19 kids and counting

i never used to watch that show often. i occasionally watched it and heard about it but my favorite show at the time was unsolved mysteries. something that i never understood is their conservative views. i get it, america is a free country and you can do what you want but i'm like, why would you let a predator (i.e your son) come and touch his sisters and think it's OK? they're more concerned with modesty than safety or their pedophile son.

Cake

I followed a cookie recipe and made a batter similar to a cake. Oops.

earful of piercings

this morning in church i had an earful of piercings on my right ear. 2 were real 1 wasn't. on my left ear i only had 1 piercing (that's real). when i had my hair in a bun you could see them all.

Disappearance of Sky Metalwala

On the morning of November 6, 2011, Sky Elijah Metalwala of Redmond, Washington, United States, disappeared. Reportedly sick, his mother Julia Biryukova said she put him and his older sister in the car along a Bellevue street to go to a nearby hospital; along the way she stated that she ran out of gas, leaving Sky in the car while she went to get help. When she returned, he was gone and has not been seen since. The situation was reported to police, who soon came to doubt Biryukova's account since her car was found to have enough gas in its tank and was in working order. It also shared similarities with an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit that had been rebroadcast in the Seattle area the night before. Shortly before, Biryukova had decided to withdraw from a mediated custody agreement that was the last stage of an acrimonious divorce from Sky's father, Solomon Metalwala. Solomon has remained active in assisting police with the investigation, believing Sky's disappearance was related to the custody dispute. Biryukova has been less cooperative with the police, although she claims to have no more idea than her ex-husband of what happened to Sky. Although there have been allegations that she neglected Sky when he was in her custody, and state child-welfare agencies have tried to remove a child she had with a later husband with a history of abuse, police have made a "strategic decision" not to charge her with child endangerment for leaving her son in the car on the day he disappeared, to keep their options open if they learn more about Sky's fate. Background of the case: Both of Sky's parents were immigrants to the United States. Solomon Metalwala is originally from Pakistan; Julia Biryukova is a Ukrainian born in Russia, where she later claimed to have been subjected to shock therapy in mental hospitals during her childhood as punishment, in addition to regular disciplinary beatings by her parents, with serious negative effects on her self-esteem as a result. Solomon had been running a convenience store when the two met. Biryukova met her future husband at age 15, in 1997, three years after emigrating from Russia. At that time she was a student at Bellevue High School. Metalwala, then 21, invited her to a party. The two began dating, and she worked at a restaurant his family owned in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood. By 1999, when she finished high school and was naturalized, the couple bought a Bellevue condominium to live in. While Biryukova and Metalwala enjoyed work and many leisure activities together, there was some friction between them. Police in Kirkland were called when the couple were seen arguing loudly at a local gas station over their plans for the evening. The man gave his name as Sulaiman Metalwala, supposedly Solomon's brother. Biryukova later told a clinical psychologist she saw that by this point she had learned that her boyfriend could be "very controlling" and she became emotionally dependent on him in turn. Nevertheless, in 2003, she married him in a brief ceremony in his mother's kitchen. Later she said his family gave her the choice of either doing so or never seeing him again, since they claimed he was facing imminent deportation, for reasons that are not known. Biryukova later claimed that she did not tell her family the real reason the two had wed until 2010. In 2005 Metalwala converted to Christianity; he and his wife began attending a church in Kirkland. Biryukova believed that her in-laws blamed her for this, straining their relationship with her and causing more problems in their marriage. Within two years they were experiencing financial problems as well, when a competing deli opened next to their restaurant, cutting into their earnings. their first child, Daughter Maile, was born in 2007. Business further declined in the Great Recession that began in 2008. Despite those setbacks, the two bought a home in Kirkland that year for over $800,000, in addition to the mortgage payments they still had to make on their Bellevue