How to Fry your $600.00 phone..

It's simple.. Marinate it in a glass of wine..

VOILA!

FRIED!!!

Our first Christmas!!!

What a GREAT Holiday.

Christmas Eve Sarah got here and we started grazing.. We are still grazing... We have ate.
Seafood, Ham, Casserole, Mexican Food, Chinese Food, Ice Cream Pie, Taco Soup, Chinese Food, Wine, Champagne, Southern Comfort, Captain Morgan, Chocolates, PEZ, Peeps, Starburst, anything peanut butter, Cinnamon Pull Aparts, Sushi, Cheese on a stick, and we are thinking about eating RIGHT NOW!!!! Welcome to the Holidays at the Campbell House. whew...

Our favorite gifts by "popular vote"!

1. THE WII.. We are sore from boxing. Seriously my arm has hurt for two day.. (FYI.. Sam sucks at boxing..)
2. A great big bouncy ball. (Cassidi collects bouncy balls and Santa brought Cassidi a very large bouncy ball full of water and glitter, it has amazed us for days. Seriously hours and hours of entertainment.. Well worth the $11 bucks)
3. Erotic poetry magnets for fridges (I know sounds bad.. We bought them for Sarah. We figured College girls fridges could use some Erotic Poetry)

We have had so much fun. Other high notes. Sam, Cassidi, Sarah and I went to Body World.. AMAZING. It was AMAZING. It closes on Jan. 11th and if you have the chance to go, ITS WORTH THE MONEY! If you are not in SLC and are curious what Body World is.. Here is your link. BODY WORLD

The kids have been snowboarding. Sam and I seem to hang back and keep the home fires burning. Brock left for San Diego the day after Christmas with his dad, for Christmas his Dad got him tickets to a San Diego Charger game. BROCK IS SO EXCITED.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Its Sam and I, Cassidi, Brock, Josh, and Sarah at our house this Christmas..

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE.....

Lets go to Logan today..........

We leisurely wake up on a Saturday morning... sun is shining bright and the snow was melting off of our driveway and the streets. We start getting ready for the day and Cass asked her mom if she could go to Logan for the day to visit friends. She said yes as long as she could drop Brock off to see his dad. So they load up and hit the road sometime around 1:30 headed for Logan. Debbie and I thought that sounded like an awesome idea to go visit some Logan friends so we got ready and hit the road right about 2:00. We stopped at the C store in Kaysville and grabbed a drink on our way out of town that took about 5 minutes or so. We were cruising about 80 clear up through Roy and we started looking at the mountain towards Logan.... we said to eachother... wow... I wonder if its snowing very hard over there?? Looks kinda nasty. By Ogden it started snowing pretty hard but just wet roads........ then we started to get close to Willard.... DEAR GOD HELP US.
Debbie spotted some traffic on the other side of the freeway going VERY slow and she mentioned it to me so I said... dang it must be getting slick just up the road.... suddenly I saw break lights ahead.... then I saw a car fishtail ahead of us.... then I saw some traffic crawling up my butt at high speeds so I pulled off to the emergency lane on the far right to give plenty of room and this PT Cruiser behind me skidded out of control and flipped a round into the ditch, a car behind that one did the same thing but kept gunning his gas and actually drove out of the ditch. We were both cheering him on in the car GO GO GO GO... lol. After about 4 cars hit the ditch and many many near crashes near us we finally all came to a dead stop. We then started creaping slowly for miles... sirens all around us coming behind us from the left and the right trying to get through the jam. We then started coming up on this PILED UP, emergency light filled disaster and panic was everywhere.

As we drove by this quagmire we were just in awe. Debbie counted the cars that were involved and she counted 35 crashed cars. Fire trucks, cop cars and ambulances EVERYWHERE. In fact on the south bound lane there was a cop car that got rear ended by a big pick up and there was no trunk left of the car.
During this time we could not believe that we sent our kids to Logan during this mess and Debbie kept texting Cass. They missed this mess by a half hour and did just fine thank God. If we were not thirsty and decided not to get a drink on our way out of town we would have been right in the middle of this and who knows where we would be. I feel terrible for these poor people involved and I am also very thankful that we were not.

Never a dull moment with Debbie and I........

B.I. N.G.O!!!

HoHoHo!!!

