Barbara Joan Crebs Carlson

 March 22, 1927 - January 23, 2021

My amazing grandma passed away on the 23rd.  While I had been praying that Heavenly Father would allow her to return home, it was still a hard day.  I will for sure miss her.  She lived in her home in Arizona up until October when my mom and siblings moved her into an assisted living center.  She was healthy and strong up until the very end, which I am grateful for.  Her mom, my Nana, was the same way.  

Grandma was a very organized and thoughtful woman.  She cared for her loved ones through words, emails, and food.  While I was at BYU she had all of her grandchildren that lived in the area over for dinner every single Monday night.  She allowed me to make relationships with my cousins and I am so grateful for that.  

In August of 1999 Konrad and I found out we had to postpone our wedding and I was sitting outside my apartment complex in tears.  I was terrified of calling my parents and telling them.  Grandma sat down, put her arm around me, and told me it would all work out.  She had never come to my apartment before but showed up at the exact moment I needed someone.  It was a hard time in my life and she stepped up big time. They even let me live in their house until we could get married in October.  

When Kimber was born Grandma, and Grandpa, were always so excited to see her each Monday.  Kimber would cruise around this coffee table and and leave her little finger prints all over it.  Grandma doesn't normally let anything stay dirty, but those fingerprints could stay around for a couple of days b/c they made her smile.  

The last year or two that I lived in Prove the became snowbirds and headed to St. George in the winter.  We missed them so much and our weekly gatherings.  This was taken on a trip down to St. George to see them.  

They moved to Arizona 12 years ago and lived in a house my parents bought.  So that is where we visited her from then on. 

After Grandpas funeral:

We still pull out the toys to play with them every time we go.  Hopefully my mom holds onto them! This was in July of 2019:

Another one from Grandpas funeral in March of 2010

For her 92nd birthday many of her grandchildren surprised her on her birthday weekend.  

The last time we saw her was during covid (April 2020), so we didn't get to give her a hug, but we did get to visit for an hour or so and it was so good to see her face and watch her watch my girls with love in her eyes.  

Grandma is known for her love of:

• sports (especially BYU teams and the Braves) and telling the refs what they should be doing
• dessert
• cleaning
• gardening
• making photo albums (she would organize her pictures and type up captions to go with them)
• grandma cake (white cake and chocolate frosting)
• grandmas cookies (oatmeal chocolate chip cookies)
• being organized
• taping her bangs to her forehead so they'd stay straight
• always having mixed nuts and candy around
• having a freezer stocked with twinkies and hostess cupcakes
• watching her family play games, but never actually playing them
• daily walks
• helping older sisters in the ward (when she lived in Orem)

Her obituary:

Barbara Joan Crebs Carlson slipped peacefully from this life and joyfully joined her dear Roy in eternity on January 23, 2021 in Gilbert, Arizona. This tiny lady was born 93 years ago to Robert and Vera Crebs.

When Joan was thirteen she made a decision to, “go to church and make new friends. That decision changed my life!” This simple decision impacted the lives of her brother and parents and, indeed, all of her posterity. She was an influential leader and teacher in her wards and stakes and on their mission to the Independence Missouri Visitors Center and Kansas City inner city. We will praise her forever for living the gospel, loving God and showing us how to serve Him and others.

At his mother’s invitation, Roy started dated Joan. It did not take long for them to become close friends and after dating for seven months, they were married in the Salt Lake Temple. Joan and Roy were a happy, outgoing couple, enjoying each other’s company and being with family and friends. Their love for each other grew throughout their 63 years of marriage – and will continue to grow for eternity.

Joan’s gift of organization was useful in her many jobs as bookkeeper, clerk and secretary in elementary schools and government offices. She was a dedicated employee, but always felt her greatest work and joy was with her family and within her home. Family was so important that she did not want to lose or forget the family’s stories and memories. She blessed her family by recording our history in photo albums for nearly 40 years.

