Spirit of Christmas

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Dad's Gift to Us

December 2nd will always be special to me. It is Dad's birthday and in 2007, it represents number 70. Mom's party in Utica (celebrating her 70th) was incredible and I think it was probably the only gift mom ever wants: her children to be together and happy (also, she may have liked that we were forced to share a cabin among the 30 of us, but that's beside the point). Since we were all so young when Dad died in 1995 (yes, even mom was young!), it forces me to wonder what life would be like with him. And it is sometimes fun and sometimes sad to do just that. More recently, however, I have been thinking about what my life is like because of him.
I've had this stuck in my head for a while and it may come across "preachy" and self-righteous, but my point is to honor Dad and it is his birthday after all.
Dad's life and the life lessons that he taught can best be understood by knowing that his purpose in life was to be happy, healthy and holy.
For Cronley's, being happy has never been a result of something. I think about growing up in a household that some would describe as mass chaos, and some would describe as beautiful. Our happiness has always been a decision each day. Dad's example of the difficulty of the car business (understatement of the century), to resisting the temptation to change locations, to working for someone less qualified than himself, to the pressure of being the sole financial provider had to be hard. And yet, each morning it was off to work as if it was his first day on the job. Happiness is never a guarantee or a goal, but a decision dad made each day and I think on the whole, we are pretty good at this still today.
To be healthy is something we all want. You feel good when you are hitting the gym, or running trails and to be sure, it is our responsibility to do this. Now Dad couldn't keep up with me on a run (let alone Joe or John), and he would get wooped by Pete Goethals in tennis, so it's pretty safe to say that each of the girls would trounce him on the court as well. But Dad knew about relationship health better than anyone else I've met to date. People knew where they stood with Dad because they knew Dad. There was no question about his intentions and he never schemed. What you see is what you get. If Dad told you he was hurt, you knew you had hurt him. When he forgave you, you knew he had forgiven you. Relationships are much more resilient and stable when their backdrop is of this honest and undisguised example that Dad provided. I hope that, without his living example, we too can reach his level of relationship mastery that could prevent the unfortunate strife common to aging families.
Ah, holiness. Now I specifically remember Dad trimming his finger nails during a homily and I'd bet he would be hard-pressed to wax intelligent on the pope's latest encyclicals. That being said, among the billions of people to walk this earth, there is only one Jesus and only 12 apostles and yet a passerby eclipsed the cowardliness of the those same apostles when Jesus needed help to carry the cross. My point is we may not all be called to extreme, life-changing religious callings, but like Simon (the passerby), we are all called to be ready. Dad's honesty and integrity as a man, meant that he was ready.
So there they are--Dad's gifts. None of them were given in a vacuum, but rather in a life of struggle and hardship, joy and excitement. Let's not forget them. Let's enhance them and honor Dad through them.

Kansas Homecoming 2007

It's been said more than a few times already this year, but let me reiterate IT'S BEEN A CRAZY YEAR FOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL. The Kansas Jayhawks are 9-0 and this isn't basketball we're talking. The Jayhawks defeated the Nebraska Cornhuskers by a whopping 37 points. Even if the season ended today, this is truly the one we want documented in a buried time capsule in hopes of it being unearthed 100's of years from now. Unfortunately this IS NOT one of those "time capsule" seasons for Notre Dame. As my poor sister Catherine and her husband Matt can verify, I cheered WAY louder during the ND / Navy game than I did during the KU game (go figure). I'm just not sure what Charlie was thinking.....
Anyhow, we had a blast in Kansas. As always, it went by way too fast. Here are a few pics from the trip.




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Happy Halloween...

from our Little Monkey! Marin is not quite old enough to Trick or Treat, but she sure likes to monkey around! We had a blast sweating through her second halloween (it's 75 degrees at 8pm here!!). Tom has been gone all week and will be back tomorrow. Unfortunately we won't get to see him because we will be on our way to Kansas for Homecoming (and my sister's b-day!!). However, Tom will be joining us on Friday -- it will be a happy reunion/homecoming/aunt Catherine birthday party ;)

