Abigail

What do you want to know? :)--> You can email me at abigail0900@yahoo if you'd like. I have spent about a year and a half researching this because my 8yr was diagnosed with it.

I'm confused. Why is it we can talk about what LCM and VPW did, but not anyone else? What makes John Lynn different? I get that a even public figures have a right to a private life. BUT if you are teaching others with an expectation that they will live up to a standard you yourself cannot live up to, you are gonna get flack for it.

Thanks, all of you. It has been a stressful couple of weeks and my plan for today is to keep it as relaxed and stress-free as possibe. 1000Names is making me one of his famous omlettes. Later I will take Aaron to his basketball game. Beyond that I plan to relax, play, relax some more. :)-->

"So when we evaluate or bring up the bygone effects of a person whose administrative control has vanished several years ago or more, that's a story getting gray hair." That is the part where you are misled/mistaken - because it wasn't just one person it was several. The lead man may have taken the fall, but the rest are still there collecting the dough. Yeah, LCM may not be around frothing at the mouth and spitting on the peope in the front row, but those who covered for him are still running the show. Kinder and gentler? well they lost a lot of people (read money) and they need to get the abs pouring back in. You can call someone an foot with big words and a smile on your face, and there are many who would not recognize they have just been insulted. From what I have seen kinder and gentler just means more subtle.

eons ago? five years is eons? Apparently you have also forgotten the lies the BOD told in their attempt to cover up what LCM did? "The one time affair." Does it matter not at all to you that your beloved and trusted leadership admitted in court that she knew of LCM's "problems" for years before they actually ousted him? Do you think those who were used and abused onder the reign of LCM deserve an apology? Do you think those who were wrongfully accused and ousted do?

I sure hope 2 years from now I will think and believe differently from today. I'd hate to think I spent the time stagnating.

Thank you! D - I don't know if you spelled it right or not, but your pronounced it just fine. :)-->

Shell, I wish I had an answer, but you know I can relate. :)--> Schools these days suck. Most parents won't get involved so the administrators think they can do whatever they want. Then they start to resent those few parents who will get involved. It is all very sad and pathetic and the kids are the ones who lose the most.

Hi Paw, yeah I do scans in safe mode when necessary. Thankfully we haven't found anything more than a couple of minor tracking cookies since that first day we got them up and running. :)--> Those too are becoming less of a problem as I adjust my firewall to block the specific ones which come up. Thanks everyone.

We have two new puters, running XP Home on both. and both are up to date with Windows updates. The upstairs puter is running through a router, has Norton's 2005 which includes a firewall, and the new microsoft anti-spyware program on it. I have blocked certain known tracking cookies through the Norton's firewall. Yet they are still coming up when I run Adaware. We had 14 tonight. Computer downstairs is running on a wireless adaptor, has Norton's 2005 and the new Microsoft antispyware and I just took a hijacker off of it!!! How many more programs do I have to run to keep these machines clean??????? Oh yeah and this really really has me confused. After I downloaded the Microsoft anti-spyware program I ran it and it came up clean. I ran it a few hours later and it came up with the hijacker. NOTHING had been downloaded in between so how did a hijacker get there? The only think I can come up with is that when I downloaded shockwave yesterday for the kids games, it also installed that damned weather bug. I saw it as soon as it happened, uninstalled it and deleted it. It hasn't come back up on spybot, adware, the microsoft spyware, or Yahoo's spyware, so I thought it was gone. Did I miss something?

"rushed?? I mean it may need to be set but really it isnt a serious emergency here we just take them to the doctors for x rays and then they set it. " Not to derail, but if my kid broke his wrist or any other body part I'd be rushing him to the emergency room too. That's gotta hurt like hell and I sure don't want my kids to endure any more pain than they have to!

