I can see!

Brock says to us about a month ago. I am having a hard time reading numbers. So we say.. YOU ARE?

Than we started to notice when he watched TV he was sitting real close to it. So we started asking him about signs going down the road and stuff. He seemed to be doing okay but Sam said. HE NEEDS TO GO TO THE EYE DOCTOR.

Sam and I take him last Friday (right after we got home from the vet because our new puppy broke her leg). We go in the room with him and the doctor is having him do the elementary eye exam. BROCK COULD NOT READ ANY OF THE LETTERS. I felt TERRIBLE. I said to Sam. I feel like the worlds worst Mom. I had no clue his eyes were that bad.

Brock got his glasses yesterday and they gave him a headache but he was amazed at how well he could see. We told him he had to take care of his glasses for a couple months and than we would work on contacts.

Dream Job!!!

So I have been a "stay at home Mom" for about 2 months. I am liking it.. I don't LOVE it.. I like it. I know I have to get a job for sanity purposes. I want to go to a job, meet people, and get some kind of "life" here in Kaysville. So Sam says to me.. "Deb, what is your DREAM job?" so it got me thinking.. A LOT..

I am VERY serious when I say the below. I know that this dream job is not feasible right now in my life but I hope some day that it is..

I dream of slinging drinks at a foreign beach side bar, hair in dread locks down to my butt, nothing but Capri's and a bikini top on! Serious. I would love that. My face moist from the ocean, my hair curly from the humidity, a little make-up, and big "peace" earrings!!!

What is YOUR dream job?

Technology for parents of teens!

If you are a parent of a teen you know what "technology" has done for keeping track of them.
I receive an email and a phone call every time they are late for school, miss school or miss an assignment. I recieve automatic emails when their report card is handed out, when parent teachers conference is. Technology SUCKS for teenagers but is GREAT for parents.

For those of you that follow me on Facebook know that I have been struggling with one of our teenagers and her text messages. She texted 12, 300 text messages last month. She is texting all during school, almost all night, and it is basically OUT OF CONTROL!

Well once again.. TECHNOLOGY IS A BITCH FOR TEENAGERS. I go online to pay our verizon bill and I see something that say "chaperon". So I click on it. For $4.99 a month I can control her phone usage. EUREKA!!! Here are the things you can do.

1. set up times when they can't text, receive text, read emails, download anythings EXCEPT from the parents phone. SERIOUS CAN IT GET BETTER.... YEP IT CAN. You can do up to 10 restriction periods. So I have set up restrictions from 11:00 p.m. at night till 5:00 a.m. Sunday night thru Thursday night (she needs to be sleeping). Restricted her use from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m, except for 45 minute lunch period, Mon- Fri. (she needs to be doing school work).
2. set up # of voice minutes they use. So she gets 500 minutes a month. Once that is gone the parent phone AND the child's phone gets sent a text and it gets shut off for the rest of the billing cycle. EXCEPT FOR THE PARENTAL PHONE!
3. set the number of text message they can use in a billing cycle UNLESS you have unlimited text. So if your child has 1000 text messages on their plan you set it at 1000 and it stops till the first of the next billing cycle!
4. THIS PERSONALLY IS MY FAVORITE. You can block numbers. Block numbers of people that SHOULD NOT BE GETTING A HOLD OF HER OR YOU DON'T WANT TO GET A HOLD OF HER. They have NO IDEA why the text and calls are not going thru they just know they are NOT...
5. This one Sam and I have NOT chosen to do because it almost seems a bit OVER THE TOP. You can tracK on your computer exactly where the phone is AT ALL TIME. So your teen daughter says "Hey I am going to Billy's".... you can get on the computer and tract every where that phone goes (this is an additional 9.99 a month).

I kinda feel like in the day of instant access that IT IS ABOUT TIME we can take some "control" in who and when our kids are talking to. Some day they will understand why we have done what we have.

What do you guys think??? Obsessive or good parenting?

you say tomato!

So Sam if from the South and it is so much fun to hear him talk. He will say something and I say to him... "What was that?" and he will get a big grin on his face.. Here are some things he says. I am NOT making fun of him (maybe a little), I think it is cute as heck. Can you guess what he means?

Mere: What is a Mere?

Laon: Do you guys know where Laon is?

mownin:

seen a saun: I love to seen a saun?

battrees: Do we have battrees?

That is all I can think of off the top of my head.. I will post the answers in a day or two. Please leave a comment and guess what he is saying. If I think of more I will post them!

Hippie-ish Wife

Hey all.... we had a great 3 day weekend of goofing off. Debbie is getting a nesting bug for some reason lately. It is so fun to go shopping for stuff for our home and fun to watch Debbie shop while I sit on a chair or couch somewhere in the store. She gets so intently focused on matching colors and styles.
Yesterday she sat at the Pier 1 Imports store right in front of the curtain display for a half hour. She had 4 choices in her lap and kept rotating out her top choices and asking my opinion.... haha... I laugh because I know she is just being nice because I have no sense of style at all. We choose a set of curtains and almost go to the register and she changed her mind and we got 2 different ones..... lol She chose very well and it looks awesome.

So.... watching her shop I always see the hippie come out in her. This picture is of a lamp we bought this weekend that we really love. Yes I do love it and we both think its quite hippie and we are going to go get its brother next weekend to hang on the other side of the room. Its shorter and fatter but offers the same look and glow. Teamed up with our hippie curtains we bought I think we should buy the beads hanging over the doorways with black lights in the lamps with incense burning....... what do you all think?

Dinner For Two!!!!

Debbie and I usually go out on a date every Wednesday night. When the weather and roads are good we like to go to Logan and visit some friends for a couple of hours at the Owl and eat a little dinner then on our way home we hit the B n B in Brigham for a night cap.

