Merry Christmas!

Weekend in Memphis

In an unprecedented move, I am actually writing two blog posts back to back. Ironically, Tom's Christmas leave from work started on Monday and here I am still HARD AT WORK and single-handedly maintaining this blog. Okay, there are only a few exaggerations in the previous sentence. 1. Tom is on leave from flying, but he has still been working as my live in "Manny" while I continue to work this week. 2. When I say I am HARD AT WORK, what I really mean is HARDLY WORKING -- still awaiting assignments. 3. If you think that I actually know how to format the pictures and do all those fancy drop down letters in my blog posts, then you are sorely mistaken --- Tom is also my personal blog post stylist.
So, we made a quick trip up to Memphis this past weekend to visit my very good friend, AmyD and her husband Nic Morrison. Amy is pregnant with their first baby (Little Peter!) and is due any day now. Amy was kind enough to take Tom, Marin and me to the Pottery Barn and William Sonoma outlets that are just a few minutes from their house. You would have thought that we'd never shopped before -- that is how deprived of decent stores we are here in Meridian. Just short of completely draining every last ounce of precious pregnant energy out of Amy, we returned back to their beautiful home where Nic had been hard at work putting together a delicious dinner for us!! We had a great time visiting with them. Amy and I mostly talked about how if 8 years ago, when we graduated from KU, somebody would have told us that by the year 2007 we would both not only be married, but also with little children and LIVING IN THE SOUTH -- we would have immediatly spit out our mouths full of Freestate beer and laughed heartily at the idea. But alas, here we are....and life is good.
Here is a picture of Amy and Nic in front of their home in Memphis:

and here is a picture of my favorite present ever along side my perpetual lump of coal (Cal):

Newsflash

Well, this may be "news" to most of you, but after much deliberation I made a last minute decision to return to work at ICON. Two weeks ago I put in a call to basically find out who to write my letter of resignation to and the good people at ICON ultimately said "please don't leave us -- we will find you something to do that does not require travel (at least not TOO much) and you can still work from home." To which I obviously replied "Yipee!" So, I officially started back yesterday and so far things are going well. We are lucky in that once Tom finishes his instructor training(sometime next month), he will better be able to build his schedule around my regular business hours. For the next six months, or so, he will be flying almost exlusively night flights which will allow for him to be home with the Squeaker while I am working. I am not sure exactly what I will be doing for ICON, but I know that I will be working in the Contracts Dept. I am still waiting to find out more info and in the meantime I will be getting my office organized and catching up on the general annual training I am required to complete. So, enough of this boring rambling! That is our plan for right now and of course, it is subject to change at any moment. However, if the new job doesn't pan out, I have a feeling that we may be forced to start eating rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hey, I figure Marin eats rice cereal at every meal and she seems to be doing just fine, it can't be that bad! Of course it is mixed with breastmilk.........yeah, that probably wouldn't work out so well.

Anyhow, just so that this isn't THE most boring post in the history of the blog (it still may earn that title) here is a picture of the crazy 3-D gingerbread cookies we baked last night (thanks Grandma Cronley!). Tom loves them so much that he insisted we display them on our mantle and then he took this video(I am living with a crazy man!!)

I hope that everybody is doing well and enjoying the Holiday Season! Here is video of the Christmas carolers that visited our house on Saturday night.

Oh Christmas Tree!

This past Sunday, we drove out to a local tree farm and like the Griswold's of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation we kicked off our fun old fashion family Christmas by heading out into the country in the old front-wheel drive sleigh to embrace the frosty majesty of the winter landscape and select that most important of Christmas symbols--The Tree!
We nearly froze Marin right out of her purple snowsuit, but we found a tree and chopped it right down. Check out the action here and here. Oh, and check out Tracey's new hairdo! She loves it and so do I.
In other news, Marin made the bulletin at St. Patrick's in Meridian and we all ran the Meridian Jingle Bell run. It was 20 degrees at the start of the race, so we were happy that we didn't jump in the car as we passed it (twice) during the run. Also of note, in the results section here, I am in the Male 24-29 grouping, Tracey is in the Male 70-99 grouping?!?
Also, here's a nice failed Christmas card photo attempt. Check out my Zoolander-esque pose. I think I'll call it "blue steel."