My 15 Minutes

As Tracey mentioned in her most recent post, this past Saturday we planned to go to the Alabama versus Tennessee game in Tuscaloosa. Our friends, Rob & Leea Myers, are huge Alabama fans and we couldn't pass up the chance to go with them to the game. On top of that, Rob had done all the requesting and planning for the flyover. It was a no-brainer. We had to do it.
We awoke early and headed to campus. We saw some cool sights, and I convinced absolutely no one that Alabama's claim of national titles in '41 and '73, is a little suspect (at best). Quickly it was time to head to the airport. We briefed and were airborne and the timing seemed to work from our vantage point, but you never know until you return to the stadium. (Here is Tracey's video of the flyover.) The university had arranged for our transportation back to the game, and we missed only the first quarter. Our seats were decent and the game was exciting with lots of first half lead changes. Two minutes before halftime, we were led to the field, and after the bands had played, we were shoved out onto the field and had our names announced over the public address system. I think the last time my name was announced at a stadium, it involved dad coming to pick me up in the security office because I had gotten lost. Well, Alabama cruised to a surprising 41-17 victory and though the players might have had something to do with it, we were all pretty certain that the win was a direct result of the flyover. Oh boy, my 15 minutes are up.

Disregard previous weather update

WE'RE BURNIN' UP AGAIN! Yup, that's right -- it's tank tops and cut-offs again as we swelter through another "warm front". It's 85 degrees with relative humidity around 70% --- that's pretty ridiculous (in my opinion) for mid October. I don't think I've ever had to run the A/C in October in my life! We're a little fed up with it at this point.
Well, Marin got her flu shot today and did a stellar job of being a brave girl. Next up on our list of exciting things to do is that Tom will be doing the fly-over for the Alabama vs. Tennessee game this weekend in Tuscaloosa, AL, so we will get to go watch him and maybe see the game too! I'll try to get a video clip to post -- it should be fun! Oh, and ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!
That's about it from here. Please send us some cool temps. I don't know how much more heat my bones can take. We're cooked. Well-done. Burnt to a crisp. or as Marin would say in a whispered voice "h-h-h-hhhot!"

It's Gotten Cool Again!

This morning we awoke to 42 degrees. It was wonderful. I know you can find out the weather in Mississippi elsewhere on the internet, but it is still noteworthy in our minds.
While we haven't been traveling or doing very much visiting recently, we have had some fun here in Meridian. Last weekend we had a visitor from California...yep, Grandma Mac was in our house! We put her right to work. We ate fabulous homemade meals and I'm still enjoying the biscotti that have secretly stashed in various places all over the house.
And while Grandma Mac slaved away in the kitchen, Tracey and I painted the town red. You guessed it, tickets to the local players performance of the Sound of Music--Tracey's favorite movie of all time. The singing was good, and most of the acting was better than expected. Still, we made fun of Captain Von Trapp. He was not good and we even found ourselves laughing out loud during his lines. Also of note was that at halftime (yes, intermission is known as halftime), we heard that viewers go out to their cars and have a beer. I'm not making this up. So that's just what we did...and we drank with the orchestra, who was also out in the parking lot!
We also had a farewell celebration for the commanding officer of my squadron. Normally this dinner and drinks affair would be a total snoozer, but it included a roast of the commanding officer, and you might guess who did the roasting. I had fun, but much to Tracey's dismay, it did not lead to my immediate firing.
I'll put some photos up soon and expect to see some pumpkin carvings shots soon too.

The Windy City

While Marin is working on hour four of her nap today (this is a rarity, might I add) I am finding myself at a loss for what to do since I am so accustomed to having to get everything done within the time limits of Marin's usual 2.5 hour nap. So, I thought I would write a few notes about our wonderful weekend in Chicago and South Bend. Despite having to travel with a car seat, a pack-n-play and a stroller (not to mention our luggage as well), we somehow managed to have very few problems and a lot of successes. We've learned that Marin does much better on the airplane when we are able to secure an "extra" seat and strap her into her car seat. Tom and I both agree that it is worth badgering a flight attendant or two to do so :) Our first success was getting an upgraded rental car. Then, we somehow managed to time it perfect with getting the rental car and then swinging back through the airport to pick up Tom's brother, John whose flight came in about an hour after ours.

