Groneman Family

Me: Kiera , time to go to bed...time to go potty. Kiera : but I just WENT potty Yesterday! Other news: I decided to put up my Christmas lights on my house independently today since it gets dark around 4:30 and Steve doesn't get home until 5:30 and we have plans for the next few saturdays so I saw no prospective time of putting them up with his help. Portions of it I could do from my 3-step ladder and parts of it required getting on the roof for. I figured I didn't want to be on the roof while Kiera started hurting Lydia or something so I took them in and put food and a show in front of them ( lydia strapped in her high chair) and then I'd do Christmas lights and go check on them every 5 minutes or so. I climbed to the top of my ladder, stepped on to the top of my 1 inch wide gate and lifted myself unto the roof. I did a great job making our house look festive for 5 minutes and then decided it was time to get down. Getting down was not nearly as easy as getting up....

Hey!  I found Frosty the Snowman's baby picture !

A rip-roarin' Groneman Family Christmas Party and white elephant gift exchange will be held 3:00 PM Christmas Day (early so the little people won't be tired).  Be on the lookout for some great white elephant gift.  I already have mine, it's wrapped, and under the tree for some sucke...er.....lucky soul.  Also it's traditional to have finger food night....little smokies, cheese and crackers, veggies & dip, etc. etc.  so be thinkin' about what you wanna fix & bring.   As for the morning the fat man comes, I do believe Bretsker will be here sometime around 7am after working with all those poor souls that have to spend Christmas Eve in the hospital so we'll just hang around and start our Christmas when he shows up, all tired and ready to go to bed ( I wonder if Santa will bring him presents since he won't be asleep at midnight...hmmm......)

Like yer mom said, we had a good crew over the day before Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving day, it was just Marilyn, Buff, and I (until later on in the evening when Katie & Brett showed up). The highlight of my weekend were three visits from Emmy. Besides on Wednesday, she came over on Friday and played with me for a while, then I got to tend her for a few hours on Saturday while Erica & Chad went to the football game & Marilyn & Buff went to some book club "party" at Kathy's. That little sweetheart is getting SO interactive and playful. She distinctly said the word "Ball" every time she picked up the ball. ("Ba!"). Marilyn and I both swear she said "Er-nie" when she was playing with our tickle-me-Ernie. She's growing up fast. I love how their family can just bop in for a visit and I can be a part of her life. It was really good to have Buff around and not have to worry about her taking off to far off lands again. I m...

Because Emmy woke me up at 2:30 this morning, and I couldn't go back to sleep, I decided to check the Black Friday ads on the computer and see if there was anything I could go get. After thoroughly reviewing the ads from stores I thought we might be interested, I decided to go to JCPs' for some Emmy clothes, and Walmart for some more Emmy clothes. I arrived at JCP about 10 minutes after they opened (at 4 AM), and even though the parking lot was full and the inside was crowded, I was able to quickly make my way to where the baby clothes were and casually peruse the wares until I had selected about $60 worth of stuff. I waited in a checkout line about five minutes, and headed off to Walmart, who started their sale at 5 AM. I got to Walmart at about 4:45, and the entire parking lot was full. The parking lots of the neighboring businesses were full. The streets were lined with cars. I parked on the street and proceeded to hitchhike back to walmart, and got in the doors at a...

So I am sure that you all had the opportunity of perusing the Walmart Black Friday ad. Practically giving stuff away in instances. Kim and I haven't gone for several years out on B Friday shopping, but we couldn't resist this year (AND we need to support our local Walmart), so we leaft at 4:40. We were shocked! The parking lot was full already, and I got one of the last 2 shopping carts available in the store (with a kiddie seat on it :( It was pretty crazy in there. They had the stuff stacked up in the big isles blocking access to all the smaller isles . Most of the stuff you couldn't touch to take (with employees guarding) until 5 AM. There were people who had been there all night who also had to wait until that magic moment! It was pretty nuts! Thanksgiving was a bit weird here. Brett, Katie, Chad &Erica and Emmy came over for dinner Wednesday since they were spending Thanksgiving with the other side of the family...so we had Tilapia with them. That was pre...

