Prom 2009.

It's Cassidi's prom tonight. She looked so unbelievably beautiful. My mom bought her the dress and I truly think it is the prettiest one she has ever had. The orange was SO fun and I love flowers in hair..
Davis High Schools prom is at the Utah State Capital Building. I want to go so bad!!!
Here ya go!

Our Dawg is growing up......and has officially taken over

As most of you know, Debbie and I would love to have a kid but cant. So we bought a puppy...
Debbie and the kids love her to death.... especially Debbie. She loves, cuddles and spoils her so much its enough to make ME jealous...hah

Last night Winnie decided she was going to piss on the floor right next to me.... bad idea. I chucked the blanket at her, snatched her up and swatted her on the ass and hauled her outside. When I came back in, it was a little somber in the room. Debbie and Brock were next to me and saw the whole thing. They were a little taken back that Sam would treat their dog like that... lol Brock felt bad because he heard her whimper a touch when I smacked her on the butt. Debbie looked at me with her own sad puppy dog eyes as if I did something wrong.

I am all male.... I will NOT give in... I wont I wont I wont I wont.... I run this house NOT A PUPPY!!! Right???? Someone help me here.. pAlease??? haha
(yes I love her too)


WINNIE WHEN WE FIRST GOT HER

WINNIE AFTER HER BIG GIRL HAIR CUT LAST WEEK

My Poor Wife........

Yesterday, Debbie finally starts feeling better. I mean remarkably better to where her face even changed. You know when people are in pain it shows in every expression? Well Debbie was in horrid pain for a solid week........ no not her boobs... her throat. Her uvula was cut or nicked during surgery with the breathing tube then got infected. So the 127 stitches and rib scrapping procedure was fine.... lol I swear, my poor wife. I felt so bad for her..... she couldnt catch a break.... well until Tuesday. Exactly one week after her surgery...... she is showing signs of Debbie again.
Anyway.... as soon as Cass got out of school Debbie whisked her away to go shopping at the mall in Layton for Prom goodies. She texted me about the time I was headed home and said "pick up Brock at meet us at Applebees for dinner". Wow... I could tell by that statement alone my wife was feeling great. Brock and I sat down and ate with the girls. I think it was Debbies first meal in 8 days. Well after they told me about the story of an old perverted fart picking up on them in the mall and the very flirty waiter that sat with them before I showed up I thought to myself.... My Debbie is back!!!
Just a quick note..... for those of you that dont know Debbie very well... she carries a presence about her and is extremely attractive...... no matter what she wears or where she is she is always getting flirted with and picked up on. Then you bring Cassidi into the picture.... her mothers daughter in every sense of the word including presence.... and watch out. They walk in anywhere and own the place. So hearing the stories I just say to myself.... Yup she is back... you go girl!! lol Ok I lost my train of thought....... where was I????

Oh yeah... food!!! So we get home and sit for about 3 seconds and Debbie wants to go shopping.... so we go and buy another hippie light for our living room to match our first lamp we bought
1st lamp link
2nd lamp link
then we went home again... Yes she has cabin fever
We sat down for a minute then she said she was hungry..... sent Cassidi to the grocery store with a list I have never heard of before. Cass gets home and Debbie gets me involved in cooking up some gormet meal (pics below) I have never heard of before. Please keep in mind this was 9 PM at night after we had already eaten. Whips up a peanut butter and chocolate desert and puts it in the fridge. Cooks pasta, shrimp and a home made sauce that had wine it in that was out of this world and we ate our second dinner about 10 and watched the recording of Dancing with the Stars.
My wife is almost back with us... haha... now if I can just get her to have a beer with me.... sheesh

PORK WRAPPED SHRIMP

HOME MADE TOMATO SAUCE FOR PASTA

Brock's school program!

OH BOY.. it's been a very very long week. I am on the mend and can actually shower on my own. I have had a real struggle the last week and poor Sam has just stood by and watched.

My chest was not my biggest problem. My chest actually felt better by Saturday. The biggest problem became my throat. As Sam d posted the knicked my uvula when putting the breathing tube in (or out, who knows). This resulted in a throat that was so red, swollen, and Pusey that I could not even swallow. Honestly swallowing even spit brought me to tears. It finally is starting to feel better today.

