Her most candid yet, the author, adventurer, minister of culture and full time mom spills on a wide range of topics.
Savannah Plumb Cheesman has always been a 'shoot from the hip' kind of girl. 'Say it' or 'do it' now, think later, should have been her motto. It's an impulsiveness she inherited from her movie-composer father, Nathan, who famously wrote more than three hundred musical compositions, several of which were used in hit films. But leavening the impulsivity is a practical streak inherited from her mother, Shandra, the first female conductor of the Sunset Valley orchestra.
When she returned recently (along with her expansive brood) to the friendly confines of Sunset Valley for the dedication of the Nathan J. Plumb Arts Center, she sat down with our Jeni Conzonire -- and what she revealed to us was stunning.
Everyone reading this knows Mrs. Cheesman's background already. She was born to Sunset Valley royalty, the king and queen of the town's arts scene. Her mother, a gifted polymath and classical pianist, met her father, the brash, flashy young upstart musician, in the orchestra. They hit it off and eventually, married.
Celebrity: Savannah, you grew up around music, your parents were involved in it, your brother Noah was involved in it, your other brother (Sebastian Plumb) seems to be coming around to it as well, how come you didn't follow that path?
Savannah Plumb Cheesman: Can I be frank with you?
Celebrity: Sure.
Savannah: I spent my whole life running away from being a Plumb.
Celebrity: Really? Explain.
Savannah: I think it -- I don't know -- I think it was a part of me that, you know, couldn't deal with it. I knew that at some level I was different. Though I liked playing guitar, you know, and taking the art lessons and stuff, I was much more interested in other things.
Celebrity: Such as?
Savannah: History, archaeology, adventure. That was it. I couldn't see myself living the staid proper life of a socialite.
Celebrity: Yet that's exactly what you're doing now.
Savannah: Funny how that works huh? I got sick while I was in China, then I got married and had my kids. I love my kids and I wouldn't trade them for the world, but, you know, sometimes I wonder, you know, what if...
Celebrity: Tell me about Andrew. Now, he's the soccer player you're married to, and he's the biological father of your four children.
Savannah: Andy and I met in high school.
Celebrity: Did you guys start dating in high school?
Savannah: No, we couldn't stand each other.
Celebrity: How, then, did you guys end up married? And he is the father of your four children?
Savannah: He was incredibly persistent.
Celebrity: What do you mean by that?
Savannah (laughs) He chased me down! When I went missing in Egypt he and my parents arranged a search party to find me. Then he told me this story about how he'd always loved me from the first time he saw me -- and I was gone. What convinced me more was when he went with me to the adoption proceedings when I adopted my children. I figured he had to really love me if he was going to take me on and my two children.
Celebrity: While you were in Egypt, you adopted your two oldest kids, Imsety and Satis. It was a controversial adoption because it was the first of its kind in Simland.
Savannah: It was a transatlantic adoption. I had to submit an adoption application and then petition the courts in Egypt and in Sunset Valley. A lot of people were skeptical that it could work, including my dad and my fiance. It was a very stressful period, but it was all worth it. I got two great kids.
Celebrity: You have written that adopting your kids completely changed your life. You still feel that way?
Savannah: Absolutely. Meeting them while on adventure in Egypt, that completely changed my life. I don't think I'd be sitting here if I hadn't.
Celebrity: Where do you think you'd be?
Savannah (sighs) I don't know, um, perhaps I would be out adventuring. I don't know.
Celebrity: Soon after your wedding to Andrew, you got pregnant.
Savannah: He was ecstatic. I was a little apprehensive. I wasn't sure how I'd do as a mom. I figured I wasn't mom material. I remember thinking, Ok I can chase down a mummy in Egypt, but how am I going to chase a toddler around in diapers? Then AJ was born, and I froze. I had no idea what to do. I had this screaming kid in my arms and I just stood there. Luckily Andy is a MUCH better parent than I ever could think to be.
Celebrity: Speaking of AJ, is he the one that was sentenced to boot camp?
Savannah: Yes, and it crushed me completely. Tore me up inside. Actually, though, it was him and his older brother --
Celebrity: Imsety, one of the two kids you adopted from Egypt.
Savannah: Completely tore me up. The whole situation. I didn't handle it well at all. I remember thinking at that moment that I'd completely failed as a parent.
Celebrity: But your other adopted daughter, Satis, turned out fine.
Savannah: She's been a complete blessing to me. She helps out with the younger kids --
Celebrity: Speaking of the younger kids, you had a daughter, Sage, who's a teenager now, and you've had your struggles with her too.
Savannah: Sage and I have had our issues. I've learned that she is a vegetarian, which I don't necessarily agree with, but my philosophy has always been to allow my children to develop their own interests and personalities, to not force them to conform to a mold. This is easier said than done, however, because I'm a bit of a control freak, so to take my feet off the gas, so to speak, and allow things to happen is not really a natural impulse of mine.
Celebrity: How did you feel when Sage wrote the letter to you and when she called Dr. Bill?
Savannah: I was stunned. Completely blindsided. I had no idea she felt this way. I was tempted to send her away just to not have her around anymore. But Andy and Dr. Bill convinced me that we needed to spend more time together, you know, just getting to know each other. Can I tell you a story?
Celebrity: Sure.
Savannah: When Sage was a child, she had this science project where she had to collect insects from around the community. She came home crying because she couldn't find this one water beetle, and, you know, it really frustrated her that she couldn't find this beetle, and she did a report on the extinction of the water beetle.
Celebrity: So she's an environmentalist.
Savannah: I'd say so. And my younger daughter, Sierra, completely scares me because she is exactly like I was when I was her age.
Celebrity: What do you mean by that?
Savannah: I was a tomboy! My mother was very frustrated by that. She'd, you know, put on these lovely little dresses and I'd come back with them dirty and ripped.
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