Just some shots ...

Don't really feel like writing much -- too much on my mind to sort thru right now. Read the last post, which has re-appeared after blogspot had some issues late last week. But until next time, just enjoy some pictures.


Photo taken in Mystic, Connecticut


Photo taken on Bald Head Island, North Carolina

Photo taken at Babcock State Park in West Virginia


Photo taken in the Amish Country near Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Photo taken of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Photo taken of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Photo taken at Green Hope High School in North Carolina

Photo taken in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Photo taken at the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh, North Carolina

A Complimentary Sampling....

Don't you just love it when you go into a restaurant or even better, a delicatessen and they are offering samples of some type of goodies? You often hear "would you like to try a sample?" We see fudge, bread and beverage samples or one of my ultimate favorites, chocolate covered potato chip samples and our salivary glands go into overdrive. Walk into Jimmy Johns and after seeing their sign "free smells" and it causes our sensory abilities to go haywire.

Everywhere in life we are tempted with "free complimentary" products to sample. Each of these "complimentary" items only whets our appetite in the hopes of causing us to go deeper and buy a pound of fudge, a loaf of bread or a bottle of whatever. (And for the record, no, I didn't buy the bag of chocolate covered potato chips from that little store in Daytona, Florida!) At times, we get so wrapped up in these "complimentary" items, that we will spend tons of money buying the whole thing. Is there anything wrong with that? No, Lord knows I've done it before.

But what about those "real" complimentary samples? Why can't we, as humans, ever offer a complimentary sampling of COMPLIMENTS to our family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, relatives, etc?

So many times in today's world, we'll fuss with our closest friends or our parents or co-workers. We say hurtful things or have hurtful things said about us. Those comments stick with us, and you walk away thinking "wouldn't it be nice to have heard something NICE said about me for once?" And wouldn't that be nice? What if everyone could at least say one thing positive and nice about a person. Sure have an argument or disagreement with someone, but leave them with a compliment or something positive. Don't just walk away from the problem. The Bible says not to let the sun go down on our wrath. Too many times in today's world that is happening and that causes all sorts of problems for people - emotionally and physically.

I challenge everyone to offer a "COMPLIMENT-ARY" sampling to someone. When you do that, guess what? You'll probably get something nice said about you. People will gain an appreciation for you and then they might "buy in to you" (so to speak). Whet someone's appetite on occasion by saying something nice to them rather than something spiteful. Life is not fun when you have to live in pain -- whether physical pain or emotional pain. Say something nice to someone. Surprise them. Show them you love them. Some simple little thing you say, even if it's "I like your shoes" -- something so small can change a person's day, week, month or even life!

You never know how much you can affect someone by your words or actions. As one of my favorite quotes "To the world, you may seem like one person, but to one person, you may seem like the world."

Reach out, give some complimentary samplings & help make everyone better off, including yourselves.

Being on the summit doesn't change you ...

Life is full of ups & downs. Don't you just wish that sometimes we could be like Mary Poppins and snap our fingers and everything would fly into place? That would be lovely!! But as we all know, unfortunately, things don't work that way -- at all! Usually if someone snaps their fingers at us, we're probably more than likely in trouble!

Life throws tons of curveballs at us. We can either sit back and get hit with the curveball, or we can get out our bats and hit that curveball as far as we can and try to overcome all our obstacles. I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. We question everything that happens to us, but in the end, we need to realize that whatever the situation we're going thru, God has allowed this to come upon us. He is molding us into what He wants us to be like. He will teach us a lesson and help make us a stronger person if we allow Him to guide us throughout the journey.

Friday, I was able to attend the Chick-fil-A Leadercast. It was an event held in Atlanta but simulcasted all over the USA and several other countries. Chick-fil-A brought together a lot of well known speakers who each challenged us into being voices of change or being a better leader. I was really impacted by several of the speakers and challenged by several.

One of the neatest ones I remember was by Alison Levine, who was filling in for Robin Roberts whom I really wanted to see. Alison talked about her journey of climbing Mount Everest and coming within a few hundred yards of reaching the summit before having to return to base camp. She said she would never climb again because she didn't want to fail. But in the end, she did climb Mount Everest again and even with the bad weather looming, she still faced the challenge and reached the summit. But she made a great point:

"Being on the summit doesn't change you or who you are, rather it's what you learn all along the journey"

That was such a powerful statement. So many times we set goals and want to reach our highest potential and reach that ultimate summit, but what happens when you reach that summit and you're on the top? You've made it -- great job, but where do you go from there? Many times no where. So you have to reflect back on all the things you learned on that journey to make it to the top or to reach your goal.

So even in our darkest days when we feel that the our friends or even the world has turned their backs on us, we have to realize that the dark clouds are only temporary. There is always going to a mole hill, a foothill or a mountain that we have to climb. We have to be a risk taker and try to climb those hills and not be held back by any thoughts of failure. God is in control; He will help us along our journey.

Get yourself a journal and write about everything you do -- even if it's just note taking. Write about your daily experiences or just little things that happen to you. Write notes for a friend in a journal and give it to them as a present. Any little things will help us on our long and winding road. Just go at it full force!

Cross the bridge or mountain one step at a time ... you never know what may be awaiting you on the other side! Enjoy the journey!!

Calm before the storm ...

So Saturday the 16th turned out to be a wild day in North Carolina with the horrific tornadoes that came tearing thru my portion of the state. Fortunately, my house and property were not damaged, except for some tree limbs and small debris. A mile or so from my house however, many of my friends had a lot of destruction at their homes. It was all too close for comfort.

