What has slowly become a tradition for us on Memorial Day is the visit to the cemetery. On the surface that might not sound that exciting but on Pennsylvania and Middlebelt there is a big Flea Market that we stop off at that is right on the way. After the Flea Market we go to the cemetery and if we were unable to put flowers up on Mothers day we do it on Memorial Day. However since we did get flowers on the graves for Mothers day we just made sure the flags were present. Last year they missed Uncle Raymond who died in WW2 and we called and this year he got a big flag (James brought a little flag just in case). Uncle Raymonds grave has not yet been raised and we had to clean it off again, hopefully they will take care of it sinking soon. James’ Grandfather Kleiber did not have a flag on his grave because he does not have his rank on the grave, in hindsight we probably should have put the flag brought for Raymond on his site, we’ll make a note of that next year to bring more flags, they are inexpensive.

The Flea Market had something for everyone, James found a 1924 National Geographic that he did not have (He keeps an inventory at http://www.thekleibers.com/inventory.html so he can check what he has when away from home), Mom found several paintings that she liked, and Dad found a “monster” made out of metal that holds Halloween candy.

The rest of the weekend was spent barbecuing and swimming. Lots of fun.

Continue reading “Memorial Day 2015” →

The day started off by getting Aunt Peg’s phone working which got us off to a little late start but we managed to catch up and have a lot of fun. First stop on this sunny Sunday was Memorial cemetery where we put flowers on the family graves in honor of Mothers day. James did the water pouring and Mom did the flowers while Dad took pictures. Of special note were the flowers we put into Loretta Kleibers vase (James grandmother on his fathers side) because these flowers were actually planted by Loretta years ago. There is one spot in the backyard where these flowers she planted still come up every spring and so we thought we would give her flowers she planted from her own garden. Uncle Raymond’s grave once again had to have some upkeep, we hope to call the cemetery Monday to remind them to give Uncle Raymond a flag since they missed it last year.

After the visit to the cemetery we went to Mary’s favorite place, an antique shop in Flat Rock where Jame’s met a 200 year old cabinet he liked. Finally lunch time rolled around and we went to Red Lobster in Monroe then finished the afternoon shopping at Christmas Tree Shop and Walmart.

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On Saturdays we enjoy going Garage Sale shopping since its relatively inexpensive and teaches James alot about the value of money. This day, however, we decided to do our “saling” near Michigan Memorial Cemetery so we could check on the status of Aunt Louise’s marker.

It was in and in place, the temp was gone, and they also had repaired Grandpa Graf’s marker, which had began crumbling after the harsh winter (it was made in the 50’s after all).

We let Aunt Peg know and she was very happy. This all began a few months earlier when cousin Sandy visited us and put down some money for a marker for Aunt Louise. Aunt Peg then paid off the balance and six weeks later Aunt Louise has her marker. The next project for Michigan Memorial will be raising Uncle Raymonds marker. Uncle Raymond died in WW2 and his marker has sunk down about an inch, making it difficult to see in the grass.

For once we had a three day weekend where the weather lived up to the billing. Beautiful all three days and James took advantage of it. Yesterday we went to the Magic Capital and had a blast, today was more traditional as we did our traditional flowers and flags on the graves.

While at the Michigan Memorial James visited the Veteran’s Memorials and 911 Memorials. As hinted to above, we also visited our family plots to see if Aunt Louise had gotten her temporary marker yet (she did, its in the pics). On the way back we hit the many Flea Markets and Garden sales around town, Mom got some flowers, Jame’s got some toys, and Dad got a rubber skull.

Later we grilled out and had a wonderful (and traditional) Memorial Day Barbecue.

Continue reading “Memorial Day 2014” →

Another beautiful day for Mom, and the weather wasn’t bad either! The day started out as a typical Sunday as we took Aunt Peg shopping. Afterwards, we went out to the cemetery and paid our respects. James cleaned up some of the graves and added flowers to others. The weather was so perfect and bright that we could not see the pic in the view finder and kind of just shot blindly. We visited both the Kleiber side of the family and the Graf side of the family.

We noticed the rock around Jame’s Great Grandfather Graf is beginning to break. The grave is 70 years old so its probably not a surprise. Also Aunt Peg thought that there would be a temporary marker for Aunt Louise out there, unfortunately there wasn’t yet.

We traveled a little further South to one of Mary’s favorite antique shops where she got a little shopping spree as a Mothers day gift. We’ve pretty much done this same routine every Mothers day but deviated a little by eating at a Mexican restaurant instead of a Chinese restaurant (we had Chinese the day before on the way back from the Flea Market).

A fun time was had by all – Happy Mothers day!

Continue reading “Mothers Day 2014” →

This year Mothers Day was a little different than usual. First, we did not travel to our usual Chinese restaurant in Flat Rock, but went to our normal Chinese restaurant in Taylor with Aunt Peg. Aunt Peg joined us on our trip to Michigan Memorial Cemetery where we placed flowers on all the graves. On the way home Aunt Peg wanted to get some things from the store so we dropped her off and took James to the park for a few minutes while Aunt Peg shopped. We picked Aunt Peg up and took her home and had a great day. The weather was perfect (however the two weeks before was all rain and the two weeks after would be all rain).

Grandma is still recovering from her broken leg and arm so she did not make the trek with us, however the next day we surprised her with a McDonalds breakfast.

A different Mothers day but just as fun as the ones in the past.

Continue reading “Mothers Day 2011” →

Charles Thomas Kleiber (James Grandpa) purchased 6 lots at Michigan Memorial for $920 plus $10 carrying fee. Charles put $5 down and agreed to pay $15 per month to pay off the balance (no interest so long as the payments were on time).

At the time, the Kleiber family was living at 1089 Lindberg in Wyandotte Michigan and Michigan Memorial was over 25 years old and located in nearby Flat Rock so it seemed to be a perfect match. Shown in this picture is Peg and Criss looking down at the first person buried in the plots, James Great Grandpa Graf.