THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER: VOLUME 156                                                JULY 2024

Dear Readers,

Our Memorial Day Weekend  Family Reunion began on  Friday, May 24th with Bryn and Claudia’s arrival at the Logues. Unfortunately Marc failed to get off the ground at LAX when his flight to Phoenix, connecting to Des Moines was canceled. He was planning to meet up with the Remsbergs - who were visiting friends there - before driving down Interstate 35 with them to my home on Sunday.  On learning of Marc’s plight I immediately suggested taking any airlines next direct flight to Kansas City - alerting him to an open seat on a Southwest flight but Marc seemed determined to stick with American Airlines and thus ended up on a redeye to Chicago where he spent almost 24 hours waiting for a seat on a plane to land him  into his mothers waiting arms on Saturday afternoon  at the Kansas City Airport. 

 

On Saturday morning - when I was already stressing  about Marc’s endless flight delays and

Bryn sporting his boot  at the Logues

cancellations -  I found out that my Bryn was in the Emergency Room at a hospital in Lees Summit with a torn achilles tendon!  Instead of coming straight over to his mother’s house that  morning  ( where the only group activity might be opening the fridge door in hopes of finding something to eat within its expiration date)  he was induced by the Logues to play Pickleball for the first time! I have since read that this is a common injury in males of his age who take up the game without proper preparation! Co-incidentally Lori also delayed her arrival playing pickleball in Fort Madison, Iowa with Lori and Roger Griswod! Thankfully they are all seasoned players so no injuries there! 

Bryn was discharged from the hospital with strong pain killers and advised to stay off his foot, wear a surgical boot, use crutches and visit an orthopedic surgeon upon his return to Los Angele for an evaluation to determine if surgery would be advised.  The pain medications made him nauseous and very sleepy so I did not see him for the first couple of days of his visit!  Unfortunately this injury meant Bryn had to cancel his upcoming European trip with Gabby; to attend a friend’s wedding in Paris as he knew he would have very limited mobility for months to come. What a pickle he had got himself into!  

Since Bryn was comfortably settled into the Logue’s master bedroom with no inclination to move over to my house as originally planned, I suggested to Marc that he might want to take the now available spare room at my house - the Remsbergs were using the other two bedrooms. Marc was not even tempted by my offer! He could hardly wait for me to drive him up the street  to spend his nights at Sean and Sarah’s house with his three nephews and  niece! He did take me out to dinner beforehand but he was not anxious to spend a moment longer in my company than necessary - preferring to be in the chaotic domain of his youngest brother!

Well I had already survived two crises on Saturday when a third befell that night. A raging storm with straight line winds blew down many large tree limbs in my yard, split a crabapple tree in half  and  my deck furniture, childrens playhouse and water tables were blown apart! This ruined my plans of course for making a stellar impression on my out of town family members who had not yet seen all my interior upgrades nor the ginormous bounce house and  water feature I had purchased in hopes of totally eclipsing the Logues efforts last year. 

On Sunday morning I texted some photos of the damage to my children before they arrived for lunch - thinking it might be better to let them know ahead of time that Mother’s English Country garden was in ruins! I definitely needed to lower everyone’s expectations! But as always everyone threw themselves into clean up mode and with the help of Seans chainsaws and all the guys and gals ( big and little) muscle power we soon had piles of branches and bags of debris on my curb awaiting storm damage city pickup. Jeremy also loaded up his truck with larger pieces of cut wood for outdoor fire pit  burning. 

Fortunately the only levelish patch of grass  I have on  which   to set my impressive new kid’s fun in the sun, three in one inflatable, was relatively free of storm damage so I was able to set it up  just off the garage driveway before everyone arrived. I had about twenty stacking chairs set up on the driveway that I had pulled out of storage from under the deck a few days previously - which had taken me hours to scrub and hose off - having no idea that if I was a last minute sort of person that the storm would have done the job for me! I even had time to put all the toys back together on the deck and set up all the furniture before anyone arrived! Perhaps I should not have sent out those pictures of all the storm damage that needed to be cleaned up - evey-one was probably hoping that another sibling would take care of it if they did not immediately rush over to my house! 

