The Gillmore Family

Most recent men's outfit

2011-12-28T18:45:00.000-07:00

This is an outfit that I have been working on since the beginning of November. The trowsers are made from a fabric called kearsy cloth. It has warp threads of linen and weft threads of wool. It looks like the fabric that the confederate civil war reenactors wear. The trowsers are a drop fall front.

The shirt is made of raw linen. It has been made made from a Martha McCain Simplicity pattern. It has been mostly hand stitched. If I could see the stitching from the outside, I hand stitched it. The buttonholes have been done by hand as well.

The vest is made from a Past Patterns pattern called "A Single-Breasted Shawl Collar Waistcoat" It has been made from wool flannel with a raw linen lining and back fabric. There are welt pockets and hand stitched buttonholes.

I am now on to some easier things for a couple of weeks and then I will be starting a wedding dress for a girl in my ward who also happens to be a distant relative on the side of the family that has all the sewing genes. (Thank you great great grandma Elizabeth Hocquard Carlisle).

I've been hacked!

2011-12-10T10:07:00.000-07:00

My comcast.net e-mails and facebook account have been hacked this morning. I am not in England. I don't even have a passport to get out of the country. I apologize if this has jeopardized any of your accounts.

Gray Wool Dress

2011-11-04T12:33:00.000-06:00

This dress has been a long time in the making. It is made of bluish gray lightweight wool with a blue cotton lining. The trim is dark pink taffeta. The collar and cuffs are hand embroidered. The time period is around 1850.

Finally! An update

2011-10-20T23:04:00.000-06:00

Okay, I finally decided I needed to update things. Here are the pictures of the authentic projects that I have been working on. First is the Frock Coat that I finally finished this last spring. Then the red dress was for the LDS Church Museum. That took a lot longer than I anticipated and I learned many things. I always do. The last one is my most recent project. I have made this dress many times. Most people have ordered it in blue. I really like the print this client picked. I am currently working on a gray wool dress that will be trimmed with pink silk (yes, real silk)taffeta. Then I have a project of a full set of men's clothing made from linen and wool. Linen shirt, wool vest and Kersey trousers Kersey is a wool and linen mix. Trek business is slow so it is a perfect time to work on these more challenging projects.

On a personal note, Mary has grown so much. She grew 3 inches over the summer and is now 4'11". She is in 4th grade and is doing well. It has taken her a couple of months to figure out how to focus and get her work done during class and now, for the most part she doesn't have much homework. This is her first year of having a man teacher. She was a little leary at first but she loves Mr. Downs. He is an older teacher. My sister who is 2 years younger than me had him for 5th grade his second year of teaching. At Back To School Night he addressed the first man teacher issue becuase he has had that problem every year. He told the kids not to worry, "it is a bit like spending the day with Dad." He has a dry sense of humor that Mary loves. He told me at her last SEP conference that she is one of the few that really gets his jokes. I had to explain that her dad had the same dry sense of humor that she has so she totally understands.

In July, I had a mile marker birthday and turned 50. I was a little down about it for a bit. The last hard birthday I had was 30. Mary was born just weeks after I turned 40 so I was completely immersed in becoming a mother and so 40 went by without much hooplah. Now I've had a few months of being 50, I'm okay with it. My body is old and I'm not getting around very well. My knees and hips have decided they are tired. I am having a hard time losing weight because I can't exercise enough to get my heart rate really moving. So I do what I can and let it go with that. I walk with 2 canes and Mary is a big help. I told her that we needed to get a screw driver and the "T" to turn off the sprinklers. Well, by the time I got myself out the door she had turned off the sprinklers all by herself. She was so excited.

My father passed away in August. He only felt poorly for a couple of weeks before. He didn't have the patience to be sick for very long. I had a good 2 hour visit with him the morning that he died. We didn't know that it was going to be that day. He was up and around. His hometeacher was over to mow the lawn and dad was out supervising the job. He came in the house about 4:00, told Mom he couldn't breathe and then passed out and was gone. He has had a bad heart for years so I was okay with his passing. I know that he is doing what he needs to do. He had been a temple officiator for 12 years. In that time he did 11,000 names. That was the thing that was most proud of. Being able to complete the work for so many people. Many if not all of them were family names.

Mom started feeling poorly about 3 weeks after Dad died. At first we thought that her blood pressure medicine wasn't doing the job completely. Turns out she has lymphoma. She has now had her first round of chemo. She will have two more treatments, three weeks apart, then they will run the tests again to see if the tumor has shrunk.

Well, there you have it.

Start at the center

2011-01-11T14:32:00.001-07:00

Since Thanksgiving, I have been working on a tailored 1830's frock coat. I thought that it would only take me about 3 weeks. And it might have but there have been some steps that I have had to psych myself up for. It has been my first heavy tailoring project. For the most part I have enjoyed it. I have learned a lot. My mom suggested a book that is long out of print. I found an almost new copy at Amazon.com. I have followed it step by step. Yesterday I completed the hand worked buttonholes. The collar has been on for a week or so. But I haven't liked the way the upper collar went on. I have tried different things to fix it. It still hasn't looked quite right.

I woke up this morning with this thought in my head "I need to take off the collar and work from the the center back to the front on each side." I have heard this sewing rule several times but it is always so natural just work from one side to the other. So I took off the upper collar this morning. As I was re-pinning the collar back on I was thinking about starting at the center. Then I started getting all philosophical. It is not just in sewing that it is best to start in the center and work toward the edges. In life if you want to make a change, you have to start by changing your heart. The center. So that is my lesson for the day. Start at the center.

I will post pictures of the frock coat when I finally get it finished.

The Last Few Months....

2010-11-26T17:32:00.000-07:00

..have gone by and I think about updating and then I think, but nothing has really happened. So here is a shot at nothing.

I had knee surgery in October. Just a scope, but I found out that knee replacements are definitely in my future. They want me to work with what I have until I can't stand the pain any more. The good news is that I have more movement in my right knee than I have had in years. One of my problems is that I can sit for hours, but I should get up and move around every hour for about 10 minutes. I just forget until it has been 3 hours and then I am all stiff. Getting old is highly overrated.

Mary was Dorothy for Halloween. Of course I didn't get any pictures. I am so bad at remembering to get out the camera. I bought a small camera because I thought I would get it out more often. Well it got lost at the family reunion. So I only have the big Rebel camera of Earl's. I have learned a few things about getting a good picture, but it is so big. But I digress. Mary had a great time being Dorothy. She helped me figure out how to make her costume. That is a tradition that we have. I have always made her costumes and she loves dressing up all year long so they are well used.

Yesterday we had Family Thanksgiving with Grandma Hymas. One of the activities that was suggested was to make gingerbread cookies. Mom used to make them every Christmas and we would decorate them, put them in baggies tied with a twist tie, then use the twist tie and a means to hang the cookies on the tree. The grand kids love the gingerbread and we figured out last night that the last time we decorated cookies for Thanksgiving was years ago when we all went to my brother's house in St George. That was before I met Earl, so it was at least 12 years ago. Those who stayed and made cookies had a great time. Each person cut and decorated a full tray of cookies to take home. Mary had so much fun. She loves creative things.

