What I Wore Wednesday-- from a Real Girl

Somebody read my post from Monday and asked the details of what I was wearing in this picture:

Well, aren't you sweet. A fashion blogger, I am not. I am just a regular girl who could stand to lose quite a bit of weight. But I will do my best.

First, a bit about me: I am 5'10", wear a 38DD bra and hover between a 16 and an 18 pair of jeans. I am currently 239 pounds.

Here's what I'm wearing:

Dimanche Tee from Anthropology here. It says it's lavendar, it's clearly white. I love this shirt because it's so long. It covers my crotch in the front, and it's even longer in the back, so it fully covers my butt. Great with leggings.

Hue "ultra" wide waistband leggings here. These are the charcoal grey, but I also have black and brown.  I've only seen these at Nordstrom. You can get the Hue brand elsewhere, but the ultra wide waistband makes these leggings far superior to any other legging I've ever worn. These are a size large. Remember, I'm taller than the average woman, but these are plenty long enough for me.

Leith open front cardigan here (but out of stock right now). It's olive green, and really brings out the green in my eyes. This is an extra large because I wanted to drape it, but I probably could have worn a large for a more fitted look.

Ugg Classic Tall Boots here. I bought these several seasons ago, but I love them. It's like my feet are enveloped in pillows. I'll be honest: I'm still not convinced of their cutest. But they're so comfortable!

So, that's what I wore. Like I said, I could stand to lose about 50 pounds. I start to feel good at 199, and I start to feel REALLY good at 185. I've never gotten less than that. Here I am at 185, I'm wearing a size 10 here:

This was 5 years ago. Those days are gone. 

What have you been wearing lately?

the single girl gets off the couch

My best friend is an only child, raised by a single mom. For as long as she can remember, it's been just the two of them.

Next year, BFF's mom retires. And after she retires, she will move to Nebraska. She has already purchased a home there, close to her mother and her sisters. We live in California, no where near Nebraska.

BFF is understandably devastated. She isn't married and doesn't have kids, so when her mom leaves, BFF will be completely alone.

"I have to get out there and meet someone," BFF told me the other day. "You need to come with me and be my wing man."

"Two things," I replied. "One, we're in our 40's. Our days of club hopping are over. And two, I can't be your wing man. I'm married. It's not like I can just jet off to Vegas for the weekend."

"I need to get out of the house," BFF continued to complain. "I'm not going to meet anyone sitting on my couch. I'm turning in to a hermit."

"No, you're not. Sitting at home is completely normal. I don't go out, either. I wake up, I go to work, I come home."

"That's totally different. You have what you want at home. It's where your life is. I haven't found my life yet. I need to go out and look for it."

So, BFF actually made it out of the house. She went to Vegas last week. I called her as soon as she got home, because what happens in Vegas definitely does not stay in Vegas.

"So, did you meet anyone?" I asked, digging for gossip.

"Actually, I did."

The man she "met" was the 25-year-old bartender. And by "met," she apparently meant "was served by," since she never caught his name, or even had an actual conversation with him.

"So, did you actually think a bartender from Las Vegas, 15 years younger that you, who probably sees hundreds-- no, thousands-- of beautiful women every day, would count as 'meeting someone?'"

"At least I wasn't sitting on the couch."




 

Christmas Recap

Things have been busy here! We were able to get the tree up and decorated: 

The presents were bought a wrapped on time this year, making life  a lot less stressful. 

We took this cutie to see Santa: 

I tried to get Bug to take a picture too, but she wasn't interested. She's so worried about looking "cool" lately. 

We baked cookies: 

And more cookies: 

And then the kids opened their traditional pj's and a movie gift on Christmas Eve (BK is holding his backwards, but it's Inside Out. Bug requested TMNT). 

We made it through another Christmas! Some people found it very hard to wait: 

But we had to eat first. Prime rib and spaghetti were on the menu.... not my first choice for a Christmas Dinner, but I was out voted. 

