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: May 28, 2008 - Fairy Wings

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 28, 2008  Fairy Wings



My sister and I worked on our costumes together at my house. It was so much fun. 




We did this for Halloween 2006. That was a special Halloween. My granddaughter came over in the evening....



This turned out to be the last time my daughter Sierra and I could take Peanut trick or treating, because Sierra died 3 months later.

So regarding the fairy costume, I bought the wings at Walmart of all places. First I tried to put holes in the wings with a flame but that was too harsh so I got some incense that was a stick. I lit it and then it had a burning coal at the end. A cigarette could do the same but I don't smoke. 
So I burnt holes here and there. The burning melts the edges so they don't unravel. And it looks cool. Then I got out my watercolor paints and I painted the wings with violets and blues and reds. The wings were a light green color.
After they dried, I put some fabric paint from a squeeze tube with glitter around each hole that I had made. Then when that was dry I sprayed glitter on all of the wings.

The costume is a skirt made with soft fabric of purple and greens. I had a long ribbon waist band and sewed petal shapes to the ribbon, then tied the ribbon around my waist. Under the skirt I had on the tights and some exersice shorts. For the top I wore an embroidered tank top that had little roses on it and a sheer long sleeve shirt and then over that I wore a purple vest that laced up on each side, front and back. 

I made my wreath for my head with wire and hot glued ivy and flowers, then added a dragonfly, bird, and lots of ribbons down the back.

So that was my winning costume at work. I won a gift card to Home Depot for $50. I liked that.

Then I kept on the costume and wore it to trick or treat around my neighborhood with my granddaughter, as me and my daughter Sierra took her around. We had a nice visit as we walked that night.

A post from the Past: May 30, 2008 - New Cat

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 30, 2008  -  New Cat, Sally

Yesterday evening my little sister came and delivered a new kitten to our home. This is Peanut's kitten. She named her "Sally Flower Lee". Lee is Peanut's and my middle name. Sally is Jack's girlfriend in Nightmare Before Christmas. Flower, well I guess Peanut likes flowers.



Peanut is in love.



My other cat Solo Vino was cool. He tried to act like he didn't care.
Peanut made a bed and Sally slept with her all night. Here she is ready for school.



Peanut said, "now I have a friend to play with me." She lost her mommy a year ago. My daughter Sierra died by a gunshot. Peanut was in the house when it happened and probably saw something. She was found by her mommy's side when the paramedics arrived. It's been a hard journey but we are doing ok. We take each day as it comes and we have a deep faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. I know that Sierra is in Heaven with her daddy, my late husband Richard.
This kitty is a good thing in our lives and in Peanut's life. She is being so nurturing with the kitten. It is sweet to watch. 

A post from the Past: June 12, 2008 - Still knitting

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.

June 12, 2008 - Still Knitting

I haven't posted in a while. This week has been busy because it is the last week of school for my kindergartner.
I took some pics of Sally our new kitten. She is a busy little kitty.
Here she is on the couch ready to jump.



This is Sally under the table attacking a crunchy ball.



As for my knitting. I was distracted for a week or so with the scarf on the beautiful new needles. It is the scarf done in Kanui wool. I had started it and decided it was too narrow. So I cast off, and then cast on with more stitches. I had to set it aside to get the Socks done.



I have only 2 weeks left to finish the socks and a felted hat for my daughter in law's birthday. I know I will have the socks done in a couple days. I can crochet the hat pretty fast but the felting takes a few days. I let it air dry after the machine washing so it just takes time to dry out. 

Other than that I did get a call from my boss yesterday. I use to work in a dental lab making porcelain teeth. It was so much fun. I went to school to be a dental technician after my husband died. So I had worked in this lab for 3 years but in March 08 I had to quit because my granddaughter needs me to be home. We are still grieving my daughters death. I got custody of my granddaughter late last year. I worked when I had her for a few months but I was killing myself. I can't be mom, employee, cook, cleaner, gardener, etc. I'm not married since my husband died of cancer in Aug. 2000. It's tough being a single mom again. My kids were all grown. I had the empty nest.

