Family Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas, Friends! As always, there is quite a bit to say about the Kinzers this year. In discussing the writing of this letter (and who would be the author), we discussed the fact that it may have to be several pages long with tiny margins and a dinky font. Only because we all did a lot, but none of it is truly newsworthy. Mom’s words were, “We were pretty boring, did a lot, but nothing too drastic.” However, all in all, I’d say it’s been a great year for all of us.

Faith is doing fantastically. She’s still going to Liberty and is finishing up her third semester. She always takes a full load of classes and does her best to stay heavily involved in many outreaches at the school. She participated in a Halloween Haunted House and is a prayer leader in her dorm hall. As a missions coordinator at the school, she helped organize her summer mission to Brazil where she acted as a leader. I was on vacation when she called me from the airport to ask for some advice in regards to “problem kids” and keeping control. I was pretty excited to hear how grown up she was and recognize that she’s now truly an adult and is having an impact on the sphere around her. I must say that it is somewhat weird for me to watch her turn into a grownup who has mature thoughts and mature conversations. I crave time on the phone with her and can’t stand not knowing what’s going on with her on almost a daily basis (I even Facebook stalk and friend request her roommates and whatnot). When I begged and pleaded with her to tell me what she definitely wanted included in this letter, she gave me a long list of things that happened (that are all here) and added, “I dunno. It’s probably been the most adventurous year for me so far.” I think I have to agree with her, because honestly, I can’t even remember everything she’s done. Almost every time I talk to her she’s doing something that sounds incredibly fun (or challenging).

Nathan is officially a military man. I think Boot Camp and training may have almost been harder on Arielei, but we are very proud of Nathan for his choices and for doing well. Since then, he has injured his knee which is complicating the benefits and Nathan’s future with the military. He has signed on with the Reserves and will be deployed in May(ish) to Iraq. Definitely keep him (and Arielei) in your prayers as they are separated and Nathan is doing dangerous things for a large portion of their 2011. They’ve both started to attend Liberty University as well and enjoy being able to see Faith more often. They have an apartment and are enjoying classes which they say are much more challenging than the ones they took at UNM. Arielei gave me permission to say, “Arielei only married in but she's working as a staff photographer for Liberty's student newspaper.” I have gleaned from their Facebooks that they do miss their friends here and are getting excited about graduating and moving back to the Land of Entrapment. I have also gleaned from Nathan’s Facebook that he is getting stranger and more jokingly-dramatic than ever.

Kristen, the intensely amazing authoress of this fine piece of informative literature, is doing quite well. She has the same job she told you about last year and has not had anything too exciting or out of the ordinary happen in the last year. She made some awesome friends, acquired an awesome boyfriend, got rid of her stalker, went to a gazillion weddings and baby showers, got her foot badly broken (by her best friend) and was on crutches for 9 weeks (it’s been 9 ½ months and is still broken). She visits her grandparents almost every day just to make sure they are entertained on a regular basis. She went back East with Jonathan and got to see Mom’s side of the family. She hadn’t been to family reunion at the beach for about 5 years and was incredibly excited to see everyone (and how they had aged so much). It was great to introduce Jonathan and spend time with the family. Just to be a downer: she sang “Amazing Grace” at a dear friend’s memorial this fall; it was one of the hardest, most rewarding things she’s ever been asked to do. Her New Year’s Resolutions were to get two new piercings, two new tattoos and have fun. She ended up with 3 new tattoos, 5 new piercings and had a ton of fun going to parties, throwing parties, being in weddings, traveling, etc.

Jonathan Pierangeli-Kinzer gets a shoutout this year! He’s been part of the family long enough that we decided it was time to include him in the letter. He’s the best friend that ruined my foot. We still love him. He also had a great year and was obviously present for all the family times! He had a blast meeting all the Byrnes at the beach and is always asking if he gets to go back. I always tell him, “Duh. I’m not missing it, so you have to go.” He told Grandma Pat that he refused to call her Pat and would be calling her Grandma. She seemed pleased to welcome him to the family. As we were leaving the beach (a tad early), Uncle Scott shook his hand and hugged him and said, “Welcome to the family.” I’m pretty sure that means he’s stuck with us anyhow. Of course, he’s always helping around Grandma and Grandpa’s house and helps me entertain them. Grandma always counts him in her grandkid list. As I mentioned, we went back East and got to see his entire family including our favorite aunt who we love to spend time with!

