It's Getting Closer....

 We always know when the holidays are getting closer, because the Annual Holiday Gift Arrives!! 

I'm very thankful that my former employer, P&G, provides a nice gift for all employees and retirees. 

There's always a nice selection of products, and this year it was really good I think! 

And there are always chocolate covered almonds. 
As well as a gift. This year it was a nice tote bag 

Winter is Coming

So, I went out to put down the Heat Trac mats, in preparation for the winter and found that my extension cord had ruined the outlet! Yikes!

 Ben, the wonder son, stopped over and relaced it in no time at all. I purchased a new extension cord with heavier wire (10) off of Amazon and we're good to go again. 

There! All plugged in and good to go!

Ringo thinks it looks pretty good. I had stored the mats rolled up in the boxes they came in, but they seem to be laying pretty flat now that they are warmed up. I guess I better go blow some leaves away pretty soon, it never ends, does it!

All Dilly All the Time

 

So, poor Bob has been putting up with a lot of "love" from Dilly...poor old boy.

But other days, it's picnic time-it was over 60 degrees when we stopped at Kent park for picnic and play time.

And other days he's just busy, yes he's standing on my desk.....

And Bob getting more "love"

And the Coralville playground was fun too!

And this Hippo at the park in Cedar Rapids was fun-can you see the hippo anatomy inside his mouth?

He's mostly always happy to go to grammas...

And Mommy has him  in swim lessons right now too....

He loves the water! So I am guessing this is not the last I'll be seeing of swim lessons....How many years do kids go to swim lessons???

A Fun Finish

I got this quilt loaded on Freddie, it's the quilt I had a helper making. 

It's the same pattern as the Halloween quilt. Nice and easy with no matching seams required!

Here's the design-it's called dancing leaves. It's really pretty and has a center placement instead of a 4 point placement, a first for me!
 

But my helper needed some play time first.

We went to a new to us playground. It was a good one!

Dylan

And a little bit of messing around!

And here it is all done!

I pieced the backing from some 108" leftovers. It came out really good!

It was naother windy day, but I got some finished pictures anyway.

The quilting design looks really nice!

Nice sunshine there....

And I put it on the hanger replacing the Halloween quilt. It'll do until I make a more Autumn quilt. 

Never Ending House Maintenance

Here's the branch that has me worried.....

So after one of the windy storms came through, the Mulberry tree in the back yard had a broken branch in the middle. I called around to find someone who could come cut it out and hopefully save the tree.  

The Tree Guys came and trimmed a few branches and got the big limb off the center. 

They brought in a good sized cherry picker, so the guy in the basket could get up in the tree. 

This is where the swings that the kids all love so much and it makes a really good shady place for Dilly's sandbox. 

They ended up putting in two cable braces, that will hopefully keep any other limbs from swaying too far and breaking off. 

Here's the finished job. Now they'll trim a few branches from the maple tree out front to get away from the house a little bit better. And it was only, $1950.00 it's a lot, but it was a pretty big job too. 

And we had the folks from Affordable Heating and Cooling come out and give the furnace a once over before winter hits. 

We had a capacitor that tested bad, so had it replaced, then the tech took a look at the heat exchanger...uh boy....

see all that crud?  It's not supposed to be there....

That got all cleaned up and the furnace is ready for the cold weather, and for only another $470. Worth every penny. I won't have to worry about no heat on the coldest day of the year!