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Showing posts from June, 2009

We have another old man in the family

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Brigham made it to his 30's. No more a spring chicken. Old....no other word for it. Brigham, as much as you can in your old age, I hope you enjoy a happy birthday. However, at your age you should be sure to take a fiber suppliment with your breakfast, and don't eat too much as you know how your metabolism changes with age.

Home on the range

"Oh give me a home, where the Buffalo roam......" I would like to announce THE BUFFALO HAS LANDED....actually not quite...she's still a few minutes out..but when she lands I won't have time to post. WELCOME HOME OH DAUGHTER OF MINE!

More fort ideass

Its gotta have 2 mailboxes. I remember you used to be able to get them in the dollar section of target...I don't know anymore. #2 it needs a hanging clock.

Our addition to the cuteness gallery...

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Click on the picture for a larger view. Emmy's got a leak going on in her mouth. So she decided to become a plumber to fix the leak. (This text is from Chad, by the way. Erica posted the picture only.) In other news, Emmy has found that the walls at the church are funny. You know the ones that are part carpet / corn-husk / spare twine with the threads hanging out. Yeah. She loves them. She also loves to sing during the hymns. Or anytime really if people are singing (chad: or not). Love the little shrieks during the Sunday school lesson, heard from the far side of the chapel.
Click on this to watch my helicopter fly! I'm a terrible pilot, but I at least got it off the ground.

Ty Sits Up!

Cambrie is not the only one with talented children! It's crazy to see Ty blowing through all of his milestones! Brigham only has 2 more days in his 20's and as a second year resident! I'm excited to be in the same decade as my husband again AND in our last year of residency. Hooray! Jacob starts summer school tomorrow... we are saved! There is much to rejoice about here in Albuquerque.

Benjamin's suggestions

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I talked with Benjamin today and he had a few minor suggestions for the playhouse/fort. First, to put some holes in the walls of the fort so you can put binoculars up to them and spy on people. Then to put a slide out the side of the fort. Then to run some water up there so you can have a swimming pool up in the fort. Then to dig a basement room and put some bookshelves up and a light so we can have books down there. Then to have an enclosed ladder so you can climb up so nobody can see you. All KINDS of good ideas!

Buff!

Buff! You get home RIGHT THIS MINUTE!!!!! >:-|

Playhouse update

The playhouse is coming along. I've got siding on 3 sides (upper and lower) and I've started to frame the roof. As you may know, it's been raining a lot here and I've got a solution for all the rain: As soon as the roof is on, we'll not have rain for months. Ug...I've got sore muscles. I've got to go buy some pipe so we can have a pipe intercom between the upper/lower decks. Emmy came over to spend the day helping me with the playhouse while her parents went to Lagoon. She was so cute and smiley and was a big helper.

Blog Hog

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Lydia is getting to the stage where she loves animals. She loves me to point them out in books. Oh, today Lydia said her first word (where she definitely indisputably knew what she was saying). We were at Toys-R-Us just hangin' out passing time and we found a little baby doll and crawls and makes babbling noises. Lydia LOVED in and was trying to smother it wtih kisses. I told her it was a baby. Whenever I tried to take it away or walk away she would start to cry and reach out for it "Baby!" We've recently inherited a ton of free stuff. I little old lady down the street from us bought this outfit for kiera. As you can see she wasn't thrilled. I guess we won't have a modesty problem with her. We also recently were given a sandbox with sand from our neighbors as well as a beach umbrella, 2 wetsuits, and 2 MORE boogie boards (we now have 6). We must be living right or something. I remember Chad used to frequently win the Scary-Hair contest. But today after my girl

FREE Online Photo Editing Class!!

100% free class online to learn cool tricks for your digital photos! You can do it anytime you want after July 6th, but you must register by June 28th to get it for free. Check it out here. I'm excited to do it!

GIRLY GIRLS

How many colors?