Mary is doing well at school. She has discovered Beverly Cleary. Specifically Ramona Quimby. She has asked for the whole Cleary library for Christmas. She has all the Ramona books, so I am working on the Henry Huggins and Ralph the mouse books. Reading has really clicked for her this year. I am so happy. I learned to love reading as a child. For many years we did not have a TV in our home. Reading filled the time that most kids spent watching TV. I am really glad that Mary has learned that reading is an enjoyable way to pass the time especially since if you don't know how to read, the rest of life is more difficult. I'm hoping that at some point, she will pick up math as well. For right now she is content to figure out equations each time she encounters them. It won't be that easy once she starts on multiplication. I had a hard time with multiplication as well so I hope that she eventually gets it. I did. I'm still no whiz at math but I can do anything that doesn't require algebra.

Mary has joined a local swim team so she swims with the team 3 days a week. She is in the non-competitive group for right now so she mostly is practicing strokes and working at swimming 100 yards at a time. On the other 3 days, she goes with me and she plays in the water and swims while I walk in the water. The physical therapist suggested that exercising in the water will really help my knees. It really helps that Mary loves the water so I don't get a chance to rationalize any excuses for not going.

We have a dog named Ben and a cat that mostly gets called Stupid Cat. I have discovered something the last few days about these two. When we are around Ben tries really hard to get the cat who stays just out of his reach. If Ben can get the cat, we usually have to take the cat away from him. The cat doesn't usually have life threatening damage but I don't really want to have a dead cat on my hands. When they don't know that someone is watching, they are friends. For instance, this morning Ben was laying on the icy driveway. The cat was rubbing up against him like cats do. Ben was allowing it until he saw that I was watching. (at least 5 minutes). Then he snapped at the cat. They just make me laugh. I'm sure that by the end of this cold winter, they might be sleeping in the same pen.

We survived the blizzard warning on Tuesday. It was an adventure that, in the end, wasn't too bad. It was cold and the wind blew around in circles. The power didn't go out and I didn't have to drive it so all was good. It has been in the single digits temperature wise but we are good. We have some friends in the ward who ask every week if they can help me out with anything. So Wednesday morning I called and asked if they could come shovel my driveway. No hesitation at all. They said "sure we can do that for you." Now mind you, I was speaking to the teenage boys and not their parents. I have complete faith in the next generation. There are enough of them that are good that the world will be okay in their hands.

And Mary turns 9 years old

2010-08-16T21:05:00.000-06:00

Mary will be nine in 2 more days. This year to celebrate her birthday, she wanted to go to a hotel (one of her most favorite things to do) invite a couple of friends and have a sleep over. She also wanted it to be in Salt Lake with Salt Lake friends. She has been so excited for this. We finally got to the hotel at 7:00 on Friday. That was 4 hours later than what we wanted it to be. She wanted to check in as soon as they would let us. But of course, I had some work I had to get done. We ran late but finally the fun started. We went swimming, ate pizza, watched Grease, polished fingernails and toenails. Some wanted to go to sleep. Some wanted to stay up. Finally at 3:00 everyone was sleeping. Then we had to get up at 8:00 that turned into 9:00. Ate free hotel breakfast, went swimming. Got to friends soccor game late. They won while we were driving around looking for the field. Hung out with same two friends until afternoon. Went to cousins house to play and visit some more. Left way late and got home even later Saturday night. Skipped church because we were so tired. Still not quite caught up on sleep. But we had a lot of fun!

I should have pictures. I took a camera and forgot to take pictures. Earl left me a great camera that I barely know how to use. I bought a smaller camera that fits in my pocket. It has been lost. Haven't seen it since the family reunion. I have a camera on my phone. I forget that it is there. I have no pictures.

Pioneer Designs is Featured in The Salt Lake Tribune

2010-07-24T00:04:00.000-06:00

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/49976601-76/pioneer-authentic-gillmore-trek.html.csp

I'm not complaining about the free advertising! Besides Mary loves to have her picture in the newspaper.

Men and Women

2010-07-12T16:03:00.000-06:00

I should be sewing. I have this need to be on my soap-box for a minute. I have been listening to BYU TV today. Today I have been thinking a lot about marriage, the women's movement, equal rights and men.

In today's society it seems to be okay to make men our whipping boys. It seems that whatever the problem, we can blame it on the men of the world. Women make fun of men that if the tables were turned, we women would really be screaming. It is not fair. It is not Christ-like. It is not lady-like. The women's movement has progressed or digressed to the point that we are no longer willing to be equal to men. We want to be better than them. And not in a good way.

Right after we were married, Earl showed me an article that he had read in a waiting room. It was just about this subject and what we women have become. The writer of the article was playing tennis with her husband and 3 other couples. At one point they took a break between games. They all met together at the far end of the courts to relax a bit and get some water. Her husband brought her some water. The other wives commented on how well trained he was. When it came time to play again they decided to switch courts and opponents. She discovered that she had left her racquet at the far court so she ran over to get it, at which time she found that her husband had also left his racquet on the same bench. She picked it up and carried it back to where her husband and their friends were waiting. When she arrived, the other wives jumped on her. She didn't need to be her husbands "pack and carry" "He could have gotten his own racquet" etc. It did not take that much extra energy to carry his racquet along with her own. If the other racquet would have been one of her girl friend's instead of her husband's she would have carried it back to the group and no one would have had any negative thoughts whatsoever.

There are times when I think about arguments and disagreements that Earl and I had. I was so petty. Almost to the ridiculous. I catch myself saying to myself now "Earl you were so right." When you lose your spouse, it gives you a whole new perspective on eternal marriage. I hope that this life wasn't my opportunity to become my part of our eternal relationship. I hope that when we meet again in the hereafter, that we get to keep growing and progressing.

Mary's #1 Dad

2010-07-12T13:26:00.001-06:00

Download Meggie Sorensen - Mary's 1 Dad

This is a song written by a cute friend of ours. She has a special relationship with Earl. I love to listen to it. I have so many images in my mind of Earl when I hear her words.

Wow does time fly!

2010-05-31T18:50:00.000-06:00

I can't believe that it has been February since I've updated! Life has been crazy for us. Mary is now out of school. She was so excited that she passed her end of level testing and gets to move on to 3rd grade. She really stressed about that. She begged me not to sign her up for the school's summer fun program or summer school. We discussed that I have to work every day, and the summer programs were a way to keep her from getting bored. So she has promised that she will not whine that she is bored while I am trying to work. I know that's like believing in a fairy tale but I decided not to waste my money and effort trying to get her up and over to the school every day when she doesn't want to. On the other had she begged for swimming lessons so I have signed her up for 4 weeks of swimming throughout the summer.

The business is really busy right now because this is the season for pioneers, whether it is trek or other programs we have lots of clothing to make. It keeps my mom and me busy. We are almost crazy we are so busy.

The shipping deadlines are about 3 hours earlier in Cache Valley than Salt Lake. We have only had to make 2 quick trips to Salt Lake because we have missed the shipping deadline here.

Sorry this is so scattered. I just thought I would do a quick update so that you all wouldn't think that we had fallen off the face of the earth or something.

Feb 3, Daddy Day

2010-02-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

Today marks one year since Earl passed away. It as been a good day. Mary and I spent the whole day together. I have decided that Mary won't ever have to go to school on February 3. She went to school the day that he died. That should earn her the privilege of taking the rest of them off.

