Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my dad, father-in-law, brother, and brother-in-law!  Happy birthday to dads of all kinds: biological dads, step-dads, adoptive dads, single dads, father figures, uncles, godfathers, etc!  And for those of you for whom this day is hard, whether it's because you have lost your father or your father was not in your life but in it and not a good father, or you are a father who has lost a child, know that you are not alone and you are in thoughts and prayers today.

What can I say about my dad that I haven't already?  He and my mom nurtured my love of reading.  He took me hiking and camping and fishing.  He tried to teach me to parallel park, but I was way too angst-y and hormonal and adolescent-y to be a good student.  Because of him my taste in music tends to run to decades way before my time.  He tells awesomely bad dad jokes.  For instance:

• The first line of the song Smoke Gets in Your Eyes is "they asked me how I knew our true love was true."  Because of my father I sing, "they asked me how I knew turtle soup was blue."
• He used to sing to the dump to the dump to the dump dump dump to the tune of the Lone Ranger.
• I have no idea why, but he used to say, "see that man over there with the stripe down his pants?  Looks like water, but it's snot."  (this one is better said out loud)
• If you say, "you're back!" to my dad, he will reply, "and my front, too!"
• When we leave he is fond of saying, "and we're off! Like a terd of hurtles!"

There are a million more, but for some reason I've been drawing a blank today trying to think of them. I even called my brother and he couldn't remember them, either.  Suffice it to say, he's a hoot, my dad.

 

Here are some shoes in honor of his awesomeness:

 

I might wear these in my size if I could find them.

The PB would definitely have these.

Wow, are these specific.

 

Or maybe I would them in this color combination.  OK, you know I'd have the blue pair.

 

Happy Father's Day, everyone!  Especially my dad, I love you!

50th Wedding Anniversary

Today is my parents' 50th wedding anniversary.  They didn't want a big party, but we celebrated with family and had family pictures taken.  They decided rather than cake we would have pie, which turned into a pie contest.  There were 7 pies:  pecan (me), cottage cheese (sounds weird, but it's super good, it's my dad's mom's recipe) (brother), ugly (actual name - comes from a children's book) (Laughter), coconut cream (Flower), mince meat (with actual meat, so traditional) (Doulble A), banana coconut cream (The Bean), and French silk chocolate (Auntie).  They were all quite yummy, and everyone "won" because Mom and Dad, as the judges, didn't want to choose, so everyone won in their own category.  Mine won for "best" pecan pie, etc.  Silly parents!

My cousin sent this shoe on Facebook today as an anniversary celebration:

Aren't they pretty and celebratory?

50th anniversary is gold, so I went looking for gold wedding shoes.

Their wedding colors were peach and mint green, so peach and mint green wedding shoes.  We also wore peach and mint green for family pictures today.

Mom's wedding shoes!  And Dad's weddings shoes, for that matter.  Also, Mom and Dad.  And a bridesmaid.  And possibly my grandpa.  And some guy's elbow.  And someone's face, but I'm not sure who.  I'm tired, can you tell?

Today I am definitely thankful for family, especially my parents and their 50 years together.

Strange

A quick entry tonight because once again I got caught up and almost forgot to post.  Today I am thankful for family.  I know, I sound like a broken record, but it's because I am home and spending time with them and trying to enjoy every minute.  Today involved a lot of prep for tomorrow, but I did also get to go for a walk with my dad, look through some old pictures with my mom, hung out with my brother a bit, and go to the movie with The Bean and Double A, so that was all lovely.  They movie was Dr. Strange, and that is the theme for tonight's shoes.  Actually, it's only one pair, from three different angles, but it's a pair that definitely committed to a theme:

