Okay, this is long, and if you don't want to read it that's okay.

This is the jist of my post. I'm mad. I'm mad and frustrated and everytime I hear about this on the radio or TV, or my husband brings it up I feel like I am going to go over the edge.

And I don't even know the girls personally. This was not my school district.

Why then, I can hear you asking, are you so mad and frustrated?

BECAUSE SOMETHING JUST LIKE THIS HAPPENS ALMOST EVERY SINGLE SCHOOL YEAR RIGHT AFTER SCHOOL LETS OUT FOR THE SUMMER!

5 girls......count 'em FIVE, were riding in a car together on their way out to the lake at 10 pm at night. My daughter's boyfriend was traveling the exact same route at the exact same time of night only going the other way. He never saw the crash, but it must have happened within minutes of when they passed. They are all gone. Everyone of them.

The drivers SUV crossed the center line and hit a tractor trailer..........it exploded in flames. The white picket fence and front yard of the people who live in the house right where the accident occurred suffered extensive damage from the heat and flames.........that's how hot it was.

I'm sick. I'm sick to death of this.

I want to cry out...STOP!

I want to grab those parents and say, "YOU KNEW YOUR DAUGHTER HAD A JUNIOR LICENSE! AND EVEN IF SHE DIDN'T.............WHY....WHY IN GOD'S NAME DID YOU LET ALL OF THEM DRIVE TOGETHER IN THE SAME CAR? COULDN'T YOU MAKE A SPECIAL TRIP BACK FROM YOUR LAKE, OR WAIT AT HOME UNTIL THEY WERE READY TO COME OUT SO THAT ALL THESE GIRLS DIDN'T HAVE TO RIDE TOGETHER?"

Oh.......but they WANTED to, you'll say.........they've graduated high school, donchaknow POH? What do you know anyway, POH, you old fogie?

Well, I know this..........that I have seven daughters.......and I wear myself OUT keeping track of their whereabouts and what they are doing.

I have 4 children, three girls and a boy, with drivers permits. They have driven that very same route out to the lake with our older son in the shotgun seat. You think I don't worry?

You would be DEAD WRONG.

But we NEVER let a child with a permit OR a Junior License drive with any one other than the older licensed driver in the front passenger seat. Even if it means that we have to do more of the driving ourselves.

Look at these beautiful girls.............gone............all gone.

It goes beyond sad.........it's NEEDLESS! It didn't need to happen.

Shoot! COM' ON! When are we going to LEARN????? Gosh, I'm MAD! And I am very, very sad.
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June 28, 2007 7:02 am — The nine Fairport High School graduates had a day of relaxation planned: some sunbathing, some swimming, some boating. With scorching temperatures expected to reach into the 90s Wednesday, a day at a Keuka Lake cottage seemed the perfect opportunity for the nine young women to relax together before they headed their separate ways for college. But the outing ended in a fiery tragedy Tuesday night when a sport utility vehicle carrying five of the teens slammed head-on into a tractor-trailer in Ontario County, as the other four friends watched in horror from a vehicle following behind. "It's a community nightmare. ... I'm personally devastated," school principal David Paddock said Wednesday. "Our hearts are broken. We love our kids and are crying." Paddock opened Fairport High School at 6:30 a.m. today so mourners could gather. The flag was at half-staff this morning. "Yesterday was easily the toughest day of my life," he said today. "I think it was for a lot of people." He said he did not expect students to start coming until midmorning, because they had been at the school around midnight last night. However, counselors will be available at the school all week. He said the counselors were reaching out especially to the young women who witnessed the tragedy. "It was overwhelming how much support there was for everyone yesterday," Paddock said. "I felt like I hugged a thousand people." Even Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who was in Monroe County yesterday, left Paddock a voice-mail message. "He called to tell us he's thinking of us and asked if there's anything he could do." Paddock said he planned to return the call today.

Killed in the accident were Hannah Congdon, 18; Bailey Goodman, 17; Meredith McClure, 17; Sara Monnat, 18; and Katherine "Katie" Shirley, 18. The nine friends, who graduated a week ago today, were heading to the Goodman family's cottage in two vehicles. "We saw the truck and we all started screaming," said Keisha Koneski, who was in the second vehicle. Bailey, who was driving her family's Chevrolet TrailBlazer, had passed a van, then slipped again into the oncoming lane, smashing into the tractor-trailer.

