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Showing posts from June, 2008
Happy Birthday to Brigham! I was going to mail you a cheesecake, but in the 100° weather, the postal service just wouldn't accept it with it's "perishable" condition. I guess you'll have to come up here to get it. How does July 19 sound?
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This past weekend my in-laws had a "women's weekend" where in all 9 adult females of the family spent the weekend together (no boys) at the Nelson's place. It was way fun but I am way exhausted: a joint baby shower for my sister in-law and myself (we are due a week apart), pedicures, going out to eat, shopping, ice-cream shop, going to see Wicked, etc.. It was way fun (most of these things were things I would never spend $ on myself so it was nice to be spoiled). But after 2 nights in a row of only 4 hours sleep I'm so exhausted! Meanwhile, the males of the Nelson family who didn't have kids yet stayed at our house with Steve and Kiera and had some male bonding time (all while watching Kiera). I'm glad that Kiera lived to tell the tale. The broadway production of Wicked was really entertaining-- I recommend it (well, behind Les Miserables of course).
It's official. Kiera is currently the cutest little girl in the world. there is no competition (although in a few months that might change as we are getting 3 additions :-) So yesterday, I went to go watch Kiera for a couple of hours so Steve could go play with his brothers and me and little kiera had a blast! When she woke up from her nap, we read some books together and I asked her for some kisses. She very promptly said "no"....so I then proceeded to tickle her mercilessly. She must have thought it was a fun game cause after I was finished, she then said "no" again. After a while I realized I had to get this on video so I recorded a portion of it on my phone. So here is the grand debut of the "no" game. I'll have you know that after I was done recording the video, it then turned into the "bye bye" game. we then proceeded to play the "no" and the "bye bye" game until steve returned. She is one fun little g
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Not that we're counting down or anything... but we're officially on the Christmas Advent Calendar Countdown as of a few days ago. I bought a couple of discounted ($0.25 each) Christmas advent calendars when they were on clearance after Christmas. It is now less than 24 days until the wedding -- giving us the right . . . no . . . responsibility to use such calendars in the countdown. Lest we should forget the upcoming events... You know how it goes. And hey, we even get a nice cheap piece of chocolate every day 'til it happens! Katie had her bridals done today too. If anyone cares to take a peek, here are the photos, and here are a handful of slightly or significantly edited versions of the same pictures. We now need to choose from the group to see which ones we want printed. Anyhow, enjoy.
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Kiera has a new fascination with tummy's and belly buttons (suprprisingly, she can still identify my belly button although it is almost non-existant and my g-tube site is very prominant). She has to see everybody in the household's tummy at least 3 times daily. I've been telling her that there is a baby in my tummy for a while now, but I think she may finally understand because now whenever I talk about it she comes and gives my tummy 5-6 kisses and occasionally hugs it. It's cute, I'll have to get it on video. In the past week Kiera has mastered the use of the word "please" (although she says it "pease") she always signs it as she says it (rubbing chest in circular motions). One of Kiera's favorite foods is peas so I started heating some up for her last night. She got excited when she saw the bag of frozen peas and said "peas!!!" while signing 'please'. So I guess for Kiera the sign for please not only helps us ask
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Update on Groneman Reunion - I took the trailer up last night (and a couple of tents just in case...a guy can hope can't he....can I tempt you with ATV rides?...but alas, it looks like Brett & Chad won't be coming...dunno what Christa's plans are) and the road going up is in the best shape it's ever been as it's been graded all the way. You can easily drive your car right to the camp site. There's a couple of rocks sticking up to watch out for, but they can be easily avoided. If it's going to be just Marilyn & I at the reunion, I'll only take two ATVs up instead of three. I'm going up to the Mountain property tonight after work to de-winterize that place so it's ready for anyone that wants to go up there. I'm going to stay the night. Tried to call Marilyn last night to find out her final plans, but only got the message machine. I'm assuming you're still coming home Friday (??) but no clue if Christa & kids will be coming
