Major Traffic Changes on 2100

Black Ginger Chai Tea

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A major traffic change on 2100 coming this weekend on April 21. The company doing the construction just sent me notice & I am forwarding it to the Star Courier.

 If  you or your friends want to be the first to know about road changes, sign up to be on this mailing list.

Please consider this notification of the following:

Beginning Saturday 4-21-12, FM 2100 from Diamond Head to Edna will become one lane in each direction.

Beginning Saturday 4-21-12, FM 2100 from Wahl thru the curve in the road at 1st Street will become one lane in each direction.

Traffic will remain in this configuration for several months.
Let’s celebrate…Isn’t it nice to have a “Book Reading Day,” where it’s cloudy & rainy outside, just like the good old days… Don’t forget to stock up on gourmet coffee & teas & aroma oils & candles. We have new shipments of candles & oils! Grat aromas can make a tension headache go away.

Speaking of gourmet tea, I have discovered the Black Ginger Chai is great at making a person fill full, to put off eating. I am loosing weight from it, without being hungry!

Here are the Health Benefits of this Tea….

This Chai is mixed with freshly ground whole spices of Clove, Star Anise, Ginger, Safflower, Cardamom, and Cinnamon & Pepper. Ginger heals the respiratory and digestive systems fight off colds and sore throats & reduces swelling. Cloves prevent colds & treat joint inflammation & arthritis. Cinnamon acts as a natural antibiotic & pain killer & is a stimulant that makes other herbs work faster in the body & treats arthritis, bruises, colds, cough, diarrhea, flatulence, infection, insect bites, nervous exhaustion, rheumatism, slow circulation, sore muscles, stomach cramps, stress, & toothache. Black Tea may help prevent heart attacks & stroke, & stimulates the cardiovascular system, so a weak heart pumps more oxygen. It’s said to prevent tooth decay, lower cholesterol, soothe arthritis, burn fat, prevent diarrhea, pneumonia, & may help prevent stomach, prostate, and breast cancer. TF-2 in Black Tea causes cancer cells to commit suicide. It can also relieve fatigue & improve overall brain power performance.

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Continuation of Part II

Shaun David McMillan age 6

I’ve got Gourmet Coffee, Tea & Candles for the super Bowl! Here’s a precious story about raising sons in the Texas Tradition.

I raised my sons the way I was raised, to introduce themselves to strangers as if they were their equal, look them in the eye & give a firm handshake. When my eldest son Shaun was in first grade, I flew to Washington, DC to visit my best friend & was late getting off the airplane. I was at the end of the line to leave the plane & heard some of the passengers snickering. I looked up & to my surprise, my blond, blue-eyed 6 year old Shaun was standing at the end of the escalator at package pickup & he was wearing his baby blue oxford shirt, rolled up at the slevest with rainbow colored suspenders & kackies.

The passengers were laughing, because he greeted every single person that got off the escalator with a handshake & said, “Hi, I’m Shaun David McMillan, Welcome to Texas!” Ronald Reagan was president & Shaun looked like a minie me version of Congressman Ted Poe! (That’s Shaun in the photo, sitting with me on the bed)

Isn’t this a sweet photo of Shaun with his younger brothers. Thisis their favorite picture. It was a happy simpler time. Now Shaun & Joseph aren’t speaking to each other or me. I know someday we will all be happy together again. Joseph lives in Austin & manages a commercial fencing company & I found out on facebook that he’s in a relationship. Shaun lives in Houston & is putting college classes online. The sweetheart, Joshy is now 6’5 & he manages the original Vans Store in LA.

I knocked myself out trying to be the best mother that ever lived. 2 of my sons would probably grade me with an F in parenting right now. But someday they will have kids of their own & see me in better light. Until then, I’m gonna be happy, because I know that’s how my Heavenly Father wants to see me, & my parents too!

The youngest Joshy, Shaun the oldest & Joseph is our middle son They are now 24, 26 & 28

PartII- What Makes Texans Different

My eldest son Shaun during better times

My father’s parents were the 2nd people to own their ranch since Texas was settled, located on part of the Chisholm Cattle Trail, as evidenced by the live oak trees scarred by longhorns. It is far from civilization in remote West Texas, so they never came in contact with modern day America. They could barely get 1 channel to watch the world news once a day & didn’t know who Marilyn Monroe or Elvis was.

They thought like their parents from the 1800s & taught us to introduce ourselves to adults as if we were their equal, to the delight of their friends & fellow ranchers. We were to give adults a firm handshake & look them straight in the eyes without blinking when we introduced ourselves. We were told to never trust a person who did not do the same, because that means they didn’t have a good Christian raising & don’t understand the way we think, & might be con artists!

