My Year Overall

I thought for my very last blog I would run down what has happened in my life for the last year.   Oh, where do I start?  Last year at this time I was finishing up classes just as I'm doing now.  I was getting ready for finals, and ready to get the semester over with.  I know you all can relate.  But, you know, that's one more semester down, and that's how we have to look at it.  

I'm only taking 9 hours a semester, since I'm working and taking care of my family, and also taking care of my parents a lot too.  So, I've come to realize that taking these classes has to just be a way of life for me right now.  Trying to think about how much I have left is not good for me to focus on, because it starts to feel like forever.  But, I'm almost 3 semesters down... Yea!

Our daughter, Chelsea, graduated last spring, and she is now living in Nebraska with her grandma, and getting ready to start college in the spring.  We are very happy about that, considering we didn't know if she would even go to college six months ago.  Right after she turned 18 and graduated, she decided to get in with the wrong crowd and really mess up a lot of opportunities.  She lost scholarships, and lost so many of her "true" friends, along with separating herself from those of us who love her the most.  However, we were able to help her move to get a new start, and even though we don't hear from her much, she is enrolled in college and will hopefully find some good friends and good activities to get involved with, and build a new life again.  She is supposed to be coming home for Christmas, so that will be nice.

The first of November our son, Zack, was able to start training with a boxing coach.  He's not affiliated with the school system, but he has been a great coach and is very adamant about his students putting their education first.  He has a rules they must abide by to stay in the training, for instance, he expects them to make good grades, he does not allow his students to get in any kind of fight in school or to bully anyone, or he says they are automatically out.  It's been really good for Zack, he has a new purpose now and he has gotten in such good shape. The only thing is, he just turned 14, and he looks about 16!! Which reminds me of a funny story.  We took him out for his birthday in November to Logan's Roadhouse and the waitress was being rather flirty with him.  When we made reference to it being his birthday, she asked him how old he was.  He told her he was turning 14, and she seemed a little shocked and embarrassed. She was probably 17 or 18. It was pretty funny.

My sister and her family will be coming in for Christmas on the 18th.  They live in Wichita, about 4 hours away.  I think they are getting in late that night, and I most likely won't see them until the 19th.  We are having a get together with my Mom that morning at her house, then later that evening we will have a big dinner at my house, with our Dad and several other family members.  They'll get to stay the night with us one night... I'm so excited!  My husband and I get along really well with my sister and her husband, we have a blast together, so that will be fun.  

My Mom is one seven kids, and we get together with them and their families normally every Christmas Eve.  However, this year they changed it to the 19th of December, which is the same date as the Christmas dinner at my house this year.  So, in some ways I have to say I'm a little relieved we don't have so many things to go to, but on the other hand, it's kind of sad we won't be going.  It will be the first time in many years that we haven't gone.

Another thing I recently found out is going on the same day as the Christmas dinner at my house.... is a wedding.  My little sister, who is turning 18 tomorrow, has secretly planned a wedding.  She doesn't even know that my Dad and I know about it yet.  We are in shock to say the least.  She only told Dad she was moving out that weekend, and somehow forgot to mention she was getting married!!  We lost her mother, my step-mom, three years ago this February, and I've been trying to help Dad with her ever since.  She might have some underlying issues here, not sure.  We have all tried to talk to her about this kid.  He is pretty worthless.  What a mess.  

But overall, I have to say life could be worse.  We haven't had any more deaths in the family this year, close family members anyway.  We have our health, my husband and I both have a job, and I try to focus on counting our blessings.  When I talk to other people, and see that some people have things way worse than we do, it makes me feel very blessed.  

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!

Woman Shoots Intruder During Her 911 Call

This story started with a video released by Fox News that tells of a scary home invasion while the victim is on the 911 call, in which she shoots the intruder and kills him.

Apparently, this took place in Lincoln County, Oklahoma, and the full story is, according to an Oklahoma newspaper, Donna Jackson called 911 and told the dispatcher a man she did not know was at her back sliding glass door, pounding on it at 12:40 am.  Jackson is located on a road just south of the city limits of Cushing.  She was armed with a 16-gauge shotgun.  On the 911 call, you can hear the man pounding on the door and Jackson tells the 911 operator that she doesn't want to shoot the intruder, but she will if she needs to.  The dispatcher, shortly thereafter, heard the glass door smash and a shotgun blast.  The man was later identified as Billy Dean Riley, 53 years old.  He was shot once in the chest and pronounced dead when emergency workers arrived.  Jackson was not harmed.

