THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER : VOLUME 83 MARCH 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

March unleashed a tornado on the land of Oz: Thursday, March 7th Norm's sister Elaine, his niece Lainee,and nephew Chenson stormed the city. Elaine and Lainee flew from San Francisco and Chenson from Boston. The eye of the storm joined forces at the Kansas City airport and landed a bull's eye on our home. They blew in with enough luggage to have one think that the contents of a jumbo jet's cargo hold had been sucked up and spit out by the tornado. All this for a four day stay I asked myself as I was ordered out of sight so that Lainee could do her “ staging”. Welcome hugs over, I hid in the kitchen, giving my big pot of chilli a stir or two whilst debating whipping up another pan of cornbread which Josh assured me was not needed. Soon I was summoned to unpack gift bags containing bath time, breakfast, lunch, supper and in between time treats, and Asian treats for Norm. I panicked as with the exception of the half dozen varieties of made from scratch cookies and candies everything else needed to be frozen or refrigerated. Would my mid- sized fridge be able to hold everything? I gave thanks that Sean had purged a lot of the contents the week before during one of his check the expiration dates of his parent's groceries compulsion - something he is compelled to do all too often. Item after item was found to be past it's use or sale by date and I witnessed a weeks worth of meals being trashed by my son.

My fridge already contained two smoked chickens, a smoked turkey breast, Canadian bacon, smoked bacon and cheddar cheese: Elaine had all these items shipped from Harringtons shortly before they arrived. Lainee had stressed repeatedly that they did not want me slaving in the kitchen, thus they had brought enough food with them to stock a food pantry. Certainly a contrast to my other family members who assume there is nothing more Mother enjoys than cooking up a storm with her own groceries.

Their arrival time coincided with our dinnertime so shortly before they arrived I decided to set the dinning room table - and immediately gave thanks that I had not waited to spread the tablecloth. A nauseating stench was coming through the cracks and crevices of my dining room window. I cursed the marauding neighborhood tom cat knowing that he had lifted his tail and sprayed my window. This sent me into a tail spin. I ran to the kitchen for paper towels, Windex, and Febreeze which I used inside and out to rid my Martha Stuart dinning room of the stench. I wish that wretched tom cat would realize that my female cats are spayed. Worse my female cats spray over his spray and then when Coryn's dogs visit they lift their legs and add a third layer. To add to my stress our guests were all allergic to cats and not at home in a house where the cats consider every chair and bed their domain. Trust me I dusted, vacuumed and washed all the bedding prior to their arrival and was ready to offer allergy medication if needed. Elaine asked me hopefully if there was one room in the house that the cats were less likely to use: unfortunately that would be the storage room with their kitty litter boxes.

Once all their food gifts had been squeezed into every nook and cranny of my fridge I suggested that we might move into the dinning room and have supper. My guests were not very hungry as Lainee had made sandwiches for them all to enjoy on the plane. Good thing that Josh wasn't with them or he would probably have tried auctioning them off to the highest bidding passenger – come to think of it someone could probably make a living flying from cost to coast with a weekender full of sandwiches and wraps now that the airlines no longer offer meals. I decided that we would eat anyway since your dad does better with a routine and my tum starts growling at five in anticipation of supper and we all know how irritable I get when my stomach is empty. .

Josh had just returned from his travels where he had a harrowing time getting out of Columbia so he entertained our guests with numerous details of his adventures. Like Josh they have all traveled much of the world so they had a mutual interest.

When Lainee and I found ourselves working together in the kitchen I thought my culinary skills might cut the mustard. To be blunt I thought Lainee, a former professional caterer, would be impressed with my new set of stainless steel knives – a promotional offer from my local grocery store- but she muttered something about her grandma not being able to abide a knife that wasn't razor sharp. I felt the jab but my stab at slicing an avocado really piqued her interest. Apparently she had never seen any one use a soup spoon to scoop out the big seed and then use it to remove the edible part, a bit like a melon baller. Unfortunately I couldn't tell whether she was amazed or dismayed. But we did cut into the wonderful assortment of English Cheeses that Lainee had found in San Francisco and enjoyed them with a glass of wine in the evening. In fact long after the rest of the household slept Lainee and I munched and drank our way into the next day throughout her visit!

