Groneman Family

So, as you know, we've been dentist hopping.  Also, for the last few years (actually, since we were in AF) the hygenist (when we've had one) has told me I have Gingivitis and have bad "pockets" on both sides of my mouth.  I've brushed, flossed, and even mouthwashed with special expensive mouthwash to help it out...to no avail. I was expecting to get chastised by our new hygenist when I went to the new dentist yesterday. Nope...she says I'm fine...in fact my gums look very good and healthy. Not even any hint of pockets.  Imagine my surprise since I've really REALLY cut back on the flossing (even though those new flossing thingys make it much easier).  I wondered what caused the turn around?  I've basically made two changes since I went to the dentist last.  First, I rinse with just plain old cheap mouthwash every night before bed (I'm sure Marilyn appreciates it).  I also use the WaterPik I bought for Marilyn about twice a week (to clean under her b...

After all these years, I think I *know* what your mother would really like:  http://bit.ly/l0CLD5

So I've been getting out of my cooking funk by trying out some recipes on the family recipe site. It's been fun, and yummy too! I have a few requests of food I've eaten at your houses. If you're willing to share the recipe, please post them on the fam site and we'll probably be having them over here sometime in the not-too-distant future. --Christa salads (I know you probably just throw them together, but they're delish!) --Tilapia (we had this at the Nelson's house a while ago) --Christa Quesadillas (You add something like spinach and something else, right? We had these at the Nelson's house too and it was a nice change to the regular quesadillas we're used to. We add All Season Salt to ours.) --Marilyn Spaghetti Sauce-for canning (We plan to can this this year using the tomatoes from our garden--assuming we have long enough of a growing season to get a lot of tomatoes!)

Yer mother and I watched (and liked) this one last night via our Wii from Netflix: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0848542 "Arranged" is about two young female school teachers in NYC, one Jewish, one Muslim. The movie deals with social mores, prejudices, etc. Though their worlds are far apart, they find they have one thing in common: Their families are arranging their marriages and they bond a friendship and help each other. It is mostly serious but has a few funny moments. Worth watching.

The Easter bunny came last week while the Nelsons were here so there weren't any eggs to find (though I found one Saturday while mowing the lawn and promptly snarfed the malted milk balls inside).   We thought we were gonna have a lonely Sunday just relaxing around the house....then....it was a miracle!.  Dastrups and the C. Groneman and the B. Groneman families showed up and we had a nice ham dinner, apple pie, and played in the back yard!  Coolness.  This time we were missing Buff and the Nelsons, but managed a good time still.  This past week we bought a safety net for our trampoline (we have too many kamikaze grandkids!) and it was nice to just let the little ones jump around without having to worry about them falling off.  For some reason Emmy had issues with the 5 inch gap between the trampoline and the grass and kept calling to me for "Gramps!  Help!" but by the end of the day she got over it by gingerly crawling across it.   She pro...

THIS is what you need for your fish.

Happy birthday old daughter of mine. How does it feel to be as old as I am. It's strange these days to have half of my kids as old or older than I am. Oh well, I suppose I can deal with it. 29 is a special age....I should know...I've been 29 for years now. Anyway...I miss you and your family. It was a sad day around here yesterday. I'm glad you & Steve can be together for your birthday though because you should spend special days with the most special person in your life. I hope your birthday is a good one!

Here's some photographer's pictures of the Atlanta temple open house. I can find 3 pics of Buff: http://www.ctrlds.org/album91?page=1

Thanks Chad and Erica for inviting us over today.  Me n' the girls had a lovely afternoon,\ evening at Emmy's house.  Erica pointed out that we rarely have time to talk to each other at large family gatherings because there is always too much going on.  It was nice to have some more personal time with the Gronemans.  The 3 munchkins got along fabulously.  After about 15 minutes of them being downstairs in the basement I decided to go and check on them.  I went down to discover them completely covered in dirt.  Chad had swept their basement floor into a lovely dirt pile which the girls were rolling, stomping in, kicking and throwing.  They were all filthy (I wish I would have had my camera!).  We had a nice dinner of Raspberry chipotle chicken which was very good and then we have a nice FHE about the meaning of Easter. After the lesson it was hide-and-seek followed by icecream.  It was fun to do FHE with someone else (I'll have to d...

