THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER: VOLUME 159 FEBRUARY 2025
Dear Children, Family and Friends,
This morning I ignored my alarm, choosing to stay in my warm, cosy bed until my coffee craving kicked in: some time later I pulled on my robe, played footsie with my slippers, shuffled into the kitchen , filled the coffee maker with water, the filter with carefully measured coffee grounds, grabbed a breakfast bar from the pantry and settled myself on the sofa to watch the news on the TV whilst I scrolled through my Ipad apps. The aroma of coffee lured me back into the kitchen to pour myself a made to perfection cup of coffee only to see that said coffee was cascading over my kitchen countertop and streaming across my floor! I had forgotten to put the coffee pot back on the machine. I brewed another pot of coffee whilst I cleaned up the mess. This was not the sort of start that a non morning person needs for their day.
Once dressed, I ventured out into the back yard to fill up my state of the art Bird Buddy feeder but my attention was drawn away from the task at hand by the alarming sight of one of my evergreen trees that was deathly brown : my loss of focus caused me to trip over a large tomato cage that I had thrown from the deck the previous day - intending to eventually store it back under the deck. Bird seed was everywhere but in the feeder. I decided it might be fortuitous to put the tomato cages away before I tried to fill the bird feeder again! I grabbed the cages and headed under the deck completely forgetting that it was necessary to duck one’s head in order to avoid being on a collision course with a beam. I hoped the blow to my head might knock some sense into me! I retreated to my sofa and decided that my bruised head and ego needed a very quiet day to heal. This was not the day for me to take down my dead tree with the chainsaw - I would probably cut off my limbs rather than the trees with my luck !Thus I decided that the best activity for me today was to write my newsletter!
The Christmas season started well. I enjoyed an evening excursion to the Kansas City Zoo with Sarah, Sean and my four grandchildren, marveling at the many beautifully lighted displays known as GloWild. It featured Disney Princess Movies, Jurassic Park and a Grinch that hijacked our train ride through the displays much to the children’s delight.. I immediately realized that my outdoor Christmas lighting display was woefully inadequate and shared with Sarah my plans for uplighting my trees next year - a comment she took to heart by presenting me with a large number of outdoor solar lights for Christmas!
My Christmas Eve buffet of every frozen hor’s d'oeuvres imaginable from Sam’s Club prepared in my kitchen with help from Sean and Jeremy to man my air fryer and two ovens that it took to cook it all went well and as always our gift exchange was great fun until one child decided that they wanted to play with another’s gift and then of course mayhem ensued! I have to say that Jeremy gave me a gift that I would have expected from Marc - a resin dog with a solar powered lighted snail on its back, kissing a baby chick ! Totally bizarre but of course it will join all the other ghastly garden ornaments my children have gifted me over the years! 
Jeremy's imaginative gift to me! 
Sarah, Coryn, me, Sean and Jeremy 
Grandma with Emmy Lou, Ava, Liam, Cillian ,Owen and Lochlan
Christmas Day dawned and I realized that I was not feeling that great and by mid afternoon I decided that I was not well enough to go to Sarah and Sean’s for dinner. Sean insisted on dropping off food for me with a couple of the kids and as it turned out that was my last meal for a few days! That night I threw up once, developed a cough, and clogged sinuses! Sean informed me that a couple of the kids had done so too: the next day he tested positive for Covid! Once again our family had given each other Covid for Christmas! This time I lost my sense of taste and smell for a couple of weeks and it was interesting to only focus on the texture of the food in my mouth! It took me a couple of weeks to stop coughing but Sarah developed severe sinus infections that did not clear up despite antibiotics. A medical scan of her sinuses showed that she would require surgery as her sinuses were so congested that drainage was not possible. She also was diagnosed with a deviated septum which could be corrected in the same surgery.
