Happy St. Patrick's Day Ya'll

Headline News

The lead story of yesterday's morning news here in Meridian -- New Super Wal-Mart Opens Today -- Yipee!! So, this is Meridian's third Wal-mart store and while it is nice to have a new, cleaner Wal-Mart to shop at, it's a bit ridiculous that this town now has three Wal-Mart stores, ZERO Target stores and ZERO Starbuck's (I know, I keep bringing that up and it's probably getting old to a lot of you). But come on, what town in America doesn't have a Target, let alone a Starbucks!? So as much as I really don't like shopping at Wal-Mart (I dream about Target sometimes...) since moving to Meridian I have learned to just clench my teeth and force myself to feel lucky enough to have a variety of Wal-Marts to choose from. Indeed, Aunt Leea, Marin and I had to make the inaugural run to the new Wal-Mart to check things out. Here is a photo of Marin's and my reaction to the sparkling new store :)



Actually, this picture was taken at Wal-Mart, but it is Marin's reaction to the huge Tiger Wal-Mart mascot they had walking around the store. She LOVED him!! It was pretty hilarious. I guess we don't have to worry about her being the one kid at Disneyland who is horrified by a giant Donald Duck. Ahhh, the little things in life that can bring such joy.

Well, it's tourney time and our brackets have been filled out. It is sure to be an exciting tournament this year, with even a possibility (as slight as it may be -- no offense, Tom) of having Kansas play Notre Dame in the Final Four. For Marin's sake, I really hope that doesn't happen. I think it would be VERY confusing to her.

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!

Go Jayhawks!

She's a Cruiser!

Marin got a walker about a month ago and up until now it has been a nice item for me to trip on and nothing more. We had figured that the mostly hard flooring would make it a fun way for her to get around and the one-story home eliminated any risk of stairway injuries. So we splurged at Wal-mart and got the bottom-of-line edition Tot Rider 2. After a few weeks of confused looks and attempts to jump from the seat (she has a similar toy where jumping is encouraged), Marin is cruising now. She explores the house, chases Calvin, and just about loses her mind if she gets hung up on anything. She has declared war on floor rugs (see picture above) and door stops. It's hard not to laugh when she attempts her Austin Powers-like turn around in the hallway pictured below. She loves to go, go, go. I fully expect her next move to be contacting the Mississippi DMV to get tags for her ride; consider yourself warned!

No more whining and I mean it.....................

........Does anybody wanna peanut? Happy Fat Tuesday! Here are some more pics.

70 & Sunny!

Scrap everything I wrote yesterday! Woohoo!

Marin is Tired of the Cold

This is going to be a hard sell. The geographic layout of the immediate family favors most of the northern or mountain (colder) states. I am not in the North and the highest altitude I've seen around here puts me about a mile below Park City. That's not the point. Mississippi should be warmer this time of year and I'm looking for some sympathy from the media, similar to the hourly "Upstate New York Update" or if that fails, from at least the average blog veiwer, in the form of compassionate and concerned comments.
Here's my point, these are the only days of the year that are supposed to be lovely, if not bearable, AND IT'S FREEZING! After doing absolutely no legitimate research, I've come to the conclusion that this year has been colder than usual and it's been this way for longer than usual. We really didn't get started with the cold until after Thanksgiving when some of you were hear to enjoy our comfortable November temps. Here it is mid-February and tonight is supposed to be in the 20s! If November is nice, why isn't January?
Pretty much the rest of the Cronley side is going to be colder than that tonight, yes. However, I'm going to bring this back up in August when the atomic clock runs out of digits to display the temperature and y'all are basking in the glow of a gentle afternoon sun and summer breeze.

New Pictures! (click to view)

Grandma Mac's February 2007 Visit to Mississippi

Blah Blah-blah Blah-blah

With all of the speeches lately (state of the union, state of the state, the Golden Globe acceptance speeches, etc), I hope you don't mind listening to one more.

