My Questionable Experience

Photo completely unrelated but added for the sake of having a picture.  Here Noah is questioning my sanity as I'm singing and dancing for him in the hopes of making him smile.  You can see how productive I was with that!

I almost titled this post, "The Ghost That Intrigued Me", which I finally decided against as that would make it sound to cheesy and "unreal".  This is in no way and will never be a paranormal or a ghost hunting blog.  More of a blog about me, my life, and the things I like and care about.  This happens to include the paranormal and ghost hunting.

This particular experience of mine is the one that initiated my love for all things paranormal, spooky, and unknown.  I was between ages 8 and 10.  At some close friends house a tragic event happened to their brother.  I'm not going to go into too much detail for the sake of the family's privacy.  Not that no one knows about it because that's not true.  I'm just sure they wouldn't want someone like me talking about it in detail on a blog. 

Anyhow, after this thing happened my friends told me of some strange things happening at their house shortly after.  Tires which were being bought during the time of this particular event all of a sudden went flat, lights flickered, noises were being heard, etc.  My friends always said it was their brother watching over the family.  At my age I didn't think too much about those kinds of things.  I guess it was too much for my little brain to handle and I defnitely didn't believe in ghosts in any way shape or form.  One night I was spending the night when everything that I had believed full heartedly started to in a way disintegrate.  I wasn't so sure of some things. 

My friends and I had a little slumber party in the living room.  I have to mention that their mom was also there and slept on the couch.  She slept there every night particularly because of the incident with her son.  Again not too many details.  Sometime in the middle of the night I woke up while everyone was asleep.  I usually did this when staying somewhere other than home.  I sat up and immediately looked around to see if anyone else was awake but they weren't.  The girls were past out next to me and their mom was still on the couch.  I was about to lay back down to go back to sleep when something caught my eye.  I saw a shadowy figure of a fairly tall male form.  This is especially weird since the room was dark to begin with but this seemed completely void of light.  I just starred and assumed it was my friends' dad and went right back to sleep.  Since I found it weird that their dad was starring at everyone in the middle of the night and didn't say anything to me while I sat up and starred at him, I mentioned it to the girls. 

Me: "I woke up last night and your dad was standing in the doorway just looking at everyone and didn't say anything to me."

Friends: "You saw our dad in the middle of the night?"

Me: "Yes"

Friends: "But he's never home at night because he works midnights."

This naturally was confusing to me but I at first didn't think much about it.  Until I heard them and their mom say not to worry, it was just their brother watching over us.

From then on I have always wondered what actually happened.  Could I have been dreaming? Maybe.  Was I hallucinating? I guess so but I don't think so.  Could someone have broken into the house while we were sleeping?  Goodness I hope not but I guess that's also a possibility.  Was it a ghost of their brother?  I now can't even rule that out!

Since then, especially since I started ghost hunting I've had very questionable things happen to me.  Voices that weren't heard by anyone while we investigated but suddenly appeared when played back on a voice recorder, flashlights turning on and off on their own, and even quarters that enjoyed jumping off the kitchen counter.  All events along with my very first experience make me question and search for that possibility of someone who was once a living human being coming back to watch over their loved ones.  I wish I could go back to relive that experience.  I would say something or even get up and walk towards it.  That's impossible to do.  So for now all I have are my many nightly adventures to search for some truth.

And before anyone questions, yes I am a christian and believe in God.  It's just one of those things I try to understand.  But maybe it's not meant to be understood.

Why I Fell In Love With Vermont

I just love living in the mountains!  When I was younger I would have never thought I'd be here and enjoy it.  It was always in my plans to live down south in the warm and close to the beach.  And at times, like now when it's snowy and cold, I still think of how nice it would be.

However, there is nothing like driving by this view every morning.  Even when I'm cursing that winter is still here and spring has yet to arrive, this cheers me up!

Baby When the Lights Go Out!

