'Keeping Up With The Kardashians' star Kourtney pregnant again; still unwed

Scott Disick and Kourtney Kardashian are

expecting their third child, but have made no move to get married.

(Photo Credit:  John Parra/Getty Images)

Kourtney Kardashian, 35, and her children’s father Scott Disick, 31, are officially statistics.  US Weekly is reporting today that the eldest Kardashian sibling is pregnant with her third child.  Kourtney and Disick are not married, although maybe her sister Kim Kardashian West’s recent nuptials with Kanye West will start her to thinking along those lines.

This was no teenaged “oops”.  Kardashian has always made it known that she wants a lot of children.  She knows what it takes to get them and this pregnancy was planned.  Where she differs from many is that she is showing no interest in making it a priority to bring her children into the world under the covering a covenant marriage household.  Not every marriage lasts till death does the couple part.  Some shatter in divorce long before the silver anniversary.

But Kardashian is travelling down a parental path that is seemingly widening day by day.  (Continue reading the full story here.)

Toni Braxton: God punished me with autistic son because of my past abortion

Toni Braxton makes some startling confessions

in her memoir "Unbreak My Heart"

(Photo Credit:  Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images)

The Huffington Post reported today that six-time Grammy winning singer Toni Braxton was weighed down for years under a load of guilt.  Braxton revealed that she felt so guilty about a 2001 abortion of ex-husband Keri Lewis’ child, that she believed God had punished her by giving her son Diezel Ky Braxton-Lewis, 11, autism.

Braxton shared her struggles in her new book, a memoir called “Unbreak My Heart”.  Braxton said that she was raised in a very religious household.  Viewers of her reality show “Braxton Family Values” are familiar with her parents Michael and Evelyn Braxton, now divorced.  Even though their children are adults, Mom and Pop Braxton often appear on the show and do not bite their tongues about what they feel is right and wrong in their children’s lives.

Both Michael and Evelyn are pastors and Toni said that bible study was more important than school homework when she was growing up.  (Continue reading full story here.)

Twin brothers, 21, charged with running sex for money ring on Facebook

Tyrelle Lockett, 21, along with his twin brother Myrelle

was convicted of running a human trafficking ring on Facebook

(Photo Credit:  Tyrelle Lockett via his Facebook page.)

Children worldwide are becoming more vulnerable every day.  There is a massive search effort currently underway for hundreds of young girls snatched from school in Nigeria, and feared to be at risk for being sold into human trafficking.  Sounds very far away, but beware because twins Tyrelle and Myrelle Lockett are every parent’s nightmare come home to roost right here in America, Chicago to be exact.

The Lockett brothers, 17 at the time, were the first to be convicted in Illinois under the charge of trafficking people for forced labor or services in 2010.  Sadly the young men, now 21, are at it again.  NewsOne is reporting that Tyrelle is currently in jail and scheduled to appear in court today.  Tyrelle and Myrelle have been recruiting girls on Facebook.  They lure them with the promise of quick and easy money.

The alarming fact is that (Continue reading full story here.)

High School student arrested; turns out she is 31, lied to family and school

Yes it's the same person.  Gregg County Police mug shot (left),

Charity Johnson via her Facebook page (right).

Two teens arrested for suspected arson in California, and a student arrested for filming women taking showers were among some of the stories involving teens that made the news this week.  But perhaps one of the most shocking arrests was the arrest of Charity Johnson, a high school student in Texas.

Everyone thought the 10^th grader was 15, but she was at least twice that age.  According to her arrest records, Johnson is 31 years old, older than some of the teachers who were educating her.

The story unfolded like something out of a Charles Dickens novel.  (Continue reading full story here.)

Amber Alert saves the kids; too late for mom murdered by dad

Anthony and Nicholas Jordan rescued after their father

killed their mother and kidnapped them from school.

(photo credit:  South Carolina Law Enforcement Division)

The relatives of Anthony Jordan, 7, and Nicholas Jordan, 8, can breathe a sigh of relief after learning that the boys were found alive and safe this morning.  A five-state Amber Alert was issued by Lodi, New Jersey police Friday night after it was discovered that the boys were taken from their school by their father, John Robert Jordan, 47.

