So lately I have found some new favorite songs. I love music and always have. I have sang all my life (not saying that I did it well), played the piano for years, the clarinet in high school, and love listening to music. I come from a very musical family, the Cornutts. If you live in Gadsden or the surrounding areas, you know this family. They're pretty well-known because there are tons of them. My mother is the daughter of John Paul Cornutt, whose siblings consist of Ferrell, Harold, and Janice. They had a popular singing group many years ago. Every year in August, they have a "reunion" and get together to sing at a local church in Gadsden. They've been doing this for years now. It's an event that people come from all over the state (and even other states) to be a part of. Some people think that the Cornutt family is boastful, braggy, and pretty much thinks they're all that. Well, of course every family has SOME members like that, and I'm sure they're no exception. I am quick to defend them not only because they are my family, but because I know the hearts of these people. They do not seek personal gratification or publicity. They only seek to bring joy to the people that hear them, and bring praise to the name of the Lord. If you haven't heard the group sing before, you really should. It's amazing. It's the one time a year they all get to see each other, fellowship, and do what they love doing: singing beautiful music together, all the while, giving God all the praise and glory. I used to sing with them when I was younger, but when I moved away it became harder to fit it into our schedules. It's really a blessing to listen to all of the beautiful voices with which God has blessed this family. I am touched every time I hear them. The family has had its hard times. We've lost many precious members of the family, including matriarchs and patriarchs, and members who succumbed to illness. One of the precious cousins, who also directed the Cornutts each year at the reunion, passed away a couple of years ago. That was a really difficult time, especially when it came time for the annual singing. The family isn't perfect, they're not better than anyone else, and they don't display their musical gifts to get some kind of personal gratification. The members of this family have some of the biggest hearts and love for the Lord as I have ever seen before. Honestly, I do not even know them all, as there are so many of them, but I do know that I love every single one of them, and feel very blessed to be a member of this very large, extended, Christian family. I am not sure when the singing will be this year, but I urge everyone who is able, to go see for yourselves. You will not be disappointed, and you will be touched.
So, back to those new favorite songs! I have a very eclectic taste in music. I don't have a favorite genre of music, it totally depends on the song for me. I have a wide array of music on my iPod, including country, rap, hip-hop, pop, rock, etc. I will say that I do NOT like heavy metal, punk, or anything like that. Here are some of the songs I've recently added to my music library.
King of Anything - Sara Bareilles
Love this song! To me, it's saying don't tell me how to think or what to do or what to say. Who died and made you boss? I'm usually not a "Girl Power" kind of person. Not a big fan of Pink and all her down with boys, and authority, and anything and everyone else attitude, but this song is just fun, light-hearted, and it's so true. :) It's kind of empowering.
Something Beautiful - NeedtoBreathe
This is an absolutely beautiful song. This is a Christian song and I think everyone can relate to it.
Free - Zac Brown Band
Wow! This song almost leaves me speechless. It makes you stop and think about the freedom we have in this beautiful country, and the ones that ensure we have it, and keep it.
I Never Told You - Colbie Caillat
This song is just beautiful. I think we all can relate to this in one way or another. We all at one point have wished we would've said what we wanted to say to someone, but instead, we just held it in.
I hope you enjoy these songs as much as I do. What are your new favorite songs?
So, Joseph and I have recently re-joined the gym. I feel really good when I workout, and I honestly don't hate going. I would just much rather be somewhere else. However, I am determined to force myself to go as much as possible (ideally every day), and hopefully start liking it so much that I WANT to be there. I don't know if this will happen but I am going to make myself go every day if at all possible. One incentive is the fact that our gym has tanning beds. I know, I know...tanning is no good. I haven't laid in a tanning bed in forever!! My goal is to lay in it enough to get a good base tan, then maintain it by only laying in it a couple times a week...at least for Summer anyway. I've laid in it twice so far, and am already a good bit darker (the benefits of being an easy-tanner). This will hopefully keep me motivated to go workout....knowing that I can relax and tan afterward. We know the owner and he gave us a SuWEET deal on the membership! :) They also have individual TVs at every treadmill, elliptical, etc. That helps too!
