Groneman Family

Y es, h ere I a m i n b eautiful d owntown P hoenix . Arg. 97 degrees. Anyway, there's a new "Cheesecake Factory" in SLC and everyone at work says it's really good (albeit a little pricy). I saw one on my way to the hotel from the airport so after checking in, I went back for dinner. It was good. I had some terriyaki beef that was dipped in beer batter then deep fried, with shitake mushrooms and snow peas and onions. Wow....it was good. (bad for me, but good). I had a house salad with it, but no, I didn't get any cheesecacke, and got out of there for just over $30. What do I care, Novell is paying. Maybe for a special occasion I'll try the one in SLC. It is SUCH A BUMMER that I have to leave while that cute little Kiera and my cute little Punkin' are at my house. I protest.

There was sump'n cute sleeping at my house last night! Little Kiera is SO SWEET.

After two fun trips and a visit from Mom, we have finally returned to the blogging world! What a great time we've had over the last two weeks! I'm sure that those of you who were interested in seeing pictures of our trips have already done so since Dad was kind enough to post a link to them, but I thought I'd give you the highlights. San Diego was gorgeous and wonderful! We went because Brigham had an EMed conference there, and since his hotel costs were mostly covered, we thought we'd tag along. Brigham's brother's family lives there and his mom came down, so we were able to go to the beach with them twice and SeaWorld once. I was worried that Jacob would hate the beach, but he LOVED it! He kept running in and out of the waves and chasing seagulls even when he looked like he was going to collapse of exhaustion! When we got to the beach the 2nd day, his cousins wanted to play on the playground, but all he wanted to do was get to the water-- he literally ...

So, my roommate went home to georgia to visit her family for the week. While she was there, they went to a town called Flippen, Ga. I thought it was quite humorous.... here are some pictures of the flippen cemetery and, my personal favorite, the Flippen methodist church. So there it is for your enjoyment.

This is just another interesting article that someone sent me: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2008/04/25/let_them_eat_ethanol I would really like to know if the US govt is still paying farmers NOT TO PRODUCE anything like they have been for the last 40 years. But hey, if they tell them they have to EARN their own living now, they won't know how. The generation who knew how are dead and buried probably, and their kids who have been raking in the cash for doing nothing, are clueless, I would bet. Hey, Punkin. I just thought I should let you know I have picked up a bug . I think it's the same one Jacob got when he was at your place, so perhaps you have been exposed. But I know you have said that you really don't want to get sick while pregnant...so I just thought I should let you know. I have total larangitis tonight. I know with southwest you can change your ticket...so let us know what you decide!

Well, the time has come to say good-bye to Albuquerque and these darling little Dastrup boys! Good thing we have a marriage coming up in 3 months so I can see em all again! (AND to get Katie officially in the family!) Cambrie I can tell you when you come to New Mexico your kids are going to LOVE it! I am amazed at the variety of really fun things there are to do here with children. Today we got shrunk at the "Botanical Gardens", and we walked through a pumpking that was as big as a building, and there were ants as big as we were, and mazes, and ducks and geese, and a miniture village with running miniture trains, and also trains that people can ride (kiddie trains). There was also a butterfly garden, and an aquarium....and farm animals....and it goes on and on. It was fun: Yesterday we were at the aquarium and they have a open tank where they have mostly sting rays but they also had some baby sharks that were born there. They were about 18 inches long , and they would swi...

Pictures, pictures, and more pictures! I was laughing out loud at the kids playing in the water fountain. Dastrups (and Nelson's) in California Dastrups in Boston (Team Hoyt is an inspiration) And that's my youngest granddaughter !

I thought this video was funny. Really. I did.

CAMBRIE!!! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! LOOK WHAT YOU STARTED DOWN THERE! YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF! http://www2.nysun.com/article/74994?page_no=2 There was no shortage before you started making your purchases! :)

So, Cambrie asked about the pregnancy, and I figured I could update everyone here. Everything's going well. I have yet to actually throw up, which I feel is a great achievement for me. But smells are really starting to get to me, and I wake up every morning between 4 and 5 and have to eat. Most of the time, Chad peels an orange for me or gets me whatever, and that's enough for me. I am SUPER tired (almost all the time--it hits me all of a sudden) and it takes me twice as long to get anywhere or to get ready in the morning. Poor Chad has to wait on me all the time (although he tells me he doesn't mind). He's the perfect husband--so sympathetic and attentive to my needs! As long as I'm going slow and have some food in me ALL THE TIME, I feel totally fine. It's when I hurry places or when there's a lot of movement in the car or when I haven't eaten for a while that I start to feel nauseated. Our first doctor appt is May 21st. We'll keep you posted. :) I...

