The Hartley Hooligans: 2012

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Happy Holidays from The Hartley Hooligans!

Wishing you all a very Happy Holidays, and may 2013 be your best year yet!

All pictures taken by Gavin Peters ~ We thank him for not only capturing the true essence of our family, but also for the massive chickenpox scar removal he did on the above pics of the kids! We love you, Gavin!

Thank you for following and loving our family & for your continued support of The Hartley Hooligans!

Thursday, December 06, 2012

Blog updates!

Just a quick note... I updated the tabs along the top of the blog. I added a "Cal" tab (about f'ing time!) & spiffed up the girls' tabs & the "Contact" tab as well.

Click the following to view each of the new tabs (or if you are on your computer, click above!):

CAL

CLAIRE

LOLA

CONTACT

19 days till Christmas & I'm freaking the F out because I have soooooo much left to do. Presents to still plan for, buy, wrap, & ship and most importantly, the house to decorate. Thanks to our neighbors, I'm thinkin' about bustin' out something along THESE LINES...

Happy Holidays from The Hooligans!

Saturday, December 01, 2012

Fourteen

Today my baby turns fourteen.

14!

How is that even possible?!?!? Wasn't it just yesterday that Cal learned to walk & the first steps he took were to his basketball goal so he could dunk the ball? Wasn't it just yesterday he was driving around in his Little Tykes car & backed it up to Daddy's huge cargo trailer hitch as if he'd been backing cars all his life? Wasn't it just yesterday he traded his 4 binkies (1 for sucking, 3 for sniffing!) for a huge truck with a trailer at Toys R Us? Wasn't it just yesterday he pulled down his shorts in public to show he was officially wearing "big boy pants" now?! I swear it feels like yesterday that he was in the shower with Daddy when I opened the drafty door and Cal yelled out, "Close the door! It's sucking cold in here!!!" (He said an S for an F at that age! OMG. So proud!!!) Time has literally flown by so fast... and I must say, if it weren't for Claire & Lola showing us what really mattered, I might have taken these days, these YEARS for granted. So thankful I did not.

I am so incredibly proud of you, Cal. You are the most thoughtful person I know, incredibly hard-working, dedicated to your sport/academics/music, always there for everyone, and you value the beauty that comes with being different & unique because of your sisters. You make me laugh every. single. day. Your sense of humor & smart ass ways never cease to cheer me up when I most need it, and I thank you for that. You truly are my "heart walking around outside my body." I am so in awe of you ~ how strong you are & how wise beyond your years you've always been. I hope you know how much I love you now & always, Cal.

First day of 8th grade ~ 2012-2013

Don't drop me, a-hole. I GOT THIS!

Mmmmm... Cheddar Bay. Come to Papa!

Claire & Cal

Go Thunder ~~cheerleaders~~!
(Sure are some pretty girls over there!)

I even love you with pox.

I'm blaming the pox/fever/deliriousness for this action!
#moveovermagicmike

Brylee & Cal at the WSU game ~ GO SHOCKS!

Cal & Lola ~ 12:00 am on December 1, 2012
Don't judge me that they're still up. It's a Friday night, bitches! We had to ring in Cal's big day with hugs!

I love you with everything in me, Cal. Happy 14th Birthday, Son.
"Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven." ~Henry Ward Beecher
xo

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Halloween 2012 Recap

Thanks to The Great Herpes Clusterf*ck of weeks past, this year's Halloween put us in a poxy predicament. Here's why...

By October 31st, Lola's chickenpox had scabbed over, thus meaning she was no longer contagious. (I just used "thus" -- probably incorrectly -- in a sentence! BOOM!) It had been 17 days since she'd first gotten them, and since incubation for the pox is 10-20 days on average, I was crossing my fingers HARD that Cal & Claire would not also contract them -- at least not until AFTER Halloween. Cal had plans with his girlfriend/friends, and Claire & Lola had AWESOME costumes to show off 'round our 'hood. SURELY they were immune. SURELY. Cal had been exposed countless times during elementary school and never gotten chickenpox. And he brought those same germs home to Claire, and she hadn't gotten them either. With the hell I'd been through with Lola, part of me was praying (selfishly) that I wouldn't have to endure that shit a second & third time, but if it meant lifetime immunity for both of them (which they'd receive at the next Tribal Counsel... Ha Ha!), I would ~~gladly~~ buck up & do it. I had wine in-house. I'd be fine. Probably.

The day before Halloween, Claire had a suspicious bump on the back of her neck. I pushed and prodded that bad boy, examined it up close, shone a flashlight on it, and at first, it DID look like chickenpox. Then it appeared to pop, so I was almost SURE she had ~~herpes~~ pox also. I expected exponential pox growth within the next 24 hours, as I'd seen with Lola, but it didn't occur. Maybe it wasn't the pox? Halloween came, and she still just had that same little red spot. It did re-blister, but she didn't have any new spots, so I wondered if she wasn't one of those lucky people who only got a handful of pox. I obsessively checked her all Halloween day, still not seeing ANY new spots.

