One_Ring_Circus

My mother in-law has been a teacher's aide at an elementary school for 3 years (this year is year 3); she originally signed on because the school had an "autistic" student (he's got Down Syndrome) and they needed an extra person to help. The first year she was working with this boy, the school determined that his autism is too severe for him to actually learn and retain anything that the public school teaches the special needs class. The mother to this boy is off her rocker and is in denial that his condition is severe; this boy was beaten by his 2 siblings (he came to school with a footprint shaped bruise where one of them kicked him) and was made to wear pull-ups that were way too small for him (he was 5 at the time). Several times last year, this boy inflicted physical injuries on my mother in-law and the school did and said nothing about it. She was not able to work for nearly a week last year because the boy headbutted her directly in the face; her right eye was swollen shut for the entire week. My mother in-law is a rather small woman, standing 5'4 and weighing less than 100 lbs due to previous medical complications. The mother then filed a complaint with the school AND the local PD accusing my mother in-law of abusing the autistic boy. The boy was not supposed to be in the school this year, but the school has once again allowed this child back. His first day back to school, he promply beat up the other 12 special needs students; he's very violent and tends to lash out physically for no reason. I understand autistic children will do this when they are frustrated, but this boy does it at random with no provocation. He has been back in school approx. 1 week and yesterday he bit my mother in-law's hand so hard that she had to go to the hospital for stitches and vaccinations and she is now forced to draw worker's comp. She cannot simply quit as she needs the income and there is nowhere else in our town that pays as well as the school does- not to mention the fact that she has a second job already and is still struggling to make ends meet. CPS and the PD have been called on the boy's mother because of her obvious neglect and the physical abuse he suffers at home and nothing has been done about it. My question is this: Is there any kind of legal action that can be taken against either the school or the child's mother? This child is very clearly a threat to not only the other students but also to the adults- the special needs training they recieved when hired doesn't help at all when dealing with this boy. Is there some kind of action that my mother in-law can take to put a stop to this? The school is obviously taking advantage of the fact that she's still working there and the boy's mother is using the school as a day care so she can spend her days dating. The boy cannot speak, refuses to walk on his own and can't retain any information for longer than maybe 15 minutes; he weighs more than my mother in-law and is strong enough to knock down an adult male. Please, PLEASE someone help me with this! I know it sounds like I'm being harsh on an autistic boy, but until the end of school last year, I was a weekend babysitter for him and I can honestly say that his autism is so severe that he should be in a facility, not in public school and not with his idiot mother, but everyone just turns a blind eye to it. If any of the "normal" students behaved the way this boy does, the school would not tolerate it, but again and again they blatantly ignore the fact that this boy is turning out to be a true danger to everyone around him.

Ack! First off, thank you guys for all the tech help you gave me with my last 2 questions; I need you guys again! Ok, so I need to clear up some disk space on my laptop and I'm having some trouble- my C drive has 0% free space and my D drive has 20% space available. The problem is this: my ex-roomie who I recently kicked out filled my C drive with a bunch of files and I either don't know what they are so I'm afraid to delete them or I cannot delete them. I get a notice that says I need permission to delete the files. My user account is set to administrator and it's the only account on the computer. I had a problem with needing permission to delete other files a while back and, thanks to YA user response, I was able to get rid of all the things I needed to; but now, I'm finding files that still will not let me delete them. What gives? This guy totally f*cked my laptop up by donwloading a ton of useless stuff (porn clips, superhero apps he never used, etc.) that are saved to my C drive and I now cannot get rid of. My laptop is an HP Pavillion dv6000 entertainment PC if that makes any difference...please help me figure out how the hell to clean up my hard drive! I've been fighting with my computer trying to free up some space for the better part of a week now and I'm on the verge of a homicidal rampage because no matter what I do, nothing can be deleted.

Ack, so here I am, asking the second computer related question in as many days >_< Ok, I recently kicked my room mate of 6 months out and he was kind of my tech guy so I need some help. While he was here, my room mate downloaded a bunch of movies and tv shows onto my laptop and now I can't delete them. Every time I try to delete certain media files my room mate downloaded, I get a notification saying I need permission to delete said files. The thing is, my administrator account is the only account on my laptop so I have no idea how to get rid of this stuff. There is a porn file I cannot delete and I'm starting to get super frustrated; I had no problem with having movies on my computer, but I really don't appreciate the fact that the bastard locked these certain files and now I can't get rid of them. Almost all of my disk space is full and I can't do jack s*it bout it until I can get rid of the movies. How the f*ck do I go about deleting these locked files...? I've tried to get the guy to come back over and remove them, but he won't even answer his phone when I call so I can't even get him to undo the stuff he put there in the first place. My laptop is running so slow and it's having a lot of problems right now because it has almost no disk space left; I need the laptop for work and school as I'm a work from home mom and I'm taking onling college classes. Please help me with this!

