THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER : VOLUME 136 0CTOBER 2020
DEAR READERS,
Ming- Lee opted to undergo his third brain surgery in August after a routine scan revealed that his cancer was growing. The surgery went well, with his surgeon feeling confident that he had successfully removed all the visible tumor. Ming-Lee has been in a drug trial since this surgery but sadly a recent MRI scan revealed that his tumor has returned so he is no longer participating in the trial and is looking in to other possible options. I know we are all keeping him in our thoughts and prayers every day as he continues to fight on! I recently face timed with him and Lori - they both look great! He is still eating well and exercising with no pain or symptoms. His calm acceptance of his challenging situation is an inspiration to us all.
On a happier note Ming Lee and Lori celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on September the 23rd, and Claudia earned her private pilots license before graduating from high school just like her dad and bother! She just had her senior pictures taken – I think Lori sent everyone the link and posted the beautiful pictures on Facebook. Claudia is also applying to colleges and I am sure she will have no trouble in being accepted!
Sarah and Sean moved into their new house in early August. Sarah's parent's Cindy and Joe drove from Connecticut to Kansas over the course of two days to thankfully help with the move. .
In the many weeks that Sean and Sarah had to pack for their house move I was subjected to Sean's endless monologues in praise of his impressive organizational abilities: he claimed to have packed up their present home in a one man show of brilliance with boxes and household possessions. This was not going to be anything like the chaotic move we had all endured when Coryn and Jeremy moved a couple of years ago!
On moving day Cindy and I kept Emmy Lou and Liam at my house while Sean, Sarah , Joe and Josh loaded up a Uhaul, and their cars and drove it all to their new house and to my mind haphazardly unloaded most of the contents into their new three car garage. Sarah worked on getting Emmy Lou's bedroom and the kids playroom set up so they could be contained in a safe place once they arrived in their new home! The next day I returned to their old house to help load up all the stuff still waiting to be moved to their new one. I was quite surprised to see so much stuff still there! I wondered why on earth they had not rented the Uhaul for a second day so that it could all be moved in one trip but frugal Sean had decided that all our vehicles could be utilized for a few trips up and down miles of Quivera ! I returned to their old house for day three of this master class in efficient house moving to help clean it before the new homeowners moved in. I arrived with my Swiffer steamer and my Shark vacuum and started on the bedrooms and bathrooms working my way out through the kitchen and living room. I opened the oven doors and found both ovens and the microwave in a disgusting state: think of Marc's housekeeping skills! I considered using the clean cycles on the ovens but realized it would take too long so used good old fashioned elbow grease and whatever cleansers still remained in the house. Sean was not in the least concerned about leaving filthy appliances for the new owners to deal with assuring me that the double ovens in his new home were just as bad. I shuddered and scrubbed. Fortunately an hour later they were sparkling. We packed up the last few possessions into our cars and headed to their new home. Joe and Cindy were doing their best to sort out some of the chaos and clean as they went along. Sarah was working and nursing her baby at this time so was obviously already very busy but I am sure that she- like the rest of us- was convinced that Sean was going to magically wave his arms and have everything in place shortly.
On Saturday morning I was just stepping out of the shower when I got a frantic call from Sean: Cindy and Joe had left for their long drive home that very morning, Sarah was at the pediatricians with Liam for his four month check up and Josh was spending the weekend at a friends lake house. Sean was home with Emmy Lou . He had just been in the basement and discovered that water was leaking into Joshua's bedroom from the water heater in a nearby storage room.. He needed me to keep Emmy Lou from paddling in Uncle Joshua's downstairs bedroom while he tried to figure out what to do. As I mentioned before I was dripping wet when I took this call but Mother didn't waste a moment in rushing to my child's aid. I arrived with dripping wet hair , sprung out of my car and went down to the basement ready to rescue my precious baby boy!
