Christmas Day 2006

Well it is now the day after Christmas although we didn't go to sleep........zzzzz......It is now January 4. What a long nap!

Christmas was interesting in a quiet sort of way. Kevin and I shared our day with Jennifer and Robert. We had two gift duplicates but none of that could get in the way of the joy Kevin felt when he received his Easy Bake oven! Melvin got high on catnip and took over Carolyn's ottoman tray. Carolyn, Jennifer and Robert received wonderful gifts and even Kevin got some things he wanted (besides the oven!).

After Christmas Mandy and Ella came to visit. We love having the grandkids here. Ella really loved Melvin ..... and Nana, Grandpa Kevin (G-Kev), Aunt Gigi and Uncle Robert (Bobo?).

On December 28 we left for the Twin Cities to visit with Mark and Camille for a couple of days then flew off to Clearwater Florida where I sit now. The beach is among the most beautiful in the US if not in the world. The weather is perfect - about 75, not too hot, not too cold. The water is too cold for me (Lake Superior summer temp) but it is wonderful to wade in and just sit on the beach. Yes, all you envious Yoopers, I know it is rough. But someone from NMU had to come and represent us here at this conference. To be honest, I am going to the conference while G-Kev lounges on the beach reading a novel.

Virtual Christmas Letter I - The Early Days (of 2006)

Welcome to the Lowe Family First Annual Dissertation! We wrote a very lengthy Christmas letter to enclose with our Christmas cards (that we are actually planning on sending!) But then it occurred to us that those to whom we send cards fall into three basic categories: 1) they could care less and certainly don't want to read a dissertation, 2) they were there for most of the events and don't need to read about them or 3) they care and want to know. If you fall into categories 1 or 2, skip to the Devil TV below. If you belong to category 3 HELLO! We are glad you are interested! Please read on and, most importantly, share your happenings with us via postings here or e-mail (if you don't want your gall bladder surgery all over the web. We are shameless when it comes to that). We decided to break this newsletter up into 3 parts - Jan - March; Summer and early Fall, and after Thanksgiving. There are 2 posts below this (below the Devil TV) about Thanksgiving with family and our temple sealing so we didn't include that here. So begins our virtual Christmas letter:

We share authorship of this letter to bring you up to date on the extraordinary events of the last year. Carolyn began the year with a conference trip to Portland, OR where she had an enjoyable day with Aunt Beth and reacquainted herself that evening with her lifelong college friends Cindy and Steve. In February, Carolyn was working with NASA on some curriculum for the Explorer Schools in Wash DC, when she awoke dizzy, her eyes out of focus and askew (seriously – it was very strange). Kevin left church when he received her phone call and drove straight through to pick her up. It was pretty scary, but all is well as it was diagnosed as a migraine issue; we spent the next few weeks leading up to Jennifer’s wedding in doctor’s offices determining exactly what had happened.

In March, right after we had returned to school following winter break, daughter Jennifer and son-in-law Robert were married in a beautiful ceremony here in Marquette. The whole family was able to be here and it was a wonderful time. The theme was "snow" and the weather cooperated with a blizzard earlier that week. The newlyweds set up house very near to us and last month they purchased land even closer, right down the street where they will begin building a home this spring. Robert is a master plumber who has one of best work ethics we have ever seen and is extremely kind and generous. Jennifer, now graduated, has several interests and is employed at the Home Builders Association. Below is our favorite picture of all five "kids" (although they are getting rather old to be called kids - what do you call them? We haven't figured that out yet. Do we say "here is a picture of our adults"? That doesn't sound right). From left to right are Chris, Curt, Jennifer, Andrew and Lisa. It was taken the morning after Jennifer and Robert's wedding.

Virtual Christmas Letter II - The Sequel (Summer)

Welcome back. So you survived part I and returned for the Sequel.

Summer brought lengthy trips; it was the first summer since 1990 that Carolyn had not taught or taken classes. Carolyn flew to Texas in time to see her brother Dee marry Tina, a wonderful lady with two teenage boys. She then rode with the family to Oklahoma where she was joined by son Curt and Mandy’s mom, Nancy, in the birthing room to see our daughter-in-law Mandy give birth to our beautiful baby granddaughter Ella. It was a wonderful experience and, of course, Ella is exceptional. Mandy is in her second year of teaching 5th grade in Oklahoma City and Curt is in the insurance game. I love this picture of newborn Ella and Grandpa Kevin (apparently now sometimes called G-Kev).

