A New 'Do

So, do you notice anything different about me?

I've got a blog design, I've got a new blog design, I've got a new blog design!!

I owe special thanks to one Ms. Cass Comerford over at Cass. Just Curious. I gave her a couple of ideas, but she came up with this one all by herself and I loved it more than anything I had suggested.

I loved my old blog design -- I created that one all by myself -- but I felt like I needed something new. Sort of like spring cleaning.

Anyway, thanks again, Cass!! I LOVE IT!

What say you, my loyal subjects?

Take the Plunge

On Saturday, Punkin and I attended the birthday party of one of her classmates. A pool party to be exact.

When we got the invitation I immediately went into panic mode -- I was going to have to wear a bathing suit. In front of people! Never mind the fact that I went to the beach twice this summer and wore a bathing suit -- in front of people! That was easy! Those people were strangers.

Honestly, though, I don't mind wearing a swimsuit even in front of people I know. Those people, for the most part, love me for who I am. Cellulite and all.

Well, don't you know these people, you ask? No. Not really. I see these people occasionally. Add to that the fact that Punkin's school is in the heart of a very wealthy county full of stay at home moms who spend a lot of time at the gym. Or at least they look like they do. These are the types of moms who intimidate the heck out of me. The ones whose jeans are pressed, whose clothes never have a stain on them. The moms whose nails and toenails are always painted, whose purse doesn't look like it just traveled with a St. Bernard up a snowy slope. These are the moms whose hair is always just so, or if it's not, it's so artfully tousled as to still be perfect.

But, Punkin won't swim with out me. I've come to learn that I can't force her to do things she doesn't want to do (a lesson that I've learned the hard way and another post for another day!). So, if we were going to go and have fun, then I was just going to have to get over myself.

So, we packed up our suits (and my courage) and we went. And you know what? There were all kinds of moms there. Skinny moms. Fat moms. In between moms. Blonde moms. Brunette moms. Harried moms. Calm moms. I saw several moms who didn't bring their suits, who preferred to sit on the side of the pool and watch. And I saw moms like myself who got in the pool and played with their kids.

As the party wore on, I realized that I'm pretty comfortable in who I am in a lot of ways. My body may not be perfect, but I like it. Well, maybe not like it, but I'm certainly not ashamed of it. I'm finally comfortable in my own skin. I also realized that I like the kind of mom I am, and after the past several months, let me tell you, that was a good feeling.

I also realized that I don't feel inferior to those women anymore. I'm not quite sure how that happened, but it's a good feeling. And just think, if I hadn't gone, if I had let fear hold me back, I might never have discovered this about myself.

What are you letting fear hold you back from?

Bubba's Mom Has Got it Going On

So, some of you who have been around here a while might remember my Hallelujah jeans. For those of you who don't remember, it's these:

Gap curvy boot cut jeans. Those babies? Don't come cheap. In fact, I only have one pair because $69.50 for a pair of jeans, even Hallelujah jeans, is not something I'm going to be shelling out all that often for. In fact, the pair that I have was a combo birthday/Christmas present last year. All year I've checked the Gap site periodically, but those things just don't go on sale. Well, they DO, but $52 (which is their current sale price) is still too steep for me.

I came into a leetle bit of money over Christmas and since having only one pair of jeans that you actually like is pretty limiting when jeans are pretty much all you wear in your down time, I decided to head to the Gap outlet to see if I could score a good deal.

A quick aside -- it is just me, or are outlet prices just not as good as they used to be? Outlet used to mean cheap. Sure, it also usually meant shoddy, but still, cheap is cheap. And if you had a really good eye, you could usually find whatever you were looking for with no visible flaws for a really good price. Now? Not so much.

Anyhoo, at the outlet those Gap curvy bootcut jeans were still $39.50. $39.50!!! That's closer to what I would consider a regular price, not OUTLET prices. Sheesh.

There was a Lee outlet right next to the Gap outlet and I started to go in, but then thoughts of that hilarious mom jeans sketch from Saturday night live started flashing through my head and I couldn't bring myself to go in. The last time I looked at Lee jeans the options were, shall we say, somewhat limited. And yes, I'm a jeans snob. Sort of.

I shopped around a little more, went back to the Gap and walked around with a pair of $39.50 jeans for a while and then finally put them back.

As I was walking to the car I decided to just check out the Lee store. Just to see what they had, you know. Market research, so to speak. I picked out several pair and headed to the dressing room. There were a couple of pair that definitely had me channeling Tina Fey


But then I found them. These, to be exact:

Lee midrise, bootcut jeans. They may not be Hallelujah jeans, but for only $21? They're heaven sent.

And back then? I was trying to recapture my post-baby body in a pair of jeans. While I haven't completely reclaimed my post baby physique (I frankly think that's an impossible dream), with the help of Weight Watchers I am pretty close to my pre-baby weight. And I like the way I look in jeans again. Especially $21 jeans. Halle-freakin-lujah!

I Can't Sew, But I Can Hot Glue Like Crazy!

Posting is a bit light tonight because I'm working on Halloween costumes. In honor of that, I'm going to post some from years past, some mine and some my children's. Although in recent years we have reverted to store bought costumes, I have made costumes in the past and I think I am excellent at coming up with solutions or ways to make costumes better.