The collision of the two vehicles was so forceful that both erupted into flames. The driver of the truck was uninjured. "The fire trapped the five girls in the SUV. They were unable to escape," said Lt. Bill Gallagher of the Ontario County Sheriff's Office. "Both vehicles were engulfed. There was no chance for rescue." Said Sheriff Philip Povero: "This was ... a horrific accident (like) very few that we have seen in our years here at the Ontario County Sheriff's Office." Most of the young women had participated on the high school's cheerleading squad. "They were the nicest girls," said Elaine Deignan, the cheerleading coach. "They were the most respectful, pleasant and fun to be around. Just really good people."

A week ago, the nine young women — who had been close friends for years — walked across the stage as they basked in the formal pomp and circumstance of graduation at the Blue Cross Arena at the Community War Memorial. A future beckoned for each: One imagined herself teaching elementary school kids; another envisioned a career in communications; one already had marked the date for cheerleading tryouts at college. However, friends being friends, they were not ready to leave each other. So they scheduled a return Wednesday to the Goodman family cottage — they'd also gone there after the recent senior dance — as a chance to spend what could be some final hours together. On Tuesday evening, they left their homes in the two vehicles, planning to reach the cottage about 11 p.m. "We were all best friends and we just wanted to go out and lay on the deck and go out on the boat," Keisha said.

The cause of the tragedy on the well-traveled road of Routes 5 and 20 in East Bloomfield may never be known. Shortly after 10 p.m., as the two vehicles with the graduates drove east, Bailey passed a van. "It looks like she lost control and ended back in the westbound lane," said Gallagher of the Ontario County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Povero said that he would not know whether alcohol played a role in the accident until autopsies had been conducted by the Monroe County Medical Examiner's Office. David M. Laverty, 50, of Olean, Cattaraugus County, was driving the tractor-trailer west on Routes 5 and 20 when he saw the SUV pass another eastbound vehicle in front of his rig, Laverty told deputies. Police said Laverty told them the SUV made it back into the eastbound lane, then crossed back over the center line and hit his tractor-trailer. Laverty tried to reach the SUV to help, but couldn't get close because of the intense heat of the fire. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday. "It's clear that the fierceness of the impact caused various fuel lines (in the truck and SUV) to rupture," Povero said. Keisha said the van that Bailey passed was driving slowly in the right lane. After almost passing the van, she said, it appeared Bailey may have thought the van was swerving toward her and she jerked back into the left lane, running head-on into the oncoming tractor-trailer. Povero said the stretch of road is clearly marked and "visibility is quite good in both directions." "I'm not aware of that particular stretch of road being of significant danger," he said.

Close behind in the other vehicle, the four friends could only watch in anguish as fire swallowed the SUV. The flames reached 50 feet in height, singeing electrical lines and burning through cable and telephone lines, Povero said. The four were transported to the hospital, and released after doctors determined they were fine. Keisha said she hardly slept afterward, but found constant comfort Wednesday from her many friends. Whenever she began to cry — and that was often, Keisha said — somebody was always nearby to offer a hug. Throughout the Perinton community Wednesday, similar and necessary expressions of support and condolences were common. In the early morning, as news of the tragedy spread, nearly 100 classmates and family gathered at the high school in a quiet solemn remembrance. Paddock, the school principal, said they watched the sun rise together. "The sun came up," he said. "I'm not sure we all thought it would." Hannah and Sara were members of the Church of the Assumption in Fairport, where the daily 11:15 a.m. Mass was filled with friends of the victims. "There were probably 300 kids here," said the Rev. Ed Palumbos.

On Wednesday night, another service was held at St. John of Rochester Church, where Meredith was in the church's Youth Group, followed by a candlelight vigil at the high school on Ayrault Road. "The girls have gone to a better place," said Mary Claypoole, whose daughter Courtney Claypoole was a cheerleader who also graduated last week. "It's everyone else that's left that's going to struggle."

