Hi Everyone,

It's Allie. Linda's oldest. She must have been writing in her sleep. Mom told me about this a couple day's ago, and has called me twice to ask if I've writen anything. So I figured I should write something before she calls again. Anyway Ian and I moved to Colorado Springs a couple of years ago. We needed a change. So far the change has been a good one. We just bought a house last May. Ian calls it my Birthday present. I'm a stay at home mom. The kids and Ian keep me very busy. Kelly just started 4th grade. She has always been very good at school. Josh just started Kindergarten this year. He loves school. I was looking forward to finally get a little time to myself. But when the first day of school came I didn't want to give him up. Ian works as a delivery driver at night for a milk company. Yes they still do that in certian citys. He actually delivers milk to the front door of your home. He's also studing for his CDL. He's not to sure when he wants to take the test. Anyway that's it for now.
Allie

Good Morning All,
It's taken me awhile, but I've finally had a few minutes to check out this blog. Great idea. It's nice to hear how well everyone is doing.
As with everyone else our lives are busy. I'm still working with military families and deployed servicemembers. It's been five years since I began providing support and financial assistance and unfortunately there is no end in sight. I travel the country educating community organizations, businesses, schools and civic organizations on the stress of deployment on military families and offer advice on providing support and assistance. I also give presentations on post traumatic stress disorder and am the state liaison for Colorado for families who have a service member killed in action. I work closely with those families to make sure they recieve the proper military services and provide a support system for them to help them through the grieving process. Last month I was asked to become a member of a national committee working with congress to provide better treatment to soldiers returning from war with PTSD. It's interesting work and since I've worked with congress in the past it's proving to be a positive experience. Two years ago I authored a proclamation that had flags in the state flown at half staff the day of the funeral of a servicemember and last year I was able to get our local sentaor to champion it and it became law this year. I also wrote a bill this past year that was presented to Congress in Wash. DC requesting government funds be available to non-profit organizations that provide financial assistance to military families that live at least 150 mi. from an active base. The bill passed by a resounding majority and $153 million was allocated for the first year. I'm now in the process of helping them put together the qualifications necessary to allocate the funds. When I'm not doing military stuff I babysit my grandchildren and still do a lot of quilting.
Steve is still shoeing horses. He focuses primarily on corrective work. He is the only certified shoer in the area the veternarians will work with so he is kept extremely busy. I never see him before dark in the summer. He also is writing a book on shoeing practices. He's bee working on it for the past year, but has at least another year to go on it. He has has a number of acticles published on the use of varies shoing techniques and is also trains guys interested in shoeing. One of his apprentices is Cody. He is turning out to be a really good shoer. As conscientious as his Dad.
We still have our horses and also raise Corriente cattle. Their mexican roping cattle leased out to rodeo's and ropers. Long horns and short bodies and even though their from Mexico, they crossed the border leagally!
Our kids are all well. I've passed on this sight to all of them so hopefully they'll take the time to write something. We have four grandchildren and a 5th on due in Oct. Four boys and one girl.
Allie and Ian live in Colorado Springs which is a 6 hour drive from us over several mountain passes so we don't see them very often. They have a girl (Kelly-10) and a boy (Joshua-5). Stacy is living in Florida and is enjoying the single life. Katie lives in Pagosa Springs which is an hour from us so we see her and her little one (Everrett-4) often. Katie is the one having baby #2) Cody and his wife Melissa live in Farmington, NM which is about 45 minutes from us and so we see them often as well. They are busy raising babies, but they're the four legged horse ones. Jessie is living on the second house on our property and attending college in Farmington. Her little boy Jason (1 year already) stays with me while she's in classes. He's a kick to have around, but he reminds me everyday that I'm not as young as I used to be!
Enough for now. I think this sounds like I'm writing a novel. Patty & Tim, what's your new phone number. Send me an e-mail with it and your mailing address. Thanks
Linda

so cal family

Hey everyone, it's good to hear what's going on in this HUGE family of ours! It's always so hard to keep up with it all, this is a great idea!

