2003 Pickin' Pumpkins with Patience

According to Sam's "How Tall This Fall" picture, we went back to Carroll's Pumpkin Farm in 2003. The details about this trip are a bit sketchy in my mind. We were in the midst of a life-changing transition and I think much was up in the air and our future was uncertain.

I do know that Sam's cousin, Patience came with us and that they had fun in the corn maze.

At the Haunted Corn Maze in Petaluma, Sam said that he had a nightmare after his last trip to a corn maze which I guess would be this one.

We love Patience. She and Sam have always been close. Even their birthdays are close. I thought he was going to be born on her first birthday. We went to the hospital with what I thought were contractions. After some time in the air conditioning (ours had broken) and drinking a pitcher of water, the contractions stopped. So we left the hospital and went to Patience's 1st birthday party. I was there but was awfully uncomfortable. After a few more days of on-again off-again contractions (and one very cranky day in labor at work) Sam was born. Sam and Patience have had joint birthday celebrations. She came to visit us twice in Chicago and Sam often spends time with her family in Iowa during the summer. We hope she will be able to come visit us in California soon.

My mom came with us as well. My vague memories are of her telling me to stop brooding about not knowing what was going to happen in my life. One of my favorite quotes from my mom is, "Worry is like a rocking chair. It doesn't get you anywhere."

I lost my big Pork Board job around this time. I had wanted to leave the job for something else, something more in-line with my soul. I had nearly quit early that summer to go camping with Sam and the Nortons in Glacier National Park. I didn't want the job. But to be told they were done with me wasn't fun. And I didn't have a better plan lined-up yet.

Reluctantly, Sam and I had accepted that we were staying in Iowa for another school year - even though my brother had left for LA and my folks were retiring to Arkansas - leaving within weeks.

In an attempt to be happier in Des Moines, we'd just signed a lease on a new apartment and moved all of our things. (I will never forget all of the help we were given by Sam's Uncle Chad during this move.) Then, bam. No marketing budget next year. Thanks, but no thanks. I'd wanted out and now out was being thrust upon me but what next? I did not know and I was worried.

I think I'd already been to Chicago, looking into it as an option. (My friend, Melissa let us stay with her for three weeks while we were figuring out what to do next. Again, I will be forever grateful.) Maybe I had already applied for the job that would bring us to a new life in Chicago? I started there before Thanksgiving. All I know is that I didn't have the job offer yet.

So here we are, trying not to think about what may or may not happen and enjoy the kids picking pumpkins.

We rode the wagon back to the play area.







I'm sure we watched the pumpkin catapult chunk pumpkins into the lake.

The kids played.











Doesn't it look like everyone is having fun?








Now, here, they really were. I remember. This whole room is like a giant sand box only it is full of corn. They kept burying each other with it in this tub.

We
hit
the
tire
swings
again.








Wee. The long-roped one.













And while I think we played on it in 2002 too, this year is the only year I have
pictures of the kids
playing on this fun rope swing.

They'd swing out and drop off into the hay (or ride back for another go).






I'm sorry I was distracted by worry this time, you guys.

Thanks for being with me that day and brightening my life always. Little did I know the joy to come.