Feburary 'goings-on' at the Crosby house!

"Out with the old. . . ."---I'm sad to say, but after 20 years our old fish tank was leaking so much that it about ruined my bookshelf before I realized it.


I moved the old tank into the utility room so my shelf could dry out. As long as the water level was down half way, it didn't leak anymore. My fish didn't like it so well, but they survived the move! Everything about this tank was old, the light fixture was all broken, there was lots of corrosion on the lid, etc. It was time!



So....."In with the new!" This is a brand new acrylic tank!! Leak proof and very light weight. I still need to get some new stuff and some new fish, but its pretty nice. Tami helped me find it online, its almost just like my old one as far as shape and size, 36 gallon and beveled front.

Every Friday night is game night for Chad. He has about 4 buddies that either come here or they go to their houses and play games and eat junk! They have a grand time. All of them are so funny, we enjoy having them alot. Two of them are missing in this picture.


We've had some really COLD weather in Feb. I'm sure it must have broke some records!
Never in the 26 years that we've lived in our house, has the garage been cold enough to freeze!!
If you look closely, you can see the -14 degree showing on our weather gauge. That was what it was first thing in the morning. It was 71 degrees in the house.
Then the high all day was -7 degrees!! Its the coldest I've ever seen it in Eagar! Its still cold, but not that cold!! I think I'm ready for some nice weather!

Reed- the civil engineer

Reed is pretty cool! I'm sure he will post about this on his blog, but I just thought I'd share this article and pictures from the BYU website about what he has been up to! I'm so proud of my brother! I know he has been working really hard on this and I'm excited to hear how they do!

News Release

It's BYU undergrads vs. earthquakes in seismic design competition

Engineering students hope to shake and quake their way to victory

Looks like Jimmer’s not the only one looking to bring down the house in San Diego this month. A group of BYU civil engineering students will head there to compete in an international competition that pits student-built structures against simulated earthquakes.

Student teams will be competing Feb. 10-11 in an annualundergraduate competition sponsored by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. Each team constructs a three- to five-foot building from balsa wood that is then tested with a machine called a shake table—a 2.25 square-foot machine that can recreate the motion and intensity of past earthquakes.

Trace Farmer, president of BYU’s EERI student chapter, helped organize the trip, write the initial proposals and get the hardware necessary to prepare the team to do well in the competition.

“Earthquake design is a relatively new field, but it’s really important and exciting,” he said. “You look at the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile and see there’s a huge need for that kind of work. This competition is just one more thing to help us be successful as professionals.”

Competition has been stiff in the past with schools such as UCLA, UC-Berkeley and UCSD competing, but BYU has performed well historically. They placed second in 2009, the team’s first year, and fourth last year.

Andrew Van Every is the team captain of BYU’s 12-person seismic design team. He was responsible for designing this year’s structure: a building with an X-shaped base and an octagon roof made with 468 feet of balsa wood. He said his design likely won’t be seen on the San Diego skyline anytime soon because of the differences between balsa wood and conventional building materials. But, the students have learned the types of structures that work best in given situations.

“I’m just now starting to get into the upper-level design courses, but I can already see how I can apply what I’m learning in class to this building,” Van Every said.

Kyle Rollins, professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering, is the team’s faculty advisor.

The winners of the competition will be announced Feb. 12.

Things that keep me busy!

This is kind of along the lines of Kari's post about what she does all day! I decided that since I wanted to make my blog more of my journal, that I would post more of what I do to keep busy!Well I have alot of help from my friends- Debbie decided that while she was in Mesa that she'd get some good oranges, tangerines, grapefruits, lemons and a few nuts to sell. So I had to start calling and emailing all our friends and customers to take orders. I was also in charge of getting a sign up, advertizing our goods. I put one big one up and 3 - 8 x 11 (yes paper size) pointing the way to Debbie's house. Well my signs were pretty pitiful, I don't know if anyone even saw them, so Debbie & I decided we'd try selling some along the main road. We pulled up in a parking lot down by Sonic and peddled our extra citrus. It was freezing cold, but we sold quite a few that day! That's my friend Debbie!

Oh, as far as my signs, Debbie called to tell me that some people came by her house to get some oranges and she asked how they found out about them. They told her they were out walking and saw the signs! So at least I got some of the pedestrian traffic! (which is pretty funny!)

Then we had some company for a few days. Aunt Nan & Uncle Denny came to see us and to watch some Round Valley Elks basketball! It was fun to go to a few games, since we don't have kids playing any more, we never go. LaVerl also took them around to see all the solar systems that he helped put in around town. There really isn't much to do in Eagar!

It was so fun having them here, what great people they are! They were sure loved here in Eagar by everyone!



Then I had this little project that kept me busy for a few hours! What is it?

That is a 43# block of cheese! That is alot of cheese! I didn't have room in my fridge, so I started cutting it into smaller chunks....

I was lucky I didn't cut off any more fingers

Tami & Blake helped me package it into quart size freezer bags after we grated it.....

I grated cheese for about 3 hours, in between making dinner, etc. with my handy-dandy old hand grater. Maybe with something electric it would've only taken 2 hours!!

Then I sliced some cheese and Chad even helped slice the cheese, that was scary! When the chunk got too small, I finished it!

Then we put all that cheese into freezer bags! I think I got over 40 bags! That is alot of CHEESE! I just love all these little projects that keep me busy!