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How many colors of spirals do you see? I'll tell you right now, you're wrong. What your brain interprets as green and blue based on the surrounding colors, are actually the exact same color. There are only two different spiral colors here. Here's the explanation . How weird is that?

Derivative Markets & Government Bailouts

An Easily Understandable Explanation of Derivative Markets : Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in the city. She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans). Word gets around about Heidi's "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in the city. By providing her customers' freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Consequently, Heidi's gross sales volume increases massively. A young and dynamic vice-president at the local b

Lets get together...yea yea yea

In case anybody didn't know, the winds of change have come up and it is likely that the female Nelsons will be gracing Utah with their presence this summer. The question is: when. Anybody have any votes on the matter? Hey, while we are there we could run a race if anybody wanted to. There are 5 half marathons in the near area in August and september. I'm sure there are 5ks as well. Anybody interested?

Update

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Just a quick update on us. Brett has officially been offered an RN position on the 7th (oncology) floor at UVRMC. He starts next week - night shifts, but we're optimistic that he'll get a day shift relatively soon. I just passed by thesis oral exam which is a nice load off my shoulders, although I do have to do some revisions and I need to add a better summary in a few pages at the end. Most importantly, last night while I was driving home from work, I saw a falling star. So, if any of you want me to vicariously make some wishes, please let me know.
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My first father's day card from Kiera! Oh I love having cute grandkids. I hate having them so far away.

Plans for Turkey Day!

The Dastrups have invited us to come to their place for Thanksgiving Day this year. I am game...sounds fun to me...anyone else up for fun in Albuquerque?

Zoom! zoom zoom zoom! Whirr!

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What a great father's day....thanks everyone!

And a good father's day was had by all

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Marilyn gave me a white shirt. Hmmm...hint there me thinks. Had lots of well wishes from kids on Facebook...that was fun. Talked to Buff a little bit on the phone. Got to see Cambrie/Steve/Kiera on a video conference, got to talk to Christa/Brigham on the phone for a while. Got to see Chad/Erica/Brett/Katie over at Grandpa H's father's day dinner which had a small spattering of his grandkids there (Keith didn't come but the others did). I got to hold and play with Emmy for a while over there. I ate way too many desserts. (Good made from scratch lemon bars by B&K.) Thanks everyone! It was a good day other than having to sit on the front row at church.

Playhouse wallpaper border ????

Gang, Input please. Your mother wants to decorate the playhouse portion for little girls. She originally wanted THIS BORDER which I th0ught would scare away any boys from playing in there. We compromised and right now it stands at THIS BORDER (which I still think is too "babyish") Of course, if it were left up to me I'd get something like THIS ONE or THIS ONE . but I'm sure that's not too girl friendly. I do think something like THIS ONE is better all around. What I'm worried about is getting something too boy/girl oriented and getting something to "childish" that would make it so 10 year olds (so grown up you know) wouldn't want to play in it. Give us your thoughts. If you could put any kind of wallpaper border in there which would it be? (Doesn't have to be one of the above). Remember this just goes in the lower "house" portion of the playhouse and not in the "fort" portion.

Dastrups Again

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From Steamworks Animas Half Marathon Our big news of the week was the half marathon that we ran yesterday. It took place in Durango, CO, and was absolutely gorgeous! The course was a lot hillier than we were expecting-- including a 2 mile climb to the finish, which was pretty painful-- but it was still really nice. Brigham did really well-- finishing in 1:43, and I did fairly well, finishing around 2:03 (I don't know my time exactly yet since I wasn't wearing a watch and they haven't posted results yet). It's the first race we've done in 2 years, and it felt good to run one again. Benjamin hit a couple of balls completely over the house behind us, so Brigham owes him $5. Too bad he has to use that to help pay for the library's CD that he left within Jacob's reach and was subsequently eaten. Jacob LOVED a trip to the fire station this week when Brigham was doing an ambulance ride-along day. We literally had to drag him away from the fire trucks when

