Groneman Family

Erica and I have been looking for something different to do. We've found something we might do, and wanted to let y'all know about it as well, in case you want to do it. It's an "Urban Race", in Salt Lake City . Supposedly it's a lot like the Amazing Race TV show, but smaller scale and local. I've never watched the Amazing Race, so I don't know a whole lot about it. The description basically says it's a "race" in the sense that you want to finish first. But you're allowed to take public transportation, walk, or run (but no bikes, taxis, roller blades, etc) . It's got no course, just objectives and puzzles to solve. I would say there's about an 80% chance we'll sign up for it. If you want to sign up to do it to, let us know so we can maybe get a referral discount.

My life is very busy right now. I'm working 28-32 hours per week m, f, sat, sun afternoon/evenings. Currently I only require a babysitter 1 hour per week. I feel like I can never quite keep up with my housework with my job. Oh well. We'll live without our sheets washed every week. When I'm not working I'm trying to spend quality time with munchkins. when they go down for naps and bed I'm doing surrogacy planning/arranging (some people pay agencies 10K to do all of this for them because there is a TON of stuff to do). I'm also still in charge of a babysitting co-op for about 15 families in my area (mostly ward members). Lots of people just moved in for the new school year so I'm getting them started up with it which takes some time. My calling is pretty great since I'm playgroup coordinator for my ward. I do 2 playgroups per week (1 water, 1 not). yesterday we went to Chic-Fil-A playplace. Today we are going swimming for playgroup. tough calling...

If I was on my home computer I could post some cute pictures. But it is this or nothing folks because I'm at works using steve's laptop right now. I was on a very important phone call yesterday during the girls' nap when I turned around and saw Lydia playing. I kept talking on the phone and went and put her back in her bed. 2 minutes later she was out again. So after I hung up I went and put her back in her bed and peeked through the door crack watching her climb out of her crib (she mastered climbing out of pack and plays a few weeks ago). She was using part of a rail to step on so thankfully I could remove that part. I watched her after that try to climb out for about 10 minutes. She can almost do it, but not quite. It won't be long though. Kiera was sleeping in a toddler bed at this age and ALWAYS stayed in her bed and went to sleep, but I know Lydia will not be the same. As soon as she can escape that will be the end of the nap (which she is very ready to...

Today our Bishop came into Relief Society to urge us to action regarding the next week's fast. He said that there are several members of our ward family, many of whom we would know Nothing about, who could use our prayers and fast to help them with their challenges, both temporal and Spiritual. And he asked us to remember them as we approached next fast Sunday. I likewise know that there are several members of our family who also could benefit from our fasting for them. All of you, I am aware, have different (and some the same) challenges that you face and would like to over-come. There are some VERY worthy and Heaven given desires of our hearts that would like to be fulfilled. So I am simply suggesting that as we turn our hearts towards the fast, that we pray that the righteous desires of our hearts will be granted by an all wise, and loving Father in Heaven.

Marilyn said it all. I'm exhausted. I'll bet Brett & Chad will be glad when I'm dead so I quit enlisting their help for one project or another. At least Brett mowed my lawn for me! We are going to stay in Kirk's cabin again for a long weekend. Leaving Thursday night returning Sunday. My first ATV ride of the year. It's going to be relaxing and MAN am I looking forward to it! The following weekend is relax at the mountain weekend and Benjamin is going with me. Wahoo!

Yesterday we went to Hogle Zoo (after helping out with a yardsale & moving salvaged benches). Emmy loved the Elephants, of course. My work had rented out the zoo for just the company after 5 PM, which included free carousel rides. Emmy loved the carousel. Here's some videos & pictures. (Pictures & Video removed) Emmy in line for the Carousel at the Zoo: Emmy riding the elephant (her favorite) and the tiger: Emmy riding the carousel

Mission: Possible. What more motivation do you really need?

What I have done on my summer vacation is work. We worked on Memorial Day, didn't go camping on the 4th of July like I wanted to, and we worked to the point of TOTAL ALL OUT EXHAUSTION FOR THE 24th of July too. I am sore and exhausted deep in the bones. I need to go and have some therapeutic fun for a while! OK I don't know if we would have taken on that project of taking the benches off that deck if we would have realized that they had built it to last through the millennium! I mean, it was INCREDIBLE! I was running the drill, unscrewing the about 500 screws, half of which were painted over till you nearly couldn't see the dents in them. And after having removed probably 70 screws per bench, still the benches were determined to stay where they were. They had 3 layers of angle iron, again holding things together. We thought that we could just unscrew 1/2 of the screws, all on one side, so that the angle iron could stay on one of the 2 sides, but even with that, they ...

