Lee, You're welcome. When you used the word 'panic', I wondered if I should be panicking too. I'm glad to hear the answer is no. : ) It is a great relief that the Euro is backing off a bit on the freezing temperatures. Let's hope that the chances of frost start dropping too. I hope you have a great visit with your parents, and I hope the weather behaves itself so y'all can have a good time together without having to run for shelter. I can handle frost. Freezes worry me, even with row cover, but mostly because all the trees, shrubs, perennials, etc. are emerged and leafed out and I cannot cover the whole yard. My hollies (old and well-established) suffered massive damage when we went to 28 degrees, and normally that wouldn't happen. However, we'd been having a lot of days in the mid-80s or warmer, and nights in the 50s-60s, and the hollies had lots of new growth that wasn't conditioned to sub-freezing temperatures. On the other hand, Johnson Grass growing outside my garden fence and attempting to creep into the garden froze back to the ground. Of course it isn't dead, but at least it has been set back for a while. For future reference, to find row cover and frost blanket fabric in large enough sizes to cover anything you can envision, you can visit the website of Agricultural Solutions. That's where I find my frost blanket. I bought it in 12' widths, but they have it available in many widths---some of which are so huge that they clearly are aimed at commercial farms. Most places have it in only more narrow widths. I like the 12' width because you can cover a row of fairly tall (well, fairly tall for early in the season) plants with it. If you buy a roll they have it folded in half on the roll, which helps keep the shipping charges lower since it is a box a little over 6' long instead of 12' long. The very first row cover fabric I bought around a decade ago was 6' wide which sounds good, but really isn't. I was using it on 4' wide beds, so I couldn't cover a whole bed with it once the plants were any taller than 11-12". I've discovered that with row cover, wider is better, particularly since I grow in raised beds that are mostly 4' wide and often I have some plants that are knee-high to waist-high by the time the last threat of frost has passed in the first week of May. If the strong storms the next few days don't pound our plants into the ground or carry them away with the wind, we all might get to begin the month of May with gardens that are in pretty good shape. I like the idea of cooler temperatures. The longer we stay cool in Spring, the better the cool-season crops will produce, and the better the fruit set on the tomato plants. I did look at my Accuweather forecast the last couple of days since it goes out farther than the NWS forecast on the Norman webpage and farther than our local TV forecast, and it showed my lowest low next week of 43. Today that's been raised to 45. I'm starting to feel a lot better about next week's weather, but that doesn't mean I will become complacent and stop watching the forecast. I'll be watching it like a hawk. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: One Source for Large Sizes of Row Cover This post was edited by okiedawn on Wed, Apr 23, 14 at 12:09

You're right; the sales were very good this weekend. That definitely worked in our favor. So, the funny thing is - we tried another load (my husband wondered if it would repeat) and, well, the problem was gone. No sounds, the drum is fine (it's not wiggling), and the load ran great... we can't figure it out. In fact, we've done about 5 loads this weekend - the sound hasn't been replicated. Fortunately (for me), I'd already gone out and purchased the replacement. I chose the LG front-loading steam washer (non-stackable), model # WM0742HWA, which was marked down at my Home Depot to $899 (for the white color; it's $300 more on the website), and the matching dryer, model # DLG0452W. With the lower prices, extra 10% off of both, plus $50 off for a new account (whatever - we can pay it off when the bill comes), their incentives ($75 HD gift card, $35 off for the Energy Star rated washer, and free delivery, and plus tax and the gas dryer kit, I paid about $1577 for both. I'd have loved to have the color machines, but I'm going to paint the laundry room instead. ;) We figure even though the older one is apparently working after all, it may just be a matter of time before it fails again. Likely, we'll freecycle it with the caveat that we just don't know how much longer it will last. Here is a link that might be useful: Our new LG SteamWasher

'morning to you too. My weekend is as exciting as yours will be. It is much to hot and humid to work outside. I do have some laundry to catch up on and my bathroom needs a cleaning, will probly do that today. Tomorrow one of my great granddaughters will be 1 year old so I will go to her party. But, since it is going to be held outside I will not be staying very long. Try to stay cool. Vique.

I don't argue that repeating isn't always an option. Girls mature physically (and often emotionally) a few years ahead of boys. I was a Sept. birthday so I was always a little on the old side--and I didn't like it because I got my period when I was 9 (yes, nine!) and was the height I am now (5'3") in 5th grade! I taught K for 4 years and JK for 6 months, and I can tell you it is really common here for boys, especially younger ones, to repeat. Out of my 4 years teaching K, I had 3 boys repeat--not in my class personally, but they re-did K in another teacher's room. My DD has a boy in her class that turned 7 at the end of April--he was a second year kindergartener. I'm not saying it's right for every child, but if their are self-esteem issues/behavioral problems, etc. then it's probably not an unreasonable idea to consider. In all fairness, TOS, you don't know my STBSS, so I don't think you can really say what would benefit him. My fiance's concerns have less to do with his age (my DD is actually 6 weeks younger than him and doing fine in school) and more to do with his self-confidence/behaviors. It's a vicious circle--he started off K grossly behind the other children who had attended JK there first. He was at a pretty challenging private Catholic school--in retrospect, he probably should have started in JK there. He had spent his daycare years in a very play-based program. So he, sadly, started off at a disadvantage. His self esteem is already very poor and he got so frustrated so quickly and kind of "gave up" if you will. The negative attention seeking then started at school, and then it was so cyclical, that it wasn't clear if he was not understanding the material because he didn't understand it--or because he wasn't paying attention. (We are guessing the latter, as he is very intuitive and perceptive--I really don't think it's an issue of not understanding. When the school said he could not come back, my fiance immediately thought it would be great if he could have a fresh start and be one of the more advanced kids in the class--just to feel good about himself. He is also very small physically. BM is short, 5'2" and my fiance is not very tall, either, at 5'8". So he may just come by that naturally.