I Won the Tea and Me Blog & Harts of America Giveaway

So two years ago, (I wasn’t kidding when I said I was behind on my posts), I won the Tea and Me Blog & Harts of America giveaway. You know me and free, I just can’t resist.

Anytime I see a giveaway I have to enter it.

So I ended up winning a bag of Pacific Spearmint and Sleepynight Extra Strength Tea

Harts of America is such a cute company. When you open the package of your tea, each bag of loose leaf has a cute little postcard, which not only discusses the ingredients of the tea but has a little romantic meet-cute that has been shared by fans of the tea. So romantic and sweet!

Soooo cute!!!!

I tried the Pacific Spearmint right away, but even through it was delicious, something in the ingredients activated my allergies and I couldn’t continue to drink it. I believe I am allergic to spearmint as I love mint it never seems to bother me.

However, my niece absolutely adored it and I ended up giving the tea to her.

Pacific Spearmint Tea and Anne of Green Gables

Now the Sleepytime tea, that was a different story. I have suffered from insomnia for years and nothing has helped. I can’t take most medications as I’m really sensitive to them and always experience the side effects. I have tried all kinds of different teas, habits, etc.; but nothing has helped. The only thing that has worked is this amazing tea! Every time I am struggling with sleep, I drink it and it helps.

Because I love this Sleepytime Extra Strength tea I have shared it with friends and family, converting one of my friends into becoming a serious customer of Harts of America. She recently shared a Chamomile Mint she had just ordered and it was delicious.

Sleepynight Extra Strength Tea

This company has absolutely wonderful tea and I highly I recommend it. Every order has free shipping, it’s reasonably priced (on average $4-$5 a bag), and they have a variety of caffeinated and non-caffeinated tea.

And again, if you too have any issues sleeping or troubles with insomnia i cannot stress enough to check out Extra Strength Sleepytime Tea. You won’t be sorry!

For more giveaway posts, go to I Won the BookNookMajorieMaeShop Giveaway

For more tea posts, go to Spill the Tea: Tea Bar and Fusion Café Review

A few years back I was given a collection of five teas, A World of Teas. As I was about to try them out, I started thinking: which books would best suit these teas? After all, nothing goes together better than a good book and a delicious cup of tea.

Since then I try my best to repeat it whenever I review new teas. 🙂

Let’s spill the tea.

Tea #1: Pacific Spearmint

Pacific Spearmint was cool and relaxing. Spearmint is known to help with fevers and digestive disorders, and if I hadn’t been allergic to it, I definitely would have drank more of it.

As this tea is from the Northwest, I tried to find a book to match. One I enjoy reading and find to be equally enjoyable and a relaxing reread. I decided to pair it with Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers.

The story of Redeeming Love, is a retelling of an Old Testament book of the Bible, Hosea, but in this depiction follows a Gold Rush Era prostitute, her farmer husband, and the redeeming love God gives to all sinners. Angel has been a prostitute for as long as she can remember, hoping for the one day she can make enough to have a life where she is in charge. Michael Hosea is a Christian farmer who is baffled when God tells him Angel is the woman he should marry. After convincing her to marry him, their marriage life is not the smoothest journey as Angel has never been shown true kindness, affection, love, or caring; and Michael tries to discover a way to show it to her. Other obstacles come in their way such as doubt, jealousy, insecurity, fear, etc. before this book reaches its powerful conclusion.

This was first given to me by a friend, and I really enjoy this book and while there are serious events and traumas in it, reading it always relaxes me as I enjoy the journey to a fitting conclusion. The other reason why I pair these together, is the steadfast, relaxed, collected, and mostly even-tempered (occasionally he gets riled up) character of Michael is similar to the coolness of the spearmint.

A film of this book was just released in theaters, but I strongly recommend reading the book as all my favorite scenes and moment are not in the film.

For more on Francine Rivers, go to Book Club Picks: The Masterpiece

Tea #2: Sleepynight Extra Strength Tea

As this tea is for one who is having restless nights, I thought no better book would be suited than The Storyteller’s Daughter by Cameron Dokey.

In this adaptation of 1001 Arabian Nights, Shahrayar was betrayed by his wife and after he executed her he decides to never love or trust a woman again. Shahrayar decrees that he will marry once a month for one night only, executing his brides in the morning so they cannot betray him. If a maiden volunteers for the first month, all those who come after her will merely be imprisoned. Shahrazad, the daughter of the vizier and a famous storyteller, volunteers and comes up with a plan to try and turn Shahrazad’s heart. Every night she tells a story, but doesn’t end it, continuing the next night. But while her plan is a success at first, the family of Shahrayar’s deceased wife continue to plot to bring their destruction. Will Shahrazad save Shahrayar, or will she run out of time?