Kevin followed a week later and we helped Mom with some repairs on her house. Mom is doing well, volunteering at the hospital, and doting on Toto, her Yorkie (or Toto Baggypants the Flobbit for those of you who are big fans of "Lord of the Beans"). We spent most of the balance of time helping Andrew with the home he bought just a couple of days after Kevin arrived. It is in a very nice area, but had some serious cosmetic issues (as in YUCK). We cleaned, painted, ripped out and scrubbed as long as we were there. His home is now looking great and we look forward to seeing it more complete when we return.

Some very special news was received in person while in Oklahoma. Chris and his wife Bethany announced that they were expecting. We can hardly wait to see our new grandson, Liam, who is due early in January. Chris is continuing his role as architect overseeing the building of several medical schools in the Caribbean and Bethany continues to excel at her position as an Architectural Engineer (you go girl! Can you still say that? Could be outdated…whatever). We are very proud of all our children and the remarkable accomplishments they have made so our apologies if we are a bit boastful.

From Oklahoma we traveled east to Hot Springs, AK where Kevin was introduced to chiggers (he itched all the way home to Michigan), then to Memphis where we took the obligatory picture in front of Graceland and a quick stop at Sun Studios, then on to Kentucky. We had some quiet time at Kevin’s mom’s and grandparent’s graves and stopped by the house where his mom grew up. We continued on in Carolyn’s family ancestral footsteps where we met a somewhat distant relative who told stories of the Bush family and took us to where the ancestral Bush’s had lived. It was an experience to remember.From Kentucky we traveled to Madison, WI for yet another conference. Madison is Carolyn’s favorite large city and now Kevin knows why. We had a great time and uncovered quite a bit of info in the genealogical library on the U of W campus. From there it was home again and back to school a couple of days later. We had some opportunities to do a little canoeing around here and outside Traverse City, but need friends and family to come and help us get the canoes wet more often (We have two Kevlar lightweight canoes). Below is a picture of the Platte River near Traverse City, Michigan taken from our canoe.

Virtual Christmas Letter III - Post Thanksgiving

Welcome back to the post-Thanksgiving happenings. Below, in other postings, we share our Thanksgiving experiences in Rhode Island, NYC and Boston. Most importantly, Kevin and I were sealed in an eternal marriage in the Boston Temple with daughter and son-in-law Lisa and Nolan in attendance. Read about that below.

Since Thanksgiving Carolyn received the TLC award from Northern Michigan University (not tender loving care but Teaching, Learning and Communication – I had to look it up). It is given to the two faculty members who best used technology to improve teaching and learning. In her speech she thanked her father for encouraging her to follow her interests in science when she was a little girl. (Note from Carolyn – she called it the Geek award but Kevin took that out. She is putting it back in because that’s what it is – a geek award! I'm proud to be a Geek and a Science Nerd!)

We are staying here for Christmas this year and it will be a relaxing, cozy, fire-in-the-fireplace (and wood burning furnace) Christmas. This might be the first Christmas in many years that the UP has not had a white Christmas. Actually other parts probably still have snow but here it is, for all practical purposes, gone. We may get some this weekend - let's hope. For those of you who wonder what the big deal is about the snow - well actually we like it. It means beauty, recreation, money (as in the local economy) and, occasionally, snow days at school. Mostly it means we have lush, dense forests here instead of prairie. Here is a picture of our front yard from last winter.

Kevin continues to plug away at school with great success - someday he will graduate and we might have to move for him to find appropriate employment, but until then we will enjoy the picture postcard scenery out our front door. At Church, Kevin is the Ward Clerk and Executive Secretary in the Bishopric, which, between work in the accounting department at Wal-Mart and school keeps him out of trouble. Carolyn is now the Institute teacher – a program of scripture study for college students and is also the sponsor of the Latter-day Saints Student Association. She of course continues to inspire new teachers as a professor at NMU in what is considered one of the best teaching colleges in the Midwest.So that is the dissertation-length annual update. From now on we will try to keep you posted in shorter, more frequent bursts. Carolyn found that updating webpages was quite tedious and not easily done as frequently. This is much easier to update. Be sure you check the other blogs listed in the right-hand frame if you are interested in Carolyn's spiritual thoughts or her Science Nerd thoughts. And read on for other news.....

The Devil TV

I know - you will think I am crazy. But we own a possessed TV. Let me give you a bit of history about THE TV. We were at an auction last year when this big-screen projection TV went on auction. I was a little spaced, looking at some of the useless junk, when I realized Kevin was bidding on it. It went up and up then BOOM it stopped and guess what? We had the highest bid. We got this huge TV for less than what many little TV's cost. Kevin thought it would go higher and he was bidding pretty much for fun. Fun, fun when we had to get it into the basement. No- it wasn't going into the living room. At first it was really out of focus but Kevin managed to fix that. So it seemed to be working.

