How to make your mother squeal

Every quarter at work, the entire leadership team (600 people) have an off site, two day training event for our development. In general, we are a very conservative organization, and that is most clear in the way we dress. For these events, however, we are instructed to dress casual - jeans are okay, etc... I don't have casual clothes that are appropriate for work. I have work clothes and then my real clothes. They are not anywhere near similar.

I tend to buy jeans that have rips in them - not gross 80's rips, but just funky little markings to spice them up a bit. I don't really have any boring jeans that would work for these events. I don't wear khaki's when I'm casual - I'm all or nothing, so when I'm casual, I'm CASUAL. I had a few pairs of pants that I wore for these events in the past, but now that I've lost 115 lbs, I didn't have anything.

D had an outfit to return to the Avenue from her birthday, so we went there last week. I bought two pairs of pants for this week. I wore one pair today, which brings me to the point where I made my mother squeal.

We talked about my day and my MD visits (I think I'm okay, but I'll know more on Thursday - I may be missing something from my reproductive system, but now is that really a surprise?? LOL) She asked me what else was new, so I told her I was wearing a size 18 pair of pants. You should have HEARD her!!! She was as giddy as a school girl on bring your daddy to work day!

Mom - you are cute.

Now, most people would be horrified to be in a size 18. For my height and body structure, ideally I should be in a size 10, which is still big. In all reality, I look pretty thin when I'm in a 12 or 14. (Disclaimer: most of my pants are men's pants, but for the purpose of this story, I'm using women's sizes since the pair I had on today were women's.) However, when you consider that I'm down like 8 sizes to be in an 18, it's a little more impressive.

Okay, not to lead you on, dear reader, I'm not actually in a size 18 currently, BUT the pair I wore today WERE size 18. I have other 18's that don't fit yet, but at least one pair did. I was also happy today because TJ told me how small he thinks I'm getting. That ALWAYS makes me happy! TJ is always very complimentary and supportive, and I adore him for it. I like to surround myself with people who compliment me. LOL ;-)

Anyway, I never posted a 115 lb loss pic, so here it is, in the outfit I wore today (just for fun I'll include the famous before pic as well...it's the one on the right...where I'm bigger...can you tell?):