Groneman Family

Well I thought it was funny to read about you all getting worked up and worried over my lil' joke. Good entertainment folks. Thanks. I really thought you must realize at some point (Laptop while watching Wicked??) that I was lying. I didn't expect it to work that well. I guess Dad has some claim on figuring out that something was up. Mom left a comment on one of my postings about the Boren's hand-truck thing that we left in mom n' dad's jeep. By the time we figured out it was missing from the Boren's and we called to ask mom and dad if it had shown up at their place, I still hadn't read all of the blog and postings, and mom said, "yeah, didn't you get my comment on the blog about it?" And I hadn't seen the blog for over a week. Anyhow... The trip was fun. For those of you who haven't been on cruises, they stuff you silly full of good food. There was a funny comedian show we went to (that was surprisingly clean for pretty much th...

Hi. This is Brett's post, reporting for real on the Cruise, Wicked, and the first week of married life. We saw animals at the Zoo. We did Kayaking , and snorkeling, and, went swimming and Watched dolphins jump . We really liked the Food on the boat. And, oh, the Shrimp tasted soooo good! Katie thought the Husband was Weird . More details to follow. Love Y'all. --Brett

Up camping last week yer mother and I were sitting in the trailer playing Rummy 5000 with Saundra & Randy. Marilyn had made some of her heavenly marshmallow/cream cheese strawberry dip and we had some nice big strawberries to dip it in. We started playing around saying the dip was so good, almost anything would be good dipped in it. We tried crackers, cucumbers, carrots, and a number of other things. We were laughing having fun and each time we tried something new in the dip we'd say something like "this is even good on cucumbers!" We went along playing Rummy and trying different things in the dip laughing and having a good time. Saundra had a Winnie the Pooh shirt on and dropped a big glob of dip on the front of her shirt. She promptly licked it off and said "This is even good on Pooh!". The other three of us sat there in stunned silence for about 5 seconds before the snickering started.......

Hi. This is Brett's post, reporting for real on the Cruise, Wicked, and the first week of married life. We ______ at the Zoo. We did ________ , and _______, and, ______ and ____. We really liked the ______ on the boat. And, oh, the ______ tasted soooo good! Katie thought the _______ was _______. More details to follow. Love Y'all. -Brett

In case you all were wondering: yes we definately felt the earthquake down here. It felt like it was about a 3.5 -4.0 in our area but it was a 5.8 about 30 miles from here. It seemed like it lasted about 40 seconds which is the longest earthquake I've ever been in. Kiera and I were just playing and we moved closer to the side of the bed when it happened and I held her on my lap (which she was mad about). a jar fell off of our shelf, but other than that nothing happened. Pretty crazy stuff. Another subject: I would just like to say thank you to Uncle Sam for helping us out in our time of financial need. I signed us up for food stamps today and we got it. It will be VERY helpful to our budget. I'm glad we can use the program for a while, and then contribute back to society later on.

I am completely mystified. Last night Brigham was wonderful enough to put Jacob to bed for me. (That's actually not the mysterious part. Just you wait...) Around 9 pm I went in to check on the boys for the night, and I found Jacob sleeping peacefully. I leaned in to get a closer look at my sleeping angel and saw a diaper lying next to him. I picked it up and found it with the tabs still attached, as if he had just slid it down his legs. Then I checked Jacob and found that his onesie (worn precisely to keep the diaper on) was still completely snapped up. He and the bed were soaking wet. How on earth did he get that diaper off without undoing the diaper tabs or unsnapping his onesie?? He's gone Houdini on us, I guess. Now you have all the evidence I do. I hope someone smarter than myself can solve this mystery and explain it to me.

While doing some camping at Reservation Ridge this past weekend , I went on a little ride with Saundra & Randy to find a geocache. On my way back to my ATV I was looking down a the ground while walking (habit). Lo and behold....the butt end of one beautiful arrowhead sticking out of the ground! I'll upload a picture later. I have previously found a grinding stone up there but with all the vegetation I didn't think I would find much more. I suppose if I were an Indian a few hundred years ago, I would have headed to the cool mountains where the game was plentiful during the summer time. My guess is that there is a lot of Indian stuff up there given what I have found and the fact I wasn't really looking.

