THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER: VOLUME 107
APRIL 2016
Announcement:
Ray Carson Remsburg
April
4th
2016
8lbs
6oz
Dear Children, Family and Friends,
In November and December of last year I
was summoned for both county and state jury duty : sentencing me to
call in every Friday evening for a month to see if my services were
required for the following week. It made it hard to plan events more
than a few days ahead of the next phone call. I was not selected to
appear by either court so I was eligible to be recalled and thus
ordered to the Johnson County Courthouse on April 4th at
8:00am! Such an injustice for someone who considers being up at 8:30
am early bird status. When my notification arrived I immediately
called to plea my case for a dismissal at this time due to my
conflict of duty. I explained that my daughter's due date was April
3rd so there was a likelihood that I would be in Florida.
If that were the case I would be excused.
Frankly I thought I would probably have
been and returned from Orlando by the time my jury duty started as
Leslee-Ann was hugely pregnant, gaining only 25lbs but carrying it
all out in front of her. Apart from heartburn she had no other
issues with her pregnancy and in early March she was out and about
Orlando with Marc who came for a week or so. Of course I was hoping
that she would go into early labor while Craig was out of town so
that Marc would have to deal with her but he was spared! The week
before her due date she was at her doctor's office and they decided
to induce her on April 11th if she had not delivered
naturally by then. I am sure the idea of having her baby on Grandma's
birthday was not appealing so doubtless she wished him out!
I talked with her on Sunday April 3rd
when she and Craig were out shopping , hoping all the walking would
get things moving but she wasn't very hopeful. I went to bed that
night resigned to the fact that I was probably not going to be flying
to Orlando until after my birthday. I set my alarm for 6:30 am as I
had to be at the courthouse at 8:00am in Olathe and they suggested
allowing fifteen minutes for parking, plus I would be dealing with
rush hour traffic.
I woke up to my alarm and a text from
Ming-Lee announcing the arrival of Ray Carson Remsburg a few minutes
ago. Unfortunately there were some complications at birth that led to
the baby being put into the NICU for a few days. As I dressed for
court I was able to talk with Leslee and Craig and was reassured
that the baby was going to be fine. He had apparently aspirated some
fluid into his lungs at birth and was not initially breathing. He has
since fully recovered and is a very lusty, healthy baby.
We decided that I should fly out on
Thursday, the day they hoped to be home.
I drove to the Johnson County
Courthouse anxious to be free to check on the Remsburgs and book my
flights. I hoped to be excused immediately but........the wheels of
justice do churn slowly.
I was expecting far more people to be
present for the selection process and was greatly relieved when I was
not assigned to one of the most likely to be on the jury panel seats.
I was benched in the just-in-case back up section. We all would be
present for the jury questioning by the judge and lawyers in case
those in my section needed to replace prospective jurors excused from
service for various reasons. We were asked before a recess if serving
would be a hardship so I made my plea with the jury co-ordinator,
explaining that I had just become a grandmother again that morning
and was anxious to leave for Orlando. She congratulated me but said
that would be the judges call.
We heard the details of the case , a
traffic fatality and people were asking to be excused based on their
personal experiences with car accidents. Who hasn't been involved in
at least a fender bender at some point? Many prospective jurors were
excused and my stomach churned every time the jury co-ordinator
picked a name out of the fish bowl . Fortunately my name was never
called but I am sure I would not have been selected as it was an open
and shut case for the prosecution from my viewpoint.
At noon we were finally excused so I
checked for text updates on baby Ray (no cell phone usage in the
courthouse) and once home I immediately booked my flight for
Thursday. Ray Carson made a swift recovery and was breathing on his
own within hours but out of an abundance of caution he was kept in
the NICU which was a very challenging experience for his parents,
fraught with worry. On Wednesday afternoon he was moved into a
regular hospital room with his parents and discharged twenty four
hours later. I flew out that day and was met at the airport by
Ming-Lee, Lori, Blake and Claudia who were spending spring break
taking in Harry Potter World and other delights at Disney. Once again
in the months since I last saw them the kids seemed taller and more
mature looking.
We all met up at the Remsburgs home,
they had been discharged shortly before our arrival so we all
admired our beautiful new family member who definitely looks like a
mini-Craig – the Lowe genes are not dominant! Ming-Lee kindly
volunteered to pick up a barbecue dinner for us all and we ended the
evening at an early hour so that the exhausted parents could get some
much needed rest.
Fortunately Ray was able to go at least
three hours between feedings during the night so this was a great
help to his nursing mom and his diaper changing dad. Craig also has
taken on the task of burping him and a jolly good job he is making of
it – you can hear that baby burp rooms away! By the time I left
after several days of cooking, cleaning and helping with the baby I
knew they were all doing great. Leslee-Ann never had much interest in
babies until she had her own, now she is fascinated with Ray. It's
fun to watch the two of them enjoying their baby so much.
My 64th Birthday has been a
long running one! The day was celebrated with Leslee-Ann, Craig and
Ray with flowers and an ice cream cake despite my assertion that
given all they had endured I needed no fan fare that day, then the
day after my return home Coryn and the children arrived with a pan of
'Better Than A Snickers Bar' made from a recipe in the Ivy Bake
Shoppe cookbook and we had pizza for supper too. On Saturday night
Kay treated me to dinner from Bolings and presented me with the
cutest mini birthday cake, and the following Monday I received an
edible fruit arrangement from Sean.
Josh friended me on Facebook for my
birthday, how many years have I been trying to attain this status? I
also got to spend a couple of days with him before he left for
England. He plans to spend a few months exploring Europe, frugal Josh
is going to be appalled at the high cost of living. I believe Marc is
also planning a shorter trip there sometime this summer. I am sure
Sean will enjoy seeing his brothers, last year Ming-Lee, Lori, and
Bryn visited him.
Ming-Jon made a quick weekend visit to
Kansas City while I was in Orlando but he spent time with Kay and had
a nice visit with the Logues at their home for part of the time.
Next week will be a busy one for me as
Bonnie and Gary Niehaus are planning on spending Tuesday night with
me, they have been in Denver visiting their youngest daughter and
family and flew in and out of Kansas City so that we could see each
other. On Friday Evelyn and Sherry are driving from Fort Madison and
Becky is flying in from Savannah. We will have a girls weekend! It's
been awhile since we were all together so it will be a very special
time.
I mentioned in my previous newsletter
that Craig had gone to great lengths to regain favor with Ava Claire
and to further cement his back in favor status he arranged tickets to
a Disney on Ice Show at the Sprint Center here in Kansas City (his
production company does promotional work for them).. Thus Coryn, Ava
Clair , myself, and Becky and Elena Dickinson were able to enjoy
great seats courtesy of Craig. Ava Claire was totally into the show,
loudly singing along to all the songs, she seems to know them all.
Both girls wore princess costumes of course, Ava Claire tried to talk
me into wearing one of Coryn's old dance costumes (which barely fits
over my head) but I told her that grownups do not wear costumes to
the show. Only kids. Fortunately she accepted it without endless
questions.
I now
have a very balanced number of grandchildren, three girls and three
boys so I wonder who is going to be responsible for tipping the
scales in favor of one of the sexes? Marc?
Love
from your happy to be a grandma again mother.