This is Buffy... I can't get on my account for some reason to blog as me... but it is I... Truly, it is. So just so ya'll are aware, I am now officially employed by IHC at Primary Childrens Medical Center on the Neuroscience floor. I start on monday and I'm super duper excited about it! In light of the previous announcement, I will be following the migratory patterns of other YSA's my age and will be going south for the winter to a warmer climate (be it a slight variation of temp.) That's right, I'll be moving to apartment 221 in the Centennial Apartments on monday after work. This brings me much joy and happiness as it also means I'll be able to make friends again with the locals :-) Anyways, that is all. Continue about your regular business....

First, absolutely, is the gospel of Jesus Christ! It brings me so much happiness in every conceivable way. Because of it I am a consistently blessed. Because I have a prophet to give us counsel (which we followed), we have avoided a lot of the economic problems currently stressing people all over the world. Because of the gospel, my children and grandchildren don't have the problems of pre-marital pregnancies, drug, alcohol, substance abuse. They have no addictions. They are good productive members of society...not perfect but trying to become so, same as me. Because of the gospel I have peace, happiness, love, rejoicing, faith, forgiveness, more patience (than I used to have) and joy in my life on a pretty consistant basis. I have learned that living the principles of the gospel has it's own reward in bringing this happiness into my life, and although I know I don't deserve the blessings my Heavenly Father pours out upon me, I truely feel grateful and "stand al...

In no particular order: Marilyn Walmart's frozen food section Toilet paper Seedless grapes Sci-Fi movies The garbage man & his truck Electric hair clippers My bed Indoor plumbing The fridge Kids Grandkids Kid & grandkid hugs Pumpkin pie DI Whoever invented Peanut Butter

N ow that we've had a chance to recover from our vacation, we can post about our trip to Loma Linda. It was a fairly quick trip - we left for LL on Friday afternoon, and returned home Monday night. Emmy was very good for the traveling, except that she had a hard time falling asleep in the car. Erica and Chad were pretty good too, but got tired. The whole Groneman clan was extremely tired while we were there. Emmy was so excited about being in California with girl cousins roughly her age, and with so many toys! So she didn't take her naps like she should have. Chad and Erica were tired from Emmy waking up at 4 AM, and late nights prior to the trip, so they went to bed earlier than any person in the Nelson household had ever even thought about going to bed. Emmy loved being with her cousins. She was a little on the grouchy side because she wasn't taking her naps, but she loved following Kiera and Lydia around and playing with their stuff. She loved interacting with the...

Your mom could use this for Christmas . Be sure to look at all the product images and to read all the customer reviews. Why should the police be the only ones able to use their laptops as they drive?

Find out what is on sale where for black Friday. Our Cedar Hills Walmart black friday ad Amazon.com black friday deals If you have more black friday deals, just edit this post and add them.

Silly me. When I was a young buck I talked a pretty and wonderful girl into marying me. It was a miracle...dunno why she agreed, but she did. I probably had better powers of pursuasion then than I do now. Anyway, here she is. This wonderful girl kicking around my house day in and day out. It's still a miracle. So I was hassling her in a subtile way about something and of course she got mad at me....it got me thinking: How much does it hurt me to have cupboards and fridge and freezer and storage room stuffed to the point of explosion? If she wants to keep a bottle of pearl onions in the fridge for 6 years, so what? Cleaning supplies filling every bathroom cupboard and the shelves in the washroom don't hurt me at all. If she wants to grow a garden on top of the fridge, big deal. If she wants to hang dirty dishrags on the sink instead of out of sight it should be her right. I'm announcing this publicly because I want something written anyone can refer to in the f...

