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!