Fun stuff about my girls

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Kiera was sitting on my lap yesterday holding her blankie while I was doing some homework. Out of nowhere she said ".....Kiera come out of mommy's tummy.....Lyida come out of mommy's tummy.....BLANKIE come out of mommy's tummy!" Um, no Kiera-- blankie did not come out of mommy's tummy...I think I would have remembered that" Lydia is into food storage lately. She stratigically throws food from off of her tray onto the floor and then 5 minutes after I let her loose from her high chair (and clean her up) she's off to go eat the food she threw down. Smart girl. We have a new little tradition (well, we've done it twice) of going to get ice cream. Kiera, the one who formerly didn't like ANY desserts, now likes icecream. So we go to Rite Aide which is about 1/4 mile away. The first time we went Kiera got it on a cone which was fun but it made a huge mess as it melted and she wouldn't eat the cone anyway; so yesterday we had them put

Happy Father's Day!

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From Father's Day Story Here is Benjamin's Father's Day gift to Gramps. I tried to get him to do it on paper so we could send it, but he insisted on doing in in his story folder. So I had to take a picture of it. For those of you who are not as literate as Benjamin, it reads as follows: "Ahooooooo! The coyotes are back-- yikes! A ATV is speeding away. What? will? the coyotes do to the campers?" The picture is of Gramps and Benjamin in a tent surrounded by howling coyotes. Pretty scary stuff, I know, but I figured that with Gramps' love of scary things, this ought to be right up his alley. We love you, Dad! Happy Father's Day! Thanks for being an awesome dad!

Munch, Munch, Munch!

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Yesterday I participated in a randomly occurring cookie harvest. Yes, we harvested many chocolate chip cookies from our oven. It was a good day for it since it was a cool, rainy day. Most of the cookies are for the large extended family father's day gathering today. But we've stashed a cache of cookies away in our freezer for hard times when there is no cookie harvest. While I was participating in the cookie harvest, I was also watching Emmy. At one point Emmy was complaining, so I went and picked her up and took her outside to watch the rain. We sat down under an overhang, with Emmy sitting on my lap, and just watched the rain fall on our little garden. She was so content, watching the rain. After about five minutes, she spit up on me, and I noticed little black flakes in her spit. For those of you who are not familiar with the spit of babies, black flakes is a good indicator that they've been eating something they're not supposed to eat. I picked her up and

Enid Green Raises an Alarm.

Enid Green, former U.S. House of Representatives from Utah 's 2nd district, now she has her own show on KSL radio I was listening to yesterday. She was quoting from an article she had read (and there were several sources reporting the same thing) that I find VERY ALARMING! She said that With this new Health Care proposal put out by Obama, that people who have studied the proposal and choose to oppose any part of it, will be "locked out of the decision making process so as not to impede it's passing". Lets see! WHERE ARE WE???? RUSSIA??? Last I knew, our government elected officals had a right to oppose (and obligation to do so) any proposed legislation that would be detrimental to our country! Since when did we give the administration power to shove WHATEVER they want down our throats without an intelligent discussion on the subject, and in spite of what everyone else may think? This health care change OBama wants will cost the govt over a trillion dollars, will n

And now, the rest of the story!

This is in referance to Brett's blog about the Cedar Hills council meetings being entertaining. I include it in here so that the reader may realize that you have to take what you read in the paper as, less than truth in many situations.. I wrote this email to the Fotheringhams as they have been leading out in an active fight against the proposal to build a clubhouse on the golf course. The city council is considering it, because right now, they can get it built on 1/2 as much money (the builders are willing to lose money on it right now, just not to be losing AS MUCH as they would with no work...hoping to keep their business intact and ride out this lousy economy until times are better). If built, it could be used for tournaments, and receptions (great location) and help pay for the darn golf course that has run in the red every year since it was completed...so we taxpayers pay for it. Anyway, it gives you the gist of what happened at the councilmeeting and the 1/2 truth that s

Playhouse - Day 2

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This is the result after the 2nd Saturday's worth of work. (click for larger picture) Rain kept me from making as much progress as I could have. You can see the 2nd story (the "fort" part) is starting to take shape. The plywood portion you see on the bottom will have white vinyl siding on it and some vinyl posts and railing on the little porch. Are all you grandkids ready to come play in it?

