James and family attended a graduation party for one of our neighbors, hard to believe not too long ago she was riding a bicycle up and down Tulane and now has graduated High School. The party was outdoors and was cool because the neighbors pulled up the fence making it a 2 yard long graduation party with a swimming pool. A very beautiful event and a great day for everybody. James was so inspired by the party that he has already asked our neighbors to remove their fences in preparation for his graduation 4 years from now.

We were never so glad to have taken down all our old tree as we were in early March as a wind storm that lasted all day knocked power out all over Michigan along with trees and anything else standing up vertically. We were lucky that we only lost power for less than an hour, but we lost cable and internet for 4 or 5 days. When it finally came back on it was at 3am Sunday morning, the same day we set the clocks ahead. Comcast did credit us for the down time, but all in all we were very lucky as many people did not have power for several weeks. We did use our phones during this time, including using them as wi fi hot spots to at least check email.

Continue reading “Wind Storm of 2017/Daylight Saving Time” →

It was a good day to stay in and watch football and that was the extent of our activities, and shoveling snow of course. From the wee hours of the morning to the wee hours of the next morning we were constantly snowed on in the first big snow storm of the new winter, and its still autumn for about another week. James was a very big help in snow shoveling and things went much faster thanks to his hard work. Also on the plus is the snow really added to our outside look for Christmas which is snowmen and penguins.

The Lions won this weekend, putting them at 9 wins and 4 losses which is good enough for a two game lead in the Central and second place in the NFC. Lets hope it continues.

James being away at VIP gave us the opportunity to see a movie that didn’t have a talking fish, Star Trek Beyond. The movie has been getting very good reviews as it appeals to the older Trek fans and also the younger Trek fans who jumped on board during the reboot several years past. While we were waiting for the movie to begin (it was a matinee and we both got in for about $10, however I think we were the only ones there) Mom found some photo ops for the movies that were playing there now and in the future so we shot a couple pics.

The Star Trek Beyond movie was very good and did pay homage to the old television series, however it did seem a little bit long especially with all the action scenes. Lots of humor in this movie and it takes place in the middle of the historic 5 year mission.

After the movie we stopped at VIP camp to turn in some of the money we raised at the Get Together and to say goodbye to the counselors. Its too bad so much is going on this week (the Get Together, Howell Camp, Vip Camp) but we did manage to take in a movie for the first time in years.

Continue reading “Star Trek Beyond Movie 2016” →

Its been a while (over 5 years) since we last enjoyed a visit to Joe’s Crab Shack but that changed today as we were in Warren shopping and decided to visit the famous restaurant. James has developed a bit of a taste for crab legs so we thought we would treat him to a place that specializes in crab legs. We all bought our own crab leg tool to take home as a kind of souvenir and also in case we ever decide to try to make these at home.

Of course Dad enjoys this place because of the big shark hanging from the ceiling but admitted the crab legs were good.

Continue reading “Joe’s Crab Shack 2016” →

A great day for football as Michigan beat Penn State (at Penn State) and Michigan State beat Ohio State (at Ohio State). Next week the opponents switch and MSU will play Penn State (at home) and Michigan will play Ohio State (at home). If MSU wins they are the Big Ten East Champs but if they lose the winner of the Michigan/Ohio game will be Champs. Pretty much the whole day it was raining and snowing and the next morning we were left with a pretty nice site with everything having a white outline to it as only Mother Nature can do. The only concern is the weight on some of the power lines but so far the lines have been holding up pretty well. These pics were taken the next morning.

Continue reading “First Snowfall of the Season on Big Football Saturday 2015” →

We do this every few years and take pics of some of our favorite Halloween homes. All of these are a few blocks from James and all are unique in one way or another. There are many many more decorated homes but we only have space to put up a few of our favorites. These homes look very good in the daylight so you have to assume they look great at night. The neighborhood we live in has always been very active in decorating for every Holiday, guess we are just lucky. One of our favorites is the skeleton tree where all the skeletons are made out of gallon milk jugs.

Continue reading “Best Decorated Halloween Homes 2015” →

The midwest got clobbered on Super Sunday (also known as Feb 1st) with about 17″ of snow in one of the largest one day snow falls in our history. James and Dad both shoveled snow multiple times while waiting for the game to come on. We were notified that Jame’s school was closed around 5pm so we had no problem letting James stay up for the entire game, although he was disappointed in the outcome.

We started shoveling snow a little after 7am Monday and were surprised to see the streets already plowed. By noon most of the streets were clear and it was business as usual. Hopefully James will not have too many more snow days this year, but it was ground hog day and the ground hog saw its shadow so it certainly does look like six more weeks of winter.

Continue reading “Snow Day 2015” →

The first snowfall of the year came during the Lions playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys. Unfortunately the Lions lost despite leading until about 2 minutes to go, but we finally got to see how our snowmen display looks before being put away for the season. James helped with the snow and shoveled about half of the sidewalk while Dad took these pictures. It’s suppose to snow a few more times this week but hopefully they will be light like it was today (everyone still remembers the harshness of last winter). While it wasn’t a white Christmas we can’t say we didn’t get any snow this Holiday season.

Unfortunately it was the Lions out of the playoffs that signified the end of the Christmas/New Year Holiday (24-20), its back to school for James and back to work for everyone else.

Continue reading “First Snow of 2015” →

The family enjoyed the lunar eclipse which was very well publicized and easy to see due to the nice clear weather in October. It was visible from North America, parts of Australia, China and Japan. Parts of South Asia, and Eastern Europe saw a partial eclipse.

Taking pictures of this was not easy as you can tell, but we tried. James also has a telescope that came in handy during this time period, but does not have the capability of allowing us to photograph the images.

All in all a very fun experience that the whole family enjoyed. Anything having to do with the moon in October has to be enjoyed by this family.

Continue reading “Lunar Eclipse 2014” →