Joan had a great love for her ancestors. Her father did not know his birth year, which she was able to find. She found extensive records of her Swiss and English ancestors back to the 1700s, which took many, many years. We are sure she is happily meeting her family now. The culmination of this service to her ancestors was traveling to Europe to see where they had lived. She traveled through three countries in two weeks, walking many miles daily and remained excited, energetic and cheerful…..at age 79. What joy!

She and Roy prepared Monday night dinners for all of her grandchildren in Provo for 17 years. She loved having them visit and they were able to get to know each other. During those same years she lovingly cared for her parents and later for her dear husband.

Joan loved the beach, BYU sports, waterskiing, swing dancing, sewing and quilting, camping with their trailer, enjoying nature, and traveling to see family.

Joan ‘s life was given to Roy, her family and Heavenly Father. Her family is grateful for her steadfastness, sense of humor, and decision to be happy and grateful no matter what happened. She is survived by four children: Susan (Arnel) Brown, Nancy (Bert) Brinton, Robert (Gaynelle) Carlson, and Leanne (Clay) Riding, 21 grandchildren, 50 great-grandchildren and 1 great-great granddaughter. Among those delighted to welcome her home are her parents Vera and Bob Crebs, her brother Richard Crebs, her grandson Chris Carlson, two great grandsons, Liam Fairbanks and Ian Crabtree, and Roy’s mother whom Joan dearly loved, Caroline Carlson.

Joan’s graveside service will be held Friday, January 29, at 12:00 pm at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park & Mortuary (3401 Highland Dr, Salt Lake City, UT 84106). Due to covid the graveside service will be short and we request masks be worn and social distancing practiced. The service will be recorded and available for on demand viewing at www.facebook.com/wasatchlawnmemorial.

Condolences can be expressed at Wasatch Lawn Mortuary www.wasatchlawn.com.

In lieu of flowers, we ask that donations be made to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Humanitarian Service.

We want to thank her loving caregivers at Beehive Homes of Gilbert and the Canyon Home Care and Hospice for their great love, kindness and service to mom.

Week #3 (Jan 18-24)

On Monday, MLK Day, we headed up towards Crystal Mountain to play in the snow.  We decided to bring Ollie with us.  He was miserable on the ride there and barked like crazy while we were there.  But he had a fun time, we may have had more fun had he not come, but oh well.  

We had dinner at the Crabtree's that night...she made yummy enchiladas and 3 different desserts!  She also had this crazy candle that eventually had little "fireworks" and played Happy Birthday.  It came with so many warnings on how to use it and all the dangers involved with this candle.  We were glad we all survived its use :)

On Tuesday, which was also my birthday, Camryn got to go to school!!!!  She was so excited and we were for sure "pleasantly surprised" that it happened.  All year we talked about how we planned on all of 2nd grade being done at home, but that we would be pleasantly surprised if she actually got to go.  She was all smiles and loved every minute!

Stole this off the schools facebook page...she's in the middle of the back row sitting on what she thinks is the best chair EVER!  Her teacher is absolutely amazing and I can't even state how grateful I am that she gets to have her in person!

Konrad put up the wavy guy for my birthday and the preschooler's LOVED him.   It was a noisy outside time, but it was worth the smiles and laughter.  

A few weeks ago I was telling Konrad how I need a hat umbrella for walking Ollie b/c holding the leash, a bag of poop, and the umbrella (and sometimes my phone as I marco polo) gets pretty tricky.  I didn't really mean I wanted one, but now I have one.  I wonder if I'll ever be brave enough to use it...

I needed a new class picture of my afternoon class b/c of my 2 new students.  They make me smile!

Cam gets some crazy bed head these days!  We discovered a cowlick (I had to look up how to spell that and had forgotten that it's spelled like that!!!) since she got her hair cut and it makes things a little crazy back there!

