THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER : VOLUME 93
JULY 4TH 2014
Dear Children, Extended Family and
Friends,
On June 10th I planned to
drive to Indianapolis but had to delay my plans for a day: torrential
downpours - for several days previously - had caused water leakage
into my basement. I was holding back the flood with my carpet
shampooer and masses of towels until one in the morning: when I was
too tired to do anymore. After a too short night's sleep I started
baling my basement out again in the morning.
Since Kay and Jeff were planning on
house, garden, and cat sitting for me whilst I was gone, I called to
let them know I was going to stay until the following day in hopes of
leaving them with a dry basement but asked them to come over as
planned so I could show them what to do in case it happened while I
was gone - which unfortunately it did.
On Wednesday June 11th my
fully loaded Ford Focus – not just all the upgrades but the trunk
and back seat as well- finally headed East on I70 to Ming and Lori's
home. It was a long seven and a half hour drive, I only made two
stops, one to pee and another for gas. I had a bottle of water and
granola bars to fuel me as I drove. I was looking forward to using
cruise control on the trip but it was almost impossible as the two
lane interstate, for the most part, was bumper to bumper with huge
trucks and semi trailers. For some inexplicable reason one big rig
always tries to pass another on a steep incline slowing all the
traffic in both lanes to a frustrating crawl behind them. I think all
interstates should have a mandatory three lanes and that the right
hand lane should be the only lane available to truckers. To add to
my angst as soon as I exited the bypass around Saint Louis I ran into
miles of construction work, with slow speeds and no speed in several
sections where only one lane was open. Thank goodness I never let my
gas tank get below a quarter full before I pull into a gas station. I
would have been a nervous wreck sitting in traffic for who knows how
long without a full tank.
Finally I was on the bypass that would
take me to the exit I needed to begin the series of twists and turns
that leads to Ming and Lori's house. Unfortunately my Garmin told me
to stay left when I should have stayed right: therefore I made
numerous turns as it kept recalculating and I eventually realized
that I was not in a neighborhood that looked at all familiar, in fact
I doubted that it would be safe to even glance at the people on the
street leave alone ask for directions. I decided to keep faith with
my Garmin even though it seemed to be leading me astray. After quite
a detour I was safely delivered to my destination and met with a warm
welcome.
Once the car was unloaded we enjoyed
a delicious supper together. I felt badly for Lori as a lot of old
and frankly musty smelling boxes of Norm's “ treasures” were
strewn about their usually very tidy living room. We live in hopes of
finding something of value. Blake, Ming and Lori did a phenomenal job
of organizing everything in a couple of days, something I had failed
to do for months.
While they were going through the
boxes, I was sewing a top and skirt for Claudia – she had what she
wanted drawn out so I tried to make it as close as possible to her
rendering. Ming-Lee took us to the fabric store where she chose the
prints – an Asian themed one which became the skirt and a black and
white sheet music for the top. Far more sophisticated that I had
expected but she is a preteen now! Standing in line at the check out
I noticed the bags of candy and grabbed a couple – Claudia looked
at me in amazement. I explained that I was having a sugar deprivation
attack as the previous night there was a lot of conversation about
not overloading on carbs, portion control and getting enough protein.
For breakfast I was offered an assortment of low fat, no-fat, high
fiber and low calorie breakfast cereals. Thank goodness they had some
real milk instead of just the soy milk I was initially offered to
drown my cereal in. I was worried that my digestive track was going
to be running on empty after a few fruitful runs to the loo – too
much raw fruit runs right through me – so I decided I needed a
healthy dose of candy in my system to cushion all the “healthy”
food that was filling my gut and of course to prevent hypoglycemia.
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| Claudia wearing outfit we made, me and Blake who is now taller than me! |
Once home I emptied my sour gummy worms
and gummy bears into bowls and offered them to the family, fully
expecting them to eschew the sugar but to my amazement they had no
problem in helping themselves to my candy – even Ming Lee was
chewing them up. When he and Lori made a run to Trader's Joe's they
came back with dark chocolate treats! I think I had a positive impact
on balancing out their dietary intake. I suggested that the kids
should come and spend a week at Grandma's sometime so that they could
eat like real Americans - as of course I live so conveniently close
to every kind of fast food restaurant imaginable. In all fairness to
this health conscious family, I must admit that they served me some
wonderful fish dishes and platters of gourmet cheeses. I would have
been delighted to join them for a family run if it had not been for
my foot - which was still recovering from the fall detailed in last
month's letter.
