A post from the Past: May 27, 2008 - My History

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 2008 to 2009

May 27, 2008  First Blog post on Live Journal

mmm...my first post. I am still figuring out how this works. I am familiar with posting blogs on MySpace. But I am having problems figuring out how to insert photos. I tried for an hour and no luck. It shouldn't be this hard. I love to see lots of photos on a blog.
I will try again right now.................



This is my daughter Sierra. I lost her a year ago. She was my only daughter and I do miss her so so much. She was 23 when she died by a gunshot to her beautiful head. It's so sad. Her little daughter Peanut is living with me now. We are taking each day one at a time. Life is certainly changing for us. Here we are...



We were dressed for Halloween. On this night 10/31/06 my daughter was taking the photo. Then my daughter Sierra, Peanut and I walked around my neighborhood to trick or treat. 
Sierra and I had several good times like that before she died Jan. 2007. 
I miss her so. I do not understand why she was the one person out of hundreds or thousands who would die by a gunshot. We are not gun people. I never had handguns in the house ever, never in all my life. She only had that gun in her house for 3 weeks before a fight broke out between her and her boyfriend. No one is sure what happened. The police think the boyfriend is responsible. The coroner put gun shot wound to the head.  But it is the boyfriends word of what happened on that day. Peanut saw and heard the fight. She was watching from her room when the gun went off. I think her dad was blocking her view of the gun so she only knows what he told her happened. She was only 5 years old. What a horrible tragedy to have in a young girls life.



This beautiful granddaughter is living with me now. I am in a guardianship case trying to get full custody. For more than a year I have been in and out of court. I finally got Temporary custody on 10/30/2007. What a long wait.
It is not an easy road. Peanut is in therapy now. We are both grieving so much. But we are having good times. We took a trip to Idaho 2 weeks ago. My son Dustin, her uncle, got married. He lives in Idaho. Peanut and I have a goal to move to Idaho before the end of this year.

My new love is WOOL and KNITTING!!!!! more on that in the next blog.

Today and everyday, I thank God for carrying me this far in my grief journey. He has taken my burden. On days that I have a very heavy heart is usually when I have not looked at the LORD to give him praise for blessing me with my children, Peanut, a home, food, clothing, love and good friends. I have a lot to be thankful for.


Seven years ago my handsome, wonderful, hardworking husband died of cancer. I miss him so much. He never knew his grandchildren. He was my high school sweetheart. We were married 28 years. I was 45 and he was 47 when he died. I believe he is in heaven holding our daughter in his arms. God bless my family in Heaven.

So there is my first POST on Live Journal.
Yeah.....I'm glad to be here!!!!!!

A post from the Past: August 20, 2008

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 2008 to 2009.

August 20, 2008

Tomorrow August 21 will be 8 years since my dear sweet husband died. We were married for 28 years. We met in High School and married as soon as I graduated from High School. I was only 17 1/2 years old.
We had 3 wonderful kids. 
Here is my Richard. 



That picture was taken at our house. We had a great view. 

Richard died of cancer 3 months after we found out. He had cancer of an unknown primary or CUP. He went on intensive chemo but it didn't help.
Here I am moistening his mouth. He is on hospice here. My daughter Sierra is standing behind me and my good friend and mother of my son's wife it there too.



I want to remember Richard as a fun and loving man. Richard was a very lively person. He was fun and had the energy of 12 people. 




It's hard to believe that he has been gone 8 years. I wish I could have a day with him to tell him how much I love him. I wish I could spend a whole day to laugh and hug and make love once again. I miss him so much. 

We use to go and play golf a lot. Sometimes twice a week. It was fun. We have been to so many different courses. We also use to take the kids camping every summer. We would hike and fish. We had a canoe that we would take out on the lake and then spend the day fishing. It was funny because the other people were in their powerboats and we were just floating along. It was just so peaceful. Here is a painting I made of him rowing the canoe.



