This is Jackie Burkle:

Because she killed them.

She killed her two newborn girls. Someone she worked with called the police to check up on Burkle because she was pregnant one day, and then came to work the next day and wasn’t pregnant anymore.

The bodies of the two newborns were found in the trunk of Burkle’s car. Authorities aren’t saying what Burkle did to end the newborn’s lives, but it was clear that she had no intention of letting them live.

This story breaks my heart. Two little girls who could have had a bright future with a loving family will never have that chance. I can’t even fathom how many families are out there waiting, hoping and praying for a baby (or two!) that would have taken these infants into their homes, no questions asked.

What makes this more upsetting to me is that Iowa is one of thirty-one states to adopt a Safe Haven Law for Newborns Act.

The Safe Haven Act is a law that allows parents – or another person who has the parent’s authorization – to leave an infant up to 14 days old at a hospital or health care facility without fear of prosecution for abandonment.

Jackie Burkle could have dropped her babies off at the local hospital. She could have taken them to a Dr’s office and left them. She could have made a different choice the day her daughters were born. She could have given those girls a chance at life. She could have given them a family, with parents and maybe even siblings to love them.

Instead this 22-year old faces two first-degree murder charges, and a family out there is still waiting for a child.

Many times when we hear stories of kids getting bullied it is by other kids. But this latest story from the Today Show leaves me literally dumbfounded. 14-year old Cheyanne and her father Brian (no last names were given), from Ohio, reported to NBC’s Today Show that Cheyanne was being bullied at school. Surprisingly it was NOT other students that were bullying the 14-year old special needs student. It was her TEACHERS. Watch the video and see for yourself. I had to get the Kleenex at about the 3:30 mark, and the rest was just a tear-filled cry-fest for me, because I kept looking at Cheyanne’s face and she just kept that innocent smirk on her face the whole time. I just want to hug her.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I cannot believe this poor girl had to put up with these horrible excuses for human beings for THREE YEARS! Sending a child to run on a treadmill as punishment for answering a question wrong? Calling her dumb? Lazy? Calling her a liar? I seriously cried watching this because I couldn’t believe looking at the pictures of those teachers that those words were coming our of their mouthes. It sickened me, made me angry and more than anything– it saddens me.

The teacher’s aide, Kelly Chaffins, has resigned. Whether the school forced her to or not, we’ll never know. The teacher, Christie Wilt, however, is suspended without pay. She will eventually (for now) be able to teach again. Lawyers for Cheyanne and her family are trying to make sure Ms. Wilt doesn’t set foot in a classroom again. Let’s hope they can make that happen. There is absolutely no excuse for treating a child like this. There is NO EXCUSE. PERIOD.

Everyone that wasn’t living under a rock can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing on September 11, 2001. It was a day of inexplicable tragedy in our country, and many have referred to it as the “day America lost its innocence.”

I was home on September 11, 2001. Caitlyn had just started kindergarten a couple weeks prior, and I was still doing in-home daycare. I was home with Courtney who was almost a year old. I listened to the Today Show in the mornings – not really watching, but just having it on as background noise. I heard bits and pieces of something that morning referring to an errant pilot that accidentally crashed into the World Trade Center.

I decided to turn the TV up and sit down to listen and watch the events unfold. Minutes went by before a second plane hit, and the entire country — the entire world– came to the realization that we had been attacked. I remember watching in horror as smoke billowed out of the buildings’ windows. I remember hearing accounts of other plane crashes, both at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania. We soon were told that one of the planes was targeting the White House.

To this day, I can recall images of people jumping from windows and plunging to their death, because the alternative seemed that grim. I can still recall many survivors telling stories of hearing people screaming, trapped inside the building. Many made frantic calls to loved ones, attempting that last ditch effort at saying goodbye.

I was glued to the television. It was like a bad car accident. You don’t want to watch but somehow you feel compelled to. Since then, I have read books written by people that survived the attacks, simply because they had other plans that day. Maybe it was taking a son or daughter to their first day of school, or maybe they just had a dentist appointment that morning.

Even thought it has been ten years, the memories of that day are still so vivid in my mind. I can only imagine how it must be for those that were THERE and survived. I have a hard time reading books or watching movies on the topic, because I get this terrible knot deep in the pit of my stomach. I bought the Flight 93 movie a couple years ago, and it still sits on a shelf in our family room, wrapped in the original plastic. I can’t bring myself to watch it, because I know how it will end.