Blake was battling a high fever and
cough during my visit but was feeling fine – he had to sit an exam
to decide which high school he would be attending whilst this was
happening but he came out in the top group and won a great academic
scholarship. I really think the extra sugar helped fuel his brain!
All too soon it was time for me to
entrust my life once again to my Garmin as I headed home. Since it
was a Sunday there was far less traffic and very few road crews
working so it was a much pleasanter drive. Unfortunately Kay called
my cell with more bad news about my home. Not only had they had to
deal with more water in the basement but also a strong thunderstorm
with straight line winds had blown through my neighborhood causing
tree limbs to fall – one across my deck, the other through the
center of my largest flower bed onto to my five foot high rose bush.
Kay said that she and Jeff were clearing up all the debris they could
lift but I was going to need a tree removal crew to clean up the big
stuff.I put my foot down a little harder on
the gas pedal, anxious to see how much damage there was.
As soon as I pulled into my
neighborhood I could see tree limbs strewn on everyone's lawns. I
tried calling numerous tree services, only one returned my call
regretfully explaining that he would not be able to fit me on his
schedule until July. My neighbor, Steve, wandered over to see my
damage and heard my frustrating experiences in trying to find someone
to clean it all up. He pulled out his cell phone, called a couple of
guys – one of whom committed to doing the job two days later. It's
great to have neighbors who are always so willing to help out!
Several offered to try and help me lift the huge limb off my flower
bed but I was worried that they might get hurt doing so as we are all
in our retirement years. I ended up having four trees removed, my ash
tree – the trunk had split in two, three trees on Quivera, one of
which was completely uprooted and my oak and maple trees were pruned
of all damaged limbs. I am happy to say that my flower bed has
bounced back accept for a few crushed bee balms and some broken
branches on my rose bush. Now of course my garden has gone overnight
from being mostly shady to sunny as neighbors on either side of me
had to have trees removed too. I dug up a lot of plants and crammed
them into my all too few shady areas but it does give me the
opportunity to get a lot more sun loving colorful flowers into my
garden!
This year just Kay, Jeff and I braved
the crowds to watch the fireworks exploding over Corporate Woods. I
did suggest that we could just sit in my driveway to watch as with so
few trees left to obscure the view it should be awesome but Kay was
bound and determined to relive the 4th of July of a few
summers ago when she, Leslee-Ann, Coryn and Ethan were here plus the
boys of course. I provided some unintended amusement when I almost
got in the wrong car on the way home – one dark car looks just like
another to me in the dark - I was about to load my chair into the
wrong open trunk when I heard Kay calling “Grandma, that's not our
car” and I looked up to see an older couple hovering by the trunk!
I apologized profusely for my mistake and put my chair in the right
trunk while Kay and Jeff found the incident hysterically funny.
However a few minutes later the chance came to redeem myself . Just
as Jeff was about to try to pull into the moving lane of traffic a
pickup truck pulled right in front of us partial angled into a
driveway. There was a lot of shouting and cursing. Cars began to
honk. We were jammed in with only oncoming traffic barely squeezing
by. Jeff decided he was going to ask the guys in the truck what they
were doing. I volunteered for the job stating emphatically that it
would be much better for a red hot mama to approach them. Once I got
closer to the young men I could see that there was a vehicle in front
of them that had caused them to swerve in front of us. A couple of
the young men were actually trying to stop the oncoming traffic so
that the car in front of them could move out of the way. Eventually
we slowly made our way home, having to take a detour of several miles
due to road closures enforced by the local police to try to deal with
the huge volume of traffic.
Despite having been on the losing side
of the fight for independence, as always I threw myself into the
festivities by making patriotic skirts for the three little girls in
my life plus a red frilly romper for Miss Ava Claire who spent the
long holiday weekend with Jeremy's family at their lake house.