I had baked some sweet rolls for breakfast, and had set up a sandwich/salad bar for lunch because everyone was arriving at different times! The Rembergs arrived just before lunch and  Richard and Alex arrived ahead of Kay who was flying in later that afternoon after attending a friend’s wedding on the East Coast and Ming-Jon was flying in from Washington . Fortunately  their flights landed  within an hour of each other  so Richard was able to pick them up together and head back to my house for supper!

Claudia and Coryn 

Grandma and Claudia

Liam was a very willing worker - probably because he never gets to set foot on this part of my property with 8 lane of traffic speeding by!

Liam worked tirelessly

Jeremy who did a stellar job!

F

Craig and Jeremy hauling a big branch

Look at all those logs cut from storm damaged branches!

For supper that night Sean had volunteered to man the grill for me : I had bought out the entire selection of gourmet pre- formed hamburgers with various cheeses and spices at the Hen House meat counter, dozens of bratwursts and hot dogs! It takes a lot of food to feed our large family - although we were missing  Blake, who as a newbie at SpaceX has limited vacation time and had a trip to Japan planned for what little time he could take off. Josh was unable to join us as he was in Bolivia volunteering at the rescue park with the big cats - something he has committed to for many years now. 

Fortunately the weather held up for the day, everyone seemed to approve of all the new paint colors and flooring in my home but of course being together was the highlight. Ray and Callie thoroughly enjoyed running around the house and yard with all the stairs: living in a ranch style home in Florida stairs are a novelty! The cousins soon became fast friends again and played well together - especially when they managed to sneak away from adult supervision! 

 

Craig, Ray, Sean and Marc

Lesee-Ann, Craig, Claudia and Marc

Liam and Lochlan enjoying lunch

Ava Clair and Emy Lou on her beloved red bike

Alex, Lochlan and Owen

Owen giving Alex a helping hand up the climbing wall

Liam slidding into the pool

!

Leslee-Ann, Claudis with Callie, me, Graig and Marc

EmmyLou, Ray, Callie and Owen! Cousin time!

Marc, Lori and Coryn

Memorial day itself was celebrated at the Logues and once again I felt my efforts would not be overshadowed but they most certainly were! A  theme park seemed to have sprung up overnight! Their front lawn contained a huge stand alone bounce house , the water feature that had caused me to up my game last year, a slip and slide, a badminton court, a  giant sized Tic Tac Toe and Corn Hole. But the crown jewel of this setup was all the motorized cars, scooters and bikes that Coryn had borrowed from neighbors and friends to turn the cul- de- sac into a children's grand prix raceway! My pedal car and bikes were no match for this competition!

Gtting ready to race!

Owen needs to move! Liam is coming up fast!

Callie and Lochlan are not far behind!

He may be in PJ's but it doesn't look as if Liam is ready for bed!

Ray takes the bend with ease!

Sarah and Claudia keeping a watchful eye on the traffic!

I

I took my deflaego into the house to finally hug my Bryn and check on the status of his injury. He was still in pain but feeling better than he had the previous day. He was wearing the boot and using the walker that Kevin and Jenny from nextdoor had lent him and  was able to join us outside where he won the title of best uncle ever when a Kona truck pulled into the cul-d-sac and Bryn declared slushies for twenty-eight on him and handed his credit card to Ava Claire! I am sure that must have been the most sales from one house ever for that business! .

Lochlan is happy too!

Emmy Lou is loving her slushy

                          Kona truck got a ot of business!

Bryn,  the coolest uncle that day!

