Retail Therapy

12 Feb

My Take

Onisha Ellis

Life has been a bit hectic of late with out of town doctor visits and pre-op appointment at a large and confusing hospital followed by surgery for my husband. Then we had to reschedule a previously planned surgery, get new paperwork and fill out online paperwork for the upcoming surgery. On a side note, this facility wanted us to enter all of his medications into a line by line form. I keep a medication list which is easy to copy/paste, but I draw the line at entering it all into their computer.

After a week of wifely post-op duty I was ready for some girl time! Our daughter was unexpectedly off work on Monday and we decided some retail therapy was in order.

After some rainy days, Monday was sunny and beautiful with just the right touch of cool temperature. We decided to drive north to the Outlet center in Daytona Beach. Light traffic made for a pleasant drive and I could feel my stress falling away as we drove north. Of course we didn’t want to be away from our patient too long so we chose to limit our shopping to three stores.

Our first stop was to the Beall’s outlet. We have one in our town, but the one in Daytona is larger and my daughter was looking for something specific. She didn’t find it, but we did each buy a pair of sandals and I bought a fry pan. I bought this same one when we first settled into Florida for the winter and I loved it so much, I wanted one for our home in North Carolina. When I was paying for the sandals and pan, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my account had a birthday credit on it plus Monday shoppers receive a 10% discount. So basically the pan was free. My kind of shopping!

Our next stop was totally practical, Sam’s Warehouse Club. Our local club was out of several items we regularly buy and we were hoping this club would have them. And they did.

Now, don’t laugh but our third planned stop was Buc-ees, a mega gas station with a huge store (and the most elegant restrooms I’ve ever seen) When we stop there for gas, we are in a hurry and with no time to explore. We were headed there when my daughter saw a shop with the funny name of Duck Donuts. My ears perked up. I told my daughter we had to go there and being the sweet person we adore, she drove around the center to get back to Duck Donuts.

Have you ever had them? They are cake donuts made to order. My husband and I discovered them in Asheville, NC. This is their story.

It all began on the sandy beaches of the Outer Banks in Duck, North Carolina. There, Russ DiGilio and his family would enjoy relaxing and fun vacations. But something was missing – there were no fresh donuts! So, they decided to create their own and Duck Donuts was born. Now, you can enjoy the taste of the Outer Banks in your backyard by visiting one of our 100+ locations across the country!

https://www.duckdonuts.com

My daughter had no idea why I was insisting on getting donuts but she isn’t prone to turning one down.

Screen shot: DuckDonuts.com

We both Chose a peanut butter paradise, I chose a bacon in the sun and she chose a raspberry sunrise and I picked out a blueberry pancake to take to the hubby. Let me tell you, they were delicious! Hot yummy goodness. We could only mange to eat one apiece but we forced ourselves to half the peanut butter paradise and it did not disappoint! If you like donuts, you must try them.

Beck on track, we drove over to Buc-ees. We entered from the gas pump side. Typical gas station items like chips, staples etc were on the left with hot foods, beverages to the right. Also to the right was an impressive array of home decor. Think mini Hobby Lobby. We definitely chose to browse right to left.

We browsed from home decor to clothing, jewelry, children’s clothes and toys, jerky, pastries, cheeses, and charcuterie. We ended up at the one section we were familiar with, the smoked brisket. Their brisket is so good! We bought two sandwiches to eat for our lunch but were only able to eat half thanks to our Duck Donut splurge.

With our sweet tooths satisfied and tummies full we headed back home. It was a much needed break. And since i put a roast in the crock pot before leaving home, I didn’t have to answer the eternal question…”what’s for dinner?”

PS: I wrote better descriptions of the items in the store, but my internet crashed and obliterated it.

Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay 

We are excited to announce that our daughter’s third book in the Jessie Cole Trilogy is available for pre-order on Amazon.

Legacies are woven that bind fate or ignite dreams.

Jessie Cole worked hard to rise from humble beginnings to achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut. He didn’t think he’d face a more difficult challenge until he became a father. Now, he must weigh his decisions and endeavor to raise his children with the values of faith, perseverance, and love that shaped his own life.

Mariana Cole has gazed up at the heavens with wonder since infancy. Tales of her father’s trips to space feed her curiosity and drive her to understand why humanity hasn’t traveled beyond our own moon. Will she follow her father’s path or blaze her own trail to change the trajectory of space exploration?

This series is especially dear to our hearts as it is set in our hometown and some of Jessie’s antics came from my husband’s childhood.

I'm a winner

After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  

My 2021 goal is continue to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media.

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