Cassidi and Kirsten "catching up"

Today we had out annual bingo Christmas Party. It was kinda a strange year. I was the only "child" the rest of them were grand kids. Nolan told me I was a "senior member".. OMYHECK.. senior member??? SHOOT.

We ate yummy food, played bingo and got WONDERFUL Prizes, and Sam schooled my nephews in ping pong. Great memories and lots of fun!

Side note: Sam did not know how to sing the song Bingo.. ya know the B I N G O.. and the next time you sing it you dont say the B and you Clap your hand and say I N G O..l and the next time you clap twice and say N G O... anyway..
We had to sing Bingo to show him how!!!

Bits and pieces!!!

Ya know when ya have a bunch of stuff going on in your life and you do not want to get to the MEAT AND POTATOES... Have ya all been there? Well this is one of those times in my life so I am giving you a few bits and pieces.. not the entire meal.

• I am starting to question if I should have been born with a penis.... Not for sexual reasons because I am sure I am not lesbian.... for other reasons.. the women I am talking about will understand that sentence.
• I have resorted back to sleeping with a blanky.. Bottom line.. I miss my Taylor. She had a blanky when she was little and she use to cry when the blanket was in the dryer. Well now I sleep with that blanky.
• Sam is quite simple the best man alive. He loves me UNCONDITIONALLY and what more could I ever ask?
• I am kinda on a pity pot. As I lay here in my big house in my big bed, with heat, Christmas presents, running water, and about 100 pair of shoes, my health, my husbands health and my kids health.. .. HOW COULD I BE ON A PITY POT. I Need to get out of my "bathroom"..
  
• Money DOES NOT BUY YOU HAPPINESS.. However, it sure makes life easier.
  
• I SHOULD NOT GO PUT IT ALL ON BLACK IN VEGAS...
  
• Sam see's no reason to run around the house nude.. He said quote "there are clothes all over this place, put them on.".....
  
• My brother is in the University of Utah hospital sick as hell and I have the nerve to be complaining???? I know. I NEED TO KNOCK IT OFF!
  
• I finally trimmed my toenails tonight. Sam is not in danger any longer...

To all those who read.. rest assure I am okay.. I took an ambien (SPELLING) tonight, i hardly EVER do that. I think this is the second time since I met Sam, and I CANT FRICKEN SLEEP!!! Sam made me get the laptop and lay by him so I did not leave him... How lucky am I.

Tomorrow is sure to be a better day.. I MISS YOU TAYLOR!

Santa came via US Postage Service.

Brock is home sick from school today. The mailman knocks on our door with a BIG package from Kentucky. Sam's Mom and Dad had sent Christmas presents. We don't get packages from the mail. I don't know that Brock has EVER received anything from the mail. He said. "IS THAT BIG PACKAGE FOR YOU". I said "it says Deb n Sam Campbell".

Brock: "Can we open it?"

In the box was a present to EVERYONE. Brock has been trying to read thru the paper since it has arrived.

Brock: CAN I OPEN "MY" PRESENT.

We have not let him open it...........yet.

Also in box was some lincoln logs and a sticky note on it that said. Sam, your inheritance from Aunt Lois. I held them out to Sam and Sam got a HUGE grin on his face and he said. "When I was little I use to hide in a cupboard at my Aunt's house and these were the toys that were in there." She still had them when she passed away last spring, 35 years later.

Well Brock snatched those up also.

Thank you so much Mom and Dad Campbell. We were so excited for the gifts and you made one little sick boys week. He was SO EXCITED. Sam has been saying how much fun it is to have a boy in the house. I have to agree. He made that package so entertaining. Thanks again!

Redneck Casserole

The other night, Debbie asked if we were hungry and of course everyone piped up and said YES!! We are not dumb when Debbie is cooking. So she went up to the kitchen and I followed. While she cooks I am usually right there at the counter visiting about whatever while watching her fly around the kitchen multitasking. (she loves it if I play my 12 string guitar while she cooks ;)
Anyway.... I never saw her look at a recipe or anything she just started pulling food out of the pantry, cabinets, freezer and fridge and put them on the counter top. Then she pulls out a casserole dish. Now she just starts tearing it up..... cooking meat, opening cans, whipping up mashed potatoes and mixing things together. All I saw was a blur. NEVER measured anything!!!! Soon the meat was done, potatoes were done and then she started putting it all together into the glass casserole dish. She piles it up higher and higher in the dish then brings the mashed potatoes and tops off the dish with them and then puts some cheese on top..... and now the most amazing thing...... it came perfectly to the top of the dish with just enough room to put the lid on. COME ON.... how in the hell did she do that so perfectly with out any measurements what so ever???? So then she throws it into the preheated oven (I have no clue at all when she even turned that on) and cleaned everything up and we went and watched a movie while it cooked.