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Yesterday, Benjamin and I and Jacob were out on the patio. Jacob was playing by his sandbox, and Benjamin and I were reading a book about tornados and how they form and what kind of damage they do. We were sitting in their free standing poarch swing (like ours). There was mostly just a breeze, quite pleasant, really. But every few minutes a big gust of wind would hit, that Benjamin thought fun...and it went right along with the book we were reading about powerful winds and such. But then, a really strong gust of wind hit all of the sudden, which was strong enough that I was worried aboout Jacob getting blown over backwards (he was standing), and he started to cry cause it was blowing sand in his eyes, so I ran to go pick him up and hurry into the house, but no sooner had I picked up Jacob but Benjamin began to cry. The wind had blown the swing over on top of Benjamin, and he had done a faceplant on the cement. He had bit his lip which was bleeding, and given him a pretty good size goos
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Kiera and her daddy are gearing up for BYU football this fall.... Steve had her practicing saying "go cougs" today (it still needs a little work). Above is a picture of the stack of pillowcases I just finished making. As you can see, I made 2-3 pillowcases for each of the holidays (except I still need thanksgiving). We are going to have a family tradition of pillowcases for the month of each holiday. Hopefully I'll be able to send Kiera's pillowcases with her on her mission some day : ) Next project: Christmas stockings, then matching mommy/kiera aprons, then dress-ups for my little girls, then........
Yesterday we got a good preview of the Olympics. They broadcast some of the Olympic tryouts on NBC - we watched women's high dive, and women's gymnastics. We've got a rockin' diver - She scored a perfect 10 on one of her dives. Our gymnastics team, on the other hand, needs some work. I went to sleep half way through. Erica says two of them pulled ahead quite a bit and were able to show they were olympic-worthy, but the others were struggling. Anyway, NBC will broadcast some of the tryouts. Most of them look like they're on Sunday. On another note, tomorrow (Tuesday) is Primary Day in Utah. There are some interesting races going on in Utah's 3rd district (which is where we live). In case you wanted to know, after my inspection of the two close races, I'm voting for Chaffetz for US Representative, and Ellis for State Treasurer. I don't like Mr. Cannon's attitude of "I'm important in Washington, so vote for me". He seems out of
Groneman Family Reunion - Reservation Ridge Starts Monday June 30 thru Sunday July 6. Anyone have plans of coming besides me and Benjamin?
Erica and I had our second baby appointment. We heard it's heart beating!!!
Some people think they are lucky or unlucky. There are exactly 5 levels of luck as seen in this short little video. Somehow I think that a person's luck level is somehow tied to their stupidity level.
'Nother Music Video of Kiera This is the sequel to her first movie. Hopefully it's just as good if not better. We have copies of clearer versions if there are any requests Dad, enjoy all the spam you can eat!!! Click Here just in case the video doesn't play
Greetings from Albuquerque! The boys are doing quiet time, but let me assure you that neither of them are very quiet! But it gives me time for scriptures and checking the blog. So it is good time. One week until mom and dad's 60th anniversary. I am hoping to be back for it...with Christa and the boys if she still needs help. I have not been overwhelmed with the amount of letters to Grandpa and Grandma H yet...email works, when you are ready! Love ya'll!
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It's no longer a secret-- now you all know that the Dastrups couldn't take the peer pressure and have jumped on the baby bandwagon. I was really worried about being the only non-pregnant married female at Brett's wedding, so that's a load off my mind! Thanks to Mom for dropping everything to come help out since I've been way more sick this time, and thanks to Dad for letting her come. With Brigham working horrible hours and being unavailable for 2 days at a time (30 hour shift+ sleeping time to make up for it), it is really great to have her here! Benjamin is just thrilled to pieces that he is going to have a new sibling. He really wants another little brother, but I keep prepping him for a sister. We didn't tell him that we were expecting right away, and one day (after we knew but he didn't) we were reading in the Book of Mormon and it said that the people multiplied. He asked what that meant, and I told him that it meant that they had lots of kids.
