Hold it right there Americans! I know you're all excited to get to the end of the month for the three-day holiday weekend that officially starts off the summer. But I think you're forgetting something. Armed Forces Day? It's May 19 this year. That's a week BEFORE Memorial Day.

If you haven't heard of it, I'm more sad than shocked. Armed Forces Day is the one holiday that celebrates all the members currently serving in our military. While Memorial Day is about our fallen and Veterans Day about our retired military, this is a day when we honor the men and women who are working for our country every day.

And I have just the thing to get you in the right mindset to pay tribute.

We've got some quotes that explain just why 1.4 million men and women are active duty military right now, serving around the world. Quotes about what it means to be a patriot. Quotes from presidents and regular joes.

They're the kind of quotes you can pin on a Pinterest board (check out The Stir's boards for ideas) to remind you every single day that we're pretty darn lucky to live in a land where Old Glory flies above us in part because there are people willing to fight for her.

What is your go-to quote that you use to remind people how lucky we are to have our military?

Image via Elvert Barnes/Flickr

I used to love summer. Hot sun. Barbecues. Fresh-cut grass. And then I became a mother, and thus totally terrified of the water.

Go ahead. Call me neurotic. But when you consider the CDC says drowning is the leading cause of injury death among children 1 to 4 years old, the closer we get to summer, the more panicked I get about all those pool parties and river outing invites. So when I found out May is National Water Safety Month, I knew I had two choices.

I could rejoice in the fact that I'm not the only neurotic mom out there -- it's a national THING. Or I could do something about it. Lucky for you, I went for number two. I decided to help all those neurotic moms out there actually feel good about their kids and water this month.

Behold! I talked to some real life water safety experts about what the heck it is we always do wrong ... and how to actually get the kids water-ready! Go get the sunscreen, it's time to actually have a decent summer! Oh wait, but read the tips first ... there are a few that might surprise you.

What terrifies you most during the summer months with your kids?

Image via anathea/Flickr

Sigh. Of course they're going there. Will Smith slapped a male reporter this week at the Men in Black 3 premiere in Moscow for trying to kiss him, and the "OMG, Will Smith really MAY be gay" rumors are already going crazy on the interwebs. People! Get hold of yourselves!

Not wanting a guy to plant his lips on him doesn't put Will Smith in the "he doth protest too much" camp. He's a human being who gets to say who -- and when -- gets their lips on his. And as far as Big Willie's concerned, that apparently does not include a Ukrainian reporter from 1+1. Who can blame him? Gay, straight, they just met! I'd have been pretty PO'd myself.

According to TMZ, Smith got angry with the reporter, later saying he "should" have "sucker punched" him. But he quickly went back to the affable guy his fans know and love, singing autographs and doing interviews. Not exactly the sign of someone who is terrified his big secret has been "outed" is it?

Someone he didn't know got too personal. That's it. A slap might have been a bit violent, but we've all had one of those kneejerk reactions in our lives. A friend once slapped her toddler son across the face because he bit into her leg. She didn't do it on purpose. Literally, she had no control of her hand ... and she felt awful afterward. It's the way the body works.

The bigger issue here is that people are so caught up in what stars do inside their bedrooms. Evidence enough are all the "will they or won't they" divorce rumors about Will and wife Jada Pinkett-Smith.

But the whole sexuality debate leaves me particularly cold. It's become some big game to "out" the closeted celebrity. Put that way, it sounds cruel doesn't it? To play with someone's heart?

Is it any wonder we've got homophobes claiming that letting two gay people marry will somehow "destroy" their own marriage when the nation at large is so obsessed with the gender of a celebrity's crush? People have taken their eyes of what really matters: whether two people are able to find love in this crazy mixed up world.

But let's get real: a kiss from a stranger out in public isn't love. It's not some big statement on sexuality -- in fact those who went the other way and jumped to the "OMG, he hates gays" route should be aware Smith supports same sex marriage.

All this reporter slap was about was an assault on personal space. Will Smith has the right to decide who gets to get personal. Too bad the same right isn't afforded two men who actually want to kiss in public, huh?

Check out Will's face slap ... what do you think of what he did?

Image via TMZ

Move over President Obama, there's a new birth certificate controversy in town. And this one is even sillier. It turns out Country singer Loretta Lynn has been lying about her age for years.

