It's been a while...

As of Saturday we are officially in our new house. It's been hectic but it's nice to be "home". We have decided to forego the internet at this time only because our computer is nonfunctioning and we don't have the time, energy, money to get a new one. Until then I will be surfing the net occasionally from Ma and Pa's house when we make it over there. This also means fewer posts. I know it will be hard not knowing what's happening in this crazy life of our but if you are truly that interested you can call us:)

In other news Cody is still struggliing with back issues and has scheduled surgery which will be happening in the next week or two. We didn't want to resort to surgery but it seems we have no choice.

So, I will try to update occasioanlly and I will keep of with all of you as well!

The Schmidt's

P.S. If you would like our new address just e-mail me or leave a comment. I've recently been made aware of some unwanted visitors on our blog (none of you, just creepy people looking for certain baby pics if you know what I mean) so I won't be posting our address here and I removed it from a previous post.

Pictues, Pictures and More Pictures

Fin getting her Easter basket from Nana Schmidt. (In reverse order of course:)

As you can see she was quite excited about the Easter Basket.

Finley and her 1st cousin once removed, Sylvia, at Easter with the Kautzmans.

Her Easter basket from Nana and Papa Wald.

Easter with the Bosch side. Finley and Landon were the entertainment.

Pictures of the farm in Linton post flood. The creek is usually on the other side of the trucks in the picture.

I'm standing in the same spot in this pic as the last one just facing the opposite direction. You can see the farm in the background. The water got into the garage but not the house. Notice the large dead fish at the bottom of the pic.

Bottle feeding a baby calf...

and visiting the baby chicks.

And Easter ant Nana and Papa Schmidt's house. Fin and Maddy had an Easter egg hunt indoors this year due to weather. As you can tell Fin was immediately post bath:)

Fillin' up her bucket!

It was a very busy Easter full of family. We are moving into our house in 3 weeks and anyone is welcome to help:)

Cody has also been having back troubles lately. He had an MRI so hopefully we'll get some more info on how to get him back to normal. That's the short of it!

Together Again

We are back together again as a family. Cody joined us on Friday and he will be starting his new job at Investment Centers of America next Monday. It's good to have him with us again.

We have also found a home to call ours here in ND. Nothing is ever for sure until the papers are signed but if all goes according to plan we close on May 6th.

Future Schmidt Home

SOLD!!

The house sold in 2 days for well above our asking price thanks to a bidding war. The inspection is done and we close the end of April. We are so excited and relieved to have one more thing checked off the list.

As far as the flood, the ice jam S of Bis has been broken up with dynamite and we are all hopeful that this will help our situation. My parents house remains dry but we are still needing be ready to evacuate if necessary. Thanks for all of your prayers.

Update

I'm not going to lie, it's not good around here. I am at home right now waiting. We have moved everything from the basement upstairs and are waiting to hear if we need to evacuate. There is an ice jam north of town and if that breaks my parents house will be flooded along with a very large portion of the city. Within the hour there is supposed to be some explosives detinated in the ice jam to the S of us which will help to drain some of the water away from the city but there is still a lot of snow on the ground that needs somewhere to go when it melts.

I have never seen anything like this! People are sandbagging, fillling sandbags, moving their stuff, etc. It's crazy. Right now there is a 3 block line of cars at the civic center waiting for sandbags. Please pray for us. It's very scary and we just don't know when it will end.

Flood

Most of you have probably heard that ND is having a bit of a water problem:) So far we are good at my parent's house but not everyone is as lucky. A few of my co-workers including the MD I work for, have been evacuated from there houses and Linton (small town 1 hr south of here where my Mom is from and some relatives still live) is almost completely under water. My aunt and uncle are stranded on their farm and today the National guard was there sandbagging.

Today we got a lot of snow that will make things worse for everyone so please keep us North Dakotans in your prayers. Supposedly the state has some specialists coming to use dynamite and "extreme amounts" of salt to break up the ice jams so hopefully that helps. For now we just wait...

On the Market

Riding my old bike.

How cute are these boots!! They are called "chore boots." She loves to splash in the puddles and these keep her socks dry!

Watching Papa shovel.

Our house is officially on the market. We had our first open house today and 2 showings. Hopefully it will sell quickly. Cody has been working really hard on getting the house into shape and I'm so proud of him. I've only seen a few picture texts but from what I've seen it looks great. The professional pics will be going on line tomorrow or Tuesday. Check it out and let us know what you think. It's always good to have some outside input. It's on edinarealty.com and the MLS# is 3661328.

Week 2 went well at work and daycare. Nothing to eventful just trying to settle into our new life!

Week One Down

Tomorrow officially starts week 2 of work/daycare. Week one went as well as can be expected. Fin did great at daycare. On Monday morning she gave me a kiss and a hug and never looked back. No tears from her which meant no tears for mommy:) Thanks to Grandma Deb she never had to spend a full day at daycare but she was a happy girl while she was there.

Work was good for me. Overwhelming but good. Every week will get better as I get more comfortable and I look forward to being comfortable!

Cody was in town this weekend to meet with a few job prospects and to see his family:) It was nice to see him and we even managed to look at a few houses. We, of course, agreed on nothing but luckily we have time to find something we both like.

That's about it from the Biz!

