Groneman Family

We were notified today that we were not chosen for the Medford job. Very disappointing. Back to square 1 in job-finding. Last night after my 2 girls had a bath I put a shirt on Lydia that kiera recognized as a shirt she used to wear. Kiera said "mommy-- pretty soon I'll grow out of all of my close and Lydia will wear them and I'll be maked (naked)?" She seemed pretty concerned. I assured her that we would always have clothes for her to wear. It has been HOT here lately. We went swimming last night at 6:30pm. My girls love swimming. My little patient who has been in the hospital for nearly 2 months now might get out this week. I'm praying for him to get better.....but not too much better because there is a chance they could take him off of the TPN which would make it so he doesn't need a nurse anymore. I've been job hunting. pickings are slim and even more slim when you don't want to put your kids in day-care.

Google caught Marilyn working in her flowers in our yard:  http://tinyurl.com/marilyn-in-yard  and to think she didn't even see the Google camera car go by.  BTW, if you have 3D glasses, you can select 3D mode and see it in 3D.  (We have 3 sets of glasses in the Spy Kids 3D movie)

Anyone remember me talking about a Halloween Party HERE ?  Put October 15th on your calendars.  It's the time the parents of the grandkids could come.  Brett has to work :'-( but if we put it another day, someone else has to miss it.  I hope Katie can come tho.  Brett: remind me next time we plan something, it's YOUR turn to have it on YOUR day off.  That link above has info about Halloween food .  I wanna make the cheese stick fingers.  You choose something you want to bring. I figure a snack/dinner/whatever...you won't starve.  Halloween seems like a great time to make DEVIL'd eggs (hint hint).   You decide if you want kids/adults to be dressed up.  Each family plan ONE game the little'uns will enjoy, will ya?  I'll plan some fun stuff for adults unless someone else has a fun plan.  I'm jus' wingin' it here.  We'll have fun and food, that much I know.

FYI if you folks want to save your own blogs electronically for posterity sake, click on the MONTH you want to save so you can save a month at a time. (on this blog, left column at the bottom)  What I've found best is to use Internet Explorer 8 and on the menu bar click PAGE then SAVE AS then WEBPAGE, COMPLETE.  As far as I know, it's the only way I've found to save the entire blog with links, pictures, etc.   If you don't want to save your blog electronically, move along...nothing here to see.  I print ours AND save it electronically to be sure we don't lose any of the jokes and puns.

I swear...one of these days I'll be able to relax and have fun.  I will.  I took Thurs/Fri off this past week.  I was going to do a solo ATV ride, but I was kind of not feeling like it so Marilyn announced Thursday morning that we needed to do peaches, pears, and raspberries.  We did.  Fun [not].   Friday we went to the mountain and spent most of the day winterizing the place.  I reached under a piece of rubber and didn't realize there was a hornet nest under there.  It got me.  Ouch!  Luckily, I had a beautiful and charming girl to feel sorry for me and put soda on it.  Saturday morning we loaded the Jeep with the generators (mine and grandpa's) and all the food and freezables from the mountain and headed for home.  We were going to pick up Emmy but our Jeep was too full (it also had a wheelchair in it for Grandma).  When I got home, I looked at that dead ugly tree that we pampered but it died on us anyway in front...

My dad fell down 2 days ago. He was standing on top of a chair in the bathroom looking for mom's glasses on one of the high shelves. He had no warning whatever, but he passed out and fell on the bathroom floor. He awoke laying on the floor with his legs draping over the tub and wondering how he got there. He was in pain, but he managed to get himself straightened up and he got up. Despite his pain, but he got himself into the TV room to lay down. He hadn't been there long when Anne came along, and Keith called. Dad was taken to the hospital where they did x rays to determine if he had any broken bones. No ribs were broken at least not that they could see, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have fractures. He is still in a lot of pain today. But he is on prescription pain killers and with that he can move very carefully and slowly...but he is still in a lot of pain. This presents new challenges of course. Dad has been mom's best support down at her place....

We had another ultrasound today to see if my subchorionic hemorrhage was heeling, which it is (it's still there, but it's getting smaller and is pretty tiny). I'm fine with it, because it means we get to see the baby again. It looks like a more featured blob than two weeks ago, with stubby arms and legs, it twitched a couple times, and it's heart beat is still good. We'll have another ultrasound in a month to make sure everything is still going great - yay!

