A famous Type-A personality, Bullock (at Premonition's March 12 L.A. premiere) now thinks "nothing that's beautiful in life is anything that was planned." Photo by: Fred Prouser / Reuters / Landov
Sandra Bullock: How Love Changed My Life | Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock feels strongly about many things: the decor of her new Austin restaurant Bess; the renovation of a Hurricane Katrina-ravaged high school she's helping to fund; her new thriller, Premonition; and even her favorite herbal sweetener. But all those pregnancy rumors? Not so much. "In one tabloid I was two months pregnant," she says with a laugh, "and in another I was four months pregnant."

So, for the record, the correct answer is ... "Not pregnant!" declares Bullock as she munches on Cobb salad during a March 4 interview with PEOPLE. Looking radiant in a clingy gray top and black jeans, she explains that she's already experiencing parenthood – and loving it. "I have children, amazing children," she says about the three kids who were part of the package when she wed motorcycle tycoon Jesse James nearly two years ago. "My love and my want for their future and their happiness, for their homework to be done and for them to know how smart and beautiful they are is no less than if I'd had a child on my own."

Stepmom is just one of the roles Bullock is relishing these days. At 42, "Sandy," as she's known to pals, is finding fulfillment not in paychecks or blockbusters but in her work as real-life philanthropist, restaurateur, producer and wife. "I'm comfortable in my own skin," she says. "I have my family, and it's the family that some higher power put in my path. I feel really lucky." Adds her pal, comedian George Lopez: "Sandy is in the best place I've ever seen her: completely whole, inside and out."
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