The "X" Factor

For years I have watched American Idol and loved every minute of it. Sometimes my friends would even come over and watch it with me. I have a few favorites from that show, Daughtry especially, that I still love to listen to this day. After they started making changes to the show, I haven't really been tuning in as much to watch American Idol. After Paula Abdul was replaced I was a little disappointed, but then they replaced all the judges except for Randy Jackson. I love Simon Cowell! I know he is arrogant and very straight forward, but I like his honesty. He is a judge and I think that a judge should be honest. After they took Simon Cowell away from American Idol, I have pretty much stopped watching the show all together. Here lately I have grown rather fond of The Voice. The Voice has been gaining popularity here lately and some speculators think that it may eventually become a bigger craze than American Idol. I think the biggest upcoming event though, is the new show that Simon Cowell himself is bringing to the table for fans. Simon's new show called The X Factor is sure to raise the stakes for all these talent seeking shows that are on television these days, because The X Factor is sort of like American Idol, but better. If you were trying out for American Idol then you have to be a solo singer, and a really good one in order to go through to the next round. The X Factor has made it to where a solo singer or a group of singers can try out in order to try and stake their claim to fame. This is just a little piece of information that makes The X Factor so great. The other great part about this show is that it involves two of the original American Idol judges. Simon Cowell has always been a favorite on American Idol, but I'm sure all of his fans will be tuning into The X Factor when it hits the air waves. Paula Abdul has just signed on to be a judge on the new X Factor show, reuniting her with her former judging partner Simon Cowell. Cowell said he was ready to pull the plug on the first day of live auditions for the US version of "X Factor" if a deal was not in place to bring back Abdul. Personally, I think that the "X Factor" will be a wonderful success for Simon Cowell. I think he will rake in more money this way and bring fame to people who are not just solo singers. I absolutely love the fact that he just had to have Paula Abdul on his team. I know that she has had her moments, but I think she is just wonderful and a music legend. I used to listen to her tapes, when I was a little girl, and sing along with the music. I think Simon and Paula make a great team and I'm so glad to be able to see them on a show like this, back in action! Ever since they left American Idol, I always thought that there was something not right about them resigning from the show, but I think that this new show, that Simon has come out with, is going to be so great that it may just know American Idol right off the board. I don't think anybody will forget the American Idol show though, because it made all these stars who they are today. I look forward to watching the X Factor, but until then I will be tuned into American Idol and The Voice, since I do still like those shows. Steven Tyler is a blast!

Grandpa You Will Be Missed

My great grandpa passed away this past Friday at about 2:40pm. He was 91 years old and he and my grandmother have been together for 67 years. My grandma and grandpa always went everywhere together and were VERY close. At about 1:00pm on that Friday afternoon I went on my daily walk in the park with my friend Candice, of course I had my daughter with me. After our walk, I decided that I needed a few things from the store so I headed to Wal-Mart. I spent about 45 minutes in Wal-Mart and then checked out and headed back to my car. I buckled Macy into her seat and then buckled myself into my driver seat. I reached over and pulled a vitamin water out of one of the grocery bags and took a big swig of it. I started the car and I pulled out to go over to the gas pumps to pump some gas into my car. As I pulled out of my parking space and headed toward the pumps, my cell phone started ringing. I looked down to see who it was and realized that it was my granny. I picked it up and said, "Hello". All I could hear on the other end of the line was my granny sobbing into the phone. I couldn't really understand her so I had to ask her what was wrong and all I could understand was that she kept saying, "Holly, please get over here quick!", so I skipped the gas pump and hurried towards her house. I had never heard my grandmother so upset like this, so I knew that something bad had happened and in the back of my mind I already knew what it was, and that was that my grandpa just died. As I drove over to her house, I began to wonder where my grandma Barbara was, because she had been over there with granny since last night, since grandpa's health condition was so bad and we thought he may pass in the middle of the night. Grandpa's health started to decline a few months ago and about a month ago they sent him home from the hospital saying that there was nothing more that they could do, because he was just to old and his heart was starting to fail. Thursday night we all went to visit him, because his oxygen tank was all the way up and he was having little heart attacks all day, so he was at a point to where he wasn't able to be out of bed anymore and we all thought that that would be the last time we saw him, because we thought he wasn't gonna make it through the night. He did make it through the night, however, he didn't make it through the next day. Anyway, I made it over to my granny's house and pulled the baby out of the car and hurried inside. I sat the baby on the living room floor and gave her some toys to play with and then went to go find granny, according to the sobs I figured she was in the back of the house in her bedroom. I went down the hall and went into her room and there she was clutching onto grandpa's dead body, screaming and sobbing. I went over and wrapped my arms around her and just let her cry and say what she needed to say. All she kept saying was that grandpa said he couldn't breathe and that she was trying to help him and that they oxygen tank was up as high as it would go and there wasn't anything she could do to save him. She then started sobbing and leaned over grandpa again and started screaming, "Charlie, why did you have to leave me?!" and "I love you Charlie, come back to me!" It hurt me so much to see my granny like this, so I started crying to. I hugged onto granny for a second and then she started asking me if I could try to call grandma Barbara. I said I would and I tried to call her. She didn't answer so I called my dad and told him what was going on. My dad lives 6 hours away, so I told him that I couldn't get a hold of grandma Barbara and asked dad if he would continue to try and get a hold of her for me while I call Aunt Terry and figure out what to do about the situation that I was delt with just then. Dad said he would keep trying to call Barbara and that he was on his way to come down here. After I hung up the phone with my dad, I didn't even have to call Aunt Terry, because she was calling me. I picked up the phone and told her what was going on. She said she was on her way and that I needed to stay there with granny, because she was calling the police to come over there. I told her okay and got off the phone. No sooner had I hung up with Aunt Terry, the police were rounding the corner. I went back to granny's room to explain to her what was going on. She started freaking out and kept asking, "Holly, what are they gonna do to him?" I told her to calm down and that they just wanted to take a look at him and determine that he was indeed deceased. She said okay and I took her hand and led her down the hallway so that the emergency teams could do their job. They finally determined that he was indeed deceased and then asked me for his identification and a medical card. I went and found what they needed and then they asked which funeral home to call. I turned and asked granny who I was supposed to call and she started sobbing and screaming that she didn't want them to take grandpa anywhere. She then got up and ran back to her bedroom to prevent anyone from taking him anywhere. I turned to the cheif of police and at that moment the phone rang. I picked it up and it was my dad telling my that he got a hold of grandma Barbara and that she would be there in 15 minutes. I then turned to the cheif of police and told him not to take grandpa anywhere and that my grandma would be there shortly to make the funeral decisions. He said that was fine and that they wouldn't touch grandpa until the decision was made by my grandma Barbara where he was supposed to go. I then ran back to find granny and let her know that nobody was gonna take him anywhere, so that way she would calm down a little bit. After a while, grandma Barbara got there and gave the police the information they needed in order to know what was going to be done with grandpa. Grandma Barbara called the funeral place that her and my two aunt's had choosen and they came with their herse. My Aunt Terry and Aunt Wendy were about an hour away from getting there so my grandma Barbara told the funeral people not to take grandpa with them until my Aunt's got there to say there good-bye's. The funeral people were very nice and went back to the bedroom to straighten grandpa up so that way he was more presentable for people to come back and pay their respects. In between waiting for my Aunt's to get there, several other members of my family came to hug on granny and say their good-bye's to grandpa before they took him to the funeral home. After my Aunt's got there, they paid their respects to grandpa and then went to console my granny. The funeral men loaded grandpa onto a stretcher and let my granny have one more good-bye before they loaded him into the herse and took him to the funeral parlor. My Aunt's then told me to order a bunch of pizza's from Pizza Hut and have them delivered so that we could spend this time with granny. I did what she told me and ordered 4 large pizza's and 3 different 2 liter soda's. The pizza arrived and granny didn't want to eat anything, since she was so upset and still sobbing. Later that night I called to check on my granny and told her to get some rest and that it was going to be alright and that grandpa is in a better place with God now. I knew she wasn't going to get much sleep, but I wanted to tell her that anyway. This past weekend has been very sad, since everybody has been preparing for the funeral. My granny hasn't stopped sobbing and she looks so empty and sad. I wish there was some way to make her feel better, but I know there isn't. This is just something that is going to take time in order to heal. We will all miss grandpa Charlie, as he was an outstanding man. I hope that my granny will be able to pick her head up and move on, because I don't think that grandpa would have wanted her to be unhappy. Saturday, the day after grandpa died, granny had a dozen roses delivered to her. The florist said that grandpa had come up there and picked them out and paid for them and had told the florist not to deliver them until the day after he died. I thought that this was very sweet, and it sounded just like something grandpa would do in order for grandma not to be so sad about him being gone. He loved her very much and wouldn't want her to be upset for him passing away. I know granny misses him, we all do, but we have to move on with our lives and trust that God is taking care of him now. One day granny will see him again in Heaven and I know that she will be at peace then. Grandpa, you were a wonderful man and will be missed dearly. May you rest in peace and may God always take care of you. I hope that he has provided you with lots of Pheasants to hunt up there in those clouds, because we know how much you loved pheasant hunting! Anyway, thank you for reading this blog, because he ment a great deal to our family. I will be attending his funeral tomorrow, Tuesday, so please keep us in your thoughts! Thank you!