We should all take a few minutes today to remember those that lost our lives, those that lost a loved one, and those that have contributed countless hours to helping in every way they knew how.

God Bless them All.

I got an email this morning.

A junk email really. Ever since I took my daughter and her friends to see Casting Crowns at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, I have been on Mid-America Center’s (MAC’s) mailing list. Anyways, I get notified of all the events they have going on there, but it’s usually stuff we wouldn’t be interested in– Ultimate Fighting, Rodeos, or bands and artists we’ve never heard of.

But today’s notification was different. People, Ke$ha is coming to town. Miss Key-Dollar Sign-Ha, herself! (Glee reference, anyone?)Now, I love Ke$ha, and so do my kids. I’d be all over taking my girls to that concert. We love rockin’ out to her music in the car, and even though some of the lyrics are questionable, we just “la-la-la” over those parts, because seriously, it’s Ke$ha, darnit!

So as I’m all excited thinking about: 1) road trip! and 2) Ke$ha concert!, I start reading the details.

And that’s when my “being a mom” instinct kicks in and the plans all go to hell.

See if you notice the two reasons WHY in this picture:

Need a hint? Here ya go:

So, as much as I would love to go to a Ke$ha concert, the mom in me has decided not to support a 24-year old girl that is on a “Get $leazy” Tour, and is a high-school dropout.

Not really a star I want my kids idolizing.

Oh Mother Nature, you teased me yesterday… I opened all the windows in my house yesterday to a beautiful sunny Sunday. Our house warmed up with a 80-degree breeze coming through the windows. I cleaned, I dusted, I relished the warm spring weather. I thought of the Mother Eagle guarding her eaglets that I’ve been addicted to this past week, and how they must be so toasty warm. Two of them have hatched now, and it was truly a sign that spring is here to stay.

I ventured out to the grocery store around 4:00 yesterday afternoon, and noticed the dashboard thermometer told me it was 85 degrees outside. Wonderful! I got my groceries, and headed home. As I drove home along the country highway, I noticed that on my 7-mile drive, the temperature had already dropped to 79 degrees.

An hour and a half later, I went out onto the patio to start the grill for dinner, and the temperature had dropped another 15 degrees, at least. The wind had picked up, and I knew then that our warm spring day was officially over.

Now here we are on Monday, Mother Nature. You give us a small taste of WONDERFUL yesterday, then bring us back to reality today. Cruel as you can be at times, all I can say is at least you didn’t bring us any SNOW:

Sometimes we all just need a little laugh…

This really just made my cheeks hurt from laughing so hard, I had to share it.

My husband is such a great guy. A romantic to the core, he really tried to make this Valentine’s Day a great one for me. A few weeks ago, he got me the Nook Color as an early gift, and then surprised me with a beautiful necklace from our favorite jewelry store, Roger’s Jewelers. (Remember the whole purity ring incident?  I LOVE Roger’s Jewelers!)

Anyways, back to 1-800-Flowers and why they are THE SUCKAGE this Valentine’s Day. Soooo… My husband is a big fan of talk radio, and had heard about this special deal through 1-800-Flowers, using a special promotion code of “Savage”. It was for two dozen assorted roses in a vase, and a box of chocolates for $49.99 plus delivery charges (see picture). A killer of a deal on Valentines Day, right?

He placed the order online on February 10th. He received a confirmation email:

After the order was placed, and my husband got the confirmation, he noticed the delivery times in the email. (I bolded them above.) Now, because he was having them delivered to my office, and I only work until 3:30, the chance of them coming after 3:30 was a good possibility. He contacted them via their website on February 10th and indicated that he needed them delivered prior to 3:15 pm on February 14th, or there was a possibility he might need to cancel the order.

The following is the email he received in return, from Axel Ernesto Gonzalez Herrera, Sales and Service Specialist:

In addition to these two emails, there was another email that arrived the following day– a WELCOME note to 1-800-Flowers. It was an email thanking us for our order and requesting that we add them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter:

So, if you’re keeping track– that’s three emails my husband had gotten.

Fast forward to Valentine’s Day. Flowers, balloons and all other kinds of goodies were getting delivered left and right to our office complex on Monday. With 1,200 employees, it was a flurry of deliveries all day long. My husband had hinted around at lunchtime, asking if there were a lot of deliveries that had been made that day. I kept wondering if maybe something would get delivered to me, but then I quickly dismissed the thought, because he has NEVER sent me anything on Valentine’s Day in the 12 years we’ve been together. We’ve always hated the way florists jacked up their prices on Valentine’s Day just because they can, so flowers on other days of the year are always a much better option. (And much more unexpected!)

