, but all I could think about was playing futsal. Jill and Mia came to my game (with my sister) and that meant a LOT to me. Originally, they weren't going to come because the last time they did, Mia cried and I had to split early. This time, Mia WANTED to come, and we brought some distractions for her if she got bored. I mean come on, it was a 2 hour game, I wouldn't hold it against her if she had lost interest. So, I started on the colored team (we do colors vs white) and thanks to some Messi-wannabees, I wasn't receiving a whole lot of passes. Our team wasn't doing the best with defense either. When it was my turn in goal, I got scored on, 3 or so times. No one was in back to help defend. Bugger. So when it got to the point of "do you guys wanna do a trade" I was immediately offered. Fine. So I went on the white team. WAY better team to play on. No wonder they were beating us. Better passing overall, and I got a really slick goal, and a couple of assists. My goal was a nice pass of a teammate, a quick move around a defender and shot it far right post on goal. It was my first time playing that my teammates were vocal about the goal. "Those were really nice moves, Mike" Thanks :) When it was my turn in goal, I noticed that they had one fella that stayed back for defense which helped with keeping the goals down. Ended up letting in two. Oh well. It was a lot of fun and I hope to get in to play again in another month or so.

This weekend, my nephew Easton is having a birthday party. Should be fun. That's all for now. Next week, I'm posting my FINISHED Mia portrait :) Thanks for reading!

Hittin' the Ice!

HEY! How's everyone today? Okay, I've got some awesome things to share. No, really. Well, it's awesome to me and Jill at least. Over the weekend, Mia decided she wanted to try ice skating. GREAT! So, we drove to what I was told to be an outdoor rink in Waukesha. She fell asleep on the way, but we still went anyways in search of this rink. Nothing. Didn't see anything at all. Bugger. Well, later that night, Mia still wanted to go skating, so we drove to the Petit Ice Center, which is where local hockey games (of all ages) are played, as well as where speed skating olympians train and have trials, and of course, where the public can open skate. Been there so many times growing up. Anyways, so thankfully because Mia's under 4, she was free :) So Jill put her skates on her boots, as I got laced up. We walked up the stairs and I slowly got her onto the crowded ice. Jill was a bit nervous, but I reassured her that I would NEVER let Mia fall. EVER. Mia got on, slid a bit and got off. Crap. After some lemonade and a slow walk out in her boots, she tried it again with her skates. "This isn't scary" she said on her boots, so we got the skates back on and she was good to go. Not as bad the 2nd time around. So she skated a bit, with me holding on tight to her hands. I think the crowds of people was a bit much at first for her. I couldn't have been more proud. Every hockey player dreams of their kid's first time out on the ice. It's special. My brothers and I learned on a frozen "lake" of water in our backyard we'd be fortunate to get every time our neighborhood would get a big rain before winter. The way the hills were in the back would hopefully fill enough with water to get a nice frozen lake for hockey. It wasn't much, but it worked. Anyways, I was super happy she took an interest in something new, and didn't give up.

We've had crazy cold weather as of lately here. Like, -17 a few times. Walking Remi hasn't been easy, but you just need to layer up. Luckily, it's starting to warm up some. like, 20s today maybe? Haha. Unsure what we're doing this weekend. Chelsea plays Stoke, so hopefully we'll get a win. Been craving some futsal lately. Haven't played in a few months, and sadly haven't gotten any emails from the pick up group for any subs this week. Bahhh. Hopefully soon I can get playing. Finished this wonderful piece of art I've been working on for months. Alright, that's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Bring it on 2014!

Greetings. With New Years Eve coming tomorrow, I thought I'd do my traditional year end review of how everything went. Before that,  let's get Christmas out of the way first. Christmas Eve, I worked a very busy early shift till 2pm, then we headed over to my brother's house with the rest of the family. Mia got some great new stuff including an awesome doll house. She's in Illinois right now with Jill so I imagine she'll be exciting
to play with it again when they come home tomorrow. My parents got me an AMAZING Chelsea FC away jersey ( I had customized with Oscar on the back). My amazing wife got me a nice, warm and awesome Chelsea FC winter jacket. I think that I'll be truly thankful for it today when I go to work since It's -11 degrees out. BRR! I picked out a bunch of clothes for Jill for Christmas, so she was happy. I hope :) Christmas morning, Mia slept in till 11ish. She wanted to "wait" for Santa Christmas Eve, and eventually fell asleep. She woke up, opening some gifts and loved everything. Her pink PowerWheels Mustang was waiting for her in the driveway. Too much snow to thoroughly enjoy. Come Spring time, she'll get to cruise.