We did go to Brock's 5th grade program last Thursday night. It was fun and we laughed so hard at the instructor, he was truly adorable.. Enjoy and make sure you watch the leader knock his glasses off.. YEP HE WAS THAT EXCITED!!!

Happy Birthday Brock!

Hi YALL!!!! I am not going to write a lot but I just want to tell Everyone THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! I am surrounded by the best friends and family.
I am married to the World's best guy. He has struggled with this entire thing. He has hated every minute of it yet he has stood by my side and cooked, cleaned, taken care of Brock's birthday and done ANYTHING I have asked. Sam I truly love you and everything you have done and continue to do for me.. THANK YOU SO MUCH I KNOW I AM A PAIN IN THE ASS, and it's almost impossible to keep me down. I AM TRYING.. I LOVE YOU!

For Brock's Birthday. Cassidi made dinner (like I said everyone has been so wonderful) Nolan and my mom came over and Sam bought Brock an ice cream cake. Here is the "Happy Birthday" video..

Day One Recovery

As you may know by the previous blogs, Debbie went into breast reconstruction surgery yesterday. She had breast cancer 10 years ago and she was having issues with her old implants and surgery. Yesterday, the doctor found her left SILICONE implant was leaking quite bad and had to clean out her breast cavity area of the remnants which was a little invasive. They replaced both old implants. They also found that the old scar tissue from the original mastectomy was way bad and had capsulized, or formed tube like things. So, he cut out all the old scar tissue, 4 areas nearly an inch in width from her arm pit to her sternum, and sewed everything back together under the skin and glued the cuts in place to help reduce scaring. OUCH!!!!! On top of all that, the breathing apparatus they used nicked her uvula and is swollen and hard to swallow.
We got home at 8PM last night and even with drugs we had a nearly sleepless night. About 3AM to 5:30AM we had the most sleep before the kids got up.

She is doing fine and had a 4 hour period of time where she felt good. We will see how tomorrow goes.

Its Brocks birthday today so I ran to McDees and got a greasy breakfast for him and Cass for the Birthday.... no I dont cook much... lol Tonight we are going to have ice cream cake and Debbies mom and Nolan are coming over.

Happy Birthday Brock we love you.

Stage 3....

At 5:15 the doctor came out and said "Debbie came through fine and did great and is now in recovery". After a quick visit with the doc he said that in 30 to 45 minutes in recovery the RN will come out and get me. This is the same RN that was supposed to come out every little while and give me updates on how they were doing...... NOT ONCE DID HE COME OUT. So I was a bit skeptical on the RN actually coming out and getting me. After the doctor left I NEEDED to be with my wife.... I was pacing up and down the waiting room, lit up the laptop and surfed the internet and updating facebook and driving myself nuts. After 45 minutes Sammy got pissed... not one friken word from the RN. So I packed my shit up and proceeded back into the recovery room myself. A night nurse caught me and said "you must be here for Mrs Campbell". I said yes but I am a bit upset... I said "the RN said he was going to give me updates and NOT ONCE did he come out" "I want to see Debbie" I said. She got right on it and I was finally able to see my wife.
When I walked in I saw this IV in her freakin neck (pic). So they attempted to find a vein in her right arm 5 times and finally decided to put it in the big vein. Other than the vein issue and the itching nose thing just out of surgery she is doing great but LOTS of pain.

My only problem is keeping Debbie down on her ass so she can heal up. I am here to wait on her and she keeps getting up and wanting to pick up the house or something....... I have to cuss at her and and sit her down lol poor girl.

More later

The Wait.......

So the hospital told us to be there at 11 AM to work on preop things as well as ask and answer questions before they begin. So we get there at 10:55 like the good people we are. After getting into the preop room we would get a visitor about every half hour, ask the same questions and complain about the IV that apparently the first nurse did a terrible job of. The two doctors were very nice when they finally showed up about 1 PM..... probably after lunch and a few green beers. lol Then they left after marking up her chest with pen marks.
After talking to each other for quite some time until Debbie got sick of me, we quized each other on who knows the names of the capital cities of the 50 states. So I tested her first and she failed bad as she said she would.... she tested me and I failed but not as bad.... then she asked me to test her again. Little did I know she had been memorizing by association during the time she was testing me. Her second round she only missed ONE!!!???? I have never seen a steel trap like that before. I was amazed. She was laughing as she was guessing because her associations were quite humerous and I would have a hard time just thinking of them rather than the actual city lol... Anyway... she blew me a way.

