Ok I admit I suck at not keeping up with my blogs!

Its been awhile! Lots has happened!

I finished my first semester of business school, and so far I love it!! Something just clicks, and I get it. I think I have found my niche :) Not to say that I cant still work with animals one day...we will just have to see. Maybe I can start up a rescue organization one day, that would be awesome. Anyways, I started summer school last week and am taking nine hours. Part of me wishes I could have just taken the summer off and relaxed a while, but the more aggressive part keeps saying to push through and finish this stuff ASAP! I have been in school forever, and can finally say that I am ready to graduate business school, snatch up my MBA and never look back! Ha! (Knowing me, Ill get too tempted by the thought of only having to go through two additional years after that to get "Dr." added to my name, and Ill end up pursuing that....(I'm starting to believe my career is just going to be "professional student :)"

Our summer has been great so far! We have gotten to spend a lot of time with friends and family, have gone camping, had fishing weekends, etc.. and we have a couple trips lined up before the summer is through. Cant wait! My dad was FINALLY transferred back down here ( to Brookhaven from Tennessee) so he, Shelbi and the kids have moved back. I am so excited about that, I adore those kids. They have all grown into really great people, not like the rambunctious little youngsters they used to be! And Hannah is my shadow...she is such a sweetie.

Ok now to the biggest news...I have a new nephew! Jaxon Thomas Rabb came into the world at 1031 PM on June 6, 2009, weighing in at 7 lbs and 5 ounces, 20 inches long, and looking just like his daddy! Aly did SO SO SO great. She is so tiny, so everyone envisioned her having a rough time with labor. I guess she showed us ! Her labor was textbook. After walking around about two weeks dilated to 3 cm, she said she was DETERMINED to have him while I was down that weeekend. So she walked up and down her LONG driveway about 15 times on the 5th, and went into labor the morning of the 6th, with contractions about 7 minutes apart. By around 1 pm at the hospital, they were two mins apart, and her water broke about 5 o clock. She got her epidural around 7 o clock, and QUICKLY dilated from three to eight! Started pushing at 1005, he was here at 1031. We had quite a scare, because he wasn't breathing as great as he should have. He had swallowed some of the myconium (I'm sure all you moms know what that is!) and some was in his lungs. He never cried, and looked a little purple (Ok a LOT purple) at first, which scared us bad. They took him to the nursery and began to try and rouse him to get him to cry. After poking needles into his feet, he uttered his first lil cry :( They then suctioned out his airway (LOTS of the gunk came out) and put him in an oxygen hood for about an hour. But after that, all was well!! He began to cry, and was brought in to his mommy around midnight. I'm smitten. I knew I would love him immediately, but wow, I had no idea how crazy over him I would get! I feel so close to him, and Aly too. Over the course of her pregnancy, her and I have gotten even closer. She has grown up ALOT and we relate to the same things. She seems to be on my level now, like for example a few weeks ago I caught her getting onto Ashley for speeding, I mean really chewing her out! I had to smile, because I remember doing it to Aly. I love her so much, and I must say that at the hospital after the birth, even though I love my lil Jaxon to pieces, my heart was with my sister, and I just wanted to be beside her and make sure she was ok afterwards and hug hug hug her. Ok this is turning into a journal entry rather than a blog...ha!

P.S. His pics are on myspace!
P.P.S. Yes, I now have baby fever...more like the baby flu! Ha!

I love springtime!!

Its such a BEAUTIFUL day outside...it just puts me in a great mood. I'm back at school today, was out all last week for spring break..but did not have much time to relax!

We gave Aly her baby shower on the 11th, and it turned out so great! Lots of people showed up, and she got BUNCHES of stuff! We had fun, played some corny little shower games, and ate lots! (I actually got off my diet for the day so I could eat cake and also because we had a crawfish boil later that evening and I wanted to pig OUT...and pig out i did..haha! I think i deserve it...Ive somehow gotten myself down to my goal weight finally!) Anyways, me and Chad bought her the crib that she and Jody picked out, and she was thrilled. I also made her an enormous diaper cake that I was very proud of..lol..I surprised myself with how well it turned out! It was fun to make and decorate, but transporting it to Natchez while keeping it intact...not so fun. Ha!