Thanks to Tom's good college friend, Sergio and his wife Lynn, we were able to stay in style at their fabulous place in the Lincoln Park suburb of Chicago. We were within blocks of Peet's Coffee, Whole Foods Market, Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, (the list goes on an on) --- I was in heaven!! We didn't actually have time to shop at all (we absolutely DID have time to drink Peet's Coffee), but it just felt so comforting to me to be so near to such fine retail (not that we can afford any of it!) and truthfully, it just felt really nice being back in the city! It made us realize how much we miss the hustle and bustle of city life. Anyhow, Sergio and Lynn were unfortunately out of town for the weekend, so we didn't actually get to see them, but we did have dinner with another of Tom's good friends from ND, Jason and his new fiancee, Jen. We had some great wine, beer and pizza and enjoyed a low-key evening at their equally fantastic place.
Saturday morning we got up bright and early and headed to South Bend. The weather could not have been better and the lack of traffic was astonishing! We made it just in time to see the ceremony for the unveiling of the new Ara Parseghian statue which features a life-size figure of Tom's best friend Andy's Dad, Mr. John Dampeer who was team captain of the ND football team during the year this image was captured. Very cool! Between the ceremony and the game we toured around campus, hit the bookstore, and eventually met up with some great friends. Tom's best friend, Andy and his wife Kristee recently had a baby boy, Alex, who we got to meet for the first time --- what a doll! We had a blast chatting with them and the entire Dampeer family at their tailgate. Then we finally made our way into the stadium for the game. Although the game could have gone better, we had a great time and amazing seats! It's the first time in ND history that the team has gone 0-4, but as I keep reminding Tom, this is a character building season and it's more important than ever to stay spirited fans. We have been flying our ND flag this year and I'm not sure if this an omen or not, but upon our arrival home from the airport, we discovered our flag pole had busted out of the socket and our flag was strewn across the yard. I guess there was some violent weather while we were gone!
Well, on a lighter note, I think it may be the first time in the history of Kansas football that the team has started out the season 4-0! Go Jayhawks!! We'll see how the season goes from here.....
PS - we are back to sweltering temperatures and humidity -- I knew we weren't out of the woods yet. I guess I'll sadly put my jeans away for another few weeks.

Just Wanted to Say "Hi."

Weather Update / Sanity Re-alignment

I just wanted to report to everybody that yesterday the outside temperature did not go above 89 degrees!! This is remarkable since the last time this happened was sometime back in late May or early June. We know we're not out of the woods yet, but at least there is a glimmer of hope :) Oh and here is our glamorous miss Ladybug Cronley.

A Tale of Two Weekends

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

Notre Dame
got
trounced.
And wehad a great weekend.

Notre Dame got trounced. True
The local NBC affiliate did not show the game until the second quarter. True
I had more yards rushing (zero) than Notre Dame (-8).True
We had a wonderful Labor Day weekend in Birmingham.True
How, you might ask?
It certainly didn't hurt that a we dove head first into the open bar that is the Wendt household. It was fun, almost experimental. Some good (and not as good) wine, blueberry beer, and Greg's favorite, the Blue Hawaiian (think Blue Gatorade meets a bottle of sun tan lotion). I haven't felt that experimental since receiving a C- from my chemistry professor,Dr. Jacobs sophomore year at ND. (My excuse was/is that he looks exactly like the lead singer of the Spin Doctors and I couldn't get "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" out of my head during class). I digress.
After the game, we had Bronx style pizza and chatted and laughed. We let go of the worries of the game and planned for the next day.
After Mass and breakfast, we hit up some shopping centers until I couldn't take it anymore. Truthfully, I was the big spender up until that point and I was afraid what else I would find. That left Sara, Tracey and Marin to battle the masses to find the true gems out there. After picking up a pair of $0.97 sunglasses, Marin stole the show at the grocery store. See the video below.
Following that performance, she was quite the entertainer. After we got home and settled, she decided to start walking. And for the encore, she puckered up her lips and kissed her mom. And then did it again, amid the tears on her mother's cheek.
On a weekend when Notre Dame looked a JV squad, I guess it all turned out all right.