The Dunder Float

Oh how I love summer and it is getting closer everyday! I just couldn't think of what to blog about here lately and then I realized that all I have been thinking about lately is "The Dunder Float". Every summer on Memorial Day Weekend me and about 30 of my friends head on down to Pineville, MO and go camping and canoeing. I had never before went canoeing until I met my husband and all of his friends and now his friends are my friends and we all go canoeing on this particular weekend. We have a BLAST! Anyway, the first year that I got to go canoeing with all of these fine people we all had a great time, but everyone ran out of beer and food before we hit the halfway mark, so when we ran out of supplies we paddled back to the campsite quick. We all had such a good time together that we all decided to come back and do it all again every Memorial Day weekend at the same place. My husband's friend, R.D., was the one to rally us all together for the first eventful canoeing trip, so we named it after him, well, sort of. For some odd reason the song Thunderstruck by AC/DC kept repeating itself throughout our trip and so now the annual canoeing trip has a name and a theme song. Only, we say Dunder instead of Thunder in the theme song! Now every year all of us know that on Memorial Day weekend, we are all going on the Dunder float. The second time we went on the Dunder float trip there were 40 of us! We had to rent twenty 2-man canoes because there were so many of us, and the campsite owner gave us a discount since we had such a huge group. All of us use this chance to get together and have a good time and catch up on things. Last year, I was 7 and a half months pregnant with my daughter, and R.D.'s wife was 6 and a half months pregnant so we could not go on the Dunder float. We had to miss out last year for the safety of our babies, but this year we have gotten a babysitter set up for that weekend and we are headed out for the Dunder float to let the crazies out of us in order to kick off the summer. Maybe that is why I can't stop thinking about going! I am so excited about this trip! I bought a brand new bathing suit, from Victoria's Secret of course, and I have been tanning since March. I've got my tan on and a new suit, now all I gotta do is get my hair re-colored and make my camping list, so I don't forget to pack anything, and I will be ready to rumble. Don't worry about me people, because I will be going on the Dunder float every year for a while, because I got birth control. No babies for me until they have to take the little birth control rod out of my arm in January of 2014! I guess I must be getting a little carried away with this, but I really love the memories and good times that I take home with me after this trip is over. Well, maybe some of you like to go canoeing and if so, we camp at Sugar Island and if you would like to come party with us then we will be the huge group of people singing the "Dunder" song! Other than that, happy summer times to everyone! My plan is to get up on Friday, May 28th and head down to the camp grounds to pitch my tent, then we hang out around the camp fire to eat and have fun with my friends. The next morning we get up at 7 am and eat breakfast and then we head towards the shuttle buses for our 10 mile float! We usually don't get back to the camp ground until about 12 hours later. Then we hang out around the camp fire again and eat and hang out some more. Sunday morning we all get up and say our farewells and then, one by one, we all go home. *sigh* I hate going home! Since, I've had my daughter this day sounds more like a vacation for me and my husband. Anyway, I hope everyone has something exciting planned for summer. Stay safe everyone and have a great summer!

Judge Judith Sheindlin

Today I am going to talk about a show that I love to watch everyday at 4pm. I like to watch Judge Judy. I'm not sure why I'm so addicted to her show, but her show keeps me tuned into it everyday at the same time. Even my husband knows what channel we turn it to at that time. Anyway, I think everybody knows who Judge Judy is because they have watched the show. Many of you are probably fans of her and her show! I saw her on Ellen Degeneres once and then I eventually started to see her on all kinds of shows after that. She seems to be pretty popular. I think it's pretty cool that she is gaining lots and lots of celebrity attention. She really doesn't act like all the other celebrities and she sticks to her job as a judge on her show. I love how she doesn't try to make it all fake like other shows. She gives real advice and she calls it like she sees it. I suppose I like her so much because I am a realist and I like having the truth right in front of me instead of a bunch of fake lies. Judge Judy lets a person know when she thinks they are full of crap or if she thinks they are a trouble maker. This blog isn't neccessarily about her show and how I love to watch it everyday. I wanted everyone to know just how much Judge Judy has accomplished in her life, because she truely is a wonderful person. She was on CNN the other day and they were saying that she makes more than Oprah! EVERYBODY on earth knows who Oprah is and we all know that Oprah gets pretty nice paychecks! So, Judge Judy must be at the top of the list when it comes to show ratings. Oprah's talk show is what brought her to the top of all television shows and that's right where Judge Judy has placed herself with HER top rated show. It is the most watched "court" show on the air waves right now and she pulls in about 10 million viewers. She even beat Oprah Winfrey's ratings in the 2009-2010 season. Guess I should have been a judge! Judge Judy is 68 years old and she just signed on to stay with the Judge Judy show until 2015. She started the show in 1996 and has been doing it for 15 years now. That is one tough old New Yorker! When I read that she was 68 and still going strong I just laughed, because my grandmother always used to say that she has got a lot of spit fire in her and that's what you got to have in order to keep going as long as she has. Boy was my grandmother right! If you look at this Judge Judy Biography, she has been through a few divorces, raising five children through law school and exams to be where she is today. I personally think she really is a tough Brooklyn chick. The things she has seen and been through in her life are what drives her to give out her fair and reasonable judgements. I hope that she keeps that "spit fire" going because I love her and I think some of her blows are kind of funny. Like when she says, "I'm not up here because I'm gorgeous. I'm up here because I'm smart.". Like I said, she calls them like she see's them!

Sorry people!

Sorry you guys! I had to take the original post and all 9 comments off of here because I was having some problems with this blog! I will put a different one on here eventually! As soon as I have time! Sorry Everyone!

A Trip to Mexico

Sorry everyone! I know that I usually have my blogs done by now, but I have had quite a busy week already and that is why I am just getting to these today. I had to work on Monday. I usually only work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but this week my mom had to have surgery on her gallbladder on Wednesday so I had to switch days with a co-worker in order to have a babysitter for Macy. I worked on Monday and Tuesday, so now I have to rest of the week off. YAY, sort of, I say that because I still have a LOT of work to do for school since finals are only two weeks away. I'm sure a lot of you are feeling the "finals" crunching in on you as well. Anyway, I have had a lot of horrible news for me until today. Things are starting to look better, thank goodness! A friend of mine, I wrote about him in a later blog, went to go see his dying mother in Mexico. His name is Antonio and he is from Mexico, but he has a fiance and a daughter here in Lamar, MO, where he has lived now for about 5 or 6 years. He went to Mexico to go visit his mother that is very ill and about to die. He took his fiance, Crystal, and his daughter, Ale, with him to meet his mother for the first time and to spend time with her before she died. After staying there for a few weeks they loaded up Antonio's nice SUV and headed home. When they got to the border, the police were checking vehicles and so their vehicle was checked also. After checking the vehicle and identifying everyone in the car the police determined that Antonio was trying to cross the border illegally. They made Crystal return home to Lamar without Antonio. I asked Crystal why they did that and she said that Antonio has work release papers that allow him to come to our country to work for a certain amount of time and then they have to return to their country and that Antonio only had those papers and not any actual citizenship papers. She said that the date on his work release papers had been expired and she didn't know that because she didn't even know where Antonio's papers were at. She went to talk to a lawyer and the lawyer said that she would have to go back to Mexico and get married to Antonio there and then live there for a little while before Antonio would be able to get his citizenship papers and come home. I have to say that I'm proud of Crystal because she is going to do exactly what the lawyer told her to do and go down there and do all that just to get her man back so he can be home with his two favorite girls. I asked her if she had a good time in Mexico, when she was just "visiting" and she said that she loved  it and that Mexico is a beautful place, but people there are very poor. I told her that her task at hand would be over before she knew it and that she would be home in Lamar soon enough. I told her to think of it as one big vacation. She said Ale really enjoyed being with her dad's family and that she didn't think it would be so bad. She is just worried about all of the crime thats been going on down there and that she would miss everybody back home. She called me today to let me know that she was fixing to leave to go back to Mexico. I hope she has a safe adventure. Not many people around here can say that they had to go stay in Mexico for a while! I firmly believe in our country's immigration laws and I'm pretty sure Crystal does to, but Antonio came over here perfectly legal and just didn't go back. He is part of our community now and we all miss him, so I'm glad that Crystal is going to bring him back. He is the General manager at our local El Charro's and everybody in town knows Antonio. He doesn't have a bad reputation in our town and he needs to be brought home, because everybody in our community is missing him. We can't wait for Crystal to bring him home so he can see him at El Charro's again! Maybe Crystal will have him back before the end of the summer so he can catch the last canoeing trip of the season! I pray Crystal has a safe trip and can come home soon. She is a very brave person!

