Thanks Mayor

Thank You to Crazytown for reminding me of one thing that I do want to do this year. I have shared it with the Mayor. My goal this year, (inspired after I had laughed at myself on Sunday )and then was reminded about how great humor can be in one's life this morning is to.......Laugh each day. It's simple and what I need in my life right now.

Funny or not?

This may not be funny to you but I found this situation in RS to be humorous today. The RS President started out her discussion by asking this question? How many of you made a New Years Resolution? I expected many hands to go up and guess what? Only two ladies raised their hands. Many sisters around me chuckled such things as: I quit doing that years ago or I won't have to feel guilty when I don't keep it if I don't make it and The 'I want to lose 10 lbs" resolution went out the window years ago. Now don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong in making a resolution to change for the better and to sticking to it. However, I choose not to do it on New Years Eve.

Confession of an embarrassing moment today at church. These things only happen to OLDER ladies or young children, not me. I came out of the restroom right after Primary today and was headed to RS. I stopped and spoke with one of Little K's YW leaders when a neighbor came up from behind and stopped and informed me that my back end was exposed! What? Yes, my skirt was caught up in my panty hose. Grateful that I was not caught by a priesthood brother!

Can you Top this!!!!!!

I Messed up and so the interesting story is below the pictures. Fred was asleep with only 20 minutes left before the New Year. Our room had been turned into a safe haven for guests to watch TV while all of the excitement was taking place in the front room and outside our home.

Mom and Bre

Josh just after we had unloaded silly string on everybody.

Little K and friends After we had done our celebrating outside, we ran over to our neighbors and wanted to wish Mark a Happy Birthday. We had the little kids go and get their Dad, when he came to the door we plastered him with silly string. So much fun. Little Gracie did not like the fact that we were attacking her Dad and was crying and getting so mad at us. She called our other neighbor and told her we had made a mess on her floor.

So............here's what happened!

New Years Eve started off with the usual food and party preparations. We had ordered some special steak for the night. Mr. M. was asked to cook them because the mom doesn't cook them well. The steak was delicious! Little K and some of her friends stopped by along with Josh and Breann. Later coming to say HI was Kallee and Duncan. Fred had mentioned (several times all month long) that we needed to spend some money on medical supplies or lose what we had put into an account with work. He has been purchasing items for a first aid kit and decided to go out last night and buy the rest. Upon his arriving home he could see two people on our sidewalk. As he gathered the bags from the car he walked up the driveway and a young woman was crying and hitting Josh's car and then she leaned up against another guest's car that was in our driveway. As Fred walked by her she said she had been assaulted and could he please call the police. He came into the house and told us briefly what was going on and I went and grabbed the phone. The teenagers in our house were a bit nervous and then we heard a knock at our door. The young lady was standing there crying and asking to please call the police. Fred was already on the phone and I asked if she would like to come in where it was warm. Immediately I smelled the alcohol on her breath and all she said was I need to go to the bathroom so bad. I let her use the restroom and then grabbed a blanket and had her sit on the couch until the police arrived. They came with the lights flashing and into our home to find out what was happening. By this time we had moved all the guests to other parts of the house. I stayed in the front room, after all it was my home. The other cops found the guy somewhere up the street and he was plastered and had marks all over him. They removed the lady from our home and continued with everything outside. By this time I had turned off the front room lights. One of the girls in our house wanted to watch what was going on and informed us that the young lady had now been put into handcuffs. We were trying to peek out the window but we were spotted by the police. Not fun to be caught spying!!! Anyhow things seemed to end peacefully and we went on to celebrate the new year!! Our neighbors were texting us and wondering what was going on at the Carlson's? Well they are a strange group of folks and you never know what may happen.

It will be fine in 2009!!!!!!!!!! Looking forward to a great year with lots of scrapbooking, crafting, exercising, family time and some work. Need to do that to support the habits. Happy New YEAR! You can check out more pictures on facebook. SEE YA

It was great in 2008

January - I wasn't blogging then and since I'm horrible at journal writing I have to rely on the calendar for the year to get by. My mother celebrated her birthday this month and is now in her 80's. We went to some serious bridal fairs and made appointments to meet with the decorator and photographer for Kallee's wedding. Also Kenzie got her license on January 28.

February brought with it more visits to the dentist, Preference for Kenzie along with valentines day for us all. Happy Birthday to Josh and Natalie

March - Fred and I celebrated our 25 wedding anniversary. Kallee, Clint,Duncan and Grandpa had birthdays. Blake went to Georgia and we had a very fun neighbor party.