Notre Dame Football 2007

As you all know, the football begins anew tomorrow. Questions loom about the 2007 Irish. Who will the quarterback be? How will the defense react to the new defensive coordinator? But things will not change. We will follow the team. I suggest this website for the most complete coverage The Blue Gray Sky We will go to some games and watch all the games. And some moments, we will forever remember.
In 1980, Notre Dame played Michigan. Mom, Dad, I went to the game. It may seem like once again "The King" got special treatment, but come on, I was 3...and I did fall asleep during the game. Everyone else was at home, but Joe only remembers that he, John and Patty were upstairs watching the game from Mom and Dad's room.
This is one of those memories, tied to Notre Dame football that we will forever remember, or in my case, a memory I get to hear so many times that I swear, I do remember it too.
Harry Oliver, 5'10", acne-covered Mechanical Engineering student, a back-up to the back-up, a guy who missed an extra point in the same game, a nobody, makes a 51-yard field goal to beat Michigan. And we all still remember the announcer saying, "Come Harry, give it ride, Baby."
Here's a clip from the game. It's the U of M announcer who is so surprised that the kick was made that he seemingly lost his mind. Just so you know, ND wins 29-27.
More on Harry Oliver here. Go Irish beat Georgia Tech.

We Got a New Pet!

And it wants to eat us.

Post "coma" Memoirs

Well, it's official -- the heat/humidity of the deep South is unlike.......well, I'm at a complete loss for words ---- there's just no describing it. It literally put me in a mental (and sometimes emotional) "coma" -- hence my ridiculously long blog hiatus. Soooo, it appears that the beginning of the end of the worst of the heat is commencing. How's that for a clear sentence? I don't want to get too excited or jinx it, for that matter. Mother Nature can be persnickety! Anyhow, we feel like the beginning of the end is near because over the weekend we actually ate dinner (a very LATE dinner) outside!! Tom had drops of sweat pouring down his forehead and I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes, but WE ATE OUTSIDE AND SURVIVED!!! Of course, we had to move one of the outdoor tables from the back porch (faces West), to the front porch (faces East) in order for this to happen, but it did happen and as the night progressed and I proceeded to stomp Tom in a lengthy game of Gin, the outdoor temp. actually became quite pleasant. This event was followed-up the next evening with the temps actually dropping to 90 degrees by about 6pm and I was able to go for a run without getting a massive headache!! I never thought the day would come when I would say "wow, it is so nice outside" when the thermometer reads 90 degrees! It's crazy. Aside from cooler temperatures, we also have a lot of other things to look forward to in the upcoming weeks. First, we are training for our first itty-bitty triathlon on Sept. 8th. (I only mention it so that you trusty blog readers will hold us accountable for actually completing it!) It should be fun as long as the temps continue in their downward trend. At the top of our "looking forward to" list would probably have to be our trip to South Bend for the ND v. MSU game in mid-September. It will be Marin's first Notre Dame game!! Tom is counting the seconds until kickoff for the Irish's first game this Saturday against Georgia Tech. We will be watching the game in Birmingham with Sara and Greg -- it'll be great! Ahhhhh, football season -- what a great time of year it is, that is once one resigns them self to the fact that their husband will be totally unreachable (even if he is in the same room) every Saturday for the next 12 weeks or so.

Videos, Hummingbirds & Videos of Hummingbirds

On Monday, Marin had more immunizations done. As painful as they are for her (and for her mom!), we think the low grade fever she runs for the next few days is even worse. She was cranky for 2 days and didn't sleep all that well either. It is pretty easy to tell when she feels bad; her eyes look sad and she is pretty whiney. Below is a video of Marin when she feels bad:


Compare that with video of her on the same day, after her fever had subsided. She is usually silly like this:


This week we also put in a couple of bird feeders on the back porch. We've managed to attract the attention of at least 4 different hummingbirds. We've enjoyed seeing them arrive each morning to battle it out for the sweet syrup.



Here are some stills of the hummingbirds.

Grandma Cronley Visits Mississippi!

After eight months of time without a trip to Meridian, Grandma Cronley was finally persuaded to make a trip to the south as part of yet another whirlwind tour across the country. After flying into Birmingham, she and Aunt Sara drove west to Meridian to share some much needed family time with us. Amidst the hottest temperatures I've ever lived in, we spent most of the time either indoors or in pools!
The week flew by and now Grandma is with the Woods in Columbus. Thanks for coming and see you soon!

1st Birthday!

