T I Double G Errrr

Let's...not talk about today.  Let's just look at shoes that make me smile.

I love Winnie the Pooh.  These shoes are adorable.

Tigger!  He's very bouncy.  I very much like that about him.

Um....Tiggers don't like these shoes.

I hope Kanga and Roo are on the other side of these.  Or Rabbit and Owl.  Or Christopher Robin.  I had trouble finding those guys on the shoes.  They need shoe love, too!

Awww...Piglet. I think if I were a character, I would probably be Piglet.  I'd be OK with that.  We're both shy and slightly neurotic.

See?   Where are the others?

Nice with the classic Pooh. And including Christopher Robin.

Apparently the classic shoes are more inclusive.  Look, Rabbit!

I love Winnie the Pooh.  I wish I had spent the day watching Pooh instead of doing what I did.  Oh, and to end on a light note:  One of the kiddos my mom used to babysit called it the Hundred Naked Wood.  Yeah, that would be a different story...

Puppies and Pinterest Friend

The hubby is sleeping.  He's liking the new(est) job, but apparently it is wearing him out.  I barely see him right now. He leaves at 5 am, gets home about 8 pm, and is in bed within an hour of getting home.  So he is sleeping, and I am snuggling with puppies.  Today was a pretty good day.  I woke up with massive headache and so exhausted. I've been exhausted for almost a week now, and I'm hoping it's just my period (sorry, guys) and not something else.  Anyway, the day started out rough, but improved by late afternoon, for which I am grateful. Let's celebrate a better afternoon with some shoes from the Pinterest Friend.

How cute are these?  The nieces  have some adorable ladybug dresses my mom made for them, and I think these would be adorable with them.  They wouldn't quite match, but hey, ladybugs!

Um...OK.  I'm assuming this is sculpture, but I really want it to be a slide.

Very Easter-y!

Really cute.  Whenever I wear my gray shoes someone always complains that they are boring, not colorful enough.  Sure, this one isn't as bright as some others, but I love how simple and classy this shoe is. 

These are also very Easter-y?  I just can't with these. Way too much pastel crammed into this one pair of shoes.

I'm not sure what to say about these, either.  The PF said she had to look twice at the slits in the sides, and I have to agree.  I think they are supposed to add interest, but it's a little too much on shoes that are still boring.

These, on the other hand, I would definitely wear.  So cute!  Have I ever mentioned that I have a love of spectator pumps?  And yet, I've never owned a pair. 

Holy cute, Batman.  Love these. love the color, the flowery part, the flower detail, the fact that they are Mary Janes.

PF is right, too many textures.  I don't think I'd mind the straps if these were one color, or even one color with a contrasting heel.  As it is, there is just too much going on here.  Coco Chanel (I think) said before you leave the house you should take of one accessory so you aren't wearing too much.  I think this shoe could have benefited from that advice.

Well, it's a tough job, but I have to go snuggle these puppies some more before bed.  They got a bath tonight, so they are all soft and sweet smelling.  I'm ignoring the mild case of of hives I've got under my chin, so I guess it's love.

Transitions

Hey, remember how excited I was a few weeks ago when the hubby got a new job?  Here's a little follow-up for you:  So, he started on April 3rd, and had 2 days in the office.  The following week he flew to LA for 5 days of training and had a great time.  He came back excited and ready to get started.  Then he had is first full week in the office and there started to be some red flags.  Nothing major at first, and nothing he didn't think he wouldn't be able to work through and with, but it was  definitely a let-down after the excitement of training.  Then the following Monday (2 weeks and 2 days into this adventure), he got to the office only to find that the company had been bought out.  There wouldn't be an definite decisions for 3-4 months, but after that no one knew what would happen with existing sales staff.  Oy...can nothing be easy?  The hubby, who always has a backup plan, contacted the other company that had offered him a job at the same time as this one.  They came back with another job. On Wednesday the hubby talked to his manager, got out of his contract, and started with the new company today.  Whew!  How insane is that?  We are off on another adventure, after not fully settling into the previous one.

