Recently a very good friend of mine visited for my son's seventh birthday.  It was crazy that he was turning seven, even crazier that a week later I would be turning 34.  When she walked in to Chuck E Cheese it was like she hadn't been gone all that time.  We picked up right where we left of a year ago, and it made me appreciate her that much more.  Friendship is so easy to offer, but so much harder to maintain.  When you find someone that no matter what, they are there for you - it is something that is special and should not be taken advantage of.  This is someone that will always be there for me and I will always be there for her.

I have blogged about friendship before.  Is there a time in your life when it isn't as important anymore.  I mean, Dondre is my best friend.  He makes me laugh, cry, love, all the good things in life.  He is me and I carry him with me everywhere I go.  When I  am alone, he is still with me.  That is how it should be.  That is one friend that will never disappoint me.  When I am sick, he will take care of me, when I am sad he will comfort me.  He will never cancel on me, never choose to hang with someone else over me, never go weeks without calling.  Is a faithful loving husband all that is necessary? 

Probably not for most people - but some times the safe option is the best. We will have been married 10 years in July.  I still feel for like I did on the day we got married.  We have a beautiful family and I couldn't ask for more.  I am grateful for the life that we have together.  I have been down a bit recently and he reminds me that I am a good person and anyone is lucky to have me as a friend.  I reminds me all the time that I am not in control of others actions and that their actions have no reflection on me at all.

So here is to two people in my life that I know I can count on at all times.

You know you're a mother when. .

Adventures in motherhood have their ups and downs.  Many times I still ask myself what I have gotten into, and other times it is as easy as breathing.  Take last night for instance.  Alex and I sat and colored together, Chris sat in my lap, and Krista quietly watched TV.  Easy as breathing.  Now compare that to today.  I had to take them to practice with me.  Can you say total disaster.  They were bad enough for me to be embarrassed.  That was one of those "what am I doing" moments.

Here is a short list of typical mommy/child things that are relevant in my life, maybe other moms too.

You may be a mother if. .

• You go to bed childless, and wake up in the middle of the night with one on your legs and the other in your armpit.

• you find yourself watching Yo Gabba Gabba even when there are no children in sight.
• when a sale at Children's place is the highlight of your weekend
• when you are out without the kids, you have a mild panic attack every so often thinking you left them on the car.
• you can almost bet that when your cell phone is missing, it is mostly in the hands of a child curled up in a corner playing angry birds or where's my water.
• You keep snacks in your purse, and end up eating them yourself.
• you could win a science fair with whatever is growing under the car seats in your third row.
• If you hear - I have to POOOOOOOP! at least three times a day.
• Announcing that you are going to the bathroom translates into "party in the bathroom" and tiny feet follow you into the bathroom to enjoy the show.
• you have had to buy a whistle, piece of candy, etc, because a greedy little kid put their mouth on it before you could stop them.
• when you plan on shopping for yourself, you come home with three backs for the kids and a pack of gum for yourself.
• have almost run into the car in front of you because you were trying to keep two little people from gouging each other's eyes out.

Then again, these things maybe unique to me lol

My Children the Environmentalists

I have decided that the children in this house are very concerned about the environment.  There are a few habits that they have picked up that lead me to believe this.

1.  I have the hardest time getting them to flush the toilet.  The truly believe in if its yellow let it mellow.  Unfortunately the also believe in if it brown let it hang around.  The amount of times that I have lifted the toilet lid to a hefty surprise is ridiculous.  I guess conserving water is top priority for them.

2.  The fact that amount of food I find in the third row of my car is incredible and at times disgusting.  I have to clean it out everyday or all kinds of wonderful new molds and animals would grow back there.  A few times I have had to yell "NO, don't eat that !"  Chris has occasionally tried to make a snack out of the left over nugget from the week prior that I may have missed during my quick clean up.  I guess it is a good thing to not waste food with starving children all over the world, but I do feel like my back seat is an on going science experiement sometimes.

3.  Energy is another resource they love to conserve.  Every time they see me on a laptop, they feel the need to close the top, not matter what I am doing.  I could be in the middle of typing, facebooking, reading the newspaper, whatever it is - Chris especially, will make a point of ending my computer session.

A normal day in the Cheatham house.

PARTY TIME!

My father in law turned 70 in March.  We had a huge surprise party for him last Saturday.  The theme was black and white so we dressed the children accordingly.  They looked adorable of course.  When we got there they already had the music playing and there were quite a few  people milling around.  One thing people learn very quickly about my children is that they love music.  The second is, they are not afraid to dance.  Krista took to the dance floor first of course and shook her little hips to the beat.  Next was Alex.  My poor boy really doesn't have any rhythm but he tries and has fun doing it. 

It was great to see them all around family.  Being a military brat, we did not live around family.  We got to see them in the summers mostly, and it usually involved a long plane ride.  My children have both sets of grandparents here, cousins, some aunts and uncles, its great.  I do wish more of my family were here, but its nice to have so many people close by that truly love my children.  All the children played with the balloons and danced around the floor, while the adults caught up with each other's lives, and occasionally danced to Wobble or Cupid Shuffle. 

It really was a nice party, and dad seemed really surprised.  He cried tears of joy at seeing his family together to celebrate his life.  I just wish I had gotten a good picture of him that night!

The Lorax!

The last time we took our children to the movie I spent half of it in the lobby entertaining Christopher while Donnie tried to keep a hyper active Krista under control and a noise intolerant Alex to stop plugging his ears and complaining that it was too loud.  Needless to say no one really saw much of the movie, and even to this day there is a chunk of Despicable Me that I have not seen.  Because of this, we were not in much of a hurry to take them back, at least not as a whole family.  Well this weekend, we decided it was time to test the waters again.