Finally, it was time to open presents! BK knew right away that this one was a pillow: 

Bug was upset that she only had a couple of presents under the tree, until she opened this baby from my parents: 

Please note that I do NOT approve of this. She's 9. She needed a cheap little notebook, not a full blown computer with a screen bigger than my first TV. #spoiled

BK doesn't normally like getting clothes for presents, but even he was excited to to get this Minion Sweatshirt: 

Then it was time for dessert! My stepmother always tends to go overboard on the desserts. This was just my tray to take home:

The kids had a chance to play with their toys. Bugs loved this weird bead dispensing thing, that will likely get beads all in my carpet next week: 

I got a lot of clothes. Because I have gained quite a few pounds this year, I've been wearing a lot of long sweaters and tunics with leggings, so I stocked up at Christmas. Hopefully 2016 will be the year of the skinny girl. Here's hoping. 

An extra picture of me and my sweet boy, just because he's so cute: 

I spent Saturday with BFF. Her mama makes baklava and frosted sugar cookies every year. This was my share. Hence the reason I can't lose the 50 pounds I need to shed: 

This was one of my favorite gifts: I got an Erin Condren planner! I'm so excited to write all my important dates in it: 

It has my name on the front, which is whited out

That wraps up Christmas! I'll be seeing my mom, sister, niece, and nephew today, and then it's back to work tomorrow!

Tour of ornaments

Merry Christmas!

Here's our tree: 

Don't you just love the trees that are in the decorating catalogs, that have all the matching ornaments? Yeah, I don't have that. Maybe someday when I'm rich and famous, I'll have two trees. But until then, I can't give up some of my favorite ornaments, which makes for a bit of a hodge podge tree. 

Favorite Ornament: 

The Agent and I got this right after we were married. It totally fits us. 

Newest ornament: 

We bought this one last year at Bass Pro. It's a bear coming out of an outhouse. I have no idea why we purchased this. Probably something The Agent asked for. 

Oldest Ornament: 

This ornament is older than I am. It's part of a 4 piece set that tells the story of The Night Before Christmas. It used to hang on our family tree when I was a little girl, and my mother gave them to me when I moved out. I have all four bulbs-- except I dropped one this year and it broke. Devastation. 

Most Expensive Ornament:

BFF's mom got this Swarovski ornament for me (and one for each of her coworkers) a few years ago. Why people would spend $50+ on a single ornament is beyond me..... or why that would be your "generic" Christmas gift. You would have found me at the Target Dollar Spot. 

Tree Topper: 

The Agent found this star just this season (so I guess this is technically our newest ornament). I love it. He did good. 

My first ornament: 

This was the first ornament that was given to me and was completely mine. I was seven or eight and my next door neighbor gave it to me. This bear and I have been through some times! But she's still in great shape. Gotta love Hallmark. 

Baby's first ornaments:

BK's: 

and Bug's;

And then this is our first "family" ornament: 

What are the special ornaments on your tree? 

Happy Birthday to Me?

The week before my birthday, The Agent asked me what I wanted for a present.

"A gas fireplace," I answered. "One that comes on when I just flip a switch. And a nice mantle."

Ignore the cutie and observe the fireplace... note that it's nothing special. 

So, on the day before my birthday, The Agent started working on my new fireplace. It now looks like this: 

Oh, wait, did I forget to mention? This was my LAST birthday, which was in NOVEMBER. That means my fireplace has looked like this for over A YEAR, 

It turns out the designers of this house did not pipe gas to the insert. It will apparently cost quite a bit of money to get the gas line from where it currently is (the stove in the kitchen) to the fireplace. We had to rethink this plan. 

Other options include: 

• Turn the fireplace back to the way it was-- a wood burning fireplace. 
• Wall up the entire thing-- no fireplace at all
• Put in an electric fireplace. 

I really didn't like any of the options, but I REALLY haven't liked looking at a hole in my living room for the last year. 

This has been a serious point of tension between The Agent and I. He keeps telling me that this is what I asked for. Ummm, no. If I knew this was going to happen, I would have left the fireplace the way it was and just asked for a sweater. 