I've been working on potty training with my 3 1/2 year old son for nearly a year and it's just a nightmare. My son refuses to even sit on his potty chair without throwing a tantrum and screaming like a banshee. I have tried everything I can think of to make potty training fun and simple, but he just refuses to do it. He would rather sit in wet or messy pants and underwear than even try to use the potty. He actually told me yesterday (during one of the potty time tantrums) that he's not going to use the potty and I can't make him do it; this was when he wet his pants about 30 seconds after he told me he didn't need to pee. I've tried potty schedules (sit him on his seat every 30 to 60 monutes), I've tried keeping a potty chart so he could see his progress, I've tried ice cream bribes, I've even tried to decorate his potty chair with some cool designs that he likes to make it more interesting. I've tried everything I can think of to encourage him to try and I've tried everything other moms have suggested, but nothing works. He was doing really well for a while; he would get his own pants and pull-ups down and would sit on the potty by himself, but now he refuses to even unbutton his jeans on his own. Please help me out...my son's set to start a summer learning program in May and he can't be a part of it unless he learns to use the toilet. Any ideas or suggestions...? I would especially appreciate advice from someone who has had this kind of toilet trouble with theis kids. I'm just going crazy over this whole thing; we've been going in circles with potty training for almost a year and we have made no progress at all...help please!

So I've had a very close friend living with my family; he was there when my husband and I were married, he was there for the birth of our son, etc. Recently, his wife left him and will not let him see his daughter (she's using the child as leverage against him); this left him homeless so he came to live with us. Well, it's been 6 months since he first came here and now he won't get a job, he's stopped going to his college classes and he's become rather unstable emotionally. My husband and I are both seeking work as we were both laid off from our jobs and we were barely scraping by before this friend moved in. We've tried our best to help him get his life on track, but he literally does nothing these days but sleep on our couch, smoke pot, watch tv, eat and stew in the misery of his situation with his wife. What my question is is how do we go about kicking him out without risking some kind of emotional meltdown? My father in law owns the house we live in and I've been thinking about having him tell our friend to leave. We have a 3 1/2 year old son and I really don't want there to be a meltdown because I don't know how violent this friend can get. Things weren't nearly this bad when he first came to stay with us, but it's to a point where we have to get him out...it's only a matter of time before he snaps and I really don't want that to happen in my house or near my son. Any suggestions...?

For the past few months, I've been having the same two dreams every night; they always end the same- with me dying in a fire in one and me dying from a gunshot wound in the other. My husband thinks these dreams are memories of a past life and while I don't disagree with him, I would like to be sure. Are there any tips on past life self regression you could offer? I've tried a few methods that people have told me work, but I've yet to discover anything useful. Any advice or tips would be much appreciated! Thanks!

My husband and I have a 3 1/2 year old son, who we love more than anything. When I delivered, I had to have and emergency c-section after labor induction and 9 hours of excruciating contractions (even with an epidural, it was horrible!). Healing from the c-section was the most painful thing I have ever experienced and I don't particularly want to have another one. The problem is that we live a pretty small town in northern/central Arizona and since I had a c-section for my first child, they wil automatically schedule me for one to deliver a second child. We could go to a larger city like Phoenix where they would allow me to have a natural delivery, but I would have to be seeing a doctor there for the duration of my pregnancy since mine doesn't work outside of this little town. I really like my doctor and he's really the only person i would trust to deliver any future children. So, in order to avoid this whole c-section thing again, I've been avoiding having sex with my husband. I'd be on contraceptives, but I cannot afford them and my insurance won't cover them. My husbabd's been getting understandably "frustrated" if you catch my drift and he really wants another baby. I'm not opposed to a second child, but I really do NOT want to have another c-section and my husband doesn't seem to understand that a c-section is surgery that requires time to heal from; he seems to think that it's no big deal, even though he was in the room and saw my belly sliced open and the blood and everything, Any advice...?

I have a 3 month old border collie/white lab mix and I'm having a huge problem with his eating. My hubby and I got him when he was 8 weeks; the girlfriend of the man we got him from was feeding the pups a hand selected blend of puppy food and hink-milked goat's milk 4 times a day. When we brought him home we cut out the goat's milk, changed brand and started feeding him twice a day like we do with our adult blue heeler mix. When it comes to food, the puppy is a nightmare! He eats all of his food in under 30 seconds, he doesn't even chew it and when he's done, he waits until we aren't watching and tries to sneak food from our heeler. He tries to snatch our food from our hands and he always steals my 3 year old son's food. He is not malnourished (he's a tad on the plump side, actually) but he always acts as if he hasn't eaten in days. If he sees his dish with food in it but he can't get to it immediately, he yelps and screams like he in serious pain. Just this morning, he went nuts at feeding time, screaming and howling, then he swallowed it all whole and promptly threw up. I don't know what to do about this; his behavior is great with the exception of feeding time. When his dish comes into sight, all of our training goes out the window and he turns into a little food maniac. Please help!

