You name it.....

What's in a name? This is my newest great-nephew (for those of you that are idiots like me... that's my niece's new baby boy), Stetson Cort Taylor. He was born Saturday at 10:06pm and he told me I'm his favorite aunt already, second to Aunt Brookie!!! He is such a doll and I am so proud of Brittney. She's amazing. So, your name... what does it mean to you? Mine, Hope, such a simple name, a lot of people think I was named Hope because my parents were hoping for a boy (I am the youngest of 6 girls), but I think it had a little more to do with drugs and living in the 70's.... keep in mind, I was adopted!!!! But Hopie? Well, my sister had a baby when I was 3, and Aunt Hope sounds so big for a little kid, so it became Hopie. I know my long time friends because they call me Hopie. Even my friend's parent's still call me Hopie. I prefer it, actually. Now, Randy's full name is Randy Garth, his doctor's name was Garth and that's where that came from. His parents had THAT much respect for the old Dr. Last. When it comes to our kids, Maddison is simple, I always liked that name, but Randy wanted a weird name and I refused, so when I was doped up after a c-section, he filled out the birth certificate and intentionally put a second D in there. I was mad at first, but now? She is definitely Maddison, with 2 D's!!! Maddison's middle name Rose, was my dad's sister's name. She died when my dad what a little boy, so we did it to honor my dad. Tyler? I just always liked that name. Tyler James, after Randy's dad (James Richard), but if you ask Tyler, he's named after his Uncle Cory (Cory James). Then we have Cambelle. Randy's mom's maiden name is Campbell, and as you know, there is a lot of Scottish pride in our family. On NBC, there is a newscaster named Campbell Brown, I thought, if she can do it... so can we!!!! But I wanted to doll it up a little, so we spelled it Cambelle. She doesn't have a middle name, we knew Cambelle had enough history, she didn't need anything else. But, those aren't the only names we go by... Randy often to me is Randolpharino. Aunt Launa calls my kids Maddy Moo, Tee Ty, and Cambella. Adam calls Cambelle, Cam-bo. And I've been known to be called you-little-shit from time to time. Randy calls Tyler, Bubba (I don't know why) and lately had been calling him Duck!?! To Randy, Maddison is Whooper and Cambelle is Turkey. They even answer to those crazy names, they know who he's talking to!!! I love having special names for loved ones. There are plenty more nick names that my kids have, but I have to stop somewhere!!!! So, what's with YOUR name?

Toothless Annie

Yesterday it a day that will go down in history for our family.... Maddison lost 2 teeth in one day without a trip to the dentist!!!

At 4am, she woke up and decided to wiggle her very loose tooth and it came out. Nothing like waking up to a 9 year old saying, "DADDY!!! I JUST LOST MY TOOTH!!!". The second one was a little more work. Her new tooth was growing in around her baby tooth, we've been working on her to get that one out, but she has anxiety issues when it comes to losing teeth, the Tooth Fairy coming into her room and then TAKING HER TEETH?!?! She has NEVER let the Tooth Fairy take her teeth, she has written many notes that say, "Dear Tooth Fairy, please leave the money AND my tooth. Love, Maddison". So, she gets pretty freaked out every time she's gonna lose a tooth. This second tooth of the day, only came out because of "dollar fifty Thursdays". It was a rule we "remembered" with one of Tyler's teeth than needed to come out really bad one day and it was on a Thursday. Getting $3. was THE ONLY thing that got that second tooth out of Maddison's mouth last night. She was so proud she finally got it out. After calls to the grandmas and grandpas and the generous offer from Mike and Gina to "help her find the teeth she lost" she finally went to bed and we're happy to report that the Tooth Fairy came through with her $3. and left her teeth!!!! I love the magic that surrounds children. All these wonderful things that happen when kids are small is what it's all about.




Now Maddison has more gaps then teeth, it seems!!! Watch out for our toothless Annie!!! (Notice the "just got out of the shower" hair and the bloodshot eyes from crying about the tooth finally coming out!!!)