I thought is adorable to find a passage from the past to show where that tradition began as written here…

“And then I could but notice that every boy was almost a knight errant. I noticed great deference paid to all the females: no man would remain sitting when one of us entered the house, fort, or camp, and thus it was everywhere as we traveled or camped out. All the severe work on such occasions was done by the men of the company.”

If you are a visitor in our great state, please allow me to offer a word of dating advise. A fine Texas lady will never take you seriously as a suitor if you show up in wrinkled clothing, & don’t remove your hat or open doors for her. George Straight is the perfect example of how to dress when you go to town or plan to meet a lady. You should have one pair of nice jeans & a pressed shirt set aside for such occasions. There are few things more enticing than the sound of the opposite sex talking in a heavy Texas accent & in men, it’s best spoken with authority, like Tommy Lee Jones, in the movie, “The Fugitive!” (He gets my vote for Sexiest Man alive!)

What makes Texans different

1-29-2012

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I had a busy week of checking in new shipments of everything imaginable & remember, you get 20% off for telling friends about us! Foreward this message to friends & they will also get 20% off on al their purchases.

Now that I’m finally caught up on the store, it’s time for me to share some wonderful tidbits about our Texan ancestry. I will begin this story as it first came to me as a child…My Mother was & is a gifted interior decorator, so as a young child, I asked if she approved of the strange things neighbors did with their houses, like converting a dining room into a bedroom, because the family had 3 sons & a daughter. The homes on our block were built during WWII & were small 3 bedroom, wood frame houses with only 1 bathroom. Our next door neighbors had 4 sons living in one bedroom like a military barrack, plus a daughter, all of whom had to be at school at the same time & you never heard any complaints about them having only 1 bathroom.

Mother said our neighbors were to be complimented, for being original & inventive. She said Texans learn to improvise & never worry about what, “Outsiders,” might think. She said, “Making things work  & doing with what you already have on hand, is priority to all else.”

Mother was also constantly quoting her parents. Raise your hand if you are from Texas & have heard ancestors say countless times,”If there’s a will, there’s a way,” & ”If it doesn’t kill you, it will make you stronger!” Our Texan ancestors knew that was truth, because they saw many of their contemporaries, die! (My favorite new saying is, “Success is a ladder that cannot be climbed with your hands in our pockets!”)

I’m writing today to say, Eureka, I located where that type of thinking began in a book called, “Texas Tears & Texas Sunshine.” This passage is from the diary of Ann Rainey Thomas Coleman, a young school teacher who traveled to Texas with her new husband, a school teacher.

The country was full of bachelors, but few very few ladies. When bedtime came, we were ushered into a room where there were several beds. We did not like this much, as we expected a room to ourselves, but on being told that the gentlemen slept on one side and the ladies on the other side of the room, I opened both my eyes and ears and looked again at my hostess, who did not seem to be jesting. Presently several more ladies came in to go to bed. They went through the undressing operation quickly and were all in bed long before we had got over our surprise at this new fashion of sleeping.

We soon undressed but did not divest ourselves of all our garments, keeping on outside garments which were calico wrappers. We had only been in bed about an hour when the gentlemen came in one by one until all had retired. I watched with breathless suspense the coming of the last one. This was something we were not accustomed to, and it was several nights before I could sleep—not until nature was completely exhausted and overcome with watching.

The ladies all laughed at us and said, “By the time you have been in Texas a few months, if you travel in the country, you will have to sleep with the man and his wife in the house you visit,” as houses were only log cabins with two rooms, one for house servants, the other for the family. I found this statement correct, visiting some friends in the country two weeks after this who had a small log cabin with two rooms in it, the servants and cooking one, the other to sleep in.

I had to sleep with the man and his wife. I slept at the back of the bed, the wife in the middle and the man in the front. They were settlers, had gone into the woods to make a plantation, and this was considered shelter for the present. They worked thirty hands, and several negroes lived together in one cabin. This was the way most of the wealthy planters lived when we first arrived in Texas. A double log cabin with an entry running through the middle was their residence. To make money was their chief object, all things else were subsidiary to it.

Let me site some modern day Texans, who carry forward this type of thinking & become famous for it. Joel Osteen if a perfect example. His father was much like Joyce Myers in his teaching where he would quote scripture & then teach as if he were teaching his children as he spoke to his congregation. Joel’s father, Pastor John Osteen was raised in abject poverty during the depression, & he practically invented, “Thinking outside the Box,” without worrying what others would think. The first time I visited Pastor Osteens Church in the early 1980, it looked like a prison compounded surrounded with super tall mesh fencing topped with barbed wire,  surrounded with security guards who escorted visitors on & off the premises, complete with a lookout. When you first entered the sanctuary, it was a huge metal building with cement floors, not all that different from, “Gilley’s” (famous western dance hall owned by Micky Gilly) & had tv’s hanging from the rood with chains & water buckets to catch the water from a leaky rood when it rained.

