Groneman Family

I like to do major shopping at Winco about monthly.  So, this morning I got a babysitter and drove 35 minutes to our closest Winco.  I was just pulling into the parking lot when I got a call from the sitter saying that "Lydia is asleep on my couch and acting really weird....Oh wait, she just threw up..."  Joy.  So I turned right around and went to go relieve my poor babysitter (who had her baby triplets, 3 four year olds and Lydia).   Lydia was vomiting fevering for most of the day but she pulled out of it around dinner time.  Yeah!!! Her illness must have done something weird to her brain because from 6pm to 9pm she was a non-stop chatter-box.  She sat up to the table with an uneaten pile of crackers in front of her for 15 minutes while I did the dishes and chatted away.  She has certainly never done that before! Later she was chatting about her baby doll and she announced "I'm ready to be a big sister!  Wanna see?"  She climbed down and stood on her toes and

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395169/   This is one of those movies that is kind of disturbing to watch but everyone in the world SHOULD watch because this type of thing just keeps happening over and over at various places around the world and we shouldn't turn a blind eye.  Erica tells me that the subject of this movie,  Paul Rusesabagina, came and spoke at BYU a while back.  A very powerful  true-life story of a hotel manager who housed over 1200 Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda in 1994 when over a million people were slaughtered in genocide (and the news in the US barely touched on it at the time).  

A non-member friend who lives in Colorado has a teen aged daughter.  "Joe" is the dad: From: "DZanre" Subject: Joe's advice to Dominique Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2011 22:28:29 GMT Regarding boy trouble: Don't worry honey, pretty sooner the boys will be coming out of the woodwork. Heck, they'll be knocking at your door in pairs - holding bibles

Tuesday February 1st.  5pm is dinner, 6pm is movie.  Dinner main course (spiral cut ham), dessert, and cold drinking water will be provided by we old folks. That's enough for me, but if you want anything else with your ham & dessert you need to bring it.  Yer mom sez if you bring something, you should coordinate with each other, but frankly my dear Scarlett.....  If you wanna only come for dinner, that's OK.  If you only wanna come for the movie, that's OK.  If you wanna come for swimming lessons, that's ok. (just don't expect a lot).  If nobody comes, I'll have a lot of leftover ham for sandwiches and I'll still enjoy the movie.  I'll see ya if you come, and pro'ly won't if you don't.

So here's our situation:  We have a pack n' play here at the Borens, that does not belong to us, but we can use it while we're here.  We sleep downstairs in the basement, so kiddo prime is going to sleep in the room next to us while we're sleeping downstairs.  In the daytime however, we live upstairs, and putting kiddo prime in the basement to nap isn't the preferred method.  We're considering just putting kiddo prime down for naps in an upstairs bedroom, but this isn't an absolute requirement. The question:  What do you experienced peoples recommend?  Do we invest in another baby-holding device (because we're going to need to get one eventually anyway, so we might as well?) and if so, do we just get another pack n' play for kiddo prime to sleep in (if so, what bells/whistles are essential), or is there any advantage to buying a crib?

We watched Knight and Day with our friends the Kirks last night.  It's an action packed comedy.  There are many moments in the film that just make you laugh out loud.  Fun to watch. He's a secret agent and she's just a person he used to get an item through airport security...but then he can't get rid of her.  When he finds the bad guys are after her too now, he has to protect her...but she doesn't want him to.  It's really zaney and funny.  For example they are being shot at by a lot of bad guys and need to make a run for it: Tom Cruise: on the count of three. One... [Cameron Diaz jumps up and runs around madly shooting wildly then realizes her mistake and comes back] Cameron Diaz: Sorry, I panicked. Tom Cruise: [looking incredulous] What number would you like? Cameron Diaz: Three. Let's just stick with three. It's good.

