to be tan

Once upon a time there lived a girl who kept a tan from the months of May through September. This girl was extremely busy working and going to college, so her beautiful tan came compliments of the local tanning salon. There was no time for a good old fashioned tan from the actual sun. Besides, that kind of tan comes with tan lines...yuck!

Fast forward a few years. The girl is now married, and has a husband who likes keeping a tan too. So much so that it did not take much twisting of his arm, to get him to buy them their very own tanning bed. How heavenly...to be able to come home from work or school and simply go into a room, in your own house, to work on your tan! This tanning bed was open 24/7, and it was truly a prized possession.

Fast forward another few years. The girl and her husband go through a whirlwind of changes. College graduation. New jobs. The selling of a house and the buying of a new one. And the biggest one of all, a baby is on the way. There is no room in the new house for the tanning bed. That's ok though, because a pregnant girl is beautiful even without a tan. The tanning bed goes into storage, in the basement of the girl's in-laws.

Three years later and the tanning bed remains in storage. The girl and her husband had the baby, and wouldn't you know, 17 months later they had another one. Life is busier for them than ever before. The girl is a stay-at-home mom whose job has no set hours, and the husband works 80+ hours some weeks. Life is crazy, but at the same time sweet.

There's a beach trip coming up for this little family in a matter of weeks. For some reason, the girl and her husband start reminiscing about life with a tan, and how nice it would be to go to the beach golden instead of pasty! Fate (aka the GPS) reveals a tanning salon only 5 minutes from where they live, and they happily sign up for a tanning package. In between cooking dinner, bathing kids, brushing teeth, putting on PJ's, and rocking kids to sleep, the parents take turns slipping away to work on their tan. Oh how this little piece of yesteryear makes them happy, makes them feel young again, makes them golden:)