residence. Sky was born in 2009; a psychiatrist Biryukova saw prescribed her antidepressants while she was pregnant although she said she did not need them. By then lenders were beginning to foreclose the family's properties and they were in arrears on many of their bills. They had to move out of the Kirkland home and into the smaller Bellevue residence. Solomon claimed in later court papers that at this time, his wife's psychological problems began to manifest themselves, causing him to begin eating outside and sleeping on the floor to comply with her obsession with keeping the condominium clean. The board cited the couple several times for violating noise regulations; at one point they awoke their neighbors with vacuuming after 11 p.m. She, in turn, alleged he became controlling and angry. When the boy was two months old his parents left him alone in their car in a Target parking lot for almost an hour on a day when the outdoor temperature was 27 °F (−3 °C). Both parents were arrested after police had them paged to their car and charged with reckless endangerment. They claimed they had been inside only for 20 minutes and did not want to wake him, but the store's security camera video footage disproved them. After they agreed to take a parenting class, charges were dropped several years later. Divorce of the parents: On Biryukova's 29th birthday, in early 2010, she was briefly committed to a mental hospital for the first of three times, after telling Solomon she had dreamed of killing the children. There, she was diagnosed with severe obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD); however psychiatrists did not believe that rendered her unfit to parent a child and she would later deny that she had been so diagnosed. Shortly after she got out, her husband filed for divorce. Later Biryukova would be committed again. After the couple separated she texted her husband claiming to have suicidal ideations, which she later claimed she had done just to get his attention. Upon her admittance to the third hospital, she was found to have a Global Assessment of Functioning score of 15, suggesting she was a danger to herself and others; it had improved to 40, meaning slight impairment, by the time she was released. After that release, Solomon and his brother took Biryukova to University of Washington Medical Center where she checked in voluntarily. While she was there, their lender foreclosed on the condominium. Solomon moved with the children to his parents' home in Kirkland. The couple vigorously contested the divorce. Biryukova alleged in her filings that Solomon had been abusive and that she feared for her life. He claimed that the allegations were fabricated, and said her mental problems made her unstable, incapable of keeping food in the house or letting her children sleep in beds due to her OCD. Child Protective Services investigated a claim that Solomon had injured his daughter but supposedly[clarification needed] ruled it unfounded; nevertheless Solomon was prohibited from seeing his children for a year while it was investigated. At different times in the case, both sought protection orders against each other. In September 2010, the court awarded Biryukova full custody of both children. She refused to let them see Solomon, who did not have any visitation rights. He continued to press the issue in court, along with some other issues such as property they both owned. She offered to forego alimony and child support if he let her move to Arizona with the children, but he refused. These disputes continued for over a year. In November 2011 the court hearing the case ordered the couple into a week of mediation to resolve their issues. The session was reportedly a success, with the two eventually agreeing that Biryukova would have custody of both children while Solomon had full visitation. However, on November 3, shortly after the agreement had been signed, Biryukova called her lawyer and, saying she had felt pressured into the session, decided to void it. Disappearance of Sky Metalwala: Biryukova says her son woke up sick in their Redmond apartment on the morning of November 6. She put him and his sister in the car she was driving at the time, a silver 1998 two-door Acura Integra, and headed for Overlake Medical Center in Bellevue. She later stated that around the 2600 block of 112th Street N.E. in that city, a long section of the road that follows a tall concrete noise barrier around the curve of the Washington State Route 520 expressway, just west of its interchange with Interstate 405, she ran out of gas. Biryukova parked the car on the side of the road and left Sky strapped into his car seat inside while she took Maile to find assistance. An hour later, she reached a Chevron station a mile (1.6 km) north of where she parked. Instead of buying gas or having someone