Big Weekend in Meridian

What a weekend! Some may have thought we were biting off more than we could chew when we decided to gather Grandma Cronley, Grandma Mac, Sara & Greg, John, Suzanne & Clare and Patty, Luke, Anna & Cece for Thanksgiving, for the baptism and for the ND-USC game. Well one of those events was a debacle, but hopefully we can right the ship in the bowl game.
How, you might ask, do you house both grandmas, a brother, two sisters and their families? Oh you simply borrow two houses in your neighborhood! Rob & Leea Myers, who housed John, Suzanne and Clare, have continued to help us more than any friends have and really probably should. It's very humbling having such generous friends. We also need to thank our new friends, Angela and CJ Price. They housed Patty, Luke, Anna and Cece for the weekend. If you like to send them a thank you card, their addresses are in the Boog and Tracey section of the Cronley Wiki.
Like any family gathering, there were minor tragedies and a major tragedy (ND's loss), but we had a fabulous time catching up with everyone especially the little ones. We have pictures!

Tracey & Marin Victoriously Run for Hope

In a surprise upset in the most recent 5,000 m race on the Meridian Athletic Association circuit, Tracey Cronley (not pictured) finished first in her age group. Most shocking from last Saturday's strong performance was that Tracey ran whilst pushing Marin in her stroller.
The results are posted here.

Though no Turkey Trot plans have been discussed, she does plan to defend her title in the December 2nd Jingle Bell 5k.

Happy Autumn

It's been awhile since we've posted and it's been a LONG while since I have contributed to the blog personally (aside from being the butt of a few jokes concerning my huge loss at the neighborhood chili cook-off). Anyhow, I seem to have fallen behind in more than just my blogging and I'd like to say that I am sorry to all of the friends and family who are currently on my list of "must email ASAP" --- you know who you are --- you're the one's feeling neglected and I am sorry. My computer time each day has dwindled to almost no time at all, which in a lot of ways is quite good. I just need to get better at prioritizing the time that I do manage to find at the computer and actually email people before the baby starts wailing away.

We have enjoyed these last couple of weeks at home. Fall is officially here, but today was 85 degrees. We have had our "chilly" moments, however, so at least the trees are turning brilliant, beautiful colors.

Marin had her 4 month check up on Tuesday and she passed with flying colors! The doctor says she'll be moving and shaking and solving calculus problems in no time! Here are a couple of our most recent pictures. Marin is looking forward to seeing both Grandma Mac and Grandma Cronley and all of her Aunts, Uncles and Cousins who will be visiting in a couple of weeks for her Baptism and Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin Carving

October is hands-down our favorite month. The colors of the leaves, the anticipation of the holidays, the constant football, and for us in Mississippi, the bearable temperatures! But October is leaving and Halloween is upon us. To help us get in the mood (since we've already eaten all of the candy we bought for the trick-or-treaters), we had an afternoon of carving up our front porch decor. Today we bought new pumpkins, since the one we had gotten a couple weeks ago, was already rotten.
So we chopped open the top, scraped out the goop and seads, and ever so carefully carved out our masterpieces. Below you see the lineup of all of the pumpkins, including the ones carved by our friends Rob, Leea and Angela. Then you get a close-up of Tracey's on the left and then mine on the right.
Our neighbor Craig offered his keen eye and sense of true art as he picked my "The Owl Swoops" as the overall winner. To be fair, Craig had a difficult time deciding which pumpkin was best which resulted in his hamburgers turning to hockey pucks in his absence.