I really loved the way the characters are in this and the stories they kept, although I wish there was a few more stories in this. Something that is different about this retelling is Dokay wrote Shahrazad as blind, which I thought was interesting and helped tell this particular version of the story better. One scene I really liked is when Shahrayar is upset that Shahrazad came to be his first wife as he doesn’t want to kill a blind woman and she basically sasses him, politely, about why it should matter as he is going to kill the first wife anyway. He immediately starts feeling bad about himself. Haha.

And just how Shahrazad puts the king to sleep, this Sleepynight Extra Strength tea will help you fall asleep.

I Will Get You What You Need: I’m With Lucy (2002)

Most Romantic Moment #7

I’m With Lucy (2002)

I saw this movie at the library and had to check it out as it has David Boreanaz, you know Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and FBI Agent Booth from Bones.

So the movie starts off with Lucy picking up her friend-who has just been horribly dumped and hates all men-to take her somewhere. Lucy knows what that is like as that was her a year ago-but today she is getting married.

Huhhhhhhh

Yes, this is one of the weirdest openings. How come she didn’t tell her friend before? Anyways, Lucy felt the same but then she was set up on five dates:

1. Date #1: Doug the Entomologist (John Hannah) who Lucy sees right after she is dumped and she is horribly drunk on the date, but they do have some meaningful conversations throughout.
2. Date #2: Gabriel (Gael García Bernal) is Spanish and a passionate playwright, who Lucy sleeps with right away.
3. Date #3: Bobby (Anthony LaPaglia) a former baseball player who is incredibly narcissistic, but after they spend time together she realizes there is more to him.
4. Date #4: Barry (Henry Thomas) a computer salesman who’s date occurs right after Lucy has had a horrible time getting her fridge delivered, is in the middle of an awful allergy attack and can’t find her medicine in any pharmacy-and to make it worse the date gets hijacked by her parents as they convince the two to join them for dinner.
5. Date #5: Luke (David Boreanaz) is a doctor, who is extremely hot-but their date gets shanghaied  when a colleague of Luke’s invites them to join them and his daughter goes after Luke.

Lucy goes on all these dates and eventually narrows it down to two men. But which one will win her heart?

Most Romantic Moment: I Will Get You What You Need

So I know you’ve probably been on bad dates-and have seen a lot in comedy films and TV shows, but I think this movie takes the cake. This date starts off incredibly bad with Lucy angry about the fridge not being delivered and starts yelling at Barry-who yells back when she gets really rude.

Then they go to multiple stores as Lucy needs a certain allergy medication, but can’t find it. Whenever Barry suggests another medication, she turns it down as it isn’t the right one. Both are extremely angry and annoyed. After the two have a bit of a blowout, they decide to start over as this date is going nowhere near like how either thought.

Barry: Okay. Let’s start this thing over.

Lucy: Fine. Hi Barry, its nice to meet you. I don’t have a refrigerator.

Then they run into Lucy’s parents who guilt them into coming with them-in which they serve them good food for dinner but they completely embarrass Lucy.

So embarrassed

But the two have a lot of fun. And Barry comes to see Lucy the next day with the allergy medication she needed. He went to 10 different pharmacies, 10 different ones to find it for her.

How romantic!

I don’t know about you all but I know very few people who would do that-that’s true love there.

For more with David Boreanaz, go to I’d Risk My Life to Save Yours: Earshot, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1999)

The Puppet Show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)

So sorry to post so late, but I have a really good excuse.

Yes! Really! So a week ago I wrote this post, and then scheduled it-all it needed was some editing and it was good to go. But then my parents had to go out of town and I ended up getting their tickets to A Woman’s Friend banquet, in which Robia LaMorte Scott spoke. Yes, Robia LaMorte who played Jenny Calendar on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I know what are the odds of these happening on the same day?!

Wow

They weren’t originally going to have her either. It was going to be Ashley Bratcher, star of the movie Unplanned, but something came up and they asked fellow Unplanned actress Robia LaMorte Scott to fill in. Crazy, right!

Her flight was actually delayed so it made me get home late.

Sorry, but at the same time, I’m not sorry as I really enjoyed hearing her speak. But enough on that, let’s move on to the review. It friday so that means a TV episode…

So it is time for another Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode.

So I had a hard time choosing a Buffy episode this year as I have already reviewed the creepiest episode (at least in my opinion) of BVS.

And with both Netflix and Amazon not having it anymore, I was at a loss what to pick.

But then the library saved the day. At my library we have 5 seasons which gave me a lot to choose from.  Unfortunately, the DVDs were donated and their cases don’t have any listings as to what episodes are on them.

