silence is golden

well, the house is strangely quiet other than the sound of me typing. her highness is sleeping, monkey is at school, finch is at work, and pappy left this morning. i have almost finished packing for the weekend trip to pville. i'm going to pick up my grandparents china, so that i can use it for turkey day. monkey has her veterans day program at school this afternoon, so i need to be packed and ready to go before then. i'm getting really excited about turkey day because it looks like both my brother and sister will be joining us this year. of course our holidays are always open to anyone who needs somewhere to celebrate. i hope everyone has a great weekend. i'm going to finish packing for the trip.

and the answer is

a friend of mine sent out a survey, but instead of answering questions about you, you are suppose to answer questions about the person that sent it to you. i have gotten it back from 2 friends from middle school, and i haven't laughed that hard in months. just thought i would share

creativity

it has been a while since i did anything truly creative, unless you count my budget. i was intending on using my MDO days to get some crafty things done, but instead all i do is clean the house. i admit that it is nice to pick something up once a day instead of 12. i feel the need to get back to my old crafty self, so i hope that as the days get shorter and colder i will be able to get some crafting completed. i am hesitant to sew myself anything due to the weight loss. just because i know how to tailor a garment doesn't mean i want to. i think that i will begin to just go through the craft boxes and complete what has been started or purchased. i have several knitting projects that i would love to complete in time for christmas. also, sometime this month i hope to purchase some slip for my ceramics, so if you happen to be near and want to make something send me a shout. i gave big uns a few pics so she could scan and send to some of her contacts. two are of my favorite grave. i know it sounds odd, but when i was in england i saw the most amazing crypt in st. paul's cathedral. there were two angels with swords resting at the door of the crypt. it was amazing. while looking for the pics i ran across a bunch of pics that i had forgotten about completely. i think that i will attempt to put them all into albums, so i actually know where they are. anyway the laundry beckons to me.

so much to say

i had so many different titles, but each one was for only one thing i wanted to put in here. it has been a while since i posted, so this will be a little long.

first my mom officially has a nickname. when monkey was born my mom decided to just be grandma. monkey was alright with this, so grandma she has been for nearly 8 years. this weekend she came to stay with us and her highness has given her a nickname. we were all sitting eating breakfast and she began to point at one of the pics on the wall and say "mimi". i didn't know what she was talking about until she pointed at my mom and repeated "mimi". my mom is now mimi.

i got my envelope in the mail from the swap, and it was awesome. i do mean AWESOME. it had a quilting book with designs and patterns, an article/how to on quilt binding, a giant pincushion that she made, a little book of stories, some awesomely cool fabric, and tucked inside their own little envelope were two cadbury bars. i got addicted to the fruit and nut one when i was in england my senior year. i was so excited that i opened the bar and shared it with the fam. her highness was very excited.

halloween was very exciting in our house. finch went as a punk. for those of you who have met my hubby you know that he is sooooo far from punk that this was a big stretch. it was also a learning experience for him. he was amazed at how he was treated. not only did the general public think he was a menace, but people who knew him were hesitant. monkey went as the blind bandit from the avatar and her highness went as well a princess. we went trick or treating with the church and had a great time. we rode on a trailer that had hay bails for seats. we stopped by big uns house to trick or treat and her highness decided that she would rather stay there than go with us. when finch got her out of big uns arms her highness began to scream at the injustice that had been done to her. i almost forgot one of the funniest things that happened. we went on a field trip with monkey to the corn maze, but it was really cold and windy. the teachers decided to take the kids back to school early and just let them watch movies. i told the teacher that i owned a couple of halloween child friendly movies and that i could take them to the school if she wanted. this was agreed on and finch ran the movies to the school. he said that he could read the principal's lips saying "what the h*** do we have here?" as he approached. when finch greeted him and he realized who was beneath the mohawk and trench coat he was very friendly. i thought it was hilarious.

all in all it was a great week. i leave you with a pic of the hubby.

she's back

apparently the monkey had a great time in OKC visiting my uncle and his fam. she got to watch movies and play games. of course the grandmas always enjoy getting her for a weekend. the grandmas are my mom and her sister. they are identical twins out of a set of triplets. when monkey was little she met my aunt sue for the first time and decided that she was grandma sue. now we just call them the grandmas. we had a relatively uneventful weekend. we had pizza night with the cowden clan as usual. then we just kind of hung out saturday. the hubby went to work sat afternoon and her highness and i went to visit pattylicious for a few hours. finch's dad and his good friend tony stopped by for the evening to rest before heading to idaho to hunt. big 'uns came by and had chicken and dumplings with us last night. we had jello beans for dessert. she is particularly fond of them, so we made them just for her. now i am listening to the sound of a darling little girl who refuses to nap. hope everyone has a happy halloween and a great week.

finished

i finished my envelope and sent it out yesterday. i wanted to do more stuff, but alas i ran out of room. i hope she likes the things i sent. i finished the narnia series, they were awesome. her highness has her "pumpkin party" at mdo on tuesday. i'm in charge of the cookies. i am so excited. there are only 8 kids in her class, so i will try not to go overboard. the hubby and i are in discussions about expanding the clan soon. in case anyone wondered to pay out of pocket for a pregnancy will only cost us $7500. that is if we pay in advance. if we wait until the end of the pregnancy to pay it will cost around $10,000 to $12,000. that is if you don't need a c-section. those cost a whole lot more. i will let you know what happens. hope everyone has a great hump day.

pictures and a few random thoughts

ok, so i wanted to put some of the pics up from the cowden/dunkin clan trip to the "amazingly fun farm". here the dunkins are riding the cow train. her highness is sitting on daddy's lap and monkey is riding in the back. the two cowden kids were in the front of the cow train.


here are the cowdens on the hay ride over to the pumpkin patch. can't you see the excitement on their faces.



random photo of my brother's grooms cakes and one of the wedding cakes. i think they're pretty.

this is the wee highness posing as pumpkin head. isn't she funny.
so, all day yesterday her highness would announce "pee pee" and dash for the bathroom. about 1 of 4 was the real thing, but i'm not complaining. the problem was that she didn't want to wear a diaper. no one else who goes potty on the toilet wears one. you see the logic. for those who are wondering, although i think the ankle should be ready for my 3 mile walk, it has other ideas. come on 6 days is enough time to heal. the fam went shopping on saturday to get me a bday gift and i was thrilled. i got an electric roaster and a hand mixer. please don't think i'm being sarcastic, i really am tickled pink. now i can do the turkey in the roaster and have the oven left for stuffing and rolls. woo hoo. anyway, i'd love to stay and blog, but the house needs to be cleaned. hope everyone has a great day