Photo Update, Back to School Shopping and other Stuff

Here are the photos, a day late.  We ended up going shopping for school clothes yesterday and by the time we got home all of us were too tired to do much of anything but collapse.

So the photos finally show some progress - ten pounds and 15 inches lost from the beginning of May.  A little slower than I would have hoped but I'm hopeful that the plateau is behind me and I'm well on my way to goal. 

The shirt is different in the photo because I was able to purchase that at Penneys, and I am just really so psyched about that.  It fits, even though it's a little shorter than I like my shirts to be.  But this is good news.  Out of the four shirts I got yesterday (Penneys had a really great sale), only the button down didn't fit properly.  The girth has got to go.

My hairdresser told me that Penneys had a 75% off sale, turns out it was 70% off everything on clearance.  I think we all managed to clean up on those clearance items.  We saved over $300 and everyone liked the clothes that they got.  I had my eye on a $100 outfit from Lane Bryant (shirt, capri jeans, necklace, watch) for the trip but with buying the kids clothes couldn't afford to splurge.  Instead I paid less than $40 for four shirts. 

We even got to outfit Steven, who never really gets new clothes, with about five shirts and a tie.  The tie was important.  I haven't told most of you yet, but Steven and I have decided to renew our vows while in Las Vegas.  With the year we've had, we thought that we'd like to do an intimate thing just the two of us to renew our commitment to each other.  I'm still planning the big renewal next year at goal weight, that's really important to me, but that's more for me.  This is for us as a couple.  Simple, private, intimate. 

Anyway, when I decided I wanted to do it about a month ago, I started looking around for a nice dress - nothing fancy.  The few dresses I did find that I felt fit what I wanted to do with this particular event I ended up unable to order (price or availability), so I dug around in my closet and found a long shimmery gold skirt that matches the white and gold satin shirt set I got from Penneys a while back.  It's pretty snazzy, I can't think of another event where I would be able to wear this particular outfit again before I grow out of it.  So I figured, all we have to do is find Steven a matching gold tie and he could wear a nice dress shirt and slacks.  Nice and casual - and I'm anal about everything matching.  All I needed was shoes, which I was able to find exactly what I wanted at the mall.  So us finding his gold tie at 40% off was ideal.

This whole trip has been a bargain hunt.  From the hotels to the travel to even the renewal, I've been doing as much comparison shopping as possible to get what I want without going into the poor house to do it.  I'll feel a lot better when we're sitting on that bus on our way to Vegas, because it seems like everything is happening to derail our plans. 

Steven getting the new job meant rearranging our schedule.  Then we find out school starts a week earlier than we expected, while we're out of town, which is specifically what we were trying to avoid.  Now if our car doesn't fall apart it looks like things are a go, so keep your fingers crossed.

Anyway, that is enough of my babbling.  I haven't gotten any walks in this week because of all the errands we've been running, but I think I'm walking just as much just in the errands alone.  I know now what it means to shop till you drop.