So there I was, minding my own business , watering my plants (don't ever try to grow a garden in pots-- it's not worth it) ...when a VERY large and in-charge black widow spider crawled up the side of on the the flower pots. I of course did what any normal person would do: panicked and fetched my husband for a STAT spider extermination. Stevo the hero arrived on the scene and killed the spider. Upon lifting the flower pot up he discovered a very nicely made egg-sac which he also disposed of properly. Just think... we could have had hundreds of them wandering our yard were it not for Steve's bravery. Yucky!! I'd like to apologize to the the black widow's widower: I'm sorry I killed your wife and children....if I find you I'll kill you too....or actually I'll make my husband do it.

And as an FYI in case Dad and Chad didn't figure it out and tell everyone, every one of these posts for the past week from me were written last Thursday night. Except this. This is Friday night. Hope I got a couple of ya. Yeah, I'm not bringing my laptop. Kbye!

Well we're on the airplane flying home now. They even gave me 3 bags of salted peanuts, and I think one of them was a cashew. That's excellent service. That was a fun trip. See y'all some time soonish.

Right now we're watching Wicked in the Pantages Theatre. The people behind us seem pretty dang mad that I brought a laptop in here. I told them I was a theater critic for the Chicago Tribune. It didn't seem to help. Katie doesn't like the laptop either, but we thought it was important to blog about this experience so we could remember it. The weakest ink is greater than the strongest memory.... The music is pretty good. The paint on the people must be hard to put on. This city is nuts. This is my review. Kbye.

Cruises are fun. I recommend it.

We're in Mexico today. The best part about it: Definitely the churros. There was this guy making them and selling them for pretty cheap. There's some sort of tourist attraction here where waves hit a rock a certain way and it sprays water way up in the air. Katie and I saw it in pictures and have decided to just go walk in the city a bit and play in the ocean and relax. More later.

This is typical government for ya. Spending a ridiculous amount of money on housing for extinct mammals ......like there are any mammoth's left to fit in new housing. Sheesh. Stupid.

Right now we're snorkeling. Underwater. We're in Catalina island These waterproof computer keyboards they have are great. And I guess the cruise industry would be as good of a candidate as any to market them to (weird, I know). Anyway, the snorkeling is fun. Catalina island is, well, a fun little quasi-dry island. The snorkeling is just a unique experience us Utahn's don't get to try every day. There's lots of fish, but not much in the way of whales or sharks. The seaweed tastes very gross. I'm off to swim more. Kbye!

They had chocolate midnight buffet last night. Be jealous. Be very jealous. Katie and I sang to a little requested karaoke "Styx" at the karaoke contest last night too. We actually won a free bottle of some-alcoholic-something or a free Royal Caribbean shirt for the both of us. It was a tough choice. We were the only ones who knew "Mr. Roboto" well enough to sing along for the whole thing. Pays to know the oldies. Thanks Dad.

Buff's pictures from the Utah trip are now up over yonder

Well we just got to the San Diego zoo. There's lots of...animals here. The ship last night started to make me a bit sea sick, but we got the Dramamine. Lovely things those drugs are. And holy monkeys there's a lot of people here! Dad, you'd hate it. Especially for the heat. We try to spend our time inside with some of the cool sit-down shows they have. One bird show, a toucan bird actually came and landed on the bench next to Katie and started pecking at her granola bars. After a brief struggle and some bloodshed, they called the bird back and it went without much of a fuss, (bouncing off the head of the child in front of us). Fun place. We've got some good pictures.

We finally have proof that I'm not just getting fat and enduring an eternal flu virus! This morning I had my genetic screening ultrasound, and it was really fun to see our new little one! She (still don't know gender, but I'm going to call her a "she") was wiggling all around, stretching, and opening/closing her mouth. She definitley looks like an alien still, but we hope she'll grow out of that in time. I got a ton of pictures-- some of them 3-D, but scanning them didn't really work. I'll have to play with it later so I can post at least one. We won't know the results of the genetic screen for 10 days or so, but we'll keep you posted. Our ultrasound where we can find out the gender is scheduled for September 3rd-- probably while Cambrie is in labor! Thanks again to Mom and Dad for hosting us for so long and enduring all of our messes! We really appreciated the help and had a good time! See you in a month!