5:00-ish pm rolled around, and I began thinking about getting her dressed in her costume just in case trick-or-treaters dropped by early. I stripped her down only to see 7-8 faint, red bumps which had appeared on her chest & arms. I dropped a hefty F-bomb, yelled for my Mom, and showed her the damage. Scott & I had several people coming over, Cal had people coming over, last year we had around 200 trick-or-treaters, and I now had a "highly contagious" child in the house? What now?!

I went ahead & got Claire dressed. Scott, Cal & Cam (Cal's BFF) came home after basketball practice, Cal jumped in the shower to get ready, and I showed Scott all of Claire's spots. We decided to keep Claire-bug corralled in an area and just keep Cal & his friends away from her. Or maybe we'd shove their asses outside to trick-or-treat ~~wayyyyy beyond the age they should~~ to keep them away from the germies. We were still debating our options when Cal came out of the shower shirtless & screams, "MOOOOOOOMMMMMM! COME HERE NOW!!!!!!"

Yep, the boy had "the clap," too.

You have GOT to be f*cking kidding me.

Kill me nowwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, we called Cam's parents to come pick him up, cancelled with the girlfriend/friends, and Cal was put on lockdown. Claire & Lola still dressed up, as we couldn't NOT partake in the festivities. We kept them at a safe distance & didn't allow any trick-or-treaters to enter our disease-ridden confines. They were allowed to view the dwarves through our glass front door only. Quarantines always make for good times.

Wiggin' out with Scabby

Cal, pissed as hell, cancelling all his plans via text.
Cam, relying heavily on his Varicella vaccine, attempting to cheer Cal up, as a true wingman should.

Back in black, babyyyyy!

Romeo, in honor of Stearman Field (our badass, local airport/restaurant), workin' the airplane get-up...

I hate you. All of you. I am going to air-raid your entire bed with runny turds & vomit later.

I will dive-bomb you in your sleep and gnaw out your carotid artery Mach 5 if you don't get this smug asshole off my back, bungholes.

And now... for the moment you've been waiting for... the pièce de résistance...

I present to you... Lobster Lola & Chef Claire!

Notice Romeo still pouting in the background. Once we removed his propeller, his mood improved slowly. He even raced in & out of the doggie door at full speed shortly thereafter, costume still mostly intact -- yet wings now bent to hell!

Thanks to my girl, Amber Keeton, for the nifty lobster get-up! It was PERFECT!

Sous Chef, Pre, awaiting orders...

Thanks to Joy at Noni's Closet for the INCREDIBLE, custom-made chef costume!!!
Be sure to click on the above link to check out her Etsy shop!

The Spotted Spiny Lobster (Panulirus Guttatus) is found mostly in Bermuda & Kansas, in case you didn't know.
(DAMN POX!!!)

Scott's favorite picture... Mimi looks so rebellious stirrin' & boilin' her sister up!

My dearest apologies & sympathies to our beloved, incredible, amazing, like-family babysitter, Tracey, who (little did she know) would contract the chickenpox the very next day, thanks to the Hooligans' herpes. WE. SUCK.
We love you VERY MUCH, Trace, & we are SO grateful for ALL you do for us & the girls!!! xoxo

I leave you with this... a viewer-friendly, censored-up, Instagram-filtered version of the Hooligan hoopla for the past 4-5 weeks (you're welcome for not showing "the worst of the worst"). Thank God for Cinemax HD (during daytime hours, you pervs!), oatmeal baths, Benadryl, our naturopath, chiropractor, & homeopathic doctor who gave us natural antivirals/immune boosters, and for technology in the form of my iPhone ~ which thanks to texting my BFF, discovering SongPop & reaching out to my peeps on Facebook for support, I was able to avoid checking into the nuthouse by now. Love you guys. SO MUCH.

Here's to a HEALTHFUL holiday season!!!

"The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials." ~Chinese proverb

Saturday, November 03, 2012

Hooligans' Halloween History ~ Part 2

In living color, enjoy PART 2 of The History of The Hooligans' Halloweens ~ 2008-2011. I warn you, things are gonna get really weird. (And I may need TWO angry dragons... HA! Please tell me you've all seen Starsky & Hutch... !)

2008

Quite possibly my FAVORITE Halloween picture EVAHHHHHH.
Lola ~ Age 2.5 ~ Witchy woman!

My dear grandmother passed away on Halloween in 2008... I faked a smile, but I was so sad in this picture.
RIP Grams... I miss you so much.

BOK BOK!!! Oh, and nice wig, Madam.

ANOTHER CLASSIC!!!
When Cal went trick-or-treating, he turned around, people would "shoot" candy into his pumpkin, & the goal would cheer!
We still have this "hat!"

2009

Did Sally Jesse Raphael get contact lenses?!

Meet our old school ESPN sports reporter in the field, Ron Burgundy... oops, I mean Cal Hartley!!!

Reporting live from Infinity Art Glass... (is that a clip-on?!)

"Go f*ck yourself, Benton!"

Claire ~ age 8 ~ unbeknownst to you, Mimi has like 4 burprags jammed into the hood of this costume acting as a "falsie."
Might have stuffed her bra, too. LOL