Once again Jenny and Kevin had contributed so much to our family gathering: from canopies, chairs, games and even a chocolate fountain which was of course a huge messy hit with all the kids especially! I suggested to them that they should become professional party throwers as they would not need to buy or rent anything! They seem to have everything one could possibly need stored in their basement! 

Liam and the chcolate fountain

Emmy Lou dipping a strawbery

Craig, Leslle-Ann and Richard

Ava Claire -the messiest?

In mid June  Coryn and I took Ava CLaire and Owen with us on a road trip to Indianapolis to visit Lori and see all the updates she had been making to her house recently. I volunteered to drive my car as we all know mother enjoys being in the drivers’ seat!  As usual I made sure my passenger’s knew that I do not believe in a leisurely drive with lots of stops enroute.. My objective is always to get to where I am going in the shortest and fastest way possible. I need to make only two stops on the eight hour drive, one of which will be for a combined gas, meal and  potty stop.

 I packed carefully for this road trip, preparing for every possible scenario that might befall us. Due to the excessive heat warnings I had extra water ( for emergency consumption only) snacks and umbrellas to shade us if we should break down on the interstate miles from a tow truck .I also had a portable tire inflator, a medical emergency kit, bags to contain everything from pee to puke and a tote bag to bring our four Ipads , and three phones into the restaurants when we ate so that our devices wouldn't fry in the car! The Logues seemed to think I was slightly crazy but the big winner that declared Grandmother the Queen of Road trips came when I pulled out my three feet long, one inch thick gummy snakes! I told the kids to chew half the snake on the way there and the other half on the way back in lieu of drinking liquids. Owen had eaten his half before we even crossed a stateline.  We set out from Coryn’s house about three o’clock on Sunday June 16th as Coryn thought it would be easier on the children ( and therefore us) to drive for about five hours that day  and spend the night at the Country Inn Suites in Effingham, Illinois. right off the Interstate…… convenient but extremely noisy with the heavy traffic on I70 coupled with the air conditioning that sounded like a freight train barrelling down on us all night meaning we were all sleep deprived the next day!

Ava Claire and Owen were excited to spend the night in a hotel until we checked in. They seemed most disappointed in everything: the decor, the admittedly rather cloudy pool water, and the gym which they said had  a nasty smell ! Coryn and I were aghast, remembering how all of you loved staying in hotels as children and loved everything - good or bad. I have to admit the breakfast provided was subpar but  our suite was fine albeit not the best for getting a good night's sleep. At least we had less than a three hour drive ahead of us! On Monday morning we pulled into Lori’s driveway just in time for lunch!

Lori has definitely updated and lightened up her home.New wooden floors in the living room and master bedroom that blend in seamlessly with the existing hardwoods; new lightning in some rooms is definitely more suited to the mid century modern period in which   the house was built;, a new molded ceiling in the family room to replace the old acoustic tile and more natural light is streaming in through the windows  with updated. remote controlled,  custom shades replacing the previous drapery. And the yard was looking very well manicured too! I felt no urge to pull weeds at all on this visit!

Despite the energy zapping heat and humidity we did make the short drive to one of Ming Lee’s favorite places to hike, Fort Harrison State Park  and  walked for a mile or so thinking how happy Ming Lee would be! Lori treated us all to ice cream afterwards to reward us for our endurance and to cool us down! 

Once home , Lori decided that we should sit around the fire pit that Ming had built and eat s’mores! Owen  charred all his marshmallows but ate them anyway! Ugh! This was something Ming Lee always initiated when the family visited!i 

The following morning Lori drove us to the Indianapolis Children's Museum , billed as the biggest and best in the world. - with five floors to explore we got quite a few steps in, enjoyed lunch and the children rode on the 107 year old carousel horses.  Lori and Coryn took Ava and Owen to the movies that  night while I elected to stay on the sofa, reading my book, playing Words with Friends and snacking on cheese. I find the excessive volume and extreme air conditioning in today’s movie theaters too much for my aging ears and body! 