The late great Pastor Osteen was an original Texan, who worried not what others might think. Today, Northerners love & adore Joel Osteen, but to us he’s just a normal Texan. Funny, sarcastic, great story teller, great sence of humor, with a tender heart. And for the record, he also thinks outside the box. He was a marketing major in college & left college early to start his father’s TV ministry.

You’ll just have to excuse us Texans if we are a little arrogant or take a lot of pride in our state. It’s cause of our incredible Christian heritage!

I will be closed today on Sunday 1-29-12, because my dear friend Theresa suffered the death of her 23 year old daughter-in-law, who died in her sleep. Please say a prayer for Theresa in Conroe, & I will be there to do what I can. I’ll be open at 1 on Monday. God bless you all until next time, & I hope you’ll find some time to stop by the store for some sweet tea & spicy talk!

Kathy Martin- Trash Talking Texan of the Year

Kathy Martin & Bernadette Vital taken Sunday, Dec. 18th, 2011

I have known Kathy for 15 years, but goodness gracious, I never knew what a pistol she is until she came for visit to Best Tea & Candles while Bernadette Vital & Marie Nichols were in the store. OMG, the 4 of us together was nuclear. Kathy told rapid fire jokes & stories like an automatic weapon & she did something I thought was impossible. She made Marie blush & before that day I would have awarded Marie the winner of the contest.

I cannot repeat one thing that she said here, but stop by the store for a visit & you might run into her. This was Sunday morning & she had just gotten out of church at the Crosby Brethren Church, where she plays the piano.

Bernadette & Marie had also left church at Sr Martin De Pores Catholic Church in Barrett. We laughed so hard that it was medicine to my soul, just like it says in Proverbs. I think we made our Heavenly Father smile. I asked Kathy if I could take her picture & put her on this email & she replied, “Tell them I killed an armadillo with a rusty shovel!”

This armadillo messed with Kathy Martin & she killed it with a Rusty Shovel!

When ladies came in, while we were telling stories & cutting up, Bernadette says, “Don’t mind us, we are just old & Crazy!”

A gentleman customer friend of mine, named Mac Perry, a local pipe inspector, walked into the store & the ladies got real quiet & made super boring, normal conversation. But the second he left the store, they went back to high volume trash talking & rapid fire stories & once again & I laughed until I cried!

These measuring cups are only $40 with your Circle of Friends 20% Off Discount!

The SR Auction House Christmas Party Pics!

12-17-11
Letter from Gena below pics…Don’t miss photo of Marie & Bernadette…It’s great for a big smile!

Friends,                                                                                     12-17-2011

Open Sun-Mon 1-6! Call or send an email if you want a jumbo Circle E Cookie Jar Candle. I will order them on Monday & I need to know what aroma you want. They go for $59.99 & make great gifts. If you call ahead, I may be able to gift wrap it for you, so you will really shine to show some love! Don’t forget I also have affordable handmade quilts starting at $50.

I wanted to mention something I learned the hard way, …it’s important to celebrate the holidays. I wanted alarge family, so we decided to forgo spending money on holidays & vacations to afford children. We married when I was 20 & thought that was an excellent idea. how 20 often think themselves smarter than their parents…I thought this was a brilliant idea. We had 3 sons by the time I was 25 & barely had any money to give them Christmas. I learned the hard way that omitting holidays leads to burn out & depression.

A friend kindly pointed out that God commanded the Jews to celebrate many times a year. Now you know why I knock myself to celebrate & decorate for Christmas. Now that I am no longer at home with a family, I see the people of Crosby as my family. It does my heart good to hear the excitement in the voices of friends/customers over the Christmas lights on the porch. I go one step further & put the lights up when the time changes. The bright colored Christmas lights stay up until the time changes in springtime.

It doesn’t cost a lot to do a little decorating & if nothing else, purchase a small tree for & make decorations for it…use your imagination.Considering I have a gift shop, I don’t push people to spend more than they can afford. One of the keys of happiness is living within one’s means.

I want my customers to do well & flourish & hope for them to be stress free. I have wonderful childhood memories of decorating the holidays with Mother & my 2 sisters. We no longer purchase gifts for each other, but we each bring something to add to the celebration. There is a lot to be said for scented candles & gourmet teas or coffee on a cold winter night. Mother makes fudge & Christmas cookies & my sisters bake & one of my sisters will bring a bottle of white wine.

Click on the photo below for Easy Recipes

Mother has beautiful crystal & dishware & does beautiful wreaths. She throws a Christmas party for her friends every year. We have a wonderful time celebrating holidays together & there is very little stress, since we don’t rush to the mall to purchase gifts.