Ahem. She is a celebrity. And a female one at that. This is what these ladies do! The real surprise here is that people are shocked at all. Shocked, specifically, that this means Lynn was not married at 13-years-old, a bit of her life story that made the biopic Coal Miner's Daughter so affecting.

But to all the people calling her out as a big fat phony today, I have to ask. Are you people crazy?

According to the "real" birth certificate scrounged up by the Associated Press, Loretta Lynn was actually 15 when she got married. And now we're supposed to believe that this discrepancy somehow "undermines" (the word being bandied about by the media today) the Sissy Spacek/Tommy Lee Jones hit movie's storyline. The way people are talking today, it's as if her whole sad tale of growing up in abject poverty in Appalachia is suddenly the American dream.

She was still a child even with those extra few years, folks. If you don't think so, go ahead, find your 15-year-old daughter a matchmaker, and get her hitched. Not game? Yeah, me neither.

OK. She lied. Loretta Lynn is now 80, not 77. That sucks. But a little perspective for you folks:

Loretta Lynn got married to Oliver Lynn at FIFTEEN, an age at which American kids (because they are still kids) can't drive, vote, drink, sign a contract, drop out of high school ... I think that's enough to drop this from "scandal" level down a few notches. 

Is this Loretta Lynn birth certificate news really a scandal? Or is it much ado about nothing?

Image via Amazon

Word has it Teen Mom Amber Portwood is already on to another harebrained scheme. A week ago, she was hauled off to jail on a probation violation, only to be released from the big house on Thursday. And now brother Shawn Portwood says the trouble reality star is planning to "join the military."

Don't let it be said that those teen moms don't make plans quickly. But that doesn't mean the plans are wise. Anyone else thinking a stint in the armed forces would last about as long for Portwood as her latest jail term?

I mean absolutely no disrespect for the military. But if what Shawn Portwood says is true, I'm not so sure they could handle her.

Portwood has landed in jail twice now for violating the court's orders. TMZ is reporting that the judge took pity on her when he let her out this week, but she's still got some pretty stiff penalties hanging over her head precisely because she's messed up so many times. She has everything from domestic violence to possession in her past.

If Portwood can't handle following the simple instructions of a judge, does the 22-year-old really think she's up for defending our nation's country, listening to her commanding officer, taking charge of a weapon? Not to mention, the members of our armed forces depend on their fellow soldiers (or Marines or sailors or ...) to have their backs. There is no room for a whiny, complaining type like Amber who has a very public history of making a mistake, then trying to pin the blame on everyone else. That's the kind of thing that could get a person killed!

I hope for the sake of daughter Leah that Amber finally gets her head on straight one of these days. But for the sake of our current military members, I'd suggest she find a better way to dig herself out of the very deep hole she's dug for herself. She doesn't need to waste our nation's time (and money) the way she has the court system's.

What do you think of Amber Portwood possibly joining the military?

Image via MTV

Every year, I try to make the Girl Scout cookies last as long as I can. And every year I fail. Thin Mints, you are my love, my life, and my downfall. Which is why this mint chocolate pie caught my interest.

Stuffed with all the chocolate minty goodness that makes my favorite cookie so impossible to resist, some people call it a Grasshopper pie. I just call it irre-friggin-sistible. I think the real seller is the mint, which cools your mouth and cuts the chocolate just enough that you can almost pretend you're not eating something so sweet it's bad for you ... almost.

Chocolate Mint Pie (adapted from A Taste of Home)

Ingredients:

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°F.

In a bowl, mix crushed oreo cookie halves and butter. Pat into bottom and sides of 10 inch pie dish.

Bake in oven for 5 to 10 minutes; remove from oven and cool completely. Once cooled, place in freezer to chill.

In saucepan, melt marshmallows in milk over medium heat. Remove from heat and cool. Add creme de menthe and creme de cacao, and mix well.

Add a drop or two of green food dye if desired. Fold in whipped cream. Pour into chilled pie shell. Freeze for 3 or 4 hours.

What is your favorite chocolate/mint mixed dessert?

Hungry? Need dinner ideas? Just love anything and everything food and recipes? Then you'll totally want to follow us on Pinterest! Our virtual pin boards on Kid Friendly Recipes , and Sweet Treats are pure eye candy. Yum!

