Mexico Honeymoon!!!!!!

I had such an incredible trip with Debbie I cant even begin to explain all the details and good times we had. This was an absolute dream come true for me to be with the love of my life in one of the most gorgeous places in the world. My wife is so beautiful and fun and going on a trip like this just brought be closer to this one of a kind lady.

I learned a couple of things while I was in Mexico and I wanted to tell you a few of them...lol

• Debbie LOVES turquoise ( I need to take her to AZ with me on my next trip :) )

• Guacamole in Mexico is SO good and a meal in itself. (lunch almost every day lol)

• Never let the beach bar waiters give a shot of tequila to your wife (they get a cheap feel the bastards)

• Mexicans LOVE my wife

• If your a drinker the all inclusive hotels are DEFINITELY the way to go.. hehe... WOW

• NEVER go to town when 5 cruise ships are ported and unloading. Good HELL just hit the bar.
• WE are BOTH terrible shoppers. Horrible shoppers..... every time we hit the stores we get upset and want to hit the other side of the island and partake with a beverage.... so we did.
• If you ever make it to Cozumel.... make sure you rent a car and hit every beach bar as you make your way around the island. That was the best day we had there and that really is saying a lot.

• The sunsets in Cozumel are the best I have ever seen in my life. Maybe it was the company I was keeping but WOW I was blown away. And yes... this is the spot we made love on the beach hehe...

• I love hammocks..... they are very cool in the evenings to sit and visit about whatever... very intimate... and yes... we made love on the hammock as well.... yes I am a lucky man I know.
• Debbie can actually drive a stick shift with a beer in hand and a smile on her face. We had a beer at a Mayan fertility ruin, paid the fee and made it as far as the bar then left....lol... we are so bad!!!!!
• PLEASE be sure to DVR the Bachelor and American Idol. We did thanks God I about got run over on her way to the DVR

Ok I will stop there for now. We will have many other stories that will come out while we visit with friends I am sure... lol

Thank you Debbie!

Aola!!!

We had the most amazing trip. I am not going to get real "wordy" I am going to let Sam tell ya about the trip. I just want to post a few photo's and get back to my laundry and house cleaning.

Thank you so much Sam for the wonderful memories and a very very GREAT honeymoon.

Can we go back now????

letter..

Dear Kids:

I am trusting you with things that are very dear to me...
1.. EACH OF YOU.
2. MY HOUSE.
3. EVERYTHING I OWN.

I am trusting you with them because at this very second.. I TRUST YOU.

Please feed Brock, make sure he showers, gets to school, is warm. I know Brock is 10 but he is use to having Mom around. Cassidi treat him like he is 3. This seems to work for me.. (ha ha)

Cassidi.. Please, Please, Please. Don't do anything super bad. I understand your parents are out of town for a week.. HOWEVER don't do anything REALLY REALLY REALLY bad. Also Cassidi have a FABULOUS Birthday. I am sorry I am missing it. I love you and happy birthday.

Brock and Cassidi and Josh. I am a clean freak.. you guys ALL know this. Please run hot soapy water and wipe the counter tops off. Clean up after Yourselves. Don't drive on the lawn (please). Vacuum when needed and CLEAN YOUR BATHROOMS. Clean like crazy people before I get home..

I love you and will miss you dearly. However.. think of me the next week. IN MEXICO..

Swallow Hard!!!

Well the final count down for Sam and I to leave for Cozumel, Mexico is here.

I went shopping so the kids have things to eat while we are gone. While you read this keep in mind that WE DO NOT EAT FROZEN FOOD AT OUR HOUSE. Very rarely do we EVER have frozen dinners, frozen pizza, frozen fish sticks. My kids are spoiled.. I cook almost every night or if I don't cook we have yummy left overs or something. Josh (who is 21) and Cassidi (who will be 17 friday) will be watching Brock. I AM NERVOUS AS HECK... So there will be no cooking. We go to the grocery store tonight and I had the kids pick out frozen food they can eat. They were like.. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!.. below picture of our outside freezer now.All of this frozen goodness and a fridge full of lunchables, yogurt, fruit, chips, jello, plus cold cereal. They will be okay.. Right?

