Live Beautiful

11/06/2024

10/18/2024

Help me HELP THEM 🙏🙏
**we need these items by 5pm Sunday **
These folks have NO POWER- NO WATER- NO SEWER
I am sorry the video is 2 mins, but PLEASE watch and help in anyway you feel called 🙏
There IS a beautiful thing happening with people through crisis right now, but there is also continued devastation in the NC mountains and I have no idea why it’s “lost luster” with our so-called media outlets.
We have brothers & sisters in OUR state, OUR country that have been devastated - some have lost their entire communities, some have lost their livelihood, some have lost everything they own & many have lost loved ones and now FREEZING temps as they are still at the beginning of a very long recovery.
Please do what you can on this one, we are headed to the Grandfather Mountain/ Banner Elk area Monday morning and my prayer is that we will have our truck & trailer loaded to the max with these desperately needed supplies 🙏🙏

10/17/2024

** TIMING IS URGENT **
**PLEASE SHARE**
We are headed out Monday morning & need all items collected by Sunday 10/20
Ok friends, families, neighbors and local businesses - GO TIME continues! Our NC Mountain families need you!
** Temps are below freezing and many are in tents... it is literally UNIMAGINABLE... please help us help our brothers and sisters 🙏

DROP OFF LOCATIONS:

N Raleigh: Marti Hampton Real Estate, 100 Lynn Rd, Raleigh

Cary: iCRYO Waverly Place, 316 Colonades Way Suite
C209, Cary

Clayton: (East of Flowers Plantation) 92 Mason Hall Ct

OR we can arrange pick up.
If you are in a different area of Wake or JoCo and are willing to be another drop off point, please let me know.

We are taking donations of CURRENTLY NEEDED supplies to get to families in need in the NC Mountains. This includes the following items:
Buddy Heaters
Electric Heaters
1lb Propane Tanks
1 Gal Kerosene
ANY Kind of Kerosene Heaters
Backpacks
Evaporated Milk
Chicken Helper/Tuna Helper
XXL Zip Storage Bags (for blankets)
Shelving (purchased or homemade)
Hanging Racks

**If you would prefer to donate $ we will be making a purchase run on Sunday 10/20 Venmo: (please add note: WNC Supplies)

10/17/2024

Ok friends, families, neighbors and local businesses - it’s time To kick it in gear - GO TIME continues! Our NC Mountain families need you! Temps are below freezing and many are in tents... it is literally UNIMAGINABLE.
Drop Off is at our home in Clayton (East of Flowers Plantation) OR we can arrange pick up. If you are in a different area of Wake or JoCo and are willing to be another drop off point, please let me know.
**PLEASE SHARE**

We are taking donations of CURRENTLY NEEDED supplies to get to families in need in the NC Mountains. This includes the following items:
Buddy Heaters
Electric Heaters
1lb Propane Tanks
1 Gal Kerosene
ANY Kind of Kerosene Heaters
Backpacks
Evaporated Milk
Chicken Helper/Tuna Helper
XXL Zip Storage Bags (for blankets)
Shelving (purchased or homemade)
Hanging Racks

10/16/2024

Think about it…

10/07/2024

Happy 25 to our sweet baby 🎉🎉 We love you beyond words and look forward to God’s plan for this next trip around the sun ☀️ 🩷🩷

10/05/2024

The loneliest moment in someone's life is
when they are watching their whole world
fall apart, and all they can do is to stare
blankly. It's not the shattering itself that
breaks you. It's the silence that follows,
the quiet space where you realize that's
nothing left to salvage.

And in that moment, you know that
you'll never be the same again.

You'll build something new, perhaps,
but it will never be what you lost.

— F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

This footage in Chimney Rock is from October 3rd.Previous post:A lot of people have been asking how they can help. Here's what I saw October 1st:I think the ...

09/30/2024

HOW TO HELP THOSE AFFECTED BY HELENE: VOLUNTEERING, DONATIONS AND OTHER RESOURCES

Durham Rescue Mission will hold a supply drive to help those impacted by Helene on Sunday, Sept. 29 and Monday, Sept. 30.

You can drop off supplies at 1201 E. Main Street in Durham.

Johnston County, with the sheriff’s office and emergency service, is hosting a week-long donation drive. You can drop off donations Monday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the sheriff’s office at 2875 U.S. Highway 70 Business East in Smithfield. They will continue to accept donations until Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Red Cross is accepting donations, organizing blood drives and looking for volunteers. To join them or find ways to help those impacted: https://www.redcross.org
You can also call 1-800-733-2767.