Jackson said she was home alone and asleep when her dog woke her up.  She turned on the lights in the house and armed herself with the shotgun.  She went into her kitchen and saw a man trying to break in her home.  The man, Riley, apparently saw her and started screaming threats at her.  Jackson told Riley, whom she did not know, that she was armed and on the phone with the police.  Riley then picked up a patio table and threw it through the glass door. At that time, he stepped quickly into the kitchen and Jackson fired once, which hit him in the center of the chest, killing him.

This poor lady must have been terrified!  According to another link on the story, she was so upset, she was sobbing and asking God to forgive her.  I can't imagine how she must have felt. She really had no other choice than to kill this man.  This is what self-defense was created for, using a deadly weapon to protect your own life.  It almost sounded like Jackson was trying to get approval from the 911 operator to kill this man, and, in a sense, she did give her approval. She was very comforting and supportive to Jackson.  I think she could tell this woman was definitely in danger and had no other choice.

It is so ironic that one person has no reservations about attacking a person, with possibly having an intent to kill, and to the other extreme, another person does not want to kill, but is only willing to do so to save their life.  Then, to be so conscientious of what they've done to immediately ask God for forgiveness.   It is so amazing that human beings can be at such extreme ends of a scale.

Well, this man will no longer be able to hurt anyone again.  And this woman, Donna Jackson, should be commended for her calmness, bravery, and quick-thinking.  I'm sure this incident will be in her mind, like a nightmare, forever.  However, maybe someday she can see the brighter side, that life is a cherished thing and that she did something good.

Amanda Knox Is Sentenced and Will Appeal

Just after midnight on Saturday, December 5th, American woman, Amanda Knox, and Italian man, Raffaele Sollcito, were found guilty and convicted of the murder and sexual assault of Meredith Kercher, according to a Fox News Report.  

The jury reportedly deliberated nearly fourteen hours, after an 11-month trial to convict the two. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison, and Sollecito received 25 years.  The jury did not, however, give them the recommended (by the prosecutor) life sentences.  The defense believes this just reflects the doubts over the prosecutor's case.

Both are expected to appeal their convictions, and the estimated time to achieve that could be up to five years.  The first of the two appeals will be held in Perugia, Italy, most likely next fall. If that appeal fails, the next step would be to appeal with the Court of Cassation, which is the Supreme Court, and is located in Rome.  This is the process that could take years, up to five, as timing goes for cases such as these.

The two different images the media has put on Amanda Knox has been so confusing to the say the least.  First, she has been made out to be this sex-crazed, hot-tempered, party animal. Then, she has also been portrayed as, and really "looks" as if she is a sweet, normal, young college student who was caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

There are so many things that don't look good for either of these young people.  But, it does sound like most, if not all the evidence is circumstantial, except for the confession by Knox, which she claims was coerced.  However, since the Italian government does not allow taped interrogations, there is no way to know whether the confession was coerced as Amanda claims. 

Also, I have never heard or read anything about Raffaele's interrogation.  It would be interesting to know whether their stories did match up in the beginning.  It is just so hard to tell from the outside looking in whether these two are guilty or not.  If they really are guilty of this, what a horrible shame that they only received 25 and 26 years.  If they really are innocent, that kind of sentence would feel like an eternity.  According to a news story I heard, Italy has a court of "reasonable doubt", which would appear to make a conviction harder, unless there was an enormous amount of evidence.  So, who knows how hard this was for the jury without participating in it, or if they did follow instructions.

It also sounded like from a television report on the Today Show, that another person's DNA was actually found on the victim.  He is a black man, that's all I remember, I don't recall his name.  So if that kind of evidence was brought forth which resulted in a conviction for him (he was convicted earlier this year if I remember right), then why were we not hearing his name all over the media, like we heard Amanda's?  It raises the obvious question, was the media so focused on Amanda Knox because she was the only one of the group accused who seemed NOT LIKELY to do something like this?  Granted, that doesn't mean she didn't do this, and I wasn't on the jury, however, it makes you really think about whether the media focused so much on Amanda, that we couldn't see past her.

If Amanda and Raffaele are actually innocent of these crimes, I hope the true killer(s) come to justice soon.  And regardless of who committed these crimes, the Kercher family lost a family member.  I am sure this will be an emotional holiday season for their family, and my thoughts and prayers go out to them.

Finally Able To Put Up Christmas Decor

For the first time in years I was not able to find time to get out fall decorations and it was so depressing.  I have always been into making my house as homey as possible, and I just love when fall comes around so I can start getting out the decorations and lots of candles and things.  But this year proved different, I didn't know if I could even get out Christmas decorations!  But thank goodness for Thanksgiving break!  