Oh! Oh! Can I tell my health problems? Pulezzzze?!? Ok. I just got back from the eye doctor. My left eye started feeling strange about a week ago. Almost like it was scratched, but with more of an achey feel. Anyway....soon what looked like a bunch of dust particles and threads appeared on that eye. Drops and rinsing in water didn't make them go away. Then a couple of days ago I was walking to bed and I saw a flash of light in the corner of the room. I went to investigate and saw more flashes off to the side....and figured out it was flashes just in my eye, not in the room. SSSSoooooooo....I decided to go to the eye doctor today. I have " Posterior Vitreous Detachment " in that eye and there's not a blasted thing they can do about it. It's like looking through a windshield with an oil film all over it and lots of bug splatters. It's fairly common, but not for someone of my age (yea..I've heard that before...adhesive capsulitis in my ...

I never imagined that at the age of 26 I'd have a doctor tell me I was overweight and I need to go on a diet to prevent high blood pressure and other issues. It happened yesterday (on my birthday!). My doctor instructed me that since I'm not willing to give up my feeding tube that I should eat "a piece of fruit for both breakfast and lunch, and some veggies for dinner". Sound like fun? Who out there has the self motivation to do that? Well, I'll make an effort, but not a very strong one. I'm just going to have to be non-compliant to this request. I don't particularly like being chunky, but there are worse things. Buff-- how is nursing school? Dastrups-- how was Boston? Erica-- how is pregnancy? Bert-- Are finals coming up? Will you then have a break? Chad-- how's your thyroid?

I had a first yesterday. The Jeep's gas tank was about half empty and I needed to fill the gas cans (4) for the lawnmower/atvs. Went to Maverik, put in my credit card, and started to pump. The pump shut off at $100. I tried to get it going again, but it wouldn't accept my card. I asked inside and they said "$100 is the credit limit in a day". Shazam. I can't even fill up my gas tanks.

I'm not going to say anything sexist, but as your watching, notice the gender of these drivers: HERE

H APPY B IRTHDAY P UNKIN' ! ! ! I hope it's a good day for you. How could it not be?...you've got a great husband, an adorable little girl, and another one on the way. Wish I could give you some real live hugs.

Just throwing out a bigger fatter HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the person who should be getting bigger and fatter sooner.

As promised, here are a few pictures of the Dastrups' visit. The only time I could get those little people to hold still for a picture was when they were watching TV. So, here are wonderful pictures of them watching TV. Hopefully the dastrups have some better pictures to post when they return home.

We had another sucessful YMCA (young married couple activity) at our place this evening. about 18 young families from our ward showed up for a Crepe dinner/dessert event. All food was eaten in crepes which was fun and very yummy! I spent alot of the evening making crepes and steve was busy socializing so Kiera was a bit neglected. She wandered around stealing people's drinks and plates when they put them on the ground next to their chairs and she'd haul off with them. She got alot of food on herself this way. She also decided to play on the dirt hill in our backyard and took a few tumbles. I found her amidst the crowed with food and dirt all over her clothes and face, hair a mess, and a bilaterally runny nose. Poor little neglected sweetheart.

Well, it was a great day at the Dastrup house. The Dastrup parents are currently somewhere over the skys of the east (but that isn't what made it fun). Benjamin and Jacob were just the best little kids on the whole New Mexico landscape today. Little Jacob has a cold, but he was still an angel baby! He never cried once all day. And I got to hold him in my lap through an entire Baby Einstien show. I had my arms around him, hugging him to me and at one point, I let one of my arms drop, and he picked it up and put it back around him! Very SWEET!! I loved it. He thinks Baby Einstien is HILARIOUS!!! I must be slow....I just don't get it! Benjamin and I made a huge zoo complex out of blocks for his animals. We used every last block, and were wishing for more. We had a good time with that. And of course we had to read in his dinosaur books several times. I kept getting the pronunciation wrong. He says, "Grandma! how come you keep saying the names wrong???" I must be slow.......

Tomorrow we are having a LARGE group of people over for dinner so today I was doing quite a bit of cooking. I cooked 4 packages of bacon early this morning while the windows were open and the cool fresh air was coming in. It's funny what memories smells can bring back, but the smell of bacon accompanied by the cool fresh air totally reminded me of camping at the mountain property and smelling breakfast cooking in the trailer on cold mornings.