Kristina Chapell, now a rising junior at Fairport High, remembers her first day at the school — a day that can be so intimidating and imposing for new students who wonder whether some bizarre rite of hazing awaits them (and rarely does). In the hall, she spotted Bailey, the cheerleader who had been designated to be her "Big Sister" the previous year when Kristina was on the freshman cheerleading squad. (Fairport High School includes 10th through 12th grades.) "She saw me and said, 'Ohmigosh, it's my little sister,' and ran up to me and hugged me," Kristina remembered. That little moment of recognition eased her through the day, she said. That sort of camaraderie was common among the cheerleading squad. Though each had their distinct personalities — some of them practical jokers, some of them taskmasters — the team members had a unique and unwavering bond, fellow cheerleaders say. On Wednesday, many of them and their families spent hours remembering the traits of their friends who had died.

Among their recollections:

# Bailey was the team's entertainment, always kidding around. "She made everyone laugh," said Kelly Ludwig, a cheerleader who also graduated. "She always had the best jokes." Bailey also found ways to keep her teammates comfortable, regardless of the intensity of competitive events, Kelly said.

# Hannah was like constant sunshine, smiling through thick and thin. "She was never negative," Keisha said. "I don't think she's ever said a mean thing to anyone," said another teammate, rising junior Tracy Critelli.

# Katie, who was a Pop Warner cheerleader, had a similar joyful disposition, her friends and family say. "She tried to keep people happy," said her father, Patrick Shirley. Katie loved to make scrapbooks and had covered her bedroom walls with hundreds of pictures of her friends. "They depended on each other," said her mother, Stephanie Shirley.

# Meredith was the team's hardest worker, diligent in her practice rituals and willing to attempt any stunt despite its degree of difficulty. "She was always the first one to be jumping, to be tumbling — to do anything," said Tracy. # Sara did not balk at giving orders — always in an amiable fashion. "She was the bossy one," joked Keisha. Sara always had words of encouragement, and knew how to motivate, her teammates say. The team gave itself a name — the 32 Angels for the 32 members of the squad. Before each competition, they'd lie on their backs, hands held, and listen to the song "Angel" by Sarah McLachlan. "That was their thing," said Sue Burggraf, whose daughter, Kellyn Burggraf, was a senior on the varsity squad. "They knew how to be good teammates. They knew how to support their school." Never did they imagine that their support of each other would be as needed as it is now. "They were angels on earth," Paddock said. "Now they are angels in heaven."

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June 28, 2007 4:10 pm — The young woman behind the wheel of a vehicle involved in an accident that killed her and four other teenagers Tuesday night was violating the conditions of her license and should not have been driving, according to state motor-vehicle records. Bailey Goodman, 17, of Perinton had a class DJ, or “junior," license, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles. She and four friends, all recent graduates from Fairport High School, where pronounced dead at the scene of the accident on Routes 5 and 20 in East Bloomfield shortly after 10 p.m. Witnesses said she was driving east to her family cottage on Keuka Lake when she swerved into the other lane and collided head on with a westbound tractor trailer. According the DMV Web site, junior drivers in upstate New York: # Must have an “accompanying driver” who is at least 21 years old. # Cannot drive after 9 p.m. unless the accompanying driver is a parent, guardian or certified instructor. # Cannot carry more than two passengers under 21 unless they’re members of the driver’s immediate family. # Are allowed to have only the accompanying driver ride in the front seat. Ontario County Sheriff’s Lt. Bill Gallagher, who is leading the crash investigation, said he was aware Bailey’s license prohibited her from driving that night. “That’ll be looked at in the investigation,” Gallagher said. “Unfortunately, she is no longer with us.” A friend of Bailey’s parents, Michael Goodman and Sharon Handler-Goodman, said the family was not prepared to talk about Bailey’s role as the driver.

Ah, yeah, another POH repost....it's that time of year.

I wrote this in the winter of 2006 when I came upon several teen blogs and the kids were commenting, without fail, about how bored out of their "freakin'" skulls they were.