However, we do purchase gifts for our parents, to honor them for the sacrifices they made to raise us. Even if you don’t get along with your parents, they certainly had to work to feed & cloth you. Parents suffer & do without to raise children. There is an awful lot of kids not talking to parents & I regret doing that in the past. I have changed my perspective on this over the years. It says in the scripture that God will give us long life if we honor our father & mother. It doesn’t say, “If they deserve it.” It sounds like honoring our parents is a favor to ourselves. I want long life, don’t you?

Why it’s Important to Celebrate Christmas & other Holidays

Friends,

Open Sun-Mon 1-6! Call or send an email if you want a jumbo Circle E Cookie Jar Candle. I will order them on Monday & I need to know what aroma you want. They go for $59.99 & make great gifts. If you call ahead, I may be able to gift wrap it for you, so you will really shine to show some love! Don’t forget I also have affordable handmade quilts starting at $50.

$59.99

I wanted to mention something I learned the hard way, …it’s important to celebrate the holidays. I wanted alarge family, so we decided to forgo spending money on holidays & vacations to afford children. We married when I was 20 & thought that was an excellent idea.  how 20 often think themselves smarter than their parents…I thought this was a brilliant idea. We had 3 sons by the time I was 25 & barely had any money to give them Christmas. I learned the hard way that omitting holidays leads to burn out & depression. A friend kindly pointed out that God commanded the Jews to celebrate many times a year.

Now you know why I knock myself to celebrate & decorate for Christmas. Now that I am no longer at home with a family, I see the people of Crosby as my family. It does my heart good to hear the excitement in the voices of friends/customers over the Christmas lights on the porch. I go one step further & put the lights up when the time changes. The bright colored Christmas lights stay up until the time changes  in springtime. It doesn’t cost a lot to do a little decorating & if nothing else, purchase a small tree for & make decorations for it…use your imagination.

Considering I have a gift shop, I don’t push people to spend more than they can afford. One of the keys of happiness is living within one’s means * I want my customers to do well & flourish & hope for them to be stress free. I have wonderful childhood memories of decorating the holidays with Mother & my 2 sisters. We no longer purchase gifts for each other, but we each bring something to add to the celebration. There is a lot to be said for scented candles & gourmet teas or coffee on a cold winter night. Mother makes fudge & Christmas cookies & my sisters bake & one of my sisters will bring a bottle of white wine. Mother has beautiful crystal & dishware & does beautiful wreaths. She throws a Christmas party for her friends every year. We have a  wonderful time celebrating holidays together & there is very little stress, since we don’t rush to the mall to purchase gifts.

However, we do purchase gifts for our parents, to honor them for the sacrifices they made to raise us. Even if you don’t get along with your parents, they certainly had to work to feed & cloth you. Parents  suffer & do without to raise children. There is an awful lot of kids not talking to parents & I regret doing that in the past. I have changed my perspective on this over the years. It says in the scripture that God will give us long life if we honor our father & mother. It doesn’t say, “If they deserve it.” It sounds like honoring our parents is a favor to ourselves. I want long life, don’t you?

I’m much happier now that I make a point of celebrating the changing seasons. I don’t have little children to make Christmas for, but I have friends/adults who appreciate the decorations more than my children did when they were growing up. I have hot coffee, tea & desserts for customers, because I want to show some love. Not everything is about making money. In business, I hope to make enough to keep doing what I am doing. I hope to be an encouragement, because discouragement leads to depression. I’m an artist & sensitive to discouragement. That is why I knock myself to be an encouragement. One has to be willing to share their personal struggles to be an encouragement. Joyce Myers is one of my heros & she would help people very little if she did not share the details of her personal life. You know she must be very courageous to talk about her abusive childhood & personal details of her private life. She is such an encouragement to me & she’s funny to boot! What a blessing & a fine Texas lady!

Marie & Bernadette Vital

Speaking of some of Texas’s Finest ladies, here’s a photo of 2 of Texas’s finest…my dear friends Marie & Bernadette Vital.  Aren’t they precious! They visit weekly, so maybe you will run into them at the shop. We are a female version of Floyd’s Barber Shop on, “The Andy Griffith Show.” That’s where I got the term (from Aunt Bea), “Sweet Tea & Spicy Talk.”

I enjoy giving a surprise gift basket to someone who doesn’t expect it…maybe even a stranger. I chewed out a young man on this street, for being disrespectful. He was intoxicated & deserved it, but now I think it would be nice for him to wake up to a gift basket on his porch to share with his family. I’ll tell that story at another time. But I also want to mention to be safe while traveling & be patient with traffic. Try not to get upset about situation where you have no control. I am always trying to give things to God, so I don’t force issues that might need some finesse. All we can do is our best, we aren’t perfect, but hopefully we make progress. That is all you can ask of yourself.