Well as you probably guessed..... the casserole was absolutely delicious!!!! I told her THANK YOU and that is was way good and she was almost embarrassed about cooking a casserole. (she is not much for cooking casserole dishes apparently) She called this one the Redneck Casserole for some reason..... so be it... maybe I am a redneck... lol. I think Foxworthy should add casserole dishes to his "You might be a redneck" skit.

I am TOTALLY amazed and very appreciative of Debbie and her cooking (well... and many MANY other things lol)

ummmm. okkkkkk......

I am working away this morning upstairs in our master bedroom. Sam is working away on the main level at the kitchen table. I put on a pair of levis and the shirt I want to wear is in the laundry room. So I stroll down the stairs TOPLESS and Sam is sitting at the kitchen table. He turns to talk to me. He looks at me places each hand on a boob and VERY CALMLY AND SLOWLY says...

UMMM.... JOSH IS STILL HERE...

Holy SHIT.. I went upstairs in a hurry... ARGH!

Christmas letter..

I am very sorry to all out there that I have not sent a Christmas letter or Christmas cards, It's my way of going "green" this year. So here is my Christmas "updates" on the last year.

Dear Everyone:

I know that all of you know that we have had an exciting year! It's been packed full of change for all of us!

Josh: Josh lives with us in Kaysville, he does NOT like the drive into SLC every day but he seems to be making it. He is licensed to do loans in 48 states now and is doing very well at his job. Josh is the easiest of all of our children. He is not messy, he does his own laundry and spends most of his time in the basement playing on the computer or video games.

Sarah: Sarah is in Laramie going to the University of Wyoming. She is living the "college life" to the fullest. She is going to come home for Christmas and spend several days with us over the Holiday. We are so excited to see her.

Jordan: Sam's baby. Jordan just got her GED this week and she live in Sheridan with her Mom . She now is feeling the growing pains of no more high school and exactly what does she want to do with her live. I think we have all felt these growing pains and can be VERY difficult. She will get there we are all sure of that.

Cassidi: Our social butterfly. My mom said to me the other day that Cassidi would have been happy to be the only child. She loves to be the center of attention and INSISTS on attention. She never leave Sam and I alone and wants to lay in bed with us for hours and talk. HELLO WE ARE NEWLYWEDS cassidi you have to leave us alone sometimes.. !!! She is a Junior at Davis High and lives with US. She is in Winterguard at Davis.

Taylor: Taylor is in 9th grade and going to South Cache Middle School. She lives in Wellsville with her Dad. She did move to Kaysville with us but decided she wanted to move in with her Dad shortly after moving here. We miss her and think about her constantly.

Brock: Mamma's baby.. He loves him Mom and it is so much fun. He is in the 5th grade at Columbia Elementary here in Kaysville. He lives with us and him and Josh have a lot in common. Brock loves video games and computer. Most of the time he is bellied up to a computer and playing Club Penguin. He will always be our baby!!!

Sam and I: Well where do we begin... A HELL OF A YEAR! Sam and I found each other, fell in love, bought a house, moved, got married and now are trying to settle into our new family. Sam works for Maverik (obviously) and I work for New Dawn Technologies in Logan. We both have UNBELIEVABLE busy schedules but when one of us is gone the other kicks into gear to take care of this family..

I hope this Holiday Season brings peace and happiness to your family and that the New Year will be all you dreamed of..

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Whats a little breast milk amongst friends?