The Steve Wilkos Show

I'm usually a pretty busy mommy these days. I have a part time job, that I work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I have a house-hold to run. My husband helps me, but most of the time he is at work. He does construction and works a typical five day week with a full forty hours, so he helps sometimes, but he also has to have time to rest and bathe himself. Can't take that away from him, because he definitely comes home dirty! Anyway, when I am at home, doing homework, it always puts me at ease to have the television on. I don't necessarily pay attention to the television, but I turn it on to something that I can kind of listen and watch while I'm doing my blogs or my math or something simple that doesn't require my entire brain to function. It doesn't distract me from my homework, I just like it to be on because I am a multi-tasker and my brain has the ability to do both. I LOVE to watch "Everybody Loves Raymond", but in the mornings, that show isn't on so I try to find something else, that won't annoy me, to watch. I stumbled across this show on the WPIX channel. It is channel 251 on my Dish Network cable. I think this channel is actually for the New York area, because most of the news updates and stuff that they show between the shows on that channel are for that specific area on the U.S. map. This show that I found is called "The Steve Wilkos Show". I have been watching this show now for a couple of months and I find it very interesting. This show is definitely considered to be a drama show, but it also helps people in a certain way. This show helps people seek answers to the problems that they are dealing with in their lives. Many people do not have the means or the money to get a lie detector test, paternity test, or whatever else their problems may call for, so they can come on this show and get the answers that they are looking for. Steve Wilkos used to be a police officer, a U.S. marine, and a "bouncer" for the Jerry Springer show, but he has his own show now, and with this show, he helps people try to solve or get the answers that they are searching for their problems. He helps people with counseling or any other tests/results that they may need. Now, I know that this really doesn't sound to interesting, but if you were to sit down and watch it, it may just catch your interest because I think that what Steve does on his show is a wonderful thing. I think that he brings justice to the people that come on his show, looking for answers. Anyway, I think that Steve and his show is a wonderful blessing to have on television. Sometimes he has really good episodes, and sometimes he doesn't. I saw an episode where this lady wanted to know if her boyfriend had been abusing her daughter, because he daughter, who was like 3 years old, said that the boyfriend had been "hurting" her and, of course, the boyfriend had told her that it wasn't true and that her daughter was a spoiled little brat and a lier. After everybody got to tell their side of the story, Steve had a few things to say to everyone and then he read the lie detector results that he had in his hand. It turns out that the boyfriend had been beating her daughter, when she wasn't home. The results proved to everyone that, while the boyfriend was playing his XBox, the 3 year old girl started bothering him and he got annoyed and kicked the 3 year old girl in the face in order to get her out of the way. The man was mad that the truth was brought out and he started throwing a fit on stage and went after the mother, Steve stepped in the middle and told him that he was a disgraceful person and to get off his stage. Steve then turned to the mother and told her, "Now that you have the truth, what are you going to do?" She said she was going to report it to the police and make sure that her boyfriend never comes near her daughter again. Steve then told her that if she needed anything from the show, evidence, counseling numbers, etc., that she could call the show and get what she needed for the police. I think that Steve did a wonderful thing for this woman and her daughter. He is a good man and I think he does this show purely to help people. For more information about the "Steve Wilkos Show" and what it is all about, just click on my links! Hopefully, if some of you have this channel or visit his website, you will watch it and let me know what you think about it! Thanks!

P.S.----Sorry readers! I forgot to tell everybody what time the Steve Wilkos Show comes on just in case anybody wants to check it out for themselves! The show comes on Monday thru Friday at 11:00 am on channel 251--WPIX! (Most people should have this channel if they have Dish Network or Directv)

Overweight Children

I have been working at the Dairy Queen in Lamar, MO for about 7 years now and I have seen a lot of people come and go. I know who my regulars are and what they are going to order before they even tell the girl at the register what they want. I am the most expeirenced cook at my job and therefore I am pretty much in charge of my kitchen domain. I've noticed that most of the customers that I am cooking for are overweight, which is to be expected since I work at a fast food place. Fast food places are found everywhere you look and they are the prime reason as to why the obesity rate has gone sky high in this country.  I've seen people who are more overweight than others and I've seen people who order enough food for three people, just for themselves and then go back for a large ice-cream treat afterwards. The other day I saw the most horrific thing that I have ever seen in my years of working at Dairy Queen. A whole family of ridiculously overweight people came to the registers to order some food. There was a mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, and two HUGE little boys standing in front of the registers looking at the menu trying to figure out what they were going to order. I had never seen people that were this overweight, but what really chilled me to my core was the fact that the two little boys were the size of two huge boulders and they couldn't have been any older than the age of six! The first little boy looked to be about 3 or 4 years old and he had to have weighed over 125 pounds and the other little boy that looked to be about 6 was about 150 or more! As I stared in disbelief at this family, they started to place their order. I remember the order exactly as the day that I made it, the order was 6 six piece chicken strip dinners with a large order of mushrooms, fries, or onion rings with each one! I can't even eat a whole 4 piece chicken strip dinner, let alone a 6 piece with a large greasy side to go along with it! Anyway, after their food was delivered to them, I stood there, in my kitchen area, and watched them devour every crumb of it, and I defanitely mean EVERY CRUMB. I then watched the mother and the two little boys come back up to the counter to order ice-cream. She ordered a large blizzard for herself and then ordered each of the two boys a peanut buster parfeit. Our peanut buster parfeit's are pretty much like a freakin' huge sundae with three layers of hot fudge and peanuts in between vanilla ice-cream. After witnessing all this, all I could do was shake my head with disgust. Why on earth would somebody let their child become that overweight!? I'm not bashing overweight people to make fun of them, because I actually have a sister that just turned 21 that weighs about 300 pounds. I know that she is overweight and I also know that being too overweight can be very harmful to a person's health. Back to my story though, I got home from work that day and the show "The Dr. Oz Show" was on the television. Now, usually I don't really watch "The Doctor Oz Show" but on this day it really caught my eye, because, ironically, it was about overweight children and the harmful effects of this problem. On the show there was an overweight mom and dad that had a 4 year old daughter that weighed over 100 pounds. The parents of this little girl were sobbing and admitted to the doctors that she was already beginning to show signs of diabeties and asthma and that they were stressed to the max worrying about what to do with their daughters weight before it becomes a serious health issue. Doctor Oz then asked them a series of questions about what type of food the family eats in a typical day, how much time they spend getting up and moving around or going outside, and how much time they spend watching television or being on the computer. The parents admitted that they do not "get up and move" and that they eat fast food everyday and they spend all their time in front of the television. At this point I'm sitting there thinking, "HELLO! That is why you have an issue with being overweight, because your daily routine is unhealthy!". Then, as I figured, Doctor Oz told the family that they needed to change their routine and quick or their life spans could be cut short due to the weight problems and unhealthy habits that they were practicing. He then proceeded to teach them how to change their habits so that their daughter wouldn't be faced with horrible health issues later on down the road. I just hope that they took his advice seriously and really did change their routine at home, because that is just ridiculous to pass that kind of a habit off to a four year old that clearly has a weight issue already. After watching Doctor Oz's show I really agreed with him on the fact that the child's overweight problem was the parents problem being passed onto the child and the child doesn't understand about why it's bad to carry on that unhealthy behavior, so it's really the parent's fault and their responsibility to get their child straightened out so that it doesn't end in tradgedy. Anyway, I just wanted to vent about those two little boys that I saw, with my own eyes, at Dairy Queen. I just think that is so irresponsible of those two boy's parent's to expose them to those kinds of unhealthy eating habits! I bet they took those little boys home and they plopped right down in front of the television and stayed there until it was time for them to go to bed. Just to give you an idea of how big these boys are, I found a link of an overweight boy in China that is about the same size as these two boys. It's really kind of sad that a parent would let that happen to their child. All they would have to do is make them get up and go outside for a couple hours to play and instead of feeding them greasy fast food everyday they could just go get some good food from the grocery store and fix them a decent home cooked meal. It really isn't that hard people!

A Stressful Sunday

After mid-terms were over I got hit with another round of school work so I decided that I would focus on my English and Speech assignments, since they were the ones that required the most attention and were worth about half my grade in those classes. I gave my first speech and now I had to prepare for the next one and I also had a paper that was due in English so I focused on my speech and my english paper. After I finally got those things taken care of, I realized that I hadn't done any math for about two weeks, so I was behind. My math assignments don't necessarily have a specific due date. All the assignments in that class are due by the end of the semester, but I try to keep myself on a schedule in order to have them all completed by the deadline. All last week I had planned on getting myself caught up on the math assignments that I had scheduled in my agenda that I keep for college. I keep an agenda so I don't forget my assignments and get behind. Anyway, I didn't get to work on any of the math assignments that I had planned on doing all week last week. Macy, my nine month old daughter, has got her first two top and bottom set of teeth in and now she is cutting two more top teeth. It seems like the top teeth always give her more problems than the bottom one do, because she always cries a lot more when the top ones are bothering her. I wasn't for sure that she was cutting her second set so soon, since she had just finished getting her first two top teeth in, but I saw the second set popping through about the middle of last week when I was brushing her teeth. I always give her a bath and then we brush her teeth and get her ready for bed. On Sunday, I had a plan to finally get caught up on all the work I had to do. I got Macy up, changed her diaper and fed her breakfast and then got her dressed. After I did all that, I set her on the floor to play with her toys while I turned on my laptop to start my homework. I got one assignment done and half of another one done before I had to take my husband to his friend's house to play beach volleyball with his buddies. When the weather is nice they always play beach volleyball for a few hours at his friends house on Sundays. His friend has a real nice sanded court a little ways from his house in his HUGE yard. All of my husband's friend's have wives and kids so they all are usually out there to running around and having fun. I helped my husband fill our cooler and a bag for Macy, because I figured Macy would like to run around out there for a bit, since she loves to be outside. Boy was I wrong about that assumption, because when we got out there she started being kind of a brat. My husband was into his second match when she really started throwing a fit, so I decided that it was time to take her home for a nap. I told my husband good-bye and that he could get a ride home with one of the guys so that way he could stay and have some fun. I took Macy home and I fed her a bottle and tried to get her to sleep. She screamed and cried for two hours! I could not get her to calm down at all! I gave her Tylenol and rubbed some medicine on her gums and she still wouldn't stop screaming. After those two hours, my mom called and by then I was in tears because I couldn't get Macy to calm down and I was so stressed out because I had a lot of work to do. Mom told me she was going to come get Macy so that I could have a much needed break from her screaming and get my work done. I'm so glad she came to get the little booger! Macy loves to spend the night with my mom, so as soon as "grandma" walked in the door she stopped crying and reached for grandma with a smile on her face. I was so relieved to see her smile! I got to sleep in this morning and I got caught up on all my work today too. I felt bad about letting her go with my mom, specially since I miss her when she is gone, but I defanitly did need that break. I called to check on her this afternoon and my mother said she hasn't been crabby over there at all! What a little stinker! Well, all I have to say is thank God for mothers! My stress level has gone WAY down since my mom took the baby for me last night!

