Motivation and Inspiration

Greetings everyone! Such a busy week as well as the weekend, but first the week. Jill and I tried this new tropical smoothie place for lunch this week. The food wasn't too bad and the smoothies were tasty. Customer service was meh. Not for sure we'll be back anytime soon, but overall, not a bad place to try. Mia's cat Marie turned 3 so she gave her some special treats and card (I think?) Friday I took off so Mia and I could go to the 2019 Milwaukee Women's Kick-Off party/kit reveal in Milwaukee. I knew traffic would be horrendous due to the Bucks playoff game but somehow we found parking at the venue. What luck! We got our season tickets, and Mia met some of the fans and coach before we called it a night. She helped me do some video interviews as well. She's really getting into video editing so it pains me a bit that I had to do it after we got home when she was asleep. I just wanted to knock it out and have it online before Saturday. It was a lot of fun reuniting with the supporters and staff before the girls had their first match of the season on Saturday.

Mia had a dance class open house on Saturday morning. Jill's parents as well as both Jill and I went to the event. I haven't been to an open house since she was in Kindergarten, so I was excited. They performed for a small crowd their routines for the upcoming recital. Mia did really well, despite not showing a lot of excitement. Later, we went to my nephew's 5th birthday party. A bit of rain, but it was still a blast. A little backyard soccer per the usual and some good food. His Mario cake looked pretty awesome (despite it being chocolate). Jill made some super tasty passion fruit Fruity Pebble macarons for the party as well. Mia mentioned she wants to join the girls running club next year, which was totally random. Over the Summer, she said she'd like to do some running with me to get her endurance up.

After we got home, Mia goes "So...are we going to the Torrent game still?" Really? Alright cool. Jill stayed home while Mia and I ran last-minute to Hart Park to watch the girls take on FC Pride. Mia decided Friday night she'd join me in sporting a mask at matches to chant and drum with The Flood (Torrent supporters). She put on a fox mask and striped tail and refers to herself as Moon Fox. Super cute. Plenty of people gave her props on her completely made-up-on-her-own costume. Despite it being a 0-0 draw, Mia told me she had a great time. She anxiously wanted to grab her very own Torrent shirt at half-time. When I got home tonight from work and did my nightly kiss on her head, I noticed she was wearing the new shirt for school tomorrow. Sweet.

After the match, She put her mask away, grabbed her soccer ball from my trunk and ran back to the pitch to play a bit. Her footwork is improving quickly and she can't wait till the season starts. I've got the feeling after every game, she's going to want to play a bit of soccer. Totally fine with me. I really can't thank the Milwaukee Torrent enough for having this women's team for young girls like Mia to look up to for inspiration and motivation. For Mia to watch these girls and say "Wait, someday this could be me?" Is pretty awesome.

 We relaxed the rest of the night with Jill having tacos and watching Rio. I found out later that the Earthquakes beat the Fire 4-1 and that Chris Wondolowski scored a good handful of goals, beating the all-time leading record holder Landon Donavon. So stoked for the 36 year-old to now hold that prestigious record. He's a top-notch player that hasn't had many goals this season so for him to really outdo himself and become the new leading goalscorer of the entire MLS is pretty amazing.

Today, we ran to the store and were hit by a gnarly thunder storm. The power was out before I had to shove off to work. Not the best night at work, but I was relieved when I heard the power came back on. On the side of her school, a tree went down. I'm not sure if it was due to the high winds or the lightning but it looked pretty rough.

This week I'll continue my epic quest for a new job, I'll be reuniting with artistic sisters Micah and Gianna for some awesome art lessons and Friday is Hot Dog Day at Mia's school, which is basically a large picnic on the playground for families.

Early Bird

Good evening everyone! Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms reading the post. The week went pretty well leading up to the special holiday. One of the major highlights was Chelsea beating Frankfurt in PKs. It was an absolute nerve-wrecking match and what made the win extra special, was that Mia watched her favorite player Eden Hazard make that final shot. He's been heavily rumored to leave the beloved club so this win to send the Blues to the Europa league final was surreal and poetic. I literally watched the PK's a handful of times. Such a great performance by Kepa as well.

