Kari Graduates from BYU!

Dad and I headed up to Provo for Kari's graduation from BYU on Thurs. April 23rd! It was a great day and we are so proud of Kari and her major accomplishment! This a before picture of Kirk and Kari in Nan & Denny's beautiful backyard! Such a cute couple!

Kari was one of 6200 graduates and the Marriot Center was full and it holds 22,000 people! It took 40 minutes just for the graduates to file in! Elder Nelson and Elder Uchtdorf spoke and it was a really nice ceremony!

Here she is, an official BYU graduate!!

Kari wanted a picture at the entrance to BYU that says, "Enter to learn, Go Forth to Serve"

Kari smaller graduation!

On April 24th Kari had her smaller graduation where she actually received her diploma! She graduated from the School of Family Life and received her Bachelor of Science degree in Family and Consumer Sciences Education. She is so excited to already have a teaching job for next Fall.

These are a few of the 12 girls that graduated with the same degree as Kari. She was the only one with a job so far!

The proud parents! We are very happy for you Kari and know that you will be a great teacher!

Tami's Special Day!

On Sat. April 25th, Tami went to the St. George Temple to receive her endowments. It was such a great day! We stayed at Reed's friend's house, Natali, and her family was very good to us. They put LaVerl & I, Kirk & Kari and Chad in their guest house. Reed slept on the tramp with her little brothers! They fed us breakfast, then a great luncheon afterwards. It was a little windy and rainy, but still a wonderful, happy day!
Here we are in the wind and cold, trying to get a family picture!

The darling couple, Ryne and Tami outside the Temple!

Swiss Family Robinson

If anyone was wondering whether or not I actually go to school here is a little project that I headed for one of my Civil engineering classes. We had to design something and we chose to design the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. It was really fun and I think it turned out great. It was actualy a lot harder than it looks.

Birthday!

Just in case you all forgot on Sunday I turned one year older and wiser too!

So on Saturday Chad, Natali and I went to Tucanos for lunch and had some Brasilian food. It is amazing. I got to eat all my favorite meats like picanha and fraldinha and also ate some Abacaxi (pineapple that they grill with cinnamon). Then for my birthday they had me get up and do a dance while they played the drums and sang "Parabens" for my birthday. I did a little jig as you can see in the movie below.

Then on Sunday (my actual birthday) I went to church and then Natali made me some Shrimp Scampi! It was really good. Then for dessert we had Cheesecake. MMmmmmm. Then later Chad, Kari, and Kirk came over and we played some games. It was a great b-day.

He liked it, so he put a ring on it...

OH, oh oh, oh oh oh ooooo........... finally.
For the past 11 months I have been dating the greatest guy. He is a stud muffin. He treats me like a princess (lets be honest here, he spoils the crap out of me) and he holds me when I cry (which has been a lot). He has put up with me crazy stressed out from school and thinks I look hott in my teal baggy scrubs. He adores that I am dramatic and fiesty. Opposites do attract and we are great example of this. He is so funny. (this is not an opposite cuz I am hilarious). Everyone is in love with my guy. Its true. I'm not sure my Pomp would have talked to me again if things didn't work out with Barry and I. He is just solid and consistent. I love his squishy gutz! I am the luckist girl in the world cuz he asked me to marry him.

I got taken out during a fast break in a hospital b-ball tournament (made the lay up in case you were wondering). This bought me an x-ray, a day of crutches, a week of Percocet, and a month away from running and b-ball. But I think I'll be okay.

OUCH!

Day 1

Day 8

Sunday Easter Outfits

Our Backyard Spring Flowers

Dyeing Eggs

The Post-hunt Spoils

Conference Weekend 2009

This conference I spent time in Roosevelt with M&D, B&B and kiddos. I do love when conference time rolls around. We are so blessed to have prophets and apostles who constantly give us direction. I am so grateful for the words of ever encouraging FAITH!! This time that concept is what touched my heart. FAITH. Move forward with faith. Doubt not, fear not. (Kari taught me that). I loved every word. I love Elder Eyring!

I also loved the chance to do some fun things with family.

Whats missing??

Yep, you got it. DAD's mustache is gone. Now that Mom and Dad work in the temple, he found it appropriate to give the 'stache a break. I have NEVER seen my father with out a mustache. It was quite the shock. I think he looks younger and more like grandpa Crosby. What a handsome guy.

Check this out Dad!

Hey Dad- Kirk just showed me this website that I think you would like. It is called ldslastdays.com
It has a bunch of talks and stuff about that last days. You should check it out!

Call me Mrs. Kinsey!

So hey family, guess what! I have some great news... I got a job! I'm talking a real, grown-up job! I've had a couple interviews these past few weeks for teaching jobs, but wasn't too enthused about any of them. That is, until this Wednesday. Wednesday I had an interview at a school called Channing Hall. It is a charter school located in Draper. It is a new school, only 3 years old, and nice and small. I had an interview and toured the school and the principal offered me the job right afterwards! I was shocked because I know a lot of people who have applied for that position. I feel really excited about it. I will be teaching 7th and 8th grade CTE (career and technical education- which includes business, technology, and home ec.- should be interesting!) and also FACS exploration, which is  basically an intro to cooking, sewing, fashion, interior design, etc. The pay is higher than public schools, the class size is smaller, I get full benefits and retirement, the building is new and nice, and the faculty is very friendly and helpful- What more could I ask for?! I haven't formally accepted the job, but am going to on Monday.  I really feel so blessed to have a job when jobs are so short and before I have even graduated. It saves me a  lot of time and stress and gives me all summer to prepare. Pretty cool huh?! I am like officially a real grown-up now?!

