Isn't an introduction in order?

If you already know me and we keep in touch regularly, then you can just skip right on by this post. I assure you, it'll be redundant information. But if you're catching up with me and it's been some time, or just stumbled upon this blog and are bored out of your mind, then an introduction is in order.

I'm Cheryl. It was an extremely popular name in the 60's when I was born (and that's as close to knowing my real age as you're going to get.) I've been married to Mike for almost 9 years (been together for......geez, 13.5 years?! Time flies when you're having fun.) We've got a little ranch house in a typical suburban neighborhood in a small Midwestern town. The only thing lacking is the picket fence and the dog in the back yard. I won't get a dog till we have a fence; winter lasts for about 8 months around here and there's no way I'm walking Fido to do his business when it's sub zero. So we have cats instead.
This photo is, unfortunately, over three years old. Since I'm the photographer in this family, I rarely get photographed since I'm always behind the camera, not in front of it. I haven't changed all that much in the past couple years.

I'm a stay-at-home-mom (or have been since my youngest was born). Overall I don't miss the stress of balancing a "career" and the demands of home life. Sure, there are days I question whether giving up the extra income is worth it - I think that's what I miss most about having a "real" job, but at the end of the day it always comes back to "Yeah, it's worth it." One day my kids won't need me as much. When that day arrives, then I'll go back to a tax-paying job. But for now, I have the best job in the world: Raising my kids and taking care of my family.


I volunteer at a no-kill animal shelter and it's sort of hard to not fall in love with all of them and want to take a few home with you (I dare you to try! ;-D). Mike drew the line after the second cat. We have two big-boy cats - Keats [white] and Milo [tabby] (14 and 12 lbs. respectively.) Keats was the name the shelter gave to him, and since it was an author I enjoyed reading in college, we chose to keep the name. My daughter was only 2 years old at the time and she thought he was a keats......not a cat, but a keats. It took a while to clarify with her that Keats was a Cat, not a keats. Follow? Milo should have been named Rascal. I don't think I need to elaborate further on that.

I have two children - a 7 year old boy and a 4.5 year old girl (who constantly tells me that she wants to be "all growed up and 6 years old".) Eric came into the world weighing a whopping 5 lbs. 3 oz. (yes, full term). It's just not fair when a woman gains 40 lbs. while pregnant and then has a 5 lb. baby.

And Charlotte didn't just come into the world; we're talking Talladega baby. At least she helped me redeem myself by weighing in at 5 lbs. 11 oz. [eye roll]. Yeah, another 40 lbs., another peanut baby. At least breastfeeding helped me lose all that excess weight [double eye roll.]

I finally quit smoking 1 year, 8 months, and 15 days ago, but who's counting? (Just to clarify, I didn't smoke while pregnant; heck I even took nearly two years off from 2000-2001. WHY did I start again?! It's an evil habit.) The amazing thing is that I don't feel like I'm going to die when I do aerobic kick-boxing, weights, and now that the weather is nice, bike riding. I've got two young kids to keep up with and stay healthy for, so that's reason enough for me to keep plugging away.

In reviewing my post, I realized I left out all the usual get-to-know you stuff, like how I love puffy clouds, the wagging tails of puppies, the giggles of my children, reading, photography, scrapbooking, a good clean joke, going to church, cats, a leisurely meal - especially if crab legs are involved, and a balanced checkbook. I love checking stuff off on my daily to-do list, getting an honest-to-goodness old-fashioned letter in the mail, and a great fitting pair of jeans. And that's just for starters! Maybe I'll do a whole post about everything I love! My one pet peeve, though, is bad drivers. One of the best bumper stickers I ever saw, and I want it for my own car, is:

YOU'RE DRIVING A CAR, NOT A PHONE BOOTH.

Isn't that great? Don't you want that bumper sticker too? :-)