Unfortunately, Liverpool and Spurs will face each other for the UCL title. Two Godawful rivals of Chelsea FC and I wish Madrid would open up and swallow both teams to prevent either team from getting the trophy, but what can ya do. City pulled through today keeping Liverpool from winning the Premier League title, so that works. Not that I'm a fan of City, but if it prevents a rival from getting it, I'm happy. Now the goal is to keep Hazard at any cost.

The ladies made some macarons that were absolutely amazing. Saturday, Jill had to work so Mia and I worked on a very special Mother's Day poem. Usually, we'd work on an art project, but Mia made a really special string art piece. We picked up some orchids for the Grandmas and the rest of the afternoon, Mia did some bike riding at Orchard Lane till Jill came home. We rented Lego Movie 2 and had pizzas. I had forgotten that the movie is sorta all over the place. Jill wasn't a huge fan of it. They made some homemade donuts and a breakfast casserole till we went to bed.

Early in the morning, I felt some tapping on my arm and it was Mia on the other side of my bed wanting to make Jill a little breakfast. I looked at my phone and it was 6:30AM! Mia hasn't gotten up this early in quit a while. There was no way Jill wanted to get up that early so Mia attempted to sleep a little more. Couldn't do it, so a bit before 7:00am, we put together her breakfast and gifts. Jill loved it and soon, both of them fell back to sleep while I tried to find the Chelsea vs Leicester match. Around 10:30, my in-laws and family came in and we had a really nice Mother's Day brunch. Lots of great food and craziness with the cousins. Mia directed and put on a puppet show as well. Saturday, she wrote it and built the puppets for the special one-time performance. Both Jill and I had lines for the play as well. It was a pretty cute performance and since Mia had so much fun with it, she'll probably write more.

This week should go quick. I took off Friday so I could attend the Kick off Party for the Milwaukee Torrent. Mia wants to come with me as well so it should be a great time. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Kindess Counts

Good evening everyone! Quite the busy week as usual. I just had to get to the mid-week to enjoy 3 busy days off. The previous week I had applied for a social media marketing position but unfortunately after getting the assessment test this week, I got an email that I wasn't the right fit. The test was timed and pretty difficult so I didn't feel too confident before getting the email. Ugh. The salary was perfect and the duties seemed up my alley. Oh well. Back to the grind looking for a job to replace my current one.

During the week, I did some Lightroom editing of the photos I took of Mia in her various outfits and I think they turned out pretty good. Totally stoked about it. Watched some of the Chelsea vs Frankfurt match Thursday. 1-1 draw so they'll take them on this week at The Bridge. Friday was High Interest Day at Mia's school. It's always a huge event and this was my 3rd year participating. Despite the request that Mia should wear an OL spirit shirt, we decided to rebel and wear similar Alkaline Trio shirts :) I co-lead a rock painting class. It was a super fun day teaching for an afternoon some specific rock painting and blending techniques. The kids had a great time and I'll be returning next year to do the same thing. Mia's super stoked that when she's a 3rd grader, she'll have a bigger variety of classes to chose from which will include the rock painting one. She did some string art, slime making, pony beads and some community service work. After lunch, I surprised the diva and her crazy friends at recess. They did a foot race before the recess was over.

I had a few more classes before the session ended. I had planned on returning home till it was time to pick up Mia, but I ended up helping tear down some stuff in the lunch room and waited till they were done with the assembly. All in all, really fun day. Later, we went to my nephews soccer match. The kids team didn't win, but they certainly had a lot of fun. We had dinner with my bro and his family after before calling it a day.

Saturday Mia received the Youth Community Kindness Award from HAWS at the Romp n Rally in Sussex. Unfortunately, she built up a lot of pressure and got super nervous. Way too nervous to go up in front alone to receive her award. They even tried to give her a puppy to bring up to relax her and she just couldn't do it. In the end, I went up there with her with ol' Fluttershy Mia who turned herself around so no one could look at her. We were super proud of her as well as both of our parents of all the hard work Mia's done for  the animal shelter. Ugh. We walked around a bit, picked up a few things and headed out.

