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Hi.

I did buy something this weekend, I bought the most perfect pair of black leather boots.

Now for a little backstory, I'm a little bit bigger than average, so my calves are pretty large as well and coincidentally don't fit into the regular boot shafts. So then I have to shop either at Payless or at shops tailored to plus size women because the shoes they retail there also cater to women of bigger calves.

So I've been looking for a pair of black mid-calf leather boots for the longest time. Last year I found a pair of black boots but they were suede and while I absolutely loved that pair, I couldn't wear them in the rain, which was the whole reason I wanted to buy boots in the first place.

Lower East Side - Rory Slouch Boot (?)
Retail: $39.99

Then soon after the black suede I found another pair of boots in JCPenney's. Surprise, surprise.

Now I'm not usually a snob, but JCPenney's isn't on my hit list every time I go shopping. But at this particular time I was waiting for my parents to finish because they were in a shopping mood and were trying on several pairs of shoes. I'm not one to just sit and wait, so naturally I go up and started browsing. I found a cute pair of brown leather boots that ended just below where my calf started.

JCPenney's - K9 by Rocket Dog Shane Buckle-Strap Boots
Retail: $19.99 (Sale)

The color is a little lighter in person than it is in the image above, but that's essentially it. There was a black version of this boot that I tried, but it came a half-size too small so sadly I had to nix that color and get the brown, but that didn't matter too much, the brown is a nice boot. I'm happy to own this and it looks gorgeous with blue skinny jeans.

However, I do have one hang-up about this pair. The first time I wore it in the rain (the whole reason for my boot search) the parts of the shoe that got hit with the rain got darker. So basically after walking in the shallow puddles the toe of the boot was dark and as well as the crease of the boot (kind of between the toe and the arch of the boot. Also, you can't really see this in the image above, but there's a button-snap that connects the front section of leather to the back. The tips of the front section kind of curl forward a bit, but that doesn't bother me as much as what happens when the boot gets wet.

So, since the brown boots, I've been looking for a pair black leather boots, because in my mind, even if it does get wet it won't be seen. And after several months of looking and leaving it alone, I decided, randomly, to go onto the Payless website just to browse and see what they have in stock. And lo and behold, black leather boots!

Lower East Side - Rory Slouch Boot (?)
Retail: $39.99 

Oh joyous days. It was a great surprise to find that online. Just goes to show that when you let go and forget about it, it'll come to you. And so I was incredibly anxious to go to Payless and find these boots. It was Saturday when I found these boots online. But the Payless near my house has a pretty fast turnover and unlike DSW, Payless doesn't tell you how many they have in stock, so I knew I needed to find a pair and buy it. I remembered that we go out Sundays after church, so I decided to bite my tongue and wait until the next day.

And wait I did.

That was, quite possibly the longest wait I've felt yet.

So Sunday. We had gone to church early because my mom had some sort of meeting to attend at the hospital (where she works), so after we dropped her off, I asked my dad if we could stop at the mall. Thankfully he said yes, but honestly I would have driven there myself if need be, but that wasn't a problem so it's all good.

As reference, the suede boots I bought were a size 10 with the extended calf, but to be honest the 10 was a bit roomy. I bought the 10 because that was the only size available at the time, but I didn't mind because I could wear my thicker socks with them.

I was planning on buying the leather boots in a 10 as well, because that's what I knew fit, but when I got to the store, I did go to the 10 section first, but the boot wasn't available in that particular size. I'm regularly a 9/9.5 in any type of shoe, so I checked the 9.5 section and there they were. My beautiful boots.

Naturally I bought them after trying them on. I was actually planning on buying a pair of red flats and I did see a pair I liked/was looking for, but my sister was feeling it and was trying on shoes while I was looking for my boots. And she did find a pair.

Brash - Tanner Lace-Up Boots
Retail: $39.99

I couldn't find an image of the black, but just trust me, my sister got her pair in black. They are cute, but totally not my style. My sister however is IN LOVE with them. She wore them around the house yesterday. With socks, no less.

So because my sister found a pair that she LOVED, I decided that I could just get the flats next time. Because let's be honest, you can find red flats anywhere, and because my boots were priority I pushed the flats back and bought my sister's boots.

Because that's just the type of person I am. Well, sometimes. I pick and choose my nice days.

That actually concludes my purchase history for this weekend. We did actually go to Kohl's afterwards, because my dad had $50 worth of Kohl's cash from our last big purchase. Because we had a limit and it seemed like my mom, dad and sister were planning on buying things, I decided to just wait until next time to look for clothes for me. I was clearly on a nice kick on Sunday.

I did, however, help my sister look for clothes. Since she's starting high school, and going to a public school (for the first time) no less, she needs to buy new clothes more than I do. I always want to buy new clothes, but that's because I have a shopping problem, it has nothing to do with a lack of clothing options.

