There is a really cool corner of Great Lakes Crossing which has the Rainforest Cafe on one side and the Sea Life aquarium on the other. We thought about going into this before but never really did due to time restraints, but on this day Mom needed a little time to shop so James and his Dad decided if it was ever going to happen it would be today.

The visit was much fun, took us a little over an hour to see everything, and has many activities for young kids. There was much to do for older kids as well but most of the activities were for the younger variety. The main reason though to visit is to see the fish and they have them all, from sharks to stingrays to glowing jellyfish. There is a section where you can pet some of the lifeforms such as starfish which was fun to do.

James and his dad had a blast on a very warm Saturday! Continue reading “Sea Life 2019 (Great Lakes Crossing)” →

After missing this event due to weather and date changing, we were back on for the Blues Festival which takes place annually in Marshall Michigan. This event used to take place two weeks after the Fourth of July, now it takes place two weeks prior to the Fourth of July. This means the Halloween decorations are not yet out at Cracker Barrel which used to be part of this trip. While Mom was at the Blues Festival, James and his Dad took a trip to Colon, the Magic Capital, to see what was going on there, then stopped at the Marshall K Mart as finding an open K mart anywhere is rare. The day ended with a feast at Los Tres Amigo’s in Jackson.
Continue reading “Marshall Blues Festival 2019” →

Dad had been trying to get a lock repaired on his company car for about a month now, but the Dodge dealership wanted him to leave it for three days just to get a look at it because they were so busy so Dad shopped around and found a dealership on Michigan Ave that said they would do it the same day if at all possible so Dad brought his car into the dealership and figured he would drive Moms Fusion to work that day.

Across the street was the Ford dealership which had a tent sale going on and Dad met up with Mom and James there. Mom, Dad, and James played some of the games and got free hot dogs at the event. Mom decided to turn in her Fusion for a recall which meant Dad did not have a car to drive to work in. The Ford dealership worked with us and Mary got a new Fiesta at a great rate and the Ford dealership loaned Dad a car for work and lucky they did as the Dodge dealer did not finish his car till late afternoon the next day.

Probably the first time a loaner car was issued from Ford for a Dodge vehicle being worked on.

Continue reading “New Car Day at Ford and Dodge Dealerships” →

While the sod was being put in on Monday we received a call from the brick people saying they wanted to come by Tuesday to do the repairs on the porch and chimney. Once again we agreed but logistically it was difficult for several reasons. First, we told them about the new sod and how they have to be very careful not to walk on it. Second, Mom has a dentist appointment so Dad had to make arrangements to stay home from work since James is still not quite 100 percent from the wisdom teeth extraction on Friday, and third, we had a guy coming by to pick up a table he bought at our recent garage sale. The brick people said it would be no problem and were willing to move cars and trucks around to accommodate our busy schedule this day.

As it turned out everything went fine and we were able to get the porch and chimney repaired and up to snuff. We took our first picture of the sod with the porch repaired in the afternoon and it is shown in the gallery by clicking the link below.

Continue reading “Brick Repair On Porch and Chimney” →

Sunday night we received a call from the sod people saying they available to put the sod in the front lawn tomorrow if we wanted. Even though James was still not one hundred percent from his wisdom teeth being pulled on Friday, we agreed to have this done on Monday. The sod workers (and many other outside repair companies) were way behind due to the rain and we had been on a waiting list to have this done for about a month so we were glad to finally have it happen.

The sod when installed was a little longer than what we expected, this was due to the sod farms being unable to mow the sod because of all the rain. Hopefully the rainy weather will continue a little longer as it will help the sod take root, otherwise we have to water it 3 times a day.

Continue reading “New Sod Added To Front Lawn” →

The family has been waiting for this day for a few months as James scheduled his wisdom teeth removal the day after the last day of school. James had perfect attendance for the year and did not want to jeopardize it which is why he waited. However with all the snow days that happened we were a little concerned that there may be a makeup day which would mean James would lose his perfect attendance on the last day, fortunately this did not happen.

James reported to the Dentist at 7 am, was prepped till 7:30 am, and was out of the office and on his way home by 8:20 am. The doctors gave us extra gauze for the bleeding and told us to use “tea” packets as gauze if the bleeding continues. We did try the tea packets (removing the string from the little bags) and they seemed to work pretty well so it was a good suggestion to remember.

The picture shown here is of James teeth before the operation and you can clearly see the wisdom teeth coming in on an angle.

James made the honor roll and graduated tenth grade (his sophomore year) at Annapolis in style. He also did something he never did before – Perfect Attendance. James attendance has always been good but there were always a sick day here or a doctors appointment here or there that would mess it up. This year we paid special attendance scheduling appointments during days off at school and it paid off.

James will start back up at Annapolis in September as a Junior. Its amazing how fast the time passes as it seems just the other day he was at Annapolis orientation. Now he is halfway through High School and looking forward to driving classes in the fall.

Well the weather stopped raining just long enough for the Town Peddler Flea Market to happen on a perfect June Saturday. Attendance seemed down a little probably due to the weather this spring which has been a constant rainfall for most of May and early June.

Lots of bird houses were out there this year, in fact the bird houses could now be considered parts of a bird city with bird houses shaped as fire dept, homes, etc. Lots of bar signs as well. James enjoyed the large selection of books that were available for a quarter each.

We try to attend this each year as we have fond memories of when we were sellers here for a couple years. Those pictures are somewhere on this site.

Continue reading “Town Peddler Flea Market 2019” →

James and his family went to the Annapolis Track Award Ceremony where the track team received awards, letters, and such. James got his letter last year so this year he received a chevron for his participation. The track ceremony was actually held at the O.W. Best cafeteria which made it a little closer to home for us.

After the ceremony there was a pizza dinner for all, along with cookies, cake, and drinks. A great time for all and a very special moment for James.

It was a well deserved moment for the whole track team who really worked through some awful weather and construction which made even getting to some of the track events challenging.

Continue reading “Annapolis Track Award Ceremony” →