Jerry Smith Pumpkin Patch

Today we took a day trip to Kenosha, WI to visit the pumpkin patch. Ella has been looking forward to this for awhile now, so she was very excited to actually be going. We got a little later start than we were hoping for (I was held up at the doctor), but we made it up there in time to grab a late lunch at Culver's and then head to the pumpkin patch. It was very busy today, seeing as that this was the first sunny day we have had in about 2 weeks!!! We still had a great time. They had displays set up with pumpkins painted with faces and setting on different bodies, most of them were children's characters. We also fed the farm animals for a bit and let Ella play on the playground. There was lots of room to walk, even with all the people. After a little snack of popcorn and a cookie we decided to try the corn maze. It wasn't much of a maze, we made one wrong turn, but it was still fun. Here is Ella and I in the maze.

Ella was so funny in the maze. Once we got into it she kept asking us if were reading our maps. Well, we didn't get maps for this maze (that's how easy it was!), so I gave her a piece of paper I had in my pocket and told her that was her maze. She carried it the rest of the way and kept telling us that we had to "go 15 paths to the north and 15 paths to the east". Then when we would pass the little signs that they had posted around, mostly stating fun facts, Ella would hold her map up to the sign and say "ok, we are going the right way". It was fun venturing through there with her, she really liked it.

Ella reading her "map"

After the maze we then went to pick out our pumpkins. They had some great pumpkins there! We picked out one fairly large one and then let Ella pick out a smaller one. We are hoping to carve them next weekend. It was a fun day and something different to do. It is only about 60 miles to drive up there and it's a nice change of scenery.

Here is Marc and Ella in front of the store

I figured I should throw in a couple of updates as well since I haven't written any blogs for awhile. As far as trying to get pregnant goes, we are trying again. Last month I took Clomid and some other hormones and we tried on our own and were unable to get pregnant. This month we are doing the same things, except we are going to do artificial insemination instead of trying on our own. So, we are hoping for the best, we just did the inseminations this weekend. I go back for a pregnancy test on October 30th.

The other major thing that has happened in our house is that we had to get rid of one of our cats, Mona. We have always had problems with Mona, she would potty on the floor frequently and she also had chronic upper respiratory problems. For the last month or so she had started peeing on the floor multiple times a day, every day. I had finally had enough and decided to bring her into the vet. I have had her into the vet many times throughout the last couple of years and there is nothing physically wrong with her, she just has behavior issues. So, Marc and I had decided that it was time to put her to sleep. I was having a very hard time with the decision, but I knew it was the right thing for us to do. I brought her in and was very emotional and had a good discussion with the vet. She wanted to make sure that I was aware of all my options and I was. So, she said if I wanted to put her down that was fine, we had exhausted our options (within reason). Although she offered me one last option, I could give up ownership of Mona and the vet would see if anyone at the vet office would be interested in taking her. If so, great, if not then she would be put to sleep. So, that was a good option for me seeing that Mona is the sweetest cat ever. I told the vet I didn't need to know what happened to her, so I can just assume the best! So, we have had a few hard weeks around here, but nothing major, just emotional.

Mona