Groneman Family

http://www.says-it.com/churchsigns/   Make your own:

Howdy partner.   I just wanted to say Hi.  I sure miss my sweetheart.  Tomorrow I'll be home!  I hate traveling...ESPECIALLY when I'm by myself.

Hey Katie! It's your birthday! (I'll bet this is a surprise for you!) Happy Birthday, darling daughter! I hope you are getting through your bed-rest alright. Brett indicated yesterday that you probably won't be having this baby this week...but it will be soon. And while bedrest isn't likely what you had wished for on your birthday, at least you won't be dealing with the antics of Jr High kids... that should bring you some joy! I just want to tell you how very much I love you! You are a gem!! It isn't a wonder to me that Brett loved you for 9 years before he finally got you to the temple! Thanks for being such a sweetheart. I love you SOOOOOOOOOOOoooooo much! And try to enjoy this down time....it will change soon enough, forever :)

As you can see at the end of this video , Ty has a drinking problem. Also, if you want to see a great month of March in photos of our family look at these pictures .

I had a Dr.'s appointment on Friday and had an elevated blood pressure. 24 hours of collecting urine later, I was put onto "complete bed rest with bathroom privileges". Instead of going to church today, I get to make lesson plans (too bad I had them all pretty much ready for May). Unless I suddenly start having some of the more serious preeclamptic symptoms, I'll go back to the Dr. on Tuesday, and then we'll go from there. We're hoping to get to next Saturday (37 weeks = full term). So, baby Grizelda will likely be here much sooner than we were planning. My brain hasn't quite gotten used to the idea that I'll probably have a baby this week...

I suggest you go look at the family calendar over there <------------------ and see what a special day November 8th is going to be!!!!

That means I can no longer sit in my house and vegitate on saturdays.  It was cold this morning so we were waiting until about noon to go out and start working...but lo and behold Chad called and saved us!  He invited us to go to lunch with them to Chili's . . which we did.  Emmy sure liked the chips and salsa.  Thanks for inviting us guys!  Then we started working.  We got the pruning done in the back yard (never a fun job) and I bought two bales of straw...one for the bottom of the slide and one for the bottom of the playhouse ladder.  That way kids will only get mamed, not killed if they fall/crash/burn.

Mmm...Marilyn fixed crepes (from the family recipe site) topped with a layer of her cream cheese/marshmallo goo, fresh sliced strawberries, a touch of home made strawberry jam, and some fresh lemon juice squeezed on the top.  It was a taste of heaven.  How about you?  After that we found a bottle of pickle juice that she had put on the shelf because she had too much of it last time she pickled garlic.  I boiled up a bunch of eggs and filled the jar.  This is different juice than the pickled bean juice so I'm interested to see if it's as good. Oh...and as a sidenote, it is the end of the world as we know it :  CLICK HERE

My colleagues over in the UK are paying $8.15/gallon for gasoline today.

My mother-in-law forwarded this interesting clip to me. Check it out. http://blog.beliefnet.com/news/2011/02/boy-experiences-death-says-hea.php

Kim and I watched "Extraordinary Measures" last night. It's about a family that has two children with Pompea Disease, which kills by the time they get to 9. The father just couldn't accept the death sentence pronounced by the Drs and decides to try to do something about it. The father is not a Dr, but still is tenacious in finding something to help his children. It is a true story and a great reminder of what people on a mission that just won't give up, are able to do. (It reminds me that way, of Cambrie!) I would highly recommend it. It makes me wonder though, how many things I could have done that I gave up on.

We spent almost the entirety of yesterday figuring this all out coordinating between schools, clinics, 2 government agencies, airlines, etc.  but we've got this figured out.  So, in case anyone is interested, here is the schedule of our events: April 7th- Entire Nelson family drives to Utah (arriving at about 1am on the 8th) 8th-- Cambrie's appointment 2pm 9th-- BYU Ballroom concert!  2pm 10th- Cambrie and Steve fly to Illinois to look for housing 1:36 pm (K+L stay with Grandma--thank you!) 13th-Cambrie and Steve fly back to Utah arriving at 8:18 (can someone pick us up? pretty please?) 14th Steve flies back to CA at 9am(ish) 16-20th Cambrie appointment 8:30 am 22nd(ish) Cambrie's egg retrieval.....   And then we'll go back to Cali after that. Fun/crazy times!

Will have to be postponed one week in April.  It's moved to the 17th because Cambrie/Steve will be in Illinois for a short little jaunt on the 10th while the princesses stay with Grandma & Gramps.

