Remodel Px

I will attempt to show some before, during, and after px of our remodel job.








This is the livingroom before.





This is the office before.




In the bathroom video, this is the hallway I am talking about. Rustin should've been a carpenter. (Actually it isn't his most favorite past-time.














Rustin reaching from the bathroom into the office. Now we have insulated rooms!











This is what I lived with for 2 months.

I am very thankful to be done with the project. Now I have more Grace time. This weekend we are Trevor and Jody's invite-a-couple. Not much else is new.

Weekend in the Cities

Saturday morning we left in a blizzard to meet Susan in the cities. She and others from the UofI young group came up for the weekend. They went tubing in the morning and we met them at the FH for lunch. After lunch we broadened Susan's horizons by taking her to our favorite store, IKEA. I don't think she was as impressed as we always are. We didn't have enough room in our car for what we wanted so we will have to make another trip down. After checking in to our motel, we went to Dewayne and Larae Dill's for supper and the evening. It was a nice time of food fun and singing. Sunday we arrived at church, and not 15 minutes into the service Grace puked all over Susan's skirt and her own blouse. With much wiping we cleaned both of them up pretty good. After church we said our good-byes and went our separate ways.

Last week I have been helping Jody paint an older couple's house. It hadn't been touched in about 30 years so the walls and cupboards are pretty disgusting. We are hoping to finish up this week. I was supposed to help her today, but I had to take Grace into the doctor's. She has a nasty cough and I wanted to make sure it wasn't RSV. It turns out she just has a nasty cold but also found out she has an ear infection. This is the second one in her life. Hopefully she will be feeling better in a few days. You just feel so helpless in helping these little guys that can't tell you what's wrong. Fully clothed Grace weighed 14.2 #, so I'm guessing she is between 13 and 13.5 #. I think right now it's all in her head!

We're Almost Done!!!

After two months of remodeling, our project is almost done. I am so excited! We lengthened and widened the bathroom and knocked out the wall between the office and the living room. It seems as though there is more room. I have never been through this (that I clearly remember) - where you live in your remodel job with nowhere to put things so you have to cover everything and not use most of it. It has been somewhat stressful but it's looking up. I've decided if we ever buy another house that needs remodeled, we will hopefully remodel before we move in. I don't have new px yet, so you will have to wait for a later blog. I do however, have px of Grace. She is fastly growing. At her two month appointment which was 2.5 weeks ago she weighed 11#12oz. and was 23 3/4 in. long. That puts her in the 75 % for weight and 90 % for height. She is starting to sleep through the night until anywhere from 6-9 almost all the time. I am excited for that. Now that I have written it she will probably revert back to her once a night wake-up, but that is just babies. She is a real smiley baby. It really warms my heart when she smiles at me or whoever. She seems more human now! She went through a fussy bout with her formula, but thankfully she seems to have grown out of that and now just eats all the time! Here are some px of her around Christmas time.





Grace and her TWIN 2nd cousin Darcy Wiegand








Grace's first swim with her Daddy. Her swim diaper was
so big that she had to wear a regular one underneath it.



I'll have to keep updating px of Grace, or many of you won't recognize her when you see her!

Remodeling

Sorry I don't have much time to report. Grace seems to be hungry and demanding my attention.

We are remodeling our house. It started out as just the bathroom but has extended to the office and living room. So now probably wouldn't be the best time to visit Minnesota! I will have pictures at a later date. Since our computer is in the office and is not able to be used, I probably won't update as often over the next few weeks. Right now I am using Trico's computer.

Hope to see alot of you at Christmas!!

Time Marches On

Grace in her first church outfit. Her Mom and Grandma both wore it to their first church service.
Three Generations

It has been a little while since I've posted, so I'll try and recap the past weeks.

Two weekends ago my Dad brought my Mom up so she could stay for a week and help out. She definitely was a great help to me and Grace. Mom just had knee replacement so her mobility is yet limited. However, she was always willing to hold Grace and take care of her needs. I've decided that when you have a baby, the housework comes second. (Of course this was true before Grace, I just didn't have an excuse.) While Mom was here we spent a lot of time relaxing. Grace had a 2 week check-up so while we were there, I showed Mom the room I had in the hospital. She was impressed with how everything is advancing, and how I labored/delivered/recovered in the same room. We saw some of our nurses, so that was neat for them to see how much Grace had grown and filled out in 2 weeks. Another day we went shopping in Alex for necessary items (diapers, etc.) Grace did great at Walmart, but by the time we went to Target, she was hungry. I fed her in the car, but she was kind of fussy. I had my first panicky moment of, what if she starts screaming in the store. She ended up being fine, but I realized that more than likely she will be one of those screaming kids in the store some day. I've always been annoyed by those instances, but I assume my day is coming. We also went to Rustin's parent's house and visited with them some.

