Essential OIls Rant

Essential oils are the latest fad.  My facebook and twitter feed are filled with people trying to get people to try them.    Let me say I am not against essential oils.  We have tried peppermint oil to help Little Guy's migraines.   I even add a little lavender or vanilla oil to our sheets.   However, for the most part I have ignored it until recently some people decided to make ridiculous claims.

"Essential oils will kill/cure/prevent cancer."

"Essential oils will cure/prevent chronic illness."

That was when I began to notice just how crazy this had gotten.   Let's be real.  All of these esssential oil companies are multi-level marketing companies.  For the most part, the people who sell these products know nothing about medicine.   

I have a friend who is a certified aromatherapist and ER nurse.   She says you should never ingest essential oils or apply them full strength direct to your skin.   I trust her a lot more than I do some housewife who is trying to sell me products from some multi-level marketing company.

Next time you see someone talking about these oils.   Pay attention to what you see.  They not only use and ingest these oils, they are giving them to their children.  

I recently went to a family event where one of our family members was diffusing essential oils.   A diffuser doesn't just stay in the room you are using it.  It wafts all over the house.  We all had to endure those disgusting smells for the entire time we were there.   

I am not sure who started this fad, but someone somewhere is making a lot of money.   Eventually it will fade away just like every other bandwagon that people like to jump on.   Hopefully this one will fade away sooner rather than later.

Thanksgiving 2014

We spent our second Thanksgiving in Wears Valley, Tennessee with my husband's family.   Wears Valley is tucked between Townsend and Pigeon Forge.  It is quiet and beautiful and out of all the tourist craziness.  

My brother and sister-in-law made all the arrangements and were waiting for us when we arrived.   We could spend days with just them.  We are more than family.  We are friends.   It was fun to have our nephew and his wife join us for the week also.   My nephew is a successful architect and they are busy completing gutting and renovating their new home.   To say their schedule is insane is an understatement.    I was more than thrilled to have my sister-in-law's dad join us.   He and I have a "partners in crime" type relationship.   We pick on each other and tease each other like crazy.  

My partner in crime, Ron, and I

One night while we were there he had been teasing and I decided to get him back.   Ron is a big coffee fan so I pretended to take him coffee.  However, the cup was filled with confetti.  Just as I got to him I "spilled" his coffee in his lap.   It was so funny, but now he is planning his revenge.   *insert mysterious music here*

One of our goals while at the cabin was to get some pictures.   We do not have photos of the grandparents with their boys or grandchildren so we wanted to make that a priority.  Of course it was snowing/raining the morning we planning our photo session so it was quite a challenge, but we did manage to get a few.  

Thanks to my amazing sister-in-law's organizational skills we had incredible meals. In fact, my boys are still talking about her chicken tetrazzini.   I organized myself to help with breakfast and snacks; however, the mystery of what happened to my silver freezer bag may never be solved.   I packed it and after that it disappeared.  It has never been seen again.   Our best guess is that an animal took it off.   I guess they enjoyed all those sausage cheddar muffins and ingredients for other food.

We definitely did not stay in the cabin the entire time.   It is just too beautiful not to explore the surrounding areas.   The boys went hiking.  We also enjoyed riding the downhill alpine coaster which is basically a go-cart on a roller coaster track.   There was go-carts, shopping, movies, pizza, and lots of football!

Waiting to ride the alpine coaster.  It was cold!!

Uncle Larry and Big Guy share a love of music and vinyl records

Big Guy exploring Laurel Falls

Little Guy ... King of the world!

I realized after I got home that I didn't get a picture of my husband and boys together.  But I did get a couple of my boys.    Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!