4th of July

I'm happy to report that unlike last year, the shoe calendar actually went with the theme of the day.

Some young lady at the turn of the last century was quite patriotic in her choice of footwear.  I'm hoping there was a kicky outfit that went with this pair of shoes.

And now for some more patriotic footwear:

 

Floofy!

Of course we needed some cute baby shoes.  I really like the last 2.

I actually tried on a pair of shoes in this style the other day (they were black, not flag-themed), and decided that as much as I like them, I really can't pull them off.  Dang, I need to be cooler.

 

I like that these are very thematic, but in a little more subtle way.

Definitely not subtle, but you know how I feel about polka dots.

Um...

The inside flag would get all sweaty and dirty and gross.  That doesn't seem nice.

I hope you all had a lovely holiday.  Ours was laid back and quiet, at least until the neighbors started blowing things up.  I'm going to sit here, drink my Evening in Missoula tea (yum!), work on  THE LIST and then go join the hubby and puppies for sleep.  They're getting spoiled tonight and getting to sleep the whole night with us because of all the noise.  I'm guessing 4th of July is now their favorite holiday just for that.

4th of July

I am so very disappointed in the shoe calendar for today:

 

These are hideous in general; they are like a craft project gone horribly wrong.  They are from the 90s, but that doesn't even excuse them.  Plus, it's the 4th of July.  I don't need full on stars on stripes, but they couldn't go with the theme even a little bit?  I would have settled for a red or blue pair of shoes.  On the other hand, Shoe Box P--- totally went with the theme:

 

 

The pumps are cute.  The booties are hideous, but I will take hideous in the name of a theme over weird puff-ball sandals any day.

 

It's possible I'm just cranky because I am on day 2 of the monster bitch headache from hell, which is absolutely no fun.  Thankfully it's a holiday so I can stay home and relax and hope it goes away before tomorrow.   Hope you are having a fabulous day however you are celebrating!



Happy 4th!

I hope you all had a fun, safe, and relaxing holiday.  We did absolutely nothing but have a reality TV marathon, which was fine, but man do I miss our annual family reunion on Flathead Lake.  One of these years I'm actually going to be able to take the hubby home for that.  Oh well, we hung out with the puppies, who dressed up for the occasion:

Yes, I did make a paper hat and force them to wear it.  The hubby says I need therapy, and he says the puppies are going to need therapy as well if I keep tormenting them with outfits.

 

Pedro also wore the hat, but here's a picture from earlier in the day with him in his flag shirt (which I made last year).  He's sitting on the rug I crocheted from old t-shirts.

Our mantel is a little more festive than last year, but still not terribly exciting.  Have I mentioned that my awesome mama made all of the wooden people you see on the mantel each month?  So at least I always have something cute to start with.

Last one before the shoes.  I used to do flags on my toes every year for the 4th, but I haven't done it the last several years, and I'm clearly out of practice.  The right one looks like it was done by a blind, drunk toddler.  But at least I tried to be festive.

 

OK, shoes.  I love these.

And these.  I could maybe even make a pair like this (although I doubt I could get my lines to go straight).

I have no idea what is happening here, but it frightens me.

Cute, but again, all you would see is a boring red strap once you put them on.

Damn.  That is all.

Much better.  I think this is quite cute.

Oh wow.  Why oh why can't I get the hubby to wear crazy men's shoes?

 Love love love, even with the stupid slingbacks.

I like these, too.  Kind of crazy, but I think 4th of July is a holiday you can get away with slightly crazy-festive.

 

Ribbon laces!  And adorable kiddo shoes.

Happy 4th, everyone.  The puppies and I are worn out from all of the couch snuggling we did today while watching TV, so we're off to bed.

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.

Ups and Downs

I've been trying to figure out what to write tonight.  I had a post planned (that I will most likely do tomorrow), but then I heard from my mom that my second cousin Howard died last night in a house fire.  I didn't want to do a silly shoe post when I've been so sad most of the day.  I'm not sure quite how to describe Howard except that he was kind of strange, and a bit of a hermit.  He was also hilarious and very, very nice.  We weren't close, I generally only saw him once a year on the 4th of July when my mom's family has a family reunion, but I don't have any negative memories of him.  He made me laugh and he was always nice.  I was a ridiculously sensitive kid, but Howard never once made me cry, even through unintentional teasing.  I haven't seen him in many years, and yet I will miss his presence in the world.  I'm just hoping he was greeted in heaven by his mother who smothered him in hugs and kisses (she was one of the sweetest people I've ever known).  I'm so sad for his father, Stan, who has lost not only his wife, but now 2 of his 3 sons.  A parent shouldn't outlive one, let alone multiple children.  Tonight I cling to the promises of the resurrection.

As happens with life, it wasn't entirely a bad day.  Today was Flower's gotcha day, which means that 9 years ago today my sister and brother-in-law finally got to go to the orphanage in China and meet the baby they'd been waiting for.  I mean look at this face:

This was after a million hours on a plane, and I can only imagine what was going through her mind at the strange turn her young life had just taken.  But don't you just want to smoosh those cheeks?  She is almost 10 now, and a total sweetheart.  We got to chat with her for quite awhile this morning, and she made my heart happy.