I think....

I think that people are amazing.
I think that the community of Hurricane really knows how to stand up when they are needed.
I think that it's cool when everyone is hurting for money that people's pockets still open up for a good cause.
I think that family is the most important.
I think that friends are a close second.
I think that there are angels all around us, all we have to do is give them a chance to work.
I think that it's a privilege to be a part of the Campbell family.



On Monday, there was a benefit concert for Randy's Aunt and Uncle that live in Hurricane. Randy's Aunt Lorraine was just diagnosed a couple of weeks ago with neuroendocrine carcinoma. Long words that mean "nasty cancer". The cancer has spread throughout her spine, it's in her liver and lungs too. The specialists are saying that her odds are in favor of her only living a couple more months, of which there is no doubt they are being truthful. We have watched in the last short couple of weeks that her condition is changing rapidly. She's only 49 and will leave behind 3 kids still living at home plus the 2 that are married and one daughter getting married next Friday. It's just tragic. This family is a very important part to the town of Hurricane. So loved, so, so loved. When one of the high school teachers heard of what was going on, he put together this benefit concert. It was such an amazing night. So much talent. We are blessed to live in an area that rallies around to help. By the end of the night, there were a lot of tears shed and lots of pockets emptied. The family needs it but would never ask. I learned a good lesson about service when Cambelle was born. My Grandma Albrecht came for 5 days to help out and I felt bad for the Relief Society bringing food to us. My thoughts were that we could run to McDonald's. That's when my grandma taught me a lesson I still think about still to this day. She said, "How dare you deny those sisters of blessings? You will have to answer to your Heavenly Father one day about that, and do you think he will be proud of you turning them away?". I had never looked at it that way. I love the way my grandma teaches. She doesn't mix words!!! I know it's harder to receive service than give it, but I'm glad Danny and Lorraine let us serve them on Monday night. We all need those blessings!!! I love all those Campbell's and our constant prayers are with them that they will continue to rely on our Savior.

My favorite song of the week.....

Is Poker Face by Lady GaGa. I love the way it sounds. The lyrics are kinda weird, but I don't care. When I hear this song, I want to choreograph a dance and make everyone learn it. I'm sure I could do better than whoever choreographed the dance she did on the Ellen show with Just Dance. It was a good laugh!!!! I used to have it on my DVR just for when I was having a bad day and needed something to make make me smile!!! There are a lot of songs that make me want to dance. This is just one of them!!!! Anyhow.... enjoy the listen, I know I will!!!!

Right now....

..... I am the proud mom of a son that survived being born with a diaphragmatic hernia.....



Dawn, the founder of Cherubs is an amazing woman. She did a blog post that made me cry. Randy and I have been through EVERY SINGLE ONE of the things she talks about except for the last one (thank goodness). I'm glad she did THIS POST so I can continue to count my blessings. Some might say I blog too much about Tyler's illness. To that, my response would be.... I'm glad I get to!!! His progress is an absolute miracle. I might be the only parent you know of who's had a kid with CDH, but we know more than just us. Sadly, there is a higher concentration of kids with CDH in Southern Utah than the average for the U.S. Why? We don't know yet. Maybe this will get you thinking and talking, raise awareness and quite possibly make it so we find a cause/prevention/cure for CDH. Wouldn't it be GREAT to never have babies have to suffer like our Tyler did? Dawn, THANK YOU for the hard work you put into Cherubs. It IS making a difference. Keep up the good work. When we didn't know what to do when we got our diagnosis, we turned to Cherubs and have appreciated the info we have got from that organization. I would ask that you read the post I'm talking about and know that someone is going through all of that right now. Our turn for that is over, hopefully, but our prayers are constantly with those facing hard times. Please know that we have a loving Heavenly Father that will help us all, we only have to be humble enough to ask.

So what?