Settled...Kind of

This week has been a CRAZY week. We arrived in Bismarck on Monday and I've been busy with unpacking into the space available at my parent's house, getting my nursing licence and visiting Fin's new daycare. I start work tomorrow and I am NERVOUS!! Not about the actual job but about taking Fin to daycare. I know she's going to cry and that's going to break my heart. Her last daycare provider, Grace, was like her 2nd mother and she would always run to her and turn and say "bye Mommy" so I've never had to deal with the crying before. I just pray she adjusts quickly. Luckily my Mom works across the street and gets off at 2:30 so she won't have to be there all day.

OK enough about that!! Here are few pics from the last week.

We bought a potty to get her used to it and so far this is the best we've done. She'll sit on it fully clothed but not bare butt. It's ok. She likes to sit on it so we'll just wait until she's ready for the next step.

The POTTY

I haven't quite figured out how to rotate pics on my parent's computer:) She managed a get away in the middle of PJ time to watch her cookies bake!

Dancing to a song on the computer. The girl loves to dance!

Kisses from the puppy!

Last week before I left, my MPP coworkers threw me a going away party. It was a great time and a couple of the girls brought this delicious German Chocolate cake from Cafe Latte. I already miss all my girls but I'll be back to visit!

I'll update later in the week about the job and daycare. Wish us luck and keep praying for a quick home sale and for Cody to get a job!

Living in Chaos

No pictures this week. I've been a little busy with this moving thing. I am so ready for this to be over!! Between carpet layers, hardwood floor guys, cleaning services, real estate agents and coordinating moving trucks, storage units (we'll be living with my parents for a while. Thanks Mom and Dad!!) and of course packing I'm done!! Oh and I still have that curious little toddler wondering around undoing everything I do. I just want to be in Bismarck and have this place on the market. Cody has a couple job possibilities so keep him in your prayers. And the thing that makes me most anxious is having to put Finley in a different daycare. Luckily I have a week in Bis before I start work so I'll take her for a few hours everyday and stay with her but I'm still nervous.

Well enough stress relief for now. Thanks to all of those who have or will help us. We have wonderful family friends that we are SO grateful for!!!

Going Home

I love the piggies!

Eating BBQ for Uncle Aaron's Bday.

Uncle Aaron and Fin.

We have a little news here in the Schmidt household...we're moving home!! After lots of thought and consideration Cody and I have decided to move a little closer to our families. Fin and I will be moving in a couple weeks and Cody will stay behind for a little while to get the house on the market.

Although we are excited to be going back to Bismarck, we are so sad to leave our home of the last 4.5 yrs. We love the cities and the friends and family members that are here. It will be so hard to say good-bye but in the end we feel Bismarck is the best place for us during this stage of our lives and having Fin close to her grandparents is going to be so wonderful!!

Stomp Your Feet!

Hangin' Out

It's been pretty quiet around here but I thought I'd put a few pics of Fin up for everyone to enjoy.

Stealing Daddy's pizza

Playing ball with Taylor, Parker and Mavis.

Pushing buttons on Mommy's phone.

Bye!

Bathroom Redo's

The past 2 weekends have been full of bathroom redos. Cody did most of the work with me in charge of childcare, clean up and decor. We did both jobs for under $300 total! I'm pretty proud of Cody. He did a great job.

Main floor bath before...


and after (with a blurry pic of Fin:)

And the master bath before...

and after. (Ignore the light fixture. It will be replaced soon!)

Christmas, New Year's, an Anniversary and Whole Lot of Sickness!

First a warning, this a long post with lots of pictures. That's what happens when you wait so long to post:) Well, over the last few weeks Fin and I went home to Bismarck for Christmas and while we were there we celebrated with Cody's Mom's family, my Dad's family, my Mom's family and my immediate family. Lots of traveling, lots of family and lots of fun! We came home last Sunday, the same day Nana and Papa Schmidt came and stayed with us until yesterday. Mix in there the flu )my mom, dad and my brother's girlfriend) and some nasty head colds (pretty much all of us) and you've got a bust household. Oh and of course Cody and I celebrated our 4th anniversary on New Year's and tomorrow (1/7) is Cody's 34th birthday. So here are some pictures from all of the festivities and once again they are completely out of order!

This was this week here at home. poor Fin was fighting a horrible head cold and she was exhausted. She just fell right asleep on the couch which she never does.

She is also doing much better with utensils. here she eating her 2 favorite foods, pudding and applesauce.

Fin opening her gifts from Nana and Papa Schmidt,

My Dad's family always has Santa come to Christmas. We tried to put her on his lap but she out of there as soon as I set her down so this was the best I could get.

Helping Nana open her gifts.

Sitting in her booster chair at Grandma and Grandpa Wald's house.

Opening her wooden puzzle from Santa.

This is my cousin Landon.He is 1 day older than Fin and he always wants to help his Mom vacuum so he got a mini dirt devil. He was so cute vacuuming the carpet.

Snuggling with Uncle Travis.

All of the grandkids that were at Christmas with Grandma Bosch

Christmas with the Bosch clan.

Finley also got here first trim from Aunt Lenore. She did great and just played with whatever was on the counter.

Opening gifts at Grandma and Grandpa Wald's house.

Since Cody had to stay home for work we included him in gift opening via webcam. Finley was so cute when she saw him. She tried kissing the computer and she kept saying "hi"over and over to him. She definitely missed her Daddy and I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual :)

Making homemade ice cream.

Getting ready ready for Christmas dinner.

Finley loved watching Grandpa shave with the electric razor.

Everyone in their Christmas outfits.

This was my angel when I was little. Fin loved giving her hugs and kisses.

The kids table at the Kautzman's. (Cody's Mom's family)