Always some bugs around

I came downstairs last night and came across Nate and the girls passing a cricket around. Piper immediately came running towards me to try and get me to hold it.  I'm certainly not one to hang out with bugs but I do think it's so cute that they share a love of bugs with Nate. In fact Charly and Nate are working on a butterfly/moth collection and Charly is always trying to catch Monarch butterflies to add to the collection.

Nate and I both agree that Piper looks like her Grandma Orr in this picture.  

Our first summer fire

Summer isn't summer without the smell of fire, right? Last night we roasted marshmallows and made smores while it was a blistering 90 degrees outside. Somehow the heat didn't seem to bother us to much.

Kristy and  I were building a shade canopy for my pumpkins, who are frying in the constant sun. That is going to help out quite a but, Nate is working on building a canopy for the grapes also. When we got them from the nursery they doubled in size under the tree and since transplanting them they have sort of just stalled and are growing very very slowly.    

Nate is the best marshmallow roaster because he is super patient and toasts them very slowly. I always catch mine on fire and then blow them off, so Im glad to have Nate handle the marshmellows for me.

Rochelle is staying with us this week until we meet up with my family in Carthage TX this weekend. 

Due to the rugged nature of our backyard we had to settle for a slip and slide. Im pretty bummed about not having a little pool for the girls to swim in but obviously Piper and Charly don't seem to mind. 

We are felons!

Yep you read that right, this weekend my sister and my mom went and saw a movie and snuck in all sorts of goodies.  Don't worry Charly and Piper stayed back with Kristy and didn't witness the law breaking we did. 

We went and saw My Sisters keeper, which turned out to be kind of a bad movie. It started out with the little girl talking about how all babies were accidents due to lack of birth control or alcohol! Ugh, that was annoying. And while the idea of the movie is sad, it kind of dragged and the more I think about it the more I just don't like this movie. 

On the other side of TX (Nate was in Ft. Worth doing his guard weekend)  Nate saw Transformers 2 with a co-worker. Hooray another dude movie I don't have to see! 

Piper with a shirt made just for her.

Breakfast Nook

Let's imagine that your eight to twelve month old baby is starting to show interests in solid foods. This is an exciting time right? Well for us at the Campbell house its even more exciting because we had to wait two years to go through this with Piper.

Everyday with her she explores new foods and it's fun to watch. Here she is licking some yogurt, yeah you read that right, she is licking it off the spoon like a little puppy. 

I thought she was having a dairy allergy for a few days a while back but she hasn't shown any signs of that since then after giving her a little bit more. Although I'm laying off the plain milk for now, haven't tried raw milk yet either.

Funny how she is still very picky about what she eats, but the second she sees chocolate she'll dive bombs you trying to get some. What's that all about? She wishes! But seriously Piper you can't live off crap, trust me I would if I could. I'm currently trying to come off a chocolate buzz brought on by an introduction to something called Nutella. Thanks Jessica! Did you know if you put it on homemade bread you can trick your brain into thinking its healthy and before you know it you've had five slices!!! Yes I know I have a problem.

(warning: Below contains women material)

Anyhow we are getting there with her and before you know it Piper will be eating food all the time, but until then I will dream of the days of periods and non-nursing type bras. I'm going to have a period party when mine comes back, oh yes I am!

BTW this is the look Charly gives me when I say something off the wall, which of course is almost never...right?!

It's 8pm and Im still sweating!

Well it's official, I am declaring Texas the state which is a constant oven. Yep that's right, no longer will it be the place I was born, but the place that, in the summer, is an oven. 

 During these hot days we have been having I usually do my outside chores in the early morning or late evening. After watering the garden, Charly wanted to ride her bike out front and so I sat on the porch and watched her and Piper playing and having fun. I thought to myself "self, it sure it hot out here, in fact you are sweating" It was 8pm and I was just SITTING there! Either Im out of shape or Texas is an oven....am I in hell? I pondered that thought for just a moment and then remembered that there is no way there would be beautiful sunflowers blooming in hell. Phew I'm safe, but TX is an oven none the less. Glad I figured that out! Im glad to be indoors right now with the air conditioner that we now have on all the time. What was I thinking trying to go all summer with no air? Sometimes I have my crazy moments and apparently that was one of them.