I will be spending Christmas with Mother & her brother’s family…always a ton of fun.  Mother’s sister in NM has Alzthimers, so Mother spent 10 days with her during Thanksgiving. My sisters spent Thanksgiving with their inlaws & we had no family Thanksgiving this year. But I plan to double celebrate Christmas to make up for it. I expect to be back at the store & open at 1:00 the Monday after Christmas. Thank you to all of you who gave me business this year & for mentioning the blog. Almost everyone that comes in the store mentions the blog & I like the encouragement. It motivates me greatly. Oh & a free bottle of effusion oil to Sherry Chapman’s husband for motivating me to put the prices of the quilts online. My customers are where I get the motivation to do all that I do. Your opinions count & I appreciate the feedback.

Click below for some great Holiday recipes & have a very Merry Christmas! God bless, Gena at Best Tea & Candles Co.

Squash Cake w/Cream Cheese Icing

Click below for pics of the Nutcracker Market

The Nutcracker Market in Houston

Warning…”Politically Incorrect & Proud of it…Can I get an Amen!”

Tomorrow, I will be checking in $2000. worth of Jewelry. You will love the prices…I’m selling it cheap as I can & that’s my way of saying, “Merry Christmas,” to the great people of Crosby, Tx. Elizabeth Taylor’s jewels are in the news, but the jewelry I’m checking in is beautiful & flamboyant in fantastic crystals & colors. Put on a silk scarf with one of these pins & we’ll be the stars of our community…besides, it brings smiles to the faces of the hard working gents to see us dressed up. Brighten the world with something beautiful for less than $20.

I am posting my Thanksgiving email below, because Bernadette asked me to. Please pray for my dear friend Bernadette Vital…She is carrying a heavy load to adjust to being widowed this time of year. Her & another dear friend of ours, Marie came by to visit Sunday evening & & we laughed until we cried telling stories that can’t be repeated here. I get to talking with a super heavy west Texas drawl, which is proof positive that I’m country as dirt. Marie has the lovely voice of a movie star & can punctuate meaning like no one that I have ever known. I’m sure it was a symphony of laughter to the Lord’s ears, & I don’t think he minded our colorful stories. We get to be ourselves & say all the things we’ve been thinking, but had the good sense not to say to anyone else.

The first thing Bernadette said when she walked in was, “My friend’s daughter got pregnant at a religious retreat!” That’s when the laughter began, & it went on for 3 hours, but it felt like our visit only  lasted 30 minutes. I love history & Bernadette teaches Art & is an educator. We discussed our ancestors who  were crazy enough to come to Texas, & the states around us. Our conversations are so politically incorrect, that it would be scandalous  to repeat, but it’s about the craziness of human nature & wondering what God thinks about all the backwardness of this world. We give our opinions on everything from Joyce Myers to the Pope, & the movie, “The Help.”  There is no subject too sacred for us to share our two bits on & “Having to smile & pretend to agree with outsiders that don’t understand the way we think, is my favorite topic.  True love & friendship transcends race, politics & religion, & if you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m white & nondenominational. Bernadette & Marie are Catholic & Bernadette is black & Marie claims to be, but she’s almost as white as I am. We are flamboyant, outspoken, God fearing, loving Southern women & proud of it! Aint it wonderful to be living in God’s Country here in Texas…Can I get an Amen?

When customers come in, they can’t help but snicker listening to us & then we draw them into the conversation….Bernadette said, “We’re just doing some trash talking about our relatives & some of the crazy people we’ve known…so what’s your name young lady, & where are you from?”

The new customer told her name & sure enough, Bernadette & Marie knew her Uncle & the wife he lost at age 20…Small world! My point is that friendship is a wonderful thing & laughter is good for the soul. When I’m sad, it’s like my heart barely has enough strength to keep beating. But after a little time with Bernadette & Marie, my heart is beating in my chest with the strength of a youngun. Just remembering the joy of our visit & way us southern women can creatively express ourselves, makes me feel 10 years younger. Friends are family that we get to pick for ourselves & we love each other more than words can say. I bet God was  laughing with us…I know it does his heart good to hear our laughter, just like we used to listen to the crazy stories our kids would tell their friends in the middle of the night, when the electricity would go out. Their voices would travel up the stairwell  & we’d laugh at the conversations we weren’t supposed to hear…there ain’t nothing like the high you get off love & laughter… Aint it awesome when laughter is infectious!

Here’s the email that Bernadette didn’t get to read at the time. I love you Bernadette…I’d give you a kidney if you needed one! Merry Christmas!

