If the shoe fits....

I think you all know by now that I love shopping.  My heart races to score a great deal, and I love bringing things home for my family to enjoy.  I could spend all day shopping for my daughters and my husband, but shopping for me?  I hate it! It's not that I don't like new things, I do.  And it's not that I can't find things I look good in, for a momma of 2, I feel pretty darn good about my body. It's just the physical act of spending money on my needs makes me feel, I don't know, guilty? Selfish?

Because of this shopping block, I have had the same pair of tennis shoes for years.  I tried to remember back to when I bought them, but I couldn't.  I know they are at least 2 years old, since I had them when I was pregnant with Clara, but I don't know their exact date of purchase.  I love these shoes, since they're wide enough for my crazy feet, and they're black, so you could wear them for 2+ years and they still looked okay.  But they didn't work okay.  I punish my tennis shoes.  I wear them at least twice a week for Baby Boot Camp, 3-4 times a week when I work out with my "trainer" and now I started the whole running gig.  I knew the shoes needed to be replaced, but I couldn't "just do it"

Finally my hand was forced.  Something is wrong with my right foot.  It hurts pretty bad when I work out.  I don't know if I did something in class or just walked on it wrong.  I tried to ignore it, I tried to baby it, but it just has not improved.  I made the difficult ;) decision to buy a new pair of shoes.

I asked Mike to go with me yesterday.  He was excited, since he loves to buy me things as much as I do him.  He suggested a trip to the New Balance store in Granger, since they know their stuff.  We packed up the girls and went to the store. 

For a Sunday afternoon the store was pretty busy. There were 3 people working and 3 customers in front of us. We looked at the shoes that were out and sat down to wait, attempting to corral our two children until someone was done. When one of the workers finished checking out their customer, I thought "Yes! We can finally get these crazy children out of here!" Well, we did, but not in the way you would expect.  The employee looked straight at us, picked up shoes, and started putting them away. Not a "I'll be right with you," or anything.  I guess we weren't good enough for those shoes!  We stood up, walked all the way through the store, and left.  No one spoke to us at all. I was really surprised, as I assumed the customer service would be excellent in that store, but it was totally not!

I of course decided this was a sign from God to keep my old shoes, but Mike was not swayed.  He drove our tired band to the mall and took me to Lady's Foot Locker, where we were helped by a fab-u-lous man with hair nicer than mine.  He knew his shoes though, and he was great with helping me find a pair.  Not as fancy as the New Balances, but I took them for a run yesterday and they feel divine. 

(Don't worry, picture taken before run!)