Pink Polka Dot Thoughts

Our Little Princess

Princess Sunshine visited today and we had a little fashion shoot. She's 6 months old now...

It's a Tough Life...

...being a dog...

Dance Moms - Lots of Drama in an Hour

Have you seen this show yet? Dance Moms airs on Lifetime and if you need some reality in your TV that isn't on CNN, it's definitely drama filled. Dance Moms is kind of like Toddlers & Tiaras meets The Real Housewives.  YIKES! Total DRAMA!

And last week was so much fun to watch. SHHHHH...did I really admit that? Yes, I did! I think these moms and this idea of having to be #1 is probably screwing these kids up, but I can't help enjoying the drama.

I predict that Abby(the teacher/coach) is going to lock horns with the lady in the last episode who owns her own studio. No way is she going to be able to sit in the "mom room" and watch her daughter get yelled at by Abby.

No way.

And I have the DVR set to get it all!

 

Growing up way too fast...

I can't believe she's almost 6 months old already!

From our 4th of July photo shoot...

Yesterday, showing off her sitting up skills...

Remembering Caylee

No matter what you think about the verdict, Caylee is loved by all. She won't ever be forgotten. My hope is that everyone who is so upset and angered by Casey being found not guilty, will turn that negative energy into something positive.

Tons of children are abused every day in our country. Many more are hungry, uninsured, and living in poverty. Those at-risk children need our help. Each one of us could turn the energy from this past week into something good.

You could:

 

• Be a big brother or sister to a child who needs it
• Volunteer for CASA
• Volunteer in your local schools
• Become a foster parent
• Donate to your local food bank
• Volunteer at a local women's shelter or homeless shelter

The number one thing you can do though is to just keep your eyes open. Make friends with your neighbors and watch for the mom who might seem overstressed. Offer to help her out once in a while. We all need a break. Get to know your children's friends and talk to them. Let them know there are people who care about them.

Never be afraid to call CPS if you think a child is being abused. You could save a life.

Through all these things, we'll be remembering Caylee. That's the good that can come out of all this.

The Verdict

Whatever your opinion, it is the verdict. It's the decision that 12 people made after sitting in a courtroom for over a month listening to all the evidence presented to them. They just didn't feel the state proved their case.

My opinion is that the state over-charged this case. Had they gone with manslaughter, I think a guilty verdict would have been easy, but they went with a salacious story involving chloroform, duct tape, a phantom stain in the trunk and invisible heart shaped sticker residue. These things were too hard for a jury to swallow.

This case was going to be precedent setting because new forms of evidence were permitted to be introduced. It was the first time that root hair banding as well as the air sample tests were permitted in as evidence. It looks like the jury wanted more than that.

No DNA at the crime scene.

No cause of death.

Nothing directly linking the defendant to the crime scene led to a not guilty verdict.

The state relied more on emotions and claimed their new fangled forensics were air-tight(pun intended.) Obviously, not everyone was sold on that.

A prosecutor who seemed to laugh at the defense and make inappropriate jokes--including asking a defense expert if he "wrapped his pigs in a blanket" before placing them in the car trunk during his experiment-- couldn't have helped much either. What was funny about a 2 year old's death? When he made that comment, I imagined little Caylee wrapped in a blanket and couldn't see any humor there at all. He also seemed to bully defense experts and I doubt that set well with the jurors.

I know that 95% of the world disagrees with me, but this is the right verdict for this case and these charges. Lesser charges would have been more appropriate, but then you wouldn't have had the drama that we have now, would we?

I choose not to second guess the twelve people who sat in that courtroom day in and day out. Their verdict is the last word. It's shocking--even for me--but it's final.

Even if Casey did just "get away with murder" as I've read over and over today, karma has a way of getting back around. Remember OJ? Where is he now? 'Nuff said.

 

And the waiting begins...

  The trial is over. The prosecution rested their case. The defense rested theirs. All the testimony has been given that will be allowed. After six weeks, it is now up to 12 men and women to determine Casey Anthony's fate.

As the trial wound down, I kept up with the forums I read and noticed a lot of people screaming about "Justice for Caylee." It made me wonder, what in the world IS "justice for Caylee."

Caylee is gone. She can't come back. Is the death of another "justice?" I watched HLN today. I saw people in front of the Orange County Courthouse saying Casey should die. One didn't know the facts of the case. She hadn't bothered to read or watch...but she knew that Casey should die.

It made me wonder about our country. A few months ago, it seemed like much of the nation rejoiced when Osama Bin Laden was killed. While I do admit that I'm glad we don't have that threat any longer, I would have been just as happy if he'd been captured and tried for terrorism. I didn't rejoice in his death.

Just as I don't rejoice in the death of anyone.

To do so seems barbaric. It seems wrong. It seems like something we accuse other countries of doing.

This case was tried in the media. Nancy Grace with her claims of caring about little Caylee, but yet every night opened her show with the "heart shaped sticker" and talked about this sweet little girl being tossed like trash. She didn't miss an opportunity to talk about this child decomposing in graphic detail. She didn't skip a chance to sensationalize this darling little girl's life at every turn.

The media tried this case long before any jury began to hear the evidence. As time has gone on, we've learned that some of the evidence presented to us for years by people like Nancy Grace isn't entirely accurate.

Hey, folks, that heart shaped sticker she shows you every night wasn't found ON the duct tape. In fact, it was found something like 50 feet from the body. No stickers like that were found in the Anthony home. ONE FBI analyst saw the alleged residue but didn't photograph it. hmmm...but doesn't it sound so much more exciting when Nancy Grace screams about Casey placing duct tape over her daughter's face and then putting a heart shaped sticker on the duct tape? You make up your mind.

I watched every day of this trial--virtually every moment. Before the trial started, I'd read almost all of the discovery, too--thousands upon thousands of pages of depositions, interviews, evidence--and I STILL don't have answers.

I thought the trial would fill in my blanks. It didn't.

The only thing I learned after 6 weeks is that Casey Anthony is a liar and so are her parents. I guess they missed this commercial.

 

Really. That is all I learned and a liar is a far cry from a murderer.