11-24-2011……I’ll be open at 10 & have a wonderful friend coming to hang out with me. Her name is Bernadette Vital & when we get together, we tell each other stories & laugh until we cry. No, we’re not drunk off anything but friendship, but our laughter is infectious. I am so grateful to have Bernadette for a friend. Earlier this year, I thought, “Bernadette & I could be happy as widows if we lived beside each other & could keep each other company…well that actually happened…

This Thanksgiving is an odd one for Bernadette & I, cause we are overflowing with joy, despite getting a black eye from fate this past year. Bernadette lost the most wonderful husband, Harry Vidal, a truly gifted, highly honored artist, writer & Gospel singer,  Educator, & father. He was too wonderful for me to share it all, but we are counting it a blessing that he lived to be 70, being he was a victim of Agent Orange from serving his country. His funeral was at St. Martin de Pores Catholic Church in Barret & was the nicest funeral I have ever had the privaledge to attend.

I didn’t exactly loose my husband this past year, but I did give him his walking papers & moved into my store, which makes this the best year of my adult life. 2 of my adult sons aren’t speaking to me, but they’ll eventually get over it & someday my x & my sons will thank me for putting an end to a relationship that was no longer a blessing.

The economy gave me a black eye this past year, being I’m still $6000 behind my sales for this time last year, but I’m still paying my bills on time & am in great health & look & feel better than I have my entire adult life. Laughter is intoxicating & I laugh more than I ever have. The store is paid off & that another thing to be grateful for. I’m grateful my business survived relatively unscathed & that I have so many wonderful friends & customers in Crosby.

The RR bridge construction had begun, which means we can beging the count down to it’s finish which will bring Crosby great prosperity & progress. We’ll suffer in the short term, but hey, no pain, no gain. EMS can’t get to people that need their help with the train stopping traffic 3 times an hour, & lives may be saved once the brige is finished & they can get to accidents as ASAP.

If you want to hear some great stories & need a good laugh,  visit Bernadette & I at the store today. You’ll be glad you did. Our friendship is much like the girls that had the cafe in the movie, “Fried Green Tomatoes.” But we promise to refrain from having a food fight…I think…

Gena at Best Tea & Candles

“Breaking Boredom” with Online Dating!

It’s been said that friends are family that we choose for ourselves. I choose Lewis Spearman, above, who writes the Star Courier, to be my spiritual brother. He has the personality of a cigar smoking, gambler, but is a preacher’s son, with a tender conscience &  huge heart. Lewis is also single & lives down the street from my store. He helped me obtain my Impala & we call each other when we have car trouble or a ride to the airport. We have been friends for over 20 years & we do some terrific trash talking & have been known to spike our tea to watch the Super Bowl & such! (Smiley face)

Newspaperman Lewis Spearman

Since I’m into computer tech, I decided to join online dating for one month & picked Match.com since it is the best…easy to use & most popular. I have tried online dating, but I don’t fare well, because no one wants to date a lady with a small income that lives in her store. I copied my old profile & loaded some photos.

For those who are interested I will give you the low down on online dating. If something looks too good to be true, then it probably is. People from other countries can easily go online & post a picture of an attractive person & write a profile where a gentleman says, “I will relocate for love.” You figure out that someone is a fake if there profile is too good to be true & they are from another country. They will ask you to move to yahoo instant messaging. These people are pretty much harmless. Don’t respond & they will go away. I’ve been told they will ask you for money if you chat with them.

When you first go up on a dating site, you are the new girl in town & get tons of email.

Now I can do what I planned, & put in the Crosby zip code & do a search for all the gentleman listed within 10 miles. I am guessing there were around 30 single gentleman listed in this area & they describe their businesses, their age & personal lives, along with photos, so I was able to see exactly who was single in this part of town. It was fun to see people I knew & read about the different business owners in Crosby.

Gena McMillan- Blogger

I gotta tell you I am impressed with all the business owners in this town & since these people are local, all I had to do was ask around among friends for references. One gentleman was on the board of the Highlands boat club & such as that, so it is easy to find out who people are & if they are telling the truth.

Business owners are often the first to trek into new territory, on the computer, & online dating makes sense, because you can see right away if you agree on politics & religion, or if someone has young kids or doesn’t want children.

It’s been my experience that the majority of men are looking for someone to chat with online, & not a relationship. I photograph well, so I get tons of email from men in other states & they just want to chat, which is a waste of time. My rule is to never respond to anyone that is outside of my local area. I ask around if I get an email from someone in our area & if they seem nice & normal, I will offer to be friends with them & invite them to visit my store during the day while I am open.

I know the majority of single people in this town & not really looking for a quote, “Boyfriend.” I’m an odd ball in that I really love living alone in my store. I call it, “Breaking Boredom,” & it is truly a blast to pull up the crazy photos & crazy things men write on these dating sites. My computer screen is a huge flat screen led tv, so it keeps us girls entertained.

I’m considered high profile, because if I give someone my real name & they Google me, they get pages & pages of stuff online about tea, & quilting & my store & blog. It is akin to being in high school with girlfriends over my shoulder telling me a funny thing to say back to these online gentlemen.

