Just Thankful....

Ahhh the memories! My kids loved Veggie Tales growing up.  It was just their kind of hooligan silliness.  I happened upon an old video a couple days ago of Ben playing the Thankful song and it just won't leave my brain. Which is a GOOD thing! So, in honor of being thankful.....


                                   The Thankful Song from Veggie Tales

                                                            I thank God for this day

                                                               For the sun in the sky

                                                           For my mom and my dad

                                                      For my piece of apple pie
                                             (well, not exactly, but good enough...)

                                                       For our home on the ground

                                                    For His love that's all around. 
                                               That's why I say thanks everyday.

                                            Because a thankful heart is a happy heart

                                       I'm glad for what I have, thats an easy way to start

                                                          For the love that He shares

                                                    'Cause He listens to my prayers
                                                               (even little ones)

 That's why I say thanks every day.

(he was doodling by ear & realized I was taping him)



(the whole song)

Freezer bins and cracked heads.....

I measured my freezer shelves yesterday in an attempt to impose order in one more small corner of hooligan-dom. Determined to not end up with miscellaneous languishing foodstuffs at the back of my shiny new freezer, I trekked over to Target hoping to find shallow bins of appropriate size to fit on my shelves, and I am downright delighted at the results. Sadly, hooligan offspring just do not understand the joys of such things as rubbermaid, so I've had to enjoy this one on my own. Fortunately they DO understand the joys of frozen food, and unlimited quantities of ice! It's positively miraculous after so many years of *mostly* frozen food, and forgetting to fill ice trays. Non mushy ice cream is quite the novelty, and in a please-don't-squeeze-the-charmin moment, H2 caught me at the freezer, lid off the ice cream container, poking the top of the ice cream in amazement. "Mom, are you eating ice cream!?" "No, I'm just feeling it." She gave me that look that says "My mother is totally out of her gourd" and threatened immediate facebook humiliation. And speaking of cracked heads, our poor van is still languishing in San Diego waiting for a new engine. We're thankful for a mechanic down there that will take the time to wait for one thats "not junk" as he put it. Meanwhile, I'm on extra taxi duty with the civic. I am convinced God wanted me to have a new refrigerator this summer, because we were only vaguely thinking about replacing it (being used to semi-frozen food by this time), and it was a rather spontaneous purchase for us. I mean.....we'd only lived with a half broken refrigerator for 4 or 5 years after all. The car engine frying earlier in the summer would most likely have squelched any refrigerator buying spontenaeity. So I completely blame God for my refrigerator.

OK, time does fly

well, here we are again at hooligan central :o). It's been awhile since I updated this, but necessity has intervened....it's a good place to put a picture for those to see who aren't necessarily on facebook. So this is for you Welty Clan :o). Look how big my kids are! We had a wonderful but interesting year last year, with Cami graduating from high school, Kendra transferring to CSUN, and Ben starting high school. Throw in my mom being diagnosed with ovarian cancer, lots of theater rehearsals and performances, lots of martial arts, lots of homeschooling, lots of Boy Scouts..... the hooligans have been BUSY!! Fast forward to now: We just jumped back into school with Ben. Cami and Kendra are on winter break and will start college again end of January. Kendra is studying Mechanical Engineering at CSUN and loves being in roomfuls of geeks just like herself (lovely gracious geeks, in case she reads this ;o) ). Cami is looking towards majoring in something artsy/fashion designy....yes, my girl hooligans are totally different animals. Totally. Anyway. Ben is my quirky guy in 9th grade, hates schoolWORK, loves yugioh competitions, and is a wonderful musician, actor, and all around instigator. He also likes boyscouts and Taekwondo. But not school. Life is still not, nor has ever been, dull around our house. We also have 4 well loved rodent type animals in residence. 2 guinea pigs, and 2 big fat brown rats that are Kendra's babies. Here is a bigger version of the sidebar pic that I just updated.

End of the (not so) evil/crazy Hooligan weekend/Maranatha

Actually, not evil at all, since God works all things for our good :o). The Moby Dick/Airplane dream might be considered evil.....hmm. Anyway, in a nutshell, to put a tidy ending on the weekend:
Saturday:
Got up early with strange airplane visions still lingering...
Had quiet time in bed, thanked God for the gift of another day of LIFE
Made huge pan of brownies to take to the Richardson memorial service (praying for Karen's family & thanking God for her amazing example of living well and dying well, while I stirred brownie batter)
Scrambled to get candid photos of Cami on disk to turn in to the yearbook person at my mtg
Drove H2 to Choir practice
Dropped brownies off at church
Drove across town to homeschool mtg.
Wished I could be at the memorial service instead.
Drove back across town to pick H2 up.
Shipped H2 home with friends instead.
Drove straight over to church to help serve food & clean up at the memorial service reception.
Made it home before 4pm so H1 could have the car to drive to work.
Crashed for about 1 hr
Spent rest of evening working through the First Aid merit badge with Ben.
Took advil for pounding headache around 8pm
Took a mcflurry/caffeine break with Ben and Cami around 8:30..advil alone was not cutting it.
Finished merit badge work with Ben around 10pm. Headache MUCH better after caffeine.
Computer-ized till about 12:30
Fell asleep on couch waiting for H1 to call telling me she was driving home (yes, I'm paranoid).
Woke up when H1 called around 1:30am. Waited for her to get home. Went to bed.
Up, church, H-dad/H3 off to merit badge workshop, In & Out with Mom after church
Helped with Jr. Choir during evening service
H3 came in late, thumbs up on the merit badge...He passed it!! Yes!!
Home, dinner
Extreme Home Makeover, Undercover Boss and Mom & Dad's house with H1
and here we are, all in one piece, still alive and praising the Lord.
Looking about the house, I take back the word "tidy"
Tomorrow is Monday......Maranatha.