So what if I want my 9 year old daughter to teach me the Hoedown Throwdown? My niece, Brookie, wanted to go to the new Hannah Montana Movie and didn't want to look like a dork, so she borrowed my kids!!! Smart girl!!! When the kids got home, I downloaded the newest Miley Cyrus song for Maddison and now I'm hooked. We'll be having a dance lesson when they get home and it will be HER teaching me the Hoedown Throwdown!!! Wish me luck!!!

Happy Easter!!!

7 Years ago on Easter, we had a really cool day as a family. Randy got to give Tyler a name and a blessing. When Tyler was in the hospital, expected to die, the one hope we hung onto was that we would someday be able to bring him home to bless him with all of our friends and family. At times, it looked impossible, but we kept up our faith. It ended up that our testimony meeting was scheduled for Easter Sunday, so that would be the big day!!! When we got pregnant with Maddison, we researched and got the Strath Clyde tartan to have Randy's mom make a kilt for the baby if she was a boy, but she ended up a girl, so we tucked it away till we had Tyler. Peggy made Tyler's kilt, vest and bow tie. She had a blast. She would giggle every time she worked on it and the first time she showed it to us, I laughed out loud. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen!!! You can't see, but there are tons and tons of pleats on the back. She modeled it after Randy's even down to the pin on the front!!!Randy's kilt is the Campbell of Argyle tartan and because of his Scottish heritage and then serving a mission in Scotland, he knew he would bless our son in his kilt. When we got to church, it was great to see so much of our loved ones there to support us and celebrate. There were 18 men that stood in the blessing circle. When Randy held Tyler up for everyone to see him, there was an audible, "AWWWWW!!!" from the ward members. Randy was in the Young Men's presidency at the time and there weren't enough boys to pass the Sacrament, so Randy ended up passing in his kilt!!! He will never forget that!!!
After church, we had a BBQ at our house, where everyone got to chat and enjoy each others company. So, on this Easter Sunday, we always remember that wonderful day 7 years ago and I thought it would be fun to share!!! Today was made more special by Randy's nephew getting blessed!!! Grandma got to make another kilt for him!!! These Clyde boys are lucky to have such a cool family to belong to and we're lucky to have them in our lives!!! Happy Easter everyone!!!

The not-so-April-Fool's prank!!!!

Warning... this post is pretty long, but TOTALLY WORTH the read. I promise, you wont regret reading it!!!



So, Randy got a call from our neighbor (Dave Palmer) the other day about cutting down the tree in his front yard. Of course he can't pass that up!!! Today was the blessed event. As he left, he mentioned that he was also taking down The Latey's tree also. My response to that, "do they WANT their tree taken down?" Randy said, "I guess so, that's what Dave said!!!". Off he went.


He had to hurry home for me to leave, so we passed each other and off I went. When I got home, we ate, and I logged onto Facebook. The first post I see is Suzanne Latey's that says, "We got home and THIS is what we found" with a picture of the tree Randy had taken down in her front yard. I proudly put on her FB that is was my husband that did THAT!!! Then it got me wondering, was he REALLY supposed to cut it down? I questioned him and he informed me that Dave was told by Suzanne to cut it down. Well, he took off to Stake Bishopric meeting. I get a knock at the door. It's Suzanne and her daughter, Brittney. She asked me WHY Randy cut her tree down. I told her that Dave told him to. Then I asked, "you did want your tree cut down, DIDN'T YOU?". That's when she simply shook her head NO and said, "we like our little tree". I was devastated. I told her Randy would call her as soon as he got home. All I could think is how nice Randy is, he'll never confront Dave about it. He'll just pull out the stump and re-plant a new tree. That would TOTALLY be what he would do. So, there I sat, waiting for him to get home to quiz him. I called my mom, his mom, Paul, Steven, Amy, ect... it's hilarious if it's not YOUR tree. I knew Randy would be just sick. He finally got home, I quizzed him about it. He confirmed that Dave insisted on cutting it down. He said, "I knew in my gut that I shouldn't do it". He knew he needed to find a resolution. He called Palmer's... no answer. He called our Bishop to see if he had a cell # for Dave, no luck. He told Bishop the story "before he found out from anyone else". Right then, the phone rang, it was Latey's. He answered, talked a minute and got off. "They're coming over, Suzanne has a bill for me." . He was just ill. Suzanne and Brittney came in, Randy's so mellow he just kind of sat there and immediately, I'm saying, "it was Dave, he told Randy, blah, blah, blah". Calmly, Suzanne said, "we were wondering WHY you would cut our tree down!!! We'll work it out". I was freaking out, Randy in his own way was freaking out and then Suzanne said, "this is for you" and handed him a paper folded into 3. He opens it and in large print, it says, "YOU'VE BEEN PUNK'D!!!". I started HOWLING with laughter!!! I can't believe it!!! I had to make sure, so I asked and YES they DID want their tree cut down. They knew we were pranksters and just couldn't pass it up!!!! I am still laughing my head off. Randy is SHOCKED that he got had!!! They brought donuts as a peace offering. I will bow down to those girls every time I see them from now on!!!! ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!! I can't even say how great I think they are right now!!! I told them to watch for random sisters of mine at their house paying homage!!! You girls got us, and you got us GOOD!!!! I love our neighbors!!! EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!