Image via smulligannn/Flickr

They say timing is everything. And now we know why Mark Zuckerberg went public with Facebook this week. He needed a really good wedding gift when he married long-time girlfriend Priscilla Chan in private. Aww!

Put it that way, and all the bad stuff we're always hearing about Zuck in the news kind of pales, doesn't it? It sounds like a pretty darn romantic gesture.

Of course Facebook officials are saying it's just coincidence. Chan was slated to graduate from medical school this week, so this week worked for her for a wedding. The date of the IPO, on the other hand, was "fluid."

Right. Fluid.

But that's just it. Chan was graduating from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, where she's been studying pediatrics, this week. Zuckerberg was having a birthday this week. Either one were perfect enough reasons to throw a big shindig, invite all the friends, and throw the paparazzi of the scent of a wedding (even Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg was reportedly "shocked" to show up at what she thought was a graduation party for Chan only to be told it was really a wedding).

Really, Zuckerberg and Chan had enough awesome going on in their lives, and plenty of money to blow on a decent ceremony. There was no reason to up the ante with the insanity of the biggest tech IPO ever in the same week.

But when you're marrying Mark Zuckerberg, and -- even with what we can imagine was quite the pre-nup -- you know you're getting ... everything. So what do you give to the girl who has everything?

Eh, you throw 421,233,615 shares of common stock out into the marketplace and let people start gobbling them up. Now that is a way to really up the ante on getting married, am I right? Even if it wasn't "for" her, let's face it ... Priscilla Chan is getting quite the wedding present anyway.

What did you get your significant other for your wedding?

Image via SplashNews

The sad case of missing actor Nick Stahl has taken an even more bizarre twist. The Terminator 3 actor has surfaced! Well, sort of.

Stahl's estranged wife Rose Murphy Stahl, who is the one who reported his disappearance to police in the first police, told People that several friends have heard from him via email this weekend. Stahl reportedly told them that he's "OK," and headed into a month-long rehab. But the details sound far from "OK."

Rose, who happens to not just be Nick's wife but the mother of his son, Marlo, didn't actually GET one of those emails. Instead she knows the password to his email account, and she logged in there herself, only to see he'd told some friends that he was going to arrange to get his clothes, and would be in rehab for 30 days.

So, he supposedly knows he's got to get clean, but he doesn't think it's important enough to update the mother of his child on where he's going to be? Eh, I'm not sure I buy it. That doesn't sound like a guy who is rehab-bound.

The email was apparently sent out late Friday night, although a spokesman for the LAPD told reporters this weekend that they have not closed out the missing persons case. Not surprisingly, an email does not count as "evidence." As they say on the interwebs, pictures or it didn't happen.

Even Rose is still saying she's "skeptical" that Stahl is really going into rehab. And I can't exactly blame her.

No matter how bad enough he's been, if Stahl is at a point where he realizes he needs to clean up, he should realize that his child is important too. God forbid something were to happen to little Marlo while he was in rehab. Stahl should be able to be contacted. That's part of being a parent. Screwed up relationships aside, when you become a parent, your kid is supposed to be your priority.

Not to mention the intake process at any responsible clinic includes the facility familiarizing itself with a new patient's family history and ties out in civilization. If Stahl's gotten himself hooked up with any particular rehab, they should be pushing for contact.

I'm going to call this "clue" to his whereabouts worthless. Until Nick Stahl is actually seen in a rehab facility, physically turning his life around, I don't think it's safe to close the book on this one.

What do you think of an email as "proof" that Nick Stahl is really OK?

Image via Pacific Coast News

If there was ever a way to draw a dividing line between two types of people in the world, this may be the topper. There are the people who have been practically quivering in anticipation over the premiere of season seven of Keeping Up With the Kardashians tonight. Then there are the people who would throw something at their TV if such trash dare appear on the screen. This story is for both of you.

TMZ has pictures showing former home of the Bruce and Kris Jenner has been destroyed. The owner who bought the house in Hidden Hills after it served as a filming location for five seasons of the reality show has torn the whole thing down. So how is this something that brings these two sides together? I'm getting to that!