I'm an artist and recently, my husband pointed out to me that most of my art involves eyes. Even my drawings and paintings from years ago are centered around eyes, which I never really noticed until my husband pointed it out. It would be easier if I had some pictures to post, but I don't; I'm currently painting the wall in our bedroom and so far all I've painted is 5 or 6 abstract eyes. I was wondering if there could possibly be a subconsious reason for this- hubby thinks it might be some sort of resentment to the fact that my eyesight (once my sharpest sense) is not what it used to be and I now have to wear glasses. I'm curious myself, so hopefully someone out there can tell me a little bit about what's going on.

I'm at a loss as to what I should do about my son's behavior towards my husband and myself. When he's with anyone else (grandparents, etc.) they always tell us what a great kid he is and how he behaves so well; he is not that way with us. He does not listen to us, he talks back, he throws tantrums over the most trivial things...in short, when he's with us, he's the spawn of Satan. He has a strict 9pm bedtime, but he always fights us for a minimum of 3 hours before he will actually stay in bed and go to sleep. If we tell him no, he screeches and starts screaming, he slams doors so hard I could swear they're about to break off their hinges. When we're talking, he knowingly interrupts us and will often tell us to shut up or stop being stupid. The other night at the dinner table, he looked at his plate and said "screw this...I'm leaving. This tastes like crap" and dumped his food on the floor then strutted off to play with his toys (which I promptly took away). We don't let him get away with anything he shouldn't but we're not Nazis about everything either. We have not had a single day or night in 2 years where our son actually behaved decently and I've run out of ideas to fix this problem. Taking his things away, putting him in the corner and even the few spankings he's had have done nothing. I can't take my son to the park anymore because he refuses to listen to us; he runs off, picks with us and always, ALWAYS throws a tantrum when it's time to go. He's not allowed to watch anything that would be teaching him these things and none of our other family members he's around act this way, so I don't know where he's been picking this up. We were going to enroll him in our elementary school's Discovery program becauswe he's a very smart boy, but we could not enroll him because of his behavior; we can't put him in a class with other kids and adults unless he starts acting right. Please, please help me with this- my son's attitude is totally out of control! I don't known how many times I've just been reduced to tears because of this- I have tried everything to no avail.

I have a 7-8 month old blue heeler puppy that I love dearly but is driving myself and everyone else crazy! He loves people and he's very eager to please, but I can't get him to stop grabbing people by the ankles to pant legs when they go through the yard and I can't get him to stop jumping on everyone. He recently had a cast for a broken leg removed- a leg he broke while jumping on my brother- and he still insists on getting up on everyone. The ankle/pant grabbing is the worst, though; sometimes he bites a little too hard and rips the pants or nips the skin, sometimes he trips people, etc. and it really needs to stop. Now I realize the heelers are cattle dogs and do feel the need to herd people sometimes and I also realize he is a puppy, but he gets an obscene amount of attention and exercise, so that isn't the problem. He is very attatched to me and usually obeys me more so than anyone else and he's very good with the basic "sit, stay" commands unless people are at the house; I have tried everything I can think of from the rolled up newspaper to the water and vinegar in the spray bottle; I've tried locking him up when guests are over, but all he does is whine until he's let out. I'm out of ideas...can someone please help?!

I've had my rose-hair tarantula for nearly two years; she's an adult- about the same size as the palm of my hand- and she's been eating a dozen small crickets a week since I got her. A friend who also owns a larger rose-hair recently told me he had started feeding his pinkie mice. He told me it lasted longer and made for easier clean up; now I've never heard of feeding pinkies to a rose-hair. Will they eat pinkies and if so, could it adversely affect the spider's health...? Mine seems to be happy with the crickets and this sounded strange to me...

I recently took possession of 2 red-tail boa constrictors from a woman who no longer wanted them; they are about 1 year old and came with their 40 gal. tank. When I picked them up from the woman they were in a large plastic bin (for transport) and they were fine. About 5 minutes after getting them situated and put back in the tank at my house, both of them were just covered in black mites that had been in the tank. Since the snakes didn't have so much as a speck of dirt on them when I picked them up, I have reason to believe that the woman had been containing the snakes in the plastic bin for a lot longer than she said she had been and I now believe that the mite infestation is the reason she was getting rid of them. I've gotten the mite infestation down for the most part; bleach cleaned the tank, tossed the bedding, sprinkled Mite Gard, lined the tank with newspaper and everything else. The snakes get a warm water bath every other day and I rub them down with olive oil each day to control the problem. What I was wondering is if anyone who has had to deal with this before has any advice to get rid of the mites once and for all. Are there any special tricks you used..? And as for the woman that gave them to me, i really want to call her and b***h her the hell out about this because I have one other snake (in a huge 55 gal. tank) that I've had to relocate to another area of the house and I am having to us preventative measures with. 2 wonderful new pets has turned into a nightmare filled with black snake mites -.- Any helpful advice would be much appreciated :-)

I think it's a Pearl Jam (Eddie Vedder) song. "Wish I was the full moonlight shining off a camaro's hood". I've only heard the song once and I didn't get the name- it's driving me crazy!