I work only about 30 hours a week and take 9 hours of classes through MSSU, but being married with two children (only one at home though, our daughter is in college in Nebraska), and taking care of each of my parents has made it a little bit of a challenge this year.  However, I decided I would make it a point to not have anything going on after Thanksgiving day this year, and I would clean out my storage room so that I could actually FIND the Christmas decorations, and just spend all day if I had to and get everything out and make it very festive this year.

It was a pretty quiet Thanksgiving Day.  My Dad went to my aunt's in Kansas City, my sister stayed in Wichita to be with her husband's family, and so my mom came to our house.  It was just me, my husband, and our son.  I made a traditional meal with all the fixings, and we had several desserts.  After we ate we watched the movie "The Proposal", which was hilarious! Then our son went to stay the night with his grandma, so my husband and I had the rest of the night to ourselves, which was pretty nice.

So, the next day it was time to do what I had set aside time for, to clean out the storage room.... well, clean out the storage room I did, which was soooo exhausting.  Nonetheless, I found all the decorations and the tree and with my son's help, (bless his heart, this wasn't his favorite thing to do) we put everything out and it looked so great, then I could finally sit down and admire everything.  (After I cooked dinner of course.  lol)  

I love snowmen so I have a ton of snowmen decorations.  Plus, I have a really cool nativity set. But what I'm lacking are outdoor lights; my husband is not very thrilled about putting those out.  : )  Maybe I will try to put them out myself and he will want it done a certain way, so he will end up helping me after all.  

Anyway, overall I feel like this is going to be a great holiday season.  My sister is planning on coming from Wichita, Kansas, and my aunt from Kansas City should be down, plus several other relatives locally, coming for Christmas this year, and we are just having a big chili and cornbread dinner, along with several desserts I'm sure.  So now that I have my house decorated, I will feel much more prepared, and we can just concentrate on just having fun.

I have to admit, I am really looking forward to the semester ending and having a good month long break, like the rest of you I'm sure.  Only two more weeks.... Yea! 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

Autism Treatments For As Young As 18 Months

Laura Schreibman, an autism researcher with the University of California in San Diego, says there's a growing emphasis on diagnosing autism at the earliest age possible, and the study shows that it can pay off with this early, effective treatment.

Children aged 18 to 30 months were randomly assigned to receive behavior treatment called The Early Start Denver Model to be given by therapists and parents.  Some of the others were referred to others for less comprehensive care.  This new therapy focuses on social interaction and communication, which are both very difficult for many autistic children.  Ultimately, the process is for the therapists or parents to repeatedly hold a toy near a child's face to encourage the child to make eye contact, which is a common problem with autism.  They would also reward children when they used words to ask for toys.

The children in a specialized group had four hours of therapist-led treatment 5 days a week, plus at least 5 hours from parents.  After two years of experimenting, the children in the specialized group had an IQ increase of an average of 18 points, versus 7 points in the other groups.

No children were considered "cured" in the experiment.  However, language skills did improve in both groups, again, more so in the specialized group.  Almost 30% in the specialized group were re-diagnosed with a less severe form of autism after the two years, along with 5% in the other groups.

Treatment is very expensive, close to $50,000 a year.  However, some states require insurers to cover such costs.  A group called Autism Speaks is working very hard to expand those laws and encouraging other states to take part.

One of my good friends I've known since first grade had three daughters, the youngest didn't progress like the others did.  They noticed from a young age that something wasn't quite right. The doctors weren't sure what the problem was either.  She did not want to speak, other people made her very nervous, and she didn't like loud noises, so they ruled out a hearing problem. Eventually, they set her up with a speech therapist, which helped some, but there was still not an actual diagnosis.  She was ultimately, however, diagnosed with autism, and to my knowledge, she still has some problems, but they are learning more how to deal with the disease.

Autism was barely thought of 10 to 15 years ago, although now it has been researched and diagnosed in so many children in recent years.  There must have been so many parents in the past who knew something was wrong with their children, but no one at that time could pin-point the problem.  Its so good to know there is more and more research being done on this awful disease, and that some of these children are actually getting better.  Once a few celebrities came out with their children being diagnosed with autism, the research and treatment seemed to take off quickly.  I'm thankful for those who have spoken out about this. Possibly in another few years we can have even more answers, and who knows, someday maybe there can be an actual cure.

State Dinner Crashers Met Obama

Michaele and Tareq Salahi arrived and entered as all the other guests to the White House State Dinner last Tuesday. The difference was, they allegedly were not invited.  According to a CBN News story, the couple not only entered the White House grounds, they also were in the receiving line in the Blue Room with Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, for whose honor the dinner was held, and shook hands with President Obama, but no one took notice at this point.

