Carlson Family - I love these guys!!

Earlier tonight I did 5 new posts with pictures of the Carlson family.  I blogged from Picasa and I don't know what happened, but all my pictures disappeared.  Kind of the story of my life lately.  Anyway, I guess I will do it again, but it is too late tonight.  So, here are a couple pictures just to tide you over.

Jerika is 16......

I really wanted to do something fun for Jerika's sweet 16, but I didn't know what to do.  And the bad part about it is that we did end up celebrating most of the weekend, not just one day and these are the only pictures I took.  I think I am slipping in my old age.   That being said, Jerika and I spent the day Saturday together.  We went to Idaho Falls and got her an IPOD touch, yes she is very spoiled.  Then we went to lunch at Olive Garden, just the 2 of us.  I think her dad and sister felt a little left out, but they lived through it and I am sure they are better for it.  Since we waited so late to plan anything, only a couple of her friends could make it to birthday cake that night.  But, they had fun watching scary movies.

Chelsie, Markie, Jerika, Breelyn & Mariah

Trying to decide what to wish for, since she already has and gets everything she wants.

Her not very feminine cake, who knows why she chose this, but it is what it is.

I think it is interesting in these two pictures that Ray and Kinlee are not even sitting by each other and they were the only two eating cake with the party girls.  Whatever, silly people. 

Sunday we went to the Park in Rexburg with the Sharps and celebrated Jerika's birthday and aunt Cindy's birthday.  Yup, no pictures.  I think that was a Sunday that I had a ton of meetings and was lucky to actually get a salad made and make it to the park.  But, it was fun!!

Monday, which was Labor Day and Jerika's actual birthday Grandma Walker came up for a little while and brought Jerika's present.  Then Jerika spent the rest of the day with a bunch of her friends doing whatever she wanted all day long.  I still can't believe I have a 16 year old, I am pretty sure I can't be old enough, right?

First days of school

As most of you already know, Jerika decided to go to Madison this year.  There were a lot of factors involved in the decision to let her go to Madison, but we finally agreed.  So, Kinlee actually started school the week before Jerika this year.  It might have something to do with the fact that Madison only has a week off for Spud Harvest and Sugar has 2 weeks.  Anway, here are pictures of Kinlee on her first day and Jerika on her first day, along with a few of both of them on Jerika's first day. 

Oh and did I mention Jerika got her license the week school started also?  I guess it has been a good thing, she can run errands and drive herself to school, but it is also so sad that my baby is old enough to drive.  She is a really good driver and we are lucky to have an extra car so she can drive to school.  The first week of school she tried out for the play at school, it is footloose.  There were about 100 people that tried out and they wanted them all in it, so she is in the play.  She is in 3 of the numbers and some of the kids are only in 2, so I am pretty proud of her.  She is in one of the numbers that only has 10 girls, which is one of the smallest groups.  She also tried out for the school choir, and she made it into the all girls choir called the Musettes.  She loves it and I think it will keep her pretty busy. 

As for Kinlee, she got a teacher this year that loves projects.  We have done 3 already this year.  She has been really good about them and pretty self motivated, which is impressive.  She loves her teacher, which is also good.  I wonder some days about her friends, but which parent doesn't worry about friends at one time or another.  I am just very thankful I have such good and healthy kids.  I couldn't have specialy ordered anything better.

Last week of Sabbatical

We started out the week again by going to Rigby Lake with Allisa and her kids.  That was about it for the week, well we didn't leave the house much the rest of the week.  Tuesday was mutual so we didn't do much that day.  Wednesday I decided that I had entertained the children enough and decided to have a me day and by that I mean I stayed in my room/bed most of the day and watched movies.  I think I watched 6 all together.  They were ones I really wanted to see and I had recorded them on the DVR but hadn't had time to watch them yet.  So, that is what I did and I am not really sure what the kids did all day, but they really didn't bother me at all.  I think I might have been grumpy that day too, so that might have been the reason they didn't DARE bother me.  Thursday I cleaned the entire basement, which was quite the task.  I organized scrapbook stuff and cleaned the laundry room and then I organized what little food storage I have down there too.  It was a pretty productive day.  On Friday I decided that since all my scrapbook stuff was organized we should scrapbook, so that is what we did most of the evening.  Saturday morning we decided that we would go to Lava Hot Springs so the 4 of us and M'Lynn Jerika's friend went to Lava to swim and then we went to Famous Daves for dinner.

This was Jerika's face after she went down the really big slide.

Pity Party.....

So, I don't know what my deal is lately, but I am so tired and just have no ambition.  I don't call people to do things, I don't scrapbook, and I don't want to be very social at all.  There are some very stressful things happening in my life right now, but as I was looking at blogs the other night, I read Ashley Sullenger's blog.  She is a young mother who last year lost her daughter in a drowning accident.  This is what her post said.... http://patrickandashley.blogspot.com/2011/08/counting-blessings-today.html and I decided that my life is stressful yes, but I am so lucky!!  She added a couple blogs to her post, one of which is a great niece to my bestest childhood friend and she has lukemia.  You can find that blog here http://www.togetherfortaleah.blogspot.com/.  There are a few other blogs I want to post of people who are really struggling and it makes me so thankful for my daily blessings and even more thankful that right now we are all healthy and alive and that is what matters most!!

http://welovemorganwatson.blogspot.com/
http://aliviaward.blogspot.com/
http://lookingupandkneelingdown.blogspot.com/
http://dennyandwendy.blogspot.com/
http://ironmanjace.blogspot.com/

Some of these people we know personally, others we have just heard about or we have mutual friends.  However, they are all very deserving of every prayer we can give to them.  Some of them could use donations also and I am sure anything would be very appreciated. 

As of today, I am ending my pity party and making sure I thank Heavenly Father EVERY DAY for my healthy family and all the things making me tired and keeping me busy on a daily basis.  So, even though you don't know me Ashley Sullenger, thank you for being thankful and making me see that even with all you have been through you can still be so thankful for the things you do have.