Those Kardashians have done good for the world -- even if they had nothing to do with it!

In his attempt to excise the place of any of the Kardashian karma, the new owner pulled every glitzy bit touched by a Dash or a Jenner has been pulled out and donated to Habitat for Humanity. It wasn't all done out of the goodness of his heart -- he's sure to get a hefty tax write-off -- but Habitat is an organization that very much survives off of folks like him. Donations are a must to give needy families a place to call their own.

Having worked with the non-profit a time or two, I can tell you they almost never get top-of-the-line appliances and decor the likes of which comes out of a Kardashian mansion. Their largesse is a big boon to the world today! Win, win!

Oh, and a bit more for all you Dash fans who will be tuning in to keep up in season 6? Phase one of the redesign of Kris' home in Calabasas is apparently complete, and the pictures look amaaaaazing. Get ready to drool over some delish design!

Happy y'all? Consider yourself prepped for tonight ... whether you'll be watching the Kardashians (new time, 9 p.m. ET) or not.

So which side are you?

Take a look back at the drama that unfolded last season:

See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.

Image via eonline/YouTube

It's hard to call it good news. Police say they know who kidnapped California teenager Sierra LaMar as she walked to her school bus in March. They've even gone so far as arresting Antolin Garcia-Torres this week.

But the charges they've levied against the 21-year-old Garcia-Torres are hard to swallow. One count of kidnapping. One count of murder. Good for the justice system? Maybe. Maybe not.

Sierra LaMar's family now has to face the fact that police officially consider their 15-year-old daughter dead. Up until this point, they've been clinging to the lack of a body as some sort of last hope. But now there's a man in custody, a man who the police in Santa Clara County say they have enough evidence against to prove he took their brown-eyed, black haired-daughter and brutally killed her. This isn't a missing child. It's a murdered child.

So what's their best hope now? Frankly, their best hope is that Garcia-Torres really is the guy responsible for such a reprehensible act, and he'll give up details that will lead cops to her body. It's the LaMars' best chance at closure on this horrific ordeal.

Just ruminate on that for a second, would you? Put yourself in the shoes of people whose "best" hope right now is that someone will tell them where their child is buried. Kind of puts all your whining that it's raining or that Friday can't come soon enough in perspective, doesn't it?

We spend a lot of time talking about justice being served in this country. But justice isn't perfect. It's not the same as undoing a crime.

Don't get me wrong; I'm glad the cops say they have taken a brutal killer off the streets in Santa Clara. That's good for the community at large. If Garcia-Torres killed Sierra LaMar, we can only imagine he'd strike again if he weren't stopped.

But this is only a piece of the puzzle for the LaMar family, a step in the road to recovery. Justice may be served in this case. But that won't bring their little girl back.

If you could, what would you say to the family of Sierra LaMar today?

Image via National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

Moms. Dads. I have to break it to you. We are not the coolest people in our kids' lives. But that's OK! Really!

We who bathe and feed and clothe, we who get up in the wee hours to cool feverish brows and stay up late at night sewing wee costumes for the school play, we who sit through mind-numbing cartoons and even more mind-numbing bedtime stories ... are trumped every time by the grandparents. They sneak in and steal our kids' hearts, and that's the way it's supposed to be. Trust me. I've got proof!

Remember your granny, the one who snuck you those fudge stripe cookies when Mom wasn't looking? And what about Grandpa, who always had time to stop off at the candy store? Our parents felt about them the way we feel about our parents ... a little bit jealous, but so relieved to have them for the occasional date night, and even more grateful to have an extra person showering our kids with L-O-V-E.

Call it the circle of life. Call it karma. Call it revenge (I swear my parents don't give my daughter sugar until RIGHT BEFORE she's supposed to come home with me). But there is nothing sweeter than a little kid who knows they've got a grandparent wrapped right around their finger, am I right?

Behold the evidence, and then tell us: which grandparent has stolen your kid's heart?

Image by Jeanne Sager

Poor Alanis Morissette is getting some major flak this week after declaring she will be breastfeeding son Ever for, um, ever (oh come on, you were thinking it too). The Ironic singer flamed the fires of the mommy wars when she added her voice to the groundswell of support for attachment parenting in the wake of that awful TIME Magazine cover with one of the dumbest comments yet. Morissette thinks extended breastfeeding will prevent her wee one from having to go into therapy when he's older.

