Wisdom Teeth

I had my wisdom teeth pulled out on Thursday. It was weird because they didn't tell me to count backwards or anything. And my doctor didn't look like he was happy. So I was uncomfortable seeing him before he put me asleep. When I woke up, I didn't realize I had fallen asleep. Which is usually what happens when they don't tell you they are putting you to sleep. I usually get warned about this stuff. Today is Saturday and I am still soar. As long as I have my meds, I am okay.
Tara has been a big help through it all with the kids. She has been helping out plenty. I would do something in return for her right now, but I am a little soar in the face. And talking is not something I want to do all day.
All of our kids have the flu. Which is bazaar. Tara and I haven't had it yet. I took Tara and Fred to the hospital because the fever that Fred had didn't go down. But I told her it was just a change in climate. And the flu is in fact going around right now. Collin and Kim have both had it. Collin has got another fever again today.
Tara and I are trying to find ways to relax around the kids. There are just so many of them.
Its been a crazy couple of weeks with all these kids around the house, but all in all, its been good. Can't wait for the kids to start school. It will be nice. I will probably update more information when I feel a little better. My face hurts at the moment. Take care to you all.

Summer

Well we had a long few weeks while in Idaho. Had a reunion with Cassey's family. That was fun.
Then my mom, sister and my kids and I all drove to Kentucky to see my brother graduate from boot camp. It was hot and humid in Kentucky. The drive back wasn't fun but it was still good to see Chris graduate and come back home with us.

San Diego has not been so warm this summer. The news has reported that it hasn't been so gloomy and cloudy since 1916. We have sun pop out every few days but it really doesn't feel like summer. It almost feel's like its turning fall quicker than expected. But that is okay. The weather here in San Diego is always nice.
Kids are playing a lot outside and inside. I take them on walks as usual and take them to parks to play.
I really missed San Diego those few weeks I was gone seeing family. I will be sad to leave this place in December. I have grown attached to this place and it will be hard to let go.
Kimberly starts school in September. I have been looking into some classes for Collin, but he doesn't really need preschool. So I have been thinking of putting him through a tumblers class or something. I am still looking into it so its all up in the air.
I have been working on mom's blanket. It is taking forever to finish. I had to go buy some more supplies for the blanket so that I can finish it. It is almost done. I spent days and nights working on it in my room. I have been avoiding my husband, so he comes up to our room so that way can be together while I am working on the blanket. He is fine with it because he reads his nook all night. He really likes his nook (should have waited till the end of this year to give it to him).
I am also working on other projects to keep me busy.
I try to take some time off the projects so I can clean house and spend time with my kids. I mostly work on my projects when the kids are taking naps, and then I do the rest at night while they play with their daddy.
I have been spring cleaning my home, but it is going slow as usual. Doesn't ever feel like I got rid of anything because I still have so much. Problem is I live in a small home. If I had a bigger house I definitely wouldn't have a lot.
Well this is the scoop on us for now. Happy Summer.

Easter Sunday

Well... It had been quite a weekend for us. Collin and Kimberly had not been good the whole weekend. Kim was home for spring break. Collin is going through a tantrum phase. He doesn't want to listen to anything we say. So that was fun for the weekend. We also decided to celebrate Collin's birthday on Easter since we were getting them gifts for Easter and doing Easter activities. So we decided to put all the excitement together. He wanted a spiderman cake. So I decorated a spiderman cake. It took a while. I was trying to figure out how to draw the spiderman face on there. I wasn't sure where to start. But I did the best I could.
We went Easter egg hunting on the Marine Corp Recruit base. It was better than the Community Egg hunt we went on Saturday. That is a long story so I won't go into detail. But in short, the kids were unhappy with the Community event. But they had fun on the base event.
We also took Collin to Island Burgers. A restaurant with palm trees and parrots in the restaurant. Especially surf boards. If you live in San Diego, you will see many different things here. Which is awesome. We had fun at the restaurant.
Over all this excitement of the weekend, we also experience an earthquake. I was cooking in the kitchen and preparing Collins cake when Cassey looked over at me to ask, "Jenny! Do you feel that?" So I held still for a moment and saw the blinds moving and then I started feeling swaying. So I yelled, "Earthquake". It was pretty quick that it happened, but I immediately shut the stove off and ran out of the kitchen and grabbed Kim (who was freaking out by the way). But it didn't last long so we were safe after that.
General Conference was on this weekend as well. It was really good. I didn't see all of conference, so I am going to have to go back and see the rest of it.
News about Cassey and Re- enlisting....
We have been trying to find jobs available for Cassey's career interest. We have tried the last couple months to find opening's but they have been given to other people. Cassey asked his Chief to put in a good word for Cassey since his Chief knows someone that is giving these openings to people. His chief would like Cassey to re-enlist and stay on the ship. But Cassey doesn't want to work another few years on the ship. He would like a shore command. Which isn't turning out well. They had about three openings for California but were taken. So Cassey hopes to have some good choices this Wednesday when he looks for more openings. If he doesn't get any of these job openings for shore command by late April, we wont re- enlist and we will just find a civilian job. I don't know of all the areas Cassey will look for. But California, Idaho and Utah are among the areas he has in mind to look for civilian jobs. So if we go back home to Idaho, it will be temporary if he can't find a job there. This is all if he doesn't re- enlist for the next few years. So far its not looking good, but we will see how it looks next month. I will post more about that later.
We are all doing well here. Collin will officially be 3 years old this Wednesday. So I am excited because he can go to preschool for a bit. He wants to go to school But I also need to have him fully potty trained.
Take care and this is our Carlson scoop for now.

