Waiting for Mo.....

Waiting for Moses Clloyd LaGrande Stevens:

He is due October 11th so all that we know is that he certainly WON'T be coming on that day! As the day approaches I've had to do a few things to prepare.

• Deb & I have agreed that she will ring me to let me know that I must start driving south when her contractions have become a bit regular but are still far apart. This is a good plan cause I anticipate it will take me about 3 hours to get to Deb & Jesse's house considering all the variables of packing, traffic & who knows what.
• I've made sure that Deb has multiple #'s to reach me at.
  
• I have a list of things I have to do once I get the call: Pack, get gas, & remember to drive safely!
  
• I put in my time off request from work months ago.
  
• I found someone to feed Canon & Daphney while I'm away. Thanks Sammie.
  
• I've tried to prepare by reading many books about how to be the best birth partner that I can be.
  
• Try to keep up on my wash & house cleaning for the next two weeks so I have enough clean cloths & Sammie can find her way into my apartment without inflicting too much physical or psychological pain on her. Side note on this one: I still have to do my wash & clean my apartment. :) I'm banking on the hope that Mo won't come today.
  
• I still don't have a camera but I don't think I'll be able to get one before Mo comes so I guess I can cross this one off. :( Plus I still don't know if I can upload pic onto my computer. I keep forgetting to ask the Geeks I know (Andy, Matthew, & Tommy). If any of the wifes of these geeks read this tell your husband to ring me please.
  
• And now we wait................
  

My summer vacation 2009!

Here it is! The post you've all been waiting for! Real non-camera phone pics of my fabulous weekend summer vacation. Don't get so excited that you're hyperventilating. Just channel all of that energy into fabulous comments. Enjoy!

I went to SLC Friday night, July 10th, so I could go to the yearly Hartvigsen Family Reunion early Saturday morning.

This is Deb & I before I heading to the reunion. I like to call this pic "bosom buddies" for obvious reasons. If it's not obvious to you then....mmm not sure what to tell ya about that one. :)

HARTVIGSEN FAMILY REUNION 2009

(Lion's pavilion)
My grandma Margaret Mina Hartvigsen Toman was 1 of 15 children. The decedents of those 15 children have a reunion every year in Utah up Springville Canyon at Kelly's Grove. This year it was at the Lion's pavilion. I've gone to this family reunion nearly every year of my life. Growing up we never had funds to go on extravagant family vacations so the reunion was our summer vacation every year. It was a huge deal to me. Something I looked forward to every summer. I recall making my list each year of things I needed to take in June! The reunion is usually held the second weekend of July each year! I still look forward to it just as much now, although I don't make a packing list a month in advance any longer! Over the years I became close to a few cousin in particular & look forward to seeing each of them every year. I tried to get pics of most of the folks on the favorite cousin list. Ok, now that I'm thinking about it I missed a lot of people but the memory card was full.

On Saturday we have a pot-luck lunch. Mmm my favorite!! This year I brought a yummy desert salad! It was a big hit with us Tolman's but not a lot of the other folks were brave enough to try it. Oh, well at least I like it. Delish!

This is my 1st cousin Tommy (Tom-Tom) & his way-to-cute son Carter.

My 1st cousin Emily but I've called you Em as long as I can remember & her darling daughter Maleah. Maleah was a huge fan of the salad I brought! At least I have one fan that appreciated my silly attempt at cooking!

This is my mom's 1st cousin Kristy, my Great Aunt Marda's daughter. I've always thought that Marda's daughters were the epitome of "beautiful." Isn't Kristy just gorgous? Exactly! Plus she has the funnest personality & the most amazing memory! Hmm, I'm just a bit jealous.

My Grandma's sister, my Great Aunt Shirley! This year she ended up finding out that I'm no longer a member of the Mormon church & she was totally fine with it. Gotta love people who love you no matter what! I wish everyone could be more like Aunt Shirly.

I asked Em to take this pic of me and my 2nd cousin Jason. In preparation of this pic Jason told Em to count to 3 and then take the pic. This is the moment that I realized Jason's big plan....

of getting rid of the pie in his hand by depositing it on my FACE! Yeah, I don't think so Jason!

This is after he promised to be nice.

