THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER : VOLUME 151, JUNE 2023
Dear Readers,
Memorial Day weekend was very memorable this year as Craig, Ray, and Calle visited us for the first time since Kay and Richard’s wedding in 2019! Leslee-Ann had made a solo trip to see Ming-Lee for our last family reunion with him in Kansa City in June 2021. Covid and Southwest Airlines flight cancellations conspired to keep many of us apart. It was so fun to see all the cousins together - Liam. Lochlan, Cillian and Alex were not even born until after the Flaig’s wedding! Lori and Blake drove over from Indianapolis and Bryn flew from LA! It was great to have so much family here.
On Saturday May 29th at seven thirty in the morning I was filling two pools with water and hooking a hose up to a splash pad - I had inflated these items the night before because I wanted to be organized by nine-thirty that morning when Sarah would be arriving with her four children whilst Sean drove to the airport to pick up the Remsbergs. I scurried to and from my house with arm loads of pool toys, towels, sunscreens, bug sprays and a dozen new fangled water guns that look like short pool noodles! I even hauled the water- table down from the deck. I felt that I had created a water park to rival Worlds of Fun!
Unfortunately two hours of full sun failed to warm the water very much so when the children arrived it was still freezing cold but it did not deter them at all! Kay arrived with Alex who was more than happy to climb into the pool with Emmy Lou. LIam, and Lochlan! At least they didn’t turn blue but they were all shivering with chattering teeth! As soon as we got them wrapped in towels and warmed up a bit they ran straight back into the pools: they didn’t care about the cold at all! Fortunately by mid afternoon the pools were much warmer although my splash pad sprung a leak and Sean had to finagle the hose connection to keep water flowing into the spray spouts instead of creating muddy puddles in my lawn.
The Remsbergs arrived and Callie and Ray suited up and joined in the fun! Just before my sumptuous luncheon sandwich buffet Coryn arrived with Ava Clare but without Owen and Jeremy. Unfortunately Owen had been diagnosed with Strep Throat the day before and was advised to isolate from others until he had been on antibiotics for twenty four hours. That was a bummer - especially since we were having a joint birthday party that night for Ava Claire and Owen to celebrate their tenth and eighth birthdays respectively which are very close date wise.After lunch Coryn drove to the airport to pick up Bryn and Lori called from the road to let me know they would be arriving in plenty of time for the planned pizza and ice-cream cake birthday party.
I put Coryn and Ava Claire in charge of ordering pizzas that evening , and we all sang’ Happy Birthday’ to a beaming Ava Claire. Thankfully the weather allowed us to eat on the deck rather than inside my home. I was happy to let the wildlife do the cleanup for me, feasting on all the many morsels of food that landed on the deck rather than in my grandchildren's mouths!.
On Sunday I was woken up by the happy sounds of Ray and Callie who with their parents and Uncle Bryn were staying at my house. Sean and Sarah were going to be dropping their four children off for us to babysit while they were having lunch and attending a Cirque du Soleil performance: Sarah’s birthday gift to Sean! Craig was very into helping baby Cillian master his rolling skills when he wasn’t being used like the monkey bars at a playground by the other children! Later that afternoon we all headed over to Coryn and Jeremy’s house where Lori and Blake were staying : they helped the Logues prepare to host our family later that afternoon.
As I pulled into the Logue’s driveway I noticed a nice size kiddy pool sitting on their front lawn but it didn’t come close to rivaling my setup of the previous day! That was until I followed the noise into the backyard and was stunned to see an enormous inflatable water pool with slides three times the size of mine - probably reaching to a height of eight feet. My ego was deflated - I was prepared to see a slip and slide but this was a monstrous sized aquatic delight. I plonked myself into a chair and asked Coryn where she had got it - turned out it was her neighbors! She also had shade canopies spread around her gardens and a lot of chairs that had also come from her neighbors! This only served to put my efforts of yesterday into the shade. Poor Blake had spent most of his time at my house using his aeronautical engineering skills to place my patio umbrellas in the best position to keep us all from broiling in the baking sun. Everytime the sun moved, so did my umbrellas. I made a mental note to myself to check on the prices of these canopies on Amazon. Mother obviously needs to up her game plan.
I asked Coryn where she had set the slip and slide up and she told me it was behind the massive inflatable! This too was much more impressive than I had expected!: It must have been over thirty feet long and even came with boogie boards!
Emmy Lou announced that she was spending the night at Grandma’s so she could have some extra time to play with Ray and Callie the morning of Memorial Day before we headed over to Sean and Sarah’s for an afternoon cookout. Monday morning Bryn, the Remsburgs and Emmy-Lou went to Deanna Rose- the children’s petting zoo - while I stayed home to water my desperately dry garden and to straighten up the house a bit.
Unfortunately Lori and Blake missed our get together at Sean’s as they had to head home as Blake ws taking flight instruction classes the next day but it was so heartwarming to have them with us for the days we did : we all know how much fun Ming Lee would have had playing with all the nieces and nephews. He would also have greatly enjoyed frazzling my nerves with his brothers shooting basketballs on my driveway which bounced off into my flower beds flattening my blooms and causing me to screech like a banshee.
