What was this mother thinking? And why isn’t that covered in the state’s indecency law? That’s what Joseph, a Flower Mound father, wants to know after catching his wife in the shower in a very compromising position, “I thought there was a man back there; she was, having an affair or something to that effect,” he told CBS 11. ”And then when I saw my daughter in there with her, I was just so blown away.” The wife in question was in the shower masturbating while the couple’s 20-month old daughter was below her in a baby bath. The woman later admitted to doing it more than once, but according to the state’s indecency law, “if the child is younger than 17 years of age, and the adult proceeds “with intent to arouse or gratify [their] sexual desire” the act is illegal,” CBS 11 reported. That does not include what the now ex-Mrs. Joseph-name withheld was doing in the shower, fully exposed in front of her child, “I don’t even understand how an adult could be sexually aroused alone in the presence of a child,” Joseph told CBS. Me either, Joseph. Flower Mound police originally refused to take the case but we all know if a man had done what this mother did, he’d been in jail for it! But the  Denton County District Attorney’s office will present a case to the Grand Jury based on the fact that ex-Mrs. Joseph-name withheld exposed herself sexually to a child (for the record, the couple’s biter divorce has been heated and the mother in question did not offer a comment to CBS 11). State Sen. Bob Deuell (R-Greenville) is supposed to address the touch-thyself loop hole in the indecency law during the next state legislative session. And every parent in the state will now stop touching themselves anywhere near their child, in the womb or out! Sick. Who does that? And who enjoys it with their baby watching? Gross.

Jayne Peters, City of Coppell

Update: Mayor Jayne Peters was being investigated for credit card abuse, she borrowed the gun used in the shooting from Cedar Hill mayor Rob Franke.
I guess we’ll never know what possessed former Coppell Mayor Jayne Peters to shoot her 19-year-old daughter, Corinne Peters, then herself  Tuesday. The entire Coppell community is in shock. And everyone is asking why? Why would a woman who seemed so successful and upbeat–she was at the July 4 parade this year–after her husband’s passing take her own daughter’s life then turn the gun on herself? She clearly planned the murder-suicide and left instructional notes. But the ugly truth of any suicide is that you can never know what motivates the person. Notes can give you a glimpse but what it takes for a mother to look at her daughter and pull out a gun and pull a trigger is something I never really want to understand. Friends said Corinne and her mother were not getting along after the death of her father. And Corinne was looking forward to leaving home and attending the University of  Texas at Austin. So how could a mother take her own daughter’s future? How selfish, we may say. In the stages of grief, anger is one of the first. And there’s plenty of dumbfounded anger but it’s coupled with a deep sadness too. Because it’s a tragedy for the Peters family all around. And for the community of Coppell.  And it leaves all of us with that sick feeling all survivors of suicide feel–pain, frustration and hurt. And even looking at the inerviews Jayne Peters gave, the smiles and comments from neighbors and colleagues, you have to wonder was that depression or anger or hurt there the whole time? Sadly, though, we have to ask ourselves why did this happen again? And when will it stop? Funeral services for Jayne Peters are scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday at First United Methodist Church in Coppell, 420 S. Heartz Road.

Runaway mom Tiffany Tehan, 31, said pressure to be perfect prompted her to abandon her 13 month old child and husband and runaway to South Beach. ”I would have never ever left her if I though she wouldn’t be well cared for,” said Tehan in an interview on Good Morning America, “I was crying and missing her like crazy.” Except when she was partying with her lover–a married man who broke up with his wife over a text message. Vacation pics show the first time mom having one hell of a time child and husband free. Meanwhile, family back in Ohio held church services and prayed for the young moms safe return (police instituted a nationwide man hunt) unaware that she purposefully left and told no one of her plot to start over again. Tehan said she didn’t want to take her child with her because she didn’t want to prompt an Amber Alert. Yeah, I don’t think anyone is buying the “I’m really a good mom” argument Tiffany. It’s interesting that a woman who chooses to leave her child behind is considered a “runaway” mom. Men abandon their families all the time. No one goes searching for them! And what about this pressure to be perfect? I know there are moments I’ve considered running away. Who hasn’t fantasized for just a moment what life would be like without the dirty diapers, or husband, or bills or responsibility? It’s exhausting sticking around. It’s easier to just disappear. I think the better solution is to simply accept the fact that you aren’t a perfect mom, shouldn’t try to be and never will be. And next time Tiffany, leave a damn note!

