Photo 2

Yes, I”m the blonde with the book….yes, the one who looks like she’s prematurely balding at 3 or 4…… This picture, the conceptualization of this picture, are some of my fondest memories. In order is my cousin Becky, my cousin Carly, and then me. We are only a year or two apart from one another in age, and the two of them are sisters. And where are we you may ask? Where the three of us spent many nights together AS the three of us: Grandma and Tata’s (our Grandpa’s nickname) house. It was a ritual. We ran through the sprinklers the majority of the day, probably went for ice cream at Thrifty’s after dinner…and if we were lucky at some point in the day we went to the 99¢ store to pick out a toy each. The night would wrap up with a bath and Grandma combing our hair so tight slicked back we looked as though we were ready for our close-ups in Grease.   And we ALWAYS slept in one of Tata’s shirts. I distinctly remember the musky smell they always had; bold and sharp, but more comforting than any words could describe today. We were Tata’s girls. We were Grandma’s girls. The best part was, we got to be little girls together.

Today we are wives, managers, and even moms. The farther we walk in life the dirtier our feet get. You can wash, but dirt still remains.  Our agenda’s then: pick the right flavor of ice cream, play as long as Grandma lets us, laugh, tumble…. wait, I take it back. Our agendas then: NOTHING. Like I said, THAT was the sweetest part: all we had to do was be three little girls.

I miss them so much all the time, and our lives are SO different now. I visited them recently to see Carly’s new baby. We went out for ice cream and standing in front of the glass at Baskin Robins was exactly like it was then (only about 26 more flavors…). I felt as if even only for a moment, we were just little girls again. We didn’t need to have an agenda, we had ice cream.

Do you have these photos that bring back “the good old days”? Do you have the memories that make you think about the agenda-free days? Do you take the time to relish in them? Life is a crazy ride but I tell you, there’s something to be said for taking the time out to make BEING your priority…. think about it.

Photo 1

This is a photo from my first date with my husband. This was the first night we met in person. It was also my birthday. Now you are either thinking, “Well, I guess freaks DO meet on the internet” or you are thinking, “How could this be? They are that silly and open with each other on the first night of meeting?”. YES, We are silly, and we love that about each other. YES, we were comfortable within the first few hours of being together. YES, it WAS love at first sight. Okay, okay…that one was hokey….. but I certainly knew from the moment I met Benjamin Jay Zimmerman that I was going to spend the rest of my life with him. NO, we are not the perfect fairytale. NO, we are not exactly alike; we have commonalities, but in all honesty we are complete opposites in many ways…..we complement each other. I’m a wide awake fish ready to swim, he’s a dead fish ready to be sushi.

Many a wise couple has passed on one of the most important keys to a successful marriage: a sense of HUMOR. Seems we had that one from the start… the challenge in lies keeping it up for the rest of our lives!!!