Catching up Again

It's been quite some time since I have blogged so I am way behind.  So here I go trying to catch up.  First of all I want to post some pictures of Rozlynn.  We went for our monthly hair cuts last month and I took these pictures.

I captured Rozlynn doing the Patty Cake thing.  I almost forgot how it went, it has been so long since we have had a baby in the family. 

As we were waiting at the beauty shop for Renee I was looking over the wall on the second floor where Renee's shop is and I saw her taking Rozlynn out of the car and putting her into her stroller.  I could see this cute bow in her dark hair.  She looked like a baby doll.  In this picture she is chewing on her new teeth.  She is getting some more new ones.

In this picture you can see her new teeth two on the top and two on the bottom.  Grandpa got her to laugh.  I was having a lot of fun with her on the floor.  She is such a cutie.  Rozlynn turned 1 year on the 18th of Nov.

Later in the day we met at the Clark County Fairgrounds to check out the Pomegranate Festival.  Grandma Sherry had a lot of fun buying more hair bows for Rozlynn, a wooden puzzle in Rozlynn's name, and some other stuff.  We had some corn dogs that were too salty, should have gone for the Burritos.  So Rozlynn was thirsty and Grandma Sherry gave her some lemonade through a straw.   

Frank & I bought the cutest garden decorations, and I bought what I thought was Pomegranate Jelly, but ended up with syrup.  Oh well, it is good on pancakes.  I will have to see if my friend Kathy has any Jelly left over from the sale.  It was fun to stroll through and see all the exhibits and art work.  I have to limit myself as to what I buy as there are so many wonderful things for sale.  They had entertainment too, but we didn't stay to watch any of it as Frank was hurting from walking.  So we headed home.

Bad News

We have been anxiously waitng for the CT-Scan results that was done on BJ, grandson of my Cousin Penny, and he is Lisa's son.  He had swollen lymphmodes in his stomach.  Here is what his Mom posted on facebook today.

"Bj is being referred to an oncologist for more testing, nothing to stress out about quite yet but still are concerned, he has enlarged lymph nodes, enlarged spleen, and other symptoms to not completely rule out lymphoma, but in early enough stage that we wait have more scans and if gets worse then he will go through a bone marrow test, so still no real answers yet, we pray, don't stress and be patient!"


BJ is only 22, and just recently got engaged.  He served a two year mission and his life is just beginning.  It literally makes me sick to my stomach that this has happened to him.  His Mom is going to have a baby girl soon, and has had her trials with the pregnancy.  Now this has hit the family like a bomb shell.  There have been so many prayers in BJ's behalf and still many more going on.  So we all have to keep the faith going, and hope and pray that the cancer has been caught in it's early stages, and can be cured.  I know he will have to go through some tough times with treatments.  I still can't believe all the cancer in our family and friends.  Something is going on with the environment, eating habits, etc.  Way too many people being diagnosed with cancer these days.

Catching Up

Not too much has been going on since we went to Utah for my family reunion.  We went to St. George last Friday and Saturday.  I went to a healer to see if he could help me.  When he put his hands over my stomach area I definitely felt something going on.  It felt like a rumbling was starting, and then it felt like something was running through that area, like water running in a creek.  It didn't start out very well, as there had been a lack of communication's between his wife and him as there had been a cancellation and she called me to see if I wanted to take it.  So as we were waiting for what we thought was too long of a time, the healer came out and it appeared that he was going home.  He spotted us and asked if we were there to see him.  So any way, to cut a long story short, he took us back to his room and he didn't explain anything, and just asked me what my health problems were and then proceeded to put his hands in the area of problems.  I doubt I will be going back. 

I did this out of desperation as I don't seem to get any answerer's from my doctors.  Except diet, and exercise. Diabetes takes all the life out of me, and fatigue is my constant companion, and just not feeling well in general.  Frank wasn't impressed at all, I could read his mind.  He was thinking "Quack".  I don't think so, but felt he should have taken some time to explain things to me.  So yes, I was disappointed in the whole thing.  Several people from our valley have gone to him and he has really helped them.

I have been faithfully walking on my "dreadmill" and have a stack of old VHS movie tapes that I have watched while walking.  I am wearing pants that I couldn't wear a while back, but I don't think I have lost any weight, I guess inches are a good thing.  I really need to watch my diet better and eat more healthy by adding more vegetables. I think my carbs are getting out of hand. It is soooo hard is all I can say.  If I had one wish, I would wish for a special dietitian to cook all my meals for me, snacks included.

