More Big News!

We have great news! The house is OURS. Well, as of December 20th when we close. But the inspection went well and the mortgage process is moving along swimmingly. So it looks like we will actually have somewhere to live when we move to Michigan next week! I'm really excited for this house. It's absolutely beautiful. I mean, it looks beautiful in the pictures. I haven't actually seen it in person yet. But no worries. When Kevin went up to look at it, I sent him armed with the camera and told him to take pictures of the rooms that weren't posted online, since the realtor had only posted the kitchen, family room, basement family room, and pool. Of course Kevin did as I asked and took pictures. Of the kitchen, family room, basement family room, and pool. (Sometimes I wonder why I try.)  But I'm not concerned at all. I mean, if the house ends up sucking I'll just blame Kevin for ruining my life. Easy, peasy. 

As is the story of our lives, the whole moving thing is now old news. Boooooooring. So in true Hockenberry fashion, why not add another factor to the mix?  


Ta-Da!


 

In case you're wondering, yes, that is a picture of me in the bathroom mirror at work. Call me Klassy. Or 13. Whichever works fine in this situation.


No, I didn't eat a really big burrito for dinner last night. (Actually, I did eat a really big burrito for dinner last night. And 2 baskets of chips. But that's totally beside the point.) There's a BABY in there! A real, live, non-food baby. Surprised? So are we!!! Seriously. We're actually still wondering how this happened. We were both under the impression that in order to conceive a baby you need to have some sort of "intimate relations". Apparently that is not the case. If you need confirmation of that, you can just ask Kevin since up until now he's been more than happy to bitch about it.

So how did we find out? By pure chance. I decided to take a test "just in case" before we went up to Michigan for hunting season, mainly because my mom had been going on and on for weeks about 1) pumpkin martinis, 2) wine, 3) pumpkin martinis, and 4) pumpkin martinis. She was so happy to finally be able to relax and hang out with one of her daughters since both Kerry and I have either been pregnant or breastfeeding for the past 2 years straight. I already knew I wasn't pregnant (see "intimate relations" above) but I figured it wouldn't hurt to verify it before indulging in what I was guessing would be copious amounts of pumpkin martinis. In fact, I was so sure about the results that I decided to verify before work on the morning we planned to leave. Immediately there were two pink lines staring at me. I hate to admit it, but I believe the first word out of my mouth was not a nice one. Nor was the second. I know the next thing out of my mouth was "Kevin! Wake UP! We have a really big problem!".

Now before you get all high and mighty on me for referring to our little bundle of joy as a problem, you have to understand a few things. For starters, we already have a kid. A toddler. And when people have asked when we were going to try for the next one, we said when we've made it through the first one. We haven't even come close to achieving that goal yet. Second, I breastfed Greyden for a full year. Which means that the day I took my pregnancy test was just shy of a month from the day I quit. I had JUST started being able to have a glass of wine with dinner or a few beers on the weekends with friends. And I was finally able to drink coffee without worrying about whether or not it was decaff. In short, life was just starting to become highly enjoyable again. Yes, I know I've done it before so it shouldn't be that hard this time around. But with Greyden I was mentally prepared and completely aware and committed to the sacrifices I'd have to make while being pregnant for 9 months. This one? Yeah, it kind of came out of left field...

This pregnancy is treating me pretty much the same as the last one though. I'm back to having that “morning after drinking binge” feeling pretty much all day, every day. And the sight of certain foods gives me the “that’s definitely the liquor/beer that I binged on last night” feeling as well. Ughhhhh. But so far I only had the one really bad day at my mom’s house where I thought I was dying. The rest of the time it’s just a feeling in the background. But holy hell have I been exhausted. All I want to do is curl up and sleep for hours and hours. I don’t remember it being this bad last time. Of course I didn't have a toddler last time either. 