Cronley Loses in Chili Cookoff

Despite bringing a cute baby giraffe to the competition, Tracey Cronley, formerly of San Diego, California, was unable to come home with the victory in the annual Linmoor Neighborhood Chili Cookoff. "This date was highlighted for weeks on my wall calendar posted in the laundry room," stated Cronley. Attempting to woo the judges with a rare sight at chili cookoffs, Cronley left the tomatoes in the refrigerator and concocted a delicious white chili. However, she finished the competition with her very first Chili Cookoff loss.
"Maybe if my own husband would have voted for my chili, I would have won," explained the young Rachel Ray in-training. Her husband was unavailable for comment as he spent the morning in the bathroom with a mysterious post chili cookoff sickness.
After finding out that the cookoff host was the winner, Cronley demanded a recount of the votes.

Anyone Else Want to Visit Us?

This is how I picked up our friends, the Roddy's, at the Jackson Airport on Thursday. Wearing a fishing hat, Burr Oak Tool & Gauge work shirt, and of course, the novelty teeth (or teef), I approached them and asked, "'re y'all the Minnesota folk?"
Also in attendance this weekend was our friend Adrienne Turner. We didn't do too much other than eat and play with the kiddies. It was a great weekend (it meant a lot to us that people took their vacation to Mississippi to visit us!) and a good "warm-up" for Thanksgiving.

A Little Visit to God's Country

Last weekend, we loaded up the Family Truckster and headed North to South Bend, Indiana for a wedding. The Dampeer and Steigner families' gathering coincided perfectly with my wistful desire to take a 3 month old child on a 4 day, 3 thousand mile trip to the Midwest.
We split up the mileage by stopping in St. Louis, MO while traveling both North and South. John, Suzanne and Clare put us up in their home and then traveled with us (different cars, the truckster isn't that big) to and from South Bend.
The weekend was a blur of activity. Friday included a extended Cronley family dinner of Macri's deli sandwiches (the Ol' Chicago was probably the best sandwich). Saturday, after the men (Joe, John and I) had our quick, hour and a half trip to Starbucks, we all toured the campus and loaded up on everything Notre Dame at the bookstore. It was cool and crisp, but when the wind blew, it was downright cold--and that's not the Mississippi in me talking.
The wedding and reception were perfect. Claire was striking and Mike was a very cool and confident groom. We ate, drank and danced until the band ran out of Lionel Richie hits for me to request.
After a short stop at the Dampeer home for breakfast it was time to begin the long trip home. A great trip but the travel was a little much. Marin made me promise that I would never again purchase extra spicy, jalapeno and cheddar potato chips for Tracey, which a half an hour later, Marin tasted. That was a nightmare.

The Squeaker

We've been busy with getting our house put together, trying to establish/maintain a routine schedule for Marin, watching (and re-watching thanks to TiVo) Notre Dame football games and attempting to catch some zzzzzz's every once in awhile. As you may or may not be able to tell from the photos, Marin has been VERY busy growing! Yesterday I was forced to pack up all of her 0-3 month clothes as she has outgrown them - right on schedule! It's hard to believe.

October is going to be a great month for us. It's always my favorite month of the year and this year we have a lot going on: a wedding in South Bend, IN, followed up by a weekend of fun with some of my favorite friends from KU here in Meridian, then it's Halloween and Marin already has her costume picked out. Now if only the weather here in MS would act like it's October. Today it is 95 degrees and the forecast calls for more of the same ALL WEEK! Too hot.

I'm sure you will all be thrilled to hear that Calvin has fully recovered from the hectic move and the near abandonment at the rest stop in Missouri (as a KU grad I really can't think of a more horrible fate). He's really living the good life here with us bleary eyed new parents. He's been the victor, on more than one occasion, of tricking us in to feeding him more than his usual allotment. This is how it plays out: I awake to a meowing cat and even though it's not quite time to feed him yet, I do, just to shut him up so he won't awaken Marin. Meanwhile, Tom is sound asleep and oblivious to all of this. 30 minutes later, I am now zonked out and Tom falls victim to the apparently starving Cal's meows and hence Cal gets fed twice -- his #1 goal in life. Thankfully, while we three stooges (Tom, Cal and myself) are stumbling through the wee hours of the mornings, Marin has continued to sleep soundly through the nights, consistently waking up at 730am. Yipee! Knock on wood.....