bring it to her car, she called a friend, who gave her a ride back to her car. When she returned, Sky was gone. She called police to report him missing. They in turn contacted Solomon before noon that day. Investigation into the disappearance of Sky Metalwala: Searchers combed a 20-block radius of the car but found nothing. Police soon came to doubt Biryukova's account. Her car, when tested, proved to have adequate fuel in its tank and operated normally. In an hour wandering the neighborhood before she got to the gas station, she apparently made little effort to seek help from residents. She had left her home with a purportedly sick child but not taken her wallet, purse and phone. No gas can was found in the car. When questioned further about this, Biryukova took her Fifth Amendment rights and refused to take a lie detector test. Biryukova did, however, give investigators permission to search the car, her computer and her home. There was no sign of Sky at or near the latter location. Her car was unlocked and did not show any signs of forced entry. Police searched Solomon's house, too, and found nothing. After a lie-detector test he took the night after the disappearance proved inconclusive, Solomon took another one the next day, although neither he, his attorney, nor the police shared the results with the public. Police also soon learned about the 2009 incident where she and Solomon had been arrested after leaving Sky in the car unattended. During the investigation both of them admitted to having left the children by themselves for long periods of time. Detectives would not confirm whether, according to some reports, Biryukova had done so during the lengthy mediation hearing the week before Sky went missing. There were some questions about whether Sky had even been in the car that morning to begin with. Motorists who had passed the parked Acura did not report seeing anything unusual, not even a child in it. At Biryukova's apartment complex in Redmond, neighbors said she and her children rarely went out, and none of them had seen Sky for at least two weeks. Solomon was not aware of anyone having seen his son other than his ex-wife since an April doctor visit. However, Maile told the police that Sky had indeed been in the car that morning. The theory that Sky's disappearance might have been arranged by Biryukova drew more credence when police learned of strong coincidences between her story and a recently aired episode of the popular crime drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In the episode, titled "Missing Pieces", a young couple claims their baby son has been abducted when their parked car was stolen. It is later learned that they buried the boy believing they accidentally killed him and made up the abduction as a cover story. The episode, first broadcast two weeks earlier, had been rerun the night before Sky vanished. "I know that there are several folks up in the operations center of the command post that have taken a look at that episode," Major Mike Johnson of the Bellevue police told reporters, "and have commented that it is strikingly similar in nature." Through his attorney, Solomon told People that Law & Order was his wife's favorite show. Biryukova's presence on the Internet also aroused interest. On her Facebook page, she had posted many pictures of Maile but almost none of Sky. During the previous months, she had also posted a profile to seekingarrangements.com, a dating website for women seeking "sugar daddies," wealthy men willing to support a younger woman financially as part of a romantic relationship. She sought "financial stability," as well as $3,000–5,000 in cash per month. Investigators stated publicly that they did not believe Biryukova's story and suspected criminal activity had occurred. However they did not formally describe her as a suspect or person of interest, nor did they charge her with child endangerment despite the circumstances of the case and her past arrest, along with her then-husband, for leaving Sky in the car unsupervised. The decision not do so, they said later, was a "strategic decision"; in order to secure a conviction, police and prosecutors would have to prove that they believe Biryukova did in fact leave her son alone in the vehicle for an unreasonable length of time. But if evidence later emerged suggesting Sky had been murdered or kidnapped that implicated his mother in some capacity, evidence that suggested he had never been in the car to begin with, arresting her on charges that she had indeed left him there could make a prosecution for the more serious charges impossible, a police spokesman said. Later, Solomon's lawyer told the Seattle Weekly another reason for the inaction: If police did arrest Biryukova, she and her attorney would be able to review all the evidence the police had accumulated