Fall Break

This time last year I packed up the kids and we drove to Utah for Fall Break. When I was there it was so perfect and I said that I wanted to do this every time. This year there was no way we could go up there again so we made the best of staying here. We went bowling with Shauna and the kids. We went to the Zoo with my sisters one day. Then we went to this awesome park and played for a bit. Believe it or not it was too HOT so we didn't stay very long. The weather teased us a bit the week before and we had amazing cool weather. Then it warmed up again. It was a fun week though!

Slumber Party

A few weeks ago we had my little cousins stay with us for the weekend while my Aunt was out of town. Noah and Jonah really feel more like my nephews because my Aunt Lexi is only 4 years older than me. We set up a tent in the living room and the boys just slept in there all weekend. It was great and they had a lot of fun! I took them to the park and the kids had one last swim in the pool. It was already pretty cold but they still wanted to go in...for a few minutes:) Now the pool is officially closed until next summer. The pool has been good to us! Now it's that time of year where we can go on walks in the afternoon...go to the park...just enjoy being outside since it's cooled off. I love this time of year!

Ding Dong the Bees are Gone!

So this is a continuation of my previous story about the thousands of new little friends we have staying with us. The bee guy came back this morning and started right to work. You know that show on the Discovery Channel..."Dirty Jobs"? We love that show! We came to find out that our bee guy Jerry was on that show a year ago. He totally reminded me of the guy on Dirty Jobs too! They came out and filmed with him and helped out with all the mess of cleaning up after bees! Let me tell you it was definitely a mess! They first cut a small square from the wall and then he realized this was much bigger than he thought.

He kept cutting squares out until there was no more hive. Can you believe that?! That whole thing is filled with honey combs.

He had to keep cutting over for about 5 feet. It was such a mess! We just sat in our kids room looking out the window in total amazement that this was all in the wall. He was pulling all the combs out and scraping/scooping all the bees and honey onto this tarp. When all was said and done the hive/honey combs weighed about 125 pounds. The hive had been in there for almost a year! I asked him how many bees he thought were up in there and get this...15,000!!!!

He was cool enough to take pictures for me while he was back there. Here he is holding up some honey combs. When they were done they carried all the stuff in a tarp and put it in a big garbage bag. Dave picked up the bag to see how heavy it really was...he was surprised...it was HEAVY! We asked them if the honey was any good and they said no. Now I won't feel guilty about all the honey going to waste because it was poison anyway. Apparently you don't ever want to eat honey that is made from bees in the city. You want country bees. I'm just glad they are all out. Just another day in the life of a BeeKeeper.

Busy little Bees

I get a knock on our door last night from a neighbor. She began to ask me if I knew we had a bee problem? I told her that we have been seeing bees but had no idea where they were coming from. Little did we know they were coming from our house! Dave looked around this morning and saw a bunch of bees flying around the A/C unit on the side of the house. We had a guy come out and look at it with his fun white bee suit. I staid in the house but could look through the window as he was searching around. All of a sudden I see HUNDREDS of BEES swarming around this man. I was freaking out but this man was just fine. What ever he was doing these bees were pretty dang mad. He finds that the bees aren't in the A/C unit but that they are inside the wall on the side of the house by the bathroom. He then says that he thinks they might be all the way underneath the bathtub and up the side wall. I went into the bathroom and heard a BUZZING like no other! He drills a little hole in the wall and his drill bit come out with honey all over it. After he was done trying to exterminate these crazy bees he tells me what the next step is. This was not a little old bee hive...this was a huge hive that has been there for 3-6 months and has close to 75-100lbs. of HONEY in the walls! CRAZY I tell you! He is coming back in the morning to finish the job which in tales cutting open the wall, killing the rest of the bees, taking out the honey combs and all that honey...etc. What a mess! I guess once the bees are in there they can produce a pound of honey a day. I am still itching just thinking about it. I can still hear them in the walls next to the bathroom...they aren't happy little creatures right now. I'm wondering what they are going to do with all that honey? We will see tomorrow. To "bee" continued...(i know that was lame!)

Becoming Aware

I have had a lot on my mind today. I have been thinking about a friend of mine that has just started her fight with Breast Cancer. I know we have all known someone or have heard of someone that is fighting this disease. It seems that it's becoming more and more common though...too common. When I went to lunch with this friend a couple months ago the last thing I ever thought she would tell me was that she had cancer. Today she went in for surgery to have a mastectomy and will start chemotherapy in a few weeks. I stopped by my moms today for a minute because she had some of her friends over that I haven't see in so long. One of them also had a battle with breast cancer, it was so wonderful to see her. I was watching t.v. today and turned on Oprah...her show today was on this very topic. I couldn't keep my eyes off of it. I went into the grocery store today and the whole front of the store was covered in PINK. I've always loved this color but it struck me differently today. There were a couple girls in front of the store selling root beer floats for $1.00 and it's donated for Breast Cancer. I've always loved yummy treats and for a buck~how could you pass up that? But again, it struck me differently. When October comes around we usually think about fall, pumpkins, candy, costumes, trick or treating, etc. What I've come to learn is that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. What I have come to learn is that we must be aware of what is going on with our bodies. We must pay attention to them and become more responsible with ourselves. We can't always think that this could never happen to me...because it can. The more aware we become the more empowered we become. Today I really felt myself wanting to do something...wanting to help in some way. I'm not able to do much of anything really. But donating a dollar or two at the grocery store can help, it all adds up. Putting a little post up on my blog can help. Trying to encourage people to get checked...do your self exams...if you have a history in your family~you need to get checked. This disease effects thousands and thousands and thousands of people each year. We all need to become more aware and pay attention to our bodies. For the month of October that is what I'm going to try to do...this month I'm going PINK.

