Our Week - The One with a Play Date, the Neurologist, Pumpkins at Callaway, and a City Golf Tournament

What a week!  It was equal parts good and not-so-good, and it has been heartbreaking seeing all of the devastation in the middle east.  So many prayers have been sent up for everyone over there and for everyone here who has been and will continue to be affected by all of the violence.

Monday, October 9

Monday, the kids were still out of school for fall break, so we had some friends over to hang out.  My friend, Jeannine, had to work, so she dropped her boys off at our house at 8:30 that morning, and the kids played all morning while I finished unpacking and getting some things caught up after being out of town all weekend.  I also spent some time playing Barbies with Olivia and Buckley.  <3

Mid-morning, I packed a picnic lunch for all of us, and then we met my friend, Khristina, and her son Noah at one of the big church playgrounds in town.  They have a huge playground and a massive pavilion with picnic tables and grills and firepits and such, but unfortunately, the pavilion was closed for maintenance.  Thankfully, they’d moved the picnic tables out into the grass, so we still had a place to eat.

Khristina and I sat and chatted while the kids played, and then we all ate our picnic lunch.  The weather was gorgeous Monday – sunny and low-seventies – and it was nice to get the kids out for some more fresh air.  We ended up leaving around 1, and then the kids played Minecraft for a bit when we got home before Mack and Buckley’s dad picked them up at 2.  I did also take them on a detour in our neighborhood so they could all see the 12-foot skeleton in our neighbor's yard.  They thought that was a hoot!

After they left, I got some work done in my office, and then Brian and Jacob got ready to head out to his final golf match of the season.  My father-in-law came over so he could ride with them to the match, and then Olivia and I worked on tidying and getting ready for school the next day.

I’d thrown dinner in the crockpot earlier in the afternoon, so when the boys got home, we all sat down to beef stroganoff, steamed green beans, and rolls for dinner, and my father-in-law joined us.

Jacob played okay on Monday, but it wasn’t his best match.  He ended up shooting a 42 – five double bogeys, two bogeys, and two pars.

After dinner, I headed out to walk/jog, and then I got showered so we could settle in for some TV with the kids.  We watched a bit of the new season of Amazing Race with them, and then sent them to bed.  B and I finished an episode of Shark Tank and then we headed to bed, too.

Tuesday, October 10

Tuesday, was Amazon Prime Day, so I spent the majority of my day on there finding the best deals, creating graphics, sharing them on social media, and holiday shopping for our family. 

At noon, I had my first visit with a neurologist about this vertigo, and the visit was done over video chat.  I only spoke with the PA for this first visit, but she was amazing.  She listened patiently as I went over the whole history, she asked lots of questions, she took lots of notes, she went over my MRI results that I’d had a few weeks prior, and then she put me on hold for 10 minutes while she consulted with the neurologist. 

When she came back on, she told me that they want to order a CTA of the head and neck for me, and it will show more than the MRI did.  Apparently, a CTA shows all of the details of the blood vessels, so they will be able to rule out blockages and such.

After my CTA, I will follow up with the neurologist in the office, and then we’ll go from there.  She said that in the meantime, she wants me to continue with my at-home vestibular rehab, and she told me that pursuing dry needling could be a good idea as well. 

She said that if everything bad is ruled out from the testing (with the cardiologist and the CTA) then we should know once and for all that it is, indeed, the neck muscles causing the issue.  And she said if that turns out to be the issue, they can do trigger point injections to force the neck muscles to relax.  She said that they work similarly to dry needling, but with trigger point injections, they actually inject medication into the muscles (a steroid, I believe) forcing them to relax. 

So, we shall see…

After my appointment, it was some blog work, some more Amazon Prime Day deal-ing, and then it was time to pick up the kids. 

We came straight home so they could start working on homework, and then we dropped Olivia at dance at 5.  When we got home, I worked on laundry, did a stair stepper workout, and got dinner ready – turkey and cheese sliders on Hawaiian rolls, chips, and fruit – and then we ate dinner when Brian and Olivia got home.

By the time dinner was over, it was late, so Olivia jumped in the shower, and I did a Bible study, and then we got the kids in the bed.  B and I ended up spending the rest of the evening discussing Christmas gifts for the kids and making a couple of purchases on Amazon, and then we called it a night, too.