Silly Mommy! Doesn't she know the whole point of parenting is to ensure they have something decent to talk about during their therapy sessions?

I don't honestly care how long Alanis breastfeeds. She can do it until the cows come home. She can stop cold turkey tomorrow. Her kid. Her boobs. Her life.

Got that y'all?

But this therapy thing? Let's take a look at what she said about her feeding schedule:

I think it affords the child, when he grows up, to have a lot less therapy to go to. For me, I protect his safety and his well-being and his attachment. That stage of development is a very important stage.

It is a very important stage of development. However, Alanis' son is now 16 months old. She's still pretty new at this parenting thing, but she oughta know by now that there is no perfect way to raise a kid. The more we try to do everything right, the more we screw up. You've heard of Murphy's law? Yup, it applies to good parenting too.

We can feed 'em all the organic food and buy all the educational toys we want. One day that sweet little darling is going to drop the "f bomb" in front of the local priest or skip an Honor Society meeting to go shave her head (raises hand ... sorry Mom and Dad).

More from The Stir: Salma Hayek's Breastfeeding Addiction Has Me Baffled

Speaking from a place a few years ahead of her, I am not in the least bit embarrassed to say that I have provided my child with plenty of fodder for therapy already. There's the time I accidentally hit her in the face with a doorknob. There's every time I have called her by the dog's name instead of hers because come on, who hasn't done that? There's every single time I've used her name online.

I'd go on, but really, do I need to make myself feel even crappier? The kid is fed. She's clothed. She's got a house that's reasonably clean with a mortgage that's promptly paid. She gets to school (usually on time).

And just look at it this way. An estimated 91 percent of Americans will either speak with or suggest a family member speak with a mental health professional. With odds like that, at least we know that we've given them enough to talk about while they're laying on that couch that they won't be wasting their money.

So Alanis can keep breastfeeding or not. But if she keeps stressing herself out trying to prevent Ever from the inevitable, she's going to have some therapy of her own in a few decades!

Come on. Be honest. What do you expect your kid will be talking about in therapy in 20 years?

Image via Pacific Coast News

Here I always thought the proper reaction when an adult gives up some of their free time to escort a poor lonely kid to the prom is: awww! Silly me! The way an Oregon school district sees it, the best way to reward track coach Melissa Bowerman for her magnanimous gesture is tell her she has to resign from her job.

The kid's dad, Bob Thomas, had actually OK'd the "date" between his 17-year-old son and his coach. But the district is backing down. It's just another one for the "school district usurps a parents' right to decide what's right for their own kids" file.

We've already been schooled by schools on what we're allowed to have our kids eat. But now we're being told we can't actually decide who our kids associate with? And in case you're saying, "Well, when a parent lets a kid be molested, they lose that right," hold it right there.

The sheriff in Gilliam County, Oregon, says there's no evidence that Bowerman broke any law when she told a kid who was struggling in English and feeling bad that he didn't have a date that she'd accompany him to the prom. Sooooo, she did NOT actually molest this kid. Which means she, what, was too nice to him?

OMG, call the National Guard! We have a coach who goes above and beyond for her students. That bish be crazy!

Snort.

If Bowerman hadn't specifically asked his father's permission to take his child to prom, I might be leaning more toward the school district's side here. But the request shows an obvious transparency typically lacking in cases of inappropriate student/school staff relationships. And I like to give other parents the benefit of the doubt when it comes to making decisions based on their gut.

We tend to know our kids better than the school administrators. So who is better able to judge if someone is escorting our kid to the prom to be nice or because they have some ulterior motive? You got it ... a parent. Just as we know when our kids can handle one piece of chocolate in their otherwise healthy lunchbox ...

Who's right here? The district or the dad?
 

Image via Dru Bloomfield At Home in Scottsdale/Flickr

Plenty of time has passed since last fall. But the case of Lisa Irwin, the baby girl from Missouri who disappeared under mysterious circumstances in October, hasn't gotten less bizarre. The child is still missing, and her parents are back in the news with claims that their stolen debit card has been linked back to a website that offers help in changing a person's (or baby's) name.