I typically only use the treadmill and some leg and arm machines. My knee can't take the elliptical, but sometimes I will do a bike. Speaking of my knee....yours truly did a dumb thing the other day. First, a little background info: I have a bad knee which resulted from a nasty fall onto an asphalt parking lot during dance practice back in high school (almost 9 years ago). My knee pretty much took the brunt of the fall. It hurt afterward, but I was so focused on the HUGE laceration on my knee (that I still have the scar to remind me of) that I didn't really notice that my actual knee was hurting. I just toughed it out and got used to it. A while after that (like 1 1/2-2 years) I got it checked out because it began to hurt a lot of the time. (keep in mind that I played sports growing up, and took dance...my knees aren't the best to begin with) My doctor did an x-ray and maybe even an MRI and saw what he believed to be a small tear in the meniscus. He referred me to the local orthopedic doctor who said he didn't see anything that concerned him. So, that was that. Well, for the last several years it has continued to hurt but I have been able to live with it. The pain flares up from time to time.
Back to the dumb thing: Yours truly KNOWS that leg extensions are bad for my knee (and pretty much everyone's knee), and KNOWS that I shouldn't do them, but for SOME reason I decided to try them out. BAD. IDEA. I didn't try them with just like 10 pounds, I tried them with more like 75 pounds.....REAL. BAD. IDEA. My legs could handle the weight, but my poor ol' knee could not. I knew right away that this was going to be bad...yet, I did about 10 of them. This was Monday...today is Thursday and I still have a swollen knee. Actually, this knee pretty much stays bigger than the other, but it's even bigger than normal. For comparison's sake, I can take both of my hands, touch the middle fingers together, and wrap my hands around my right knee and my thumbs touch. When I try that on my left knee, there's a good 3/4 inch between my fingers. It's not hurting AS BAD as it was, but it still hurts and the pain goes down the side of my leg too and causes my lower leg to be swollen also. It's not horribly swollen, but still, it's not attractive. It doesn't help that I'm wearing like 3 inch wedges today either! HA! I'm giving it time before I go to the doctor, because I don't like going to the doctor. AT. ALL. I just hate going. I'm really stubborn about the doctor. For now, I'm putting ice on it, taking Aleve, and resting it as much as possible. I've done my usual thing and gone to webmd.com and tried to diagnose myself. My ideas are: obviously, the meniscus tear, possibly a PCL or MCL injury, or a tendon injury. I guess I COULD find out what it is at the doctor, but we'll wait on that. :) I have still been going to the gym but have yet to attempt running on the treadmill, which I won't do until it's better. There will also be NO. LEG EXTENSIONS. EVER.....EVER, EVER AGAIN. I bought a knee brace last night and will wear it when I workout so hopefully that will help with swelling and pain. We shall see tonight. I about had to quit yesterday because it hurt so bad. I think I'll walk at 3 mph instead of 4 today. :)
Hopefully the knee won't get worse, and there will be no visit to the doctor. I think I've learned which machines hurt and I won't be doing them anymore. I'd LOVE for both of my knees to be the same size! :)
I love to eat...that's no secret. I love to cook, try new foods, and entertain. Joseph and I like to go out to eat, although we've been trying to stay home more to save money. One of my favorite things to eat is crab-legs. Some may think it's a little barbaric, caveman, etc. But, I've been eating them my whole life and love them! Some people don't like all the work it takes to get to the meat, but once you learn the best way to do it, it's not hard at all. Joseph and I LOVE going to Destin. Hopefully we'll get to go in a couple of months or so....if the oil spill situation doesn't worsen. It may be better to go ahead and go now...we're really itching to go. One of our favorite places to eat in Destin is The Crab Trap. They have THE BEST crab-legs, seafood, and everything. Sometimes we go there twice in one vacation, it's so good! Usually, that's the one time a year I get to have crab-legs. However, there's a Joe's Crab Shack in Hoover (which is just about 15-20 minutes away from us) and I got my crab-leg fix last night!! I've been seeing their commercials and decided I had to go. It was so good.....nowhere near as good as The Crab Trap, if I'm being honest, but good none-the-less. We shared a steampot for 2 and had snow crab, dungeness crab, which has tons of meat and is real sweet, some shrimp, potatoes, and corn. It also had two sausages, but I offered mine to Joseph...I don't really do sausage. :-) It was a great meal to suffice until I get my Crab Trap fix when we go to the beach, even though it was all a little overcooked, which is like the cardinal sin of cooking. The waitress put "precious"(I use sarcasm here heavily) bibs on us before our food arrived. At first, I was like, seriously? Get this thing off of me, but when I took it off there was butter on it that would have ended up on my shirt. So, thanks crazy waitress, for the really corny bib. ;-) Here's a picture of Joseph showing his bib off. Tomorrow is Father's Day! I have the most wonderful father in the world. I know everyone says that, but I really do. I am so thankful for the father I have. He's always been so supportive of me, even if he didn't always agree with me. He is such a great Christian man who loves others and who is always giving to others. I have been told that I am a lot like him, and for that, I am so grateful. If I can be even just a little like my father, then I'll take it. Unfortunately, my father has to work tomorrow, so I will not be able to see him. BUT, we are going to have a combined birthday, Father's Day, anniversary dinner with my parents on Monday or Tuesday. My Birthday was June 10th, Father's Day is tomorrow, and my parents' 33rd wedding anniversary is Friday, June 25th! So tomorrow's plans are to eat lunch with my mom at her house, then visit my grandfathers. After that, we will spend the rest of our time with Joseph's family to see his dad and grandfather. We both are blessed with wonderful men in our lives. They are all such great Christian, loving, generous men. I know that Joseph will be a great father because of the wonderful examples he has had in his life. I can't wait to see him as a father one day. ;)
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, even if it is storming like it is here :(, and you all get to spend time with your Fathers tomorrow. Tell them you love them, give them big hugs and kisses, and enjoy your time together. Love y'all!!
WARNING: THIS IS PROBABLY GOING TO BE A LONG POST!
I have been a bad blogger lately. I admit it. There just hasn't been anything exciting going on. Well, I did have a birthday last Thursday. I guess that's something. I only took one picture.....Joseph and me before heading out for dinner at Ruth's Chris. I'll try to post it soon so this post isn't as boring. Joseph and I don't really do presents. Unless there's something we've really been wanting, we usually just go out for a nice dinner together on our birthdays. Same thing for Christmas....most of the time we'll just go get something for us. Two Christmases ago, we got a nice LCD Flat-screen TV. We may get each other something small, if we've been talking about something we want. We'd just rather get something for our house, etc....something we can both use and enjoy. So for my birthday we went to Ruth's Chris. It's our favorite place to go for a nice, special dinner. They have the BEST steaks, crabcakes, everything! He did surprise with it though...in a unique way. He always makes reservations to places like this, and uses OpenTable on his iPhone. He forwarded the email confirmation from them to me and when I opened it, I was so surprised! I was alone when I got it so I had to call him right away and thank him! I thought it was really sweet that he just did it and made the plans himself. We had a wonderful evening together, and even got a complimentary bread pudding for dessert. I'm not the biggest fan of bread pudding, so we got it to go, mostly cause we were stuffed!! We also had birthday cake at home, which I wanted to have. ;-) My mom came down on Thursday for a few hours of shopping. We went to our favorite place to eat, Edgar's, and each had a chicken salad plate. We also went to TJ Maxx, Costco, and a cute little place that reminds me a little of Peppermint Pony in Gadsden (man I miss that place!). After our shopping we went back to Edgar's to get a cake for us to split. She took half of it home so I didn't feel obligated to eat the whole thing! :) It was so deliciously delicious! That's where I get all of my special occasion cakes, and they do a fantastic job on their special-order cakes! For my parents' 30th wedding anniversary, I threw a little dinner party at Pasghetti's in Gadsden, and for dessert we had a mini wedding cake. It was so pretty and delicious. I even had them reenact the cake cutting. So cute! For my father-in-law's 50th birthday, my sister-in-law, mother-in-law, and I planned a surprise party and I got the cake. It was half chocolate, half vanilla sheet cake decorated like the UA football field. In the middle it had a tombstone...I mean, it's his 50th, ya gotta have fun with it. It was real cute, and tasty! Anyway, enough cake talk! HA!
On Friday, we went to dinner at The Bright Star in Bessemer with Joseph's parents, Priscilla and Tommy. It was very good. I got the broiled snapper topped with crabmeat and a lemon butter sauce. DELISH! They also have killer squash casserole. The staff was so nice. When they found out we were there for my birthday, they moved us to a more private room. Our waitress brought us a complimentary chocolate cream pie that was amazing! Needless to say, I'm staying away from desserts for a while. HA!