You would think that the most ironic part of this whole situation would be the fact that we found out we were expecting again one week after deciding we were moving to Michigan. Au contraire. The most ironic part is that I finally packed up my maternity clothes 5 days before I took the test. And unfortunately, it looks like they are going to be needing to make an appearance sooner rather than later, as you can see in the picture below. Yes, those are the pants I was wearing at work yesterday. I was squatting down to file some papers and riiiiiiiiiiiiiip. The seam split wide open. And since I am completely anti-visible panty lines, my thong was right on display for the world to see. THANK GOD I wasn't in a meeting. I only had to figure out how to get from my office to the door. Luckily it was cold so I had my winter coat with me and could shrug it down around my elbows to make my break for the door. I was DYING laughing on the way home. I literally had tears running down my cheeks when I called Kevin and Mom to tell them about it. Kevin commented that I appeared to be taking it really well. I started to reply that it was becasue it was f-ing hilarious, then I realized that he might be calling me fat. In my defense, I've had these pants for years, so I'm sure the seams were just getting *ahem* worn out. 

Yup, split right up the seam. No, it didn't stop me from polishing off the entire burrito last night.

Since I haven't posted a picture of Junior in awhile, I'll post the one that my boss made to hang at her desk at work. It's from his school pictures (which we obviously had retaken, but I had to order at least a couple to show his future girlfriends.) Sidenote: Greyden LOVES to give kisses. Of course his version of a kiss is a wide open mouth coming at you, maybe with a little tongue if you're really lucky. As his mom I think this is just precious and love to get them as much as he loves to give them. (I also mistakenly thought this was the most action I was getting until the day of that faithful pregnancy test when I was proven highly wrong). Apparently there is also a little girl in his classroom at daycare who likes to give the same kind of kisses. His daycare teacher told me that she looked over the other day to see Greyden and Zaylei making out. *Sigh*. I have to give his teacher credit - she was nice enough to say that she’s pretty sure the girl started it, since she appears to be quite the player with all of the little boys. So does that mean we're not already failing as parents at the ripe old age of 1?

The Boring Life of a Hockenberry

Have you every had one of those days where you are just bored with everything? I mean, sometimes life gets boring. That's just the way it is. It's not always a 3-ring circus, although if you lived my life for a week, I'm sure you'd beg to differ. Especially when Kevin gets yet another crazy idea in his head (which he is supposed to be banned from doing.) That's how we ended up with a boat. And an RV. And a Jeep. Now it's the reason we will be moving back home to Michigan in a few weeks. Yes, a few weeks. As in less than 3. Don't worry, we've had plenty of time to prepare for it. Like, 2 whole weeks so far.


It's a little strange to think of Texas as not being home. It started out as our 2 year experiment turned into 6 full years. I don't think anyone saw that one coming. But I guess things were getting too comfortable and boring around here so it's obviously time to change things up. When Kevin's current company eliminated his position a couple of weeks ago, they offered him either a stellar severance package or a new position with a smaller salary, a smaller territory, and a smaller commission. (They couldn't possibly have expected people to jump at such a great opportunity like that one, right?) Then he gets a call from a competing company offering him a position back in Michigan (which is ironic, since that's exactly how we ended up in Texas in the first place.) Everything started falling into place, and since we're not ones to mess with fate, we're going with it. Which means that in less than 3 weeks, we'll be back in Michigan for good. (Yes, 3 weeks puts us in mid-December. No, I don't know what kind of morons move to Michigan in mid-December. Well, I obviously have an idea...)


