Ready, Set, Go!!

Today Chad participated in the Regional Special Olympics Track Meet held in the Round Valley Dome. His friends encouraged him to go, telling him how much fun he would have. His back has been hurting him, and he is wearing his back support brace under his shirt.
Here's a few of the participants, Terra Merrill, Tyler, Phillip Taylor, Andrew Hamblin....
Phillip is Chad's little buddy He will call and have Chad come over to help him clean, and then he will come help Chad clean. They are also "partners in crime", you'll have to ask Chad about it.
Chad's first event was the 100 yard dash. The boy from Concho that got first was pretty fast! There were about 5 runners and lots of people cheering them on!
I videoed Chad running the race, but I don't think its working on this post. I could tell by the way Chad ran that his back was hurting him. His first silver medal!
His other 'game night' buddy, Allen Ashcroft. He won first place in his heat! He's fast!!
Phillip, Chad & Allen, showing off their medals!


Chad's second event was the running long jump! (Dad trying to give him a little boost!)

He got a first place medal for this event!
Hooray!! He was pretty excited about this!
About noon, everyone went upstairs in the dome and they fed all the kids and people that came to support them a great lunch. Hamburgers, chips, cookies and water! The softball throw was Chad's last event and he did great!!
Another 1st place medal!!
It was a pretty fun day, these kids are special and its wonderful that programs like this exist for them. Everyone gets a medal and they feel really good about their accomplishments!
Two golds and one silver! It was a pretty great day!!

Chad will now got to the STATE SPECIAL OLYMPICS in Mesa the last weekend in April 28-30! We have already made plans to be in New Orleans, but for you kids in Mesa, it would be great if you could support him! They have so much fun, they get to stay in a motel with their friends, swim in the pool, then they put on a great dance for all of them to go to! A fun time for Chad!!

The Birthday Boy!! March 11th!!

Well, for Dad's birthday, Bret thought it would be great fun for him to attend the Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas and be able to watch BYU & Jimmer Fredette in action, so he got the tickets and reserved us a room. Bret came with his friend, Adam and drove from Mesa and we left from Eagar on Friday, the 11th!! It was funny because we ended up at the same time at a gas station in Kingman that they were at! Then he got Dad a " Just Jimmer It!" T-shirt, and Bret wore an "Air Jimmer" shirt! They all looked pretty good! Supporting their 'Cougars'! BYU had to play New Mexico again and the Lobos had beat them twice before! It was going to be a tough game!
We grabbed a hamburger before the big game! Dad was excited to put on his Birthday Crown!
He had the best birthday present ever when BYU beat NM (87-76) by 9 points! He was sooo happy! Jimmer had 52 points and broke all kinds of records! That put them playing on Saturday at 4pm. against San Diego State. That game didn't go so well and BYU lost, which made him sad.
On Saturday, we splurged and ate at the super nice Paris Buffet! The food was all really good!
We had some time before the game, so we walked around and saw the sites. This picture was made out of real flowers, so cool!
I didn't get a picture of the worlds largest chocolate fountain, it was awesome!

There was a beautiful sunset coming out of the game on Sat. which helped take our minds off the loss. We then headed for Utah- it was 7:30 and we had 377 miles to go. Our GPS told us that we'd get there about 1:30am, but Utah is an hour later, plus they changed to daylight savings during the night, so we got there at 3:30am! We were tired! We had fun seeing Nan & Denny and Reed & Natali. We did find a pretty nice car for Reed, a Honda Accord. It was a good trip and a fun birthday for LaVerl!!

What Happened??