Okay, so everyone has been wondering about this mysterious place that my neighbor told me about where you can get cheap horse manure. I did some investigating, and I've figured it out. The place is Lynnleigh Farm, and it is at HERE . I called and talked to a lady there, and she said Saturdays are best to get it, but just to make sure you call (801-571-5592) before you come. She said that you go through their gate and pull up behind the barn (not the house), and one of their guys will load your truck for you. I asked a price, and she wasn't sure, but she said that it was under $10. My neighbor said $5, but I don't know how long ago that was. Just FYI, I don't think it's been treated or anything-- you may want to call and ask if that is important to you.

Mark for calendars:  2pm on the 9th!  All females of the Groneman family are going....little ladies and all : ) Thanks you males for giving up the time with the females of your life. And thanks Gramps for funding it all!!!

I saw this video on the news this morning.  Of course it got me thinking immediately of Jacob.  Looks like something he would enjoy.  I especially like the end of this video. :-)   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGMsT4qNA-c

If you have NetFlix, I recommend SMILE and I AM DAVID . 

Starting tomorrow (sunday) and going through possibly tuesday Steve will be taking his dental school practical-boards (ie- he get's to perform skills in front of a very scrutinizing audience).  Very important test and it is so easy to fail if he does the slightest little dinky thing wrong.  So, I'll bet you can guess what we are praying for. Tomorrow I also face 'impossible' challenges.  I get to take 3 little ladies to church by myself.  My good friend in the ward just had her baby a few days ago and her husband is also doing his Boards so I'm taking her 3 year old all day long.  This wouldn't be such a huge deal but Kiera has a raging ear infection and vomited 7 times today.  Who knows-- if she is still off tomorrow I might just keep the 3 ladies home from church although I'd feel guilty..... we'll see I guess.  We do what we can right?

ATTENTION FEMALES OF THE GRONEMAN FAMILY: I hearby extend an invitation to a girls-only night out. The event? BYU Ballroom dance!!!!! April 8th (or 9th). I needed to be in Utah on the 8th of April for medical stuff. I was delighted when I looked at my calendar and found that I had written the BYU ballroom concert. It's been written there since last June when I discovered that that was the only concert they have all year. Chances were slim that I'd get to see it. Last time I went to one was with Kiera when she was 2 (with buff) all 3 of us were mesmerized. They are the best team in the world for a reason : ) Originally I was going to fly out on the 8th for my appointment and then go home and drive out on the 15th with my girls for the rest of my appointments, but I'm going to bring my girls a week early because I want them to go to this concert. (I don't know if Emmy would be into that sort of thing or not, but I know my girls will love every second of it) ...

Yesterday was Benjamin's birthday. I know because I gave it to him as I don't need any more. However, people still gave me the gifts. Whatever. We went to Arctic Circle and had some grub while the little ones played on the playground stuff. After that we went home and Marilyn had made me pumpkin pie. She made me share. :-\ I was showered with gifts: A fireproof safe, pumpkin pie, a cool vented shirt for ATV riding, chocolate covered cinnamon bears, sunflower seeds, JackLinks treats (kind of like scooby treats), some atv chairs, and Jacob hugs. I understand that Chat, Brett and maybe Christa chipped in on the safe. It was kind of vague as to who chipped in on what, but thanks for thinking of me guys. It was a great birthday. Next year, though, buy stuff Kiera can use. I think it is probably her turn to get my birthday in 2012 (my last since the world ends later that year). I love you all!

This is an amazing collection of pictures from the Japan tragedy. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42034875 Across the top you can select pictures by day. Day 7, picture 6 & 27 choked me up. Day 5, picture 17 shows some of the problems they are facing today. Day 4, picture 3 is interesting and picture 4 is another heart breaker. Day 4, picture 18 is an unusual sight. Day 3, picture 5 you've probably already seen, but it's quite a story. Day 3, picture 18 is interesting. Day 2, picture 12 is another heartbreaker. Day 1, picture 8...Japan is so orderly even the earthquake follows the lines. Many, many more pictures of intrest there.

Hey, this is just to let the whole world know how much I love and appreciate you! You are such a sweetheart! And you have provided us a great life over many years. You have such a good heart, and you make me happy every day of my life! Thanks for so many kind things that you do. You are so very good at making me feel loved and special every day, and I often forget to do the same! Sometimes, I think that I don't deserve such a sweet and loving husband. Somehow when we got married, I couldn't imagine that we would ever get old. That was too far in the future to even think about, and it felt like it would never come. But of course, it did! But, I am sure glad I have you to grow old with and have fun with, and we have 40 years worth of fun memories together, and we shall share many more good times to come, which also makes me happy! Thanks for loving me, and being a great dad and gramps! Everyone who knows you loves you, and I feel very privileged to have you as my own ...