Since we were planning on heading up to Michigan for hunting season in mid-November anyway, we used that time to look for a house to lease for 12 months. We didn't want to buy, since we didn't want to tie ourselves to a specific area until we figured out where I'd end up working. So we picked out a rental house in Brighton, Michigan. It’s nice. Not perfect, but it would definitely work for a year and was pretty much the only one that we liked out of the 5 that we looked at. So we go through the lease application and credit checks. Everything is good. We hop in the RV and head back to Texas early so that we could start packing. I think we were going through Missouri when we get a call from the realtor saying that the owner changed his mind and wouldn’t entertain anything under a 24 month lease. Are.You.Freaking.Kidding.Me. Had we known THAT 1) we wouldn’t have chosen that house and 2) we would have stayed in Michigan a few more days and kept looking for other ones. We were hoping to buy in the Spring/Summer anyway if possible, so there's no way we wanted to do anything over a 12 month. We would be lucky to be in there 9 months. So we said no. Then the guy came back with 16 months. We rolled our eyes and again said no.  By this time we’re back in Texas, moving in 3 weeks, and are homeless. We start looking online again and find a beautiful house to rent. Love it. It finally looks like this is going to work out after all. We started moving forward with it, only to find out that the owner had another offer for a 3 year lease with an option to buy at the end. Seriously people? Can we catch a break here? The realtor told us that the only way to put ourselves ahead of that guy was to buy it outright, which (as you'll recall) we had already summoned all of our financial responsibility-ness and decided against until we'd been up there for a while. Which means that the following day, Kevin was on a plane headed up to look at it to see if we wanted to buy it. I have no idea if this is a good idea, a bad idea, a horrible idea, or the worst idea we could possibly have. All I know is that we're moving in 2.5 weeks and still have no where to move too. It's a little stressful. 


After we made the decision that we were moving, the next question we asked is what am I going to do once we get there? (The correct answer is sit at home and pop bon-bons while Kevin is at work and Greyden is at daycare). As much as I'd LOVE to be the stay-at-home-mom type, I'm not. At all. I was the person begging my boss to let me come back to work 2 weeks early from my maternity leave. I need structure and routine, both of which Greyden pretty much sucks at. Don't get me wrong, I love the kid more than anything, but I could only take so much playing Bump on the Log with him. And to those people who told me that I would change my mind and want to stay home with him once he got older and more interactive:  WRONG. Now he's nice and mobile and never, ever where I left him. Yes, he's fun. Until you're ready to fall over from exhaustion and he's still going strong. Then he's not so fun anymore. 


When I told my boss that I was leaving (I'm surprised she could understand me with how hard I was crying - professional, I know) she was as upset as I was (minus the bawling like a baby part). She immediately asked me to do contract work for her, to which I happily agreed. I love my job and I was going to jump at the chance to keep doing it (even though I know she'd give me the shit jobs as punishment for leaving her). But even with having that opportunity, we still didn't want to buy a house, just in case I eventually needed to find a permanent job in the future. So why are we suddenly okay with buying? 1) We can't find a house to lease, 2) we tend to be the "go big or go home" types, 3) apparently life just wasn't exciting or stressful enough for us, and 4) my boss offered me the opportunity to stay on as a permanent, full-time Lexicon employee working remotely. She actually text me and asked if I was interested while we were still in Michigan. Excuse me while I bounce up and down in my seat like I just won the lottery. YES I WANT TO STAY ON! That's the only hesitation I had with moving in the first place. I didn't want to quit my job. My boss is amazing, my job is amazing, my company is amazing. So it looks like that's going to be a go! NOW I'm excited for this move (and not nearly as terrified as I was when we started this whole process).


The final step in this process is praying that everything goes through and we have a house to move into in the next few weeks. Hopefully we'll know for sure by the end of the week. If not, I guess it's a good thing we have the RV, because we'll be Cousin Eddie-ing it for the next few months!

Mommy Went to China and All I got was a Stupid Stuffed Panda...

I've now been back from China for 2 weeks and let me tell you, I still don't think I'm recovered. That is a LONG trip and a LONG time to be away from your family. I don't think I'll be jumping onto another plane any time soon (most likely because our plane home almost crashed about an hour outside Shanghai, but that's a different story.) I was lucky, I didn't have any jet lag, but it has been so busy around our house since I've been back that I'm exhausted anyway. I returned on Saturday, October 22, my in-laws left on Tuesday, Greyden got sick that evening and spent the next 2 days puking, Kevin and I caught the bug on Friday, we had family pictures and Greyden's 1 year pictures on Saturday, Greyden's 1st birthday party on Sunday, Halloween on Monday, Greyden's actual birthday on Tuesday, and Daddy's birthday is this Friday. I want to curl up into a ball, crawl under my down comforter (which is my one Michigan memento that I could never give up - and yes, we sleep under it all year round), and sleep for the next 2 weeks.