Wednesday, October 11

Wednesday was Prime Day, round 2, so that consumed most of my day.  I did manage to squeak out a whole blog post, too, though.

At 3, I grabbed the kids, got Olivia to dance, and then Jacob and I headed home.  It was drizzly and chilly all day, so we stayed cozy in the house for the rest of the evening.  When Brian and Olivia got home, we had dinner – one pan sausage, sweet potatoes, broccoli, onions, and zucchini with rolls – and then I got in a mixed cardio workout while the kids got ready for bed.  It was still raining after dinner, so I wasn’t able to get out for my evening walk, which was a bummer, but I made do.  I had a ton of laundry to do anyway, so I figured it was best that I just stay close to home and work on that after my mixed cardio workout.

After my workout, I chatted with my Aunt Joy and my cousin, Shelby about flights to New York City, and WE GOT OUR FLIGHTS BOOKED!!!!  Eeeek!  I’m so excited I can’t even stand it!  We’re going right after the Rockefeller Tree lighting, so it should be a wonderful, Christmasy trip!  I can’t wait for my Momma to experience New York City!

 

After that was done, we got caught up on episode one of Amazing Race and then we started the second episode, and then after the kids went to bed, we watched some more of Only Murders in the Building while I wrapped up Amazon Prime Day two!  Whew!  It’s always an exhausting two days!

Thursday, October 12

Thursday morning, I woke up to a to-do list a mile long since I had neglected everything the previous two days to do the Amazon sale, so I dropped the kids at school and hunkered down to tackle my list.  It. was. long.

It was super yucky outside – chilly and dark and raining all day – so it was actually quite cozy.  I stayed in leggings and a sweatshirt all day and it was the perfect kind of day to get things done inside.  I was laser focused on Thursday, so it was a very productive day, and by the time it was time to pick up the kids I had put a giant dent in my to-do list.  We headed straight to piano and voice lessons after that, and then we had to swing by my parents’ house to drop off a few things.

We headed home after that and the kids worked on homework while B and I made breakfast for dinner – eggs, grits, bacon, sausage, and toast – and then after that, I got out for a walk/jog.  It was still misty raining and quite chilly, but I bundled up and got it done anyway.

When I got back, we watched some of The Amazing Race with the kids, and then Brian and I watched the Braves lose before we went to bed.

Friday, October 13

Friday morning, I dropped the kids at school and settled in to work on blog stuff pretty much all day.  I had a few other things that I had to do as well, and I managed to tackle all of it before it was time to pick up the kids from school.

Friday afternoon, we got the news that Jacob's science teacher has stage four pancreatic cancer that has spread to her liver.  She will obviously no longer be at school while she faces a very long journey, and I had to break the news to Jacob after school.  He was very sad, and we will all be lifting her and her family in prayer each and every day. 

When we got home from school, we all got ready to make the journey to Callaway Gardens for our annual visit to Pumpkins at Callaway.  We started this tradition with friends in 2021 when it first opened, and we’ve been every year since.  They continue to add to it each year and it just keeps getting better and better.

The weather was very questionable all day Friday as it had been dreary and chilly, and a fine mist of rain had settled in for most of the day, but we decided to take our chances and go to Callaway anyway even though it is an outdoor event.  It ended up staying dry for us the entire night except for the last 30 minutes or so as we walked through the lit forest.  The drizzle made it even more spooky, though.  ;o)

We met my friends Jeannine and Khristina and their families up there late in the afternoon, and we immediately started doing all of the festive things!  First up, we scoped out the tent to see what was going on there, and then we made our way to the trolley to go to the corn maze and sunflower fields. 

The sunflower field was HUGE this year and many of them were in full bloom, and it was just so gorgeous to see.  Sunflowers have always been one of my favorite flowers (my whole room was decorated in sunflowers in my early teens), and it was just so beautiful to see them all in bloom.

After that, we walked through the patch of giant pumpkins, and it was just crazy how huge they were.  All of those pumpkins in the pictures below are real pumpkins, the largest weighing in at 1,696 lbs!!

The kids wanted to do the corn maze next, so we tackled the easy one first, and then since that one only took a few minutes, we decided to do the hard one.  We managed to make it out in record time this year – last year, I believe it took us a good 30-45 minutes – but this year, we were done in about 15. 

