THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER VOLUME 109 JULY 2016

Dear Readers,

Last month I was complaining about the rain, this month it's the excessive heat wave which has washed over Kansas City. We have been blessed with copious rainfall for much of the summer but this last week it has been dry, hot, and humid with a heat index well into the 100 degree range. Nightly I have been been in my chigger infested yard, dragging the hoses around my parched plants for a couple of hours. I was hoping to melt away some of my winter blubber but unfortunately the fat just seems to be frying my brain. I am so confused by the popularity of that clown Donald Trump and very nervous about the integrity of Hilary Clinton. It is incredible that they are the best this country has been able to put forth for the next presidency. I feel that my vote for either candidate could take me on a dangerous journey for the next four years: akin to deciding if I would rather go down on a sinking ship or up in flames aboard an out of control rocket. I just can't wrap my brain around this situation.

Ava Claire was recently snuggled up with me when she grabbed my upper arm and announced it was very squishy, she continued with her examination of Grandma's body informing me that my legs, tummy, and double chins were all squishy too. Coryn beamed. I explained that Grandma's are suppose to be squishy. Ava Claire looked doubtful.

Within days of this evaluation I was babysitting the kids at their home and as she left Coryn suggested that I go to the pool with them after she returned. Too bad she didn't think of this before I left my house as I could have bought my swimsuit with me – doubtless Coryn was not anxious to have her mother's squishy body floating across the neighborhood pool for all to see. In her defense I must admit that she did offer to swing by my house to pick it up after her work session but I didn't want to inconvenience her – after all I needed a bikini wax anyway and Ava Claire would probably find all kinds of new areas on my more exposed body to declare squishy.

Later that afternoon, once Coryn had returned, they changed into swimsuits whilst I planned to watch from a lounge chair under a shady umbrella. Within two minutes Ava Claire suggested I take my shoes off and stand in the water with her “Come on Grandma, it's not too cold”. I complied as always and soon Owen was splashing me and expecting to be picked up for a cuddle when he slipped under the water or something. I was drenched. Ava Claire asked me, in the innocence of childhood, if I would like to take some clothes off. I assured her that Grandma was fine in her wet shorts and shirt and would bring her suit next time. It was a nostalgic reminder for me of all the many summers we enjoyed at the Fort Madison Country Club pool.

Mid month Coryn and Jeremy took a long awaited vacation to Clear Lake, Florida with an overnight stop in Orlando to meet our newest family member Ray Remsberg. They departed on a Thursday morning and returned late Monday afternoon. The grandmas split the childcare. Sheryl moved into the Logues house for the first two days and I picked them up Saturday morning and brought them to my house for the last couple of days. Things went well that day, we spent the evening playing in the kiddie pool on the deck and eating pizza – made for easy clean up with Owen, I just sat him in the pool to rinse supper off him. Unfortunately my first attempt to fill the pool was a disaster when I realized that Owen had filled it with poop as soon as he stepped in. Ava Claire was very indignant as I cleaned it out and filled it again.

Saturday night I was exhausted from the nonstop activity of my grandchildren and hoped to get some much needed sleep. Owen was sleeping in my bed and Ava Claire was sleeping along side it on a pillowcase bed that I had put together the previous week. It's a Pinterest type project whereby you make four or five adjoining pillowcases and add the pillows to make a soft and foldaway twin size bed.

It wasn't long before I regretted placing Ava Claire on the floor on my side of the bed. I had trouble falling asleep and realized that my tummy was talking very loudly to me and soon I was talking right back to it: begging for mercy as I found myself scrambling for the toilet over Ava Claire repeatedly. I had rampant diarrhea and very painful stomach cramps. I took a double dose of Imodium and hoped for relief and sleep but it was not to be. Owen awoke looking for his “binky” and Ava Claire needed to go potty. By six O'clock I knew I needed help and began texting and calling Kay. I knew she had had a housewarming party the night before and was probably exhausted herself but I hoped she might wake up to let her dog out early but no luck. I called Becky Dickinson because I knew that one of her girls wakes up at six every morning and thankfully she answered and came over immediately. She and her husband had suffered a similar illness a few days before and she was sure I would not be able to care for the kids at all that day. She insisted on taking them over to her house where she dressed , fed and entertained them through lunchtime until I was able to contact Kay to help me. Once Kay arrived Becky drove the kids back here and I thanked her profusely for all her help as I was so incapacitated with my stomach issues that I could not possibly have cared for the kids.

Kay soon found herself changing Owens diapers, helping Ava Claire on and off the potty, fixing snacks and meals and playing endless games of hide and seek and Ava Claire's latest pretend game obsession “Life Guards.” This game has obviously been created by her experiences at the pool this summer. She is a lifeguard and appoints another person to share the job with her – usually me – and we have to sit in Norm's Harvard chairs and blow a pretend whistle every-time an infraction of the pool rules occurs which is about every ten seconds. She will announce that someone is eating chips in the pool or pushing someone under the water and order me to blow my whistle and say something and so it goes on until one announces break time for the life guards but of course after two minutes she is ready to play again. She definitely has an assertive streak ! Kay was a good sport about all this and was definitely my life saver that day and the next. She spent the night and we split the kids up after a fractious start with both kids in my room. Ava Claire was so restless that she threatened to wake up Owen so we had her sleep upstairs with Kay and that worked out better. Unfortunately I had little sleep again thanks to my queasy stomach and a migraine like headache – all part of the virus Becky described to me. I was very happy to hand the kids back to their parents on Monday evening but glad that they had been able to have some time alone as a couple.

You might remember my mentioning a pool for the kids a few paragraphs ago – I have a rather interesting storage place in the garage for it: the roof of Joshua's car! Since his car has been stored in my garage Coryn has driven it a few times but it is quite a job to get it out of the garage as the lawn mower and yard equipment are parked behind it , the pool is on the roof and there are often “things” sitting on the trunk as all my storage on the floor is gone so I can only store up – on Joshua's car!

Ming-Lee, Lori, Blake and Claudia had a great European family vacation this summer and had some great professional family pictures taken in one of the many cities they visited. Josh is still winding his way through Eastern Europe, I believe he is in Poland this week and Sean is passing through my birthplace, Portsmouth, England on his way to the Isle of Wight, site of Osbourne House where Queen Victoria spent her summers. I still remember visiting it as a school girl on a field trip eons ago!

During one of the heat waves I decided to expend some energy indoors and painted out the cabinetry in the upstairs family room to match the kitchen and it looks much brighter and updated. Now I am painting the hallway and woodwork. Unfortunately the frames that Josh built for the very tall paintings fell apart when I took them down to paint the wall so I have to gorilla glue and clamp them back together. I will probably have to move both cars out of the garage to have enough space for that project!

Now I have another disaster to deal with. This evening I came in from watering my yard and decided that a nice bowl of ice- cream was well deserved but on pulling the container out of the fridge it felt very squishy – just like me. My freezer is not working. In desperation I grabbed the manual, watched a Utube video on troubleshooting refrigerators and decided to pull it out, unplug it and clean the coils. Plenty of dust bunnies were rounded up by my seldom used coil cleaning brush. I plugged it back in, shoved it back into place and not a sound was to be heard. I pushed every control button and slammed the door shut. An hour later it started humming. At least the fridge part is working, I am hoping that the freezer will refreeze overnight, it's down a few degrees but we need about minus 25 of them. I guess I'll have to find a repairman and get an estimate.

Well children despite my trials and tribulations I am maintaining my cool and and living in hopes that one of my handy dandy sons will visit soon! Love Mother - who is holding on with gorilla glue and foul language.