To Twist or not to Twist......That is the question.

I’ve never been one to wear high heel shoes.  If you know me and my track record, you surely can understand why.  I struggle to walk on a flat floor with flat shoes so you can only imagine what a heel could add to that.  However, the other day I went shoe shopping with my daughter to get just the “right” pair of shoes to go along with the dress that I had bought for my sons wedding in August.  Flat shoes were just not going to look classy enough, so I bought a shoe with a heel.  I’m not going to lie, I’m a little nervous.  They are just high heels and almost everyone wears them.  My friends in Mexico even wear them really, really high.  But I have a fear.

About 7 years ago I shredded my Achilles tendon and have since then worn flat shoes or shoes that give me support.  Just the mere thought of wearing heels makes me feel like I should just head straight to the emergency room.  I’m the girl that will walk across the carpet in church and just out of nowhere trip.  I recall in college as I crossed the street with a friend, telling the story of how she just was walking in that same spot and just rolled her ankle and was on crutches for several days.  I proceeded to show my other friends just what she did—role-playing of course.  My role-play soon became reality as I got a little too dramatic and rolled my ankle as she did and was on crutches for several days my self.  I received no sympathy from my friend to whom had earlier done the same and everyone else laughed in unbelief that I too had repeated what she had.

Yesterday, when I tried on my new wedding shoes that had arrived in the mail, I was so excited.  I walked into my bedroom to try the dress on with them.  I walked into my room going from the wood floor to the carpet, feeling pretty elegant wearing the shoes. However, the change in terrain surprised my inexperienced- high-heel-wearing-self and I proceeded to roll my ankle..  I screamed, and of course, like my daughter has been trained to do all of her life, she came running.  I hadn’t had the shoes for 5 minutes and I already had had an incident.  Emily made a wise suggestion that maybe before the wedding I may want to wear the heels and practice with them.  Good call-she’s wise beyond her years (or has just hung out with me long enough).  I certainly wouldn’t want to walk up the aisle of the church stumble and crumble on the wedding runner.  I certainly wouldn’t want to be doing the mother/son dance with my boy and fall as everyone watches the sweet moment.  I’ve got some work to do for sure.  I’ve got this.  I’ve overcome difficult things before.  These are only shoes.  I plan to walk like a model as she walks down that runway.  This mother of the groom is going to look elegant, walk elegant and NOT fall. 

Last night as I was ready God’s Word this is the confirmation he gave me. How could it get any better than that?  He knew what I needed on this day.  Love it!

Psalm 18:36 (NIV)

You provide a broad path for my feet,

so that my ankles do not give way.

Doing something a little different with your day

Last Saturday my daughter Emily and I had the opportunity to go shopping for the whole day.  Now I’m not much of a shopper but she had wanted to go out, just the two of us, for some time.  We started out early and got back late.  We stopped at the Goodwill’s in the area first to find the best deals (which there really were none) and then we went to the mall.  I’m not really a mall shopper because, quite honestly, the prices are much more than my budget allows me to pay.  When a pair of jeans for a teenager cost $74 and everyone seems okay with that I begin to have heart pains. But we had fun non-the- less.

We laughed a lot, pulled things off of the racks that we would never be caught dead in, bought hardly anything and just had a wonderful time together.  One of our goals for the day was to go into the bridal shop and try to find a mother of the groom dress for me.  I was ready and prepared.  I had a picture and the order numbers of the dresses that I had investigated online.  When we walked into the store several nice gals who were more than willing to help us in our journey of dress buying greeted us.  I don’t wear many dresses and so buying a fancy dress really is not in my realm of weekly, monthly or even yearly purchases—I needed help.  Emily is always good to have with me in these types of endeavors because she will tell me the truth.  She will give me the “no way” look, the “hmmm, not so sure about it look” and the “wow, you look stunning look.”  I know that I can trust her fashion judgment.  So we ventured into the world of wedding gowns, beautiful, fancy dresses and accessories to match. 

The ladies helping were a lot of fun and we teased and joked back and forth.  However, they told me that the dresses that I had chosen they didn’t actually have in the store.  In my mind I’m thinking of course not because 2 of the 3 were the $79 ones.  They had similar ones that they would bring me to try on.  And it began.  Dress after dress I put on.  One looked like I belonged in Egypt as Cleopatra’s sister.  Another looked like I was going to a funeral.  Several wouldn’t zip up fully.  But there was one that just looked lovely.  I walked out of the dressing room and my daughter, the workers and even a bridal party trying on dresses of their own stopped and said that I looked stunning.  It was dark blue with a nice jacket to go with it.  I didn’t look like an old lady, I didn’t feel like a grandma but felt elegant and beautiful.  I got the thumbs up and then the lady working was so excited that she went and got me accessories and shoes to match.  I’m not used to being waited on and having things brought to my dressing room to try but I’ll have to be honest, I kind of liked it.  They don’t do that at Goodwill or Salvation Army and so I thought that I might be on to something here.  I liked the royal treatment.  I loved the dress so much that I bought it and the accessories with it. After paying for it I realized why they give the royal treatment.  This wasn’t your second hand store where you get 50% off for the tag color of the week.  This was the real deal.  A real store, with real prices, and real people trained to sell you new clothes.  As much as I love my second hand store deals, I liked really liked being at this type of store where they could look at my body shape, my skin tone, and pick a dress for me that might work. 

Our day ended together at the bookstore where we bought fancy coffees and browsed.  Sometimes it’s good to do things that you don’t normally do and to get to do it with my favorite girl was a real bonus.  What can you do this week that takes you out of the realm of the norm?  Try something new and maybe you too might feel like a queen for the afternoon.