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Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Don't Just Like, Love

Holy "Sleep In Past Your Alarm Clock" Batman! I usually get up a few minutes before 7am, and get the kids ready and out the door by 7:30am. I knew that I was gonna drive the kids to school, so I knew that the time frame could be a bit later, but I woke up at 7:30am. 7:30am!!!! I was SO late. I was supposed to meet Andrea for our shopping trip to the commissary at 7:45am. Um, yeah, I was gonna be late. Luckily, Tom and Eme were up and ready. Joe? Still in bed. I ran in his room, woke him up, got him dressed, and ready. Tom helped get everything going too. He was a superb helper.

I printed out my shopping list, and checked off the stuff we already had, and loaded up in the truck. I made sure that Jake was awake, and that Jimmy was situated, and headed out. Tom had his big Science project display board to turn in, and I wasn't gonna make the poor kid carry it all the way to school. So I drove them.

It was closer to 8 when I got to school. I ditched my truck, and Andrea and I went to the commissary in her rig. It's really the best time to go grocery shopping. No one is out yet. As long as your in line by 9am or a little past, it's perfect. No super long lines.

OMGosh, I have to tell you about this bagger. First off, all you non-military folks, let me explain about the baggers. At the Commissary (Military grocery store), they have baggers. They don't work per hour, but purely on tips. I've been told that I'm really cheap by my friends, but I give out $1 per $100 that I spend. So I give out a $2 tip. And when my husband goes up in rank, I'm gonna either add a doller, or double it. See, I have a plan to be more charitable. Baby steps, right?

So Andrea didn't get a lot of stuff, so she went to the self check out lane. Me? I had $200 worth of groceries, so I was in the regular line. They checked my food, bagged it, and loaded it to 2 push carts. Just like they always do. So the older lady bagging my stuff started out the door with only one cart.

Usually, they push both. They just do. Even if you offer to push one. So it kinda threw me that she just left it, not even asking or anything. I had to stop her, and tell her that I was with Andrea, and that she was still busy. She sighed real loud, made a mean face, and scooted off to the side to wait.

I was annoyed with her by this point. Don't make faces like that at people. That's just rude. So while I could have gone and got the keys, I was annoyed at this point. I just waited. And in turn, made her wait. And she just got more and more mad. At one point, she went into the breakroom to do who knows what. She was also tapping her to REAL loud. Do people even DO that?

About a minute before Andrea came over, she muttered under her breath, but loud enough for me and the guy next to me to hear, "I wish she'd hurry up". Oh no, she didn't! I couldn't believe she'd actually said it. HOW RUDE! I was really mad at this point. When I'd paid, I'd decided to give a bigger tip than usual. Just because I was feeling in the holiday spirit.

But after that rude display, I decided that the regular $2.00 tip was WAY too much for her. I should have given her nothing. So, Andrea gets done, and heads over. The lady grabs ONE cart, and heads out the door. So, since I don't wanna leave my groceries there, grab the other cart, and follow. Rude.

So she started unloading the groceries into the car, looking all the while TOTALLY mad. Mad that she has to be waiting on us. So when she's done, I give her 1/2 of what I usually give out. $1.00. I got in the truck, and she waked by Andrea, and looked at the tip, and shook her head with a disgusted look on her face. I'm still upset at that lady.

Usually, the baggers are nothing if not kind and wonderful. I don't know what was stuck up this ladies rear today, but OMGosh, she was not pleasant.

So Andrea drops me and my groceries off at my house, and we decided that we'll pick up my truck when we get the kids from school. I didn't need it anyway. So I have Jake help me carry in/put away the groceries, and we get ready for the next thing.

Andrea and I and Katy and Adela had kinda had a falling out of sorts. We weren't sure why, or what it was all about, but could feel a weird vibe in the group, and it was just getting worse by the day. We'd stopped hanging out or doing anything together, so we had planned a brunch at Andreas house to hash it out.

I made bagels with cream cheese, these REALLY yummy marshmallow/apple skewer thingys, banana nut muffins, and some homemade pizza. All in an hour. I was flying - LOL! My kitchen was a mess, but I got the things made/assembled, and Jim and Jake and I headed down to Andreas house. There was SO much food.

And the funny thing is, Andrea and I were on the diet for the 10 days, so we weren't even eating :) It sure smelled good, though. I'd brought my apples and yogurt, and some diet soda, and some diet jello. Not quite as good, but it would have to do.

