I have a Samsung I'm very happy with. French Door, bottom freezer, ice maker but not an ice dispenser (those always break on us). I love it. Just wish I could have fit a bigger one in kitchen. It has a water filter/ dispenser on the inside door of the fridge.

I can sympathize with this dynamic. Definitely have your dh tell her... he needs to be on YOUR side. hugs.

I agree. 2 weeks is quite a long visit. If it's via Southwest she could change her ticket dates for a minimal fee. I would have your husband tell her that 2 weeks is too much (gently).

Thanks!! I will listen to this now. I agree about BYU and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I sung choral music most of my life and it's what I truly prefer to listen to Christmas or otherwise.

First, I'm so glad for you that Christmas this year is more joyful. I have the same Christmas musical taste as you. How/where did you find your music?. I'm pretty inept when it comes to streaming music. I've only found "Choral Christmas music" channel on Pandora. I'd love some instrumental stuff.

I hope she has many years of fun with it.

The Easy Weaver isn't a tapestry loom. It is a Rigid Heddle Loom. You are correct that a small tapestry would be better suited for her lifestyle.. The Woolery is a reputable company for weavers and other fiber artists: https://woolery.com/weaving-looms/looms-by-types/tapestry-looms.html The Schacht Spindle company is a company that makes their own fiber art items like looms and spinning wheels Here is the page for their tapestry looms - which they call frame looms. I'm not exactly sure what the difference is besides the size. The Lilli and the Easel loom look adorable. https://schachtspindle.com/product-category/frame-looms/ Their floor looms are very well made looms. I would imagine these frame looms are just as well made. Good luck... what a sweet gift to receive.

I appreciate this thread. I've been using bed foot warmers for 10+ years and never had a scorching problem... yikes. My favorite one died a few years ago and I couldn't find an exact replacement. The new one isn't as good. It doesn't get that warm and the connection is right on the pad. I use mine lengthwise so that it will heat up my legs and hips. I have to hang 1/2 of it over the edge of the bed because of the clunky connection hits my knees. It's already wearing away and I've never really been happy. Where is the connection for this one? I'm going to buy myself a Christmas gift!

oh, just seeing Terebith's post and maybe they went to Carbondale. I can ask my sis.

My niece and nephew went there and were happy with their education. They live outside of Edwardsville and lived at home, so their experience may be different.

I'm glad to hear this. I hope you find just the right place very soon.

I'm so sorry.. hugs. Prayers as you move forward.

Thanks everyone for your input. Lots to think about. I think our master bedroom addition is poorly designed. We did have the air taken out of the baseboards last winter...maybe it's an issue again. We did add insulation in the master bedroom addiiton last year as well, so I was hoping the coldness would be less of an issue. So that's a disappointment for sure. What I've done this year is add a secondary heat source (electric fireplace). Since I'm usually only in there at night, that works best... but boy!! the bathroom is COLD first thing in the morning. brrr.

We're about the start the project of replacing an underground oil tank with an above ground tank. But, I've been wondering about alternative energy for this house. We expect to be here at least 10yrs but it could be 15-20 depending on how things unfold after dh retires. I happened upon a series of articles about Geothermal energy in residential home over at Mother Earth News: Part 1: Geothermal Heat Pumps - an Alternative to Heating Oil Part 2: How We Installed our Alternative to heating... The writer of the article has had their system for less than a year, so I'd love to get some information from someone who's had it for several years. I've read a couple other articles, but none of them address my question. They just talk about how efficient it is and how long-lasting it is. I'm curious how "warm" it really feels. One of the things I hate about heat-pumps is that they feel cold - even if the temp is up to 76 - 78* it feels cold. We currently have an air conditioning/heat pump unit that I use in the summer or in the winter when we run out of oil. Our main source of heat is hot water baseboard heat with an oil furnace. The furnace isn't that old (I think its less than 10yrs old)... but we just moved here last year. It does heat up nicely, but our baseboards don't seem very efficient. I may have to look into replacing them over time. I hear that is expensive. For instance, it seems to have trouble getting out to the master bedroom (an addition). It's regularly 6-8* colder than the main part of the house. We are also getting bids to upgrade our fireplace and stove to propane gas. We'll also be adding another free-standing gas fireplace in our electric heated sunroom. This may make the oil heating less important - esp. during the daytime.

congratulations on the exam!! I find that memorizing which formula goes with which question is so much harder as a mature student. Congrats on the great grade in Math. Hoping you did well on your 2nd exam.

It looks like so much fun and this is the type of thing I'm wanting to give all my kids. Thanks for resurrecting this thread.

praying..

I'm so sorry. hugs

I really enjoyed "Amsterdam: The History of the World's Most Liberal City" by Russell Shorto - I loved this book and learned so much. "The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher" by Summercale - it is the historical crime and detective who is the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes and early detective novels. "Other Side of the Dale" by Phinn - true story about an English school inspector in the Yorkshire Dales... very sweet. I tell everyone it's like James Herriott except it's children instead of animals. "Facing East: A Pilgrim's Journey into the Mysteries of the Orthodox Faith" by Matthewes-Green - it's a year in the life a new Orthodox parish with a newly converted priest (author's husband).

Thanks for the recipe idea. I also have a dh who won't eat beans.

So glad to see your update. Good luck with the finals!

I just went through this. The thing to look for is the mils level not just the thickness. That is the "wear layer"- which reflects how durable it is. Here's an article: https://floorcritics.com/vinyl-plank-thickness/ I was looking for something for our sunroom, so it needed to deal well with extreme temps. Most LVP only guarantee from about 50* to 85* so not a great option for sunrooms. I finally found Lowe's SmartCore Pro brand which guarantees from -25* to over 100*. Plus the mils level was about 12. It's also waterproof. I've only had it about a month but I'm very happy with our choice. We'll see how it performs over the winter. It is heated, but only when we use it. - so not 24/7 like the rest of the house. The only thing is that it is hard to find the SmartCore Pro brand, and it has fewer styles. They have 2 others that are more readily available, but they don't have the same temperature guarantee so it didn't work for me. I think their base SmartCore has a lower wear layer but the Smartcore Ultra should be better. I special ordered a box of 2 styles we were interested in and laid them out on the floor to choose, and then returned the one we didn't want and special ordered the rest of the boxes.

that would surprise me too. I think under 18 when I think of youth. Maybe I would stretch it to under 20... but I figure once you're college age you're a young adult.

I love the bucket idea too.

We were hoping to go yesterday to get a tree, but we just couldn't squeeze it in. the next two weekends are going to be packed. I hope we'll get a bit of time to go. It's just three of us and our son is 17 so it doesn't need to be a big production like when the kids were little. However, we pulled all the Christmas decorations out yesterday. My youngest two grandkids are here today having a jolly time looking through the stuff. I wish I was better at decorating.