So... we are living in southern California, about half way between San Diego and LA. We just moved into a new house in October, and I think we're finally settled. Kaden is turning 4 next month, and he's just now learning that he's not the center of the universe. He still doesn't quite believe it yet, but we're working on it. He's been learning the piano (go figure...) from me, and he's actually pretty good at it. He learned how to swim this summer, and now we're deciding between T ball and soccer. He's a pretty energetic little boy who is very independent and strong willed. (i have no idea where he gets it from :) ) He LOVES his new little brother. Jonas is pretty laid back and is learning to roll with whatever Kaden decides to do with him for the day. He is the most smiley baby and he loves to laugh. He's 3 1/2 months old and he is almost 15 pounds!!! Big boy! Kurtis and I are learning to go to bed earlier so that we can have enough energy to keep up. It's great having 2 kids but HOW ON EARTH DO YOU HAVE 9 OF THEM????? I'm mostly at home, but still teaching about 10 hours a week. Not much, but enough to not quit altogether. Kurtis is still working with his dad and coming home and writing, waiting to be in the right place at the right time to break into the writing business. We're going to visit my parents the first week in October, so maybe we can see a few of you who are around. We are going to a wedding of one of my best friends in high school, and I have to fit into a satin bridesmaids dress that we had to buy while I was pregnant. I hope it fits!!
So, I guess we're pretty boring, but having kids and not doing all that much is pretty fun for us, so it's alright. Hope to hear from you all, and I hope everyone is well. If you're in the area, or just want a vacation, drop me a line!
Hannah

Greetings From East Tennessee

Dear Family,
Guess its about time you have heard from the hillbillies in the family. Yes we still have all our teeth that part of the culture has not wore off on us yet!! However we do love living in the Smokey Mountains and spend most of our time (when not working) outside chasing bears, climbing mountains, or looking for moonshine. As you probably know Tim and Patty (thats me) went to Florida for Tamaras wedding, we were blessed to spend many days with mom combing the beaches for shells and sand for our collections, we had some great seafood and a wonderful time. While we were there Mom wanted to see an alligator so we found her one and she has some great pictures of it in her album.. Thanks Gary for inviting us to share in that special day. Remember if your ever in the Great Smokey Mountains and want to see your hillbilly relatives drop us a line we'd love ya'll to come on down. Love to all Tim and Patty

none

hi every one it;s just me mom grama it's good to see some of you are blooging i hope you all keep it up i like seeing the pictures. it's been just one year that i have been given a second chance at life of which i thank god every day i am doining great working every day at the bakrey and enjoying it . but i have a good boss she dosen't give me to much heck when i screwup not much news for now love to all mom grama great grama

It's # 3

Hey everyone, it's steve. Sorry it took me so long to jump on board. I just spent the last three weeks working at the Great River National Wildlife Refuge in Missouri so I've been out of touch. I think this blog thing is great!!! My life is good! Linda and I spend most of our time gardening, fishing and traveling to southern california to see our grandsons. Yea I said grandSONS! We have two now. In case you don't know Hannah had Jonas in May. I am going to try to attach a pic of the two little buggers. Kaden will be four in september and loves to steal his moms cell phone and call grandpa and grandma. He calls me grandpa fish cause I like to fish and take him fishing and calls Linda grandma fufu cause when he was little Linda would sing little rabbit fufu to him. Hannah and Kurtis are doing good and just built a new house in Menifee CA. about twenty minutes from where they used to live. Emily and Nate live in St. Paul and are doing good. Emily is working for a place called the Frazier House. They deal with autistic toddlers. Nate is substitute teaching throughout the St. Paul school district. Laura and Nate (yea, for those of you who don't know I have two son-inlaws named Nate) moved from wisconsin to Minneapolis about four months ago. Laura works for a law firm and Nate just got a job with Best Buy on the Geek squad. Thats all for now folks.

steve

Hi Ang

It was so nice to hear from you. I just got back from vacation today,and had a nice time.went to the top of Pikes Peak finally. But it was a spur of the moment thing to do. We had 3 minutes before the cog rail left when we decided to go. Me in shorts and a tank top and we were on our way from 90 + degree sunny weather to the top of the peak. We couldnt see anything when we got up there because it was cloudy and SNOWING. I froze my ..... off. The next day in 90 + degree weather we decided to take the train to the bottom of the Royal Gorge. So of course I got sun burned. The rest of the trip was driving the mountains and relaxing. We stopped at North Platte NE so I could see my grand daughter Trezna. But was really happy to get home to my boys Jack and Toby.

You asked about the weather in the winters in Nebraska. Well, we might have to shovel 2 heavy snows a year. The rest falls and melts fairly fast, and we might get a good ice storm one time. We seldom have snow for Christmas. We can normally get by wearing sweaters until the middle of Dec.

Oh ! Yes we did camp. I love camping out.....Deb

I love this!

