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Showing posts from May, 2007
BRAINBASHERS Common Answers - May 424 Steven Nelson 892 Brett Groneman 1327 Christa Dastrup 1347 Kim Groneman 2033 Cambrie Nelson Good job Steve. Actually, we're all pretty pathetic this round :-) And I can't believe there are this many people bad at math. The correct answer wasn't the most common! Q10. Name 30 divided by a half. Note that the correct answer is actually 60, 30 divided by 2 is 15. 1 15 1173 2 60 935 3 2 69 Anyway...come on you slackers. Get entered for June: http://www.brainbashers.com/common.asp
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Kiera decided she needed some toys to play with....
Kiera had a few firsts today I'd like to share- 1. first time drinking from a sippy cup (we gave up with the bottle). Most of it got down her front, but she was definately drinking from it : ) 2. First time on the swing at the park-- loved it. 3. first banana- grimaced a first, but then decided she liked it. 4. First time sitting up for 30 seconds (multiple times today) 5. First time putting herself in crawling position (actually, it was yesterday, but today she moved herself a bit buy rocking back and forth and moving both knees forward at the same time. By the way, her favorite babble is DADADADADADA. she only says "maam" when she is upset.
Having Fun With The Dastrup Clan - I've been having fun playing dinosaur Christmas with Benjamin again and again :-) Chad flew down to help Datrups move into their new home which sounds like a very nice place. He drove up with them on Sunday and they arrived VERY tired of travel on Sunday evening. The two little boys were barely in bed and were happy to see Mom & Dad. Monday we (Grandparents/Dastrups/Chad) went to the Mountain and had a picnic, rode ATVs, played some games, took a little hike, and had fun. Little Jacob wasn't feeling too hot so we went back. I fixed everyone apple/bacon pancakes yesterday morning. Mmmmmm. Brett introduced us to a new game last night called 'Mexico' which was pretty fun (especially since I won the second round!)
Last night I went to the Happy Sumo to eat with a few friends. And it was really good. One of my favorite meals I've had in a long time. If you're willing to drop a few dollars for Sushi, go there. There were 4 people and we ordered 4 California rolls. The waitress messed up, and brought us one of the wrong ones, so we got an extra for free. And the mess-up one was my one of my favorites. It had little orange fish eggs on it too. I'm nearing the end of my training at work, and I did my first phlebotomy yesterday. Whitney Smith (co-worker and good friend) volunteered to be my first guinea pig. And I'm pretty much awesome because the manager of the establishment couldn't get her vein when she tried 2 months ago, and told me that if I got it, she'd cry. Yeah, I got it first try. I'm the man. That job is awesome and I love having it. Chad, you should come donate blood. I know you love needles.
We have a new patio. We extended our patio out 6 feet on each side and 3 feet in front as well as poured a sidewalk from the driveway to the patio. Now Grandpa can keep his chairs and lounge on the patio along with our table/chairs and he can use his walker to get around to the patio without having to try to navigate bumpy grass and a vegetable garden. Too bad we have to let the concrete cure for a few days and Benjamin won't be able to play on it while here....at least not play hard on it. Benjamin and Jacob come to Grandpa's house today!!!!! Oh, and I heard from a good source that Dastrup parents made it to Albacu..er....Albaquerkey...er...Albuquerqy...er....their destination.
After 4 years of marriage, we are FINALLY proud owners of dining room chairs. Yes, that's right folks. No longer will guests who come for dinner have to sit on the couch that is put next to the table, or sit on a big executive computer desk chair, or camping chairs. You will now get to sit on real-live dining room chairs AND eat at a table that matches these chairs. If you can't tell, I'm excited. Little Kiera got her shots today. Poor thing. Her head is still 10th percentile, but we found out that Steve's head is 25 percentile so that explains it. And then there is us fat-head Gronemans...
