The following is a newspaper article about my cousin, Kevin:

Defendant gets break in racial threat case
By Liz Zemba
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, November 19, 2008


It wasn't exactly a birthday present, but a judge's order handed down Tuesday to a Fayette County man accused of creating a racist Web site will enable him to put the allegations behind him.

"It's time to move on," said Kevin Burd, 21, of Uniontown shortly after he was accepted into a program for first-time, nonviolent offenders on charges he created a fake Myspace page that threatened violence against blacks.

Judge Gerald R. Solomon yesterday morning accepted Burd into the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program, or ARD, for a period of six months.


The ARD program does not require defendants to admit guilt, but it does require that they be placed on probation. If they satisfactorily complete the probation, they must then file a petition to have their case expunged.

State police last year charged Burd, who turned 21 yesterday, with terroristic threats, identity theft, recklessly endangering another person and harassment.

In a criminal complaint, police said Burd used a 16-year-old student's name and photograph to create a fake MySpace page in April 2007. It contained numerous racist slurs directed against blacks and a threat to "bring a gun to school someday and kill them all."

Burd has maintained his innocence since the charges were filed. His attorney, Simon John, had at one point hoped to show through e-mails that someone else had created the Web page.

Burd yesterday said he decided to forgo a trial in favor of ARD because he has other obligations to focus on, including his 2-month-old son, Ezra.

"I just wanted to get it over with," Burd said. "I used to worry about it, but I don't anymore. I just want to get on with my life."

My dad's side of the family has a completely different lifestyle than what I've grown up with, and truthfully it's always been hard for me to even recognize that I'm related to them. My dad's sister has 3 chidlren--my only cousins. All three of them have children--my first cousins once removed. I have at least 10 of those, and it's horrible that I don't know for sure. Almost each one is from a different father, there have been plenty of divorces and marriages and live-in boyfriends and welfare and so many things. Since my grandmother died about a year and a half ago, we really have no contact with this side of the family. My dad talks to his sister every once in awhile on the phone, but that's it. They live in Pennsylvania, and now that my grandmother's gone we don't really have a reason to go up there for a visit.

These people don't seem like family to me. I don't really know anything about them. All I hear about is the bad stuff. But as I reread the article about Kevin (and feel like throwing up), I think how my cousins--just like everybody else--need to know Love and recognize that it's not up to them to do life on their own. Will you send up a quick prayer for Beth, Melissa, Kevin, and they myriad of children?

Obligatory Thanksgiving Post

Needless to say, my family doesn't quite celebrate Thanksgiving the way we used to :) There are many, many Thanksgivings where my sisters and I dressed up as Indians or Pilgrims, usually with the help of craft projects from school (can you imagine schools making "Indian" headdresses now?!?!) Anyways, mostly I'm using this post as an excuse to post a fun picture from my childhood, but hey, there are no rules against that. I'm the girl with the crazy hair.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, my family had a Thanksgiving tradition that I most definitely recommend to any new family! Each year, starting I believe when I was 6, my family and I wrote on our "Thankful Tree". Each year we added another section to the tree, and each family member had their own branch where they wrote things they were thankful for looking back over the year. We stopped doing it a few years ago after all us children moved out, but it is so fun to go back and read the different things. Lots of vacations and parties are mentioned. In second grade I wrote that I was thankful that "my broken leg wasnt hert any more than it was", incorrect spelling and all. I think during one of my high school years when I was into thinking practically and not showing emotion, I believe I wrote down that I was thankful for microwaves and toilets. Lots of interesting stuff on there.

This year I am thankful for a new life in Greensboro, my two wonderful guinea pigs, my new friend Lisa, and my family. What about you?

it is good to have fun sometimes

Yesterday evening was a good, good evening. Combine all of the following:

-friends that feel like family (in a good way)
-Dumb and Dumber
-home-made corndogs
-Phase 10
-playing with guinea pigs


Seriously. Can it get any better than that?


I leave you with the following words of wisdom that are so pathetic they made me laugh out loud:

"Suffering from 'truth decay'? 'Brush up' with the Bible!"
...spotted on a church sign close to my place of residence...

my chicken and my marriage

Ach--so it's been almost two weeks since I've updated you on my extremely exciting life! It really bothers me when people only update their blog like once a month...and now I'm turning into just such a person!