April - Best month of the year. MOM's birthday and pre=wedding and engagement pictures were taken. Blake had track meets and we cleaned the church. Are you bored yet?

May - Mother's Day and Fred helping to take care of his mother. Bridal showers for Kallee and my parents celebrated their 62nd Wedding anniversary. Kallee and Duncan did Race for the Cure.

June - Big month. Somebody got married. Youth conference and Heritage Days were celebrated. Fred starts new job in Clearfield and is delighted to have it closer and ride his bike to work.

July - Fred's birthday. He did his annual bike ride. I rode about 30 miles with him. I think he did 56 miles that day. We celebrated the fourth of July with Kenzie, Mason, Kallee and Duncan.
Oh yeah, Josh and Breann were there to.

August - I think this was the end of the moving marathon. We had moved Kallee, Natalie and our neighbors in a three week period. We went camping to the northslope and school started.
Nat and Clint celebrated their 4th wedding anniversary.

September - Kenzie turned 17. She went to homecoming and I posted great pictures of her during mud Olympics. At any time you can go back and view old posts to make sure I'm getting the info. correct. Fred started part=time work at the State Hospital. Also our beloved Grandma Carlson passed away.

October- -Blake turned 18 this month. We went to the Real Soccer game at the new Rio
Tinto stadium. We also went wheeling up Willard Peak and the weather was spectacular. Blake went to Alabama and the girls went to Disneyland over Halloween. It was such a fun trip. Yeah I missed my husband but he gets sick after one or two rides.

November found us having lots of great fun at Thanksgiving in Orem.

December Lots of family get togethers and Christmas. It was a very wonderful year and I'm so grateful for all of the many blessings that our family received.

Part 2

Limmie found a new way of sleeping in a very cramped kennel. We understand that she has alot of her mother's traits. She likes to beg and jump on people and she snores!!! Must get that from derf's side of the family. I would never do that.

We are a family with many expressions!! Do you get the feeling that my kids enjoyed Christmas this year?

A zebra blanket? Little K is into the zebra thing. She was the recipient of many stripes this year.

This picture is too funny. Luke, I am your father. Let me weld your head to this helmet. Please J don't let your dad get a hold of the torch!!!

One of our favorite traditions handed down from Grandma Carlson was the candy wreath. Fred and I decided to keep the tradition going and we made a few. I found out that your fingers can get real sore after you have done a few. Derf took one to his work party and many c0-workers wanted it. They especially thought it was special when derf told them it was a tradition that his mother had started. It was one way that our family kept Grandma C. a little closer in our hearts.

Christmas Morning Part 1

the light is too bright Good Morning DAD

Oh it's too bright

tradition to hide under the blankets and come in for christmas morning. Blake is making his way from the upstairs.

Kenzie and Josh. Notice who is peeking out from under the blanket!!

Christmas Greetings

Merry Christmas to you all. Sorry that the picture did not turn out as well as expected. The caption reads: Merry Christmas 2008 Fred and Charlene Carlson family and Limmie. My dad called us and was wondering if the newest member of our family came from Fred's side, it certainly could not have come from Char's. HA HA Dad I know just how much fun dogs are for you.

We have had a snowy/rainy Christmas so far. Last night we kept with tradition and ordered take-out from Garcia's and ate by candlelight. I do set the table nicely for the occasion. After dinner Mrs. Claus had not finished all the wrapping that she likes to do and she was looking all over in her favorite hiding spots to find the gifts. (I'm thinking to myself that from now on I need to write down where I put things as my mind doesn't recall locations like it used to.) While trying to locate the gifts Kallee volunteered information that she had found all of our hiding spots as a child. I was looking under the bed, behind the headboard, in our closet, in other closets, the garage, under the stairs, in the trailer house etc. Every place that was mentioned she confessed to have looked in as a child. No wonder she always knew what she was getting. As a child I didn't snoop everywhere, I just unwrapped the gifts that were under the tree for me. Our neighbor Becky told us this year that her son's had done that as well. They tore open all the gifts under her tree one year. I sure chuckled at that one. Kids.........

scrapbook marathon

I've decided that I really enjoy scrapbooking 8 x 8 albums. I was able to do 46 pages in 16 hours. Well....mostly finished. The pictures are mounted and now I just need to add the titles and the embellishments. The theme for this album is "Wishes do come true" Kallee wished we could all go to Disneyland and we did!!! I'll take pictures and post them when all is completed.