That made you sit up and pay attention, didn't? Only problem is, it's hard to tell if Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin showed up on the Today show with this crazy story because it's the truth or if they made it up because they were hoping it would bring attention back to their daughter's case.

It's sad to say that it's hard to believe what comes out of the couple's mouths. Their child is missing, and I do feel bad for them. But remember, Deborah Bradley is the mom who lied about how much she'd had to drink the night her 10-month-old disappeared, and cops said they had numerous troubles with the family during the early days of the investigation into the missing child's whereabouts.

So what's another made up story? Heck, I can't even blame them if it is.

Police in Kansas City told Today that they don't see a link between the $69.04 charge on Jeremy Irwin's stolen debit card and the little girl's case. Then there's the confusing matter of timing. Jeremy Irwin told Today that they learned about the charge in December. His lawyer said they learned about it in November. And no one makes it terribly clear whether the card was stolen in October when Lisa disappeared or later.

Adding to the confusion, when Today did an investigation, they found that the website the couple describes sells stationery. It's not associated with name changes in any manner. Odd, huh?

But does it really matter where the charges on the card came from? I know I don't care, and I'll tell you why.

A child is still missing. She's been gone since October. And even if her parents haven't been the most sympathetic of figures since this whole sad mess began, the fact is this nutty story got them back out on national TV today. It brings new attention and new eyes to the case. It reignites hope that someone, somewhere, will remember something that they saw and bring it to the police.

If the story is true, well then, yikes. But at least it gives the family a chance to get their story out there. And if it's not true ... well, it gave the family a chance to get their story out there. There really is nothing to lose anymore.

What do you think of the latest development in the Lisa Irwin case?

Image via National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Are you ready for the battle of the teen moms? We've finally got an airdate for Bristol Palin's much hyped reality show, Life's a Tripp. And you'll never guess the time slot Lifetime has chosen to show off how the former governor's daughter and her son life life. It's directly opposite the final season of MTV's reality series, Teen Mom.

They'll both air at 10 p.m. ET on Tuesdays, beginning in June (although the teen moms get a week headstart on the Wasilla native with a June 12 start). And of course they'll both be about young moms who were pregnant teenagers. Maybe those rumors of the Bristol vs. Teen Mom stars feud aren't just rumors after all?

The talk a few years ago was that Palin had the stars of Teen Mom barred from ever appearing on ABC's Dancing With the Stars, whether it was on the stage or just in the audience. Then came the news that it was all a bunch of hogwash because Tripp's mom and Teen Mom star Maci Bookout were "friends" who'd met in person at events meant to discourage teenagers from becoming parents.

Let's hope they're the kind of friends who can handle being pitted against one another in the same time slot talking the same subject matter!

This is a particularly hairy situation considering the season of Teen Mom that premieres June 12 is the last for Bookout and co-stars Farrah Abraham, Amber Portwood, and Catelynn Lowell. The show has been cancelled while MTV continues its Teen Mom 2 series and preps for a Teen Mom 3 spin-off. This is their last chance to get their side of what it's like to be a teen mother out to the masses for whatever reason they chose to be a part of the show.

Now they'll have Palin's 14-episode series to battle for viewers. She's sure to have her mom's fans watching out of devotion and more than a few of her mom's detractors watching to gawk. What are the chances it will be a fair fight between the two sides?

Get a look at the sneak peek of Life's a Tripp, which begins airing on Lifetime on June 19, and tell us: which show will YOU be watching on Tuesday nights?

Image via My Lifetime

The folks behind Glee certainly know how to pack a lot into an hour! The Fox hit's season three finale was an hour later than usual because of American Idol, but this was a goodbye episode worth waiting for. We had graduations, breakups, and some confessions that even the Gleekiest of Gleeks couldn't see coming.

There was a lot coming at us. And now we've got a whole summer to figure out what that cliffhanger means. So how about revisiting five of the biggest moments of the night to see if we've got a handle on them?

Kurt, Finn, and Rachel Opening Their College Acceptance Letters: We might as well get the big one out of the way. The trio that was New York bound isn't. Rachel got into NYADA. Kurt and Finn got big fat sorry, but no, letters from the schools of their dreams.