So finally at 3:15 they came and wheeled her off to surgery. Yes 4 hours and 15 minutes later....... I am sitting in the waiting room biting my fingernails chewing my cheeks worried sick about my woman somewhere on the other side of this wall going through who knows what.

They promised me she will be ok.........

Surgery Today

I dont know if you know what Debbie has gone through in her life but she is a 10 year breast cancer survivor. She has been through a lot including a double mastectomy and just recently we took her to the doc because we thought an implant was leaking. There are also some other things Debbie was concerned about and with the Docs help she will get it all taken care of.

So Today..... I take my wife in to have total reconstruction. I am more nervous than she is I think. I hate the thought of my wife in pain but I took a few days off of work to take care of my girl. I love her so much!

I will post an update on how she is doing and I am sure in a couple of days she will post something of her own.

Wish her luck...........

Frozen fish!

Remember the blog a couple months ago about our fish pond that was frozen? Well if not here is a picture of our fish pond. We had to go outside with an ax and put breathing holes for the fish thru the ice.I really didn't think there was a chance that the fish would live thru the winter. Well I was wrong!! All three fish are alive and well.
Yesterday we did the first yard work of the year and we decided to clean the fish pond out.
IT TRULY WAS ONE OF THE GROSSEST THINGS I have done for a very very long time. I was gagging. Sam got a garbage can and got the water out and than we got a paint scrapper and scraped the scum off the sides.. OMYHECK.. sick...
We cleaned the lower (larger) pond and put the fish in the upper one and than added new water. IT LOOKS SO GOOD. I am sure glad we only have to do that once a year... YUCK... YUCK.. YUCK..
I also got the kids out in the yard to do yard work. We have a problem THE KIDS LIKE FIRE FIRE FIRE.... Well they actually LOVE IT. We put a bunch of leaves in the raised garden beds and let the kids burn them (I do think that is illegal) and Sam brought out a blow torch for about an hour. Winnie played outside for a couple hours while we did work. She was so tired. She only ran off once. She had never been outside for that long.The best thing on Earth happened after that. SAM HAS A EDGER. An electric edger.. I love it.. I am in love with it and I am sure I will lose a finger before the yard is cleaned up this spring and we may not have any tree's or shrubs left.We are going to go get a bottom feeding fish today and I am going to Plant peas. Are back yard is looking so cute. When It greens up a bit we will post pictures!!!

His Story........

I get asked often about when Debbie and I met. I think partially because when people see us they see how much in love we really are and are curious. "How did you ask her to marry you?" or "what happened when you first met?"....... things like that. I decided to put together a short... ok... kind of long..... story about that time in our lives. Sorry this is so long but seriously... how could I make such a great story short.... haha. So for those of you that are interested.... here is my story............

We have 6 kids between the two of us from 11 to 21. Brock 11, Taylor 14, Cassidi 17, Jordan 18, Sarah 20 and Josh 21. We now live in Kaysville Utah.

We both just came out of some tough relationships and really were not looking for long term anything. Certainly we wanted companionship so we were looking for something thank goodness. We spent hours and hours on the phone talking about anything and everything. We lived 80 miles apart so meeting each other had to wait a week so we got to know each other just on the phone. I was totally mentally involved with Debbie by this point already. It was all I could think about every day. Every night for a week we would call and visit until midnight or later.

Finally, we decided to meet on a Saturday. June 21st 2008 to be exact. I had to drive an hour to get to her and what an hour that was.... nervous, excited.... kind of a mess I was... haha. Debbie wanted to meet at a local gas station and I agreed. I pulled into the parking lot and saw her car and my hands got sweaty immediately. I got out of the car and started walking towards her and she got out of the car and we met eyes, big smiles and hugged a deep hug. I was in heaven. I said to myself "This is the most beautiful woman in the world". I was a puddle of mush.

She took me on a hike in a populated area in the mountains and she kissed me when we were on top of Cub River just over the border in Idaho. WOW. We went back into town and had a couple of drinks at the local bar and I met a few of her friends and went home. I emailed my parents that night and I told them I just met the most beautiful woman in the world. I kept that email. The next day I came back up and met her kids and from then on it was all over. I have been totally enamored and in love with my new woman ever since.... still am. Her kids are so incredible and welcomed me with open arms.