When people ask me what China was like, I tell them it was, well, China. I think it's one of those places you need to visit in order to understand. Shanghai was the absolute largest city I have ever been in. The high rises spanned for miles and miles, easily as far as your eye could see (although with the smog, that probably wasn't as far as you'd think). I have to admit that the heart of the city was beautiful. It reminded me of a giant Chicago - skyscrapers everywhere, but a lot of trees and green space too. The auditor that my boss and I traveled with goes to Shanghai about 3 times a year, so having our own personal tour guide was pretty sweet. It was very nice to be able to get on the subway and go somewhere without riding in circles for hours on end. Not that that's happened to me before.

I had every intention of documenting my trip on my blog while I was there, but guess what? Blogger was blocked. As was Facebook. I have no idea what the government thinks they are accomplishing by blocking social websites, because seriously, when your country sucks, you can rest assured that word is going to get out. And I'm going to probably be at the front line yelling about it the loudest. The people in China were horrible. The best word that I can think of to describe them was uncivilized. Or maybe heathens. Rude, pushy, loud, impatient, no manners, no concept of personal space, inappropriate, non-customer/service oriented (since there's no tipping, they get paid regardless of how they treat you), etc. The list goes on. By the end of the trip I decided that if I heard one more person slurp their food when eating (everything from soup to burgers) I would punch them. And the next person that spit in front of me would encounter the same fate. (Yes, I realize that this would involve me taking down hundreds of people at once, but by that point I was pretty sure I could do it.) Barb and I never could figure out why our drivers spent the entire time the were driving us around honking their car horns. It was non-stop. Every time they passed a car, came up behind a car, looked at a car, and even sometimes when there wasn't a car in sight, they'd honk their horn a few times. And everyone else was doing it too. Freaking weirdos.

While Shanghai was actually pretty (as long as you stayed downtown), the outskirts of the city were dilapidated industrial zones. When we went even further outside of the city (4 hours south  by train) it was like riding through the poorest Mexico you can imagine. Our host at one of our vendors mentioned that he and his family had actually moved back to China last year. I cannot even begin to imagine why anyone would CHOOSE to live in these kind of conditions. He told us his wife was bored in the US. Um, really? Have you never heard of Disney World? NYC? Skydiving?  Why would you want to give up a good life to go back to China and slum it? And worse, move your children back to those kind of conditions. I don't understand. I guess I can't say for certain that that they didn't live in a nice house, but honestly, I didn't even see one while we were there so I have reason to doubt that they exist.

While the accommodations of those living in China were god-awful, our accommodations were pretty damn sweet. The nice part about China is that the vendors that you work with treat Westerners like royalty so that you continue to do business with them. We stayed at really fancy hotels and ate at some really good restaurants. I have to admit, I was worried about the food. My suitcase may or may not have been stocked with 30+ emergency granola bars. But I really didn't have to worry. Yes, the food was different, as was the style of serving it, but it was pretty good. The Chinese traditionally serve dinners family-style. The tables are round, with a large Lazy Susan in the middle, like this:

 

Once you're seated, the waitstaff just begin bringing dishes out. You just spin the Lazy Susan until you get to the dish you want, then remove a portion with your chopsticks. (Kevin can no longer make fun of me for using chopsticks when eating at Asian restaurants. It's a damn good thing I was well-practiced, because forks weren't even offered.) The amount of food provided at each meal was staggering. And remember people, I'm a Shagene. If I say the amount of food was staggering, you can imagine how much of it there actually was. I'd have to say at least 30 different dishes were brought out at each meal. When one dish was empty, they'd replace it with something else. I even made myself at least try everything offered. (Okay, I turned down the fish skin and fried fungus on the breakfast buffet). But I did eat sugar cane, stir-fried conch, jelly fish, snails, weird muscles that looked like they were sitting in pools of blood, and blow fish. (Don't worry, the chef has to eat the blow fish 15 minutes before it's served to you to ensure that it has been prepared correctly and is not poisonous. If he lives, then they'll serve it to you. Yes, I'm 100% serious right now. Please tell me you've seen The Simpsons episode when Homer eats the blow fish....)  We were also taken out for Hot Pot one night, which must be a spin-off of the Melting Pot restaurants here in the states. (I kid, I kid). A large pot of broth is brought out and put on a burner set in the table. Then large dishes of slivered raw meat and veggies are brought out. You use your chopsticks to drop some in the broth, stir it around, then dig it back out. Really good, but SO MUCH WORK. I knew there was a reason I refuse to go to the Melting Pot.