Scenes from the movie, but drawn like a comic book.  Even the shape is strange, which I appreciate, because again, commitment to theme.  Double A and The Bean (as I've said before) are giant marvel fans, so they were excited about the movie.  I enjoyed it quite a lot, actually, despite knowing next to nothing about this part of the Marvel universe.  But now I must go to bed so I can get up in the morning and finishing preparations for The Big Day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My 30 Days of Thankfulness are kind of going by the wayside, not because I lack things for which to be thankful, but because I'm having such a nice time at home that I keep getting sidetracked and forgetting to post.  Like yesterday, I hung out with the parents, Double A, and the Bean, and then the girls had a sleepover, and I was in bed before I realized I hadn't posted.  Which is silly because we wore awesome pjs that would have made for a great post:

As I said on Facebook yesterday, yes, I AM that auntie who forces her nieces to wear matching pjs with her.  Here is a slightly different view:

This is fro tonight, and see that awesome sock peaking out from my pjs?

Yep.  Totally owl thanksgiving socks!  It's quite the fabulous theme I have going on.  I actually feel slightly guilty for posting all of this cute owl stuff where the Pinterest Friend can't see it, when she isn't here to participate.  But really, it's her own fault for getting me obsessed with owls in the first. place. 😋  Speaking of the PF, she sent me this recently:

 

Flip flop turkey!  Hilarious and adorable.  Which brings me to the earrings I wore today for Thanksgiving:

Ridiculous(ly adorable) turkey earrings.

Today I am thankful for so many things:  time with family, good friends, yummy food, silly accessories, the list could go on an on.  Rather than keep you (or me) up any later, though, I will just show one more picture, which is of our first Thanksgiving meal of the day:

The girls decided they wanted a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving this year, so we had this around 11:30 and regular Thanksgiving tonight.  Good times.  And Good Night.  I hope your day was filled with blessings.

My Dad is Awesome

Today (as on all days) I am grateful for my dad.  He tells really bad dad jokes and he loves his kids and grandkids fiercely.  When I got home on Saturday night I found this on my bed:

He saw it at the clothing store here in my hometown and apparently decided that I needed it.  Isn't he just the sweetest?  So, in honor of him, today's shoes are all about dads and daughters:

Blue shoes!

These look more like dress shoes my dad might wear, and I had black mary janes when I was little.

I love this one.  Red shoes! Ruffle butt tights!  I don't think I could talk my dad into white pants and red shoes, though.

I probably had something similar to these as a kid, too.

My dad rocks, and I am very lucky to have him in my life.

Thanks

Today I am thankful for our veterans.  Military service is not something I have felt called to or think I could do, but I'm grateful for those who are called to and are willing to serve in such a way.  I posted these 3 pictures on Facebook today in honor of Veteran's Day:

These are pictures of Mom's dad, my dad, and DJ. Apparently we're a naval family because my uncle was also in the navy, I just don't have a picture of him.  In honor of my these extra special veterans here are some nautically-inspired shoes:

You know I'm going to love these because they're blue.  I also like that they're themed but not over the top with their theme.

Ditto to these.  I think they're adorable.

This is creeping toward that over the top edge of theme-y-ness.

Love.

Navy shoes for the whole family!

Thank you to those who serve.  I am a proud auntie when it comes to DJ, and I pray for her continued safety as she moves forward in this journey.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

As you probably gathered from the title of this post, today is my dad's birthday!  I wish I could have been home to help him celebrate, but at least I got to talk to him on the phone both today and yesterday, so that helps.  Look at how cute we all were once upon a time:

(the tiny one is me).  I'm assuming Mom was taking the picture as she isn't in it?

Anyway, as I often do, I looked up shoes by name, although this time I went with Dad's middle name just to see what came up.  His middle name is Emanuel, and unfortunately only girly shoes showed up in that search.  Sorry, pop.
 

But stripes!  So yay!

And polka dots!  More yay!

Kind of plain, but cute, and good for work.

Ditto.

I'd like to see these on, but I think they might be cute.  The color is fun at least, and ankle straps have potential.

 

I'm intrigued by this one.  It might cute?  It might be over the top?  It might have a spider web on it?  It's interesting.