Protecting your money Today I went and made a somewhat large withdrawal from Alpine CU, to put it into my higher interest rate savings account at Zions. They gave me the money I asked for, but did not ask for the password I had created earlier, to prevent an arbitrary person from withdrawing money from my account. This is the second time this has happened at alpine CU. To today's teller's credit, she did ask for my drivers license first , but the previous one (in A.F.) did not ask for anything. When I asked the teller why she hadn't asked for my password, she said there was a sticky note covering that corner of the screen, so she didn't see it. I called the credit union and spoke to a manager there , and was disappointed to learn that they cannot enforce that the password be obtained prior to a withdrawal. They can make the password area flash, or alternatively they can lock the account such that any transaction requires a supervisor to do it, but they can't fo
OH! I almost forgot my great news! I was informed yesterday by Dr Hwang (heart dr) that I have "Graduated!" He doesn't get many graduates in from his class so I am sure he was as pleased as I was to be done seeing me. I really wanted to go out into the waiting room (which had 15 people waiting to be seen when I got there at 9 AM) and announce to all of them that they wouldn't have to wait to get in to see the Dr because I was ahead of them in the future, but then I thought they would be sad that they won't be able to say the same thing when they came out. So I just smiled and left! YEAH FOR DR.'s that FIX things and make peoples lives better!
Nice pictures of our trip eh? Pam said that they would like to go to Panguitch and start from there and then go on a trail down to Bryce Canyon that is really nice. Sounds fun. Hope we can do that with them. It is fun to 4 wheel when you have good places to go. I am not into a ride through ugly scenery though. Kim will do that and still enjoy it. Not me. So, as I type this the Dastrups are coming ever closer to us! They left Baltimore this morning (according to their plan) They are driving across the country. I don't envy them that. Not fun. But it is fun to think about them getting closer and closer to Utah. And we will see them this weekend. I don't think that the Dastrups can give us any precise times that they will be able to go out with us to celebrate his becoming a DR. because that will depend (I would think) on how the trip goes, and how quickly they find a house to rent and unload in. So, Brett and Chad try to keep some free time this weekend so you can go out with
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HAPPY 6 MONTH BIRTHDAY KIERA!! Kiera is growing up way too fast for my tastes. Dad-- where do you buy stop-grow that works? She is so cute and getting cuter every day. BTW, there is a new video of her on youtube.com check it out.
FAMILY CALENDAR: You'll notice on the left under 'Dates to Remember' there is a new link to the family calendar. You all should have read/edit rights to that calendar. You can add any even there to share with the family. It will REALLY help those of us with feeble minds to remember birthdays, trips, special events, etc. Don't think that anything is too insignificant to share.
Grandpa G is Home : I picked him up from the VA rehab center yesterday after work. He's in good spirits..GLAD to be home. He's quite a bit more feeble than he was before he broke his hip, but I'm hoping he'll grow stronger. He's going to need a significant amount of more care now than before. We've all (Us, Thomas's, Grandpa) agreed that his social security is now going to go towards his care so whoever has him will get that money (e.g. if Saundra takes him for 3 days, she gets 3 days portion of that money). So.....your mom now has an official job. He's gonna have home health and a physical therapist come in for a little while...dunno how long that will last. I've got to make some changes to things like the shower, etc. to accommodate him but we should be set up pretty good in the near future.
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2007-05-Pa iuteTrail Here are some pictures of our trip down to Marysvale and riding the Paiute Trail for 3 days. The Paiute Trail is an interconnecting system of trails that cover a lot of central/southern Utah and it's rated as one of the top trails in the nation for ATVs. The annual ATV convention is held here every year. I can see why. Click on the picture above to see the entire album and be prepared to be jealous.
Update on Chad: So I heard back on a job I had applied for with my old manager at Novell - I didn't get it. He said he hopes that another position will become available so he can offer me a job. I also know the person he hired, and that person was definitely more qualified than I was. But I've put my hat in for some other jobs, some of which appear to be more aligned with the experience I do have, and my goals. I got in some fun this weekend - I did the alpine loop around Timp on my bike. I got passed up pretty regularly by other bikers, but I did it. Google shows it being 50 miles . I was very tired by the end of it, but it was fun. It took me five hours (most of that time was spent climbing up to the summit), and during that time I consumed just over five quarts of liquid, an apple, a Snickers Marathon bar, and five granola bars.