California Dreaming

Yes, it's true. We have been here in Meridian just short of 6 months and the reality of our location has officially hit me. I miss California. I miss downtown San Diego (minus the bums and traffic, of course). I just miss all of our familiar and bustling surroundings, not to mention the beautiful pacific ocean. Maybe I'm just suffering from a bit of Seasonal Affect Disorder as a result of the gloomy, rainy and downright chilly weather we've had pretty consistently for the past few weeks, but on second thought -- no -- I'm pretty sure it's just Meridian. For the most part life in Meridian is very BORING. However, there are a few little gems that this city has to offer. For example, there is this nice park called Bonita Lakes that has great running trails in a very "scenic" environment where we enjoy running when the weather permits. Also, not too long ago we discovered this great bakery that has the best cookies!
Well, within the past 24 hours we've found out the following:

1. A human skull was found on one of the running trails at Bonita Lakes and the trails are closed pending the investigation.

2. The bakery with the fabulous cookies has gone out of business.

Next they are going to tell us that celebrating St. Patrick's Day is against the law in the state of Mississippi!

Needless to say, we don't leave the house much. It's sad, but true. We're looking forward to a trip to my mom's in April. I've already started counting down the days. The trip also just happens to coincide with my 30th birthday, so I just realized that ironically I am also counting down the remaining days of my 20's. Great, now I'm even more depressed. ha ha.

Thank goodness we have our adorable and hilarious baby girl to keep our spirits up!! Here are a couple of pictures: the first one is a shot of Marin in one of her favorite napping spots, our bathroom, which I just recently re-painted. The second one I took just after silly Marin had finished demolishing a cookie.

Our Best Attempt at Showing Off Marin's Tooth

 

Calvin Update!

To the faithful Cronley Blog watchers: Calvin is still alive and kicking...scratching, meowing and lately, growing. Most recently we had changed his eating style to promote a "grazing style" feeding such that if he's hungry, he eats. Well, that failed. This little experiment caused Calvin to balloon up and gain over 3 lbs in 3 months (think 30 lbs for the average person!). So it's back to two feedings a day, spaced such that he makes a mad dash toward his food bowl any time he thinks anyone is making a move in that direction.
In a related story, Marin loves Calvin, no matter how grotesquely overweight he may be. He lights up her face and he seems to realize the effect he is having on her. He often "babysits" when she is on her mat and always seems to be around to distract her during feedings. Marin is learning to sign (very trendy, I know) and we think she likes the sign for Mr. Cal the best.

Tips on Parenting

Before going to a child's periodic check-up, know the correct answers to all of the doctor's potential questions. Here's a little excerpt from the most recent visit...

Dr. Wilson: Does she make any high pitch noises?
Tracey: Oh, yes. Definitely.
Dr. Wilson: Okay. Good. This is the time when they enjoy their own sounds. Does she have any teeth or sign of teeth?
Tracey: No. We're still waiting!
Dr. Wilson: Oh look, here's a tooth right here.

Yep. Our little one has a tooth and not only that she's been hiding it from both of us this whole time!

Back at It!

The holidays are officially over. What started with a houseful at Thanksgiving has ended with the shameful lowering of the newly acquired ND flag. Over that month and a half we had a blast with so many visitors and so many calorie-laden treats. But it's back to work for everybody...and that means I must once again get serious about blogging for the good of the family.
Marin has made it to the birthday of all birthdays...yes, the half birthday. She has her checkup tomorrow and I'm sure we'll flood you with its inane findings.But who really cares about weights, heights and percentiles when Marin has started to scream at the top of her lungs?!? Now that's progress! The photo really shows it all...she recently has added this pensive look to her repitoire. She may look deep in thought; give her a second or two and she'll curl your hair with a blood curdling scream. Here is Marin bouncing around in her jumper.
Happy 2007!

A new picture...

for the frequent blog visitors, to tide you over until Tom decides to re-enter the blogging world. This is Marin with her favorite gift from Santa --- the singing Lion.

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!