On Wednesday, Duke had an appointment to get neutered. Finally. Hopefully, this will deter him from trying to escape to go see his ladies down the road! Now, I must say that we have always been proud of how well behaved our dog is everywhere we bring him. So you can imagine my surprise when he turned into an absolute maniac upon arrival at the vet hospital (he had never been there, I usually give all our animals their shots to save money on vet bills, with all our animals, we would be seriously bankrupt if I didn't!) So, when I get him out of the truck, I'm not expecting him to rip my right arm off by pulling, because he is usually perfect on a leash. So we enter the building, me jerking with all my might and yelling "DUKE>>>HEEL!" And he starts barking and wagging his tail while pulling me around the room as he greeted everybody. I was no match. He is massive. People just stared like...wow! LOL...So, we get seated and I just hold onto his collar, and all is good, until the tech calls me up to the counter. From the spot we were seated to where she stood was about 15 or 20 feet we had to walk, and in that short distance, my dog managed to trip a woman, grab a toy off the shelf that was for sale, and grab a poor chihuahuas legs in his mouth as her owner was holding her, trying to jerk her away ( he wasn't being vicious...not a mean bone in his body! just playful, but still....seriously...). So I tell the tech, a 90 lb girl, that she may need me to walk him back because he is acting psychotic. She says...well i have this choke leash that will stop all that pulling instantly...so she puts it on him, and I hear her being absolutely DRAGGED down the hall as I leave. Seriously. I'm writing a book too, because Marley has nothing on my lab.

Of course the story couldn't stop there, because the next day at home he rips out his stitches, and is now on strong sedatives until it heals so as to calm him down, and also is wearing the good old lampshade collar!

Saturday, we drove to Jackson to pick up a truck we bought..its Chad's dream truck...its all I have heard about since we have been together..so I'm happy my hunny finally found one we could afford! Its a 71 chevy, and needs some body work, but the engine is perfect. I cant wait to see it all fixed up. And so now I have pretty much got him convinced that I need a Jeep Wrangler now..for the summertime! And for a playtoy :) The one I used to have, he wrecked, back when I was in high school..and Ive wanted another one ever since...so we are on the lookout for one!

Publish Post

HapPy SpRiNg!!!

I NEED SPRING BREAK!!

Ok can I just say that this semester is dragging on and on like you would not believe!? Spring break starts next Thursday for me, and I will be out that whole next week until the next Monday. But I don't know if it will ever get here. Seriously. As a college student who has been in school for centuries, I can honestly say that although spring semester is said to be the same amount of time as fall, I beg to differ. Although the calendar says otherwise, I think its much longer. Maybe its just me, and the longing for summer to be here with its carefree days of doing nothing but riding horses, picnicing, camping and swimming in the creeks...but wait! That cant be it because, oh yeah, I will be in school all summer long! Well, at least my schedule is great for my summer classes, and in the fall I only have classes on Tues and Thurs so woo hoo! That means when we leave for Vegas on Fri, Oct 30, and come back on Mon, Nov. 9, I will have only missed one Tuesday and one Thursday of classes. That makes me happy!

Anyway, now that my rant about school is over, I can get to updating u on life. I haven't blogged in awhile, but things are pretty much the same around Campbell Zoo, hehe! Once again, we had plans to go camping at Brushey Creek all weekend with our friends John and Alicia, and once again, our plans got canceled due to weather. My poor hubby. He really wanted to go. So, we went to Natchez instead and listened to our friend Jeffrey's band on Sat night at the Moose Lodge, which was quite comical because we never go there, and there were so many 'elderly' people there, we felt out of place without a cane! But man did they have some moves! Haha...so anyways, we came home yesterday only to find that our two outside dogs, Duke and Montana, were gone. Oh great. I knew we should have brought them to Natchez, but decided against it at the last minute. So we searched for hours, driving around in my car, and then on the four wheeler, and then on foot. We asked anyone and everyone we saw. I cannot imagine what it feels like to have a missing child, if I was this worried about my dogs! So when we had looked for hours, everywhere we possibly could, we went home to wait, and I just fell apart on our bed and cried my eyes out. Chad tried to tell me they would be back, but I just felt so helpless. Ugh. Anyway, we had a neighbor coming to help us unload hay, so we had to go out to the pasture to get a spot ready to put it. As we were out there, I see the horses all looking out toward our back pasture, like they heard something. I look, and there's Duke! Running full speed toward us. It was a total 'Homeward Bound' moment. We were so thrilled (He came back right at 7 o clock, which is what time Chad gets home from work, so Chad swears thats the reason he came back at that time, to see his daddy! He loves that dog like u would not believe) Anyways, we look around, and there is no Montana. She is only six months old, and I was in panic mode, because without Duke, I didn't think she would ever make it back from who knows where. So we start calling for her, and just as I was about to go call and get her face put on a milk carton (hehe), Chad says "Look!" and there is a white speck ALL the way across our neighbors pasture, a good two football fields in length. I don't know how he saw her. His eyes are awesome. So she is running toward us, and I cannot even yell at them, all I can do is hug and love them, even though they stink to HIGH HEAVEN! Like an unimaginable amount of stink. So Duke and Montana, my two Houdini babies, are now bathed and stink free and safe and happy, with their little booties tied up in the backyard until Chad installs our electric fence this weekend! Whew!

