Teavana, My New Addiction

My husband and I were in the mall recently shopping for new shoes for him. We were going to meet our daughter who was playing with the 2 year old and 7 year old in the play area, when my husband suddenly said, "Oh, let's go in this store. I was here last week and I think you will like it".

Now it is important to understand that my husband is not a shopper. He dislikes being in any store and especially dislikes having to be in a store shopping that is crowded with people. So I was a little shocked he was interested in going into this store at all. Not only were there a lot of people in the small store but there were also employees strategically located in every corner for samples. So it took me a moment to get over the initial shock to even register what store we were in.

The store was Teavana. It smelled wonderful and the samples were very good. They were of course the perfect blends of different teas with the perfect blends of sweetener (not too sweet but just enough to cut through any bitterness). After trying a couple of teas I looked at my husband with confusion. "Why are we in here?" He told me he liked the samples the last time he had been in and wanted me to try them. Okay, again I am still confused. "So, you want to buy tea?" I was confused because we drink coffee mostly. He likes black coffee and I like froufrou coffee. I have a tea pot my mother gave me, but I am pretty sure it is decorated with Christmas stuff and is buried in the back of a cabinet.

He finally said, "I know you like that peach tea when we go out to eat and I just thought maybe we could get some tea. You know give them a try. Do you like them? I would rather spend money on tea than Starbucks." (My husband hates Starbucks. I usually only get maybe one a week, but that adds up at 5$ a pop).
"Well, yeah I like them. But we this is all loose tea and that means we would have to buy a tea maker along with the tea."
With a smile on his face he says, "That's okay. What kind do you want to get?"

Now I rarely buy myself anything and I generally use grocery shopping to satisfy my want to buy things. We have 5 kids and I don't work. There isn't much I need. So my husband who enjoys buying me things when he can find something I want or like was enjoying himself. So this is one of those opportunities where he was able to spend money on me and make me smile. Technically its food...technically its healthy...technically its worth trying.

So we bought a tea maker (for use with loose tea) and a few different teas. They included a little booklet with all of the teas they offer and information on accessories for tea. That was the clincher.

When we got home, I made tea. I enjoyed the simplicity of mixing the teas I wanted and following the very simple directions for each type of tea. We mainly got white tea and the roobios were white and red so the caffeine levels are very low. I was hooked instantly.

That night I went online to Teavana.com and ordered more tea, tins, and the German Rock Sugar (which is very yummy). I did find a promotional code that saved me 10$. I also split my order in 2 so I could save the 10$ twice (shipping was free) and each order came with a sample my husband loved. After I submitted my order I ran across an application for my iPhone that has tea mixes, tea timers, and information on all the teas they carry. Hey, it was free.

When my orders came I was like a kid opening a Christmas gift. I put all the tea in the tins (air tight to protect the tea), made a place for the tea in our glass cabinet, and immediately made tea. YUM!

I have had tea every day since we got it. I drink tea instead of snacking, which is helpful. I really didn't think about the tea vs snacking until yesterday. Drinking tea helps me get my water each day and although I am not a big soda drinker, the tea has made me skip any and all soda. The majority of the teas we got are white teas, so there is very little caffeine.I use the German Rock Sugar which is a much nicer flavor than white sugar and its not processed like white sugar.

The only downside to all this tea drinking...I have to pee all the time! Seriously, it feels like all the time. Its worse than drinking beer. I suppose I am drinking more fluids, so that increases potty trips. I am not sure if tea is a diuretic (without caffeine) or not because everything I read was linked to the caffeine. Did you know that white teas are not only good for skin and hair but also teeth? Tea naturally prevents plaque. Wow, I had no idea.

Well, I am hooked. Now my challenge is to stay out of the Teavana store and not buy tea online until we are out. Because there are so many different flavors and I want to try them all!

I will leave you with this...Many of you have heard me talk about my husband referring (lovingly) to me as his 'uppity elitist bitch' (it is because I am so picky and never seem to be satisfied with what I have, always wanting more...better stuff, better service, better environment) well after I fell in love with all this tea my husband tells me...
"Well, I figured you would like it. What could be more uppity elitist than loose tea sold by the ounce?"

Pain and the Pain Pill Haze

So things went well with the surgery. (It was one of those girlie area type surgeries, so I have no intention actually talking about the surgery itself). I am in bed being pampered by my wonderful husband. The kids have their extortion bribery chore charts they have been doing pretty well sticking to. My baby doll (2.5 year old son who is a total momma's boy) is having a hard time understanding why mommy won't play like she normally does, but he is being pretty good as well.

I am in pain. I have pain pills. I am taking my pain pills. So actually at the moment (if I don't move) I am not in pain. If I move then its a whole other story. I don't care for the fog that comes with pain pills or the way you doze off without realizing it until you wake up. I think I did just that a moment ago, ha ha. One minute I am typing and the next I'm lifting my head up off the pillow. So I don't like having this hazy no control over my own mind feeling. However, I do dislike something much more than the haze...PAIN. I am very much against it. If there is anything I can do to avoid pain, I will. So I am hazy and foggy.