So while I was bathing in sweat Charly was showing Piper the ins and outs of riding a bike.  My little adrenaline junkie at least had knee pads before she tried to run into the street. I tell her "DANGER PIPER DANGER" and then she looks up with curious eyes and asks "Why?" Im pretty sure that the whole why asking didnt arrive with Charly until like a year ago, although I could be off on that. 

 

Oh and if you are wondering why Piper suddenly has chin hair it's because Nate is shedding.  Err let me explain,  Nate was holding her as I shaved his hair this evening (trying to get it shorter so he could shave with a razor). We didnt even notice that she had a mouthful of hair until a few minutes later when we were moving the piano. There sits Piper on the couch when Nate starts laughing, and of course I grab the camera to capture the moment. Poor kid was not even phased by the fact that she was eating pieces of hair.  Oh yeah these are the good times! 

Home remedies

Here is a picture of my husband (who wants to remain anonymous) preparing a mixture of tea tree, eucalyptus and olive oil to go into the tunnels of his clogged nose. Being the supportive wife, I wanted to document the different remedies so we would remember which ones worked and which ones didn't. 

Nate, err I mean "Pablo"  had taken an ethnobotany class a while back and remembered his professor saying this was the best for clogged sinuses but it burned like crazy when you first drop it in.  

After coaxing himself for about ten minutes he finally dropped it in his nose and screamed! Just kidding, no screaming, but not the immediate "pop" he was expecting. He did say it helped a little though, so this is good. 

Before this oil experiment he tried eating a jalapeno, however it wasn't hot enough to work.   Perhaps next time I should buy him jabanero(sp) peppers instead. 

Poor guy and his dang allergies, so glad the girls don't have this problem. I cant imagine Charly eating a jalapeno, she wont even blow her nose when she has boogies.

Our pool that almost was.

We finally made it out to our friends house in Leonard to go swimming in their delicious pool. Ugh if only they lived closer, we may just sneak into their pool ALL the time, yes Jessica that's right we'd be little hoodlums(sp) breaking into your pool....I fear the rooster would give us away though hmmph! Oh wait what was I talking about? Oh yes, the POOL. Piper paced around the pool only inches from the side while I stress-fully watched her and the other four kids calling my name every two seconds to "watch me!" I kept my cool and waiting patiently for Piper to let me get her in. 

Once Piper got in she immediately channeled her fearless side and was trying to get out of my arms so Jessica and I began passing her back and forth underwater, which she loved! She kept trying to get off of me and do more, I was very impressed although not surprised, for this chick loves danger! She seems to get the concept of holding her breath because I think she swallowed very little, if any, water at all. Must be her being born in the water *wink wink*

Now Charly on the other hand floated in this little ring thing the whole time and was timid to even go under water, even though she holds her breath in the bathtub all the time. She has to be coaxed into doing things sometimes and perhaps there was too much pressure. Honestly though her whining was enough  to get on my nerves. Lately the whining seems to be getting out of control with her.  And I may add it is driving me nuts! One(me) can only put on the smile and patience so long before I just want to scream and run in circles banging my head into the wall. Whoa, err did I just say that out loud?  

Anyhow much fun was had and the girls were so exhausted afterwards causing them to fall asleep the second we left their driveway. I should have played my own music on the CD player but instead I listened to talk radio, whats up with that? I have an opportunity to not listen to Dr Suess or Scripture scouts or the safety kids and I choose talk radio....seriously something is wrong with me!

Back to to the pool that almost was. After a full afternoon of swimming and having such a great time in the water I was inspired to just go out and get a kit pool from wal-mart to put in our own yard.  Turns out after an hour and a half of setting it up and the girls excited to go swimming again that there is not a single spot in our yard that is level enough to have a pool! What?!! So back to Wal-mart again to return the pool and walk out with our dignity and a snap up pool for the tots. You can't have everything I suppose. 

