I Went to the Prom!

My moms group sponsors an event called the Mom Prom. It's held at our church, we have a DJ and it's BYOB. The best part is that it's girls only, so tons of fun, mostly dancing to some great tunes from our youth. This is the 4th year that we've done it. The first year it was just a small group of us that dressed up for fun and went out to eat and then dancing. So many people stopped us and asked us what we were doing and said it looked like fun. One of our friends thought that this would be something that others would like to do, why not make it a full fledged prom and see if we could raise money for a local charity. Well, it has evolved into a pretty big deal and we raised alot of money in ticket sales for St. Vincent de Paul and a local women's shelter.

I did not keep any of my prom dresses from high school...although there were some real nice ones in there, not that I would be able to squeeze into them. I kept a handful of bridesmaid dresses for I don't know what. The first year we had Mom Prom, I wore a dress that i wore in my friend Nikki's wedding. It's actually a cute dress. Last year I really wanted a southern belle dress and found a pretty sweet looking one on eBay. This year I wanted a more glamorous, screaming late 80s, early 90s dress. I think I outdid myself with my eBay find. I was able to accessorize it with gloves I wore in my friend Jennie's wedding and jewelry I wore in my friend Erin's wedding, both from 1999. My hair was a creation all in it's own. I haven't seen that much height since the 90s.
Ellen also found a dress on eBay and accessorized it with a few pieces from my vast collection of jewels. These were featured on myself in 1994, also worn with a black and white dress, that at the time I thought was "elegant" - it involved a short sweeping train. Such class.

The fun part about Mom Prom is going with your girlfriends. I am also lucky to call my neighbors friends. Here we are posing for the husbands & kiddos before we go off to the prom. Debbie (3rd from left) is wearing the dress I wore in my friend Jennie's wedding. Such a beauty. Cheryl (4th from left) is wearing one of our other friend's dresses. She described it as the dress that "most looked like a tablecloth" due to it's jacquard fabric.

We all headed to eat at an Italian Restaurant before. We got a couple of stares and I think that our waiter was a little flustered by us. I am not sure if it was because we were all so beautiful or if he thought we looked ridiculous and he'd never do such a thing as this in all of his 23 years. Regardless, it was fun and we had a nice time. Much like the proms of our past, but with legal alcohol and minus the teen angst.

Once we got to the Prom, we got a table and about 10 of us gathered around and scoped out the situation. There were lots of dresses, some of which we had seen or had worn at one point in our youth. There were a few nice looking dresses that didn't qualify as hideous in my book. They actually looked nice. Anyway, I think part of the fun is making it a little silly...so I will continue to do so. Here I am showing off how glamorous I am with my Cosmo, gloves and bracelet in the church gym.

Amy, Cherie & Lisa

These lovely ladies met us at the prom. They are some of my friends from my PreMom, Single days. Amy is wearing my dress from last year...it's quite a look. Cherie is wearing Cheryl's dress from last year that she also found on eBay and Lisa is wearing her original prom dress from 1991. They are looking pretty darn fancy.

But as I was dancing and just having a blast, I looked around the room and saw so many of my friends. It really hit me as I looked around. I have some pretty great friends...

• My moms group friends - are so critical to my sanity as a mom and have helped me really have a connection to our church community and our little suburb. These are the women I can just sit and talk about nothing with and just crack up. Not only do we share our faith in God, but we share the fact that we are stay at home moms and it's a hard job. So many think that it is easier than it is...but it's not. I need these women in my life...if for nothing more than that they get my life.
• My neighborhood friends. We couldn't have picked a better depreciating neighborhood to throw money at. Regardless of plummeting home values, i look out my door (front and back) and know that I have some great people to count on (and their husbands are great too). They are all like family. We break bread, share bottles of wine, boxes of mac & cheese, jewelry, chairs, whatever. We yell at each other's kids. It's like a commune, but no hippy clothes and I shave daily.
• My OLD Friends. Cherie & Amy. When I say OLD, I mean it in the fact that we go back 9 years (but they are older than me, by less than a year, but still, older). I actually met Kurt on a night out with Amy. Had she not been chatting it up with some other guy when I walked into the bar, I probably wouldn't have gone up to get a drink on my own at the bar, thus running into a guy that thought I was just about it. Something I really needed at that point in my life...who would have thought that i'd marry him! Today, Amy & I have the pleasure of being married to hard core Tiger Fans and have attended our share of games. Amy introduced me to Cherie (her high school friend) and we became roommates. We had some good times at that apartment, a memorable home party, TV nights, a non-existent 3rd roommate, followed by an awful 3rd roommate who wasn't shy when it came to time with her boyfriend. She met her husband through Kurt & I. We still do tons of stuff together with our kids, but recognize that it's fun to do stuff without them too.

Friends come and go in our lives, but really it's these relationships that sustain us. Even if you're not particularly close at that moment, what you had at one point helped you be who you are today. You never know when you meet someone what kind of impact they will have on your life. I looked at all of these girls and thought about how choices you make in life lead you down a certain path. I am so glad I chose a path with so many friends. I can't imagine my life without these fantastic ladies!