So I was flattered that my boss would call and ask me to return. I know I could have asked for a huge raise. I am still thinking about it. He is even willing to wait for the fall when school gets back in. 
I loved what I did. I loved working with the tools and baking porcelain, grinding the teeth with tiny tiny high speed drills. I was also doing digital design with the Cad/Cam program with scanning models and designing bridges and crowns on the computer then sending those files to be milled out in zirconia. I was in the High Tech department. I loved it.
I hated the drive from my home to the lab. I had to go on 4 different freeways (only 22 miles) and the traffic was horrible. I do not miss that drive at all. It could take 30 min. on a good day or 2 hours on a bad day. Average time was 45 min. I was ok with the drive before I had Peanut. When I lived alone. I would just listen to the radio and kick back. But when you have a little one waiting for you at after school care it is horrible. I just missed her so bad. She needed to be with me or with family after loosing her mommy. 
So now I am home with her and I have more free time for my knitting and hobbies, also for errands and house work. 
We go to church several times a week. Our life is full.

A post from the Past: June 13, 2008 - Sierra

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.

June 13, 2008 - Sierra

This is really cool.

Here is Sierra and I at our old house back in the days when my husband was alive and of course Sierra. My front yard. 

A post from the Past: June 17, 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.

June 17, 2008  Balloon release for Sierra. RIP

Tonight my granddaughter and I went to our meeting of The Compassionate Friends.
http://www.compassionatefriends.org/
(Redlands Chapter of Compassionate Friends)
http://www.redlandstcf.com/

This is a grief group for parents & siblings who have lost a child.

Tonight was the annual balloon launch in the memory of our children. 

We arrived early and started making out little cards to attach to the balloons.

Ouch, sunburn.......




Then we were ready to head outside.  Legos in red case, balloons in hand.


Outside it was a beautiful night. There was a singer Naomi Slotkin and a man on the keyboard. Her voice was like an angel. She sang so beautiful and the lyrics to the songs made me cry.


Then we went on the stairs to release the Balloons. It was so beautiful. The balloons went straight up to heaven.



We watched till the balloons got smaller and smaller. 



And then Naomi Slotkin with the angel voice sang on..........

Near far wherever you are 
I believe that the heart does go on 
Once more you open the door 
And you're here in my heart 
And my heart will go on and on



And then they were gone.............

A post from the Past. July 21, 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.

July 21, 2008   A poem that Makes me Cry.

How easily could God, if He so willed,
Set back the world a little turn or two!
Correct its griefs, and bring its joys again!

We were so wholly one I had not thought
That we could die apart. I had not thought
That I could move, -- and you be stiff and still!
That I could speak, -- and you perforce be dumb!
I think our heart-strings were, like warp and woof
In some firm fabric, woven in and out;
Your golden filaments in fair design
Across my duller fibre. And to-day
The shining strip is rent; the exquisite
Fine pattern is destroyed; part of your heart
Aches in my breast; part of my heart lies chilled
In the damp earth with you. I have been torn
In two, and suffer for the rest of me.

This poem speaks to me. The poem in its entirity is below.
I miss Sierra, my little girl, my daughter so much. 
Reading this makes me cry. All I can ask is Why?
Why did she die?
Photo of Sierra with her kitty Romeo. Front yard of our Yucaipa house on Fremont st. 


Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay
Renascence

Interim

The room is full of you! -- As I came in
And closed the door behind me, all at once
A something in the air, intangible,
Yet stiff with meaning, struck my senses sick! --

Sharp, unfamiliar odors have destroyed
Each other room's dear personality.
The heavy scent of damp, funereal flowers, --
The very essence, hush-distilled, of Death --
Has strangled that habitual breath of home
Whose expiration leaves all houses dead;
And wheresoe'er I look is hideous change.
Save here. Here 'twas as if a weed-choked gate
Had opened at my touch, and I had stepped
Into some long-forgot, enchanted, strange,
Sweet garden of a thousand years ago
And suddenly thought, "I have been here before!"

You are not here. I know that you are gone,
And will not ever enter here again.
And yet it seems to me, if I should speak,
Your silent step must wake across the hall;
If I should turn my head, that your sweet eyes
Would kiss me from the door. -- So short a time
To teach my life its transposition to
This difficult and unaccustomed key! --
The room is as you left it; your last touch --
A thoughtless pressure, knowing not itself
As saintly -- hallows now each simple thing;
Hallows and glorifies, and glows between
The dust's grey fingers like a shielded light.

There is your book, just as you laid it down,
Face to the table, -- I cannot believe
That you are gone! -- Just then it seemed to me
You must be here. I almost laughed to think
How like reality the dream had been;
Yet knew before I laughed, and so was still.
That book, outspread, just as you laid it down!
Perhaps you thought, "I wonder what comes next,
And whether this or this will be the end";
So rose, and left it, thinking to return.

