Listen to me, Tisha, just stand by her the best you can---you do know only part of the story---and even if it is in response to outside factors, the pain to HER is still real. I've included a link that might help. http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/factitious_disorders/hic_munchausen_syndrome.aspx My sister Margie, was diagnosed with Manchausen's years ago by one of the many Dr's she saw sometime after our Mom died. We know she did have Lyme's Disease from a tick bite she got in Ct. while delivering a horse----down here in the South----it had barely ever been heard of at that time---the aches and hurting joints all played their part in her suffering, though. Margie, after years of missing Mom so much, (They were celestial twins in the universe. They loved and fought each other more than anyone else on earth..) she began to rely more and more on painkillers---her husband would call and I would go over and try to help, but finally gave up----she was too much out of control and would go into screaming frenzies---we were never very close and that made it easier for me to just stay away from her. Margie's husband called early one morning to say she had died sometime in the early morning hours in a bathtub, with a syringe with partially dissolved painkiller medication in it. We went to St. Mary's Hosp. in Richmond to see her. I walked in the room with my family and and it was the FIRST time I'd seen peace on her face since our Mom died in 1984. Margie died July 27, 1997. I was relieved to see peace, not pain. She had a wisp of a smile on her face----the same sweet smile she had when she was a little girl.... I'm telling you this because you will always be plagued with questions. You will NEVER know the whole truth. It's her journey, Tisha and you can only help so much. Someday, you might not be able to help at all. What you CAN do is try your best to support her, even if it's a 'Thinking of You Card' in the mail--it's something positive for her to connect with....being remembered. Just let her know you still care about her. ---And you can pray for relief and support for her, and guidance and patience for you. One thing that has gotten me through some rough times is the uncanny way 'Lucky Pennies' would always show up when I needed a boost. I would be doing some dirty job, tired and worried----and suddenly, there would be a Lucky Penny, right in front of me, waiting. I always heard the words, 'I Am with you' in my heart, with each penny I picked up out of the dirt and grime. It helped immensely. It never hurts to say a little prayer. I send you warm support, prayers, and a great big hug to help you along, Tisha.

better2beoutside First let me fix something for you..... I know enough to "think I" know when the garage is trying to rip me off. In reality, few people understand what it costs to run a shop and have a technician trained, tooled, and ready to service your car. If you don't know what it costs to run a shop, then you really don't know what they should be charging. That quite often means, people want to claim "rippoff", when in fact they are totally wrong in their assessment. (Please no anecdotal responses, I can probably match you ten to one about people choosing price first over training, tooling, and experience only to have handfull of parts thrown at a car and it still not be fixed) You also said.... "As for DIY with toolsno, not my own, but I am married to one and the daughter of one. So I know enough to trouble shoot a problem, do the brakes, change the oil, change a tire, just the basics" Trouble shooting a problem, can be one of the most difficult things a tech has to do, it's far from the basics. Plus many DIY's think they know how to do something "as simple as" brakes, when in reality if they suddenly decided they wanted to be an auto tech professionally they would quickly learn they didn't really know as much as they thought they did. "My plan at this point is to replace the battery (simple fix) since the one in the car is original. The battery cables are firmly attached without any corrosion." A very plausable solution to this problem with your car, but you should have the battery, alternator, and starter, and cables tested before you change the battery. Otherwise, you could infact be ripping yourself off.... Now we are to this point. "OK- Let me try this again. It appears that the battery was not dead (hence the lights, raido & fan). The starter was engaging, but was turning the engine too slowly to start it. " Excellent, these are great observations, without tools. The possible causes though are still, the battery, the alternator, the cables, and/or the starter. With the information you have given me, as a tech I can now proceed to duplicate the conditions that cause your cars symptoms and test accordingly. "I dont believe that the battery is the problem, but is easily replaced. The Starter would be my next guess. But the big question is- why does it only happen when I wash the car? It's raining again today and there is no problem with it running." Why does it only happen when you wash the car? Maybe your keeping the car door open for a while as you clean the interior pulling the battery down? Possibly it's because once you drained the battery the first time, you simply haven't charged it sufficiently for it to completely recover? (It can take 40 hrs with a "trickle charger" to bring a battery back to full charge once it's been run down.) Another possibility is maybe the alternator ouput is low, so that has worked to drain the battery. The alternator could be weak all by itself, or maybe evem the belt is worn and slipping. When this happens, the result is a weak battery, able to run lights ect for a short period of time, but too weak to start the car. There are a lot of possibilities at this point. I would recommend you have this looked at by a good tech instead of simply throwing parts at it. One reason for that is there could be a drain on the battery (somethin on the car not completely turing off) and while the car manages to start most of the time, if you are doing something with the car like washing it, you could be pulling the battery just low enough to have trouble starting.

My husband has only given her money 1 time and that was 8 months ago. She ask him all the time but he refuses to give her anything. We have spent 100's of dollars on her children for cloths that they needed badly, but he will not give her any more money. Children which are wards to the state they live and are staying with her real father. We talked about it last night, he knows where I stand on this. He is worried that he will loose her, since she is only his step daughter and her mom (his last wife) has passed away. We talked about intervention and enabling her last night. It seemed like I got through to him. But today her sister called and said that she paid to get her license issues taken care of so she would have a valid license until they take it away for DUI. I guess I am playing the guessing game to see if she is comings or not. He claims he does not know if she is coming and she will not answer his calls now. He does not believe in tough love, he believes in love unconditionally. I am finding this is a hugh flaw of his!!! Im going to see how the weekend plays out and decide what to do as far as moving my things out of the house that I value and putting them into storage. He has already told me that if we lock her out of the house we will have to take all the screens out the windows so she does not distroy them, he knows she will try to get in. I will let the police know about this if this is what has to happen. I hope I addressed all the coments in all the postings. Please keep them going. I am still very uncomfortable about all this and will not have a nice weekend if she comes here.

There is not much you can do right now except wait and see. And dont worry about it...i know its easy said than done. I'm a worry wart myself, always wondering what my dh's ex is schemeing...cause she does scheme. She can't take the kids unless she has an agreement with your dh. If she takes them, its kidnapping, plain and simple. So if she wants that, she will be in court with your hubby and then it up to the judge to decide whats best for the kids. Now it also depends on the age of your ss's. How old are they? Cause if theya re in their teens, they say will have a swing to this and there is nothing any of you can do about it. Question? you have the kids for the most part but continue to pay CS???? Why hasn't your dh altered the payment plans?