THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER: VOLUME 111
NOVEMBER 2016
DEAR READERS,
My bedrooms have enjoyed higher
occupancy rates of late than any of Trump's hotels - if the news of
his declining bookings is to be believed. Again this year I enjoyed a
full house for the weekend of the Royal American Barbecue
competition. Craig flew into town with production crew member Mike to
join Josh and Bryn who were already staying with me. He was hoping to
film footage to add to last years as he forges ahead to make a
documentary about the huge event which draws people from all over the
world.
Josh drove back from Texas where he had
spent a few weeks helping build yet another hydroponic greenhouse and
Bryn flew in from Alabama where he had been attending a wedding. For
a few days I let the boys occupy my most comfortable bedrooms but
down graded them once my VIP guests arrived, Josh to my double twin
room and Bryn to a mattress on the basement floor. I laundered
sheets numerous times to accommodate all the room changes! Josh is
now back in his usual bedroom until the 22nd of this month
when he heads to Columbia – the country he had trouble getting out
of last time he visited it if you remember! He claims those
circumstances prevented him from sight seeing so he he is going to
try again and brush up on his Spanish. I pointed out that he only had
to go up the street to the Oak Park Mall where he would find hundreds
of Spanish speaking people to converse with and if he runs into
trouble in Columbia again I will not be putting up a dime to get him
out!
Since Bryn has not seen Ava Claire and
Owen for over a year I decided to have the children spend a night at
my house so that he could maximize his time with them, before Craig
arrived , as I assumed he would be filming for most of the time. So
as usual I picked the children up from pre-school on Monday but drove
them to my house instead of theirs . Coryn came by after work and
stayed for supper and left looking forward to a night's sleep
uninterrupted by waking children. That night I shared my bed with the
two of them, placing a pillow between them whilst I clung to the bed
edge all night lest I rolled over and woke Owen who would then wake
Ava Claire. Amazingly enough we all slept well, at least I got enough
sleep to feel up to taking the children to the animal farm. I thought
this might be a fun outing for the uncles too to see their niece and
nephew enjoying the animals but Bryn declined to join us as it turned
out that he was working remotely and thus needed to put his hours in
for his regular job! Apparently he didn't want to waste any vacation
days on a visit with his mother and helping his brother-in-law!
Fortunately Uncle Josh went which made the children very happy,
especially Ava Claire who adores him. Actually she knew when he was
coming home before I did as he called her to suggest baking a cake
together for Coryn's birthday and she was happy to tell me all about
their plans!
A few weeks prior we had made a trip to
the farm with another Uncle -Marc. He called unexpectedly to announce
that his boss was on a month long European vacation so he was going
to spend a week with me! I immediately prayed for my toilets
plumbing. I racked my brains trying to think of projects that we
could undertake together but as Marc has no handyman skills and no
interest in spending time in my garden (which he claims causes his
allergies to flare up) I was stymied. I was pleasantly surprised when
he actually managed to weed a few dandelions out one afternoon and
spent an evening helping me clean out your dad's old paperwork. I
still have file drawers to deal with, nearly all fodder for the
shredder but I keep my eyes peeled in hopes of finding something of
value!
It didn't take long for Ava Claire to
declare that Uncle Marc was not as special as Uncle Josh,
unfortunately he had no idea how to play her princess games and Owen
was very wary of this new uncle. Marc muttered something about making
semi-annual visits so that the children would be more comfortable
with him.
Marc surprised me by offering to make
us supper – I immediately thought of his beef stew, the last supper
that your dad ate and of the inedible rock hard baked beans he spent
hours preparing for us all another time. Once again he was soaking
beans and putting them in my crock pot along with a mix of things
that he deemed creole. Sausage was added to the pot – not one of my
favorites either but once the whole mess was cooked for hours Marc
pronounced it was ready to eat. I served myself a small portion,
tossing all the sausage that landed on my plate back into the pot.
Unfortunately even my small portion proved too much for my
gastrointestinal system to handle as I awoke with race to the
bathroom diarrhea the following morning. It is hard to understand
Marc's constant focus on his bunged up bowels when his cooking clears
mine out every time!
On Wednesday , November the 9th
Sean will be returning to Kansas City and I will finally get to meet
his girlfriend Sarah. She arrived a couple of weeks ago and has been
staying with a friend in Kansas City with plans to move to my house
once Sean arrives. Sean did not want me to meet her before his
arrival as he wanted to be the one to introduce us. As it so happened
she hung out with Josh, , Craig and Mike at the Royal American
Barbecue and the two that had not met her before were very enthused.
Craig came bursting through my kitchen door asking me to guess who
was just sitting in a car in my driveway – I took too long to
answer so he blurted out “Sarah Byers”. I immediately headed out
to meet her only to see that Josh's car was gone with Sarah in it
back to her friend's house. I had missed my chance to become her new
best friend, think how wonderful it would have been if Sarah had
returned with Sean from the airport and acted as though she owned the
place! I would have pulled off a coup but alas once again my children
thwarted me!
THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER PART 2
Unfortunately my whirlwind life became
so busy that I did not have time to finish my newsletter before Sean
and Sarah's arrival and my trip to Indianapolis with Coryn and Ava
Claire to see Claudia perform the lead role in her middle schools
musical “Cinderella”.
Owen stayed with his dad and Auntie
Choo Choo (Meghan) while we three girls flew to Indianapolis –
don't say Indy in Ava Claire's presence as you are quickly corrected!
Ava was extremely well behaved on our outward and inbound flights,
enjoying the drink and snacks , she asked the amused stewardess who
took our drink orders if she could have something to eat too!