The pictures above are from last Saturday. Yes, we do let her wear the Roll Tide bow from Aunt Leea, just because it's so darn cute, but note the green bow too! Unfortunately Marin was not wearing any KU stuff last weekend and she should have been, but she was already sound asleep when that epic game was going down. Better luck this week, Jayhawks!

Babysitter Interviews

We had a visitor this past weekend. Aunt Sara made the quick trip from Birmingham to bring good luck to the first quarter of the Notre Dame vs. Purdue game. It worked! What we didn't tell her is that she was secretly being interviewed as a potential babysitter. As you can tell Marin enjoyed her presence and now it is only a matter of time.

Eight to Eight

I remeber when Tracey was about 3 months pregnant and I came home with a book entitled Twelve Hours by Twelve Weeks. Tracey laughed and I sort of felt stupid because here we were 6 months before the birth and all I care about is a decent night's rest. The book seemed a little far-fetched in my mind though only some of of it didn't work for us. We don't stay hard and fast to schedules or let her cry without coming to her aid, but it did give us something from which to deviate. And the results are in: Marin has slept two nights in a row from 8pm to 8am.
We are not sure if this will continue, but we are hopeful. She really seems like a baby who likes to sleep. Her worst days are not when she feeds poorly (these are rare), but when she doesn't get her morning or long afternoon nap.
It should be noted that Marin was awake (and having almost as bad a time as her dad) for the first part of the ND/MSU game. She finally fell asleep, ND finally woke up and despite my screaming at the television, Marin slept.

Game Day Photo

Go Irish!

Sanity Lost

Picking up from where we left off, we were living in San Diego, I had a job there, our newborn was 6 weeks old, Joe & Kelly were unwed, both cars showed no signs of aging, Calvin (the cat) trusted us, ND was going to beat GA Tech by at least a thousand points and it was cool and breezy. Times, they are 'a changin'.
Joe & Kelly's wedding was incredible. We (including Marin & Wendy) had a great time soaking in the high altitude sun and the crisp mornings--not to mention the accomodations, the reception and the wedding itself. Oh and it was nice to see you all...er, um...all of you.
Traveling across this country was somewhat of a daunting task given the fact Marin is so young and we'd be pulling a trailer. We also had the moms with us driving the little 2-door. It seemed like each day presented us with another round of tragedies and near-catastrophes. Though the car's reliability was always in question after the overheating in Las Vegas, it ran without issue for the trip. From Park City to Denver, most everything went smoothly. We realized that Marin was going to sleep most of the way (thankfully) and that despite the climb (just past Laramie, WY it is 8,600 ft in elevation), the SUV could handle the little Uhaul trailer.
The free wine in Denver was our downfall. Couple that with our 4am wakeup and I felt lucky to make it out of Colorado, let alone to Lawrence, KS. Despite getting to our destination pretty early (2:30pm), I was absolutely exhausted. Because the hotel didn't allow cats and sneaking Cal by the front desk is a too little tricky at the Eldridge, we boarded Cal at Catherine and Matt's apartment. After a dinner with the Thompsons which highlighted Matt's grilling know-how, Wendy stayed with them as well.
Wednesday was nuts. We did get to our next stop of Memphis, TN, but not without accidentally leaving Calvin at a rest stop. Not fun. Truthfully it was disasterous. But when we returned, there he was, patiently waiting (and trembling) underneath a car. Dinner with our friends, Amy & Nic Morrison, and then the final leg to Meridian.
Boy, was it ever nice to arrive at our new home. Rob and Leea Myers had all of our stuff in the house and now it is a matter of finding the right spot for everything. It has been non-stop since getting here, but I did manage to fit in a quick trip to Atlanta with Greg to see the Irish. The picture below shows my seats. I don't know why it is so blurry.
It's good to be back up blogging and I hope we haven't lost our readers!