Flat Iron

Barry, Jon and I piddled around all morning on Saturday and after feeling completely unproductive decided about 1:00 to go hiking, so we did. It's a hike in the superstitions called flat iron . DAD, you really have to hike this, you'd like it. It was really quite challenging. I'm not exactly in as good as shape as I would like and getting over a bad cold so my lungs and legs were burning. We ran out of time to make it to the top and I'm hoping I could have make it. But I liked the challenge and It was wonderful to be out enjoying life. I was certainly in a slump from being all cooped up. FUN DAY. GOOD WORK OUT

My brain hurts

Yes its true. My brain hurts from cramming never ending information in to my small little head. I am sick of studying. I just spent an entire week 6am to 5pm with my nose in book preparing to take the National Board Exam for dental hygiene TOMORROW from 8 to 5. I am beyond excited for this test to be over. So say a little prayer for little ole Lisa that she'll pass this test, so the past two years of her life will not go wasted.

Mark, I probably won't get a chance to tell you tom. SO HAPPY BIRTHDAY 2009!! LOVE YA!! I know you'll have a party of a time compared to me so live it up!!

Ladies and Gentlemen...

I would like to introduce to you Mr. Kirk Kinsey, 1st place sparring/wrestling/karate/fighting guy! Yup, that's right! Kirk participated in a tournament this weekend and won 2 gold medals. 

"Fix it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without"

This has become your Dad's new motto, although it is really a very old pioneer motto. He is very involved in anything that has to do with becoming more self-relilant. President Gordon B. Hinckley said, "It is work and thrift that make the family independent." LaVerl believes that too. Here is muffins he's baking in his sun over for breakfast. If the sun is out, he uses this little oven to cook his food. If its cloudy, he cooks it on the woodburner. No microwave for him!! We've had fun baking bread too.

This old wheelbarrow was at Roosevelt, pretty battered and worn out. Your Dad just couldn't bring himself to throw it out, so he 'fixed it up' instead. He found a really solid piece of oak and made new handles for it, put on a new tire and painted it. He's so proud of his "new" wheelbarrow!

He's having fun discovering lots of new ways of cooking food. This is a 5 gal bucket rigged up to heat food using only twigs and sticks. It works great and cheap to make!

LaVerl is really into all this stuff and I'm glad because I don't have to worry about anything. We are really prepared for whatever may be coming. He is so amazing. He has started our garden seed right now in little planters, we are getting fresh milk now so I can learn to make cheese and yogurt, and he lays in bed thinking about making soap and a hundred other projects.

He's quite the guy and I sure appreciate all he does for our family.

Fun with grandkids!

I got to spend a week at Bret and Becki's helping out a little, it was really more like a fun vacation for me. I got to play with Kingston and hold my new little granddaughter lots! She is adorable. Here she is just after she got her little ears pierced! She didn't even cry! She's in one of the little coccoon things that Becki made for her to keep her wrapped up tight!

OOPS!!!! Sorry, I thought I edited this, but I wanted a close up of London !

Becki wanted to make London her blessing outfit, so we worked on that one day. We were excited about how cute it turned out! Its a little big now, but she won't be blessed until May 10th! when everyone is in Mesa for Tami's big day!

So this is Kingston. You can see why I'm so nuts about this little boy! Becki's sister sent her these shoes that squeak, he was so hilarious in them. He loved making noise with them on!

Grandparents again!

Meet #4 grandbaby! This is London Ily Crosby with proud Gma!
She was born Feb. 19th! (sorry, I'm a slow poster!)

Bret and Becki with their new little bundle of joy! (You can

check out their blog for lots more pictures!)

Here's Gpa, he thinks she's pretty cute!

Dishonest people make me sad

Once upon a time my Mom and I bought a car. This car has been a pain in my (more in my Dad's) hind end since that day. My car and the rain are not good company. The air intake on my car was "modified" by the previous owner and is about 2" off the ground so every time I go through a puddle my car dies. Well about 3-4 weeks ago it rained in the valley. I was leaving Barrys house and went through a big puddle. I know better, but it was late and dark and....OOPS! So my car is indefinitely DEAD DEAD DEAD!! Kinda sad story. Why do I tell you this? I tell you this because this event set up the cascade of sad events to follow.
Stranded for a week with no mode of transportation, Barry felt sorry for me and let me borrow his brothers XR-8 Mazda (a real fun nice car).
I study pretty late some nights and got home about 12:30 Tues morning. I had a hand full of school related objects binders, lap top, and huge back pack, went in the house got ready for bed....
Well Tuesday morning I woke up to a big MESS. Some one had broken out the drivers window of Barrys brothers car and decided to make my things now there things and stole some my favorite temperal possessions. Let me tell you, they hit the jack pot that night. They got a $400 coach purse, 2 ipods, a nikon digital camera, my wallet, credit cards, driver license and social security cards and $200 worth of clothes still in the bag I bought them in with the tags still on (yes, I know I know don't leave that stuff in the car). I spent the duration of the morning and into the afternoon filing police reports, canceling CCs, calling social security administration and tracking all the places the had already tried to use my CC. They must have been hungry cuz I bought them $37 dollars worth of Jack in the Box. The next few days were spend finding out that these mean individuals tried to open 3-4 accounts using my identity..... AHHHHH what a nightmare!!

Moral of the story: Don't ever drive in the rain!