On Wednesday morning we drove home with no overnight stops, only three stops for gas, lunch, and restrooms but a lot of slow downs due to construction work and heavier traffic that we had been spared on Sunday. I have to say that the kids were both excellent passengers on this trip, especially when glued to their Ipads! I even suggested that I might take them to Fort Madison with me sometime!

Josh will be arriving in Orlando soon to spend some time with the Remsbugs before he heads back to Kansas City. The Logues are currently in San Diego with Bryn and Marc Next month Sarah and Sean will be celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary with an adults only  vacation!  The Kansas City family and Sarah’s parents will all be helping to take care of Emmy-Lou, Liam, Lochlan, and Cillian! We might all need a vacation after that! 

Love Mother -  who is so relieved that Joe Biden( who so obviously has some form of dementia) is stepping down! Hopefully we have a shot - a better one than Trump recently survived - at defeating the truly demented Republican candidate  in the November Elections. 

 

Here are some random photo's from our family reunion! We have Lori to thank for being so diligent in documenting our famiyl togethernes by taking most of these photos!You may need to scroll down a bit to see tem as I am having technical issues!

Cillian wishes he could drive!

Lori took on role of badmington coach!

Ming-Jon with Alex, Kay, and Richard

On a hike in Indy

Playing corn hole in Lori's back yard! I am not happ about my bag hovering on edge of hole!

 THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER : VOLUME 155                                                     MAY 2024

Dear Readers,

Since my last newsletter, I have spent months painting twelve doors, about fifty spindles, yards of baseboard, acres of walls and even my front porch furniture. I was fortunate to have help with painting two upstairs bedrooms and the upstairs hallway - Sean volunteered   in exchange for childcare: keeping his children out of his way while he painted!  Coryn and Jeremy came  to help me paint the upper half of my bedroom which was made necessary because they gifted me a new bedding ensemble for Christmas that looked awful with the color scheme I had previously painted in my room to compliment the bedding set gifted to me by Lori and her mom after Norm passed away. Instead of painting,  Jeremy actually ended up fixing my upstairs shower’s plumbing after Sean used it and  noticed it was making horrendous banging sounds and leaking too! I had been quoted a thousand dollars to fix it by a professional! So thankful for my handy and always willing to help sons, son-in-laws and grandson-in-law who all make my life so much easier!

Once most of the painting was completed I decided it was time to replace all the mismatched carpeting in the dining room,  family room , the upstairs bedrooms,  and on the stairs. And since I have never liked the tile in the entryway I decided to go for broke and replace it too!

Knowing that many flooring companies require your rooms to be emptied of furniture before they will remove your old floor coverings and install your new ones I decided to go with Home Depot who will help move your furniture into another space in your house- rather than having to use pods  and a furniture van like one of my neighbors who picked a different company!

I knew that I wanted to go with lighter and brighter flooring to complement all my new wall colors so I picked out a cream plush carpet for the entire upstairs, a more adventurous textured cream carpet for the stairs and luxury vinyl wide plank flooring for the family room, dining room and hallway.

 

I was fully expecting to wait a month or more for installation but to my amazement Home Depot  informed me that once my new flooring arrived - within two weeks  - I would be scheduled immediately! I was still painting my downstairs two storey vaulted hallway at this point and  knew I needed to get it finished !  I had to call in Sean when I realized that I was too short to edge the top of the wall that meets the ceiling - even standing on the top rung of my tallest ladder!  Kay also volunteered Richard for the job since he is well over six feet! Sean climbed to the top of the ladder and couldn’t reach it either - I had woefully underestimated how much taller I needed to be to get the job done! Sean had to return to his house to fetch his ladder that expanded to twenty feet or so! Sean saw my inability to judge the height needed as a  definite shortcoming!