Now that I know Monsterbox, I would tell them to take a Monster course on "How to make your life more exciting in three days" but then again, Monster is too busy to teach it so...........here goes:

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I am never bored. In fact, I don't have enough time or energy to do everything I want to do. At my house, my children have learned not to even LOOK bored. If they follow me around, I have been known to hand them a towel and make them do dishes.

My classic comment when I find them wandering around with that glazed look on their face is, "find something to do or I will find something for you to do!"

I have been known to go to the store and spend fifty dollars for five embroidery kits. I then make my children, this is gender neutral, sew. For hours. Months later, when they are finished with the project, I go back to the store and get nice frames for these beautiful creations. I have a most beautiful 1Cor.13 hanging on my wall. My son has a verse from Isaiah about wings of eagles with a full winged eagle in a dark frame on his bedroom wall. They are so well done they look like an adult did them. My twenty year old made both when she was fourteen.

So, this is for all the bored teenagers out there who can't find anything better to do than complain that they are sooooooo freakin' bored!

1.) Read a book, preferably the Bible which not only will make you wise but is more interesting than the craziest soap opera on TV. If you don't believe me look up the story about Dinah.

2.) Other good books include The Diary of Anne Frank, Extreme Devotion, Foxes Book of Martyrs, Safely Home, The Civil War by Ken Burns.

3.) Bake some cookies and take them to your elderly neighbor. While you're at it, stay and talk to him or her. You might actually make a new friend and learn something new from someone you formerly didn't care about and thought was an old fogey.

4.) Take an index card and make a certificate for free babysitting for the family of five kids down the street. Give it to the mother and tell her that it has no expiration date. After she picks her chin up off the floor offer to rake her lawn.

5.) Find out where the closest homeless shelter, urban center, etc. is located. Donate your services. They always need people to peel potatoes, make salad, etc. It's actually fun when you know you are helping! If you have friends, especially bored ones, round them up and tell them you have something really fun to do and take them with you.

6.) Read Time magazine. Or Newsweek. Or U.S News and World Reports. Or your local newspaper! Anything other than Teen People or J-14 for once!

7.) Shovel your neighbors driveway. Don't ask, just do it. If they aren't home and won't know who did it, all the better.

8.) Take a walk. Preferably with your mother.

9.) Clean your room.

10.) Vacuum the whole house. Put the vacuum cleaner away and don't tell your mother who did it. Even if she asks. If she figures out that it was you, say, "Me? Humph."

11.) Find a five year old who might like a big brother/big sister. Take them to church, the movies, the library, out for ice cream, for a bike ride, or just stay home and play a game with them. Someday you will be thirty five and they will be twenty five and you will like having a younger friend who is cooler than you.

12.) Make dinner for the family. It can be as difficult as chicken cordon bleu or as easy as hotdogs and french fries. If you really want to bless your mom, go get all the ingredients and pay for them yourself!

13.) Find a good verse in the Bible and memorize it. Jeremiah 29:11 is a great place to start.

14.) Teach yourself sign language. There are inexpensive books about this at Borders or Barnes and Nobles.

15.) Practice basketball skills. You don't need anyone else to do this with. Just a basket and a ball.

16.) Find the crossword puzzle in your newspaper. Start doing it everyday. It might be hard at first. Just keep at it. You will get better and better and it will become addictive. Do the jumble. Same scenerio.

17.) Do the Sudoku if you like numbers.

18.) Do a word study. Get a Strong's Concordance and look up every verse in the Bible that has the word ASK in it. Write down all the verses you find in a spiral notebook. It will make you realize how much God wants you to ASK of Him!

19.) Sweep and mop your mothers floor. When she thanks you offer to do it once a week. For no money. Just because she didn't believe in abortion.

20.) Speaking of abortion, donate your time to a clinic that works to help young mothers give birth and then keep or give their children up for adoption. If you are an adult, offer to take in a pregnant teen and support them throughout their pregnancy.

21.) Take a sewing class. Learn to make quilts. Give them as gifts or donate them to a place that takes in abused women and their children.

