OBX Interruption for the Wednesday Hodgepodge

1.July 15th is National Give Something Away Day.  What can you give away? Will you?
My love. (HA!)

2. Do you have a mantra? Please share with the class if you feel comfortable doing so.
During the school year it's, "I love my job."

3. Who does the grocery shopping in your house? How many times a week do you shop? Do you make a list or pray for inspiration in the produce aisle?
I try to go for "major shopping" every 2 weeks. I plan out what we're going to have for dinner for 2 weeks, make a list, then go shopping. When I'm lazy and don't go to the store, we have what we call "European weeks". That's when I go to the store every day to buy groceries for dinner that night. And that equals spending more than I normally would!

4. Is there a TV show you're embarrassed to say you watch? You're going to tell us what it is, right?
The Bachelorette. Especially since they let that crazy guy back on there. And now I'm reading that he may be the next bachelor. YUCK.

5. A recent article listed fifteen words we should eliminate from our (written) vocabulary in order to sound smarter-

that, went, honestly, absolutely, very, really, amazing, always, never, literally, just, maybe, stuff, things, and irregardless

Of the fifteen, which word is your most overused?

REALLY????  

6. So apparently dying your hair gray (in your youth!) is a thing right now. It's called 'The Granny Hair' trend. Your thoughts? 
I had no idea. Seems that I'm almost in style!

7. A while back Buzz Feed asked members to share the most beautiful sentence they've read in a piece of literature. A hard thing to narrow down, at least for me, but let's try. What's one of the most beautiful sentences you've ever read in a piece of literature?
Ummmm...yeah. I had to google this! A little time consuming, because I had to look through to find books that I've read! I don't remember or write lines down when I read. So....
"It does not do well to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that."--JK Rowling "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone".

8. Insert your own random thought here.
You know what really gets my goad?  People who try to milk companies when the company has done everything it possibly can. Remember the train derailment that I mentioned in Friday Fragments? There is a couple who is suing the railroad to "recoup fair and appropriate costs associated with the forced evacuation and the general 'nuisance' of the accident". (The Daily Times) This couple doesn't even live in the immediate area of the derailment, but they were evacuated. I'm embarrassed by their actions. The railroad paid for hotel rooms, meals, clothing, toiletry items, lost wages, as well as $500 for inconvenience. CH mentioned that he would bet the railroad was there before their houses were. I really hope the judge throws this out. The woman said she wanted to stay out of the limelight. Good job, lady. Good job. She claims she's doing this to help other people. Oh.My.Gosh. Heaven forbid we should have to endure true hardships. Kudos to the railroad for taking care of the people. Shame on those who are trying to milk them for more. (climbing off soap box)

Pre-OBX Adventure

I was going to write 1 post for our vacation, but it looks like it's going to be a multi-parter!

We just got back from vacation Saturday night after a week in the Outer Banks. Since we left the 4th of July, we rode up to some friends' house in Va. and spent the night. We hadn't seen them in about 3 years, when their property looked like this:

(Our first big trip in our trailer was to their property!)

And now it looks like this:

(Yep, the outhouse is still there, but look how the grass has grown in!) I can't believe I didn't get a picture of their gorgeous house! When you walk in the front door, you get this kind of view:

I could have sat in their living room all night and just stared at the view. I don't know how they get anything done! After going out for dinner, we came back to this:

(Rain in the distance)

The views in the morning were just as awesome:

The transformation of the property is just incredible. When they found this land, it was all woods. They cleared all of it themselves, and did some really cool upgrades inside the house. I really wish I had taken pictures of their house...their shower is just amazingly cool! :)
This property is something very special. It has taken them years to be able to get rid of their RV they were living in. They still have their "regular" house 3 hours away from this one; they've done everything on weekends and vacations. An awful lot of sweat and aggravation has gone in to their amazing house.
He mentioned he wanted to "make the blog". How's this, Chip?  Not only did you "make" the blog...you got a WHOLE POST!

Friday Fragments

Traci at A Star in My Own Universe is the new hostess for Friday Frags. Short, to the point frags...just little remnants that aren't enough for a whole post.

~ Yesterday was a very strange day. It started out at 3:00 a.m. I had set a reminder to call my daddy, but forgot to specify p.m. I'm pretty sure that was what woke me up; then I couldn't go back to sleep. I finally got up around 4:00 and turned on the news to find out this had happened:

(Picture courtesy of WBIR.com)
(If you're really curious and want to read the story, click on the picture.)

If the train had derailed just a fraction of a mile before it did, we would have been evacuated. 5000 people were, though; I think one of my sisters may have been one of them, although the barricades to her neighborhood were lifted around 2:00 in the afternoon. The people who lived right in the area of the derailment/fire didn't go home last night. CSX rented out a hotel for those who didn't have anywhere to go; they also are reimbursing them for a change of clothes, toiletry items, and food.

Then, it rained. Hard. For hours. It turned out to be a beautiful day by mid-afternoon. Very strange indeed.

~ I got my laptop back last night. They cleaned it up, got rid of some viruses & malware that either may have been on before I started using Norton...or Norton didn't catch. They also streamed video for 18 straight hours and it didn't shut down.

The price was right. When he gave me the laptop, I signed the papers & he said I was good to go. I told him I needed to pay, but apparently someone didn't put in any charges. He said that since we had already signed the papers he was going with what was on there. I didn't argue!

~ My last photography class was Wednesday. We didn't get to look over the pictures from the week before due to some issues with the computer. 

~ Thanks to Auburn Chick, I am now hooked on The Paradise. I'm bummed that there are only 2 seasons. I tried watching Mr. Selfridge when it was on PBS, but just couldn't get into it.

~ I'm taking next week off. I do have one post that I will schedule for one day, but that's it. Hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July!