Prom, Pomp, and Progress

This past weekend was my older son's HS prom. His school only does senior prom and he wasn't sure he was going to go, but a group of his friends talked him into it. They all went as a group, though they were loosely paired up (some as friends, some as actual couples).

This was a big to-do for us as my 17 year old son had NO formal attire. We looked at the price of rental tuxes and decided it made more sense to buy a suit and the rest than to spend almost half as much for a one day rental as he will wear the suit again in the next few years.

So, a couple weeks ago we went shopping for shoes, socks, suit, dress shirt, tie, and cuff links. We got a couple ties and a couple shirts as he has graduation the following week and they need to wear a light/white shirt and dark based tie.

I never went to prom. No one asked me and I was too chicken to ask anyone else. My husband, being from Europe, never had prom, so this was a whole new things for us. But it was good. My son is an extremely logically based, non-extravagant kind of person, so it wasn't an overly expensive adventure, especially when you consider it was entertainment for 12 hours - 4:30 pm to 4:30 am, but even for him he had to weigh the, "how much am I paying to go to this thing and is it worth it?"

He looked so sharp. His grandmother was smothering him (and driving him nuts), but she still had a quibble, "If only you had a masculine haircut." Dude, he has GORGEOUS, super thick, copper colored wavy hair that all the girls (and some guys) can't keep their hands out of and are so jealous of. And he always wears it pulled back so it almost looks as if he has short hair. Plus, really? It's 2014.... why do men STILL need to wear their hair short but some ridiculous standards and WHY does it matter? There are so many ways kids can try to stand out. I'm happy he chose to grow his hair versus wanting tattoos or piercings!

Anyway, here he is:

Everyone says he looks like his dad, which he does, but he truly is a good mix of the two of us. He has my husband's build and height, eyes and eyebrows, but he has a lot of my features too, like hairline, smile, and smaller, finer details. Basically yes, he has two parents and he's not a clone of either of us.

Now is his last week of classes. Then next week it's graduation. We aren't doing anything big for graduation. He barely decided to even attend his graduation, but he finally admitted he might miss seeing all his friends.  As you can see, we aren't big into pomp and circumstance and big "to-dos" in this family.

And now that I'm touched on prom and pomp, let me talk about progress.  On Friday when the kids were getting their photos taken for prom a lot of the parents were there. I was the heaviest mom by far. NONE of the other moms were overweight. I'm always extremely aware of that. I hate being the fattest in a group!

But progress is happening. I went down a bit more. I'm now at 225.4. I can definitely see it in my face and I can feel it in my knees and tailbone that I'm carrying much less weight. The other sign or progress that I'm getting smaller is the skirt I bought to "get by" this spring is fitting much looser. I broke down and bought a size 16 skirt with a bit of stretch. I have been wearing it every week to teach Sunday school for the last 2.5 months - just changing the top week to week. Well, when I bought the skirt, it wasn't tight, but it "fit". Now, it can spin around me as I don't stretch the material at all. I probably have 3-4 weeks left to wear it at all and then it will be unwearable.

I'm not quite sure what to do with fat clothes. I have NO PLAN to ever regain, but I felt that way last time too. Part of me feels I should keep a few "what if" basics - like this basic skirt. But I don't know how I really feel about it.

I also just inherited 3 pairs of pants from my mother in law who has dropped 11 pounds the past few months. She was wearing size 14s (and some 12s depending on the brand) and so she can't wear them any more. They fit me perfectly, so I have, for now, a few pairs of jeans if I need them. However, with summer being here soon, I'm not sure how much use I'll get out of them before needing to donate them.

She is now solidly in size 12s. I also know she weighs 157 pounds. Man, how differently we are built. I wore 10s at 170-180 pounds and at 165 I was starting to wear 8s. She was 169-172 when she wore those 14s. I am 225. Weird, isn't it? And I DO NOT have small hips!

OK, I should be gardening before all the plants in pots croak. Ugh... no desire to dig in the dirt today!