(see Nelson blog for more juicy details). It was tons O fun to have Chad Erica and emmy come visit. They helped us to celebrate Kiera's birthday, we watched the byu football game with them, Erica converted us all to eating green oranges with salt (yummy!). Lydia and Emmy were persecuted by people trying to arrange cute pictures of them, we played games, went to the park, fed the ducks, went to a dog park, and had lots of fun. You all missed out. I have cute videos too, but since I'm leaveing for arizona tomorrow I'd better go pack and be done blogging : )

Christa: Kim:: Benjamin: Brigham:: Kiera: Cambrie:: Emmy: Erica... Brett and Katie, we have hunch what the first letter sound will be for your first born...don't break a family tradition Buff, we already know what name you want, which means you better stop going out with guys unless their name begins with an "Ah" sound... is there an Ahndan out there?

Eggs - Pumpkins - Annoying Orange - Christmas Cranberries

So they are voting tomorrow on the beginnings of National Health Care in the Senate. Take a minute and contact your state Senators.... and tell them to vote no! You can do a google search to find the phone # of your congressmen and senators. I know (cause I have called already) that Utah's Senators are voting against it...but you out of staters need to to let your voice be heard! If Americans knew what I know about Natl health care they would be up in arms about this! So we need to do what we can to sway our elected officials, some of whom are as clueless as the majority of other Americans!

In 1986, Peter Davies was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University. On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Peter approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee, inspected the elephants foot, and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day. Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked ...

Some folks tell me Lydia sometimes reminds them of me. I'm not sure what it is...the hair? The eyes? What do you think: http://tinyurl.com/yfpkcle

So my adventures thusfar haven't been too exciting but i'll report them anyways since mom keeps bugging me about it. Yesterday morning, I had my interview at Primary Childrens Hospital up in SLC. It's on U of U's campus and only as I was driving past all the signs that say "home of the Utes" did I realize "hmmmm.... maybe I should have taken off my license plate frame that says 'the car may be red but the driver is blue. Go BYU!' I sure hope my car doesn't get keyed or anything..." I'm all for BYU pride but, if I get this job, i've decided that for my car's sake, it might be wise for me to take off the license plate frame. Anyways, the interview went well I felt. She was very encouraging and seemed to be happy with the fact that I had some previous experience working with similar type cases with the kids on that floor (it's the Neuroscience unit I applied for). I should know by the end of the week if I got the job. ...

It is rumored that she moved back in here with us, but I sure haven't seen her for awhile! BJ, I think that it is about time to report your activities...job interview and the rest...

I've holding a few things hostage around here. All of the following are in my possession: Shower cap Red towel Scale lots of gel, medications, shampoo, other random bathroom stuff white purse popcorn and slimfast, sweet and sour sauce Bosch mixer alarm clock If you ever want to see your possessions again you must come down to california to claim them. WAAAA HHHaaaaa haaa!

Kiera is a step closer to being able to stay "Lydia". Lydia is getting teeth in (in a very unusual pattern). Her 4 front teeth came in from right to left (instead of inner to outer). She looks pretty silly with 2 teeth on the right side and none on the left. You can sortof see it in the picture with grandma. She has been a FUSSY little lady and an awful eater lately because of it. Kiera only gets in free to disneyland for 1 more week and I planned on taking my girls twice this week but with lydia being so fussy it probably won't happen. Kiera would like everyone to know that there are only 6 more shopping days until her birthday....j/k

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Almost 4pm in the afternoon and it's  28 degrees and snowing outside .  It's a good thing Grandma and Buff put off their drive home until tomorrow...the weather *should* be better.  It does remind me of a  good joke for Benjamin though:  What kind of carpet do Eskimos have in their igloos?  Are you ready for it?.....BrrrrBrrrr.

So just in case any of you missed out on my awesome news, I'm an LVN graduate! all i have left is to take my boards but cheesy ceremony and all, I've graduated from the San Bernardino Adult school Licenced Vocational Nurse program. I celebrated by eating half of a chocolate covered bananna, compliments of Cambrie, a bowl of ice cream, and watched the movie "Forever Strong" with mom (Great movie by the way). Ya'll missed out on a cheesy 1 hour ceremony where we lit fake candles and walked around with our white nurses dresses and hats. I did recieve the Clinical Award though... i'm just cool like that. Anyways, here's some pictures so ya'll don't have to feel like you missed out.

