Jeans angst

I will start out this post by saying I do realize that I am pretty lucky. I have had two children and with both, never had to work hard to lose the baby weight. Must be the good genes and breastfeeding. With my son the baby weight was gone by 9 months, with Skadi it was closer to a year before the bathroom scale hit that prepregnancy point - which was a few pounds higher than it was with Leif. Still, I am there and wearing my prepreg clothes.

For the most part, AB and I cook and eat relatively healthy and are reasonably active. Since it has been staying lighter in the evenings we are back to our nightly walks. (Winny rejoices.) We hike a local hill almost every weekend. (Winny rejoices.)

My goal is to return to running in June when Skadi moves to Leif's school and I suddenly have only one drop off and pick up. By latching onto the few minutes of spare time the single drop off will afford me and by skipping lunch (eating at my desk while working) I will be able to fit in a good solid 30 minutes at the gym next to the kid's school at the end of my day. After my workout I can walk over (sweaty and all) and retrieve them and we can all go home and proceed with our night without losing too much in my actual face time with the kids.

Working out and staying healthy is important to me on many levels. I feel better when I work out, my clothes fit better, it sets a good example for my kids and I need to keep up with Vargas Girl in all these races she keeps sending me information on! Ok... so I started it by sending her the Bloomsday link, she retaliated with let's do Bay to Breakers again as well as Iron Girl in Seattle. Then I saw one the other day on the Olympic Peninsula near the family cabin... then I realized it was a marathon. Ok, so there was a half marathon... still since I haven't even put my running shoes on I can't start thinking about half marathons in gorgeous locales... yet.

Where am I going with all this rambling? (The whole working out bit wasn't planned...)

Something totally unrelated... kind of.

Jeans.

Denim used to be a staple in my wardrobe. And it is still there, though more in my closet and less on me.

Right now I am having a hate-hate relationship with denim.

I cannot seem to find a pair of acceptable jeans.

I don't want butt crack baring jeans, I am a mom. I bend over and pick kids up a lot, I don't need to show off that part of my anatomy. And not to mention, I wear jeans to work a few times a week, so do NOT need to bend down to work on something and bare nearly all. Can we just all get past the ultra-low thing? Soon, please?

On the flip side I don't need a yard of denim up top either. The top of my jeans do not need to jab my ribcage when I sit down.

I feel like I did when I was in 7th grade and grown out of the girls section at the department store but not really into the juniors stuff.

I am lost in the world of jeans. Help?

I have two pairs of Levis that I still love - though I wonder how dated I am looking since I bought them years ago. My favorite pair of Old Navy jeans ripped something fierce, in the buttt nonetheless, while here at work a couple years ago. I am still mourning them. (Yes, I TRIED repairing them... but it was a BIG rip. And yes, I tried replacing them but the style was gone.)

I keep buying more jeans only to find some flaw. Too funky of leg, too much fabric up top, too low, my grandmother might like these, these ones fall down, make me look like I am trying to be 16... you name it.

I had a glimmer of hope this weekend when I put on a pair of shorts I had just bought at Costco. A pair of Polo by Ralph Lauren shorts that sit "just below the natural waist". I was in heaven.

H-E-A-V-E-N.

I even thought about wearing them on Sunday despite the gook covering them that comes from having two small children. I quickly threw them into the laundry so that thought didn't return.

But what it did do to me was send me on a search for jeans cut the exact same way. I was optimistic! I hit the internet on Monday!

...

Yeah. Nothing.

Can someone just make some trendy, cute jeans that fit for those of us in our mid-30's who don't want to look like our moms (not that there is anything wrong with our moms... just a different generation) or the skanky looking teenagers?

Please?