little black dress

Today after quilting with my grandmother and my sister-in-law at the church I stopped by my parents house to see about taking my parents out to eat. We went to Cracker Barrel to celebrate my dad's birthday. He will be 68 years old on Thursday, and such an inspiration. I hope to be as fit and active as my dad when I get older, he was already asking me about our next race! I have only eaten at the Cracker Barrel once and it was pre-weight loss so I didn't go in there with the same mind set, and I had no idea what to order. I was trying to decide between three meals and my dad ordered one of them (grilled chicken n' summertime vegetable salad) I just really wanted to try the marinated cucumbers. My mom and I split the other two entrees (lemon pepper grilled rainbow trout and bbq chicken). It was nice to walk out of a restaurant not feeling stuffed. I used to feel like that was a normal feeling at home or when I went out to eat but now I know it is not healthy.

When I came home I started looking at my room. again. The room where I keep my treadmill is kind of a landing pad for all things not in use. All of my school books are stored on a shelf with my crochet and tatting patterns and I have tons of yarn stashed away in there too. Lately the clutter that has bothered me the most is all of the junk on the bed in this room. Three huge tubs full of next seasons clothes for the children and three trash bags full hand-me-down clothes, my youngest daughter's too small clothes and my too big clothes. I finally put the kids clothes back in the top of their closet where it belongs and I started looking through my old clothes. Some things were given to me and were already too big and some were just never my style, but a lot of these clothes meant a lot to me at one point..... like my little black dress.

Two years ago I wore this dress when I went to Steamboat Springs, Colorado to play in my friend's wedding. Two things happened during that weekend trip: I watched people run a marathon for the first time ever and I was forced to be away from my husband for several days. I had never run before, I thought there is no way I could run a mile, or two or 26 but I talked with people who were 20 years older than me and in better shape than I could ever have imagined myself being able to achieve. That was one of the biggest motivators for me at the time, and probably the top reason I started running. The wedding was in June 2009 and it took me 6 months to deal with my emotional issues preventing me from moving forward and taking control of my life. My husband is good to me, always has been, but when we were apart for several days I realized I didn't do anything for ME. This was not his fault, it was my own and I took full responsibility for that and made the changes I needed to make.

SOOOOOoooo.... Are you ready for the dress?

June 2009 about 185lbs--- June 2011 130lbs

What is your little victory today?

 Guitarplayingmommy,
Heather