It was nice to see everyone, but it sure is nice to be home again too. Our drive home was 13 1/2 hours! Traffic and accidents slowed us down terribly and we spent time parked on the freeway in the middle of the desert with a screaming 1 year old who refused to drink ANY liquids the entire trip. It was good to finally get home! We put our pictures on Picasa. Most of them are of Kiera as usual.

Baby Groneman is alive and well. We heard the heartbeat in our 5 minute (or less) appointment this morning. He or she kicks/punches/hiccups or whatever much more often now. It's so fun to be a mom! :) And the baby seems to have moved down to the bottom of my tummy, rather than the top, since that's where all the active movements come from now! :) So my theory that it's a girl because it was sitting high might be wrong... Ultrasound is scheduled for Monday, August 4th, at 1 pm. Yay!

So Katie and I just got on the boat we'll be staying at for the next few days. We got here a bit early and have had some time to explore the boat and the amenities offered without fighting the crowds that will soon be coming. These little strawberry cream cheese puffs...you've got to try them. Mmmm... Anyway, we've got a lil' ocean view room. It's not the largest suite on the boat, but that's alright. I think we'll go stuff ourselves with good food now.

Click this for pictures of the bwessed awangement: 2008-07-We dding_Bret t

What a great EVENT Yesterday! Katie is officially OURS!!! I thought things turned out very nicely! Great sealing job done by the sealer, Brother LeBaron (who also sealed Christa and Brigham for those of you who didn't know!) Great food, great people at the event, fabulous dessert/wedding "cake" and the cutest ever! dipped strawberries in the world! GREAT couple(!); great atmosphere; great slide show....A JOB WEll done Brett and Katie! I really enjoyed the event that we all anticipated for so long! As I type this, the Dastrups, Nelsons, and Breanna are heading back home. The Nelsons are stuck in traffic heading back to California from Vegas....I hope you are all safe and that your cars don't have any breakdowns... Kim was picking up some of the toys after the kids all left this morning and burst into tears because it is going to be way too long before he sees them again. One of the reasons I loved Kim and chose him to marry is that he is so cute with little kids....

B RETT M ARRIES K ATIE T ODAY ! ! ! ! I want to be the first one to officially welcome via written word Katie Groneman to the clan and give my congratulations to Brettsker fer snagging her. Wahoo!

I was reading an article today about three women being ordained as Priests in the Catholic church, and I came across a line that made me stop and think. " The Catholic Church has always said women cannot be priests because Jesus did not have female Apostles ." Wow. I don't want to single out the Catholics because there are other churches that don't get it either, and every religion has good people. It's just that the article is about the Catholics. There are three key things the quote (in conjunction with the rest of the article) demonstrates: They don't know WHY Christ had no female apostles. They either don't have revelation, or have not used revelation to find out and understand the WHY. They believe the Windows of Heaven are closed, and that revelation is not to be had anymore. It's also interesting that they really can't stand on their own argument, because they don't have apostles in their church. There is the law of Moses that talks abou...

I have debated on whether to post this or not. I hesitate. But yet here I am inviting anyone attending the sealing tomorrow to join Erica and I in the temple lunchroom immediately after the sealing for Cinnamon Rolls. I do worry that the Temple won't have enough for everyone, so we might want to give them a heads-up before the sealing. Erica and I started this tradition when we were at a sealing and realized it would be a while before the bride and groom came out. Of course, Brett and Katie are "invited", even though we know you won't be able to make it. And your escorts won't be able to make it... hmm... Brett, I don't recall you asking me to be an escort. If you've already asked someone else, that's fine - I can eat cinnamon rolls. If you do need me to be your escort, maybe we can both go down and get a cinnamon roll while we wait for Katie. (Ouch, I can already feel Katie slapping me!). Okay, maybe if you want me to be your escort, we can ...

