I Love Ellen D.

Ask Mike and he'll tell you I have a heart of stone because I rarely cry. I have been quite emotional lately though. I have noticed so many sad things going on with SO many people. Health, Financial and Personal struggles have made me realized how blessed I am. NOT to mention the MANY kind things people do for our family DAILY, even though they have their own struggles to think about! I have wonderful friends and wonderful family!

Today I had lots of laundry to fold, so I watched clips of Ellen helping struggling people. It just made me cry for those people who have so much on their shoulders. My heart really went out to them.

It always makes me happy to watch Ellen, she can always make me laugh and she does so much good for others! I am not a freak about celebrities, but I think she deserves a shout out for bringing joy to so many people!

Besties

This is my BFF. We have known eachother since we turned 13. We are 4 days apart. Cascia and her family have influenced my life more than they even know. I will NEVER forget what they have done for me. Cascia, I love you sis! I am thinking of you guys tons and think the world of you! You are so kind, happy, funny, beautiful, smart, wonderful and much much more and I can't imagine what life would be like without you. You always bring a smile to my face! Thanks for being my personal angel on earth! I love you!

Dear Santa,

Have you ever wished that for ONE more day you could go back to when YOU were the kid again? No worries. No Responsibilities. You could enjoy a TRUE surprise and the feeling of excitement for Christmas day. The magical experience when Santa sneaks around your house leaving gifts JUST FOR YOU, without a trace.

It has happened for the Cranneys.

Last night we spur-of-the-moment got together with the Birds and Halls for a fun night of games. We put our kiddies to sleep and transported them to the Birds and we partied like we were single again. ("single" is the new lingo meaning "without children".) We enjoyed free Papa John's, courtesy of Mike Cranney's place of employment, we played games and then Rock Band. Which was so much fun. We chit chatted and laughed and were silly until 2 o'clock in the morning!!! It was so nice not to have to be like "kids, why are you fighting?" "who hit who?" "stop crying!" But, like all great things, the party has to end sometime, so, Mike and I head home, get back into parent mode "you get Porter, I'll get Andrew" we walk into the living room, turn around, do a triple take at our tree......"uh. what?!" it was a pretty jaw dropping moment. "PRESENTS?!?!" "What?!"

There was a card in the tree "please open now" it says.

"UHHH...YEAH!"

"Cranney Family-

Santa decided to bring your gifts early this year with a little extra cash to help buy the rest of your Christmas..(instructions)...love-Santa"

Jen-"How the heck"

Mike-"Call Heidi"

The gifts are gifts that only Heidi and Chalyse know about. I haven't talked to anyone else about what we're doing for Christmas, and those two are also the only ones that knew we were gone for the evening, except for Liz. So...we call Heidi

Jen-"how'd you do that?"

Heidi-"how'd I do what?"

Anyway, this convo went on for about half an hour, "santa's magical" I think is how Chalyse explained it. Either way, however this went down, WHOEVER DID IT, however they did it, we can't say enough how big of a help and weight off our shoulders this is. This was well planned out. Obviously time, money, thought and love was put into our family and I can't believe that we are the lucky recipients! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

I have to add that it's a little creepy that folks were walking around our house while we were gone, but at least the living room was clean and all of our millions of dollars of electronics and other fancy things are still here, and then some :).

I was on such a high from this whole thing that I asked if Heidi and Chalyse wanted to go to Walmart with me to get the LAST spiderman transformer that they had. "hey, when will we get to do that again?" So...off we went. Did some Christmas shopping at 3am. Got home and crawled into bed at 4am and up at 9am. I didn't care. I am footloose and fancy free today.

Porter woke up and started organizing and counting the presents for each of us. (he's an organizin' foo, just like his mom) We all can't wait to open our presents and it really is being like a little kid again. We have to wait 33 more days to find out what Santa brought. How frustrating to be a kid! :) I love it, I won't EVER forget this feeling and can't wait until I get to play Mrs. Clause myself someday! Thanks for the great ideas!

Love,

The Cranneys

Halloween 10.31.09

This was our last Halloween in Syracuse! Awww....so sad to think about it, so we won't....let's think about all the fun we had. Mike had to work until 7. The boys and I went to Chalyse's for their ward's Trunk or Treat. I'll tell you what. That's a good way to clean up in a short amount of time! What have we been doing all of these years! :) Porter and Talmage were "autobots" from Transformers. That was a hit costume this year. Elle Bell was the CUTEST little tube of toothpaste! She is almost two and she hasn't said much up until recently and she has the CUTEST little voice and personality to go with it. She kept saying "cheese"! OH I could serve her for dinner!

Lincoln Bird is always darling! He is also ON THE GO and fast as lightning.

We usually meet up with the Bennett Clan on Halloween, take pictures and start our way through the ward, but this year we were so late at trunk or treat, we missed it. But Debbie and Karla didn't let us get out of being missed! They sure are great ladies! We DID get to meet up with the Carlson's this year! Which was fun! The last time I saw them on Halloween was when she was pregnant with Ana Jain, 2 years ago. She had Jain on Nov. 2nd and the day after Thanksgiving had her stroke. Jodi came home this summer and it has been so fun to see them all the time now. Their whole family is such a hoot! Aleq kept spelling EVERYTHING. Tommy was so slow, he said he had lost his speed somewhere. They are so funny!

The Halls, the Birds and the Cranneys carved pumpkins Monday. It was fun, we had pizza, caramel apples, pumpkin seeds, veggies. Who ever comments on veggies! blek! :) Just kidding Heidi, we hate them, but they are so good for us! All of the pumpkins were great, even Mike Bird's but this is Mike Cranney's. Darwin Theory Pumpkin. Cool, huh?

So we got home and I'm PLEASED AS PUNCH when Porter starts organizing his candy into piles!!! ahhh...finally something he really got from me!!! I remember doing this when I was little too. I organize everything! It's so FUN! Mike said he never did that when he was little. I am not surprised.

Porter began with four piles: "yucky", "mine", "dad's" and "mom's". Isn't he a sweet heart to share? Oh I love my boy!

FYI. This is the first year in my 26 years that I didn't get some kind of milk chocolaty treat on halloween. EXCEPT for MAYBE my first halloween when I was 6 months old. I can't even believe it really happened. what a rough life, huh?

Mike's FIRST ACCEPTANCE to Medical School! 10.30.09

YAY!!!! Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona accepted Mike today! He called me around noon after looking it up online while at the school. A couple of hours later a woman calls asking for Mike. "He's not here, can I take a message?" "May I ask who I am talking to?" "This is his wife." "OH well, we just wanted to let him know that he's been accepted into our Medical Program!" AHHHHHH! It's real! It's not a dream, he is really really accepted and we really really are only 8.5 years away from a job! WOW! :)

We have a couple more interviews lined up. Kirksville, Mo. and Parker, Co. in about a week. As winter approaches, we get more and more excited about Arizona weather! AHHH.

Trish, KB and their one and a half girls 10.29.09

Trish (yeah, she's preggy and it's the cutest belly you've ever seen!), Caleb and Maggie came over to hang out tonight! They are so funny!

Porter Playing in the leaves 10.29.09

Today I had some errands to run. When I came home, I found my two big boys, Mike and P. Diddy playing in the leaves. I am so glad when Mike spends quality time with Porter. He's such a cool dad!

"Porter, show me your happy face!"

"Porter, show me your mad face!"

"now show me your sad face."-Wow, he's intimidating when he gets emotional.