On July 27, 2018, Kyle and I took our boys, then 7 and 3, to the Warren, Minnesota Fair.  While the Fair offered up hours upon hours of awesome entertainment – Rides!  Animals!  Cotton candy!  Dirt! – the absolute only thing Seven wanted in the whole entire world was a giant stuffed chihuahua wearing a shiny polka-dotted shirt.  Three, by brotherly association, wanted a giant stuffed chihuahua wearing a shiny polka-dotted shirt, too.

We spent so much money to win two stuffies at the Warren Fair that Kyle and I now own the Warren Fair.  We spent so much time winning those two stuffies that Three lost interest in his own polka-dot-shirted chihuahua and re-channeled his desperate passion into an oversized sock monkey with a red heart on his chest.  Seven named his chihuahua something that I can’t remember because it took less than three months for that million-dollar chihuahua to achieve its Fair Toy birthright and disintegrate into a pile of polka-dotted fluff. 

Three named his Monkey Bunky, and it immediately became his favorite stuffy.

Monkey Bunky has had a long and storied existence thus far with the Kosiors, made even more impressive when you consider both his substantial size and the fact that he’s made with the cheap manufactured yarn equivalent of single-ply toilet paper.  As an example, when we flew to Arizona, he had to be placed under the seat in front of us during takeoff.  On that trip, Monkey Bunky attended a wild west reenactment, a pre-season baseball game, and a toe-dip in the hot tub before Kyle or I could stop him from doing so. When we returned home, I sewed up the side of his leg, which had ripped open.

Here are a few more chapters in the life and times of Monkey Bunky:

• Neighborhood kids love Monkey Bunky for a lot of reasons, but mostly because he fits the bill for an excellent crash test dummy.  When we first moved into our new house, Nine made two new friends by heaping a pile of pillows at the bottom of our basement stairs and riding down to said pillows in a sleeping bag.  Monkey Bunky went down first.  His ear needed resewing after that.

• When we lived in the country, our older son would “borrow” Monkey Bunky to use him in backyard wartime reenactments.  War is hell; Monkey Bunky was thrown over bunkers, shot with Nerf darts, and used in place of a flag and/or mascot as the need arose.  He walked away with a host of stories, as well as a brief stay in the Mom VA, where he received a few extra stitches in his neck and arms.

• He has been left outside overnight more times than I can count – followed each time by a trip ‘round the washing machine.  While he survived the unexpected outdoor camping activities with little more than some dirt and dew, each wash meant another patch of a new hole in his back, or butt, or head.

Now that Three – now Nine – is older, Monkey Bunky spends most of his time sitting on a beanbag in Nine’s room, observing the madness.  Somehow just sitting there has required me to stitch him up twice.  Nine suggested we throw him away after the second injury – he was too old for a stuffy – and I had to convince him to keep him by allowing Nine to do the second patch, giving Monkey Bunky an interesting set of black stitches along his foot.

We went to Saskatchewan this past weekend, and Nine surprised us by strapping Monkey Bunky into the middle seat.

“Why is Monkey Bunky coming?”  Thirteen asked, annoyed that Nine deigned take even an extra square inch of the back row.

“He loves Canada,” Nine said.

“He doesn’t love Canada,” Thirteen said.  “He’s not even from Canada; he’s from Minnesota.”

“He’s half Canadian because I’M half Canadian,” Nine said.

“You’re half dumb,” Thirteen said.

Nine picked up Monkey Bunky by the legs, swung him like a floppy bat, and wacked Thirteen in the face…which was probably the real reason Monkey Bunky was brought along on the road trip.

Monkey Bunky went from the truck to my father-in-law’s guest room and back to the truck again, and somehow came home with his head and foot torn and several brown (please be coffee) stains that have yet to dry, which is a concern.  He is currently sitting on an armchair in my office, ready for his next trip to the sewing box, followed by another turn in the washing machine, and then back to the sewing box again (his injuries are such that if I washed him before mending he’d be nothing more than a memory).  For his part, Nine has temporarily completely forgotten Monkey Bunky ever existed.

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The photo above is of Monkey Bunky at this very moment. The photo below is from the Warren Fair.

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This week on North Dakota Today we talked about Heather Winkler, my Nice Person of the Week, as well as the latest blood drive at the Tioga Medical Center. Unfortunately, the system went down, so there isn’t a recording of my segment. If you have it recorded on your TV, send it my way. In the meantime, the link above is from last week. Check it out. (Valley News Live)

Middle school students in Dickinson took the pool with their handmade (and life-size – the photos are adorable) cardboard boats.  (Facebook)

The headline of this one says it all: “For 44 years, a group of Bismarck women have met for regular craft nights.” (KFYR TV)

Grand Forks’ Paul Bothun built a boat. (Jamestown Sun)

Here an inexhaustive list of some of the Hurricane Helene relief coming from Grand Forks. (Dickinson Press)

Remember my reader, Faye, who had sent in good news to this list?  Well, she created her own “OOPS! Only Good News!” newsletter!  Check it out here. (OOPS! Only Good News!)

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