FLEA UPDATE: Found a few dead and retarded fleas today, good sign that the DE is working. Although Shelby is still scratching like crazy and licking like crazy, Oh and driving me crazy! Im getting a little anxious to vacuum but am going to wait until tomorrow so there is more time for the little suckers to dry up and die a miserable death. Because when the fleas are dead we have an even bigger problem, ROACHES!  When we got home last night and walked up the back porch, the light came on and about ten gigantic Texas sized roaches scattered. Charly and I squealed, screamed rather, like little girls about to be murdered. Yes it was tragic. So naturally Nate came to the rescue, after scolding me for scaring the girls, and put down a line of borax to keep the vampires, I mean roaches out of the house.  Moments like these when I dream of a new house with no cracks for bugs to get in!

A little cross?

What do you see when you look at this picture? 

Well to me it looked like her eyes were slightly crossed so I decided that it was time to get her eyes checked out by a professional. We made the long drive out to Denison TX where after about an hour and a half in the office, The Doc says everything looks great! He added that she is slightly more far-sided than average but he wasn't too concerned with it now.  I was amazed that Piper wasn't swinging from the machines in the room and actually cooperated very nicely for him. It was actually Charly that was giving me problems there. She was bored, oh well I say, do something about it to not be bored!  Is being five really that hard? I think not. 

So its a good thing Piper doesnt need glasses just yet, I fear she would break them anyways. Swinging from chandeliers and climbing on top of tables is not exactly careful behavior.

These Three Fleas!

(Just so you know, the picture is not related to the story at all, I just wanted to post a cute pic of my little familia. They were beating eggs for a German dessert we made Sunday called erdbeerkuchen(sp), basically is was similar to shortcake. Piper was hitting Charly with the spoon and Nate is telling her to be gentle.)

OK so its a tad more than three fleas, or a lot more! We are having major issues with fleas, I blame the neighbor dogs. I came downstairs at the wee hour of 6:30 this morning and while I was sitting on the couch I had four fleas jump on me. Yesterday Piper had two in her hair! You cant kill them with a hard squeeze either, they just jump our from your fingers. Its really gross. 

I have always associated fleas with dirty houses and that is not the case here. I am vacuuming like crazy, emptying the canister right after, washing everything and still nothing. That is why I called Nate and work today to tell him we had to spray today. We bought a bag of diatamacious earth and Nate is going to make a spray solution out of it that we can spray on the floors. This is going to have to help because we don't want to spray toxic chemicals in the house. Shelby has had a bath with flea shampoo and we got her a flea collar but cut it off of her after finding out they are extremely toxic to humans and dogs. I feel like it will be impossible to get rid of with Shelby going in and out all the time. Ugh I just picked another one off of me.  

Piper turns 2!

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Insert a giant gasp here! As I was watching her birth video this morning I found myself amazed with the fact that it has already been two years that she has blessed our family. Piper was an absolute peach today! We baked a carrot cake for her and cupcakes for us early in the day. She loved the frosting I made, which consisted of butter, cream cheese and honey...yummy!  Nate and I were convinced that this is the year that she will tear into her cake and make a giant fun mess, Ill get to that part of the story in a minute.  

 

Most of the day was spent preparing for when Nate got off from work, that's when the party gets started!  Charly was constantly wanting to "help" Piper open the presents and by that she means that she wants to play with them.  A package arrived saturday from Grandma and Grandpa Orr in UT and Piper was drooling over it the second she saw it ( a blow up trampoline/bouncy thing).  Once Nate got home we had Pasta with brocoli, chicken and homemade alfredo sauce, I figured I would do a pasta because Piper loves noodles. She immediately threw the broccoli off her plate when I gave her a piece, what's up with that? Charly made up for it by eating a ton of it. We kept telling Piper that she had to eat so we could have birthday cake....that made her very excited.  Finally the time came where we could sing and eat cake!  She had help from Nate blowing the candles out and took a tiny finger swipe and a few licks off the frosting and that was that. No digging in the cake or smashing fingers in it, just a few little timid licks. Im starting to think that we will never have a baby that tears into their cake, in fact I think it doesnt ever happen, must be a wives tale! Oh and that blow up bouncy thing got set up in the dining room and so the whole dinner both the girls were itching to go play in it. 