My 10 week old blue heeler/pit bull mix puppy won't stop chewing everything and biting people. He has chew toys and rawhide strips, I've tried the spraybottle when he does it and I've tried everything else I can think of, but he still does it. Nothing seems to work! He chews our shoes, papers, clothes, my underwear (his favorite), my son's toys...you name it, he'll destroy it. He will snap at peoples' fingers, hands, arms and feet like they're chew toys and he'll actually pin your arm down so he can bite your hand. He doesn't seem to even be learning...it's like stopping him from destroying one thing just means he has to find something else. He's a sweet puppy and I don't want to get rid of him, but his destructive behavior is threatening my relationship with my fiance and I'm being pushed into giving the little guy up. I can't have him destroying everything in sight; he's damaging our home- tearing up the carpet, shredding pillows, etc.- and if I don't find a solution soon, I'm afraid I'm going to have to give him away.

Ok, for my first 2 tattoos ( Igot them 4 years ago) the artist went so deep on them that they scabbed about 1/4" thick for over a month. The black outlines faded to "prison ink blue" right after they healed and the color faded within a week. I know you're not supposed to actually bleed during a tattoo, you're supposed to "ooze" plasma, but for each one, he filled a trash can with bloody towels and they were bleeding enough to have blood running down my back. Not to mention that 1/2 way through the second one, I turned around during a quick break about found out that he had killed a 32oz. bottle of beer while doing the work -.- I was charged $100 for each one and they weren't worth more than maybe $60 because they're simple and not very big with one shade of green. Now, my question is how do I keep people from going to this artist? I'm not the only person who is REALLY unhappy with the work he's done and I really don't want any more people going to him and ending up with messed up tattoos. I know I've got to get mine fixed, so that's not the issue; the issue is the fact that people are trusting this guy with their bodies and he's doing a horrible job. I've seen tattoos from this guy that have scarred to the point where the only thing that can be done with the tattoo is removal. I just don't want anyone to have to go through what I went through with this guy, so how do you suggest I let people know about him...?

Ok, since about 3 this morning, I've had this sharp, searing pain that starts in my left shoulder blade and goes over the top of my arm to my lower neck and down to just below my collar bone. I've got the same pain across my lower ribcage. It hurts to move my arm or to breathe normally- I have to take quick, shallow breaths. Can anyone tell me what the hell this is and how to make it stop..? I thought it might be a heart problem at first, but the pain in my shoulder feels more like a problem with either the muscle or bone and my ribs feel like they're being constricted. I've tried tylenol, muscle cream and ice packs, but they only dull the pain, not get rid of it.

My fiance recently gave me a new snake, but I'm not 100% sure what it is. I know it's non-venomous. I think it's a young milk snake, but he disagrees with me. It's about 1 foot long, has red and black stripes and a faded kind of yellow belly. Can someone tell me for sure so we can stop arguing about it? Here's some pics...they're a little fuzzy, but you get the idea.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...

What are your feeling on writing to a death row inmate? I would really like to start a pen pal friendship with a death row inmate, but my fiance is totally opposed to it even though all letters are searched and have to go through security and all that jazz. I want to do it because I had a friend on death row not many years ago and in his letters, he would tell me how lonely it is sitting in a cell alone 23 hours of the day. I think it would be okay to offer a little comfort to those who are facing death in prison (I'm in no way saying what they did was right). I may not know from personal experience what it's like, but I do have an idea and I would like to be able to help by offering a friendship and a solid ray of hope to someone who is going to be put to death. Is it unreasonable for me to ask my fiance to suck it up and deal with it since there's really no harm in writing to someone who has nobody else to give a damn?

I've struggled with severe insomnia since I was 12; we're talking days upon days of little to no sleep at all. If I do fall asleep, it's usually only when I physically can't go anymore and even then it's not more than maybe an hour (and that's only after about 4 or 5 days). Trying to nap during the day really isn't an option because I have a 2 year old son and nobody to watch him so I can try to get some rest. I've recently been losing my appetite, rapidly losing weight as a result of no appetite and feeling more and more sick and lethargic each day. Medications are out of the question because the last time I was given meds, they caused migranes, nausea, loss of appetite, fever, rash, depression, wild mood swings and even moderate hallucinations and paranoia. the last time I took the meds, I landed in the hospital for a week being treated for psychosis. Does anyone know what I can do about this??