Kroger Baggers Revisted

You know, I really DIDN'T want to bring this subject up again. Three times may be a little much, eh? But I went to the grocery again and had to return to my blog with my thoughts.

*sigh* Should I just apply to be an official "bagger trainer" at Kroger or what?? These folks just don't get it. I group my stuff together as I put it on the checkout conveyor belt so that it will be bagged together and, therefore, easier to put away at home. Sadly, it never works out this way. I don't understand why not. Isn't the cashier scanning them as they come down the belt? Aren't they passed on to the baggers in the same order? I may be mistaken in this. It makes sense, but the way things end up in the bags makes me wonder where the wires cross. Perhaps I should spread my stuff out more so that it is more obvious that the groceries are arranged in a specific order. *sigh* Now I just have to sort everything when I get home.

I was quite pleased to see that my milk was put in one of the insulated bags this week! YAY! Was it zipped? Nope. But at least the milk was in the right type of bag. This looks promising! Of course, I then see that non-perishables are filling the other insulated bag and realize that, perhaps, little progress has been made after all. :-( Now, I have complained about the insulated bag thing before. But to top it all off on my last trip...my hot dog buns were at the BOTTOM of a bag. Isn't that a basic rule of bagging? Oh well.


I have a solution to my insulated bag "problem." I'm going to take my giant permanent marker and write instructions on the inside and outside! "COLD ITEMS ONLY! PLEASE ZIP WHEN FULL!"

Yes. I may complain about the baggers a lot, but at least they HAVE baggers at Kroger AND I got help out to my car this past trip!! At some of the other stores around town these days, you are your OWN bagger, like it or not. And I'm not talking about U-Scan. Either U-bag, or forget it. You only get help to your car if you have A LOT of stuff and a handsome strong young man happens to walk by at that time. ;-)

What have I accomplished this today?!?! (the life of a SAHM)

I am a Stay-at-Home Mom. Sometimes I don't think I do a very good job of that. I'm not always good at staying home, and I don't always feel like a good mom. As I consider what I've accomplished today, I just had to blog a bit about my lifestyle.

Woke up this morning and got ready for the day.
Convinced the kids to stop watching TV and get dressed. We'd done well at making beds this week, but I think they forgot today.
(Oh well.)

I came downstairs to the computer to "quickly" order homeschool books before lunch. Well, I only got half of the stuff ordered before having to leave.

We drove by the bank on the way to Chick-Fil-A. I endorsed my checks and pulled out a blank deposit ticket. Oops. I don't have my account # with me! So I just cashed the checks instead. Oh well.

We met my grandparents for lunch and had a nice visit with them. We were continuing the celebration of Neleh's 6th birthday (which was a week ago).

After lunch, instead of going home to get stuff done there, we headed over to the house which we are currently housesitting. That only takes about 30 seconds: get mail, run in, put in kitchen, lock up, take paper. Ta da.

BUT - on the way back home, we saw a YARD SALE!!! I saw a tripod out and had to stop and inquire. Only $1? SOLD! And, of course, we bought a few other things while we were there. I got a set of placemats; Jill got some shorts; Becka some shades; Neleh a curling brush.

On the way home, Jill & I do some garbage picking and come home with a nice card table.

We do end up getting home eventually. Of course Neleh wants to use her new "toy" right away. ALAS - apparently it had spent some time in a makeup drawer and had foundation residue all over it (should've checked that before purchasing, perhaps?). Yuck. Who wants that in their hair? So I spent a little while this afternoon trying to clean that off. The little brush parts slide off of the iron. I used a toothbrush and eye makeup remover. The stuff didn't wash off very quickly. After a little bit of scrubbing, and realizing other things I needed to be doing, I ran a sinkful of water + eye makeup remover, and let the brush parts soak.

Meanwhile, I come back down to the computer to finish ordering homeschool books. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!! Ta da. *whew* Of course, once I'm online, I check email, play on Facebook, etc.

I did switch the laundry around, so that was some "housework" that was done. As I was finishing that up, Neleh and her friend come down and ask again about the curling brush. Since I was at a stopping point in things, I headed upstairs to finish cleaning up this brush thing. Realizing how much time I spent on that brush inspired me to come down here and waste time blogging about it.