22.) Donate your tutorial services. If you have made it as far as ninth grade you most likely know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Go to an inner city school and commit yourself to come once or twice a week and help one or two fourth graders learn their multiplication tables. Take a beach ball and put all the numbers from 1-12 on it in permanent marker. Sit on opposite sides of the room. Pick a multiplier. Say six. Whatever number comes up on the ball when you, or they, catch it, has to be multiplied by six. They might actually forget that they are learning. You might actually forget that you are bored. If you don't want to go to the inner city, help your little brother or sister. They might actually feel like you care about them.

23.) Read a book to a toddler. They aren't that hard to find.

24.) Plant a vegetable garden. Grow salad vegetables. Whatever your family doesn't eat give away to the neighbors. Especially the family with five kids and the elderly person.

25.) Fast for one day. I promise you that you will not die. Dedicate that day to finding out all you can about Jesus. Start by reading one or more Gospels, which are just the stories about His life. If you really HATE to read, rent Jesus of Nazareth from your local video store. It is long but totally scriptural.

26.) Start a Scrabble club. Make it multi-generational. You might learn a new word, make a new friend. You might even find out that old people aren't stupid.

27.) Bake some bread. Get some grape juice. Gather your friends together, break the bread, drink the juice, quote Matt. 26:28. Pray together. Promise yourselves that you will do it again next week.

29.) Give your mother or your sister, preferably the one you most recently offended, a pedicure. The full treatment. I guarantee you there will be no hurt feelings after you're done.

30.) Buy two fleece blankets. Cut little snips about one inch apart all the way around. Put one blanket on top of the other and tie the little ends together. Call it a no-sew blanket.

31.) Set up a jigsaw puzzle on a card table. Make sure you do one that you like, not some old one that's been hanging around for twenty years. Ask your mom or dad to help you. Do it even if they don't help you. Glue it when you are done and put it in a frame.

32.) Give your Dad a backrub. And don't ask him for the car or money while you're at it.

33.) Learn how to crochet. If you get pretty good at it, donate little blankets, hats, or booties, to your local hospital maternity ward, pro-life clinic, or homeless shelter.

34.) Start a scrapbook of your life which is suddenly so exciting that you don't want to forget ANYTHING.

35.) Clean the bathroom. Especially the toilet and the bathtub. Trust me, if you consider yourself 'potty trained', you are not above the job.

Hebrews 10:24 in the Living Bible says, "Let us oudo each other in being helpful and kind to each other and in doing good." I like this translation. OUTDO EACH OTHER!! Doesn't that just soooo fit into our achievement oriented society? Isn't God just sooooo RELEVENT?!?

So, here goes the second part:

36.) Take that yapping dog next door, that is always outdoors on a chain, for a walk. Do it once or commit yourself to a certain day every week. (Be sure to ask permission first but I am almost POSITIVE they will say yes!)

37.) Get a set of encyclopedias or borrow them from the library and start reading it from A-Z. A guy actually did this and wrote a whole book about his experience. Just think how good you would be at Trivial Pursuit!

38.) Get yourself a Third Day Offerings CD. Blast it in your living room or bedroom. Let the words just soak into your spirit and encourage you. Once you know the words a little start worshipping. Then start dancing before the Lord. I guarantee your spiritual life will never be the same. You might even get in trouble at church for being too radical. Yippeee!

39.) Get a big bag of wrapped candy. Get a bunch of friends or little kids together. Read Trivial Pursuit questions (or appropriately aged Brain Quest questions for kids). Toss a piece of candy to the person who gives the right answer the quickest. One answer per person only. Make sure each person has a brown lunch bag to put their stash into.

40.) Do a Vacation Bible School in your house. Invite all the little kids in your neighborhood. The mothers will LOVE you and will probably ask if they can send snacks. Gladly accept donations!

41.) Set up a bowling party. Bowling is a blast! After that everyone will want to come to your house for pizza and a movie. Share the cost and keep the movie PG.

42.) Learn one new word a day. Subscribe (it's free) to doctordictionary. com. They will e-mail you a new word each day. Commit yourself to use it several times that day. You won't forget it.

43.) Get an inexpensive drawing pad. Start expressing yourself through art. Don't let anyone see it if you don't think you're that good. This is just about you.

44.) Write poems, short stories, or the great American novel. Reading and writing are food for your soul.