Mia didn't have a lot of time before having to go do her dance photos in her 3 different costumes. They looked pretty good and she was glad when it was over. The photos turned out pretty good as well. On the ride back home, Mia stated that this will be her very last year doing dance. She said it's become too easy for her and after this June's recital wants to be done with it. Interesting. Guess we'll see what peaks her interest after dance is done. I very cautiously let her fly my DJI Spark drone for the very first time before returning to the studio to pick up Jill. She had a really good time and I had hoped to get some photos from it, but the sun blew out the image so I need to do some color correcting before flying the Spark again.

We watched some of the new Goosebumps movie before crashing. I did some drawing as well. Today, I watched the 1st half of the Chelsea vs Watford match before we drove to a church to photograph a communion. It went pretty well and even better 2nd half for Chelsea as they won 3-0 securing a spot in the UCL next season. Now we just need Hazard to sign a new deal and we're good.

This week, back to normal work. Jill's got some dance academy photos to do and from what I've heard, the weather is supposed to be hella lousy. Blah. Luckily Mia enjoyed what she could today. Thanks for reading!

The Two-Wheelin' Chef

Good evening. What. A. Week. I know I post that often but so much went down this week with even more going down this week so I best get right to it. This week was Mia's Spring Break. The goal was to relax and have plenty of fun. The weather was absolutely amazing and we took full advantage of that from the beginning. Mia and I made a little trip to Target in pursuit of a new bike. The diva took a 2 1/2 year hiatus on having any interest in riding her bike. She would ride bike with the training wheels every once in a while, but it was super rare. she never had any interest in actually learning to ride it sans training wheels up till this week. She saw over the weekend prior this teal mountain bike that peaked her interest. There was no way I was going to get it if she didn't think she'd she could learn how to ride it. Bought the bike on sale and a brand new helmet. She brought it over to my Mom's when I had to go to work. She made a few laps attempting to get used to riding and balancing at the same time. A little wobbly at times but I definitely admire her first go at it. The next morning she said goodbye to Jill when she went to work and immediately wanted to go back outside and ride. Did a little more riding before my in-laws came over. I once again had to work, so my father in law took the next shift at helping Mia ride her bike. When I got home from work, Mia was awake waiting up for me just to tell me that she learned how to ride her bike! Two solid days of practice and patience and determination. She did it. She was out till dark riding laps around the house. The rest of the week, she wanted to ride her bike. I had told her from the very beginning that once she learned how to do it, she'll always want to be riding it. Boy was I right. I want to take this opportunity to thank my very patient Mom and in-laws for helping Mia. The next day, she had me running with her and she rode around for at least an hour and a half. So fun, yet exhausting running along with her.

Thursday, I was off so my Mom and I took Mia to the zoo. The weather was actually too nice out that some of the animals weren't out. Most importantly, the red pandas weren't out. Sadly, the otters area was drained and they were cleaning their compound. Bummer, my Mom really wanted to see it. We did get to see a seal/sea lion trainer train another zoo member on tricks for the creatures which was fun. The onlooking polar bear was super jealous of his neighbors getting tossed fish. A little lunch and a few other exhibits before calling it a day. All in all, really fun time. Friday, Mia and I did some fashion photo session at her school in the back on the playground. She picked out about a dozen outfits and sadly, we couldn't get to all of then. I've got plenty to edit this week, that's for sure.

Saturday the snow came in. I did some grocery shopping while Mia had a play date with BFF Cecilia for a few hours. It was nice the two could get together and hang before school started up again. Later, Mia planned a fun dinner for Jill and I. She made us Fettuccine, mashed potatoes with sparking strawberry drinks with a lime wedge. Mia prepared everything and did a great job. This was sort of an intro to her very exciting class she would have the next day with BFF Charlie.