Yep, Marin is 1 year--12 months if you speak the "parenting lingo." I decided a few months back that I'd no longer be using months to gauge her age. It seems a bit silly. No one else uses months for ages, why use it for little ones?
So the party was great fun as you can see. Marin's great Aunt Amy and great Aunt Lorinda & Great Uncle Mike were present along with Grandma Mac--A pretty crazy bunch for her first birthday! She ate her first cake that her mom made from scratch. The cake was actually a group of little individual lemon or vanilla flavored cakes in the shapes of various bugs: Dragonflies, and Marin's favorite Ladybugs. We know that Marin loves ladybugs because at least half of the stuff she wears and most of her toys are ladybugs. Despite staying up later than normal and eating twice her normal intake, Marin did well on her first birthday and genuinely seemed happy.

From there we kicked off a 4-day 1000 mile trip to and from Santa Rosa, CA to among other things, celebrate Tracey's second cousin's wedding. Loads of fun, and loads of driving that included a "moderate speed police chase" and a rather slow--20 miles in 2 hours--section of US 101.
We survived and now that I'm back in Mississippi, I have much to miss. I miss Tracey & Marin who are staying in CA until the end of the month. And I miss California.

Quick Update

No, we have not fallen off the face of the earth, but we are just barely hanging on....this indescribable humid heat down here is trying to wipe us out! We've been busy with work, battling a few rounds of an awful cold, and trying to stay cool. We have also had some great visits -- Memorial Day weekend in Memphis was a blast! Then we had Joe and Kelly Cronley and Aunt Sara visit us here in Meridian, which was such a nice time and then last weekend Aunt Sara came to keep Marin and me sane while Tom was gone to the boat. We spent three weekends in a row with Aunt Sara and now we are going through Sara withdrawal :(
Anyhow, these are some pics from the past few weeks --

Vomit Haters Beware

Some people may not know this, but my Dad had a very unique sense of humor. Take for instance the incident that occurred about 3 days before my first day of Kindergarten. Somehow I managed to slip and fall on a wet pool deck and crack my forehead open on the metal steps of the slide. A trip to the ER and a full row of stitches later, I found myself donning a large, white, bulky bandage on my face. I was less than thrilled at the idea of wearing this to my first day of school, so my dear old Dad, always the fashion forward thinker (ha ha), thought that a bright red Air California (the airline he was flying for at the time) sticker would be the perfect accessory to compliment my wound covering. So yes, I attended my first day of school EVER, wearing a massive bandage with an airline sticker smack in the middle of my forehead (shucks, I don't have a picture on hand). Funny now, but not so funny to the horrified Kindergartner of the past. So, when life throws me a day like I had yesterday, I can't help but imagine that my Dad is somewhere out there orchestrating these hideously ridiculous scenarios for his (and let's face it, my) personal entertainment. Here's what happened: At Marin's last check-up, her Pediatrician told us that we could start introducing cow's milk in small amounts around 11 months, despite the fact she has not done well with milk based formula in the past. Well, the kid is almost 11 months and our bank account is really eager for us to switch from formula to real milk, so we bought our first carton of whole milk and at Marin's pre-dinner snack I gave her literally 2 VERY SMALL sips. That's it. Then she had her "puffs" and bananas and a couple of hours later(everything going just fine) she had her night time bottle of formula while I whipped up some carrot soup. Just as the timer was about to sound, signaling that the soup was done, Marin finished her bottle and I picked her up while I stirred the soup one last time. As I'm stirring and commenting to Marin on how "burpy" she was, she unleashed a massive, projectile bolus of vomit. I somehow managed to push the pot of soup out of the way just in the nick of time (phew!), which left open a fiery hot burner for the vomit to cook itself on (sorry to be so graphic, but I just want to paint an accurate picture for you). Now, for those of you who know me well, what's my #1 fear in life? ---- yup, VOMIT! So, there I was covered in it, holding my daughter who was also covered in it and watching (not to mention smelling) it cook on my stove top and I couldn't help but laugh -- thanks Dad! After asking Marin 10,000 times if she was ok (of course she was), giving her bath #2 for the day and cleaning the kitchen from top to bottom, life went on and the carrot soup was DELICIOUS!! Lucky Tom got home from work after Marin was sound asleep and missed the whole darn thing! Needless to say, cow's milk will not be given to my daughter anytime in the near future. Don't get any ideas John and Joe Cronley!!

Don't worry, I didn't take any pictures of the disaster, but here are a few recent shots of the lactose intolerant girl.