That concludes my weekend.

----

As a completely unrelated side note, there's construction going on in my house.

It's really cool because it's my sister and my bathroom is being redone, but it's also a bit annoying, because I have to wake up early. Both my parents work during the day, so my sister and I are home by ourselves. Since I'm the "adult" (notice I put adult in quotation marks because I can really only be classified as an adult by my age, because clearly my maturity levels are below that of my 14-year old sister), I have to wake up early to let the construction guys into the house. But on the bright side the bathroom looks so much better, well from what I can notice right now, because the bathroom is about 60-70% done now, from what my dad tells me. My dad tells be they're doing a really good job, I could figure that out myself because they literally took apart our bathroom. The walls and flooring and everything. When my parents' bathroom was redone, even when the downstairs bathroom was redone it was never this elaborate. They probably took down the appliances and then just resurfaced and repainted and then added the new appliances.

This time they took everything down. They removed the walls, floors, ceiling and insulation. Everything. It's been weird looking at it because I'm used to there being a big mirror in the bathroom which is the last chance I take to evaluate my look before going downstairs. But I've worked through that and now look in the downstairs bathroom mirror.

Yeah, they're building our bathroom from the ground up essentially, it's pretty cool how much work they're putting into this process. And it's really cool seeing pretty much step by step how our bathroom is coming along. My dad likes the work they're doing so far and I know that my parents are using this bathroom renovation as an indicator of whether or not this guy and his crew can do a good job. Because my parents plan on having our kitchen redone and have been looking for someone to do the labour. And as of right now, my parents are liking the work he's doing. Apparently, "Kevin" (the constructor guy) is really detail-oriented, knows what he's doing, and has a plan of action everyday. Apparently he's changed the waterline in the bathroom and I guess that a good thing because my dad could not stop talking/pointing out how good that was and how nice that is. Also Kevin changed the light switches. Before there were only two switches. One for the light and a second for the exhaust. Now there are three switches.

Any guesses to what they each mean?

No?

Well, I'll tell you anyway. The largest vertical switch, closest to the door, turns on the light above the vanity. Then there are two switches next to the light switch, two smaller switches that are laid out horizontally. I think the one of top turns on the shower light and the one on the bottom turns on the exhaust. Or vice versa. I've yet to play around with the switches, so I'm not 100% sure which switch does what. But they look cool.

I mentioned the shower light. How cool? That's a first, but I like that idea because then inside the shower is never dark. With our old tub we had that problem. Before we had a tub and a curtain and rod, and sometimes my mom would put in a dark cranberry colored curtain which when closed made the inside of the tub incredibly dark, and I hated it. As did my sister.

But now, we've exchanged the curtain and rod for frosted shower doors. I don't mind shower doors, but I know my sister has some serious hang-ups about them because she doesn't want to be seen through them. Privacy and all. But we've compromised by getting the frosted doors, so they provide a modicum of privacy. It's enough for her, so it's enough for me.

I'm excited to see the finished product, the construction is supposed to be finished by the end of this week and is it going to be a sweet reunion. Not only will my sister and my bathroom be beautiful and new, but I'll have my bathroom back. Because for the past week, we've only had one shower to share. Which thankfully hasn't been that big a problem because we all shower at different times, but it is a hassle to have to go through my parents room or even downstairs (because that's the only place that houses my feminine products) just to go to the bathroom. Because usually I only have to take about ten steps straight out of my room and I'm in my bathroom but because of this construction, I've been taking a detour for the past several days and it's been a long week.

I miss my bathroom. Desperately. [insert frowny face here].

Also, several other things in our house have been "breaking down." Nothing has actually broken down, but they aren't working currently. Our oven has been on the fritz for a while. The last time I had to bake something (Brazos de Mercedes, a diabetic's nightmare, but oh so delicious, look it up), my dad had to bring the meringue to a neighbor's house because our oven just didn't want to work. And since then, I have been having the biggest hankering for cookies. But our oven isn't the only one not working, because appliances never breakdown by themselves, no, he had a buddy. Our lovely television. The TV in our family room just doesn't want to turn on. Normally when someone goes to turn the TV on, it makes a few bell/chime sounds and then its on. But recently, and I don't know what triggered it, it no longer turns on, it just stays and repeats those bell/chime noises until I either want to throw the remote at the TV (insurance expired so that clearly wasn't an option) or I clawed my eyes and ears out. Unfortunately neither happened because I value both my vision and hearing.

So now here I am, on my laptop in the kitchen listening to movies on my laptop and typing on my blog while power tools make noises in the upstairs bathroom, killing time before a lovely gentleman from the Geek Squad comes and attempts to fix our television.

Oh happy happy days.

--- JoAnne