Speaking of adventures and transitions,  I can update you on things with me now that letters have been mailed to the congregation, and an announcement was made in church yesterday.  I have decided not to go back to St. Someone's now that my 60 day leave is done.  Instead, I will be taking Long Term Disability for awhile until I'm feeling better.  Don't get me wrong, I do feel better than when I took the leave, but not well enough that going back would be a good idea.  I did not come to this decision lightly, and I feel awful about leaving the people there whom I have grown to love.  But, my health is important and going back would have been a major set-back in my progress, I think.  It wouldn't be fair to me or the congregation for me to go back when I can't give them my best.  It's such a weird feeling to be in this place.  Part of me feels like something of a failure for going on LTD. It's not a place I ever thought I'd be, and it's not entirely comfortable.  Since it's a mental disability, sometimes I wonder how it looks to others.  I mean, I look fine physically; there is no reason I shouldn't be working right now, especially in a job that isn't particularly physically demanding. I'm really trying to stifle those thoughts, though, because they aren't helpful, and they aren't true.

So, we are once again in some major transition.  I tend to like to stick to my comfort zone, so transitions are hard for me.  Since much of my life is outside the comfort zone, I'm going to turn to comfort shoes (way fewer calories than comfort food), which in my case is blue.  Duh.

And t-straps.  I would like these, please.

And polka dots!  Wouldn't these be fun for 4th of July?

More polka dots, and an ankle strap.  Again, yes, please.

Blue suede.  With a fun pop of green for all of my greenies out there.

Mary Janes.  Adorable.  Want them, too.

See?  I feel better now.  I'm coveting, but I feel better.  Oh, and I'm also now singing "Transition!" to the tune of "Tradition!" from Fiddler on the Roof.

Baby Blues (And Green)

One of the couples that I married a few years ago recently had a baby boy.  I like to feel like I have a teeny tiny eensy weensy part in it when couples I've married have babies.  Yeah, total ego there, right?  Anyhoo, there was a baby.  Born in March.  Very handsome.  So I made him some booties and a hat.  Then I put them in the mail, and thought that should be the end of it.  Nope.  I have absolutely no idea where that package went.   For crying out loud, it only had to go 30 miles.  I could have walked it there faster.  After 2 or 3 weeks, I gave up hope and made a new set:

I have no idea what happened to the hat.  I know my tension is tight when I crochet, but usually if I got up 2 hook sizes from what the pattern says, I do OK.  Not this time.  That hat turned out tiny, even for a newborn.  Hopefully baby boy has a stuffed animal that can wear the hat.  His mom sent me a picture and the shoes were way too big.  Hat too small, shoes too big.  No wonder that cute little man was crying in the pictures!

If I'd known this gift was going to be this much crazy trouble I would have just bought something.  Hopefully it really is the thought that counts.

Belated

The catching up continues.  I'm not going in chronological order, since I jumped from Easter, back to April 9th, and now moving forward to April 12th, which just happened to be my 39th birthday.  This is kind of where the blogging fell apart for me.  I was having a rough week for a lot of reasons, and then my birthday, while I looked forward to it and had a lovely day when it came, hit me hard.  Part of it is that it was a 9 year.  The nines always make me think back over the last decade, and since I'm fighting the depression, I tended to look only at the negatives, what I haven't accomplished, what I screwed up, etc.  Yeah, aren't you glad I didn't subject you to all of that?  But, here are a few snapshots from the past decade:  I moved from Berkeley, to Texas, back to Berkeley, to Montana, to Pennsylvania, back to Montana, back to Berkeley, back to Montana, then within Montana from Plains to Missoula, to Lodi, and finally Elk Grove.  I'm tired just remembering all of the packing and unpacking and sorting and storing.  (I've moved 26 times since starting college)  Flower and Laughter were born.  I met the hubby and got married.  I graduated from seminary.  I got ordained and received my first 2 calls. See?  When I look at it that way, it's been a pretty impressive decade, right?  But, unfortunately I had to work through the negative before I could get to here.

Since I was wallowing and didn't post on my birthday, I'll do it tonight.  I'm an Aries, so that is what is inspiring tonight's shoes.

Of course there are horoscope shoes.  Really, why should we be surprised?  Mine are the green with the ram's head.