Sarah scheduled her procedures on a Friday as I usually have the three boys that day at my house. This enabled Sean to take her to and from her surgery..I actually also had the pleasure of Emmy Lou’s company that day too as she had a cough and slight fever that meant she could not attend Kindergarten., She had succumbed to yet another virus that had spread through the boys! I already had had Lochlan and Cillian spend some sick days with me in the previous couple of weeks with the same symptoms
Fortunately Sarah sailed through her surgery returning to my house afterwards to nap for a few hours. As usual we had dinner and then I bathed the kids, got them into pajamas. Emmy Lou and Lochlan spent the night with me whilst Cillian and Liam went home with their parents. I had offered to keep Liam too but he had a Martial Arts Exam to earn a higher level belt at 7:45 am the following morning! Emy Lou amazed me when she announced that she was not going to sleep in my room but upstairs by herself because she didn't want me to catch her germs - even though she had been cuddling with me all day! I fully expected her to crawl into my bed along with Lochlan all night but she made it all through the night! Ava Claire was ten before she would sleep upstairs alone!.
Emmy Lou and Liamset up a zoo in the hallway 
Cillian and Lochlan in the kithen with playdough
Lori and Kay also underwent medical procedures around the same time, Loi had reconstructive surgery after several months of healing from her previous double mastectomy. Kay and Richard have been undergoing IVF procedures for several months but unfortunately it did not result in the hoped for pregnancy.. They have recently added a new furry girl named Luna to their household - she is an adorable looking Yorkshire Terrier!
Marc and Bryn have been feeling the heat and choking on the smoke out in LA. Bryn’s girlfriend Gabby had to evacatefrom her home in Santa Monica to Bryn’s place in Silverlake. Since this time Bryn has managed to lease a home in the Hollywood Hills that once belonged to Weird Al Yankovic - not sure if that is a good thing or not!. Frankly I was amazed that he was able to do so at this time because of the thousands of people who have lost their homes to the fires! The real estate market must be very low on inventory! also suffered through the Shingles at this time - in his thirties! I am sure it was triggered by all the stress of life in LA! I just hope his new home does not get demolished by a mudslide!
Trump has accomplished so much in his first month: who knew a vote for Trump was really a vote for Elon Musk? The Gulf of Mexico has been renamed to the Gulf of America, the Panama Canal is soon to become a colony of the USA ,the Gaza Strip is going to become the Vegas Strip courtesy of Trump's real estate empire and Greenland our Winter Wonderland. And the amazing thing is that Trump thinks he can just take over all this real estate because he is the President of the USA! Reminds me of British Imperialism. But wasn’t this country populated by Europeans tired of being ruled by Royalty who worked and taxed their people to death?
Trump claims that we will not be paying a penny (probably because he is also abolishing that coin) for any of these prime acquisitions and envisions beautiful real estate developments that will be affordable to only the multi millionaires among us.He has Elon Musk cutting expenditures to the bone in all government departments so that all our taxes can be diverted away from government programs - that are a lifeline for millions of Americans - to finance his fantasies.
My biggest disappointment so far this year was definitely the Superbowl: witnessing our humiliating loss to the Philadelphia Eagles who took control of the game from kick off to the final whistle .But in all fairness the Chiefs have won all their games this season by just one score and did not dominate the field in any game. And a lot of players that were drafted this season failed to connect with Mahomes in key moments so I am sure that there will be a lot of roster changes in the team’s future! Even the halftime show was not worth watching this year! 
Gandma made fleece beanies to support the Chiefs! 
Alex with his hat!
This has been the coldest winter with far more snow than usual.. Weather conditions have caused so many days of school cancellations - although my children never seem to have any difficulty in driving over to Grandma’s house with their offspring on these days! And they can also pull into a snow free driveway and send their children running on my snow free pathway to my front door thanks to the snow angels in my cul de sac who get out their snow blowers and shovels as soon as the flakes fly!
Love from your stone cold mother who only has to drink in the presence of her grandchildren to feel warm all over!
