Cronley Halloween 2006

I thought I take a break from taking a break blogwise, and post something timely.

Carving pumpkins was especially rewarding, as Raymond drew his own face, gutted and carved his own pumpkin with very little help.




Cute little pumpkins and bumpkins




The traditional photo with our neighbor, Karen.



The gruesome twosome.



Whatta awesome haul!



Greedy pilfering fingers aren't far behind the sorting.

Michigan Fall Colors

A Walk in the Woods at the Farm last weekend and let's see what we can find.


Fall skies with sugar maples









BIG buck rub

The northern tree tunnel

Casey and Dad on the trail

Lonely mushroom

Here we are with beautiful Fall colors at the farm 2 weekends ago. Since then we've had SNOW, yes snow, covering the ground for 2 days. It didn't stick on the roads and sidewalks but it was blustery. Unfortunately my camera battery was dead and I couldn't find the charger so you'll just have to take my word for it. This weekend was cloudy and windy, don't you just love it?

Hey there... here is a pic from the football game on Saturday, NC State vs Wake Forrest.

How Jay spends his nights and weekends

Check out some of Jay's handiwork. Here are some shots of his latest project: a copper fire place screen. Check out the close up pic of the tree detail. Be sure to click onto the pic to see a full view.

Kelly’s Personal Best run at the Sunshine 10K

Check out the short movie of my finish at the Sunshine 10k Saturday morning. Look for me coming to the finish line on the left side. Notice that the runners are finishing in a baseball stadium. We got to run in the back side of the field and then run to homeplate to finish! The quality is somewhat limited because my friend is taking the movie behind the homeplate netting and so you are seeing me through that. After a few runners come through the finish, I come up on the left. I have a white, short sleeved shirt on and a jacket wrapped around my waist. As I finish I turn around and do a "high 5" with the guy I ran with. Then my friend Laura says "Kelly!" and I wave. Do you see me?

This was the 7th time I've run this race and I recorded my personal best time, a sub 57 minute race for 6.2 miles! I finished 20th out of 40 in my age group of 40-49, and there were 250 women runners total. Next is a 15 miler moutain trail run in February, 2007. I'm already training for that and really enjoying trail running. It's very addictive. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

See me at the finish line!

Chicago, my kind of town!

Hello Family. I wanted to get a few pictures up on the blog of my whirlwind trip to Chicago for Lauren's girls weekend. We had a blast! She had a blast, most importantly. The group picture in front of the buddha is from the hotel lobby at the House of Blues, downtown. She invited a great mix of SMC gals, high school girls from Crystal Lake and her future sister in law. On Saturday, we pampered ourselves at the Spa Space and had a private room with some snackie food (blueberry casserole, bacon crescent poppers, and chocolate strawberries, made all by Lindsey and me). Later, we all met up at the HOB for a shower, dinner (ordered in from Magginios) and games! From there, we hit the town in a limo with two stops at different bars to dance the night away! Oh, 3 stops, we did a late night run to Taco Bell!!!

6 weeks until her wedding day... can't believe it! Mom... did you get the invite?

Nooz to U 10/9/06

Hello, Hello.

Lots of news this week.

I talked with all of you on Sunday except CC who emailed me this am. She will fill me in on the Apex chemical fire which is close to them and several of her co-workers live there. She had a fabulous time in Chi-town.

Chaz and fam

Chaz took time off last week to work on the downstairs bath. He got the dry wall up, mudded the floor to level it, electrical done and the shower set and the plumbing in. However the shower faucet was defective and dripped dripped. He had to take the shower back out and remove the faucet to return, a terrible job job that I watched Tom do in our shower. Chaz also stuck his left hand into a bag of screws and punched a hole under his index fingernail where it is now getting infected. He says, it only hurts when it gets bumped. OUCH. Maria had a great time at Kelly's, "the best ever". Raymond went to a county fair and had a blast riding all the carnival rides with his friend Connor. Lily and Ray went to another friend's house where they fished in a stocked pond. Chaz said at least his son wasn't the one who got snagged with a fishing hook. Lily didn't get a fish. Lisa,Brian and Brady I got to talk to Brian while Lisa was picking up Brady from Deans after bowling. He played golf on Sunday the first in a while before bowling. He's taking a break from the restaurant for a time after working 7 days a week there while George and Claudie were in France on vacation. It's chore time around the house for him, painting trim around the garage. He had a great time in Vegas, one night playing with blokes from Australia, England. He thought the Jay White/Neil Diamond show was the best. Lisa came home and chatted for awhile about her friends Lisa and Shelly. Brady's football team still hasn't won a game. Boo Hiss. Brady wants Lisa to fix up the house for Halloween to be scarey-er. Kelly and Jay. Good weekend in missouri for them. Kelly training for a marathon in Febuary, running a 6 miler this weekend, and thinking about Adventure Racing, biking, running, something and orienteering as a team. She'll have to 'splain it better. She picked up walnuts out in the yard with the walnut picker upper and probably has 10 five gallon buckets left on the tree. Love those fall chores. Tomma and Momma. We had to finish removing and installing an exterior door, our Sat and Sunday project. Tom finished it up on Sat only to find it was off setting so he had to remove all the molding and caulk and re-set the door with shimms and all. We can feel it, Chaz. Beautiful weekend weather. Sunday after cleaning up and going for our walkaround with binoculars, we sat and watched all the birds flitting around, so peaceful. Busy weekahead for me with rehearsals starting and operation on Thurs, lunch with friends and potting up some plants for indoors.

