He has Grape Picking Hands!

Aaron and I just returned from our ultrasound where we found out that we are having a BOY!  We are so excited to finally KNOW! 

Baby Boy looks healthy as can be and was moving all over the place during the ultrasound.  We are so grateful to know things are progressing nicely. 

Once we got over our initial excitement, I pulled out the pictures we were given to take home with us and we were admiring this picture of our son's little hand waving at us.   "Hey Mom!  Hey Dad!"

Cute right? 


Count the fingers. 

Um, is it just me or are there seven fingers on one hand? 

Most parents might show concern over their baby potentially having seven fingers on one hand, but not us.  We looked at each other and exclaimed, "He has grape picking hands!"   He IS our son!

I realize it is most likely the blur of the picture, but if he is born with seven fingers on one hand...well, it wouldn't be the end of the world.

And as though you haven't seen a million of these ultrasound pictures before, humor the first-time-mom in me and let me show off a bit. 

I hope he looks just like his daddy! 

Nice, strong backbone for all that hard labor! 

Ahem.  Just in case you didn't believe me...

Can't wait to tickle those little feet! 

The tech said he is about 10 oz.  To which Aaron said, "Not quite yet a can of beer."  Leave it to my husband to compare our baby to beer.

While we weren't really "wishing" for one over the other, I knew that a little part of me would mourn for the boy or girl I wouldn't be having this time.  I gotta say, dresses and dolls would have been fun, but I am really looking forward to watching a little boy helping Aaron on the farm.  Especially with all those fingers!

It's A....

BABY.

At 7:47am this morning just as Aaron and I were walking out the door and I had my pink bracelet and blue bracelet in hand waiting to see which one I'd wear today, I got a call from the doctor's office.  The ultrasound tech called in sick today.  Are they allowed to do that? 

I almost started crying.  Almost.  But I didn't.  So much excitement and anticipation built around this one event, and now we have to wait one more day!  Seriously, my hats off to those who are able to wait until the very end for the big surprise.  I can hardly wait another day!   I thought I'd do a quick post today since I pretty much told everyone and their uncle we'd announce the sex today after our appointment this morning and we'll likely have a lot of visitors today wondering why I haven't posted. 

In the meantime, we did get to see the doctor this morning and Aaron got to hear the heartbeat for the first time.  Doc said it was a good strong heartbeat at 147 bpm.  Even he commented that it will be interesting to find out the sex since the the heartbeat is right in the middle.  We could go either way!  So, at least we know there really is a baby in there and that is what matters, right? 

Stay tuned and TOMORROW, we'll let you know what we find out at our afternoon appointment.

Check!

Going into this past weekend, our white board check-list was starting to get long.  After this weekend, I am singing the Hallelujah chorus. 

That's because the Schram crew showed up at Schram Vineyards.

And when the Schram's come into town...

work gets done!

Aaron's Aunt Diane and Uncle Don came in on Thursday afternoon.  While Aaron and I were still at work, they mowed the lawn, fixed the Adirondack chairs where the dogs had chewed and were trying to figure out how to repair the shed doors by the time we got home.  Check, check, check off of our list of things to do! 

Don even made sure not to leave for the weekend without fixing my shoe closet door.  It's been on my to-do list for Aaron since April and it finally got done!  Hallelujah! 

And everyone else started rolling in throughout the weekend.  Aunts and Uncles, Grandma Millie, his step-mom, Candy, his three sisters, Angie, Candie, and Lisa, brother-in-laws, nieces and nephews, distant cousins, and some relatives from South Dakota who happened to be in town came out for a grueling day of hard labor.  Even some neighbors were out to help us at 7:30am!  I wish I had gotten pictures of everyone, but realized going through them all now that I didn't and I am sorry for that.  Then again, many of them didn't really want their pictures taken when they were all hot and sweaty. 

But I am posting them on the internet anyway! 

I had planned to get up early on Saturday and make an egg bake for the crew.  Instead I woke up at 7am to the smell of bacon wafting into my bedroom. 

I guess Don and Rich were one step ahead of me and had a little cook-out on the deck. 

I forgot I was dealing with a bunch of farmers and early for them is not the same "early" for me.  Not to mention they are self-sustaining campers and ended up bringing tons of food.  And they insisted on using paper plates for our meals all weekend.  Minimal dishes for me!  Hallelujah! 

It was foggy and comfortably breezy in the morning...

The wagon got good use as a spiral for all the trellis wire. 

Everyone was hammering away...

They had a system down!

And after a break for some zucchini lasagna for lunch, it was hot, sunny and humid in the afternoon...

But that didn't stop anyone from working...

Except me.

And this precious 5 month old Mastiff, who rivals our dogs in sweetness.  Being pregnant or being a big dog don't mix well with hard labor in heat and humidity, so I took it easy with the puppy. 

 

And since we had so many hard workers out in the vineyard, I didn't feel at all guilty pulling the pregnant card and staying in the air conditioning keeping the house tidy and getting food ready most of the day.  In fact, when I did go out to help, they told me not to. 

I didn't argue. 

It gave me an opportunity to hang out with Aaron's Grandma Millie under the shade in the Adirondack chairs.  She'll be 94 in just a few weeks and will become a great-GREAT grandmother in October.  That's two "greats" in case you didn't catch that.  Her vision is fuzzy, her hearing goes in and out, but her mind is lucid, and her sense of humor sharp.  She shared with me some of her gardening tips, her cucumber recipes, reminisced from when she was pregnant, and told me stories of Aaron as a little boy when she looked after him after his mom died when he was three. 

