THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER VOLUME 81
JANUARY 2013
Dear
Readers,
This
Christmas I opened a very special card. On Sunday, December 23rd
I was watching the Chiefs lose miserably with your dad, Sean, Bryn ,
Coryn, Buster and Ollie. Jeremy was at Arrowhead Stadium watching the
game. Tina, our wonderful bath aide came to visit with her family as
she wanted the girls to see my Christmas decorations and to take
their picture on my teddy bear themed front porch – specially
designed with Elena Dickinson in mind. Tina's young daughters were
far more entranced with Coryn's dogs. Somehow the topic of babies
came up and I was teasing Coryn as usual about her aging eggs and
predicting that her babies would be born with gray hair and be in
need of a gerontologist rather than a pediatrician. Coryn had one of
her withering comebacks for me: “oh good, then you can take them
with you when you see your doctor”.
Once
the game was over Jeremy came by and handed me a card to thank Norm
and me for all we had done for them. I assured him it wasn't
necessary to give us a written thank you as I opened the envelope and
pulled out the card. I opened it and immediately saw the sonogram
photo of our new est grandchild. The card was signed from Coryn and
Jeremy and BABY Logue. I was so excited I jumped in the air and
screamed touchdown, hugging Jeremy and congratulating him on his
ability to score so quickly. I realized that the sonogram picture
meant that Coryn was more than a couple of weeks pregnant and was
amazed to find that she was in her fourth month! Apparently they
decided to wait until the third month to tell anyone just in case of
problems and when that milestone was reached they decided to wait
another couple of weeks until Christmas knowing it was the best
present any one could have. I had not noticed even a tiny bulge on my
skinny daughter but realized that I had not seen her as often with
all the house moving and then when she does come over she's usually
bundled up and then wraps herself in a throw blanket to lounge on
the sofa. The last time I visited her house I walked into one of her
bedrooms that has a beautiful view of the lake and said what a
perfect nursery it would make and Coryn just said maybe and strolled
out.
The
very next day, Christmas Eve, Grandma jumped in her sleigh and pulled
up at the Hallmark store buying several baby gifts for the
parents-to-be to open on Christmas day. They were going to be telling
his side of the family over the holiday. Since then Coryn and I have
had another mommy/grandma shopping day for neutral newborn items-
Coryn and Jeremy are going to let the sex of the baby be a surprise
to them at birth. Coryn wouldn't let me get a shopping cart saying I
could only buy what I could fit in my arms – we ended up with a
cart. And don't worry mother will be standing by with a bottle of
Clairol in the birthing room just in case the head emerges with grey
hair. Coryn has a midwife for her delivery and of course a grandma on
standby! Coincidentally the baby's due date is June 12th
– Ethan's birthday.
Marc's
travel plans proved the usual disaster.. His flight from LA to Denver
was fine but his flight from Denver to Kansas City was canceled so he
had to fly to Chicago and then back to Kansas. He arrived about one
in the morning again without his luggage. Sean was not happy as he
had wasted time searching the various terminals for Marc's missing
luggage. Once again I rummaged through a pile of clothes on the
closet floor upstairs and found enough of his brother's clothes to
use for a few days. It took the airlines a couple of days to track
and deliver his bag. .Marc our hot shot LA trial lawyer with his
newly leased BMW is too cheap to book a non stop flight which would
avoid a lot of missed /canceled connection problems.
Christmas
day Sean, Bryn and I were in the kitchen preparing our gourmet
dinner. Marc as usual was in the bathroom. As there were only seven
of us this year the boys talked me out of buying a whole turkey
opting for a half with stuffing and gravy included at Costco. I was a
bit dubious but have to admit it was excellent. I baked a ham too
just in case.... We ate much later than usual as Coryn and Jeremy had
to drive up from Clinton after sharing the happy news with his family
who all burst into tears! So late afternoon we unwrapped our
Christmas gifts and I am absolutely enthralled with the Ipod. Thank
you children for once again acknowledging your high tech mother. I
let your dad hold it for a few seconds and offered to teach him to
play Angry Birds but he seemed to think it a waste of time. Now you
can enjoy facetime with Mother!