Fortunately Grandma was prepared with extra snacks: her mother
grabbed a handful of candy from my basket for herself before we
headed to the airport. I noticed that Ava Claire was not wearing any
kind of outerwear and questioned if Coryn had packed a jacket for
her, oops she had forgotten! As always Grandma came to the rescue
with a sweater that Leslee-Ann wore as a little girl which
miraculously matched Ava Claire's outfit!
Ming-Lee was so excited about our visit
that he parked the car and came into the terminal to greet us! Once
home we were greeted by Lori and her mother Diane whom we had not
seen since Ming and Lori's wedding over twenty years ago! Over the
course of three performances many relatives and family friends came
to support Claudia in her theatrical debut! The house was so filled
with flowers that I remarked anyone not in the know would assume that
a death had occurred!
Once Claudia was home from school she
was promptly whisked upstairs for hair and make up – Ava Claire had
her nails painted simultaneously so she could watch all the cosmetic
wizardry. Lori used a curling iron to fashion seemingly hundreds of
ringlets that were cemented in place with hair spray and Claudia did
a stellar job of doing her own stage make-up. Blake arrived soon
after and joined us for a chilli supper while Lori and Claudia left
for the school theater.
I was amazed by the high standard of
the production, frankly expecting flubbed lines, off key singing, and
staging issues. Instead the children , over eighty of them gave a
totally high school level performance. Claudia was a spell binding
Cinderella with her beautiful singing voice and stage presence. Lori
and Ming had worked very hard to bring about the spectacular costume
change necessitated by the scene with the fairy Godmother when she
goes from scullery maid to the belle of the ball. It involved
layering, bustling, and fish weights but it was a magical
transformation! The Fairy Godmother looked spectacular herself in a
lit up dress! And the carriage that a few of the dads had built was
good enough to be in a Disney movie! Obviously there is a lot of
parental support in Blake and Claudia's school system as there were a
number of scene changes that called for everything from thrones to
stairs to fireplaces.
Ava Claire was entranced through out
the performance and during intermission all the little girls in the
audience were invited to parade across the stage with one of the cast
members in ball gowns. Knowing about this in advance many of the
children were dressed like Ava Claire in Princess attire! They even
handed out invitations to the girls in the audience prior to the
start of the show to participate in the parade. The amount of thought
and attention to detail given this production was incredible for
Middle School level. As a former drama major myself I was most
impressed and in the years to come will be following Claudia's
dramatics!
After our return to Ming and Lori's
home on Friday night Blake gave us a preview of his presentation
about rockets for a speech contest the following day. He opened with
Sinatra's' Fly Me To the Moon' – great singing voice too and then
launched into an explanation that flew right over my head! Diane said
she had followed his every word so I decided to up my daily Candy
Crush games to keep my mind functioning – this was backed up by
scientific fact as Diane is on a higher level than me and has
obviously put in a few more beneficial hours!
Sarah and Sean arrived at my home for a
Lasagna supper on Wednesday, November 9th arriving in a
car that Sarah had bought that day to pick Sean up at the airport!
Josh had assisted her at the dealership earlier in the day – all
tasks that I could have helped with had I been permitted to meet her
prior to Sean's return! They moved into my paisley bedroom with six
huge suitcases , thank goodness I had cleaned out the entire walk in
closet in that bedroom prior to their arrival! I knew immediately
that Sarah and I were going to get along well - she called up the
stairs to Josh to come down and help them with all their belongings
and he appeared immediately – not the result I would have got!
Sean was exhausted by his long flight
from London, then Chicago to Kansas City but the next day he was at
the DMV taking his driver's test as his license had expired whilst he
was living in London. Fortunately he passed after not driving for a
couple of years! He and Sarah spent their first weekend apartment
hunting and quickly decided to buy a house instead and put an offer
in on one the following day but unfortunately got outbid when it went
over asking price. They are working with realtor Fred, our family
friend, to find something in the area that Bryn and Elizabeth
Woodbury lived in. In the meantime they will stay with me!
Josh moves out on Tuesday, headed for
Columbia and Leslee-Ann, Craig and baby Ray will be taking over his
vacated room on Wednesday so you see Mother is running a bonafide bed
and breakfast, lunch and dinner business! It just doesn't pay
although Josh fixed several problems around the house for me with his
handy man skills which I greatly appreciated!
I must thank Craig for leaving a couple
of bottles behind after his last visit – I found myself reaching
for the gin as the election results came in on November 8th
as I tried to compute that Hilary Clinton was not looking like the
huge winner I had anticipated. I was unable to comprehend how a
nation that had voted for Obama twice could elect a man who was so
much less in every way. This is going to be a very interesting period
in American history and I hope that the country does not fall into a
divide as deep as the Grand Canyon over issues such as race, religion
and our role in the world.
One things for sure our late night
comedians will have a wealth of material to use – like Milania
Trumps intention to make cyber bullying her cause as First Lady –
at least she knows something about it as she is married to the
biggest bully of them all but unfortunately it is evident that she
hasn't had any impact on him at all!
Well children, Mother must head to the
garden where clematis, cleomes and roses are still blooming as cold
weather is finally coming to us and I need to haul the canna's and
rain lily's into the garage for winter. It has been a wonderfully
warm fall, with trees still covered in green leaves, grass that needs
to be mowed and even butterflies. This has been a strange year in
many ways.
Just in case you may be thinking of
visiting soon but are worried about finding a bed in my often fully
occupied house be assured that I will always find room for my family
and friends just as I make a place for each of you in my heart! Love
Mother