In other news...umm...well I guess there is no other news! So I guess I better go work on school stuff now! Peace!

There goes our weekend.....

Hello! I have four hours between now and my next class, so i figured i would blog a little..:)

Yesterday was a great day..I had no class, and Chad stayed home from work because his kidneys were hurting that morning, but were better later in the day...(we have been having alot of trouble with his kidneys...not sure if he ever passed his stone, the pain comes like once every three days. I made him an appt with the urologist so we can see what the heck is going on) So anyways, once he felt better, we went and ate at Cate Street Seafood in Hammond...love that place! I was wanting boiled shrimp...and it was GOOOD. After that, we headed back home and started burning piles on our back nine acres..we had a guy come and clear our land off (and he charged a PRETTY PENNY to do that...I need to just buy a bulldozer and go into that business!) and so there are virtually no trees on our land anymore, so now this spring we can start discing and planting bermuda grass..I cant wait for it to look like a nice green pasture instead of a dirt tract haha. Anyway, so we burned four HUGE piles of trees the guy had knocked over and piled up...the fires were GARGANTUOUS..I got a little nervous! I think astronauts probably saw them from space! While burning one pile near our pond, a GIANT water moccasin came out of it and bee lined it to our pond. Definitely the longest, fattest, scariest snake I have ever been within two feet of. Chad said he was about 5 ft, and big around as a 20 oz coke bottle. That big triangle head was enough to send me running! We spent the next two hours circling the pond with one of Chads guns, and he only stuck his head up once! Our neighbor, Mr. Jimmy, said they can hold their breath up to two hours, which I found hard to believe, but if they can, then WOW! We never got him, and the thought of him still being out there scares me! The horses stay in the pond all day swimming when its hot, plus my mallard ducks are in there, and Duke jumps in everytime we let him! So pray that none of us or our babies get bitten!!!

Our plans for the weekend were to go to Brushey Creek in Gloster with our friends John and Alicia. We were gonna camp out all weekend and ride horses. There are PLENTY of trails there, and people are all over the place riding, its so fun! We were even going to leave the camper at home and just bring a tent...really rough it out in the wild haha..BUT>>>>its going to rain Saturday and Sunday, so there goes our weekend! I was so eager to ride, its been a long winter not being able to because of the coldness, and I always look forward to spring and summer for that purpose..Guess Ill have to wait a lil longer!

I have been busy planning Aly's shower...the invitations i sent out were TOO CUTE! I spent last weekend with her while in Natchez, and we had a great time. That girl can EAT! Everytime she ate some of momma's homemade cheese ball, Jaxon would kick! Hard! He either liked it or hated it, haha. I got to feel it...It was amazing...Gosh I cant wait to meet him!!

Ok, so now I'm going to work on my inventory project, since its due Monday...everyone have a great weekend!

LoVe .....................................
Kasey

It's A Beautiful Day!!!

Hey peeps! This blog may be short because I am anxious to get outside...its gorgeous out there and it feels like a waste to stay inside on a day like this...so I am going to tidy up the yard and then give all the horses a MUCH needed grooming session.