Toddler Served Alcohol at Michigan Applebee's

I didn't even get to browse through the latest news stories this morning to find this one. I just pulled up my internet browser and it was the headline on my homepage. I clicked on this headline and started to read it and I thought, how on earth do you get away with serving a toddler alcohol!? Apparently, as the article says, the little boy's mom ordered the toddler a kids meal with an applejuice and the waiter brought their order to them, but the little boy did not have applejuice in his cup. Instead, the 15 month old boy had alcholic margarita mix in his sippy cup. His mother, at first, just thought that he was tired because he started to seem like he was getting sleepy, but then the little boy started talking to the walls and wouldn't eat his food. Finally, after he laid his head down on the table, his mother took a sip of the "juice" in his sippy cup and realized that it was alcohol. She immediately informed the manager and the police were called to the scene. The police determined that there was alcohol in the childs cup and the boy was taken to the hospital. The little boy's blood alcohol content was declared to be at a 0.10, which is over the legal alcohol content limit for an adult driver. The police have stated that the incident was an accident, because a leftover mixed drink combination was mistakenly labeled as apple juice and that is why the boys cup was filled with alcohol instead of applejuice. Doctors at the hospital say that the boy could have died if he drank the whole cup. The boy is fine and has been released from the hospital. Applebee's has issued a statement saying that the incident was unacceptable and promised to work with the authorities to resolve the matter. After I read this story, I kinda thought that, despite the fact that it was an accident, this story made me kind of scared to go to Applebees. That poor little boy could have died if he drank the whole cup! That is a big, BIG mistake! In this article that I found on Fox News, supposedly nobody, at the family's table, even ordered alcoholis drinks! Don't you think that they would put the alcohol in a different place than they would the applejuice? I had a couple other questions to go with this story, so I decided to look for further information on the matter. I had to look for a while before I can across the answers that I was searching for. I found this article, which answered the question that I had left in my mind. That question was: What efforts did Applebee's make to satisfy the family that fell victim to this incident? I should think that they had to have done something for the family in order for them not to sue! I finally found that answer, in the article that I linked above. The restaurant actually reimbersed the family for the medical bills that came with taking the little boy to the hospital. I'm sure that came with a few apoligies to! Anyway, as I read through this last article, it said that this was not the first time that Applebees has mistakenly put alcohol in a toddlers drink. In 2007, a 2 year old child's drink was filled with alcohol instead of applejuice at an Applebees in California! According to that article, the margarita mix container and the applejuice containers look similar to each other so the manager grabbed the wrong one by mistake and poured it into the child's cup. That restaurant also reimbersed the family for their medical bills after the police were called and the child was taken to the hospital. In my opinion, I think that Applebee's had better figure out witch container is which and put them in separate places so that this doesn't happen again. If they don't, then next time a child could drink the whole cup and then they would be in serious trouble for the murder of a toddler. If it were my kid, I would be furious! Those children could have died from just finishing their drink! It's pretty crazy to have to worry about what is in your child's cup when you order them some applejuice at Applebee's! Hopefully, Applebee's will fix the problem or they will be out of business next time.

Teenage Moms

I used to love watching MTV back when they showed music videos all say long. After they started putting shows on there I stopped watching for a while. Now a days, I actually have a few favorite shows that I like to watch on MTV. I know some of you don't like it, but I love to watch "The Jersey Shore". I just find that show to be really funny and entertaining. Anyway, there is another show that I like to watch and that is "Teen Mom 2". Its interesting to watch and see what those teenage mothers are going through, but most of all I think that this show really brings out the harsh reality of having a baby when you are a teenager. I'm not saying in any way that these girls are terrible people for getting pregnant that young. I just like how the tv series shows teenage girls that having to take care of a kid is a lot of work and stress on a person when they are still in high school and haven't even got to expierence the joys of life yet. I guantee you that all those girls on that show wish that they were out having fun, doing what all the other people their age are doing right now. I'm not saying that they don't love their children and that they regret their children, but I do think that they wish they would have waited to have their children. The pressure of being a teenager these days is a very tough burden to carry and skipping that part of their life that they are supposed to enjoy can lead to unhealthy behavior. Only one of the girls on the Teen Mom 2 show is getting married and is actually doing alright for herself, but she does have to deal with a child that seems to have a medical problem. Thats a hard thing for a teenager to have to go through. I'm so glad that she has a good man that sticks by her and supports her as a husband and a parent, because she already has enough on her plate. There are two other girls that have split up with their boyfriends, and one of those couples are going to court and drawing up a custody agreement over their son, Isaac. The other girl is struggling with school and trying to finish in order to go on to beauty school. The last remaining girl is Jennelle Evans. She has been living from place to place, sleeping on whatever couch she can find, and letting her new boyfriend ruin her life. She was caught on camera brutally beating a girl over an argument about her boyfriend, Kiefer. She has been in trouble for breaking and entering, stealing credit cards and possession of drugs in just her first year of  MTV fame. Her mother has custody of her son and has kicked her out for stealing her credit cards and racking up quite a bill. MTV has been recieving nasty comments about the show because of Jennelle Evans's behavior on and off the show. Many people believe that this show is not a good thing for a teenager to be learning from about being a teenage mother. I believe that they are wrong! I think that Jennelle Evans's "mistakes" are a prime example as to just how hard life can be sometimes when you make the wrong decisions. I honestly believe that a lot of teenagers could look at Jennelle, and the rest of these moms on this show, and think, " Do I really want something like that to happen to me?" or "I'm never going to do what that girl did!". I know that sometimes we see things that disappoint us on these shows, but I firmly believe that sometimes people need to be shown just how harsh reality can be sometimes. I call it an eye-opener.

The Terrible Tantrums

My daughter is, of course, the light of my life, but here lately her cuteness has been a very big factor in having to "lay down the law". Macy will be nine months old on the 16th and lately she has been throwing some nasty temper tantrums. The first time she threw a tantrum I thought the usual things. I thought maybe she was crabby because she was hungry or needed changing or that maybe she was just tired and needed a nap. I tried feeding her and she ate a whole bottle and a few of her little baby yogurt snacks, but after she was done with that she went right back to throwing a tantrum. I decided she needed a diaper change and laid her down to pamper her little bottom. She still just continued to throw a fit. The tantrum she was throwing accelerated into chaos and she bit me on my leg! I pulled her away from my leg, because it freakin' hurt when she bit me, and told her "No, no. You don't bite your momma. That's not nice, it hurt mommy." She then got upset because I told her "No" and started thrashing her head around like a wild animal. I sat her on my lap and tried to calm her down. She wouldn't calm down so I decided that maybe her teeth are causing her pain. I reached over on the end table and grabbed some teething gel and put some on my finger so that I could rub it on her gums. Macy has two top teeth and two bottom teeth but I don't think her two top teeth are done pushing through because I can see them and feel them, but they aren't sticking out as much as her bottom ones, so I think they are still bothering her sometimes. Then again, her second set of teeth could be trying to pop through there to and I just haven't seen them yet. I don't like to try and stick my finger in her mouth to feel if she has more teeth popping through because she will bite me! It's like an automatic thing. I stick my finger in there and she clamps down on it, so I refrained from putting my finger in there anymore! Anyway, she knows what the teething gel looks like and she hates it when I try to put it in her mouth, so when I tried to put some on her gums this time, she threw her head back and busted me in the face! After that I set her on the floor and inhaled a deep breathe of air, trying not to cry from the pain that was making my face throb. After about a minute, I was fine and Macy was still throwing a fit and this time she was so mad that she was kicking her feet and rolling all over the floor. I finally just decided that it was time for some "tough love", and I picked her up and headed upstairs towards her room. Once we got inside her room, I laid her down in her bed, covered her up with her blanket, and gave her one of her stuffed doll's and said, "It's time to take a nap and stop throwing a fit". I then proceeded to give her a kiss and tell her sweet dreams. After I tucked her in for her nap, I walked away and shut the door. I got about halfway down the stairs when she must have realized that I had left her up there for good, because she started screaming her head off. I felt so bad for leaving her up there upset, but my mother said that it's time for her to learn some self control. She screamed for about 20 minutes and then she was really quiet. I went upstairs to check on her and make sure she was okay. She was sound asleep in her crib. I was so glad that she finally gave in and went to sleep, because I could tell she needed a nap. She was cranky and tired. My mother said that she is just at that stage where I am going to have to put my foot down with her. She doesn't understand that she is cranky because she is tired and she doesn't have a way to tell me how she feels except for throwing a fit so I have to do what is best for her and not let her run over me with her sweet little baby face full of cuteness. It's so hard though! I hate to see her upset! I know that it's for the best though, and after being smacked in the face I don't try to hold her when she is thrashing around! Anyway, I suppose I better get used to it because she is going to have to learn that she can't have her way all the time. I'm sure there will be many more temper tantrums where that came from!