I think most of you know this already via Facebook, but for record-keeping purposes, this will be my last semester at the UV(SC/U).  I'm switching to BYUI's online RN to BSN program.  Even though I'm already done with one semester in the UVSC RN to BSN program and I won't be starting the BYUI program until after next semester (starting "Spring" or "Summer" 2010, depending on what your school calls it) I'll be finishing with it the same time I'd finish with UVSC's program. There's a few reasons for the switch: Online classes and homework:  Means I can (hopefully) get the work done faster if I want to.  Of course, as Chad pointed out on facebook, this will take discipline...  But that's what I have to do when Katie goes to teach school in the daytime.   Studying on the living room couch or in the back yard. UVSC was going to make me take classes 3 days of the week next semester, along with working 3 night shifts a week.  The s...

Katie and I wanted to take a look at our money and how we spend it.  After being frustrated by the free spreadsheet templates that I found and their lack-of-usefullness (you know... they're free...) I decided that I can do better than all of them. So I did. I made myself a spreadsheet that is custom-designed for our finances.  Our bank lets you download a "CSV" file of the transaction history.  I made it so that I could just copy and paste the history into the first page of the spreadsheet and all I would have to do is categorize the items, and the spreadsheet would figure out the rest of it for us. It's complete with graphs and charts.  It's got a monthly analysis of expenses and analysis by category.  I'm pretty darn impressed with it. If you have OpenOffice on your system, you should take a look at my awesome work here .  I changed the numbers and added some other this n' thats to it, but you can still see its totally coolness.  Save it to y...

Looks like Brett & Katie can only do a Christmas Party on the evening of the 25th so that's when we'll have it.  Any problem with that Chad/Erica/Cambrie/Steve? Is anyone planning to be at our house for Thanksgiving *Dinner*?

This week I found out that I get to take mandatory vacation time over the holidays. That means I have to take my vacation I've saved up, whether I want to or not. For better or for worse, my mandated vacation will be the entire week of Thanksgiving, and the entire week between Christmas and New Years. Fortunately, there's some of those days that are company holidays, so I'm only being forced to take five and a half days off. So, to make the best of it, we've decided to take a little trip to the "Q"! That's right, we'll be going to visit the Dastrups for a few days before Thanksgiving. Emmy is especially excited to see her cousins. Of course she'd like to see her other cousins too. Hopefully we'll see them all at Christmas!

A direct quote from Steve following the miracle at his intramural game last night. That would be because I (YES, FOLKS THIS IS MOM/GRANDMA ACTUALLY WRITING THIS POST!!) attended Steves game (first game I have attended since Chad was 6-7 years old and playing flag football)! Is that not amazing? BTW, Steves team are the top team at Loma Linda University...undefeated still. Steve made 3 touchdowns! And his brother made 2 plus did some conversion points too. The team wouldn't stand a chance without them :) Steve is still trying to get over the shock, that I actually knew what was going on...I had to remind him that I used to be a tomboy! Anyway, it was a fun game to watch. The other team didn't score. And it was a fun day at the zoo too. It is the best zoo, for sure, that I have ever been to. Great weather, beautifully landscaped, fun little ladies, and frisky animals because it was not to hot! Wish ya'll could have joined us!

This is Kiera sitting on "grandma's bed" talking on the phone to grandma the morning she was going to fly in. She was very excited. She insisted on napping in grandma's bed for 2 days before she arrived. We've been having lots of fun with grandma around. yesterday we went to the san diego zoo. The weather was beautiful, the little ladies loved the animals, and they slept all 2 hours of the way home so it was a great day. Can you tell Lydia loved the stuffed animals? grandma did something last night she hasn't done in years...attended a football game.. to support her son in law. That is love. Also,thanks to grandma for doing dishes. WE LOVE YOU.

