I love coffee. The taste, the smell, the subtle difference in flavors between types. On my list of dream jobs would definitely be tasting or working with and around coffee. In my home, growing up and now, there is always a pot of coffee on or ready to be made. Come to my house and the first thing I’ll ask you is if you want a cup of coffee.

My dad use to brag that he got all of us kids started drinking coffee by the time we were 3. Not sure how true that is, but I do remember our “kid coffee”. Coffee heavily laden with milk and heaping spoonfulls of sugar. This same kid coffee I gave to my kid, nieces and nephews as they grew up. I remember in high school drinking coffee for breakfast on my way out the door. Some of my fondest memories of my dad revolved around coffee. How we girls use to scramble to make him a cup. Black, with one small spoonfull of sugar, cooled off with a splash of ice cold water so it was drinkable. Then he’d always make a game out of the spoon… he’d stir his coffee and then touch us on the arm or leg with the hot spoon asking “Is that hot?!”. Sometimes at restraunts he would stir his coffee, then put the spoon in his ice water and see if we still jumped. Thanks to Pavlov we jumped whether it was cold or hot. I think I’ve probably done the same to my son over the years, but with less frequency.

I have some pet peeves when it comes to coffee. I don’t want added flavors. I like my coffee just coffee, no vanilla, no french italian spanish creme brulee chocolatemocha. Until I was in college I drank it straight up black. Then I learned that coffee can leach calcium out of your body so I started putting milk or half and half in it to counter those effects. Another pet peeve I have is buying coffee. When you buy it at these coffee shops littered around town, they all want tips. I’m not getting a freaking meal! It’s just one cup of coffee. You stand in the same place, you don’t come to a table for me, you don’t do anything more than a regular cashier does. Yet you want a tip? How bout get a full restraunt job if you want a tip. It’s bad enough that I’m usually paying through the nose for the cup of coffee as it is! You’re lucky I’m not gulping it down insisting on a free refill like they always use to give coffee drinkers.

Free refills for coffee is like a pair of socks always being a pair. It goes without thinking that if you order a regular cup of coffee in a restraunt, you’re going to get free refills. I remember our broke days in college going to Denny’s and having refill after refill, studying for hours. If I order a coffee and I don’t get refills it effects the tip. Regardless of what meal we had in restraunts growing up, my dad always ordered coffee and water. I have a tendency to do the same.

There are actual health benifits to coffee. When my nephew first started showing signs of asthma, a doctor told me coffee was good for opening up his airways. So every time he weezed, I would pour him a coffee or take him for a latte’. I’m probably very much to blame for his coffee consumption today.

There was also a study I read a few months back about excessive amounts, over 6 cups a day, keeping people from developing diabetes. There’s also another study on the net that claims drinking coffee on an empty stomach before you work out helps increase caloric consumption. It’s already been proven to be a great antioxident. From what I’ve read it could also be the reason why no one in my family has ever had Alzheimer’s. A good website about coffee benifits is coffeescience.org.

Either way, good or bad, I’m a true coffee addict!!! d

I’ve been off for quite some time. I’d like to chalk it up to being busy, busy with work, busy with my son, husband, family life and friends. But it’s probably just being more lazy than anything. Plus of course there’s myspace always distracting me.

But I’m back now. Ready to dig in and do the things I meant for this page to do. Give other mothers tips, review products and talk about mommy type subjects. How do we be mothers, employees, wives and ourselves with the little time we have in a day? Hopefully I’m back with a vengence to help us all accomplish that and more.

Mommy!

One of my passions is coffee. I love coffee, the smell, the taste, the aroma when it brews. For Christmas I recieved 2 vacuum sealed bags of the Dunkin Dognuts Original Blend Medium Roast whole bean coffee. Here it is not even the 2nd week of January and I’m already down to less than one bag left of it!

It’s a nice truely medium roast coffee. It’s almost buttery tasting, with a sweet undertone. It’s really has none of the bitterness you get with some other medium blend store sold roasts. It’s very different than all the other whole beans I’ve bought, and almost I daresay it’s better than Seattle’s Best. It’s very smooth, very tasty and has a slight carmel smell. When it brews the whole kitchen smells good it’s so fragrant. If you get a chance try some!

We have 2 different express checkouts where I work, 20 items or less and 10 items or less. It’s posted above each checkout and these checkouts don’thave the moving belts on them. To me it’s obvious which ones they are. I knew before I worked here which lanes were the express lanes. How on earth can people be confused if they’re express or not?

What posesses people to take not only a full cart full of groceries to an express but 2 carts? What ARE people thinking? These express lanes aren’t set up to take more than 20 items at a time. The space to put your groceries is small with no conveyor belt, the area we place the bags can litterally only hold 4 bags, not the 20 it takes for a full cart. I see people stack 3 or 4 items high on these tiny spaces, just to get their groceries scanned. In fact once I had a stool fall on my hand. I’ve seen tons of bottles of soda or jars of pickles fall because people stacked items there or the bag carousel. It’s a proven fact that these lanes can’t scan your items as fast as on a belt non express lane. So if getting out fast is your excuse for piling up 50 items on a 20 item or less lane, you’re out of steam.

Not only is it dangerous, takes more time and not set up to take more than 20 items, it’s completely defeating the purpose of having express lanes. Express is there for people who only have a few items that we can get through quicker. It’s not for people with 21 items, wic checks, hand keyed ebt cards. It’s suppose to be SPEEDY. If you have a special need for gods sake go to a belt equiped lane where no one is standing behind you trying to get to their son’s soccer game or mother’s funeral or cousin’s wedding. The express lane is to get people with FEW items through fast.