Piper opened up her present from Charly and her Nana with very little help from big sister. She got a little snow cone maker from Nate and I and carried around a little mermaid card from her grandparents practically the rest of the day when we went outside(we think the card was her favorite). Nate later had to go fetch it because she left it by the storm cellar.  We planted some lima beans and a cantaloupe while Charly and Piper drew faces in the sand. Birthdays in our family seem to be evolving into really great family days where more attention is paid to the tiny details that make the day go round. 

 

Oh and by the way both Piper and Charly's Dr appt last week went well. We did learn that the bump on Piper's ribcage is actually called Pectus Carinatum which right now seems to be a very mild case and we are just to observe her (obviously) as she grows. Piper weighs in at just under 20 and Charly is 34 lbs. Oh and this ought to clear the air too, when I mentioned that Piper is not eating much at all The Dr. didnt even skip a beat, he just replied "well breastmilk is filling and has enough calories". I literally had to bring my jaw up off the floor. I was expecting to have to defend the fact that she still nurses. It was a pleasant visit and if there are any issues with the girls I will seek his opinion if I need to. Piper is going to get her eyes checked on wednesday as well, he gave her a referral to a pediatric eye doctor. Im not too concerned but I have seen her eye cross a couple of times recently and just want to get her eyes checked. I will post how that goes, although I think the odds of both girls wearing glasses are pretty slim. Im finding it hard to concentrate right now, Nate is sitting here with Piper and he is reading her a book...how'd I get so lucky to get a guy like this?  

 

Speaking of reading Charly and I have started reading Little House on the Prarie. She sits next to me at night while I read and its a good way to end the day with her, she seems to enjoy the stories and I am really enjoying reading them as well. How could I have come 27 years without reading this series?  

 

We are so grateful to have such vibrant daughters in our lives and look forward to many more birthdays to come.

While Charly and I are busy cleaning...Piper is busy too

This incident prompted her Nana to get her invisible markers for her birthday, great idea! I couldn't help but laugh when I came upon this scene, and I wonder what she was thinking when I got the camera. Luckily it took only a wet wash cloth and a couple of rinses to get this seemingly large mess off the couch.

My little helper

Charly has recently learned the fun task of laundry, and not just any laundry but, are you ready, washing Piper's diapers. This is something that I have to beg Nate to do and Charly gets her hands nice and dirty from poopy and pee diapers without hesitation,in fact she askes me to do it. Thrilled at the idea that I now have one less chore for myself to do. She is also helping more with dinner and vacuuming  . This is no fluke, I , Renee Campbell, have a child that is helping do households chores! Yes folks I too am excited! 

The Dad is home!...a quick update

The day Nate got home both the girls dropped what we were doing outside and ran to squeeze their daddy. Needless to say they have been attached to him since. It is not hard to tell how much these girls love Nate, and I must say I cant blame them....he is pretty great!

When the girls and I came back from SA I was relieved to see my garden thriving

The rope swing we made for Charly when Piper took over the other swing. Looks like she has plans to take this one over as well.

Notice the pink fingernails! Piper is full of surprises!

only monday..