Brrrrrr it's cold

Right now in my city the tempature is a chilly 23 degrees. However it's still warm enough for the students to have an outdoor recess which is a relief to the teachers here in the building. Even though I enjoy the warmer weather it is fun to have winter come especially around Christmas. The weather report is snow all week and chilly temperatures. I don't think we have to worry about having a brown christmas this year.

We held our FC family christmas party on Saturday at our home. It was alot of fun. Derf has been busy gathering his 'gifts' all year long. Let me explain. We draw names for gift giving. This year Dad drew Duncan's name. Whenever Dad is on his bike, walking or attending a conference he gather's up the 'good' stuff from off the road and from the vendors. This year he found tools, knife, tape measurer, water bottles, office supplies, drinks etc. He taped all of them to a box and in good ole derf style wrapped it in newspaper and proudly presented his gift to duncan. It is really hysterical to see all that he collects over the year. One year on christmas eve he found a large set of tools and proudly left them at the door for Natalie. This is how it all started. Derf does get a nice gift to go along with the gag gift. It is a fun tradition that has been started and we were already talking about next year and Christmas hasn't even arrived. I hope my kids will post comments about the gifts that they've received over the years.

Annual Family Party #1

These are some new faces in our family. These beauties belong to my nieces Chanen and Tonya. Aren't they just adorable? The brown eyed cutie pie was blessed this past Sunday. The blue eyed chick just moved back from the South and now lives closer to family.

My family gets together every year for Christmas. My brother Scott was the host this year and we all gathered together close by. Our menu this year was Soups, Salads and Desserts. It was very yummy and trying out a new soup recipe on the family was a success. We share some of the same traditions as in Derf's family; good food, basketball, chit chat and the breaking of the pinata. Speaking of the pinata. They sure don't make them the way that they used to. Why does the pinata end up getting decapitated before all the kids in line have had a chance to beat it to death? The adults came to the rescue of the disappointed kids with bats and tied the rope around it's belly. A few whacks at it later and the desired candy rained down to the delight of all the children.

Fun times on Turkey Day

Uncle D and grandaughter

Little R and daddy Nate

Big J and cousins in the background

Mr. F., Clint and Nat

Dunc and Kal. We had a great time getting together with many members of our family. As always yummy food and the traditional basketball hoopla took place. We missed some of you.

We are so grateful for family!

I remember, I miss, I love

Random events that I remember from my childhood==This is long and boring for some but it has been therapeutic for me. Thanks for reading.


1. I remember........ being teased very badly by my brothers. They would pretend they were dead until I started to cry hysterically and then start to laugh at me. Then they would do it all over again and I would fall for their routine.

2. My older brothers, the twins hated to babysit their little sister. How bad can it get? I was the only one. They said that I smeared my diaper on the walls and it was just disgusting. Hmmm.....I really don't remember that one personally.

3. I used to run away from home and hide in the neighbors cherry orchard. My friends and I ate lots of cherries. I didn't think that my mom and dad would worry about me. One time the owner was spraying cherries and we all thought we were being gassed and about to die. I remember holding my breath so long that I nearly passed out. When I finally decided to come home my parents had been looking all over for me and were ready to call the cops. The one and only time my father spanked me was that day. He took off his belt and gave me three good whacks. I deserved it. I scared them to death. I also used to hide in my closet for hours and nobody could find me.

4. I remember running home after the civil air raid drills. They would sound the alarm and you were supposed to run all the way home. I was five and ran the whole two miles.

5. Walking home from school one day a car pulled up and the people asked me if I wanted a ride.

The people in the car looked scary to me so I ran all the way back to school and told my teacher that someone was trying to kidnap me. I don't know how I got home. Maybe I reacted this way due to the fact that very often they would show "stranger danger" movies all the time. Good grief was I that traumatized?

6. My mother was an excellent seamstress. She sewed with perfection. She made all of my clothes and I would look into my closet thinking how lucky I was to have such pretty dresses to wear to school

7. When I was six my brothers were shooting birds with slingshots. I was playing outside with my friend and we went running. Next thing I know was that something had hit me. My brother Scott, (whom I love dearly) told me to tell MOM that I had fallen on a stick. My eye hurt so I rubbed it like crazy. My eye was a solid mass of blood and my dad was out of town running the green river. To make a long story shorter....I had surgery and lots of eye exams. I am very blessed to not have lost the eye completely.