Not too much has been going on lately..I am out of school all week except for Friday because of Mardi Gras..woo hoo! I contemplated going to Natchez for a few days, but Chad found out he is off Sat (his first Sat in a while!) so I decided to wait and go home with him this weekend. I am anxious to see my family! Momma is having a fish fry out on the lake Sat afternoon, so that should be fun...and I get to see my sissers! I miss living around them :(

We received some good news yesterday..Chad is getting promoted again! He must have them all fooled at work, making them think he's a good guy or something! Just kidding, but he is a Foreman, Class 1 right now, and they are moving him up to a Foreman, Class 3 which is the highest class. It comes with a 2.00/hr raise..which will definitely help out with our Vegas fund for this year. I dont know how he got promoted while the economy is so bad and some of our friends are getting laid off..its scary for so many people right now, and I continue to pray for everyone in that situation, even my bestie Jessica's hubby's job is looking a little unsure...

I'm on the low carb diet, as mentioned in a previous blog, and am doing good so far! I'm staying motivated, so thats a plus. I just hate that I am not one of those ppl who can eat whatever and never ever gain...ugh! Oh well...I'm not, so I cant cry over spilled milk..hehe! We have alot of plans this summer, like a camping trip to Brushey Creek, a trip to the coast, a getaway with friends to Gatlinburg in the works, and of course, VEGAS this fall! So I want to be able to be skinny and enjoy myself...lol...

Ok...gotta get my butt outside!

lovelovelove

Kasey Kimball Campbell...lol

Im going to make it!

Ahhh...today feels like the best day Ive had in over a week...I have been so sick...and I never get sick! I was a terrible sight, laying in bed all day every day for a week. Nothing had a taste, I couldnt smell anything...it was bad. The only thing I could make myself eat was cheetos and orange juice...what a combo haha! But finally, about yesterday, I got my sense of smell back! I had taken a bath, blew my nose real hard, and got a whiff of Herbal Essences from my hair. I yelled to Chad that I just smelled my hair! He was like...ok?? Ha! But can I just say my husband is the best! He took such good care of me and spoiled me when I was sick..the whole bringing me a cold rag for my head and everything...he is always good to have around when i feel bad..I guess he was returning the favor from me taking care of him in his last emergency! Boy, only about4 months into our marriage and we have already put the " in sickness and in health" part to the test!

I am ecstatic that I live in LA right now because we are out Mon-Wed for Mardi Gras next week, and since I only have class on MWF, that means next week, I go to school....Friday! Thats it! Yay...

Lets see...what else is going on? Aly sent me a pic of her belly last night...it is the most adorable thing ever! Her last 4d pic was unreal...his forehead was wrinkled like he was thinking about something or was mad because of his pic being taken! Lol...gosh I cant wait to meet him...she is considering the name Jaxon and calling him Jax...I love it!

I should be ashamed to admit this, because I am such an advocate for spaying and neutering your pets, but my kitty, Delilah, is still not spayed and had a litter of kittens this morning! I cant help but be excited, but i still feel guilty. Mark my word, she is getting fixed asap. (I got to watch and help with the birth before I left for class...she meowed at the door till I came out, then she took me to her basket I made her, and started pushing one out! She wanted me with her...how sweet!)

Ok gotta go...8 o clock snuck up on me and I have to get to my next class!

lovelovelove

K

Can a Sista Get a Coughdrop?

Ok. I have come to realize that apparently I am not the best at taking time to write blogs! It takes a whole lot of telling myself I gotta do it for me actually to sit down and do one. But here I am...because I am at home on the couch, in my robe because I cant get warm enough, and coughing my head off, and I have no excuse not to do a blog! Ha...

All I can say is...my poor poor hubby. Last week was a bad one for him. He had been complaining to me about (dont laugh) burning when he urinated. The way he described it sounded like a kidney infection, like he had been drinking too many cokes and needed some cranberry juice and some Azo's. He had never had one before, so we just decided that was the cause. Well...Monday night of last week, we are in bed and he starts getting restless, moaning and groaning, and obviously uncomfortable. He says his back feels like its on fire , and the pain keeps coming in waves. So I'm racking my brain....painful urination, BAD back pain (where kidney is located) , and it hits me...he has a dreaded kidney stone! So its about 1030 pm, I talk him into going to the ER (which actually wasn't very hard because, although he is usually very tolerant of pain, this pain was quickly becoming unbearable) and by the time we are in the truck headed for North Oaks in Hammond, the pain is constant. He cant sit still, and keeps telling me to HURRY!! That was the longest 20 miles I have ever driven!