Us girls are having a blast without me leaving my office chair. What’s really fun is getting email from high profile people that we can Google to read newspaper articles & such, like a famous cardiologist who never leaves the hospital, but amuses himself with online chatting.

Spare me the lecture about danger. I almost died of heart failure in 2007, stared death in the eyes without blinking & am no longer afraid of anything. I am gonna have time with the time I have left on this earth & no longer live like a scaredy cat. Yes, I am careful not to put that I have a tea & candle emporium inCrosby, Tx on my profile. But come one people, have a sense of humor & laugh, it’s good for the immune system! (Now you know my girlfriends & I are

gonna find a way to amuse ourselves..us be good…Oh please!”

Paula Miller, hometown girl with a heart of gold & Texsa Backbone. Colorful …Stop by the store to hang out with us! 

“Me?? Behave?? Seriously!! As a child I saw Tarzan almost naked, Cinderella arrived home after midnight, Pinocchio told lies, Aladdin was a thief, Batman drove over 200 miles an hour, Snow White lived in a house with 7 men, Popeye smoked a pipe & had tattoos, Pac Man ran around to digital music while eating pills that enhanced his performance & Shaggy and Scooby were mystery solving hippies that always had the munchies. The fault is not mine! “

Texans Taking Authority (Warning Politically incorrect!) Jan 7, 2012

My good friend Janese Ballard told the most wonderful story about taking control of a dangerous situation & making 2 bad guys wait for the cops to come.  She took authority with the sound of her voice like Tommy Lee Jones in the movie, “The Fugitive.” I promised I would share my best, “Taking Authority Story,” so here goes…

I was celebrating my 49th birthday on April 29, 2010, when my soon to be x ran into my store, & ripped out my computer system by the cords & robbed the cash drawer. He did in the middle of the day while the store was open. I had been trying to serve him with a restraining order for weeks, to no avail. Men can certainly be some evasive creatures! Yes, I got video of the dastardly deed, but little good that would do me, because he had effectively destroyed the heart & brain of my business the week before Mother’s Day. The cost & time it would take to replace the damage seemed infinite & I was trying not to get upset or stress about it, but you know that was a tough day for me.

It was beautiful last spring & Kernohan Street was lit by the moon & street lights, such a lovely street to take walks on, because of no threatening guard dogs to interrupt communion with God, under the stars. The sound of a cool breeze rustled the new green leaves on the trees & it was a perfect place of peace & serenity. I’m doing self talk…”Gena, getting upset won’t fix anything. It’s a gorgeous night, so walk the stress off. If I walk to the end of the street & back 4 times, that will be a mile long walk, good for the heart, body & soul!”

I was walking so hard that I was almost running, because of the stress. It’s stressful wondering if you can make a living or be forced back into a marriage, that you are trying to escape from. There are legal issues, money issues, a million miles of red tape. Divorces are the pits & 2 of my 3 adult children weren’t speaking to me. I had Mount Everest to climb. Yall know, raise your hand if you have ever been through a divorce!

I’m almost to the point of finding peace, when a shrill whistle pierces my ears. There is a slum lord on this street that rents exclusively to illegal aliens. (Oh heck, forget being politically correct, this is how Texans talk).A drunk wetback that is the age of my adult sons is whistling & laughing & jeering at me. That whistle had the same affect on my nerves, as throwing a wrench onto a glass coffee table. It shattered my peace.

The whole point of getting a divorce, was for me to take a stand against disrespect. My x & middle adult son had been having a, “Who can disrespect Mom the Most Contest,” for the past 20 years.  I was going through hell to draw a line in the sand that no one is to disrespecting me. Sorry folks, but I had just reached my lifetime limit on disrespect, so I did something I have never done before in my entire life. I took authority over a stranger & ordered him,”Stop! Do not DISRESPECT me!”

Now he has rock music blaring & is whistling & jeering 10 times as much as he had before. I was 60 feet away from him & took off running to kick his ass! That was the first time I’d run in years & I actually surprised myself…Ha ha! I ran onto his porch as he desperately tried to get his wife & child into his home. I got to him before he could get in the door & proceeded to chew him out,”Don’t you dare disrespect me! I have sons your age & I will take you out & I know how…I will call immigration & the authorities. This is MY STREET & you will not disrespect me!”

I surprised myself by taking ownership of all of Kernohan Street,(I wish I owned this entire street!) This was my one sanctuary, where I would not stand for disrespect. Taking a stand against disrespect caused me to loose my health insurance in 2011. OUCH! Sometimes a Texan simply has to say, “Enough!” 

The young man could now see my face. He pointed at my store & said, “You are that lady?” I nodded yes.  (He thought I was a teenager when he saw me walking in shorts at a distance.) He begged for forgiveness & fell to one knee, trying to think of every word in the English language to fix the situation, “Please, apologies, sorry, please!”

