the great shoe caper

The Spozo Maravilloso has been venemous towards my shoes for a year now. Not that I loved them - or even liked them, but they were functional and didn't let the rain get my feet wet. Apparently, the SM took it as a personal affront that his wife would be running around in shoes like that. He also laments that I don't have any pointy-toed shoes. So after many months of plotting, he finally succeeded in shoving me out of the house (sans kidlets!) to San Francisco with a woman that he trusted to get me some fashionable shoes.

Luckily, the woman he chose is very fun to go shoe-shopping with, and we were looking forward to hanging out (sans kidlets!) She whisked me into her favorite shoe shop (Steve Madden) and started picking out shoes for me to try on. Something strange has happened with my feet - or the sizing, because I used to be at least a 9, but I was fitting into eights and eight-and-a-halfs.

I shocked even her by asking to try on the really three-inch heels instead of the dinky ones. Even more shocking is that they felt MORE comfortable.

I dithered about spending so much on shoes and also about the SM liking them so much that she called him to wrench the promise out of him that since she approved of them, he would be happy no matter what. She also divulged some top secret information: I could go over budget and he wouldn't care. So I did. By a shocking amount. I felt encouraged that another girl in the shop bought the same pair of shoes as me - without even consulting my friend!

What really soared my fashionista soul occured in Payless Shoe Source.

I wanted some real walking shoes, too, so we decided to check out Payless (which, both of us reckon has to be radically different than the other Paylesses around - maybe being in Nordstrom's building has something to do with it). She pointed out (in her Canadianness) a couple pairs of suitable "runners," but I was drawn to some green with lavendar trim and laces beauties.

They are completely impractical but very fashionable (seems to go hand in hand), and get this: she ended up buying the same pair (in a different size, of course). I thought it charming that she asked my permission to get the same pair - apparently true fashionista code demands that friends can't buy the same thing. Luckily, I have a fairly mild strain of fashionistaness, so I took it as a compliment instead of an affront.

My only advice to shoe-shoppers: don't wear the fashionable shoes immediately to hike up San Francisco hills. Blisters may result.

So now I can't wear my fashionable shoes for a couple days.

Darn.

The First Step (a Svithe)

I always love hearing a convert's testimony, so when the Primary manual asked that I get someone with a strong testimony of Christ to share their feelings with my class, I immediately thought of a dear sister in the ward who got baptized last year and has been a faithful member since.

She was delighted to be asked.

After I introduced her to my class, she gave the most wonderful testimony that she could have to my 4-5 year-olds. She even sang "Jesus Loves the Little Children" for them. I started crying because of how passionately she could speak of her love for Jesus in simple terms.

Of course, my class thought I had gone batty.

It made me reflect that great testimonies are not made with many flowery words or nice anecdotes or even quoting nice scriptures. Great testimonies come because of great faith. That's why even leaders in the church can say the same, simple words, but the impact of them is greater because their underlying faith is at least the size of a mustard seed.

Where as of right now, mine would be closer to a vanilla seed. But growing....

Advisory Notice

Do not put your cleaning toothbrush (you know, the old toothbrush that you use for scrubbing poo out of your baby's clothes with stain remover) in the bathroom with your current toothbrush.

Especially if they are the same color.

Yea.

Progress Report

After listening to first-time mothers rave over how their babies (younger than my daughter by quite a bit) have "favorite animals" and how much they loved seeing them at the zoo, I felt alarmingly guilty that I didn't know her favorite animal, etc. Let me be honest: I felt guilty that I hadn't even thought of her having a favorite animal.

Last night, I had the Dude in bed, and the Rosita had just woken up from a nap, so we enjoyed some rare mommy-daughter time. I know many things about her, don't get me wrong, but I didn't realize how smart she is! =)

We played Up! Down!, an extremely complicated game which involves standing, sitting, lots of exclamation points, and giggling. I was amazed that she would purposefully sit down then look up expectantly for me to say "Down!" and then laugh her head off when I did. I had forgotten how smart babies are.

Which is really shocking, especially since she has shown herself to be a notorious penny-finder-putter-in-mouth-er and a very picky only-want-to-eat-big-people-food-er (how she tells this is beyond me).

And although I might not know which is her favorite animal, I do know she favors whichever animal her brother is playing with at the moment.

Which he does not appreciate.

I guess he hasn't heard that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" bit.

Or perhaps (perhaps!) he doesn't know what "imitation" "sincerest" and "flattery" mean.

Yet.

The Grass is Greener

I've discovered that it's better not to know what's on the other side of the hill sometimes. That ignorance truly is bliss.

I was completely fine with the fact that my children wake up between 6:30 and 7:30 every morning in the winter and between 5:30 and 6:30 during the summer. So maybe not completely fine, but it was "normal" and I could handle it.

But I've since discovered that some children sleep in until the blessed hour of 9 every morning. Every morning!

I'm trying very hard not to imagine what life would be like if I had that much more time every day sans (awake) children. I could take a shower in peace. I could read a book. Use chemical cleaners. Write a letter. Exercise. Plan menus. Think. Breathe.

Whew! Excuse me while I banish those provocative images from my mind and return to basking in ignorance.