It's 74 degrees right now and I have all the windows open. I just had some rubarb...Mmmmmm. It's VERY tender right now. It's the first thing I can eat out of your mom's garden in the spring. I sprayed texture on the first half of the basement walls this morning. Gotta prime it then paint it then put shelves in then put trim/base in then move all the junk from the other side of the room and start again. So fun. Didja get your $40 coupons for a couple of digital TV converters? I did. I have until July 1 to buy them. Walmart has them for $49.87 so for 10 bucks each, I can have two. Dunno that I'll ever need them, but I've got older TVs so if we get rid of comcast, I will have them. Chad/Brett you can borrow one if you need to until the day comes I need one. Christa just called me and wanted me to look up a hotel for her in NH. She wasn't supposed to need one but she said it's a long story, so I'm anxious to hear it. I also cleaned out th...

Due to the increasing amount of "comment spam" (I've been deleting them, so have some of you) I changed the permissions of this blog so only people with membership in this blog can post comments. The downside of this is that if you point someone here that we may want to post comments, they can't unless we add them to the blog membership first. You all have the power to do that if you know how (settings/permissions). May all spammers burn in he**. (Marilyn, you have connections, you can make that happen can't you?.....)

KIERA IS GOING TO HAVE A LITTLE SISTER!!!!! That's right. We're having a girl. We had our ultrasound today; it was a 3D ultrasound which was pretty cool. The image on the screen was really clear but the one's they printed out were poor quality. I guess I'll have to spend the $10 to buy the CD with the images on it and then I can post some pictures. Wow another girl-- Kiera has 14 male cousins and only 1 female cousin so I guess it's a good thing she'll have a sister. And I won't have to buy any baby clothes or anything so there's another positive.

I didn't realize that the prices of food skyrocketing was causing such a panic elsewhere. We have all been witnesses with concern over the price hikes in the last 6 months, but, our problems are minor to other places in the world at this point. Check out the blog on "hoarding" , near the bottom of the blog and then the one, "MSM is waking up to the crisis: they are both on the following blog as articles from Time Magazine and the BBC News. http://ingodwetrustblog.com/ Kinda makes my eyes open even wider...

We got back from our trip to Illinois yesterday . It was short and sweet.....and cold. Us californians didn't bring more than jackets and it was snowing and windy. BRRRRRR !! This picture represents what we did at carthage jail: chase Kiera up and down the stairs. These are the stairs that the mob ran up. We got to experience them over and over and over........ Kiera's favorite part of the trip was swimming in the pool with her daddy and her cousins. The squeels of delight are just adorable. She also loved running up and down the halls in the hotel. Oh, and Kiera met her first love ( ok , well maybe second behind her blankie ): Ketchup. She was introduced to french fries and we showed her how to dip them in Ketchup. She would dip them in and suck of the ketchup. And when the fries were gone she'd just use something else (green beans, fingers, etc.) Kiera's least favorite part of the trip was the Mark Twain caves that we went through in Hannibal Missouri. Promptly...

For someone like me who is afraid of heights, this was hard to watch . The guy isn't even tied up with a carabiner like the people he passes...and he's holding a video camera. I don't see a helmet cam in his shadow. Insane. INFO HERE

happy hump day to me! I'm officially half way done with this pregnancy!!!

Erica and I went down to Moab for the weekend and for my Birthday . It was a great trip, and the best birthday ever! We found a nice campsite at the bottom of a pretty large cliff. We loved testing out our new camping equipment and going biking. We went on the slick rock trail (well, okay, the practice loop part, but it was still a blast). After finishing biking, we went to the Moab Diner (the best place to eat in Moab), and ordered Breakfast and a banana split (for my birthday!). The waitress thought it was a funny, and the cook in the back wondered why she was making a banana split, but it was yummy! We got to relax at our camp and take in the scenery, and love being in nature. What an awesome vacation!

Someone just sent me the trailer for a this movie that opens this month (april 18) Looks good to me! I want to go see it! http://www.expelledthemovie.com/playground.php

I was over with mom yesterday while Anne took my dad to his eye surgery. Things seemed to go pretty good for him. But I guess the proof of it's effectiveness is yet to come. Mom was hard to engage in any conversation because she had her own conversation going on with the unseen people in her life. Sometimes, not realizing that I was interrupting the unseens conversation, she would ignore me and then when she had answered that conversation, she would say, "Now What did you say?"..... I have decided that she must not ever be too lonely, because she always has as many of us to talk to as she wants, evidently. I have been impressed with her ability to remember facts about Chad and Erica. She said yet again yesterday (on her own) how thrilled she is to see Chad so happy as he is since Erica came into his life, and how grateful she is that he found such an awesome girl to marry (aren't we all?). I think perhaps she is able to remember more about them because they go to ...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHAD!!!!! I know you're most likely snuggled down into your new sleeping bag in your tent down by Moab somewhere right now, but sooner or later you'll be back online. Hope it is/was a great day.