And you thought Disneyland and the beach were cool. . . .

Finally, a reason to visit New Mexico besides air balloons and aliens. http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE55I5NK20090619 See you soon.

It wer a frog strangler!

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The lightening flashed! The Thunder CRASHED!! The wind was raging through the trees, propelling the rain to greater velocity....and Kim continued, ALL DAY! to work on the playhouse and fort! You could say that he wants it done! Today, he finished putting siding on the playhouse, and got 3 of the 4 walls of the fort put up. He could have probably had the fort roof on too, except for the weather slowed him down considerably! But it really did resemble the scene from Dumbo (no reflection on you dear!! :) ), where the lightening is flashing and crashing as they try to put up the circus tents. All we needed more was the dramatic announcer! I tried to get him to come in earlier, on account of the nasty weather, (and because he skipped lunch while I was gone to a family reunion), but he wouldn't have it. But, he survived ...so far. GRAMPS Earned his GRANDPA badge today!!!

Cedar Hills Town Meeting

Geez... If I had known that the Cedar Hills town meetings were this comical , I'd probably go watch!

This just deserves a spot

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I just thought this picture deserved a place on this blog...it's SO CUTE. I love to just scroll through the blog from time to time to see the little people I love so much. Click on it for a larger, better view.

Rumors of our death have been greatly exaggerated.

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Just to let you know we're fine. We used one large slice of that giant puffball mushroom in some delicious spagetti sauce two nights ago and we're still here. I guess our mushroom book knows what it's talking about.

A look into the (near) future

This is a 90 minute video of the most revolutionary computer user application I've seen in a number of years. It's called Google Wave. In time, not long, I think this will change the way people communicate dramatically. If you have time to watch it (give up watching ONE movie...comon, just do it), even if you aren't a technical person I think you will be amazed. Email, blogs, wikis, instant messaging, etc. will become obsolete because of this type of technology. I especially liked the last demonstration where a person from the US was talking with a person from France and the conversation was in English on one screen and French on the other.

Glenn Beck-An Unlikely Mormon

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My friend Linda was telling me about this, so I watched it. It is a funny and yet touching story on how Glenn Beck (of the Glenn Beck show on Fox television), much against his will , became a Mormon. He had many rebellious and dark years and much to overcome. I highly recommend this video to my family and anyone else. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDpdakxzZEM . This is the first of seven U- tube videos, one picking up where the last one finished off. Tell me what you think!

Another Great Long Weekend of Riding & mowed lawns!

And to top off a perfect weekend.....I came home to mowed lawns! Yea for Brett & Katie!!!! We found the huge puffball mushroom (edible) while riding. One mushroom would make enough spagetti sauce to feed our ward. It's now in the freezer in slices. We had a little rain, but it didn't slow us down much. Yer mom has a rain suit which kept her toasty dry. The weather was perfect as was the scenery. PICTURES HERE

Here you go grandma and grandpa

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Pictures for g+g's benifit. If I wasn't so lazy, I'd put a video on too. Nelson news: Steve finished his 2nd year of dental school on friday. So he's officially half way done. He just started a 3 week break for school. ...trouble is that he is going to spend it all studying for boards which are on the 29th. I've been doing my clinicals up in the mountains. It is a CRAZY drive up there on account of the thick fog. There are times I'm literally just trying to see the lines on the road so I know which way to turn. There are a LOT of people who have very real psych problems up there (even the people in the clinic admit that there seems to be a lot). So I'm not surprised that people we know (and may or may not be related too) are up there. I'm going to go drive by her house one of these days, but it's been so foggy its not worth the effort lately (plus I'd never find it in the fog). Kiera-- nothing new to report really. She is a bossy cow. Lydia-- is

Emmy's 6 month stats are in

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Head Circumference: 17.5 in (92.41%) Weight: 18.17 lb (85.59%) Length: 29.5 in (99.99%) She's off the charts!!!! We love our little girl!
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Katie gave me the recipe, and so since she shared it with me I figured she shouldn't have to do it again...so here is the recipe for her NUMMY Bread!