The previous weekend Sarah and Sean had invited her parents and me to the final walk through of their new house. I had noticed a wet towel on the floor by one of the two water heaters and asked the Realtor what that was about. Oh just a small leak that happened sometimes apparently but no big deal! Mother would have demanded that it be fixed before I signed on the dotted line but the kids were much less concerned – after all there was a drain behind the furnace and a sump pump! Unfortunately neither one of these factors is of any relevance if the floor is not graded to direct the water into them!
On this Saturday morning it was evident that the water was draining into Joshua's bedroom carpet. A whole water heater's worth of water! Sean was trying to vacuum the water up and keep Emmy Lou from imitating Peppa Pig jumping in muddy puddles. We worked on shutting off the water, the gas and diverting the flow of water away from the carpet with piles of bedding - I had to make a couple of trips to my house to get towels as Sean had no clue where theirs were in the chaos of his well planned move! I was worried about carbon monoxide fumes and Sean was not sure if they had a detector in the house so he went off to the hardware store to get one. He had a home warranty plan but found that trying to talk to an actual person on the weekend was almost impossible. I called my plumber who was more than willing to install a new water heater that day but Sean didn't want to pay for it if the home warranty would cover it. Frankly if I had two babies I would have considered hot water essential ! Fortunately I live so close by that they could shower and bath the babies at my house and do their laundry as well since they didn't have a washer and dryer either for a few weeks! Luckily in a few days my plumber installed a new water heater which was partial covered by their warranty and everybody's stress level dropped.
On reflection I couldn't help but think that Josh had a wasted trip that weekend to the lake to go paddle boarding – he could have stayed home and paddle boarded in his bedroom!
Their large three story home works so much better for them especially since they now work from home and have a nanny for Emmy Lou and Liam instead of sending them to daycare. When Josh is in Kansas City he has the lower level to himself – his own bedroom and bathroom, living area with a projection television, and a bar with a fridge and a microwave! Unfortunately my home is no longer Joshua's place of refuge but this could change as I have a lot more opportunities for Josh to use his DIY skills! His brother's house is a fairly new build and completely updated.
Josh has been traveling again recently - finding it hard to remain in one location for months instead of visiting many countries in the course of a normal year before Covid locked us down. He flew out to Los Angeles last month – despite Covid and the raging forest fires, creating the most polluted air in the world . Marc was happy to have Josh sort out the mess I had left in his kitchen when I took down his ceiling last year! Unfortunately Marc is still unwilling to invest in the major renovation which is so desperately needed of his condo! The two brothers drove to Thousand Oaks to visit Bryn who is house sitting for friends who have spent the last couple of months in Kansas as they didn't want their young children exposed to smoke from the forest fires or the danger of fleeing their home if the fire came into their neighborhood. Now I just had to worry about three of my sons being barbecued! I questioned why they couldn't just all come home to the safety of my house since all three are working from home! I was relieved when Josh flew out of Los Angeles to Orlando to stay with the Remsburgs ! Apparently Craig needed some help outfitting a van for work purposes. Josh is definitely the family handy man and is always welcome at our homes and his many friends worldwide!
Kay and Richard are very comfortably moved into their new home with all our shopping finished so my last visit was to start work on the garden which needs to be totally redone. I took about a half dozen evergreen starter trees that had self seeded in my yard and planted them in theirs and so far the kids have kept them alive! In the Spring I will plant a lot of Rose of Sharon along the neighbors fence lines to give them some more privacy!Just last week one of my neighbors decided to redo his landscaping and had multiple plants delivered to his home just before a freeze was forecast. I thought it far too late in the season to plant but he wanted me to put them in places where they would look good and hopefully thrive. ready for the guys he had hired to plant them! Difficult as he had picked out a lot of Crepe Myrtles, Hollies and Nandina's which all need sun – of which his shady lot has very little ! I have a feeling I will be doing it all again next Spring.