First try this:  Go to http://www.spokeo.com/ and enter your name.  My guess is you'll see a LOT of information about you..some new, some old, but it will be there.  Here's what you can do about it.  Go here and submit a request to have them remove your listing (easy): http://www.spokeo.com/privacy   You'll have to click a link in an email they send you to complete the process.   One personal information aggrigator site down, hundreds to go!  Here's the advice from dad:  If you don't want to share information with the entire world, don't put it on any web site....that said, no need to be paranoid.  Your address & phone can probably be found in any phone book, or public government records, etc.  The price of your house can be found on Zillow.  A picture of your house can be found on Google. (It shows your mom living in our Duplex. :-) You'll never get rid of all information about you from the web.  Just do what you can to keep your REALLY private info pr

Last week Lydia woke up crying and told me about her bad dream (first time she has ever told me about a dream).  The previous day she had attempted to dash into the road and I'd grabbed her arm and told her that I didn't want the cars to swish her.  Anyway, her dream went something like this "Mean cars were stepping on me.  Lots of mean cars.  Daddy took our car away and I can't get in.  I hide under Kiera's bed but the mean cars step on my toes!).    Today Kiera and I were talking about dreams and we were laughing about Lydia's dream since Kiera thinks it is hillarious for some reason.  Anyway, Lydia was observing us quietly but then piped in (in a very Disney-like voice):  "dreams are sure to come true!"  Kiera and I laughed our heads off at that one. The other night I went to our student-exchange house.  People drop off unwanted items and they are free to students and their families.   I like to go because it helps me fufill some of my shopping n

Is anyone interested in a Groundhog day celebration?   The movie and lots of pastries.   Evening of Feb 1st or 2nd.  Anyone?  I'll celebrate by myself if I have to but it's always fun to watch a hilarious movie with other folks.  Groundhog day is one of my favorites.  I'm thinking of a dirt pie to go with the event.

Happy Birthday Ty!!!!   Hope you are having a great day in Dizzyland!  I can't wait to hear all about your trip and your birthday.  HAVE A MAGICAL DAY!

For those of you who are interested, here is the latest photo. We probably won't see much change to the front of the house for a while. They're doing the electrical/plumbing/etc right now and we think they'll be ready for the sheet rock towards the end of the week. We are getting pretty excited (to say the least)! :) Emmy already knows where her room is and where other rooms are in the house. She LOVES it!

Our family Google calendar. Check it out over <----------there.

I give it much better reviews than IMDB does .  This is another Disney and much more Disneyesque than Prince of Persia.  It's a remake of Escape to Witch Mountain  which was a good flick from the 70's.  A cab driver ends up helping two alien children find and recover their space ship which the mean ol' government confiscated.  If they don't get back to their planet, their planet will invade the earth.  BECAUSE it was very Disney like is the reason I liked it.  Marilyn liked it too.  It's on our NETFLIX instant watch via our WII if anyone wants to see it but it's only available until Monday 24th when it's gone from their instant queue and only available via DVD.

Mormon mommy blogs immensely popular beyond LDS sphere "Whether they're throwing family dinner parties, making paper crafts with rambunctious children or taking time for daily reflection, Mormon mothers and their blogs have become quite an obsession, and not just for the obvious crowd. Self-proclaimed feminist and atheist Emily Matchar recently wrote for Salon about her "addiction" to such blogs , calling them strangely uplifting and even encouraging. "Indeed, Mormon bloggers ... make marriage and motherhood seem, well, fun. Easy. Joyful," Matchar wrote. "These women seem relaxed and untouched by cynicism. It's not that (my friend) or I want to quit our jobs to bake brownies or sew kiddie Halloween costumes. It's just that for (my friend), Mormon blogs are an escapist fantasy, a way to imagine a sweeter, simpler life. For many within the LDS community, it's no surprise these mommy blogs are so popular. Their posts about loving and cheris

Prince of Persia . It's a Disney movie but it does show lots of fighting and people getting killed.  Lots of action...LOTS.  It's mystical and has a lot of stuff that's pretty far fetched...but then so does Harry Potter.  A typical good guy that's really the bad guy. The prince and the princess hate each other to begin with, then almost kiss about 4 times during the movie but always get interrupted until the end which is a typical happy ever after.  It was good mindless entertainment that's just fun to watch, though the ending wasn't what I was expecting.  I'll give it a 7 out of 10.  I'd watch it again just for fun.  One interesting note:  As I watched this, and remember the previews for "Tangled" I decided they used the actor/prince in this movie for the template for the prince in tangled.  They look exactly the same.  See for yourself:  HERE and HERE .   The next NetFlix movie in our queue is Hachi: A Dog's Tale in case anyone is inter

Wow. What can I say. I should have known what kind of movie it would be, since it stars Jim Carrey. Yeah, I pretty much, um, very much disliked it. I still don't know what the point of the movie was. The front of the DVD case says, "Family Fun for Everyone!" I would strongly disagree. The kids whose (both) parents died in a fire don't even cry ever in the whole movie, and they watch guardians die throughout the whole movie. It wasn't drama. Wasn't humor. Wasn't scary. Wasn't romantic. It was just plain weird. Maybe I'll give it a half star since it has made me think about it today, trying to figure it out. Anyone out there like this movie? Maybe if you explained it to me I'd like it more...

