Brandon has a big photoshoot tomorrow,

so tonight he and the girls (and Miles the dog)

practiced with the lights and backdrop to make sure

everything is good-to-go.

they rocked, but I am partial

Some men buy their wives flowers.

My husband gives me photos of my daughters.

I think he loves me. I know I love him.

Sometimes being a girl is glamorous, notice bikini top
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Sometimes being a girl is not-so-much, notice mom of two preschoolers...
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notice ill fitting clothes, notice adult acne*, notice ponytail, notice pitiful makeup , notice dirty glasses, notice unpainted nails, notice expanding wasteline...

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But also notice smile...
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and know that I am happy with the very little glamour in my life for the moment...

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All of this revelation occured as I sat in the bathroom attempting to glamour myself up with a PedEgg before bed - nothing like a PedEgg to give a girl perspective.

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*And can I just say I love my Grandpa dearly, and even more after he walked right up to me and asked very seriously "You got something for your face!?!" Thinking to myself 'wha-wha-what!?!' he repeated "You got something to put on your face!?!" Wow, ok, we're going there. "I've tried Grandpa, believe me I've tried." "You should talk to Jill, she's got stuff for that" he sweetly suggested. And for some reason this moment has endeared me to my Grandpa. I love his honesty and his genuine concern and did I mention how honest he was.

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A word of warning for those who may be thinking 'While we're being honest lets talk about your hair for goodness sake' - those were words spoken in love, and I can only handle very little teaspoonfuls at a time.

Dear Handsome B

c/o Otherside of the World

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We miss you. The girls miss your cuddles and love and patience and crazy good Daddy wrestling skills. I miss your hands to help and legs to help and patience to help with these sweet but exhausting little children. I miss your love, too.

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Our short and infrequent phone calls are nothing like the hours you spend daily listening to me and my latest thoughts on whatever I care to be thinking about at the minute. Did I mention I miss you?

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The girls swam tonight for the first time this year. Carolyn grabbed a 'noodle' and was in the big pool immediately, scoffing at my suggestion that she stay in the 'baby pool'. Becky's husband life guarded and only had to save her once. You might want to buy him a cigar or give him a firm handshake when you get back for that one, I think he pretty much saved her life.

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Jules was brave too, but happy to stay where I was. She asks about you, and pointed to a plane overhead tonight and said with a sigh, "There's my daddy..." By the time our thirty minutes of frigid swimming was up she wanted to jump off the edge holding on to only my finger.

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These girls keep me on my toes, and hopefully burning a few of the excess calories I am consuming as part of my self-prescribed therapy...emotional eating is seriously real.

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Goodnight (well, morning to you) from the other side of this big huge world.

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You are the love of my life,

K

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"I love you sister" they giggled and repeated to eachother as their hug went on for minutes-on-end in a twisted-beautiful mess of little legs and arms. "I will always sleep next to you and cuddle you" the verbal, emotional C proclaimed. "Yeah" J simply replied. And thus I was greeted upon my return home from work. I thought back to Saturday night when my cousin spoke at her sister's reception "I'll never forget sleeping in the same bed, night-after-night talking about every detail of your day." Most of me hopes they never grow up, that Peter Pan will be on our doorstep tomorrow and we will all be taken to a place where little girls and their sparkling, innocent eyes never grown up. But the rest of me hopes that if they must grow up, it will be together, always giggling, always loving, always trusting, always sharing.

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