Wii Wii Wii All the Way Home

The kids (and by virtue, us parents) got a Wii for Christmas. It's been fun to play and work on getting those higher scores and lower your Wii age. The problem comes when one child gets a lower Wii age and the other gets upset. Or, if they play a 2 player game - there's a winner & there's a loser - and the loser often doesn't take it well. We're working on that one. One thing we've found that has worked (and given the parents the ability to get some time on it) is to have the kids read for time. For however long they read - 15 min, 30 min, etc. - is how much time they get to use on the Wii or computer - their choice. 2 birds, 1 stone. They need to accomplish their Accelerated Reading for school, and Danny and I enjoy playing on the Wii too! :-)

So far the favorite games are bowling, baseball & Mario Kart. What's yours?

Happy New Year

It's here - another year, another 365 days. I can only sit and wonder what this year will bring. I pray that it brings more happiness than sorrow - 2008 had plenty of the latter.

Wishing everyone a happy & blessed new year!

Last day of the year

Hard to believe, but it's the end of another year. I think I say that every year at this time.

As a kid you wanted time to go by to be old enough to do something - i.e. drive. What we didn't realize then is that time is precious and it flies by when we're not paying attention. I think I realize this more having my own kids. It seems like yesterday when they were just babies, but now they're in the second & fifth grades. The time has just flown by & gives no excuses for doing so.

As we go into this new year, I'm going to try to slow down and enjoy the smaller things. They are here but for a moment.

Do you have any resolutions for the new year?

The First Blog

I'll use this space to vent and talk about the things happening with the Groover family.

We just returned a few days ago from our annual Christmas trip to my hometown (Mt. Vernon, Il.). Boy was it COLD up there! A few of the days the wind chill was hovering near zero! No snow this year. Danny & the kids were a bit disappointed. Not me. Guess after living in the frozen tundra growing up I've come to despise snow and being super cold. That's why we live in the south! :-)

While in ole MtV, we visited with friends, my parents, my brother and his family, aunt & uncle and Grandma. Grandma has been struggling lately. In early November she was admitted to the hospital because they couldn't get her heart regulated - we found out that she has atrial fibrulation (a condition where the top part of the heart doesn't work properly). On top of that it was discovered that her gall bladder had gone bad. It took a few weeks to get her strong enough for the surgery - which she thankfully came through with flying colors! Since she wasn't strong enough to go back to her assisted living apartment she was sent to a nursing home - and she hates it. Then had a return trip to the hospital where she had to get a pacemaker. Please join us in praying for her to be able to regain her strength and be able to return to her apartment.

We also visited with our friends the Howerton's who live in Murphysboro. It was great to see Joe and the kids. At the same time it was sad to know that Cindy would not be there. Samantha had a great time playing with Amanda. Wished they lived closer so the girls could play together more often.

Today we put Christmas back up in the attic. Not sure which takes longer - getting it all down and placed in the house or putting it all back up. The latter also means finding everything that has been placed in the house. Knock on wood - it looks like I found everything before Danny carried the boxes back up to the attic.

Well, there it is. The first blog. Hope you enjoyed it. We'll add more later.