Side note.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CASSIDI.... We are going to miss Cassidi's 17th Birthday. We are celebrating her birthday tomorrow. We are going to dinner at PF Changs and I always decorate the house for their birthdays. So here are some fun pictures of that. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN CASS.. I LOVE YOU AND WILL MISS YOU.. TAKE CARE OF BROCK!!!

Sunday night at the Campbells

Sunday night we hung out, watched football, ate, goofed off and had a great time. The kids dont have school on Monday so Cass and Josh went to a movie while Debbie, Brock and I played the Wii. Brock kicked our butts on Tennis way bad. Fun Fun night!!!!! Go Cardinals!!!!!!!

my favorite seasoning!!!

One time a friend of mine, Jessica, posted on her blog about this chicken broth she loved. I ran out to the store, bought the chicken broth and I absolutely love it.. So I wanted to share one of my favorite seasonings.
I came upon this seasoning in kinda a strange way. Sam and I go to a friends house for dinner and they serve seafood. Honest to god the best seafood ever. The obvious question...
WHAT IS ON THAT SEAFOOD.
She told me that it was a seasoning called "old Spice".
I go home and I am making seafood and I go to my "local" grocery store and I could NOT find "old spice" any where. So I substituted it for Zatarn Ceorle Seasoning. and hence... "A LOVE IS BORN"!!!!

I LOVE THIS SPICE... I don't only use it on seafood, I use it on steak, roast, veggies, ANYTHING... My kids love it, Sam loves it, and I AM SO IN LOVE WITH IT..

Go get some today!!!! I am serious...

Side note* I did find the "old spice" seasoning and I do love it on seafood but NOT nearly as much as this seasoning...

Let me know what ya think!!!!

4 DAYS TILL MEXICO.. YEEHAWWWWW....

She said Yes.

Cassidi and I did a real quick cute poster to answer Cassidi's "dance date" back.

Cassidi on the left. Her friend Calista on the right!!!!

Dance Invitation

Do you guys remember the dance invitations I experienced when I lived up in Logan with Debbie and the kids? For those of you who don't remember or have not been reading our blog that long I will post some pictures below. Here is also a link to one of the blogs I posted back then BLOG




I have never experienced dance invitations like this before and after asking around and talking to a few other people I came to the conclusion that this weird way to invite your date was isolated to Cache Valley. Well now I have PROOF!!!! Cassidi came home from school the other day and handed us this -



How awesome is that????? No trashing of the truck... no trashing of the house.... simple, cute, fun and exciting. Way to go Cass. Now Debbie and Cass are thinking up a cute way to respond to say YES. I love this stuff... so fun!!

I love you Cassidi!

P.S. Countdown to Mexico is now 6 days!!!!!!!!

Wikki Sticks

Cassidi, Brock, Sam and I went out to dinner last night at Roosters. For those of you that don't know what Roosters is its a restaurant micro brew place. It has kinda a funky menu but a neat atmosphere.

Brock orders a kids meal and with his kids meal comes these things called wikki sticks. He is looking at them in the package and said. "Do I eat these?". Well the answer to that is NO. They are the coolest things. They remind me of a wick of a candle but the wax does not fall off and they are stickier. We all had such a good time with them!

HEY.. DID YOU GUYS KNOW WE ARE GOING TO MEXICO!!! I "heart" MEXICO!

Cozumel Mexico it is!!!!!

We did it..... we finally chose a date, place and are headed to paradise in a week. We had several stipulations for our honeymoon. We wanted a warm beach, somewhat secluded but with things to do, we wanted to be waited on and an all inclusive resort and finally we wanted more than 5 days there.
After much searching and talking we finally found a place and booked it. We will be gone for 7 days to Cozumel Mexico next week. We are so dang excited to spend some great time together and create more memories for us. Absolutely in love with this wonderful woman.

We may take a laptop and will post as we go to keep our friends and family up to date.... and also so we can brag it up a little haha. We will for sure take lots and lots of pics.

Got Snot?

Cold season has hit full throttle at the Campbell house. Brock, Josh, Cassidi and I have all had a stuffy head, runny nose, no sleep, can't breath, snot rags, vics menthol, sore nose, sore throat and much more. I walked from Sam and I's bedroom to the kitchen and the above picture is the "stuff" I picked up. We look like a manufacturer for Over the Counter cold remedies.

BEST BUY OF THE YEAR.. This tea pot. We are living on tea and egg drop soup...