Kelly and Maria’s Excellent Adventure

Maria arrived last Friday night and we stayed busy the whole time she was here. Saturday morning we took a brisk walk, had a leisurely breakfast and then took to the stores for the rest of the afternoon. We got drawer pulls for the updated bathroom (see previous post). They look great now. We made a nice dinner and then had a late night burn in our backyard. We were bundled up but warm, by the fire.

Sunday I got up early for a long run (I’m training for a 25K in February). I had a great run and was home before Maria woke up—she was all comfy in bed. We sat at the kitchen island and chatted as I made a quick breakfast. Once we got ready we took a trip to Bass Pro for some discounted merchandise, thanks to Jay. Maria and I had a nice lunch together and then were off to Branson. We toured the new Titanic museum for two hours and got to see the grand staircase remake, china, moldy lifejackets, old paperwork, and lots of cheesy ice burg models. It was really enjoyable, much to our surprise. From there we happened to find an Andy’s Frozen Custard for late afternoon snack. Yummy. After a stop at the Hanes and Vanity Fair outlet store, we made our way home. Jay was making smoked ribs for dinner. Yum. We stuffed ourselves as sat at the table, laughed, and told stories on each other to see who could tell the worst story of the other person. But it also led to an interesting discussion about who remembered more and why. Jay took it all in. Off to bed. School on Monday.

Maria visited my class, spent some time in my office grading and hanging out. Then we had a nice dinner outside--pizza and beer on the porch of an old house. Very enjoyable. Tuesday we got up and chatted all morning; as we got ready, as we drove to the airport and as we waited for her flight to start to board. The bestfriends weekend was awesome.

Food Memories

Just a quick little post. I finally got to sit down to dinner with my family last night...it's been a while (vacations, football and the bistro). I made Mom's famous or infamous mayo/parm cheese coated fish, complete with a salad AND veg (green beans). As we held hands and said our prayer, a small tear came to my eyes as I remebered how many times we (J/P Kids)all ate together and how sad it is that my family does it so little. It quickly became another great memory as we talked and joked. Both my men (Brady's voice is starting to change, will the toe hair be next? Chaz) were happy with the meal and ate it all. I really chuckled as I watched Brady take more green beans. I also thought about all those great meals Mom made. I wondered which ones some of us still make and others we should try again. Thoughts and ideas? Luff ewe all

Prairie Nooz 10/3/06

Hello all,
A bit late this week reporting in, so much going on.

Kelly and Maria
They were the first ones to check in when Tom called Kelly to thank her and Jay for the walnut retriever they gave him for Christmas. It worked like a charm on the walnuts, picking them up by simply pressing down instead of big piles of heavy nuts.
Maria got into Spring filed on Friday night late. Saturday it was chattin' with jammies and tea until time for a long walk. Jay was getting back Saturday night for dinner. Sunday another walk and then a drive to Branson MO for a visit to the Titanic exhibit. They spent 2 hours waking through and enjoying the luxury and detail. Maria was going with Kelly to her classes and then another lunch on Monday leaving Tues at 11:30 am back to Cincinnati.

Chaz
Meanwhile Chaz had taken Ray and Lily to Kings Island for a couple of hours on Sunday.
The previous week on Tuesday, Ray put his hand through a glass storm door resulting in lots of screaming and 8 stitches (Chaz was at work so Maria was in charge).
Chaz was taking the week off to finish the basement bathroom prior to the Cronley Christmas invasion, installing a corner shower, tiles on the walls and floors, light fixtures and all. It starts with a level floor. They are having the upstairs laundry installed on Wed, a bit late for help from the professional plumbers. Good Luck, chickie.

Lisa
Brady's game got rained out on Saturday. They were behind anyway. See her blog for the Las Vagas adventure. Good job on posting pictures, Lisa.

CC and Charles
Their blog says it all. Great job, Charles on the Wolfpack reporting.
CC leaves on Thursday for Lauren's big blowout bachlorette party in Chicago. Lots of pampering and planning.

Momma and Tomma

Farm activites as usual. The wild sunflowers are brillant. Tom built Kittee a 2 level cat castle over the weekend for Schoolcraft house. We went to the Grill House with Sid and Deb R.

Other Family nooz

Kyle and Danyell Koestner had their first baby today, Kayla Ann. Marcia was in the delivery room for the first time and her middle name is Ann for the baby. Jake and April went with Chris and John F to Mississippi (love spelling that) for the Hurricane relief work week.

That's all for now, chickies. Check out the new posts on the other Cronley blogs, cute.

Vegas trip $$$

Back to reality, we returned Sat am on a red eye flight after 6 days of fun in the sun and crazy nite life. Pictured here is the singer who performs as Neil Diamond. It was a great show and although he doesn't look like Neil here, the show was very good. I was surprised that Brian liked Neil Diamond. One of my favs since "The Jazz Singer" movie.
We lounged at the pool everyday for about 3-4 hours. The temps were about 90-95 degrees. Home was 60 and raining when we got home.
We also saw Tony and Tina Wedding at the Rio. It's a wedding reception dinner theater. All improv/interactive type comedy and they feed you, italian wedding food. Very Fun. We also saw Cir de sol at the New York New York casino, wasn't as good as other Cir shows,but still amazing. That's the first picture above.
We also spent 1 day at Red Rock Canyon. You can see why it's called Red Rock. Beautiful area, very quiet and clear blue sky. We went on a 20 mile seanic drive and with many pull off areas we were able to hike around a little. We ran into a pair of wild burros grazing by the road side. Next year we will plan more off strip activities. The grand canyon is only 75 miles away. Well no jackpots to speak of but we did play the roulette wheel this time. That was fun and we played 2-3 hours before losing the wad for the night. Now it's back to reality, home improvements and football. Luff to ewe all.