Because I know that you will love these for your birthday, I give you a sunday afternoon with the Nelsons (by pictures and videos)

I will NOT allow tomorrow to come...I will NOT allow tomorrow to come....I will NOT allow tomorrow to come.....

Thank you all so much for your help with our move. We are still getting settled, and we don't have internet yet... but we're at Grandma & Gramps place to clean up, so we're using the internet while we're here. Emmy loves her room, and we love having space to walk around even when Emmy tries to cover the floor with (toys, paper plates, stuff she pulls out of boxes, etc). Once we get more settled, we'd like to invite people over. But that might still be a while. Maybe next month.

Given my life experience, I find this terribly amusing:  CLICK HERE

And Emmy loves her new place. She loves to run in all of her new space. I don't want to steal Chad and Erica's thunder about the new house...but with all that they have to do, they may completely abandon the blog for a while. But hopefully, they will be resting from the miriad of things that have to do so that they can blog some of their news. I got to tend the Dastrup munchkins along with Emmy while the parental units painted the house 2 tone the day before they moved in. So I had a very busy day! Jacob was found perched on the very top of the entertainment center downstairs. Everything up there was on the floor, except the TV. Ty and Emmy were inseparable all day long...playing in the playhouse, pushing the leaves and dirt around with the toy bulldozer, checking out every plausibly navigable vicinity of the back yard. And they did a great job chaseing each other on the little car and scooter on the patio, and out to the trailer (yup...with me watching them every second). ...

Yesterday we loaded up the little trailer, filled cars and vans, pulled the big trailer out of the garage, and had a wagon train over to Emmy's new house where we dumped it all. We even had a little side trip up to the Dastrups to pick up the junk that was stored there. Lots of sore muscles to go around. Thank goodness for a couple of Emmy's new neighbors that saw us unloading and jumped in to help. It would have been a much longer day without them. Now the work for Chad/Eric really begins...unloading boxes and putting stuff away, putting in a yard, but I'm pretty sure they're happy to be in their new house (still smells like new paint/carpet). Emmy now has more room to run around than she's ever had before in her life!

So this upcoming Sunday is the usual second Sunday of the month family dinner. But most of us did just just see each other for dinner 2 nights ago, and we will be working together this weekend helping Chad's family move, and I know that Dastrups have Brigham's family in town....I just don't know if we should save doing a dinner till a week later.... I just need your input. Especially I guess from Chad, Erica (who may like to come out to have some food since they won't know where half of their food even is) and CK on what your desires are. So I can plan! Also, I need to know when to plan this "shower that is not a shower" for Katie's baby. Brett and Katie just want to have a family dinner and are good with inviting my extended family to come so that they can see them, but they don't want gifts (we can just gift them when the baby comes). So I need to know when you CAN'T do a dinner from you all, so I can plan on when it could work. I guess the...

Here's some fun.  Make a bookmark in your browser.  Add the following snippet of code as your bookmark: javascript:var%20s%20=%20document.createElement('script');s.type='text/javascript';document.body.appendChild(s);s.src='http://erkie.github.com/asteroids.min.js';void(0); Go to favorite website THEN click this bookmark and enjoy.  Arrows & space bar control it.

Want to know what pi sounds like?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK7tq7L0N8E

We've finalized our plans for those of you who are able to help out (and if you're not able to, no worries). PAINTING: Painting will be Friday. Erica and I plan to be over at the house at 8 AM, but we don't expect anyone else to be there that early. We hope to see people around 9 AM, but you can come whenever. We plan to have the house completely prepped Thursday night, so on Friday people can just come, grab a roller / brush, and start painting. There will be some jobs that will go to people with advanced painting skills, but there will be plenty for average Joes with no knowledge of painting. Subway sandwiches will be provided for Lunch. Let us know what kind, as well as the size, bread, cheese, and toppings you would like -- we would like to order them beforehand so we can just go pick them up around 12:30. Ideally, we will be done by 5:00 PM (we plan two coats of paint, taking 4 hours to do each coat). Our estimates could be off by quite a bit though. MOVING: We p...