So, I hadn't really felt the baby much for a few days (not that I was really feeling much more than somersaults and fluttering anyway), and it was making me worried that there was something wrong (yes, I know I'm a first-time mom). This morning when I woke up, I prayed earnestly, "Father, I just need to know if our baby is okay." Well, at lunch I wasn't really feeling well at all, like it was as if I was having morning sickness from the first trimester. I took that as my answer that everything is fine. Our prayers are answered in interesting ways. :) Even still, I'm anxious for our appt on Monday to hear that heartbeat again.

I have finally figured out a way to de-clutter my kitchen/family room when the family is here. It has always bothered me to feel like wherever one went when the family is here that you're surrounded by mess...no place to fix food even without having to clear off lap tops, cell phones purses etc...along with all of the toys out of the attic...and diaper bags and camera bags/camera's strewn around...etc. Well, we really didn't have a good place to put those before...but NOW WE DO!! Today I went to Walmart and purchased another shelf unit to go on top of the one I already have in the wash room. There is a full shelf for the Nelsons stuff, and a full shelf for the Dastrups. There is also a half of a shelf for anyone's laptop that isn't actively being used. And cell phones have been a problem being in the way while they are recharging too. So, I think if you need to plug in to recharge, I will ask you to do that in the room you're sleeping in. Things have really...

Yesterday Erica and I spend the day at Girls Camp at Heber Valley Camp (It's actually in the mountains above Heber Valley). We got up early so we could be there at 7 AM, and we stayed 'till 7 that night. I'll tell you that the only thing that's "camping" about it is the forest and the wildlife. The "cabins" are more like large dorm rooms that look like a cabin on the outside. Just outside of that, they have a building with a stove, showers, a fridge, and the other amenities you typically don't have while camping. And that's just for the sub-campsite. If you walk 100 yards, there's the main building, with a restaurant sized kitchen, fully supplied. The girls have to "help" prepare a meal once in a while, which mainly consists of setting the food (that the gourmet chef in our stake has already prepared) out on the table, and sometimes (our ward did) help in preparing something for the next meal. The chef went to each ward pr...

Camping pictures:

Email contact from a possible relative: "Dear Kim,Whenever I do a search for Groneman on the net, I find a lot of people with that name in the US.As the name Groneman is not very common, both in Europe as in the US, I think it might be possible that somewhere there is a connection between the US and European families.The earliest ancestor that my great grandfather has found was somewhere in 1750. The church records however of before that year were all burnt in a fire. He could trace his and thus also mine, ancestors back to a village called Herbede in Ruhr area in Germany.I was reading on your Groneman blog that your great grandfather was born in the US but that they originally were also from Germany.Our Groneman family is also a very small family that lives in Holland with 2 cousins that live in France.If you are interested, I could give you more details of the European family. I am also encountering other names of the worldwide Groneman "family" like Bill and Carol, bo...

Happy birthday to my most wonderful companion. I love you.

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear Mom, Happy Birthday to you! Happy happy birthday, mother dear; Happy days will come to you all year. If I had one wish, then it would be A happy happy birthday to you from me! This day is such a special one; It’s birthday-time for you. We’d really like to celebrate Your happy day with you. Zip-a-dee-ay and heigh-dee-ho, Here’s something we can do. We’ll sing a song that we all know, Happy Birthday to you! Erica and I are out at Girls Camp today and into tonight, so we can't make it today. But, we'll see you soon!

Just when you thought NOTHING could be more exciting than Brett and Katie getting married next week, I have more tantalizing and exciting news for you to look forward to! Brett and Katie made me some cashew Starkles on Sunday AND (Drumrolling.......)I have enough to SHARE!! How COULD life get ANY BETTER??? Cambrie and Christa and children will be back here on Monday...so that would be a great time to have everyone come for dinner and fun... So let me know if your game for food and games and STARKLES!!! Breanna....let us know when you will be coming in for sure when you know. If you were going to be here Tuesday at dinnertime we could hold out for a big group gathering until you arrive...but we will be accepting family visits all week! I think it is Wednesday when Brigham arrives? and Friday when Steve comes too! PARTY ON FAMILY!!!