Last Saturday we drove back over to St. George and went to our hotel and kicked back a while until it was time for me to go to my cousins baby shower.  Lisa is 43 years old and is having a third baby.  Her other children are all raised and in their 20's.  She has had a tough time with this pregnancy as she has had several health problems, one of the latest is gestational diabetes.  She will be having the baby early, and more than likely within the next few weeks.  I will be glad when it is over for her and her beautiful baby girl Cienna arrives. 

The baby shower was really nice and a lite dinner of soup and salad, and rolls were served.  It was a lot of work for Grandma Penny mother of Lisa, and she said that would be the last party she does.  She was worn out.  Her sister, Lorri helped and never stopped the whole time we were there.  I helped clean up a little as I was feeling sorry for them. Lisa got a lot of nice things for the baby. I was so exhausted that I didn't even feel like taking pictures and there was a beautiful cake I would have liked to have a picture of.  I am just learning how to use my new camera, and that didn't help matters.

Yesterday as I was cleaning and dusting, my attention was drawn to a picture of Merritt my grandson, and I thought to myself, "I haven't seen him nor heard from him in quite a long time, maybe I won't hear from him anymore."  So what happens last night as we were just finishing up dinner, I received a phone call from him, and it made my day.  We chit chatted about how things were going in his life as far as work, school, etc.  He finally got a car, and I was so glad as he was riding the bus back and forth to work, and now college is added to his agenda.  A while back the bus he was riding was shot at, and that made me know how unsafe Vegas is and unsafe the bus ride and waiting for the bus could be.  So a car for him is a good thing and makes me feel a whole lot better.  I am really proud of him for working hard, and getting into college, where his goal is to become a doctor.  So keep up the good work Merritt.  I love you bunches!!!!

Family Reunion - Tife Ranch



Tife Ranch Lodge



Allen- Slide Show

 We left for Utah last Friday October 8th for a family reunion in Morgan, Utah at the Tife Ranch.  My brother Allen had been telling me about the Ranch for quite some time.  Robert and his wife Ange are the owners of the ranch.  Robert and Allen served in the Great Lakes Mission back in the 70's.    Robert was the owner of  the Robert's Craft stores in Utah, until  he sold out the franchise a while back. The top picture is Robert and Ange's home, and they call it the lodge. If I am remembering right it is 15,000 sq. feet.  We stayed on the bottom floor of the home, and it was a full sized apartment and used by the owners as a family room.  We couldn't believe how beautiful it was.  It had a small kitchen, two big bedrooms, a full sized bathroom with granite counter tops and a family room with a huge TV in it.  Allen and his wife stayed in a bedroom upstairs next to Robert and Ange's bedroom.  It was hard for me to believe that they would share there home with complete strangers.  All we had to do was donate money to stay there.  The donations go to the different charities that Robert and Ange support. They do a lot of good things with their charities.

The ranch has a large pavilion and that is where we had the reunion.  Again we were amazed at how it was furnished.  Granite counter tops, an over sized stove, warming oven, huge gas grill, two stainless steel dishwashers, and two kitchen sinks, and a huge stainless steel refrigerator.  On the outside of the pavilion was two full sized bathrooms all tiled, granite tops, and a nice shower.  The bathrooms were off from a utility room with a big front load washer and dryer.  You would have to see it to believe all the deluxe furnishing. 

There were three cabins, if that is what you want to call them.  They were fully furnished to the max.  Just no running water.  There was another small pavilion that had bathrooms for the people staying in the cabins, and of course fully furnished. 

Allen gave a really neat slide show of the family genealogy and I learned things that I didn't know about our family.  It seemed like all we did was eat as Joyce and Allen did a pulled pork dinner Friday night for those of us that were there to spend the night.  Then Saturday morning they did breakfast of pancakes, eggs, omelets, bacon, sausage, and orange juice.  It was delicious.  Then for lunch Allen grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, and there was a potato salad that I had brought.  There was all the trimmings for the hamburgers along with a big green salad, and a fruit bowl.  No one left hungry.


Bret & Sierra

  I was disappointed that Laura and Sherry couldn't make it.  As usual things came up for several people and they couldn't make it.  Allen planned the reunion around a cousins schedule, and he ended up not being able to come with his family.  Then Joyce's brother and his family left early Saturday as they were given football tickets for the BYU game that day.  So the reunion ended up being small.  Bret and Sierra left right after we had lunch, as they had a long trip to make back to Overton.