Saturday we went to the Children's museum in SLC with Nelsons and Dastrups then headed over to Christa's for dinner. Sunday we had our first annual Easter egg hunt and Emmy joined us that day. All the kids filled their baskets with goodie filled eggs and the Easter bunny showed up. Grandma had me put a rope swing up in the tree in front of the playhouse and between that, the slide, the playhouse, and the trampoline, all the kids had a good time. The weather was just perfect. After it got a little cool outside, we came in and colored real eggs. A fun family gathering, especially since the Nelson's were with us which is rare. Welcome back to Utah Steveo...it's been a while. We missed Brett/Katie/Lindy/Buff/Chad.

An early easter celebration at the Groneman house: https://picasaweb.google.com/kgroneman/201104Easter I'll upload a few of the best pics for Buff later on.

While the lovely ladies had their Women's Weekend watching the BYU Ballroom, World-class Knitting Competition, and whatever else you guys did, Benjamin and I had to pound our chest and do guy stuff. It rained and snowed nearly the entire time of the Blue & White Scrimmage but it was Benjamin that wanted to stay to the end! You're the best oldest nephew Benjamin!!

My dad has been having a lot of problems breathing as of late. He got a new nebulizer yesterday, because he thought that the old one wasn't working anymore, because it wasn't helping him to clear his lungs and breathe like it used to. But last night it didn't work any better. He is just really struggling to breath. He doesn't want to leave the house anymore and get away from his nebulizer, and oxygen. I don't think my dad will live to see 2012. And he wants to be with mom, so there isn't a reason for him to fight what is happening. He called this morning basically to warn us that he will be checking out soon, so be prepared for the idea. I have seen him this bad before and then come out of it. But, I have the feeling that he is right. That he doesn'thave all that long left on the planet. And hey, good for him if he can be with mom again, and not have to leave this life in one of many worse ways.

CLICK HERE for the video.  I guess it's time to make sure the upper playhouse is open when kids come to visit.

I wonder if her parents snickered all through her naming/blessing?  I wonder if they regretted it when they sobered up?  CLICK HERE   Just don't call her "Beefy".

How far are you willing to go for a good dentist?  After years of  "Dentist jumping" and not being satisfied with one for one reason or another, we consulted an expert.  Stevo went to his professor that teaches in Loma Linda and spends time in Provo for his opinion of a good dentist in this area.  After what Steve has told us about some of the folks that attend school, and with SO MANY dentists in the area, we wanted a good one...even if we have to drive a way to get there.  The recommended dentist is Dr. Eric Tidwell in North Provo.  Marilyn went to him and liked him.  Dr. Farley in Orem was a good dentist, but he stopped taking our insurance (didn't need to, he was popular).   The one we had in AF did poor work besides not talking much to us.  The first one we had in Cedar Hills didn't have a dental hygienist and didn't clean teeth well and didn't hardly talk.  The second one we had in Cedar Hills was an excellent communicator and...

This is mostly for Buff's info since we've already all seen the kiddo besides her (except for Dad's previous blog post).  Yep, Katie had a baby on Thursday morning.  We named her Lindy Paige Groneman.  Really, the pictures do the best job of describing her, so I'll let them do most of the talking here.  The brief run-down of the other details surrounding the birth are that Katie was induced on Wednesday for pre-eclampsia.  It took a long time for the Pitocin to work, and Lindy was finally born on Thursday AM at 10:23 am.  She was 37.5 weeks, so just above the "full term" mark.  She was a little over 6 pounds when born, though she had lost a bit by the time we came home from the hospital on Saturday -- which is normal.  They had to give Lindy 60 mL of IV NS when she was born because they felt she was low on blood volume, but really she's done great, and Katie has done great.  Lindy cries when she's hungry and otherwise is pretty happy to...