The Secret Service insists the President was not endangered by a security breach that allowed the couple to enter.  However, there are appropriate measures being taken to ensure this sort of thing will not happen again.  Also, the Secret Service is possibly pursuing a criminal investigation of the Salahi's.

Secret Service Director, Mark Sullivan, made reference to the fact that his agency has screened more than 1.2 million visitors last year to the White House complex, and protected more than 10,000 sites for the President, Vice President, among others, but says, "Even with these successes, we need to be right 100% of the time."

The article also stated some interesting facts about the Salahi's themselves.  Apparently, Bravo Media has confirmed that Michaele Salahi is being considered to play a part in the new "The Real Housewives of D.C." reality show, and was being filmed by Half Yard Productions, the producer of the show, on the day of the dinner.  Half Yard Productions are claiming the Salahi's confirmed to them that they were invited to the State Dinner.  The production company took them at their word and filmed their preparations for the big event.

After researching further, the Salahi's apparently were previously photographed with the Obama's, or it appeared that way anyhow.  One photo taken just days before Obama took the oath of office, shows the Salahi's in a group shot with Obama and some of the musicians who performed at an inaugural concert, which was posted on the couple's Facebook page.  Other photos show the couple in the empty, glass-enclosed box from which the Obama's watched the concert with a caption that reads, "backstage with the Secret Service at the Lincoln Memorial during the Presidential Inauguration."

I guess there are still several questions to be answered involving this incident.  No one is sure what the couple told the officers at the checkpoint that allowed them to go through the security screening, but for some reason the officers that had the clipboard with the names on it, allowed them to proceed instead of calling someone from the White House staff or Secret Service to check out the problem.

This stunt is apparently a federal crime, and if pursued to the fullest extent, the Salahi's could face charges of knowingly and willfully falsifying statements on matters within the federal government's jurisdiction.

One problem is, with all this posted in the media, it looks to our enemies as if security in the United States is a joke.  Hopefully, this will just beef up security in all areas, but the reality is, the Secret Service cannot be perfect 100% of the time as they want to be.  I think they should try to be, however, they are human too, and should be allowed to make a mistake.  At least, in this particular instance, no one was hurt.

Former Hells Angel Finds God

In this story published by Fox News, Richie Kane, a 52-year-old man who is a former Hells Angel, has transformed his life by finding God, and is now even thinking about going back to school to get a college degree.

Kane is a New York native who grew up with an alcoholic father that beat him on a regular basis. He describes an incident where his father beat him with a pair of hedge clippers so bad that his head bled profusely and stuck to his pillow when he went to bed.  He was never taken to the hospital for treatment.  Kane also speaks about being sexually molested by a stranger near some railroad tracks by his home in the Bronx.  Although, he didn't tell his parents for fear that they would blame him.

As Kane grew up, he only knew of one way to rid himself of the agony he was dealing with, and that was to turn to the bottle, just as his dad did.  Another way of escape for Kane was joining the Hells Angels.  But after fighting uncontrollably with other gang members and rivals, he was also rejected by the gang.  His health eventually deteriorated and he contracted Hepititis C. Feeling as if he had no reason to live anymore, Kane turned to the bottle again.  However, this time in a desperate plea, he asked God to show him the good in himself and how to become better.  Richie got his answer.  He claimed through Alcoholics Anonymous, meditation, and looking to God for answers, he says he found strength to forgive his father, the man who molested him, and the gang members who tried to kill him.  Kane was quoted as saying, "They never touched my core being. That's where the light is. There's a part of everybody that's pure that nobody can get to you there."

What an inspiring way to look at life's circumstances.  This man obviously went through so many horrific things in his life, yet even though life was unfair to him, he still found hope in God.  I wonder if any of the former fellow gang members will follow suit and be able to turn their lives around also.

The article doesn't make any reference to what went on with his mother during those years, or where either of his parents are now.  However, it does mention that Kane wrote a book entitled, "The Bronx Kid: Into 12-Step Recovery".  A more detailed version of what he went through, and where they are now, is most likely described in the book.  He claims that the book is a way of passing on the hope he has now embraced.

I'm sure he will reach so many people with his book and his story.  These days it's hard to find people that aren't looking for a better or higher purpose in life.  Hopefully Mr. Kane can live a much happier life now that he himself has found a higher purpose. 

As I stated earlier, Richie Kane is planning to go to college and get a degree.  He is wanting to study journalism, so he might very well touch millions.  What a great story.