Christmas treats! I love them. Homemade goodness brought to your work and home. Is there anything better? Well I USE to love them.
I worked in the real estate field for about 7 years. Like any other kind of "service" company Christmas time also meant homemade treats in the office every single day. Happy clients bringing in whatever they are passing out to neighbors that Holiday Season.
I was sitting in my office one day when the usual "stampede" started up to the break room. On the way up one of my coworkers said.. "Brownies in the break room". I don 't care for brownie's (thank goodness) but I headed up to the break room for a diet coke and to chat with everyone. When I hit the break room most of the men had mouthful of brownies. Saying.. OMYGOD you should taste these they are the best brownies EVER. The nice woman who brought the brownies in was in the break room talking to her real estate agent and one of the men said to her. "YOU HAVE TO GIVE ME THE RECIPE FOR THESE BROWNIES, THEY ARE THE BEST I HAVE EVER TASTED...
Her reply....................................

"It's easy.. I use breast milk!!!"

I have not eaten a homemade treat since!!!!

Poor Cass.... she lost some teeth this week

Hey Everyone. AGAIN, I have been neglecting my blogging duties. My apologies but Debbie does such an awesome job I just like to kick back and read... haha.

So last week Cass tells her mom that she has a tooth ache. About 5 days later she is in the operating room getting all 4 of her embedded wisdom teeth out..... lol All she could think about was the IV needle she was about to get poked with. Forget the drill, hammer, chisel and pliers sitting on the stainless steel tool plate....... all she could see was the needle that was about to pierce her vein. Well Debbie and I were in with her in the room that had the temperature set about about 10 below zero, we covered her in a blanket as she was breathing in the laughing gas. The doctor walked out and I kissed Cass on the forehead....... to get a good wif of the laughing gas... lol.... it didnt do any good but we were very tempted to take a snort while no one was looking. We didnt..... but anyway.... the doc comes in and finds a vein and proceeds to poke a hole and cass raises her knees like she was going to take him OUT....... the nurse holds her legs I hold her hand and it worked out great. Cass went nigh nigh in about 9 seconds.
We heard drilling like it was boring through steel my good lord. 30 minutes later the nurse comes and gets us. Cass is sitting in the back room waiting for us. As soon as she sees her mom she gets HUGE tears and through her muffled, cotton stuffed mouth so packed that only her tongue could move says "I ust ant oo ee u" and hugs her mom. Through out the 10 minutes back home she keeps saying "I ust ant oo ee u" and hugs her mom from the back seat. Debbie is kinda laughing at her and suddenly starts to get sick to her stomach. I guess seeing her kid high on drugs and hurting got to her. We get into the grocery store parking lot and Debbie runs inside to get some soft food for Cass. 10 minutes later and Cass said..... "I dont remember how we got here"
Late on that night we needed to run to Target for some things and Cass wanted to go. As soon as we walked in the door, Debbie decorated Cass with a hat and put her in a seat on the push cart..... people looked at us funny for some reason. As you can see from the picture.... she looks a bit mentally challenged.

Anyway... I thought I would share that story and embarrass Cassidi a bit lol Do you still love me Cass? :)

I do's..

My mom got married on Saturday and what a great day it was. The picture above is Me (obviously) my gorgeous Mom, and my sister Michelle.
My mom is a class act. Any way around it my mom is a classy lady and her wedding was no different. Nolan is such a gentleman and truly is my mom's soul mate.
All of Nolan's kids were able to make the wedding. Michelle and I were the only kids that made it. My sister, Jill, lives in Texas and was not able to make it in and Mike had his 4th stem cell transplant last week and he is VERY ill and he was not able to make it. The picture above is the new family. I have step brothers and 1 step sister now, her name is Debbie (great name).
Sam took pictures and it was all around a very nice day. Cassidi got her wisdom teeth out on Friday (different post) and looks VERY swollen in these pictures. She curled up on the couch and slept most of the time. Mom and Nolan.. many years of happiness. We love you BOTH...

Hotel stuff!

Some stuff I love in hotel rooms.

Most hotel's have coffee machines with this fun little buffet of hot drinks. I don't drink coffee, I don't like coffee, in fact I really dis like it. I wish I liked it but I just don't. HOWEVER, every time I go to a hotel room and I see a hot drink buffet and coffee machine.. I make coffee.. WHY? I have no idea.

As I am typing this I have just started a pot of coffee... because I could.

next...

This is something new. I am staying at the Crowne Plaza and this is a first that I have saw this little bag of goodies. I check in and on my bed is this cut burgundy bag and a "sleep soundly" pamphlet WITH a sleep CD.

