The Lowrey Family Blog

Early Xmas Presents

lowreyfam — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:27:33 +0000

Haven’t updated in a while, so thought I’d give the fam a shoutout!

We are loving married life! Its pretty much the same as not married life, especially when you are living together before getting hitched… (also I started this post before Brianna sent out her blog reminder… at her urging in my facebook status)

So, Xmas came early at our house this year… it started on Thanksgiving at around 10pm… we went down to the outlets in Clinton to get our Midnight Madness shopping on! I wound up getting a new kate spade purse, wallet and sunglasses, as well as a new piece of bakeware from Le Crueset and new sunglasses from Cole Haan! We then proceeded to go home and drop our goods off and head to Target… got in line around 3am because we were hoping to score one of those flat panel tvs! And we did!!!!! It was madness!!!! We also got 2 sets of 700 thread count sheets for $30 each!!!! What a bah-gin! Anyway, we returned home bleary-eyed to hook up our tv, vowing to only do one time slot next year (midnight madness or 5am doorbusters).

Having decided we weren’t going to get any other Xmas presents for each other, both of our cars decided they wanted new tires, the current ones weren’t good enough for the snow… so $800 later, we have some good traction action!

Then, yesterday, after waking up for the 802,834,987 day (that’s a lot of days) in a row with sore lower backs, we decided a new mattress was in order! So we truged down to Sears Outlet (I had no idea there was such a thing!) and got a floor model Stearns and Foster mattress for $400(originally $1999)! We also bought a cheap box spring but when we got home and unwrapped it, we found that one corner was damaged, so we will be returning that tonight and using our old box spring in the mean time (read: until tax returns come in). But what a nice night’s sleep we got! No sore backs!

Hopefully, no other early presents want to rear their ugly heads!

Thank you to everyone who was a part of our special day… I had a perma-grin on for about a month! It was an amazing day! And i’m super glad everyone had fun!!!!!!

Changes are a-brewing for the Big B.

lowreyfam — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:34:44 +0000

Hiya fam,

It’s Brianna. Just here to give an update, should anyone care.

Two big life changes coming up:

1.) FINALLY going to Africa this winter. I’ll be leaving December 28th at the ungodly hour of 6 am for an ungodly long trip (featuring a ten-hour layover in DC) to Dakar, Senegal. I will be there for three weeks; dancing, maybe drumming and definitely traveling. I’ve looked forward to this for so long and it’s finally a reality so frankly, I can’t wait to get out of here and to Mom’s chagrin, let’s all hope I come back. I will be staying with a friend I met in 2000 and have remained close friends with for the past nine (almost ten!) years. I’m so excited.

Hopefully I’ll be able to see some of you over the Holidays before I leave.

2.) When I get back in late January, it’s off to New York City for me (again, assuming I come home. Ask Mom about her bad dreams’ series) to begin a new adventure. One part that is remaining the same is that I am transferring within my company so for right now, I don’t need to find a new job. Just acclimate to a new city. I am very eager to get out of Burlington, so hopefully New York is the right spot for me. I know I love it every time I’m there, so if that’s a sign, it points to yes.

We had an amazing time at Mia’s wedding a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful event, amazing couple clearly very much in love and umm, probably the best dance party I’ve been to in a long time. Hands down. I had sooo much fun and was thrilled to be a part of Mia’s big day and also to have my Sleeus there for Mia’s big day. Sleeus (I hope) had a great and jam-packed visit, including a couple days at the Cape… it’s pretty precious (as we all know in the realities of our lives) to have time together as one big family, so thank you Nans and Pops for use of the cottage.

If anyone is down there at the Cape cottage soon and finds a silver ring (plain, thick band), please let me know. I’ve lost it, which essentially equates to losing a finger.

I hope you are all doing splendidly. Happy fall and hope to see you all soon!

Love,
Brianna BriANNA BRIANNA

Rockstar

lowreyfam — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:49:45 +0000

Hi Fam, I’m also sad to have missed Mia’s wedding (Congratulations Mia!) but we did learn something important out here in Colorado: Dad’s a rockstar.Who knew?

Love you!

Ashley

lowreyfam — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:16:42 +0000

Hi family!!

