What Would Stacy and Clinton Say?

I still have one final entry of our Disney vacation to write and post, but I've been distracted by work, life, and the distressing and totally not foreseeable news that Katie and Tom are breaking up. If those two crazy kids can't make it...

Anyway, I have a more pressing issue at the moment. Despite my vows to buy nothing more than is absolutely necessary over the next few months (a vow I haven't blogged about yet, but it sums up as "we will only go to Target once a month. And stop buying ALL THE STUFF."), we went shopping today. Mostly to entertain ourselves during this blazing heat wave. Apparently the entire greater D.C. area had the same idea (probably because many of them are without power after Friday's crazy storms), so it was crowded. But we soldiered on, and bought out Old Navy. The kids came home with new clothes, some items of which were actually needed, and I came home with two new outfits. M. sacrificed himself on the alter of good shopping mojo and entertained the kids, thus ensuring he would come home with nothing for himself. Alas.

Anway, this post is about ME, and what I bought. I need to know how to wear my outfits. Each one involves a skirt and a shirt - they are very similar (the skirts are actually the same, in two different colors/patterns), but I only have pictures of one outfit. The skirts are a little poofy, so I decided that I needed something to accentuate my waist while wearing it. People, I bought a belt.

I never buy belts. I never wear belts. I have a fear and loathing of belts. Belts = tucked in shirt, and any girl who ever grew up chubby knows that tucked in shirts are the devil. But belts seem to be in style, and I'm starting to learn that you only look as large as the largest item of clothing you are wearing, and maybe it's OK to forgo a shapeless shirt in favor of a belted/tucked in waist, even if that waist is thicker than you'd like it to be.

So as I mentioned, I bought a belt. But having tried it on with the skirts, I'm not so sure. Actually, I'd probably be surer if M. didn't look so questioning when I tried it on in front of him. He likes the outfits better with the shirts untucked. I'm leaning toward tucked in. Please help! How would you wear this outfit:

Option A: Shirt tucked in, with belt (please ignore the white shopping tags that I hadn't removed yet, for fear the whole outfit would need to go back to Old Navy)

Option B: Shirt tucked in, no belt

Option C: Shirt untucked, no belt

Option D: Shirt untucked, with belt (perhaps you can tell by the expression on my face, but this is the version of which I am most skeptical)

Alright, lay it on me - how would you wear this outfit? One of these ways, or something else altogether? I am completely open to suggestions.

Also wanted to show you Lucy's hair today - she requested "Tangled" hair. I'm no Disney animation artist, and wasn't working with 50 feet of long hair. But I gave her "lots and lots and lots of braids," as she requested, and then attempted to braid them all together. She loved it, and is currently sleeping with all those braids still in her hair:

Finally, I took the above photo on my Nikon D90 using the manual setting. Not, of course, that it's a great photo. I point it out because the first couple of times I tried to take a photo using the camera's manual setting, each one was completely black. I thought the camera was broken, but it turns out I just had no idea what I was doing. But I took a class! Last weekend, in fact. A 5-hour long crash course in how to take digital photographs in manual. I need to practice, a lot. But the class was really interesting (I took a crapload of notes, and reminded myself yet again that I would do a much better job at college if I was doing it now), and I can now take a recognizable photo in manual. I even know what things like ISO and F stop mean, and how to change them on my camera. Of course, now I want to buy lots of things, like different lenses ($$$) and Photoshop. But first up is lots of practice - I'll share any good ones I take here. And then maybe learning about flash photography, about which I am still in the dark (pun intended). I vow, one day, to be able to take a photo using flash that doesn't suck. Really, why do flash photos (at least the ones I take) all suck so much? I guess I'll find out!