Valentines

Happy Valentines to all. We hope you all have a great Valentines.
Well... Collin is in the middle of potty training. He is a pill trying to stay on the toilet. But he is doing pretty good for the most part.
Kimberly is doing great in school. She may not need the extra help when she goes to kindergarten. Which will be nice.
Cassey is working hard right now. Busy as ever. They are packing the ship and having to move all their stuff to the barge. They are stripping out the entire ship. I was there the other night eating dinner with him and they had it stripped from one place to the next. It was kind of unattractive. =)
Anyhoo. We are doing good here. The weather has been off and on. A little rain here and a little sun there. This weekend is Presidents Day weekend. Kim has a four day weekend. Cassey may have to work over Presidents Day Weekend because they are trying to clear the ship out so they can move it into the yards.
Well that is all I have for now. I will post more if I have anything else to say.

Kevin did this photo of us at Bonneville Fish Hatchery. It was a ton of fun learning about the fish. My hardest part was trying to take pictures of all the seals we spotted over there because the employers kept shooting off their guns and fireworks to scare them off. But this was my favorite photo done of us through out the Oregon trip.
Kim is inside a big tree I spotted as we were walking back to our vehicles from one of the waterfalls we hiked up to see closer. She really looked cute inside the tree. She could make a cute tree fairy.
I also like to take photos of wildlife. This duck was sitting in front of me near a pond at the fish hatchery and it looked like a great picture to take. "Peek-a-boo"!.
And little Mr. Collins just sitting on the bench all by himself. It was cute.

okay, for some reason my last post didn't update my other photos i tried putting on here. let me try it again...okay i think they worked. He is a photo of Chuy. And then I saw this great area over at liberty Station where we live that has an anchor in the middle of a field. For Christmas, the landscapers designed it with poinsettias. I just thought that would be a great time to take a family photo over there. It was so beautiful I couldn't pass it up. And if I didn't take a photo of the anchor with the poinsettias in it, I would regret it. So we took family photos. It was nice. And of course a photo of Cassey in his uniform. I thought it would be nice for his parents to stand by him and let me take a photo. I also have one of him standing alone in his suit. Which I don't have posted. I might post it later. So enjoy the photos.

NEW YEAR AND AHEAD

Well all last year has been pretty busy. I finished up my classes for a while. I will be taking a break and then starting back up again when I can. Cassey has been really busy on the ship. They have had computer problems and Cassey has had to go to the ship and figure out the problems. He is hoping some time in February he will attend Navy school for a while. I don't know how long that will last, but he is excited to stay off the ship for a while. The only days he will have to go back to the ship are on his duty days. He seems excited to be off the ship.
We had a great Christmas with Cassey's family coming for the holidays. We had lots of presents for the kids. Our Christmas tree was stocked with gifts for everyone. I haven't seen our tree filled since I was little and we had five children and two adults in the home. We were excited to see family. We don't see them a lot. We probably won't see them again until summer time. But we will see what's ahead.
Kimberly is enjoying preschool. She goes to two schools right now. She is under a program with Hawthorne Elementary in the mornings, and then she attends school at Bay Point Elementary which is in front of our house. If I haven't mentioned this before, I love the area we are in because everything I need is walking distance. So it is nice to be able to save gas with the economy so bad here in San Diego.
Collin is getting smarter everyday. Cassey and I have been keeping track of how much words he can say in a sentence. He can say up to seven words in a sentence. He is only 2 years old. But he sure loves to chit chat. If any one asks how he slept through the night, he would go off with words and just talk to you about his dreams. He is really cute. Kimberly likes her little kitchen she got for Christmas. And she also loves her tea set. She plays pretend with us all the time. It is really cute.
We receive a really precious gift for Christmas from Yvonne. A puppy. We named him Chubacka. I don't know if I spelled the name right. But we call him Chuy for short. He is in definite potty training right now. So it isn't much fun. But another problem we face is that we aren't allowed pets in the home. So after a lot of deciding and trying to figure out what to do with the puppy, we have decided that we will be moving. Cassey really doesn't want to get rid of the puppy. And I don't want to break his heart in telling him we have to get rid of the puppy. Because he is really happy. And I would rather see him happy than sad. So right now we are in the process of getting our home pre-inspected before we move out. So wish us luck and hopefully we can find us a home.
Well that is the scoop on us for now. I will post more when I come up with more to talk about. I will post photos up here so everyone can see how we have grown in our family. Loves to all and Happy New Year!