Feels like it should be friday. Although we keep super busy while Nate is gone for some reason the past two days have dragged on and on. The girls and I were outside for a good chunck of the day while I mowed and they got dirty....which by the way is great! Piper never was really interested in getting her.hands dirty until recently so I enjoy watching her curiosity thrive. On that same note she is constantly pulling plants from the garden, today is was six tomatoes and a corn plant. I want to encourage them both to see how the garden grows but some times I feel like banning Piper from it until she learns not to pull the plants. But how will she learn if she doesn't see how we are supposed to love the plants?
I'm still just overjoyed at how beautiful the garden is and how everything is thriving, even with me gone for a week and a half. Although with that being said, the weeds are thriving too. I think I may finally have the zucchini pests under control, with Charly's help we find the eggs,cut them off and trash em. Today we didn't see any bugs on them so I think we may be close to a solution. I sure hope so because zucchini are one of my favorites.
On another note, I asked Nate today if he was ready to get rid of the TV. Even though we rarely watch it he doesn't want to let go of it. I have been asking him for a few years to do this. Perhaps in another couple he will want to trash the black hole. I think since I have to put up with Shelby he should give in on this one,just a thought.Speaking of Shelby,saying that she is driving me nuts is a severe understatment.Today she knocked Piper down and busted her lip in an attempt to charge out the back door,which if it weren't for Cujo just two doors down I would let her out for good, oh and the fact that our fence isn't up yet.
I should go to sleep,tomorrow I'm going to mow the front and clear some garden space for cantelopes.I love the idea of having edible plants in the front also.

I think I want my bed back, at least while it's hot

With Nate still gone I have the exciting task of blogging from my Blackberry (note the sarcasm).He has the laptop but I can go a week without it right. I'm considering deleting facebook /myspace. I think it takes too much time which I could focus on the girls. A friend of mine is doing a 40 day TV fast and I think the idea sounds great. We don't watch much TV anyways, maybe an hour or two a week. TV is crap,I am annoyed with what entertainment people will settle for. Anyways I was originally blogging because I am hot and I was thinking that it would be nice if Piper didn't want to nurse so long at night. She is my very own personal heater which is not pleasant in this heat. We turned on the AC but its not turned down low, just enough to be comfortable, I think its so wasteful to go beyond that. That's all, Piper just let go so I'm free to go to sleep now, yay!

A new outlook

I just got back to my moms house, I spent the night at my dad's with Piper to help out. I went shopping for him and then went through his cabinets and filled 7 bags of food for the food bank. I restocked it with healthier, less processed foods for him. I decided that while I was out it I would start de-cluttering his counter space, which he will need to fix all this yummy food for him. I can't believe at how much junk we can accumulate and not even realize it.  While I was there I also came across the picture of me from basic training, which I was super excited to see so I could show Charly. She is always shocked when I tell her that both Nate and I were in the AF, perhaps seeing a picture would help.

 
I'm so proud of my dad, he really seems to be committed to change. I feel like this whole surgery and everything has opened up so many opportunities for my dad to get his life on a great track. Nate and I even are trying to coordinate for some missionaries to come out and see him and Im hoping that I can take him to church when he is feeling better.  This has definetly been one of those situations that could be looked at as a tragedy but it is proving to be such a blessing! Where you stop and think, huh I guess Heavenly Father really does know what he's doing.

 
I continue to think about how my garden is doing and I obviously know that my work here with my dad is more important, but Im still anxious to see how much it has grown.  I did call our neighbors and they said they would check our garden as well as Nates co-worker so it should be fine. 

 
Nate seems to be keeping busy in Arkansas with the shop there, he even made a facebook page! Watch out!  I just want our family to be all together again, I cant wait for next saturday. This summer I have so many things that need to get done, books that need to be read and on top of that list I need to research to see if there is a local homeschooling co-op. Its not absolutely necessary, I just think it would help the first year...to see what we want and what we don't want in our curriculum.

 
Going to go check on Piper, Rochelle is trying to put her to sleep. She has had a long day! 

A day in the TX sun

Piper and Charly relaxing on the hammock in my moms backyard, I love it when 

they are sweet!

Oh and Charly just taking a little stroll across the backyard, at my moms house.

My dad went home today and my brother is staying with him the next couple of days and I may after that, depending on how he is doing. I plan on restocking his cabinets tomorrow and hopefully getting some shots of my BFF little boy tomorrow.  As much as I want to be here for my dad I am anxious to get back to our house. Nate says we had a flea outbreak over the weekend so I get to take care of that when we get home, YAY!  I cant wait to get the fence up so all the neighborhood dogs keep their bugs to their own yards. 
  