I motioned for the young man to rise to his feet, smiled & said, “Just don’t let it happen again!” And I was off to finish my walk in a perfect evening of peace & serenity under the stars.

The ingredients for Yellow Midlife Tea just arrived from 3 different companies & I’ll have it on the shelves by the time you get to the store. I have new shipments of jewelry on the way & 2 brands of wax melts will be here  in a few days. All is well with world.

My aunt rescues animals for the wild life department. The animals are tame until they become teenagers.

God bless until next time,

Gena

McMillan Family Art & Pictures of Quilts & Store

Creating daily rituals, making daily tasks into times of enrichment through planning & special personal details, is a way to live a richer, more satisfying life. It may seem an obvious point, yet it is so easy to do! But in my work as an interior designer, I have found that many people need advice about redesigning the small details of everyday living. They need this much more than they need advice about how to design a brand new living room.

Samuel Johnson is a hero of mine. His life was not an easy journey, yet he lived day by day with a sense of urgency, reverence & passion. “The process,” he insisted. “is the reality.” As I’ve worked in the decorative arts over these past 25 years, I’ve become convinced that only by paying careful attention to the simple details of daily tasks & our immediate surroundings can we live vitally & beautifully all the days of our lives. It takes a commitment to enjoy each day fully & it takes respect for the significance of grace.

“Rituals” is a my term for patterns you create in your everyday living that uplift the way you do ordinary things, so that a simple task rises to the level of something special, ceremonial, ritualistic. Rituals can elevate the way you feel about yourself, your life, & make you more peaceful & more free, more useful to others.

The difference between feeling bored & feeling alive, I believe, lies in a stimulating daily life  that is elevated into a fuller experience through pleasing details. When these small moments are handled  lovingly & with thought & care, they become life enhancing & make you capable of doing more with the rest of your time.

Instead of rushing through our lives to get somewhere, I think it’s important to remember that each single day is all we have.  Single days experienced fully add up to a lifetime lived deeply & with meaning. Today is your life, not yesterday or tomorrow. If we have tomorrow, it will be a gift, but what we do today, right now will affect our tomorrows. Living well is a habit & daily rituals improve & reinforce good life habits.

Logan Pearsall Smith said, “There are 2 things to aim at in life: First, to get what you want, & after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieves the second. “Special events should be exclamation marks in our lives, but ordinary days need to be celebrations too, as meaningful & beautiful as the big events. Small personal touches added to the things we do repeatedly create rituals that give us confidence & energy. You have power over your daily life. You can set up useful systems that will help you sustain these rituals in many satisfying ways.

My mother created a beautiful home environment, which helped me learn how to see & how to live. Mother’s innate aesthetic sense affected everything she did. When I think back to the meals we ate together as a family, I remember the fresh flowers on the table, the food attractively arranged on the plate & planned partly with color in mind.

To Mother, truth was beauty lived each day. Not only did Mother teach me to appreciate beauty by her example, she also taught me the importance of creating beauty. By her example she conveyed that beauty is essential for happiness & an allow of love.

This exert is from a book called, “Living a Beautiful Life,” by Alexandra Stoddard.

 The previous exert is from a book, but it is a perfect description of things I loved about my mother when I was a little girl. My mother, Bobbie Brewer Pierson is an extraordinary artist & interior designer.

 I found this out when I was in third grade when she decided to enter some of her work in the Heart of Texas Fair & Rodeo in Waco, Tx.  She won blue, purple & tri-color ribbons on everything she entered until they made her a judge to remove her from competition. She could design & sew any creation she dreamed up & her oil paintings left people speechless with admiration for her talent.

I’m pictured here putting cookies in the oven for a newspaper interview. We were also on a TV program with Mother &  I got in my head that I would hang on to the gifts I was privileged to share with her & never allow myself to loose the gift of creativity.

Most children are creative, but it gets schooled out of them. I remember the teacher telling us that trees were green & I preferred flunking the assignment by making the tree orange for the season of fall, instead of doing what I had been instructed to do. I made up my mind that I wanted to be like her & I still feel that way.

Thanks for listening & stop by the shop some time & bring your mother. If she’s in a walker & can’t get out much, she can sit in my quilting recliner. We have free coffee & tea samples served hot & I won’t be offended if run in & out for a cup of  coffee to go or to use our newly restored restroom. Customers are friends & that what friends are for!

My Mother created her own clothing designs. Photo taken from The Waco Tribune Herald in 1973

 

At the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo Gena won 2nd with, “The Passion Quilt.”

At the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo Gena McMillan was awarded a First Place Ribbon in 2007 for “Water Lilies”

Gena & her son, Shaun McMillan & his own award winning art work below, featured in “Show Trucks Magazine.”

Shaun painted these show trucks when he was in high school.

Gena has 3 sons, Shaun 27,  & Joseph 26 & Josh 24, pictured below.