Oh! And the BEST part about China was the fashion. Or lack of. I have never been to a place where I 100% seriously wondered if people got dressed in the dark every morning. Or if they even have mirrors. I saw the most mis-matched clothes that you can imagine. Think a green argyle shirt with an orange plaid shirt over top. With a pair of purple MC Hammer-style pants and brown 4 inch platform sandals to complete the look. And everyone was dressed like that. I couldn't even imagine the type of stores that sold these things. I've seen 4 year olds dress themselves better.

Funny story - the purpose of us going to China was to audit two of our vendors. The first one we visited for two days straight. Upon leaving the second day, we were going straight to the train station and riding 4 hours south to the next vendor, whom we were auditing the following day. We usually dress business casual for audits, however on the second day I asked my boss if she thought it would be okay if I wore jeans so that I wouldn't be traveling all evening in dress clothes. She said she didn't think it would be a problem. I still felt a little self conscious when we showed up the next day. That is, until our host walked into the room wearing the EXACT same outfit she had worn the day before. And the reason I know it was the exact same outfit is because I figure one can only have so many pairs of purple plaid, wool pants, black shirts with swirlies on them, and a tan jackets with white polka. Pretty sure people aren't going to buy duplicates of that one.

Now back to my "death by plane crash" story...the ride coming out of Shanghai was horrible. The turbulence was the worst I have ever encountered. They had just finished serving dinner when the plane started bouncing around and doing some stomach-dropping maneuvers. I admit I'm not much of a flier, but I've never been scared of it. Let's just say I was white knuckling the armrests with my eyes squeezed shut and holding my breath. We had just leveled out (and I had just opened my eyes back up and slightly relaxed my death grip) when the plane started to nose-dive to the point where the food trays and drinks hit the ceiling (and it was at least an 8 foot ceiling), the flight attendants carts overturned, and people screamed. Let me tell you, when you're falling out of the sky over the Pacific Ocean, even the 2 seconds you're actually falling seems like an eternity. Picture yourself on a plane, heading down, and count "one thousand one, one thousand two." I had enough time to think to myself that this was it and I really was going to die, when the plane leveled out again. Unfortunately the turbulence didn't stop, although nothing was as bad as that. And the flight attendant was nice enough to come on and explain that "the temperature changes in the Spring and Fall can cause unforeseen weather conditions which was what caused the drop." Had she been able to say it without her voice shaking uncontrollably, I might have actually believed her. The worst part of the flight wasn't even the nose-dive. No, it was the fact that we still had 9.5 HOURS LEFT ON THE FREAKING PLANE. I don't think I've ever prayed so much or hard in my life. Every bump after that was enough to make me almost puke.  

Oh, and one more funny story, this time about the plane. Remember how I said that the Chinese have no concept of personal space and are incredibly impatient? I was sleeping on the ride home when the Chinese guy next to me tapped me on the shoulder so that he could get out and use the bathroom. Of course the first thing I did was make a point of leaning forward and looking around him to the guy on the other side of him who was also on the aisle and AWAKE, then looking back at him like you are the stupidest person on earth. Then I started to gather up my blanket so that I could stand up. Before I could do that, the guy was trying to STRADDLE ME in order to get over me and to the aisle. Um, I don't think so Scooter. That guy got pretty much picked up and thrown back into his seat (and consequently, the empty seat next to him). Then I gave him an "if you even CONSIDER touching me, looking at me, or breathing in my direction again, I will kill you" death glare. Then I stood up (still glaring daggers at him) and let him out. I don't think he breathed for the rest of the flight, which was definitely in his best interest.