Today, we got up early and I took Mia and her friend Charlie to Maggianos Little Italy for an authentic Italian cooking class. I had planned to just drop the kiddos off and pick them up later, but A-they really wanted parents/guardians to stick around and B-The class actually ended early. Oh well.  It ended up being fun snapping photos of the divas playing and creating meatballs. The girls were taught by a real chef which both thought it was really cool. They had a little breakfast/lunch while the chefs fired up the meatballs. After wards, they decorated cookies, learned how to flip food in a pan and colored. All in all, amazing time for the kids with a truly unique experience. The little bonus was that the proceeds from the ticket prices went to the Make a Wish foundation. I took Charlie back to her house before heading back to watch the rest of Chelsea vs Man hoping they'd get the win but it ended in a draw 1-1. Still in 4th place. 3rd is still a possibility. Mia shared a bit of her meatballs with Jill and I and they were pretty awesome. Totally proud of her and I'm so glad she had fun day with her bestie. Over the weekend, I found out one of my ALL-TIME favorite bands The Lawrence Arms is playing in some old arcade in of all places, Cudahy in June so I immediately picked up tickets before they sell out. More bands are to be announced for this show, so it'll be interesting to see who else is on the bill.

This week, I've got High Interest Day rock painting on Friday, Mia's got dance photos Saturday before a HAWS event she's receiving an award for. That's all for now, thanks for reading!!

Easter 2019

Good morning everyone. Starting out the week with some absolute gorgeous weather. Took a while to get there with the snow we had this week, but it was most certainly a fun and busy week. Art-wise, I took this week before Mia starts Spring Break to work on on Villains as a focus for her art drawings. She absolutely loved it and really liked the de la Cruz on toned paper I did for Thursday. Wednesday I took off because she had a 1st/2nd grade concert performance at NBW where she'll go when she graduates Orchard Lane and moves on to Middle School. The kids were super cute and did wonderful. Mia was so stoked to get to play the tambourine in front of the stage with some friends. After we snapped a few photos of Mia and her friends, we went home for the evening.

I was off Thursday as well so before picking up Mia, I watched the Chelsea vs Prague game. They did insanely well in the 1st half and started to fall apart a bit in the 2nd. With some of the top 5 teams dropping points over the weekend, I hope they can secure 3 points and move into 3rd place. Season is  almost complete. As far as the Stanley Cup playoffs, Penguins got knocked out way too early so at this point, I don't care who wins. Jill's calling it that the Bruins will win. We'll see.

Saturday we went to my in-laws for Easter. Great food, beautiful weather and Mia enjoyed doing an egg and Easter basket hunt with them. Uncle Tommy made the trek over from Madison to spend time with his only niece. Aw.

Sunday, Mia was up early and was prepared to basket/egg hunt around the house. She was happy her blow pop garden grew and she had some candy to harvest. She got a handful of shirts from the Easter Bunny as well as a bathing suit she's obsessed with.

Later, Jill and Mia made some desserts and other goodies for my parents Easter at their house with the boys and Ash/Andy. Cheryl also made an appearance. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. The kids were outside the majority of the day in the bounce house, or playing soccer, and of course egg hunting. Super fun. Mia crashed at about 11 and that was that. we noticed sadly that Remi busted another nail again so we'll have to monitor the healing process and hope he'll get better.  She's on Spring Break the rest of the week so hopefully we'll get to enjoy some time together before I'm at work at 2. Going to go wake her up soon actually so she has some time before going to her grandparent's house later. This weekend, she's got her cooking class with BFF Charlie on Sunday which she can't wait for. She made her very own shirt for the event that reads "If life throws flour at you, bake a cake". Cute. Other than that, nothing major going on. Just a bit of daily drawing rest for me as I continue to apply for jobs.

That's all for now thanks for reading!

The Joy of Nothing

Evening everyone. Another weird week in the books. Weird, meaning 60s-70s for 2 days this week followed by tons of wind, chilly temps and snow. Yes. More snow. So many complaining customers. Like complaining actually does anything, right? Watched Chelsea take on Prague and West Ham this week. Two great wins. Certainly didn't help them today, but we'll get back to that.