Once I had accepted the bid from Home Depot , a call came from one of the two installation companies that were going to be working at my house. He had noticed in the photos  taken by their job cost estimator that I had a heating vent installed in my hallway tile floor and that could complicate things so he asked if he could come over and inspect it for himself. He came and said it was probably going to cost me another thousand dollars as pulling up the tile would likely pull up chunks of the underlying concrete subfloor necessitating putting in a new one. I looked as horrified as I possibly could at this news and said I would have to think it over as this was a significant cost for such a small space The next day he called again and said he had someone on their four man installation team who was willing to try  prying the tiles up one by one ahead of the installation day if I was agreeable ! This was a no brainer of course so I said he could come whenever was convenient for him! One crisis solved but more to come!

We all know that Mother is not a morning person so imagine my horror when I got a phone call from some freight service at six o’clock in the morning to inform me that within twenty minutes they would be delivering a pallet with my plank flooring. This was days ahead of my installation date so I rushed out in my nightie and backed my car out onto the driveway so the pallet could fit inside the garage -  protected from the weather and do-it-your-selfer’s cruising my cul- de- sac for free construction materials!

A three man crew installed my new carpet in about three hours - they were working with great speed but unfortunately not skill. They opened a bedroom window and threw the carpet down onto my plants below - it may have saved them time by not carrying three bedrooms and a hallway's worth of carpet and padding down the stairs but it didn’t save my window sill or plants from damage! In their frantic rush to complete their job they scratched my newly painted baseboards in two bedrooms and broke a spindle on the balcony overlooking my family room.When I was  summoned to inspect their work I was floored - not in a good way. The carpet was fine except for the stair installation but there was a lot of damage to my newly painted woodwork!. Mother had contorted herself into positions not even depicted in the Kama Sutra in order to get a paintbrush into the nooks and crevices of all those spindles while hanging over a bannister! !  

When I asked how they had managed to leave one bedroom and the hallway without damage to the paintwork I was told that a professional painter must have painted those spaces! I let him know that I had painted every single scrap of wood in my home!

Just as they left, the supervisor of the plank flooring crew arrived and could see that I was not happy as we toured the other crew’s handiwork and as I touched the broken spindle that they claimed to have fixed it broke in two and fell onto the sofa below. We were both shocked and I said thank goodness that wasn’t one of my many toddler grandchildren flying through the gap - a lawsuit waiting to happen. He immediately called Home Depot to let them know about all the issues and I soon took a call from the manager of the carpet installers who committed to being at my house to inspect the issues the next day.

Sean and his three youngest children fortuitously arrived at my house shortly before the manager  so she was immediately aware of how dangerous the broken spindle situation was: they could all easily fall through the gap in the balcony ! She toured all the rooms, took numerous photos of all the damage and deficiencies, including to the window sill that they had pushed the old carpet out of. I asked her if this was normal practice and she admitted that it wasn’t but she thought they might have been trying to avoid getting more dust in the house by not carrying it down the stairs! I rolled my eyes. She agreed that the stair carpet installation was a do over - thankfully I had a whole roll of carpeting left over. She also undertook to repair or replace the spindle and said that they would provide and pay for a professional painter to fix the issues. I requested a different installer for the stair redo as I did not want any of the previous installers in my home again. I am pleased to report that all the repairs were carried out and now I am thrilled with the results!

The family room needed a lot of leveling!

