Belated Birthday Shoes Story

So I just realized I never posted the post about shoes that I was planning on posting. Do you realize how spoiled I was this birthday? And it was so fun to have contact with so many people I love.

I love presents that are useful, and I definitely was in need of shoes. I mean, check these out:

That's my finger sticking out the side.














This is the very stretched-out heel, which caused a girl in my ward to tell me that my shoes were too big. And see how the strap had been sewn on by two different shoe repair stores?













That's a chunk that somehow went missing. You can't really see how deep of a chunk it really was.













Those shoes had served me well. They were the best for working at the FHL and awesome for travel since they were comfortable but versatile. (Thanks Mom!)

But I needed some new ones. And my friends and family made my birthday awesome by fixing that problem.

-Apparently my mom had a heyday at a sale, because she sent me four pairs of Sunday shoes!

-And Amy got me supportive new jogging shoes which I already took out for a run.

-And Mike, who has seen me pining away at the shoe store before, worked with Jenny to get me the shoes of my dreams. Rewind 13 years. That's more than half of my life, people. I was a dorky, scrawny fifth grader with long brown hair (wow, except for the scrawny part which I wouldn't mind now, I'm back to that status). Craig (of my Pink Lightning story) and John Barrett had the shoes that started the fad in our grade. Pretty soon, it seemed like everyone except me had Sambas--the black indoor soccer adidas shoes that looked so sporty and cool. But they were always too expensive for my parents and when I started buying my own stuff, I could never justify such a purchase. Sambas have had a firm grip in the clothing industry the whole 13 years I've wanted them, Adidas never saw a need to lower the price. Now, living in a city with a large population of students, I see even more Sambas and it wasn't long before Mike noticed me noticing them everywhere. So he asked a lot of friends of mine to donate a bit until there was a sufficient amount to get me the shoes. Yay yay yay!

Here I am, sporting the shoes I'd waited 13 years to get:














And notice the diagonal picture. Those German guys! (Click here and here for more about that.)

Thanks to Mom, Amy, Mike, Jenny, Seppl, the Dixons, Aaron, Antje, the Bertholds, Alex, Victoria, Robert, Petula, Jakobis, Dajana, Steffie and Holger, and Judith and Daniel.