45.) Get a Mavis Beacon program for your computer and teach yourself to type, really type, I'm not talking about the hunt and peck method.

46.) Find a Salvation Army or other used clothing store and offer to work for them for nothing if they will let you have some clothes for free. The Salvation Army also runs after school programs and camps that are always looking for help. Sometimes they even pay.

47.) Put scripture to music and sing a NEW song to the Lord!

48.) Learn how to french braid. Practice on all your long-haired friends.

49.) Take a cosmetology class even if you don't want to be a hairdresser. You will learn enough about hair cutting that you will be able to do your husbands and kids hair someday and it will save you thousands of dollars over your lifetime!

50.) Take culinary arts even if you don't want to do that as a career. You like to eat, don't you? I guarantee your future family does too and they will praise you for your great ability! If you can't take a class just go on the internet and get some recipes and teach yourself. All you have to know is how to read and do fractions.

51.) Get a book, some pens, etc. and teach yourself how to do calligraphy. Someday when you get married you can hand write all your invitations and people will call it an heirloom.

52.) Be a 'secret pal' to a lonely kid down the street. Send them cards, little gifts, candy, etc. but the key is they can't know who you are. Be sure to ask the Mom or Dad first so that they don't think you are a crazy stalker person. Make them promise not to tell.

53.) Go up to your pastor and give him a big hug and a huge smack on the cheek. Tell him you love him and appreciate the work he does. Pastor are people too!

54.) Support a local musician whose music you like. Donate money for reeds or guitar strings. Go to his or her gigs. Let them know that you are available to help carry instruments, amps, etc. People, even the musicians themselves, don't really understand what servants they are. All the hours of practice, alone in their rooms, just to entertain those of us who like to listen but are too lazy to learn to play for ourselves. Remember musicians, and other artists, are sensitive souls. They put themselves out there at great risk of being booed. They need all the encouragement they can get.

55.) Make a list of people you know and commit yourself to pray for them every day.

56.) If you are an adult and you live in a college town, adopt a student, or a small group of students and offer to make a home cooked meal for them once a week. Let them lead the conversation. You will find out more than you want to know about a broad range of subjects. You might even learn something!

57.) Go to your local florist and ask if you can have the flowers that are thrown out. Buy some florist foam (Walmart) and teach yourself how to make arrangements. Once you get good enough and you can make big ones, buy a cheap punch bowl and make arrangements for your small church.

58.) Ask your local bakery or grocery store if you can pick up their outdated product that they are going to throw out. This can be bakery goods, produce, dented canned items. Pass it out to families and elderly. If the store management seems uncertain whether they want to do that tell them that supermarkets all over NYS are doing it. Don't go to the underlings. Go right for the manager or owner of the store.

59.) Join the Chess club at school. You might find that people who are smarter than you are cooler too.

60.) Start a Bible Study group after school. Did you know that it is against the law in this country for a school to prohibit you from doing that? Adults CAN be involved but it MUST be student led. Find a Christian teacher and let them quietly advise you on how to go about it. If they say it can't be done find someone who knows more about the laws in your state.

61.) If you don't go to Youth Group, seek one out and go to it. If it is boooooring, and admittedly some are, ask the leader if you can suggest some fun stuff to do. I'm fairly certain the leaders will appreciate your help.

62.) Get a job. I don't recommend this unless you really need the money because you have the rest of your life to work, work woooork, but if you really can't think of ANYTHING else, yeah, get a job.

63.) Do the laundry. Do it right. Do not put the reds in with your father's white underwear.

64.) If you are an adult, over 21 years of age, consider taking training to be a foster parent in your county. You do NOT have to be married, own your own home or a stay at home person. I know, it is NOT an easy job and yes, they will probably take a child away from you after you have fallen in love with them, and yes, they pay diddlysquat, but it is the BEST job you will ever have and hey, life isn't easy for anybody, amen? Especially for the kid who is being taken away from their parent through no fault of their own. Better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all. You will always know that you made a difference in someones life and you will not be sorry. I promise. If you have a conviction that the county takes kids away from their parents too freely (this is usually NOT the case) commit yourself to working with struggling mothers and role modeling appropriate mother behavior. Find free clothing and food sources for them and teach them to take care of their kids so the county WON'T have to step in. One way or the other you have the potential to change the direction of a family for generations to come.