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| Ava Claire, Lola Rose and Elena ready for the 4th! |
I found the fabric for the red romper
in a Lee's Summit fabric store that Coryn found on the web. She said
they seemed to have a great selection , including knits which are
hard to find in prints suitable for a toddler. So one rainy day we
set out to find the place with Coryn's iphone giving directions. We
ended up in a very nice residential cul-de-sac. I rolled my eyes and
immediately pointed out that there was obviously no store front
wondering if the person was advertising fabric parties like
tupperware perhaps. Coryn said she had seen pictures of the store
posted on line,- good staging I thought - sure this was going to be
another of Coryn's lemons. She noticed some ladies getting into a car
with a bag and then her eyes lit on a partially open garage door and
a vanity license plate with the store name. Since it was pouring with
rain she elected for me to stay in the car with the baby while she
went to the front door. She then dashed around the side of the garage
and re-emerged to say that the store was actually located in the walk
out basement. Much to my amazement there was a legitimate store there
with a lot of fabrics, notions and patterns. The fabrics were
expensive but I splurged on several pieces for Ava Claire's 'couture'
wardrobe!I commented to the owner, an elderly but very spray great
grandma that it was a rather unorthodox setting but she said they had
been operating out of their beautiful home for over 20 years. I could
not help but wonder if it was legal – in my neighborhood they get
upset about people parking on the street for prolonged periods of
time!
Ava Claire took her first steps at
Grandma's house on July 1st, Coryn was able to catch the
action on video. I thought she would be walking constantly to perfect
this new skill but she is very cautious and still prefers to hold
onto something when she walks. She is also cutting more teeth, she
now has two upper and lowers.
Bryn is moving to LA this weekend. Marc
is driving up in his SUV to help get Bryn's stuff to his place. Bryn
confided to me that he would definitely be staying with his brother
until he finds a job to replace his current one as he is tired of
dealing with his company. It could take some time and Sean will be
there next month too! Maybe a couple of hammocks on the patio?
Josh is still in Orlando where he has
been helping Leslee-Ann and Craig with new flooring through out the
house. They hired a professional to redo their kitchen with new
cabinets, granite counter-tops, tile and stainless steel appliances.
I will be inviting myself for a visit to see all the changes soon.
Maybe in September. I was thinking of going to LA then but I don't
think there will be any room at the inn!Apparently Josh is planning
to wend his way up the East coast soon with orders from Leslee to
make sure he has access to the internet as they are going to be very
busy at work. Wonder how Josh is going to like working for his baby
sister? At least he is working! And more good news on the job front,
Ming Jon has been hired for a temporary position. I know we all hope
it will turn into something more permanent for him.
At the beginning of the month Kay and
Jeff moved into a new apartment and I have greatly enjoyed helping
them to make it look like a grown up home instead of a student's
place. We have been shopping every weekend but it is really coming
together. It has a a lot of exposed brick walls, a fireplace,
wainscoting, hardwood floors and a balcony overlooking the pool. Our
last chance to do so for awhile tomorrow as Kay is leaving for a
visit to see her other Grandma in Singapore. I just hope Jeff doesn't
decide to put his stamp on the place while she is gone! Hardly any of
his possessions made it into the apartment, vetoed by Kay, and I must
admit I did agree with her!
Next month Sean should be returning and
I will be so happy when he and Josh finally arrive on my doorstep
again – for a few hours anyway until the endless “Mother, what
are you fixing me to eat?”
is uttered a few times.
Time for me to head out into the
hundred degree heat and humidity to water my plants before Ava Claire
arrives. I am going to enjoy her company while her parents have a
dinner date. I hope I fare better with her than I did when she was
here overnight earlier in the week: she pooped during the night
giving her diaper rash and banged her face on the railing upstairs
that overlooks the family room which left a small red mark. Coryn
assured me that she was completely recovered the next day.
Unfortunately I think it is too hot for
Ava Claire to even play in her pool outside tonight,so we may just
have to run through the sprinkler together! I leave you with that
pretty picture, love always, Mother