It seemed like every time I looked in the kitchen, Joyce was working her hinny off.  I did help her clean up after breakfast.  I told her that I didn't ever want to see her work that hard at a reunion again, and that if we ever had another one, we should change it so no one had to work so hard.  She said that she had told Allen no more reunions, and  Allen agreed.  I don't blame them at all.  She is on Chemo treatments for lung cancer, and even though she was in between treatments, I feel that it was way too much work for her, and Allen too.  So I doubt there will be any more reunions, maybe just a family get together.

Uncle Don and his son Roger

Old Picture of Grandpa and Grandma Luker



Uncle Don & Frank



Sherry, her husband & Frank

 I was taking pictues and my sunglasses were in the way and as I was trying to put them on my head, I dropped my camera and it hit the hard cemet floor.  So I didn't get to take as many pictues as I wanted.  My camera was broken and had to be thrown away, but the memory card was okay.  I now have a new camera as I ordered one from Costco and it is similar to the one I had so I won't have to take a lot of time learning how to use it.  It does have some new features that I will have to learn how to use, like tagging pictues, and downloading right to my blog or to my facebook. 

It was nice to see my cousin Sherry and her husband. She had brought a family picture that was of her family with our grandpa and grandma Luker.  It was a much younger grandpa and grandma. Frank took a pictue of it with my camera. 
My Uncle Don came with his son Roger. Uncle Don is 88 years old and is senile.  I loved seeing him, and one time he broke out in a song we sing in our church.  "Give me some stout hearted men"  His last name is Stout.  He said his father used to sing that all the time. We got a kick out of it, and had a good laugh.

Joyce Luker in the kitchen

After we helped clean up the pavilion, we headed back to Salt Lake.  We drove over a beautiful mountain called East Canyon and enjoyed the scenery and fall leaves.  After we checked into our hotel room, we crashed for a while and then headed over to Allen and Joyce's home to take some things back to them that they didn't have room for in their car.  We visited for a while, and then headed back to our hotel for the night.  We left the next morning after having breakfast at The Cracker Barrel and had a nice trip home.

Ryan and Mellisa Luker

Good News Update

I have been sitting on pins and needles waiting for my follow up doctor's appointment after my CT-scan.  My appointment with Dr. Zinni was for 9 AM this morning in Mesquite so no sleeping in this morning.  I have been praying that I wouldn't have to have surgery so as I waited in the exam room for Dr. Zinni I prayed  again.  When doctor Zinni came in the first thing he said was that I didn't have a hernia much to his surprise and to mine as I had two doctors tell me I did have one.  He told me that it didn't show up on the scan, and that my pancreas, intestines, etc. looked good.  He told me he didn't know what the bulge was, and he would not do anything about it.  I was told to get back with him if it got bigger, or started to bother me.  I gave him a thumbs up and thanked him for the good news.  I got the results of my mammogram today in the mail and it was good too.  So I am a happy camper with all the good news, and now I think I am through with doctors until my next Diabetic check. All I can say is Yea!!!!!

I went to see Dr. Bret for a treatment this afternoon, as I have been hurting a lot the past two days.  I told him the results of the CT-scan, and he told me that maybe this all had something to do with my tummy tuck that I had several years ago and that maybe the muscle that was repaired had fallen apart with my weight gain.  So I am thinking that if I do have problems with it, I will go back to a plastic surgeon and get his opinion.  Also about six years ago I had a cyst on my stomach and the dermatologist I was going to removed it and some of the fluid blew out into the area of the cyst and Dr. Zinni has a theory that this infection caused a weakness in that area and helped cause the problem.  Oh well, I am just happy that I don't have to have surgery.

Tonight we took the missionaries out to dinner at the Scoop.  I told them that they could order anything they wanted and their faces lite up.  They ordered steak dinners. I had the grilled pork chop and it was really good.  It is so refreshing to visit with the missionaries as they have such a special spirit about them.  One of them quoted a scripture and now I wish I would have written it down as it really applied to what the world is going through now.  One missionary was from Chicago, and the other from Wisconsin.  We talked and ate dinner for over an hour and then they left to go visit a family.  All in all it was an enjoyable evening.

The Heat is ON & More Bad News

Frank took me to Mesquite today so I could have my mammogram.  I couldn't believe how hot it was for being the end of September.  On the way home our car thermometer read 109 and that is just unbelievable to me.  I don't ever remember the temperature being this hot this time of year.  So I believe in the Global Warming and wonder where it stops.  Is the earth going to burn up?  I am still waiting for the coolness of fall weather.  If I had my way, we would skip summer and just have fall and winter.

