Sunday, February 22, 2009

Obsession vs. Addiction



Miriam Webster defines Obsession as a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling: compelling motivation. It defines Addiction as a compulsive need for and use of a habit forming substance.

All of us have things or ideas that we become more interested in than others. Our interest in these things wax and wane, so we rarely become truly obsessed or addicted. In my early years of being a wife and mother I am embarrassed to admit that I was obsessed with keeping a very clean house, especially my bathrooms. In a relief society lesson I told everyone about how I wouldn't leave my house to run errands if it were dirty, because if I were killed while I was gone, then people would know I was a bad housekeeper. Obsessive? Probably, but I have gotten over it, luckily! Every obsession or addiction is geared to make you feel better. It will make you feel better about yourself, your circumstances and sometimes even the people that you associate with.
Recently, there are two things that I am very obsessed/addicted with. The first is a store in St. George called Urban Renewal. When I walk into this store it holds as much fascination for me as a five year old who finds herself in the middle of a candy store. The pretty colors; different shapes; old, new, and painted furniture; the second hand and designer's rack clothing straight from New York; the dishes, tables, couches, armoirs, and dressers; fabrics in bright prints and cowhide; sunglasses, earrings, rings, coats and cowboy boots; lamps that are new and lamps reconditioned; paintings and posters; roosters and pointed shoes; all arranged in an artsy, clever fashion. I have something from that store in every room of my house. I can spend hours browsing through the merchandise and never see the same thing twice, fantasizing about a purchase that would look just perfect in a particular part of my home. My children assume that I am lost in the lure of the store if they can't reach me on my cell phone while working in St. George. They know the siren call this place holds for me, yet, I prefer to think of it as an obsession, due to the fact that it is harmless. I beautify my home with my purchases (which are very reasonably priced) and except for a few small clothing purchases, I buy reconditioned pieces, which makes me feel a little noble about my contribution in keeping the world "green."
My second obsession/addiction is a very special candy. This candy only comes out at Easter time, but, bless the retailer's pointed heads, they start stocking it in the stores as early as Valentine's day. This candy is the Cadbury Mini Egg. I love this candy. My husband bought me two (count them, two) 24 oz bags for Valentines day last year. This is one of the reasons he is a keeper. I love the hard candy coating that crunches when you bite into one. I love the chocolate inside that I always promise myself to keep in my mouth until it fully melts, but then I lose control, and chew and swallow it before I know what has happened. I love that you can have 12 whole candies for a mere 190 calories and that they are larger and more satisfying than any
M & M. I love these candies so much that when I saw a large display in Smith's the other day, I let out a little squeal and punched Allison to show her how beautiful it looked.
I know which of these things are an obsession and which is an addiction. All I can say is that it's a good thing the candies only come out once a year, or you would find me in a darkened room, sitting in a circle with several other people sharing my story in hushed tones of late night runs to the store for those beautiful purple bags that are hidden all over my house so I don't have to share them with anyone!

Friday, February 20, 2009

I Miss My Family....When's the Reunion??


Everyone's a Hottie to Someone!

About five years ago I realized when I went out in public with my daughters, that I was invisible. People looked right through me, or around me to look at my girls. Sometimes I was forced to get their attention when it was a 40-year old man looking at my 15-year old daughter, and give him the death stare, but generally I was just invisible. It seems the older my daughters and I got, the more invisible I became. Then the worst thing of all happened. I didn't even need to have my daughters with me to be invisible--horrors! I took to crying on my husband's shoulder about my waning youth, etc. He was a sweetie and always assured me that for my age I looked great! Thanks, honey. Recently though, I went to wal-mart and spent the morning being greeted warmly by nice looking, well-dressed men. One started a conversation in the laundry soap aisle about the benefits of non chlorine bleach on colored fabrics, another smiled a warm, friendly smile, clearly showing I wasn't invisible. One nice gentleman struck up a conversation in the checkout line about politics and finally another practically wore out his brakes stopping his truck so I could cross the parking lot to my car. All this attention prompted me to text my best friend the following message: "I finally found the age group that still finds me attractive...60 year old men." To which she replied: "It's ok, 60 is the new 40." And that, my friends, is the reason I will always be best friends with Margo, and the reason we will be so competitive on The Amazing Race when we try out,because she is brilliant!!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

CITM Explained

For any of you who are actually following this blog I thought (Susan-here) I might explain what CITM is. This is the "thing" Alli said I was dealing with in the very first intro blog. Well, it's not communicable, it's not african, malaysian or against the law. It's a phase Allison coined to describe a state of being that she thinks I am in all of the time. When I told her she couldn't exclaim things like "you're crazy!" when we were out in public anymore she decided to coin the phrase CITM so that people wouldn't know that she was still calling her mother crazy. It stands for Crazy In The Mind. So there you have it. I am constantly dealing with CITM but I blame the kids, wouldn't you?