Friday when I got home from work, Mia and Jill were sleeping with the kitty. Super cute. Saturday, we didn't have anything planned for the day, which was really really nice. Sure, we did stuff, but the fact that NOTHING was on a schedule was super great. I think at times, we don't realize that just having nothing major to do, is absolutely amazing. I really needed to catch up on some sleep, but we still were up by at least 8:30. We ended up taking the bin full of hand-made dog toys by the kids from Orchard Lane to HAWS. They were so happy. Mia enjoyed checking out all the cats, dogs and bunnies after wards. Later when we got home, Jill made some incredibly tasty mini peanut butter cheesecakes for me. Today, she made some Easter macarons while I was at work. She's something else when it comes to baking. We're so proud that Mia is just as talented as her  Mom when it comes to food. Speaking of which, one of her BFFs and Mia will be participating in a cooking class at a real Italian restaurant in Tosa. She's super excited especially that she gets to do it with her friend Charlie. She's so stoked that it's in a real kitchen.

Today was a big game for Chelsea taking on Liverpool. Super nervous about this one. Chelsea played pretty well the 1st half with Liverpool putting on the stress. 2nd half, the jackasses score 2 goals very quickly. So frustrated. Hazard had some great shots and chances to even the game but they just couldn't pull it back. They got their first win at home against the Blues since 2012. Pretty much ruined the rest of the day. Chelsea had a busy week and with a defender injured, Liverpool didn't have much trouble taking advantage of this one. Hate them so much. Hopefully Arsenal doesn't win their upcoming match and we can somehow stay in 4th. Work was work as the snow flew literally day.

This week should be a quick one. Mia's got a performance at school Wednesday and she's pretty thrilled that she gets to play tambourine. :) The weekend will be busy with two different Easter celebrations and Mia will start Easter break on Friday. Lunch note wise, I'm drawing villains all week for Mia. Should be pretty fun. The weather is supposed to improve as well.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Sushi Sweetheart

Good evening everyone. Another week in the books. Actually, sort of an emotional one, but we'll get to that in a bit. April Fools Day, she played the ultimate prank on her classmates by using food markers on her sandwiches and lunch. I had a weird work week, getting a Tuesday off because of getting stuck working on a Thursday, but I made the best of it. Mia's 2nd grade teacher had her very last week of school for the year. She's officially on maternity leave, so the kids were pretty emotional this week. Her teacher and I decided to continue the tradition of myself doing a one-off drawing lesson with her class. I knew I didn't have a lot of weeks left, and with the art show, I was getting pretty busy. Luckily, we found a good day to do it. The kids were super surprised I was there, and Mia's mouth dropped when she heard us explain that we will be drawing Stitch to celebrate Ohana. I sorta rushed through it a bit due to a lack of time, but the kids had a lot of fun, and it went really well. I was requested to draw using the Smart board projector which works, but it also distorts the art when I'm drawing. Sorry kids. Finally, they enjoyed looking at all the sketches in my 2 binders. It was cute that Mia sat next to me in the chair while her classmates gushed about all the art. Hopefully it reminded her how lucky it is that I take the time to draw her something special daily.

Later, she got ready and went off to dance class. Picked her up a few hours later and it was quite nice to hear about how much fun it was. She even showed me a couple things she gets to do during her Spring performance. Jill and I voted on election day. Sadly, the referendum did not pass and they are considering some "tough choices" which include consolidating the high schools and/or closing Mia's. It's really too bad that because the school district struggles financially that ultimately the students end up suffering the most. Guess time will tell when we find out what the decisions they come up with. At the end of the week, Mia gave some baby clothes to her teacher as well as a card she made. I did a little pineapple sketch for her as well.

Saturday, we held a 2nd birthday celebration for Mia, which consisted of family. It was a lot of fun celebrating with everyone. In the morning, Mia made a cake for the party, and aided Jill with making sushi and Chinese food. The nephews Easton and Camden were crazy fun as usual. Mia crashed with Jill on the couch as I finished a pen drawing for her for Monday.

Today, not much going on. Mia woke up and immediately went to work on a Lego set Uncle Tommy got her.  When I got home tonight, I saw she completed one set. Awesome. Looks like she's done some fashion drawing as well. This week, nothing major planned. Supposed to have some weird weather this week. Chelsea is back in action tomorrow so I hope they can hop a few teams and sneak into 3rd.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!