Here is a closer look.  Dang, I'm going to have to go with no on buying Aries shoes.  SKD is also an Aries, and she loves green, but I'm not sure even she would go for these green shoes.  The rams are staring at me.

And here they are in red.  Better shoe color, still creepy.

If you would like some less strange, more fun pictures, check out last year's birthday post.  It's more fun, less angst.

Raaaaiiiiin!

I'm listening to the wonderful rain right now, and it's lovely.  It has rained all day, and I have enjoyed every minute of it, especially since we so desperately need it right now.  And rain means rainbows, right?  OK, not right now because it's dark.  Geez, you're so literal.  I was just trying for a segue into the fact that the PF recently sent me a series of rainbow shoes.  I should actually write "recently" as she sent them 16 days ago.  This is what happens when I don't post regularly!  Although I do now have a backlog of ideas that I can work my way shoes.  But back to rainbows.  I did a post of rainbow shoes a while ago, but now we have a whole new selection to ogle:

Ohmygoshcute.  I think this might be the same yarn I also made into baby shoes fairly recently, but those pale in comparison to these.  Gaaaah...perfectionist button pushed!

 

PF said something about the 90s with these.  Absolutely.  The decade that brought us giant, clunky, spongy heels.

 

Barbie shoes!  I have no idea who would think of something like this, or take the time to do it, but it's definitely different and interesting.  Probably art of some kind.  This is what Pinterest is for:  for people to make random things and post them so that others of us can then randomly post their random posts!

 

Stripey.  T-strap.  Rainbow.  Should be perfect, right?  It's just a little off for me.  Maybe it's the white stripes (not the band)?  The lack of green, purple, and indigo?  Or the clunky heel?  Not sure.

These were one of my choices for the last post as well.  Great minds think alike!

Oh.  Wow. These are crazy.  It's like a parrot and a shoe had a baby.  Is it weird that I kind of like them?

No.  First off, platform, peep toe booties.  No.  Plus, I'm pretty sure the bedazzler threw up.

Same clunky heel as above, but this time I love them. PF said they reminded her of Rainbow Bright.  I can totally see that.  I never got into Rainbow Bright as a kid, but the shoe version might convert me.

 

Shoe color wheel!  Pretty, and it can help you determine which colors each shoe will go with!

This last one is hilarious.  It's like the saying:  Don't like the weather?  Wait 5 minutes and it will change.  I would totally wear these as part of some kind of costume.

Good night, all. The hubby and I are wild and crazy tonight.  We went to bed at 8:00.  Hubby has been snoozing for about an hour, and I'm about to follow.  Mom said after last night's post that I'm not old, yet, but this might prove her wrong.

Hops

Between high school and college I took some time off and did daycare for a family in my home town.  KGH was 2 1/2 when I started and KAH was 3 months.  I was only supposed to take a year off, but I fell in love with those babies and 1 year turned into 2 1/2.  Both of them had some funny ways of saying things, like all kids do.  My family still says hot weeder hider instead of hot water heater because KGH said it and it cracked us up.  KAH had his own language, though.  I swear I should have been able to count it as my foreign language requirement when I got to college.  One thing he did was to call animals by their sounds instead of their names.  Dogs were woofs, cows were moos, etc.  My favorite, though, was bunnies.  Bunnies don't really make sounds normally, so KAH promptly switched gears and called them hops.  That was a rather long way of saying that today we will be talking about hops.  You might have thought we were going to talk about jumping, or possibly beer, from the title, but nope.  It's still Easter, so we're going to talk about bunnies.  And because the PF sent me some really fun bunny shoes:

Oh my goodness do I love these.  So very adorable!

 

These are also cute in a sweet and goofy kind of way.  I can totally see a 5-7 year old rocking these.

Adorable.  Must find a pattern.  Although my tension is usually off and my baby shoes end up being slightly different sizes.  So they would be sibling bunnies instead of twin bunnies.

These are not from the PF.  I found them and had to share.  I love the blue with white polka dots, and would love whole shoe if it didn't mean WALKING ON THE HEAD OF A BUNNY.  What is wrong with people? Poor little hops.  I'd bet they'd have lots to say about this.