The craziest part for me was that I was on the way back home from Wilmington with my friend, Beth. We were listening on the radio as they called out streets in Wake County - street names where some of my adopted family and close friends live. I started to panic. Even when you're an hour or so away from home and all the news is breaking on the radio, it makes you feel you're in a different state. We got back to Beth's house and nothing was going on, and we were probably five miles or so away from all the devastation. It was surreal. But thankfully, even though lots of my friends suffered damage to their properties, it all can be replaced, and thankfully they were not harmed.

As a calm before the storm, so to speak, Beth and I took a mini road trip to Wilmington. Before a yummy lunch at P.T.'s Grille, we went to the Airlie Gardens. I really enjoyed the visit at Airlie as it was much bigger than I anticipated. There are a lot of walking trails - some paved and some not (you almost better "x" your spot so you don't get lost, ha!) But with the beautiful azaleas and other spring flowers in bloom, it really made the garden all the more colorful and exquisite.

The historic Airlie Oak is the centerpiece for the unique garden. It is one of North Carolina's largest oak trees of this type. Another of my favorite spots was in the sculpture garden, which features a "chapel" that is made completely out of different types of glass bottles. What a beautiful sight that must be at night with the lights turned on.

There are quite a lot of areas to visit in the immense garden complex. A word to the adventurers, the tour guide map that you receive at the office is very pretty BUT the garden itself can be very confusing. If you get off the paved trail, the map isn't going to help you -- well it doesn't quite help you on the paved trail either at times, ha! But still make a visit to Airlie in beautiful Wilmington, North Carolina.

For my cousin...

In today's world at times it saddens me to see how many famous people have little to no respect for their admirers. On some level, I can understand how they get aggravated by people constantly hounding them for autographs, pictures, etc. But come on, movie stars ought to be able to take five minutes to talk to someone who spends countless dollars buying tickets to see their movies or even buying the DVDs. To some extent that even extends down to the "local" level. You may encounter a news person, a coach from a college team or someone else, who we see often, in a grocery store or shopping mall. I know I'd hate to bother them and ask for a picture or something, but would it really hurt them to do so? I guess it depends...but in all actuality, they could at least nod their head, smile and acknowledge you. I've seen so many people treated so ugly by "celebrities" (local and nationally), I often ponder what I would do if I were in their place.

Thankfully, there are quite a lot of good celebrities out there. Some that will go out of their way to speak to you and do things for you. I've met a few of them during my time here in North Carolina and have been pleased. But on Friday, I met quite a few who just blew me out of the water.

But first, here's a little backstory...

My cousin Jeremy is two months older than me. My Mom and his Dad are brother and sister. So we've always grown up together as playmates or just hanging out at family gatherings. I think as we've grown older, we've grown closer together. One difference between us (aside from the obvious boy/girl), and one difference that has never phased me but maybe has others, is that Jeremy was born with spina bifida and as a result he is paralyzed. But what's so amazing and so inspiring to me about Jeremy is that whatever he sets his mind to do, he will accomplish. He's been in the hospital numerous times and never once have I heard him complain. He is such a positive person who cares so much for many people, especially his love for our military which puts me to shame. He will go out of his way to speak to people and doesn't let his handicap get in his way.

Growing up, in some ways, I always felt kind of bad for him (he may hate me for posting this entry later, ha!). My family was always going on trips here and there, but I never really heard whether he got to go on many. I've been so fortunate lately to be able to do quite a lot of things with him. From going to the Mudcats games, to the State Fair and concerts to a real big adventure this past Friday to ABC 11 to meet Frances Scott.


Frances Scott anchors the 5:00 and 5:30 news on ABC 11, and by my count and many others, she is one of our good local celebrities. Jeremy & Frances have a friendship that started over Facebook, and they had chatted off and on for several years but neither had ever met. I thank Frances so much for taking time out of her busy schedule to talk with my cousin and be a friend to him. I can tell how excited he gets talking to Frances and getting messages from her. So in the long run, Frances invited him up to the studio, and Jeremy asked me if I'd be willing to take him. HECK YEAH!

What many don't know about me is that growing up as a child, I ALWAYS wanted to be a news anchor. Donna Gregory (from WRAL) used to be one of my heroes. She always remembered me each time I went to see her at the Fair. I had many friends in the industry and that was what my mind was set on. As a teen, I was a co-anchor on a Christian show called Teen Scene that aired out of a local station in Apex and that was fun. But what happened after that, I have no idea. So when Jeremy asked if I'd go with him to the studio to see Frances, it was almost like a dream come true for me!

I was nervous because we had to go to Durham, and many of your true North Carolinians would understand why some don't like going to Durham, ha! But all-in-all, it was a great experience. Frances is such an amazing person; she's so beautiful and just has such a caring spirit. She was so enthusiatic about giving us a tour of the facilities and introduced us to so many other wonderful people at ABC 11. All the other anchors/reporters and staff we met, were all so nice and willing to help take care of my cousin and myself.

So in the end, you never know what small things might do for others. As that infamous quote is "to the world, you may be one person; but to one person, you may be the world." We never know what influence we have on the world or on others. So try to be who you are, take time to smell the roses and acknowledge those around you. In the end, you'll be a better person.

(PS: A big thank you to Frances Scott for introducting us to Tisha Powell, Mike Mendez, Chris Hohmann, Fred Shropshire and so many others at ABC 11. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to spend a few hours with us & for giving us a ride back to the car! You're the best!!)