Statue Theives

I was browsing the latest news stories today and came across a headline that just made me pause and really start to question it. The headline of this story was: "600-pound bronze moose among Calif. statue thefts". This headline really had a bunch of questions firing off in my head. To sum this story up, the police in California are looking for these art theives that have stolen at least 18 metal, wood and concrete statues, including a 600-pound bronze moose. The theives have stolen nearly $44,000 worth of lawn art since October. The artworks that they stole included Buddha yard statutes, a life-sized aluminum colt, a 3-foot-tall statue of the Virgin Mary and a copper statue of three children valued at $15,000. Detectives think that the metal works of art may have been broken up and sold to recyclers, while the other pieces might have been resold. After reading this story I began to question as to how somebody gets away with stealing a huge statue and wondering how he was still getting away with stealing more statues. I looked up "statue theives" on google and found that there was a similar story of stealing statues in Conneticut. I clicked on the story and read it. This story was about a man that stole a 450 pound statue of a woman and tried to sell it at a scrap metal yard. This guy was caught and the statue was recovered, missing the woman's head on the statue. The 43 year old man,  Sean P. McNee, was held on a $150,000 bond pending arraignment in Norwich Conneticut Superior Court. The life-sized statue marked the grave of Sarah Larned Osgood and was part of the Osgood family memorial at the Yantic Cemetery on Lafayette Street in Norwich. After I read this story I had more questions. I then went back to google and typed in "metal theft" and to my surprise wikipedia actually had an article on the subject. The article says that metal theft happens when prices for scrap metal rise. People will steal metal and can sell it almost anywhere for a good price. Different metals bring in different prices. The more metal you have, the more money you make and metal can be found everywhere you look. After I read all of this stuff some of my questions had been answered but not all of them. I found the answers as to why somebody would want to steal metal and sell it, but I didn't understand how on earth somebody gets away with something like that. Oviously if you can steal it, without somebody seeing you do it, then you will have no problem selling the metal. How on earth does somebody not get caught stealing a 600 pound gold moose?! I don't understand that! Come on people! Didn't anybody see this guy trying to put this thing in the back of a truck or something? It's a frickin' huge golden moose for goodness sake! How did this guy get out of there with that thing without anybody seeing him and stopping to wonder why this guy was loading a 600 pound moose statue into the back of a truck in front of a museum?! It's not like the guy could just tuck this thing under his shirt and sneak out the door with it. He had to get that thing out of the building somehow and I can't believe that nobody saw him. I've been reading about a lot of stealing going on, but reading about how somebody got away with stealing a huge golden moose takes the cake! I about died laughing just thinking about some guys trying to load this thing up and take it away somewhere, probably to be scrapped. I bet they make a pretty penny on that thing! That's a lot of metal! 600 pounds! People are crazy these days. A friend of mine once told me that crack heads will steal anything, so I honestly believe that the stolen moose idea was defanitely done by a crack head! HA! HA! HA! I feel bad about the statue getting stolen. Nobody likes to have something stolen from them, but this story was hilarious!

Spring Break

I thought that I would blog about my spring break. Hopefully a lot of other people will be doing the same thing, because I think it's fun to read what people did when they had a little time away from their school responsibilites. A friend of mine said she had to do a bunch of homework on her spring break! UGH! Poor girl! Anyway, where to begin? I kind of wanted to go out and be a crazy 23 year old for once, but it was cold all week and I miss my daughter when I go out. Besides, I'm sure that spring break is just another reason for the cops to pull you over and spoil the fun. :P No offense to you criminal justice majors! I know you are just trying to keep us all safe. After all the debating about going out sometime during spring break, I decided that I would just rather stay home and spend time with my daughter and husband. I bought a few new movies and still haven't watched them. I'll get around to it eventually. I did, however, finally decide to make a Facebook for myself. I made one on Friday and already have 81 friends on there! WOW! I know a lot of people! I really was against getting a facebook, but my friends and co-workers convinced me that I needed one. I actually had a good outcome from making a Facebook and that was that I found a friend of mine that I haven't seen or heard from in years! She was my best friend when we were younger and I have really missed her since she moved away. I'm so glad I found her. She came over to my house yesterday and hung out with me. It was a great reunion! She has a two month old baby and is going through a divorce so she moved back to town to live with her mom for a little while and get back on her feet. She said she moved away from her now ex-hubby because he started gettting into some things that she didn't approve of. She said he was always coming home all messed up and started beating on her and so she decided she wasn't going to live like that. I have to say, I'm very proud of her because nobody should have to live like that and a lot of times it's hard for somebody to get away from a situation like that. I'm glad she got away from that before it got worse and she wound up on the 6 o'clock news. I got her a job, at Dairy Queen, where I work. It's not much but she said she needed a job and that anything would help right now. She has a nursing license but she has to get it transferred to Missouri before she can go back to nursing. I'm just glad she is okay. She seems glad to be back in town. Her baby is cute! Speaking of babies, my 8 month old daughter has been throwing fits lately. She is at that age where they start to test their boundries with temper tantrums. She gets mad if she can't have her way and she throws a fit at bedtime too. My husband and I have been working with her all week to make sure that she knows that she can't have her way all the time. I think I am doing better than my husband though, because he can't stand to see her upset and he gives into her before I will. She is doing a lot better though I think. She refuses to take her binki anymore, not that thats a bad thing because thats just one less thing that I have to ween her off of. We have a habit of rocking her to sleep and she refuses to be rocked to sleep anymore. We have now been practicing feeding her and then placing her in the crib and leaving the room. She's been taking it pretty well, because instead of screaming and throwing a fit, she now lays down and lets us cover her up and she pulls her little baby doll close to her and goes to sleep. She seems to understand the "bedtime" and "naptime" concept! Thank God! I'm so glad she is the way she is. She really isn't a pain in the butt. She's usually a really good baby and I'm so glad that switching her bedtime routine hasn't upset her to much! Well, thats about all the highlights of my spring break! Hope to read some other interesting spring break stories this week from my classmates! Hope everyone had a wonderful break as well!

Mother Nature's Anger

It seems that when things get bad, they always get worse. I've have a friend that says, "Bad things always happen in three's". I belive that must be true, but it seems to be happening a lot lately. As if this recession isn't enough to create havoc and devestation on this earth, Mother Nature seems to be getting her hands dirty to. We already have to worry about the stock market crashing and the housing market and banks going under. Busnisess are going under everyday and people are losing their jobs. Prices are going up on everything and nobody can afford to pay their bills. Everybody in everypart of the world is at war or fighting in a war. People are rioting and getting out of control. The crime rate is rising and people are very worried about the general outcome of the life they live in this world today. On top of all this, Mother Nature has stepped in and made everything ten times worse than what it already is. I'm not sure if it's God that is angry at the world or if it really is just Mother Nature letting off some steam, but the disaster's around the world are really hitting everyone hard and in every season too. In summer the weather has been extremely hot. In some parts of the world it caused horrible heat wave problems. In spring there is the rain and tornadoes and thunderstorms. Some parts of the world have big flooding situations. In winter there has been so many snow storms that many people that used to not even get snow have accepted that it will snow in the winter season. With all this crazy weatherngoing on everywhere it just doesn't seem that it couldn't get any worse, but Mother Nature has pushed it to a whole new level. I'm sure by now that everybody has heard, seen, or read about the natural disaster that happened in Japan. Japan is a very small continent but it is very overpopulated with billions of people. Japan has the 3rd largest population group in the world. This disaster has taken out almost half of Japan. If you don't think that isn't gonna have a huge impact on the world then you are dead wrong. Japan was struck by an earthquake that was a 9.0 on the richter scale and then they were immediately engulfed in a huge tsunami following the earthquake. Those two disasters alone have killed millions of people. Now that all that has happened the aftermath of these two disasters are set on finishing the job. There are tons of aftershocks everyday. An aftershock is a mini-quake, but can be scary because it could be the warning sign of another big earthquake on the way. There could be several of these mini-quakes before they turn into something destructive. Everyone in Japan is cowering over any and all of the aftershocks they are feeling everyday. The earthquake and tsunami have also created thousands of fires that are out of control and all of these problems are now effecting the nuclear plants in Japan. There have been several explosions at the plants and many people are being warned to get somewhere safe indoors in order to get away from radiation posioning. The radiation leakage is spreading to a wider range everyday and Japan is asking for more help from other countries to help cool the reactors so the problem doesn't get worse. This Japan disaster has been titled as "a scene from hell, absolutely nightmarish". The earthquake alone has been deamed the 4th most powerful earthquake in the world since the 1900's. This disaster is estimated to cost about $180 billion dollars to repair, making it the 3rd worst economic crisis in the world. I was very sad when the earthquake in Haiti happened and they are still helping to rebuild the disaster effects over there, but this disaster in Japan takes the cake. No matter what anybody says we Americans rely on Japan for a TON of resources. Japan is an ally of ours and we are already having recession problems of our own right here in America and now half of Japan has gone under. It is going to take months just to tally up the death toll and years of rebuilding to get this country back on it's feet. This is not just a little piece of Japan that has gone under, it's HALF the country! That is a big piece of an economy that needs repairing. Keep in mind though, that we need Japan. We rely on them. It's like a dominoes effect. If they go down, then other countries maybe brought down with it. We are all connected whether we like it or not. In the last 4 days alone, the stock market has seen devastating numbers. Stocks have fallen dramatically because of what is happening to Japan. The stock market in Japan has been closed down due to the disaster's effects. Their stocks are "free falling" because of this disaster and, if you pay close attention, our stock market is slowly starting to reap the effects of the Japan disaster too. This crisis in Japan is a very critical time for them and I'm not even sure that they can even really fully recover from it. Of course we can rebuild buildings and put out the fires. Things can be fixed, but the lives lost and the damage that is left behind for these people is very dramatic. Do not be fooled by thinking that just because Japan is on the other side of the world that this will not effect you because it will. This is a major disaster that the world wasn't prepared for and it will effect everyone in the world. What if all these devastating things that have been happening in the last few years are the signal that the end is near? It's such a big thing to even imagine that our existence could be wiped away. I myself am having a hard time believing that it could happen and I'm not even sure if I want to believe something like that, but all those parinoid people that believe in things like the "End of Days","The Mayan Calander", and " 2012" may have a couple of good argument points. My opinion is that only God can decide our fate and if he chooses to end the world then that is his plan and there is nothing that we can do about it but to accept our fate. There are things in this world that are bigger than us humans and there are things that we can't stop. Hopefully nothing like 2012 will ever happen though, because it's just to much to think about.

