The Kleiber Family Timeline

Category: Michigan

Events in Michigan

  • Antique Shopping at Past Tense & Weathered Windmill

    Stopping at Past Tense in Lapeer MI is always a pleasure, although it always brings up the debate on which is the real 24, the 24 that we refer to as Telegraph or the 24 that goes from the Palace of Auburn hills through Lapeer? In addition to antiques Past Tense has a Christmas and Halloween section plus a garden shop which has all sorts of unique products for the outside decorator. We got some interesting ideas for the yard but only purchased an “outdoor cemetery” sign on this visit.

    After leaving Past Tense we headed North via side streets and stopped for the first time at an antique store called the “weathered windmill”. It was really cool and had many items that we simply could not live without, but did. We managed to buy an old antique crate. (more…)

  • First Halloween Store Visit of 2019

    We had a surprise on a visit to Walmart when we noticed that the Spirit Halloween store in Canton was already opened and while they did not have all the new items that were going to be available for 2019, they did have enough to make it worth while. Lots of scary clowns this year and a large water display in the center of the store that looks like it will be an underwater type of haunt, most likely using lamps that create the illusion of an under water lair so it should be unique and interesting.

    Looks like its going to be a banner year for Halloween, although even we must concede that its a wee bit early. Looking back at last year it was at least 3 weeks later in the year (Aug 17 2018) when the first Halloween store opened.

    (more…)

  • Made In Michigan Market at Canterbury Village 2019

    We visited the “Made in Michigan Market” which was held in Canterbury Village. This was the first time I ever saw the Canterbury Village parking lot full, with additional parking across the street. Fortunately we were lucky and got a good spot as someone was pulling out. Lots of interesting booths and we decided to sign up with home delivery for the Free Press as they gave us Kroger gift cards to do so. It should be fun for James to get a morning paper to read as we think he will enjoy it. Mom got a free umbrella for signing up too, its design was based on the comic section of the Free Press.

    One sad note, we found out the Department 56 store was closed, we purchased many of our Halloween display ceramics there and it will be missed.

    After we left Canterbury we visited Great Lakes Crossing which is only a few miles away, a good time was had by all.

    (more…)

  • James Wisdom Teeth Removed

    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.

  • Town Peddler Flea Market 2019

    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.

    (more…)

  • Magic Flea Market 2019

    Mom was a little sick this day so James and his Dad had to handle the 2019 Magic Flea Market in Colon Michigan, the Magic Capital of the World. We did not have any magic to sell so Jame sold some of the Halloween freebies he gives you at his Halloween party and did pretty alright.

    The flea market began at 9am, although setup was from 8am till 9am. At noon their is an auction and each table auctions one thing off. After the auction everyone went to Abbotts where they were having a 10% off everything sale.

    There was lots of great stuff this year, but not much Halloween (except for James table). We saw a mutilated parasol, A Duck Bucket, a Find The Lady effect, and even a light and heavy chest among the hundreds if not thousands of used magic be sold here today.

    (more…)

  • Grosse Isle 2019

    Its been a very long time since we visited Grosse Isle, a small island in the Detroit River between Canada and Trenton that is easily accessed by a bridge. It was a gorgeous day and we wanted to do a nice spring drive. Already activity was taking place on the river, mostly boats probably getting out of dock for the first this year and getting the “rust” off.

    I remember going to the firework store that used to be on this island, somewhere near a wishing well if I recall correctly. The island has not changed much and is still in the shadow of the Trenton dump if you look the wrong way, but today it was simply beautiful, even the dump. It was nice to get away if only for a few minutes after the events of the last week.

    (more…)

  • Michigan Memorial Graves 2019

    It seems like we just left Michigan Memorial after watching Peg being buried, but we felt that we had to go back because we wanted to check on the temporary marker that was purchased a few days earlier.

    It was there so we felt good about that, but then realized we should have brought some of the flowers from the funeral home to the graveyard to place on the graves. Oh well, they will have to wait till Mothers day and Memorial day, but it will be extra sad this year because now Peg is out here. She used to be the one who really maintained the graves but now I guess that has been passed on to James and us.

    (more…)

  • Autorama With Racing Legend Tony Stewart 2019

    Nascar driver and owner Tony Stewart was on hand at the Autorama in Detroit and James, Mom, and Dad all got to meet him and get an autographed picture.

    We first noticed people lining up a couple hours before Tony was scheduled to show so we went and saw the exhibits then got in line around noon. The wait was a little under two hours but it was worth it. Tony was very pleasant and friendly to everyone and James got to shake his hand. Tony was only here in Detroit for a couple hours so we were able to get plenty of pictures of “Smoke” while waiting in line. James was very happy at the end of the day with his autographed 8×10 of Tony.

    Tony has been our favorite driver in the family since before James was born and now as an owner we all root for Tony’s team (including Kevin Harvick and Cling Boyler as part of Stewart Haas racing) All in all a fun time for all and plenty of autographs to go around

    (more…)

  • Autorama 2019

    Autorama,also known as “World of Wheels”, made its way to Detroit’s Cobo Hall this weekend and James and his family made the most of their visit to the “D”. However, todays visit was a complete surprise to the family as Dad surprised them with tickets to the event (AKA America’s Premier Custom Show Car Series). James and his mother did not even know where they were going till we were in the car on 94 and well on our way to Detroit. While they had plenty of hot rods there as advertised, we were very happy to find lots more including plenty of toys and hard to find collectible. Mom picked up a t shirt and James picked up a metal Ford plaque while we were looking the cars (including the ultimate car, the Bat Mobile), Its been a while since we have been to Cobo Hall in Detroit, and we were surprised to find out that the Hall of Fame plaques had been moved since our last visit.

    (more…)