Mia- we’re all so sad we missed out on your special day, from what pics we’ve seen so far it looked beautiful!

On the flip side however, our time spent out in Colorado with Ash was amazing! We have all made a serious pact to start our journeys back to the East coast so our family can once again be together again- give or take a few to five years!!

We miss you all so very much and hopefully will see you soon! Thanksgiving?!!

Beautiful Cousin Bethie and Uncle Todd

Fab fam

Breakin' it down w/ the groomie

Red Rocks!

Stewie the ring bearer!!

First Cape Trip

lowreyfam — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:25:13 +0000

hey there bitches,

just when it seemed as though marla and i had done everything

there is to do on the cape, we bring wesley, and completely change

what a cape vacation can be. it was a real treat taking him to places

that i enjoyed so many years ago. we just about did it all: fishing;

nickerson, mayflower, west dennis, cold storage, corporation

and chapin beaches, mini golf, captain frostys, red cottage

and other restaurants (and some awesome cottage meals too),

arcades (for NASCAR racing – we couldn’t get to the go-karts

(closed), so we settled for the next best thing), ice cream smuggler,

wiffle ball, frisbee, and many others – i think you get the idea.

initially, i was a little nervous that he would wear us out and

we would both pass out at 6 while he was still rarin to go, but

luckily we were able to outlast him each day, only to wake up

the next day with a new set of plans. god, a week goes by fast. anyways, i hope that you are all well and i look forward to seeing many of you soon (is there some kind of special event coming, hehehe?)

love you all and miss you. paul

nickerson

little beach fishing

lil bugger gotta hole in one!

I hope you saved an autograph.

lowreyfam — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:26:38 +0000

Oooh, sorry, sorry. I have been a complete diva since 9 a.m. yesterday. And given that it’s 24-hours later, my fifteen minutes hath surely passed.

Nevertheless… once upon a time, Uncle Kurtie called one Mr. Tim Volk to say, “please give my niece a chance. If she sucks, you can fire her fat ass.” True story.

Four years later, I present this:

“Brianna Graves talks about her job and challenges” feature in the Burlington Free Press (www.burlingtonfreepress.com): http://tinyurl.com/kudrbp

Additionally, below, is some other recent press in support of my boss’ ZeroWaste Challenge (she produced almost NO waste for an entire week!)…

“Green to the Extreme” interview in the Burlington Free Press article featuring colleague Cheryl Eaton’s ZeroWaste Challenge:
http://tinyurl.com/n8vkon (video)
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=10473742 (article)

Enjoy! Love y’all!
Brianna BriANNA BRIANNA

Wedding bells and other details…

lowreyfam — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:30:57 +0000

Howdy y’all!

So, I’m hearing that word of mouth isn’t working as well as I planned, so here is the 411 straight from the source:

We are officially tying the knot Oct. 10, 2009 at Fox Hopyard in East Haddam, CT, time TBD. Isaacson clan, I know y’all will be out with Kurtie’s family… we will miss you!

We are also having a smaller celebration for Jeremy’s family in CA Oct. 24, but the details haven’t been worked out yet. I do know our “reception” out there will be at Jeremy’s dad’s and that it will be a costume party, but that’s all I got so far…

Listen up, Lowrey ladies! You are all cordially invited to my shower Sept. 26, time TBD, invitations to follow. For any girlies that can make it, my bachelorette will be the same night after the shower. Just a nice dinner somewhere in West Hartford. You’ll be recieving an email from my MOH sometime this summer. Chels, I think I need a non-school email addy.

Alright, that is all for now. We are settled in our apt and loving it. Our dogs are crazy and life is good.

Hope to hear from you all soon! Pics of the apt to follow!

Love,

The Soon-to-Be’s

I think I fixed it!

lowreyfam — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:28:56 +0000

The blog weirdness from Mom’s post. I did what she did today, so I see how to fix it. Hopefully we’re good now and Mama OCD (me) can rest easy because the blog now doesn’t “look weird.” I get it, I get it!

Heh heh heh.

P.S. GREAT IDEA Paul, making this a good Cape Cod activities entry book, too. We’ll update after this weekend!

Burlingtonisms.

lowreyfam — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:56:35 +0000

Hellllllllo fam.