I'm looking for volunteers to help Friday afternoon, Saturday morning with a mountain property project if you have time. YOUR mountain property. They are taking a bunch of houses out along the street where Lone Peak HS is. One lot has a large nice deck that has built in benches all the way around. We've got permission to salvage those and it needs to be done before Monday. I plan on going over after work tomorrow (friday) and on Saturday morning if necessary to take them apart, load them on my trailer, and haul up to the mountain. I know folks are busy with commitments and work and this is late notice, but I could use any assistance anyone would be willing to donate.

Hope you're enjoying your anniversary in Yellerstone .

100 degrees this week. Convinced me I will never move to Phoenix. Too hard on little people. We try to go out first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Yes, pictures show lydia without dresses, but only after screaming fits to remove it before we went outside.

I took Friday off and had planned to go ATV riding for the FIRST TIME THIS YEAR.....but the weight of things that needed to be done kept nagging at the back of my mind so yer mother and I decided to spend Friday/Saturday at the mountain getting things done there.  We made great progress.  I sealed up all the mouse holes in the bottom of Grandma's trailer (now ours) and took care of some other minor fixit jobs while your mom did a super clean job on the inside. I'm proud to announce that after 3 years, that trailer is once again very livable.   Of course, being up at the mountain when it was 100 degrees down in the valley was pretty nice.  The thermometer read 85 which is warm, but sitting in the shade of pine and aspen trees it wasn't so bad.   We had just finished our seal/clean project Saturday afternoon and had sat down when I heard a car coming up the road.  Lo and behold, it was Emmy, who had brought her parents with her!  They were tire...

Last evening Marilyn & I went to Snowbird.  We took the tram to the top of the mountain. The ride up/down was pretty cool and the scenery from the peak was awsome.  From there you could see Salt Lake City and Heber.  You could also see the ATV trails up from AF canyon.  There was still quite a bit of snow up there near the top.  I didn't realize there was an alpine slide at Snowbird...there is.  There is also a fancy zip line to ride, an outdoor mechanical bull to ride, bungie jumping on trampolines, bouncy castles, a cool looking ropes course platform, and other cool stuff. We ate dinner there (On Novell of course).  It's a lot prettier place than Park City...I haven't been up that canyon since I was 18 years old going to Alta to ski.  I'd forgotten what a beautiful place it was.  I recommend it for an evening.  DETAILS

Emmy is getting all grown up. This is for the Groneman History and for anyone who's interested. Language skills: We're pretty sure she can understand everything we say. She comes out with new words every day. She probably has over a 120 words at least that she says and I understand. Her new favorite word is "Emmy." Yes, she likes to point to herself and say, "Emmy." Then she points to me and says, "MaMa." Then she points to Chad (or a picture of Chad) and says, "Daddy." She responds to, "What's your name?" "Emmy." She is also really good at saying "Amen" after a prayer. In my grandma's funeral the opening prayer was a little long, and she kept saying "Amen" partway through. :) Colors: Emmy knows most of her colors if you ask her to point to one. She only actually says purple, white, green, yellow, red. We play "find the color" game a lot around here. She likes it. Alphabet and Shap...

Have a great day and CLICK HERE .

I reduced my working as of this week so I'm now only working 3 9 hour days a week. It sure makes cooking for my family easier! But it also means we'll have to pay a babysitter about twice a month....like this monday (which happens to be our anniversary). Steve and I will both be getting home late (me working, steve at school) so we'll have a babyisitter put the girls to bed. I don't like it, but it is going to be very very infrequent. Steve is turning into a real-life dentist. He is mostly just working on patients now and he is getting confident and good at his skills now. We are both soooo excited that this in the last year. Now we need to start worrying about Boards coming up. This morning I caused a major Lydia tantrum by taking off the dress lyida had been wearing for 48 hours straight. It was DIFFICULT to get it off her tantruming tiny body! I finally went and dug a new different dress from the garage the next size up to make her happy again. Surrogacy:...

It had better be because Marilyn is out looking at carpet (against my better judgement). So now I'm settled down enough to blog about it. Last Tuesday, I had work planning meetings all day so they invited spouses to go after our last meeting to the "Communal" restaurant on 100 North University in Provo (I don't recommend it). Marilyn drove down to meet me for dinner. It's been a crazy few weeks with moves and tending kids and garbage disposal burning out and...and....well, lots of things to do. Marilyn had been visiting her parents before dinner (had taken them dinner) and needed to go back there for a while. I went home and was looking forward to just chillin' for a while. I got home around 7:30 pm, messed around a bit and had just sat down at 8pm to watch a show for the first time in weeks. Not 5 minutes later I heard Brett from downstairs yelling "Hey dad...you had better come look at this....quick!". I went down to find an inch or so of standing ...