Chad. You are not answering your phone. I will be in Orem today with my mom while dad goes for his eye surgery and I can pick up the phone before you leave if you will let me know where to pick it up! Call me at home or at moms, or just swing by mom's and give it to me. Have a good time in Moab you Newlyweds! With Erica gearing up for EFY and now called as YW Pres in your ward, I think busy will soon have a new definition over there...so enjoy!

YAHOO! 100 Days 'till Brett & Katie's Big Day!

This http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24014376/?GT1=43001 is a link to a story about 416 children who were removed from a polygamist colony in Texas because there was a girl who called authorities to report she was being abused. I just wanted to voice my opinion on the subject: do I think that there is probably more than just the one case of abuse? No. But does that justify taking 416 children away from their families and everything familiar to them? No. I think that taking all of those kids was very much unconstitutional and wrong. My sister-in-law (who grew up in a polygamist colony) told me about when something similar happened in the late 70's in her group. She told me about some of the people who suffered permanent psychological damage after being torn away from their parents, forced to live in foster care, and then returned to the colony years later. She told me about he trauma it caused the community. I do not agree with polygamy, but I don't believe that families should be ...

So I got an email from someone today about a new form of drugs for kids. They give them "Strawberry quick" that is really drugs. Our stake has recently had firesides about kids now being offered drugs that look like candy, telling them that if they want more, they need to bring back an iPod, etc. Because of that, I think it could be true. There's disputations on the internet as to whether it's a eFable or truth. But I thought I'd pass it along in case it is true. Site claiming it is partially true - says drug dealers sell drugs that look like strawberry quick, but don't taste like it) Site claiming it is true

S o.... I went to the Doctor and the Doctor said, "No more monkeys jumpin' on the bed!!!" You got me. He didn't really say that. He said I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis . It's where my body is producing antibodies to attack my thyroid. There's two possible outcomes- 1. My body decides it doesn't need to attack my thyroid, and goes back to normal. 2. My body destroys my thyroid, and I have to take pills the rest of my life. I'll take option 1, please. I have to go in every couple of weeks to have my blood drawn, so they can monitor what's happening. Hopefully things will return to normal. I'd appreciate any prayers to that effect that you might be willing to offer.

I saw my OB doctor this past week. I was asking her about her opinion of what will happen when my baby is so big that he/she starts pushing against my stomach and displacing it. She could only give me a guess (since no pregnant woman has ever had a feeding tube in that long). She said she guessed I would start to feel really uncomfortable and maybe a little pain and that it would happen at about 25 weeks (I'm 19 weeks now). If she's right, that's in a month and a half! I've tried to start wheening myself off the feeding tube, but I'm pretty much done trying because it just makes me nauseated. I saw the doctor who put in the tube today. He told me he is excited to write a case study on me since there have only been 2 other case studies done on pregnant women with feeding tubes in the whole world and neither of them had their tubes very long. He said that one of the GI doctors did a presentation on me and my case for all the other GI people and isplanning on ...

FYI, I went to the Dr. a while ago, and they did some tests. I got the results today, and I have results consistent with those of someone who has thyroid problems. So apparently the problem is not limited to women in our family. I've scheduled another appointment for tomorrow with the doctor to discuss options.

Anyone wanna go ATV riding/Geocaching this weekend ? I'm going with Saundra/Randy (who have really gotten into geocaching big time) across the lake somewhere this Saturday. It's supposed to be great weather and I've got cabin feaver and need to pull my atvs out and ride. Marilyn doesn't want to go which means I have 2 extra ATVs. Anyone interested?

It is a winter wonderland in Provo today! I noticed a few raindrops as I drove Erica to work today. After I dropped her off and headed to work, it started to rain noticeably. I saw some lightning, and suddenly it was hailing pretty hard. It covered the streets with 1/4 inch of hail in about 3 minutes. I made it to work, and my coworker pointed out that it started to snow. It's now almost 10 AM, and it's a full on blizzard outside! On Friday I had a conference call with my boss, who was in Alabama. She asked how the weather was, and I told her it was great, and to come on back to Utah. She's here now. Welcome to Utah.

