kiddo update

will: is a talking fool! most of the time you can't make out what he is saying...BUT...he is talking! two-three-four words at a time. he was singing happy birthday today for some awesome reason. i loved it! he totally knows what he wants and doesn't want. "no, no, no...'k" he'll look at his options in front of him, say no a bunch of times till he gets to what he wants, then says sort of pittifully, "okay" or "'k". it's hilarious! he's into growling, mud, jumping onto-off from-into-on anything, rolling on anything, hugging his sister, singing songs...i just love this stage he's in.

em: is still soooo inquisitive. she asks questions all the time about anything, "mom, when was the last time you hurt your knee?" "mom, when was the last time you cried"? where does she come up with this? she's sooo compassionate. her heart is so kind and loving, it's beautiful. then, she can be a total little diva and not share and not be kind. but...90% of the time, she is just dreamy. they both are! she is into singing ariel a LOT, anything princess still is her favorite, she loves to pretend anything (cook, re-inact a disney princess scene with her dad who is the beast, prince eric, prince phillip, alladin...), paint, draw, jump, run, walk, talk...learn...listen to stories her dad makes up at night, sing songs at the top of her lungs (there really is no volume control to her-it's either loud or she's asleep!), she is just in love with life. it's contageous.

i'll post pics soon. need to download some and edit a bit. any thoughts on digital cameras? (i'd love a cheap one that is small, i have a great SLR camera i LOVE, but would love a little digital one...thoughts?

missing it...

do you ever feel like sometimes you are missing life? i have been so busy this past month trying to stay above water in a New Testament class...now school just started again and i feel like i can't catch up, things just keep happening...my dad has knee surgery tomorrow, my mom is sick, my sister just started a new job and i've not even called her to ask her how it was going this week, the kids are amazing but i feel like i'm missing them. i miss them because i have to get the laundry done, go grocery shopping, keep the house in order somehow...at some point see my husband...oh and study! so, besides feeling like i'm missing it, i feel like i am missing myself in all of it. how am i? fine? good? obfuscated (to quote our christmas letter)...how are you all? is anyone reading little blog? (i do need to put more blogs on here...)
anyway...those are my thoughts as i begin to assemble all my school work and get it in order so i have an idea of what the heck is going on this semester. don't get me wrong, i'm soooooo excited for this semester and the prospect of all i have ahead of me. this time last year i had no desire to work on anything, i just wanted to be with my grandma. now that she is no longer in pain and with our dear lord and great healer (and not to say waves of grief overwhelm me still, almost a year later), i am in a different place that last year. i look forward to learning more about myself and the Lord and all that is in between. anyway...thanks for reading my venting. it helped to get it out.

friends...

the children that are in this photo belong to three different couples (us included). two of the couples i would consider my 'life-ers'. meaning...we want to do life with them. live near them, have our children grow up together, do family meals together...do life together. the past few years we have been doing this, but this year has held some transitions. this photo is a constant reminder to me of the prayer in my heart that we can still do life together even though we are far apart. now, as of tomorrow morning, this photo is in need of an update. one baby is now walking that needs to be in the photo and one will be born tomorrow. i love that! i love that we are all experiencing our lives together. that is a gift. becky, michele, you are a gift to me and i pray i can be a comfort and safety net to you as you are to me. dan and greg, you both are men that i treasure are in my husband's life. he could not do life without you both. you effect me because of your care and friendship of ryan. thank you dear friends for your friendships.

toddler humor

here are the latest things that get william and emily laughing...specifically william (when he laughs really hard, his neck veins pop out like his daddy...it's amazing!)

the other night the babes were in the bathtub when a soap bubble drifted onto will's tummy...i said...
"will, you have soap on your belly" but i said belly like "bellllllaaahhhy" and he went into a fit of laughter...it still (a week later) ensues huge laughs...he even says the joke now. "mamma...soap on head...nnoooo...soap on nose...noooo....soap on belly...ha ha ha ah ah hhhhaaa" seriously...amazing.

ry was singing a vocal exercise (ahAHahAHah) just that little line...and it made our kids crack up! seriously...toddler humor is awesome!

the final one was today at lunch...we went to fresca's before hitting the mall to spend some christmas gift cards and the kids were eating their food...an enchilada. i said to will, "will...take a bite of your enchilada" and i said it with a distinct spanish accent and he started laughing..then he broke out the belly joke which made him laugh more! i love his little personality that is coming out. emily is such a little miss personality...but his sweet inner will and funny inner will is coming out and we love it! even emily tries the belly joke to get him to laugh. i love our little family!

hope your christmas was great! ours was wonderful. will post photos soon.

The Low’s Top Tidbits Of Two Thousand And Teven (Seven)

Here is our christmas letter!! enjoy!