And she still gets around the kitchen like a pro.  She baked about 10 different types of cookies for the weekend and has this amazing capability of keeping track of what type of dessert each member in her family likes.  I ate three molasses cookies for breakfast, so I think I know what I like best!

And when the work was done for the day, Doug took her out for a spin on the 4-wheeler so she could get a good look at the vineyard up close since she said it was all blurry from afar. 

                              

                              

Then Aaron told her he had a surprise for her and told her take off her shoes.  And she did-without question.

And Grandma Millie officially did our inaugural grape stomp at Schram Vineyards. 

And she was giggling like little girl the whole time. 

It was so fun to watch!

So a few others jumped in for a little grape juice between the toes.

It is pretty cool when you can find a novel activity that a 94-year old woman, teenage girls, and an 8-year old boy can enjoy just the same. 

We worked hard, ate well, talked a lot, had some fun, drank some wine, and most importantly, worked really hard. 

THANK YOU to all the Schram and extended Schram clan for all of your grueling hard work in hot weather this weekend.  We got a lot of trellis work done and you helped check an enormous item off of our evergrowing list of "to-dos".  Even with 20 people out working on Saturday, we didn't even get all of the wiring done, just to give you a gage of how much work there is in putting up a vineyard.  But to knock out as much as we did will be a huge help to Aaron when he finishes it up this fall. 

We feel so grateful to have two large families on each side supporting us in this venture.  We couldn't do this without all of you!  XOXOXO


***Check back Wednesday!  If Schrambino cooperates during our ultrasound, we'll be able to reveal whether we are having a son or daughter that day!  We can't wait!  In the meantime, any guesses?

Harvest!

Yesterday we decided it was time to harvest the Marquette grapes.  Having just reached the right brix and ph levels, and the fact that the bird call has about expired its time in effectively fooling the birds, we figured now was the time before they start nibbling on the grapes even more!  The Frontenac Gris, however, are still looking good and not quite ready for harvest.  Those will be next week. 

One of my big selling points to Aaron in moving over to the west side of town (versus the east side of St. Paul) was the fact that my entire family lives out this direction. 

"We'll have lots of helpers for the vineyard!  My parents, sisters, my 13 nieces and nephews...they'll help all the time!"  I convinced him nearly three years ago.

Aaron reminded me that this coming weekend, his whole family was driving in from Wisconsin for a "work weekend."  What can I say, they are a farm family and hard labor is in their blood.  My family is good at a lot of things, but hard labor is not a defining characteristic of the Hageman clan.  So I took his subtle reminder as a hint to round up some of that family help I had promised for our harvest this year.

Actually, I think he said,  "Hey Babe, when is your family that lives 10 minutes away going to come help?"

Hint taken. 

The best part was, it was pretty easy to get some helpers.  Turns out, all I have to do is ask and they were happy to help. 

So I got my nephew Jackson, weeks before he heads off to his first year of college. 

Belle was such a great help too!

Mom.  Mom!  Over here! 

She's a multitasking lady...selling houses while picking grapes. 

That's better. 

And my beautiful niece, Emma.

Who for her 11th birthday, had just gotten her ears pierced, so I had her show them off.  Can you see?

Dad in his harvesting hat with the help of Tux.

He looks like a natural, doesn't he?

And my sister, Jennifer, even made it out to help for a while.  See, I did pretty well! 

Who's THAT hunk of a man in charge?  Woo!  Hubba, Hubba!  I'd like to have HIS baby. 

Oh, wait.  I am!  Or at least the headless pregnant lady he took a picture of is...

And just one week from Wednesday, we'll find out if Schrambino will be a little Aaron replica, or a vineyard princess.  All we know now, is that at just 19 weeks, we have one active baby in there.  Even Aaron got to feel some kicks just tonight!

And after harvest we had to crush the grapes right away.

First we weighed all the lugs.  We got about 240 lbs of Marquette grapes from about 40 vines.

Our neighbors, Don and Phyllis, stopped over to see what all the workers were up to and ended up joining in the fun.

Little did they know they were signing themselves up for the tedious job of sorting through grapes and picking off all the bad ones that appeared to have critter damage before they could go in the crusher/de-stemmer.  Only the best grapes can go in to make wine! 

Once we were done with that fun projects, the grapes were ready to go in crusher/de-stemmer.

Jackson dumped them in. 

And it went to work.

It crushes all the grapes and the juice drips out into that white bucket in the back, while the stems are spit out into a wagon on the side.  Pretty sweet little system, huh?

Don't worry.  We still will do a grape stomp the old fashioned way.  With our feet!  Maybe not this year, but hopefully for our biggest harvest yet...next year! 

And since I know you are all dying to know the results from the County Fair...

My strawberry jam got second place.  And I even got docked a point because I forgot to include my processing information with my entry.  Had I included that, I think I could have gotten first!

If you recall, Staci and I both entered a jar of zucchini relish from the same batch that we made together.  Hers got first place and mine got second.  And hers went on to win the Purple Ribbon Grand Champion of all relishes and sauces!  Wahoo!  So I guess it is pretty good.   I better taste it! 

Sadly, my giant zucchini didn't place, despite the fact some said mine looked almost bigger than two of the finalists.  I had high hopes, but it just gives me the itch to try again next year.