I'm tired of dealing with work issues.  I'm tired of dealing with tax issues.  I'm tired of dealing with LLC and Trust issues.  No doing bills.  No fixing something that's broken.  No dishes.  No making the bed.  No taking down Christmas decorations or lights. I'm gonna be totally lazy this upcoming weekend.  The weather looks to be cold and stormy on Saturday so when I get up, I'm going to light a fire in the fireplace.   I plan to spend the entire day in that room.  I refuse to wear shoes at all from the time I get home on Friday until Sunday go to church.  Friday night I've invited Randy & Saundra over for games...dunno if they'll show, but it doesn't matter.  Saturday I'm gonna eat a big breakfast of something unhealthy and my goal is to watch 3 movies.  I'll then go to bed early on Saturday night.  Sounds wonderful.  I can't wait.

Well, the sweet weekend just kept going. On Monday we picked up Katie/Brett and headed to the Clark Planetarium where Brett had purchased us some tickets for IMAX Hubble 3D .  Christa and boys met us there.  There are a lot of things to see and do in the planetarium besides the movie...it's a real nice museum and activity center.  Brett played hero and watched Jacob and Ty while the rest of us watched the movie.  Of course with Jacob and Ty each wanting to run different directions, it was no easy task!  Anyway, the movie was real cool (ask Benjamin).  I didn't know that the space shuttle had taken an IMAX movie camera up in space nor that the Hubble could see so much detail so far away.  Amazing .  Thanks Brett/Katie for letting us tag along and thanks Christa & boys for making it more fun. Well, I'm back in Provo at work this morning.  Gotta go.

For Buff's benefit - They are making great progress on Emmy's house. It looks like it could very well be done by the end of February! It's out in Saratoga Springs (West of Lehi). Exciting times for that branch of the Groneman family!

The start of a 3 day weekend.  On Friday night I thought I was looking at a boring ol' Saturday & Sunday and then one more extra day on Monday to just putter around the house.   Friday night Chad/Erica came up once Emmy was sleeping and we were playing Mormon Bridge (Thanks for teaching us Cambrie/Steve).  On Saturday morning Chad & Emmy came up to visit...then Christa & kids showed up!  Benjamin and I stayed home to play Wii and Legos and the rest of the camp went to Artic Circle for play time.  When the clan was reunited, Brett & Katie showed up!  Wow...an impromptu Saturday of family.  We played Wise & Otherwise. Sweet!  We actually had to leave the fun because we had made plans to meet Keith & Syd for dinner.  Speaking of dinner, I'll pro'ly never go out for dinner on a Saturday afternoon again!  We went to Texas Roadhouse and they told us they had a 30 to 50 minute wait.  Ug (this was at 4:45 pm...not even prime dinner time).  We put our name on

Consider this ...In a hospital's Intensive Care Unit, patients always died in the same bed, on Sunday morning, at about 11:00 a.m., regardless of their medical condition.The next Sunday morning, a few minutes before 11:00 a.m., all of the doctors and nurses nervously waited outside the ward to see for themselves what the terrible phenomenon was all about. Some were holding wooden cross's, prayer books, and other holy objects to ward off the evil spirits. Just when the clock struck 11:00, Pookie Johnson, the part-time Sunday sweeper, entered the ward and unplugged the life support system so he could use the vacuum cleaner.

Last night we watched NEXT with Chad/Erica.  Marilyn said it was just OK but I really liked it. Chad liked it too.  I dunno if Erica did.  I like a movie that gets you thinking and that's what this movie did for me.  Let's just say the ending was a surprise for me along the lines of the ending of 6th Sense. Lots of action and danger.....and love of course so it can't be accused of being a pure man flick. (Ewwwww!)  It's a different kind of movie about a guy who can see 2 minutes into the future.  If you liked Deja Vu (I did), this should appeal to you as it's in the same genre.

Hey Benjamin! How was the game last night? We saw highlights of Jimmer's 47 point game on ksl and ESPN!! Holy Cow! I think you must have had an awesome show. And Emery beat the Ainge's record by 2 steals. Can't wait to hear what you thought of it. Go Cougars!

