More Birthdays!

Today is my dad's oldest sister's birthday, which is always tough because it reminds me of how much I miss her.  But it's also the Seminary Roommate's birthday, which is much happier!  Although, I miss her like crazy, too, but at least she's only as far away as Seattle.  In honor of the SR's birthday, I'm doing shoes named for her (I just did a post of shoes named after the auntie).

Cute!  I need a pair of cute, dressy flats for work, and I think this would be perfect.

A  black dress shoe is as essential as a little black dress.  This one is classic and would go with almost anything.

Oh dear.  Nononono.

I like where these are headed, the sparkles and bows are festive, but that type of short wedge heel always feels wrong to me.  It just doesn't look right.

The color is good.  This would be cuter if it wasn't a sandal.  Would a turquoise Mary Jane clog be so much better? 

Again, not quite right.  I want to like them, really I do.

OK, this one is adorable, thankfully.  I was getting a little frustrated with the selection of shoes named after my sweet friend.  She deserves better namesake shoes!  I'm not sure she would wear any of these (certainly not the heel, but maybe the first and last?), but she does have excellent taste in adorable practical shoes.  At any rate...Happy Birthday, SR!

Memory Lane: 2013. 2014. 2015.

I've been struggling with my 3 things this week.  Some days I stare at the cursor desperately trying to think of the things that make me happy and for which I'm grateful.  Which makes me sound amazingly ungrateful, because there are numerous good things about my life.  Those damn voices that I fight so much are insidious, though, and they like to tell me that my life sucks and I have nothing to offer.  They've been louder this week because the hubby (and I am in no way blaming him) told our employees yesterday and today that I was a pastor before I started working with him.  He says I'm on leave, which is kind of true, and really really untrue.  Then of course there are a million questions and reactions and projections, and it's made me a little confused emotionally.  I miss parts of being a pastor.  I miss my congregations.  I feel like an absolute failure as a pastor.  It's been 2 years since I went on leave and I'm still confused about whether or not it's healthy for me to go back.  I feel like my life is lacking in purpose.  I feel like I suck at this new job with the hubby.  I worry I'll never find contentment with a job.  See?  It's not the hubby's fault I'm an emotional wreck.  But, it's my Lenten discipline to practice gratitude and joy with at least 3 things each day, so the voices just need to shut the expletive up and let me get on with it.

3 Things:

1. Remembering the love always present in my auntie's hugs and smile.
2. The amazing friendship of the SR.
3. Puppy snuggles.  (I know I've said this one before, but they really are therapeutic)

Wine

The hubby is such a marketer.  Last night he was sitting next to me as I wrote my post, and he saw the screen that shows the statistics for my blog.  Lately I've been averaging around 40 page views a day and he was perplexed.  "Why is that number so small?  Why don't more people read your blog?"  I could see the wheels turning and knew he was about to launch into work mode and Search Engine Optimization and a million other ideas.  I just said, "it's a silly shoe blog, I don't expect that many people to read it."  I get where he's coming from.  If this were something I was trying to make money from or trying to expand into something larger, then yes, of course I would do more with it and try to promote it more.  I've done the training, I know enough to get started, but it's not something I'm interested in.  And this was supposed to be a silly side note, so don't read anything into this paragraph, whether about the hubby, me, or the blog.

Moving on.  It's a screenshot kind of day:

 

Um...what?  I have so many questions, and so many possible snarky comments to make.  I'll hold back, though, and just talk focus on the fact that it's Drink Wine Day.  I don't drink much at all, but I do enjoy the occasional (half) glass of wine.  I like white over red, which did not endear me to the Zinfandel-growing folks at St. Someone, but oh well.  I don't really know much about wine, no matter how many tastings or tours I've done.  It all just seems to slide right out of my head and I can't remember it.  So for those of you who like, understand, appreciate, or are snobby about your wine, please try not to take offense at my shoe choices today.  I'm just trying to find fun shoes.

All of these were found by searching for different kids of wine + shoes.  This is the Merlot shoe, and I like it.  I'd maybe like ti better without the dots on the straps, but I'm not going to hold them against the shoe.

 

Champagne.  I'm guessing this is a wedding shoe.  It's a little more froofy than I typically like my shoes, but there are definitely occasions when a froofy shoe is called for.

 

Chardonnay.  These would have gone well with yesterday's post.  I'm not sure Chardonnay is actually this yellow, but what do I know?

Burgundy.  Love them.

Rosé.  So shiny!

And Riesling.  Which is one of my favorite wines.  See?  I'm totally not a good wine drinker.  I like the really sweet dessert wines.  BUT, maybe I would drink more wine and learn more about it if I could match my shoes to whatever I was drinking?  

If you are a wine drinker, enjoy the day!  Actually, I hope you have an enjoyable day regardless of your wine drinking preferences, but you know what I mean.

Memory Lane:  2013. 2014.  2015 actually has 2 posts because the one that should have been for the 17th got posted after midnight (you might remember my sleep schedule was all whacky back then).

3 Things:

1. Good books.  I'm currently reading Call the Midwife and thoroughly enjoying it.
2. The video of the nephew doing push ups.  His arms never move, but his butt sure does!  Cracks me up.
3. The Lenten Photo-a-Day exercise I'm doing this year which has caused me to go through lots of my pictures which then means I get to see all of the adorableness of the nieces at various ages.