That’s Na-chos, that’s MINE

Today, I maintained my weight under my “official” Weight Watchers goal for the 6th week straight. Having done so, I am now a “Lifetime” member of Weight Watchers, and as long as I am within 2 pounds of my goal, I can attend meetings for free.

To celebrate, Jerry and the girls and I went to Rosie’s Cantina and had Supreme Nachos. I’m surprised I don’t feel bad, because I haven’t eaten that heavily in months. On WW, I could eat like that if I wanted to, I just had to budget for it. Rather than eat a plate of nachos in the evening and subsist on carrots and celery the rest of the time, I’ve eaten a bit more reasonably. And it has paid off. I feel great, I look the best I have in over a decade, and I’m SO EXCITED ABOUT IT.

And Jerry has been the best cheerleader through all of it. And best of all? Now I know how to eat reasonably for my body type. I always just improvised before; now I KNOW how to do it. And the scientist in me loves knowing that stuff.

Weird, I know. But there it is. 🙂

Remarkable

What’s remarkable in your unremarkable life?

Everything.

Really. I mean, look around. Green that gets greener when it rains. The magic of a butterfly. How my children will BEG to go out puddlestomping after a good rainstorm (and sometimes during a good rainstorm). And how sometimes, the don’t-get-dirty freak in me encourages them to make a huge mess for the sake of fun.

Alice likes to stomp on ants. I try telling her that it’s not nice, but she won’t be deterred. And it’s a BIG stomp, too — she lifts her leg WAY up high and brings it crashing down on the bug perpetrator. And then she’s down on all fours, examining the victim at close range. Up again and stomping if it’s not quite dispatched yet. When the bug is stuck on her shoe, she’s confused. Where did it go? More than once I’ve had to scrape the bug off the bottom of her shoe to prove that she defeated it, and she always sets off on a hunt for the next one.

Helen wants me to “teach her some math.” So I wrote a few simple addition problems last night and showed her how to count on her fingers. After three problems, she was bored. But she did pretty well for those first three.

Helen can read certain words, and they appear unexpectedly. We were driving home from church on Sunday and there was a sign out by an apartment complex: “Pool Party Today!” From the back seat, I heard the inquiry, “Why did that sign say ‘party,’ Mommy?” I knew that she knew the words “red” and “cat” and “dog” and all of our names, but I didn’t realize she knew “party.” I wonder how many other words she knows that she’s not telling? Self-conscious kid is probably right on the cusp of knowing how to read; so we’ll just keep reading to her until those final synapses connect and she’s comfortable letting us know that she can do it, too.

One thing that is truly remarkable to me is that I can be so lucky to have traipsed into this life and I haven’t been caught yet. I have always felt so lucky, so blessed, to have the family that I have and to have the home that I have and to have been given the talents that I have been given, that there’s always that niggling fear that someone’s going to realize pretty soon that I got more than my fair share. I don’t know quite how I fell into this happy life, but I’m blessed daily by it. Even on the whining, ranting days (like I had been having the past few weeks).

Remarkable. It is. Even on the mundane days of doing laundry and vacuuming and ignoring all of my other housework.

More shrinkage

Also a clothing size I haven’t seen since high school: I am now wearing a freakin’ A-cup. It’s…. a training bra. I remember when I finally got to wear a 32B — seventh grade. But apparently my little vampire children sucked that extra cup size right outta me. Literally.

Hmph.

Then again, my clothes look a little better, because my bra’s not all gappy. But Jerry just asked me what grade I got on my social studies quiz and if I’m going to study hall later. What a jerk. 😀

Went shopping for new jeans today

My “skinny” jeans that were obscene in May are now hanging on me and look bad.

I came home with some size 6 jeans.

I haven’t been in a size 6 since probably 1989 or so (I COULD have worn that size senior year of high school or freshman year in college because I was soooooo thin, but the style was men’s jeans at the time so that’s what I was wearing).

And why can’t women’s clothing be standardized? I know I’m not wearing a 6 in all jeans, because the ones I tried on at the Gap were 8s and were snug. I think I would have hurt myself getting into 6s. The ones at the Gap were cute, in a sort of “aw, look, she’s trying to look trendy” sort of way so I didn’t get those. I decided I needed something that didn’t attempt to deny the childbirths that have changed my shape, so I headed for the Ralph Lauren section of Parisian and found exactly what I was looking for. The denim section of Parisian was also a little too trendy-looking for me, and besides… $160 for a pair of JEANS? Who are they KIDDING?

J. Jill jeans seem to run big, even though they deny that when you ask the personal shopper person online. But my measurements are pretty precisely for their size 10, but the 10s that I have are ENORMOUS on me now. So I want to get a pair of 8s, but I’m afraid they’ll be big, too.

My main problem is that my hips are a size larger than my waist measurement, which makes things difficult to fit. Apparently most women are cylindrical. Eddie Bauer has a cut of jeans for this type of body; perhaps I should try those out?

Not sure… Anyway. I’m just thrilled to death to be in a SIZE SIX!!! Woohoo!!