"but in abi's case there is a two income household." I appreciate what you are trying to say, but it really isn't that simple. Housing has become so expensive here that we would simply be trading one bad neighborhood for another. Reaaranging my budget still won't allow for me to pay over $1,000 a month in rent. I only work part-time. I could work full-time, that is an option. But I don't see it as much of a trade off if it means I have to leave my kids in the care of strangers every day, leaving me with barely have enough time with them to see to it they are fed, bathed, and have their homework done. I would prefer to spend my time with them then have them be raised by someone else. I would prefer to try and gather people together who would be interested in lobbying to keep criminals off our streets. Even if I got out of the bad neighborhoods and into the good one - it does nothing to help all the other children who are at risk because our society seems to think it is more important to protect pedophiles than to protect children.

Yes its the same case, Pirate. My understanding was that she left "willingly" but under "suspicious circumstances". Who knows what the hell that means. In either case, there was a very short blurb in the back of the paper the day after she diappeared and nothing on the front pages until several days later. From the sounds of it, front page or not may not have saved her life - but it could save someone else's. :(--> Cowgirl - this is the first time I've ever lived in a neighborhoodl like this too. I spent my early childhood in a very small and very safe town. I guess I always saw this city through those same eyes until the past couple of weeks.

They found her body and have arrested an "aquaintence of the family" who just got out of prison a few months ago. Please keep her family in your prayers. I also found out this morning, we have 17 (yes 17) registered sex offenders within about a 5 block radious of our home. Three of them committed crimes involving minors under the age of 13 and one of them is a repeat offender. Given what I know about the high recidivism rate of such offenders I am very very upset. IF we stay in this house through the summer, we will be finishing off the fence around the yard and putting LOCKED gates on it. The boys will NOT be allowed to roam the block freely anymore - not without an adult. EXC please check private topics. I am distraught beyond words over all of this - the loss this child and the horrendous terror she must have experienced. The fear for the safety of my own children. Outrage that these people are allowed not only back out on the streets again but are in neighborhoods where there are LOTS of young children for them to prey upon.

While a part of me finds this totally bizarre, I can't help but admire the ingenuity of this mom to be.

Haven't heard anything yet, ExC. I have seen fliers posted up at gas stations and such and someone left one on our door yesterday. I still can't figure out why this wasn't front page news. If someone saw her in the paper they might know something. I am very worried about her.

The boys are 5 and 7, will be 6 and 8 by summer. I do keep them pretty busy with structured activities. In the summer they go to a daycamp while I am at work - swimming, visiting retirement homes, crafts, field trips. . . On my days off I like taking them to the beach or the park, etc. Plus they are usually activie in at least one sport at all times. But they do need some downtime. Aaron is reaching an age where he doesn't want mom watching over him all the time. Last summer he would get upset because I didn't want him riding his bike three blocks away to a friend's house by himself. And he really really wanted to go down to the corner store by himself. No way was I letting him do that - I've seen the groups of boys and men who hang out in front of that store. Eventually I compromised on that one by having an adult neighbor go with him. I let them roam the entire block and checked on them frequently. But this past few days I keep thinking - it only takes a few seconds to grab a kid and force them into a car. And despite all I've tried to teach them about talking to strangers, etc. Aaron really is still very niave in many ways. I do try to get them to play in pairs or groups instead of going off by themselves, but there is no guarantee they will stay together. Last summer Aaron lost his brother in the alley behind a friends house, just forgot about him and went back to the boy's house. Poor Jacob was three houses away from the boy's house and didn't know how to get back there. He just stood in the alley and yelled - I heard him and went and got him. I have considered packing up and moving again. But the reality is, it is unlikely we are going to find a neighborhood much better for what we can afford to pay. It used to be you could rent a house in a decent neighborhood for $500 - $600 a month. Now a house in a decent neighborhood is likely to run you at least $800 - $900 a month. The owners are selling the house we used to live in. $82,000. I was floored they were asking that much. The place was totally run down, leaking water pipes, roof looked like it was ready to cave in any day now. One bedroom has no heat. The kitchen was a hallway with a stove and fridge. It was tiny, tiny, tiny, which is why we finally left our beloved neighborhood for a bigger home.

Here's one that was said to my ex "control your wife". Even he, as waybrained as he was, walked away scratching his head and wondering how on earth he was supposed to control another human being. AND that, my friends, is the beginning of how abuse can begin in a marriage.