He was quite a guy. He could do anything. I mean he could fix anything. He had a tool for everything. He could do mechanics from a lawnmower,car, tractor to a big semi. He could do carpentry or plumbing, electrical, cement, anything. He was an egg rancher. We had a lot of chickens for eggs. So he was good at caring for animals. He trimmed trees, roofed a house, installed a sprinkler system, he could weld in 3 kinds of welding (arc,tig, wire,mig, oxy) I probably got those spelled wrong, but I'm not a welder. LOL. He also had a brain for mathematics. He could add numbers faster than you can do a calculator. That use to piss off car dealers when they were trying to make a deal with us.
He was also a loving husband. He was generous, he helped cook. I could always count on him if I had a problem. 
He had his faults. He was high energy and could blow up if he got frustrated. He could even throw a wrench if things were not going good. He worked more than he should have which meant that he missed a lot of the kids activities. I was the one who took them to T-ball, or boyscouts. I was the one walking a parade route with Sierra when she was in baton. Richard was working. He would work on Christmas morning, just in the morning. When you have livestock they always need to be fed and cared for so he would have to check to see that the employees had come into work for the morning. 
Rich was a special guy. He was 47 when he died. 
Here is a picture of him almost exactly one year before he died. This was taken at our son's wedding.

And here is Richard and I on OUR wedding day ready to leave the church.

Tomorrow, God please hug my Richard for me. Tell him I love him. I will see you again one day Sweetie. I miss you. I miss you. I miss you.

A post from the Past: February 3, 2009

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 

February 3, 2009


Today is Richard's birthday.  He would have been 56 years today. He died when he was 47 yrs.
I sure do miss him. He was my boyfriend when I was only 15 years old. We met in high school.  We married 3 years later. I was 17 yrs & 11 months old.
We had 3 kids.  He was my best friend and I really wish he was here with me now. I am so tired of being alone. I have Peanut with me but I mean as an adult I am alone.
  He was my first big love. He was my first to make love with. He was my everything.
He is burried with our daughter Sierra.  It all sucks.  Why am I the only person I know who at a young age has 2 close family members die?
 Tomorrow will be a better day. Jesus gives me strength for all the tomorrows.

A post from the Past: February 17, 2009

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 

February 17, 2009

Today this box was in my mailbox. It was a surprise gift from Monkeyspinner. She went to school with my daughter Sierra. She use to come and talk about chickens with Richard. She is studying Fiber Arts and Science (I think). She traveled to Peru last Christmas to visit friends and did a little shopping. She sent me and Peanut, aka Jelly Bean some goodies.



Right now I have Peanut in bed and I am enjoying a tasty cup of hot tea of canela & clavo which is cinnamon & clove. It's yummy. Peanut and I tried some of the chocolates. Yum. The big bar of chocolate is for making hot cocoa. The directions are in spanish. hehehehe The little coin purse is made in Peru. It is embroidered with a little bird. It is for Peanut. She was so happy that she sat down and wrote a thank you to Autumn. She wrote that she likes the present and that she likes Autumn and Autumn is like you. Then she drew a picture of a tree with orange leaves on it. She's funny. Ok, NOW feast your eyes on the Baby Alpaca yarn on the left of the picture. Isn't it beautiful? 



 The Baby Alpaca is a beautiful shade of Burgundy. Like rich red wine. It is so soft and yummy. I can't wait to knit up something very pretty with it. Thank you so much Autumn. Your so sweet. I have been putting together a little package to send up to Autumn and have been slow in getting it in the mail. So now I feel bad that I was slow. Oh well the rain is suppose to be gone tomorrow and I will run to the post office. Thank you Autumn. The candies and Alpaca and Tea and purse are so nice. 

Wedding of Carol and Richard Feb. 24, 1973

On this day, 39 years ago I married the love of my life. Richard Hoover.
He died in 2000 but I always remember our Wedding Anniversary. It was so special. Our marriage was a good marriage too.
Here are some old photos from our wedding day.
We were married at St. Francis Catholic Church in Yucaipa, Ca.


Loretta was my maid of honor.  We are at the church getting ready.


This is a funny picture because we were waiting to go in the church and it started to sprinkle. I didn't want my hair to get wet. This is before mouse was invented so my hair would frizz. I did have a lot of hairspray on it.
In this photo is my dad, Donald Stables, my cousin Diane and you can see my sister's profile Susan.


My dad walking me down the isle. You can see a lot of friends from Yucaipa High School and lots of family. I think we had over 200 guest.


Here is my Wedding Dress. It was worn by several ladies in Richard's family. The dress was made for his aunt Arlene, then it was worn by his mom Dolores. For me the dress is big. I had to wear a very padded bra and heels. The dress is still loose around the waist. The family was always trying to fatten me up so that the dress would fit.
It is a very very heavy satin. There are satin covered buttons from the neck down the back. There are the same buttons on the sleeves from the cuff to mid forearm.  The hat/headband is lace with a heart shape. The neckline is lace with a heart shape and the waist is satin in a sweetheart shape.
The priest didn't want me to wear the veil over my face so I didn't.


