Tuesday, April 06, 2010

tan lines




so, the good news is that i didn't gain any weight over easter....i stayed exactly the same. the way i was feeling after all of that good food and sugar, i was positive that i had gone up at least 2 lbs, but was pleasantly surprised to see the number on the scale looking up familiarly at me this morning.

that being said, josh had the camera on sunday and i don't think there is anything that can give a wakeup call quite like seeing unflattering pictures of yourself. its true that i've lost quite a bit of weight and i am happy with how i look (though i'd LOVE to lose another 10), but what i noticed most in the pictures were my arms. i used to have super skinny arms. one of my past boyfriends loved to grab my arm and wave it around in the air saying, "what is THIS? this isn't an arm, its a spaghetti noodle!" which was just as irritating as it sounds. now, however, if my arms were noodles, they would be something more along the lines of manicotti rather than spaghetti. what doesn't help is that living in southern california pretty much guarantees a year-round tan and, since my arms aren't really in sleeveless shape, i've been wearing short sleeves a lot which has resulted in a very unflattering farmer's tan, highlighting the flabbiest part of my arm. this wouldn't be that big of a deal normally, but normally i wouldn't even be dreaming of stepping into a sleeveless, halter style dress in less than 3 weeks. my heart seriously just skipped a beat as i wrote that last sentence.

what do i do about this white upper, dark lower arm thing? it isn't like i have endless free time to lay out in the backyard in nothing but a bikini (i don't even own a bikini that fits me), nor do i have any free money to go get a spray tan to even me out. when i remember, i put spf 50 on the tan parts of my arms just to ensure they won't get even darker before the wedding. does anyone have any great ideas? am i just being entirely too vain? should i display my farmer tan arms with pride, while standing next to my sister, knowing full well that she looks a million times more beautiful than me, as she should?

speaking of endless free time, i am enjoying a little snippet of that right now. samuel is taking a nap and tristan is attending his second day of vacation bible school (or just "bible school" as he calls it) at our church. this is the first time i've ever dropped him off somewhere and then left, other than leaving him with family. i completely expected him to go all wobbly chinned and teary eyed yesterday, but he was totally fine standing close to his teachers and watching, wide eyed as all the bigger kids sang loudly and did actions along with the songs. i picked him up 3 hours later and he told me that he had fun and that he wanted to go back again. wow, that was easy. the house is strangely silent without hearing his little voice talking to his trains and asking me for snacks, but its really a very nice silence because i know it won't last long.




9 comments:

Julie said...

When I was trying to tan for my wedding I didnt have money to go to a tanning bed so I bought a tank top shaped the same as my dress and went for bike rides and walks wearing the tank top... Maybe you could buy a shirt like the dress and then go on walks with the boys. Good idea to put sunscreen on the parts you dont want tanned.

kelly ens said...

maybe a tanning moisturizer on the upper arms? (of course, test it a few times before the actual day!)

Good to hear Tristan is enjoying VBS :)

Heather said...

tanning moisturizer all the way (although I agree with Kelly - test on other part of the body first!). I used it for my sister's wedding as I was working outside all summer (in a uniform shirt) ... made the white lines a lot less noticable!

Jessica LaTour said...

I love it! There's supposed to be alot of rain next week so maybe the self tanning lotion would be the way to go.

Taxi Driver said...

We love your arms.

-ML

Sara said...

You have to tan them! I have some self tanning lotion you can have. I just bought it, used it once and am not planning on using it again.

Hotshot's Wife said...

Heidi,
While it sounds so cheesy, it is affordable and not so damaging to our skin. Buy some lotion/tan at the store. It's not as perfect as a tan, but it blends our skin to shade the same. It's usually no more than like $8.00....... Just a helpful thought.
~~Trish~~

Kathy said...

What ever you do just know this - I will be at the wedding and I WILL be checking out your arms and reporting back to the blogging world.

I am SO JOKING.

Self tanning lotion is my vote too. I use it a lot in the summer - even on my arms which are more like mashed potatoes than pasta. You are so cute.

Neha said...

Apply raw milk with some baking soda with a cotton wool at bedtime to the tanned areas....they should even out in some days with that. :)