I miss my grandparents and all the family gatherings with my cousins. G&G O. lived next door and we always had snacks at their home. They had a silver tinsel tree with blue ornaments and would come over every christmas morning. Some years when my dad had to be to work at 6:00 am we would have christmas then run over and wake them up. I miss them alot. We always had thanksgiving at their home. My grandma started the pie tradition. She would let me help her make the pie dough. We only made a few pies. My mom is the one that would make lots and lots of pies. My dad doesn't like cake so for most desserts it was pie. Guess that is why I love
to make pies during the holidays. It brings back so many fond memories. My pie recipe didn't come from by grandma, only the way how to handle the dough. Actually an old roommate of mine shared with me the perfect pie recipe that I have used since I was about 21 years if age.



Christmas Eve was held at my Grandpa and Grandma Warnicks home. We did the usual gift exchange until the family was so large we couldn't do it anymore A swedish dinner was always served. I can't spell the word but we always had some sort of fish in a white sauce served over mashed potatoes. Sounds gross but it was really yummy and we all looked forward to honoring our ancestors by having that meal every year. After awhile my aunt took over and we always went to her house. Usually my brothers and I got to spend a week at their house during the holidays and we spent our time putting puzzles together, sledding, eating and just having lots of fun. She had a neat loft with pull down stairs. The girls got to stay in the loft. One time my brother Steven had an accident and cut his arm very badly on those stairs.
We carry on the christmas eve dinner tradition at our home. But we eat whatever sounds good, eat by red candle light. The Red Candle is a swedish tradition also. The light represents christ and the color represents his sacrifice for us.



My mother would hold a Christmas Open House on Christmas day. We would bake for weeks and prepare lots of yummy treats. Most of our relatives lived close by and would come to our home. We hastily gathered our gifts and would lay them out carefully on our beds for our cousins to see what we had gotten. We did alot of visiting and eating all day long.



I miss my mother's holiday baking, especially her divinity. It is truly divine. I've tried several times to try and make it like her but haven't got there yet. I miss the snowball fights with my grandma ostergaard who would chase us all over trying to hit us. I miss sitting between by grandparents at church and getting pink mints or some sort of treat from grandpa's pocket. I always tried to wrinkle his skin and see how long the wrinkles would stay in place.


I love that I have such sweet memories. I love all my relatives, my husband and cherish my children and their spouses. I hope your memories are wonderful as well.

more quotes....

"Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing." Phyllis Diller

"Our house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy." author unknown.

I used to tell people when they would see my yard and compare it to my moms. (which is always beautiful) I'm growing children not plants!

Happy Day and take a day off from housework and laundry. It's okay!!

A random tag from Mrs.K.
I will answer questions about Mr. F.
*What is your husband's name? I can reveal his middle name.....DeVirl. Like in the Singles Ward movie. When we first heard that line in the movie our family laughed so hard we nearly cried.
*How long have you guys been married? 25 years 8 months
*How long did you date? 1 year 11 months. It's a long story.
*How old is he? Older than dirt
*Who is taller? Well it certainly isn't me.
*Who can sing the best? My sweetie and he doesn't like to let people know about it.
*Who is smarter? We're both smart.
*Who pays the bills? I did for years but now it's my honey's turn.
*Who does the laundry? Mostly me but my cutie pitches in and helps very often.
*Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Well F does and then he wakes up in the middle of the night and sleeps on the couch (and it's not because of my snoring.) It comes from his side of the family. His brother suffers from the same thing.
*Who mows the lawn? Used to be the kids.....now it is mostly Mr. F. I help when needed.
*Who cooks dinner? I'm tired of cooking anymore. So it's fend for yourself. Mr. F makes wonderful cream puffs and German choc. cake, waffles etc. I'm not that bad. I do cook most days.
*Who is the first to admit when they're wrong? Me.
*Who kissed who first? Mr. F. kissed me by his dad's car in the Carlson driveway. It was about our sixth date.
*Who wears the pants? My husband calls me the boss, however, the kids know who is in charge when dad needs their attention!

I don't tag anyone. Just have fun reading.

Got the Blues?

Well......you can't win all the games all the time. I still love my Cougars. All fans unite in the
True Blue spirit. Let's play the glad game like in the Pollyanna movie, we can be glad that BYU and all the other teams may come out with more money with utah going to a bcs bowl game. They say around 270,000. nice chunk of money for the school. So be glad about that and we always have next year back in PROVO!!

GO COUGARS!!! AND A HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT!!

Go Cougars!!! I love you BYU!! Happy Birthday to Chanen!! Have a super day you deserve it.

What have you been doing lately?

What did I do ten years ago? Well on this day I certainly wasn't four wheeling, teaching school, I didn't have a cold and I wore a smaller size. I was a stay-at-home MOM and loving it.