Jordan was estranged from his wife, and the children’s mother, Tracey Jordan, 39.  They were in the process of getting divorced.  Tracey had already moved on and was dating (Read full story.)

Willow Smith, 13, photo'd in bed with man; leaves fans whipping their heads back and forth

This picture of Willow Smith, lounging in the bed with Moises Arias,

has caused outrage among parents everywhere.

(photo credit:  Moises Arias via Instagram)

Mr. and Mrs. Smith, in this case Will (star of ‘Fresh Prince’ and ‘Bad Boys’) and Jada (lead in TV drama ‘Hawthorne’), are often considered the world’s coolest parents.  Dad is a comedic actor and rapper, and mom is an actress and singer in a rock band.  They’ve also been a bit controversial with their parenting style.  Will drew a lot of attention last year when he told an interviewer that he and Jada “don’t believe in punishment.”

These words just may have come back to haunt them.  E! Online is reporting today that the Smiths are getting incredible backlash after a picture surfaced of their daughter Willow Smith, 13, in bed with actor Moises Arias.  He is best known for his role playing Rico on ‘Hanna Montana’ (Disney).  The problem is this isn’t the beloved child star the world remembers; Arias is now a 20-year-old grown man.

(Read full story here.)

Another mom arrested for leaving children alone in car; system needs fixing

Tearful Shanesha Taylor after being arrested for leaving children 

alone in car while she went on job interview

(photo credit:  Jupiter Sinclair)

She is Shanesha Taylor, 35 with two small kids, ages 2 months and 6 years.  For whatever reason, her life is, by all accounts, a shambles.  She is homeless, a single mother, and almost at the end of her rope.  She gets called in for a job interview and suddenly there is a small ray of hope that things are about to look up, that she may be able to provide a better life for her babies.  She jumps at the chance and, to her dismay; things go from bad to worse.  She came out of her 45-minute interview to find police waiting to arrest her for child abuse.

Taylor says she left her children in the car, with the windows cracked for air, because she had no money to pay a babysitter.  A passerby heard a child crying in the car and called the police.  According to Scottsdale Police Officer Mark Clark, “She was upset.  This is a sad situation all around.  She said she was homeless.  She needed the job.  Obviously not getting the job.  So it’s just a sad situation.”  You can see the whole story on this video posted by CBS 5 Arizona news.

There have been so many stories of people who just snapped when the situation got too hard.  There are far too many tales of mothers who killed their children, mistakenly thinking they were doing them a favor.  They couldn’t stand to hear their babies crying from hunger or shaking from the cold due to the mother not having the money to pay the electric bills.  Some even murdered their children out of frustration and anger towards the absent father who was giving no help.  The nation was shocked earlier this month by one such story when a desperate and pregnant mom of three tried to kill her kids by driving her van into the ocean and later said that she was trying to take them “to a safer place”.

So even though Taylor may have been wrong to leave the kids in the car, she gets credit for trying, for not giving up and throwing in the towel.  There may yet be some good to come out of this story as over $43,000 has been raised through a campaign to help Taylor.  The money is to cover her $9000 bail and also try to raise enough money so that she and her kids can live (rent, electric, food) for a few months until she finds a job and starts receiving paychecks on a regular basis.  For information on how you can help click here to go to the campaign fund site.

Finally, let us hope this is a wakeup call to all of the fathers out there who love their kids, but cannot stand the mother.  If you are going to be an absentee father, and if you will not (or are not able to) financially provide for your children’s well-being, please be there to tend your children for a little while, especially if their mother is trying to find a job.  Not only will you end up spending more time with your babies, you just might literally save their lives.

Daddy and Me: Sweet Memories

This is one of my favorite pictures of my Daddy and me.  From the moment I can remember anything at all, this picture epitomizes the feeling I got from Daddy:  Safe and Loved.

My Daddy graduated from this life March 21, 2008.  He gained eternal life, but I lost my Daddy.  Amidst the sadness of today, I keep chuckling at some of the memories of my beloved Daddy, James Joshua Noble, Sr.  I’m sharing a few with you my friends.  Daddy was so funny.