For instance, last year Bubba wanted ninja boots to go with his costume. Well, I don't think they sell ninja boots at Target, so I bought a pair of black socks a couple of sizes too big, put them on over his sneakers and voila! Ninja boots.

Tomorrow Bubba has to dress as his favorite book character for school. He's dressing as an archaeologist from his favorite Goosebumps book. At dinner the other night when we were talking about his costume, he said "Mommy, what I have I discovered?"

"I'm sorry, I don't understand the question, Bubba."

"If I'm an archaeologist, what will I take to school that I've discovered?"

Ahhhh. Good question. I racked and racked my brains trying to come up with something. And finally I thought of Bubba's King Tut doll. Behold my solution:


Bubba has discovered King Tut's mummy!

Here are some photos of me and Mr. Daddy at Halloween. Years ago. When we were cool. When we had a life.


And a couple of Bubba. I've posted the Elvis ones before, but I'm gonna do it again,


And his train costume from the following year:


And one final question, after telling me for weeks that she wants to be Cinderella, upon finding out that another little girl at school is going to be Cinderella, Punkin has now decided she wants to be Belle. Mr. Daddy suggested that she be Cinderbella, but that didn't go over very well. Should I make her be Cinderella? Or should I go out and try to find a Belle costume? And how much of a sucker would I be if I did?

There's Less of Me to Love

So, my birthday went off without a hitch. Everybody was well. I take all the credit of course. I used the old reverse psychology trick. Expect everything to go right and it will go to hell in a handbasket. Expect everything to go wrong and everything will be just peachy. And it was. Peachy, that is.

Mr. Daddy gave me a gift certificate to a spa for an hour massage. (Squee!) My stepsister gave me a gift card to Starbucks -- just in time for gingerbread lattes! Yum! And my other stepsister gave me a beautiful Venetian glass necklace and matching earrings. My mom gave me tickets to a Georgia game earlier in the season, but on Saturday cooked me a delicious meal and a completely decadent and weight watcher- busting chocolate cake.

I also received two bloggy awards, which I will acknowledge more fully later today. Thanks so much ladies! Those awards made my day!

Speaking of weight watchers, I twittered this today, but I am only .2 pounds away from my 10% weight loss goal, which was 15 pounds. It's taken me 16 weeks to get the weight off, but I figure the slower it comes off, the more likely it is to stay off. I'm not sure how much more I want to lose -- probably not more than 5 pounds more. I'm pretty happy with where I am now since I was able to get into a pair of size 8 pants on Friday for the first time in AGES!

I'm really proud of myself for sticking with it this time. I'm starting to notice a real shift in my eating habits. For one thing, I'm starting to pay real attention to when I'm full and actually trying to stop eating before I feel stuffed. And I'm doing a much better job at it than I used to. I'm also thinking about what I eat before I put it in my mouth -- is it worth it? Sometimes it is, but sometimes it isn't. I've worked hard to lose this weight and sometimes that snack is just not worth putting the weight back on.

2-4-6-8! Who Do I Think is Great?

The other day, Calicobebop tagged me for a meme and since I haven't done a meme in ages, I thought I would do this one. Plus, I'm supposed to talk about how great I am, so what's not to like, right? But seriously, enough about me. What do you think about me?

Just kidding. Sort of. I am supposed to write five positive things about me, which is actually harder than one might think. Not that I couldn't think of five things, but that I have a hard time admitting that I think these things are great about myself. I have a theory about women and their ability to brag on themselves, but that's another post for another day.

So let's get down to business. Five things I think are great about me.

1. I can do anything I set my mind to. I think it comes from being raised by a single mom, who often had to do for herself. And while I have gotten into the habit of letting my husband do things for me, if there's something I want to do, I can do it.

2. I have great dimples. In my cheeks. The uppers (cheeks, that is), as Precarious Tomato likes to say. When I was only an hour old my mom's co-workers were exclaiming over my dimples. And I'm just being honest when I say that these dimples have come in handy in my life. When I was pregnant I hoped that my children would get them and fortunately they did.

3. I am an excellent reader of moods and faces and body language in general. I can usually tell when something's wrong with someone around me, even if I don't really know that person very well. I think it's because I'm pretty attentive to details. I've often thought I would make an excellent Miss Marple-type detective because I notice details and I think I would know if someone was guilty or not.

4. I'm an excellent out loud reader, especially of children's books. I do voices. I make things scary when they should be scary. I make appropriate sound effects. I pause in the right spots. I would make an excellent children's librarian.

5. I'm a good conversationalist. I'm pretty well read and I know a little bit about a lot of stuff, which means that I can make inane conversation with the best of them.

And there you have it. I've gotten out of the habit of tagging people for memes, but I'm going to tag a couple of people because I think we could all brag on ourselves more often. Plus, I'd like to get to know more about you guys.

So, I tag Katie from Can't Get There From Here, Betsy at The Musings of a Wandering Mind, Colleen over at Wine Please, Nicole at Impostor Mom, and el-e-e over at Hello, Self. Tag, ladies. You're it!