Picture Perfect

This week's weight loss was not as dramatic as last week's, but I did lose a respectable .5 pounds, bringing my total weight loss to 17 pounds, with 23 more to go by my 40th birthday on August 15th.

As I mentioned in last week's post, Mother's Day was also our son's 10th birthday. It was a really nice day from beginning to end, starting with me getting to sleep in until around 10 a.m., followed by Will opening his birthday gifts and me opening my Mother's Day Gifts. Piper gave me a beautiful framed painting.

Will wrote me a poem, that I just have to share:

Roses are red

Violets are blue

They are pretty...

But not as pretty as you.

Sunflowers are yellow

Shamrocks are green

They are easy to find...

But not as easy as you.

I had to restrain myself from laughing too hard at the ending's double entendre, but how darned sweet is that?

One of the most unexpected surprises of the day for me was actually being happy with the pictures that my husband took of me with the kids that day. Honestly, I can't even think of the last time I took a picture with my kids that I liked. Granted, I'm still 23 pounds away from my goal, but I've taken enough weight off already to see a real visible difference.

I don't have any photos out in the house right now featuring me, well except for our wedding pictures on the wall and the framed picture of me in the sixth grade in my Dodgers softball uniform and my Farrah Fawcett hair with my ball cap strategically placed so as to not disrupt my hair's perfect feathering (a gift my husband gave to me one Christmas because he thinks the picture is hilarious).

So to literally like the pictures from that day was really refreshing for me. I mean really refreshing.

Will and me on Mother's Day/his birthday

We decided to take the kids bowling, something Will thought would be fun for his big day, and something we have never done as a family since Piper was born more than three years ago. We had a blast, even though in the first of the two rounds we played, I came in last place. Yes, even my 3-year-old daughter beat me! And to my friends and family who have known me the longest, yes, I did attribute my defeat  to my crooked right arm.

17 pounds ago, I would have never shown this butt shot

(For those of you who don't know, my crooked right arm is the result of a swingset mishap in the '70s that resulted in a dislocation and four breaks in the growth area near my elbow that very well could have resulted in me having the arm the size of a 7-year-old for the rest of my life. Fortunately it didn't, but it did mess up my form at horse camp as a kid, as I was the only one who couldn't straighten both arms for the acrobatic horse performances. If my childhood friend and horse camp partner-in-crime Barbara is reading this, she's laughing right now and I actually think I can hear her all the way down in San Diego. She loved hearing me have to explain every year to the horse camp instructors why I can't straighten my right arm.)

But, never fear, by the second round of bowling, I redeemed myself.

Note the crooked right arm.

And while my husband thinks this photo of me is hilarious, I'd say judging by this scoreboard, I definitely got the last laugh (just to reinforce the point, J stands for Jennifer and C stands for Christian).

The day ended with a wonderful dinner at Benihana, something I worked out extra for all week and saved my 35 weekly Weight Watchers bonus points for so I could enjoy it without guilt. Benihana is a favorite birthday venue for the Whittys because, after all, nothing beats the "birthday drum" and an onion volcano to celebrate a big day.

Note the enthusiasm of the guy with the birthday drum.

Happy Birthday Will!

Here's hoping I drum up some great weight loss results this coming week!