The day started out with a giggle. I was already awake when Mary woke up. She still can not sleep in her own bed. She looks up at me and says "Happy Daddy Day" That set the tone for the rest of the day. We have looked at pictures, worked on a scrap book for him (thank you April Clausen), ate Earl's favorite foods, talked about him and just remembered all the fun things about him. It has truly been a sweet day.

For us, February 3 will forever be known as Daddy Day.

New Vest and shirt finished

2010-02-01T18:21:00.000-07:00

This project has taken a couple of months to put together because I have been working on other things as well. I made the client a pair of brown wool trousers as well. I just forgot to take a picture of them before I shipped them.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-26T12:02:00.000-07:00

First Christmas without Earl. We made it. Just another time for missing the things that Earl did not just that we miss him in body. Earl always did Santa. Not just in public for parties, but for Mary as well. He was the keeper of presents because I am not good at keeping them hidden. I would buy things throughout the year and they would disappear almost as soon as we got home. He would never tell me that he had put them away. He just did it. Then they would re-appear Christmas morning.

Mary received 2 American Girl dolls. She had asked for one and then someone gave me money for Mary for Christmas. I guess I should have not been so frivolous as to buy 2 expensive dolls for the same Christmas but I have watched Mary play with dolls. She gives each one an identity. Each one has their own personalities. I just thought that 2 would be more fun than one and we have been missing Earl so much. I just needed to spoil her a little more. Now I am making American Girl doll clothing so that she has more than one outfit. I just can't pay $22+ for doll clothes.

We missed not doing Santa Claus. It is so hard to do a Christmas Party with Claus family and not have Santa. The Christmas Season hasn't been near as hectic, but it hasn't been near as fun either.

Mary got to play Mary for the Primary Nativity. She cared for that baby doll as if it were a real child. We have had a chance to focus on Christ this year from making a Nativity together at Super Saturday to Mary reading Luke 2 all by herself on Christmas Eve.

First Christmas back in Lewiston. I had forgotten how truly cold it gets here. Right now it is 12:15 pm and 5 degrees! Brrr! We spent a good part of the day at my parents home.

I am really trying to get my house put together. We moved in April and it still looks like we are just moving in, or maybe we are moving out. Who can tell? I have been sorting through boxes of paper and all kinds of stuff. Throwing out a lot. My sister comes over a couple of times a week to help me carry out the garbage. I almost have my big living room looking like it is actually lived in instead of being a warehouse.

Another one of thoses things that Earl did was the housework. I am terrible at it. I would rather do almost anything than wash dishes. My laundry stacks up. Mary's room always needs picking up. And right now because I'm working through the boxes in the living room, it is looking worse instead of better. What I need is a schedule. Like the old dish towels. You know Laundry on Monday, Kitchen on Tuesday, whatever it was.

Now I'm off to take Mary for a late lunch. Merry Christmas everyone!

I have a new calling in my Ward

2009-12-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

I am happy to announce that I will be serving in the Nursery in my ward. I love Nursery. I sort of knew it was coming because I was talking to one of the Primary Presidency the other night at the Christmas party. She asked me if I would be willing to sub for Nursery and I told her that I love Nursery. Her husband is in the Bishopric. I will be doing the lesson and the music for them. I love it!

Dress is finished

2009-11-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

The dress I have been working on for most of the month is finally complete with the exception of the hem that I will be measuring for next week. This one has been a fun learning experience. I recently read a book called "The Dressmaker's Guide" I was able to apply lots of the information from the book into making this dress. I really learned a lot.

Now I get to make a men's outfit. Button Fly wool pants and a very fancy waistcoat (vest). I love sewing for the museum because I learn so much.

Halloween Costume

2009-10-26T19:28:00.000-06:00

For the third year in a row, Mary wants to be a pumpkin for Halloween. The first year we used my sister's pumpkin costume. Last year we found a very cute sweat suit that had a jack-o-lantern face on the shirt. Since we moved this year, we couldn't make it to my sisters to borrow hers again and the sweat suit was too small. So I did some brain storming and one day I was walking through Micheals and they had orange t-shirts 2 for $5. Bingo! I had made my sisters pumpkin costume years ago so I knew what the construction was like. So I bought 2 shirts. One in a child Large and the other in an adult XL. I ironed on a face using double sided adhesive like Wonder Under but a different brand. I cut off the hem's and sewed the two shirts together taking tucks in the larger shirt so that it fit the smaller shirt. Cut off the sleeves so that it resembled a tank top then serged the armholes together. Stuffed in between the two shirts with nylon net to make it puffy. I made a hat out of one of the adult sleeves and viola! Pumpkin costume. Yes I am quite proud of my creativity. Usually I have to have someone's instructions to be creative, but this one I came up with all by myself!

Baptism, Ben and Friends

2009-09-30T09:36:00.000-06:00

Seems like it has been so long since I posted. Okay it has been. So much has happened so quickly and then there are just some days that communication is just not on the list for the day.

To start off with Mary was baptized on August 29. She decided that Steve Sorensen should baptize her since he baptized Earl in 2002. Then she asked Uncle Richard to confirm her. I need to collect pictures from those who took them. I only got one of her and Steve in their white clothing.

She wanted a dress of her own design and I got it done but again, Mom took the picture and I have forgotten to take a picture when she has worn it. It is really pretty. She designed it and I sewed it.

Mary was having a hard time going to Primary by her self. She would either come to Relief Society with me or I would go to Primary with her. The RS president's dog had puppies (10) in July and they were ready for homes so she told Mary she would give her a puppy if she would go to Primary all by herself. (Jill checked with me first so it wasn't without Mom's consent) Well, that seems to have done the trick. She knows that if she stops going to Primary again, that the puppy will go away. She really anguished over a name for her puppy. She wanted a good name. In her words not a silly dog name. She finally chose the name "Ben" He is a black lab mix. He is 13 weeks old and loves to chew. He is an outside only dog. Last night really stressed Mary out because of the rain.

The Tenth Ward opened a time capsule that was sealed in 1909. We made a day of it and went to the Aquarium with the Putnam's. The kids had a great time and I had fun spending time with Marti again. And I actually got pictures. So I posted them but I don't know how to move them so they are at the top along with a picture of Gabby and Mary at the 10th Ward and Mary with Ben.

Mary's Baptism

2009-08-05T10:52:00.000-06:00

Mary will be getting baptized on Aug 29 at 1:00p.m. It will be held at the Richmond Stake Center 135 W Main Street, Richmond UT. As you travel up the Highway through Richmond, when you come to the light there is a park to your right. Turn right and the church is on the right hand side of the next intersection. We are getting all the details settled but would love to have all her friends and family there.

What a couple of Month's it has been!

2009-07-19T21:56:00.000-06:00

We are finally winding down on our trek season. I have one more week of heavy sewing and then it backs off drastically from there. I haven't had much time to update the world. So here it goes. Mary finished school. She is now officially a 2nd Grader. She got up this morning and said that she couldn't wait for her birthday because then she would be accountable and know right from wrong. We had yet another discussion about the fact that you just don't wake up one morning and know how to choose the right. You have to practice making choices every day.