When we got to the ER, they looked busy. Thankfully, (probably because of the fact that Chad was sprawled out on the waiting room floor moving all around and almost in tears) they called us back quick. We wait for the doc in that exam room for what seems like ETERNITY. There's Chad, in his hospital gown, pacing the room, curling up on the floor in random places, screaming while I tried my best to comfort him (I have never felt so helpless!). He even vomited (yuck, i know) from the pain. Finally, they get an IV in him, give him meds to make him more comfy, and take him to x ray. I waited, trying to believe what I had just experienced. It was just...wow. It was unreal.

Low and behold, my better half had himself a kidney stone that was 3 millimeters in diameter. At 4 mm, the are unable to pass and have to be crushed. So in other words, his was the biggest possible size that can usually pass on its own We go to the 24 hr Walgreens to fill his pain meds and make it home right at 5 AM. Then, before he went into a coma from the meds, the last thing he said to me was that if this is what it was like to have a baby, we can adopt.

The next day was much better, and now, over a week later, he is still not hurting. But the mystery is that we have yet to see the stone? The doc sent us home with a small strainer he has to pee through (its funny looking, and yes, I admit that I may have used it once to check if I had a stone, just for fun) and he has used it every time with no stone. So..? I don't know, I'm just happy he is normal again.

Anyways, so it was an interesting week. I went to Natchez this past weekend, and my friends and I had a girls weekend to make up for my bachelorette party where I got sick at 10 PM..haha. We had an awesome time!

I only wish I felt better now...I had to miss school today and I hate missing class...but I'm sure my fellow classmates would not appreciate my cough every 2 1/2 seconds, and my hacking sounds...lol.

Maybe I'll be better tomorrow. Right now, I'm going to use my wipes to sanitize this keyboard because I have germed it up real nice from all my coughing, then I am taking Mucinex and laying back down. ZZZZzzzz

lovelovelove

Kasey

Bow Chicka Wow Wow!

I can tell this early into the semester that Tuesday and Thursday are going to be days full of idle time, which I hate!! I have no class these two days, and I don't know what to do with free time! Ha! It has only been about two weeks, and I have cleaned house from top to bottom, spent all the time I possibly can with the horses without freezing to death, and have spent time doing all of my school assignments in advance. Honesty, there is nothing left to do! Soooo...I have decided to try to get a part time job, and the reasoning for this is because I want to have some kind of experience once my master's degree is completed, because lets face it, NOT gonna sound very impressive when I tell them my last job was WAY BACK when I worked at Dr. Gregg's office. Also, I would like to get my foot in the door some way with a company I may potentially work for one day. By the way, for those of you who don't know...I haven't quite decided exactly what I want to do now that I'm not going to vet school right now. I know I will have my MBA, and it will be a cinch to find a job at any financial institution,( such as a loan officer that works my way up to bank president haha), or any management of any sort of business, including hospitals and such. But I just have nothing specific in mind. One thing I do know is that I LOVE and WANT TO travel. The thought of working in a hotel/hospitality environment has been in my thoughts because once you work your way up as a manager or just overall important person in the hotel industry, they start sending you all over to help open up new hotels. Fun! But who knows. My DREAM (as I have shared numerous times with my friends) would be to work for the PBR, like with media relations and event planning. In fact, they are offering a job on their site RIGHT NOW , Corporate Services Manager, that would be everything I wanted. You would travel every weekend to the event and help get everything going by communicating with the owners of the venue for that event. Also responsible for ongoing communications with sponsors and bringing in potential new sponsors. You would set up the live events, and make sure everything runs smoothly, and let the guys know what they gotta do. WoW. I know it is so unrealistic, but I just wish they would freeze that job for another year or so (they ask for a Masters in some sort of business...BINGO!) Anyways...a girl can dream, right?? That may be the underlying reason why I have opted out of having kids right now, because I am hoping once I get out of school that some awesome job with exciting travel opportunities will fall right into my lap and become my career! Wish me luck on that one!

Anyway, I am happy to report that I have found low carb bloggers! Woo hoo!I have already gotten so many tasty recipes from them and can't wait to try the others. Its so inspiring to see how much weight others have lost, and I am only wanting to lose about ten or fifteen more, so if they can do it, so can I! I lost thirty lbs before the wedding, and had gained seven back...oops...*whistling*....but since the New Year, I have been on the diet and am finally back at the wedding weight! Just a lil more to go....