What are five things on my to do list today? Do I have to make a list? Well......

1. Go to work
2. Have assignment for stake meeting finished and attend Stake Meeting .
3. Take a nap after work
4. Find some chocolate to eat
5. Update the BLOG with something exciting and not boring.



What snacks do I enjoy?

1. Crackers and Sun dried hummus (thanks Nat)
2. Fruit
3. Hershey symphony Bars
4. Fruit leather from Costco
5. Brownie Earthquake from Dairy Queen



Five places that I've lived:

1. Lindon
2. Orem
3. Vernal
4. Clearfield
5. Syracuse



Five things I would do if I were a billionaire:

1. Pay tithing
2. Pay off mortgage/put some money away.
3. Help relatives out .
4. Donate to BYU and sponsor students in need of an education.
5. Take a trip with family around the world to visit temples and church sites.



TV Shows I watch

The Bonnie Hunt Show
News
Food Network
Good Movies and musicals
Monk



Favorite places to eat:


Brick Oven in Provo
Los Heramanos -- someone help me with the Spanish spelling!!
Any family gathering
Rumbi Grill
Costa Vida



Five things that happened yesterday:


Student working with alpha tiles spells a swear word on their board
Made a visual for primary using the cricut expression
Shopped for ink for the computer only to buy the wrong one.
Went to Walmart with Kenzie and dropped my new 12/12 cabinet on the floor
Wiped my nose so much that it hurt.

My wish list:

I wish that you all are happy and that your lives are centered in Christ and his teachings.

I wish for much happiness and peace in our world.

I wish for good health and the necessities of life.

As for the material things in life I wish for at least one unlimited shopping spree at Roberts and Deseret Book.

To those who love scrapbooking.....

Well....I finally did it. It was very hard to decide whether or not to purchase this product. Natalie and I have debated about this special purchase for nearly three years now. We have looked at other products on the market and I couldn't decide which one would be the best fit for my scrapbooking style. Then someone who loves me alot said that I could buy it. I'm so excited to announce that I'M THE PROUD OWNER OF A CRICUT EXPRESSION!! Okay now I feel better getting that out. To my scrapbooking, card lovin friends and family whenever you are around and need an excuse to come over please do. I would love to share and let you use this machine. Natalie broke it in for me on Saturday. We decided that mom has the "good stuff" like rub on's, embellishments gallore and the great gadgets. Natalie has the best stash of paper. We make a good team. It should be a fun adventure.

Here's to great scrapbooking, card making and crafting!!! (Now if I could just get over yet another cold.....thank you students for all of your sneezing and coughing last week, then I can enjoy the machine myself!!)

4:40 am wake up call......

The fun never ends at our house and neither do the challenges. For the last two days Josh has been complaining of abdominal pain. We called my brother who is a nurse practitioner and asked a few questions about the symptoms and felt that things were not serious at that point. Yesterday, (Thursday) Josh came to my school about 1:00 and it was obvious that he was in a great deal of pain. He tried to hide it being manly and all. We decided after a call to the doctor to head straight to the hospital and have everything checked out. All symptoms pointed to his appendix. He went through the required testing was just thrilled to drink the nasty "lemonade" and wait for the results. About 5:00 it was confirmed that he had a sore appy and it would need to be removed. Josh went into surgery at 5:45 and was out about 6:15 or so. Recovery went as well as it could. He had the usual nausea and pain associated with this surgery. The nurse joked with us and told us to say to him whatever we wanted to because he wouldn't remember it at all. Kallee was in good form and told him what a scum bag he was and other not so flattering comments.....while the rest of us just laughed. Josh just informed me that he remembered everything she said and now Kallee you owe Josh $5.00 bucks for your comments. He delighted me with a 4:40 am wake up call and asked when I was going to get him out of this place because I'm bored. I knew that he would fully wake up about 4:00 am but I did not expect him to call me so soon. I told him that the doctor would see him in the morning and I would be there. I went back to bed only to receive another call at 7:00 am indicating that the doctor had been in and he could go home any time. When I got to the hospital he was already sitting on the side of his bed acting very anxious to get home. The one good thing that happened with all of this is that I got to drive his car to go and pick him up. He's doing well and hasn't bothered his nurse too much due to the fact that the drugs make him sleepy and he doesn't call me.

Wow, I cannot hit a thing

Just one of the great memories with my sister in law, LeAnn. We had a blast with our daughter's and each other in Disneyland. However, I discovered that I cannot hit any target. My score on this ride was pathetic. No worries though I have Blake to back me up anytime.