Yesterday, I had a fun afternoon with my daughter, as we went up to Moapa and visited with Jamie and her friend Kessa.  Kessa was making cupcakes and made a cream cheese frosting to go on them.  She passed around the beaters and we all had a lick.  Yummy, it was so good we didn't want to stop.  Kessa's baby even got in on the treat, but much to our surprise, she didn't seem to like it.  When we left Kessa loaded us up with some fresh peaches from Utah, and some garden tomatoes, and gave me some okra that I am going to cook tonight for dinner.  Frank will love that as he loves fried Okra.

When I got home, Frank was on the phone and then handed it to me and said it was for me.  It was my cousin Penny, and she had some bad news about her grandson BJ.  He has been having some stomach problems for quite a while now.  Penny made him an appointment with the doctor and the news didn't sound good after an X-Ray.  There are some growths like lymph nodes that are unusual in his stomach.  Monday, he will find out if it is cancer or something else.  So Penny was asking for our prayers.  So every time I think about it I shoot a prayer up to Heaven for our BJ.  He is just a kid in my eyes of maybe 22 or 23, and just met the love of his life. 

We have a friend in our church ward that was diagnosed with colon cancer and it has spread all through his body and he is terminal.  Frank took him into Vegas last Friday for a radiation treatment as they are trying to give him some more time on this earth with his family.  Then I have a younger friend that had to have both of her breast removed and is going through Chemo treatments, and then just today she blogged about a daughter in law that had a tumor removed from her neck and it has been deemed cancer.  I blogged about my Grand daughter Renee's Father in law having Stomach cancer and is living on borrowed time.  Wow! is this and epidemic or what?  Then I have another younger friend who has a very rare cancer tumor in his heart.  It is so rare that they don't even know what course of treatment to use.  He is terminal too. They are doing some radical radiation and Chemo on him and he has to be hospitalized during the treatment.  This is to try and give him some more time with his family.

Today as I was getting my mammogram, I was thinking what if they find a cancer tumor in me?  I know it is because of all of these people in my life who have cancer.  Tomorrow I go in for a CT-scan to have a hernia checked out, and I am thinking to myself this is how my son found out he had kidney cancer.  Wow! I have to stop thinking this way!  I will be glad to get the results of both x-rays.  Then I can breathe easier.  I have always said "Lord just give me a quick heart attack."  Well, I will blog the results of my x-rays when I get them.  I know I am just being paranoid.

My Mom, Lenna Aileen Scoggins

My favorite picture of Mom

Mom & Dad

Mom holding me

Since Allen e-mailed me a few days ago reminding me of our Mother's death, she has been on my mind and I decided to dedicate a blog to her and my memories of her.

Mom was born in  Siler City, North Carolina.  She was the second child born to John Prichard Scoggins, and Cora Mae Smith.  Unfortunately her Mother passed away shortly after my Aunt Kay was born, leaving five children behind.  They were all shuffled around to different families and Mom being around nine years old went to live with her Grand Father Greenberry and his second wife Spicey Ann Stokes.  Spicey Ann was a very ambitious woman and expected my Mother to keep up with her, and according to Aunt Mary, was working my mother to death.  So Aunt Mary came to the rescue and took my Mother back to Salt Lake City to live with her. I think Mom had to be around eighteen or nineteen when this event happened.

I am not sure if it was when Mom lived with Aunt Mary or shortly after she married my Father, she had to have some kind of stomach surgery.  As told to me by Aunt Mary, the doctor had to take all of her insides out, and lay them on a table, so I am wondering if she had peritonitis from appendix that got infected. I know this sounds crazy having your insides taken out and laid on a table, but that is exactly what I remember Aunt Mary telling me. I don't remember Aunt Mary telling me what was wrong, or why they had to take her insides out. I am thinking it was her intestines.  She almost died, and the doctor told her to drink beer to regain her strength.  When I heard this I was so upset that a doctor would give this recommendation.

Mom met and married my Father and this is where my memories begin.  We lived in a home across from the Salt Lake City fairgrounds and I can remember Mom washing clothes in an old wringer type washer. I thought I was going to help her and got my arm caught in the wringer.  Things were good at this time, and I didn't find out what a horrible temper my Father had until I was around four.  He had always been good to me.  We used to go to the Great Salt Lake and one night on the way home after Dad had been drinking, he got into a confrontation with another driver.  He took us home and went back to fight the other man.  He came home with blood all over, and of course I was frightened and asked him if he was OK.  He smacked me and told me to get out of the bathroom where he was cleaning up. So thus began the life of being afraid of my Father.