I love reading all of your postings. It makes me miss you all so much. I love the pictures of grandma and grandpa. I'm really glad to hear you are all doing well. Things are going great for the girls and I. We have added a boy to our family. His name is Bobby. I'm thinking about keeping him. We'll see. Jasmine is going into Junior High this year. I can't belive I have a teenager. Boy am I going to receive some payback having two girls. Chloe is going to start the 1st grade. She's a riot. She is the one that is going to give me a run for my money. She is just like me. Watch Out! Jasmine already has boys calling the house. This year is going to be fun! I'm so glad to hear everyone is doing well. I look forward to checking out more entries and seeing more great pictures. Until next time! Choa

The Groshens News

Ahhh! What a great idea! Well, I'm going to start off with what the boy's have been up to. Zach is still working construction, only now he has gone independent. Which means more money in his pocket. He's doing great! And still no signs of a girlfriend or marriage in the future. Caleb has quit his job at the implement and went to work for a company called rotochopper, but has since quit that also. He was traveling all over the U.S. doing shows, and delivering these chopper things. Unfortunatly, they had him gone EVERY week, which was more than he cared for. So he decided to work for Corey, until he found a new job. He has now started at a huge company called Lunda. They build bridges. Who knows, maybe they will be building the new 35W bridge that just collapsed.And still no girlfriend or marriage in the near future. Corey has started a new adventure. He is rebuilding a barn. The place he was at, well the guy that owned it suddenly died of a heart attack.It was very hard on Corey,because Corey is the one that found him outside, and did the CPR thing. He was very close to Don Witte. Unfortunatly, there was nothing Corey could have done to save him. Anyway, Corey is moving his cows to a new barn, which is still under construction at this time. He is very excited about it. And still no girlfriend or marriage in the near future. I am still working the 3:00am -5:00 pm shift. The bakery is keeping me very busy this summer. Last winter was the worst,I was ready to sell it. But then things turned around and it's doing well. We will see how this winter goes. Robert is fine doing the same old thing. He says he is going to retire in two years but I don't think thats going to happen. So thats the life and times so far of the Groshens family. Take care everyone, look forward to reading all the updates.

It is so nice to see people posting. It is so hard to stay in touch with everyone. I hope everyone continues to use it. Well it is me...#9 Warner child....aka Sherri, the baby of the family. I, like Gary am pretty good at bragging...I think this is a Warner trait and something in the genes.

As you can see from the picture, some of our excitement for the year has been Cassie's graduation from high school. She moves to Iowa on the 15th of August to begin college. She is excited and extremely nervous. She is ready to start the next phase of her life though. She is sad to have to leave her current job...she says she has the best employer in the world (she works at Jody's bakery). Some of our other family excitement is Danielle receiving her driving permit...this is more fear than excitement however. In actuality Danielle does pretty well. She is a good driver and hopefully she will not follow in her sister's footsteps by hitting cars or getting speeding tickets (yes...Cassie obtained her first speeding ticket this past week. In less than 3 blocks Cassie went from 30 to 72 miles an hour...there was also a stop light within that 3 blocks. Luckily the cop only ticketed her for 1-14 miles an hour over the speed limit. Cassie's new nickname is..."Speedy.") Danielle will begin 10th grade in September and cannot wait. She is extremely bored at home and her search for employment has been unsuccessful. This month, Mike will start his 14th year with Breitbach Construction Company (BCC). Mike is a project superintendent for the commercial construction company. I am starting my 9th year with CentraCare Health System. My position is a bit confusing and if you ask Mike and the kids what I do...they will honestly tell..."I don't know." Our life will change dramatically in the next 11 days after Cassie leaves for college. We are already discussing what will fill our nights when we no longer have basketball and softball games to attend. I think we may, once again, start sleeping through the night...instead of waiting for her to return home. Well...I think that is enough bragging for one post. Hope to see even more postings from everyone and read more from the grandchildren/nieces/nephews. Thanks everyone for the reading.

Someone posted a comment and no name. OK, who was it?
My house is in a little town called Ralston. It is a suburb of Omaha. I live in the old part of town where trees are in abundance, you can hear the train as it goes through town, and you can sit in your back yard and watch all of the different birds, raccoons, rabbits, and other wild life. Our Main street is small with one cafe, post office, bowling ally, and a few other small businesses. On Thursday nights a band plays On Main Street. Everyone brings a chair or blanket to sit on and comes down to listen. They sell hot dogs, pop, and slushies. The kids play in the street and some people get up and dance. Now that is small town.
We are just going to the Rocky Mountain National Forest for vacation. I kind of wanted to stay home with Jack and Toby. But Al thought I needed to get out of town so the hospital could'nt call me to come to work. He knows I can't say no to overtime.
Jack is very slowly getting used to the idea that Toby is not going anyplace. Jack still isnt happy, but he is getting better. The vet laughed at me when I told him how Jack was behaving around Toby. He said " That's what you get for spoiling Jack as bad as you did. I have seen spoiled dogs before, but not as bad as Jack. It may take him six months for him to come around."
Toby is getting spoiled too. He just hangs on me when I am home. He is a devil and gets into all kinds of trouble. But coming from a puppy mill he deservers to be spoiled. He has some health issues but I think we are getting them cleared up.....Deb

Well, well....I'm sure my Mom thought I would be one of the last people to post, but here I am. I guess the whole point of this blog is to keep in touch and informed with each others lives so...let me inform you.