GAS PRICES!!!!!!!!!!

As some of you know, I have an influence on gas prices in several states. In a nutshell, I develop and drive strategies in markets based on gallon and store sales (and profit).

I know what you are now thinking..... "your the asshole" lol yes... I am. I get threatening phone calls and I am sure I have hitmen after me in 7 states but like my wife always says... it is what it is.

My reason for this blog is just to vent some and explain what is happening a little. Retailers have no control over costs of crude oil or gas. We buy from the refineries at whatever they are charging and then go sell it. 95% of my retail moves are based on strategy moves not cost moves. So until recently, we were enjoying cost and retail drops like crazy and my cars only take 20 bucks to fill up instead of 70 (yes I pay for my own gas). Now that it seems to have hit bottom, our costs went up over 20 cents a gallon in Idaho and Utah and about 50 cents a gallon in Arizona and Nevada. Why???? beats the hell out of me.... its all about supply and demand. The only indicator that I have to try to forecast what is going to happen is what we call a crack spread. I know I know.... crack spread.... get your minds out of the gutter lol
Crack spread is our estimate between what the refineries pay for crude oil and what they sell the refined product to us for at the rack. Generally, the crack spread (estimated refinery profit) floats around 15 to 30 cents a gallon. Right now its about a penny. So if I had to guess, gas will go up another 20 cents a gallon pretty soon..... but really who knows. Its like throwing darts at a dart board.
"Why is cost and retails going up when crude oil is still cheap and even dropping"
My best guess for this is that all the refineries last year had to forecast and contract estimated crude oil they were going to use this year. When demand dropped so bad the refineries were swimming in product and had to sell it cheap and below their cost to blow it out. So as consumers, we enjoyed cheaper than the national average prices because of the refineries over ordering. Now that supply is getting back to normal, the refineries are bring cost back up to where they are making a profit and hence the big retail moves lately.

So after yesterdays retail moves I had to go have a few drinks with my beautiful wife and forget about work for a while. I didn't have enough to drink to drowned it out though dang it... although I gave it a gallant effort. I will have to try again Friday night lol


This is a picture of our brand new Prescott Arizona store. Way kewl

Hot dog topping?

On the Bachelor tonight one of the girls asked.

"WHAT KIND OF HOT DOG TOPPING DO YOU LIKE ON YOUR HOT DOG?"

She has a theory of how compatible you are depending what "topping" you like..

Well Sam and I took the test. We are boring but both answered the same.

KETCHUP!!!

Koy Pond!!

We have this great Koy pond in our back yard. I love the pond. It has a fountain in it and waterfall and is pretty cool all the way around.

Koy Pond Maker: "These Koy have been alive for 9 years".

Sam and I: "What do you do with them in the winter?"

Koy Pond Maker: "Nothing the ice gets really thick but they live ever single year."

Sam and I: "??????... OK"

Cassidi goes over to a friends house about a month ago that has Koy and comes home and says to us. Jon has a Koy pond and his parent say you have to put holes in the ice so the Koy can live..
Sam and I: "O... CRAP".

Brock gets on the internet and reads an article that tells us how to take care of a Koy pond and sure enough it says that we have to break the ice.
So now every other day (or 3 or 4) we go out with an ax and break the ice.Here is a picture of the pond as of this morning. The ice is about 4 inch deep..

Prediction.. KOY ARE DEAD IN THE SPRING... We will see!!!!

HOT POT PHUN!!!!

First of all HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!! We have been so busy with Holiday stuff that we have not had a chance to blog much. Now that things are kinda getting back to normal (whatever normal is) we are going to start posting more again.
Well I have to tell you, Debbie has been talking about these Oneida hot pots ever since we met. So FINALLY, we organized a trip last Sunday. We packed the kids (except for Brock since he was in California with his dad) with suits and towels and a beverage or three and hit the road. I dont know if you remember what Sunday was but up in the Logan area is was a blizzard. We thought that slick roads and bad weather meant that we would have the hot pots to ourselves... well we were right. It was basically all ours.
We sat and watched the snow fly in onto our heads and backs while we sat in hot tubs. Way way fun. I was the only crazy one to do a snow angel with my bare back...... cold but fun. We came back into Logan and had a pizza at The Factory with some friends and off we went to Kaysville. Perfect day!!!