Hello everyone and season’s greetings from Sunny Southern California! Wow how fast a year passes huh? It seems like just yesterday we were writing you a letter like this, giving you an update. As with last year, the question is: “What do we write about? What do we tell people because so much has happened this year? So we listed out everything that happened and subjected it to a set of five strict criteria. Any tidbit of news that didn’t match with the criteria was jettisoned and finally we have arrived at the top five tidbits of 2007! You ready?
1) Obfuscation in the hizzouse!- Alyssa is in grad school and she learns really cool words. This year’s word is: “Obfuscation”. What does it mean? “To confuse or bewilder hopelessly; to darken or dim”. This word has become a great party word or even a handy “get me out of Trouble” word. For instance, we are at a party, standing around the cheetos, talking about real Estate in California and other Erudite (another big word, only met four of five criteria, so fell short of being a featured tidbit) banter, when I decide to drop “Obfuscation” on them, so I say with one hand full of crunchy cheesy goodness, “all this real estate bubble in California bursting stuff leaves me feeling a great deal of obfuscation”. At that moment, nobody says anything, we simply observe that a great word has entered the room and we give it space. Or what about the handy moments when I need a big word to get me out of trouble? Alyssa comes home, sees me on the couch reading a book and there is a pile of dishes in the sink. She looks at me befuddled and asks: “Ryan, didn’t I ask you to do the dishes?” I suddenly feel danger coming on so I reach for my secret weapon: the word of the year. “ My dearest heart beat, my sweet cuddly crumpet, I remember you made a request for me to do the dishes, but what does it mean to do the dishes anyway? Does it mean to make sure they are where they belong? Some might argue that they belong in the sink when they are dirty. Some would argue it means to clean them and put them back. In either case I wasn’t sure what you meant or the time window upon which you expected me to complete said task. In short,, my love, I was obfuscated by your request.” Suddenly the danger leaves the air. The Romeo and Juliet by Tchaikovsky begins to play and husband and wife run to each other with arms outstretched. They embrace and he dips her low to the ground, her eyes swell with tears of joy as she whispers: Kiss me you brilliant wordsmith”. He smiles and winks at the camera.
2) Aly and Ryan realize they are no longer as young as they once were. How did we realize this? You would think it happened the moment we saw how our metabolisms were no longer cashing the checks our eating habits wrote. It wasn’t then. Perhaps it came when we tried to exercise to fight the battle of the belly and we realized our lungs and hearts burned like we never experienced before. No it wasn’t then either. When did we realize we are no longer spring chickens? When we went to Magic Mountain. Alyssa and I had secured childcare for the day and night so the plan was, use these Magic Mountain tickets, party at the park then go to a hotel in town and spend the night away on a little retreat. Not exactly romantic but super fun and since we are adventurous Roller Coaster connoisseurs, this was gonna be a party! We got to Magic Mountain and practically ran inside. We went first to the “Revolution”, as a warm up. As we ascended the first incline we were filled with confidence that we have had since high school. We owned this ride. We should’ve known it wouldn’t be the same when Ryan had a little trouble getting the harness to buckle. He was too tall and maybe a little too round. But nevertheless, he squeezed in. We attacked that first drop with vigor, screaming and laughing. Ryan even yelled: “This is Sparta”! But somewhere in the middle of the ride, we lowered our arms. Our shoulders covered more space than they used to and now they banged into the hard sideboards of the cart we were squeezed into. Our necks, which used to have supple fresh muscles, were no longer so and didn’t respond as kindly to being thrown about like a bobblehead. We got off the ride laughing but also feeling as if maybe that ride wasn’t as smooth as we once thought it was. The next ride was “Tatzu”. On this ride, you sit down and then it rotates you so you are lying, suspended in the air, facedown. “What an Intriguing Idea” Ryan thinks as the ride begins to lift them into the treetops. From our seat, we are hanging suspended over a drop of a hundred feet when the ride begins to go. Alyssa has decided it best to keep her eyes closed. Ryan is loving every minute. The ride zooms. The ride zags. We sat in the front intentionally and it looks like we are in a car that is rolling in a matrix car chase scene: we see sky, then earth, sky, the earth, trees, trees, trees. Suddenly we see the track descending before us and the next thing we know we are plummeting, headfirst toward the earth, and right before we hit dirt, the tracks splay out under us and we are flipped onto our backs, racing headfirst backwards. Gravity hit us in a way we’ve never experienced. Ryan felt like his brain had become a sponge and all of its blood, thoughts, feelings and memories had been squeezed into his feet. Just when he thought he was the only one to feel this, Alyssa let out a blood curdling scream he had never heard: It was kind of a mix between a young foolish woman being chased by an axe murderer and a chainsaw scratching against metal. Before he blacked out he thought,”maybe this was a little over our heads”. After we awoke, the ride was over. Alyssa and I walked around commenting on how amazing the ride was, neither wanting to admit that our stomachs were obfuscated! Every ride after that, was similar and suffice it to say, we left the park early to go to the hotel and have a nap. How pathetic is that? Our days of carefree youth are over. Sigh.
3) Ariel, William and Papa Bear go on adventures. Right now Emily is fascinated with princesses. This obsession she has is borderline Obsessive compulsive, but we let her because she’s a kid. We often play this game where William Emmy and Ryan get on mom and Dad’s bed, we pull out some destroyed pool cues and use them as fishing poles. The bed is our boat. Everything is great when suddenly Emmy says: “Oh no papa Bear, there is a storm coming”. We put away the fishing poles and suddenly the monsoon strikes. Every pillow in the room (even the ones that are “only used for Decoration” don’t tell Alyssa) becomes a wave that splooshes over the side of the boat and slams into papa bear, Ariel and William. All Heck break loose, the kids are holding on for dear life and papa bear is coming to the rescue except when a wave knocks him out and he needs one the kids to come give him a kiss to wake him up. I know it’s not very original but it’s a way to get a kiss from our kids and I gotta get as many as I can while they aren’t “too cool”. Anyway, we play adventures like this a lot. Emily, and William love to fight dragons, climb the lava walls, hike the mountains in search of the ever elusive “woe-begone”. Emily is three and William is two. We laugh and take this world by storm. What fun they are!
4) We visit Deal or No Deal! I cannot say much about this because I’ve been sworn to secrecy but Alyssa, Ryan, Ed (Ryan’s Dad) and Todd (Ry and Aly’s friend) went to audition Ryan to be a contestant on Deal or No Deal. We drove to LA and Ryan was filmed while giving answer for Deal or No Deal. He had a chance to sing Lional Ritchie and Diana Ross’s “Endless Love” with one of the ladies interviewing him. She was okay. Ryan nailed it! Anyway, we are waiting to hear back from them to see if we get to go on the show. Ryan has been practicing his chops playing on the NBC website. He stinks at it
5) A year of loss. This year has had some wonderful moments but it has also seen some loss. As the year progressed, we watched our Beloved grandmother Virginia, lose her battle with cancer. The family definitely feels a hole without her there as we adjust to life without her. Through it all, we have had wonderful hope that we will see her again, but the sadness we feel is still very real. In addition to this, we have watched some friends of ours tragically lose their son. This was a long journey of prayer and tears as we watched the boy be healed in the arms of Jesus rather than here on earth. We are filled with deep sadness for our friends and wish with all our hearts that this could’ve been different. Life is a very fragile thing. This year we have experienced loss and hope in the midst of it.