Life is good, life is very good right now. I'm currently living in Seattle, but am constantly daydreaming of far away lands. My last adventure took me to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.....AMAZING!!!! And I'm working at a trendy resteraunt/club right now trying to save for S. Africa (hopefully in January.) Other than that, I'm pretty boring. I work a lot, I play a lot, I'm just livin' in up.

I hope this catches on with the rest of the family, it would be great to hear from all my long lost cousins.

Not on the Bridge

For those of you that are wondering, I'm still here...not even close to the bridge at 6:10 PM when it collapsed.

I think this Blog thing is a very good idea. For us less than expert computer people, it may take some time before we master the concept of blogs and how to enter data in information in them. I'm hopeful many of the Warner Clan will use this medium as a means to communicate. We seem to be scattered all over the country these days and we don't seem to communicate very well amongst ourselves. Maybe we can use this forum to find out what's going on in each others lives and tell each other what's going on in ours. Lord knows that when it comes to bragging, I'm the best there is and I plan to brag.

For example, the picture I've attached(assuming I can figure out how to attach it) is me with a 43" Red Drum I caught on Labor Day, 2006 off the shores of Amelia Island, FL. It is considered to be very large as Red Drum go. It weight somewhere around 45 lbs. I fought him for 45 minutes before I got him in the boat. Only fish I caught that day. I felt like the Old Man and the Sea that day. Check out the lips on that fish. I've never seen a fish with lips.

By the way, for those of you who don't know who this is, it's the number 1 of the Warner Clan...Gary. I have just celebrated my 30th year with Tonka Equipment Company. I am now part owner of the company and hold the title of Executive Vice President. I don't travel as much as I use to however I still go to go to Chicago, Milwaukee, San Diego, Washington, DC and other major cities occasionally. I was just in Toronto in June. How's that for Bragging.

I live in Eden Prairie, MN which is a suburb of Mpls. I have a place in Northern MN. that I go to as often as I can. Unfortunately not as often as I would like.

My daughter Tammy just got married to a nice young man in June. They are living in Atlanta, Ga. My son Shawn also lives in Atlanta. I've never figured out what the attraction to Atlanta is but they seem to like it. Gives me a warm place to go in the winter!

Now that I've reassured everyone that I'm still here, I would like to have my siblings and their children let the rest of us know what's happening.

Gary

Hey there everyone... It's Matt! Yep, I've won the lotto and retired to Florida where I spend my days laying on the white sandy beaches of paradise watching all the scantily-clad young ladies scamper around the shoreline and pretend they're the next "Baywatch" star.....

Ok, maybe not.

Sandy and I (going on 4 years together now) have been living in Orlando for the past year and a half... She works full-time for a local Toyota dealership, and part-time at Disneyworld (great perks like FREE TICKETS) while I'm currently managing a Perkins restaurant. We're getting along just fine, although coming home smelling like pancakes or having scars from 10-year olds clawing their way through the lone to see Mickey gets kinda old at times. :) We've just recently added two newm members to our dysfunctional little family :) Brutis (the white-with-brown-spots puppy pictured below, and Bugsy, his far more serious brother). We'll be taking them home on August 7th, and are hoping our antisocial, overprotective cat will be good about the change.
We're finally moving a step up and renting a house next month and are planning on buying within the next year or so (that whole, "rent with option to buy" deal). We'll be planning a trip in January or February to Minnesota/Nebraska, whenever time allows. I know we shouldn't post certain information on here, but I'm not too worried, so feel free to write me anytime at mjwalterson@yahoo.com .... I'd love to hear from you all :)

Hellooooooo From Florida!

Yep, that's right, I've won the lotto and retired to Florida... ok, maybe not. Matt here... Sandy and I (going on 4 years together now) are still in Orlando, and haven't really got any plans on leaving. I miss everyone like you wouldn't believe, but I've found that being away from "the old gang" (troublemaking friends, develish brothers, you know the deal) actually has helped me in trying to do something with myself. I'm currently managing a Perkins restaurant, and Sandy is working full time as a warranty clerk at a local Toyota dealership, as well as part-time at Disneyworld.. yep, you guessed it.... FREE TICKETS TO DISNEY!!!
We're currently in the process of expanding our little "family", no not kids.. not yet at least, but we still have Tora the cat, and are getting two new puppies in the coming week... the little whote and brown one is Brutis, and the 99% brown one is Bugsy...

No other news to speak of at the moment, just wanted to say hell to everyone out there! Oh, and ACWL, any chance I can get a copy of whatever family tree work you may have? (I'm having a devil of a time getting the warner side of mine done, the wal