Joran Van der Sloot

Evil. Pure evil. Van der Sloot has confessed to the murder of Peruvian Stephany Flores because she "intruded into his private life". The story is that they went back to a hotel room together and he killed her because she used his laptop and discovered that he was the prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. So this is probably what happened, he told her his name and when he went to the restroom, she googled it and found out his dirt. He caught her, panicked, and killed her to keep her quiet.

There are a few lessons to take from both these cases:

1. Please do not let your 18 child go to Aruba with her friends. She is too young and they will make bad decisions. If you are a parent, be paranoid. They will forgive you. I never went on a senior trip or Spring Break and I still love my parents.
2. Young girls, do not go to a hotel room or be alone with a boy you met on vacation.
3. Stay with someone at all time.

When Katie and I were headed to Paris, my grandma wrote us some rules on a Steno pad. The very last thing she jotted down simply said, "Stay together at all times!"
And we did. We separated one time at the Eiffel Tower and I was a nervous wreck. Katie was going to look and see if the other lines were shorter. I kept my eye on her the whole time as if she was my 3 year old child. Don't worry, she came back safely. I only wish I had one of the backpacks that you clip to the child and hold onto. I would have used that at the Eiffel Tower and not cared a bit how ridiculous we looked. Katie and I had several men approach us in Paris. We never even thought once of entertaining the idea. One man even tried to get us in his car. Yeah, right.
Here is a pic of Katie and I after we went up the Eiffel Tower.

La Tour Eiffel. Je t'aime.

On another sad note, a young person I know suffered a aneurysm and passed away yesterday. I knew him through a mutual friend and we weren't great friends but still, it is heartbreaking. He was 26 years old, engaged, and full of life. Pray for his family, fiancee, and friends.