So, I have returned from our Weekend trip to Marysvale , Utah . We left early Friday morning and I returned this morning in time for church, and Kim is coming home tonight. There are some sweet places to ride down there. Yesterday alone, we put in 93 miles on the 4 wheelers (and I have the sore tush and arms and hands to prove it!). We climbed to the tops of several mountains, visited 2 scenic lake places, got some desert beauty, some waterfalls, and saw lots of wildlife. Clem said that we only saw "a drop in the bucket of great places to 4 wheel down there) I had a fox run beside and then in front of me on my four wheelers. We saw lots of deer, chipmunks, ground squirrels, a rattlesnake.....etc. I am sure Kim will be posting some pictures on the blog. We stayed with Pam and Clem (Kim has worked with Pam at Novell for many years) who live down there. I still struggle some with the whole gear shifting thing when combined with loose gravel, deep ruts, and just overall trying to
News in my life: I got my calling today. Primary chorister (isn't that what cake is ?) so next week will be super busy as I will have to give a talk the 1st hour, do primary 2nd hour, and primary as well as nursery 3rd hour. Fun calling though-- I'm excited. I just wanted to tell ya'll about my apple pie tragedy: we were having some friends over yesterday so I spent a few hours making apple pie (complete with peeling my own apples). Well the previous night I had cooked 9 lbs of pork in our oven so it was a mess. I tried to cook the pie but there was so much smoke coming from the oven that I had to turn it off. I didn't have time to clean the oven so I stuck the uncooked pie in the fridge and determined we would give our friends water instead. Our friends (and their 3 1/2 and 6-year-old tyrant children) came and went. After they left I opened the fridge to find my beloved pie had been mauled. It wouldn't have been that bad, but it was the last straw after fi
Bravo, Kudos, Congrats, Laudation, Ovation, Plaudits, and in all other ways, Good Job Brigham. Well I knew that graduation thing was coming up. I just didn't know exactly when 'til just recently. Congratulations Dr. Dastrup. I mean, of course you always had my congratulations all along, so I don't know what is different about it now. I guess Johns Hopkins and the world can now give you their congratulations too. The world can now begin to be humbled by your wisdom, and I'll just continue that process as usual. Way to go Brigham.
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"YOU MAY ADDRESS ME AS DR. DASTRUP." BRIGHAM GRADUATION DAY! HUGE PRAISES TO BRIGHAM FOR ENDURING 4 YEARS OF RIGOROUS EFFORT TO GRADUATE FROM JOHNS HOPKINS!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!! WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU BRIGHAM!!! If you have time (which you probably don't) would you put the movie of Brigham receiving his diploma on the BLOG? Then it will feel more like it really happened for the rest of us! I mean, we have all been Anxiously awaiting this day for 4 years...so we need to see as much of the event as we can! When you have time...we know that you are moving! WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!
:-( This gal worked on Novell's BrainShare staff (along with her husband) and I worked with her quite a bit. She was a SUPER nice person. She died on Monday and that, together with this story , made me cry.
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I would like to announce that I am a the proud owner of a Lime tree. I purchaced it yesterday from home depot for $20 (with my $ from the woo study). Limo the lime tree is about 2 feet tall and now lives in a big pot in the backyard. I doubt he will be giving us limes anytime soon, but we have him nevertheless. Buff got put to work in the yard today. The poor girl is definately earning her keep around here. It's nice to have her around (kiera thinks so too)
So I think I've aquired myself a job. I start in..... um.... 20 mins from now. It is a babysitting job for a lady who lives near me. $10/hr and I can bring Kiera. The lady is a "stay at home mom" but only has 2 kids, a gardener, a housekeeper, a nanny, a "play theropist" etc. But as long as she pays me I don't really care how wierd she is. I just hope her and her family are not blond as I think I have discovered that Kiera does not like people with light colored hair. It would be totally sweet if it worked out that I could work for her 20 hrs/wk or something (and Kiera didn't mind too much) as we are about to go plunging deep deep deep in to debt. I guess we'll see how it goes.