Caleb is ancient. He and Tiphani are still living in Oklahoma with the babies, D’Lyla (3) and Mariah (2). Unfortunately, we don’t see them often enough. However, they were able to make it to Grandma Kinzer’s 80th birthday party and also to the family reunion at the beach! They’re both little swimmers, speak multiple languages and love playing until they’re so tired all they can do is cry. It’s amazing how much the girls grow between each time we see them. Mariah ended up crushing on my boyfriend. Pretty sure I’m going to have to watch out, make sure she doesn’t try to steal him… She’s mostly potty trained. D’Lyla, on the other hand, not so much interested in being potty trained. A tad too hyper and enjoys only having fun. They were welcomed whole-heartedly by all the Byrnes at the beach and they grew particularly fond of Uncle Scott since he’d let ‘em sit in his lap and squish his face. Caleb is still working at the detention center and was fortunate enough to get a regular 9-5 schedule which has helped them all be able to coordinate schedules better. Tiphani is working at a local buffet and keeping extra busy taking online classes and working to get her degree. They are planning on finishing saving up some money and relocating to New Mexico. I keep encouraging them to be irresponsible and just move out here and then saving. For some reason, that’s not working. ;) The whole family would love it if they moved home and we got to spend more time with the babies who aren’t really even babies anymore.

Marcie is, as always, maintaining a busy lifestyle. She’s teaching college classes, taking college classes, and still teaching high school lit classes. She’s teaching Sunday school class and doing other things at the church as well. All in all, I’d say that pretty much eats up all her time. Last I talked to her, she doesn’t have much time for a social life (outside of the socialization she gets in school and at church). I tend to tease her about that, but then again, I’m just kind of mean that way. She does her best to keep in touch with all her kids since most of us are spread all over the country now. She does still let us call her Moo which is good. Keeps us all young in our old age. She fixes meals for Grandma and Grandpa several times a week.

John is also maintaining his busy lifestyle and teaching college, high school, and middle school. He’s also involved in the church as an elder. He has a tendency to send his children email forwards and gets a kick out of hearing their responses. He’s still attached as ever to Font and I’m pretty sure that puppy can do no wrong. He went elk hunting again this winter, but fortunately, did not get bucked off a horse (again). He didn’t get any meat this time, but still had fun from what I understand! He apparently gets more adventurous as he gets older which is probably a good thing…

Marjo (that’s their new celebrity name; couldn’t give you the same one two years running) is one crazy (aged) couple. They seem to be over committed much of the time which seems to be the Kinzer way. They miss the heck out of the babies and their kids. They even miss me and I only live some 15 minutes away. Their house, however, is no less full. They are still storing stuff for all four of us and have four offices full of books, papers, and any other paraphernalia that comes with teaching. I was joking with them that they were going to end up on that show, “Hoarders.” I’m not sure they thought it was as funny as I did. Anyhow, they are obviously both doing lots of teaching and keeping busy. They help Grandma and Grandpa out a lot as they had a fairly challenging year healthwise. Between the three of us, I think they see an extra Kinzer every day. Dad may not know this, but G & G make sure I keep up with him on eating Snickers ice cream bars. They bought a Nintendo Wii this year which I still really just can’t wrap my brain around. They both have cell phones – that they seldom answer. They’re really starting to enter the 21st century! Dad doesn’t even need much help with the computer anymore. He sort of got a crash course when he went from a house full of kids (and extra kids) down to an empty nest all in a matter of a couple years.

We didn’t get a family picture at all this year mostly because we are all irresponsible (Arielei just married in and doesn’t take our pictures, apparently, just random LU students’). But here are some shots you may enjoy!

We hope you all have a wonderful

Christmas, a great New Year and a

Blessed 2011!

With Love,

The Kinzers

(John & Marcie, Caleb & Tiphani,

Kristen, Jonathan, Nathan & Arielei,

Faith, D’Lyla & Mariah)

Big Brudda

Today seems an appropriate day to blog about my older brother.  He’s my big brudda.  He’s super awesome.  It’s his birthday.  He’s now officially 26 and that is one of the scariest things EVER.  Well, ok, maybe not.  Still scary.  Not a fan of the whole growing up thing.

Anyways, my big brudda and I did NOT get along when we were kids.  The root of that is long, drawn out, a boring story, and probably too personal to be posted in a public forum such as this.  But we both did our share of antagonizing each other… although, to this day, I feel he did more of it than I did.  He was older.  And bigger.  If he sat on me, I could die. 

Now that we’re apparently ancient, we get along really well.  To be totally honest, I couldn’t wait to call him for his birthday.  I love talking to him, love spending time with him and can tell him almost anything.  He’s great.  I’m so glad I have an incredibly awesome older brother.

New Year's Resolutions

It is that time of year where you start looking back at your past year and forward at the next year.  It’s when you decide whether or not you lived up to your New Year’s resolutions and what your next year’s resolutions will look like. 

Last year my resolutions were as follows (albeit partially to annoy people and partially because I’m not a goal-oriented person):

1.    Get two new tattoos, one of which had to be done with little-to-no thought in advance

2.    Get two new piercings

3.    Have fun

I must say, I did a stellar job. 

I got three new tattoos, one of which had no thought behind it and one of which had some, but not much thought behind it and that I asked the artist to mostly freehand.  The third tattoo I got was one I’ve been hoping to get for about eight years.  You can read about it. 