Florida Toddler Shot in Head in Drive-By Shooting

I was going through my usual routine of sifting through the latest news stories when I came across a headline that froze me to the core when I read it. The headline of this article is exactly what the headline says, "Toddler in Florida Shot in the Head in a Drive-By Shooting". I read through the article and then I, of course, watched the little video clip at the bottom. To sum this story up, a man and his 1 year old son were just hanging out watching t.v. The dad said that they had just moved to the neighborhood in Orange County, Florida and that he had just been sitting on the couch and the baby in his walker, watching t.v. like any other night. All of a sudden somebody drove down their street and pointed a gun out of their car at the home of Eugenio De La Cruz and his 1 year old, Isaiah. The man did a drive by on this home and the bullet went through the front door and through the back of the toddler's head. Isaiah's father immediately rushed him to the hospital and the doctors say that he will survive and is doing extremely well and that the bullet was found lodged in his head near his forehead. Isaiah's father told the police that he did not know who the gunman was or why he wanted to shoot at his home, because he had just recently moved to the area and did not know a lot of people in the area especially anyone who would want to hurt him. I don't understand who would do such a thing. People are sick and I hope they find the murder or murderer's that shoot that little boy because he could have died and that would have been a real shame. That little guy is only one year old. He hasn't even begun to live his life yet and in that little instant it could have been over with in a second. I hope they find those slimy creeps and get that little boy and his father some justice because they did not deserve to witness such a horrible thing. People are just sick! How would that gunman feel if somebody came and took away somebody that he dearly loved in an instant when they had done nothing to them?! If that would have happened to me I would have been devestated and extremely pissed all in the same moment. Somebody get John Walsh on the phone so that this family can have some peace of mind and so that these criminals that did this can be brought to justice for what they've done to these people! For those of you that don't know who John Walsh is, he is the host on America's Most Wanted and because of his show he has helped people bring down a ton of creeps and criminals and has gotten justice for thousands of people. John Walsh's son was kidnapped and murdered and that is the reason that drove him into making the America's Most Wanted show. He wants to help other victoms get justice for their loved ones that have gone through the same things. I watch his show every Saturday night and you won't believe some of the crazy and heart breaking stories that they have on there. It makes you want to lock your children inside and never let them out! The reason why I brought John Walsh into this blog is because there was a story sort of like the article above but it was even more brutal than that. In the America's Most Wanted story, a man went to go visit his friend and parked in his drive way with the windows rolled down. He left his sleeping baby in the car and went to go see if he was home before getting the baby out and waking him. He had made his friend his son's God father and was taking the baby to see him for the first time in weeks. When the dad parked in his friend's drive way there were two men waiting there to rob him. The men pulled the dad out of the car and forced him up to the door of his friend's house at gun point. The men then shoved the father inside and shot everyone in the home and then took off out the front door. On the way down the drive way, they saw the baby in the car and shot him in the head. The baby's God father escaped with his life and found the baby in the car bleeding to death, but he was still alive. He wrapped the baby up in a blanket and started running down the street. He stopped a school bus that was heading back to the bus yard with an empty bus. After stopping the bus, the man ran inside the bus and shoved the baby into the bus driver's arms and told her to get help. The man then ran down the street and out of sight. The bus driver rushed the baby to the hospital but the poor little thing died. They buried the father and his son in a single casket. The baby's mother is still alive and she wants these murderer's to face justice for what they did to her innocent family. It's a very sad story and I think that everybody should click on my links because I guarantee you will read everybit of them. I just wanted to point out how sick people can be and that you never know when you or a loved one might become a victom and see your family on America's Most Wanted crying out for help. I think everyone should be watching that show so you can be aware of the creepo's that are still out there and haven't been caught. Just one phone call with a good tip can help save thousands of lives and get justice for others.

The Circle of Life

I'm sorry I've posted my blogs so late in the week this week. I usually try to post them on Monday or Tuesday, so then everybody has a chance to read them and leave a comment, if they want. It's just been a pretty hectic week for me. I have a speech that I have to give for my Comm 100 class on March 19th, so I have been working on that. I get a little nervous about "speech", although, I think everybody does to some extent. When I get nervous about that stuff it's like a chewing the end of a pencil kind of thing, so I've really been buckling down and working really hard on this speech so I can earn a good grade. It really doesn't help when the teacher is always leaving announcements that say things like: "Be prepared, this is not going to be a walk in the park." and " This will not be an easy course if you don't earn a good grade on your speeches". In a way, I'm kind of glad that she does that because it makes people more cautious and I believe she is trying to make sure that everyone works hard so that way they can get a good grade. Anyway, besides working hard on my speech I have also been studying for mid-terms and everyone knows how that can be. I already took my math mid-term exam but I'm still studying for history's exam. I believe it is next week too! YAY! On top of studying and just doing schoolwork in general, I've been a little busy with my 8 month old daughter, Macy. She has been sick this week. I have really bad sinus and allergy problems and I think she might have inherited those things from me, because when the weather changed I got sick with a sinus infection and so did she. She also has two top teeth coming in, I can feel them, but they are not all the way through yet. Macy has been uncomfortable with all this and she's been a little crabby. She usually never cries, but this week she has been very uncomfortable with all the things she has to deal with. When she gets like this, she likes to cling to me all day long! Thank God for naps! My husband's birthday was yesterday, Thursday, and he just turned 32, so we are dropping the baby off at my mother's tonight for a few hours and then we are going to Joplin to go to dinner and then shop around for a bit. He wants some new sunglasses and to browse the video games for his XBox and I love to go to Victoria's Secret, especially since they make comfy clothes. Anyway, I am trying to get my homework done now, since Macy is taking a nap and we will be out for the evening. On top of all of this hectic week, I got a call from my grandma this morning. She sounded upset, so I asked her what was wrong and she said that the doctors told her today that there wasn't anymore that they could do for my grandpa and that they think he has an estimated time of about 2 weeks left to live. I really wasn't sure what to say to her. It's very sad news. My grandpa has been alive for 91 years, and has been with my grandma for 67 years. They have always been inseprable. My grandma never drives the car because my grandpa always goes with her everywhere and so he always drives the car. I'm not really sure what to say to her though. What do you say to a lady that has shared her entire life with a wonderful man for 67 years and has never been separated from him? I went and took the baby up to the hospital today to see him for a bit. He played with the baby for a while and so did my other family members who were there visiting. He doesn't look to bad, but I'm sure that's not how he feels. He suffered a silent heart attack a couple months ago and it damaged his heart. He has a pace maker and it sends readings to the doctor and the doctor got the readings and made him come in. He put some stints in his heart and he was alright to go home after that. About a month later he suffered another silent heart attack and the doctor made him come in. He put a couple more stints in his heart and told him that he could not put anymore stints in so if he had another heart attack he would not survive it. He sent my grandpa home and 3 days later we had to rush him to the hospital because he said he couldn't breathe. They found that he was bleeding and losing blood but they couldn't figure out where he was bleeding from. They did every test they could and still couldn't find it. Now his blood pressure will not stay stabilized and they can't send him home unless they could figure out how to stabilize it. They've done everything they can now and they still can't stabilize his blood pressure. They said that he is just getting old and that his heart is wearing out. I understand that they've done everything they can do and now he just has to wait until God comes for him, but I don't think that it has really sunk in for me yet. I don't think it will until it actually happens. I'm one of those people that has to see it to believe it. I just don't think that I have excepted to believe that he will be gone within; two weeks time. When he does pass, thats when it will hit me. I eventually found my voice and told my grandma that he's just getting old and he's had a wonderful life with us all and that it's just part of the circle of life. Your born, you live, and then you die. You just have to make the most of your life while you're here on earth. This is the exact same thing that my dad said to me when my great grandma on my mother's side died. She died when I was 12. I didn't even really know that lady that well, but when I saw her in the open casket at the funeral home, I cried. I just hope that the place we go when we die is a better place than being on earth, becuase if it isn't then everybody is getting ripped off and that dieing really does suck! I'm just going to try to let Macy and myself spend the amount of time he has left with him. I know my grandma will be very sad when he is gone, but hopefully we can all keep her from being depressed. My sister and I always go over there everyday to see her so she will not get lonely. Macy cheers her up a lot too. Babies always have a way of putting a smile on somebody's face.