Just because you're 55, Don't despair, oh no Overnight you won't discover, You've lost your get up and go. Nor will you become all wrinkled, Nor ache from head to toe. So even though you're ripening, Don't regard it as a blow, You won't suddenly be decrepit 'cuz that happened long ago!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARILYN!

Ya'all should go HERE and view this slide show. It will make you smile.  For Buff, here are some highlights:

Sorry..no pictures, blogging from work. A recap of our holiday weekend: Friday night, nothing special. Saturday, nothing special. Sunday we went to Christa's for dinner...that was fun. Monday afternoon Christa & crew, Chad & crew, & Brett & crew (can Katie be called a crew?) showed up. Kids splashed in the kiddie pool & played in the basement which is a big change from the way we've done things in the past. Our family room actually stayed clean..no toys at all. We had BBQ hangaburs and vinegar chicken. Lots of fruit and a nummy salad. Marilyn made patriotic cheesecake with RED strawberries, WHITE cheesecake, and BLUE blueberries on the top. Tasted nummy. Chad/Erica/Grandma watched the munchkins while myself, Brigham, Brett, Christa, Benjamin played a round of frizbee golf. Katie joined us part way through our game. We set off some fireworks on our patio while the sun was still shining because munchkins have early bedtimes and parents were anxious...

Sorry, no pictures. Blogging from work. So on the 3rd we went to a parade in a tiny town in the mountain tops. It was mostly fire trucks and search and rescue people. Lydia was not fond of the loud guns and honking horns and kept declaring that she was all done. On the night of the 4th we went and watched some fireworks just across the street from a stadium where people paid a lot of money to watch them. The girls were scared to death for the first minute. Lydia was sitting on my lap and I felt her little body go stiff and her tiny heart double in speed. she took my arms and wrapped them around herself as tightly as they would go saying "hold me mommy!" After a few minutes they finally relaxed and they enjoyed the fireworks. We were loading them up with candy that we had aquired from the parade. It was a fun little evening. I always love seeing the fireworks. It just doesn't feel like the 4th without them. As we were driving home Steve pointed out that we forgo...

You see, the old tablernacle on temple square wasn't being used much any more so the church decided to sell the organ to try to make some money.  We bought it.  We installed it in our family room.  We've still got to put the pipes in and the keyboard, but it's mostly put back together.  Here's a picture (click on it) . All it needs are the pipes, don't you think? Actually Jacob was the impetus for our decision to purchase a new entertainment center.  I had him thwarted from the TV with the screen, and had him locked out of the glass doors with a screw...but the cute little determined man KNEW there was fun stuff behind those glass doors and he was going to break into it come hell or high water or the elimination of the glass doors.  We also didn't really like watching our HDTV through chicken wire.  We knew we needed something to protect the tv and the electronics yet could be livable when the little man wasn't around.  There were only t...

Back when we lived in England and I had no voice for a few weeks, I went to church and they sang the "Star Spangled Banner" (on the 4th of July Fast day) and I could not sing with my voice as it was. It made me cry not to be able to sing that patriotic song that I loved. I had come to appreciate being an American a lot more while we lived in England. Before we moved to England I really didn't think that life would be much different than living in America. To my surprise, it was. You kids probably were unaware while we lived there of the kinds of things that surprised me. I thought their standard of living would be the same. It wasn't. I became aware that most of the people in our village didn't own a car, a home, and didn't even have or use central heating or Air conditioning. Many of them had never in their lives been further away from Tingewick than 1 mile (on a bus to Buckingham). I was well aware that most countries in the world didn't have our st...

Yep, we are coming again (minus Steve). We will be coming some time at the end of the summer (I won't post when for privacy reasons but mom or dad can tell you). So me n the girls are going to fly out the day before Lydia's 2nd birthday (she'll be free!!) and then we'll fly out 2 weeks later. Why? You may ask. For our surrogacy experience!!! I'll be driving from ut to Boise for about 6 days (where Steve will be joining me for a weekend medical-vacation-get-away). Then I'll drive back to Ut and fly home. Since they won't know exact dates until we are there and I didn't want to have to change flights (which was almost guaranteed if I flew there, I decided just to go to Ut and drive. Mom is going to watch my kiddos (thanks mom!!) Kiera is VERY excited about going back to Utah and asks about when we are going daily. Last night I tied up the very last loose end on this surrogacy. We are good to go and well into the process medically, legally, and f...

90 Kim Groneman 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 2 31.38% 106 Chad Groneman 1 3 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 27.00% 143 Christa Dastrup 1 2 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 20.94% 255 Erica Groneman 1 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 10.96% 400 Brett Groneman 1 1 1 5 1 1 1 3 1 2 4.87% Who's your daddy?!? Be patriotic....enter the JULY contest HERE