Good Riddance, San Diego

It's true. We've moved. Or least we've done the first part of the move. We've left San Diego. Frankly, we needed to get out of that dump. I'd had enough of predictably beautiful weather on a daily basis. How about some variety? I'd like to run my air conditioning unit sometime in the summer and the heater in the winter! That commute along the bay and over the Coronado Bridge no longer does it for me. How am I supposed to get good at being a handy man? They don't let me do maintenance on the pool or even our own condo! And I would like to drive to the grocery store at some point; walking there makes me feel like a bum. And darn it, there are just too many options for dinner. I'd just like one restaurant so I don't have to think about it. I've had it with all these dinner decisions.
Thankfully our ship has come in (No! Not a boat!). One easy to spell savior has come for us, all together now: M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I.

Happy August

It's been a long time since I've made a post to the blog. In fact, you may not know this, but since my last post I had a baby, I've changed about 10,000 diapers and have enjoyed nightly 2am feedings. Well, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure that Boog/Tom has kept you all quite informed on these matters :) My little Blogger.
Anyhow, I wanted to share some more photos (because you haven't seen enough already!). These pictures are all nearly 2 weeks old, so just bear in mind that she has totally changed since then -- I mean, she's almost fitting in to her 0-3 month old stuff now, so you really probably wouldn't even recognize her. Kidding, of course. This first one is pictorial evidence of what Tom was mentioning in one of his previous posts -- this is where Marin ends up at the end of a long nap. Actually, sometimes it's worse, with her legs actually hanging over the edge of the bassinet. Silly!



The second one needs no explanation other than please don't feel sorry for Cal. He actually thinks he ended up with the better deal -- he'd take a cardboard box over a bouncy chair ANYDAY!



The last one is an important one -- it's a 4 generation shot with Marin, her mom (me), my mother, Wendy and my mother's mother, Elaine (from whom Marin got her middle name). How lucky we are to have all been together and hopefully we will have many more opportunities for such occasions.

John's ND Football Career

Before you wonder why, after 10 straight posts about the new baby, I have thrown a seemingly random Notre Dame football post in here, I'll try to justify my brief departure. Tivo has been recording old Notre Dame football games for me over the past few years and never have I seen anyone in the Cronley family at the game. That is until this video. So, here is the video that I've been trying to get out for a while.
In 1987, ND played Michigan State early in the season. Dad and Joe sat together next to the "Rocker" while John and I got the field level seats. Mom and Patty couldn't make it because they went to see Pope John Paul at the Silverdome the very same day. Mom said the Pope came out for mass and was wearing Michigan State green. That was it. Mom just knew ND was going to lose. Well, ND didn't lose. ND scored 2 seconds into the game and routed MSU 31-8. It was an historic game because of Tim Brown's 2 punt returns for touchdowns which vaulted him to the runaway selection as the Heisman Trophy winner for 1987. In the video, John (wearing a yellow shirt and green hat) celebrates in the endzone with the ND defensive line after they force a safety of Michigan State's quarterback. And, later you see John when the camera operator focuses on the crowd. If you look closely, you can see a very excited 10 year old in the bottom right corner of the screen. Click the link below.

ND vs. MSU 1987

Noticeable Progress

Marin has had a big week. Following her successful 2-week old appointment, we had probably her crankiest day so far. We got some advice and some sleep, and Marin has return to her "perfect angel" status. Almost.
There have been lots of funny stories, occurrences, noises and "movements" over the past couple of weeks. Here are a few:

• When Marin sneezes, she often finishes them with a huge high-pitched sigh. "Ahhhh"
  
• Often, during nap in her bassinet, she will slide from the very top of the mattress to the very bottom--bunching herself up in the last quarter of the whole bed.
  
• We're not sure if her mouth is too small for the pacifier or not, but we do know that watching her accept the plug and then launch it out of her mouth is hilarious.
  

• Her hair. Or more accurately, when other people see her hair..."Did one of you mousse Marin's hair?" has been asked more than once.
  
• The instant effect that the vacuum has upon her is comical. She can be alert, active, crying, mumbling, nursing, on the changing table...no matter what she is doing, if the vacuum is turned on, she is sleeping, right away.