Perhaps that chair, when you arose and passed
Out of the room, rocked silently a while
Ere it again was still. When you were gone
Forever from the room, perhaps that chair,
Stirred by your movement, rocked a little while,
Silently, to and fro. . .

And here are the last words your fingers wrote,
Scrawled in broad characters across a page
In this brown book I gave you. Here your hand,
Guiding your rapid pen, moved up and down.
Here with a looping knot you crossed a "t",
And here another like it, just beyond
These two eccentric "e's". You were so small,
And wrote so brave a hand!
How strange it seems
That of all words these are the words you chose!
And yet a simple choice; you did not know
You would not write again. If you had known --
But then, it does not matter, -- and indeed
If you had known there was so little time
You would have dropped your pen and come to me
And this page would be empty, and some phrase
Other than this would hold my wonder now.
Yet, since you could not know, and it befell
That these are the last words your fingers wrote,
There is a dignity some might not see
In this, "I picked the first sweet-pea to-day."
To-day! Was there an opening bud beside it
You left until to-morrow? -- O my love,
The things that withered, -- and you came not back!
That day you filled this circle of my arms
That now is empty. (O my empty life!)
That day -- that day you picked the first sweet-pea, --
And brought it in to show me! I recall
With terrible distinctness how the smell
Of your cool gardens drifted in with you.
I know, you held it up for me to see
And flushed because I looked not at the flower,
But at your face; and when behind my look
You saw such unmistakable intent
You laughed and brushed your flower against my lips.
(You were the fairest thing God ever made,
I think.) And then your hands above my heart
Drew down its stem into a fastening,
And while your head was bent I kissed your hair.
I wonder if you knew. (Beloved hands!
Somehow I cannot seem to see them still.
Somehow I cannot seem to see the dust
In your bright hair.) What is the need of Heaven
When earth can be so sweet? -- If only God
Had let us love, -- and show the world the way!
Strange cancellings must ink th' eternal books
When love-crossed-out will bring the answer right!
That first sweet-pea! I wonder where it is.
It seems to me I laid it down somewhere,
And yet, -- I am not sure. I am not sure,
Even, if it was white or pink; for then
'Twas much like any other flower to me,
Save that it was the first. I did not know,
Then, that it was the last. If I had known --
But then, it does not matter. Strange how few,
After all's said and done, the things that are
Of moment.
Few indeed! When I can make
Of ten small words a rope to hang the world!
"I had you and I have you now no more."
There, there it dangles, -- where's the little truth
That can for long keep footing under that
When its slack syllables tighten to a thought?
Here, let me write it down! I wish to see
Just how a thing like that will look on paper!

"*I had you and I have you now no more*."

O little words, how can you run so straight
Across the page, beneath the weight you bear?
How can you fall apart, whom such a theme
Has bound together, and hereafter aid
In trivial expression, that have been
So hideously dignified? -- Would God
That tearing you apart would tear the thread
I strung you on! Would God -- O God, my mind
Stretches asunder on this merciless rack
Of imagery! O, let me sleep a while!
Would I could sleep, and wake to find me back
In that sweet summer afternoon with you.
Summer? 'Tis summer still by the calendar!
How easily could God, if He so willed,
Set back the world a little turn or two!
Correct its griefs, and bring its joys again!

We were so wholly one I had not thought
That we could die apart. I had not thought
That I could move, -- and you be stiff and still!
That I could speak, -- and you perforce be dumb!
I think our heart-strings were, like warp and woof
In some firm fabric, woven in and out;
Your golden filaments in fair design
Across my duller fibre. And to-day
The shining strip is rent; the exquisite
Fine pattern is destroyed; part of your heart
Aches in my breast; part of my heart lies chilled
In the damp earth with you. I have been torn
In two, and suffer for the rest of me.
What is my life to me? And what am I
To life, -- a ship whose star has guttered out?
A Fear that in the deep night starts awake
Perpetually, to find its senses strained
Against the taut strings of the quivering air,
Awaiting the return of some dread chord?