I was in the basement grading papers and Kevin asked if I would like a little music. I told him some Christmas music would be nice. He turned on the music channel on the cable and told me to turn the TV down if it got crazy. I had NO IDEA!!!!! I was busy grading and glanced up to notice that there were red white and blue stripes pulsating across the screen. OK - so it is patriotic. I can deal with that. The music was soft and nice - lovely Christmas songs. Then.....
All of a sudden - out of the blue - the TV starts screaming at me. No words - just very, very loud howls and ghoulish sounds. I was shaking, it startled me so much. I grabbed the remote and tried to turn it down. Down and down I pushed the volume but it just got louder and louder. I picked up another remote and tried to turn the TV off. It wouldn't go off (I later found that this was my mistake - the volume problem wasn't though). I jumped up out of my chair and rapidly but with great trepidation moved toward the TV. I could feel wind in my hair and against my skin - coming from the hideous thing. It was still screaming at me and there were other, awful sizzly sounds coming from the back. I found the power button and finally got it off. I was shaking all over and my heart was pounding.

After gathering my wits and courage, I came upstairs to confront Kevin about our possessed TV. He said that, as soon as he could quit laughing he would perform an exorcism. Believe me, it needs it. I would not have been a bit surprised if it hadn't begun spewing green barf. He asked me if I would like a little music. I froze. Surely he wouldn't subject me to that again! Maybe he was trying to get rid of me! But no - he really does love me. He brought down a wonderful CD of Christmas music and put it into the CD player.

I'm afraid for him though. I am afraid I will come home someday to find he has been sucked into the devil TV or it has zapped him from across the room. Nothing about that TV would surprise me. By the way, I know why this TV was on auction and why it went so cheap. People in Ishpeming had certainly heard about the haunted TV!

Eternal Perspectives

After difficult past experiences and an amazing journey together, Kevin and I were able to be sealed in the Boston, MA temple last week. It was a perfect day and an unimaginably perfect experience. The only thing possible that would have made it better would have been to have all the children present. Lisa and Nolan were with us and stood in for Kevin's parents as he was sealed to them. We also sealed both sets of his grandparents and his parents to them. We are family. I am very grateful for the wonderful relationship we have and the amazing man Kevin is.

As my kids say, I'm getting pukey, so on to other things. If you are not LDS, a sealing is a marriage for eternity. The temple is the most peaceful, beautiful place on earth. No, you don't have to be perfect to go to the temple - it would be empty if you did. You do, however, have to keep certain covenants in order to go. What this means is that everyone there, while culturally, ethnically, and otherwise diverse, are "like-minded" - we all share the same set of standards.

Some of us have to learn by the "2x4 method" - sometimes more than once. The good news is that, once we really get it, we really get it.

To begin our trip, Kevin and I, along with daughter Jennifer and her husband Robert, drove straight through for about 20 hours. The men took turns driving and we either slept or helped keep them awake. I was stiff for a couple of hours. We were able to go to Newport and partake of clams (yum) and visit the Breakers (the Vanderbilt "summer home" - wow!). We also went to NYC where our granddaughter Madalyn had her birthday party at the American Girl Cafe (see picture). We spent most of the rest of that day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. More about that later. The girls collapsed so Lisa, Jennifer and Robert headed back to Rhode Island while Kevin and I spent more time in the museum, shopped, and ate some awesome Asian food.

About the museum: When I was 14 I lived with my parents (Air Force Brat) in Europe (the Hunsruck area of Germany to be exact). We visited a number of Italian art places but Florence was flooded and the art was moved to protect it. We went to the Dahlem Museum in Berlin and the Louvre in Paris. I had a goal then to see the Met. At that time I felt that, if I visited the Met, I would have seen much of the greatest art on Earth. Now I know I have to go to the London Art Museum - another on my list. And, of course, I need to go to Florence. However, I was able to see much art that I have wanted to see including Van Gogh's Starry Night which was on loan to the museum. Kevin and I spent a great deal of time in the Impressionist wing. I realized again how much I love Renoir and Monet. I think Manet invented pixels. I wonder if we would have computer graphics if impressionists had not created "dot" art.

I was also again impressed by the beauty of ancient Egyptian art. One of my most vivid memories from my youth was seeing the bust of Queen Nefertiti in the Dahlem Museum. She was beautiful and the art is beautiful. I was amazed here by a mask of a woman from about 100-200 A.D. It could have been from today. She was not particularly young - perhaps middle age for the time. She had a pretty face and black wavy hair pulled back in a bun. I felt a kinship with that woman. We only saw 1/5 - 1/4 of the museum. I definitely plan to go back.

