RIP Jimmy Dean

Jimmy Dean, a legend in the country music world and just as well known for his sausage, passed away last night. He was 81. He will be missed.







And for William :)

A funny & A way to help

Happy Valentine's Day everyone ♥

Reading the news last night while I couldn't sleep, I came across two things that I wanted to share with you today on this day of love. The first one is funny. The second is awesome.

The first story made me laugh so hard I thought I was going to fall out of my chair. It seems that British men don't want to be left out of the "Wonderbra" phenomenon that took over the U.S. several years ago. No, they aren't wearing bras but they are wearing "anatomy-boosting underwear". For real. Would I lie to you?

According to the story "The pants work by using a lift and hold feature at the front, like a male version of the cleavage-boosting Wonderbra. "The briefs mean that no man ever needs to feel inadequate again on the most passionate day of the social calendar," said Rob Faucherand, head of men's accessories buying at Debenhams (a British department store that has seen a 76% increase in sales of the underwear in the past week). "However we can't be held responsible for what happens once the pants come off," he added."

Personally I don't notice a mans "package" until after the pants are off...haha! I wish them luck though. Hopefully it won't cause their romantic evening to end short. :)

Ok, sorry, I couldn't help myself. On a serious note though, the second story I read totally made me feel good in an it's-an-awesome-way-to-help way instead of a falling-out-of-my-chair-laughing way.

Stars have united to remake Michael Jackson's We Are The World song/video 25 years after the original to aid Haiti in their time of need. The video is so cool to me. I love how they incorporated rap and Haitian music into it (I'm a big fan of just about ALL genres of music). You can download the tune and donate for Haiti relief. Here's the video. Enjoy it and donate if you can. They need our help.

Much love to all my Blogland friends. Happy Valentine's Day ♥

This is AMAZING

Most of you know my TV loves so today's post should be no surprise to you.

I was reading all of my celebrity news and came across two stories that totally made me smile.

The first story was on People and involved my Simon Cowell. He is putting together a record to aid the victims in Haiti. Isn't that amazing?! I think it is. The Live-Aid style record will include the voices of Susan Boyle and Leona Lewis and is supposed to take place in the next few days.

He said, "We are going to do a single. I wanted to do something for Haiti, and we had a request from the Prime Minister to put a record together." And some of y'all say he has no heart. All I have to say about that is.....HA! Go Simon!

The second thing I saw (and honestly I don't remember WHERE I saw it but it made me jump right over to The Amazing Race on CBS) was this picture:

Look at the back row...Do you see who I see? :D

Yep! That's Jeff & Jordan from last season's Big Brother! Yay!! I can't wait to see this year's Amazing Race now!! It premiers on Valentine's Day (February 14th) and I'm here to tell you I won't miss it!

Be yourself

Adam Lambert wowed me on last season's American Idol (which I'm sure you remember from all my posts about him). I was totally in love with his flamboyant ways and beautiful voice. I would even go so far as to say that I was his #1 fan. Now I'm a little disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, I still love him. I'm just not as wowed.

I know he caused a lot of controversy on the 2009 American Music Awards when he grabbed his male keyboardist and laid a big kiss on him but to me, that was part of who he is. I wasn't one of the people that was bothered by that. As a matter of fact, I cheered because of it.

Now, I'm sure some of you are screaming at your screen and telling me how wrong I am for that, but I'm sorry, I will never believe any different than I do. People are people to me. Black, white, gay, straight...it doesn't matter to me. What you do in your private life makes no difference to me. What matters to me is the person and I believe Adam to be a real talent.

Here's where my disappointment shows up. I was surfing around the web and came across this story about Adam. I immediately watched the video. He sounds wonderful but where is the flash, the glam, the wow? It's missing. To me it's practically boring. If I close my eyes and just listen, it's awesome but that's not what I want to do. I want to see a show. I want to be entertained. I want my Glambert back!!

Ok, that's enough complaining for one day :)

Here's the video. Enjoy his voice. I stand by my statement that he is a real talent.

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Adam is MY American Idol

Ok, I know I'm a little late in posting about the outcome of this year's American Idol and I'm sorry about that...it's not my fault LOL

Anyway...

Even though I'm late, I have quite a bit to say. I know, I know; when DON'T I have quite a bit to say...

So about a week before the finale, my sister and I were driving down the road and we heard a "spot" on the radio station that was set to the tune of The Clash song Should I Stay or Should I Go (I'm actually NOT sure that's the name of the song but I'm pretty sure you know which song I'm talking about). The part of the song that went "So come on and let me know; should I come in or should I go?" was changed to "Adam Lambert let us know; which way do you go?". We were both appalled.

I mean, I know that people are obsessed with other people's personal lives. All you have to do is turn on the radio or TV or pick up a People magazine and that sad fact is proven. Regardless of that knowledge it still shocked us. Here was a major radio station (K-Hits out of Houston) and they were encouraging the gossip that spread throughout the final shows of American Idol concerning Adam's sexuality. They were continuing it. I think that's crap.

Since when is American Idol a MORAL competition? I was under the impression that it was a SINGING competition. I'm really disappointed that so many people used the singers personal lives as a deciding factor. I was born in the 60's. I grew up on great (in my opinion) music performed by people that I had no idea what their personal lives were about. I didn't care if Freddie Mercury was gay. I didn't care what David Bowie did when he was off stage. All I cared about was their music. The music was the point not any of that other stuff.

I am so proud of the way Adam has handled all of this. He is a true winner in my eyes. In a People magazine interview he said "It's a really, really cool thing, to be able to show people that you can be yourself, and you should be proud of yourself, and you should own who you are and what you're about, and never make apologies for it." So to those who speculate about his sexuality, he has a message. "Calm down," he says, and "keep speculating." I think that's cool.

