The Case of the Disappearing Pumpkin

Sam didn't finish carving his pumpkin last weekend on Pumpkin Carving Day. So, on Monday (Halloween Eve), after school and after finishing his homework, he figured it was time to get down to business.

He did an excellent job but when we were ready to put the pumpkin outside, it was too dark for a picture.

The next morning, I thought I would set the pumpkins up to get a picture of all three of them together in the morning light but it was still too dark.

I went inside to get some breakfast and wait for it to get a bit brighter.

When I went back outside, there were only two pumpkins remaining on the fence.

Where was my pumpkin? Had it fallen or been pushed off the wall? These two looked like they had been up to something.

I looked over the fence and saw this trail of pumpkin pieces leading down into the darkness.

I grabbed the walking stick my dad had sent as a gift to Sam and started down the steep hill in search of my pumpkin.








I found her cap under a tree.










Then, there she was, lying alone at the bottom of the hill.

Officer Dixie investigated the crime scene.

What happened to the fatally wounded pumpkin?

That is the question for the Great Pumpkin Detective.

Pumpkin Carving

As you've seen from my Halloween flashbacks, pumpkins are an important part of our Halloween tradition. My mom informs me that she took Sam and a friend of his from Iowa to Carroll's Pumpkin Farm w/o me one year when he was visiting Iowa and I was working in St. Louis. I do vaguely remember encouraging them to keep up the tradition. She doesn't think she has any pictures of the trip.

I asked my mom if she had pictures of us carving pumpkins on previous Halloweens. She said that while we did carve them (and roast the seeds) nearly every year, she doesn't think we usually took pictures. Apparently, we didn't take pictures as often back then. I am thankful for digital cameras (Thanks, Jim & Liz for our first one.) and the way they let you take pictures of things you might not be willing to use film for or want to pay to develop.

This classic shot is one I am happy to have captured on film. Whether he knows it or not, Sam inspired all of this Halloween reminiscing. On our way to the Petaluma Pumpkin Patch, he asked, "Mom, do you remember that time we got that really big pumpkin? The one that was almost as big as me?" I didn't really know which pumpkin he was thinking of but I was so happy he was having fond memories I answered, "Yeah. Wasn't that great?"

I really wanted to remember. So, I dug out the photos (which I love to do anyway) and started looking at Halloween as a category.

Sam looks like he is straining so hard in that picture. I'm trying to remember if at this early age, I had already enacted the, "If you want it, you have to carry it." rule about pumpkins.

Sam always wants the biggest pumpkin and I would love to get it for him but I also know that I usually end up hollowing-out both his pumpkin and mine. The having to be able to carry it rule seemed like a reasonable compromise.

That first year, Sam and Trevor were most interested in the rotten pumpkins and the bugs on them.



Here is another one of those tiny pictures. It looks as if my child is trying to see if he is strong enough to be able to buy this pumpkin.



I figured this was the pumpkin Sam was thinking of when he asked, "remember when?" It was the one I was thinking of because of the picture. Pictures do so much to preserve memories. I don't know if he carried this pumpkin. It looks pretty big. Maybe I broke down and got a "big" one that year.

And while I usually, like to pick out our pumpkins during our trip to the pumpkin patch, it was dark this year and the place didn't take credit cards and we didn't have much cash on us.

These are the pumpkins we picked up at a nearby greenery this year. Sam's is the big one in the middle. He did carry it.

Unfortunately, we picked these pumpkins up late on a Sunday morning after running errands. Then, we had lunch and went to the school to play with the new balls we'd picked up at Target that morning. That afternoon, we made some phone calls, did some reading and started thinking about dinner. Sam wanted to carve our pumpkins that day. I had wanted to too but we just ran out of steam (and daylight).

I told him he could carve his if he wanted to. He started poking holes into the top, making this intricate pattern around the stem. Then, he tried diligently to use the tiny pumpkin carving saw to get the top off but it was to no avail. We'd told him he'd need to use a real knife to get it off and I meant to help him but was bushed and didn't get around to it. I thought we'd do it the next day but school and dinner/homework kept us busy every weeknight. By the time we were ready to carve pumpkins, last weekend, his original pumpkin was rotten.

Cam took Sam to Safeway to get Pumpkin #2 (seen in the background).

Sam watched Cam get the top off his pumpkin.




