"nothing"

A few weeks ago, the director of the athletic training program at my alma mater sent out a mass email to alumni saying he had recently switched over from PC to Mac, and was having trouble transferring all of his contacts.  He wanted us all to write back to confirm we received his email and that our info was correct, which I did promptly.  Today, I receive this follow up email from him:

Looking at my records Karen, I have "nothing" written in the "job/setting/place" category, other than "Virginia Beach, VA"...

Where are you, and what exactly are you doing these days?

A simple inquiry, but it sent me into a fit of laughter, tears streaming down my sunkissed cheeks.  You see, earlier this morning, I dropped my kids off at their grandparents' for them to spend the night there tonight.  I then proceeded to blow off anything productive I should be doing for something I've been wanting to do all summer:

So to answer your question, Dr. Geisler, your records are 100% accurate. 

Happy place

A typical summer Saturday for the Psimases goes a little something like this:

• alarm goes off at 5am
• hit snooze a couple times, brush teeth and eat a bowl of Rice Krispies as quietly as possible, out the door no later than 6am
• run 10-12 miles (I'm terrified about this number gradually increasing when I dive into a marathon training program this fall!)
• tag team with Ryan...he runs when I get home, I get the kids and cooler ready for the beach
• get to the beach by 10 (timing is critical if we're going to avoid being charged the hefty $2 parking fee if one arrives after 10am)
• enjoy the sand, sun, and surf with my favorite blondies until 3 or 4pm
• head home, enjoy a cold adult beverage or two, scrape up whatever's available in the pantry/fridge/freezer for dinner
• de-beach myself and the kids, read a few books, and go to bed early, ready to enjoy another day at the beach on Sunday

Not a bad way to spend a weekend, right? Our summer weekends are especially precious to us...the way we see it, we only get about 12 weekends out of 52 to do this, so you'll have to drag us by our salty, sandy toes to get us to do anything else on a Saturday or Sunday during the summer. When we're at the beach, we're not thinking about the laundry that still needs to be done, the grass that needs cutting, or how Spongebob and Patrick will unknowingly foil Plankton's plot to steal the recipe for the Krabby patty. We are either actively engaged with our kids by swimming with them or helping them surf, or we're simply watching them play in the sand right in front of us, taking in every sweet (and sometimes not-so-sweet!) moment of their childhood. I know that all too soon, these girls will be way too cool to hang out at the beach with their parents, so I'm dead set on taking advantage of this time while I have it.

I realized I haven't been taking all that many pictures of the girls at the beach this summer, so I made it my mission to work on that this weekend:

Brynn created these sand people to inhabit her chair and Camryn's. From left to right, we have Sam and Cam.  Sam and Cam must be very important, as Brynn and Camryn refused to move them, forcing me to give up my own beach chair when they wanted to sit down.

Lost somewhere inside her own imagination

Waxin' up 

Crazy beach hair 

That's my girl!

Camryn will rarely look at the camera when I'm taking her picture.  Brynn, on the other hand, works it.  Given their personalities, you'd think it would be the other way around.

What's not to smile about???

Another great weekend in the books, and thus begins the countdown to the next.