the grass is always greener…

chainchomp in the tree, originally uploaded by hockamama.

slackers procrastinators that we are, we still have our christmas tree up. chainchomp thought she would like to have a bit of a climb…

kitties finding mischief, originally uploaded by hockamama.

too bad the water gets so hot in there…and there’s no breathable air…otherwise, this might make a cool cat wash. they are certainly intrigued with my new toy. notice waffle, once again, wearing the official look-out expression.

last night the 5 of us went to green’s supper club for jess’ birthday.  they have. the best. prime rib.  ever.  they brought her out a little piece of cake with a candle.  it was nice.  then we dropped the guys off, and she and I went to see a movie.

we saw catch and release, with jennifer garner.  it’s a really good chick flick.  we were lucky to find 2 seats in the theater, it sold out 3 tickets after us, and we got there as the preview and commercials were starting.

afterwards, we went to steak and shake for a couple of yummy shakes.  they have some new ones made with frozen yogurt, they are really good.

I enjoy hanging out with her as much as with my friends, maybe more.  we have a much better relationship than I did with my mama at that age.  what is it about daughters?  I love my boys, too.  the relationships are just different, I’m not sure why.

12:43 am. Tuesday. January 26. 1988. Jessica Marisa finally made her appearance. One of the most joyous days of my life.

I went into labor on sunday morning; looking back, it was probably just braxton hicks. it didn’t start feeling bad until monday evening. nevertheless, from sunday morning on, I ate one donut and buckets of jello, as per the instructions given in childbirthing class. the donut was my own addition, they cautioned against anything other than jello, as it may come back up. and boy, did it!

when the contractions started coming real good, I would walk around our living room. I lived with my parents then. we were in the middle of a very cold ohio winter, so there was no going outside for this girl. I paced, saying the alphabet, counting backwards, spelling words, anything to keep my mind occupied.

mama called the hospital to find out when we should come – even though they probably told us during our classes (she was my partner, it brought us closer, I think) when the excitement started, she lost her cognitive thinking, you know how she is – and they told her to bring me when the contractions were about 5 minutes apart. mine never came that way.

mama timed me, I would go 8 minutes, then 2, then 11, then 5, then 2, etc. she decided we had better go. daddy loaded me up into the back of his old jeep, and we headed off into the snow storm. the 20 minute drive took almost an hour because of the weather. poor daddy, mama was surely telling him to hurry up and be careful, alternately; picture hyacinth bucket instructing richard.  all I could think about was pushing, I was so ready.

by the time we got into the room, I was dilated to 8. the doctor moseyed in, washed his hands, and the nurse told him he better hurry, she could see a head.  43 minutes after I arrived at the hospital, I was holding my sweet baby girl.

she looked like a little eskimo baby, she was so adorable.

now, she’s 19. I can’t figure out how that happened! where did that time go? I’m not ready for her to be an adult yet. I still want to be the most important person in her life.

the other night we were sitting on the couch, and she looked at the fortune inside her jones soda cap. it said true happiness is right beside you. she hugged my neck and thanked me for being her true happiness. I love this girl!

keeping an eye on the young’uns, originally uploaded by hockamama.

chewy watches the kittens from above. he’s so funny, the way he watches them, you can almost hear the exasperation, him thinking, ‘one of these days y’all are gonna learn…’

this morning when I got up, it was chilly.  this time of year, it’s frequently chilly in this old house, because I keep the heat at around 69.  I can’t stand the thought of those high heat and propane bills, and I can remember being told that sweaters were invented for chilly houses.

needless to say, my children think that being made to live in a cold house is my form of child abuse, but that’s the way it goes.  we have many throws in the living room, and they get lots of use when we’re watching television.

anyway, I noticed that it seemed chillier than usual, and after about 30 minutes, I realized that I hadn’t heard the furnace kick on.  I checked the thermostat, it sat on 60*, then I woke rich up.  he checked all the stuff guys check in these situations, then at 6:20 he made the first call to the 24-hour number of the company who installed the furnace.  here’s the thing: every fall we discuss having our furnace checked before it gets cold, and every fall we just lose the thought.  so, here we are 8 winters from a new furnace and we’re having trouble.

the guy came and spent about an hour messing with it.  he fixed it temporarily, and only after I showed him our carbon monoxide detector – he made me test it in front of him – he turned the furnace on.  today he replaced the ignitor.  the bad news: the heat exchange thingie is bad.  apparently, this is the thing that releases the c.o.  the part won’t come in until the middle of next week, so, where before we lived in oblivion of the silent danger – the detector has been in it’s spot for so long, we tend to forget about it – now we’ll be thinking about it for the next little while.  I guess that’s a good thing.

the thing that struck me is that if the ignitor hadn’t gone out, the exchange thingie could have let loose it’s stealthy weapon, and we’d be none the wiser.  it seems odd that in the face of the $165 bill today, and who knows what next week’s will be…that I can thank God for this glitch.  we’re truly blessed, once again.

ice ice baby, originally uploaded by hockamama.

we had a little bit of ice overnight, so there was a 2 hour delay this morning. tony was so excited to have more time to play before school. this is the first ice we’ve had this winter season. hopefully it’s an indication that we won’t have anything too bad.

icy onion clump, originally uploaded by hockamama.

humphrey the hamster, originally uploaded by hockamama.

last night, the hocketts pulled together and cleaned humphrey and his cage. although he is tony’s hamster, the rest of us take care of him – big surprise, huh? – and last night, his cage was smelling pretty bad. jess bathed him, I washed and sanitized his cage, and rich fed him and gave him clean bedding. he was so tickled when he got back in there, he raced all around, checking everything out. if you didn’t know any better, you’d think we never take care of him. the treat rich gave him is really big, but somehow, after carting it around for awhile, he got the whole thing in his cheek.

the cats enjoyed the show, too.

my beloved father-in-law swore by the healing qualities of merthiolate.  I think he believed that it would cure any skin ailment.  any time one of the kids had some kind of little problem, out came the red tincture.

when I was a kid, I remember having red spots on my legs, where all my boo-boos were.  I don’t remember who put it there, probably one of my grandmothers, but I remember it stung for a short while.  back then, if it stung, you could be assured it was working…kind of like how if medicine tasted good it wouldn’t work.   I don’t think that’s the case any more, leastwise I don’t hear adults using those as their mantras like when I was a kid.

Ed has been gone from us for 27 months now, almost 1/4 of tony’s life, and I really worry that tony will forget him, and all the special times they had together.  so I was surprised this afternoon, when he came to me with a hole – left from the splinter he dug out of his foot yesterday – and asked for papa’s red medicine.

that bottle has remained in the closet for over 2 years now, migrating towards the back with each addition of shampoo or rubbing alcohol, etc.  yet, tony remembered it, or more likely, he remembered the times when papa would apply it, talking sternly, telling him to be still and quit squirming.  papa would blow it dry, telling tony not to do again whatever it was that caused this boo-boo.  then, when the tears and the merthiolate were dry, papa would tousle his hair, and tell him to go outside and play.

yeah, I think that’s what tony remembers.