I was an animal lover and would chase a dog or cat, and got lost a few times.  So Mom decided to tie me up to a clothes line with a rope tying it to my overall straps and  leaving a loop so that I could run up and down the length of the line.  I saw a dog, and ended up taking off my coveralls with the rope intact and took off following the dog.  Poor Mom was besides herself as they couldn't find me.  I can remember coming home in a police car.

My love for animals got me into trouble more than once.  I would practically drag a dog home and then beg to keep it.  Unfortunately for me the dog had an owner and had to be returned.  Another time when we were living in Rose Park, I was trying to save a bird that had fallen into the oil ditch across from our subdivision.  Instead of me saving the bird, I fell in to the ditch with the bird in my hand and we were both in trouble.  The bird of course died, and when I got home and Mom saw what I had done, she put me in the tub and I have never been scolded so harshly by her and scrubbed so hard in my life.  I know it must have scared her to death to think I could have drowned, or injured by the oil.

Mom was a beautiful Southern woman and had black hair and olive skin.  Later in years after being teased immensely from the kids at school about my freckles, I would look in the mirror and wonder why I couldn't have had my Mom's looks.  Family and friends loved Mom and when my cousins, would come over to our home they would head to the kitchen to see what good food Mom was cooking as she was always cooking something good. I can remember Larry, my first husband telling me I had to learn how to make gravy like my Mom's.  After many trials and failures I finally could make gravy like Mom's.

I can remember when we were living in the duplex, Mom played hop scotch, jump rope. and jacks with me, and on the nights that my Dad was at work on his two day trips with the U.P. Railroad, I would crawl in bed with her and we would listed to the radio programs like The Shadow Knows, Inter sanctum, and others.  I can remember playing outside and hearing Mom's voice calling me to come home to dinner.  I would come into a kitchen filled with wonderful aromas of her good Southern cooking. While living in the duplex, I got a new pair of roller skates, and Mom helped me learn how to skate.  When I got discouraged after falling so many times, she encouraged me to get up and try again  Soon I was skating around the Salt Lake City block we lived on.

Later when we moved to Rose Park, Mom planted a vegetable garden among her flower beds and this is when she did her best during the summer months working in her garden.  I remember taking the salt shaker out to the garden and finding the perfect tomato and eating it right there with the juice running down my chin.

I remember having talks with my Mom about this and that. When out of town family members came to visit I would sit on the stair case listening to them talk, and later as I grew into my teens, I would join in the conversation.  Unfortunately Mom had been drinking during all these years.  It started out as just social drinking with family and friends, then it escalated to full alcoholism.  When I was in Jr. high school and would walk home from the bus stop, I would never know what kind of condition I would find Mom in.  Like I said the summers were the best. A lot of times I would fine her in her rocking chair, drunk, and I always felt she was missing her North Carolina family.

Mom loved children, and especially babies.  She baby sat for a cousin, and also for my Aunt Marie.  Many times when I would get home from school, I would find her in her rocking chair rocking a baby to sleep. One of the babies she baby sat was my cousin Jimmy's daughter, and Mom would be so upset at the condition the baby would be in when she was brought back to her on Monday mornings.  The baby had diaper rash so bad it was bleeding, and Mom would get it all cleared up during the week, and have to start all over on Mondays.

Aunt Mary told me Mom had a boyfriend in North Carolina, and they were engaged. Mom lost her engagement ring in the sand at a beach.  I have often wondered if she had married that man, maybe her life would have been different?  I don't think she was happily married to my Dad, but she couldn't drive, no job, and had five children.  One time she left him because of a horrible beating. We moved in with my Aunt Mary, and I was never so happy only to come home from school one day to find Mom gone with my siblings.  Aunt Mary told me that I had to go back home.  I cried and cried and Aunt Mary had to console me.  I feel Mom was trapped and had no where to turn, so her bottle of booze became her escape from a painful life.  I loved her very much, but she became a child trapped in an adult body as the booze destroyed her brain cells.  So I lost her long before she passed away.  Mom I love you and forgive you and we will be together again some day not to far in the future.

Mom passed away from Cirrhosis of the liver when she was only 50 years old.