Ugh!

So I just grabbed random discs and figured I would watch until one struck me. But then I ran into problem number three: my blue-ray doesn’t have a remote so I could only watch the very first episode of each disc.

I got lucky on Season 1, Disc 3, episodes 9-12 with The Puppet Show.

So brief recap on what’s happened so far: so Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Geller) moves to Sunnydale and fulfills her role as vampire slayer aided by her watcher, Giles, and two best friends-Willow and Xander.

Buffy has a mysterious friend, Angel (David Boreanaz), who is revealed to be a vampire. But unlike other vampires, he was cursed with his soul so he acts more human than bloodsucking evil. The two fall head over heels with each other.

So far they have fought vampires, witches, a giant praying mantis, an animal demon spirit, an ancient demon masquerading as teenage boy online, and the Master’s plans to destroy Buffy.

Wow

With this episode it is time for a talent show and Principal Synder wants to hurt Giles by forcing him to be in charge. When the gang are overheard making fun of the magician who sucks and Cordelia being off key-the three are cast in it, although they have no clue what to do.

One person is doing a ventriloquist act, and what I want to know does anyone know anyone who does that? They always have it in TV, films, and books but has anyone ever had a kid from their school enter a talent show doing a ventriloquist act?

In fact-we only ever see three acts: dummy, Cordelia, and the magician. Weird as there should be more.

So Morgan sucks at his ventrloquist act, until the dummy starts talking back rudely and in a deeper voice. It’s like he has been taken over by a man from the 1940s.

Morgan also looks ill, and the more time he spends with the dummy, the sicker he looks. Headaches, gray skin, etc.

The only good act, the dancer, is stretching when she is attacked by something.

They find her later with her heart carved out.

That is not good,

So they find no tell tale signs tat this is supernatural and intend on leaving it for the cops. However, Buffy feels there is more to this and convinces them to start looking into whether it was something else, some kind of demon.

Hmm…

Meanwhile, the dummy, Sid, is watching Buffy. He tells Morgan she is the one.

We also get to watch the magician be more terrible at magic. There is a girl helping him and she isn’t good at it either.

That night Buffy talks to her mom who encourages her in the talent show letting her know she will be there that night to watch her perform. Buffy begs her not to come, but no dice.

Ugh! Really, mom!

That night, when Buffy is in her bed something attacks her. She fights it off and her mom runs into the room to check on her, they find nothing-but we see Sid in the window peering in.

Yeah, I’m on the train that Sid is the creepy dummy. I mean was there any doubt, After that Twilight Zone episode? And with R.L. Stine picking up the torch?

Buffy is sure she saw Sid, but when she tells the others-they laugh it off.

Bad things happen when you don’t listen

Buffy tries to talk to Morgan, but they get interrupted by Sid and can’t continue to tal. Morgan puts him in his locker and then Buffy breaks in later, Sid is missing. Did he walk away?

Meanwhile Morgan is acting weirder and sicker, and the dummy is talking so much, it gets taken away from him by the teacher.

Xander steals it when Morgan and the teacher are preoccupied and morgan searches for it, frantic.

Not the best idea.

Meanwhile, Xander reveals to Buffy he has the doll and plays around with it. Buffy warns him not to, but Xander laughs her off. Buffy goes to speak to Morgan while Xander sits the dummy down.

Mr. Giles and Willow do some investigating, and find a book on demons possessing toys. One particular demon needs a heart and brain.

Rupert Giles: Every seven years, these demons *need* human organs, a-a brain and a heart, to maintain their humanity. Otherwise, they-they-they revert back to their original form, which is, uh, slightly less appealing.

Willow Rosenberg: [reading] “On rare occasions, inanimate objects of human quality, such as dolls and mannequins, already mystically possessed of consciousness, have acted upon their desire to become human by harvesting organs.”

Uh, oh. They go to Xander, but the dummy is gone!\

Saw that coming,

Buffy goes to find Morgan, but he’s dead, head missing.

What, but I thought he was the guy?

As she investigates further, a candelabra prop crashes down on her. All done by Sid the dummy. She uses her super strength to push it off . The two fight but it turns out that Sid isn’t a demon but a demon hunter.

Sid: This is what I do. I hunt demons. Yeah. You wouldn’t know it to look at me. Let’s just say there was me, there was a really mean demon, there was a curse, and the next thing I know, I’m not me anymore. I’m sitting on some guy’s knee with his hand up my shirt.

Sid chose Morgan to team up as he was very smart and thought someone as beautiful, strong, ad powerful as Buffy must be a demon.