Pot Growers Use Alligator To Protect Stash in California

I like to look at the latest news stories and I love to read the interesting stories. If they aren't interesting then forget it. Today, when I was browsing through the latest news stories, I came across a very interesting and hilarious story. In this article, I found that there are some people who seem to think that a guard "dog" isn't a good enough lookout. A 29-year-old man by the name of John Nathan Donna thought that his 2,300 marijuana plants would be better protected if they were guarded by a 4 foot alligator. The 55 pound gator was helping to guard the marijuana plants by being the security guard or "watchgator". "Wally" as the gator is called, was being kept in a back room of the house in a black cement-mixing tub full of water. The gator was being kept as a pet, but also was used in the growing area to protect the pot. The gator was captured and handed over to the Phelan-based Forever Wild Exotic Animal Sanctuary, who reported this statement:

"He was extremely healthy -- a little too well taken care of," said Joel Almquist, who runs the sanctuary. "It's still an alligator; some are pretty mellow, but if you get bit by a three-footer, you're going to remember it for a long time. It's kind of like being bit by a vise with teeth. It's not a pleasant experience."

As for Mr. Donna, he was arrested and booked for investigation of marijuana cultivation and possession. John Donna was released on a $100,000 bond on Tuesday.


Ok, so I'm wondering how in the heck do you even get an alligator in the first place? I looked this answer up and found a much more in depth report on this story. This article tells a little bit about how some people come across alligators and take them home with them and it also goes more in dept with the whole story about the "watchgator". In this article it says that gators are actually fairly easy to get your hands on and they are fairly cheap too! It says that they are easily obtained on the Internet or from other states. I guess this is a little more convincible considering that I figured the only way that somebody would be able to get an alligator is by going down to a Bayou and catching one yourself and bringing it home! It figures that I would think that though, because I do live in Southern Missouri. Or maybe it's because I watch to many old Adam Sandler movies. Anyway, I thought this story was pretty funny. Some people do some crazy things to protect their "stash" I think I really liked this story because it wasn't another tradgic drug and murder story. This story didn't have any blood or murder like most drug related stories, instead, it had a really funny twist. I'm more a normal animal pet owner, rather that the exotic reptile type. But, to each their own opinion. I can't believe that it was so well taken care of! This guy is crazy! The article says that small gators will leave a scratch and that if you get bitten or attacked by a gator bigger than 3 feet then it's gonna leave some scars! This guy is lucky he was never bitten by his pet gator. Sounds like Mr. Donna got what was coming to him. What was he thinking having that many plants in his house?! That is a lot of plants growing in one house. I bet his entire house smelled like marijuana. Oh well, I guess eventually everybody who runs an illegal drug operation gets caught in the end. Thats why nobody should even start getting into that kind of thing, because it always ends with jail time. That kind of a record will follow you and haunt a person for the rest of their lives. This kid I went to school with got into selling drug and then one day I saw his name on the front page of the paper one morning. He was busted with like $80,000 worth of meth, 28 illegal weapons, and two stolen dirt bikes. I couldn't even believe it. I never would have guessed he was doing that! He was always real quiet in school. Guess you just never know how people will end up some day.

Parental Advisory

Most people keep an eye on what their children are absorbing in their tiny little minds these days. When I was a kid, my parents didn't really care what we watched, except for movies with nudity in them. That was a different time then. Back then nobody really cared about what their children watched on television, because it wasn't really a big concern in those days. Things have changed and times have changed. Now a days you really have to watch what your child is watching on television or in the movies that we let them take in, because if you don't it can have some serious consequences. The things that we watch now a days are not acceptable for a child to watch. The number one reason for screening what your child watches is because they do not understand that the things that are going on in the movie are not real and that they are fake. Children do not comprehend that it's all just a bunch of props and make-up. They think that what they are watching is real and nobody really takes the time to explain to them that it's not real. The reason for this blog that I am writing is to share a story about a parent that doesn't seem to think that he should be screening what his child watches. My husband has a friend, his name is Ryan, and he has two really adorable children. Ryan is kind of a loser. He lost his job last May and so I took pity on him and got him a job at Dairy Queen, where I work. Ryan and his wife are divorced. I believe I understand why she divorced him. His ex-wife, Samantha, is a very sweet person. I've met her and she is very tolerable, considering that Ryan is very irresponsible. A typical day for Ryan is that he is 32 and lives with his mom. His mom cooks, cleans, and pretty much wipes his ass for him. All he does is spend his paycheck, which isn't very much, on pot, movies, and video games. He gets his kids every other weekend. He has a four year old named Gaven and a 2 year old named Chloe. Half the time, he doesn't really acknoledge Chloe and he treats Gaven like he is his bet friend instead of his 4 year old son. With all this said, Ryan lets his son pretty much do as he pleases and since Ryan's typical day is to smoke pot, watch movies, and play video games, that is what Gaven does, except for the smoking pot. I've told Ryan repeatedly that he shouldn't let Gaven know that he smokes pot, because it's going to come back on him in a very bad way one of these days. He took my advice and doesn't do it around Gaven anymore, but he still lets Gaven watch and play the video games and movies that he watches. It doesn't sound that bad, but the movies that Ryan lets Gaven watch are "Nightmare on Elm Street" and " Friday the 13th" and "Halloween". Gaven's favorite characters are Freddy and Jason. Ryan does not see a problem with letting him watch this kind of stuff. Well, one day his wife called him to tell him that Gaven had gotten in big trouble and that Ryan was not allowed to let him watch those kinds of movies anymore because of what he did that day. Gaven had gotten in trouble and Samantha had told him that since he was in trouble then he wasn't going to get to watch "Pinoccio" that day. Gaven got angry because he couldn't watch the movie and ran into the kitchen and got a kitchen knife and stood over Samantha and said, "If you don't let me watch Pinoccio then I will stab you like Freddy and Jason does!" Samantha freaked out and took the knife from him and explained to him that if he stabbed her then she would bleed to death. She then explained to Gaven that those things in the movies are not real and that it is not okay to stab anybody. She also told Gaven that she was calling his dad and letting him know what he did and that she was going to inform him not to let Gaven watch those types of movies anymore. Smantha then sent Gaven to his room and called Ryan to tell him what had just happened. Although Ryan promised not to let him watch those types of movies again and had a talk with Gaven on the phone about what he had done, he did not keep this promise. He still lets Gaven watch scary movies and lets him play video games that involve murdering people. He just let Gaven watch Paranormal Activity 2 in the last couple of weeks. I think that he should be taking Samantha's warning seriously before the consequences get worse than that one incident. Tell me what you think. Maybe I'm just being a neurotic freak, but it just doesn't seem right. I wouldn't let Macy watch those things unless she is at an appropriate age to watch such things. They do have age warnings on every movie for a reason! Besides, you would think those kinds of movies would give a kid nightmares! I saw "Freddy" when I was young and I had nightmares for weeks about that guy!