Back to the year end review. Last year, I had made a small list of goals to accomplish. Let's take a look.
First Goal- Play in an adult indoor or outdoor soccer league-in 2012, I started to regain my love for soccer, and really wanted to play more soccer in 2013. Well, I didn't get to play in a "league", I did play some adult pick up. Played a few outdoor games in the summer and some futsal a month or so ago as a sub. Man, playing soccer is so incredibly fun. The most amazing work out and exercise. Was hoping to play last night, but there was no need for any subs.
Second Goal- Possibly find a 2nd job. ALMOST HAPPENED! In fact, a graphic design job almost happened. Over the summer, a good friend of mine from college had told me that a woman she works out with at her gym worked at a company that designs neon beer signs for companies. So to get in with this job, I had to create a website for my art work. Which is perfect because that was one of my other goals from LAST year :) So I designed a clean site that's easy to navigate. In the end, the job fell through, but for a few weeks, I had a creative spark to design some new things and challenge myself.

Third Goal-Play pond hockey before the end of Winter with my brothers Didn't happen. Maybe this year we will.  Last two-Try to complete a killer water colour picture and Maybe do a series of some really nice photographs. Water colour didn't happen, but one rainy day, I was able to shoot some awesome photographs of Mia in the rain with an umbrella.

2014 GOALS
1-Another series of great photographs 
2-If the weather cooperates, make a Snow-Minion 
3-Draw a portrait of a Chelsea player  
4-Work on my endurance/Get in better shape 

Not a lot of goals, but how I look at it, everything on here could happen and I need to make them happen.

Real quick, the highlights of my year: 
Mia turned two, which lead to all of the wonderful new things she can say and sing with me.
We lost our Guinea pigs. Both passed away :( 
Started taking Mia to play groups and we both made new friends. 
Chelsea became the Europa Champs :) 
Turned 30 in July :/  
We took a family trip to Indiana and I got to see Chelsea vs Inter in Indianapolis 
Completed more art then last year (including that picture of Remi above next to the one of Haily Jill did for her aunt) 
Saw Alkaline Trio with my brother. First show in a few years and it was fantastic. 

Okay, that's it everyone. Thanks for sticking with me over the year. See you in 2014!! 

You're a mean one....Mr. Grinch

Greetings. For quite a while, I've been able to successfully be able to post here once a week. Getting a little harder these days, so forgive me for my tardiness. Mia and Jill are still sound asleep. I woke up because I was really hungry. Took a glance outside and noticed all of the snow we got. Great. So I put eating two delicious belgian waffles on the hold, and took Remi out for his walk...THEN took on the snow blowing. While snow blowing, I was thinking about how last year, I was able to build two awesome snow-penguins with Mia. This year, I told her I'd build her  bigger ones. Like, 5-6 feet tall. THEN I thought, wouldn't it be cool to build SNOW MINIONS?!?! Of course the answer is yes! So while snow blowing, I kept thinking of how I'd do it, would I use colours, etc etc. Well, that got me through this crap. I've got to work later today, so I'm hoping this crap slows down. Luckily, Mia and Jill can chill at home all day.

Friday, I took Mia to play group. Only a few kids showed up with their parents. Roads weren't the best, so I'm not surprised. Mia's friends Gracie and Hannah weren't there (or last week either) but Weston and Omnia were. Both kids we haven't seen in a while. Mia played so well with them, which was great. Omnia's Grandma (who takes here to playgroup) told this other woman that she doesn't celebrate Christmas because she's Muslim, but her parents still give her a little tree to decorate. I thought to myself, kids are the best. Mia's playing with this little Muslim girl, and there's no judgement, no "you look different, I can't be around you", nothing. This is a great age. Kids are kids. Simple as that. She's such a sweet little girl too. usually compliments Mia on her outfits and hair accessories. They're close in age (apposed to Weston who is 18 months, but pretty tall for his age). I dunno, I was just real

SO Mia tried sledding this year. Last year was a bust, but this year, she LOVED it! I toed her around the yard Monday going fast, and she couldn't get enough of it. I suggested lets go sled down the ditch (hey, baby steps people) and she absolutely loved it. If I was off today, I'd love to take her sledding down a slightly bigger hill. Christmas is just about here. A few work days to go, before the big day. Stoked for Mia to open gifts this year. On Christmas, we're outta here to Illinois. I'll be back on Saturday though. May even get to play some futsal sunday :) Hopefully. While I'm home solo, I hope to get some art accomplished. Lots to do, with little time, so I hope to use some of the time wisely. I'm not the best with time management at times, but hey, I'm working on it. Wish I was able to catch the Chelsea vs Arsenal derby tomorrow. :(

I was going to discuss a rather controversial topic as of lately, but in the spirit of the holiday season, I'm going to be nice. That's all for now. Happy Holidays everyone. Safe travels, and as always, thanks for reading!