I'd like to say that after talking, everything went back to the way it was before, but I don't think that was a realistic outcome. Things are better. And that's good. Better than they were before.

Adela left first, to get her hair done. Her hubby was coming back from a 3 month deployment on Friday. Katy stayed for a bit longer and hung out, then headed back home too. Andrea and I cleaned up, put away, and straightened up the house for a bit, then ate our lunch. Cheese and cucumbers. She showed me how she puts balsamic vinegar on her cheese, and OMGosh, it's SO good. Mozarella cheese, with just a little bit of balsamic. SO good.

We headed out to pick up the kids ataround 2:40pm. We swung by Ms Kims house to turn down the heat (she'd gone to Oklahoma for a few weeks to visit a friend), then off to school. We got the kids, and headed out to our respective houses. I REALLY wanted to clean for a while. My house was a bit messy, and needed some TLC.

I got home, got the kids some left over snacks from the "party", and directed chores to be done. I went in the downstairs bathroom, and detailed it. It looked sO much nicer. And I'd even bought new shampoo (32 oz - important for later in the blog) and body wash and such for the shower. The toilet, the floor, the countertop, and the mirrors all got washed down real good.

Next, I did a WHoLE bunch of dishes. That took forever. Next, I went into my room and cleaned it. I'd dumped all the laundry on my bed the day before, which got bumped to the floor that evening before bed. How do bedrooms get so messy so fast? Anyway, I cleaned it up, and it looked much better :)

Andrea had asked if I wanted to come with her at 5:45 to take her kids to piano. She just sits in the truck while they go in. I thought it sounded good. I had time to get the kids' dinner done (leftover spaghetti, salad, and quesidillas), and gave Joe and Jim a bath. They were muddy from playing outside.

SO, I hear this funny noise from the bathroom, and go to invistigate. OMGosh, they've TRASHED the bathroom! And I worked SO hard on it. I was SO mad. Madder than mad. The mean, yelling, angry mom surfaced :)

They'd filled the water ALL the way to the top, so of course its splashed ALL over the floor. About 1/2 inch deep. There's bubbles EVERYWHERE. You know that bottle of Shampoo I bought today? Yeah, that new one? That 32 oz one? That I bought big so that I wouldn't have to replace it for a very long time? Yeah, that one? Well, they dumped the WHOLE thing in the bathtub. THE WHOLE THING. And 1/2 a bottle of new body wash. And pulled down the shower curtain.

So I made them stand up, held the shower curtain up best I could, and made them shower off. With colder water. Because I was mad :) And I hoped that they'd remember what happens when you are naughty in the bathroom. Cold shower.

I managed to get most of the bubbles off of them, toweled them off, spanked their butts (yes, we're a spanking family), and made them put on their jammies. I tried my best to clean up the bathroom, but there was SO many bubbles. And those are hard to clean up. Very hard. It took 5 big towels to sop up all the water on the floor. But it looked sparkly clean, at least.

So, when Andrea showed up at my door at 5:45pm to get me, i was SO ready to go. I left Jake in charge, and went to Piano with Andrea. The boys went in, and she and I and baby Luke just sat in the suburban, and chatted. That's just what I needed.

We hashed out the details for my b-day party on Friday. I'm really getting excited for it. I know, very 4th grade of me, but I don't care. I'm excited!

We scheduled out our next 2 weeks, just so we didn't miss any fun. LOL! She had some doctors appointments coming up, and I said that I'd watch her kids for her. And we had scouts, and school dances (mother/son dance), parties, all sorts of stuff :)

We also planned the menu for the b-day party. We decided to cook a turkey! With mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce. I know, real original, right? But it sure will feed a crowd. Plus, it's the 1st day that we can "eat" again, so we're SO excited. She bought stuff to make turtle brownies, and we'll have pumpkin pie, and birthday cake, and punch.

We're asking all our friends to come and bring a side dish/dessert. We're gonna have SO much food, and we're gonna eat like there's no tomorrow :) ROFL! So, needless to say, I'm REALLY looking forward to Friday.

And my weight? I'm holding at 6lbs lost! I have a feeling I'm gonna be down on Tuesday morning. I weighed right before bed, and I was 153, only .2 lbs more than I was this morning. So I'm sure I"ll be less in the morning :) Yeah for me! See, it payed off not eating the food at the party! Yeah Andrea and I!