It made me stop and think that these "silly little things" are what motherhood is about. After cleaning the thing, we had to use it. Not sure if it is working the way it should, but the kids seem content now that it is, indeed, usable.

SO WHAT HAVE I ACCOMPLISHED TODAY?????
Love. A mother's love. And a few little other things along the way.

Another Cat?!?!

*sigh* Why won't the cat issues all go away?????? Now we have another cat. A little baby kitty. Thankfully, just ONE orange kitty. Phoebe is a mommy. And the big black cat in the neighborhood is a daddy. Now what?!?!? Well, that's the first and LAST baby Phoebe will EVER have. Ta da. That's it. Gettin' fixed...or being sent away where they give shots and fixes before finding a new home. I still, seriously, don't want to pay for someone elses cat. However, looks like these are our cats now. :-P I don't want them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Does anyone want a cat? Does anyone want two cats? We're getting guinea pigs next week. Don't need the trouble of cats! ACK! Too bad no one listened to me when I said that Phoebe couldn't come. Then we would have ONE black cat who didn't cause trouble. Oh well. Now we have two cats again. Whatever.

More news on Cats

*sniff* Sadly, this is not a silly story about our cats. It is a sad story. Go back a week or so. Miss Albee (the "good" black cat) was meowing like crazy outside our bedroom window around 5:00 AM. Yikes! That's too early. So, I got up and put her in the garage. Next day, same thing. Bill gets up and lets her out. Typically she is scared of everything and we expected her to hang out in the bushes by the house or under our neighbor's car. When we woke up at a more reasonable hour, she was gone. We figured that she couldn't have gone far and that she'd be back soon or we'd find her. No such luck. We gave her another day. No luck. The neighbor kid said that she thinks Miss Albee may have been seen in the street. :-( I did not see it with my own eyes, but this is one of the trusty worth girls on the street. She wasn't sure if it was Miss Albee, but all I know is that Miss Albee never came home. I'm not one to get too torn up over losing a pet. And I'm not mad at Bill for putting her out in the yard. It is just a little sad. Now we are stuck with "brat cat". Phoebe has claws and claws her way through the screens on the porch to run the neighborhood. Maybe she will meet her demise as well. Or not. We expect that she is expecting. I'm not really thrilled about this cat in the first place. We agreed to keep this cat while Jill's mom was in transition between homes. She hasn't moved to a place that takes pets yet, so we are "stuck" with this silly animal. I seriously don't want to spend money on someone else's cat. But if she does end up with kittens, she is getting taken straight to the vet to get fixed. She's been here nearly a year (I thought this would be a two week thing). I said to Bill the other day, "Bob Barker is not happy with us." Oh well.

Kroger Baggers Continued...

#5 - So I roll up my extra full shopping cart of groceries. Note - I am only pushing ONE cart to the checkout line. I use the bottom of my cart for things such as 12-packs of Coke and such. APPARENTLY, the bottom of the shopping carts disappear once all of the items are removed because the bagger guy decides to give me a second cart instead of putting stuff on the bottom. When a bagger ends up putting your items into two carts what would you expect to happen next? I would expect that he would offer to help me out to the car. Often, I decline such assistance for I am the only one who knows how to fit all of that stuff into the trunk the right way. BUT- on this day I was willing to accept the help. Umm...no such help was offered. The guys pushed my two carts away and started bagging the next customer's groceries. So I'm standing there in Kroger with a shocked look on my face for a moment. Then I begin rearranging the groceries (using the BOTTOM of my cart) so that everything, once again, fits into ONE cart. I didn't move my carts very far out of the way to do this, so in theory, this idiot could see what I was doing. He didn't care. After I had successfully put everything into one cart, I offered him my newly emptied cart for the next round. (Sometimes they keep an empty cart at the end of the aisle so they can start putting groceries in the cart before you are done unloading the current cart.) He said, "Yeah. Sure." And I said, "Oh. By the way, one person can only push one cart at a time." Or maybe I said, "Next time you give someone two carts, help them to their car." Don't really remember now. What an idiot.



Today I went to Kroger again. Same Kroger. Ah yes. The wonderful service I am used to. :-) Friendly fellows who know what they are doing! No need for assistance out to the car today since all we had was a Kings Island ticket, two things of ice cream and a gallon of milk. PLUS, I had 2 helpers of my own today.