Ava Claire and Owen got to have a sleepover at Grandma's awhile ago and unfortunately there was as much drama as fun. Coryn came over with them late in the afternoon, stayed for supper with us and then left for her home and a blissful night of peace and quiet. All was well until Owen stood on one of the stools Uncle Josh had made and somehow lost his balance and cut his ear as he fell on the edge of my rustic coffee table. He was screaming and bleeding as I tried to assess the injury! Matters were not helped when Ava Claire assured him that it was bleeding a lot when he asked how much! He screamed louder as I tried to convince him it was a very minor cut. Ava Claire with her take charge personality called her mother with the dire news : it took awhile for Ava Claire for her to hand over the phone so that I could explain how very difficult it was to evaluate the seriousness of the cut because of Owen's hysterics and the blood flow! Coryn decided it best that she return and while she was driving over I gave Owen an iPad so he could watch a show while I covered his cut with a band aid. Amazing how that calmed him down – even when Ava Claire helpfully told him that blood was seeping through the band-aid.
Unfortunately Owen became hysterical again when his band aid was removed so Coryn could assess the damage. I thought it might need a stitch or two, so Coryn decided that we would patch it up again and that she might stop by an urgent care for another opinion. I was surprised when she returned some time later with Owen. They had not gone to urgent care as the blood flow had decreased significantly and he had calmed down again and in fact wanted to spend the night at Grandma's – doubtless remembering that a box of donuts was sitting on my kitchen counter for our breakfast in the morning!Ava Claire - while full of sympathy for her brother's injury- had realized that she would enjoy an overnight at Grandma's all to herself maybe more than having Owen around too so she was trying to persuade him that he would be better off going home with his mother! We said goodbye to Coryn for the second time that night and as I closed the front door I remarked to Ava Claire that Owen seemed fine. She assured me that was not so, claiming that she knew her brother better than I did. and thus she could tell that he was being a very brave boy but she had seen tears in his eyes and she was sure he was going to wake us up crying for his mommy in the night! Ava Claire informed me that I should have sent him home with his mommy!
The rest of the evening passed peacefully enough with Ava Cl;aire making bedtime hot milk for her and Owen! It was the first time I had not been asked to make it for them! She can now reach cups, get the milk out of the fridge, pour it without spilling and use the microwave to heat it up!
Bedtime came and we all started out in my bed but in the middle of my telling them one of my made up stories about ' Miranda the Mermaid,' Owen started bugging his sister so he was banished to the pillow bed on the floor! He was not happy about this and soon after I heard him leave the room and after a while I found him curled up on the family room sofa so I covered him with a blanket and crept back to bed! Fortunately he did not wake us screaming for his mommy! I did get dragged out of bed in the morning earlier than I would have liked so they could eat donuts!
They each took a bath that morning as they love playing with the cans of bath foam I have for them and amazingly enough Owen demanded that I remove the band aid from his ear as he thought he looked dorky with it on! I said that after all the fuss he had made last night when I peeled it off that I wasn't anxious to go through that again but he assured me that he was not going to fuss so I took it off with hardly an “ouch” this time! Fortunately it has healed well.
I have been busy sewing masks for friends of friends , making a nearly eight foot long window seat cushion with matching bolster pillows for Emmy Lou's new bedroom and a double fox tail for Callie's Halloween costume. When Craig texted me about making it I didn't have a clue about the Sonic characters! I will be turning out seasonal Christmas masks next children! The kids enjoyed the Halloween one's I made! Let me know if you would like one!
Witching time is upon us and I am hoping that our big orange presidential pumpkin will be smashed to smithereens next week when we vote in the lesser of two evils: an old man that can't keep his facts straight over an old man who does not believe in facts only lies! We deserve a treat after all the tricks that have been played on us this year!
Children – if one of you ever needs me to come stay for a spell I will cast caution to the wind and jump on my broomstick! Much safer than flying commercial these days! Love your always bewitching Mother.
