Is it that time of the year?

I know it's only the first few days of July, but around these parts you've got to start early before the well dries up. When I was in Hawaii the HUGE military exchange was having a mega back to school tent sale on June 15 (the day before we fly home and I didn't get to go). So here we are today...

A girl can dream of these deals, I long for the deals listed above. We have no Staples, we haven't an Office Max or Office Depot or Wal-Marts in these parts. We got nothing (except our tiny isle in the exchange with super overpriced goods!)! This weekend when we just happened to be on Kadena picking up some new pillows (which they were out of stock of... there were only two bed pillows left in the entire stinkin' store... do you feel bad for me yet? Well you should!) I saw the "school isle".

"Come Kids, let's get this done! Everyone pick out a zip up binder, and we'll grab some lined paper (10 packs to be exact)!"

That took all of 15 minutes to chose from 4 different binders (with only 3 colors each). Simplicity at it's finest but it's soooo UBBER BORING! I love bright fun office supplies and back to school notebooks and binders. You'll find NONE of that here, we only have dull dumb looking and not pretty at all supplies. But the shopping is done.

I also spent some time on the sofa looking for clothes.(in case your wondering I was online shopping!) I swear every child on this island and in the states wears the same size as my kiddos. Everything I liked at a decent price was sold out in our sizes. Seriously folks... make more! I was able to find some deals at TheChildrensPlace.com for K80 and Kohls.com for my boys. Thankfully they will not be naked on the first day of school! We have exactly 7.5 weeks til school starts. That's just enough time for the packages to get delivered. It can take up to 30 days for mail. That's another reason I have got to do this early!

Now don't get me started on shoes. This is a very delicate subject for me. Two weeks ago we went to buy cleats for my Mark. The closest place was "Sports Depot" in town. Do you know they don't stock shoes above size 28 (= to a 10.5 in USA sizing). Ummmm, Mark wears an 11. Needless to say she shoved his poor toes into a pair for the game that night because his 15 year old pair broke in half. (Just in case your interested, they won the first game and lost the second two in the tournament!)

What's a girl to do... I wear size 11 so needless to say-- Don't even bother looking at Sports Depot. However they store clerk did tell us they can order us some shoes. (I'll store that in my memory bank, they may take 3 months to arrive but I'll remember that!) This weekend I also looked for a pair of tennis shoes. Nothing fancy just super comfy for our trip to Alaska and beyond. I found 4 pair I loved at the exchange, and asked the kind clerk to fetch me a 10.5 and an 11 in each. What do you think happened next?

"Um, Ma'am we don't have any in stock."

"What are you talking about? You haven't even looked!"

"We don't carry shoes that large."

"Well... go back there and check. And get me any women's tennis shoe in size 10.5 or 11 that you might have!"

"Really ma'am?"

"Yes, please!"

He comes walking back with 2 boxes of shoes, both filled with the most ugly old lady lookin' shoes you could ever imagine. I think they dated back to 1984. It was ridiculous. In all seriousness I do NOT have overly large feet. I know of 5 women who wear size 11.5 or 12's on this island. Where do they buy shoes, cuz they ain't ever barefoot and always wear super cute shoes?!

So here we sit, shoeless. The boys are desperate for new shoes (they wear them out in 3 months, they've been wearing the same pair they have for 5-6 months now. And people wonder why my house smells!) I am obviously going to wear my croc flipflips in Alaska. K80's good. She's got her Chuck Taylors to carry her through (old fashion converse for anyone over the age 30!)

Mark, well he buys shoes 2-4 pair at a time because he's learned that you can't always depend on shoe availability and he needs good shoes to PT in everyday. (Wish I was that smart!)

So if you're out an about doing your back to school shopping and your getting frustrated because your kid won't make up his or her mind. Be thankful and say a little prayer for those of us across the pond who have to go shoeless with ugly dull super boring I got's nothing special school supplies.