Vent cleaning (Nov 20)

We finally decided to get the vents cleaned in the house.  The vent covers were getting dusty and who knows what it looks like inside!?

Prepping for the guys to show up.  I wish our furnace upstairs was in a more convenient location:

This truck looks like it has a giant octopus coming out of it! LOL!!

So much coming in and out of the house:

I thought they did a pretty good job, but then there were a few slip-ups:

Left a vent open and left some tape behind:

Things were moved around from the laundry room and not replaced:

Actually had some clothes in the laundry room that were tossed around a bit, as they were also cleaning out the laundry vent.  And you can tell, they didn't pick up all that lint that came out either!

It's really too bad as I thought they were more professional than this. They also left this access door open.  Almost seemed like they were in a rush to leave?!

Minor stuff but ya, furniture not being put back to its original positions:

I hope they did do a good job cleaning the vents.  It does feel like it's cleaner??? Although Graham ended up with a cough the day after!  I did finally clean up the fan in their bedroom. Ours has been super dusty too! 

We are slowly but surely getting through our maintenance list for the house. Oh, the furnace downstairs did have some melted wires. And so we've shut that off for the season. There were some super cold nights (down to 11F!!) and thankfully the basement has been holding it's temperature around the high 50s/low 60s.  Good thing we don't have any guests at this point sleeping downstairs.  I suppose Bobby would just say, "That's what extra blankets are for!"

Here's to more home improvements in the New Year!!

Visit to Griffin Museum of Science & Industry (Nov 2)

We FINALLY made it to the Science and Industry Museum!  The James Bond exhibit was going on and my sister was in town too, so both good excuses to go check it out! Here's the crew :-)

Charlie is getting even more cheeky these days:

Bobby - thinking he is 007 :-D

So many fancy cars!

I'm surprised they didn't kick Bobby out.  Well, okay - he didn't exactly touch it but it was pretty close!

My sis and I - ha ha, with the big, huge train in the background:

Looks like they are getting ready for Christmas on this other side:

If I didn't say it, I'm going to say it again - that train is HUGE!! It's amazing how they put the airplanes in here too:

This quote is pretty funny.  It's like something Graham would do. LOL!

Charlie is working on a disguise:

Talk about a massive miniature train set:

Like.... really MASSIVE!!

There was a entire floor where the boy could touch anything and everything.  Well, almost everything:

It's too bad this Newton's cradle was in enclosed behind glass:

And all Daddy wanted to do was to see this airplane:

I think he is much happier now :-P

Didn't get a chance to look in this spot. Well, good thing we have a membership now, so we can come back anytime!

This hall of mirrors was pretty cool.  Almost feels like you could totally get lost in it!

And it was definitely advisable to actually walk with your hands in front of you, because you could almost walk straight into a mirror without knowing it.  A couple kids (thankfully not mine!) were running around. Sheesh!

Pretty amazing with the geometric shapes in here:

Here's a quick video:

Phew, now that that is over... it's time to check out that one floor again - where you can touch everything.  

Graham LOVES these free-flowing sand thingys:

You spin the wheel and the entire thing spins and moves the sand along with it.  It is pretty mesmerizing.

And a funnel cloud - who doesn't like a funnel cloud!  It's too bad it was already closed. You can actually go stand right underneath it.  Next time!

And finally, a Tesla coil.  This is the largest one that I've seen.  And super loud too!!

Graham took a slow-motion video.  Click on the link before to check it out. It's super cool!!

https://youtube.com/shorts/kIAy3NHi5q4

What a museum! Definitely going to make an effort to come back at least once or twice more :-)

Happy Halloween!

This year for Halloween, I was helping out with the pizza party for the neighborhood kids.  In the meantime, Bobby took the boys to a friend's neighborhood instead.  I guess they are venturing out elsewhere this year!

Charlie already has all of his costume prepped the night before. Ha!

We managed to find a mask and a toy chainsaw to go along with his "Michael, Friday the 13th" theme.

I had to man our candy station in the driveway and like the first year (this is our 3rd Halloween in this neighborhood), I've decided to use my truck again as prop.  Kids always love it! :-)

The wind was crazy though!!

Needless to say, I was not hanging around for too long because it was too cold!  In the end, I pulled one of our solar lights out of the ground and had it shining on the candy bowl. Want to make sure the kids can still see the candy!

OMG, the boys are back.  Looks at their pile of candy!

I really should have made Charlie keep his mask on, because at this point - he was already eating too much candy!

Graham is not so enthusiastic. I made him get up from his seat while he was going through all of his candy and this is the look I get. Ha ha!

I think he went as a painter? We bought him a jumpsuit from Home Depot and it was actually a lot more than I wanted to pay! So I made sure he didn't ruin it so we could actually use it for an actual project.  I know, I'm pretty frugal when it comes to things like this :-P

Another successful Halloween!  It's definitely getting more difficult with the whole costume thing with the boys.  I wonder what it's going to be next year!

More random photos

The new townhall is being built and they needed volunteers to water the plants around the building:

Really should have sent the boys but I think they had school that day.  Looks like they got away with a chore!

The foliage is definitely changing colors around here:

One more cut on the mower - I'm so glad Graham is old enough to work the riding mower!

Charlie on the other hand, created a turkey trot logo for our neighborhood.  Love it!

He didn't win the competition but I'm glad he participated. He did need some encouragement though. The wining logo is actually the one below his.  I managed to actually find some sponsors so we could buy some custom embroidered socks - to be sold as our neighbor Youth Committee fundraiser.  They turned out so cute!

The logo turned out so well on the socks!

It was going to cost almost $12 a pair just to order but now with the sponsor money, we were able to sell them at $12 per pair.  And Bobby had the great idea to sell them at 3 for $30.  We managed to sell 41 pairs. Woohoo!!

It's that time of the year again - to bring Nubby our canoe back to the house: It's so heavy!

Our canoe wheel thingy broke so I opted to use the golf trolley.  Ha ha!

It sort of worked.  Almost home!!

I can't believe that I didn't get out to the water once this year. Not even once!! I have to make a better effort next year.  And I told myself I was going to bring the surf board out there too - to do some stand-up paddling.  Yeeaaaah... didn't happen!

More leaves to take care of in the back deck!

Was suppose to stain the back deck too and nope, that didn't happen either!

The Dodgers did win the Series again.  At least that happened!!

Had to bust out my Dodgers socks :-)

And it's rained so much at the end of October.  View from inside at X-Golf, with my kokedama plants on the window sill:

Went to an indoor mall with the boys and found a store with some interesting Lay's chips. This one is Roasted Lamb cumin skewer flavor:

And this one is Spicy Crayfish. Hmm.... I'm not so sure. LOL!!

Last but not least, I tried to re-create the boys photo from a Fall photo from when we lived in Oklahoma.  Look how cute these boys are!

Here's Charlie - awww, look at that smile :-)

 

And here's Graham:

Graham is growing up so fast. He's as tall as I am now! Another few more months and he is going to have that joy of sitting shot-gun in the car.  I think he just wants to feel that thrill of throwing me in the backseat! Little stinker!

And all he can talk about now is taking Driver's Ed when he turns 15 next year. Yikes!!