About a month ago, after yet another screaming session of doing Mary's hair, I made an appointment with the local shop to have her hair cut. She fought me all the way but after it was done, she loved how not tangled it was. It is now a chin length bob and it is very cute. Now she does her hair almost constantly. Just before the hair cut she decided that it was time for her bangs to be cut so once again she cut her own hair. She cut them off right at the roots. Her hair might look normal for the beginning of school.

Business has been very busy. We have been sewing about 12 hours every day for a couple of months. To make matters worse, I'm not adjusting well to the earlier ship times so we have had to make rush trips to Salt Lake to make shipments at the airport on the average of twice a week. Hopefully next year will be better.

Our house looks like we are either moving in or out. Can't really tell which. I have been so busy that the unpacking just hasn't happened. I'm hoping that now that it is slowing down, I'll be able to finish putting the house together before the end of the first week of August.

In June, my heart flipped out. I spent 2 weeks in atrial fibrillation (a-fib). The doctors told me that because they have eliminated the stroke factor with the blood thinner, that the rest of a-fib is more or less just a nuisance. It makes me really tired; my resting heart rate was 140. Finally after they gave me a medicine to reduce my heart rate, my heart started beating normally again about 2 weeks later. The really bad part of it is that Mary will not go anywhere without me. She goes with me to Relief Society and Sunday School which is really the only place I go lately. She used to spend my sister's days off with her, but now she won't because she is worried that something will happen to me if she isn't around. I don't know how to help her out of this. We need to figure out a solution before school starts because I don't really want to go to 2nd grade.

One advantage to living so close to my parents is that we go to their house for lunch every day. My sister prepares ultra healthy food for my mom and dad so we get at least one healthy meal every day. Other advantages include that my dad mows my lawn and my mom doesn't have to drive 2 hours just because she's worried about us. We really like the small town living.

Mary had a great time on the 4th of July. We went to a neighbors house to watch the parade because our house isn't on the parade route. Almost every entry in this parade throws candy. Then after the parade the kids all head to the park where the firetruck soaks them with the hose. The rodeo grounds are right across the street from us which is where they light the fireworks so almost without my knowing, Mary set up a family BBQ to watch the fireworks. Someone in the family let me know that she had invited them, by asking what they could bring. She is definitely her daddy's little girl. He always wanted to have a group over for some reason or another and I was always the stick in the mud. We have a fire pit in our back yard. We had some very expertly roasted marshmallows courtesy of my nephew's girlfriend. Yum! The fireworks were great too. Front row seats and we didn't have to fight traffic afterwards.

When Earl passed away, I promised the Gillmore's that I would make sure that we made one trip a year to Seattle. We are going for 12 days in August. Returning on Mary's birthday. At first she wasn't very excited about that but then Grandma told her that it would be like having a birthday party on the plane. Now she can't wait and I hope Grandma's right. Mary starts school on August 20th so we have to be back in time for school.

My calling in the ward is "Audio Specialist" We have several older members that can't get out to church so we record Relief Society and Sacrament meeting with a Digital Voice Recorder, then I take them a transfer the recordings to CD's and deliver them to the home bound visiting teacher who makes weekly visits to these sisters. What a cool church we belong to. Always taking care of everyone.

I miss Earl every day. Today we had a pioneer centered program partly because of Pioneer Day coming up and partly because the stake just got back from trek. One of the sisters spoke about how she felt like those that had passed through that way in the 19th century were helping them reenact the trek. I think Earl probably is in that group. I can't imagine that he would be anywhere else but teaching others about the pioneers.

We are in Lewiston!

2009-04-29T18:24:00.000-06:00

Well, we made the move last weekend. I got computers up and running today. My sewing room is not ideal yet but functional. That's a good thing because we have received lots of orders.

I arrived Saturday just after they finished unloading the truck. By the way, for those who know how much stuff I have, I did not fit into a 26 foot truck. We went back on Sunday to retreive the rest of it. When I walked in the first time, there was a path so that you could walk through to each room but other than that it was packed in here. I have an absolutely amazing sister who stayed until we had beds to sleep in and part of the kitchen unpacked. She and her husband also helped get the rest of the stuff from the old house. Then she and her husband came on Monday to get my sewing room put together. Yesterday she worked on my kitchen, today we had to pick up some things in Logan so we haven't done much unpacking.

There are so many people who have helped out with this move. I couldn't have made it without so much help.

Mary seems to love her new school. Monday she was a little overwhelmed and wanted to move back to Salt Lake but each day she comes home with more good things.

Moving day is next week

2009-04-15T13:35:00.000-06:00

We have been packing up and it seems like we are making headway but then I look at what still needs to be done, and I get so overwhelmed. I am so appreciative of all of the help that I have received from so many. We have taken out loads of garbage, loads to the DI, given away boxes of fabric scraps to quilters and I still have lots of stuff left over.

My bedroom is one of the last places to sort through. We will be giving a bunch of books to the Mormon Battalion for their library. I will we giving some books to our ward's lending library. I have video tapes to go through, and boxes and boxes of paper and clothing.

We have spent at least part of every weekend in Lewiston. Mary and I can't wait until we will be there full time in our own house. Mary worked on pulling old corn stalks out of the garden last weekend. Her dad taught her to love plants. She has a list of the things that she wants to put in her garden.

I took pictures last weekend when I looked at them, you can't really see anything. How do they take those pictures that are on the real estate sites? I didn't get anything of the outside because it was dark when I took pictures. I will try again this weekend.

No more rumors. We are moving

2009-03-23T13:17:00.000-06:00

Mary and I have found a home for rent in Lewiston, UT. It is an older home and comes with a yard. The kitchen was updated recently and has oak cabinets full across 2 walls. I can put my dining table in the center of the room and my freezer and refrigerator on another wall and still walk all the way around the table. It already has an office space that will work great for Pioneer Designs. The living room is 20x40. I don't know if I have enough stuff to furnish it but we are excited about it. It has a garden space and a pasture that someone else apparently takes care of. Mary wants a pet (a cat) I am not a cat person so I'm trying to get her to go a little smaller like a gerbil or a guinea pig. The landlord will let us have outdoor animals but it gets so cold in Lewiston during the winter that I'm not sure that will work. Next week when we are up for Earl's Birthday, I will take some pictures. We are going to try to be moved in by May 1.

One Month

2009-03-04T18:30:00.000-07:00

We have survived the first month since Earl's death. We have had some peaceful moments and some teary moments. One sweet moment: Mary told me that she had a dream about Daddy. I asked her if he said anything to her. She said "No Mom, spirits can't talk to you, they just watch." She is thinking about her baptism later this year. Right now she doesn't know who she can trust to baptize her and not leave her in the water too long.

I have found myself not doing a lot even when I have had a lot to do. I am getting better at just getting in and making myself work. My house is still a wreck but I'm making progress on the laundry. I keep hoping that the laundry-folding-fairy will come some night and my laundry will get off my couch. At least I have washed it and it is no longer a stinky mountain in front of the washer.

My landlord brought us in a new dishwasher. It really works. I guess the 3rd time is the charm. I love loading dishes in and having them come out clean.

The medical equipment company finally came and picked up the hospital bed and now I can get to my vacuum. I can't find my broom or my toilet brush so I guess I'll have to go buy new ones.