Katie, Brett....you may want to consider THIS ONE .  ( I don't have to wonder what her parents were smoking when she was born)

Steve had his first job interview yesterday in Redding california. The pathetic thing is that they didn't ask him anything more than where he was from. The rest of the time the interviewers talked about themselves. it was 2 hours long and steve says at least 45 mins of it the guy was talking about his new wife from the Ukraine who he found on the internet and doesn't speak English. Steve got the feeling from them that they will take anyone with DDS behind there name. Nice to know we have a job if we want it, but we think if we did go there it would be temporary only. It was funny though, I was told to go take Kiera to a park while steve was having his interview and to meet them back in the dental waiting room at 1:30. So after taking them to the river (and Kiera falling in), I went back to the waiting room. I waited for a full 30 minutes before going up to the receptionist. I told her my husband had interviewed for a dental position and I was supposed to meet him there. She loo...

We may not have school tomorrow because of a fire started by machine gun testing at Camp Williams. The original plan was to have the people evacuated coming to Fort Herriman Middle School, but now it is in the fire danger zone. The main problem is air quality. They don't want people coming to school if the air is unbreathable. As far as I know, no houses have been burnt yet... but hundreds of people have been evacuated to the new Herriman High School. Crazy! Too my friend and firefighter, Wendy - go get 'em and save my school! Here's the official news story.

We find ourselves with less energy to take pictures and blog, now that Emmy is a bit older. But, we do occasionally catch some moments on our camera, and once in a while on a Sunday afternoon while Emmy is sleeping, we find time to post a blog. Here are some good pictures of Emmy:

Here is a link to a few of our best pictures of the trip. We had planned on leaving Wednesday morning for Duck Creek Utah.  A couple of people at work had told me it's a real nice place with a lot of ATV trails and I've never been there.  It's high up in the mountains close to Cedar Breaks National Monument . and Brian Head Ski Resort .  Things didn't go exactly as planned to begin with.  Marilyn got called to an emergency family meeting to straighten out her parent's trust that morning.  She didn't get home until afternoon.  That's OK though because when I was about to load the ATVs on the trailer, I found it had a flat tire I had to go get fixed. I put the spare on (never before used) and just put the fixed tire as the spare.  Well, we were finally off but just after Santiquin the brand new, never used spare (same as the other tires...no difference) decided to bubble up and come apart on the inside.  So...on the side of the freeway I changed ...

YUP! You read it right! Well, it is like this, we have found out from sad experience that if you aren't more than prompt in your invitations to holiday affairs, you are left looking at your spouse over the meal. And while Kim IS CUTE, I want to see more than just his handsome face over my feast! So consider yourself invited to our house for Thanksgiving this year!

Lydia has a new way of saying "that one". She says "daqu-one". It always makes me laugh. Steve has an interview lined up in Medford next wednesday so we are going up there as a family. We are very excited about the prospective job and the prospective location. I think even if we were not stuck in this program giving 2 years to the government, we'd still want to go there. I've started a little preschool at my house. It will be for 5-7 girls and include "ballet class" and such (since I'm a expert dancer and all). It requires a few hours of prep, but it is free and both of my girls can paricipate and learn social skills and have structure. I don't know how long I'll keep it up, but it was a huge success today.

The Groneman family is looking to move. We found out today that my work will be moving to the Thanksgiving Point area sometime in Fall next year. We want to move before then. So, if you know of any excellent homes for an excellent price in that general area, let us know.

Maybe, just maybe THIS VIDEO can give us some insight.  This is the story about a *severely* autistic girl who, at age 11, found a computer and shocked her family, therapists, and doctors.   In one segment of the video she explains why she pounds her head on the floor, why she covers her ears, why she hums, why she won't look people in the face, and why she rocks back and forth.   This is well worth the few minutes it takes to watch even if we didn't have a special needs child in our family.  Like I said, it *may* give us some insight into Jacob.