Strange Hooligan Dreams....

So, After I went to bed Fri. night....I had one of those really strange dreams where you just feel obligated - in your dream of course - to wake yourself up and start over or you're doomed as doomed can be. I dreamed I *bought* (yes, bought) a huge, pure white, jumbo jet. You know...like a 747 or something. ??? It was totally an impulse buy. As soon as I did it, and couldn't get a refund, I came to my senses (no duh), realizing I had *nowhere* to park this monstrosity (like...what was I thinking of *doing* with it anyway...walking it like a dog??), and when H-dad found out,  he was going to have a COW. Now this was a very vivid dream. I just remember in my dream being terrified that my poor husband was going to find out I did this horrible, embarrassing thing...and at that point in my dream, realized it *was* a dream as I would never be this stupid in real life, and if I wanted a decent nights sleep with a good dream I better wake up from this one. So I woke up, shook my head around in the dark to erase the visions of "Moby Dick The Airplane", and went back to sleep. Ugh.  Does Hooligan Weirdness have no limits??? Psychoanalyze THAT, why dontcha....

It's Mad Mad Mad Mad Hooligan Weekend

Well, it has definitely been one of those densely packed sort of weekends, with no fewer than 8 separate events between the 5 of us, NOT including church. I can't say I look forward to such weekends, which, mercifully don't happen all *that* often, but they are certainly times of learning to trust God, serve others joyfully (I hope) and enjoy/endure each event as it happens. In typical hooligan fashion, H3 managed to misplace towel, t-shirt, flip flops, AND jacket....yes all of them....at the pool after swimming on Friday. I suppose it was a fitting ending to a less than ideal morning, the details of which are not worth printing, however it was not an auspicious start to the weekend. The afternoon was spent helping (a somewhat demoralized by this time) H3 trudge through the First Aid merit badge workbook in preparation for the merit badge workshop on Sun. Sort of the blitz approach. And in between, H-dad's languishing pile of dark socks, and H3's good white shirt and black pants were rushed through the laundry. Then H2 got an extra unexpected babysitting job, which was good ($, you know), but one more trip across town. H-dad home early, frantically collecting this and that for the boyscout over-nighter. Everybody ate something. I think. I took H3 over to Master's College where he and a group from his choir at church were singing for their choir director's Senior Recital. She is a wonderful college student who has sacrificed her time to serve them, so it was great for the kids to have a opportunity to serve her this way. It meant H3 had to be late to his campout, but it was good for him to sacrifice his time. Thats him 2nd from the right...


So off went the hooligan boys to camp. H1 was hoping to watch The Scarlet Pimpernel, but it was not to be found, and instead sparked a facebook thread of inspiring proportion....something to do with adulterous bread, and holey English toast. hmm. H2, back from babysitting, was in the kitchen dangerously flinging chocolate around without a recipe.

Something resembling chocolate truffles emerged eventually, but we still aren't exactly sure what went in the pot. To quote H1: "H2's inventing something in the kitchen. I'm scared." I celebrated the end of the day horizontally. With popcorn. and chocolate. and "Back to the Future".  Fell asleep in front of the evil box, finally went up to bed and spent time with the "Best Book", and Valley of Vision. The end.

Where have all the Hooligans gone?

OK, due to overwhelming pressure from my adoring fans (that would be Grandma), I'll *try* to pick back up my hooligan ravings on occasion. Status: we're all alive....major bloggy updates: H1 is now a sophmore in college and looking possible toward transferring as an engineering major next year. H2 has major senioritis. H3 is waaaaaay taller than he was a year and a half ago, and just as ornery. I'll be changing my wallpaper, and my life is crazy right now. And God is still good at all times.  OK, I picked "Golden Leaves" for my new wall paper. Enjoy. Here are some random pics of what the hooligans have been up to lately.  You'll notice, I'm sure, that there are no pics of H1. Lets just say that the best photo I have of her at the moment is one she won't let me post. I won't say why, except it has something to do with our copier scanner and what it might look like if you put your face on the glass an hit "copy".  Heh.  Extreme, dire, malevolent hooligan threats have been issued pertaining to what she might do should this photo ever come to light.......

H3's  recent campout with Boyscouts to Whitney Portal/Owen's Valley

H3's been enjoying golf classes with The First Tee of Pasadena down by the Rose Bowl every Mon.

H3 waiting his turn to dive in the pool. Both he and H2 do sports with our homeschool group on Fridays

All of H2's favorite people on earth. Over for a partaaaaayyy a few weeks back.

my beautiful and talented H2 doing something she loves...

Fall Court of Honor Troup 316. H3 is 2nd from right. He loves boyscouts. Just finished tenderfoot rank, and was elected to be the new Chaplain's Aide (Lord help us....).  H-dad, Eagle Scout extraordinaire, is having fun also :o).