I got seven new piercings.  One was a “repeat” as I had lost the jewelry and then the hole closed up.  But still, seven new piercings.  One of them is completely unique in that the jewelry was custom made for my ear as it was put in.  Two are technically surgical and look like they are just stuck in my face.

I had soooooo much fun!  I can’t even express how fun this last year was.  Sure, it was chock full of stress as well.  I got two friends hired and fired.  I helped my boss open a third company.  I had quite a bit of family stress including my dear old grandma being stuck in the hospital for two weeks.  BUT I got all of those body modifications (all with good friends around), attempted to be the Face of Fox, acquired an awesome boyfriend, started hanging out with a group of friends who are basically the awesomest people in the world, went on a road trip with my BFF, went to family reunion for the first time in about six years, and the list goes on and on.  I had SOOOOOOOO much fun.

Now I just have to figure out what I’m going to do next year… I’m not sure what I’ll do.  I’m sure I’ll come up with a more intense list of resolutions.  But a few things in my life need to settle down before I go into detail about some of that on here, I think.  But this is my year-end wrap up of resolve.  I’ll probably post a few more times before the end of the year, but this is my personal Resolution Wrapup (unless I got more tattoos or piercings… which is totally possible… my piercer tends to call my name these days…).

Opinions are like noses...

…everyone has one.

And most people should keep ‘em to themselves.

I was recently bombarded by a slew of Facebook emails notifying me of a battle that was taking place on my status: 

Kristen Kinzer can't figure out how David Caldwell figured out the flipping passcode to my phone! I'm so excited for this. Now there's no way to keep him off my Facebook! YAYAYAYAYAY!

The more attacking opinions were all from people who I have known for quite some time (all through church) but that I don’t keep in that great of touch with.  They were, however, more than willing to comment.  Here are some paraphrased excerpts:

1.    Find a guy who respects you and shows it rather than a guy who doesn’t respect you and shows it

a.    This particular comment received several “likes”

2.    David’s posts on Kristen’s wall are middle school-tastic!

3.    David should get on the high road

The other side basically said:

1.    It’s clearly a joke

2.    Kristen messes with David’s Facebook also

3.    Self-righteous people need to cool it

4.    People shouldn’t tell David and Kristen how to have a relationship – people doing that is what ruins a healthy relationship

At this point, I stepped in with a lengthy comment explaining that it wasn’t really anyone’s business who I date (especially since none of these more judgmental people have even met him) and that I obviously don’t have a real issue with his stealing my phone.  I mentioned that David is a choice and that I’m not stupid enough to be in a bad relationship.  I went on to say that each person commenting on the thread is also a choice and choose to be their friend.  I mentioned that everyone on the thread was guilty of being rude to people I know that they don’t and that is what is truly disrespectful and juvenile.

From there, someone else chimed in with the fact that they “knew a better Kekky than that.”  Which is asinine as none of the negativity on the thread was ME.  As a matter of fact some of the harsh judgment came from someone I know this commenter respects.  She was then responded to and it turned into a mild argument which she immediately backed out of based on age.

I know these are all very strong words because the people who left these comments all know who they are and if you’d really like to know who left them, you could probably access my Facebook.  But you know what, I don’t care.  If you want to judge me, go for it.  I’m posting this for the general public to learn how retarded trolling and judging is.

So, here’s the deal.  If a person has an opinion on something they know little-to-nothing about, they should keep it to themselves or, at the very least, keep it off a public forum.  If they must post it in a public forum (which, let’s face it, is going to happen), they should have the ability to keep it nice and non-judgmental and maybe even try some love (especially those “loving” Christians). 

Treating people poorly just because you have the ability to troll around on the internet is not taking the high road.  What’s funnier – the people throwing judgment are all Christians who claim to “share Christ’s love” by being loving.  And they just told someone they “care” about (me) that she has a crappy boyfriend (who they don’t know and who is actually pretty damn amazing).  What they did is what I have written about on here before – they made “Christians” look mean, stupid and judgey which is why so many people I know what even darken the doorstep of a church and want to have nothing to do with religion.  And, again, they did it all behind an attitude that is clearly based on “religion.”

The non-judgey comments and ones who stood up for me are people who do not claim to be religious, don’t attend church and don’t treat people like they aren’t capable of making their own choices, having their own relationships, etc.  And they were not rude – even after being attacked.  Their comments were pointed and classy.  Well, not always classy, but certainly not blatantly judgmental and rude.

I do have to give props to one commenter who did pass judgment as she was responsible and respectful enough to send me a PRIVATE message explaining why she reacted as she did and to apologize for her attitude.

Point is, everyone does have an opinion (a shocking number of people have opinions about everything I do).  And most of these people need to learn how to share their opinion in a non-offensive way and without treating people poorly.  And if you’re going to do it where I can read it (or you have the audacity to throw me into the middle of petty, immature arguments based on things you know nothing about), you sure as hell better be ready to be written up and have the general world see the fact that you have acted so poorly.