Burt Hummel Dancing to Single Ladies: Kurt called it the best graduation gift ever, and oh was it ever! His dad got up onstage wearing a glittery glove, dancing and lip-syncing to Beyonce in a send-up to the season one episode when he caught Kurt doing the same thing in the family basement. Burt's ode was as touching as it was hilarious. It is definitely in the top three best moments of the entire season. Wait, make that all three seasons!

Brittany Explaining Why She Won't Graduate: It was hard enough trying to keep the tears from flowing while Santana and Brittany contemplate having to put distance between them for college. Add in Gloria Estefan as Santana's mom who's trying to show her lesbian daughter that she will always be loved, and it could have been a sobfest. Perfect timing for a Brittany one-liner to lighten the mood. She's repeating her senior year at McKinley, and really Santana should have seen that one coming, after all, even Britt knows you don't get out of high school with a "0.0 grade point average." Eek.

Coach Roz Washington Stirring the Mommy Wars Pot: We can always count on Nene Leakes the bring the crazy, and did she ever! She might be have come to an agreement with Sue Sylvester to lay down the knives they tend to throw at each other just long enough to connive a way to get Principal Figgins out of a job. But that didn't mean she couldn't drop one last zinger. Roz suggested Sue bottlefeed her "vampire baby" so it doesn't bite holes in her boobs. Ouch!

And finally ... the very biggest moment of the night, and the one that still has most of us Gleeks with our gums flapping like fish because we're so shocked:

Finn Dumping Rachel: He doesn't just love her so much that he refuses to let her give up her dream of going to New York just to marry him. He actually joined the Army because he knew she couldn't follow him to Fort Benning! She had to go to New York! Cue the tears. Now.

Of course, we still don't know what will happen to Kurt. Or how they'll manage to tie the whole Glee cast back together next year. Or ... forget it. I can't even start thinking about Season Four. I still don't know how I feel about Season Three.

How about you? What are your feelings about the whole season now that you've seen the finale? What was the big shocker for you?

Image via Fox

Talk about crazy timing. A year and a half after Jillian Michaels announced she was calling it quits as a trainer on The Biggest Loser to pursue motherhood, she finally is a mom. Of twins!

Well, OK, not exactly twins in the two babies born at once who came out of the same tummy sense. I'm talking twins in the "arrived at the same time to meet our two new mommies" sense. There are two, count 'em, two adorable kiddos at chez Michaels now. The fates were certainly smiling on her this month! So how did it go down?

The fitness guru revealed this week that the adoption process she's been working through for two years now finally brought her daughter home this month ... just as her partner Heidi Rhoades gave birth to a son! And I can't help thinking the name they've given the little boy seems especially appropriate for a family built this way.

Michaels' and Rhoades' son, born May 3, has been dubbed Phoenix. Get it? The mythical creature that springs forth out of its ashes a new, vibrant life?

Maybe I'm reaching here, but that's more or less what this new family has done this week. Michaels slowed down her hectic work life a bit to try to focus on family ... and emerged on the other side with a 2-year-old daughter, Lukensia, a newborn son, and a committed relationship. There's a lesson in there for a lot of would-be parents.

You can't throw yourself into this whole family life "thing," if you aren't willing to make some major lifestyle changes. But when and if you do commit, the rewards come back to you are exponential. Just look at Jillian Michaels -- her blessing was so big it's double the size!

When did you decide it was time to become a parent and what did you give up?

Image via Splash News

Sometimes it's hard to figure out the "right" thing to do. But when the meat clerk at a California Safeway saw a man kicking his pregnant girlfriend, he didn't have to think. He knew he had to intervene. Too bad Ryan Young's bosses don't see it that way.

The hero has been suspended from his job without pay! What a way to reward the good guys, huh?

A store spokeswoman told the media the heroic store clerk is off the job because of actions that went on during the confrontation, but they won't get into specifics. We do know that Young struck Quyen Van Tran -- who later plead no contest to misdemeanor battery for hurting the woman -- during the altercation, so I can only guess that the store bigwigs are unhappy that an employee hit a customer.

Under normal circumstances, I'd agree with them. I've worked in retail, in a grocery store specifically. Your job is to yes the customer to death. You definitely don't get physical with anyone.

But this was not your "normal" circumstance. The same cops who arrested Tran have commended Young for protecting the pregnant woman. Even they think he's a hero.