Emanuel means "God with us" (think Advent), but I decided not to search for God shoes today. At any rate, Happy Birthday, pop!  Sorry I couldn't find any manly shoes named after you.

Family!

Today was awesome.  We had a family dinner to celebrate my (late) and Double A's (early) birthdays.  The rain from yesterday continued today which meant that Flower's and Laughter's soccer games got canceled, which meant that their whole family got to come to dinner when we didn't think they would be able to.  There were 12 of us:  me, Mom, Dad, the Brother, the Seester, the Brother-in-Law, Double A, the Bean, Flower, Laughter, the Auntie, and the Uncle (who I haven't seen in a couple of years, so that was extra-special-awesome!).  We were only missing DJ and the hubby, which is very very sad.  There was German chocolate cake, which is never ever sad.  Sigh...it was lovely, and I wish it could happen more often.  Here are some shoes from the day:

The Auntie's thrift store boots.  They're crazy, and cool, and totally work for her.

Dad and the Uncle were both wearing Keene's today.  One of these days I should round us all up and take a Keene family picture. 

The Seester's adorable brown sandals, with a slight, unintentional photo-bomb from the Brother-in-Law.

So it was a pretty fabulous day.  So fabulous, in fact, that even going to the mostly terrible and very long Batman Vs. Superman couldn't ruin the overall fabulosity.

Memory Lane: 2013. 2014. 2015.

I Heart Librarians

Today is National Librarian Day, and my daddy is a (retired) librarian!  To celebrate the day, and the love of reading instilled in me by both of my parents, here are a few book-inspired shoes:

Ohmygoodness I love these.  And I want to read them.

Love me some Harry Potter.  These shoes had better be made out of photo copies, though, and not actual book pages, or I'm going to be super grumpy.

 

Same here.  I also love Jane Eyre.  It's my favorite from the Bronte sisters.  I pretty much loathed Wuthering Heights and wanted to smack everyone.

 

Lord of the Ring shoes.  These are awesome.  I can't read Elvish, though, so hopefully there's nothing inappropriate written on these...

Awww....baby Babar shoes!

The day is almost over here, and already over for most of you, but you should definitely thank a librarian one of these days.  I would say hug one, but that might get awkward, unless said library is your father.  Love you, Mr. Daddy, you're my favorite librarian on the planet!

Memory Lane: 2013. 2015.

Dalmatiany Shoes

Mom, Dad, Double A, and The Bean left yesterday after being here for a week.  It was so good to have them here for a visit, and I enjoyed every minute of it.  I, of course, would have preferred if they could have stayed longer (maybe forever?), but am glad I got to see them for whatever time possible.  We went to the Jelly Belly factory, spent an afternoon in a friend's pool, played Beatles board games, had a picnic with SKD, painted pottery, took pictures of statues (something we also did when they were here 4 years ago), watched movies, played with puppies, and giggled a lot.  I definitely needed the time with them.

While they were here, The Bean bought a Disney CD that we listened to in the car quite a bit.  It had the Cruella De Vil song from 101 Dalmatians.

It was then stuck in my head for most of the week. 

The song, coupled with this picture from the 15th, pretty much determined the theme for tonight's post.  Obviously I was being told to do dalmatian shoes.

Wow.  The hubby needs to plan some kind of Halloween outfit around these.

I actually like this.  Not so sure about the thing on the heel, but the rest is cute.

I like these as well, but I prefer the larger spots.

Same here.  Cute, but I think I'd like it better with larger spots.

Yep. Doesn't hurt that it's also a Mary Jane.

Awwww... And look!  Ribbon shoelaces!

I like these, but I don't really want them for my canvas shoe collection.

Adorable.  Love the ribbons.  And yes, I do know these are more uniform polka dots, rather than dalmatian spots.

I would totally wear these if they came in an adult size.  And if it ever rained here.

The hubby and I agree that our house now seems empty and quiet without the fam, and the puppies miss all the extra snuggles they got from the girls. We miss you, cute family!  Come back!