Leaving on a jet plane..

Okay, so it's not a private jet plane!

I'm off to help my daughter move. This is the crazy season for her husband, so he is on the run, and she is also moving at her job. My youngest also moved in the last week, and I have heard from her several times, unusual to say the least. Could it be? Am I needed?

Last I heard oldest daughter didn't have Internet yet. Geeze, withdrawals.

But I will have my little guy to chase, and a two-year-old moves pretty fast!

I'm not the only one...

(My kitchen last October.)

This article was interesting to me because of the lessons learned. This women tells the story of a remodel that did in her marriage. Having just gone through a complete remodel, I could relate to much of what they went through. It also highlighted the differences between some men and women when it comes to dealing with stressful situations.

But it was the last sentence that caught my eye...

A Face Lift

I continue to be amazed and entertained by all the beautiful blogs that I visit. Like someone who crawls into their old car after new car shopping, I am comfortable with my blog, but it feels dowdy. One of the reasons that I became hooked on blogging? Because I was continually amazed at how creative people were with their blogs. Not only in the content of their posts, but also in the way they looked.

I have had people offer to give me a makeover for free, but not knowing them I have hesitated to do so. All those dire warnings about incorporating viruses with widgets has me spooked. So, I ask you, what do you think I should do? Give it a major makeover, or just incorporate a few widgets? Maybe a new header? Or just leave it be and concentrate on my writing?

My Biggest Fear

I think we all have a fear of something. Whether or not we have ever experienced it makes no difference. Somewhere in my life, or lives if you believe in reincarnation, I was trapped in a submerged car. As far as I know it must have been a dream, but the fear itself, is very real. I have had it for my entire life. This, living in the desert for most of those years. But even deserts have lakes, rivers, ponds, irrigation ditches, etc.

We were living in Minneapolis when the bridge collapsed and the ensuing disaster held the news for many months. Recently three young college students lost their lives after going into a farmer's holding pond during a night of stargazing in North Dakota. It can happen anywhere, drainage ditches are in every state. My family goes over bridges daily in Portland, Oregon, and I have gifted "hammers of life" to all of them. So please take just a moment of your time and read this.

You might want to pass it on to all those that you love, as well.

Labeling Your Posts

Do you label your posts? You know that little box at the bottom that says "Labels for this post:"

Well, for some strange reason I decided early on that I wouldn't trouble myself with that little doohickey. Just a bother, I thought. Now I wish I had done it from the very beginning. I'm having to go back over 300 posts to make it easy to retrieve information.

Take a bit of advice - if you haven't already, then start labeling your posts. You never know when you might want to take a peek at what you've already written on a certain subject. If only not to contradict yourself! Ha

Fondue

We went out to dinner with friends last night to a local restaurant that serves fondue. If you have never had this fun meal, trust me - it's ideal for a cold winter night when you want to extend the meal to include plenty of wine and conversation. This particular dinner included both the cheese and the hot oil pot. It had a very cool butane burner that I finally found through Amazon.com which keeps the oil nice and hot. Much better than sterno. I've added it to my "wish list":

We have always had fondue for New Year's Eve. We never enjoyed the forced feeling of frivolity, preferring to stay home and have a nice fondue dinner in front of the fire. We start with a toast of champagne, and open a really good bottle of red to follow.

This year we have offered to babysit our grandson so our daughter and son-in-law can go out. I wonder if they will eventually decide to stay home as well. It is a great time to look over the past year and decide what worked, what didn't, and where you would like to go in the new year. At any rate, fondue is a fun way to spend an evening.

A Current Ghost Story

I have asked my daughter to allow me to use a post she had written on another site regarding the paranormal activity she has been experiencing for a couple of years now. This incident occurred just the other night, and I thought it fitting for Halloween. She moves out in a few days, and in her, and her husband's mind, - it can't be soon enough. They have experienced knocking, banging, whispers, and my daughter has experienced physical hits to her body. She has felt someone sitting next to her on the bed in the middle of the night, and covers being pulled off of her and her family. A few weeks ago she heard a very definite "Get Out!" She said it sounded loud, as if someone were shouting. It woke her up.

They always sleep with their son between them. I have talked with several people about this, and I have it on good authority that my daughter may be psychic, able to see things that we cannot. I do know that these things started when she was a teenager, right after one of her boyfriends died in a car crash.

My personal thoughts are that old houses, and this one is over 100 years old, can have energy left over, and that if traumatic events occur in the house, it can have residue from these events. Of course, we have no idea what might have happened in the last 100 years since the house has been occupied. But it has a very weird staircase that scares the stuffing out of me. They are extremely steep, and wooden. I worry constantly about someone falling. The upper banister is very low - not what you would call "code" in any way! It is only about three feet tall, and anyone could just stumble and go over the banister to the wooden stairs below!

There is a very old man that lives next door, he's lived there since he was a young, working man, with a young family. One day we were chatting about the neighborhood, and he mentioned the stairs, saying he thought they were dangerous. He mentions this right out of the blue!

So do the stairs have something to do with the "haunting"? Could the ghost be trying to warn them before someone falls? Maybe their toddler? You tell me.

Anyway, here is my daughter's story from a few nights ago:

Anyway, the other night we had some paranormal activity. It was a weird, restless night. I FELT something there from early on in the evening when I was sitting in bed doing homework- and I ignored it. I am really past the point of being afraid of energy or entities (at least those that hang around my house) because they have never done anything to harm me. The worst they have done is try to get my attention which can startle and frighten me a little- but now I am accepting of it.

So I am laying in bed, awake, as I tend to do and my son is suddenly extremely restless. He starts crying and doing his writhing around on the bed thing and he keeps saying "No, NO NONONONONONONO NO NO NO NO No NO NONO" (you get the idea). This was different from when he has night terrors though because he was communicating with me- he wasn't in a trance state, he was conscious. When he was saying this I could feel the energy in the room growing... eventually he changed what he was saying and started saying "Stairs. STAIRS. STAIRS. STAIRS. STAIRS. DOWN STAIRS. STAIRS. STAIRS! STAIRS! STAIRS!"

That creeped me right the freak out. After about 20-30 minutes I finally got him to calm down and lay down with me. That is when I heard it.

We have very old doors and door knobs in our house. They are metal and they make asqueaking sound when you turn them. Earlier in the night I had latched the door because my son is now big enough to get out of bed and make a run for it if he wants. Anyway, I heard the door knob turn and then the door SLAMMED. I screamed and sat up clutching Coleton to me. The door was open a crack.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!!" I asked my husband.

He suggested that it was the DOG- but I could CLEARLY see the dog across the room, curled up on her bed. It was NOT the dog. This was at 5:00 in the morning and there was nobody else up in our house. There were no doors or windows open anywhere that could have created a "suction" effect and I knew it.

I demanded that Erick turn on the light and he did and I SWEAR I could see something move through the room. It makes me feel crazy when I try to explain to people that I can see energy, but I just can. It's almost like a shimmer in the air... but shimmer is not the right word. In any case, the SHIMMER came and stood next to the bed and I told Erick where it was and he said he could not see anything. I told it to GET AWAY FROM ME. GET AWAY FROM MY SON AND STAY AWAY FROM US.

It left.

I didn't feel like staying in that room so we all got up and went downstairs and started our day... early.

Ever since that night I have been sleeping like a BABY and haven't felt anything there. I guess it listened, right?

Or maybe I am crazy. Either way- we move out in two weeks... Sayanara ghosts.