I need to find the box of tax information so that I can file my tax returns. And finally, I need to figure out a schedule so that I can do some sorting everyday along with sewing, spending time with Mary and taking care of the house.

Biggest things to learn when you experience a death in your family: Breath in and out and put one foot in front of the other. Pray always. Have patience with yourself. Healing takes time.

One thing I do know is that Earl is very busy. I don't know exactly what he is doing but I know that he has things he needs to get done as well. We both are still working toward our common goal of the Celestial Kingdom.

I picked out the headstone today. I hope I did the right thing. As a veteren, Earl was qualified to receive a military headstone. They are very simple. I wanted Earl's to say something about him. I love to walk through cemeteries and make up stories about people based on what is on the headstones. Earl and I had several dates doing just that. I want a headstone that someone could look at it and know something about him.

Back in Business

2009-02-11T12:20:00.000-07:00

I know that many reading our blog have not wanted to contribute to the chaos, so I just want to let everyone know who may be contemplating an order, we are back and functioning. Its time to get ready for trek.

Thanks all for your concern and prayers.

Our new adventure

2009-02-09T12:37:00.000-07:00

Its early Monday afternoon. The funeral was Saturday. I was very touched at the things that were said and the musical numbers. I planned the service, but I had no idea that at the response that I would have. I have had so many people helping me through the last week. I could never have made it through it all without so many people. Everyone has gone home. Mary is in school, although she never stopped going.

We now begin a new chapter in our lives. I keep trying to tell myself that it really shouldn't be that hard. Afterall, I was single for 38 years before I met Earl. But the reality is that Earl did come into my life and changed it forever. Going back is impossible. And now I am a single mom.

I have a mountain of stuff to sort through. There are many things that I definately want to keep. There are also many things that just need to be thrown away. However most of the stuff, falls into the really have to think about it category. I have had several people offer to help. I'm not sure that I am ready to tackle that yet. For the last eight years, Earl has done the bulk of the housework. I have to remember how to clean, do dishes and laundry. I know that it is just a matter of digging in. But then you add in the Earl factor. I can not do any of those things without thinking of him and then I start crying.

Then I wonder if I really did everything I could to keep him alive for as long as he could? Sometimes I don't feel sad at all. I actually catch myself laughing. Is that appropriate behavior for someone who's husband has just died? People ask and I tell them I'm doing okay. I think that I am and then in the next minute, I don't know if I am or not. I guess I have a lot of mental sorting as well as physical sorting.

I have orders that need to be completed. Work is therapy. Or is it escape?

Earl's Funeral Plans

2009-02-03T20:09:00.000-07:00

The funeral will be Saturday at 11:00 at the 10th Ward Church which is on the corner of 400 South and 800 East in Salt Lake City. There will be a viewing one hour before the service.

There will be a viewing on Friday evening from 6 to 8 at the Larkin Mortuary at 260 E South Temple, in Salt Lake City

Burial will be in the Lewiston City Cemetery in Lewiston Utah. We will be travelling there immediately following the service.

I want to thank all for their kind words, thoughts and prayers throughout the day. My phone hasn't stopped ringing. So many people care so much.

Earl's passing

2009-02-03T11:17:00.000-07:00

Earl passed away at approximately 1:00 a.m. this morning, February 3, We haven't had time to make funeral arrangements or anything. I will post them when I know.

Saturday January 31, 2009

2009-01-31T13:26:00.000-07:00

We are receiving lots of help. We have started hospice. They do many things. I am mostly not emotional. I'm sure when the time comes to morn, I will morn. I do cry some everyday. My conversations with Earl have changed. In many ways it is like he is leaving on a trip. We talk about friends that he will see. We saw a monument of Brigham Young and Joseph Smith today and I wondered if Earl is going to get a chance to meet them. There have been a few people from the wagon train who have already passed on and we have had conversations about them.

In addition to hospice, we have friends that come in and help. One of the ladies from the ward, came yesterday and cleaned my kitchen. She is from Brazil. My kitchen hasn't been that clean since I don't know when. We have some other friends coming in today to help me move some furniture around to make it easier for Earl to move around when he needs to.

My cousin Sharon may come over for a couple of weeks. She is a nurse and has done home care before so she would come and help me when hospice isn't here because they can't be here all the time. I have asked if one of the Service Missionaries from the ward could sit with Earl while I go to at least Sacrament meeting tomorrow. They are in the process of releasing me from the library but this all changed so fast they haven't had time to do it yet. They were going to release me anyway we just thought we had a little more time.

I need to find a baby food mill. Earl gets hungry, but sometimes doesn't have the energy to chew a lot. He doesn't eat very much, but I refuse to make him eat bottled baby food.

Earl's son, Jacob, is in the process of getting a 2-week leave from Iraq to see his Dad. This is a miracle all by itself. They haven't spoken in years.

Where we are

2009-01-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

This has not been a good week. Starting Thursday, Earl has taken a bad fall each day. His ammonia is really high. His breathing became irregular Monday morning about 3:00. Thanks to good neighbors, I took Earl to the ER while Kathy stayed with Mary. As suspected, his ammonia had gone up even more. The medicine that they give to bring it back down, causes intense diarrhea. Earl doesn't like it (who would?) so it is hard to get him to take it. Generally liver disease patients are on it to keep their ammonia in check. Earl has been on something else because he is so sensitive to it. Now he has no choice. However, he has been on it for two days with no apparent change.

We saw the oncologist yesterday. The long and short of it is that Earl may only have weeks left. The uncontrollable ammonia is yet another indication that he is suffering liver failure. We are starting Community Nursing Services today.

I wasn't expecting the end to come so quickly. Earl seemed to be doing really well during our trip to Seattle. I thought for sure when we got back that his bilirubin would be down when we got back. The bilirubin hasn't come down and the ammonia has risen. Earl doesn't sleep much. Trying to get him to stay in bed at night is a challenge. When we were at the doctor a week ago, Earl mentioned that he was afraid that he would die in his sleep without being able to say goodbye. Turns out that generally when you have liver failure, you just go to sleep and that's it. I think that Earl is avoiding sleep because he doesn't want to die. I don't blame him. I would be the same way I think. They have at least temporarily taken him off his chemo pill so we can find out if it is, somehow, causing the raise in the ammonia.

I talked to Mary about all this yesterday. Her first response was that she doesn't want a new daddy. I told her that it took me so long to find her daddy and I really doubted that we would have to worry about that any time soon. Later when we talked about the good and the bad of her day she said that the good part was painting Wendy's snow. The bad part was finding out that her dad is going to die. I have been wondering if she was really comprehending all of this, I guess she does in her own 7 year old way. Meanwhile, she is sad that because he is so sick and has no immune system, she doesn't get to have friends come over. We didn't let her have many friends over as it was, now it is even harder because she can't have any play dates at our house.

Each day seems to bring new questions and new answers. We are thankful for each day that we have with Earl. I really wanted to have a wagon train reunion for him before he got too sick, now I'm not sure how we could ever get that to happen. Our mailing list is buried on a zip disc and we no longer have a zip drive. I don't know how many of the addresses would even be valid anymore. We haven't mailed out a Mormon Trail News in years.