We watched How To Train Your Dragon last night with Emmy & family.  It was different than I expected but I liked it.  The only thing I didn't like about it was the "Vikings" all had a distinctly Scottish accent.  Last time I checked, Vikings came from Scandanavia.  I first thought it's strange to be talking about all that killing in a kid's movie (Kind of like the Hunger Games) but in the end it worked out with a good moral to the story.  It had a story adults could enjoy.  Emmy liked parts of the movie...and by the end was running around the family room with her arms outstretched pretending to be a flying dragon.  I do think it was above her level by quite a bit though.  She liked our old Winnie the Pooh better.  She found the dragon in the princesses collection we had and played with it during the last part of the movie...and was still pretending to fly after the movie while getting her diaper changed.  Overall, I'd give it an 8 out of 10 rating, but so

It's now 9am, the sun is partly shining, and this is the temperature I read for Provo (which is warmer than Cedar Hills)  Yea, I know Cambrie.....you're glad you live in Southern California blah blah blah blah blah...... ;-)

Be sure to read all 3 pages of this article . Who wants to bring the chips & dip?

I see reviews of good books on Goodreads from you folks. Some I wish I could read. Do you mostly use library books or do you buy them from DI or from half.com or.....? If you aren't just borrowing the books that you rate as good, keep them and perhaps Brett can make a family library page like he has the family recipe page. :-)

Our trip to Arizona was good.  Good to have a little get-away from kids.  Lydia's croup turned into a normal cough.  In arizona we went to see Steve's brother do his Gorilla thing at the Suns game.  Fun to watch-- he is really entertaining.  We went to the temple as a family and did family names.  It was nice to have adult interaction.  It got me thinking:  we should do something with adults only in the Groneman family.  Not necessarily a several-day long function.  But just something fun and highly interactive.   Thoughts? So I had a babysitter for a day and a half.  When I left their was leftover mac and cheese in the fridge.  When I came home the mac and cheese was gone, and their were 2 dirty mac & cheese pans in the sink (she cooked it twice).  I know exactly why:  any time I ever ask my kids "what shall we have for dinner/lunch?"  I only ever get 1 answer.  Even though I left a fridge full of food they would eat (and a written out list) my little ladies wan

More videos: 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqJETJMhb2M  Ice Cream 2 -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctf2lnnx1eA  Twirly Dresses 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZOLX9rXNP8  Playing Princesses 4 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlEw4TUsXxk  I'm the Daddy! 5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmtdDfDimJQ  Finger/Tummy Painting

The first installment of videos I took in California.  More to come: 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-5VsVjcwWg  Jumpin' on the stairs 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggvSFJZKfTA  A nativity with two Marys 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-Tj0tX3sKs  Ballet 4 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-zA2mYhjbw  The doll house These are the first HQ videos I took with our new camera Santa brought Marilyn for Christmas.

Last night was a fairly rough night sleep in parenthood.  The worst part was listening to Lydias croupy cough every 2 minutes.  I'm sure she will most likely be fine but I'm more worried than I would be because today we are having a chic from the ward come babysit for 2 days while Steve and I go to Arizona for an adults-only function.  I don't like leaving a croupy kid with an overnight babysitter.  Kiera also woke up last night wimpering.  I went in and found that she had had a nightmare.  Believe it or not this was the first time in her little life that she could tell me about a nightmare.  She was very concerned about the "bad guys coing in our house"  and wanted to know if we had our doors locked and if we locked them every night.  I assured her that she was safe and that we always locked them and that mommy and daddy would keep her safe.  I had flashbacks to mom telling me the same thing as a child.  But in my mind I knew that it was only mostly true as I th

I challenge each of you to put ONE (Uno) (1) new recipe on the family recipe site this coming week.  That's not one recipe per family...that's one recipe per PERSON.   Brett has put a tutorial right on the front page to make it easy.  There's some really good stuff up there now but it could use more.  Who's up for the challenge?

So, I made Brett open the stroller and car seat set that Santa gave us this year. The fabric pattern is cute without being gender specific (perfect!). We put in all the wheels, put together some of the pieces that have to snap in place, and played with all the levers to make it collapse and set up over and over. I pushed it around, did a few practice wheelies, and burned some rubber off of those front swivel tires. True... I even contemplated going on a walk with it outside, just to practice, but Brett talked me out of it. Santa sure has good taste!