After the long mass Richard and I were so happy to be husband and wife.


Here we are for the formal photos.  Richard wore a blue tuxedo. This was different for that time where the groom always wore white and the groomsmen wore a color. I wanted to change that. So Richard is in blue and the groomsmen are in white. My father also wore a white tuxedo.

This is the little church that we attended all of our marriage, almost all. Both Richard and I and our 3 kids were baptized here. Richard's grandfather helped build this church.


Here is the wedding party.
From left to right: Diane my cousin, Susan my sister, Carolyn my friend and Loretta my friend and maid of honor. My sister Heidi is the flower girl.  Then there is Carol and Richard, Jim brother of Richard and bestman, Jim a friend, Mike a friend, and Tim a friend.


Meet the parents.  From left to right, Walter my step-dad, Joan my mom, Carol & Richard, Dolores mom of Richard and Herbert dad of Richard.


Meet more parents.  Here is my dad Donald, his new wife of one week Cristy, Carol & Richard.


And this is my favorite photo of all. After the long wedding ceremony and a big reception at the church we are finally making our get away.  Richard's brother and my maid of honor are in the front seat to drive us away. We are in Richard's grandparents Lincoln Continental car.   I love this photo.  Richard has that look of mischief. I am so happy.

We honeymooned in Mammoth Lakes. It was February so there was about 18 feet of snow. It was so much fun.  Maybe I will post honeymoon photos next week.

Happy anniversary Richard in Heaven. I love you always!!!

My Accident

Yes I had an accident. Not in a car, not in a train, I was in pain as my finger was slain.

One hour after the smack down.  11/14/11



I was opening a gate and it won.  It had tension on it and when I released the loop holding onto it's pole it went flying.  My finger got smacked like no tomorrow. It happened so quickly that I am not sure what exactly happened. I was the kind of pain that you feel faint and I had to sit down. I got quiet like I was in another state of mind.  The blood gushed out. At first I held this hand with my other hand and then both hands filled with blood. Peanut got me some napkins from the car.  The pain traveled all the way down my arm to the elbow. The whole arm throbbed as did my hand and finger. It was incredible pain.

I needed to get home so I composed myself and drove Peanut and myself home. I kept feeling like I wanted to cry but it didn't come till last night (2nd day).  I think I was feeling sorry for myself that I didn't have my sweet hubby here to take care of me.

Two hours after the smack down. 11/14/11


Next day after the smack down. 11/15/11




Yes it hurts. No I didn't go to the doctor.  I don't have health insurance.
I've seen my late husband and my son's get hurt like this and they never went to the doctor.  I am taking good care of my boo boo.  I put neosporine on it and keep it clean.

I will probably loose the nail.  I doubt that a doctor would remove it since the break is so close to the cuticle and the lower part is VERY connected. The skin under that part of the nail is a healthy pink.

It's annoying because this is on my right hand. I'm right handed.  It's hard to do chores, type, KNIT, and dress.
Praise the LORD that the pole didn't hit Peanut who was standing right next to me.

Strange story but related.  A couple days ago I wanted to wear a pair of earring post that my late hubby had given me. They had a beautiful garnet center stone with 4 diamonds around it and set in gold. He gave them to me for my birthday a couple years before he died.  Well a few days ago I was looking for them and I could only find one. I looked in my top drawer where I keep most of my jewelry. I looked in the trays and in the little boxes. I took EVERYTHING out of the drawer and I could not find the second earring. I pulled the dresser away from the wall to see if it fell behind. No it didn't.  I looked in the drawer below the top drawer and nothing.  I felt so bad that one was lost. It wasn't that they were probably the most expensive earrings he gave me but I was sad because he gave them to me and now he is gone and so was one of them.
Well the day after my finger accident I was sitting on my bed and I was crying. I was missing him and missing that he couldn't pamper me. I got up to get a tissue and something told me to look in the drawer again. So I did. There was the one earring that I still had.  I picked it up and held it close. Then I something told me to look in one of the little boxes that I had looked in 3 times already.  So I opened the box and right on top was the 2nd earring. Not under the other earrings that were in that box but right on top like it was laid there on purpose.
I might me a strange girl but I think it was a sign from Richard that he is with me. He is not far. He is here to comfort me.  I will never forget this story.  I love you Rich.

Well that is the latest at Casa Carol.