I remember being a child, ready to eat, but having to wait until each person around the dinner table said a bible verse AND where it was found.  That where part was what prolonged things as my siblings and I scrambled to remember. Lol.   But as an adult, I’ve had some of those verses quickly come back to me in a time of trouble and need.

I remember wanting to crawl under the table with shame when my friends would come over.  And as we would be heading out the door or back to my room to talk girl talk, music, and pop stars, Daddy would greet the person with “Hi, nice to meet you.  I hope you have accepted Christ as your personal Savior.  If not, anytime you need to talk, I’ll be glad to tell you all about God’s wonderful gift.”  And while the teenaged me was horrified, I have been awed when some of those friends have told me later that what Daddy said had at least started them thinking.  And, unbeknownst to me at the time, some had even gone back and had discussions with Daddy on the bible, salvation, etc. 

I remember sitting in the living room with boys who had come to court (or whatever they call it these days) and talking the night away.  You know how time flies when you’re having fun.  If the young man hadn’t had the sense enough to leave by midnight, I would hear the creak of the living room door open and Daddy would come innocently walking through as if going to the kitchen for some water.  He would look at us sitting on the couch, do an exaggerated double take at his watch, and say a long drawn out Good MORNING, even if it was only 12:01am.  And I was a junior in college!  The nerve of him...lol.  But it taught me to demand respect and respectable hours when I grew up and got my own apartment.

I remember when I worked in Charlotte, I was driving back home from visiting my parents in Columbia one night.  When I got to a rest stop near Rock Hill, I stopped to use the restroom, went back outside and the car wouldn’t start.  I called my roadside emergency company and then called my parents.  I was talking to Momma and Daddy must have heard her say the word “car” because suddenly it was him on the phone asking where I was and was there anybody around.  There wasn’t, but I said I wasn’t scared.  But deep down he must have known.  Anyway I told him I had called roadside and they should be there shortly.  Soon I saw headlights, but it wasn’t the tow trunk.  Daddy flew that car into the parking lot on what seemed like two wheels, with Momma holding onto the dashboard for dear life.  Somehow he had beaten the tow truck there.  My knees buckled I was so happy to see them.

Create loving memories with your families while you have them.  It’s awful when they are gone from this earth.  But thanks be to God for the wonderful times to look back upon and rejoice.  The cherished moments can turn the pain into laughter, and helps ease the way a little, like salve upon a wound.  Thanks Daddy for everything, and much love always.

Yes Bullying Should Be A Crime

Rebecca Ann Sedwick

Photo Credit:  Courtesy of Heavy.com

Most of us were shocked and saddened at the suicide of 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick. Rebecca lived in Lakeland, Florida, and according to the website Heavy.com, she was last seen alive leaving for school on the morning of September 9, 2013. She was reported missing at 7:00pm that evening. Around 2:30am the morning of September 10, 2013, Rebecca's lifeless body was discovered.

Rebecca's parents and the community were stunned at this news. As investigators struggled to get to the bottom of why a child would commit suicide, frightening details began to emerge. What unfolded was a real-life tale as ugly as the 70's movie “Carrie”. We all knew that that something was amiss when the police arrested two female suspects just this past Monday, October 14, 2013. It turns out that these girls had somehow managed to allegedly play Pied Piper to at least 15 other kids and lead them in a savage bullying attack on Rebecca.

Even after Rebecca's parents removed her from school in 2012 to protect her from the constant harassment, the assaults took on a cyberistic twist. The same things that make the internet and social media advantageous to companies and advertisers, e.g. it’s instantaneous, far-reaching, and easily accessible, is the same thing that can make them deadly in the wrong or ignorant hands.

This case seems to be a mixture of many things that went wrong. The facts are chilling. It includes: a gang pack mentality reminiscent of the manic neighbors in the Twilight Zone's “Monsters are Due on Maple Street” episode; girls barely old enough to see PG-rated movies without an adult insanely jealous over lost "love"; and this hotbed of tortuous emotions targeted at a young girl who could not escape the darts of cyber arrows because she, like many of us adults, are intrinsically attached to mobile devices, computers, and social media as a way of life. It's become a way we communicate, while becoming more isolated. Whether we call them friends, followers, or fans, it’s implied that these people like us. So more time we spend in front of our devices, the more real and personal these hurtful insults can be.