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I don't know who had more fun at the pool: Kiera or myself (from watching her have so much fun). She loved it. I love having a little lady around-- she makes everything fun. And I love having that little lady's daddy around to enjoy her with me. Life is good.
Oh good grief. I know that as the world gets more and more liberal and talks more and more about personal rights, parental rights are falling by the wayside. But THIS is just above an beyond ridiculous .
I realized last night that I totally forgot to give Mom a big thank you for the shower she threw for us yesterday. Thank you, thank you! The food was wonderful, the company was great, and I had a very nice time. Have a good trip!
STRAWBERRIES! get your FREE STRAWBERRIES HERE! . . . There's a whole bunch of them that will mostly go to waste by the trailer and in the trampoline pit if someone doesn't get them by Saturday night. Sunday I'll give 'em to neighbors if they're still here. MY WOMAN LEFT ME ! She did. Home...all alone....scared . She's currently somewhere around Green River, UT by now on the way down to Benjamin's house. Dunno when she'll come back
1. Go to www.google.com 2. Type in "French Military Victories" 3. Click the "I'm feeling lucky button"
This is one politician that actually makes sense . This is funny and worth watching.
F or those of you who use the internet from time to time, I would suggest you take a look at Firefox 3 . I endorse it as the best browser for your money (it's free).
I just keep thinking about the irony of why we are paying such high prices not only for gas, but for everything else because of gas costs. A big part of the reason that gas has skyrocketed as you all know, is because China and India, who in the past haven't used much of the worlds oil supplies, and now are, because we like to buy from them cause their stuff is cheaper than our own that we make. So follow the sequence: We buy household, etc items from them because they are cheap: The world, which is running out of easy cheap oil to find anyway, now has new big demands on it's oil supply which drives up the price: Because of high gas prices, the cost of everything is skyrocketing way beyond what it would be now if we hadn't started buying the cheaper stuff from India and China. And alot of jobs for Americans have been eliminated as they have gone overseas. We would have been better off to have never started buying their "cheaper stuff" in the first place. I also
In case you are all feeling sorry for yourselves for having to pay high gas and food prices, I'll make you feel a bit better: I had to pay $5 for a gallon of milk a few days ago, and the price of gas right now around here is $4.65 (for the lowest octane). there-- don't you all feel better about what you pay now?
Sorry to leave everyone hanging about Jacob, but with my in-laws sleeping right in front of the computer, it made it hard to access. They did an x-ray and found that Jacob was just stuffed full of stool (aka "woo"). They think maybe that was causing the bleeding. So they increased his dose of stool softener, and we have been changing a LOT of messy diapers, but so far no bloody ones! So I hope we're in the clear. Also, our Friday the 13th was fairly eventful. After spending the morning with Jacob at the doctor, that evening we were forced to evacuate our house when it filled up with a noxious smell that we couldn't identify. We thought it might be gas of some sort, so we called the gas company, and they told us to evacuate immediately, and they sent out a guy to check. After checking, he said it wasn't gas and guessed it was refridgerant from our air conditioner. Long story short, the air conditioning guy said that there is nothing in the AC that is smelly
I was considering writing a blog with what I appreciate about both my dad and my daughtger's daddy, but as I was thinking about what I would write about both Dad and Steve I realized that they have a lot of good qualities in common. Both are GREAT with kids (how many grandpa's do you know who aren't exactly in their prime who will get down on the floor and play with their grandkids despite arthritis). Steve is VERY popular with all of the kids in every ward we've ever been in and I still think Kiera loves Steve more than me (I don't blame her). Both dad and Steve also have a great sense of humor which makes life a lot more fun as we all know. I appreciated dad being such a great provider for our family growing up and making it possible so that I could have a mom who stayed at home. I also appreciate Steve for not expecting me to work right now to contribute to the family finances. Anyway, I didn't realize when I chose Steve that I was choosing someo
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I got a cool Father's Day card from Benjamin! It made me very happy! It's a picture of the firepit and the tent and a big snake and me on my ATV and what looks like an arrowhead (maybe). THAT'S SO COOL!!!!! Guess what, before I got this by a couple of hours, I sent Benjamin a drawing of us up camping, roasting hot dogs, and riding ATVs! Great minds think alike I guess. THANK YOU BENJAMIN! This is the best father's day card/drawing I've ever received. I can't wait for everyone to come so we can go have some fun!
