one week

i've been sick for about 2 weeks now...

the last week being the worst

& i absolutely forgot about my blog for the last week.

shame on me.

moving on...

look at my beautiful bijou...

she's really quite amazing.

she turns almost totally green on mossy & lichen covered bark

& then turns almost completely grey

(shy of a couple of green bits around her eyes)

when she's hanging out on the rocks by her little "pond"...

and she also changes between several shades of green and grey.

mother nature never ceases to amaze me.

i picked two more pumpkins this morning, 

which you can see in my instagram feed over there --->

(if you're reading this close to my posting date)

we've had 1/2 a dozen eggs a day for the last few days!

the chickens are awesome!

all of our felines are doing well...

the pugs are...well, the pugs...=]

(but doing well)

and little miss munkipants is awesome as ever.

though she's been quite a handful lately, to be honest.

4th graders are weird.

i love her to death...but she's been kinda wonky lately.

(i don't even want to discuss that further)

she'll be 10 in just over a week.

i don't even know how that happened.

remember this kid?

damn, where does the time go?

i think once you have a living milestone, 

you just view time differently.

yesterday, munki received a surprise in the mail...

and look at the joy it put on her face...

the gift was from bethany...a friend from maine.

(whom we love and adore immensely)

she wasn't even aware that munki's birthday was coming up...

which made this even more special to her.

the ring belonged to bethany and she had worn it since she was 15.

she wrote in the card that it just really didn't fit her right anymore

and she wanted munki to have it.

♥

bethany is awesome...

& munki adores her...she has since she was 3 years old.

so yay, bethany for making the munki's day!

 have a wonderful weekend, friends & family...

xox.

pumpkins!

i picked our first 3 pumpkins!

i LOVE pumpkins.

how can one not like pumpkins?

they're so pretty.

 fynche & frank like pumpkins too...

also...fynche & frank got new pull charms...

and what started out as pumpkins turned into blythes.

sorry about that...

well, sorry to those of you that could not possibly care less about blythes.

have a wonderful friday & a fantastic weekend.

xox.

love notes

remember dylan?

well...yesterday, munki says she wants to show me something...

the above love note is what she shared.

then she says...

"i know i can't have a real boyfriend until i'm 30 or so...

(glad she's still clear on that)

but his note made me happy with tears of joy...

(have i mentioned lately that she's a drama queen in all extremes?)

but i'm really bothered that he's in 4th grade and can't spell friend...

(you and me both, kid)

but thankfully he wrote you are, because a lot of the time

on homework he writes your when it should be you're

or the other way around...

(she's definitely turning into me)

and he kind of scribbled the heart...

but his gesture was sweet, don't you think?"

(dear god, what is happening?)

i bit my tongue and smiled and said i was glad it made her happy.

she had already covered everything else .

i have to admit, with much pride, 

that what pleased me the most 

was that she noticed the grammatical errors...
(including that he capitalized Boyfriend)

and the fact that she decided to share it at all.

at 9 years old...

(yes, 10 in just over 2 weeks...eeek!)

i don't think i would have shared something like that with my mom. 

(mom, i love you...but...wow, i would have hidden that. )

i am still not okay with her growing up...

or her possessing the key to some kid's heart.

and yes, i am aware that me sharing this would be mortifying to her...

so let's not tell her, okay?

xox.

finally!

maggie finally laid an egg.

monday afternoon, i heard a ruckus in the coop
and went to check on the girls.

i was not prepared for what i found.

not only had maggie laid her first egg...

but it was HUGE!

all the girls have laid smaller eggs for the first few days

and then they have just gradually gotten bigger

and are now medium to large/xl eggs.

maggie's was twice the size of any of the largest eggs

that the other girls had laid.

i think she felt she needed to step it up since she was last...

and did she ever.

i took pictures, and they just don't do the size justice.

but maybe you can get an idea.

i held the largest brown egg we had 

(which is the size of an average store bought large)

and then put maggie's next to it...

i guess maybe we can forgive the poor girl for being late...

i would have waited too.

here's another shot with all of the eggs...

you can spy maggie's toward the back, on the right...

you know...the one that looks like a brown goose egg.

so...all of our girls are laying now...

just in time for the days to get shorter 

& eggs to become less frequent.

i honestly think i'll go without eggs 

before i'll buy them from the store again though.

we're all very spoiled now.

hope you are having a happy wednesday, wherever you are.

xox.

***edited to add...
not only was it her first egg...
not only was her first egg huge...
it was our first double yolker!!!

sharing

munki came home sick from school last thursday...

then she stayed home friday 

& finally started feeling better sunday morning.

at about noon on sunday...

i started feeling like crap.

munki is so good at sharing.

on a happier note...

look at my pumpkins!

this is somewhat of a progression collage of all of the pumpkins.

two of them should be ready to pick at the end of this week...

SO awesome!

the coolest thing about this, is that these are from the seeds of the pumpkin

that munki got in california last october 

when we went on our road trip with my mom & dad...

xox.

frogs

or frog, rather.

look how cute she is.

she kind of just showed up last night.

perfectly timed?

perhaps.

i was recently thinking about how much i missed sushi may...

my maine green frog that matt rescued & brought home to me several years ago...

she passed away in may of 2007.

i've been without a frog since...

& have truly missed having a frog around.

(before sushi may, there was phloyd...my ornate horned frog)

so...we'll see what the next couple of days bring...

but i think this little girl will be staying with us.

& yes, i'm already considering names...

xox.