Yo-ho Yo-ho a Pirate's Life for Me! - LOOK HERE The producers of Survivor are creating a new Survivor-like show that looks to be interesting. It starts May 31st. Here's the description: Join 16 modern-day pirates as they embark on a high seas adventure around the Caribbean island of Dominica in search of hidden treasure that will total $1 million. Over the course of 33 days, the pirates will live aboard a massive 179-foot pirate ship. Each week, these buccaneers will go on extraordinary expeditions and decipher clues along the way. Gold coins - real money that the pirates can take with them beyond the show - will be awarded after each treasure hunt, but only to some. The prized gold will then play a key role as pirates strike deals with each other and vie for long-term security. Claiming the lion's share of the week's riches, one pirate will become the captain of the ship and will assign roles and chores to the remaining crew members, setting the tone for law an
Happy Mother's Day!!! We want to thank our wonderful Mom for all that she has done for each one of us. As the mother of only two, I have no idea how she did it with five. Good work, Mom! We're glad that you survived us! We would also like to recognize and honor Cambrie today. Becoming a mother was a lot harder for her than it is for most, and we want to acknowledge all the sacrifice that she has already made on Kiera's behalf. We hope that you had a special first Mother's Day!
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I started my new job earlier this week. I work for Ogden Regional Medical Center, but fortunately, I don't have to commute there every day. I work in a branch of the hospital in Provo that is part of their Blood Services organization. I'll be traveling all around here doing blood drives, taking people's blood. Monday and Tuesday this week, I went up to Ogden for orientation meetings. The rest of this week, I've been going through SOP's, or "Standard Operating Procedures" and testing on them. There's pages upon pages of them. A big three ring binder full of tests for me to take, and then other binders full of the stuff I'm supposed to read to get the answers. Boring. It makes me want to stab someone. I'm probably going to get to start more interesting stuff next week. Anyway, this week was a lot of fun because I only worked two shifts at Macey's -- and only one was a night shift. So I had every other night off. It was amazing!
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Kiera would like to be the first one to wish her grandma a happy mothers day (and steve and Cambrie come in 2nd and 3rd). Kiera's gift are videos of herself on youtube.com. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh00U2ZwTg0
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Yesterday after work, a group of us went for a ride. It turns out that San Jose is only about 20 miles away from the redwood forests. Ever since I learned about the redwoods I've wanted to see them, and so did the other guys. We drove out to Big Basin Redwoods State Park and wandered around for a while. I didn't have my camera, but one of the guys I was with did. The trees are amazing, and the pictures really can't capture it. It's an absolutely beautiful forest. They have a short little trail that goes around and shows a wide variety of interesting things - the massiveness of the trees, how many have survived forest fires, and interesting things in the trees that their genetics do. I would highly recommend seeing the forest to anyone who is in the area. I'll post the few pictures I get on my Picasa site. We also went to the beach and watched the sunset, and had a very enjoyable evening.
Groneman Reviews - A link has been added over there <------ for a new reviews blog page we can use for.....you guessed it......reviews! Give it a go. Oh...and some Grandpa news: He's coming home on the 21st! He'll need a LOT of help, but he's progressed to the point he can come home.
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The beach was a bust. Well, ok, not a complete bust, but it was not nearly as great as it could have been. It was only 70 degrees or so and the water was COLD. It was a bit windy which made it feel quite cold. Waves were not that great. I caught 2-3 on my boogie board, but buff didn't stick around in the water long enough to get the hang of it (we were pretty cold). Kiera wasn't too fond of the beach either. She wouldn't eat after I came in from the water because apparently I was too salty for her tastes (even after I showered) and she was screaming her tiny head off. Poor thing!! Oh well, we had a learning experience, and a bit of fun too.
Tip of the Day - Credit Card Offers I get sick of the credit card offers & other junk mail I constantly get. I found out today about www.optoutprescreen.com which allows you to STOP all the credit card offers! I understand it takes 6 months to take effect, but you can do it for life! Think of all the acres of rainforest you will save if you are younger than our aged parents, if you opt out for life. Or, if you're not the tree-hugger variety, think of how much space you'll have left in your shredded trash after the mail comes! You can also do a five year opt out.