Georgio Jessio Thanks for sharing that, it was quite educational. "Recently some pseudo-Christians and anti-Christians came and began to post messages of animosity toward our Christian kids, the Bible and even promoted homosexuality to the kids using the site's interactive features." Interesting - I don't recall seeing any posts that promoted animosity toward the kids or the Bible. Questions, yes, animosity no. I could have missed it, I suppose, but I was checking the posts pretty regular before he shut it down. "Old news - very very old 20 year old news. Most of those people didn't look to the Word of God, instead they focused on people" That is just a blatant lie. What occured with LCM was certainly NOT 20 year old news. Likewise what occured in my own life was not. Hell I've only been out four years now. "I am not ignorant of the past. I lived through it. I know what occurred and why." Then why won't he or anyone else explain it to the rest of us. Its not like we haven't asked.

I spent my early childhood in a very small town. I think by the time I was in kindergarten I could walk from one end of town to another by myself (as long as in wasn't dark out - LOL). Now I live in a city - have lived in this city for over 25 years. I realized a couple of days ago how rundown and ugly this city has become. Plus I've gotten to know our "new" (not so new anymore, been here almost a year) neighborhood better. Last summer there were always kids outside playing, riding bikes, etc. I let the boys do the same - they could leave the yard but not our block. I wasn't totally comfortable with it, after living on a dead end street for 8 years I was used to always being able to see and hear them. I bought a bike and if I couldn't see them, I'd hop on the bike every five or ten minutes and find them to make sure they were doing o.k. A few weeks back I was reading the paper and discovered we have a registered sex offender living one block away. (It was in the court section - apparently he was hauled back into court for not registering when he moved to this neighborhood). I'm assuming his offense involved a minor because it said he was not allowed to have contact with minors. Then, two days ago a 12 year old girl disappeared from her grandmother's house. Her grandmother lives on the same street as the sex offender and about three blocks from our house. {And why this story was burried in the back of the paper instead of on the front page still baffles me}. Now I am feeling very squeemish about letting the kids play in the yard, much less letting them roam the block. I want them to have a "normal", carefree childhood where they can play without fear. It seems that is no longer possible. How do you handle these issues with your children? How do explain to them the reasons why the streets are so unsafe without instilling them with fear instead of caution?

Tonight was "take your parents to work night" at the boys' school. They have a program called microsociety. During the last hour of every day they get paid micro money for making products to sell, pay taxes, go to the bank, purchase things, elect government officials, etc. So tonight the kids got to show us what they have been doing and we had the opportunity to purchase micro money and then buy items the kids have made. It was fun. To encourage parent participation (and boy does it bother me that schools have to go to such lengths to encourge parent participation) they held a raffle. The kids received on ticket per adult that they brought to the event. There were lots of little prizes, three CD players, and the grand prize was an iMac. Jacob won a pack of mechanical pencils and I was really hoping Aaron would win one of the portable CD players because he has really been wanting one. He didn't. Instead, he won the iMac. That child was sooooo excited. But here's the thing, we already have two PCs, an iMac, and another Mac which predates the iMac. So. . . . . . . Aaron has agreed to donate the new computer (the school will find a family in need) and I am going to get him the CD player. I must say, I am pretty proud of him. I though it was going to be one hell of a tough sell to try and convince him to donate the computer, but I told him the choice was totally up to him and he agreed to donate it.

"Ummm, how come you folks who are so concerned about Free Thought, never uttered a syllable about the Juedes Website, which NEVER has allowed difference of opinions?" How about because other than looking at a couple of articles there nearly 5 years ago, I haven't been to the Juedes site and know nothing about what is or is not allowed there.

We are getting a router sometime within the next month. :)--> Currently the boys are grounded from the internet for fighting at school (no cartoon network - violent games). :)--> This also buys me the time to do a little research and find out more about how the routers work, if there are different kinds, which one is the best one for the money spent, etc.

Boo! ;)-->

I almost never buy them, but I rarely ever have anyway. We had a tradition of buying them once a year for stocking stuffers, which I still did while in TWI (double whammy devil spirits for that one - LOL).