When the pandemic isolated James from school and other social events, he spent a year working on one of his favorite hobbies, puzzles. James had a 32,000 piece puzzle of New York City and he began putting this together.

He divided the puzzle into 8 sections and then divided each of those sections into 1 square foot sections which he glued together. He then took the entire package to Swapka field and worked under the pavilion for about two hours putting this puzzle together. Since it was too big for our garage, this was the first time James saw his puzzle completely together.
Continue reading “32,000 Piece Puzzle Completed” →

We visited Novi (second time in two days as the Wounded Warrior fund raiser was the day before) for their Halloween convention. All sorts of celebrities were there signing autographs, most of them we did not know but it was nice to see fun they were generating. We ended up getting several items including a Zombie Girl prop for our upcoming Halloween party in October.

The event was held at the Sheraton on 8 mile in the Farmington/Novi area and was a great break in the action for the family who had not been able to go to events like this the past year due to the pandemic. Continue reading “Novi Halloween Convention 2021” →

Dad visited some of his friends at a Wounded Warrior fund raiser in Novi. Mike, Tom, and Jim each have special roles in making this charity the success it is. It helps people who have been wounded meet expenses and they do this through fund raisers such as a bean bag tournament. Next month will be a golf tournament fund raiser so these guys are really staying busy working for a great cause.

After a year off from VIP Camp (due to the pandemic), James got to meet up with his friends and they had a great season.

As usual, many of the events included swimming, Heritage Park, Movies, and Restaurants. Best of all it was socializing after a year of not socializing. Everyone stayed healthy and all had a great time as the year was very well attended.

This year event was in the Taylor sports complex but he final party was at the bowling alley.

Continue reading “VIP Camp 2021 Party” →

This year we finally decided to take the plunge and put on a new roof, it has been 20 years since the last one and this one is guaranteed for 50 years. One of the bonuses of the roof was that a trash bin would be in our driveway so we were able to do a little cleanup in the garage on some big items that would not normally fit in a trash can. Tittle Brothers put the roof on in one day which was very impressive.

This was really needed, we added this air filter to our furnace and ever since the dust ratio has gone down about 50 percent. It uses an ultraviolet filtration system as well so it should make the air we breathe healthier along with the less dust, but the reality is we ordered it because of all the dusting we were doing.

The only drawback is that when the windows are open and the AC or heat is not on, the dust comes back since the windows are not filtered.

The tree across the street from us came crashing to the ground but fortunately no cars were hit and it did not hit a home (if it did it would have been ours as our house was right across the street from it).

The tree fell due to high winds on a gorgeous summer day. It would have crushed cars parked on the street and would have damaged cars in our driveway if any would have been there but fortunately most people were at work during this time. Except for some grass chewed up by branches there was not any damage. A look at the tree showed it was pretty rotted which certainly weakened the old tree.
Continue reading “High Winds Topple Tree Across The Street, Blocking Our Home” →

This has been Jame’s best year so far in school with so many awards it was hard to keep count. Not only did he graduate but he also graduated with honors and made the honor roll.

James’ awards and honors (in addition to graduating) are as follows:

2021 Math Award
2021 History Award
2021 Business Award
2021 Special Services Award
2021 Honor Roll
2021 Track and Field Award
2021 Dale Preussner Scholarship Award

James and his family attended a small track and field sports banquet where the track team would meet for the last time this year. Track was difficult due to covid as the student athletes would have to be tested for covid weekly. In addition to that, the track field was being torn down so the last track meet at Annapolis had to be done at the opposing school’s field due to the construction.

Once again the students did their best and there was never a complaint from any of them.

The banquet had an awesome Greek salad that Mom and Dad really liked and was surprise that it came from Domino’s. A very good combination of pizza’s made this a very entertaining time and also a very good meal. Continue reading “James Receives a Track Award at Sports Banquet” →

James had a busy schedule the past couple weeks, but nothing was a busy as past two days. After graduation he had a senior all night party to attend which would conclude at 5am with a bonfire in the parking lot (no worry, it was supervised by the Dearborn Heights police so there was not any trouble).

So for those parents who thought that they no longer had to get up at 6am to take their kids to school they were right, now they have to pick them up at 5am.

The kids did very well to get through a very complex few weeks. Graduation turned out to be a wonderful experience that they will carry with the through life in their memories. Congratulations to the class of 2021. Continue reading “Bonfire of the Senior Graduates at the All Night Party” →