Sunday, Dec. 30

Up around 7:30 this morning, and did a treadmill session after breakfast. Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house around 9:30, and she diced carrots, celery, and onions to be added to barbecue sauce, which she poured over pork chops. This is one of our favorite pork chop recipes...very simple to prepare, but so tasty. I put them in the oven around 11 a.m., and then went upstairs to shower and dress.

Spent the rest of the morning doing this and that, including a couple of loads of laundry. Put sweet potatoes and Lima beans/butter beans in the oven to heat, and around 12:30, I heated a loaf of bread.

The meal was very good. Afterward, Mother worked on her jigsaw puzzle, and Hubbie and I went shopping at the store from which I got a $10 certificate and a $5 certificate when I registered promotion buttons online.

I browsed the store for a while, not really seeing anything I wanted, and then decided to check the shoe department, on the off chance I might find a pair of black boots. I've been searching for a pair for several months, without success. So I was excited when I saw a pair on display that I liked, and that were actually in my size.

I was anxious to try them on, but when I lifted them, they were very heavy. I wondered if they'd wear me out walking in them. I sat down and pulled out the pieces of cardboard that help them keep their shape on display, and then reached down inside the boots to make sure there weren't any more pieces of cardboard. That's when I discovered the sand-filled packs in the heels. They were there to keep the boots standing upright on the display case, I guess.

The boots are a perfect fit, and were on sale...not cheap, since they are real leather, but considerably reduced. I decided to use my $10 certificate toward the purchase. But when the clerk tried to enter the certicate bar code, the computer declared that the certificate had already been used. It had not, because I just printed it out a few days ago, when the store sent me a message to do so.

The department manager advised the clerk to reduce the boots by $10 for me. Yay! I used a couple of gifts cards with money still on them to pay the rest of the amount, so I got a great pair of boots for nothing out-of-pocket (at least nothing out of my pocket).

Hubbie spent the $5 certificate to buy a package of three pairs of his favorite brand of socks. He was out a few bucks to make up the difference in the purchase price, but he still got a good deal.

Boy, the store was wall-to-wall people today buying goods with their certificates. Things were pretty picked over, and there were lots of empty spaces in the store, where display counters had been, but what was left was deeply discounted, and folks were standing in line waiting to pay for their selections.

One woman had three certificates that she applied to three pairs of boots/shoes. She was out about $100, but she got some good buys.

Hubbie and I were both amused when a toddler boy, about eighteen months old, found a wide aisle so inviting that he was off like a shot. His hispanic father soon gave chase, but didn't catch up with him until the toddler was at the end of the store. It's amazing how fast toddlers, on those short little legs, and trussed up in diapers and jeans, can run!

Back home, I helped Mother with the jigsaw puzzle for a while, and then played on my laptop. Mother finished the puzzle around 4:30, and was ready to go home. Hubbie accompanied her.

Later, we had PB&J sandwiches, chips, and Little Cuties for supper, and then watched TV for the evening.