So, i'm living in what must be the coolest singles ward ever! I have only been to this ward once and to FHE once and already, I have so many new friends, I can't remember all their names and I've been invited to so many things I can't go! And yesterday I recieved 4 hugs from people I didn't even know! It was awesome! So today was an especially good day! All semester long I was trying to do good in Anatomy but I didn't really think I'd do all that good so I was expecting maybe a D....but I checked today and I got a B-! I beat both Cambrie and Brett for the first go around! Yeay for me! I was super happy about that! And I had a job interview at one of the hospitals down here that I think went really well. We'll see what happens.... AND I"M GOING TO THE BEACH TOMORROW!!!!!! YIPPEE!!!!!!! I think I could get used to California life.....it's good to me :-) anyways, that's my exciting news for now! Oh and PS Christa, in case you didn&
So, BUFFY! Was the fortune cookie correct? How was your first day in your singles ward? Probably awkward...it usually is alone. But you can fix that! Go sit by someone alone and get to know them! And then let us know how it is going down there, finally fulfilling your dreams of getting out of Utah Valley! Kim is going for Physical Therapy on his shoulder twice a week now. We have decided that the physical therapist missed his century to be born by about 300 years. He was supposed to be a torturer in some dungeon in England, but he missed that time slot and opportunity, so he his doing it's 21st century equivalent: Physical therapy on KIM! But he is starting to regain some movement, slowly, so that is good. We finally found out what it is he has by the way. It is called "Frozen Shoulder". What initially caused it is still unknown, but we think just that migrating pain. But he has looked it up on the Internet , and he is at Stage 2 of Frozen shoulder...and if it goes
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Hey Brt....Is this your missing arrowhead? It was with Cambrie's that I brought down with me.
Must See TV
The Mormons on PBS (It says soon you should be able to download a transcript , but you can watch it online now ). During the show, I heard folks say they didn't know there was an earlier version of Joseph Smith's first vision in his own handwriting than the official version published by the church. You can find the text of this on the Deseret Book site . Apparently the original is in the church archives. Just FYI...
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BUFFY-- we still anxiously await the report of your date with Prince Charming.
Yesterday my best friend confided in me that Benjamin had hurt her feelings the day before while she babysat him. He was oooh-ing and ahhh-ing over her one month old baby when he told her, "I know a baby WAY cuter than this baby. Her name is Kiera." But then I guess he made her feel a little better by saying, "But your baby is very cute!" Benjamin misses his little cousin!
Buff now resides in sunny california. It is fun to have her around. It was pretty wierd though: the minute that Buff showed up Kiera started being super fussy and clingy and seemed to be having stranger anxiety. Maybe she is just not used to having strangers at her house because she was fine with buff in Maryland! Wierd. Buff has applied for a few jobs, but we plan on going to the beach before she gets too far into work.
UTAH'S GLOTTAL STOP - it's the essence of the Utah accent. Here's some examples: Mountain = Moun'un Sandwich = San'wich Button = Bu'un Clinton = Clin'un Often = Of'un Mirror = Meer to = ta (I'm going ta town) got to = godda (I've godda go) See h ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glottal_stop - Everyone in the world speaks with some sort of accent. When was the last time you heard someone pronounce the T in Listen? I'm an umer'kin and proud of it!
I went to my first day of Microbiology yesterday. The text book for the lecture half of class costs $155 from the bookstore, but he said he didn't care if we used past editions. I just purchased my book online for $13 -- one edition old. Unfortunately, buying my lab book online wasn't an option. Breanna, buy books online.