They say bad luck comes in three's! Well, we wanted to enjoy some relaxation at Roosevelt a couple of weeks ago, so on Tuesday after our temple work, we headed down there for a 3 day stay! When we walked in, although it took awhile to take in all in, this is what we saw!!Actually, we had already removed a big piece of insulation that was hanging off one of the fan blades. The mirror on the wall going into the bathroom was hanging all lopsided because that wall was also all wet and mushy and the anchors had come out! That wall also has to be replaced!
This is everything that had fallen off the ceiling and onto the kitchen floor! All this damage-- and the water had been turned OFF! What we think happened was that while we were there the last time and the water was on, it was spraying water from a line in the attic going to our cooler. (Last time we went down, we thought we had water leaking from the cooler outside and LaVerl gooped that all up.) When we came back 3 weeks later, all that water leaked down through all the insulation and sheet rock! Thats the only thing we can figure what happened!
My tile floor was covered with this hard water stuff that is really hard to remove! Plus the cracks got even bigger!!
The counter top had an inch of standing water on it and warped it in a few places!
Because so much water dripped down through the ceiling, all the fan blades were bent down. I didn't think they were fixable, but LaVerl put some heavy weights on them and they straightened out! Clever boy!
The lights hanging down were so corroded and rusty, its amazing they are still working! The bases that are attached to the log were full of water!
The poor bar stools had so much water dripping on them and so wet, they had mold growing on the seats! I had to scrub them down and then let them dry in the sun.
This is the mess after we took it all out from the kitchen. Notice the plastic bag? It must have been in the attic from the previous owners, it had several Quaker Oat boxes in there and some old rags. What the mystery was, it also was full of water! How did that happen?
LaVerl took all this in stride and said that it can all be fixed and to remember that it could've been alot worse. If the water had been left on, I can't imagine the mess we would've had!
We were lucky none of the cabinets had fallen off! We just need to replace an 8ft piece of sheetrock and retexture the ceiling and repaint. Also the wall where the mirror was, I think we will put up some wood. So instead of going down to relax next time, we have our work cut out for us. I said that bad luck comes in 3's. Well, LaVerl was looking forward to watching the BYU game on Wed. and when we plugged in our satellite receiver, it wouldn't even turn on!! (We had to go into Mesa and watch it at Bret's, there was no way he would miss a game!) Then I was grilling some really THICK nice hamburger patties on the grill, trying to get them done, and I burned them to a crisp! My sweet husband didn't even get upset with me!!

Happy Birthday Pops!

Wow Dad! Has it really already been 45 years since you've been born?

(oh wait, or has it been 61?! :) )

I just wanted to tell you that I love you and how happy I am that you are my dad!

Here are some of the many reasons, in no particular order:

* You are the hardest working man that I know. Just like Nanna always says, you alone do the work of 3 men. I am grateful that you also taught us how to work hard. I remember you'd get us out of bed early on Saturday mornings to weed the garden or help with chores. At the time I didn't like it, but now I am grateful.

* You also know how to play hard! I appreciate that you always took our family on fun vacations and outings and provided those unforgettable memories for us.

*You put your family first. Growing up, I loved that you would take off work to come to my sporting events.

* You have always been a worthy priesthood holder and have magnified your role as the head of our home. You made sure that we had family prayer and scripture study, that we kept the sabbath day holy, that we paid our tithing, that we had family home evening and that we were obedient to the commandments. You taught those things through your example.

* You are very generous. As a little kid I used to get mad because I thought you were going to give all our food and belongings away! You have always been more than willing to help us kids out with expenses, as well as everyone around you.

*I love how self-reliant you are. I think it is so cool that you have your own well, outhouse, garden, greenhouse, root cellar, orchard, wind mill, solar system, etc. I always brag about you when this topic comes up.

*You are not worldly or materialistic. In fact, things like clothes and movies and music don't matter one bit to you.

*I appreciate that you and mom are still affectionate towards one another and that you treat her so well. As your child, having a father who loves my mother so much is a great gift.

*You have some majorly sweet dance moves. Especially your clogging. No joke- that is awesome.

*You have been a wonderful provider for our family. You worked hard so that we could have a beautiful home, good food, nice clothes, and all the necessities. Not only that, but you also provided things like four-wheelers, a boat, jet ski, and the lake house that aren't necessarily needs, but that we all really enjoy as a family.

*You are healthy and active. You eat well and take good care of your body. I love that you are so into essential oils and whole grains and all that good stuff. As an old man you can still hike the Grand Canyon several times a year and pass all the young dudes on the trail! The only way one can tell that you are over 50 is your bald little head! :)

*You are true blue- through and through! Go Cougs!

I Love you so much dad! I am truly grateful for you and the man you are. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing man as my father. Hope your birthday is a good one!

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.