Finally, around 3:15 Monday afternoon, I got a text message from my husband, asking if I had received the flowers he had sent me. When I replied that I hadn’t, he finally confessed that he had ordered a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates and was worried that they hadn’t been delivered yet. I called the front desk to make sure there were none waiting for me, and sure enough– NONE.

I left work at 3:30 and got home about 15 minutes later.   He was on the phone, pacing while on hold with someone in their so-called ”Customer Service” department at 1-800-Flowers. After over an hour dealing with several different people, it turned into quite the mess as to what actually happened with his order.

Here’s what he was told:

1. The flowers weren’t delivered because my husband called in and cancelled the order. WRONG. My husband never called in and cancelled the order. If the order was cancelled, why were we charged for the order and where was the credit? Also, why were we continuing to get emails about the order?

2. The charge had already been credited back to us the same day it was charged. WRONG. We were charged for the amount of the order on the 11th, plus shipping (see above). As of today, we have yet to see a credit. They told us we should see a charge and then an immediate credit. WRONG.

3. They would go ahead and deliver the flowers to us for FREE, but they wouldn’t arrive until the 16th.   Um, why bother now? You’ve already pretty much screwed up everything you could possibly screw up with this order.

So now, we sit and wait on our refund.  Anyone care to wager on when we see our money credited back to our debit card?

Whenever a controversial news story first comes out, most people draw a first impression of what they think happen based on the limited details the news media releases. Recently, our local news media broke a story of a local high school band director who they say allegedly sexually abused a student. Very few details were included other than to say he had been arrested, and he was on paid administrative leave from the school.

That was three days ago. Think of the conclusions you would draw from that story.

Today, things changed. Another news story comes out.

More details come out. The teacher admitted to having a “relationship” with a 17-year old student. This relationship included having sex. The 17-year female student also admitted to the sexual relationship, confessing it had been going on since November of 2010.

The way the article reads, when it deems what was going on as a “relationship” leads me to believe that there is more to this story than what the media is telling me. A sexual relationship went on for nearly three months before she decided to report it.

I understand that the teacher is wrong for participating in this “relationship.” I get that. He was in a position of power and authority, and this was highly inappropriate. The student is a minor, and not only is it illegal, but highlly unethical.

But what aren’t we being told? Why did she decide to report the relationship NOW? Something tells me if he was pressuring her, this would not have been deemed a “relationship.”

What do you think?

(Photo Credit: WHO-TV, Des Moines)

There is a bill being “considered by a House subcommittee” today in Iowa that is literally making me sick to my stomach.

It is the House Study Bill 50, also known as the Religious Conscience Protection Bill.  Basically, this bill would allow businesses in Iowa to deny services to same sex couples on religious grounds.      

“House Study Bill 50, called the Religious Conscience Protection Act, would allow a person, business or organization such as a charity or fraternal group to deny services without fear of facing a civil claim or lawsuit if they think doing so would validate or recognize same-sex relationships. ” (Des Moines Register, 2-7-11)

WHAT?    Since when is this OK?    Is this a JOKE? Did the calendar just flip to April Fools’ Day and no one told me?   Are some of my state’s elected officials really trying to make this happen?  This saddens me to no end, as the Bill not only would allow same-sex couples to be treated this way, but it opens the door for all types of discrimination to actually become LEGAL.

So, let’s set aside the same-sex issue for a minute, because we all know they would be horribly discriminated against under this Bill.  

Let’s say you are an unmarried heterosexual couple.  It’s Valentine’s Day and you want to spend a romantic evening at a hotel with your honey.

Did you know under this Bill that the hotel management could REFUSE to give you a room if they felt that your relationship of “living in sin” and not being married was against the hotel manager’s religious beliefs?

What about a bi-racial MARRIED couple?   Again, if the hotel manager felt the bi-racial marriage was against his religious beliefs, he could refuse service to the couple.

A Christian landlord would not have to rent an apartment to a couple that was made up a Jewish man and a Catholic woman, if the landlord felt the relationship was inappropriate.