Samaritan’s Purse, based out of Boone, is looking for volunteers to help homeowners with the destruction in the city.

FEMA

North Carolina homeowners and renters in 25 counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians who had uninsured damage or losses caused by Tropical Storm Helene may be eligible for FEMA disaster assistance. FEMA may be able to help with serious needs, displacement, temporary lodging, basic home repair costs, personal property loss or other disaster-caused needs.

There are several ways to apply: Online use the FEMA App:
https://www.disasterassistance.gov/

You can also call their toll-free line: 800-621-3362 from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. ET daily. The telephone line is open every day and help is available in most languages.

09/29/2024

IMAGINE the actual situation:

NO way in or out
NO power
NO cell service
Emergency vehicles underwater
PEOPLE stranded
PEOPLE missing
ANIMALS stranded/missing
ENTIRE towns are GONE

Let’s do what we do best in and in - come together, love each other and help these people & communities in every way we possibly can 🙏❤️🙏❤️

*If you have to travel I suggest using Waze for the most up to date road closures, etc.

09/20/2024

Let’s all try this 💕 Imagine a life… a world… where every word that came out of your mouth (including social media posts) builds up AND gives grace to others 💕💕

09/18/2024

Enjoying some time with my amazing son in law 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

09/11/2024

On this night...23 years ago, 246 people went to sleep in preparation for their morning flights. 2,606 people went to sleep in preparation for work in the morning tomorrow. 343 firefighters went to sleep in preparation for their morning shift. 60 police officers went to sleep in preparation for morning patrol. 8 paramedics went to sleep in preparation for the morning shift of saving lives. None of them saw past 10:00 am Sept 11, 2001. In one single moment life may never be the same. As you live and enjoy the breaths you take today and tonight before you go to sleep in preparation for your life tomorrow, kiss the ones you love, snuggle a little tighter, and never take one second of your life for granted.
Copied and shared
9/11/01 Never forget.

07/11/2024

❤️❤️💍

06/06/2024

Finding out so much and trying to figure out some things for my own next steps in serving veterans 🇺🇸❤️🇺🇸

03/11/2024

Day 20 and I’m finally going home🙌🙌
Yall, I’m not even going to try to sugar coat it: this has been the most humbling and the scariest 3 weeks of my life, and at the same time the most blessed I have ever felt. ⬇️⬇️ more in comments ⬇️⬇️

03/05/2024

Update:

Although staff at HRRMC took really great care of me, being rural they just don’t have the resources necessary for this situation. I’ve been here at Penrose for 5 days and even though we continue to see some positive results with blood tests and ruling out other things, we still have no solid answers. I want to be positive but this really sucks. Thank you again to everyone who continues to lift me up in prayer, reach out, sending good mojo, etc. I couldn’t have done this without all of you! ❤️❤️❤️

03/02/2024

As most of you know, I was discharged from the hospital Monday evening with a PIC line and the game plan for Andy to administer my antibiotics over the next 8 days to finish the treatment.
We got home Monday night and I just didn’t feel well- nausea and body aches, no energy.
Same thing Tuesday, spent most of the day sleeping chalking those symptoms up to lots of strong antibiotics (dumb move 🤪)
Felt worse on Wednesday and now add in a fever of 101. Andy took me back to the ER where blood tests showed white cell count off the chart (higher than with sepsis) sooo got admitted back into hospital.
My doc has been working directly with the Infectious Disease team at UC Health trying to figure out what is causing these numbers and symptoms.
They did an mri on my back thinking I may have a bone infection but THANK GOD 🙏 that came back normal.
They switched my antibiotics to stronger with a wider spectrum of coverage.
I started a fever yesterday morning around 0700 and it broke while I was in the MRI tube. Sweating like a champ throughout a very long MRI- that was fun 😳.
Fever came back around 1700 yesterday which made me feel like total crap. I am so grateful to Andy for taking g such great care of me. He spent the night on the itty bitty bed and my fever broke around 2200 ending in a huge puddle of sweat 😝 but I felt so much better!
They stayed in front of the fever rotating Tylenol/Ibuprofen and I slept pretty good through the night.

So, where are we now?
I am awaiting my ambulance as I am being transferred to a larger hospital in Colorado Springs with more resources. Everyone is stumped as to where this “new” infection is and now we are all thinking that it may be a flare of my Ulcerative Colitis.
That’s all I got for now. Thank you for your sweet thoughts and continued prayers as we navigate all of this ❤️