Then started with the intricate dot pattern again...








The guys are thoughtfully proceeding.

I didn't have a new idea for a face so I decided to carve something besides a face in mine. I'd carve a star. See Cam's blog for my less than stellar results. Then, I decided to carve a face on the other side. Except that the other side wasn't so pretty. What about on the side? Fine but it left my pumpkin a bit weak.



Cam's was shaping up nicely.










Finally, Sam broke through. Cam and I were done. I was on the phone talking with my friend, Melissa about possibly meeting up around her dad's house in Santa Barbara for Thanksgiving.

Cam ended up helping Sam empty his pumpkin out. Then, Sam decided he was done for the day.















Trixie inspected.
















Cam arranged.











The pumpkins glowed.

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.

2002 Carroll's Pumpkin Farm

Our move to St. Louis in September of 2000 and return to Iowa in the fall of 2001 kept us occupied and away from Carroll's Pumpkin Farm in those years. But when pumpkin pickin' time rolled around in 2002, we were ready.

Tracey, Matthew and Jessie came with us again. The hay rack ride took us all around the farm. We got off the wagon at the corn maze. I hadn't seen this corn maze on our first trip to Carroll's and don't think I had actually seen a corn maze at all before. We had lots of fun tearing through it.

I love this picture of Jessie. Her hair and the corn are both golden. Her dark shirt and eyes offer a striking contrast.

And that fabulous smile...


We'd invited our friends, Russ and Jane to round up their family and come with us to the pumpkin farm. They wanted to join us but were in the midst of packing for their upcoming move back to Pennsylvania. The adults didn't think they could break away and their oldest son, Luke had a commitment but they asked if we wanted to take Rachel and Mark, the youngest kids, along with us. We were happy to have some time with them.

Another stop along the route of the tractor ride was the notorious pumpkin catapult. This thing is so cool. Every few minutes or so, they load a pumpkin into it and fling it out, 300 feet into the air. It lands in the pond with a kerplunk and shatters upon impact. "Pumpkin Chuckin'" I think I've heard it called.

The boys have changed a bit since the last picture of them sitting in this car.

It is nice that these kids get along so well even though they don't go to the same school or even see each other that often.

That year, we got some good pictures of kids on the tire swings. They have two. Rachel is making good use of the tamer one.




They have another one with a long rope hanging from a tall tree with lots of open space to swing high.

Mark looks happy.


Jessie is having fun.






Matt is fearless.


Bliss.

1999 Carroll's Pumpkin Farm

The day I decided I was ready to let people at work know that I was pregnant with Sam, I made up my mind to tell as many people as I could, to their face so I didn't have to wonder about rumors, if they knew or not or what they were saying. I just ran around the office, popping in on people and saying, "Guess What?" Usually, they'd respond, "What?" and I'd say, "I'm pregnant" then run off and tell the next person.

When I asked my boss at the time to "Guess What?" She said, "Don't tell me you're pregnant." She was such a kind person.

Later, I was in the reception area playing "Guess What?" Several people were in the area so I would be able to share my announcement with multiple people at once. In response to my "I'm pregnant" line, the receptionist said, "I bet I know someone else who is pregnant" and put my friend Tammi totally on the spot.

She was pregnant. I had no idea. Her boss had no idea and she hadn't planned on making her announcement that day. I felt bad that her news was released before she was ready to release it but I hadn't been the one to release it so she wasn't upset with me.



It turned out three of us in the office were all pregnant. We had basically the same due date. Each of us was expecting around the first part of August.

Sam was born in mid-July, then Tammi had Trevor and finally Tracey had Matthew.

All of us
had baby boys.

Each of them
had a daughter
already.


It was wonderful being about to share the experience of being pregnant with coworkers who are also my friends.

We became closer through the experience.







It
was
nice
coming
back
to work
after a
doctor's
appointment and being able to compare notes, "Wasn't that sugary stuff we had to drink awful?"

Even though Tracey left the agency for another job, Tammi left Des Moines for Cedar Rapids and I ran off to St. Louis, Chicago and now California. We've done our best to stay in touch.

I appreciate the friendship and support each of them has shown. They both encouraged me to go for my dreams and have always wanted the best for me.

Both of them were with us on our first trip to Carroll's Pumpkin Patch in 1999 - when the boys were two. I hope you enjoy these pictures. I sure do.