Christmas
night as I was cleaning the kitchen a dark stain on the ceiling
caught my attention. I realized it was directly below the upstairs
bathroom and immediately wondered what Marc had done to cause it. Two
years ago we had to replace the toilet after he wrecked the tank. I
raced upstairs to make sure that he hadn't forgot to turn the water
off or something, then remembered that he had mentioned the tub was
draining very slowly and that I might want to run some Draino down
the drain. I had given him the bottle and told him to man up and take
care of it. I checked a few things out and realized that this was a
job for a plumber who fortunately came the next morning. He had to
cut a hole in my linen closet to rip out some old pipes that were
leaking and had been for some time. Marc's long shower had finished
the pipes off. Of course as usual I was ready to finish Marc off.
Speaking
of leaks, your dad woke me up one morning with a “hey old bud”. I
don't find this a term of endearment and know it usually precedes
news that I am not going to enjoy. Sure enough Norm said he thought
he had sprung a leak.. I dragged myself over to his side of the bed
and saw that he was unfortunately correct. Once again he had managed
to pull his catheter tubing apart apparently in his sleep. Mental
note to self that I should probably have him sleep in oven mitts.
Unfortunately he was in a puddle of urine so I realized that I was
going to have to take his clothes off, get him in the wheelchair and
onto his shower seat. For once your dad didn't argue. Once I had him
safely sitting in the shower – after reconnecting his catheter
tubing – I stripped the bed. I had to run five loads of laundry.
Thankfully I managed to squash our our king sized comforter into the
washing machine. All this before I had even had a cup of coffee.
Christmas
brings one chore that I really abhor: mailing packages. In early
December I forced myself to drive to our local post office because I
needed to send Ethan his gift. On arrival I was delighted to see that
the line was only about twenty feet long but unfortunately it was
moving at a snails pace. I grabbed a customs declaration form and
filled it out as I waited in line. Little old ladies who can't decide
whether they want the Santa or angel stamps in under two seconds
should be asked to step aside while those of us who don't need to
make a decision forge ahead.
In
view of the inefficiency of the postal service I decided that I would
mail all my domestic packages at the conveniently situated HyVee's
customer service just fourteen blocks up the road. I planned to park
by a cart return thinking that I could put my numerous packages into
one so that I didn't have to make a couple of trips to and fro. I
should have realized it was a bad omen when I drove into the parking
lot and saw that all the cart returns were empty. Finally I found
one, loaded up my packages and went to customer service, delighted
to see that there wasn't a single customer. No need to feel guilty
about monopolizing their counter help with my packages – I admit
that if I was standing behind me I would have been muttering that I
should have gone to the post office or that HyVee should set a limit
on how many items can be mailed at one time. My first two boxes were
taken care of – albeit slowly as the young cashier was obviously a
novice under the watchful eye of a more experienced worker. Package
three caused a system failure. The cashier hollered for help : the
message on the screen was one they had never seen. They hit a few
keys but no luck. I turned to apologize to the line that had formed
behind me. The workers summoned more help over the PA system. I knew
it wasn't going to be a quick fix when their computer expert muttered
a few what the hells under her breath and announced that she couldn't
fix it either. She would have to call the Post Office. While the
female worker was explaining her problem to one person after another
over the phone I found myself once again apologizing to the whole
rapidly growing line as they eyed my still full of packages cart.
Finally she hung up the phone and announced that they were going to
shut the system down and have the post office reboot it This could
take hours apparently so they decided to handle my packages the old
fashioned way and just stuck some stamps on them. I wished I had gone
to the post office after this experience because I suspected that
they might just set them aside until their system was restored and
maybe my packages would get lost or be sent days later. But they did
arrive safely. Next time I'll go to the post office – it will
probably be quicker even if the line does extend out into the parking
lot.
Sean
recently left for his adventure and Josh just emailed me to let me
know that he and Sean are together and preparing to visit Lake
Titicaca in the Andes.They will hopefully be meeting up with Bryn,
his girlfriend Joyce – a lovely girl who had dinner with us
recently – Leslee and Craig. Frankly I'm glad my children enjoy
being together and have adventurous spirits but my mummy tummy is
very wonky when I think of all the ills that could befall them.
Fortunately I have a lovely box of English sweets to soothe my
stomach. A couple of flaky bars and I'm thinking how wonderful it is
not to have to share !
A
couple of days after Christmas we met with your dad's neurologist who
had reviewed his data and come to the conclusion that the high doses
of various medications prescribed to try and stabilize his blood
pressure were not working and were probably putting him at too great
a risk of a heart attack or stroke. We are currently weaning him off
some medications and lowering the dose of others. We have reached the
point of letting Mother Nature take control.
Wishing
you all a Happy and Healthy 2013, Love your mom with one daughter
that has met her expectations!
