APRIL FAMILY LETTER
2008
To see or print this letter in plain text, click here!
Lloyd &
Nilda
Dear Family
It is interesting having a due
date for the family letter fall close to Mother's Day. It give me, at least, a
final reminder for Mother's Day.
So HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL OF YOU
MOTHERS ON YOUR SPECIAL DAY.
After going through the turmoil of
having to change tenants for various reasons, just yesterday we filled
the apartments again.
This time we think we really have very good tenants. It will be nice to rest
from our daily trips to the apartments.
As some of you will know, it takes
time to refurbish the apartments once tenants leave to prepare the places
for the new tenants.
We like to turn the apartments in
top shape to the new tenants.
As for medical news, it was such a
great relief to have Julie complete her treatment for cancer. I am sure she
will give you
more details. She is surely excited
to have everything behind her. As for me, the eye doctor finally found the
solution to my horizontal
double vision and extremely dried
eyes cause by Parkinson's. What they needed to do was to have a
neuro-ophthalmologist give me a
test to asses mi vision and that
lasted 3 hrs. The doctor solve the problem by adding prisms to
my glasses. Voila!! the double vision went away.
As for my intestinal problems there
still no solutions. Since Parkinson's affects all systems related to movement,
also affects the proper
functions of the intestines which
gradually will cease working.
Since there is nothing else worth
adding, we will say good-bye until next month.
Love you all,
Lloyd and Nilda
DARLENE AND
BOYD
I'm glad
there is a deadline for this letter or I probably wouldn't get one
written. As it is, I'm a day late.
In April,
for our anniversary we decided to take a little trip down to St. George.
We spent four days there. We went to the temple visitors center and was
able to see a display of sculptures that were only there for a short
time. They were on some of the events of Christ's life. There was
one life size statue of Christ. The missionary that was with us told us
to step back a little and look in His eyes. I can't describe the feeling
I got when I did this. It was like He was really there and looking at
me. All of the sculptures, about 13 of them, were beautifully done.
We were glad we happened to be there at the right time. We went to see
the Joshua Tree Forrest, which was interesting to see so many of them, as far
as you could see. We went to Leeds where we saw an old Wells Fargo
station building that was turned into a museum and art display place. We
rode down to Zion Canyon and rode through the places where anyone could go.
Some of the places was by bus only and we didn't do that. We went to Sand
Hollow Reservoir where Boyd thought he could do some fishing, but the wind was
blowing too hard and he decided not to even try.
On our
anniversary day, April 22, we went to a movie, Emma Smith, My Story,
which we thought was very good. At night we went to the Texas Road House
restaurant and had an excellent dinner. All in all, we had a very
good trip.
I am still
not getting better as fast as the doctors would like. My lungs are only
working at half capacity so I have a hard time catching my breath. I have
to go see a pulmonary doctor in June. Maybe he will be able to tell me
why this is happening. I walk nearly every day for at least 1/2 hour or
so. I think that should help, but so far it has not. When I was
told it takes a long time to recover, I believe it.
Boyd took
out some bushes in our front yard by the porch. It looks bare there
now. He still has to dig the roots out. That's the hardest
part. We don't know yet what to replace them with. We'll have to
look and decide when it's time to plant something new. He want to start
putting our garden this week if the weather permits.
Hope you
all had a Happy Mother's Day. I did. Ann and Pat came over
today, Judy came Last night and Craig is coming tomorrow, Monday.
Also Jim called today. It was Chayse's birthday today so they had two
celebrations. He is 10 yrs old.
That's
about it for this time.
Love to you
all,
Darlene and Boyd
Wayne & Loree
Hello,
again, everyone. Time seems to just keep flying by no matter what we
do. But at this time of year, it's so nice to see the grass grow greener,
the trees leaf out, the flowers start blooming, and temperatures start to rise
again. What a relief from winter's long stay. These past few days
have been wonderful here. But I can see more rain and clouds and possibly
some snow in the outlook. Too bad! Hopefully that will end soon.