My 2nd cousin Abbie & me. We're the same age and we've always been pretty close. Her and her husband Jeff are some of the funniest people I know! She used to blame me for her kids cause I would tell her that she was going to get pregnant & then she would! After this amazing psychic ability of mine worked with her 1st 2 children she told me I had to keep my pregnancy predictions to myself. Interestingly enough she still ended up with 2 more kids with NO help from me.

My 1st cousin Megan and her nephew Carter. Megan & I are super close so there are just way to many stories to tell you about her. To many to choose from. She is a pharmacist so she is my go-to person for anything medical. Thanks Megan!

Jenny, my 1st cousin Tommy's wife & Carter's mom. I've gotten to know Jenny quite a bit over the last year. I just love her. I'm so glad she is my cousin. She is a genius on holistic & alternative health care. It's so fun to talk to her about Deb's pregnancy since Deb really wants a no drug birth.

Tommy, Jenny, & Carter. Aren't we Tolman's just cute!

Sandi (left), Lindsy (right)

After pot-luck there is usually some sort of craft for the children to make if they're interested. Of course being the crafty person that I am I usually end up at the craft table for a bit. This year everyone was making bead necklaces and bracelets. As I was making mine I was visiting with my 2nd cousin Lindsy & getting to know her new sister-in-law Sandi. At one point Sandi set her beverage down on the table and immediately proceeded to dump the entire contents of her cup on both she and I. Funny! Even funnier was when she said there was a little "sommin sommin" in her drink. Of course I said "where is the bottle of this "sommin sommin", hook me up!" Lindsy, Sandi, & I then went and had our own version of a family reunion in Aunt Shirley's camper. Good times! Course it was amazingly hard for me to try to "act" sober after that as I'm such a light weight when it comes to alcohol. This whole situation created some great laughs and now is one of my fondest family reunion memories: "Remember that time Sandi and I got completely smashed and tried to pretend we weren't! Fun times!!" I guess I did a pretty ok job at acting sober, cause even Megan who knows me the best and has seen me drunk had no idea that I had 3 shots of vodka on board until I told her later. :)
Thanks Deb for letting me borrow your camera!

This post has inspired me to start a charity. I'm calling it:

"HELP HETH GET A REAL CAMERA FUND"

All donations can be sent directly to me. Hey, it's such a worthy cause. :)

Weekend Mini Trip South

This weekend was the baby shower for my cousin Tommy and Jenny's new son Carter. Of course I wanted to go meet the newest Tolman so I left Logan Saturday morning and made an event filled "mini trip" out of the whole thing.My day started at 4:00 a.m thanks to my 20 lbs orange alarm clock that goes by the name of Canon...thanks Canon!! I left Logan at about 7:30 a.m. I arrived in Salem around 10 a.m-ish. I went straight to my cousin Emily's house cause the shower wasn't until 11 a.m. Em was making deserts for the shower and realized she forgot to buy mini marshmallows for one of the deserts. I offered to run to "Fast Gas" gas station to pick some up. While I was looking for the marshmallows I discovered that "Fast Gas" had my absolute favorite gum: "Extra Cool Green Apple Gum". Now you must know that Logan, or Cache Valley for that matter hasn't had even one package in the whole county for nearly 2 years. I can say this with great certainty cause I ALWAYS check whenever I'm in a store that sales gum. Needless to say I was ecstatic to see that Fast Gas had 11 packages just hanging out on the shelf. I bought all 11 packages!!

We then headed to Jenny's mom's house for Carter's shower. This is a darling picture of my cousins Emily (L) Megan (R). Aren't they beautiful! Now why didn't I get some of those beauty genes? Megan being Megan...completely spastic! Can you believe she is going to be a doctor in a mere 15 months? Yeah, I know......

Me and Carter....so perfect...him not me. Course I look fab too. :)

The newest Tolman! Well done Tommy and Jenny! Well done!

My Great Aunt Marda holding Carter.

My Great Aunt Shirly doing some visiting at the table.

*****
After the shower I headed north again to Deb and Jesse's house to stay the night. Deb and I planned to go out to eat. It's always fun to go to SLC cause they have so many restaurants that Logan doesn't have. Deb and I love seafood so we decided to go to "Red Lobster." As we were headed out the door Jesse came home so he got to go with us. Perfect timing!