Glad to see some blog activity. Austin’s Prom was the reigning excitement for a bit there (and rightly so), but alas, time for summer updates!

Speaking of Austin, we’ll need a Spain update when he’s up to the task!

Congratulations to our most recent grad, Miss Chelsea Isaacson. Welcome to the real world. Let me be the 120,303,034,509,384,503,984th person to say that to you.

Looking forward to some family time this summer when possible and while I’m still in the hood.

I will be in Connecticut Friday-Sunday, the weekend of July 25th for party times at Nans and Pops.

This coming weekend, the birthday girl, her baby daddy and me will be on the Cape. Very excited for this, as I missed the Cape entirely last summer. First one I can remember in (maybe forever, but at least) a long time. I plan to eat my way through it, as I’ve done since I was 5. Hello clam strips and lobster roll. Where have you been all my life? Ok, since two summers ago.

Maybe we can plan a trailer park pork barbeque some weekend, too. My parents just cursed me for making work for them. Summer tradition!

And FINALLY, if anyone would like to celebrate 400 years of Champlain (or something to that affect… check here: http://celebratechamplain.org/content/view/167/107/), I will be dancing in a piece in the parade on Saturday, July 11th. Fairly short parade, from Union down to Champlain (on Main Street), but all performance based, so it should be a really great time. I’m in rehearsal mode right now and very excited about it. I’ll post videos after the fact for those far away. But those who want to plan for the weekend, there is a whole festival going on with music, dance, etc. so all are welcome to come on up!

Otherwise, I hope everyone is enjoying the summer months. I most certainly am and will have much to update on soon. I’m not ready to report yet, so don’t ask. And DEFINITELY don’t post things on Facebook where my colleagues can see. Gracias!

Which reminds me: I did just spend a GLORIOUS week in paradise (middle-of-no-where Mexico), which is why I missed Chels’ festivities. It was a very needed break and has helped me gain a lot of calm and clarity for the upcoming chapters. I shall leave you with some photos to gaze upon… Viva la swine flu!

Dudes n’ Bitches

lowreyfam — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:38:49 +0000

i remember when we had the lowrey family journal at the cottage and everyone

wrote about their cape vacation, i think this could be done here for those who have anything

to report. marla and i went in may and had a good time (as always), although the only new things

that we did was get a tour of nauset light and try a new restaurant (ardeo’s, there are four of them

but definitely worth trying). other than that we just relaxed and hit the usual spots (oh, and marla

got a sunburn). now i know that the isaacson girls went and so did nanny and poppy – i wonder how

their trips were…

this year’s fishing trip was one of the best ever, many fish caught (and many were very large),

great weather and no bugs. paul, you were invited this year, your loss.

it was great to see (most) everyone at chelsea’s party (congratulations again), the time

went by so fast ….

now, for the big news…. lp putter’s fare will be opening for business!!! after chasing this

thing for 10 to 12 weeks (with much work done by us and outside contractors), we passed

our state inspection yesterday (w/ a perfect score), and we’ll be swinging the doors open for

a “member’s only” brunch on sunday and then opening to the general public on wednesday.

i have no idea what this will bring but we are confident in rene’s abilities and will be beside her

to help in any way that we can. so far the lodging part of the business has far exceeded our

expectations, we have several bookings and are currently entertaining guests (oh, by the way,

speaking of entertaining we tried to get miss kyla to perform at our grand opening but we couldn’t

work out the scheduling), anyhow, the lodging guests have been a lot of fun and it is so interesting

to meet with and talk to people from outside of new hampshire. so far, we have had a couple that

comes here every year (and they act as though they are staying at augusta national), now we have

the harmonica playin’, singin’ texas cowboy (who is originally from new hampshire) and his wife,

this weekend we will have all rooms booked, with guests of florentine films, here to work on a top

secret (hint: 10th inning) project. we don’t have our own website (it has been extremely low on

our list of things to get done), but if you go to the hooper golf course site there is a dining/ lodging

link so you can check out the place that they have entrusted us with (it is a really cool 1788 mansion

w/ lots of antiques). anyhow, i gotta run, more work to do, but i (we) love you all and miss you,

hope to see you soon.

paul