A Tornado Sized Scare

I have never in my life witnessed an actual tornado. I have seen tornado footage on television, documentaries, movies, and magazine's just like everyone else in the world has. I've heard tons of personal expierence stories from friends who have been in a tornado. I live in Lamar, MO and in the 21 years that I have lived here, I have never seen a tornado rip through here. With all this being said, I have never went to the tornado shelter in town. Yea, I've heard the sirens go off several times in my life, but I've just never felt like the weather was bad enough to get in my car and go take cover at the town shelter. I live in a two story apartment and we do not have a basement around here to go to, so my husband and I have just always stayed here even when the weather is bad and the sirens would go off. I do recall one time when my husband convinced me that I had to take all the pots and pans out from under the cabinet in the kitchen and get in the cabinet and hide. That did not go very well for me because our kitchen cabinets are really not that big. I got in that cabinet and almost got stuck and couldn't get out. My husband found this little prank to be very hilarious while I was stuck in the cabinet and freaking out. He finally helped me out and we laugh about it now. I never fell for that prank again. Anyway, things are different now because we have a 7 month old daughter. I could never let anything bad happen to my daughter. I finally got my first tornado scare this past Saturday. For those of you that live in the four state area, you know what I'm talking about. On Saturday night, I was just sitting on the couch doing my History homework, the news was on the televison right in front of me. A severe weather alert warning popped up on the screen for like the 5th time, but this time it said that there was a tornado spotted on the ground in Mindenmines, MO and that it was headed straight down highway 160 towards Lamar. The weather alert was advising for residents of Lamar to take cover immediately. My husband had just laid my daughter down to bed about a half hour ago and he was upstairs in our bedroom playing the XBox. I yelled up the stairs for him to come downstairs for a minute. He came downstairs and I explained to him what the weather alert just said because I was a little concerned for my daughters safety at this point. He walked out the back door to look up at the sky. It was calm outside right when he went out there and after standing out on the back porch for a minute or two the wind started to pick up. After about another minute the wind really started to roar. There isn't a whole lot of anything that concerns my husband, but at this point he turned to me and said, "Go upstairs and bring the baby down here, now." At this point, my nerves were starting to stand on edge and I immediately went to go do what he told me to do. I brought the baby downstairs and she was still sleeping on my shoulder. I got to the kitchen and saw my husband still out on the back porch with the door open. He was talking to the neighbor about the situation with the weather. Brian was explaining to him that there was a tornado headed straight for Lamar. Our neighbor must not have been watching the news, because he just thought there was a thunderstorm coming. I then stated to Brian that the sirens haven't even gone off yet and that we shouldn't freak out just yet about going somewhere for cover. Right as I ended that sentence, the sirens went off and it started to rain. My husband looked at me and said, "You have 10 seconds to get what you need and get in the car, give me the baby and hurry up!" I immediately did what he said and ran to get my jacket, something warm for the baby, the diaper bag, my purse, and a baby blanket. After I collected all those things I was out the door towards the car in exactly 10 seconds. My husband already had the car ready to go and the baby strapped into the car seat. I jumped in and buckled up. I then looked back at the baby and she had a really funny dazed and confused look on her face. I smiled at her and said, " we are gonna go bye- bye for a minute." She still just stared at me with the same confused look. Brian took off down the road and told me that we were going to his friends basement. By the time we got to his friends house, it was starting to hail nickle sized hail. I told Brian to cover the baby's head and get her inside as fast as he can. We ran inside his friends house and went down to the basement with the others that were there. The wind and the hail started roaring and coming down so hard that I really thought that this was it, my tornado expierence. Lucky, the storm finally died down and everyone came up from the basement and the weather man cancelled the tornado warning for our area for the night. Relieved, I asked Brian if we could go back home now. He said yes and we got in the car and went home. I put the baby back to bed and finished my History homework and went to bed myself. I'm just so glad that it wasn't a real tornado. That was the first time I was really scared that we were going to be hit by one. I think it might have just been my parental instincts to protect the baby, but I'm glad we went and took cover. I guess I will be taking the weather warnings a little more seriously from now on.

Riots Around the World

We've all seen the news these days. Everyday there is always some horrible event taking place somewhere in the world. Some people don't even watch the news, but I like to be aware of what is going on around me. Some people would rather be blind when tradgedy strikes, especially if they think that the news has nothing to do with them. For those of you that do watch the news, you have seen the reports of riots breaking out all over the world. There has been an abundance of riots breaking out in every country now a days. I think everybody knows about the riots that are going on in Egypt, because that news story has been aired time and time again. What people don't know is that there has been a report of a riot breaking out in a different country every single day. Eygpt is not the only one being noticed for the riots in the streets. Greece, France, Istanbul, Germany, Russia, Italy, and Japan have reported riots lately. Some people already know why the riots are breaking out and why there is mass chaos in the streets. For those of you that don't know, the reason why this mass chaos is breaking out all over is because the recession is not just affecting America, it is affecting everyone in the world. All of the riots you see that are being announced in the news are because of the skyrocketing unemployment rate. People are losing their jobs, their homes, and their way of life everyday because of this recession. Something must be done to take serious action against the deep and serious consequences of the recession. This problem has not only caused loss of jobs but many other problems have been on the rise since the start of this recession. The crime rate has increased significantly here in the U.S. and in every country in the world and the stock market has been dropping at an alarming speed. There has been numerous robberies and theft reports everywhere. People all over the world are also rioting because of food costs. The price of food has increased and people don't have the money to pay to feed their families. Millions of riots have broken out in poor countries and right here in America because of the lack of food. Millions of people are worried about the outcome of thier lives in these harsh times. Even right here in the U.S. there have been reports of riots. There are "cuts" being made in Wisconsin to the Teacher's Union and the results of this are being displayed everywhere. The people that the "cuts" effect are voicing their opinion on the matter by standing together and protesting. The more this problem continues without a solution, the worse the economy is going to get. Think about it. Would you ever see yourself protesting in the street for anything? I bet you would if you and your family's life depended upon it. If it was your last chance to get justice for what had happened to your life then I bet you would be out there with the millions of people who are fighting for their way of life. I'm sure the people who are involved in the many riots that are happening around the world didn't ever think that they would be in that position. People are confused and worried about the recession's outcome and they have a right to be. Sometimes people will do extremely crazy things when their way of life is threatend. I also believe that we are going to have to endure a few tough times in our lives. I think that things will get worse before they get better. We may have to scarifice a few things with these "cuts" that the government is having to make. We voted for the people that lead our country and so we should reach out and trust them, help them in any way possible, because the outcome of giving up is far worse than that of fighting to solve this crisis. There will be sacrifices made in order to solve the recession problem and people will continue to disagree with the choices made to fix this, but if the problem isn't solved then it could end us all.

Documents detail dead girl's troubled life

I didn't have anything interesting in mind to blog about so I went searching for a good story to share. An interesting story is exactly what I found when I came across this entry. This story left me with a lot of questions and thoughts on this subject.
According to this article, a young, dead girl was found in the back of her foster dad's pesticide truck. The girl, Nubia Doctor, was found in the back of the pesticide truck, wrapped in plastic and doused with a toxic chemical. Nubia's twin brother, Victor, was also found in the front seat of the truck, critically injured after authorities said his adoptive father poured a chemical on him. The chilren's biological mother and father had problems of drug abuse. The children lived with their biological mother from the time they were born in 2000 until they were about four years old. Nubia was born with both male and female parts and required medical attention. The biological mom hated Nubia for this problem and would yell at her and scream that she hated her. They were also homeless for the first year of their lives. The twins were removed from their biological mother's home to their biological father's home. Their father had a problem with drug abuse also and was arrested in 2004 for sexually molesting Nubia. The children were then placed in foster care and a few months later, they went to stay with foster parent's Jorge and Carmen Barahona. Carmen Barahona never took Nubia to her doctor's appointments and just sends her on a medical bus, a nurse noted. In 2006, Nubia had 17 absences from school in a three-month period and eventually became home schooled. In 2007, a teacher noted that Nubia smelled bad and was hoarding food in her back pack. The teacher also noted that Nubia was always hungry and ate a lot at school and that she never talked. Investigators talked to the Barahonas, a speech therapist and the twins — everything seemed OK, according to the documents. The Barahonas said one of the side effects of Nubia's medical condition was a strong odor. Florida's Children First Executive Director, Christina Spudeas, asked why "cries to the Florida Abuse Hotline were dismissed and not competently, completely and urgently investigated before the kids met their tragic fates."


This is just a summary of the story. To read the full story just click on the link above that says, "article". I don't understand how this could have happened when DFS was completely involved with these two children! This really boggles my mind! All the warning signs are there! I understand that the children had already come from a damaged home and had pending problems, but DFS should have at least had a clue to look into this matter. If a girl that needs a lot of medical attention is missing her doctor appointments and she is starving all the time, scared, and not speaking to anyone, I think that it might be time to look into the matter and see why she is doing all that stuff. I mean, come on people, that is not normal, even for a damaged little girl. I think this story is just sick. How can somebody sit by and see that the little girl is suffering and not do anything about it. This is the result of carelessness. Somebody should have done something, especially DFS! Why would they ignore the hotline calls about the concern for these children? This story really leaves me speechless and left me with so many questions. Why would DFS ignore the warning signs that were radiating from these two children? Is that movie, Case 39, for real? Was the little girl evil or something? I mean, who does that? Who just ignores that kind of ovious suffering? I just can't understand this situation. If DFS was involved then it never should have gotten this far. Those people shouldn't have even been foster parents! Don't they check these people out before they let them adopt children? Anyway, I think there should be some serious imvestigating on this story, because something is not adding up. This one might take a while for the feds to crack. This crime should not go unpunished. I think that DCF should release the files of the twins. What is DCF hiding? I really don't think that "Case 39" is a true story, but DCF is treating this case like the parents were treating their problem in the movie. The parents in the movie were trying to keep it quiet and get rid of the girl. The case worker in the movie took her from the parents and she eventually found out that the girl was evil, thereby putting the caseworker in the girl's parent's original situation. Weird? I don't think that the girl in this story has evil satanic powers, but there is oviously some reason why these children met this fate and now everyone is trying to keep it quiet. In the "release the files" link above, it says that the Barahonas had two other fost children that were living with them at the same time the twins were. Why would they want to do this to those twins and not the other children in the home? This story is just not adding up to me. I'm very anxious to know what conclusion the investigators come up with on this one.