Every since my mom came out of the hospital she has had more back problems than ever. She did have some back issues before she went down, but they have been a lot worse lately. Ann says that she also went down in the hospital while they were trying to bathroom her. At any rate, we have been attributing her increased pain to her "falls". Ever since she got into the Beehive home though, it has been a lot worse! Yesterday, Keith figured out why. Her bed had no Box springs and her mattress was only supported by the frame and 2 small (3" across) boards. So when she laid in it she had a big hole to try to sleep in! I feel bad that she has had to deal with that for a whole week un-necessarily! There was a day I was there that she was obviously tired, because she kept falling asleep in her rocker chair. I kept encouraging her to get into bed and she said, "my back hurts worse when I AM in bed!". But I knew that the mattress was brand new, so I didn't think t...

(In our movie collection ready to borrow). I thought this was a real fun movie.  If you like things like Monty Python, Pirates of Penzance, Princess Bride, Mystery Science Theater 3000, etc. you should like this movie.  The setting is the US in the 1930s and has a couple of interesting characteristics.  First, it's done in the 30's 40's style gumshoe movie style which some would say is cheezy...and it is...but it made me smile in more than a few places.  Second, it has old fashioned evil robots which even added more fun for me, having been a big fan of early sci-fi movies. Star filled cast with Jude Law, Gweneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Lawrence Olivier, etc.  It's one of those unique movies that comes along once in a while...none else like it.  Don't expect to be awed by the story line or the acting or anything like that...just expect to have some fun watching a silly movie and having your cheeks ache with smiling at the silliness.  I absolutely ...

It's our monthly Sunday Dinner day!  I wonder who's going to show up today?

Friday was a very cood day but Chad/Erica/Emmy were going to the mountain so we did too.  We built a big fire and I'm glad we did...it would have been cold without it!  Emmy was cute...she loved the freedom of being outside and just being able to run wherever she wanted to go.  Sometimes she wanted to be by the fire without an adult holding on to her but we had to limit her freedom a little there...and she wasn't thrilled, but dealt with it.  The smile on her face of pure happiness to be that free and unconfined was nice.  Marilyn had fixed us all a nice tri-tip roast and some corn on the cob and Erica made a delicous salad.  Nummy.  She also made a dutch-oven cake in the fire that was also pretty tastey.  The younger Groneman's didn't stay the night but we old fogies did.  Brrrrrr.  It got well below freezing.  There was frost inside our trailer in the morning.  Thank goodness for a heater.  After the sun came out it was ...

I don't even feel like I need to update ya'll since we were just there and we'll be coming back next month. But, nevertheless: I've been on the job hunt lately. With my patient having been in the hospital for about 6 weeks now, I'm feeling unemployed even if I technically do have a job. So, I'm on the lookout. It makes it hard because I'm particular about what I want. I want 8 hour shifts and evening shifts. Most of the surrounding hospitals have a hiring freeze on all nurses. Scarce jobs around here. If I'm still not successful after my next Utah trip, maybe I'll have to eliminate some of my criteria. Kiera has been hard to deal with since our Utah trip. It must be hard to go from such a fun place with lots of room to run (inside and out) and lots of toys and plenty of people to play with, to our tiny little house with no outside places to play and just busy mom. She has been very difficult lately. My friends with 3 year olds say they hav...

Talked to the medical people today and got my schedule for round #2. I'll be coming by at least the 10th and I'll be stuck there until probably the 15th(ish) which is when they retrieve my eggs. I may stay for the egg transfer which would be on the 18th so I can transport my surrogate to and from the airport, but that is all dependent on if I'll be missing work. Steve will be in Utah the 13th through the 15th(ish). YOUR INPUT NEEDED IN THE COMMENTS Brett/Chad/Christa

I was thinkin' (I don't do much of that so bear with me).  Cambrie will be here sometime around the 10-16th of October.  Perfect time for a family get-together for a Not-So-Scary Halloween party.  Lots of holiday decorations...some fun little kid games for the wee ones, and some Halloween food.   Here are a lot of food ideas .  Anyone game?  If there's interest, I'll start planning.  Just to put a peg in the ground, let's start with Friday Oct. 15th and move from there if need be.   ????