CBS 11

Remember this bizarre story out of Stephenville? A mother sitting on a park bench watching her children play was attacked by a mental patient and stabbed in the back multiple times. Brandi Todd, 28, lost 90 percent of spinal cord in the brutal attack her 8-year-old daughter witnessed. Suspect Michael Howard, a disgruntled mental patient, was later arrested. CBS 11 did a follow up with Todd and she’s making amazing progress. Although she will may never walk again, she’s taken to rehabilitation amazingly well. She’s able to use a hand cycle and can now open doors by herself while seated in a wheelchair.” It’s something that happened to me and I am determined to make the best of it,” Todd told CBS 11. Good for her. And thanks to CBS 11 for following up on a story too! I’m not sure if the family has a bank fund set up to help offset expenses still but there was an account at Town & Country Bank in Stephenville.

The good Sisters of St. Mary of Namur western province have devoted their lives to serving others locally and around the world: from Rawanda to the Congo to Fort Worth on modest stipends as little as $40 a month and with no pension. These aging Sisters have done their duty. But they are in trouble. “We’re in a financial pickle,” Sister Joan told the Fort Worth Star Telegram. “Neither the dioceses nor the parishes in which they served are legally responsible for taking care of their aging and infirm members. So now, the sisters find themselves in desperate need of assistance for their retirement and medical essentials,” writes David Casstevens. If you don’t know the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur you may recognize the names of some of the school they helped found as “pioneers of Catholic education in North Texas” including: Nolan Catholic High School, the University of Dallas, or Our Lady of Victory Academy and College, the area’s first integrated school founded in 1910. At one point, the Sisters numbered 200 but now only 42 remain and their average age is 74. “Until recently, the Sisters of Saint Mary have always been self-supporting, relying primarily on tuition from students, stipends from parochial schools, music lessons, fundraising events, and donations. Now most Sisters are aging, but they serve a wide variety of ministries as they are able,” their web site reads. Many still serve in parish ministries including homeless outreach and teaching. There’s no set age for a nun’s retirement. “We don’t retire. We get retreaded,” Sister Louise told the Star Telegram. But with so many aging members finances are important writes Casstevens, “Religious orders could not participate in Social Security until federal law was changed in 1972. The average monthly benefit for the Sisters of St. Mary is about $250. All money they receive goes into a communal fund. A strategic financial plan, sponsored by the Amon G. Carter Foundation in 2006, revealed that the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur are operating at a deficit of more than $200,000 a year. And healthcare costs keep rising.”  But the nuns have faith that finances and former pupils will come through, “”We’re still around,” Sister St. John said, “but we cost money.” If you want to help contribute to the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur, call 817-923-8393 or you can donate online via Pay Pal as well.

What is up with BBC? First they had a show about handicapped models trying to make it in the industry–chicks in wheelchairs and missing limbs–now they’re featuring a new series called Hotter Than My Daughter on BBC Three. Managing Director of Remarkable Television Colette Foster said, “At its heart there’s a genuine purpose to Hotter Than My Daughter. It’s about the nature of modern parenting, female relationships and self-esteem, ultimately it’s a show about personal identity. We’re helping women to find their own unique identity so they can be their own person at last.” Really? By comparing themselves to others? to their friends, family and children? WTF? The premise of the show is a cross between “How do I Look” and “What Not to Wear“. Two parties–mums and daughters, competitive sisters, clone-like best friends or attention grabbing grannies– “stand before a style jury, headed up by the presenter (Liz McClarnon) who will ultimately decide who is in the right and who is in the wrong,” writesLisa McGarry at Unreality Primetime. “The ‘guilty’ party will then undergo a style transformation and reveal themselves to their loved one. Will they admit mistakes they’ve made and embrace their new individual styles?” The first episode featured ”Kobie”, a pregnant 18-year-old gymnastics coach who is mortified by her mum Sharon’s “sequinned hotpants and twice-enhanced DD boobs.” 

Kobie whines, “I am so close to my mum and I wouldn’t change her personality for the world, but I think the clothes are OTT. Since she split with my dad nine years ago, she has had her boobs enlarged and her clothes have got smaller and smaller. She has never been shy, and has even turned up at parents’ evenings at school in very little clothes. All the other mums gawp, while the male teachers get too nervous to talk to her. She’s constantly embarrassing me like that – like on my 15th birthday when we went in a limo to a restaurant with all of my friends. “She was leaning out of the window of the car poking her bum out, then after a few glasses of wine at the restaurant she got on the table and started singing ‘Don’t you wish your mumma was hot like me’,” reports The Sun. “My friends think she is the coolest mum ever. I do think she is beautiful and a good laugh but she would look better covered up, especially now she is going to be a grandmother.”