Monday, February 16, 2009

Tribute to a Crazy Little Lady



Meghan is my favorite person in the entire world. I (Alli) love her so much and she is the most amazing person I have met in my life. Okay so that might be a little over dramatic but I felt bad that I left her out in the last of '08. I really do love Moose though. She always tries to do everything for others and since Katy has left we have become closer. I try really hard to be nice to her even though it never seems that way. Meghan loves being in Middle School. She loves choir and she is learning to love volleyball. ;) I will be so sad to leave her in a couple years. It'll be hard!!

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Taking a Look Back



So we have a new project at the Tatom household. We have been sorting through all of our pictures to have them in specific boxes for each kid. This has been really fun for all of us re living the memories. We will find a picture, then take a picture of it on our phones and send it to a sibling. So we came along this picture and we started talking about Stephen. You see, Stephen has ALWAYS loved babies. He always wanted babies around and he was very good with them. Well here is the proof. He LOVED Alli when she was born. Although she was adorable so it couldn't have been that hard!! (kidding!!) As you can see he has not stopped loving little infants. He loves to play with Claire all the time. This picture is from this weekend. Everyone came down except for Katy. Alli had a volleyball tournament so they watched and we hung out. It was great!! We love family. And we love Stephen!! :)

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Catching Up On the Last of '08




With everything of 2008 we just thought we would catch up. Alli had a great season of volleyball this year, they went to La Jolla and played in a HUGE tournament there. Brad went with her and they had a ton of fun. The team was pretty good, they were number 1 in their division. We can't wait til next season!!





Katy's graduation was great and everyone was able to come down from St. George for that (except Rachel, we missed you!!) It was great to see Katy graduate with Honors and be able to speak also!! We were so proud of her :)
2008 was a lot of fun, especially having the new addition of Claire into our family. We were very blessed and so far 2009 is going great!! We can't wait to see what's in store for us!
So the week before everyone got out of school for Christmas Break, it snowed in Vegas!! Yes that's right people, it SNOWED!! It was so much fun to be able to play in the snow. Alli even called her mom to ask if she could ditch her last period. Being the loving mother she is, of course she said yes. :) Well on Monday it snowed pretty hard but then on Wednesday it was even worse!! Alli went up to her friend's house and they played in the snow til about 1 in the morning!! It was a blast for everyone. They got Thursday off as a "Snow Day" Ha!! It didn't even snow on the day they got off. I think the county just freaked out a little bit. With only 4 snow plows in the county alone, with 2 of them on the mountain, yeah they definitely freaked out. Oh well!! It was super fun and now they have to make up the snow day on a Staff Development Day, yahoo!!














Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Our Pride and Joy :)

Claire Elizabeth Tatom was born on October 31st, 2008. We love her oh so very much as you can tell. She is adorable and our new pride and joy.
Just chillin with Daddy
First time her smile was caught on camera
Favorite picture of all time
Smiley as can be!!

Adorable!!!

Monday, February 9, 2009

Starting Out

So I discovered this whole "blogging" thing a little while ago and thought it was kind of cool. I don't really know what I am going to write about our insane family, but I thought I might give it a shot. This is Alli by the way. Not Susan (she's currently dealing with CITM, that's a story for another post :) but maybe she will pop her two cents in every once in awhile. But for now, we will just catch up real quick. Kevin and Stephen run our business in St. George and they are doing a rather fine job with that if I do say so myself!! Mom goes up about once every two weeks and helps with...I actually don't know. haha! Kevin and Rachel just had Claire who is adorable and we all love her. Katy is doing the college thing up at Dixie State in St. George so she is close to home and close to family. Meghan and Alli (me) are loving Vegas and volleyball. As for Brad and Susan, they are doing great as well, Dad is still the bishop, coming up on his third year in June. Ta ta for now!! (if anyone even reads this)