July Birthdays

This week has been a week full of birthdays. Our grand daughter Ashlynn's turned 7 on the 25th, her dad Jamie turned 27 on the 27th, my dad's is today, the 30th, and he's 70. My niece, Lyndell will be 16 on August 3rd. That starts the August birthdays. Actually, the 2nd is Dad and Mary's 11th anniversary. Then my brother Jay's is on the 7th he will be 37, my mom would've been 67 on the 11th, my nephew Mike 37 on the 12th, my youngest sister Marla will be 40 on the 17th, and my niece Naomi will be 22 on the 20th. Then starts the September and October birthdays. When my Dad was around 62, he said that life goes downhill at 70. He doesn't want to be like his Uncle Fred, in a wheelchair for years and so he said he doesn't want to live much past 70. I asked him last week how much longer did he think he had, he just laughed.

Amber and Jaime had a BBQ on Sunday for the birthdays, it was fun. Ashlynn lost her two top front teeth last week, so now she's singing, All's I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth.

Cleve told me on the way to the BBQ that the septic was backed up again, so Perry Sevy came out on Monday and pumped 1500 gallons out of our 1000 gallon tank. Last time in January he pumped 1400. It's pretty bad when you know the septic guy so well. This time it cost $255 and you could hear the water from the drainfield pouring back in pretty fast. He pumped it at 6pm and around 11 you could still hear the water. We had a plug of some babywipes stuck, so our neighbor, Joey and Cleve worked on it until they got it unplugged after 10:30. So, today, two days later, the toilets are gurgling again, and water is backing up in the tub again, but going down. I think we are going to need it pumped out sooner than 2 weeks.

Greetings

Well, I'll start from today and go back to last week. My morning started with going to a mandatory checker meeting at 7am, it was the usual meeting, letting us know that we needed to watch the WIC checks and make sure they are the right amounts, signed and so on, then Butch talked about how we need to be greeting customers and be nice to them. The nerve!! Actually, if you've ever been checked out by a cashier that isn't friendly, then you know how it is to not be greeted and such. Anyway, I have had interesting answers through the years when I ask people how they are. About 12 years ago, I had an older woman, about 80's-90's that when I asked her how she was doing, she said "Oh, I'm mildewing." I just laughed and thought it was a good and funny answer. Then a couple of years ago, I had a young guy in his early 20's that I asked, "How's your day been?" He looked at me like I was weird and said "I'm not Ben." So I said, "No, how has your day been?" Again, he gave me that perplexed looked and said, My name's not Ben." I can only begin to guess what he was thinking. "Is this lady crazy or what. I already told her once that my name isn't Ben, but she keeps calling me Ben. Who's Ben?" I just gave up, and finished his order and didn't call him Ben any more. Ok, so the Monday after the 4th of July, since it was kinda on the weekend, I was asking people how their weekend was. I had this guy that was maybe in his 70's and I said "Hi, how was your weekend?" He laughed and said "Well, I do have two weak ends, but one is better than the other." So now when I ask people how they're doing, or how their days been, or their weekend, I'm prepared. I'm so prepared.

Another thing that Butch talked about is not trying to outwit the customers. But what if we can't help but outwit them? You know, when you get ready to open your checkstand and the customers are watching you grab your sign, turn on your light, and then get in the checkstand, and they say..."Are you open?" I know what I'd like to say(here's your sign), but I can't outwit them so I smile and say yes. Amber says I have polite rudeness. Here's an example: A customer says I have a case of corn. A case is 24, she only has 12, which is a flat, so I say, "You have 24?" The answer is no, only 12, so with a smile, I say "Next time, you can just say you have 12, since we don't enter in cases, ok?" It confuses people when you do that too.

Ok, now onto last week. On wednesday, I had all the girls over. Amber came over with Ashlynn and Gabbo, and Tori was here with Yecenia. We roasted hotdogs and had a picnic, and the little girls played in Jasmine's new pool. My camera was dead, I forgot to recharge, but I later took pictures of Yecenia with my phone.