up to that point, which neither they nor Solomon wanted her to be able to do Subsequent developments in the case: Two weeks after Sky disappeared, Biryukova finally discussed the case with the media. ABC News obtained an email address that her relatives said was hers and used it to contact her. She reiterated that she had no idea where the boy was and called her ex-husband a "sadistic Muslim Pakistani" who was not telling the truth himself. About the case itself, she said her lawyer had instructed her not to discuss it with anyone; she ignored a specific question about whether she had indeed run out of gas that morning. The network was unable to confirm whether it was indeed Biryukova who had responded to them, as she was known to be staying with relatives at the time. However, Solomon told them it sounded to him like the way she would have talked. "Obviously she's just trying to maybe get me kind of riled up," he said. After reviewing the emails, ABC shared them with the Bellevue police, who could not comment on them but believed they might be of some value to their case. The state's Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) removed Maile from Biryukova's home in the wake of her brother's disappearance and placed her into foster care. Solomon was granted twice-weekly visitation while petitioning the court hearing the divorce to grant him custody, which it did after removing the remaining protection order. The divorce was granted in January 2012. In 2015, on the case's fourth anniversary, Bellevue's new police chief Steve Mylett appealed publicly to Biryukova to talk to them again. "I am convinced you hold the key to finding Sky," he said in a local newspaper. While the previous year the department said it had exhausted all the leads that had been reported to it, at that time Mylett claimed Solomon had shared some unspecified new information with them that might prove useful. Images of Sky that had been digitally age progressed to show how he might appear at that time were distributed along with the original photos. Biryukova's remarriage and third child: Around the time of the fourth anniversary of the disappearance in 2015, it was reported that Biryukova had not only remarried the previous year but borne her third child by her new husband in July. DSHS workers were trying to have the infant removed from her care. DSHS was most concerned about Biryukova's mental health, given her OCD diagnosis and past hospitalizations, following a complaint from the person who delivered the child. They also found the father, Alan Morgan, a convicted felon, problematic. Authorities in Florida had taken a child from his home there. The month the two were married Biryukova reported him to the police in Redmond for allegedly assaulting her and got a no-contact order; she nevertheless visited him regularly in jail in Issaquah, where he was when she gave birth, under assumed names. Both claimed to investigators they did not live together despite giving them the same address; Biryukova said at one point she did not even know who the father was even though his name was on the child's birth certificate. Theories: No trace of Sky was found in the surrounding neighborhoods, so it is believed he did not wander away on his own. In the absence of any new information or useful leads, and with Biryukova's account still considered doubtful, theories of Sky's disappearance have assumed his mother's connivance. If he is alive, it is believed that either she let someone else take him that day, or earlier, with Sky's presence in the car an invention. "She concocted that hospital story and when she realized no-one believed it, she hired an attorney," Leslie Clay Berry, Solomon's attorney told the Seattle Weekly in 2013. Solomon believes that his son is alive, just perhaps not in the U.S. In spring of 2011, after the visit to the doctor that was the last independent record of Sky's presence outside of Biryukova's household, he recalled that her estranged father came from Ukraine to visit her. He wondered to the Weekly if the older man could have taken the boy back to that country with him at the time. But he admitted that by 2013 he did not know how that could have happened. Terry, his attorney, believes more definitely that Sky was never in the car that morning. Nor would police have been expected to find any evidence in the apartment. "She's a clean freak, and she probably bleached everything out," she said to the newspaper, pointing to Biryukova's OCD. Unlike her client, she is doubtful about the outcome of the case. "I don't think he's alive," she said in 2013. "Solomon doesn't like when I say that, but that's what I think." While she believes Biryukova is responsible for his death, she allows that it could have been merely the result of negligence rather than a deliberate act of malice.