One more thing, Aly and Jody are having a boy!!!!! I cant wait! We have never had a lil boy around, cant wait!! Im going to town to throw her a baby shower on April 11....She is the cutest pregnant girl I have ever seen! LOL...maybe Ill quit hearing from my mom and family about getting a grandchild from me right now!

Ok, Buckshot keeps bringing me his toy snake, so I gotta end this blog and play his favorite game , tug o war! Love to all~~Kasey

Short and Sweet...

I have class in twenty minutes so I'm wasting a little time..hehe! Can I just say how excited I am about the concert at Bear Creek this weekend? I think I am more excited because lots of our friends are coming down to stay with us, and also lots of chads buds from work as well...we are gonna have a crowd! Fun! Wasted Days is the opening act, and I love them. Im already contemplating where we should all go eat before we go (I do that alot lol), somewhere that I wont totally blow my diet...I'm thinking La Carreta sounds pretty good. Its like the "La Fiesta" of Hammond! Anyways, TGIF, love to all, and peace out! ~Kas

P.S. Ok I know this blog wasn't very newsworthy...I feel kinda dumb that I dont have neat stuff to talk about like babies...maybe one day...hehe...until then, bare with me!

Woo Hoo!!

Ok so I COULD start this blog by telling my life story up to this point, but quite frankly...it would take entirely too long and truthfully, I dont feel like it! Lol! So, in an MBA student-style organized fashion, I will list some of the notable events that have occured in my life in the past few years, just to get everyone updated...

• Chad and I spent some time on the Gulf Coast, staying in our camper, which thankfully is quite spacey, for about three months back in 2006. It was not long after Katrina when we got down there. I loved it because I felt like such a beach bum, but I was happy when his job was over because we got to move to LaPlace, meaning I could start school back! I decided on Southeastern in Hammond.


• Life was good, just me Chad and Buckshot in the camper (hehe). I was driving up to Hammond for classes everyday, and he worked. However, as just about any girl would, I began getting antsy and SO ready to get into an actual house! A girl can only live with a tiny shower where the water has to be turned off while you lather up for so long! Yes, I seriously had to do that..! So, we started looking for a house to rent.


• Near the end of 2006, we found a house! It was in Independence, about 10 miles north of Hammond, which meant a shorter commute for me and a longer one for Chad. But the house was perfect for our needs at the time: out in the country, enough land for about one horse (which I was ECSTATIC about because I couldnt wait for my horses to be near me!) and affordable rent (ok, well, not the optimal amount we wanted to pay...but 700 a month wasnt bad compared to other places we had considered). We even got another dog, a black lab puppy named Duke. We were happy. And life was GOOOD. Until...


• Once again, we go antsy. we had that homey, settled in feeling, but there were a few problems..#1-the house was not as big as we would have liked, especially if we would have started having kiddies! #2- we wanted more land so we could bring MORE horses down from Natchez. And #3- we were only renting it. So, we decided we were readyto enter the home buyers market, and so we started looking.


• We found our house, and fell in love with it, but it was listed for 160K, which was out of our price range. So we kept looking, until our realtor called and said the house was brought down to 150K. Still too much. But, after some back and forth offering, we got the house! Nine and a half acres, out in the country, nice big pond, GREAT neighbors. If heaven aint a lot like this, I dont wanna go! (*I must note here that my one complaint with our land is that when it rains hard, it turns into a darn swamp. Seriously. Not fun.)


• Ok, because of the fact that I am very tired and wanna finish this entry before i go to bed, Im gonna skip a few parts..basically, we got married this past November, I graduated with my Bachelors degree in December, and am now pursuing my Masters in Business Administration. I am so content with life right now, its amazing. Yes, there are not enough hours in the day for me, but who has free time these days? Haha...I think I have learned to enjoy the rush...the waking up super early, swinging by PJ's for coffee, going to classes all day, finding time in between to work out, and then running errands before heading home and caring for ALL our animals, hehe. I then attempt to straighten up the house and have dinner ready by the time Chad gets home so that I can spend about 30 mins with him before he goes to bed and I study until all hours, just to wake up and do it over!! Who says you cant have it all! ;) XOXO~ Kas