New this week

2009-01-23T17:27:00.000-07:00

Earl has been on his chemo for about 10 days now. We have just increased his dose today to half of the full dose. I would imagine if it does okay at this level we will be at the full dose by the end of next week.Wednesday we saw the symptom management doctor for the first time. She had a lot of good information for us. She talked to us about pain and the levels of pain. If you have been to the Emergency Room lately, you might be familiar with perceived pain levels. Zero being no pain. 10 is the worst pain you can imagine. In the lower levels of pain the brain can be drawn away from the pain only feeling pain when there is nothing to draw the attention away from the pain. At the upper levels of pain you need to have stronger pain killers to help the brain not dwell on it. Untreated, high levels of pain can break down the immune system and in the case of cancer, can cause the tumors to grow more quickly. Also some pain killers are not effective when your liver isn't functioning properly.

The doctor also recommended that Earl get his abdomen tapped. Earl is retaining water in his abdomen. His belly is expanding. It hurts. So today we had that done. They drained off 3 liters of fluid. No wonder his belly was tight. We had labs done earlier in the week but the lab didn’t do all that we needed to have done so we also had new labs done today. His bilirubin in down but still higher than they want it do be to do Theraphere treatment. The ammonia in his system is really high. We will be working to get that down this week-end. When the ammonia is high, it causes Earl to be a little dingy as far as thought process. It also causes him to be very tired. His body make involutary movements. If it gets too high, it can cause him some serious brain damage, even death so we don't want the ammonia to be high.

Many have expressed concern for me in my role as Earl’s main care giver. I am touched by other’s willingness to help us. I have been thinking about things that I can ask for help with. It has been suggested that I list everything that I do in an average day, then mark off the things that only I can do. Finally, prioritize what is left. Some things may not really be that important. I have been trying to make my list the last couple of days. Although this approach makes it easier, it is still a difficult task. Why do we have such a difficult time asking for help but are so willing to offer to help others?

More of the Update

2009-01-08T16:33:00.000-07:00

We saw Earl's liver doctor today. The official term is gastroenterologist. We have been seeing Dr. Boschert since 2001. He generally gives his reports straight up so this is what we have learned today.

More often than not people with liver cancer die from liver failure than from the cancer itself. The Therasphere treatment managed to shrink the tumors in the right lobe of the liver (of the two lobes, the right is the largest) so most of the tumors were treated. Unfortunately, the treatment can also kill some of the healthy liver tissue, causing liver failure.

Earl's elevated bilirubin indicates that his liver is failing. According to the medical team, with treatment Earl could live for another 3 to 6 months. If we are lucky we may have up to a year. Without any further treatment they estimate that he may have less than 3 months. We will be starting chemotherapy by the end of next week.

Its a new year

2009-01-06T19:23:00.000-07:00

We spent the holidays in Seattle with Earl's family. We had good visits with his siblings and mother and especially his older children. We stayed at his mom's home where his brother Charlie and his family lives. We were treated like royalty. Earl's sister, Dorothy made it possible for us to make the trip. Charlie and his wife, Michelle would not let us cook for ourselves or clean-up. We were on vacation.

Seattle was snowed in. We didn't go anywhere for the first few days. We arrived in a huge snow storm 5 hours later than we should have. Mary enjoyed playing in the snow with her cousin Jackie who is 3 years old. We were finally able to get some Christmas shopping done on the 23rd.

On Christmas we drove over to pick up Earl's oldes son, Isaac. We made a wrong turn and got stuck in a dead end street trying to turn around. While Earl and I were evaluating our situation, Mary said a prayer for help. It came in the form of 4 nameless strangers with shovels. We were so thankful for their help. We arrived at Dorothy's just in time for a terrific eggs benedict breakfast.

On Saturday, the 27th we went out to dinner with Earl's children. We were able to take a couple of family pictures that included everyone but Jacob who is in Iraq with the Navy.

On Sunday, the 28th we had the Gillmore family Christmas party. What a fun time. The Gillmore's love to have a good time. We had a couple of talent acts, good food and the traditional white elephant game. We were able to take pictures of Earl with many of his siblings.

I will post the pictures on a later post. Today I am consentrating on updating.

We were supposed to come home on the 29th but Earl's mom asked if we could stay longer. We didn't really feel like we had anything that we needed to get back for, so we stayed until the 2nd. Mary and I went to the Seattle Science Center with Jackie and Michelle, Rachel, Jacqui and Aaron.

Mary, Earl and I went to Puyallup to see the monument that Earl's sister, Diane put up. We got lost twice and took quite a drive before we finally got there. Luckily it was still light and the weather held for us. I had never been to Tacoma before and now I have.

We arrived home to snow in Salt Lake City and it has snowed nearly every day since we have been home.

Monday we started finding out Earl's status. Currently his bilirubin is higher than it has ever been. So the Therasphere's treatment has been put on hold. We are not sure if it is definite. We will be starting on a low dose of chemotherapy and see how it goes.

I wanted to end this update on a good note so here is the good news. The first Therasphere treatment has put Earl's Alpha Fetal Protein down into the normal range so the tumors are shrinking. We are going to be looking into seeing if Earl's medications are too high and maybe that will change his numbers. We have another doctor appointment on Thursday. We can only pray that things get better.

Living Nativity

2008-12-11T10:14:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to a living nativity. It was really inspiring. I wasn't really in the mood to go before we went and it was sure to be crowded and cold. Earl and I had spent the afternoon at the hospital for his MRI and bone scan. I was right it was crowded and cold and I was grumpy. It was set in a gully on the east side of Salt Lake City and presented by several different churches I found this slideshow from the Deseret News this morning http://deseretnews.com/photo/slideshow/1,5587,500000000005211,00.html

If you have to pick the slide show it is "Night in Bethlehem"

By the time we got to the stable, my mood was softening. It seems that life gets so hectic and with Christmas upon us I just have not gotten into the Christmas mode. We are feeling the economic crunch so we have no money for anything. Earl's sister is paying for us to go to Seattle otherwise we would not be able to go. Christmas shopping has just not happened nor will it except for a little for Mary. The Nativity was just what I needed tonight to remember what Christmas is all about.

How do people without faith in God get through life? Some days it seems that if I didn't have my faith, I don't know if I could get out of bed. I am the ultimate pessimist. I am always waiting for the other shoe to drop. But I have faith that Jesus loves me and my family and watches over us and helps us feel loved as we are going through this challenge we call life. I don't know much more than this but I know that there is a God and that He loves each of us and he knows each of us by name.

Treatment postponed

2008-12-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

Earl's billirubin is too high to have the treatment this week. We are working to get it down and hope that next week will be the week. We will be leaving for Seattle on the 19th and hope to have the treatment over by then. We have to trust that we are in the Lord's hand and that the treatment will happen when it should.

I am working to get all my orders done before we leave. I have 3 small orders and then a Nauvoo wardrobe for a missionary.

Here are two dresses that I have finished in the last week. The first is a version of our Sunday dress. This is the first one that I have made that is not blue. I really like it. I usually use purchased pleated trim but we wanted it to match so I made it myself. I really like the way that it turned out.

The second dress is made from the wrapper pattern. It is going to be used as a temple dress. I have thought for a long time that the pattern would make a great temple dress. I have a client that thought so as well.

The cool thing about this dress is that it is so adjustable. The front is loose with a tie belt that is attached at the side seams. The back looks like a fitted dress. The best part is that it is so comfortable.

