thanks, john, karen & dibbit for the sympathy & advice! i'm so busy right now i really didn't have time to go out and really check out everything this afternoon when i got home. but from what i glanced, i'm guessing at least 10 or more things are toast. the rest looks ok for now, but time will tell if there was structural damage done that kills things slowly. i feel really fortunate that more things weren't killed outright. the one begonia in particular that my mentor wanted has some live spots, though all the older leaves are toast. couple others are the same way, and then a few others looked completely toasted. maybe under those pitiful leaves the rhizomes pulled through. none of the others would be as hard to replace, so i don't mind so much. some of the scented geraniums didn't look happy, but we'll see. one of my weird plectranthus looks gone, but the other one looks fine, so that surprised me. so far the passionflowers, aristolochia grandiflora, orchids, banana, and some of the others look ok- for which i'm really happy. most of the ee's i was overwintering were downstairs along with the other things that can take little light, fairly dry and basically abuse conditions barely above freezing. i don't worry about the basement til it drops below 20 outside. then i run a single space heater in there too. i used to overwinter a bunch more there but consistently forget to water, etc. and lost too much that way. outta sight, outta mind. karen- definitely if you can get a jatropha seedling i'd be interested. i'd had that plant for 10+ years and it was never happy inside in the winter, though it did stay alive barely. thought i'd try it out there last year and it was a mistake. it was so tall and i kept trying to air layer it or get cuttings with no luck. i have a jatropha podigarica seedling i can trade you for it. that one gets a swollen stem and has round leaves. the one i had and lost has very lacey leaves- like snowflakes. i think the whole problem was that i set the level at the highest setting rather than the next one down, which is what i did last year if i recall right. they are the same heaters, and i'm fairly sure they are fine- so far they have been, til i turned them to high. and something i forgot was that the mini fridge is on the same fuse inside- so if we have a really cold night i may just unplug it from now on. so long as it's not opened it stays nice & cold. i think it was the combo of the 2 plus the fridge that set it off (that power surge you mentioned, but it was my fault!). it's an older house and can only take but so much. there's lots of greenhouse gadgets that i'd love to spend money on, but it's in short supply now. i get charlie's, farmtek and a couple of the other catalogs, so i will check it out. we have a min/max out there that we keep an eagle eye on. guess it doesn't do much good in a case like this, though, huh?

Thanks for the many replies. I'm back home now - for keeps! I've been on the road for three weeks in Illinois and as soon as I got home, I ran out to North Carolina (about a four-hour drive) to see this Magnolia! BTW, that house linked in this post (Phalen Funeral Home) is a beautiful home, but that is not a Sears Magnolia. The Sears Magnolia was based on a very popular style (Colonial Revival + Foursquare), but the actual Sears Magnolia is quite unique. Thanks again for the replies. :-) Here is a link that might be useful: Boy, am I glad to be back home!

Thank you all for your thoughts and support. The community here helped me pick my granite--I had one really long post with photos and had people give their opinions. Laura, I got it at a company called Cosmos; they are in several cities. Gemini, I love ABBS! Shorter to write, that's for sure. Mizinformation--I am rooting for your success! Our shelves weren't adjustable and given the number of other cabinets we needed, we opted to completely start over. Did you have those wonderful soffits to remove? We all had a turn with the Sawzall at least once. We did save a number of 2x4s from the soffits, and I have pix of my mother-in-law pulling nails out of them. B/S: I am leaning toward a light blue for the backsplash to pick up the color in the granite. I have seen some glass ones I like (kinda spendy for my budget) but now I'm stuck on what I'm doing with my shower. (I'd want all the tile done at the same time.)

It took a lot of guts to do what you did. I'm interested to know what CPS will do. I didn't think they'd usually get involved over verbal abuse stuff or spanking, pulling, shoving, etc... only physical abuse that may be doctor worthy. Sad, and maybe not right, but that's what I thought. The best thing to get her on may have been her kicking you or, something along the lines of disturbing the public. I wonder if maybe the mother is sleep deprived and or has post partum depression. Maybe if she does, they'll get her some help. A girl I know would tell me how she was always calling her older child an idiot and yelling at her and such when she had PPD; that she would just lose it. After her PPD cleared up, she was back to normal... wonder if that could be part of it. Let us know what happens.