I was trying to think of something funny, brilliant, or at least entertaining to write today. I still have not come up with anything. Its raining and dreary out, there is nothing to watch on TV, and I am bored. I am so bored that I actually cleaned up a little when I was downstairs for a snack. My husband asked me what I was doing and I actually said just cleaning up after myself. I was cleaning up after more than just myself but I didn't want to get reprimanded so I fibbed and stopped cleaning.

I am laying in bed watching Red (which is a great action/comedy movie) and about to fall into that comatosed state again. Please forgive any run-on sentences (that are beyond my normal ones) and grammer/spelling issues in this lovely action packed post. Oxycodone is my friend until the pain is gone and it turns out Oxycodone is against good grammer, correct spelling, and things making sense in general. Oxycodone is that passive aggressive friend who somehow always manages to get their way.

I will hopefully be clear enough to write something coherent soon.  Night all.

Trauma...oh the Trauma of it all!

trauma :

1. (Psychology) a powerful shock that may have long-lasting effects

2. (Medicine / Pathology) any bodily injury or wound

My husband has a special kind of sense of humor. I love it personally, its been described as a dry humor laced with strong sarcasm. I think that is only because there are times (even for me) when it is difficult to tell whether he is joking or serious. He has a very stoic demeanor for his public face. He is a disabled veteran, he spent 10 years in the Air Force. He has that serious soldier attitude in his body language, the kind that puts immediate fear in teen aged boys. (Which is obviously a good thing since we have 4 daughters). I will share a huge secret with you, shhhh, don't tell anyone. My husband has a sweet, soft, and gooey heart. He prefers people to think he is mean and tough. But he isn't.

So anyway, my husband and I were discussing the surgery I will be having Friday afternoon. We were discussing how to get our older 4 children to help with housework and our 2 year old son during my recovery time. (We fully plan to bribe and extort our children into helping.) My wonderful husband will work from home as much as he can to help out as much as he can. One of the biggest challenges is I will not be able to lift up our 2 year old son for 4-6 weeks. Wow, that's a long time. Especially since our son is a true mamma's boy.

My husband laughs and pops off with this "Poor little guy is going to be traumatized. First he broke his little arm, then losses his boobs (my husbands reference to the fact that I weaned our son from nursing, charming, huh?), he gets his cast taken off (he was very angry they were taking his Buzz Lightyear arm off), then he had 3 front teeth pulled (along with other dental work done while under general anesthesia), and now his mommy won't be able to pick him up. We might as well start him sleeping in his own room since we are taking everything else away".

I will not be ending our co-sleeping, I am not ready to give that up. But my husband is right on all the other stuff. In just over one month all of the above did happen to our son. Will he be traumatized from the above list? I doubt it. Well, at least not as traumatized as we have been by everything he went through (ok, mostly it was me who was traumatized from it all, not my husband. He's a big strong man!)and next list of things our adorable son has done in less than a month that has scared, irritated, aggrivated, and hurt us.

There are many falls: from laundry baskets, tables, couches, chairs, his sisters arms, and our bed. There's the haircut he gave himself (a day after paying to have if professionally done), the shampoo incident (pink shampoo dumped in the hallway and our room while my husband could have swore he was just playing), the toothpaste tube emptied in the sink and on the floor and then tracked into the living room to tell me it was all over the place, (my husbands personal favorite) the packing peanuts he found in a box in our closet and spread all over our room in a blink of an eye, the many cups of liquid dumped on me or the floor (which he followed each time with the crazy scientist laugh), the cabinet hiding (he crawls into a cabinet and hides while I search everywhere for him, usually it ends when I hear the giggle from his hiding spot), his hugs he gives me when he climbs behind my back and then grabs my hair, pulls, and counters me from going backwards by putting his knees in my lower back (this one actually requires the help of my husband as I can't move when he does it), that time he put two dvds into my husbands PS3 (they came out ok, and it works fine, but it sure made a funky noise while they were both in there), and of course my personal favorite the random headbutts I receive which are generally followed by rubbing noses, cheek against cheek, and kisses. There are so many more things that happen on a day to day basis that scare the hell out of me and we recover from. I just can't remember them all (mental block maybe). Boys sure are different than girls, I can say that with complete certainty.


On another subject, I seem to have eliminated the trauma from the Mommy Wars (the women who felt it necessary to either comment or email me all about how wrong I was in my opinion and experience with my son and his poor little teeth). I am also thrilled to report that after I posted a list of the things I am for and against I didn't lose any followers. Thank you to my readers and followers, I like to believe that we can all have different views, opinions, and feelings on big and little issues and still be friends! You all ROCK!

 

Finally added the page...

Just a quick note... I finally got a chance to focus and write out our diabetic diagnosis story. I have been asked many, many times about Macy's diagnosis and how we found out she was diabetic. I made it into a page rather than a post.
It was a tough time to bring back, but it is important for us to share what happened to us to educate  other moms and dads out there with children who may be showing early warning signs.