Treatment rescheduled

2008-12-04T14:11:00.000-07:00

Earl's treatment is going to be on Tuesday December 9. We do not have a time yet. On other issues, he is having a full body scan on Wednesday to determine if the fractured vertebra is from the cancer or from an injury. Also on Wednesday he is having an MRI on his back for the same thing.

Miscommunication

2008-12-02T13:32:00.000-07:00

Because of a miscommunication, Earl did not have his treatment this morning. Currently we have not been able to reschedule. We are hoping to have it done before we go to Seattle on the 19th.

I thought you might want a link to see exactly what Earl is being treated with. This site has a great demonstration video as well as everything you would ever want to know about Therasphere treatment.

http://www.nordion.com/therasphere/patients-therasphere.asp

Another update

2008-11-26T19:28:00.000-07:00

Its been quite a week. We have seen lots of doctors this week. Here's what we know:

Earl had his mapping done on Friday. Since then he has had terrible hiccups. First they would come and go. Sunday night they started being constant. Finally Tuesday we called the gastro- enterologist (Earl's main liver doctor)who instructed us to go the ER. The hiccups that had been constant since Sunday night disappeared as we walked into the hospital. They ran a bunch of blood tests and took CT scans of his abdomen and brain and couldn't find anything that would cause hiccups. We finally left at midnight. The hiccups reappeared about 2:00 a.m.

We had a Wound Care appointment this morning at 8:00. We walked into the hospital and the hiccups disappeared again. The wounds on Earl's legs are worse. They have been draining a lot. This morning they decided to change the type of dressing they are doing. Instead of changing it once a week, we are changing it every other day. I guess I am going to become a nurse whether I want to or not. I'm okay with the care giving, its the blood that gets me. Earl being very tired from having hiccups, and not being able to sleep or eat, slept through the whole thing.

After Wound Care, we went to the liver doctor. Earl's blood work looks surprisingly healthy. He reviewed the CT scans. The ER doctor noted a compression fracture on the L4 vertebra. At this point we don't know if the fracture is due to an injury or the cancer. We will be chasing that down next week after the holiday. Again Earl slept the whole time. After we left the doctor, the hiccups returned. Thankfully they have been gone for most of the afternoon and Earl has been able to sleep today. Maybe we will be able to go to Grandma's for Thanksgiving after all.

This afternoon we found out that Earl is scheduled for his next Therasphere's treatment on Tuesday December 2. He will be going in at 6:30 a.m.

Getting Ready for the next Treatment

2008-11-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

We saw the radiation doctor last week and after some confusion, we are scheduled to start Earl's next treatment on Friday. That is when they will do the mapping. Mapping is where they use a catheter in his femoral artery to go into the liver and make sure that the path is clear and they are able to inject the Theraspheres. They also have to make sure that all the veins going from the liver to other organs are blocked so that the radiation doesn't escape and damage other organs. Since I am not very medically minded, I am not very good at explaining what they do. I only know that it works.

Earl had a CT scan before we saw the doctor and the report on that is that the tumors are breaking down. According to the doctor, the edges of the tumors are not as defined as they were before we started so the treatment is working. The do not anticipate that the tumors will completely go away but it will keep them from growing any larger for right now.

I have been working on another period dress that I will be posting soon. I am also working on a temple dress for a client. Ever since I first made myself the "wrapper" dress from my website, I have thought that it would make a great temple dress. This client had the same idea so I will post it when it is completed.

Mary entered her school's Reflections contest. She actually entered twice. Her first entry is a large ship that her and Earl put together. They made it from a large cardboard box. This was the second time that they have done this. Mary is a planner and she thought for quite a while about how to make the next one better. After she got it all planned out, they put it together. She won a second place ribbon.

The second entry was a photograph of tulips. I love this picture.

Mary loves to take pictures of flowers and I think she did an excellent job. She received an honorable mention for this picture.

Update on Earl and a new dress

2008-11-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

Earl has had kind of a rough week. He hasn't been able to sleep much at night but he does sleep during the day. He was quite sick yesterday. The skin on his legs from the knees down, does not have much elasticity so when they swell, the skin splits open. He has open sores on one leg from the swelling. We took him to Wound Care at the hospital yesterday. They said that we were able to get it in time and has not gotten infected. He has been hospitalized twice because we let them go too long before. He has his CT scan on Monday to check on his liver and then Tuesday we have an appointment with the radiologist to determine the next step.

Earl's sister has genorously paid for us to be able to visit his family this Christmas in Seattle. We are very excited to visit family that we have not seen in a couple of years.

I made this dress for Earl's daughter as a halloween costume. I am really pleased at the way that it turned out. We copied the trim from a different style dress that was much more complicated to make than this one.

Weekly Update

2008-11-01T15:15:00.000-06:00

It has been over two weeks since Earl's treatment. He gets tired easily, but can only sleep for about 5 hours at night. He does take naps during the day. He is still in "super organization" mode though when he is up. I can't find anything! Since he is more absent minded, he can't remember where he has put things. I am afraid, we are a lost cause. He has not been in as much pain as we anticipated. He does have some but I was expecting childbirth pain and it hasn't been that bad.

We had a good Halloween. The Gillmore's are really into Halloween. We have enjoyed seeing the family pictures as they have come through. We went to the annual ward Trick or Treat party at the church. Earl decorated the room. I always thought that he goes way over the top for Halloween. Now I know IT'S GENETIC!

Update on Earl

2008-10-21T10:11:00.000-06:00

It has been almost a week since Earl's treatment. He is doing much better than we expected. He has had energy that he hasn't had since last year. He even called the doctor and wanted to go ahead with the next treatment this week! They won't do the next treatment for one month. It has really helped to have his son Charlie here.

Thank you all so much for your prayers. I'm sure that one of the reasons Earl has been feeling as good as he has is because of all the prayers that are being offered in his behalf.

Karen

Finished Dress

2008-10-16T20:48:00.000-06:00

I have finally finished the dress that I have been working on for the past month. It has been a great experience but I am ready to move on to the next job. This dress is for a docent at the LDS Church Museum of History and Art. Some of the docents portray a pioneer that they have researched and using the museum artifacts tell about the person using first person reenactment. I have made several of the dresses for this program. This is the pattern that we started with.

My client wanted a few changes so we made it have a back closure instead of in the front. She wanted princess seaming and to have the bodice come down to a point in the front instead of going straight across the waistband. Then she wanted to have the fancy collar (called a berthe) be detachable so that she could take it off and wear it with a different collar. Finally she wanted the shirred area on the sleeves to be smocked instead so she did the smocking. She wanted to contribute something to the making of the dress.

Here is a picture of our inspiration

Finally we got it all worked out. The fitting was quite a process but we finally got it to work. In 1837 they were not using hoops yet so I made a quilted petticoat for her to give the skirt a little body without have to wear 3 or more petticoats. A quilted petticoat is like wearing a quilt attached to the skirt of the petticoat at the knees.

Here's the finished product.

The sleeves appear extra long in the pictures. They really are going to be extra poofy when there are arms and hands holding the cuff in place.

Now that it's done I can start working on the next order which is not custom so it should work up pretty quickly. I like the custom work but I also like to break it up with some straight sewing.