Other contestants? I guess that’s what they’re called, have equally sad lives and pathetic mentors, moms or besties. Jeez BBC. Whatever happened to Masterpiece Theatre? I expect Tyra Banks to produce crap like this but the British? You’re supposed to be the land of Keats and Shakespeare not booty grinding grannies and pregnant teens. That’s America! We’re the trailer trash of Europeans.

Oh, but it gets worse. A new abortion reality series called “Bump” follows pregnant actresses around and let’s viewers weigh in on their decision to get an abortion on its comments section. Momlogic isn’t impressed (big shock), “Something about this show is creepy to us. Maybe because it’s fiction, many of the scenes that are supposed to be powerful just end up falling flat.” You can catch episodes of the series at Bumptheshow.com. The show was inspired by President Barack Obama’s speech last year at Notre Dame when the president said he wanted, “to find ways to communicate about a workable solution to the problem of unintended pregnancies,” executive producer Dominic Iocco told the Washington Post. The first series aired on the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. “We’re not supposed to judge anyone, of course, but to feel their pain and offer thoughts. Regardless of one’s position on abortion, one thought is inescapable: The babies deserve better. Perhaps there will be an adoption sequel?” writes Kathleen Parker at the Post.

Police have not yet confirmed if the remains found in southern Denton County are those of Kathleen Garza, 49, the missing Coppell mother believed to have been murdered by her “friend” 74-year-old Leroy Tellgren in April. But if they are, it will be the end to an agonizing few months for her family and maybe help solve a strange murder that has some questioning just what kind of relationship Garza and Tellgren had. At the time she went missing, her husband, Raul Garza, told the Dallas Morning News, “She saw him as a father figure. I had no reason to believe otherwise.”  The two spent a lot of time together and shared coffee often holding hands a store clerk said.  Garza denied claims that his wife had a romantic relationship with Tellgren. This whole story has been strange from the beginning especially the relationship between Kathleen Garza and Tellgren. I think it would be hard for any spouse to admit that their partner was having a relationship with anyone much less an older man. But I don’t care what age a “friend” is, I’d have a problem with my spouse spending lots of time with a member of the opposite sex alone and without me. No matter how unlikely I think their relationship might be. Relationships (emotional or physical) can always happen. And maybe it only happened in Tellgren’s mind.  I suppose we’ll never know.  For Kathleen’s family’s sake, I hope the remains will be positively identified and that the Garzas will be able to find peace regardless of what her behavior/relationship or otherwise may have been. But the case certainly serves as a caution to all of us in realtionships. Friends of the opposite sex are not always friends, do not always have friendly intentions in mind and sometimes maybe it’s OK to question and raise a red flag in your relationship if you feel it’s inapropriate.

Normally, the U.S. Open is not one of those major sporting events that gets very heated. There’s a lot of grunting, and the Serena is one of the loudest female grunters. With serves measuring over 100 mph it’s no wonder. But Saturday night, she went to a place that no tennis player should go. After a foot fault call (when a player steps over that white line during a serve) Serena lost it. She gave new meaning to a recent article “Black Women Are Mean as Hell” when she approached the line judge and in a screaming, expletive laced diatribe she said, “If I could, I would take this … ball and shove it down your … throat.” The line judge reported to the chair umpire and instead of staying quiet, Williams went for more, “”Are you scared? Because I said I would hit you? I’m sorry, but there’s a lot of people who’ve said way worse.”  She later tried to deny she threatened the judge and was heckled by the crowd and later booed as she stormed off the court. Needless to say, she lost the match, her spot in the finals and she’s being fined $10,000 for her little outburst. It’s too bad, really.  The semi finals match could have been good. Williams was losing to Kim Clijsters, a mother, who took a break from tennis to have a child. But with her skill it would have been nice to see her fight back.  Clijsters later won the U.S. Open. She is the first mother to capture a major title since Evonne Goolagong Cawley won Wimbledon in 1980. And while I’m happy for her, I’m upset that Serena (who I was rooting for) acted like such a child. Her tantrum on the court and off shows that there should be a place for all mothers in major sports. Mom’s have maturity that even the most talented players–like Williams–simply can’t train for.