To the point of this post:
I have done something for the past two days that I HATE doing!! I have been wearing my glasses! I LOATHE wearing my glasses. Mostly because they're uncomfortable, don't sit right on my face, and the prescription hasn't been right since I got them! I also hate wearing them because I hate glasses. I hate not being able to see out of my peripherals, I hate driving with them, and I hate only being able to see through this small oval frame. I miss my contacts!
Why have I been wearing my glasses you ask? I have a STYE! A gross STYE on my EYE!! I haven't had a stye since I was like a preteen. They're so annoying, sore, and uncomfortable. I'm trying to be real good about taking care of my eye so it goes away quickly....hence the glasses. No contacts til it's gone. I feel so weird with my glasses...I hate to say I feel like a nerd, but I do. Glasses just don't look cool on me. Some people look great in glasses; I, however, do NOT. See for yourself below. :0 Hopefully I only have another day or so of these things. My eye feels a lot better today, so maybe it will be gone by Friday at the latest!! I guess I should stop complaining. I guess I should be thankful that I even have my sight. I am blessed with what little sight I have, and the ability to correct my vision with things such as glasses and contacts. Sometimes you have to put things in perspective to realize how blessed you are. I am pretty blessed....more than I deserve! I'm blessed with wonderful friends and family who love me and make me feel special not only on my birthday, but everyday. I'm blessed with the vision that God has given me, even though it has to be corrected with annoying glasses and contacts. I'm blessed with a stye in my eye that reminds me how blessed I am!
So, Joseph and I have been talking for a while about getting a Mac (not that there's anything more important we could use our money on). We each have a laptop. I have a crappy Dell, seriously, it's had to have the hard-drive reloaded and it's only 3 years old. I've been living without all my pictures, files, and Microsoft Office for about a year or so. He has a newish HP that runs pretty well. He says it doesn't, but all I have to compare it to is my Dell that lasts about 25 minutes if it's not hooked up to the adapter. The battery life is ridiculous (obviously), it overheats like something awful, and it is as slow as Christmas. So, anything compared to that runs great to me! Well, we finally got a Mac. Joseph went to get it last night and brought it home where I played with it for a good hour before he touched it. :) I told him this is replacing MY crappy computer, so it is, essentially, mine! He's determined to smash mine into a million pieces, record it, and upload it to YouTube! I don't know if this will actually happen...I have a hard time allowing something that still works to be destroyed, but we'll see. We also do some design work for our social media business so the Mac will be much better for that!! MUCH. BETTER. I've been trying to play with Photoshop, but it's very confusing. Plus I've had customers calling for quotes, etc. What are they thinking calling me while I'm playing with my new toy!??! Kidding, obviously! ;-)
So, we are now Macs....almost....still in PC mode a little bit. It gets quite confusing going back and forth from Mac (now), to PC (to do something for the agency). So far, I'm liking the change. I'll let you know how I really feel about it in a few weeks! Ha!
There have been a lot of stars dying lately. I know some people say they are more important things to worry about: like our economic state, the oil-spill, the health care reform. These are all things to worry about, of course. But, these people were just that: PEOPLE! Human beings with souls and it is so sad when anyone passes away, even someone you didn't know at all, but part of you feels like you kinda do from watching them on TV. Gary Coleman had a brain hemorrhage, Rue McClanahan had a stroke, and it seems just like yesterday when Patrick Swayze and Bea Arthur passed away. I watched The Golden Girls all the time when I was younger! It's hard to believe that Betty White is the only living Golden Girl left. Death is hard to deal with. Whether it's someone you loved dearly, someone you knew as an acquaintance, or someone you just watched on TV....it's hard, it's sad. And some circumstances are harder and sadder than others. I'm tired of seeing people pass away, as I know you all are too. So here's to all of you: Rue, Gary, Patrick, Bea, and the many others......I shall go home and watch The Golden Girls and think of you, Rue and Bea...and when I say "Whatchu talkin 'bout Willis?" I will think of Gary, and when I hear "I've Had the Time of My Life", I'll think of Mr. Swayze. Enough of the death, let's have some life, some positive things happening, something to rejoice in!!
Note: I am aware that this post was somewhat corny; that was partly my intention, although I am truly saddened by these passings and truly mean it when I say: Rest In Peace.