We started looking at rings just a couple of months into our relationship and I bought one a couple of weeks later with out her knowing. I kept it hidden in my car not knowing how or when I would ask this incredible lady to marry me. Finally, a week or two later, an opportunity. She wanted to go on a hike to Cub River. I thought to myself "perfect... this is it this is it... the place where we first met and kissed!!" So during that whole next day, Debbie invited her kids, friends and seemed like whoever she ran across... "want to go to Cub River with us?" In my mind I am thinking "no no no" haha which I would have been fine with... I would have just waited a bit longer, however, now I have the perfect place in mind to ask her to marry me. So, as it turned out, everyone turned us down... so we went alone. Perfect! So we get up to the beginning of the trail and all the way up there I am wondering how the heck I am going to dig the ring out from its hiding place in my car, put it in my pocket with out her knowing what I am doing. I put the car in park.... she said she has to go pee... "yeah perfect" I thought but little does anyone know about Debbie.... she is the fastest urinater in the west. She will walk into the bathroom and before the door shuts behind her she is pushing the door open all finished up. So I knew I had about 30 seconds to get the ring into my pocket. She opens the bathroom door and I tore that car apart frantically, got the ring in a safe pocket, crammed everything back into the console, shut the door and there she was walking towards me..... good grief that was close.

Off we go on our walk and come to the spot of our first kiss and sat down on some rocks right at the edge of the river. I was sitting right at her knees just below her looking into her eyes holding her..... another perfect moment. So I look deep into her eyes and ask "Debbie will you marry me and complete me for the rest of my life?" She responds nonchalantly "sure, do you want to marry me??" I said "YES" but I was kind of set back by her calmness and her moving on to talk about something else. hah (we obviously have talked about getting married before). So I proceed and change the subject back..... I said "can I put a ring on your finger?" She asked calmly "you have a ring?" then her eyes got bigger as if she suddenly realized what just happened "YOU HAVE A RING????" .... before I could answer, she talks again "YOU HAVE A RING ON YOU RIGHT NOW???????" I was finally able to talk and I said "Yes I have a ring right now" so I pulled it out of my pocket and put it on her finger. We both embraced and cried and sat there for a while holding each other. You know... while I am writing this I am not sure she even said YES... haha.

We flew to Kentucky to introduce her to my parents and family. While we were there, my Father married us in a very nice home wedding in Kentucky on October 10th 2008.

We finally went on our Honeymoon January 23rd to Cozumel Mexico and had the time of our lives.

I love you Debbie.....

recalling our first "date, Kiss, etc."

SAM!!! SAM!!! SAM!!!

friday night alone...

Since I met Sam I have not spent a Friday night alone AT ALL, except tonight.
It's Friday night at 10:35 p.m. in Utah and I am sitting in my family room ALONE... It's kinda a strange yet very surreal feeling..
The reason I am alone...
I am simply married to the World's best man. Sam and my son, Brock, are at a Utah Jazz game. Sam had two tickets to the Jazz game and since Brock had never been to a Jazz game in his life Sam said.. "Can I take Brock?"
Yep... the Step Dad of the YEAR...
Thank you Sam.. I am sure you two are having a great time. Brock will remember this for the rest of his life...
Did I mention they have seats on ROW 9...
I am truly blessed!

Music Lovers

Debbie and I are very much music lovers. We love to listen to music and we listen to music when we love... hehe..
Anyway... so I wanted to post a few of our favorite songs. Can you guess who's is who's?
(you need iTunes to listen to links so just click the song)

Freebird
Hotel California
Lets Make Love
Out There
So What
Dont Stop Believin
Gives You Hell
Let Me Go
I Kissed a Girl
Meet Virginia

I could go on and on but these are the ones that come to my mind right away.

Debbie is a music guru when she has her iPod with 8 million songs on it from every genre there is. We love to cruise and play songs just like teenagers...lol

We also play name that group when a song comes on to see who can name it first. I kick her butt on the 80's rock and she wastes me on country. Fun trips to Logan and back. I love you Debbie.

ROCK ON!!!

Sam's hidden talent..

WHY WE LOVE SAM!!!