Hawaii Bound this September

Yer mother and I will be leaving Sept. 11 and returning Sept. 20 for a *work* trip 7 day cruise around the Hawaiian Islands: * September 12-19 * Norwgian Cruise Lines * Pride of America: http://tinyurl.com/prideofamerica * Hawaii: http://tinyurl.com/hawaiicruise I have a feeling it will be better than our last stop in Hawaii. Hmmmm...on Sept 11, 2001 we were on board a ship starting up the inside passage to Alaska.

Dastrup Update

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Dastrups are still alive and kickin', believe it or not. Brigham has just started his EMS/ultrasound rotation, which is the last of his 2nd year-- hooray! So far the schedule is MUCH better than anything we've had this year, so we are loving it! I finally feel like I'm getting my feet back under me, but I still don't dare take the 3 muchachos many places by myself, so I'm trying really hard to find things that can entertain the kiddos here at home all summer. Like Cambrie mentioned, I am training for the Durango Half Marathon in 2 weeks. I don't plan on it being my best time ever since I didn't have enough time to train properly, but I'm just excited to run it. A friend from the ward is going to run it with me, so we are enjoying doing our long runs together. Oh, and I only finished 3 strokes behind Brigham in a game of mini-golf that we played yesterday-- and that's with Ty strapped to my chest-- I was pretty much awesome... From May 2009 Benjamin R

The Robins declare War!

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So, one thing, we forgot to mention in previous blogs...when we went out last Monday to remove the tree stumps and trees that were in the way of the playhouse...we noticed a mother robin who was perched on her branch close by, watching our every move. I figured that she must have a nest in a nearby tree, and sure enough, I spotted it. She didn't do anything but observe, until I went in the house, but then she started diving at Kim! Well, yesterday, when he hauled the plywood over for the floor...it was just too much for her. AND she had pulled new resources into her war! So the 3 Robins went ALL OUT on their attack of Kim, dive bombing him, all at once! until they ran out of ammunition! Thank goodness for that! He came in the house to get something and he had at least 5 spots of bird do on his shoulders and back! I never knew until now that birds could plot against us humans, nor that their bird-do is used as a weapon! I know you are wondering about the nest: It was safe. W

Playhouse & Emmy

This is day 1 in the life of the playhouse. Emmy came over to help me build it so she gets the distinction of being the first Groneman grandchild to enter and play in it while it's being built. She spent a good portion of the day over here and she was as good as gold....happy cute little thing. I wish Benjamin, Jacob, Ty, Kiera, and Lydia were here to help me too. I'm in no hurry to get the playhouse finished...there's other things to do like ATV riding. It will be done by later this summer though.

1/2 marathon done!

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I ran my half marathon today. It was good but I'm kindof glad it was overwith. it was all down hill and really hard on the legs/knees. I really pushed myself though and cut an entire half hour from my last half marathon time. I STILL think that it would be fun to have all of the siblings run one together someday. A big thanks to Brigham for being my coach for the past few months. I couldn't have done it without you (or at least I couldn't have done as well). Good luck to Cake and Brigham as they prepare for theirs in 2 weeks! Make sure you remember to get a babysitter for the afternoon so you can recover! It was sooooo hard to try to take care of my girls today....