We are doing alright here in this neck of the woods. However, we've been
quite tired the last little while. Does that mean we have spring fever,
or is it something else? I hope it's the former. We hope and pray that
things are going better for those who've had troubles the last while. We
are encouraged with the progress of Julie. Way to go, Sis!! And how
is Darlene doing? I hope we hear that all is wonderful with you.
Lloyd, are you holding out, too? Joann, any more broken bones
lately? Hope not! Be careful. We think of everyone so often
and pray daily for your recovery and strength to return.
We are planning on attending the graduation of Serena's oldest son, David, on
Memorial Day weekend -- Saturday the 24th, to be exact. I will be
going down on Tuesday, the 20th, to spend time helping Serena get ready
for the influx of guests. She is taking that week off to spruce up her
house, replacing the floors in the kitchen/dining area and maybe the bathroom.
She has planned a girl's day out with me and Tammy on Friday, which I am
looking forward to.
As I stated last month, we are also going to Stephen's graduation the 18th of
June. I actually said it was the 24th, or something along that line, but
I was mixed up. We will fly down on Tuesday the 17th and fly back on
Friday the 20th. It will be a short trip, but we will love being with Ken
and his family again.
We actually got our garden tilled up last week. It's still too early to
plant yet, but now it's ready when we get ready to do so. We may have to
wait until we get back in June because when it is planted we have to water it
daily, if not twice a day, depending on the temperatures. We don't want
to plant and then just leave it for our neighbor's to take care of. Not
that they are not willing, but Wayne doesn't want the burden to fall on
them. It's quite a process. So we'll see what happens as it gets
closer.
Serena had quite an upset a few weeks ago. She tripped while going up her
stairs to her house and fell face down. She hurt her neck but didn't
bother to go to the doctor until several days later when the pain got to hard
to handle. She found out that she'd herniated a couple of discs in
her neck and was put into a neck brace. It is healing nicely, but she
still has to be careful because she doesn't wear the brace anymore.
We hope all will be well soon.
The rest of the family is doing well. Ken is back in school and Paul and
Janeen are happily remarried. Rachel is still working hard in her school,
but is trying to find something else for next year. This year was
only a one-year contract. Tammy and Perry are doing well also.
That's it from Idaho. We love you all. Have a great month!!
Wayne
& Loree
Elaine – no
letter this month.
Larry and
Betty
I want everyone to know I am feeling much better; however, there is just one
possible negative to this whole experience: I have been diagnosed with
"Barrett"s Esophagus". What is that, you may ask! I
will explain. But first, I want to say that the bleeding has stopped,
which is a good thing. Now on to the definition of Barrett's Esophagus:
it is a condition in which normal cells that line the esophagus, called
squamous cells, turn into cells not usually found in humans, called specialized
columnar cells. Damage to the lining of the esophagus causes the cells to
change. About 5 to 10 percent of people with this condition develop
cancer of the esophagus. Because of this cancer risk, persons with
Barrett's esophagus are regularly screened for esophageal cancer. Also,
there is no cure for this condition. Once the cells change, they
will not revert back to normal. Thus, treatment is aimed at preventing
further damage from occurring by stopping acid reflux from the stomach.
I am now on a regimen of taking 2 Prilosec OTC tablets daily; most likely for
the rest of my life. They seem to have been helping. Since I started
taking these tablets, I sleep better at night; no acid reflux while I am
sleeping, which feels great!
Also, my back is starting to feel much better, as the pain is subsiding
gradually each day. I started seeing a chiropractor, and that is helping
also. He has given me some back exercises to do to help strengthen my
back muscles and ease the pain even further. At times, after I use those
muscles, especially in my lower back, I start to feel achey and tired and have
to sit or lie down for awhile to ease the pain. At least, I am more
active than I was just after coming home from the hospital. Oh, and
another good benefit: I have lost some weight and a couple of inches around my
waist. My pants are much looser, and I have to tighten my belt one more
notch. But, I would not recommend the way I lost the weight to
anyone. There are much better and safer ways to do that. A few
people I associate with have noticed and mentioned how much thinner I
look.