BRAINBASHERS COMMON ANSWERS - JUNE RESULTS I was very uncommon this month, but at least I'm not the bottom of the pile :-) ....and I wasn't a party pooper like Brett and Katie! 222 Chad Groneman 2 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 12.3418% 336 Breanna Groneman 1 3 1 3 1 1 2 1 2 2 6.6978% 716 Christa Dastrup 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 2 2 2 1296 Marilyn Groneman 2 1 1 3 1 2 1 1 1 9 1349 Steven Nelson 2 1 1 4 2 3 1 3 1 1 1503 Kim Groneman 2 3 1 3 8 1 1 2 1 2 2142 Erica Groneman 1 1 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2679 Cambrie Nelson 1 1 1 UR 3 UR 2 1 3 2 Enter JULY's contest here ya'll: http://www.brainbashers.com/common.asp

Happy 4th of July everyone! I would invite all of you over for a BBQ dinner at our house, but I don't think you would like what we would be serving out. We were going to be at the Mtn with Kim still (or just getting back) but we had a change of plans. Benjamin has not been feeling well for the last couple of days (nausea-maybe just sympathy pains, eh?) Well, he was doing much better eating yesterday, so we packed up the little boys and headed up to join Kim at Reservation Ridge...but when we were going to get ready for bed, Christa discovered that Jacob had lost (evidently) Everything he had eaten and drunk all day. He and his bed were completely saturated with yuck. Poor little guy hadn't really wanted to eat all day, but he wasn't unhappy...he just didn't want to eat. Anyway, he had gone to sleep, cross legged, sitting up, but bending over with his hair touching the matress. Well, it was 9:30 pm...way past the boys bedtime, but we packed everything up (well, we...

Happy 4th, Every Single One of Y'All! So I was gonna keep it a secret, but then I decided to share my shame with you. I got a speeding ticket. This was the first one since my ticket in Lehi, so I had the option to going to traffic school. Of course I took it. Last week I went in and paid the court fees and the traffic school fees so I could go to traffic school. They gave me my papers reminding me of when traffic school is, my citation, etc. I went back to work and noticed that they had given me papers for someone else... with my same name. You know how half of us have a duplicate somewhere out in the south end of the valley. Well, they gave me the information as if I was the other guy. I called and told them they gave me the wrong info. They said to bring it in a few minutes before traffic school and they'd fix it. Anyways, I went to traffic school yesterday, hoping the cop would want to get an early start on his holiday. It turns out he wasn't interested in s...

C.A.N. can can! (yes that is a complete sentence). I have succeeded in putting powdered milk in cans using our stakes dry pack caner . I almost did not succeed at acquiring the cans though as the local bishop's storehouse no longer sells them (along with no longer selling any bulk foods). We now have 50 lbs of powdered milk- yum yum yum.

Here's the official invitation. We figured that since the Groneman clan is a little more technology friendly than my family, we'd just post this here for you instead of mailing them (especially since so many people are coming and going at different times). In case you can't read it... You are invited to a family, couples shower for Katie and Brett! Thursday, July 17th 7:00pm At the Harper Home 274 W. Ginger Place, Saratoga Springs Any Questions? Call Anne Harper @ 768-1566 Theme: Camping! Come prepared to share how your gift can be compared to an aspect of marriage. For Example: "A Dutch oven is like marriage because the longer you use it the better seasoned it becomes, and the better it cooks!" Silly and corny comparisons welcome! We'll provide a veggie and fruit plates for some snacks and we'll have s'mores for dessert. We hope all of you who can come, can come!

I guess this could be a sort of un-official announcement/invitation. Mostly we're just checking people's schedules. Katie's sister Ann wanted to throw a family (hers and ours ) bridal shower (Camping theme -- but that's not important for this discussion) for Katie at her house on July 17. Are y'all people planning on being in Utah by then? It's a bridal shower thrown by Katie's sister and as such, it's not going to be one of those horribly painful experiences the girls (and boys for that matter) dread going to with the lame-sauce games. It's more of a mixed-family gathering event. Meaning yes, the boys are invited. They even have a fire pit in their back yard they want to cook marshmallows on! Since we only have 3 "grandkids" in the family, they're planning on just having them be with us. Steve probably won't be here by then we're thinking, but then again, that's why we're posting this. When is everyone arriving...