Needless to say, after all of that we made it home safely. While I am incredibly thankful I had the opportunity to go, it was SO good to get home (or even be alive at that point) and hold my baby again. We had Skyped every morning while I was gone, so being gone wasn't as bad as it could have been. And the silver lining was that while I was gone, he was weaned from breastfeeding! So I got to come home to a fabulous, formula-fed baby and an ICE-COLD BEER. I'd say that was reason enough to go on the trip.

The view from my hotel room in Shanghai

Downtown Shanghai

Heading into Old Town

Old Town

Old Town

Old Town



Yuyuan Garden is a famous classical garden located in Anren Jie, Shanghai. The garden was finished in 1577 by a government officer of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) named Pan Yunduan. Yu in Chinese means pleasing and satisfying, and this garden was specially built for Pan's parents as a place for them to enjoy a tranquil and happy time in their old age. Don't get any ideas, Mom and Dad.



Lost in translation

Yuyuan Garden

Yuyuan Garden

Yuyuan Garden

Barbara and Boyd at an awesome Thai restaurant where we stopped for beer after our long day of sightseeing. Come to think of it, we stopped quite a bit....

In the subway station - thanks for the warning.

My hotel room in Shanghai - the walls slid closed to cover the bathroom window.

The buildings were all light shows in and of themselves.

My awesome bathroom in Linhai.

A close up of the box on the counter when I arrived.

A close up of the box on the counter when I left (for the record of course)

"Besides, you can DIY while your sex partner is absent." At least they made the vibrator more agreeable.

I mean, I guess I'm happy that the couple can live in a healthier, cleaner, but wtf does it even mean?

Where do I get one of these for my bedroom at home???

The view from my hotel room in Linhai.

The other view from my hotel room. I hope my flash didn't disturb his morning Tai Chi too much.

Our room at the seafood restaurant our hosts in Linhai took us to.



The view from the restaurant

Another view.

And again.

Tombs in the side of a mountain. The white tombs peppered the mountain-sides as we drove from our hotel to the vendor site. There were literally hundreds of them.

Close up of a tomb.

To give you an idea of the living conditions.

Probably one of the nicest houses we saw the entire trip.

Happy Halloween!

First and foremost - Happy birthday to my favorite little man! I don't know where the time went, but he's a whole year old today! That makes me sad, but it's been fun watching him grow up and learn new things. We had his birthday party last weekend, so once I collect the pictures from our resident photographers, I'll post a birthday party recap. Today is also the birthday of one of my other favorite people - HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY MOM! I love you and hope you have a wonderful day! Now on to HALLOWEEN!

We had a hard time deciding what to do for Halloween this year. For one thing, Kevin and I aren't really Halloween people. I don't decorate for it, we don't carve pumpkins, and we've never dressed up for it. When we got married on October 30, everyone was SO excited that they'd get to wear a costume to our wedding reception. Um, no. The only people that would be in "costume" would be the bride and groom, thankyouverymuch. I think the most we've ever done for Halloween was hauling ourselves off the couch (beer in hand) to pass out candy during commercial breaks. We won't even consider going to a Halloween party unless the invitation specifically says "costumes optional".

Alas, that all changed when we were dealt the Parenting Card. Time to put on our "Yay! It's Halloween!" faces. The problem we ran into this year was what exactly to do with a 1 year old on Halloween. The grandparents aren't nearby so it's not like we can take him over to their houses for some healthy treats of graham crackers and apple juice (which I know they'd shower him with over candy any day). And going around showing him off to complete strangers in our neighborhood didn't really sound like fun either. He can't really really trick-or-treat for candy since he can't eat it (and everyone knows that taking a 1 year old trick-or-treating is just the parents way of scoring free candy). In true "Leah" fashion, I was contemplating skipping this year (he won't remember it anyway, right?) when I talked to my friend Nicole and found out that she and her husband sit in their driveway and drink cocktails pass out candy on Halloween. Now THAT is something that I can get on board with. 