We have such good cooks in our family and we have all diverse experience in what has been tasty. I was wondering if you all would like to take a turn on coming up with the menu? I will still make the main course if you would like me to or if you want to make it, I will pay you for the ingredients (providing it is within budget :) But that way we would get some diversity, and not just be stuck in the rut of what I have been doing for years. If you are not interested in planning and assigning people (or asking for who wants to do what), that is fine...no pressure there. So shall we do it or just maintain the status quo?

Friday and Tuesday the freeway between Lehi & AF will be mostly closed during the daytime for emergency repairs. Just FYI.

Happy birthday to one of my most favorite people on the earth.  Erica!  I hope you have a great day.

I'm lame and can't remember how the heck to post something on the recipe website.  So, here is my new favorite salsa recipe.  It is really difficult to mess this one up.  There is lots of room for variation. 1 can black beans (dranined) 1 can sweet corn (drained) 1/2 purple onion (or a small white onion) 4-8 tomatoes chopped 1 t cumin 1/2 bunch cilantro Salt and pepper 1/2-1 lime juiced 1 avacado Italian dressing Chop and mix everything.  Add italian dressing last until salsa is juicy enough (about 1/3-1/2 cup?)

Yup. This Sunday is that blessed day that we get together for dinner. Well, with those who can that is (we will miss you Nelsons, Brett and Buff). We are going to do some nummy stuff, with your help. Here is the plan! If this assignment doesn't work for ya give me a call. Us-Chimichungas and Cheese Enchalata's and a fruit plate Christa- Could you get Cambrie to put her salsa recipe (the new one we had while I was in California that has Corn, beans, avocados etc in it, and make that? She says it is easy...and I will have avocados here to put in it...and the chips. Chad and Erica- Could you bring some Lime Rice? (there is a recipe for that on the blog Groneman recipes) Katie. You are only 1 person...could just bring some chopped lettuce ? (to go under the Chimichungas) My mouth is watering already! Shall we say come soon as you can (we don't get out of church till 2pm) and we will eat at 5? Or does it need to be 4:30?

One of these models is over 21 and someone paid a lot of money for her makeup. The other model is 2 and did her makeup herself. Can you tell which is which?

Happy New year, ya'll. I know that we have some GREAT young parents in our family...for which I am grateful. There were times when I was raising my children, that my mom didn't tell me things that would have been useful for me to know much sooner. I am well aware that kids before they get married can't wait until they are married so that they can run their own lives, and I support that. But I don't want to be guilty of with holding information that might be needed & appreciated. Not knowing how much mothering a mother should do when she has great kids and in-law kids, I took a class on parenting at BYU Ed week many years ago and here is what was said. I have said it to some of you, but not knowing who, I will just say it here again. Parents of adult children should make suggestions of things that they think would be good for their children to know. Once said, then the ball is in their court as to weather or not they choose to do it, and the parent should lea

I got my license renewed at the South Provo UDL office today. From the time I left my car to the time I was seated back in my car: 9 minutes. That was easy.

http://picasaweb.google.com/kgroneman/KieraMarilyn# Compare these pictures. It struck me when I was in California that Kiera looks a LOT like Marilyn did at that age. Whaddaya think?

Here are some GREAT PICTURES from our trip to California.  We played princesses and we went and saw Steve's school and we played princesses and we fed the duckies and we played princesses and we went and got ice cream and we played princesses and we played tag and we played princesses and we made a gingerbread house and we played princesses and we watched Kiera and Lydia be Mary in the nativity and we played princesses and we played blocks and we went to the park and we went for a walk then we played princesses and we went out to eat and had macaroni and cheese and we watched Cinderella and we just had all kinds of fun with the Nelson family!

Thanks grandma and gramps for coming to visit us in our tiny little house in Loma Linda.  We enjoyed having you visit! G and G actually slept in our friends house down the street from us (who were gone) so they had their own space to retreat to each night which was fun.  We fed ducks, made gingerbread houses, played games, visited steve's school, picked oranges (grandma's favorite) got ice cream cones (Lydia's favorite), and they babysat while steve and I had some kid-free time (horray!)   Oh, and mom wanted to go check out some of the aftermath of our recent flooding in Loma Linda.  It has been an entire week since the flood was over, but they are still cleaning up the mess.  For Buff's interest:  the 3 main roads in Loma Linda (Lawton, Barton, and Mountain View) were all closed due to flooding and mud. And so our dinky street became one of the only through roads for the city and so we had back to back stop and go traffic for a few days.  The problem they have now