Rambling on the last week and such

I have *got* to get in the habit of carrying my camera around on my person so that I can post pictures here! I love blog photos, so what is wrong with me not doing it? If I had been photo journaling my tea stash each month end it would be a much better thing to follow. Plus anyone who looks at it will immediately notice what changes have been made from the previous photos. Yep, I need to be photographing what my posts are about. I am a HUGE visual learner anyway, it would probably make a bigger impact on my results if I had the photographic inducement (if that is even a word).

I do appreciate all the suggestions on how I could be handling this tea hoarding better. And I am almost thinking I should do Kristin's suggestion of donating tea and starting over fresh. But on the other hand it seems like I am learning something about myself by seeing the tea stash going down and even more, learning to resist the temptation of the Siren's Call of the Tea Aisle! And in case you are worried that I am drinking old, crappy tea that has lost it's flavor; fear not! I am still drinking tea that is in tins and not too old yet. The much newer tea is from a now-defunct teapot and tea store that is sealed in those heavy pouches like coffee beans come in. As soon as I get done with all the other tea I will open one pouch of this tea at a time and put it into the tins I am saving on the top shelf of my pantry. I think as long as those bags are still hermetically sealed that tea should last forever. The bags look like something that goes into the Space Station. I will do my best to get in there and photograph each shelf of the tea space in the pantry and I will also try to finish off one tin before moving on to the next rather than skipping around and never using the last bit of tea in any of them!

Last weekend Rachel Pie and I went on a retreat with lots of doulas and just spent the weekend either in swimsuits or in pajamas. It was so relaxing and exactly what I needed. Even if I couldn't get any of them to put their brains back in and play Mah Jongg with me! : ) Maybe another time . . . . . . Then we got back home and Rachel Pie started cleaning out her room and we have a huge donation stack for Goodwill. Two big thumbs up for that! Tuesday she left me and went back to school for a job interview. Summer jobs trump staying at home with Mom and playing cards all night for some reason. Sad, sad, sad has been my mood. Even if the small Rachel Pie girl wasn't my own daughter, my very own flesh and blood I would still want to know her and hang out with her all the time. She is just flat out one of the most awesome people on the planet. Yea Rachel!!! I say Hooray for Rachel Pie all the time and I have all her life. She really is the best.

Then I went to see my sister to help her prepare for her daughter (my niece Katie Pie) to graduate high school and all the festivities with family. The weather was beautiful, the company was the best, and the food turned out really good. I see great things ahead in little Katie Pie's future. She has a great head on her perfect shoulders! My sister has done an awesome job raising her kids.

And as much fun as it has been making all these little jaunts around the state to see people graduate and celebrate them and their accomplishments, it is so nice to come home and get back to a routine. Plus when I am gone I don't get to sleep with 15 cats and one fat dog! Don't get me wrong, I missed Mr. Big Ed too. But I missed my furry creatures! Niece and nephew dogs and cats are fun, but you don't have the intimate knowledge of which one likes scratching behind the ears vs. the one that wants it under the chin. You know what I mean.

Now I am back to my glamourous life of doing laundry and cleaning up furr balls. Oh. the. joy.