Saturday morning Konrad and I drove to Newcastle golf course to check out a modular home.  The blue skied day looked amazing from up there.  We were surprised to see it so smoggy in Seattle.  

Here is the backside of the modular home.  It looks a little better from the front.  Inside was pretty cool though.  

Because we were near Thai Chef we went and got some take out.  So yummy!

We ate it sitting in the parking lot of Newcastle Beach...one of my favorite beaches on Lake Washington.  It was very chilly out so we just stayed in the car.  

While we were gone the girls had a tea party.  They got all dressed up and did their makeup (Cam even got to wear mascara!).  Sam made brownies and pancakes, and cut up fruit. It made Camryn's day! 

Cam had asked me on Friday night if she could go get her ears pierced on Saturday, but then we were a little busy and I forgot about it.  She came in around 3:30 and asked if we could go b/c Sam wanted to go with her and Saturdays would work best for that.  We jumped in the car and drove to Claire's.  I had specifically asked for them to do both ears at the same time (had even called ahead to make sure there would be 2 people there) but then the girl forgot and I didn't' stop her and she ended up doing them one at a time.  Cam was bummed it happened that way b/c she had to go through the pain twice, but she was a champ and did it anyways.  Her big old tears broke my heart though.  

Luckily Sam saved the day with some snuggles!

She originally wanted her birthstone, but those were $71 so I asked her choose something cheaper.  She went with cute little stars :)

So grateful I was able to listen to Chelle speak at her ward in Austin from my computer at home :) A covid plus!

• Saturday morning my Grandma Carlson passed away (she'll get her own blog post in just a minute) so I was teary for a lot of the day.  We knew it was coming.  Her body was shutting down and they, my mom and aunt Nancy, had decided to have her oxygen removed Thursday night.  They thought she would go quickly after the oxygen was removed, but she lasted longer than expected.  She's a fighter!
• Saturday night the Leonard's invited us over for dinner....their yummy pizzas they make in their awesome pizza oven (it gets to like 900 degrees!).  The girls all came with and we had a good time.  It was nice to be social and to have our whole family go.  Made my momma heart happy.  
• I didn't call Kimber about Grandma passing and felt really bad when she saw it on social media first.  I learned my lesson!
• On my birthday we watched the new Mulan and ate popcorn for dinner.  
• Friday night Mel Broadbent, Lolly Weed (Wilcox??), Sam Ellsworth came over.  They brought Gor Gai and we sat and talked for 3 hours.  It was great.  They are all going through some crazy things.  All have been divorced (or are in the process), Lolly has remarried though.  Love them all and their friendship!  It really is crazy to look at how different everything/everyone is from when we lived in Covington.  So many people have moved away, so many have left the church.  Life was so different 10 years ago!
• Camryn is one of 3 kids that ride the bus to school.  So weird.  
• One of my preschool moms chose to terminate her pregnancy this week. She found out the baby had sickle cell disease.  It was such a hard week for her and it just broke my heart.  I reached out to her and she was able to share with me the process and the experience.  I dropped off a box of "sunshine" for her yesterday just to let her know I cared and that I was so sorry for everything she had to go through and what the baby had to go through.  It was my first real experience with this type of situation and I felt all the emotions for all involved.  Life is so hard sometimes.  
• President Biden became president on Wednesday.  I was really worried that Trump supporters were going to make a huge stink and that President Biden might even be in danger, but it appears it all went smoothly and things have remained calm.  I didn't watch any of the inauguration and am a little bummed about that (pretty sure most (if not all) of it happened during preschool).  I hear it was a pretty cool ceremony.  
• I had a training with the YW presidents of the Stake on Thursday.  It was a good meeting.  I love working with all these ladies.  
• This week felt like a "normal" week.  Volleyball practices, gymnastics, seeing friends a couple times, Cam at school 2 days, it was busy and fun.  

Week #2 (Jan 11th-17th)

Camryn requested some popcorn and wanted to make it in the Whirley Pop.  I had her make it herself.  So yummy!

