Shoe Shopping with Teens. I need a sponsor. Nike I'm available.

I can't afford them, but I am not opposed to accepting samples. Size 8

Scooter needed new shoes this weekend.  He needed tennis shoes, that are actual uh, Tennis shoes.  Like Rafael Nadal would wear. (Not the ones in the picture, I just thought those were awesome and I would love a pair even though I would probably do noting more strenuous in them than shop for more shoes). See, Scoot plays tennis (for fun) with one of his friends two or three times a week.  So he needs shoes to play tennis in.  I get that.

So we all pile into the car and go to lunch (Yummy Mexican, with margaritas because I need sustenance to go shoe shopping with 4 kids, three of which are girls) and then off to the sporting goods store for Tennis tennis shoes.

Flip Flop season is almost over, and the girls need tennis shoes for gym, and they can’t be caught dead wearing last year’s shoes, because they are so last year. Clearly.  Newt got a new pair for her birthday (thanks to a 80% off sale at JC Penny earlier this month) and Tate is getting new shoes for cheerleading but she can only wear them to cheer.  She needed new gym shoes.

While Scooter and Brian are off looking at the Rafael Nadal look-alike shoes that I am oh so glad I wasn’t paying for because we wouldn’t get to eat for a week or more if I had paid for them, Tate and Newt start looking at their shoes.

I finally drag them away from the wall of the latest and greatest must have shoes and drag them kicking and screaming point them in the direction of the “SALE” table because clearly that’s the only language I understand in this store.

Lucky for me Tate was able to fall head over heals (no pun intended) in love with settle for a pair of Nikes that were on sale for $30, which would allow us to eat this week and most of next.

Newt on the other hand had found her heart’s desire in a pair of Nikes with a glorious price tag of $168.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I love my girls, but they have never in their life been $168-for-a-pair-of-shoes active in any kind of sport.  Granted they were pretty awesome and amazing looking and I’m willing to bet they felt like a dream on your feet and not at all like my stilettos.  But $168 for a pair of shoes?  Really Nike?

So, to all you Nike PR people out there who might happen to read my blog, when you come out with a pair of $20 shoes made specifically for laying around the house doing nothing more physically exerting than looking awesome and training to be a diva, I’ve got your spokes person right here.  (She wears a size 5. Just saying)

Happy Birthday Newt!

I have sat here staring at a blank screen all weekend waiting for my muse to show up and grace me with a fantabulous topic to blog about, but the bitch never showed up.  So, my blog sat ignored all weekend long.  Which isn’t such a bad thing, after all, the internet is closed on weekends. Right?

So then we come to Monday.  Today. Columbus Day in the States and Thanksgiving for our neighbors to the North.  Either way, it’s a holiday and that bitch muse of mine? Still MIA.

That’s ok.  I’ll just take this time and space to say that 11 years ago today I got the best surprise of my life.  11 years ago today, my youngest, Newt was born.  She was a surprise, as in I was done having kids but some higher power had other plans for my uterus for 9 months.

She has always marched to the beat of her own damn drum, bending rules, doing things her way on her schedule and making me proud.  She has guts and gumption and a fearlessness I never possessed at her age or even at twice her age.  She knows what she wants and what she doesn’t.  She is sure of herself and I am jealous.

She is brilliant and witty, hilarious, and helpful, she’s beautiful in her own way and while she doesn’t appreciate it yet, those of us who know and love her do and trust that she will too in time.  She shares my early mornings with me, often sitting in the bathroom with me while I get ready for work.  Early mornings have always been our time, and even now, 11 years later, they still are.

Happy Birthday Newt.  You have brought much laughter, love, sunshine, smiles and fun into the past 11 years, I can only imagine what wild ride the next 11 years will be.