Yesterday was our 6 month anniversary . We celebrated on Friday night by going on a surprise date (Chad surprised me by taking me to dinner instead of home after work--very fun:) ), which included sushi (doctor said it was okay as long as it's not more than twice a week), a movie , and ice cream afterward. Chad is really good at remembering things. We had a great time getting out of the house and just getting away. We spent the day in Brigham City yesterday doing several things (bridal shower, visiting my Grandma, birthday party, etc), so needless to say I'm exhausted after such an eventful weekend, but it was fun! :)
Dad, I didn't get you a pair of radio controlled infrared-shooting mini helicopters but... Happy Father's Day anyway! (The lack of helicopter doesn't indicate less love, just less helicopter.) For those of you who are confused, check the "wish list."
Kim's Time Off - I'll be taking the entire week of July 12-20 off to spend with my wonderful family. Let me know of things you want to do during that time. I'll also be taking the entire week of June 28-July 6 off to go camping at Reservation Ridge. Lemme know if any of you want to come up during that time. It's the only thing that makes summer bearable.
I must be crazy -- I bought a plane ticket for Kiera and I to come to Utah the monday before Bert's wedding. The part about it that makes me crazy is that the plane doesn't even leave until an hour past Kiera's bedtime, and there is an hour layover in Vegas, and we get to Utah at midnight. I'll be traveling 8 months pregnant and have to be carrying a sleeping (or crying) nearly 2 year old who rarely will sleep anywhere except for her bed (and occasionally a car-seat). All of this so that I can arrive 2 days earlier. I must be crazy .
Three more bloody diapers. More time at the doctor. More tests. No answers yet. Plan to go back again this afternoon when the GI doctor is available. Thank goodness Brigham's parents are here to help out!
This morning when I got up and changed Jacob's diaper, I found that it was full of blood. His next diaper had blood in it, too, so I took him in for an appointment. So far they don't know what is going on. His urine sample did have traces of blood in it, and they are sending it in for further testing. Right now we are just watching him to see if he seems to be in pain or if he has another bloody diaper. We are hoping that it was just a kidney stone that passed and that there will be no further problems. He's been acting fine today, so that is a good sign. That kid likes to keep us on our toes!
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So, Keira and Cambrie came over to Aunty Buffalo's apt about 3 or 4 days ago. I had lots of fun and my roommate took pictures. I don't think Keira had as much fun because she wasn't feeling very good but she sure liked climbing up and down the stairs that lead into the pool. I'm so lucky I live close to a cute little lady that I can play with and have favorite aunt status with (sorry cake) More pictures are over in my pictures over yonder: <---------
I need to schedule my time off by tomorrow. They informed us yesterday that because so many people are requesting time of for the next couple of months, it needs to be scheduled by the end of this week. So.............ASAP I need to know when Christa/Cambrie will be here AT OUR HOUSE so I know when I should schedule the time off. Otherwise, tomorrow I just have to schedule it and hope it works out.
Anyone wanna volunteer to let me borrow their car GPS thing so Katie and I can make it around LA next month? I'll ship it back to you when we're done surviving California. Maps work too I guess, although mom says a GPS is very useful to get around there.
For those of you in the valley who want to come.... I'm going to the temple for my endowment on Saturday, June 21, in the 9:00am session. If you want to come please be in the chapel by 8:30. (Except for you Brett... you get to go early... you lucky duck).