Our guests spent most of Friday sightseeing, taking in The Nelson Atkins Museum, the first Oklahoma Joe's Barbecue restaurant located in a gas station, and visited Strouds where they picked up pan fried chicken and cinnamon rolls for us all to enjoy. Saturday they spent some of the morning at the largest of our local Asian grocery stores and found that we really can buy most things here needed to make authentic Chinese dishes. In the afternoon we visited Coryn and Jeremy and enjoyed a tour of their new home. Ollie and Buster were thrilled to see Grandma, especially when I pulled their treats out of my purse. Jeremy's big dogs were kept out of the way – four dogs might be overpowering for people not use to living in a dog pound.

Later that night we all had dinner together, squeezing ten of us around the dinning room table. I attempted to make this a more formal affair by using my cloth napkins and gold rimmed glasses. Any hopes of setting a higher standard were thwarted immediately when Chenson and Bryn returned with a box full of burnt ends, baked beans and cheesy corn from Jack Stacks Barbecue. I was prepared to transfer all the food to serving platters which my boys deemed a crazy idea as they cleared my centerpiece and unpacked the contents of the box onto my table. We served ourselves out of foil takeout pans. Since all our guests are “foodies” they were excited to try out the barbecue foods for which Kansas City is famous .When Coryn and Jeremy arrived with their gas station to go beverages I knew there was no hope of having any degree of sophistication once again in my Martha Stewart dinning room.

Norm was in his usual place beside me so that I could monitor his food intake and make sure it was cut into small pieces in hopes of avoiding an esophageal spasm or a seizure. We avoided the former but not the latter. I was so busy interacting with everyone else that I failed to notice your dad helping himself to more and more food and soon his system was overloaded and he went into a seizure. The boys decided to move him into the living room where we used an ice bag to cool him down while we waited for him to recover.

Chenson was a big help one night with Norm during a bedtime seizure: I was able to get Norm in bed much more quickly than I could have by myself. Being stuck in the bathroom with your out of it father is not my idea of bedtime fun.

Chenson returned to Boston on Sunday and Lainee and Elaine left the following day after another whirlwind of activity stripping all their beds, washing, drying and remaking them – not something my children often do – usually they leave the bed unmade, stuff strewn everywhere and towels draped over doors. Lainee really meant it when she said they didn't want to burden me any more than I already am with my caregiving.

Much to my amazement Lainee had bought extra of everything she had eaten – even barbecued baked beans so that her husband, Francis could sample all that she had enjoyed in Kansas City. She packaged it all up and checked it through to San Francisco. She certainly had the space since most of her arrival luggage was packed into my fridge!

Bryn spent the following weekend with Joyce, flying to Vegas and driving to LA whilst Coryn and Jeremy took one last trip before their baby( my newest grand baby) arrives to Coronado Island, near San Diego. Marc drove down to spend some time with them and confirmed that my account of his driving skills in a recent newsletter was not exaggerated.

 

Kay and a friend were in Orlando for part of their Spring Break with Leslee and Craig. The girls took a three day cruise for part of the time. Leslee posted a great picture of herself and Kay on Facebook enjoying the night life. We are so excited to be having Kay with us very soon.

Your dad and I have been following the March Madness College basket ball teams on TV, especially the Jay Hawks. I have been coaching loudly from the sofa and fortunately your dad seems to enjoy my commentary far more than my children.

Budget shortfalls have led to Ming Jon's having to find another job so we wish him luck. Fortunately he has a couple of months to do this so lets all keep our fingers crossed.

Well it's time for me to shake my cute tail and hop into the kitchen to prepare my Easter Luncheon which I hope Josh, Bryn and Sean will enjoy. Coryn and Jeremy are spending the holiday with Sheryl and Grant's family. I am sure they will be very eggcited to have our incubating chick to cluck over - she certainly has a lovely egg shaped belly .Unfortunately she has been pecking away at Jeremy demanding more upgrades to feather their nest so Jeremy has been spending what little free time he has shopping for new furniture, and decorator accents. He has married one very demanding bird –I hope he ruffles her feathers sometimes!

Your honey bunny of a mommy with eggstra love to all!