And the excuse “well you don’t have a customer now.” is complete bull shit. It’s like saying “well I only speeded when there was no one around.”. Rules are rules. Besides that consider murphy’s law of express lanes; If I take someone with over 20 items within 15 seconds of rining the first item up there will form a huge angry line behind that person.

Now the CFH of express lanes. Wic checks and EBT cards that don’t scan. You folks KNOW it takes longer for wic checks to be confirmed, scanned and rung up. If you have a special need like with wic checks, take it to a belt. Normally I have no problem with ebt cards, but anyone who works with them knows that they lose their magnetic charge a lot and have to be hand keyed in by the cashier. If you have one of these cards don’t even look at an express lane. Not only do I have to hand key in the 15 number card twice, I have to wait for a supervisor to come and approve it, which during a busy time I’ve seen take up to 15 minutes. Just go to a belt for farts sake.

I had this lady once come up to me when I was at a express lane that is known to be THE busiest express lane. We weren’t slamming busy but busy enough to where I always had a customer or one approaching the lane. Then this big, fat, sweat clad lady comes pushing a full cart up to my lane and I politely tell her “I’m sorry ma’am but I can only take 20 items or less.” She starts ranting about how I’m refusing her service and since when have we been able to refuse customers. As I’m trying to tell her that it’s been like that since I started working here she keeps interrupting me with angry remarks. I offered to take her to a belt that could accomodate her. She stomped off, turning to a man behind her pushing another cart and headed for another express lane. She not only had 1 full cart of groceries, but 2! And she expected service at a 20 items or less lane?

That’s it for now, rant off. But there have been plenty more CFH at the express lanes and there will be plenty more. Boggles me that people expect special treatment.

I’m not much of a drinker, in fact I could probably count on 1 hand the amount of drinks I have in a year. But the last few weeks I’ve sold so much alcohol that some of it catches my interest. One of those has been Sangria. I get a lot of folks going through my lane getting Sangria and they all swear it’s great. One gentleman said he even married his wife because of how she made an excellent drink with Sangria.

There were several different brands, but I bought the one that I see sell the most, “Cruz Garcia Real Sangria”. It’s in an interesting triangular shaped bottle with an orange, gold and white label. I think I’ll save the bottle.

As for the taste, it’s a nice fruity, not bitter at all flavor of wine. It doesn’t give you that “fuzzy tongue” feeling that red wines do but it’s not as clear tasting as white. It does have more similar characteristics of a white wine than a red or blush. It is sweet but not oversweet, just a bit sweeter than a zin I’d think. It’s very fruity.

Like I said I’m not much of a wine connoisseur but this is one that I do find nice enough to try again one of those few occassions when I do drink.

I have nothing against folks that use public assistance such as food stamps or WIC vouchers. But for gawds sake know the rules!
Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been working like mad lately. Then when I do get time off I spend those precious moments with my husband and son. Biggest suprise to me is my husband is missing me more than my son is. We’ve all 3 had a lot of adjustments to make and it’s been rough going for us all. I think we’re slowly getting the hang of it though.

My hubby spoiled me for mother’s day. I woke up to coffee made and waiting for me, a card and 2 packages of my favorite, expensive Seattle’s Best coffee. When my son stumbled into consciousness he gave me a nice card minus it’s envelope. My husband also did a LOT of the chores on my list for me, and the last few weeks has replaced blinds that I hated. Overall hubby’s rating is up there with the pope imo.

I did have to work for Mother’s Day. Not a biggie, though it’s the first year I’ve missed our annual Mother’s day fishing outing. They did manage to drag themselves without me though. (=p) I worked a long shift, 10 to 7. “THE STORE” put out roses for us working mothers which was nice. The first half of the day was explosively busy, one customer after another, fraught with problems and issues. Read the rest of this entry »

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mommies who peruse my site! It’s a day of recognition of all our mommy actions normally taken for granted; like kissing owies, worrying needlessly, picking up socks, vacuuming, praising, organizing, working, etc etc etc.

Now for all you daddies and kids out there trying to figure out what to do for mother’s day. #1 rule is DO NOT LISTEN if the mommy says “aw, don’t worry bout it, I don’t need anything.” We’re programmed to not ask much, it’s the mommy nature. If you want to get your mom or mother of you kids bawling happy tears then do something big, celebrate all she’s done for you.

Here’s some simple tips and ideas on what to do for her.

Handmade cards rule over store bought ones — take 10 minutes and make her a card using a few sheets of construction paper and colored pens.

Bring her tea/coffee in bed. Even if you have to set your alarm to get up before her. It doesn’t have to be a full breakfast, just something you know she normally would have.

Do the dishes without being asked or any other chore she normally does daily. (IE vacuum, dust, bathe the dogs.)

Skip the flowers and buy her her favorite candy bar, coffee or other extravagent item she normally wouldn’t buy herself but always wants.

Clean out her car! Vacuum, wipe down and windex it all. Don’t let her lift a finger!

Tell her you love her and really appreciate all the things she does every day to make your life easier. Hug her and tell her she’s the best mom!

Happy Mother’s Day!

I’ve added a new section, Mommy Tips:Faqs. In this section I’ll be putting things like what to do when your kid has a fever, when to call the doctor, potty training, bottle weening and topics along those lines. Feel free to email me any suggested faq questions at mommy @ mommytested. com.

On an average 4 hour shift I see a minimum of 150 customers. Sometimes more, hardly ever less. In an 8 hour day I get to ring up at least 300 of you folks. I’d say out of every 5 customers, 1 of you has a special need, request or issue. The majority of you are absolutely wonderful, happy folks who are a pleasure to cashier for. But every once in a while I get a Customer from Hell. (Henceforth known as the Cfh.) Read the rest of this entry »