I am NOT trying to say bad things about Kris Allen. Not one bit. I think he did alright. I wasn't blown away by him but he didn't make me cringe either. There is some controversy now over AT&T giving out free phones with text packages at Kris Allen A.I. parties. If that really happened then I'm upset about that too. I think it should be a FAIR competition no matter who the winner is.

But like I said, he didn't make me cringe. I think he'll do fairly well in the country music business (which means I'll probably never hear him. I like old country but this new stuff isn't my cup of tea) or in the style of Jack Johnson (which means I may hear him because Jack Johnson is one of the flavors of tea I enjoy...sorry about the tea analogy lol I'm not sure where that came from...) But I don't believe Kris will be even close to the star that Adam will become. I just think he's easily forgettable and quite honestly I can't even remember what his voice sounds like at this moment. That's not a good way to become famous.

So, I believe Kris needed to win to be able to just get his foot in the music business door. I did hear a rumor that he already had an album (from 2007) but I can't find anything about it online so I'm treating that as it is...a rumor. I don't put much effort into believing rumors.

Back to my point (yes, I have one)... I believe Adam will be around for a long time. I saw him on The Early Show this morning and he was as amazing as ever. I'm just really proud of him. As soon as his album comes out I'm buying it!!

So congratulations to Kris Allen for winning American Idol and congratulations to Adam Lambert for winning my heart. I think they both did well but as I've said many, many times before today: Adam Lambert is already a superstar in my world!! Keep on rockin!

My music and you

For anyone that knows me in "real life" this should come as no surprise... I love music. I can not go even one day without listening to music. If there's no music to play, I sing my own. I can NOT be without it.

Some of you may have noticed that music is not playing on this page anymore. I came to that decision after reading first a comment and then a blog written about music on blogs and the comments that were left there.

Actually there is still music on this page. All I did was turn auto-play off. But I figured if it was that big of a deal to people, it shouldn't start on it's own. Of course I honestly don't understand why it should be a big deal to turn the music player off if you are visiting and don't want to hear it but I'm not a fighter. And I hate upsetting people. So to avoid any conflict (and to make people happy because that is very important to me) I turned it off.

If you are like me and want to hear music all the time you can push play and listen until you're happy. I am listening now. :) The player is at the bottom of the page. Click away!

For my what I hope to be new friend that didn't like it, there you go. It's really not a problem for me to turn it on when I'm here and now you don't have to worry about turning it off. I enjoy your comments and hope you keep visiting. I did see a lot of people on your blog that agreed with you wholeheartedly. And I think my solution keeps EVERYONE happy which, like I said before, is extremely important to me.

As an added note my Happy At Home blog (which is my personal/this is me blog) will always have music playing when you get there. Just a warning :D lol You may want to turn your speakers off.

Have a great day everyone!

Peace.

Singing together makes everything better

Most of the news I share with you is from somewhere far far away from me. A lot of times it’s from all the way across the world from me. But the story I’d like to tell you about today is from right around the corner from me. Houston.

We’re 52 miles west of Houston. We rarely go into the city though. It’s so big and so many people everywhere. And a few of the places are a little on the scary side if I’m to be completely honest.

When my oldest daughter was just an infant we had quite the medical scare. We ended up driving like maniacs in the middle of the night into Houston to Texas Children’s Hospital. Christina was three months old and very sick. I was 23 and very scared.

The doctors there were extremely nice. They did everything they could to make both of us comfortable. Christina ended up having to have a spinal tap. If you’ve never witnessed that, I can tell you it’s frightening. They use the biggest needle I’ve ever personally seen. They have to get it just right, exactly in between the disks in your spine to remove some of the fluid to test. They thought she had meningitis. Thankfully she didn’t but I’ll never forget how the doctors at Texas Children’s Hospital did everything they could to solve and fix her issues.

And I’ll never forget their kindness. Everyone associated with the hospital was so caring and so gentle. I appreciated that so much. Now the hospital is in the news for their caring, kind ways.

The story was specifically about the Cancer Center at the hospital. It’s the number one pediatric cancer center in Texas and number three in the entire country. That makes me proud.

Now, thanks to donations and Anita Kruse, the Cancer Center offers the chance for terminally ill children to forget about their illnesses for a little while. Anita started a recording studio in the hospital where she and other staff members and volunteers help the children to write and record songs about important things in their lives.

One young lady named Jalen Huckabay wrote about her dog Jasmine or Jaz for short. Shy and unsure of herself, she quickly gained confidence once she realized she was actually writing the song just by talking about her much loved pup.

Anita is a Houston resident who sings and writes music professionally. After speaking a few minutes with Jalen, she hears the song in the young girls loving words and writes it in her notebook as they talk.

Jalen smiles as the first verse is read back to her. “MYD is my yippin’ dog. Got her last Christmas on the 23rd. We call her Jaz. She’s the Yorkie we chose. We dress her up in Build-A-Bear clothes.”

The project is named Purple Songs Can Fly and relies heavily on donations. All donations are tax deductable. I have a feeling a lot of people would donate even if they weren’t tax deductable. I know I will. It’s definetly worth it.

Read more about Jalen Huckabay

Read more about Purple Songs Can Fly

Read more about Texas Children’s Hospital

Read more about Texas Children’s Cancer Center & Hematology Service

Merry Christmas everyone!

I was going to write about Odin for you today but instead I decided to post videos. The one here is Celine Dion singing Happy Christmas (War Is Over). Besides her beautiful voice the video is full of beautiful images. Merry Christmas everyone! Have a great one!