The Mommy Wars

On Tuesday my son had a horrible dentist appointment and I told our story as I was sitting in the waiting room, powerless. I stated I was/am angry that I didn't know my baby should have his teeth wiped or brushed after nursing and that falling asleep nursing was bad for his teeth.

I got some comments, boy did I. I got some great comments from Moms who were like me and didn't know, Moms who were grateful for the information on nursing and on baby going to the dentist at age 1 instead of age 2. But I also got the 'mommy war' comments. Oddly enough all of the 4 comments I got that were negative were anonymous. (You say a lot when you say it anonymously.)

Well it got me thinking about my personal views and how little I share my opinions. I am a big believer that we each should have our own choice and right to make those choices. Yes, that means I am pro-choice (but that's not what I meant by own choices). But its not because I am anti-life, I just don't think our government should be involved. Now before you give me the pro-life vs pro-choice speech and try to correct me please understand that it is very important to me to respect other peoples beliefs and opinions. We each have the right to our own opinions and beliefs. We also each have our own reasons for believing the way that we do. Even if you disagree with someone else you can still be respectful and considerate. In turn I expect others to treat me with the same respect and consideration. (Even on the big ones like religion, political, life/choice, etc).

I think we tend to get wrapped up in why we believe a certain way and forget that other people have good reasons for why they believe the way they do as well. Every life experience we have pushes us one way or another. It is rare to find anyone with more than a few of the same life experiences we each have had. Most people aren't interested in sharing their life histories with others so that we can understand why they believe the way they do. And who can blame them? There are plenty of experiences in my life that I don't want to talk about to my closest friends and those are the ones that have shaped who I am the most. So if we all can take a step back and just remind ourselves that the person we completely disagree with probably has a very valid reason and life history that has molded what their beliefs and opinions are, then I think we have a greater chance of being a more caring and understanding person.

With that said, I am going to take a leap of faith and type out how I specifically feel on some very controversial subjects (and some not so controversial). Here are a few of my standings on such things:

Pro

Nursing (vs formula fed)

Co-sleeping

Sex education (which helps prevent needing to make the "choice")

Bearing Arms (although I also am very strict on how firearms are stored in regards to children and safety- My daddy is a retired sheriff, I grew up around guns.)

Choice (with extensive education on alternatives) I have always chosen life, but I don't want any bureaucrat telling me what I can and cannot do

Separation of Church and State

Alcohol

Adoption

Public (discreet) nursing

Co-Parenting (even if mom and dad are divorced, children deserve both parents to be active in their lives)

Anti:

Corporal punishment in children (ie, spanking, washing mouths out with soap, saucing, etc)

Health care profits (I sincerely believe all health care should be non-profit, no one should profit from the illness of another)

Physical Violence

Big Government

Bullying

Judging (unless you are on a jury, its not our jobs to judge those around us)

Emotional child manipulation [abuse] (best example is when mom and dad are getting a divorce and use the children against each other and don't even see the pain they are causing their children)

Using food to control anyone (especially children). I have a list of Food rules I came up with while I worked full time and had nanny's taking care of my children.



Those are the ones I can think of right now. There are of course things that don't fall into a category of for or against. Religion is a big one. My religious preferences and beliefs are something I keep very private. I had a very unpleasant experience with my ex-husbands church members (Seventh Day Adventist) in California. So I guess you could say I am a little gun shy when it comes to sharing my religious preferences. It is always shocking to me how judgemental people (who proclaim to be non-judgemental) can be. But that is a whole other story/post/subject.

Anyway, in regards to my post earlier this week, I very pro-nursing. I have nursed all my babies. I was very lucky to be able to easily. I have a lot of sincere sympathy for those who had difficulties nursing their babies. However, at the same time I don't judge moms who chose to bottle feed their babies.

[With one exception...if you chose not to nurse your children because you wanted to preserve your lovely breasts and didn't want your baby to ruin them (you may giggle and say who does that, but my ex-sister in law did just that and was very verbal about it) then I think your a selfish woman. But aside from that, everyone has their reasons for what they do.]

I provoked what one of my readers called "the mommy wars" by being angry that there is no education in regards to possible tooth decay with nursing. I had one person share links that 'prove' breast milk can not cause decay and was told by the same person I was going to cause hysteria. Wow. Really?

All I want is someone to make a flyer that is put in those bags we get when we go to the OB/GYN and the ones we get when we come home from the hospital with our new baby. A flyer that says, "Babies who fall asleep nursing have a high chance of developing tooth decay. To prevent decay and promote healthy habits in the future, wipe your babies gums and teeth off after nursing." And to mention its important to take your child to the dentist at 1 year of age. Its a quick and easy appointment more for introducing your child to the dentist and a quick check to make sure there are no problems with babies teeth.


I don't think that I am discouraging nursing or causing hysteria by saying that or by what I said last Tuesday.