Earl had done really well today. He and Charlie are working to get Charlie's room cleaned out so that it's not like he's living in a storage room. They made quite a bit of progress today.

Earl had his treatment today.

2008-10-15T21:02:00.000-06:00

Earl is very tired. He has slept most of the day. The doctor said that it may take a couple of days before we start seeing side effects. They have given Earl anti-inflammitory, antibotics, pain and anti nausea meds to counter the anticipated side effects. He will have a CT scan in a month to check progress. The doctor said that the first scan after treatment usually shows the tumors larger because they swell before they start dying and shrinking.

So now we just wait and see what happens.

I got a little emotional as they wheeled him to the angio lab. I guess I just hit reality today. On one hand I am hopeful that the doctors know what they are doing to extend Earl's life. On the other I am terrified about this not working. Most of the time I can wear the hopeful, matter of fact face. We are so lucky to live in a time when medical miracles are performed everyday. The procedures they are using are the newest, most successful yet. Someday they will have a cure and just maybe it will happen for Earl.

The rest of us are doing well.

Treatment update

2008-10-08T19:37:00.000-06:00

Earl's treatment has been scheduled for Wednesday, October 15 at 6:30 am.

Earl's first treatment

2008-10-07T23:36:00.000-06:00

Earl's first Therasphere treatment is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct 14th. He will be in the hospital for about 5 hours. We don't have an actual time yet.

Charlie (Earl's son) is coming on Saturday. We are very excited.

The good things in life

2008-10-05T23:00:00.000-06:00

Now as I read through the prior posts I see how dreary and woeful they sound. We have been blessed through all of this. No one knows why the Alpha Fetal Protein test was done in May. It hasn't been part of Earl's regular lab tests. So its a good thing that they did it or we wouldn't have known anything before it was way too late.

I didn't have a heart attack. We found out some very useful information about my body before real damage occurred. I can work to get things corrected. Its not easy but I can do it.

Mary is the light of our life. She is 7 going on 27 sometimes. She makes us laugh. She loves to sing and she got a karaoke machine for her birthday. I just love to hear her playing pop star in her room.

If all this stuff had to happen it is good that it happened now instead of in the spring when business is very chaotic. Its hard to keep all the balls in the air right now. It would be impossible to handle all of this while trek season is just getting started.

We have definitely felt the hand of the Lord in all of this and it has increased our testimony that He know each of us and our struggles. He is with us and carries us daily.

General Conference this weekend was wonderful. I can honestly say that many of the talks hit home for me. I know that there are so many things going on in the world that are challenging for so many. I'm glad that I have the challenges that I have and not somebody else's.

We have good friends and good family. We are blessed.

Karen has her own health issues

2008-10-05T15:36:00.000-06:00

On August 22, I thought that I was having a heart attack. We went to the ER (we feel like we have our own room now). After much testing, it has been determined that I have Arterial Fibrillation or A-fib. In very remedial terms, the top chambers of my heart beat faster than the bottom chambers. Because of this, my heart can not empty of blood allow it to settle on the bottom and form clots. A clot can cause a stroke. The doctors had adjusted my medication so that I have not had any A-fib episodes since I left the hospital. This is a genetic problem. I would have this problem even if I were not overweight. But since I am, it puts me at a greater risk for other heart problems. So I am trying to lose weight. I am taking a class through the hospital. I am working with the cardiac rehab unit to get my exercise up. Even though I am following the diet, if I don't exercise, I will not and have not lost much weight. I struggle to get to the rehab. I also have found out that I do not breathe efficiently when I exercise so I have to be hooked up to oxygen while I work out. I have oxygen at home for night so I can work out at home as well as the rehab but it severely limits the places I can go for a work out unless I invest in transportable oxygen.

So now you are all caught up on our family, the next posts won't be so long.

The rest of the story. Chapter 3

2008-10-05T15:19:00.000-06:00

Next we headed to the Cancer Clinic. The official name of the cancer is Hepatocellular carcinoma. It is deadly. There is no cure. Without treatment the survival rate is less than one year. With treatment survival is longer. How much longer we will just have to see.

The treatment is very new. It is called Therasphere's. It is a type of radiation. They inject microscopic radioactive glass beads right into the tumor through a catheter in the thigh. These beads are short acting. They only kill the cells that they are in contact with. The injection is an out patient procedure. Earl does not have to be in isolation. To prepare for this, Earl had to have a catheterization done last week. The radiologist put the catheter in his leg and up to his liver. He checked for veins that were going out of his liver to other areas of the body in the region of the tumor. There were three. These had to be plugged with something they called coils. We are now ready for the treatment. We believe that the first one will happen on the 15th.

The rest of the story. Chapter 2

2008-10-05T15:06:00.000-06:00

We met with the transplant clinic and found out that Earl's tumors (there are 3 or more) were too large to be considered for a transplant. There was the possibility of treating the tumors with radiation to get them to shrink down to the transplant criteria. We were still positive. We decided to obtain a second opinion. Some very good friends of ours have brother that is a transplant surgeon and he agreed to review our case with us. When we saw him, he told us everything in language that we could understand. He was very good at translating the medical terminology into ordinary people talk. The bottom line is that there are certain criteria for obtaining a liver transplant. If you have a tumor that is under 5 centimeters, and you can do radiation to shrink the tumor to under 3 centimeters, then you may be eligible for a transplant. Earl's main tumor is 6x9 centimeters and it is in a bad place to be able to completely remove the tumor with a transplant. Because you have to take anti-rejection meds for the rest of your life, the tumor that has not been completely removed will be allowed to grow wild. Thus making a liver transplant a terrible option. So what next.

The rest of the story. Chapter 1

2008-10-05T14:42:00.000-06:00

Just after we found out that we were expecting Mary, Earl started getting sick. At first we joked that since I wasn't really having morning sickness, he was. Then it started not being funny. It was happening way too often. We ended up in the emergency room and were eventually introduced to Dr. Boschert, a gastroenterologist. After many tests it was determined that Earl has hepititis C, a chronic liver disease. We were told that a liver transplant was most likely in our future. There is a treatment option called pegylated interferon. We tried the treatment after Mary was born, starting in December 2001. The treatment didn't work for Earl's genotype of the disease. For the last seven years we have been in kind of a waiting mode. Waiting for Earl's liver to be bad enough to need the transplant. All the while, Earl gets very tired, very quickly. He is more suseptable to infections. Because his liver doesn't work properly he gets a little absent minded. He hasn't been well enough to hold a job. He might feel great one day, then the next day, he can't get out of bed. So that is how we have been living for almost seven years.

In April 2008, Earl had his annual CT scan of his abdomen. Everything looked pretty much status quo. Then in May, Earl was in a car accident. He broke his leg but it wasn't detected on a regular X-ray, so we made a couple of trips to the ER trying to get help with the pain. On one of those trips, they took blood for a test for alpha fetal protein (AFP). It was slightly elevated although we didn't know this at this point.

In August, we met with Dr. Boschert for a regular visit. He noted that the AFP was elevated and told us that this test is a tumor marker. He wanted to re-do the CT scan and the blood test. We repeated these and found out that Earl indeed has tumors in his liver. We thought that this might be a good thing because it would get him a transplant sooner.