take 1 in

so my brother once said, "take 1 in." it was like 6:15 am on Halloween and i was like, "OK." interestingly, i was learning about being persuaded in communication class and my teacher said my brother convinced me. i'm like, "sure whatever floats your boat."

throw out my expectations

i keep saying "no" to things at church. i never expected: to have my parents accept my baptism, ask if i'm serving a mission, go to a sacrament meeting, etc. it's amazing.

black nightgown

i have a black nightgown i LOVE. i'm wearing it now. i wore it once while watching general conference once.

Amazing

I lost 5 pounds via weight watchers and I was able to do over an hour of yard work without being in pain. Granted I took some pain killers before starting but it was for other things.

Kidnapping of Sherri Papini

i heard about this case and have been following it since i found it. Kidnapping: Sherri Papini was abducted on November 2, 2016, while out jogging a mile from her home in Redding, California. Papini was 34 years old at the time. She was found three weeks later on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, having been freed by her captors at 4:30 that morning still wearing restraints, on the side of County Road 17 near Interstate 5 in Yolo County, about 150 miles (240 km) south of where she was kidnapped. The case garnered major media attention, but no arrests have been made and authorities report the investigation is ongoing as of April, 2017. Timeline: Sherri's husband Keith Papini first became concerned when he returned from his job at Best Buy on November 2 and could not find his wife at home. He eventually used the "Find my iPhone" application to locate her cell phone and ear buds at the intersection of Sunrise Drive and Old Oregon Trail (40.6950511°N 122.318494°W), about a mile from their home. According to Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko, in interviews Papini said she was held by two Hispanic women who took steps to keep their faces hidden from her, either by wearing masks or by keeping Papini's head covered. Papini was branded on her left shoulder during her captivity but details of what the brand includes have not been revealed. According to a statement by her husband Keith Papini, Sherri was physically abused during her captivity, had her nose broken and her hair cut off, and weighed 87 pounds (40 kg) when she was released. The sheriff said that this is still an active investigation and that authorities are "looking for a dark-colored SUV with two Hispanic females armed with a handgun." The sheriff indicated that there is sensitive information that is not being released at this time. Detectives have authored close to 20 search warrants and they said they’re examining cellphone records, bank accounts, email and social media profiles. Investigators have declined to discuss what prompted them to file the search warrants or why detectives have traveled out of state. According to Bosenko, Keith Papini "has been cooperative and even volunteered for a polygraph, which he passed." However, Bosenko has not ruled out Mr. Papini as a suspect in the abduction, stating "We are keeping an open mind and looking at all avenues." Keith has been reported as possibly compromising the investigation with his statements to the media after Sherri was found. Authorities decline to comment on specific details of the ongoing investigation but report they are actively pursuing the case. In November, while Papini was still missing, authorities executed more than 12 search warrants in Michigan. The FBI has provided assistance in the case.

curious

1 of my ex-best friends has a relative who has diabetes but never tested his blood sugar in front of my friend so he was curious about what the relative had to go thru. i'm like OK sure you can see.

pass on information

once i passed on information to a family i liked and thought they'd like great wolf, a place I've been several times and am fond of. 1 of their kids likes something offered there and since it's a family vacation spot i figured they could ALL benefit from it.

meet me day

last Sunday at the Montgomery village YSA it seemed like everyone was my BFF and i met a ton of people. i liked it but it was annoying. i usually like being alone.