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Grandpa H's Birthday Party had us in stitches. Yer mother made Grandpa/Grandma a picture book from their old slides with her commentary for Birthday/Mother's Day. Grandma thought it was great. She would start reading a page out loud and start laughing then say "hey, you've gotta hear this" and start reading it again...then start laughing and say "hey, you've gotta hear this" and start reading from the beginning again......etc. It had us laughing. Then we would talk about Marilyn making it for them and she would ask "who did this?" a few times and the final thing that had me rolling on the floor was she said "This is great. I've got to get a copy of this book". I know...it's sad really, but it's been sad for a long time now and last night we were all able to get some laughs out of it. For some reason of all the people there last night, Grandma was focused on me. First she commented that I had a new haircut (I
Everyone say and extra prayer today. BJ is driving to California. Enough said. About that. Today is also my dad's birthday, so I know he would be thrilled if all you did was call him and wish him a happy Bday. He doesn't need gifts, but it is nice to know that people love you enough to remember that it is your birthday and care enough to call.
At some point in my life, I want to buy a home. I'm hoping that will be towards the end of this summer, but that might just be wishful thinking. Anyway, I am thinking about it. One of the big inhibitors is the cost of a home. They're expensive. Anyway, I got looking at foreclosure options today, and I'd like to know if any of you know of anyone who has ever bought something through a foreclosure sale. I'm trying to learn about it, but don't know where to look, and Google isn't being as helpful as it usually is. From what I can tell, properties that are foreclosed on go up for auction at the county courthouse. But I can't find anywhere that lists the properties (Not without paying a membership fee). I would think that these auctions would be publicly available. If you go to the teasers of some of the commercial foreclosure sites, they hint that some properties that are normally around 200k are available for half of that. I might be able to afford
Cambrie's pictures are here . Good ones! (Hint: If you make your Picasa albums public, we can link to them in the left menu)
Today's blog entry is brought to you by the letter "O". Oh! An "O" looks like a tire! More words of wisdom from Pa. The price of wisdom is old age so I may as well share. I just checked Buffy's tires before she heads out to California and was shocked to find her front tires had 15 pounds of pressure in them. VERY dangerous. I think "Smokey" had around the same when I checked it last week. You should check your tires probably monthly. Buy a $2 tire gauge from Walmart. On the side of your tire it lists the maximum pressure. Usually from 32 to 44 lbs. My years of driving has taught me that it's best to keep the tires up to the maximum. Why? Tire wear and gas mileage. Both are optimized at maximum pressure. You can run at around 5 lbs below without problem if you want a smoother ride but be aware that tread wear and mileage will suffer a little. The max pressure on both Smokey and BJ's tires is 44 lbs. Running these at 15 - 20
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Baltimore Trip Here's most of my photos.
Here. I hope all of you whining Picassa lovers are happy! http://picasaweb.google.com/christakd/GronemanReunion407
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PICTURES - The best of our Baltimore pictures are over there in the left menu under "Kim's Pictures Online" I assume Brett's will be there soon under his link. May I once again, and hopefully finally, suggest those of you who hang on to the horse/buggy of Snapfish check into the sports car of Picasa. It's not only easier/faster to upload, but it's INFINITELY easier to download. HOWEVER, if you love Snapfish and can't seem to dig yourself out of that rut, I'll be delighted to view your pictures on Snapfish! I can't wait to see all your pictures!
It took us what seemed like forever to get home yesterday. It was a long hard exhausting day. Kiera and I both went to bed at 4:30 PM and we got 13 1/2 hours of sleep!! As I predicted, we now all have colds (I think it was Brett who doubted my prediction on the way from BWI to cake's place). Twas fun to see ya'll, but also very exhausting!! Christa was right, it is hard to travel with a baby. That's why I motion that those of you who don't have babies should have to come to us who do instead of vica-versa.
Welcome home to all of you! I hope that the adjustment back to common life isn't too hard after a week's dream vacation at the Dastrups'. We just wanted to thank you all for coming and for all of your help while you were here. It was a lot of fun, and we miss you all! Hopefully it won't be too long before we can do it again. PS-- Have fun on your hot date tonight, Buff! We expect some pictures by tomorrow evening!
April Brainbashers Results Wow. Cambrie is extra common. Some peoples I couldn't find: 104 Cambrie Nelson 267 Chad Groneman 739 Brett Groneman 895 Brigham Dastrup 1098 Kim Groneman 1472 Marilyn Groneman 1723 Christa Dastrup Next one is here: http://www.brainbashers.com/common.asp . Don't forget to CONFIRM once you submit your answers.