We want to make you famous!

I've talked a little bit on here about our brand-new wedding site, Fantabulously Frugal Weddings and how blogging over there and at Fantabulously Frugal is keeping me muy busy. But now I'm back over here on my poor, neglected blog to ask you for some help! Every Wednesday, we feature a real wedding on FF Weddings, and we'd like to feature YOUR wedding. We are still growing our site and want to be able to post some beautiful weddings - they need not be frugal. :) If you are married and want to gain internet fame and notoriety, click here and fill out our real weddings submission form!

I KNOW there has to be someone out there still reading my little blog, and I know a lot of y'all are happily married ladies. Do me - and our readers - a favor, and submit your beautiful wedding to be featured as part of our Real Wedding Wednesday series!

Is Bloomington Dangerous?

So, lots of bad things have been happening around here lately. Stuff that's got me down, and stuff that has Lisa telling me I need to move to Chicago to make sure I'm in a safe city. Ha!

First, I'm sure most of you by now have heard about IU student Lauren Spierer's disappearance. It's very scary and unfortunately I fear the worst, but I hope that no matter what the outcome, they find her quickly. Back in 2000, an IU student disappeared when she was on a bike ride and her body wasn't discovered for four years. Thinking about what her parents went through, just not knowing, for years - I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Lauren has been gone almost a week now and I know that the chances she's okay are slim - especially when you add in her heart condition. Bloomington has been swarming with news crews, volunteer search parties, and posters with her information. It's all very heartbreaking.

And then ... I found out yesterday that the mother of one of my students was stabbed to death. Ahhh. Her ex-boyfriend got out of jail on Monday and stabbed her to death on Tuesday. Neighbors witnessed him trying to break in through a window with a butter knife. While he was still working on the window, she came home and they had an argument. He forced his way into her home and neighbors heard several thumps and a "loud commotion." He then came outside and drove away in her car. Nobody - nobody - called the police. Instead, her 16 year old daughter came home from school with her grandma and found the door locked and her mom's car gone. They had maintenance unlock the door for them, and ... yeah. She found her mom's body. According to the newspaper, mom was stabbed nine times in the neck and upper chest with ... the butter knife.

This man is still at large, and that freaks me the hell out. Can I just add that there were two other stabbings in Bloomington that day? Can we all just ... put the knives down? Please?

The whole situation is just awful, but I think what bothers me the most is that nobody called the police. According to the newspaper, several neighbors witnessed all of this (minus the stabbing of course, which occurred inside the apartment) and nobody reacted. Nobody did anything. I wonder if someone would have called 911 the second they saw him trying to break in through the window, would she still be alive?

And then ... our neighbor's apartment got broken into! As in ... our immediate neighbor. He lives upstairs from us, and just happens to be a cop. A bunch of kids were hanging around the other day and got into his apartment and stole his duty gun. Thankfully the gun was recovered only a few hours later. The girl who stole it? One of my former students. Well, that is kind of a stretch - she was referred to me but I don't think I was ever able to see her because she skipped so frequently. She dropped out last year, and that was the end of that.

I reeeeally don't like something like ... a robbery involving a stolen gun happening at my home. Despite it not being my apartment, it sure hits close to home. Literally. No more leaving the apartment (ever) without locking the door. A few cars at our complex were broken into recently, as well ... leading me to wonder what on earth is going on around here.

ANOTHER student of mine (a current student) is in juvenile detention because he was involved in an armed robbery. And ANOTHER current student of mine is also in juvenile detention for threatening her mom and sisters and running away to stay with a drug dealer when she has two pending criminal charges (unrelated) and a failure to appear in court.

The last day of school was yesterday, but I'm having a hard time de-stressing. It doesn't help that, unlike 99.9% of everyone else that works in the school, I don't have my summer off. Nope! I'll be right back on Monday morning to check in on my kids who are doing summer school.

Someone ... anyone ... pass the wine.

Overheard in my Office: NSFW Edition

This story is rated R. Consider yourself warned.

A dear student of mine whom I am very fond of had to have ... a procedure done last week at Planned Parenthood. That's all I'll say about that. I checked in on her today to see how she was feeling, both physically and mentally, and she talked about how painful the whole experience had been. We talked about it for awhile, and then she said:

You know how sometimes, when you're having sex with someone, they go too deep and hit your cervix, and it really hurts? You know, has that ever happened to you?

I was caught a little off guard, and replied something along the lines of "Ummm. I don't know." Then she continued on to tell me that it was "like a million" times more painful than that.

Sigh. I am so, so very thankful that so many of my students feel comfortable enough around me to say pretty much anything, but at the same time, I think ... wow! I would have never ever ever ever asked an adult anything like that when I was in high school. Are students different these days? Or has it always been like this? I know I have some teachers and some people who work with teens out there reading ... what are your thoughts?