So... for some reason last night... we kinda forgot to eat dinner. Now Debbie is one to take care of her man.... I mean to the point of not only cooking dinner but also getting my plate for me and bringing it to me. (I know I keep telling everyone I am spoiled)
We get to Brigham about 7:30 and Debbie bought us a beer and corn nuts. I tell Debbie "thanks for dinner honey" and she smacked me in the forehead. I probably deserved that but we had a great laugh about our dinner last night. So I took a pic. The corn nuts and beer were delicious in case you were wondering...... lol

Sky Pics

Well this is kind of a random blog about me. I have always loved looking up at the sky and if I see something cool and I have a camera I try to capture it. Of course the pics dont do it justice but looking back on some of my old pictures its good memories. Sometimes I will pull the car over and get out to look at it.
I also love the night sky and stars but hard to capture on camera. One late night Debbie and I were coming home from somewhere and the full moon coming over the mountain was catching the frozen snow ice caps on the mountains just right and reflected into Kaysville..... the strangest, coolest thing we ever saw... I so wish we would have had a camera. Anyway... here are a few random pics that I have.
Am I weird or are there any more people out there that like this kind of stuff???????

Walking on egg shells!!

Everyone has heard us talk about our bird peaches and our guinea pig Oreo. Well they are NO longer OURS.

Saturday morning I am upstairs cleaning the bedroom, getting ready, scrubbing toilets ya know the usual Saturday morning stuff. I hear Sam SCREAMING at peaches.. "Peaches knock it off!" "ENOUGH PEACHES!" "PEACHES YOUR ARE DRIVING ME CRAZY".. Peaches is squawking and squawking and laughing and squawking. SAM HAD OFFICIALLY HAD ENOUGH!! I came down stairs and peaches bird food was all over my floor so I got the broom and swept for the second time that day. I guess this was Sam's last straw. Sam starts taking pictures of peaches and said I am putting her on KSL. SERIOUS?".. (for those of you that don't know what KSL is.. IT seriously is the grand daddy of them all "classifieds" here is your link KSL) Cassidi comes down stairs and Agrees with Sam. Well before I knew it Sam pushed the "post" button and peaches was on the Internet. Within 5 minutes we had a call from a man that said.. I WANT HER, I AM COMING TO GET HER. Peaches.... GONE!!!!


Well KSL seemed to work so great for Peaches... Yep.. you guessed it.. OREO GONE!!!


So last night I said to Cassidi, Brock and Josh.. Be VERY VERY good because if Sam wants you gone he will put you on KSL.. We are all walking on egg shells *wink!

Now we are a one pet family. Winnie. We love having her but WOW is she work!

and yet another yes!!!

Cassidi answered her prom date back this weekend. She said yes. We made a fun banner and hung it on the railing of his house! Now till the next dance.. WOW!

bites!!!

Another Mexico story. Well we had been in Mexico a couple days. I woke up one morning and I had these bites ALL over my rear end. Not just one or two I am talking like 20 bites. They itch, they are kinda weepy, they are just gross. I showed Sam and complained about them ALL DAY LONG. Well the next morning I wake up and have them all down my legs. NOW I AM REALLY STRESSED. I am showing Sam they are itching like crazy. We go to the pool that day and I am sitting at the pool. Random people are stopping by saying. What are all those bites. Ya it was that bad.. BITES ALL OVER MY LEGS.

you can't really get a good idea but here is one of the bites I SHAVED off.. you can see a few bites on my ankle.

Now what happens next is the kicker.

Sam wakes up has about 4 bites on his ankle!!

Sam: "Debbie!!! Look I have some bites like yours"

Debbie: "you have like 4 bites.. SAM, I have 87 bites I counted them today!"

Sam: "WELL NOW I AM CONCERNED!"

Debbie: "NOW YOU ARE CONCERNED?"

Sam: "YES!!! THEY ITCH!"

Debbie: "NO CRAP!!!!"

Okay... I am glad he was finally concerned....

They are healing quite nice!..

Cassidi.

Cassidi is our 17 year old. You may think you hear a lot about her and Brock on the blog and a little about the rest of the kids. The reasoning is Cassidi and Brock live with us (so does Josh but we hardly ever see him).

So you all know I moved from Cache Valley Utah to Kaysville Utah when Sam and I got married. The kids and I had always lived in Cache Valley and we knew the move was going to be rough.. Yes the move has been rough on Cassidi the most. She is a junior in high school. HARD AGE TO MOVE. She has done a wonderful job of moving 80 miles away from her home town, going to a school she knew NO ONE and getting involved in activities. She still struggles with the friend thing as do I. I also miss Cache Valley and my girl friends. The deal we have made with Cassidi is we are carving out a life here in Kaysville and we will have to do the best we can. I am proud of Cassidi and her willingness to give it her all.

She got asked to the prom while we were in Mexico. The prom at Davis High School is pretty cool, they rent the Utah State Capital Building and it is a pretty big deal. Here are the pictures she took so Sam and I could see it.. We love you Cassidi...

These are the stairs going up to Cassidi's bedroom. You can see on her door the "Happy Birthday" banner. It was her Birthday and I hung that up before we went to Mexico. He put rose pedals all the way up the stairs.

Cassidi's bed with rose pedals all over!

and a dozen roses asking her to prom!!! How sweet!

NOW ONCE AGAIN. WE HAVE TO ANSWER BACK IN A FUN WAY. WOW... This is work..

Our new addition!

Winnie....

Sam is thinking this may not have been such a great idea. Winnie sleeps IN BETWEEN Sam and I and Sam said that Winnie has ruined his sex life.
She is spoiled rotten and is the cutest thing you have ever seen, and is actually doing pretty good at getting house broke.
She is a handful but a great addition to our family!!!

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!!!!!!!!