Ya know , I had great intentions of working in the basement and getting it finished before the family shows up. It ain't gonna happen. First I took a vacation to Canyonlands...I thought I could work around that. I got back and a project at work had me working weekends and nights and that's just finishing up. Then there's yer mom....I love that woman.......who has so many honeydo's that I'm staying quite busy with that. She bats her eyelashes and voilà! I find myself cutting down trees and hauling off limbs. Voilà! I find myself hauling dirt and helping her put in new grass. Voilà! and I'm helping her with her computer projects. What can I say. She feeds me good stuff and gives me back scratches......excellent trade. Anyway, with what is coming up, I won't have that room done, but the part that is done will be semi-usable. It will be done by Christmas. :-)
My parents are home! Just thought I'd share the joy... Thanks for being my second set of parents, Mom and Dad.
The disadvantage of having your wedding registry at Walmart I've discovered is that although people technically have access to it, they don't have any clue what the items listed are since only 20% of the items have pictures and all of the names of the items are abbreviated so much you can tell what they are.
For all you trekkies out there - check this out.
Hey, ladies of the family. I was in Costco this morning and they have Shade Layer tees, with 2 in a package for 15.99. That is less than what one usually costs. You may have the same deal going in your Costcos...but I will be going back likely tomorrow, if you need me to pick up some for you. They are 2 different colors in the package...but there isn't alot of choice of packaging colors. I picked up a black and white one though.
A number of years ago, the Seattle Symphony was doing Beethoven's Ninth under the baton of Milton Katims. At this point, you must understand two things: 1. There's a long segment in this symphony where the bass violins don't have a thing to do. Not a single note for page after page. 2. There used to be a tavern called Dez's 400, right across the street from the Seattle Opera House, rather favored by local musicians. It had been decided that during this performance, after the bass players had played their parts in the opening of the Ninth, they were to quietly lay down their instruments and leave the stage rather than sit on their stools looking and feeling dumb for twenty minutes. Once they got backstage, someone suggested that they trot across the street and quaff a few brews. After they had downed the first couple rounds, one said, "Shouldn't we be getting back? It'd be awfully embarrassing if we were late." Another, presumably the one who sugges
Just a reminder to my family...especially if you aren't going to be here for mom and dad's 60th wedding anniversary party...we are hoping to have everyone with memories of my folks over your lifetime and theirs, to write them a letter of appreciation for the fun times they hosted, things taught, etc. Please send them to me. We are going to put them all in a little book for them. Also, Cambrie had a good idea. She says when they went to Steves grandparents 60th anniversary...that all of the kids (and some of the grandkids who were there) got up and took a few moments at the party honoring them to tell the group and mom and dad what they loved and appreicated about them. Kinda like you would at a funeral, except that they get to hear it before they are gone , and so will mom and dad's siblings that we are also inviting. It will make them happy ! So mull that one around during your drive time, or whatever. Christa is arriving on July 6th...I sure wish somehow it could b
On the first day, God created the dog and said: 'Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.' The dog said: 'That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?' So God agreed. On the second day, God created the monkey and said: 'Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span.' The monkey said: 'Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?' And God agreed. On the third day, God created the cow and said: 'You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.' The cow said: 'That's kind of a tough life you want me to li
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Finals end this week and then I'll have a life back. This is what I do for study breaks--kids' shows are really amazing sometimes...that or your brain gets warped from so much studying that you'll watch anything. I learned "there are a lot of numbers past 10!"