I feel like this summer is already almost gone, heck its almost July! Aye aye aye I wish Nate could take a week off and we could just press the pause button for a week...hey it could happen! Oh and BTW this week marks ten years since my HS graduation.... yeah I know! I feel like in the span of a year, ten years snuck along for the ride.  I need to find out when my reunion is, perhaps Sally and I could wear matching outfits (insert laugh here).

Oh oh, I went to dinner with Sally and her friend Stephen the other night and took Rochelle with me and we had a blast. Sally helped me write a note on a napkin to the 16 yr old boy who served us ice cream urging him to call Rochelle. Gosh if we had that much courage in HS, perhaps we would have been way cooler....nah! Ahh Im LMAO right now, that was really fun, and I needed that!  

Kid sister chronicles....dreadlock update too

A little photo shoot with my kid sister and my new 50mm  lens which I'm not too sure I like. She looks just like my mom! I think she looks fabulous without her braces.

 
My dad is getting better by the day and he may be getting out of the hospital tomorrow which means I have to go to his house and trash a bunch of crap food that will be bad for his new heart. I'm excited to do an overhaul and I'm pretty sure he is too.   

 

I plan on staying here at least until the end of the week, Nate left for Arkansas today so he wont be home...but if all is well here I would like to get back to our garden to watch it grow.  And a little dread update for you, my mom started the bottom last night and got three chunks started but we are nowhere near being done, it is a very long process. And after we have it all sectioned out it still takes a while to lock up but I'm up for it. I will post pictures along the way I suppose...If I can get someone to work the camera!

Mom, I NEED to blog

I'm here in SA after being informed on Tues. that my dad would in fact need heart surgery, although the extent was not know until I got here late Wednesday. He got out of surgery about 30 hours ago and we are still waiting for him to get out of the ICU. The first time I saw him was right after surgery and as expected he looked really bad (like a person just getting out of surgery). Rochelle and Rudy were both there and Rochelle literally about fainted so we left shortly after we saw our dad that first night.

 

After visiting him a few times I started thinking how I think this whole double bypass has been one of those hidden blessings. I KNOW that if this had gone undetected it was only a matter of time before I would have gotten the "your dads dead" call and it seems to me like he is set on not smoking and making a change with the way he eats. This has really seemed to scare him and in a way Im grateful for that because now with this new heart he has a whole new life ahead of him. Im excited to see the difference this makes for him.

 

Through all of this Piper and Charly have been spending a lot of time with my mom and Piper has been doing amazing, I was even gone 5 hours one of the times and she was fine. She is eating here and there and drinking from a cup.  Usually when I have been gone for a short time she always cries when she sees me and wants me immediately  but every time I come back she just looks at me and continues to play and be happy. So its nice that I can visit my dad and not have to worry about my time.

 

My mom is currently working with Piper and the potty, she has peed twice already in the toilet. If anyone can do it its my mom, she potty trained Charly in like an hour. So we are planning on staying here all day while she does that.  Im going to go see my dad in a bit and Im hoping that he will be out of the ICU today.  I still have no idea how long I will be in SA. It all just depends on what is needed for my dad. 

Someone to share blueberries with..

Even though a bunny or squirrel or some other animal friend gets the strawberries when they are ready we still enjoy looking at them while they develop.

Below, zucchini flowers in,its one of my favorite colors, and certainly a wonderful thing to see. I had no idea that they bloomed in the morning and closed during the day.

So since we got here I have been buying frozen wild blueberries and Im the only one who will eat them....UNTIL now! Piper likes them also! Im so excited to have someone to share the 5lb bag with.  Hooray for blueberries!

 
The girls and I went to check on the garden and counted 42 corn popping up(of course I will have to thin that out) and about 4 beans and a pumpkin sprouting up! I hope more pumpkin come up but I suppose I will be happy with one and hopefully more beans come up too. Also some exciting news, well to me at least, I recently made my own detergent and decided to see if the same solution would work in the dishwasher and it did. My homemade recipe works as well as the 2$ a bottle dishwashing liquid I bought prior. Success!