Oh Baby!

NO not me, don't worry this would not have been how I would tell you all if it were me. BUT no, not me... My friend Lori (Who I work with up here at A&M) had her Beautiful baby girl Taylor Reese on Tuesday. 8lbs, 2oz. Mom and baby went home yesterday and are going great. Another woman I work with, Princess, had her son on Wednesday. Kingston was 6lbs, 13oz. He was a few weeks early but mom and baby are doing well too. They will be going home tomorrow, I think.

I have been careful not to drink the water. But I am getting the "baby itch" and I thought that seeing Taylor and holding her would take care of it. I will have to go visit Lori at home and see her exhausted to really deal with that itch I think...

Another friend of mine, Lauren, is due the end of June, and my cousin Robert and his wife Kate, well let's be serious, Kate is due the beginning of June. Sorry Robert, you don't get a whole lot of credit! :)

So there are a lot of babies this year... is it a sign? I did ask Madison last night if she wanted to be a big sister (I am certain she has NO idea what I was asking) and she said, "aaaa, NO!" So that answered that question...

Rob, Madison & I are traveling to Wisconsin soon to see the majority of my extended family and to celebrate the long and interesting life of my Grandmother. It will be nice to see everyone and to be able to introduce Madison to the relatives that she still has yet to meet!

You say Tomato

I got home (late) from work last night. About 10pm. Rob came running out to tell me that we had our first ripe tomato on one of the plants... So here is to a summer of great tomatoes!

Gotta love Texas

So a good friend of mine recently posted on her blog about country living. She had chickens on her back porch (they are not her chickens; she doesn't have any chickens!) and a trail ride that went past and a herd of wild dogs (no really, not just feral, but wild) that ran through her back yard.

This inspired me to start noticing all my lovely country surroundings. As many of you know, there is an oil derrick that greets you when you first come into my neighborhood. Which as you can imagine, is running non-stop right now!

We had a portion of our flower beds torn up this weekend by either an armadillo or a wild hog, we can’t tell, but we are leaning to the hog. It happened at night, so we didn't see the animal.

A trail ride when by our house this weekend, too. Complete with some people in true western gear (like think OLD west) and a covered wagon and everything. It was kind of cool but also really weird… Like they were out looking at the Texas country side. We do live in an actual subdivision! It’s just a country one…

We have a huge vegetable garden, (which I need to photograph and post some pictures, I will try and complete that soon) and the neighbors I believe are trying to figure out how to steal from us and we not notice! :)

We have pet rabbits, but they must be pushing their food out of the (huge) cage because now there are a lot of wild rabbits too. And no, they have not found our garden yet (knock on wood)

A deer did eat some of our garden about 6 months ago when we first planted it. We could tell from the foot prints. Rob said if he/she came back we were having venison for dinner. The deer must have heard him, because he/she has not returned.

There is an oil company drilling about a mile from our house. NON-stop. I thought last week that maybe someone was pouring concrete really early (like 5:30am) but last night we could really hear it. Plus now you can see the drill above the tree line. I think that they must be going though bed-rock, because every once and a while the drill kind of shutters and whines and then continues. I was surprised that they were drilling in a lighting storm this morning...

I can’t remember every little instance that has made me realize that we no longer live “in-town” but I do remember that when we first moved in about a year ago, there were a lot more deer around. And the first night Rob & I went outside and I said “gee the stars are a lot brighter out here!” (We only moved 4 miles away from our last house!) And I know that at night there are coyotes that come over from a neighboring 500 ac park and pace outside of our rabbit cage. And when I go running, I see more cows than houses (which is kind of nice) but I also have to run on country roads which makes Rob a little nervous (rightfully so…). Though most of the time the trucks do move out of MY way, and not the other way around.

Well, that is most everything for now. I will post pictures of my growing garden and growing child soon!

This year so far...

This year started out, as many of you know, with my mom & dad coming down to Texas to get me through my first marathon. My dad ran the Houston Marathon with me on Jan. 13th, and my mom & Rob took care of Madison during my 5:15 run. My dad did a great job of keeping me motivated and getting me across the finish line, though I am sure there were times that he wanted to just pick me up and run with me, so as to go a little faster. It was at mile 24 I believe that he pushed ahead of me to the b-b-q & beer stand that some spectators had set up and got a beer and drank it while waiting for me. (It was only a few seconds, but it seemed really unfair that he was rested enough to do that while I was fighting every mental and physical temptation on urge to stop) I must say that running a marathon is a lot like having a baby... and I will leave it at that!

In February, about 6 weeks later, I ran the Armadillo Dash here in College Station. It is "only" a half marathon, and I completed it in 2:15. I was very happy about that. I was really aiming for about 2:10, but the last 4 miles were straight into gusty winds, so no matter how hard I pushed, the wind was stronger, and I ended up burning myself out so when I hit the last half mile I had no room or energy in me to "kick it". But I am still very happy with that time.

I took a little while off of running, but now I am back and doing a 10k on Saturday, in Brenham, TX. It is the Blue Bell Ice Cream Fun Run. You get ice cream at the end. 'Nuff said!

Crowley Custom Homes (Rob's company) is also having a good year. www.crowleyconstructioninc.com for those who want to check it out. He sold one of the houses in Feb. to a young couple that we are now friends with. They are going to move in in a few months when it is done. And yesterday he sold another house that he just poured the slab on, got a custom, 2 remodels, and possibley found a buyer for some land that he wants to flip. So apparently (knock on wood) the market here is still going strong. Thankfully.

Also, for those of you who didn't know, I now work at Texas A&M University, in the Real Estate Development Department. So I finally get to put this Master's Degree to work. :)

Welcome Home!

HI! Welcome to Rob & Katie Crowley's page.

Wow how time flies! Madison is already 20 months old. As you can see from the picture, she is growing up FAST!

We have such a big summer planned; we have a big garden, we are going to be traveling later in the fall and much more, so I thought that this was the best way to keep everyone informed.

Be sure and check back frequently so you can stay up to date!