I got home at about the same time as Captain America. He was getting ready to go play basketball with some guys from work. So, he had time to change, read a story to the little boys and tuck them in, then left. Dang, the man is busy. He's such a hard worker.

I sat down and played on Facebook for quite a while, and got 3 1/2 of my 5 WordArt packs for the week designed. Not too bad. I have all day Tuesday to get them finished, then uploaded to my store. I can do it! I know i can :)

This WordArt request is from Lori. She saw it in an ad in the USA Today paper. It was really long, and had a bunch of good stuff inside, but I just pulled out the main point. Hope you like it!

Click on the links below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!



12 comments:

MysticEagle57 said...

How Rude of that bagger!!!! What you should do is go in and talk to the head bagger....Tell the person how you were treated.... I know they dont tolerate that kind of attitude at our commissary(Armywife stationed at Fort Sill)...If there is a complaint made against a bagger they are sent home for a day or two which means they lose out on money and its their own fault!!! So sorry you were treated like that!!!

Claire7799 said...

Thanks for this wordart, I love it!

Steph said...

Thank you!

More of Mom's Special Moments said...

I think you could go back and give the chickie a hug and some homemade cookies and tell her Merry Christmas and you hope she has a great day. . sopunds like she needs some love...just a thought. . your mother. . :)

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for this Freebie. I want to let you know that I posted a link to your blog in CBH Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, under the Page 11 post on Dec. 08, 2009. Thanks again.

Shell said...

While the bagger was rude & shouldn't have displayed her displeasure with you in the way she did, you have to look at it from her side too. She only works for tips & by having to wait on you & your friend she's missing out on her next tips. Most baggers don't have another job & use the tips to help support their families. Also all the time & tips that she lost waiting on you, she only made $1. Think about how you would feel if you were in her shoes.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for freebies. Link on your post was added to Lori's freebie list

Unknown said...

OMG - "Oh no, she didn't!" I have been laughing so hard at that line... you are so funny!

Thanks for the wordart!

Robert

tamara said...

I suffer from a bit of bagger paranoia. You have such a generous spirit, (I have been downloading your work free for a while now) that it is hard to imagine people treating you the way the bagger did over a $1 tip. Makes me just want to go to the bagger and say do you know who she is, "Elegant Word Art, Bethany!-generous and giving". I feel pretty certain that you are a good steward with the money and talents God has given you. And right now tipping $1 is fine/tipping that forever is fine. There will be someone else not in your situation that tips well and covers you (let God work all that out). They do get together and talk about what people tip and stalk the good tippers/avoid the bad tippers. I have always given a $5 tip (usually spend about $150 a time) because my husband asked me to budget for that because he wanted the baggers to be friendly to me. I have always thought that was a little nuts since I actually have to budget it in (you know enlisted pay, 4 kids, SAHM) I find it all very frustrating. Now that my commisary has self check-out I will go through that line to avoid the whole issue, even though it isn't as quick. We have a self-checkout lane for unlimited items. The kids get to help (it is a disaster always) but fun and I get to see the little bagger ladies look at me all longing especially when I only have a bag or two missing the 5 tip. She I just don't think that what I person can or does pay should make any difference. I think if they do their job with excellence they will be rewarded.

louiseam said...

Well, Bethany! I'm sorry to say this time, as much as I love you, your family and your blog, I feel you are really wrong with the piddling amount you tip and I can see why the bagger was annoyed. As some others said, try to think of it from her standpoint, trying to make a living!Being cheap is not a very Christain attitude.

a said...

Well, see, that's just the thing. I WAS gonna tip big that day. I was all ready to give out $5.00. That's the biggest tip I've ever given.

But she was rude to my friend, and that offended me. I feel that a "tip" should be a reflection of the job that they did. If they do great, then they get the full tip, or more. If they do poorly, then they will get less.

Just because I'm Christian doesn't mean that I can't be smart with my money, you know.

As for the amount of my tip, you have to start somewhere. I'm on a plan to go up in tip amount. Double it at his first promotion. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

I know that when I go to eat with my husband, he'll tip the waitress/waiter really well. BUT, if the service is very poor, that tip will drastically be reduced. That's just the nature of tips, right? You're paying your server/bagger for their service. And if the service is poor, then shouldn't they receive less?

Dora said...

I agree that the tip should reflect the service. The bagger's job is to help you, even if it's to stand around waiting for your friend. I personally expect good service no matter the size tip I can AFFORD to give.