Murders of Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman

i've heard about this case and i'm shocked since they were my age when i 1st heard about it. Laura Jaylene Bible and Ashley Renae Freeman disappeared between the evening of December 29 and early morning hours of December 30, 1999, from Freeman's home in Welch, Oklahoma. Firefighters arrived at the Freeman home shortly after 5:30 am on December 30 when a passerby reported a house fire at the residence. After the fire had been extinguished, the bodies of Freeman's parents, Danny and Kathy, were recovered. Both had been shot to death. However, law enforcement was unable to find any trace of Lauria Bible or Ashley Freeman in the rubble of the home. On April 26, 2018, it was reported that Ronald "Ronnie" Dean Busick had been charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the killings of Bible and of Danny, Kathy, and Ashley Freeman. Disappearance of the girls: On December 29, 1999, high school friends Lauria Jaylene Bible and Ashley Renae Freeman spent the evening together celebrating Freeman's sixteenth birthday. Bible received permission from her parents to spend the night at Freeman's home. Earlier that day, the girls had spent time at a local pizza restaurant with Kathy Freeman. At approximately 5:30 am on December 30, 1999, a passerby called 911 reporting that the Freeman home was engulfed in flames. Law enforcement determined the fire had been an arson. Inside the home, the charred remains of Kathy Freeman were discovered lying on the floor of her bedroom; she had been shot in the head. Initially, no other remains were relocated, leading local law enforcement to believe Dan Freeman had killed his wife and fled with both teenage girls. Lauria's parked car was in the driveway of the home with the keys in the ignition. On December 31, Lauria's parents Lorene and Jay Bible returned to the scene, hoping to find additional clues law enforcement may have missed. While walking around the rubble, they discovered what appeared to be another body, and called police. The second body was determined to be that of Dan Freeman, Ashley's father; like his wife, he had also been shot in the head. After this discovery, the scene was reexamined, but no sign of Lauria Bible or Ashley Freeman was found. In 2010, the Freeman family initiated court proceedings to have Ashley declared legally dead. Investigation prior till 6 weeks ago- Suspects and confessions: In the decade following the disappearance of Bible of Freeman, two convicted killer—Tommy Lynn Sells and Jeremy Jones—confessed to murdering them, but subsequently recanted their admissions. Jones had claimed that he murdered Dan and Kathy Freeman as a favor for a friend over drug debt, then took the girls to Kansas, where he sot them and threw their bodies into an abandoned mine. Searches of the mine Jones identified proved unfruitful, however, and Jones subsequently admitted he had fabricated the story in order to get better food and additional phone privileges in prison. In a 2001 profile on Unsolved Mysteries, it was mentioned that rumors had circulated among locals that the Craig County Police Department had been feuding with the Freemans at the time over the death of their son, Shane, who was shot by a deputy after stealing a car. While his death was ruled justifiable, the Freemans had threatened to file a wrongful death lawsuit. Dan Freeman's brother, Dwayne, claimed that Dan had confided that deputies had tried to intimidate him. 2018 arrest of Ronnie Busick: In April 2018, it was reported that Ronald "Ronnie" James Busick, age 66, had been arrested and charged with four counts first-degree murder for the deaths of Lauria Bible, Ashley Freeman, Kathy Freeman, and Danny Freeman. Two other suspects—Warren Phillip “Phil” Welch II and David Pennington—were also identified. According to The Washington Post, "at least a dozen" witnesses claimed all three men bragged about raping and murdering Bible and Freeman, and went so far as taking Polaroid photographs of them. Several witnesses alleged that the three men killed the Freemans over drug money, and that Bible and Freeman were held captive in Welch's trailer for several days before being murdered. A female witnesses who lived with Welch a short time after the disappearances of Bible and Freeman stated in a provided a sworn affidavit that "she heard conversations between the three men where they disclosed that the murder victims had owed them money," and that Welch kept a briefcase containing the Polaroid photos which showed both girls "bound and gagged with duct tape and lying on a bed," with Welch lying next to the girls in some of the photographs. According to the affidavit, Welch, Pennington, and Busick had claimed to have raped and tortured the girls before disposing of their remains "in a pit" or mine shaft in Picher, Oklahoma. Law enforcement also stated they believed the girls' remains could have been "dumped in a cellar that was later covered in concrete." In a public address, the Bible family issued a statement in which they stated they had been aware of the alleged Polaroid photographs "for years": "At this time all focus is on finding Lauria and Ashley. We welcome all information leading to their recovery. Until they are home with us, this will never be over." After his arrest, Busick told reporters he wished to speak to the Bible family. On April 26, 2018, Lauria Bible's mother, Lorene, confirmed she spoke with Busick, but that he denied knowing the whereabouts of her daughter or Freeman. Media coverage: The disappearances of Bible and Freeman were profiled in 2000 on America's Most Wanted, and in a July 3, 2001 segment of Unsolved Mysteries. The case was later featured on the series Vanished with Beth Holloway. In 2013, it was profiled on the documentary series Disappeared on Investigation Discovery.

personalize it

when i was working on my talk it was suggested i "personalize it". i took the advice and it was amazing. people said they put themselves in my parents shoes when i'd told the story of me being lost in the kentlands at night in middle school.

Worn out

I didn't know walking a few miles, which I've done on numerous times previous in heat can wear someone out so much. I've been taking a 5 minute break before reaching my final destination. Man am I tired.

Sweetheart

When I say something he listens If there’s a free chair near me and I say hi he sits next to me He asks me questions and listens if i smile and hold out my hand for something he give me something

my skateboard

my most prized possession in the world. i had to dig it out from under tons of stuff i'm not even sure we use as often

get the show on the road

so back in December i got a blessing from a friend. we caught up for a bit and then they mentioned their daughter who is new to "looking after herself" (in this instance i mean she can keep herself busy and stay by herself) and can only do it for a little while and i'm like "OK lets get this show on the road so you can get back to her."

lesson

so my lesson went awesomely. i was told that my blessing was the highlight of the elder's day. i was happy. that was awesome since i wanted a blessing

take me with her

a few times my mom would say she's "taking me with her" to spa treatments. i'm like OK. i can do my own fingernails since i'm pretty good and i'm able to do them on my own.