Our fun weekend!!!

So, we've been looking forward to Conference weekend for a couple of months now. I was picturing spring weather, walking downtown, hand in hand, all romantic and fun, gooey, gooey, blah, blah, blah.... It all started to go down hill when I was diagnosed on Wednesday with bronchitis. YIPPEE!!! Thursday night, we were getting ready to go, I couldn't talk, coughing my head off and no energy to find anywhere. Then, Randy started to get hot, not in a sexy kind of way, in a fever kind of way. We both got blessings (thanks Bishop and Kurt) and Mexico drugs from my mom for Randy and went to sleep, praying that we would be ok in the morning. When we woke, Randy was 100% better and I was better ENOUGH. We dropped the kids off at Randy's parent's house (thanks mom and dad, Cory and Jamie) and off we went. The weather was PERFECT for Spring Conference.... SNOW!!!

Here is what I-15 looked like on our way up. BEAUTIFUL!!!

Look at my poor little car.... she doesn't like snow. Poor girl.

Well, the weather started to soften up a little, just as we got to Lehi to visit the MAN store... Cabela's!!!! I was prepared for the smell of testosterone when I walked in, so it didn't make me sick.Randy knew we would hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing this weekend, he just didn't know it would be a Cabela's. He was SURE he was hearing angels singing!!!
Then we got to go to the GIRL store... IKEA!!! I didn't know I would have to spend the night to see everything. I loved being there!!!! It was a lot funner than looking through a catalogue!!!
We finally got to the hotel, we stayed at the Raddison Downtown, from our window, we could see the conference center and Temple Square. That was pretty cool. We got a bite to eat at a pizza place called Rocky Mountain Pizza, it was yummy. Then we were off to Randy's mission reunion.
Randy went to Scotland on his mission which is WAY cool because BOTH sides of his family are of Scottish lineage. It was really cool for him to go there on his mission and he has never been to a reunion, so we had NO idea what to expect. The church was set up like Stake Conference, and ended up having only standing room by the end. We got to hear a pipe and drum band. As soon as they started to play, everyone stood up out of respect and I was overtaken by the emotion of the pride the Scottish people have. It was SOOO AMAZING!!!!
There were speakers, 2 stake presidents currently serving in Scotland were there, one spoke and I'm sure he said GREAT things, I just don't know what he said. Are they really speaking English? We got to sing traditional Scottish songs about trousers and the River Clyde (WOOWOO), and other stuff that I had no clue. Then we broke into groups of mission presidents. There were 6 guys there from Randy's mission that served under his president. President Swanney wasn't there, he lives in London now, but it was exciting for Randy to hear the letter that he sent. It was really fun for Randy to get to reconnect with men that he served with. They have such a love for the people and heritage in Scotland.
Then the next day was CONFERENCE TIME!!!! It was also snow and freeze-my-butt-off time!!! We walked to the Conference Center and met up with Anna and Nephi there. It was so cool to be around a bunch of people that know the same things I know, believe the same things I do and it just felt like HOME. We were in our seats, chatting when I looked down and saw Pres. Monson walk in the room, everyone went silent and emotion overtook me again. You could have heard a pin drop. Everyone (including me) has such respect for him. I felt like a little kid, I wanted to jump up and down with excitement that I was actually seeing our Prophet in person!!! It was cool. The other thing I will never forget was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, I can't put into words how amazing they sound in person. The dynamics, all of it was just wonderful!!! It was great to hear words of encouragement from our leaders. A time I will never forget!!!
Everyone asked about the protesters, there were maybe 6 or so. We are encouraged by our leaders to not engage with them, the spirit of contention is not a good thing to have, so if I made eye contact, I would just smile at them (not antagonistically, just smile). My favorite one was we were at the corner, waiting to cross, standing about 4 feet from a protester and he asked if I was going to have that "same smile on my face when I go straight to HELL?" (he was yelling). I thought it was funny, but I was a good girl and didn't laugh. But I did whisper to Randy that I WAS planning on wearing my smile to Hell!!! Be happy where you are, I guess!!!

