Oh my goodness I love this thread!! I hope this doesnt turn into another of my windy, wordy, wonders!!

Right now I am in the stage of " Vanity Sizing " be danged. My tag says 14 and I am soooo good with that. I know vanity sizing exists, its out there. Take my 14 year old daughter. When I was her weight and size I wore an 8-10. It astounded me that she was wearing 5's or 6's. So intellectually I know my 14's arent 14's. But I cant allow myself to think to much on it, because I have a horrible habit of out thinking myself right into a funk. If the manufacturer's are going to give me this lil bit of glory... I'm taking it gratefully for the boost it gave me and for the vision. I can see me very soon needing a 12.

Just typing this head-games are begining. Old school shopping kicks in, before vanity sizing. I cant fathom wearing a 5 or a 6, 8-10 is very doable. Okies so if an 8-10 is really a 5-6 now then its entirely possible I can and will be wearing these sizes, no matter whether I see it or not. ( Which will probably drive my "To cool even for herself daughter" insane )

Okies, here's a quirk that maybe some of you have experienced. Its probably no suprise that I am testing the tags with varying stores and garment makers. What I am finding as I am browsing, zoning out and day dreaming of the styles and sizes I will be wearing either when I have the cash or curves. Is when I wake up, I find myself back in the plus sizes. Its like me and my cart just graivitate over to there. Perhaps subconciously its where I feel I belong. I have to force myself out of there and back into regular sizes.

Also, I have been wearing clothes so loosely, so baggy. I thinks its been about 8 months since I have had to undo the button or unzip my jeans to get them on or off. I had almost walked myself right out of my pants... hence the whole Walmart trip from my last post. Its the same with my shirts and tops. Nothing touching my body unless it absolutely has too, at shoulders and hips. Until the gentleman at the Party Store next to us got Western Union service and they gave him a whole bunch of promotional tee-shirts and he gifted me with a medium. Well I took it because it was thoughtful and generous but chuckled in my head thinking it was to small and would never fit and which daughter should I give it to. But after i got home I thought I would give it a go... just to see ya know. Lo and behold it not only fit but showed curves that were going in the right direction... Inward.

Quite an eye opener. I had fooled myself with the outlines of my baggy clothes that that was my shape. It sure is wonderful to have the plank out of my eyes. My daughters and my son are in the process of trying to convince me that I am still to baggy! ( do we have a fall down and faint away smilie on here??!!?? ) Slow down babies this is the first time in years Mom has truely seen herself in years!

Do you know what else occured to me after this lil shopping trip? I am 20 pounds lighter then the day I married my now husband. Eeeep! He will be coming in a week and I am 30 pounds lighter then when I last saw him in September. WoW.

And on that note... I done did it again.... Wrote another book. If anyboy made it thru... Kudo's to you!! This is why I dont post very often, I talk to much!

Meg, I have a little story on the white jeans. A couple yrs. ago DH and I were going out with a good friend of mine that is "skinny". She put on white jeans and a bright red shirt and looked so cute. I watched with envy and thought about my own drab, dark clothes I had on to hide my fat. I wanted so badly to be able to dress like her. I decided right then that if I ever got this weight off, that I would buy me some white jeans. So, I got some now. I am going to trade mine for ones with a better fit though. This is a real victory to me.

Vanity in reverse.

A few years ago my Mom and I were shopping for an outfit for her. We found one that fit perfectly and looked great. But then she saw the tag and found out it was a 10 and not her usual 6 or 8. She refused to buy the outfit because she said, "I'm NOT a 10!"

Later that year I found a dress that would look great on her, but knew she'd need it in a 10 due to the slender cut of the dress. It's a shiff style and we're pear shaped. So I bought it and cut the tag out. She still wears that dress.

Sassy ~ You need to get a great new outfit so DH can see the real you and be amazed at your 30 pound weight loss since he saw you last!

Lily ~ strut your stuff in those new skinny white jeans!

Carolyn, I have that vanity in reverse too. I won't buy clothes in a bigger size either.

I haven't had a chance to wear my white jeans yet , but I plan to this Thurs. night. I actually saw some very cute red high heels while shopping for prom shoes with my DD. I did consider buying them, but skipped on them. I have plenty of shoes, but it's so tempting to buy more.

I had a skirt on for about 10 minutes this morning. Holy white legs Batman! Here a vein, there a bruise ... ick. I'm back in trousers. It's a nice suit but not very Springy.

Self tanner, Susan!!

I've got some ... hmmm. Too late for today.
I wonder what I looked like running around in shorts yesterday. My poor neighbours.

Susan, My legs are very white right now too. I'm sure there was a glare coming off me when I mowed the yard in shorts yesterday. However, my face and arms are very tanned now from all that fishing and camping last week. I need to get me some self tanner cream for these white legs.

I look like a clod! I always have bruises and scratches on my legs. Not dainty, me.

I'm pretty happy with this suit. It's one of the ones I got on ebay. But do you think I can make the camera work?? Godsmack for vanity, I guess Maybe DS will snap me when I get home from church.

I think I'm imagining things but my skin appears to be darker now than ever. Not that it is very dark and I'd never be as dark as my mom but it is strange. We'll see, my mom will tell me how pasty I am when I visit her in nearly 2 months

I wanted to say I wore a new outfit yesterday and DH was impressed. It was just a casual outfit but it FIT! It was an XL "active" pant suit. I remember when I first bought it a few months ago, it has no stretch so I couldn't even put my arms all the way into the jacket.

Nelie, WTG on the outfit. I bet that felt great to get to wear it now.

SusanB, I'm always getting bruises and don't even remember hurting myself. Last night in the tub, I noticed I have large bruises on my right knee and on my left shin. Plus, a huge purple bruise on my right hand (which I'm assuming is from that carpet shampooer that weighed a ton or from all the weeding in my garden). While making the bunk beds in my little grandson's bedroom (here), I smacked my head really hard on the upper bunk. I have a big knot on the side of my head now. I am definitely clumsy. I'm glad you like your outfit and hope your son can take a pic for you. I like to have DD take pic's of me when I wear new clothes too.

AnnTaylor size 2!

Susan & Lily ~ my DH says he can just look at me and I get a bruise. It's especially bad during the summer when we're sailing. I get tons of bruises that I call 'boat bites'. Most of which I don't even know when they happened.

Since I'm so desperate to get some new clothes for summer, I've been eBay shopping. I've won two bids on shorts which should arrive this week. Both are by companies that I like the fit, so I'm not too worried. One I won for $1.50 plus shipping - it still has the $25 tag on it, the other for $3.99 plus $4.99 shipping. I've also bid on some long pants, a skirt, and some sundresses. They're all at the starting bid, so I'll probably be out bidded.

I've been struggling to find scrubs for work. I asked an ebay seller to measure the actual width of the garment for me. It's great.

Susan, you are just the cutest little thing!