The dining room ony needed a patch in one corner

The hallway after tile removal and leveling

I hoped my plank flooring installation would be less stressful but  once the old flooring was removed it revealed  uneven sub- floors which would have to be leveled before installation was possible. I frankly thought that one of the great advantages of vinyl plank flooring was its flexibility but I was informed that the boards could not flex enough to be installed as the height difference was too great. I had two options: find a carpenter to pull up the subfloor and shave down the joists or use self leveling cement. Since most of my living room furniture was in my bedroom I didn’t feel that I could wait weeks to find a carpenter to do this - I certainly did not have one  on speed dial that would be available that day so I took the other option which cost me  another twelve hundred dollars!  I mentioned that  I was having some foundation work done soon so they had me check that this would not involve lifting the house at all as they feared my concrete patches would crack. I called the fondation company who assured the installers that they were placing piers to support, not lift my foundation! By this point Mother felt like she needed a lift - more than just a cup of tea - to deal with all the stress. Fortunately the floors went in without a hitch and as I had pre painted all the quarter round needed for installation ahead of time the four guys had the floors installed very quickly and seem to have done a fine job. I love everything about them! Of course Lochlan who is potty training - christened them on his first visit - but they are so much easier to clean than carpet!

It’s amazing to think that all this remodeling came about because two of my children commented on my dark , dated wall paneling during their last visit and in a couple of days they will be here to see all the changes their chance comments caused. Of course since one of them lives on the East Coast and the other on the West Coast they were not available to help with any of it!

The updated look from the front door into the family room

From the hallway into the dinning room!

 Last week I  had four guys armed with jackhammers drilling under my double fireplace bricked chimneys - through my concrete steps - in hopes of sinking two piers many feet down under the original foundation to support the weight of the bricks which the foundation expert believes is causing my dry wall cracks.This was horrendously noisy and messy so hopefully it works! I am hoping for a break from home improvement projects for a while!

Four guys alternated shovelling to dig two holes to bedrock - took three days!

This Memorial Day weekend we are having a family reunion of sorts, only Blake and Josh will be missing. I am not going to be out done this year as I was last. I have a huge inflatable  bounce house with a pool, slide, climbing wall, and a play cafe that takes up most of my front yard! I also have a splash pad, slip n’slide, and a spare pool.! Sean has volunteered to man the grill and I will be serving food all day Saturday and Sunday, with the Logues hosting us all on Monday!

Ava Claire and Owen recently spent a weekend with me as Coryn and Jeremy were on an adults only trip to New Orleans. We experienced very heavy rains virtually the entire time they were here and late one night we found ourselves down in the basement furiously mopping up water and rolling virtually every towel I possessed to dam the flood along my baseboard! It was about 11;30 at night when Ava Claire announced that she thought we needed a nice cup of tea! I was greatly amused at her coming up with the British  solution to everything! I put the kettle on and found some European style chocolate biscuits! I didn’t worry about the late hour and caffeine as I knew we were all exhausted from our labors and would sleep well - which we did! Another lovely memory of the treasured time I spend with my grandchildren!   Love Mother

 THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER: VOLUME 154         FEBRUARY 2024

Dear Readers.

2024 is off to a very busy start! Sarah and Sean have had difficulty in finding a reliable babysitter for months  so I have been helping out more than usual. To further strain an already stressful situation  they have been sick with coughs, runny noses, stomach upsets and ear infections for weeks. Sean unfortunately developed tonsillitis, and an  ear infection  which rendered him useless for a few days as he slept as much as possible battling a high fever, chills and a lot of discomfort. This coincided with  a planned family outing to a performance of Disney on Ice at the T Mobile Center in Kansas City ‘s Power and Light District where parking and traffic can be a nightmare! Sarah valiantly took Emmy Lou, Liam and Lochlan without back- up! Try squeezing into a potty stall with three kids; leave alone getting them in and out of car seats in a tight parking space, then grasping all those little hands as you dash across packed streets to reach the TMobile Center. Fortunately all three kids were very well behaved and loved the show!. I looked after Cilian at my house so Sean could rest in peace in his own bed at home, using two thermometers to check (frequently) the accuracy of his temperature reading to keep us  updated!

Liam 3, Emmy Lou 5, and Lochlan 2 enjoying a pre-show snack!

I have had less time to devote to my ongoing home improvement plans since many extra hours weekly have been consumed by caring for my  grandchildren but I have managed to paint all of the spindles around the stairwell upstairs and have painted all the dark woodwork in one bedroom cream too!