Kimber's first day of the semester picture :)

Sam's art assignment using an item from the kitchen :)

I was mid-curl when my weight broke.  It was a sad moment.  I actually cried b/c right now it is so hard to find any weights.  Working out since that day hasn't been as easy, but I'm making it work.  I bought these weights years ago for Konrad...probably 10+ years ago.  Funny thing is that they weren't heavy enough for him...he for sure needed more than 12.5 lbs, but I didn't even realize it when I bought them.  I remember seeing 25 lbs somewhere on the packaging and thinking they would work for him.  Turns out I got way more use out of them than he did.  Also, as a side note, I'm super regretting the fact that I made him sell the amazing weight set and bench we had (Pharmacy One Source let him have it when they closed down the office) about a year and a half ago.  Who knew I wouldn't be able to attend the gym anymore and would have to work out from home.  I would LOVE those weights right now!

Camryn was able to start gymnastics at the YMCA again this week.  She was so excited and we are going to do everything in our power to get her to every class this session so she can move past beginner 1.  She really doesn't need to be in it, but b/c we haven't completed a full session we can't put her in beginner 2 yet.  Wish us luck!

We loss power on Wednesday night for about 30 minutes (there was a huge wind storm the night before that left thousands of people without power, some people for 3-5 days!) and during that time Al and Sam put on a 2 woman performance of Frozen.  It was epic.  Obviously the lights were back on by end of the show :)  Right after this moment, Allison dove onto the bed, attempting a somersault and ended up landing on her head and bouncing back down to the floor.  It was hilarious!

Once again we upgraded Oliver's kennel.  He just keeps growing.  This one is way to big for him, but he loves it.  He sleeps through the night again b/c he can stretch out and probably relocate every 30 minutes like he does if he's sleeping on the floor in the house.  I think he likes to sleep in a cool spot so he changes places frequently.  I don't love how big it is, but if it helps us all sleep better we'll take it!

Thursday was beautiful so I invited some of Cam's friends from school to meet up at Jenks to play.  It was nice catching up with the moms and enjoying a beautiful sunset!

Camryn has been wanting her haircut for a long time.  I decided b/c it was getting so hard to brush and b/c we are going to Maui in February (salty sandy hair is no fun to brush ever, let alone when its already pretty tangled) now was the time to let her do it.  It is really unreal how much hair she has.  A different stylist walked by when she was getting her hair washed and looked at the pile and then at Cam's little body at the washing station and said "Did all that come off of her???" Pretty funny!

It was a pretty week around here!

• For my birthday Konrad got a few famous people to make me happy birthday videos.  So far Ozzy from Survivor and William Hung (a not great singer who auditioned for American Idol and became famous afterwards).  It's pretty awesome.  Very curious who will be wishing me happy birthday for the next 3 days...  Update:  Paige Davis from Trading Spaces was yesterday's :)
• Konrad and I did a Tesla date night last night.  Cafe Rio take out (we still can't sit in restaurants) while watching Cobra Kai in the car, and then got some Crumbl cookies.  It was really too much food and I felt gross the rest of the night.  
• Allison was able to have volleyball practice INSIDE this week!  Woohoo!
• Allison also started taking piano again on Monday.  I hope she continues to enjoy it!  I love hearing her play again.
• I am so thankful for Marco Polo right now and for the conversations it lets me have with my family and friends that live far away.  It so nice hearing their voices, seeing their faces, and knowing what's going on in their lives each week.  
• We had a fun time at my parents yesterday.  My mom is already in Arizona, so we missed her, but there were games (Hearts, Nerts, UNO, Taboo) and breakfast for dinner (my choice for my birthday) a present from the Dances (a 2 person Code Names game) and lots of laughing.  My dad heads to Arizona this week, so that was the last dinner on Sunday's at grandma and grandpas for a few months.  :(