65.) Decide that 2007 is going to be the year that you stopped complaining and decided to do something with your life. Pray more, serve more, fellowship more, worship God more, love more. You won't regret it. At the risk of sounding corny, today is the first day of the rest of your life.

This is something that I posted way back in January of 2006. With summertime here and children out of school with little to do at times, I felt it bore reposting. If you have children, please be diligent............if they are grown, or you never did, how about spending some time befriending a neighbor's child (always letting the parents get to know you as well) or volunteering at an inner city pool, community center, or other place where kids congregate. I guarantee you that the return is more than the outlay.

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"The tendency to cruelty should be carefully watched in children, and, if they incline to any such cruelty, they should be taught the contrary usage. For the custom of tormenting and killing other animals will, by degrees, harden their hearts even toward men." John Locke 1634-1704 It is now common knowledge that children who abuse animals are more likely to abuse humans. It has been found that virtually ALL serial killers started abusing small animals when they were young children. Not only did Jeffrey Dahmar abuse animals by killing them and cutting them up from a young age, his "Christian" father KNEW he did this and did not stop him saying, "he wants to be a doctor when he grows up and he is just practicing". Yikes. As a foster parent I have dealt with this very issue. I have come down very harshly on it. Remember this.....a child under the age of 18 cannot be diagnosed with "anti-social personality disorder", even if they have all the traits. They will be diagnosed with a "conduct disorder". That is the precursor to ASPD. If you know a child who does this, please don't look away. Don't speak to the child personally. It won't do any good. "A scoffer does not love the one who corrects him, nor will he go to the wise." Proverbs 15:10 Talk to the parents, if they are receptive. "Harsh discipline is for him who forsakes the way, and he who hates correction will die" Proverbs 15:12 Talk to your local county Social Services if necessary. This is vital, especially if the parents defend their "little precious" and can't see the light. "He who sees cruelty and does nothing about it, is himself cruel" Abraham Lincoln 1804-1865 "I believe that pity is a law, like justice, and that kindness is a duty like uprightness" Victor Hugo 1802-1885 "You never soar so high as when you stoop to help a child or an animal." Jewish proverb

A minute to write........no more.

Just a change of direction here for a minute. Would like to tell you about something I did yesterday and I am very proud of myself for doing it. It may seem small in the scheme of things but it was kind of big for me. Kind of a growing thing.

Mr. Hope has had a health issue the past five years and we didn't know what to do about it. It wasn't terribly serious, but it could have been if the cause wasn't discovered. His whole well-being was affected. Well, we know now and he has been taking a shot every three weeks for the past five months to correct it. It is like night and day. He feels like a new man and looks much healthier too. The vitamins I made him take helped some, but this shot is really what he needed all along.

I am not at liberty to discuss what the problem was, but I have his okay to tell you that I have gone into the office with him on the past two visits and have learned how to give him the shot myself. The first time I just watched.....the second (yesterday) I did it myself. Like I said, it's probably not a big deal to alot of people........hey, my sister is a nurse and she would say it's nothing.......but I can't even look when the nurse gives me a shot. I just stick my arm out, turn my head as far as I can the other way, take a deep breath and say...okay! GO!

Well, the reason that I did this is because it will save us money. We do lot's of that 'saving money' stuff. We will save several hundred dollars each year. I have to admit it was nerve wracking though. I was afraid my hands would shake but I was steady as a rock and just jabbed it in there lickety-split. Mr. Hope says that I honestly gave him one the least painful shots he has ever had. Was he just saying that because I was touching his butt? OH POH, you did NOT just say THAT! *smirk* Anyway, I was feeling a little shaky afterwards and he said the sweetest thing. He said, "just remind yourself when you do it that you are loving me, not hurting me". Wow, that did help..............and I will remember that each time.

So, whenever I've called myself Dr. POH over at Randy's I was kinna kidding...................though now when I call myself Nurse POH I'm not. *wink*