Dark, Dark, is all I find for metaphor;
All else were contrast, -- save that contrast's wall
Is down, and all opposed things flow together
Into a vast monotony, where night
And day, and frost and thaw, and death and life,
Are synonyms. What now -- what now to me
Are all the jabbering birds and foolish flowers
That clutter up the world? You were my song!
Now, let discord scream! You were my flower!
Now let the world grow weeds! For I shall not
Plant things above your grave -- (the common balm
Of the conventional woe for its own wound!)
Amid sensations rendered negative
By your elimination stands to-day,
Certain, unmixed, the element of grief;
I sorrow; and I shall not mock my truth
With travesties of suffering, nor seek
To effigy its incorporeal bulk
In little wry-faced images of woe.

I cannot call you back; and I desire
No utterance of my immaterial voice.
I cannot even turn my face this way
Or that, and say, "My face is turned to you";
I know not where you are, I do not know
If Heaven hold you or if earth transmute,
Body and soul, you into earth again;
But this I know: -- not for one second's space
Shall I insult my sight with visionings
Such as the credulous crowd so eager-eyed
Beholds, self-conjured, in the empty air.
Let the world wail! Let drip its easy tears!
My sorrow shall be dumb!

-- What do I say?
God! God! -- God pity me! Am I gone mad
That I should spit upon a rosary?
Am I become so shrunken? Would to God
I too might feel that frenzied faith whose touch
Makes temporal the most enduring grief;
Though it must walk a while, as is its wont,
With wild lamenting! Would I too might weep
Where weeps the world and hangs its piteous wreaths
For its new dead! Not Truth, but Faith, it is
That keeps the world alive. If all at once
Faith were to slacken, -- that unconscious faith
Which must, I know, yet be the corner-stone
Of all believing, -- birds now flying fearless
Across would drop in terror to the earth;
Fishes would drown; and the all-governing reins
Would tangle in the frantic hands of God
And the worlds gallop headlong to destruction!

O God, I see it now, and my sick brain
Staggers and swoons! How often over me
Flashes this breathlessness of sudden sight
In which I see the universe unrolled
Before me like a scroll and read thereon
Chaos and Doom, where helpless planets whirl
Dizzily round and round and round and round,
Like tops across a table, gathering speed
With every spin, to waver on the edge
One instant -- looking over -- and the next
To shudder and lurch forward out of sight --

* * * * *

Ah, I am worn out -- I am wearied out --
It is too much -- I am but flesh and blood,
And I must sleep. Though you were dead again,
I am but flesh and blood and I must sleep.

A post from the Past: August 20, 2008 - My daughter

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

Also yesterday August 19th was the 19 month anniversary of my daughters death. I miss her so much too. 



Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven

A post from the Past: September 4, 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.

September 4, 2008

 Ok, So I am trying to finish up the Monkey socks for my granddaughter and I'm sort of stressed this week.  I worked on them last night,  then went to sleep and had a dream about Sierra, my daughter who died last year.  Sierra was in the hospital to get her ears pierced. She looked so beautiful. She didn't know it was her last day to live and I did.  I had my camera and was taking pictures of her laying there.  I was pretty sad.  She had on eye makeup which she didn't do too often. She was just so pretty.
So I finished up the Monkey socks this morning.  I was so proud to have made the best kitchners stitch I have ever made in all my life. It just looked knitted.
Then I laid the 2 socks side by side and here is what I saw.

Now I am ripping out that toe.  UFF!

A post from the Past: January 18, 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. 

January 18, 2009

JANUARY 19 is my daughter Sierra's angelversary.  I want to remember her with some photos.


Sierra Carol  January 28, 1983 to January 19, 2007     She was 23 years old when she died.

Sierra Christmas 2000, a few months after her daddy died (my hubby).
This was our first Christmas without Richard. Usually we would decorate the house from top to bottom. Here we are so sad that our tree hardly have any ornaments on. Usually it is full of handmade ornaments from years of children making them and myself making them or collecting them. But we didn't even get out any of the old things.


  Sierra & Alexis 2006.   She died a few months after this photo.


1983 Sierra and I when she was only 6 months old. She was so beautiful. 


Sierra & Carol in Madrid Spain 1998

I miss her greatly.  Peanut misses her more.  You are always in our memories Sierra and forever in my heart.
Your mom Carol 

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. 

