the grass is always greener…

to make me ‘the crazy cat lady’ ? because, inexplicably, we now have 11! if chewey were to come home, which at this point (it’s been 6 weeks today) I don’t think is gonna happen, we’d be up to 12.

only 7 of them are indoor cats…right, only 7. until a week ago this very day, we had 5, satan and her babies. then poor little laura, the minister, told me that she had to relocate her calico sisters. they’re only 9 months old and sweet as could be, she says. the problem is that they still have claws, and they’re tearing up the parsonage. on the little bit of salary our tiny church pays her, she can’t afford to get them declawed, so she knew she had to give them up.

enter my husband, sucker for a child in need. since laura is our surrogate daughter, he felt sorry for her dilemma, so we offered to help. I mean, heck, when you’ve already got 5 house cats, what’s 2 more, right?

well, they didn’t turn out to be very sociable. the babies wanted to get to know the sisters, but the sisters weren’t so keen on the idea. one camped out in the laundry room, near the litter box, which intimidated the babies. the other hung out under the couch. we finally decided to put them into the back bedroom temporarily, to give them time to adjust and to give us time to get to know them.

getting them into that back room was quite the adventure. without going into a long story, I’ll tell you that it involved nervous laughter, extreme hissing, a few bites, some hollering, even some bellowing (from rich, 😯 mostly).

since it was sunday evening when the exodus to the bedroom occurred, rich had to go to the emergency room for his swelling cat bite. miraculously, he didn’t have to wait long at all; he was back in time to enjoy cheese and wine on the front porch with my daddy before bedtime.

long story short, they’re now ensconced in the back room, where just this morning one of them finally came out to let me pet her just a tiny bit. the other one still cowers in the corner, hissing occasionally. I visit them 3 or 4 times a day, just to try to get them used to me. I really think they’re just scared, not unfriendly. I feel so bad for them. maybe one day I’ll be able to get a picture of them and post for y’all.

so, am I the crazy cat lady yet? if not, how many more cats do I need? 😀

field day, tony running the sack race. the little girl in the blue shirt to the right, is taylor, his ‘girlfriend’. they’ve been in the same class for the 5 years they’ve been in school, and jessica teases them that they’ll get married someday.

for some reason, this pic came out kind of fuzzy and grainy…

this is exactly what I meant by overrun

I’ve been sewing quite a bit, and my little workroom quickly gets overrun, by scraps, flotsam and jetsum, cats….

so I bought a couple of these great fabric totes, I needed one immediately, but they only had 2 left at the store, so I grabbed an extra, because really, in my experience, you just don’t know when you’re gonna need a tote. however, it was commandeered soon after it arrived, and I fear that it has left my ownership. I tried to put a few papers in it, but that didn’t seem to deter mr. fatsack. I wonder why it is that they think they need to make my things theirs….

today I finally watched shadowlands, the story of c.s. lewis that I bought at walmart about 5 years ago.  it was a really good movie, a tear jerker.  before emma came along, I watched a couple of movies a week, while the younguns were in school.  when she started requiring more attention, that ceased.  now that she’s a little older, I just gate her into the living room with me and pop a movie in once in awhile.  now that school is out, I have to be a little more careful about what I watch.  no more ron jeremy 😉

today, however, casa de hockett was crawling with the elementary set.  tony’s friend alex and his brother spent the day yesterday and today, while their mama was finishing the year at school.

so, with alex on the computer, tony playing psp, maddie and greg playing ds, and, of course, miss emma screaming her little babyisms, the only way to watch a movie was to use subtitles.  I looked around at the chaos, and thought to myself, ‘self, if you were any kind of normal, this would make you scream’, but I think I’m just enough off balance that I was able to tolerate it.  it only lasted for an hour or so, before they all got bored and went somewhere else.

on an unrelated note, the coastal fires have lent us some haze and smell.  the kids were unhappy that I wouldn’t let them play outside, but it’s pretty strong up here in these parts.  this may be why they tried to torture me with their video games…

we went up to the mountains last week. it was the annual conference of the western north carolina united methodists. I was the delegate from our church, so rich, tony and I went. laura, our preacher went, as well as her family – her daddy is a minister in the same conference. we all stayed in maggie valley, which is about 10 minutes from the united methodist assembly at lake junaluska. it’s so beautiful there, a cozy little community of methodists built around the lake.

we stayed from wednesday through saturday, in a great little lodge. we ate too much food, country cookin’ being popular in those parts. one restaurant has family style dining, which is like a buffet that comes to your table. I had the best country fried steak there, it was so crisp and crunch, but not dried out. yummo!

we went up to the touristy cherokee one day and let tony mine for gold. he found some rubies, sapphires and topaz. they all look alike to me, just rocks. the people there identified them for us, and would have happily cut them, especially the 10 carat ruby, for only $99.

I didn’t take many pictures, I just didn’t think of it. I was busy relaxing and enjoying my guys. I did, however, think to snap a pic of tony and the big chief.

I also went to some meetings, although they were boring and sweltering. meetings are held in stuart auditorium, which doesn’t have air conditioning, so it got really really hot with close to a thousand people in there. I did get to see some of our former ministers, so that was cool. of the 4 that have been there previously to laura in my time, only 2 of them are still in the pulpit.

I think it’s a pretty tough job, without much pay. since our church is a teaching church, we get a new student every 4 years. and we pay them $12,000 a year. of course they get a house to live in, but they pay some utilities, and laura has to commute to duke several times a week. gas alone puts a big dent in her pocket.

it was pretty warm in the mountains these last few days, although not quite as hot as here, mama says. I guess raleigh got up to 101* one day. I even packed a sweater and some warm shirts, but I never had to use them. everyone I talked to up there said that it was unseasonably warm. atleast it cooled down in the evenings, when we sat in the pavillion drinking our wine.

I just hope it’s cooler next year.