Crazy Eight Wedding Anniversary...

Something magical was in the air those wonderful 8 years ago....

Happy Anniversary, my dearest and most wonderful husband.

Summertime Goodness - Corny cupcake.

Someone make these for me now! Please?

This is Sunnydale - how bad an evil can there be?

Buffy movie, Buffy Televison Series, Buffy comics, Buffy Action Figures - What? No Animated Series? Apparently not.

It would be worth it for Willow....right?

Pudgy, Middle-Aged, Haggard Mom Goes to the Beach

The Trip - The big girls (my mom and I) against - I mean with - the little boys (my three sons 17mos, 3.75yrs, 7.5yrs.)

The Location - VA Beach, Atlantic and Upper 30's

The Set-Up - Annual mid-week getaway courtesy of Mom and transportation via Me and the rad mini van.

The Suit - Since last year, graduated to full-on matron swim dress though kind of retro-ish. Bonus: no defoliation has to occur!

Me - At my oldest and my heaviest non-pregnancy weight EVER. Not to mention a wee bit exhausted from three gleefully incorrigible boys.

The Results - Not too bad. I had a lot of reconciling to do. Reconciliation with myself. Once I realized that I was no longer this girl:

Or this one...

I was okay with it. I am not the highly insecure, naive, eager to please little girl (20yrs) in the first and I definitely am not the newly divorced, transitional bf break-up, bitter woman (29yrs) in the second. What am I?

I am a woman who no longer needs to look around on the beach to see who is looking. I am a mother who keeps an eagle eye out for her boys. I am a woman who sits in the sand and loves digging the hole to China that her 3yo can sit in - the sludgy sand much more preferable over the surf over his toes. I am the woman who loves taking the camera and capturing really cool memories for her kids to revisit. I am the woman who takes the chairs, the umbrella, the snacks, the towels, the cooler, the toys, and the boogie board down to the beach in the morning and the one who brings it all back at night. I am the smoother of sun block and the wiper of salt water out of eyes.

Am I the sun bather with the loosened straps and the flat stomach? OMGoodness no. Would I want to be? Well no effin duh. Of course. But that is not me today. I've achieved something much better.