Here's Anna and Nephi with his new umbrella!!!! HEHEHE!!!
When Conference was over for the morning, we went back to our room and got ready to go to lunch. We went to Olive Garden, where Randy got undercooked chicken!!! That's right, he got SICK!!! But before we were hotel-room-bound, we got to walk around downtown and check everything out. But the funnest thing we got to do downtown was go to a store called the Edinburgh Castle!!! It's a cool Scottish store. It has all the works, kilts, tartan, candies, and other fun traditional Scottish stuff!!! Randy LOVES going in there. He got some candy for him and our friend, Paul. He needs to get a belt for his kilt (yes, I do know what he wears under his kilt), so he doesn't have to wear his jacket, but we're going to keep searching, they were VERY expensive in there.
After our visit to downtown, we camped out in our room where Randy slept a lot because he was feeling icky, which was fine because I was still struggling to breath, we're a bunch of winners, huh? Our room was great. There was a down comforter on our bed (just like on our bed) so it felt a lot like home. I was tired enough, I slept JUST FINE!!! Then Sunday morning, it was time to go. We were missing the kids like crazy!!!!

Here's our cute bell boy.
Strike a pose, there's nothing to it!!!
And here we have the BEAUTIFUL weather to go home. It was gorgeous on Sunday!!!
We had such a blast. I am SOOO happy we went to his reunion and sad that we haven't gone earlier. We think that we should go again and take Kurt and Kristie, Clint and Michelle!!! Wanna go, guys? Kurt, Clint and Randy all went to the same mission. It would be really fun to go all together sometime!!! There are so many memories that were made this weekend, it wasn't how I expected it to be, but exactly how it was supposed to be!!! I think everyone should go to Conference at least once, just to feel what it's like!!! Anyhow, that was OUR fun trip!!! One we will never forget!!!

Have you seen my voice?

If anyone has seen my voice, I would like you to send it back to me. I don't know if it's taken a small vacation or a permanent leave of absence. Either way, I like it and I miss it. So, please be so kind as to send it back to me. I will pay for shipping. Thanks!!!!


UPDATE:
Once I got up and going this morning, it was obvious to me that this was more than me losing my voice again. I can't catch my breath and my throat feels like it's on fire. I just got back from the doctor and I am in the beginning stages of bronchitis. In no time I would have got a LOT worse, really fast. But I'm hooked up now, cough syrup, anti-biotic, and inhaler. They said within 24 hours I should feel a lot better. I'm glad I went in. I'm afraid my voice wont be coming back anytime too soon, though. Wish me luck!!!