There is something to be said for the kind of person who puts their own neck on the line for someone else. Ryan Young knew he could be hurt himself, but he saw there was a woman being physically abused. He put himself out there to help someone else. And yeah, he got physical. Because sometimes, right has shades of gray. Sometimes we have to do something not so great in order to have things turn out OK.

Being able to figure out what's right and being brave enough to make it happen is an act an employer should not only value but celebrate. He's a team player. He's a good guy.

He should be a public relations dream for a company. Instead, because a company is second guessing a guy who jumped in to do what's right without a second thought, he's become their nightmare, with angry citizens picketing to get this hero his job back.

Which side are you on? Should Young be punished or should he be celebrated?

Image via katerha/Flickr

OMG, y'all. You'll never guess what kids at a Mississippi school had to see this week! A sixth grader waltzed into school wearing a t-shirt that showed off the United States Marine Corps' bulldog's butt right down to his (barely there) dangling doggy genitalia.

Thank goodness the school administrators came a-running to protect those wee ones and their eyes. They told 13-year-old Jordan Griffith he needed to take the shirt his big brother gave him and turn it inside out. Because we can't just have little kids seeing something they can see in nature on a kid's t-shirt, can we?

Oh ... wait.

Nature.

Hmmm. It looks like the folks at the South Jones Elementary forgot about what happens when their kids walk outside and see a real animal. Perhaps they'll send letters home to parents from here on out, forbidding any child from actually being in proximity to a real canine?

The teenager's mom is understandably a little P.O'd at her kid's school right now. Her elder son is serving in the United States Marine Corps, and she's calling the school's prudish behavior an attack on military spirit. I'm not so sure I'd go that far. I'm betting the shirt could have had any old bulldog on it, and the teen would have gotten the same lecture.

But I do think this is another sign of the "let's shelter our kids from everything" mentality that's so pervasive in America. This was not a naked man or woman. It was an animal! There is nothing sexual about a dog's penis, or a squirrel's for that matter. We all ignore them when we see them, and so -- more or less -- do our kids. If they ask, we tell them that's part of the dog's anatomy ... and move on.

By making something naturally on display so taboo, schools aren't protecting kids. They're making it exciting. They're turning the natural into the unnatural.

It wasn't the t-shirt makers or the teenager proud of his brother's service to our country who turned the symbol of the US Marine Corps into something dirty. It was the school administrators who decided it should shock kids. And what do you want to bet that now kids are noticing doggie genitalia in a town in Mississippi?

What do you think of this school and their reaction to the bulldog shirt?

Image via sabianmaggy/Flickr

What is with the so-called Christian pastors in North Carolina lately? A few weeks ago we had the creep who told dads to punch their toddler sons for acting "gay," and now we have the Rev. Charles Worley whose idea of delivering a stirring Mother's Day sermon is to suggest we round up all the gays and lesbians and place them in concentration camps. 

Worley was videotaped standing at the pulpit of the Providence Road Baptist Church on May 13 calling for an electrified fence to be built to keep the nation's LGBT community. There Worley said they can "die off."

Disturbing. And a somewhat ironic choice of words for a guy who also called President Barack Obama a baby killer.

Worley is all for protecting the "life" of a fetus, but he has no qualms about ending the life of an adult homosexual. I wonder if he's seen the quote that keeps popping up on Facebook lately: "If the fetus you save is gay, will you still fight for its rights?" Based on his own words, Worley would not. He'd rather let that one "die off." Take a listen:

See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.

Like the toddler-punching sermon delivered by Berean Baptist Church pastor Sean Harris, Worley's concentration camp speech was a response to North Carolina's recent passing of Amendment One, a law that will keep same sex couples from marrying in the Tarheel State. And by the "Amens" you can hear in the background after Worley spits out his rhetoric, it seems there's a church full of people who agree with them.

It's too bad. Considering they got up and went to a Baptist church on a Sunday morning, one might confuse them as Christians. But Christians follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, who specifically instructed his followers to "turn the other cheek" and feasted with sinners (and tax collectors). Plotting an eradication of an entire sector of the population sounds less like a Christian church service and more like a war counsel. 

What do you think of Worley's comments?

Image via cacamaymie/YouTube