Before he fell sick Sean had inspected my walls for cracks and patched them for me so I have also been painting over these repairs to render them virtually invisible to the naked eye - well mine at least , cataracts and bifocals perhaps blinding me to the reality of my painting skills! 

Unfortunately while putting away Christmas decorations in early January  I noticed a crack in my concrete foundation wall in the storage room and promptly called a foundation expert out to inspect the issue. I spent days re-organizing the mass of mess stored in my basement to ensure that there were no more cracks. I was advised to fill the crack with caulk to see if that cracked : a method  to determine if the crack was old or new apparently. The inspector will return in Spring to decide whether or not I need about  ten thousand dollars worth of steel piers sunk fifteen feet into the ground under my house! Unfortunately I think this may well be necessary! The drought has caused the clay my house sits on to pull away from the foundation - just like thousands of others in our area .Thus all the cracks in my drywall.

For a few days between Christmas and New Year’s Day we greatly enjoyed having the Indy Lowes with us! Lori, Blake and Claudia arrived at my house for a welcome supper with all the Kansas City family in attendance. It turned into a major celebration for the kids as their aunt and cousins showered them with presents! There was a lot of family togetherness over the next few days - Lori especially enjoyed snuggling with her nieces and nephews while Blake and Claudia had cousins glued to them for their entire stay! We really loved having this time with them and feel sure that Ming Lee was with us in spirit, knowing how much he would love all the noise and chaos of our family get together.

Claudia and Lori snugling with Liam

Claudia reading with Emmy Lou and Liam

Lori and Blake only had about a week back in Indianapolis before they left on a trip to New Zealand to celebrate Blake’s graduation! They posted some amazing photos of their trip on facebook documenting whale watching, hiking, stargazing, wine tasting, enjoying delicious cuisine and  their visits to  the Waikato glowworm caves and Hobbiton of Lord of the Rings movie fame. Blake's favorite experience was flying in a small plane over Mount Cook National Park and landing on a glacier. No way would I emulate this feat and kudos to Lori for doing it with Blake!

Mimosa time! 

Blake landing on the Glacier with Lori in that tiny plane!

Shortly after their return they flew to Seattle and Blake is now settled into his own apartment  - fully furnished with his mother’s help- and he is adjusting to his new surroundings and job at SpaceX very well! I am sure a visit from Uncle Marc and Uncle Bryn is imminent.

Marc is actually extremely busy with two substantial  court cases - one of which is already underway in downtown LA where Marc is staying in  a hotel to avoid the daily commute from his condo. Marc called me one night before his trial began to admit that his new electric car was not exactly fitting his needs like his old  BMW  -recently totaled by a drunken, uninsured, illegal alien - into which he  could load many file boxes and a handcart to transfer all the boxes into the courthouse. I questioned the need for all this paperwork since everything is seemingly computerized these days but Marc said all his associates would be bringing numerous boxes too as they still needed the paper copies! I asked if his hand cart folded down -that was the problem - it didn’t and thus hung out of the trunk. I thought I had the whole problem solved when I suggested that he might want to order a folding one on Amazon but that was only one issue.

Marc was also having to drive a considerable distance a couple of days weekly to work on another case and his car was barely able to make the round trip on one  charge. I reminded Marc that I had suggested a hybrid vehicle might work better for him than an electric one but as usual he did not heed mothers advice.He was contemplating buying a second vehicle. I suggested  that he might want to trade his virtually brand new electric car in for a hybrid and thus save himself the cost of owning two cars - one of which would have to be parked at his law office as he only has one garage space at his condo which he needs to charge his electric car.

