Shoe Saga

Ok, so for those of you who really know me I am not much of a shopper. Maybe it is the result of being the ninth out of eleven kids (the one that got all the hand-me-downs) or maybe it is because I get tired of shopping after 30 minutes, or maybe it is the fact that I don't care so much about keeping up with the latest styles (much to my husband's and sisters' dismays). I must admit that I am a little better since I married Daniel in 2003. I now own four pairs of jeans instead of two and sometimes I even wear earrings and necklaces. Nevertheless, up until this point my shoe closet has been nothing short of pathetic. Daniel has been begging me for over four years to "please go out and buy new shoes". I really didn't see what was so wrong with my collection. I had bought three new pairs of sandals and two new pairs of flip flops since we have been married. And I had about ten pairs of used shoes that other people had "gifted" to me - probably because they thought my shoe situation was pretty dire. But after comments from Daniel like "These shoes look like something my Grandma would wear" or "Where did you get these? Off the D.I. tree?" I decided to venture to Ross (I still can't stomach paying full price for shoes, maybe one day . . .) and get a few new pairs. Surprisingly I got five pairs of shoes! The checkout lady asked me if I was having a shoe craving and I told her, "No, my husband just thinks all my shoes are ugly and he told me to buy new ones." You should have seen the look on her face. When I got home Daniel and Zachary proceeded to purge my closet of all the "ugly" shoes and Daniel took shoe polish to the ones I couldn't bear to part with. I took pictures of the "ugly" shoes, and after looking at them, I guess I can see why Daniel and my sisters hate them so much. They are pretty bad.














Comment from Daniel: "Do you want to roll these shoes up and smoke them before you throw them away? They are like hemp hippie shoes."













I had to cut away part of the bottom of these because it separated from the acutal shoe and made this weird scraping noise when I walked.













I have had these babies since I was a sophmore in college in 2001. They were a second-hand "gift" from my sister's friend. I know, they are pretty sweet and yes, the surface is cracked in the front, but how else was I supposed to look 5 inches taller?













Same shoe, different view. I had to put that red tape on the inside to stop the metal part of the shoe (which used to be covered by material that had long since worn off) from putting holes in my socks.













My personal favorite, and the shoes that Daniel gave me the most grief about. Yes ladies and gentlemen, that is duct tape holding my buckle in place.