Nothing comforts me more in my old age than seeing other people get old too. Don't worry-- I'll bet Emmy can help you open your presents if you find yourself too feeble to do it alone. I hope that you have a rockin' birthday and have some serious fun!

Everything pales in comparison to the birth of my Grandchild #7, but there has been quite a bit of other stuff going on around here this past week. First, I had to unload a trailer full of rocks. Ugh. Then I had to remove our old countertops & kitchen sink so we could get new granite countertops. I then had to redo the piping under the sink to fit the new faucet and countertops. What can I say...life "rocks" lately. Nelson's have arrived on the premises. Stevo included this time. I was really looking forward to playing on the tramp and in the playhouse with them! However....it's been snowing almost constantly since they arrived. We took a trek to Emmy's house so Cambrie & crew can now envision where they live. Yesterday there was a "girl" date to a ballroom dance concert. Benjamin went with Uncle Steve to a BYU football scrimmage, all the ladies went to a BYU Ballroom dance concert (except Katie & Lindy...for some reason they whimped ...

Welcome to my world little Lindy. Sorry we have made such a mess of it for you. Hopefully you & your generation will be able to straighten it out. But let's not worry about that right now. To the important stuff: When you're ready to play, I'll be here.

Built in baby sitters:  AF Canyon Half Marathon & 5k

I'm so excited to see what Brett and Katie's little lady looks like.  I do have to say that I'm a bit disappointed that we are not getting minute by minute updates on the situation like we did for their honeymoon.  Come on Brett! (j/k) "Katie is interrupting my typing with her screaming and trying to grab my hand" "I can see the head now...yep that is it" "our baby is going to be born right....right....right................NOW!" Been thinking about you guys all day long.  Hope all is well.

The utility trailer is sitting in front of our house.  Anyone wanna use it?  If not, I'll take it back to Provo.

I just had to say thanks to everyone for putting recipes on the family recipe site. I've (we've) been in a dinner funk lately and I've been itching to try something new. Can't wait to give these yummy recipes a try! :)

I think we should do this for Breanna's wedding:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sTqJE4sdb0

At first I thought "wow....these folks have way too much time and money on their hands to do something as frivolous as this" but then I thought...."It's a commercial.  I don't care about their company or products but I'm watching it. Maybe not such a waste after all".  Anyway...watch it.  It's pretty cool.  CLICK HERE

I dunno if you heard about it on the news...it was on KSL this morning.  A marketing site for many companies was hacked.  My friend Danita who knows more about email than anyone else I know put up a blog post that anyone that uses email should read:  CLICK HERE .  There is some real good advice there.  Just trying to keep my wife and children and bank account safe.

It was a fun day. Chad/Erica/Emmy came over well before the first session started. Dastrups made their appearance a little before 10. Katie sans Brett joined the party. It was snowing and snowing hard most of the day, but between the sessions, Ty and Emmy took me outside and the sun was shining. Cold , but sunny . They played in the playhouse, in the mud, in the trampoline pit, and rolled car & bigwheel down the hill. First Ty gave up and decided to go in. I asked Emmy if she wanted to go in and it was an adamant "No!"....but without Ty, she soon decided to go in as well. Benjamin shot a couple of hoops before the blizzard set in again. Marilyn fixed us all Reuben sandwiches for lunch which was enjoyed by all except Chad....he traded half his sandwich for half of Benjamin's grilled cheese, and they both were happier. After the second session of conference, we snarfed some taco soup. I was a clutz and knocked Erica's little bamboo plant off the counter, ...

Yesterday : A very nice day. High 60's (maybe into the 70's?). We were able to work outside and get gravel out of our yard. We used Mom & Dad's trailer to go get 2 yards of compost. In the afternoon, I changed into shorts, and even walked around outside with bare feet, and the pavement was warm. Pictures from yesterday: Last night a storm rolled in. It was pretty fierce. It was pounding the front of our house. Eventually it quieted down... Today: we woke up this morning and when we got around to looking out our back window, we saw this: I mustered up some courage to go get the paper, and see what our house looked like. Here's some pictures: