Priceless Decisions

Last January we made a decision to have Andy step back from his "administration" job at our school office and return to the "teaching" world. It was a difficult decision, especially for him, but the benefits from the change we made have been amazing. He is no longer in the office everyday from 8:30-4:30. He has a lot more flexibility because he schedules his students on his own time now. When Andrew was going through his surgeries and hundreds of doctors appointments, we totally felt that our decision was a God send. Andy was able to be home and help out a lot more than if he would have been in the office. This fall when school started we sat down to make our schedules and we planned that Tuesday mornings would be the time that I would go out to meet students and Andy would be home. Little did we know that Tuesday mornings would be very special in our little girl's world. Allie loves Tuesday mornings. She calls it "daddy Allie day." Daddy spoils her and lets her run the show for the morning. "Dames (games)" as Allie calls them quickly became their morning tradition. Daddy takes out about every game in the game closet to play with Allie. Every Monday night we all ask her what tomorrow is and she says, "daddy allie day, play dames." She gets a huge smile on her face and gets so excited. I especially love that the boys enjoy asking her as well and we all laugh at her excitement every Monday night. They always remind her that Daddy and Allie day is coming. After playing games Andy usually takes her on a few errands and they just hang out. When I called today they were eating pink doughnuts from Starbucks together on our driveway...can you say...cutest little buddies ever (wish I had a picture)." Some days they go on a run together and then get Luke at pre-school. After lunch they put Allie down for a nap and Luke gets some special one on one daddy time too (usually means they snuggle up with blankets on the couch and watch a cartoon). Unfortunately Andrew is at school the whole time, but daddy does get to pick him up those days. Daddy makes time to spend one on one with Andrew other times throughout the week. Every time I see the excitement in Allie's face to hang out with daddy, I am reminded that our decision was the the BEST one we could have made for our family. A little pay cut comes no where near comparing to the special relationship daddy and Allie are building on their Tuesday mornings. I also feel such a sense of peace when I go out to work knowing that my kiddos are in the care of their daddy. Thank You Jesus for continually showing us that our decisions we make turn out to be BLESSINGS!!!

Halloween 2010

Our Halloween started with church and then a nice afternoon at home. We headed to hamburgers with friends and then met family at church for the Fall Festival. It was a wonderful turnout at church, but was a bit crazy with so many people. They had a helicopter drop candy in the parking lot. Allie was afraid of the noise, Luke got sad because it was too hard to get to the candy, and Andrew was our only happy camper. We decided with neighbor friends to head home for some trick or treating. It was much more relaxing to walk around the neighborhood to trick or treat. This was the first year that Allie really loved to run around with the big kids. The boys were very excited about all their candy. When they got home they separated their candy by color. I loved the colorful piles all over the family room floor. Happy Halloween!!

HALLOWEEN at grandpa and grandma's house

Saturday night grandpa and grandma had us over for dinner and to carve pumpkins. The kids dressed up in their costumes. Andrew decided to be a dirt bike rider, Luke wasn't too much into dressing up this year. At first he wanted to be a "clear person" which he told me was a person who wears their regular clothes. I took him to Kohls to look for a Halloween shirt and he found a Perry the Platapoose shirt. He was very proud of his shirt/costume and it was juts his style. Allie had 2 amazingly cute costumes this year, so she wore the piggy one that aunt TT got her on Saturday night. She was very very cute!! Thanks grandpa and grandma for a fun night! Cousin Ben was sick, so we missed the Sherman gang.

Saturday

was a wonderful day! Andy, Mike, and some friends built our back fence. The kids and I stayed inside and helped with the fence a bit. It was rainy, so we watched some of the neighbor kids while their sisters played a soccer game in the rain. After our friends left we painted pumpkins. I had a wonderful day with the kids just hanging out at home, it's amazing how much you can get done when we just stay home for the day! Thanks daddy for building our fence!

Mrs. Gack's Haloween Party

Friday I put on Andrew's 1st grade class party for Halloween. We started our party with a "hot pumpkin" game and the we started stations. We created 5 stations for the kids to do. They ate yummy fod, played pumpkin bowling, painted pumpkins, played with playdough, flubber, and other goop, and they made search & find bottles and relaxed on the cozy blanket. After stations we read a story and then went to recess. After recess we watched "Spookley" the movie and helped the kids make watery scary hands. IT was a fun party and I enjoyed getting to know the kids in Andrew' class better. Because it is a K/1 combo class I still haven't had a chance to get to know all the kindergarten kids. Thanks Andrew for letting mommy work in your class and put on a FUN party!!