Those are our five tidbits. We’d like to finish with some final details and a concluding thought. Ryan is still a Resident Director at Biola and a Worship director at Wilshire Avenue Community Church. Alyssa is still going to grad school. She has about a year and a half left and there are many questions surrounding what she will do next. Emily and William are amazing little kids who make us laugh all the time.
Lastly, we would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. We have been amazed and grateful to see how the Lord has provided for us and pursued us in a great romance. We are convinced we are a people who are rescued by the God who created everything and that we are in the midst of a wonderful relationship with him that changes us from the inside out. We experience more freedom, more love, more hope, more joy and all of it is because of him, the one who left his throne in heaven to become a baby born to a peasant in a stable with stinky animals. What an amazing gift he has given us. We celebrate him this year and celebrate you, the way that you have blessed our lives. Have a wonderful Christmas!!

Sincerely, The Lows

no spring chicken...

okay...so ry and i were able to get away to magic mtn and a night away this past monday-tuesday (MELECA, MEGAN and KIM!! THANK YOU!!) and so...we...two 33 year olds...who thought we were 22 year olds, attacked magic mtn like we were 16 year olds!!! and...we determined that there was a very good reason one waits in line for a hour to go on each ride. RECOOPERATION!! our stomachs were left on some g-force turn on "tatsu" (just wait for our christmas letter to come soon to let you know how that ride went!) and three hours later and 5 roller coasters later (there was NOONE there! we had NO wait for any ride...thus my re-statement of there is a reason why one waits in line for a hour each time before going on another roller coaster! recooperation!) we both sighed...hung our heads down and went to the hotel we were staying at only to crash on the bed and nap for two hours to indeed recoop from our 4 hours and 5 rides at magic mtn.

sorry..no photos...we were too dizzy! note to self...dramamine!!!! : ) it was amazing to connect with ry w/o kids around and we had some pretty big discussions...some i'll share at another date. now...we are celebrating our good friend kevin's arrival from colorado (the men are playing bust-a-move in the background as i type this!) and off to our annual in-n-out dinner so kev can get his fix.

are you done with christmas shopping yet? i have two more presents to buy and a dozen more to wrap...

love to you!

christmas lights and grief

last night the family went to chick-fil-a for dinner and then to go celebrate me being done with the semester. we went to starbucks, got coffee and hot cocoa...walked around the christmas lights...it was beautiful and so much fun!! the kids were in their element.

then it struck me like a wall...my beloved grandma (who passed away april 13th of this year) wanted to see the christmas lights last year...and she just couldn't do it, she was too ill. as we drove away, we drove (not intentionally) past the familiar streets back to our home, but they also led to my grandma's apartment and then home where she passed away. i couldn't hold back the tears any more. dear ryan held my hand as i tried not to make a sound, but just wept. man...she loved christmas. i loved christmas with her. she always signed her presents to us either santa baby or grandma-ma. i won't get anything from her this year. all i want is her...to hold her hand, walk around the cold blocks in brea admiring the christmas lights...shopping in the mall at night with her for presents...wandering around pottery barn...williams sonoma...gap...sephora...anything! eating cpk... she would love our christmas photos...

man...i miss her.