Emmy's 6 month birthday bash

As mom mentioned in her post, today was Emmy's 6 month Birthday. We celebrated by going to play mini golf. Emmy decided she wanted to take a nap and spend some time with Grandma, so we let her do that while we went. When we came back, we celebrated some more. Below is some video of the party. (Video removed)
Happy 1/2 Birthday to Emmy! We had some cake in the fridge so we had to put a candle in it and sing...she needs to practice on blowing out the candle! We will try again in 6 months. The kids came over with Emmy so I could tend while they went on a date. Emmy has FINALLY decided that she isn't scared of me anymore! So we had a great time! She likes to have her little cheeks and ears kissed on, and I LOVE to accommodate her! She was such a happy little dolly today. ...when she woke up we were playing games so she just came and watched. After that we went out and play Boche Ball with Brett, Katie, us, Erica and Chad. Emmy kept Kim out of trouble! (Thanks, Emmy!) Erica beat us in Acquire, and Katie tromped all over us in Boche Ball! It was great fun, and perfect temperatures for doing anything outside! Wish the rest of you could have beamed in for the event! We are pretty excited about the new addition in the backyard. Kim got the walls up and the roof on the first floor today

Kiera-isms

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Kiera is entertaining lately. Here are some of her funnies: 1. She must have learned "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam" in nursery because I didn't teach it to her. Only, they must have taught it to her wrong because she sings "Jesus wants me for a Sun-Bum". 2. We were swinging at a crowded park the other day and Kiera announced excitedly "Lady eating a treat!!" I looked to see a lady smoking (she thought the cigarette was a sucker). About 1 minute later she made a comment on yet another chic, "Lady wearing a swimming suit!" (she was wearing an immodest tank top). My poor innocent 2 year old! 3. Kiera is into playing make believe lately. She does all sort of funny things. She enjoys smelling Lydias bottom for stinkies, smelling elmo's bottom, blankie's bottom.... 4. Kiera has recently become a bossy-cow. She enjoys bossing everyone who further down the totem pole around. She scolds her blankie, puts elmo in timeouts, and tells Lydia what

NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE!

So there I was, being a good aunt, minding my own business, and pushing Kiera and Lydia on their tree swings in the back yard when BOOM/FLASH!!!!!! I heard the LOUDEST boom and the BRIGHTEST flash i've ever experienced in my short life! I felt a jolt of electricity go through me(literally) and was scared half to death! yes, lightning had struck a tree about 6 houses down, less than a half a block away from Cambries house and had lit it on fire. There had been a lightning storm going on all day in our valley but I never in a million years thought it would strike that close! Needless to say, I got the girls and we went inside very quickly. After cambrie came home about 5 min later, we went and took a walk to go see the tree that was hit. That was when the movie above was taken. It was a very scary experience. In other exciting news (at least for me), I get to go part time at my job next month and I'm going to be in Utah for 2 weeks starting on either the 28th or 29th. I

About Havasupi

Just thought I should let you know...since this whole Havasupi thing has been silent for a while. It looks and sounds awesome! I would love to do it, but I cannot tent camp anymore. I need my electric blanket or a hot water bottle with me to warm the legs so I can sleep...to say nothing of the minimum of 2 foam matresses I would sleep on. No, Kim and I are going to say "Have fun" and wait to see your pictures! We would just slow you down anyway! I noticed that they aren't currently letting anyone down into there right now because of the Swine Flu...but, at some point they will open it again.

This proves Obama is out of touch

Just the title of THIS ARTICLE proves Obama is out of touch with reality. ;-)

Who is your true friend?

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You can find out who your true friend is. It really works. Try it if you don't believe me. Lock your spouse and your dog in the trunk of your car for an hour. When you open your trunk, notice which one is happier to see you.

Who was most common in May?

BrainBashers common answers results for May and what a bunch of party poopers we have in our family this time. Steve, you can hardly count that as a win with so few players: 75 Steven Nelson 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 31.3953% 398 Cambrie Nelson 2 1 1 2 2 3 1 1 1 1 4.5748% 756 Christa Dastrup 1 2 1 7 1 1 1 1 1 2 1262 Kim Groneman 1 1 1 3 1 4 1 1 1 11 Don't be a wuss..... ENTER THE JUNE CONTEST