I am totally loving myself down here! These cute little girls are just so darling! I never saw such girly girls! Even little 15 month old Lydia ...I put her sunday dress on her this morning, and as soon as it was on she started dancing and twirling so I could admire her beautiful princess self! No prompting of any sort! She just does it! So very cute! Course, she has this big sister that shows her the ropes. But even when Lydia isn't dressed up in something princessy...she wants her necklaces on while she runs around in her diaper! Such a cute little munchkin! They are just so fun to watch that I have been giddy with joy! Sorry for you Gramps! Enjoy yourself in Texas though! Tomorrow we will go to the San Diego Zoo...a first for all of us! The little ladies have never been to any zoo before, so it should be fun!

Marilyn flew out yesterday to Loma Linda and is now happily playing grandma with two cute little ladies.  As a side benefit, she gets to spend time with two lovely daughters and a great son-in-law.  She's staying for a week, going to Buff's graduation, and driving back HOME with the Buffalo.  Yea!  Buff will be back in Utah!  Dunno what the Nelson's will do with all that extra space in the house.  Marilyn and I were talking, it's been quite a few years since we had a kid move in with us. (Basement apartment doesn't count since it's totally separate).  I suspect Buff won't be living at home for long as once she has a job here she'll most likely move out.  Maybe we'll get lucky and she'll actually blog about her plans. Anyway, it will be good to have her home and near home.   I have to be in Dallas for some training all this week which leaves Katie & Brett with the responsibility of holding down the house so it doesn't float away....

Marilyn told me that Kiera wanted her to bring the playhouse to Loma Linda when she came.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMe5dOgbu40&feature=player_embedded

Yesterday, we took dinner over to my folks...and invited the boys families to join us. Chad and Erica did,( making Kim a happy camper-he needed Emmy to help him smile). Grandma doesn't like my dad's oxygen machine. He sleeps with it on at night. She used to come in the room where he was sleeping and turn it off, and he would wake up short of breath. So he moved it downstairs into the fruit room, and ran his hose through the floor to his room, so he could sleep with it on without it bothering mom. But, evidently it is still bothering her...she would go downstairs to turn it off, with the same results. So, dad removed the handle off the door in the fruit room, so she couldn't open it (he can with a tool he keeps handy, but she can't). So night before last, she went down to turn it off, but when she couldn't open the door, she picked up a fire-poker thing and must have beat on it for 10 minutes...there is a hole in the door about 12 inches in diameter...but she d...

I just went visiting teaching over at the Charleston Assisted Living in our area. I visit teach a very "with it" lady named Jean Dean. Jean has a son who is a geologist and found and developed several oil wells in So. America. One of the more successful ones he sold for $700,000,000.00. She says that his money makes his life difficult though. He has to spend 10 days a month on location in Columbia, and he has to do his best to look like a looser hippie, or he would be snatched and held for ransom. He has to take a body guard where ever he goes down there. Even paying his tithing is a problem for him. SLC offices that handle money called him and asked him not to write his check and turn it in through normal channels because it is too much of a temptation to the many people who handle the money on it's journey to headquarters. He has been asked to hand deliver his tithing to SLC to avoid problems that could occur on down the line. He also has to be on guard consta...

Why is it that if a person's core temperature gets too cold, they die...even if they haven't really frozen, but they freeze eggs and sperm to thaw out later and they are fine and alive? Something I have wondered about for a long time...and I was brought to think about it again today as I was eating raspberries out of my garden that has frozen a least a dozen times, but the raspberries are fine (see facebook). I sure have DANG CUTE GRAND KIDS!!

Whoa Bretsker! 20 Brett Groneman 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 44.66% 81 Chad Groneman 1 1 2 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 15.57% 143 Cambrie Nelson 1 1 1 1 2 1 2 2 3 1 9.61% 201 Katie Groneman 2 1 1 1 2 1 6 1 1 1 5.96% 481 Christa Dastrup 2 1 1 5 3 1 2 2 1 1 1.19% 1663 Kim Groneman 1 1 1 8 3 2 2 8 3 2 0.00% My problem is a generational thing this month.  John Glen is more famous than Neil Armstrong, and Cher is more famous than Madonna....at least for people my age. [grumble grumble].  That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Click THIS LINK to enter November's contest.