Just a reminder that this coming Sunday, Sept 12, will be our monthly family dinner! I don't think we have ever pulled this off with everyone since the Dastrups returned to Utah, but for everyone who can make it, please plan on coming. I need feedback so I know how much to plan on for food and to disperse your contributions to the meal, so please let me know if you're coming. Also, with everyones plans with the kids in law sides of the family, we failed miserably getting to gether while Cambrie was here. We would like to fix that when she comes back in 3-4 weeks, so hopefully, we can make it work, soon as punkin lets us know when she will be here, we will pick some dates and see when it works best.

Every evening Cambrie plays with her two girls.  I've never seen a mother play so much with her kids.  One of  the games the two girls love is "guess the animal" where each takes turns making animal sounds/actions and the we try to guess what they are.  The night Cambrie was in Idaho we tried to carry on the tradition and we were playing the guess the animal and Kiera was going "Moo!  Moo!".  Lydia couldn't guess what animal it was so I asked her "What animal says 'Moo'?" and she didn't even hesitate.  She said "Kiera!" Brigham's sister Liz got married so they brought the kids over here so we had a house full of couzins Friday night/Saturday morning....(minus Emmy :-( ) Talk about crazy!  Christa and Brigham decided to sleep over instead of go back to Sandy just to come back again and Cambrie came back home unexpectedly so we had a house just FULL of love and joy.   Now everyone's gone and it's just us old folks ...

Well, Cambrie took her little punkins and flew home today. But she will be back in 3 weeks. It was fun and busy to have those cute little munchkins here. Kids are very entertaining at that age. We introduced Lydia and Kiera to "Dumbo" while they were here. The next day I asked Lydia what she wanted to do. She said clearly, "show...show...Bumbo! Bumbo!" (Poor elephant can't catch a break anywhere!) Another time, we asked Kiera if she wanted to eat something and she said, "I will tomorrow when my lips fall off". She had lipstick on her lips, and she didn't want to mess it up. I think maybe she is watching way too many "happily ever after" movies cause she told Cambrie that she needed to have her lips on so she could kiss a boy. Cambrie asked her who she was going to kiss, and her answer was "Benjamin". So just watch out Benjamin, you have a kissin cousin on the loose! It must be Cambries fault however. Kiera was taking note...

Happy Birthday Benjamin!   7 years old...wahoo!  You've spent the morning with me and I hope the rest of your day is great! (as in I hope BYU wins).  Benjamin came over to my house last night late and he got to sleep the night in the bunk bed in the office.  This morning his dad fixed crêpes and then he opened some presents!  He got a watch, a BYU wallet, and a remote control car.  Cool beans.  He then watched part of Spy Kids 3D, Part of A Series of Unfortunate Events, then spent the rest of the morning playing Wii.  He's now gone off to his Aunt Liz's wedding luncheon then he'll watch the BYU football game at his Dastrup granparent's house.   Thanks for spending some time with us little buddy!

I'm at a library in boise. My garmin and my cell phone died within 1 minute of eachother and I felt very lost and cut off from the world. So, I came here to recharge and to regroup. I guess I'm staying the night in Boise and then I'll be back in utah tomorrow. I'm looking to change my flights to before the 9th. What a crazy situation! I ALMOST stayed in Utah this morning. I wish I would have!!! PS looks like the fam is coming to visit AGAIN in october.

Yesterday, all my siblings and dad (except Nadine) met at Orem Rehab and had a family meeting. They are releasing mom today and Aunt Marie had called Anne and told her about a "Beehive House" that takes Alzheimers patients. Whereas that unit at Orem Rehab and skilled nursing is $10K per month without the cost of prescriptions, this place is only $3K per month, which should be covered with her retirment checks, Social Security, and VA benefit. In the end, dad made the decision to put her in the care center, but had it been put to a vote, she would have been there also. Mom's personal hygiene habits are atrocious now. She needs to have 24/7 care as she is nocturnal and the most highly agitated at night. At home she spends 1/2 of her waking hours where there is no one to take care of her (which is dangerous to her and dad if she decides to put some frying pan with oil in it to fry and egg and then wanders away and forgets it). She needs to be where someone can help her with ...

Where's my family?!?  Have you all got Mom's party pooper disease?  Does having kids turn you into mindless zombies? (then there's only a few months left for Brett/Katie)  Bless you Brett/Katie. 525 Brett Groneman 557 Kim Groneman 684 Katie Groneman I'll get you next time Brett!  All non-party poopers do the September Brainbasher common answers HERE