After we had secured step 1 and made some actual Halloween plans, we moved on to step 2 - Finding the Halloween Costume. I figured it couldn't be that difficult. Then I got online. OMG there are THOUSANDS of costumes. It took me 2 weeks to narrow it down to a puffy dragon or a puffy cow. (I have a thing for puffy babies.) Kevin was pretty adamant about not dressing our child as a cow until I told him that the costume was only $10. Sold. Of course I had to throw in a cowbell to complete look. It's probably not the most "manly" of costumes, but I figure by this time next year he's probably going to want to be Freddy Krueger, so I need to take full advantage and dress him as livestock while I still can.

Greyden wondering what those strange-looking things down the street are...



Greyden realizing that the strange-looking things are running at him yelling "Trick-or Treat!" 



His obsession of the evening: the neighbor's kitty cat.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!

It's the Great Pumpkin, Greyden!

In preparation for my trip to China last week (which will be the topic of an upcoming post), I did what any Rock Star employee would do. No, I didn't work overtime to get things tied up before leaving. I took a day off. Okay, maybe I should have said that I did what any first-time mom would do before leaving her baby boy for an entire week. Two days before I was scheduled to leave, Kevin and I packed up Junior and headed out for a day at the pumpkin patch.

So "Great Pumpkin" might be too strong of phrase for the title of this post. Apparently pumpkin patch in Texas = pumpkins trucked in and dumped in a pile, complete with bar codes. So maybe "It's the Great Store-Bought Pumpkin, Greyden!" may be more applicable here. (Come to think of it, we didn't even come home with a pumpkin. How did that happen?) The "pumpkin patch" we found is about 15 miles from our house and is called Oil Ranch. Note to self: Any place that advertises itself as "Houston's largest ranch for corporate events, picnics, school field trips, and groups" is probably not the most authentic pumpkin patch we could have chosen. However it was the only one I could find so we made do with what we had to work with. 

In addition to the pile o' pumpkins in the middle of the lawn dirt, the ranch housed a petting zoo, some livestock, a train, a hayride, some playground equipment, and other random things. Like a tee pee in the middle of nowhere. Kevin and I both had to laugh at the place. It was very........different from what we used to do with our parents as children. My family vacations or outings involved driving....driving up north, driving up to the UP, driving to the west side of the state, or just driving around the back roads for hours on end. I'd say a good 90% of my childhood was spent riding in a car. According to Kevin, his parents didn't do the commercialized places either, so this was quite an experience for both of us. (I should have known it was not going to be our cup of tea when we had to park next to 98 school buses. Or maybe even earlier than that, when we pulled into the parking lot and Kevin said "SCHOOL BUSES?!?!?!" We probably would have stayed longer had they served beer.) Needless to say, we got to pet some animals, rode the train, snapped a few pictures, and got the hell out of Dodge. But it was fun to spend the day with Greyden and he got to see his first "pumpkin patch". And that's what counts.

Greyden's first encounter with an alien creature.



He liked the baby sheep.



I just liked the look on his face in this one. I really wasn't aiming for the sheep's butt.

After removing the animal feed pellets from Greyden's hands and mouth, we fed them to the sheep. Greyden wasn't happy with us.

Staring contest with the turkey.

He really didn't know what to think of these things. I think they reminded him of our cat Phyllis.

Resigned to being sat on a pumpkin.



He's not quite sure why he's in a wheelbarrow.



 

Pumpkin patch! Please disregard the white bar code stickers on them.

He loves to poke things with his thumb lately. Not sure what that's all about.  

Picking out his pumpkin that we didn't take home with us.

On the train

Trying to figure out how it worked.

Covered bridge

Hair blowing in the wind. He loved it. The kid is an adrenaline junkie.  

Practicing walking over the bridge. If we weren't in a severe drought, there would be water under it.

Random tee pee.

The only other picture of Mommy so I'm adding it.

Cool idea for cable spindles. I don't know why my parents didn't think of this. We only had about a hundred of them around the farm.

I added this picture because I am 12. HAHAHAHAHA!!!!