Well, enough of my health problems. On to other good things that happened
in April.
Lauren has finished remodeling our upstairs bathroom. What a
difference! It does not look like the same bathroom; it looks much
better. With some help from his brother-in-law and a friend, they put in
a new window, tiled around the tub, replaced the toilet and sink, and put in
some new decorative lights and a new medicine cabinet. Also, they tiled
the floor, and painted the remaining walls with some fresh paint. We also
got a new shower head and other accessories.
Now, Lauren is going to remodel the downstairs bathroom. We are just
waiting for him to get some free time, which is next to impossible this time of
year because of his work schedule, and the grandkids activities at school and
at church. But, I am sure it will get done eventually.
Betty's health is improving. She was scheduled to have her left eye have
some medicine put in it with a shot needle; but when the eye doctor looked into
her eye, he told her she did not need it; but he wants her to see an eye
surgeon because she has a cataract on her eye and he thinks that is what is
causing her blurry vision. She will be doing that sometime in June.
It hardly seems possible that another school year has come and almost gone for
the grandkids. Ana will be graduating from 6th grade at the beginning of
June, and Dean will graduate from kindergarten at the end of this month.
KayLub will be in fourth grade next year. How time flies when you are
busy and happy. Our grandkids are growing up too fast!
That's it for now. We always look forward to getting the family letter
each month.
Love to all!
Wayne and
Julie
Dear
Family,
A Celebration is in order. I had my last radiation therapy on Monday May
5th. It was a great day. After the treatment they have you ring a cow
bell and everybody cheers, even the people in the waiting room. Then you get hugs and off you go. But for me it was even more fun. Karie brought her kids down to wish me well
and one handed me a balloon, one handed me a rose, and the other had a sign
that says “YOU DID IT”. Then we took
pictures of course. She said she would
have brought more well-wishers, but there was too much sickness going around.
Whew, that has been a long six weeks. I
had to go to therapy five days a week for six weeks. It gets tiring, but I enjoyed talking to the
people that were there everyday the same time I was there. But -- the truth be told - I’m glad it’s
over.
The radiation really did a number on me. I am burned in a place that has never seen
the light of day. It is really painful,
especially at night when I’m trying to sleep.
They said the fatigue could last anywhere from a couple of weeks to
several months. I remember last time it
took me a good year to get over the tiredness.
Radiation, however, is nothing compared to Chemo. So I feel like I’m doing pretty good.
Now I can get on with the rest of my
life. On Saturday, my girls, Mike and I
are doing the Race for the Cure (of course we’re walking). It’s going to be a special experience this
year because of what I’ve been through these past several months. Seeing all those pink shirts (only survivors
are in pink) makes one realize that breast cancer is so very common that it’s
scary.
April Wayne got really sick with bronchitis
that turned into asthmatic bronchitis.
He was off one week, then back to work for a week, then off another
week. He just couldn’t stop
coughing. He would wake up in the middle
of the night with a coughing attack, and then couldn’t catch his breath. At times I thought he was going to pass out
from lack of air. But all is well
now. He coughs just every once in awhile
now and he’s able to stay asleep and not wake up coughing all night long.
April is also our Schubert concert in St.
George, and this year was no different.
Wayne told me several weeks ago he didn’t think he could make it, so I
went with a couple of the ladies. We had
a very good time. It was very
relaxing. We sang at the Tabernacle on
Saturday night and then Sunday morning we went to our conductor’s aunt’s ward and
sang at their Sacrament meeting. Then
Sunday was just a day to relax and enjoy life, and we headed home Monday
morning.
Our concert is Saturday night at the Assembly
Hall on Temple Square and another one the 17th at the Waterford
School in Sandy. Then it’s over until
next September. It’s good to have a
break for the summer.
We can’t wait until it’s warm enough to open
the pool again. The weather has been so
unpredictable lately that we haven’t even thought about opening it yet. Hopefully we will be able to do so by the
Memorial Day.