When is this hatred, bigotry and mistreatment of our friends and neighbors going to end?     Because the way the news articles read, it’s been brought up that the Bill is too vague, or too broad, and therefore could eventually include racial discrimination as well.     So it sounds like they will purposely rewrite the Bill to make it specific to same-sex marriages and/or same-sex relationships.   They are going to specifically go after and target a group of people and try to make it legal to discriminate against them.

And then there’s our newly elected Governor, who promised to bring back the good times and strong State that Iowa used to be when he Governor years ago.   What did he have to say when asked if he believed this Bill would legalize discrimination?

“No, I don’t think so.  What it does is protect people who want to exercise their moral and ethical rights under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.”(Des Moines Register, 2-7-11)

Mr. Governor, I’m so disappointed in you.   You have to remember you represent the entire state of Iowa, even those that did not vote for you.  You represent white people, black people, straight people, gay people.  You represent many ethnic backgrounds, many types of familes.    EVERYONE deserves rights under the Constitution.

Maybe the Governor needs to read the Constitution of our State, specifically Section 1, Article I, in the Bill of Rights:

Rights of persons. Section 1. All men are, by nature, free and equal, and have certain inalienable rights – among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness.

Or if that’s not enough, how about we read farther down in the Bill of Rights.  Let’s look at Article I, Section 6:

Laws uniform. Section 6. All laws of a general nature shall have a uniform operation; the General Assembly shall not grant to any citizen, or class of citizens, privileges or immunities, which, upon the same terms shall not equally belong to all citizens.

How is this Bill NOT not infringing on certain people’s rights as citizens of our wonderful state?

While I hope that the predictions are true, when I hear that “this will never get passed” and “it will never make it through”…  the fact remains is that the Bill was written and created in the first place.  It was in the minds and on the hearts of the men and women we trust with leading our state.

And that, my friends, makes me very sad.

One of the local school districts in my area is making waves.   Next fall, the Waukee Community School District will eliminate letter grades for their middle school students.  “Middle school students consists of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders.  

According to an article in the Des Moines Register, rather than receiving the typical As, Bs, or Cs, students will now be receiving “statuses”  such as “beginning“, “developing“, “secure“, or “exceeds” in several different standards in each subject.    The article goes on to say that other districts in the area are considering switching to this method of grading as well, but Waukee is the first to actually make it happen.

The article lists reasons why this method of evaluating the students is better than a letter-grading system, and I won’t go into all of that.   You can just go read the article if you want.    I will mention the one point they made that I DO agree with is that one instance where the letter-grading system may NOT be an accurate representation of a child’s understanding a certain class or subject is when points are given for things like attendance, extra credit, and class participation.   For example, my daughter can maybe earn an extra 10 points in her science class for having perfect attendance, maybe boosting her from a B to an A, but that doesn’t mean she understands the subject matter more than a student who just got the B.

BUT.  (You knew there was a BUT.)

If your child brought home a report card, and they received grades like “Developing”  or “Secure”  what does that mean to you?   It seems to be like this method leaves the door open for the teacher to be a lot more subjective in evaluating each student, and possibly let the grades reflect their opinion of the student.  Possibly different teachers in the same grade level with different teaching styles might interpret when a student has reached a level of “secure” in a particular subject, rather than just knowing that when you score 90-100% on something, it’s an A.  (Or in the case of our school district, it’s actually a 93% needed for an A– I know,  we’re a bit tougher around here!)  With a letter-grading system, you know that if you take a test and get an 85%, you receive a B.  It is not open to interpretation by the teacher, who can subjectively determine how well you grasp the subject matter.

And what about preparing these kids for high school?   The four years where GPA is everything?  The article seems to insinuate that grading kids on a letter basis promotes competition between students, but I don’t necessarily consider that to be a bad thing.   I think it’s healthy for kids to want to be successful in school, and heaven forbid we let them worry about their grades! 

In our school district, the letter-grading system starts in 4th grade, which is the grade my youngest daughter is in now.   I don’t consider it a bad thing, because I am not kidding when I say she had been EXCITED and looking forward to it for YEARS.  She couldn’t wait to start getting letter grades like her older siblings!   She works hard to get good grades, and the joy on her face when she sees her report card? PRICELESS.  Somehow I don’t think I would get the same kind of reaction out of her if she was getting a report card that had things like “Secure” and “Developing” on it.   What a snoozefest.

I’d love to hear your opinion on this.   Does your child’s school district use the letter-grading system or another system?   How would you feel if this change was made?    Let’s hear it!