That's Using Your Noodle!

Greetings. Damn, is it cold today. The last few days have been rather unpleasant, temperature wise. Winter is closing in and Mia and I are already craving the Summer days. Over the weekend my in laws came up to visit. It was Jill's Dad's birthday. We woke up and saw they had arrived and were helping make room for a car for the Winter season. Totally couldn't have been better timing because on Sunday, we got all that crazy snow. We swam at their hotel and went out to dinner Saturday. All in all, it was a really nice day. Sunday I had the early shift. Later that morning, the snow came in. Honestly, I didn't think it was going to be as serious as the residents of this good ol' state made it seem. There were countless pile ups. 45 car pile up on one road. How? How is this possible that our entire state struggled with the first substantial snow fall of the season? My drive home on the freeway was a bit irritating, but I made it back safe. The subdivisions were bad. Oh well. . Saturday, Mia mastered something new: CHOPSTICKS! It was incredibly entertaining to watch her quickly pick up the ancient art of using chopsticks. She owned a bowl of rice noodles so well. Very proud of my little Mia.
Hahaha

Just have a few things to complete before Christmas arrives. It really is creeping in on us. Mia's stoked. Jill's stoked. We're gonna have a really nice Christmas morning. I can't wait for Mia to see what we have in store for her :)

I haven't been able to do a lot of art lately. Sort of sucks, but I'll get back at it. I hope. Been craving some futsal lately too. Soccer is so much fun, and since my lil bro found his indoor shoes recently, I think we'll be able to get in on a very rare game together. Since the snow is here, I sincerely hope that Miss Mia can attempt to do some sledding. Jill took her out on a sled and pulled her around. Apparently she enjoyed it, so that's rad :)

Mia and I enjoyed watching the Chelsea game (I surprisingly found online at my parent's house on a visit) I love that she enjoys watching with me. Afterwards, she grabbed a ball in my Dad's man-cave. "I play soccer Dadda, not football, that's boring" Earlier in the day we enjoyed a lovely tea party with special guests her giraffe and a yellow little Minion. Very fun. Her imagination keeps me feeling young and always guessing what she will come up with next.
Okay, eyes are getting heavy, off to bed. Thanks for reading!

The Turkey Day Tour

Greetings everyone. Yeah, I'm late on writing, it was an intense week. Work, work, and of course Thanksgiving. Thursday, I worked the early shift. We were steady and busy throughout the day, but once the clock struck 2pm, I was excited to get home and get ready for our first Thanksgiving at our house (that we hosted) We've had many Thanksgivings by your ourselves (Jill and I) but this was the first one we hosted with my entire immediate family. It was intense and stressful at times, but everything looked amazing. All of the credit goes to my amazing wife. Wednesday, we started getting things ready and doing some baking. My job was to keep Mia as busy as possible and not in the way. Lucky, it worked.

Thursday, everything looked amazing. The house smelled fantastic, and in the end, the food was delicious. It was an awesome night. Jill's mini apple-shaped pies were a big hit. She's so awesome and creative. Friday, we packed up the car, and headed down to Illinois for the weekend. We had our 2nd and last Thanksgiving Friday evening with Jill's family and her Grandma. Mia, like Thursday night, didn't care for eating much, BUT did try everything that was on her plate. "I'm gonna try this, I might like it...oo...don't like it" I was quite proud of her for TRYING things. Kids are freakin' picky as hell about eating, and this was a rare moment for her to actually try everything on that little plate. Saturday, we hung out and relaxed with her family, Jill's friend Leanne came over later to catch up and have dinner while Mia was passed out on the couch. All in all, good solid weekend. Today, we drove home with a very cranky kid.

Her folks are coming up this weekend for her Dad's birthday. Not sure quite yet what we're doing, but I've got the early shift Sunday.

Last week, Mia and I went out looking for some things Jill wants for Christmas. She went ahead and TOLD Jill one of them, with a goofy smile on her face. I can NOT tell that kid ANYTHING without her telling! Same thing happened with my Dad. She told one of his birthday gifts too. Sigh. Jill said she's glad Mia doesn't know what she got for ME for Christmas..haha. Last but not least, well done CHELSEA on winning :)

Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for reading :P

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.