And one last picture.  My uncle sent this to me the other day.  These are slippers that were given to me.  They were very warm and comfortable.  Weird to walk in, though, as the heads were heavy and flopped around some.  I've never really thought it was all about me, though.  It's a running joke in my family, especially with me and my aunt, where we say this, but never actually mean it.

Ah, hops.  KGH is now 23 and got married last summer (so I guess she'd be KGHK now), and KAH just turned 21 yesterday.  I am oooooold.

To Post Or Not To Post...

...that is the question.  I haven't been posting much lately.  You being observant readers probably noticed this from the lack of posts.  The result is that I'm rather behind in things that I'd thought to post about.  Easter was Sunday, but it's the season of Easter until Pentecost, so I can still talk about it.  I actually bought new shoes for Easter!

I wanted these because they said Easter to me (they're much prettier in person).  But they didn't have any in my size, of course.  I swear, everyone wears my size, because it seems to be the one size that's always missing.  At any rate, no flowery shoes for me this year.  Now, here's where things got interesting:  I was shopping with the hubby, and the hubby is VERY opinionated.  He kept selecting black shoes.  I kept telling him I wanted something bright and fun for Easter.  Sadly, there were really no colorful shoes that I liked or were in my size.  I ended up with shoes of the hubby's choice (making him very smug):

Cute, but not my usual style choice.  I got lots of compliments on them, though, so they must have been OK.  The hubby also had a say in the dress I ended up getting (I couldn't figure out what dress to wear with these particular shoes), so then he was extra smug:

Again, not something I would necessarily choose for myself.  It grew on my throughout the day, but I kind of felt like I was trying to hard with the dress or something.  Maybe it's just a little more girly than I usually go with?  

So that's Easter.  And since Easter has come, I have broken out the Easter socks.  Usually I would wear holiday socks the whole month of the holiday, but this year the socks felt like Alleluia...they needed to stay in the drawer until Easter was actually here.  So yesterday and today since it was slightly cooler, I broke out the socks:

The top pair are new this year.  I think Mom bought me the second pair, but I could be remembering that wrong.  I love how bright they both are.

So, I just looked back last year's Easter post, and I'd actually forgotten about these shoes, which is crazy.  See what I mean about loving colorful shoes for Easter?

Happy Easter (season), everyone!  Please go eat some chocolate for me.  I can eat it again, but we need to spread the calories around...

Sigh

So...I might be broken.  Shoes just aren't doing if for me lately.  I haven't been posting for a lot of reasons (depression causing major lack of motivation being a big one, not being at church for Holy week comes into play, and other stuff).  I know I told you I'd give you a post and explain everything, and I will, but I have no inspiration right now.  Oh, and thank you for all of you who sent me fun thoughts to inspire me, and especially the Pinterest Friend who continues her excellent work as my self-appointed intern.  But I look at shoes and think.  Eh.  Whatever.  Occasionally I get mildly excited or horrified, but not often.  And you know what else is weird?  Today (as well as other days lately), I was in a fairly good, kind of goofy mood, and also grumpy as hell.  (How grumpy IS hell? is what I would ask the hubby if he said that)  I don't know, y'all.  I just don't know.  In happier news, SKD took me out for a late birthday lunch and a pedicure today, which was lovely.  For the first time ever we chose the same color and now have matching Easter toes:

I'd actually had pretty spring toes before, as well:

But the puppies like to lick and bite my toes, so that tends to ruin the prettiness.

Thank you, fabulous friend, for getting me out of the house!  Even though I know your real reason for inviting me is so you can see the puppies...

Hopefully I will snap out of this funk soon, because Shoetopia without shoes is just...topia.  And that's boring.

Scatter Brain

I know, I know. It's been almost a week since I posted, and this isn't even a real post because I'm tired and going to bed. I've been thinking way too much lately, and I will tell you all about it soon. But my brain is really full of lots of stuff, which means I forget other stuff, or get de-motivated. I will at least give you some shoes, though. Frightening shoes, but you get what you get.

Seriously. Why? Who makes brain shoes? Who wears brain shoes?!

Hee hee. Frightening in a different way. For those of you confused, those are characters from from a show called Pinky and the Brain. I know several people who would LOVE to have these shoes. 

Full brain needs to sleep now.