After much nagging, The Agent has designed what I am hoping will be a viable solution.

Oh, look at that. I'm on tv.

That's an electric fireplace, which I didn't really want, but it's better than having a hole in my house. we ordered the fireplace, and it arrived, and it actually looks a lot better than I thought it would.

But I still have a hole in my living room. It's not installed yet.

This is all work that The Agent can do himself... He just needs to get off the couch and do it.

I will probably do another follow up in a year... hopefully it will be done by then! 

The Gift from Santa

When Bug was a baby, we did not encourage the existence of Santa. Christmas isn't about Santa, a stranger should not be buying you presents, etc, etc.  We still filled her stocking, but we never said it was from Santa. We just said, "look! You have stuff in here, too!"

As I mentioned before, Santa brings one present. The rest come from Mom and Dad. I have friends at work who say that all the gifts are from Santa. I don't agree with this. I am Mom. I am the one who loves you. I'm the one who worked hard to earn the money to get you nice things, not some fat man in a red suit who thinks he can fit down my chimney.

Then Bug started pre-school, and all the kids were talking about Santa. Bug came home and demanded to know who this man in the red suit was, and why was he giving presents to everyone but her?

Thus, Santa was born. We don't make a super big deal about him, but he is a presence in our holiday.

Santa does not come if a child is naughty. I thought this was common Christmas knowledge: either you're naughty or nice. Bug made the mistake of getting in serious trouble 3 days before Christmas a few years ago. Santa came for her brother, but not for Bug.
Oooh, I got in trouble in the blog world over that! I was told I was being cruel for taking away my child's Christmas! Ummm, no. I didn't take away her Christmas, I took away one present. She still got all the presents from Mom and Dad, because we love her no matter what. But Santa only comes to the good children.

(And because my heart's not made of stone, Santa did give her the present she wanted, but he also sent her a letter saying she couldn't play with it for a month. And three years later, we did the same thing with BK.)

Bug is 9 now, and she knows that Santa is not real. But BK is 6, and he is in Full-fledged belief mode. I have been able to use this against him several times. "You need to be good and listen to Mom.... remember that Santa doesn't bring gifts for naughty boys!"

And, always remember: people who don't believe in Santa get socks and underwear for Christmas. 

So, do you believe?

The Four Gifts at Christmas

I've talked about this before, but it's always a big hit at Christmas, so I figured I'd repeat it. :) 

For the last few years, we have adopted the following gift buying method for the children:

There are a couple of reasons for this. First, I'm not wealthy. I can't be spending hundreds of dollars on everything on their Christmas list. Plus, they get so much stuff from my parents that it's ridiculous. They still have stuff from their birthdays that they haven't opened yet.

But really, the whole point of Christmas is not about how much loot you can get, and we're trying to instill that into the children (my stepmother is making that extremely difficult). We spend a lot of time trying to show the children the true meaning of Christmas.

I should say that these are the presents from us. Santa also gives an additional ONE gift and he fills the Stockings. Santa typically gives the gift they want most of all. The whole family also gets to open one present on Christmas Eve: Christmas pj's, hot chocolate, and a new movie. 

So, what are the children getting?

Something they want: BK is getting a robotic dinosaur, Bug is getting another one of those Lego Friends sets. Luckily, their wants have not hit a huge level of expense yet.
Something they need: Bug is getting a CD alarm clock, BK is getting a wallet
Something to wear: Bug is getting a pair of skinny jeans, BK is getting normal boy jeans. .
Something to Read: Bug is getting the newest Dork Diaries book, BK is getting a picture book that The Agent picked out. 

BK is getting a remote control helicopter from Santa.... but Santa isn't sure what he's getting for Bug yet. She asked for 4 things, but  Grandma is getting her one and I'm vetoing the other three, so it's a little difficult. 

How do you handle gift giving with your children? Do you limit it to a number of gifts, or a dollar amount, or use the time to indulge?