Isabelle's Baptism

If you've ever seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding, you might recall the scene where the fiance is going to be baptized and the to-be father-in-law, says, "Today Ian, you are going to be Baptized." The way he says it always cracked me up, and so I find always hear it in my head that way. Anyway, I swayed from the point of this post. Elle was baptized last Saturday, August 19, 2017. It was a pretty special day. Both sets of grandparents were present, Tom's family, as well and Dan, Alisa and Jacob from Georgia. It was great celebrating with them all. I honestly love some of the pics I took today of Elle in her dress. She wasn't in the mood last week, and rightfully so. She was cutting her first tooth, so we didn't have many smiles then. Anyway, here they are of the little lady.

Colorado...

We love Colorado. That's all there is to it. The mountains, outdoor lifestyle, focus on health and wellness. and...the lack of bugs. ha. We made a quick escape out west last week and it was nothing short of amazing. We hiked 3 days and let the kids have a day of fun in the mountains on an adventure course with zip lining, ropes courses, etc. We are looking forward to returning sooner than later.

Another School year.....

Tomorrow we start a new school year. Kindergarten for Luke and 2nd grade for Maddie. Amy?....she just wants to go to school.

Omaha, NE

Surprise, we live in Omaha, NE! Let's go back a bit and bring you up to speed. I was contacted about an opportunity with Creighton University to build out a unit within Enrollment Management focused on graduate student Academic Marketing, Recruitment and Enrollment. It's been nothing short of crazy since the first call came in about the opportunity. The spring consisted of many day trips in and out of Omaha to work, until the family relocated. I know the airports well and have the 7 am and 4 p.m. flights down between Minneapolis and Omaha. ha - a first! Anyway, at first we really didn't know if we would take the opportunity. Omaha was never on our radar as a point of interest, or possible location to live. Jeremy's first comment was, "So, there are no mountains and fewer lakes.....Omaha....huh..." It took a bit to wrap our head around. We knew there would be a delayed relocation due to our MN house, which had $40,000 in hail damage last Sept. So, once the snow melted, we had repairs made, and listed our house....apparently 50 new construction listed at the same time. Well, we were very fortunate and it sold 3 weeks later. Whew! A sigh of relief for us. We bought a house in Elkhorn, NE. The market here is insane this year and houses are selling within hours of being listed. So, I literally walked Jeremy through a house on facetime on the phone and made an offer. The home works well for our family and is designed with a functional use of space focus. Perfect for us. The kids love the sand box which is bigger than the average bedroom. And, there are about 10 kids within 5 houses to play with. Everyone transitioned well. Okay, the kids and Jeremy. They are doing well. Jeremy is working for the same company and works remote. He travels to MN about 1/month and is keeping busy. The kids have a short summer compared to usual. In MN we didn't start school until after Labor Day. In Nebraska, we start mid-August. So in reality, Maddie had 8 weeks vacation this summer. They are looking forward to making new friends in a few weeks and starting a new routine. Of course we took time to visit the lake, catch a few fish and do some tubing. We also converted moving boxes into rocket ships. There is never a shortage of imagination play! Funny, Nebraska was never on our radar as location to live, but we have settled in great and love the community we have found. It's amazing how life works out sometimes. So, without further delay. Here are some pictures.

The Grand Finale....Isabelle Faith Gacnik

Well, she's here. Ms. Isabelle Faith Gacnik made her bold debut almost 4 weeks early and it's nothing short of a miracle the way everything played out. After a day of Braxton hicks, I spoke with the dr. and went to the hospital for some monitoring. About 45 min. after we arrived, I thought my water broke. In reality, I experienced a placenta abruption...the tearing of the placenta from the uterus...this sparked an emergency C-section (truly she was delivered in about 5 min). Isabelle was taken immediately to NICU and I was worked on and then moved to ICU. The abruption caused a series of challenges including the loss of about 3/5 of my blood volume. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. We are all very thankful to both be here. We both came home from the hospital 7 days after her birth. I like to say she took the line, "grand finale baby" to the extreme and could have made a less dramatic entrance. ha! Overall, she is a very laid back baby. Sleeps 3-3.5 hours between feedings, eats, burps, fills her pants, and then repeats the cycle. Her siblings are in awe of her and literally fought over holding her early on. They sure love "testing" her toys. She was born a premie at 8 lb. 6 oz.....correct, tipping the scales for NICU babies. She's now at 9 lb. 1 oz and doing great. We all say someone was looking out for us that day and during our time in the hospital. I was never so impressed by hospital staff or the skills and calmness medical personnel have to act under pressure. Without further delay, here are a few pics....