In recent weeks various family members have experienced flying in and out of our new airport and reviews are mixed. Bryn and the Remsbergs were very impressed with the new facility: loving all the restaurants, shops and amenities that the previous airport did not have the space for. So now we have a massive airport that requires one to take 3,943 steps from the shuttle bus drop off point to one’s gate. Granted there are moving pavements but I am sure that many seniors could find using them difficult with their knee, hip and balance issues! Thankfully Mother is in amazing shape for her age and frequently hits 10,000 steps a day on her fitbit tracker!
Bryn amazed me by announcing that he was not going to be driving to the airport with the Remsbergs as he was ubering ahead of them to try out one of the barbecue joints at the airport. None of my other frugal sons would have paid for an uber and a meal when they could get there for free in my car and eat from my kitchen! Frankly I have no desire to eat a meal at an airport and I restrict my liquids to avoid having to use the restroom aboard a plane. Plus of course my bowels tend to be unsettled until I am seated at my gate with at least an hour to compose myself after the stresses of driving to the airport, parking, boarding a shuttle bus, clearing security and finding the gate in the right concourse.
I flew out of the new airport to Orlando in late April to visit the Remsburgs for a few days. I arrived Friday evening and learned that I would need to be up early the next morning to attend Ray’s basketball game at eight in the morning! This immediately sent me into a tailspin as this meant getting up at six for me with the time difference! But of course anything for my grandchildren so Grandma had her butt on the bench watching Ray play at an hour I would normally be sleeping! Craig’s dad, Roger, joined us for the game and I have to say that he and Craig were very enthusiastically coaching from the sidelines - despite observing beforehand that some parents are way too involved with their young children’s games! I think Ray was the top scorer on his team and also won a medal for good sportsmanship! However Craig and Roger thought this was not a game that best showcased his talents! I can only imagine how intensely involved these two are going to be in Ray’s teenage sports!
That night I babysat Ray and Calie as Leslee-Ann and Craig had tickets to see Steve Martin and Martin Sheen perform their comedy act. Who knew old people were so cool? I told the children that they would have to babysit me really as I had no idea what the house rules were and amazingly they did not take advantage of my ignorance at all! In fact they were both angels - sharing a bag of sour gummy worms with me while we watched the children’s movie Luca and thank goodness Ray knew how to work the television controls! I would have been trying all their remotes in various combinations for hours trying to find the show that they wanted to watch! They both got ready for bed without a fuss and Ray stayed up for some alone time with Grandma as he explained that it was okay since he was much older than Callie!
Miles, the dog, has supposedly been to obedience training since my last visit but he seemed as rambunctious as ever to me. Leslee-Ann insisted that he was jumping all over me because I made eye contact with him and patted his head. Apparently you have to completely ignore him - hard to do when he jumps all over you! Whilst there I also developed streaming eyes and a runny nose that required wads of tissues to soak it all up - tissues that the dog grabbed and tore to pieces all over the house - including in my bed. I decided that I was either allergic to the dog or fruit tree pollen from our berry picking earlier in the day.
On Sunday morning we went for a walk along a nearby lake and experienced hurricane strength winds - far more scary than the alligators sunning themselves along the shore! Ray and Callie were challenged just to stand!
I flew back on Monday and missed the setup of the old airport yet again- it only used to take a few steps from departing the plane to being curbside for the shuttle bus . Once again I had to walk thousands of steps and use an escalator to reach the shuttle bus parked across four lanes of traffic! We definitely have a big city airport now!
We have all been following Joshua’s posts on facebook and his texts keep us informed of all his adventures as he travels around the world , - he has recently visited Australia to attend a friend’s wedding and then moved on to South East Asia.In Bali he meetup with our family friends from Fort Madison Roger and Lori Griwold, who just happened to be there on a diving trip so they were able to spend time together! Recently he landed in Borneo and has been volunteering with a rainforest rehab project and enjoying wild Orangutans! Hopefullyhe will be headed back home soon as it has been ten months since he left on his latest travels!
Ming Jon has recently moved to Arlington, West Virginia after spending thirty-four years in Washington DC. Hope all goes well - he may be here for a visit shortly. Marc is working so many legal cases in Los Angeles that he hasn’t been able to get away for a visit yet but hopes things. will slow down soon.
Climate change is reflected yet again in my garden as our dry and unusually hot Spring has resulted in the grass needing to be watered daily in order to have any hopes of avoiding scorched earth. I will have to expand my flower beds yet again: having a lawn is soon going to be impractical due to the cost of water needed to combat the drought and heat. And you will be pleased to know that I have reduced my trips to the Hen House by ordering bulk household staples like detergent, paper plates, kitchen towels etc from Amazon. Minimizing my carbon footprint as I certainly do not drive on a daily basis anymore!
Love from your at the moment always hot Mother. Triple digit temperatures are forecast for the last days of June!