Lydia always wants mommy to "wash grandma fingers off!"  Sorry, grandma, she doesn't want fingers like yours. Playtime Kiera built this by herself!  She loves to show off her skills to friends. Lydia must dress herself lately.  It brings upon wardrobe malfunctions. Fun hats we found at a farmers market.  You'll notice coats we were wearing.  It was 55 degrees!!! Steve frequently takes naps at 6-7pm at night.  Lydia loves her daddy and kisses him frequently in hopes that he will wake up and play (hey, it worked for prince phillip right?)

Two nights ago, we had a game night with Erica & Chad and played Aquire.  Close game but Marilyn won.  That means I won because we're married, right?  It was rude of us, but we just kept on playing as Katie/Brett sat at the other end of the table doing their taxes.  Last night was night 2 of game night with Erica/Chad.  This time the battlefield was Settlers of Catan.  In the first of 2 rounds of Catan played last night, Chad almost took it over, but I squeeked out a win before he could.  In the 2nd round, I decided to let Chad win.  Of course after playing two rounds of Catan back to back, Marilyn was ready to put my eyes out with hot pokers, but that's the nature of that game. :-)

Taking Brett's queue, I created a Google site, similar to the recipe site, for games.  I think I am just getting old, but when I don't play a game for a few months, I forget the rules.  I also learned a couple of new, fun games when we were at the Nelson's house last.  Anyway, I put a link to it over there <-- in the list next to the family recipes.  If you get the time and the inclination, add some of your favorite games....or even kid activities and share your ideas there.

After work yesterday we headed up to the Dastrup ranch.  I walked into their living room and Ty came running up to me wanting to be picked up with a big smile on my face.  It made me feel good for a minute, but then I found the REAL reason he was thrilled to see me.  As soon as I picked him up he said "Emmy here?"  Cute little scamp.  It makes me smile to see some cousin bonding. Christa fixed us a good dinner of some sort of fried noodles with chicken & Fetta cheese.  Pretty tasty.  Never had it before.   Benjamin wasn't thrilled with it.  Christa/Brigham/Marilyn went to see A Tale of Two Cities at the Hale Center Theater while I stayed with the boys.  Jacob spent most of the time at the computer playing some sort of word game.  I'm surprised at how he knows how to click the mouse, etc. Benjamin had a couple of friends over playing basketball in their basement and Ty spent a little while with them but it was soon time...

This game is especially for Katie:  http://famousobjectsfromclassicmovies.com/ Once you start and it shows you an item, just start typing letters, kind of like hang-man.

Moving day is coming. But we don't know when. That frustrates me very much -- I was expecting to find out when our closing date is last night, on our "final" walk-through. But that didn't happen. We know that lots of people are itching to come help us move / paint / whatever, and want to know when so they can make arrangements to do it. That includes me. So, here's where we're at: - We know we have to close on or before March 11th (a week from today). - We know there is a 1-2 business day turnaround between when we close and when we can move in, because the money has to change hands and make it to the seller before they let us move in. - In our walk-through, we found some items they need to take care of -- most pretty minor, and I think they could address them all in a single day if they wanted to. - During our final walk-through, they told us they would call to let us know to schedule closing, a day or two before we can actually close. That means might b...

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=13526624 "But does Utah need a dental school? In a 2006 survey of Utah dentists................Utah has 56.8 dentists for every 10,000 people, down from 61.4 in 2002 and below the national average of 59.8." Nobody will get angry if I keep trying will they?  :-)

Time to brag about my husband:  yesterday he won an award for the best buisness plan of the year for the dental students.  He got a fancy plaque and $100 worth of free dental stuff (as if we didn't already have enough of that).  He really did a great job with it; I'm sure his MBA helped.  Last year the winner got $500.  Budget cuts. For years Loma Linda has had a policy that if a dental class ever had a 100% pass rate they each got a big reward such as Disneyland Season passes, I- Pad, etc..  Yep, you guessed it. ...... Budget cuts.  We had to go to Cafe Rio to celebrate steve's accomplishments last night. 

For any of you who are interested, now and through March is a good time to transplant Raspberries, daisies, mums, iris, ferns and bushes I have starts of. I have some pots to put them in or if they are going to go into the ground soon, cardboard boxes work fine. I don't know why but I am feeling more stiff and sore this year than ever before...so I will show you where to take em out, but I will avoid the shoveling myself. Now is also a good time to get compost or manure to the garden areas. Usually this time of year the cost of compost is 1/2 what it will be in April. We have the Jeep an trailer in Provo you can go get when you are ready to borrow them.