The phone call

I didn't think this day would come for a least a few years. I'm glad I'm writing about this so I can remember this day for always. Tyler had a half day today and got home around noon. We had only been home a few minutes when the phone rang. I picked it up, said hello and waited..."hello...hi...is Tyler there?" The voice was so quiet and shy. Next thing I hear is another person get on the phone and it's a friend from church. She then tell me that Lily really wants Tyler to come over and play today. Little Miss Lily is in Ty's school class and his primary class at church. She is the cutest little thing and so sweet. She just got shy and wanted her mom to ask me if Tyler could play. I thought how nice for someone to invite Tyler to come over and play. Yesterday Ashlynn went over to one of her little friends to play too. I love that my kids are at the age where I can have them playing at someones house and I don't even have to worry about them...it's SO NICE!! A bit of freedom every now and then is bliss! Tyler has been invited to play a bunch of times but this is the very first time that my phone rang and it was a girl asking for Tyler. So here he goes...my little man is growing up.

Long Overdue

So weeks and weeks ago my sister passed on a "TAG" about Tyler from her daughter Payton. My sister probably has been thinking that I never even saw that post of hers or that I didn't care. Not true, not true. It has just taken me this long to respond because I never have Tyler around the same time that I'm on the computer. I have finally snagged Ty down in between his busy 1st grade schedule. So Tif and Payton...here ya go!

1. Name & Meaning Behind it~Tyler Gene Campbell, his first name we just have always liked...his middle name is after Dave's dad.
2. Age~6 years old
3. Birthdate~May 23, 2002
4. Nicknames~Ty...Tyman
(the rest of this is in Ty's words)
5. Favorite Activities~"Family Home Evening, play freeze tag at school, ride my bike, play baseball and letting my dad help me play football when I grow up. "
6. Favorite Foods~"I don't know. Alfredo! Peanut butter and jelly and RIBS...wings...and fried chicken with the bones."
7. Favorite Music~"Stop and Stare and Big Girls Don't Cry"
8. Favorite Toys~"Cars from Lightening McQueen, monster trucks and my race track."
9. Favorite Books~"Cat and the Hat and Junie B Jones".
10. Favorite item of Clothing~"Tony Hawk shirt!"
11. What makes me happy?~"The world...everyone in my class at school...Lily and Sydney and myself and my mommy and daddy."

12. What makes me sad?~"When some people die or when I have no one to play with."

Some of those answers I was pretty surprised at, especially the FHE! I'm not going to tag anyone else but you are free to do it yourself if you'd like. It was nice to sit with Tyler and hear what he had to say. We love our Tyman and are so proud of him.

He is such a sweet boy and a good friend. We are pretty lucky!

Good company...good food:)

Over the years Dave has been building up this reputation for cooking some good food. Dave has a lot of passions in his life and one of them is slow cooking meat in a smoker for hours and hours. When Dave's sisters came into town we all just started talking about food and what we would make for meals each day. It was a given that Dave would be smoking some food for everyone...not just one meal...many meals! Dave has been so busy this year with the office that he hasn't used his smoker once! That is pretty crazy. But we made up for it in no time at all. One night he cooked ribs~one night it was pulled pork that had been on the smoker for 18 hours~one night was salmon....hot dang it was so good! Everyone was in heaven for days and Dave was getting many pats on the back for all his hard work! We made a couple batches of homemade ice cream and chocolate chip cookies. We definitely weren't watching our calories this week! What would be the fun in that? You can never go wrong with good company and good food!

Labor Day Fun

Dave's twin sisters came to visit with their families for about a week. We were so excited for them to get here and could barely stand it! When we lived in Iowa we would see Casie and the kids all the time...they were only 6 hours away. My kids have missed them so much! When Kirsten told us she was coming we couldn't wait because we hadn't met Brandon yet...the latest Campbell addition! It was a great trip and we had so much fun. We are so grateful that they were all able to come and spend time with us. It's so great because my kids just cling to Jeremy and Kenzie and I really don't even have to pay much attention to them. They all just play and play and play. It really clears up some of my head space and it was so nice! Brandon was just the cutest little thing ever and made us all just crack up! Such a sweet little boy. We had a great week and miss them already...hopefully they come back soon...Hint Hint. :)

I'm tired....!!!!!!

So......I have been going to Physical Therapy since June and I was hoping when I started that by now I would be good to go! But NO. Who would have thought that it would take me this long to recover. I was told that I will be in therapy for the next SEVERAL months! What does that mean? That could mean anything...2 months, 3 months, 5 months...I have no clue. I really feel like my life has been taken over by this...3 times per week...2-3 hours each day. It's not like I'm going there and getting pampered either. I get my butt kicked every time and come home feeling like a sweaty pig. I just felt like I needed to play a little sympathy card because I'm TIRED!
I guess the up side to this whole thing is that I'm learning tons of cool stuff in working out and it's really like I have my own personal trainer. I am getting stronger and that's good. I told my therapist that I needed to be given a Gladiator name or something. Ha ha!! I am just hoping that when I'm finished that I will be leaving with a rock hard bod and feeling good. I can dream right?