May Day

Happy May Day!  It's crazy that it's May already.  Where is this year going?  It was almost 90 degrees here today, which is crazy.  I'm not ready for the heat, but as I said yesterday the sunshine has been nice.  I've done several flower posts, so today I thought I would do a specific flower, and tulips came to mind because they're so springy.

These are pretty.  I don't think I want a pair, but they're still pretty.

I think these are rain or gardening shoes, but they also kind of look like slippers.  Again, pretty, but not a pair I want. 

There were a lot of these.  Some with tulips painted on them, some just wooden shoes with tulips inside.  Makes sense as wooden shoes and tulips are associated with Holland.  I would use these for decoration, but not as footwear.

 

These I would wear.  Is it weird that I would wear the pink ones but not the first pair?

So sweet!
 

See comment above.  Repeat.

Hope you all had a lovely day that involved flowers of some kind, even if they were just on shoes or a computer screen.

Earth Day

So, it's been a month and 20 days since I last posted.  I've thought about it a bunch, but like so many things right now, I don't seem to get around to it.  Work has been crazy, life has been crazy, things have been super stressful.  Blah...I won't bore you with the details because they are numerous and they don't even seem plausible when listed all together.  I'll just say that prayers, as always, are appreciated, and if things don't change soon, there will need to be some major changes in our lives.

Let's move on.  It's been forever since I posted, so you don't need to read a bunch of my whining.  Today is Earth Day, and there were lots of Marches for Science around the country.  I didn't march, but had good friends who did.  Instead I will post some earth-themed shoes.  Which is a little ridiculous, and I don't mean to make light of the day, it's just a theme for tonight's post since I'm actually getting around to posting something.

Let's just look at shoes, k?

If these had better arch support (I'm assuming they don't), they'd be great to wear for a march.

I love these.  The colors are so fun.

These would also be on-point for a march.

Love the green.  You know my thoughts about the rest.

These crack me up.  Earths wearing glasses!  I love the Tom's above, but these might be my favorite.

Not my most in-depth post, but hey, I had to start back somewhere.  I can't guarantee I'll post more frequently, but wouldn't it be nice if life calmed down enough to let me?

Cable Cars

One day last week (I think?) was Cable Car Day.  I'm too lazy to go back and check. Anyway, I started a post for that day because I don't live that far from San Francisco and cable cars are awesome.  Unfortunately I got sidetracked that day and didn't finish the post, and also haven't had a chance to get back to it due to either busy-ness or just plain forgetfulness.

I'm at the office, currently on hold with customer service, so this seems like a good way to pass the time.  Let's look at shoes, Okay?

Love the scene.  Still hate that I would be stepping on the pretty part.  Oh, and flip flops in general.

Blue!  Zazzle always has my theme.

I love these, too.  I need to wear them the next time I go to San Francisco.  And then I would have to ride a cable car, of course.

Or these, but I like the whimsy of the above pair better.

Very similar, but I really like the red colorl

So there you have it.  Cable Cars.  Way late, but that's not the shoes fault.  Hope your week is going well, and your upcoming weekend is great!

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.

Sleigh Bells

After helping with last night's post Flower suggested that tonight's post should be sleigh bells.  She didn't get a chance to help me choose this time, but here are some of the shoes I found:

I'm not sure I'd classify those as sleigh bells, but hey, what do I know?  My feet would cover them up anyway, so it doesn't really matter. 

 Zazzle comes through again!  You know I love the color.

I think this is adorable, and it would be an easy DIY project.

More Zazzle.  Love the plaid.

And again with the DIY.  So cute.  Of course, the jingling might drive you crazy if you have an overly exuberant kicking baby.

 

These are velvet, and probably my least favorite of the bunch.  I don't hate them, but they aren't grabbing me tonight.  

So today was another good day with the nieces and seester, except for the fact that last night was awful.  I woke up at around 2:00 with a massive headache that finally caused me to throw up around 4:00.  That was actually a good thing as only then did the headache subside to a level where I could sleep for a couple of hours.  I made it to church with the family, which was lovely, but the headache has never fully gone away today.  I'm about to go to bed because it's still lurking.  Poor seester feels terrible because this same thing happened 2 years ago when I was staying with her.  I don't think it has anything to do with her house.  It's most likely a combination of tension, sore muscles in my neck and shoulders, and hormones.  It was a weird headache, though, because it felt like something(s) were stabbing me in both temples, through the bridge of my nose, and in both eardrums.  Rude.  Oh well, any day with niece snuggles is a pretty darn good day despite my not being the most fun auntie in the world.

Puzzling

I've been doing Christmas puzzles on my Kindle this week.  I'm terrible at actual puzzles, but quite enjoy them on my kindle.  Each puzzle can be done with 35, 70, 140, 280, or 630 pieces.  I usually do the first three.  I've done one puzzle with the 280 pieces, and I haven't even attempted the 630 pieces because the screen on my kindle is tiny and I don't even think I could see the pieces.  Tonight's shoes are puzzle inspired.

I like all of these, although the first one is my favorite.  I think I could maybe do the last one. It's only 500 pieces.  Maybe.  Did I mention that I'm terrible at real puzzles?

 

These last 3 are all from Zazzle.  CHRISTMAS shoe puzzles!  I think Zazzle is my spirit animal.  If only I could actually afford to shop there.

 

I keep thinking of this quote as I'm puzzling.  Thankfully my puzzler has yet to get sore from the puzzling.  Probably because I skip the 630 piece option.

Leaves

Today was another rough one.  Yesterday was so good, and so hope-filled, and today was just...not.  Can someone please stop this roller coaster? Because I would very much like to get off.  Sigh.  I've been trying to think of what I am thankful for today, and of course there are many things, but on days like today it can be hard to push past all the negative to focus on the good things.  I have been noticing the leaves, though.  We don't get terribly defined seasons here, but some of the leaves change and today I was noticing a lot of really pretty trees on my drive to work.  So I'm grateful that nature smacks me in the face with beauty sometimes, because I definitely need it.  Here are some shoes.

These are interesting.  I like them.

These are crazy, but make me want to wear them while kicking leaves.

Oh Zazzle, you have shoes for everything.

These are also interesting.  I can't decide if I like them or not.  I do, sort of, but then I look again and I don't.  I have no idea.

These are my favorite.  I would like to wear these right now, please.

I keep telling myself tomorrow is a new day.  It has become my mantra.

A-Z

You're all very smart, so you've probably noticed that this most recent round of posts has been an acrostic:

A for Autumn
B for Babies
C for Chalupa
D for Duckies
E for Emanuel
F for Foxes
G for Ghosts
H for Hedgehogs
I for Introvert
J for Jello
K for Kicks
L for Liqueur
M for Meckler
N for Nice
O forOwls
P for Pumpkins
Q for Quirky
R for Reptiles
S for Skeletons
T for Tired
U for Underwear
V for Vampires
W for Werewolves
X for Xylophones
Y for Yellow

I hadn't been feeling very inspired so I needed some kind of direction, and this helped.  It's kind of silly, I know, but hey, it got me posting, and it gave me some direction to post something (mostly) other than depressing icky crap.

To finish off the acrostic, today's post will be Z for Zazzle Halloween shoes:

I've been posting a lot of Halloween this month, so I'm not entirely sure what I'll post tomorrow when it's actually Halloween, but I'll come up with something.  Probably.