Is this year really almost over? I can’t believe it’s nearly November.

We started out the month with one more photo session with Briana. We were worried this session would be our last with her. Hard to believe she’s done all of our photos since Little Man was 17 weeks old. As always we adore them.

The next two weekends were busts. Staff duty and cleaning the house took over our time as we prepared for a visit from my in laws, which didn’t end up happening. My FIL couldn’t get off work and my MIL wasn’t able to board their dogs. Normally, I don’t mind the dogs visiting,  but Little Man was having a bit of a mean streak with our doggos and I wasn’t comfortable with having four dogs in the house while the Mister wasn’t home. I didn’t want anyone getting hurt. I still feel awful about it. It’s been so long since we’ve seen them.

I shouldn’t say the weeks were total fails. We did check out 3 new pumpkin patches in the area. None of them were as good as last year, but we figured we had to try some new ones.

First stop was just a local pumpkin patch. Boyd’s Pumpkin Patch in Clarksville, TN. Nothing fancy. Just some pumpkins, a sunflower field, and a handful of displays for photo ops.

The next stop was a family-run working farm with lots of animals and some decorative pumpkins. Patterson Family Farm in Woodlawn, TN.

The third patch we visited was Fiddle Dee Farms in Greenbrier, TN. It was more of your traditional pumpkin patch experience with activities, a corn maze, and overpriced pumpkins.  Ironically, this one was the least fun in my opinion. It should have been a great time, but maybe there were too many people or the fact that Little Man was a bit of a grump. Or maybe I expected it to be like the ones back home or even the one we went to last year…I don’t really know.

The following week was full of doctor’s appointments and sleep studies for the Mister. The injections in his back were pretty rough this time. We learned he is having trouble breathing while he sleeps, but since it’s not full blown sleep apnea, they’re going to give him a mouth guard to position his jaw rather than a CPAP machine.

We still aren’t 100% sure if PCSing will happen, but we’re going to treat things like it is and prep for a move. The hope not to move is pretty dim, but we have some direction now. The Mister is having a face to face with his PCM on November 4 and a spinal ablation November 9. If that doesn’t work, the next step is to return to Walter Reed to see the neurosurgeon again. Once again, hurry up and wait at its finest.

The following weekend we took a little trek down to Franklin, TN to try one more pumpkin patch: Gentry Farm. We should have gone here first! This 150+year working farm was beautiful and the atmosphere was so much nicer. There was a lot of photo ops and the history of the place was so interesting. There were several mazes and lots of decorative pumpkins to choose from.  The staff was so helpful and kind and Little Man was able to burn off some energy. It was a gorgeous day as well.

The rest of the month was low key. We squeezed in one more mini Halloween session with Briana. Corduroy was a hit!

His costume ended up being a nightmare to put together.  Originally,  I had a teddy bear costume ordered to go with the overalls but it never showed (thanks to delays in shipping/supply chain issues). So I had to hustle to find all the pieces.

That was just the beginning. I ordered solid tan/brown jammies but what arrived was the completely wrong color. Then, the slippers arrived but were the wrong size (despite measuring his feet and ordering based on the size chart). His ears came but didn’t match since his jammies were wrong.

So…I had to reorder everything.  The jammies in the right color weren’t in stock.  The slippers didn’t come any bigger. And the ears only came in sets of 4. We ended up scouring the mall for a brown solid top. No one had any! Luckily, Old Navy had a pajama set that was brown in his size.  It wasn’t solid, but the pattern was subtle (they’re even bear-themed!). I managed to find slippers to match that arrived in time…only for them to be too big! They stayed on though and he’ll grow into them. Despite the struggle, I think he looked cute.

Then we did our own little Halloween shoot at home. No trick or treaters since the pups aren’t keen on the doorbell. Had him in his Corduroy outfit but he loooooves the skeleton romper, so we switched it up.

We ended up carving pumpkins and staying home to watch Halloween movies. I think next year we’ll try trick or treating. Since Little Man doesn’t say much yet, it will be better that way.

November is going to be interesting. Doctors appointments, potentially trying to get our house ready to sell (sad face), staff duty on Thanksgiving (super frustrating!)…it’s a bit overwhelming to think about. We’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out.

Until then,

Cheers!

–A. xoxo