Alzheimer's Brain. I've got it! It's what happens when you are over 50 and are the daughter of another victim! Yesterday was the worst! I was reading my scriptures when I realized that I needed to be leaving to meet an appointment time time with a distributor of spouting seeds in AF. So I took my scriptures in to take care of them and tell Kim I was leaving to do some shopping. When I got to the car I noticed that I still had my scriptures. I had forgotten to drop them off in the bedroom. I shook my head, but decided I would just take care of them when I got home. Then I went to the appointment. When I arrived, I reached to get my purse and I had.....THAT'S RIGHT!! SCRIPTURES!!!!. Turns out, when carrying scriptures, the brain can be faked into thinking that it actually has ones purse! (They ARE the same color and weight) but, it also turns out that one cannot buy a lot on a shopping expedition with scriptures (never mind that they are truly a priceless possessi...

Crudola :-( I have to go to Phoenix on the 29th (returning on May 1st) as I have to be a speaker at THIS . I tried to get out of it...really I did. It's right during the Nelson visit. Nice hotel though. I get a "special rate" of ONLY $349/night. Sheesh....the toilet better have a gold plated seat and handle at that price.

"I've got no strings.......there are no strings on me!" Ok, well I only have one string left (my feeding tube). I took out my picc line (my IV) this morning with permission from my doctor. I've only used it in the past week and a half for sleeping medication. But I've managed to switch to sleeping medication in the pill form. Yes, I admit it-- I'm currently dependent on sleeping meds, but in the words of my doctor "Cambrie, after all that we've got through so far-- who cares???!!!" Hopefully I'll be wheening myself of of them soon as I don't like to be an addict. Anywho-- I can now take a shower like a somewhat normal person! and little boys can stop asking me "what happened to your arm?"

BREANNA COMES TO UTAH! (I've been waiting for someone else that knows more to post, but I suppose it's left up to me). She'll be here late this Friday night and staying until, (the last I heard), Monday. A PARTY WEEKEND! I know she's coming home just to see me, but if yer interested in getting reacquainted with the little brat, make arrangements to come on over.

"Pregnancy Brain" I've got it. It is pregnant women's forgetfulness or mind "cloud". I was reading for just a minute about it online looking for a good definition to quote. There is one theory that it is caused by the brain strinking a bit (temporarily) during pregnancy. I dunno-- all I know is that I've got it. 2 weeks ago I showed up to my doctor's appointment at 11am only to find out that the appointment was at 11am the NEXT DAY (which I should have known since my doctor only works wednesday). Then, 2 days ago I got all ready to go for my doctor's appointment on tuesday AGAIN. I had got a babysitter, notified the pharmacy and my dietitian. twice in a row? that's pretty bad. Good thing they have those reminder phone calls that told me that my appointment wasn't until wednesday otherwise I would have showed up to the doctors office a day early (again). I can't remember some of the names of my BEST FRIENDS in the ward....

All the political promises you could ever want can be found here .

Every once in a while Jacob does what I call his "crazy man face" where he sets his jaw, widens his eyes, and bounces. It's hilarious. You never really know when it's going to happen, but lately he's been doing it a lot in the bath when he really starts splashing. Here are various phases of the crazy man face interspersed with the "joy of splashing" face.

On many products such as hair spray, deodorant, and gel, there is a scale from 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 on the back of different levels of strength and it tells you what number you bought. For example, my hairspray is level 8 "super mega hold" and my mousse is level 8 "extra hold". So the question is, has anyone ever seen a level 3 "really wussy hold" or level 1 "won't hold"? Why do they have these great scales of they only ever sell level 8 (or for scales of 1 to 5 they only sell level 4). Occasionally I'll see a product with a 10 or a 5, but that is rare.

Finally, what you've all been waiting for-- Dastrup Easter pictures. Easter and the whole week leading up to it was a lot of fun thanks to some great Christ-centered Easter ideas I got from friends. When you siblings of mine have kiddos of your own, I'll definitely share them with you. Our egg hunt was held in the middle of the day on Saturday because that's when Brigham finally got off of his 30 hour shift. Good thing four-year-olds don't have any problem with the Easter Bunny coming during quiet time. Jacob couldn't figure out why we wanted him to hold that silly basket, and he couldn't care less about the eggs laying about, but he was very into the little Easter train that was left for him. It was cute!

What's out of place in this picture ?

I just want to urge everyone to get their food storage soon. For RS/Priesthood combined meeting on Sunday, our Bishop talked about the Apocrypha. It got me interested. Anyways, I was reading in Maccabees last night, and WOW! It describes our day so well. The end is right around the corner. In addition to the wheat prices being high, we found out that Rice is going to go up 5x within the year. This is not good. Get your food storage soon!