Life and death, joy and sorrow always walk hand in hand, and as sad as today made me, I still give thanks for the love and joy of my family.

Island!

So, my extended family owns an island on Flathead Lake.  My grandmother's sister and her husband bought it decades ago and proceeded to have a family reunion there every 4th of July.  Some of my best summer memories are there.  The hubby, brother seester, brother-in-law, nieces, auntie and I all went up for the day and had a fantabulous time.  The water was amazing.  If you've ever swum in Flathead you know that 95% of the time it is COLD.  We're talking turn your lips purple, chatter your teeth until your jaw aches cold.  The hubby didn't agree, but the rest of us thought it was fabulous and spent most of the day in the water.  I have the sunburn to prove it, even though I thought I was using a ton of sunscreen.  The 3 older nieces are total fish, and Laughter is pretty comfortable in the water, but also content to play on the edge and entertain herself as long as she knows where all of her people are.  It was such a good day.  Here are some of the shoes that got worn for the adventure:

 

 

Flower and Laughter sporting their sandals.  Laughter's are too big for her because she keeps leaving her other shoes places.

 

The auntie's cute, red Keens.

 

Laughter and the seester in their matching shoes!

 

 

I couldn't resist this one.  Men in white socks and sandals crack me up.  At least they aren't wearing black socks with their sandals...

 

I didn't get a picture of  the brother's or the hubby's shoes.  Brother was wearing Birkenstocks, hubby was wearing Alpines.  Neither were wearing socks.





Whew!

Today was a VERY busy day.  Double A, The Bean, The VH, Flower, Pippi, Tink, and Laughter were all here for Holidays!  Holidays is the tradition we started when DJ was 4 (she's 19 now), and try to do at least once a year, where we celebrate a bunch of holidays in one day because I'm usually not home for most of them.  So today we did:

Easter.  Each kid gets to dye 6 eggs, then we send them off on an errand and I hide the eggs (obviously it's too cold for the bunny to come do it).

 

Thanksgiving.  We eat Thanksgiving dinner, but very pared down.

We celebrate birthdays.  Each person gets a cupcake.  We've started doing only 1 candle for each, because between 7 kids and 4 adults, it would have been something like 304 candles.  11 are easier to light and blow out...

 

4th of July.  We got outside and do sparklers and smoke bombs.  There isn't always snow like this year, so this time we got to toss the smoke bombs in the snow and watch the results. 

Halloween.  We do face paint and the kids trick-or-treat around the house.

St. Patrick's Day.  We do a treasure hunt with clues to follow to find the Leprechaun's lost gold (gold wrapped chocolate).

Are you exhausted reading about it?  Because it's exhausting doing it!

 

We then all wore our matching owl pjs to the movie.  Because I am a dorky aunt who makes her nieces do stuff like that.

 

The movie was Moana, and it was a lot of fun.

Finally, today is Shoetopia's 4th blogiversary!  I think this shoe is hilarious and adorable.

Everyone is supposed to be spending the night, but sadly Pippi had a horrible headache all day and decided she wanted to go home after the movie, and Tink decided to go with her.  The VH has family stuff tomorrow so she couldn't say over.  I still have 4 kiddos sleeping over, though.

Speaking of kiddos, all of my nieces are amazing, but can I take a minute to brag on Double A and The Bean?  They still love to do Holidays, but they are also great with helping with the younger kids.  They're great with kids in general, and love hanging out with their cousins.  They are patient and kind and loving, and it makes my heart happy to watch them.  But now my happy heart and I are going to bed.

Hungry

I had another post planned for tonight (spoiler:  shoe shopping!), but then I had a couple of rather large asthma attacks earlier and now I am albuterol-hungover, exhausted, and my chest hurts.  This makes me too tired and lazy to get out of bed to take the pictures I meant to take.  I'm also hungry, but again, getting out of bed = bad.  Since I'm hungry I decided to further torture myself with food-related shoes.  Here are a few of them.  But only the cute ones, because no one needs raw meat shoes so soon after last night's creepiness.

Don't worry, I won't tell you the watermelon bag story AGAIN.  But these are adorable.  I would totally wear them on the 4th of July while spitting watermelon seeds into Flathead Lake.

 

Mmmm...frosting and sprinkles.

Martini?  There's a lime, so I'm going to go with margarita, since that's my choice of mixed drink.  Plus, this is my blog, so I can make up whatever stuff I want.

 

If I'm remembering French class correctly, this says something along the lines of red caramel apple shoe.  Which is what it looks like, although I've never seen red caramel.

Cake.  I wish I had cake.

And these are just sweet.  Also, ice cream would be nice.  Almost any variety of chocolate.  Or something really disgustingly decadent like Ben and Jerry's Dublin Mudslide.  I wonder if I gave them the keys if Chalupa and Tallulah would go get me some?