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Katie's parents are coming home from their mission tomorrow, and we've been spending a bit of time in their house getting things cleaned up and ready for them. The other day, as I was cleaning out some of the cupboards, I found a bottle of some generic brand daytime cold and cough syrup (DayQuil). It expired some time in 2003 if I remember right. Now we've got plenty of expired medications still lurking in our medicine cabinets I'm sure. The unique thing about this was that it rattled when it was shaken up and there were big lumps coming out of the surface of the syrup. I drained the syrup and discovered that whatever was in there was too big to fit through the opening of the bottle. We cut into the bottle with a knife and found this: (Click on the picture. Unfortunately the quarter wasn't included in our findings) That's right: Cough syrup crystals. We're going to quit school, quit work, sell them on ebay, and go live in Park City in a mansion eati
I finally have time to tell you about the Canyonlands trip . As you can see from the pictures and video below, we did have a good time. Saundra and I went down there on our own May 25th. Steven had told us the road was washed out in places and that our old camp was trashed (he had been down there the previous fall). Well, we decided to go find the camp spot we were in the year Steve came with us before he and Cambrie were married. We couldn't find that spot, but we found a new one that was great. On our way in the final dirt road we came across two guys on an ATV :-( We saw many other SUVs and some other camps in there that week. Everywhere we went, including where we've always found arrowheads, there were fresh footprints. We went in to see "initial rock" and our old camp, and on the way back out, there were footprints in our tracks on the road and closer to ruin park, vehicle tracks over ours. When we first started going down here, we NEVER saw another pe
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Finally....my Canyonlands pictures are here 2008-05-Ca nyonlands
CANYONLANDS VIDEO 2008
Saundra/Randy's pictures of our Canyonland's trip . I haven't taken the time to do anything with my pictures yet...I will soon.
My computer always beats me at chess, but it is no match for me now I changed the competition to kick boxing
I can't take credit for this, but I won't tell you who credit goes to in case it gets a "That's Terrible!" comment.... Three sisters, ages 92, 94 and 96, live in a house together. One night the 96-year-old draws a bath. She puts her foot in and pauses. She yells to the other sisters, "Was I getting in or out of the bath?" The 94-year-old yells back, "I don't know. I'll come up and see." She starts up the stairs and pauses. "Was I going up the stairs or down?" The 92-year-old is sitting at the kitchen table having tea, listening to her sisters. She shakes her head and says, "I sure hope I never get that forgetful, knock on wood." She then yells, "I'll come up and help both of you as soon as I see who's at the door."
I'm now a 100% normal-in-every-way pregnant woman. My doctor took out the feeding tube this morning. I didn't realize what a pain that thing was until it was gone and I cold hold Kiera without it hurting, dress myself without it being in the way, etc.. Anyway, I'm glad I had it, but I'm glad it's gone. Maybe now I can just be a normal weight (instead of either under or over weight like I have been).
A woman was shopping at the local supermarket where she selected: A half-gallon of 2% milk, A carton of eggs, A quart of orange juice, A head of green leaf lettuce, A 2 lb. can of coffee, and A 1 lb. package of bacon. As she was unloading her items on the conveyor belt to check out, a drunk standing behind her watched as she placed the items in front of the cashier. While the cashier was ringing up the purchases, the drunk calmly stated, 'You must be single.' The woman was a bit startled by this proclamation, but she was intrigued by the derelict's intuition, since she was indeed single. She looked at the six items on the belt and saw nothing particularly unusual about her selections that could have tipped off the drunk to her marital status. Curiosity getting the better of the woman, she asked: 'Well, you know what, you're absolutely right. But how on earth did you know that?' The drunk replied, 'Cause you're ugly.'
BRAINBASHERS common answers - May results 51 Brigham Dastrup 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 24.8869% 232 Kim Groneman 1 1 1 1 4 2 1 3 3 1 3.9422% 267 Christa Dastrup 1 2 1 2 1 1 3 3 3 1 3.2278% 276 Cambrie Nelson 3 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 2 1 3.0587% 374 Steven Nelson 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 2 1.9623% 395 Brett Groneman 1 2 1 1 6 1 1 4 1 2 1.7177% 602 Chad Groneman 1 1 1 7 2 1 1 2 1 2 695 Breanna Groneman 1 1 1 2 9 3 1 1 1 1 1447 Marilyn Groneman 1 1 1 15 3 1 9 3 1 2 It just confirms what I've always believed......that I married a very uncommon woman. Christa, sorry to say that the guy you married is as common as they come. (Hey! Where's Katie and Erica?) OK folks, on to June: http://www.bra