Grace went to church for the first time on Thanksgiving. Rustin kept her and she slept all morning. Phew! We went to Rustin's folks after church. My Dad and siblings arrived in the afternoon so we ate a Turkey dinner and played games. It was neat to see Uncle Bob, Aunt Susan, and Uncle Matt interact with Grace. She definitely wasn't used to all the attention. On Friday Dad helped Rustin put in the shower downstairs. The rest of us cleaned the upstairs and relaxed. On Saturday noon the kids left for Tremont and Dad and Rustin finished downstairs.

On Sunday Jonathan Joos and Mindy Wulf were married. I didn't catch a whole lot of the sermon because I was in the Baby Room all afternoon. My parents left for home right after church and we went to the reception.

This week we are focusing on our upstairs bathroom. We have bought almost all of the stuff needed, so now we are tearing it down piece by piece. By this weekend we will either have a big mess, or the bathroom will be on its way to being rebuilt. Sometimes it seems like life flies by in a blur. Before we know it, Christmas will be here!

Grace Anna Schmidgall

Born Nov. 7, 2007 7#2oz. 19.5in. 12:39pm
Grace smiling at her Dad
Grace and me (you can tell I'm a little drugged)
Grace holding hands with her first boyfriend, Emerson Reuter.

(I think the Dads lended a helping hand.)

It has been an interesting 5 days. On Tues. I woke with labor pains and had them 10 min. apart all day. We went to the hospital at 9:30 that night and had an "enjoyable" night. The Doc came in at 7 Wed. morning and broke my water. From then till 12:39 pm I won't go into detail, but 'labor' is definitely an accurate term. The placenta separated from the U-cord so Doc had to knock me out and remove it. I ended up staying an extra day at the hospital because of this. We went home on Sat. afternoon. Grace is a good baby. She eats and sleeps, alot! It's hard to imagine life before her. There is never a dull moment with a baby around.

39 down, 1 to go

My husband informed me that it has been almost 2 weeks since I last updated. I don't know where the time went, but I apologize for being negligent. I visit the doctor weekly and he says everything looks the same. The head is down and ready, so now we just wait. Since there is no possible way that we can personally inform all of you when the baby arrives, we will publish the news and pictures on the blog. I'm not sure if the hospital puts pictures on a website, but I'm sure that, since we are smaller than the Peoria hospitals and they don't update regularly, it will be faster to come to this site to see baby Schmidgall.

Rustin is still very busy with anhydrous. There is a shortage of it this fall, so he thinks by the end of the week he will be close to finished with applying. I am excited. I'm not used to these late hours. Thankfully it only lasts a few weeks out of the spring and a few weeks out of the fall. I generally ride with him at some point every day. I've found out that the plowed corn fields are the bumpiest, so I try to go when he is on a bean field or a ripped corn field. His tractor has a GPS system on it, so all he has to do is press a button and the tractor goes straight. This feature allows him to concentrate more on the applicator behind him and his books on tape.

This past weekend we had 5 people give their testimonies and were baptized. There were 2 couples who are Rustin's cousins and one of his (our) single friends. It was encouraging to hear of the sincerity of changed lives. It's always a blessing to hear of how God works in sinners lives. Gary Hertzel from Sabetha and Wayne Grimm from West Bend were visiting elders. For those of you who don't remember, Wayne preached at our wedding service, so it is always special when he comes to Morris and we can visit. It reminds me of the good times I experienced while interning for his son and daughter-in-law in West Bend.

Well, the weathermen say it is supposed to snow today, and while I was at the doctor's they said it was flurrying. Judging by how windy it is out, it is a good thing it's not already on the ground or we'd be having a nice blizzard.

This week is pretty open. I am going to watch my niece and nephews some, but doc says to take it easy, so I think I'll just take his advice!!