Marc’s next phone call to me was to let me know that he was now the proud owner of a 2003 gas guzzling Saab with over 100,000 miles on the odometer and it apparently needed some minor repairs! I asked Marc if he had consulted Bryn before making this rash purchase but apparently Byn was too busy with his girlfriend, Gaby, to steer Marc away from this accident waiting to happen. But Marc assured me that it fit all his boxes and handcart. I later learned that the repairs needed cost half the car’s purchase price - but Marc is no longer worried about  transporting  his legal paperwork to the LA courthouse. It seems to me that he has one vehicle that runs on batteries for limited mileage  and another car that’s mileage suggests it may well stall out on an LA freeway at any moment!

The Remsburgs have been busy hosting family members recently.. Josh spent several weeks with them in December and January and his visit overlapped with Ming-Jon’s and the weather was warm enough in Orlando to enjoy the pool. This month the Logues went for a few days but unfortunately they did not have pool weather for their visit. Craig was working in Saudi Arabia so I am sure that Lesle Ann was glad to have Coryn and Jeremy to  help out with Ray and Callie whom I am sure were delighted to have Ava Claire and Owen to do things with like exploring a Safari Park!

Josh and Ray watching Craig, Callie and Ming-Jon in the pool

Unfortunately we recently lost two very aged furry family members shortly before Christmas. Ollie was a beautiful red haired miniature poodle puppy when I  first met him. We still lived in Fort Madison at the time and Coryn had driven from Kansas City to show off her new love. He was a very sweet dog but definitely had “issues”. Olie would not cross streets, walk over a manhole cover or walk across a bridge. He would hit the ground  with all four limbs spread eagled and refuse to move- he would have to be carried across the obstacle! Such a very high strung dog was fortunate to have had a psychologist for his owner! Despite his nervous disposition Ollie lived for nineteen years which is very old for a dog!

Coryn with a very young Ollie!

Butterscotch was a starving stray that was rescued by Ming, Lori, Blake and Claudia over sixteen years ago at their lake house in Crawfordsville. They deided to bring her back to their Indy house and in a vey short time she went from being a strictly outdoor cat, to a cat with a heated bed in the garage to the queen of the household where she ruled every nook and cranny of the house.In her later years she developed diabetes and Lori devotedly gave her daily insulin injections. These pets were definitely beloved family members!

I am still in shock over the Chiefs win at the Superbowl this year. I have to confess that earlier in the season I doubted my team would even qualify for the playoffs - but we did and suddenly the team upped their game and our receivers were catching balls they had missed, dropped or fumbled all season long! It was an amazing accomplishment and something so positive for our entire Chief’s Kingdom - until the day of the victory parade and the senseless gun fire that caused the death of an innocent bystander and injuries to twenty two others. Thankfully the teenage perpetrators were immediately arrested and hopefully their parent’s will be charged for allowing their children  to carry guns and shoot at will in our city. I will never understand this country’s gun laws.

I have daffodils and crocus blooming  in my garden and  see that many of my trees are budding! I just hope we do not have another polar plunge back into sub zero temperatures like we did a few weeks ago.I had my faucets dripping for days to avoid frozen pipes. Today we almost hit eighty degrees! 

Thanks to the generosity of my children I realized that I never have a moment of feeling lonely like so many senior citizens. Alexa and my cell phone wake me up every morning;  Alexa beeps and flashes lights at  me throughout the day with updates about my Chiefs, national news and the weather. Sometimes she will randomly ask if I would like her to add anything to my Amazon shopping list  or sign up for another service. She also turns  some lights on and off for me, plays music and connects with my television.. My Ring doorbell sends alerts to my phone which makes a sound like a steam train, my phone and smartwatch vibrate and beep with every text. Sometimes I find myself pressing buttons on all my devices in a frantic effort to silence all the noise! 

Love to you all from your hi-tech Mother!

 

                     

 

Lochlan, Liam and Alex riding the train at Union station on a family outing

Lochlan with Sarah and Alex with Kay

Lori with Cillian

Kay, Jeremy, Richard , Sarah and Cillian serving themselves

Sean, Owen and Blake playing a card game at Grandma's

Blake's Graduation

Kay's Graduation