The Lorax on Krista's mind from the time she heard the first preview.  We had been holding off but broke down on Sunday and took a trip to Azalea Square with Regal gift certificate in hand.  Once each of the children was settled in with there snacks, an amazing thing happened.  They WATCHED to movie.  No whining, plugging ears, or dancing in the isles at all.  Krista and Alex stayed that way the entire time.  They were entranced and loving the songs and silly jokes.  At one point Chris did ask to go home, but once I said no, he was able to accept it and finish watching through the end.  It may not have been his favorite movie, but he behaved wonderfully.

We asked the kids what their favorite parts of the movie were.  Alex said he loved when the trees started growing back.  Krista liked when the Lorax came back.  Christopher, well he liked when they kissed.  I just have a feeling he is going to be the one that I have to really watch as year pass. . .

That damn scale!

Since I was pretty young, I have been obsessed.  It's not a unique obsession; its nothing glamorous or trendy.  My obsession is the same as many women - the number that pops up when I step on the scale.  For some reason, no matter how I may be feeling, one look at that number can ruin my entire outlook for the rest of the day.  All of a sudden my clothes feel tight, my belly looks pudgy, and I think about how everyone will be able to see the three pound difference I just saw on the scale.  As if people size me up when I walk by looking for any extra inches I have packed on.  Sometimes I forgo the scale because I fear what it may say.  I image the worse, and it manages to plague me all day until I break down and weigh when I get home. You know as well as I do, weighing after you have eaten all day is probably not the best idea.  So, after I weigh, I try to take into consideration that I have eaten, had water, whatever I can think of to subtract pounds from what I just saw.  Just typing it out makes me realize, even more than I already have, how silly the whole process is.

In actuality, that damned scale should be banned from my house.  It is like a magnet that I am uncontrollably attracted to.  I stand on it and pray that it will be kind.  When it is, it's a good day.  How have I come to allow it to rule my life?  There are so many factors in this.  For starters, my mother is as obsessed with it as I am, so you could say I learned from the best. But, to be realistic, there is a lot more to it than that. Let's start with the obvious "I was chubby as a kid" excuse.  I wasn't fat, just thick.  I had solid legs, chubby cheeks, and at that time I was somewhat tall.  I didn't start to feel chubby until about 5th grade.  A friend of mine had lost weight during the summer between fifth grade and sixth grade.  She told me that a girl that lived by her said I looked like I had gained the weight she lost.  Seriously?  I was crushed , but brushed it off as if it didn't really bother me.  I remember that feeling; my heart started beating fast ,and I felt the tears that wanted to come, fighting to stay back.  I never liked to give anyone the satisfaction of seeing me cry.  Another incident was with another friend.  We will call her twin number one.  She spent the night at my house, and in the morning I offered to make breakfast.  At that time I was pretty good at scrambled eggs with cheese (still am).  I made four eggs because I didn't know how much she wanted.  Later when we had a falling out (about two weeks later) a friend let me know that she had said I made way too much food, I must think she eats as much as me.  For real?  This was said before we even had it out, while she was still supposedly my friend.  Visual: Self esteem + chisel and hammer = one sad girl.  At this point, I knew that no matter what, I would be the fat friend.  You think that is all - nope, I am just pointing out the most ridiculous of the experiences I had with cruel people.  The mother of one of my friends, after learning that I had made the school cheer squad, informed my mom that I would never make it on the main land because I was too heavy.  AN ADULT people, an adult said this.

These early experiences followed me through school.  Even in high school when I was no where near fat, I still considered myself the "fat friend".  I wore clothes that covered as much as possible, only venturing to where something tighter every once in a while.  It was a comfort thing.  If it was covered no one could really tell what size I was.  For me to wear a skirt or dress on a normal day was almost unheard of.  Thinking back, I should have gone ahead and worn the bikini back then!

At this point in my life, when I walk in the bathroom and see my daughter standing on the scale, it makes me realize I have to get over this longing to make the scale say what I want it to say.  I mean really, it is about 6 pounds that plague me.  In the scheme of things, that is not all that much.  I do not want my beautiful daughter to have any issues with her weight or define herself by what the scale says.  I am going to try to change this for the better.  It will be hard, but I think as a responsible parent, it is time I just let it go. (not my weight, the obsession.) 

It Has Been Awhile!

It has been over half a year since I last blogged about the house of Cheatham.  A lot has happened, but goodness knows I couldn't begin to recollect all of the details.  In a nutshell - Krista is more of a drama queen than ever, Chris is a daredevil that managed to pull a TV down on himself and broke his femur, and Alex still has not lost the alien tooth (I think it is cemented in place).  Donnie has decided a full beard works better than a goatee, and me, well not much has changed there.

I figure I need to do a better job of blogging, but my brain is so jumbled with info, I need to categorize, maybe have multiple  blogs to better organize what I want to say.  So here it is.  I will start a blog just for Krista.  It isn't that I love her more - she just provides more blog-able materials.  I am blown away by some of the things that she says and does. For this reason she needs her own space.  Maybe one day I will write a book filled with her antics.  Next, I will keep this one strictly for family purposes.  Anything whole family related will go here.  Our trips, holidays, birthdays, etc.  Finally, I am going to do one to follow the kids journey into the modeling industry.  I do not know how well they will do, but we will have fun finding out! 

I am trying to rededicate myself to doing this, so we will see how it goes.