One of my favorite things is when the power goes out and I have to light candles all over the house.  I know that might sound strange.  Maybe it's the same thing that causes me to enjoy bumping around in the dark looking for ghosts.  Something about creepy darkness and candle light that gets my adrenaline going!  All of Danville lost power for about an hour or so and I lit a bunch of candles and made the house look like a seance was about to happen lol.  Too bad the power is back on but I did enjoy my hour of creepiness!

Home Tour : Kichen

Here's the kitchen.  This was probably the first room completely unpacked and done but I've just been waiting to take pics until it was clean and not filled with dirty dishes.

This house as built in the late 1800s and was recently completely remodeled.  This is the original sink and I just LOVE it! 

A Big Lesson from Such a Big Tragedy

Just about an hour away from my hometown a tragedy struck a high school in Chardon, OH this past Monday.  Three innocent kids died from a school shooting while 2 other were seriously injured. I guess realizing that this happened so close to where I grew up, really hit me hard.  Plus it's also a town that I went to for church camp when I was younger. The tragedy of a school shooting, I feel, hits everyone hard.  It's the place you expect to see your kids safe and to get an education.  Just thinking of my little boy who is at home and safe now really gets me thinking about how difficult it will be for me to let him go to school for the first time.  I've even questioned about home schooling.  I know, however, that eventually when he's an adult I will have to cut the strings and let him make his own choices and his own way in life.  It just saddens me to think that tragedies like this can happen at such a seemingly innocent place.  Not just here, there's also the Kent State shooting, Virginia Tech, of course the Columbine shootings, and more. 

Today I was reading an article and in it the mother of one of the victims made statements that really hit home with me.  She actually FORGIVES this troubled person who felt the need to create these tragedies.  When asked what she would say to the kid who committed these murders she stated, "I would tell him I forgive him because, a lot of times, they don't know what they're doing. That's all I'd say.".  She continued, "I taught Demetrius not to live in the past, to live in today and forgiveness is divine. You have to forgive everything. God's grace is new each and every day," she said. "Until you've walked in another person's shoes, you don't know what made him come to this point."   It's just amazing to me that someone who lost someone so close and special to her can actually say she forgives.  Not that I don't think she should because I definitely agree that God wants everyone to forgive everyone no matter what.  It's just it seems easy to say that you would but when and if something this extreme happens, how will it really be?  I know for me it would be near impossible.  At least at first.  I mean to be honest, it's hard not to get angry and upset over the person who cut you off on the road, or the cook who forgot to cook your food all the way through.  Even more, I think of how many times I get angry at family and/or friends.  I've gone days without speaking to some because of something they did or said that upset me.  I eventually forgive, but even then it sometimes takes me a couple days.  I can't imagine how I would feel under these circumstances. 

After reading this, it made me take a good hard look at how my outlook on life has been.  I need to focus my life on those that matter most and forgive as often as the lord would.  I know being human and sinner such as myself that it will not always be easy, but I will definitely try.  After all everything is in God's hands.  I may not always understand or agree with what happens, but I need to trust God.  I also need to try my hardest to live the way our Lord would.  Which means to forgive even when it seems like the last reasonable thing to do.

Thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by the Chardon shooting.

You can read about the article I referenced here

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Andy's Chicken Dinner

Last night Andy made me such a delicious dinner.  Being that he's a sous chef, many think I eat like a queen all of the time.  That is far from the truth.  He's at work Tuesday through Saturday until late which means I eat dinner alone and I eat whatever I manage to put together.  On the days he's off, the last thing I want to make him do is something he already does for 8 hours straight five days a week.  So I usually put something together for dinner when we can actually sit down together to eat.   

I am very far from the cooking level as a sous chef.  So when Andy does get a chance to make something, it's very special.  Last night he made his version of chicken scampi.  I just learned that scampi actually is the name of a small kind of lobster.  This dish, however, had no lobster.

I told Andy that if he cooked like this for me all of the time that I would end up as large as a whale.  I devoured this.  No correction, I inhaled this.  It was SO good!