You Know You’re Making Progress When--

Sierra and Carol (mom)

You Know You’re Making Progress When--

You can remember your child with a smile-- 
You realize the painful comments others make are made in ignorance--- 
You can reach out to help someone else-- 
You stop dreading holidays-- 
You can sit through a church service without crying-- 
You can concentrate on something besides your child-- 
You can find something to thank God for-- 
You can be alone in your house without it bothering you-- 
You can talk about what happened to your child without falling apart-- 
You no longer feel you have to go to the cemetery every day or every week-- 
You can tolerate the sound of a baby crying-- 
You don’t have to turn off the radio when his or her favorite music comes on-- 
You can find something to laugh about-- 
You can drive by the hospital or that intersection without screaming-- 
You no longer feel exhausted all the time-- 
You can appreciate a sunset, the smell of newly-mowed grass, the pattern on a butterfly’s wings--

~Judy Osgood 
TCF, Carmel/Indianapolis, IN

Spinning Tour de Fleece, Knitting and Garden

I was so lax in blogging that I missed the month of June. So I want to blog more this month.
What have I been up to lately? Well this month is Le Tour de Fleece over on Ravelry. I am on 3 teams. Yeah.
I am spinning some Perendale Top from Crown Mountain Farms. The color is The 5th Element.  I love it.  The fiber is long and fluffy. It is so easy to spin I probably will buy more of this perendale in the future.
Here is the cute little sheep.  The fiber came from New Zealand. It was prepared in Michigan into luscious Top.

The top:

And my spinning singles:



I will be spinning every day that the Tour de France event happens. We have 2 rest days.  It goes from July 2 to July 24.


In other happenings at Casa de Carol is the garden. I got the garden planted. It is growing so fast. We already have zucchini on the bushes and blooms on the tomatoes.  We also planted; sugar baby watermelons, cucumbers, pumpkin, and several types of peppers.

Do you see the wire?  That is a hot wire to keep Bob out of my garden. He chews and digs everything.  The hot wire keeps me from having to stress over loosing my garden to a puppy.  It works very well.

I planted the garden late. We had so much rain that I was waiting for a clear day to plant.  It was only 2 weeks ago that I got the veggies in.

Yes, this is Bob the dog. He has grown so much. He looks too sweet to be half beaver.  But believe me, he can chew up anything in a split second.  My new hose is in about 10 pieces.  
Today I went out to start the BBQ and all I could smell was gas.  Bob had chewed the hose under the BBQ.  I have my BBQ directly plumbed into the gas line of the house. I'm lucky that my son Roland had put a shut off valve which I always have in the off position when I am not BBQing.  Today I had to cook indoors. My chicken and corn on the cob were good but not how we wanted it because of our "beaver" dog.  I will have to get a new hose with the metal braiding on it I think.

Bob is afraid of the pool.  He will come to the edge but he puts on the brakes if you try to get him in the water.  I did put him in once to show him how to swim to the stairs.  I was hoping that he would like the water, he is a lab. No, he told me, "mom I don't want to swim!!!".  


On the painting front. Ok, so this isn't watercolor but it is painting.  I have this table.  (imagine it standing up)

And this oak table has been with me for a long time. It was in my kitchen in Yucaipa. It was moved to the livingroom so we could eat in front of the TV.  It came to my new house after my hubby died.  I gave it to my daughter Sierra and she had it in her kitchen. When she died I got the table back.  It has been on my patio for a few years. Ok, more like 4 years.  I decided it might look awesome if I painted it an aqua blue, Tiffany blue. So I started. 
It needs a second coat. It has just been too hot. The paint wants to dry on my brush so I will wait for this heat wave to pass to finish.

Look at how good it matches my old metal chair.  That is from my old house too.  I might paint the chair to give it a fresh look.  I love the color. 


I have been knitting too.  

This is a sweater based on the EPS, aka Elizabeth Zimmermann Percentage System.  I am doing a KAL (knit along) with a Ravelry group. I have finished the body. Now we are going to work on splitting for the sleeves.


I finished my Sprossling Sweater.



Now it is too hot to wear this sweater.  Maybe I can wear it to the movies?  Except I never go to the movies. LOL


Happy 4th of July to all of you tomorrow. We will be at church for the annual event. They will have the blow up water slides for the kiddies for FREE!!! Music, Hot rod and motorcycle show. And In & Out will provide the food. Yum.
They usually end this gathering around 3 pm or so.  My sister Susan is with us on July 4th every year since '05 or '06.  She has a new job and has to work. Boo Hoo. I will miss having the swim races here at home in my pool and BBQ.  Last year Susan, Peanut and I were in Idaho with Dustin and Bambi. We sat at the park to watch the fireworks in their beautiful town. It was fun.


Happy 4th !!!!!



Does Bob need a bigger Dog House?