Preparations

Yesterday was President's Day. Normally, we don't take the one-day national holidays off from our homeschool; we just plug on through, but yesterday I lept at the excuse to take the day to get some move-related stuff done.

First on the docket was shoe shopping. Those of you who don't know this fun fact about me: I have size 13 feet. No. I'm not kidding. This means that it is almost impossible to find shoes for myself in a store here, let alone in the Philippines where the average height is 8" shorter than in the US. I love the internet simply because it means I can find shoes. However, because most people looking for womens shoes in my size are transvestite strippers, it is still difficult to find shoes that are appropriate for, say, grocery shopping or attending a place of worship.

(If you would like to get an idea of what I'm talking about, go to shoebuy or zappos, search by size 13, and check the proportion of normal shoes with "show" shoes and you will see what I'm up against.)

Yesterday, I had three windows open on the computer: zappos, shoebuy, and shoes.com. They all had basically the same selection; I was just trying to figure out which had the best prices on transvestite footwear. I was searching for a coupon code when I saw an ad for shoemall.com, so I figured I'd check them out.

That is when a column of light descended from heaven, illuminating my computer as a choir of angels sang. Shoemall.com is my new best friend. Not only did they have an entirely different selection of shoes available for purchase, but all of them -- all of them -- could be worn in the presence of my mother. AND I found a 20% off coupon. Yes, return shipping is not free, but the 20% off coupon more than covered the cost of any return shipping I may have to deal with. Awesome, I say.

I bought 5 pairs.

I only shop for shoes once a year, and I'm going somewhere where I will HAVE to have them specially made if I need more, so I'm not even feeling guilty about that.

After being reminded that most people wear flip-flops in the Philippines, I went to the FloJo site and got pairs for the family. Also, The Youngest needed new church shoes, so I hit eBay for those. All told, I bought 11 pairs of shoes yesterday.

So, yeah. Shoes are done. I can check those off.

After that, the girls and I went shopping for some pasalubong, which are little gifts you give to people when you visit them or return from a trip. The girls were getting a little out of control size-wise. For some reason, they kept picking the largest things possible to send over with their dad. I had to keep explaining luggage restrictions to them.