 

By the time all of that was done, it was dinner time, so we stopped by the food trucks for barbecue and mac n cheese, and we sat around a picnic table and ate.  The weather ended up being perfect the whole time.  It was chilly and a bit dreary, but it was actually quite festive for fall!  And it made for some good picture-taking because the sun wasn’t beating down.

After dinner, we milled around that area for a bit longer as there were some more sights to see, and there was also a live band, and then it was time to ride the trolley back to the other part of Pumpkins at Callaway where we’d come in.  That side is full of lights, so it’s best experienced in the dark, so we wanted to wait until the sun had gone down to do all of those things. 

 

On the trolley ride back over, the kids were suuuuper festive (AKA CRAZY HYPER), and they sang the Ghostbusters song at the tops of their little lungs all the way back.  So, if you were on the trolley around 7:30 on Friday night, yep, those were our kids being festive obnoxious.  My apologies.  Lol.

When we got back to the other side, we walked through the lit-up forest, which is always a favorite, and then we took a detour this year to walk through Foggy Hollow which was a new feature.  We ended up loving it so much!  They had a spooky creek, fog and lights everywhere, a screen that projected animals onto it as if they were right there with you, and a bubble machine that made special bubbles that turned to fog when you popped them.  We loved it so much that we walked through it twice!

After that, we made our way back to the tent, and we got there just in time to see a duo who did all kinds of juggling and balancing tricks.  The kids were enthralled, and Olivia was so excited about all of it that I watched her face just as much as I watched the show.  The guys were really great, and we all agreed it was like getting to watch America’s Got Talent in person.

After that show was done, we watched a pie eating contest, we swung by the tower of pumpkins outside, and then we hit the road because it was getting late, and we had quite a drive to get back home.  At home, the kids got into bed, B and I got caught up on The Golden Bachelor, and then we called it a night.

 

Saturday, October 14

Saturday morning, Jacob had his city golf tournament to wrap up his fall golf season.  The boys had to leave early, so we were all up early, and after they left, Olivia and I stayed in our PJs and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas. 

She and I got dressed mid-morning and headed to the golf course just in time to watch him wrap up his last few holes.  He ended up shooting a 43 which wasn’t his greatest score, but the course was really soaked from all the rain we’d had, and I think that messed him up a bit.  He ended up with six double bogeys, two bogeys, and a birdie, and I was excited to be able to be there to see that one!

After all the kids were done, they had a little awards ceremony, and then we all headed home.  Back at home, I got in my mixed cardio workout for the day, we started on some laundry, and we finished watching ESPN College GameDay. 

The Georgia game was on at noon, so we ate lunch and I decorated for Halloween (finally!!) while I watched, and the kids did their laundry and got the house tidied.  Georgia got another win after a rocky start, and then we all got ready for church.

After church, we grabbed pizza to take home, and then we settled in for family movie night.  The kids wanted Beetlejuice, so I napped on the couch as I’ve never really been a fan.  Haha.

After the movie, we got the kids in the bed and then B and I ended the night with more college football.

 

Sunday, October 15

Sunday morning, we all slept in (praise!), and then we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  Jacob tackled some science project work after breakfast, and I got the week ahead all planned.  After that, I got in a yoga workout, and I also watched the sermon that I watch every Sunday morning.

We all got ready and headed to my mother-in-law’s and step-father-in-law’s after that for lunch.  We celebrated my step-FIL's birthday while we were there, and it was nice getting caught up with them since we hadn’t seen them in a couple of weeks.

My parents were out of town over the weekend, so we had nowhere to be the rest of Sunday, and I was happy to accept the break since we’ve been going nonstop so much lately. 

It was another dreary day, so I spent the afternoon in my office working on blog stuff, catching up on life stuff, and getting ready for the week ahead, and the kids played video games.

When Brian got home from his tennis match, we had some White Chicken Chili leftovers that I’d frozen from the last time I made a batch, and then we had another family movie night… Hocus Pocus!  And Olivia made another ghost rice crispy treat to eat during the movie.  ;o)

 

We haven’t been home much on the weekends lately, so we’re trying to squeeze in all of the Halloween movies whenever we can!

And unfortunately, B injured both of his knees at his tennis match (because the courts were so slippery from all of the rain we've had) so he's been in a bit of pain the last couple of days.  He doesn't think it's anything too serious, but we're keeping a close eye on things... hopefully they're just mildly sprained.

Happy Tuesday, y’all!