We played lots and lots of games - Settlers of Cataan, Puerto Rico, Sequence, and Acquire. the girls won Sequence quite a few times - the guys say it is "all luck". That is their excuse. I only won one other game - one I took over for Nolan (the Gamemeister). I'm glad I won that one - I would have hated to lose it for him. Kevin and Andrew won quite a few. Madalyn is quite good at Sequence - she has blocking down pat.

It was a very thankful Thanksgiving and a wonderful experience. In particular, being able to be sealed in the temple was the highlight of the trip.

Interesting week

I (Carolyn) went in for my routine annual checkup stuff. After several different screening exams (the ones you are "supposed" to get when you get old enough) it was determined that I might have something in my innards that didn't belong. So I was scheduled for more tests. These were particularly fun - iodine injected every possible way - I won't go into more detail. After a tense few days, the results came back that there aren't any masses, tumors, etc. in there. After having my supraventricular tachycardia, complicated migraine and now this, my entire body has been scanned and examined except for the lungs - which work well, thank you very much. I guess that is a pretty good sign. However, I took this last scare as a chastisement from the Lord - live healthy OR ELSE!!! I made a decision to begin living a more healthy lifestyle. I am working on this idea. In the meantime I have been eating more healthily and doing Tai Chi. Getting sleep - now that is the real challenge. Here it is 1:13 am and I am not in bed. I have been doing things for our trip though.

Here is what I would like to do: Tai Chi every day, Curves (for weight bearing exercise) 3 times a week, walking (for aerobic) 5 times a week and get 8 hours of sleep every night. Right - and monkeys will fly out my rear too. So what is realistic. I could do Tai Chi every day. Then I have to decide to do Curves or walk. I can't see finding time for both.

I am trying to eliminate almost all empty calories and useless foods from my diet. Useless food is stuff like iceberg lettuce. Empty calories are potato chips and chocolate brownies. Yes, I suppose there are some nutrients in there but gram for gram just not enough to justify eating them except on special occasions.

I have started taking my vitamins again. And flossing more frequently. Can I keep this up? Yes, after thinking I was having a heart attack then a stroke and now cancer, I think I can be serious about this. At the women's conference for the Green Bay Wisconsin Stake, Sister Seiber used Yoga terms to discuss finding balance in our lives. She gave us terms for these two concepts but I can't find them. However, the first one was to do the very best you can and the second concept was not to worry about the results. If you are doing the very best you can the results will be good. That is true. But I still have to climb on that scale sometimes.

On a lighter note, I have really been missing "The Far Side" every since Gary Larson retired, but I think I have found something I find as clever and funny. If you don't believe me, visit http://www.savagechickens.com by Doug Savage. Strange but really funny.

On a lighter note - here we are at Whitefish Falls in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Yes, this is a "hold-out-the-camera-and-shoot" picture. Not too bad. - Carolyn

Stepping into Forever

Yesterday was the last step before Kevin and I go to the Boston Temple to be sealed. A sealing is a religious ceremony in the Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that opens the door to eternal families. Yesterday we interviewed with the Stake President to obtain our recommend - our authority to enter the temple and to be sealed. I am very excited and I understand better than I ever did what this all means. This has been a wonderful, happy, peaceful, growing 3 1/2 years. I can't imagine life without Kevin. I know - I am getting "pukey" as my kids would say. But we do have a remarkable marriage.

I would give a word of advice to the unmarried. When you ponder on marrying someone you love (or think you love) ask yourself if you want the same things and if both of you are willing to do what it takes to have those things. And I don't mean a new plasma TV. I mean things like this: children, closeness, spirituality, spiritual growth, intellectual growth, a peaceful home, a rowdy home, lots of time alone, not much time alone, a stay-at-home mom, a home of strict discipline, a home of warm love, lots of entertaining, lots of travel, a home in the country, a home in the suburbs, an apartment in a busy city, to go wherever the job pays the most, to live where it is low key but maybe the jobs are not as good-paying, spending money to make life now good, saving to make life later good - those kinds of things. If you want the same things and both of you are willing to work toward them (it takes both - one cannot drag the other to the goal) then you can have a marvelous marriage. Of course it also takes attraction, affection, fun, a little romance and real, true love. When you are truly "one" the little things don't matter. You don't lose yourself to become one. You both are magnified. I know this now. - Carolyn