In the Burgundy bag, an eye mask, ear plugs AND lavender aromatherapy spray for my linens. hmmmm. ok.

In the pamphlet it gives you all kind of "tips" on how to sleep better. Watch the caffeine (then why do I have a coffee machine that is tempting me). Exercise, cut down on noise, light and extreme temperature. It says that the perfect sleeping temperature is 68 to 72 degrees. It also says use your drape clip. I said self... "WHAT IS A DRAPE CLIP?" Then I found it.

It hold your drapes closed for "perfect" lighting. Okay I have no clue how I have EVER survived without a drape clip. *wink.
Now my favorite the bathroom stuff. I LOVE HOTEL BATHROOM STUFF. This face soap is clearly the best stuff I have ever had on my face. I love it.

Just wanted to share my fun little hotel shtuff with you. I have no linen robe. I love white linen hotel robes.

Miss you Sam. Hugs and Kisses BABY!

I failed miserably.....

Well Debbie is out of town and I attempted to cook something easy. Burgers, dogs and fries. Debbie texted me the simple instructions on how to make some good fries so I got after it. I cleaned the potatoes and sliced them up and did exactly how she said... at least what I thought she said. I womans cooking instructions to a man like me is quite humorous.
So her instructions were to slice the potatoes kinda thick, rub them in miracle whip with my hands generously and put some seasoning on them. Bake them on 350 for about an hour.
Can you guess what I struggle with on my male comprehension???? Of course I didnt realize this until after the project was over but "kinda" thick really got me bad.... they were too thick and didnt get done. "Generously" on the miracle whip I was a quite a bit too generous and "some" on the seasoning was WAY too short and the "about" an hour was a disaster because they were not done. Seriously, can I cook a freaking french fry with simple instructions???? HELL NO.... they turned out disgusting, hard and no flavor. As you can imagine, I am soaking the pans in the sink over night.. I may have ruined them...lol The kids took one bite and Cassidi left right a way for a friends house to do homework and Brock went down stairs to play video games..... didnt say a word about them... haha. I can only imagine what they were thinking after eating Debbies cooking then looking at their plates with what I had... MY HELL I am a failure.

The kids did eat some burgers and hotdogs from the grill.... that I CAN do thank goodness so they wont starve tonight. I think tomorrow I will run to Smiths and get one of the hot, precooked chickens with some potato salad. They will appreciate that I am thinking... sheesh.

Until next time..... I am sure there will be more stories while Debbie is gone!!

Stockings were hung by the banister with care!

We go to Target last night to get Christmas stockings. So Cassidi, Brock, Sam and I all stood in front of the stockings and we are debating on which ones to get. For all of you that know me you know I am a little "anal" about my house and my decorations but for some reason I suggest we all get different stockings. Get any one you want they just all have to be different was the only rule. So we picked 10 stockings 1 for all of our kids, 1 for Sam, 1 for myself, and 1 for peaches and oreo. Ten stockings are to many to hang on the mantel so we put them on one of our banisters. I will get use to them all being different (I hope).
Josh's stocking is the pink glitter one!

Business Trips!

Sam and I are good at "Business Trips"! If you have to be "good" at something this is not a bad gift.
Sam's business trips are a bit different than mine. Sam usually goes by company car and does what he calls a "roadie" or he goes by Company Jet and can make it around most of the western United States before I know he is gone.
My trips I usually fly. I prefer to fly Delta because I am working on frequent flyer miles but I don't always get that luxury. I usually get to stay at "rockin" hotels (those district attorney's and stuff usually stay and some pretty fine hotels), and usually at beautiful places. Well this week I will be in beautiful, downtown,................................ BILLINGS, MONTANA. Okay not all bad but remember I am use to San Diego in the winter, Sun Valley in the summer and beach front hotel rooms MOST OF THE TIME. Spoiled I am. I am headed to Billings Montana with a 5 hour lay over in Denver, Colorado.. ?????? Isn't Utah between Colorado and Montana. HMMM.. yep... I thought about driving but my boss did not like the idea of me driving thru Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana alone in December. So Billings via Colorado it is. When my kids found out I was going to be gone ALL WEEK their question to me........
WHAT AM I GOING TO EAT?
Well at least I know how they feel.
I assured Brock that Sam would feed him all week long. He would not go hungry once!