With every opportunity comes success and hard work when you pursue your God-given dream. With the purchase of the general law practice at The Depot in Suttons Bay, Michigan, came unique character and charm and an old barn cat named Spike.

Please understand that this barn cat is really not a cat you own, because having two cats myself, they really do own you. This barn cat weighs about 20 pounds, even though he is on diet food. Spike lives in The Depot. He hangs out in the rafters upstairs, but loves to greet people who come in for meetings and appointments. He greets everyone with a loud meow. Spike enjoys muffin bites (even though he should not) from my husband. When no one is around, Spike sprawls on my husband’s work space. Sometimes clients ask about him and bring him treats. Spike is very furry, so that he does sometimes mat up and need a good shave from the vet every now and then. He is happy when you talk to him.

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When looking at your family cottage, look who it goes to, the various family members and places you visit.

If a child is given love, he becomes loving . . . If he is helped when he needs help, he becomes helpful. And if he has been truly valued at home . . . he grows up secure enough to look beyond himself to the welfare of others.
Dr. Joyce Brothers
1974

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Did you know that just watching and listening to a water sprinkler on your lawn provides solace and serenity. Our chocolate Labradors back from their vacation at the lake and family cottage seem eager to chase squirrels and lay in the sun on the moist grass in their own yard. What a beautiful day in July. We finally got a break from the humidity for a few days.

The labs enjoying air conditioning tire from sunning outside and decide to siesta in the family room. Jake, our chocolate lab, probably dreaming about the lake vacation romp at the family cottage, promptly starts snoring. Ahh – the life of a dog. Our backyard has a pond with four fish. The water rushes over rocks giving that soothing sound. The scenery changes at home. There is no big lake or cottage to sit by, but there is peace in the backyard with the birds chirping and butterflies flying on the bushes. Returning from a cottage always amazes me at how much you miss the beauty of the water.

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To watch a Labrador Retriever swim in the lake is like watching a sea otter. Their heads are above water and they meander with such ease in the water. Our chocolate labs have grown up swimming at our family cottage in Suttons Bay, Michigan. This year, a family friend took them for a weekend vacation to their lakeside family cottage near Elkhart, Indiana. Now if you have never owned a lab, they love the water. These beautiful creatures believe this is paradise at its best. Labs have webbed feet. If you spread their paws, there is a built-in paddle – each webbed paw is in the in-between parts like a duck. They can spend more time swimming after a stick or a ball, until you have to declare the game is over.

Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring – it was peace.
– Milan Kundera

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Drinking a cup of joe, on a beautiful 4th of July weekend, I experienced solace as I watched swans swimming and boats heading out of the marina in Suttons Bay, Michigan. The sun was beautiful on the water. The boats were heading out for adventure at the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Michigan. What a different world from our other home in Farmington, Michigan. The air is crystal clear. Ahh – the joys of summer – relaxation and peace.

My teens are happier. We always have a friend in tow. Our eldest, now 18, has college in the fall, but with a summer job and other activities, his summer has changed. The twins, now fifteen, are not working yet and can enjoy the summers of yesterday romping on the beach, biking, and staying up way past midnight. Adventure is always looming for our family at the cottage. New friendships, new experiences filled with laughter, and the stress of the daily grind seems to disappear. These experiences make owning a family cottage absolutely the best moments in life.

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Penning Receives Prestigious “Five Star” Wealth Manager Award

Attorney Dan A. Penning was named a “FIVE STAR Wealth Manager” for 2010 by Hour Detroit and D Business magazines. Both magazines contracted an independent market research company to administer a research process to identify a select group of wealth managers who were exceptional in both their ability and commitment to overall client satisfaction.

More than 102,500 high net worth individuals and 4.200 financial services professionals were asked to evaluate wealth managers including financial planners, investment advisors, estate attorneys and accountants in the Detroit community. The final list was reviewed by a blue ribbon panel of financial services industry professionals. Fewer than 7% of those nominated were selected.

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I looked at him like wow, this is true kindness (and you are crazy.)

The best moments in life are teachable. I never used to believe this, until I witnessed my husband teach my boys what is and makes a good Samaritan. You know the saying, “what goes around comes around.” It is the lesson in life you train your kids to be good to people, because you never know who you are being good to, or that phrase as a parent you say repeatedly, “be good to others because you don’t know who’s watching you.”

We were summering at a cottage on Good Harbor Bay near Lake Leelanau. We ventured out to the lake on a beautiful summer’s day. We boated on Lake Leelanau with our boys at “Fudgey Beach.” We loved this-the boys swimming, floating on rafts, and tubing – great relaxation medicine! The boat floating next to us had a family with the most beautiful golden retrievers on board. We chatted with the family and commented on how well behaved the dogs were. We decided, as my husband said, “pull up shop” to head back to the cottage for dinner and a beautiful summer sunset.

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Their fond memories exuberate, like a family cottage, charm and comfort.

Leave a legacy of integrity and good will. Defining the family cottage means: joy, relaxation, summer skies that go on forever, walks along the beach, skipping stones, bonfires, children laughing, our chocolate and yellow labs running through the water, fireflies, good friends, serenity and peace.

Experiencing the cottage life brings you closer to the wonder of God’s beauty. You wish it would go on forever. We spent summers, it seems for a lifetime, in northern Michigan. Our twins, now 15, were two and our 18-year-old at the time was four. Since teens are very enduring and unique, I decided to ask them to define the word “cottage.” One of the twins responded with, “a house by a lake where you hang out on the beach.” The cottage, he stated, would be by a town with good places to go, and good people to see. The other twin described a cottage as nice, quiet and beautiful. He remembered swimming, tubing behind the boat, and our dogs running on the beach. Our 18-year-old described a cottage as something on the water.

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Launching a boat in Michigan waters during the month of April is not very common. Boat insurance policies, however, generally begin to provide coverage on April 15. If you’ve not given much thought to your boat insurance policy, this spring might be a good time to review your policy and determine if you need more protection as you navigate the Great Lakes or Michigan’s inland lakes while at the family cottage.

Although many homeowner and automobile companies offer boat insurance, the coverage your existing policy provides may not be adequate. Many policies provide a list of “named perils” outlining situations the policy covers, such as fire, vandalism and malicious mischief. If you need more coverage, look for an “all risks” policy that covers more predicaments in which you might find yourself.

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As weather in Michigan becomes warmer signaling the approach of summer, family cottage owners of waterfront property begin thinking about boats, docks, jet skis, etc. Every summer, unfortunate accidents occur which affect family cottage owners and their guests that are related to water and recreational activities: swimmers make a wrong judgment regarding the depth of the water and dive off the cottage dock into shallow water resulting in severe neck injuries, boaters and those driving personal watercraft can be blinded by the sun and fail to see someone skiing or tubing behind a boat resulting in a catastrophic accident, a “slip and fall” during a game of volleyball played on the beach or in shallow water can cause unexpected and long-lasting injuries.

In 1987 the Michigan Supreme Court consolidated two cases, one involving an individual who was injured while slipping on logs that property owners installed at the edge of a lake to prevent erosion. The resulting neck injury caused paralysis from the shoulders down. Three neighborhood associations and individual subdivision lot owners were sued for damages. The defendants included over 200 individuals. The other case involved a child who drowned while she and her mother were visiting relatives. The child died in the shallow part of a pond owned by her aunt and uncle. The Supreme Court determined that the cases could proceed to trial despite the protections afforded property owners in the Michigan Recreational Land Use Act (RUA). The Court determined that the RUA was only applicable to large, undeveloped tracts of land.

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