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!

Send Help

Greetings. Keeping this one short and sweet. Super tired today. Rough night trying to sleep last night. A pesky mosquito was trying to drain me of all my blood and patience. Over the weekend Jill's Mom drove up Saturday morning en route to take Jill to a wedding shower. They ended up taking Mia too because a little job opportunity came up. Last week a good friend from college had informed me of a possible second job graphic designing neon beer signs for a small company from home. I haven't applied for a job in quite some time so I didn't really think too much of it right away, until she brought up that it would be a mostly stay-at-home position. Perfect for the few hours I'm home before I work at 2. So After reconstructing and updating my resume a few days ago late at night, I began working on piecing together my website. Friday night, I pulled artwork from different places and Saturday I had some alone time to get serious work done on the site. I decided to make a real clean, easy to navigate website for clients and anyone interested in my work. Since I did the free sight, I was limited to a mere 30 images so it was a bit tough getting what I wanted on. I still may change things up. Overall, quite happy with the layout and my little logo I created for the header :) Later, we did dinner and I worked 2nd shift Sunday evening.

I was quite stoked for my day off with Mia, but for some reason it just wasn't a good day for her. She woke up earlier then usual, didn't feel like breakfast and just was a crab 80 percent of the day. I promised earlier in the week that on Wednesday we'd hit up Helium trampoline park. When we got there, they weren't open yet, so on her request, we went to the library. She played with puzzles and did some reading. After lunch, we drove back to Helium but she fell asleep on the way. So, I turned around and spent an hour or so working on a portrait of her. Hell, it may end up on my website :P Chelsea's playing friday. GO BLUES! :) Gotta love those guys. Some love the Packers, others go crazy for the Brewers. My team will always be Chelsea :)

This weekend's kind of up in the air as far as what we're doing. All I know is September is going to be busy, so bring it on :P Thanks for reading.

Life's a Beach

Greetings everyone! Been quite busy with different things going on. Over the weekend we went to a petting zoo/farm with my Mom. Mia really liked the goats, the kitties and eventually liked the chickens. Later, Jill and I went on a lovely double date with some friends at the Art-Bar, a unique bar and art gallery in the lovely Riverwest area in Milwaukee. Quite a few years ago, Jill, myself and my little brother participated in an art show at Art-Bar. We had some great art and shirts on display and up for grabs. It was an amazing night, so going back to Art-Bar was pretty fun. Julie and her hubby brought their brand new Great Dane puppy. Totally adorable! Great pizza, great drinks and an overall awesome time :) Sunday, after a crazy busy morning at work, we went to the Zoo Ala Carte. We went last year and had a blast. This year, we had a ton of fun again. Lots of great unique foods and desserts.

Today, Mia and I had a great day off together. I told her Tuesday evening that I would take her to the beach. With a high 90 degrees for the temperature for the day, it was the perfect day to go to the beach. After a bowl of Kix, she immediately said "DADDY I'M READY TO GO TO THE BEACH!!" So we packed up and hit the road to the beach. The last time we were there, she was cool in the water, but this time, the water may have been too cold for her to enjoy. She DID however enjoy walking in the sand. This is a big deal. Why you ask? Well this summer she developed a fear of sand. SAND. Don't know why. She just really doesn't like it in her toes, on her feet or in her shoes. Today she started being whiney about the sand on her feet. Later, she got off the blanket and was standing straight in the sand. "DADDY LOOK! I'm WALKING IN THE SAND!!" Yay! So we walked the beach a few times, the shoreline and she searching for "treasure" in the sand with her bucket. All in all, awesome time at the beach. Later, she slept for about 15 minutes on the drive home and woke up when I brought her in. We went to the library later to read books and play with puzzles. Hers and my first time at our New Berlin library. We may be going back to story times or play groups. We also may be signing Mia up for some sort of dance or tumble class at the local rec center. Could be fun!

This weekend, nothing too major. Jill's got a wedding shower, so I'm trying to think of something fun to do for the day. That's all for now. More to discuss next week. Thanks for reading!

Life in Embers

Greetings! Hope everyone's enjoying their week. Here's a recap of the week for me. Over the weekend, I worked the 6am-2pm shift, then had plans to play some pick up soccer. When I got home, I could tell it was a rough day at the house. Jill looked stressed & exhausted and Mia was being a winey terrible-two terror child. I knew immediately that I was going to skip it. My place was at home trying to knock the crabby attitude out of my kiddo. Today was my typical day off. Ended up hanging with my brother and parents today. My bro and I did some odd jobs for my mom. Constructed this mini shed thing, which seems like a boring chore, but was actually a bit fun to catch up while building. Mia shared her popsicle with him, which was pretty cute. Later my Mom, Mia and I hit up the park for a bit, before playing with animals at the humane society. Mia couldn't get enough of those adorable kittens.

This week, we've been slowly putting together Mia's little room. After our last guinea pig passed away, we said we'd put together a really nice room for her. My mother in law painted while we were gone, so all we had left to do was get her crib/bed apart and rebuild in her room. It was quite a challenge this week. Mia would ALWAYs get in our way trying to "help". It just lead to frustration. Tonight it's together so all we need is her to love it enough to sleep there.

Friday there's a playgroup that meets every friday at the local library. If lazy bones Mia gets up at 9am, we can totally go and see what it's all about. Lately this week she's been rolling out of bed around 11 or 11:30am. Today, she was whining at 10am. Might have been too early :P This Saturday we're gonna double date with some friends in Riverwest at the Art-Bar which in 2007, we had an art show at. It was pretty awesome. That's all for now. Thanks for reading!