This young lady lost her life over meanness, plain and simple. Yes, we have to continue to instill in our young people a kinder, gentler nature. At the same time we must warn them that everyone is not kind. Let's give them the names and phone numbers of specific people they can go to in the schools who have committed themselves to squashing out the bully epidemic.

Finally, many people are in an uproar that these children have been arrested. I too believe in the innocent nature of children. But someone or something has exposed these girls to a hardness of heart well beyond their years. Doing something wrong and regretting it is one thing, but the 14-year-old's response on Facebook "Yes IK I bullied REBECCA nd she killed her self but IDGAF," the Facebook post read. Grady Judd, sheriff of Polk County, Florida, said the online vernacular meant "I don't give a (expletive)." absolutely lent itself to an arrest being made.

There have always been bullies trying to rule the playground. But the difference is their weapons are now much more sophisticated and in many cases, deadly. Let's continue to love, protect, and train our kids about life, feelings, and consequences.

My prayers and condolences to the family and friends of Rebecca Ann Sedwick. May she rest in peace.

**1-800-273-8255 - Please call this number immediately if you think you cannot go on, or have any thoughts of suicide. Or share this number if you know someone you think might feel this way. This is the toll free number for the Suicide Prevention Services of America. They are there to help children, teens, and adults. They will listen to you.

A Massacre at Midnight

By now almost everyone has heard about the horrible shooting massacre that occurred at the midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colorado, on July 20, 2012.  This story is so horrible on so many levels.  I was surprised to learn that the theater where this tragedy took place was only about 15 miles away from where the Columbine shooting took place a number of years ago.  I can't imagine the horror that replaced the excitement of being among the first to see the much anticipated installment of the Batman movie series.  However, one statement struck me in the head like a hammer.

Is It Okay To Be Facebook or Twitter Friends With Your Child?

I enjoy social media as well as the next person. What do you think of the growing trend of Moms and Dads being “friends” with their children or other young relatives on Facebook and/or Twitter? I’d never really thought about it until I received a FB friend invite the other day from my 15-year-old niece. I was stunned at the emotions this simple act aroused in me.

First of all, this is my baby. Yes I know she’s 15, but I remember her in diapers. So one of my first emotions was a sense of wanting to protect her. I don’t want any predators stalking her account and trying to become more than Facebook friends. I also don’t want her exposed to a lot of the craziness you see posted on the social media these days. Not wanting to be rude I went ahead and confirmed her as a friend. Next thing I know I get a follow me on twitter message. What? Oh my goodness. Twitter is even more wide open than FB. What to do, what to do? The jury’s still out on that one. I haven’t followed her on twitter yet, no offense dear.

I am reluctantly coming around to accepting the fact that more and more of my young relatives are growing up and that social media is a part of their lives. While it was something that wasn’t even around when I was a child, computers and internet sites are a part of these kids’ lives almost from birth. They don’t see it as bad or good, but as a natural part of life, like bicycles were to me.
I guess I must admit too, there was a little element of shame. I’m “good” Aunt Pam and that’s how I want to remain being seen in their eyes. What on earth would they think if they saw some of the conversations my friends and I engage in when we let our hair down and relax, just shooting the breeze, on Facebook?

After pondering this for awhile, I believe I have come to peace with an acceptable compromise. FB can be a parent’s friend in a way. I’m finding that it is a good way to keep abreast (ok, spy if you will) of what’s going on in the lives of young people we care about. For example, a recent post from one young relative read “Yay, got the house to myself. I can watch tv in peace.” Perfectly innocent in her mind.

So instead of saying I saw on FB you’re posting you’re home alone, dangerous, blah, blah, blah, it was a great opportunity to have a calm conversation regarding safe and responsible use of social media. I can also discreetly click on pictures from their male friends to see how old they look and see what type of things the boys are posting. Clean fun teen conversations or profanity-laced tirades?

And the problem with being embarrassed, well a little more research into how FB works solved that problem. I found out that I can elect to share certain posts with everyone or only a few. Who knew? Well probably most everyone but me. lol. But now I know. Final analysis? Facebook is my friend/ally. All I have to do is use it, instead of letting it use me or my children. What say you?