They discuss who the demon could be and decide it has to be someone involved with the talent show. They go to see who is missing during rehearsal but Buffy finds Morgan’s brain!

Why would the demon not want the brain, that’s what he needs???????! They investigate a bit more and are still puzzled as how Morgan was the smartest kid in school?

Giles leaves as he has to go back to the talent show while the kids hack into the school’s computer. They do notice a lot of sick days and Willow goes into his medical records and find out that he had cancer, and it returned.

The demon needs a new brain, but which one is the demon?

Hmmm

I admit I was lost, I thought maybe they shouldn’t trust Sid after all.

They decide that Willow is the next smartest person so as long as she stays away from the talent show. But then they realize there is another really smart person there, Giles.

That is not good,

There the magician needs a new partner and is using Giles as his sister is sick. The magician straps his head in a guillotine-okay this guy is clearly the demon,

As he prepares, a bit of his arm shows which reveals he is the demon.

Giles is about to be killed, when Buffy and crew come in to save the day. She and Sid go after the demon while Willow and Xander free GIles.

When Buffy knocks the demon out. Sid carves the heart out and is released from his curse, free!

Buffy hold him up, deeply disheartened he’s gone; Xander and Willow are by the guillotine with Willow holding the mallet to break the lock on the guillotine; and Xander holding the rope trying to keep Giles from getting his head cut open; and Giles in the guillotine.

And the curtain goes up!

So a great episode. I really love the twist at the end when it turns out that the dummy is’t the bad guy.

To start Horrorfest VIII from the beginning, go to Count Dracula the Propagator of This Unspeakable Evil Has Disappeared. He Must Be Found and Destroyed!: Horror of Dracula (1958)

For more Buffy the Vampire Slayer, go to I’d Risk My Life to Save Yours: Earshot, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1999)

For more demons, go to Night on Bald Mountain: Fantasia (1940)

For more Sarah Michelle Geller, go to A Study in Fandoms

I’d Risk My Life to Save Yours: Earshot, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1999)

Romantic Moment #10

Go here to see which you belong in

“Earshot” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1999)

So my friend was a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and took me along for the ride. I loved it, especially Angel (David Boreanaz).

Why did he have to leave the show?

Anyways, he makes it so hard to pick just one romantic moment, darn you super romantic guy. But I think I settled on a moment that truly shows how much he cares for Buffy.

So this episode takes place during season three. The Mayor has been revealed as evil:

Faith accidentally killed a guy and has gone crazy, siding with the mayor and trying to destroy Buffy (Sarah Michelle Geller).

She is crazy!

They tried to take away Angel’s soul so that he is evil

He joins Faith, dating her now:

But it turns out to be a plot cooked up by Buffy and Angel to get info on the mayor.

However, having Angel going off and be with Faith like that has given Buffy lots of doubts and uncertainty about if Angel really cares about her and what really happened between them.

She fights a demon, but accidentally gets its blood on her. This gives her the power to read minds.

But soon this goes bad. The powers grow so strong that she can’t stop hearing voices, her mind hurts so bad, and she overheard that someone is trying to kill everyone in the school.

Not good

Buffy gets sent home to rest, while her watcher Giles searches for a cure, and the rest of the crew try to find out who is the possible murderer.

Most Romantic Moment: Angel Practically Gets Burned Alive to Save Buffy

So Buffy is going to go completely insane unless she can drink this antidote. The only problem? They need the other demon’s heart, but how can they get it without the Slayer?

That’s right, Angel goes out and spends all night and half the day searching for the demon, killing him and bringing back the heart. Now why is that romantic? Well Angel is a Vampire, and has risked his life and suffered in pain; burning in the sunlight. I mean he was literally smoking.

And he continues through this to track down the only thing he knows can save Buffy, because he loves her.

And if that’s not enough he then stays by her side watching her until he knows she is okay.

So romantic!

To start Romance is in the Air: Part V, go to I Did It for You: Edward Scissorhands (1990)

For the previous post, go to I Would Go Through Anything for You: Sleeping Beauty (1959)

For more Buffy the Vampire Slayer, go to She’s Been Totally Different…Like Stepford: Ted, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)

For more Angel, go to Lookin’ Over a Four-Leaf Clover: 17 More Irish Heroes

For more Buffy, go to I’m the Chosen One. And I Choose to be Shopping: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)

For more David Boreanaz, go to The Butcher of Burtonsville High: The Death of the Queen Bee, Bones (2010)

For more Sarah Michelle Geller, go to A Study in Fandoms

He Has Risen

So ends another Easter countdown. May you all have a blessed day!

“There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.”

“The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.  He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.  Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” –Matthew 28:2-7