This is what I had. It's called the "ultimate feast." It was a bit spendy but oh so worth it! Delish!!

For desert I wanted something fab. I was thinking ice cream, particularly ice cream that you can't get in Logan. As we were driving around looking for something fab we stumbled upon the most fantastic frozen yogurt shop "Spoon Me." They specialize in "natural frozen yogurt"....whatever that is. They have 3 flavors, natural, green tea and acai. I had natural and acai mixed with pineapple, kiwi, & blackberries. Truly delish and completely fab! If you're ever in SLC you must stop at "Spoon Me." It's located at 532 E. 400 S. in Salt Lake. Seriously give it a go. I'm for sure going to be a return customer. Yum!!

Deb and I then decided to help make "He's just not that into you" the weekends top grossing movie. Total chick flick, but so funny and cute. I for sure want to see it again. Loved it!!

After the movie I decided that I needed to purchase yet another copy of the book that the movie is based on. I have purchased this book twice previously, but I keep lending it out cause it's so brilliant. Trouble is the people I lend it to never return it. I now own my third copy of the book. Well worth it? Yes! Cause reading it is like having a secret way of decoding guys right in your hands. If you are a women for sure get your hands on a copy. Maybe if we all become aware of why guys do or do not do things perhaps guys will shape up and start treating us like we should be treated...with respect. Actually that will probably never happen but at least we're on to them now.

I also ended up finding some other books I wanted to purchase...of course! Really I should not be allowed inside bookstores. It's a sickness, really it is! I just can't help it.....
I started reading this book this morning and am completely fascinated by it thus far. Actually I have big plans of continuing my reading as soon as I finish this ridiculously long post.

I scoped this book out the last time I went to SLC & couldn't resist buying it this time. Can't wait to read it.

Deb and I got home at 10:30 pm. from our adventures. Good times but I was completely exhausted! Don't forget that Canon had waken me up at 4 a.m. I went straight to bed and slept like the dead. Thank God for that cause I was beyond tired.
*****
This morning Deb & Jesse cooked breakfast. Deb found this fabulous recipe for Greek taziki (sp?) yogurt & cucumber sauce. Yum! Deb made sausage and eggs and Jesse was in charge of the hash browns. So tasty and fabulous.
After we had breakfast we just hung out and I tortured Deb and Jesse by making them listen to many of the songs on my play list & singing along to them. There is nothing like a live Kins rendition of "Jambalaya!"

Deb busted out the hookah....to deal with my singing? Perhaps. :) This is a tradition every time I go to SLC. Don't worry we only use hookah tobacco cause Deb doesn't want any of that "other herb" in her hookah.

Jesse being Jesse! I love you Jesse!

Then I decided it was time to head home. Deb and Jesse walked me out to my car. This is Deb being fab.

I gave Deb & Jesse one of my 11 sacred packs of "Extra Apple Gum" as a parting gift cause I love them. Jesse decided that the occasion deserved a special dance of appreciation. This is Jesse preparing for the dance. Inspiration is coming........

And....."the apple eagle" is born!!!

That was my weekend mini trip south. Good times!

Emotions

This week has been an emotional roller coaster! Don't worry....I'm taking my meds...at least on most days when I remember to. Here's a recap of my week:

Sunday:
Hmm, I don't recall anything. I must have slept the entire day away.

Monday:
Another regular day I suppose cause I don't recall anything in particularly special happening.

Tuesday:
Ok, here is were it starts to get good... First of all this Tuesday happened to be January 20th! The inauguration of the 44th United States President. More importantly the inauguration of the 1st American black president. It is amazing to me that in a country where black people were not citizens little own allowed to vote less a 150 years ago now has elected a black man to it's highest political office. As I watched Barack Obama being sworn in as our president I was truly proud to be an American. Well done America, well done!

Tuesday afternoon I got to witness another momentous occasion. This one in person. My dear friend Harri graduated from drug court. Drug court is a program that people with criminal records related to drug issues can go through to get their charges reduced or even dismissed. This is not an easy program. It involves reporting to a judge on a weekly bases, frequent random urine analysis, attending Narcotics &/or Alcohol Anonymous, psychological counseling, steep fines to pay for all of this, and really a complete change of life for a drug addict. Harri graduated after completing the program in just one year. She got her shit together and really dedicated herself to dealing with her addictions. She graduated with 25 months of being clean! Congrats Harri, I'm so proud of you. After Harri's graduation her father took all of the family and me to Fire House Pizzeria for lunch to celebrate. Good times & tasty food. Plus I got to miss a few hours of work for all of this.