The biggest accomplishment in my life most recently is actually a fairly large one (for me). For the first time in my life, I cooked dinner for company! I was nervous allll day. But I think it turned out! Lisa, Finley, and I and sometimes Daryl have been taking turns cooking dinner and having everyone over every week or two, and it finally came to be my turn. I made a chicken recipe I found on the internet. I know you're never supposed to try out a new recipe on company, but since I've never really cooked a single thing before, ANY recipe would be a new one! So it all turned out and we ate and it wasn't bad (though my kitchen was quite the disaster). They were also good sports and ate on the living room floor with me, since I am still without a dining room table for now (hopefully not for much longer). Also in the same day as cooking dinner I baked cookies from scratch (pretty much my first time doing that as well), and they're so good! All in all, I am extremely proud of myself (though probably not as proud as my mom is--I even cooked a vegetable!!!) I still can't say I LIKE cooking (why spend an hour on something when hotpockets only take 2 minutes to warm up?), but it's good to know that there is at least one thing I can cook without it being a total disaster. Yay me!

That was my most proud moment of the week, and I also have a most awkward moment of the week. While hanging out with a group of friends a woman who I've met a couple of times started asking me about my husband...and I looked at her and told her with all seriousness I didn't have a husband....and she thought I was joking...because I was sitting next to Jordan Maroon...and she thought Jordan Maroon was my husband. Um yeah, went slightly red in the face. But that wasn't even the most embarrassing part...a few minutes later she turned to me and said "are you dating?" Now me, being in my own little world, thought she was just being curious and asking me about my dating life. So I said "no not right now". She kind of winked at me and I just smiled. Looking back, I think she was asking if Jordan and I were dating, and I calmly told her "not right now", implying that either we used to or that I am hoping that we will be soon... (poor Jordan hahah). I'm so good at awkward moments! :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Anyone that lived with me or nearby to me in college already knows how much I love the "pre-christmas" season. I never fail to pull out my Christmas music every October (and sometimes in July as well!). Christmas day isn't too exciting for me now that I'm "grown up" and know that nothing I unwrap is going to be very life-changing, but the excitement leading up to the day is something I love! This year I even started on my shopping early...I am almost done (which definitely makes less stressful come mid-December). It's been so fun to actually take time to find things that people will really LIKE, instead of just getting them something because I have to. Earlier this week I turned on some great Christmas music and even wrapped a pile of the gifts. So fun!

My itunes christmas playlist has 151 songs, and that's not including christmas cds friends have make for me. I have everything from Bing Crosby to Burl Ives (think clay-mation Rudolph movie music) to bagpipe christmas music to little children singing and even a song by Usher (which my college roommates and I can love to laugh at--"bills bills bills"). Christmas music is so fun!

Last year for some reason I just didn't ever get excited about Christmas. I don't think I listened to any of my christmas music at all! But this year it's nice to have the excitment back :) I think there's just something about the feeling of anticipation: will my sister love this? I wonder if anyone's going to get me this thing I really want? Will the christmas cookies I make turn out or be a total flop? I love love love it!

Here are some of my favorite Christmas things I enjoyed as a kid (and still do):
-lying on the couch looking at the tree, with my mom's old christmas records playing in the background and the smell of her baking/cooking filling the house.
-sleeping in front of the christmas tree every Christmas Eve with my ssiters (and we never believed in Santa so I don't know why we did this...but we still do even now that we're old. Last year my sister's husband even joined us! A little awkward, but we have to keep tradition!)
-praying for snow EVERY Christmas Eve (and only having snow on Christmas twice that I remember)
-decorating the christmas tree. It was always a family event, with my mom's christmas records playing in the background, and my dad pretending he didn't want to help but us always forcing him to hang certain ornaments on the tree
-driving around the neighborhoods Christmas night to look at all the lights (my absolute favorite thing about christmas, but the one thing the rest of my family doesn't really care about!!)


There are many more...but I'm holding my guinea pig Parsley right now and she is trying to jump off of me, so I'm gonna go ;-)

Enjoy the anticipation of Christmas! (and if you need any Christmas music, I can hook you up) :)