Fall Fun

A very large "operation" type game

Almost every year I've taken the kids to a pumpkin patch and/or corn maze; some years Paul and my parents or his parents joined us. Most of the years we've gone to Ard's Farm. Today we went with a homeschool group to Kohl's; it was our second time at this location as we also went there in 2017. Last year was their favorite trip to Ard's because four of their cousins were with us when we went. For many years I've had a tradition of having the kids wear pumpkin shirts for this outing. I didn't buy any pumpkin shirts this year. The size 10/12 shirt that Nadia had worn was not one I could pass on to Ian because even though the shirt was orange, the pumpkin was definitely feminine. Nadia has decided she has outgrown wearing shirts like that. We had two shirts in size 8 so both boys wore them today even though it was warm enough out to wear a short sleeve shirt. Thank you, boys!! This was definitely our warmest trip to a pumpkin patch. Thankfully it wasn't as hot as it was yesterday. It got into the low 80's yesterday. I wouldn't have asked the boys to wear a long sleeve shirt today if it was as warm as yesterday. I'll have to remember to buy the boys new pumpkin shirts next fall. I can usually get them for less than $5 each on the Children's Place website. The hay ride at Ard's is very short but includes a free pumpkin of your choosing. The hay ride at Kohl's was more than 30 minutes long, but the $$ we paid for the corn maze, games, and hay ride didn't include a pumpkin. We spent almost 3 hours playing the games/ going through the corn maze. The kids asked me a few minutes before we were about to leave if they could do the 2.5 mile corn maze. We had done the 1 mile one earlier. I would have been willing to do it, but not at that time. It was a beautiful day, and due to COVID we hadn't seen people from this homeschool group since February. Although the kids missed the slide they have at Ard's, they did really enjoy the wide variety of games that Kohl's has.

Ian in the small corn maze

Paul's typical schedule is that he leaves for work sometime between 5-6am and gets home between 7-8pm (M-F). On Saturdays he usually gets home between 2-3pm. I say typical because sometimes he leaves for work earlier than 5am and gets home from work after 8pm. He usually doesn't work at the plant on Sundays. If he does, he's only there in the morning. His time at the plant plus his commute to and from work add up to around 80 hours in a typical week. So far this year he took off one day of work to go skiing with us, one day off to go to Six Flags, and seven days off for our family vacation. This year he's taken far more days off for medical appointments than he usually does. He went back to his PCP as a follow-up earlier this month to discuss the results of the upper and lower EMG tests and stress test. All those results were normal except he has carpal tunnel. At the follow-up appointment the PCP advised him to see the eye doctor because he thought Paul had a cataract. Paul went into work later than usual this morning because he had an eye appointment at 7:40am. Nope. He doesn't have a cataract. Paul has known for 20+ years that he has keratoconus, and the eye doctor guessed that's probably what the PCP misdiagnosed as a cataract. He also wanted to remove another one of Paul's moles. Personally, I can't picture ever having a PCP do any kind of surgery on me. This PCP removed a mole from Paul in 2017. It became infected, and at that point I strongly urged Paul to see a dermatologist rather than to return to the PCP, which is what he did. I reminded him of this when he told me earlier this month that the PCP had scheduled him for a procedure to remove another mole. I think he's going to reschedule the appointment with a dermatologist instead. I wonder sometimes if doctors take the cost of procedures and blood work into account when they order them. It seems like good news to get the report that the results of a test are normal (if truly you don't have a medical problem that needs to be addressed), but it also feels like we wasted money when we are spending $500+ per test and all the results are negative. Hopefully the mole removal will go smoothly this time around, and hopefully Paul can stay away from the doctors, ER, hospital, etc. next year. At least he knows he can wait 10 years until his next colonoscopy! Thankfully aside from one trip to the eye doctor for Ian because his glasses were broken and annual well child appointments, the kids and I haven't needed to see any doctors this year. 

The boys spent a TON of time in these!

It was a good thing I didn't agree to the idea of starting the large corn maze at 2:15, as shortly after we got home Paul's parents surprised us with a brief visit in our driveway. They had been shopping for a cabinet at a store less than a mile from our house. The last time Grandma was in our house was for Ian's birthday last December, and the last time we were in their house was Christmas Day. It's yet another way that 2020 has been a very strange year for us. In 2020 we've seen her twice so far- on June 24 for a few minutes in my friend's driveway and today in our driveway for a few minutes. We're planning to go to their home for Thanksgiving this year. Last year Al and Millie joined us for Thanksgiving dinner at our house, but we didn't see Paul's parents at Thanksgiving last year. This year we had Easter dinner with only our immediate family - so Thanksgiving Dinner will be our first holiday celebrated with others in 2020.

Nadia played  game of checkers with another girl. At one point Nadia was WAY behind the other girl, and the other girl asked if she wanted to end the game early. Nadia said she wanted to finish the game, and surprisingly, Nadia ended up winning the game!