When I got home from the festivities I found that my W2s had arrived. Yippee! I tried to file my taxes on my computer using Turbo Tax. Apparently Windows Millennium is to old of a program to use for filing. I rung Harri and asked her if I could use her comp to file my taxes. Of course she said "for sure." She actually said "sure come on up but I may have already had a drink!" Harri lives less then a milish away from me. By the time I got to her house she was already on her second tumbler of whiskey! Just as I was finding out that I was going to get a $600 tax return Harri was working on the last of the whiskey bottle, talking mock 10 with 90% of her vocabulary being some version of the word "fuck," and telling me crazy ass stories about how and why she ended up in drug court in the first place. I just rolled my eyes and was thankful that she was home in a safe place. In the back of my mind of course I was worried that this was the beginning of more using & addiction for Harri.

Wednesday:
I went to work wondering if Harri was going to make it in. And if she did what condition would she be in. I soon found out. At about 6:05-ish Harri strolled in reeking of all things alcohol. She was still fucked up pretty bad and let me know it, as if I couldn't figure it out for myself. I told Amanda that I was driving Harri home...not a good idea to try to work drunk yeah? After work I rung Harri to see if she was still alive. She informed me that she had spent all day with her head in the toilet. For God sakes after being clean for 25 months one does not have the same tolerance one used to.

Thursday:
Harri came to work and declared "never again!" I believe Harri when she says she learned her lesson. She is a strong and amazing person. I know she realized what she has accomplished this last year and what she will loose if she starts using again. I pray that she will remember this experience next time she wants to stop at the liquor store.

Friday:
I woke up to a message on my phone and a picture from my cousin Megan declaring that my new cousin had been born. Carter Thomas Tolman was born Thursday night to Tommy and Jenny. He might be the cutest thing I've seen in a very long time. I'm so excited for Tommy and Jenny. I can't wait for the family baby shower so I can hold the newest Tolman.

That's about it for my week. Oh, I forgot to right about my "guy drama" which was actually a HUGE part of why my week was emotional, but that's a whole other very long story in itself so I'll post that later.....

FYI: The pic on this post is Picasso's painting which I believe is titled "friendship." I'm not a huge fan of Picasso but I like this painting cause it's a bit dark and mysterious. I thought it perfectly depicts the various emotions I've had this week. Dark but not too dark, happy but not too happy. Ok, it makes sense to me.

Bloody Graveyard!

Yesterday I had to work 11 a.m-7 p.m. I know most of you are thinking "so, what's the big deal?" Well let me tell you.... I normally work 6 a.m-2 p.m. & have done this for almost 2 years. My body is very set to this schedule. If you know me at all you know the I have NO sense of urgency unless I declare it's time to hurry! To make it to work at 6 a.m. I set my first alarm for 3 a.m.! Yup THREE hours before I have to be at work! Don't worry I normally don't get out of bed until 3:30 a.m. On occasion that I'm still not up by 4 a.m. then panic starts to set in cause I'm running behind schedule! Needless to say but the 11-7 shift was EXTREMELY HARD & felt exactly like working a graveyard!

This is how my day went:
1:30 p.m: I thought I was going to starve to death. Normally I have lunch at 11:30 & the one bowl of Life cereal at 7a.m-ish wasn't cutting it.
2:30 p.m: I decided I was in Hell. I was so tired that I was getting that tired headache...you know the one you get when you're exhausted? Yeah, that one! Not to mention the fact that my eyelids hurt to keep open.
5 p.m:. I was in the "EVERYTHING IS SO FUCKING FUNNY" tired mode. Where NOTHING is actually funny but you're laughing so hard that you have tears in your eyes!
7 p.m.: Finally came and I was free. Of course by then I got a second wind and decided to go shopping!!!!

I found the cutest outfit for my cousin Tommy & Jenny's son, for $2 dollars at Kohl's! Yup I'm a bargain shopper & I don't mind bragging about it either....hehe.....