Oh Sheet!

So we got to the condo down at the beach and my Mom went to the grocery store to buy the essentials like bread, cereal, milk, and beer while we took the kids down to the beach. It felt awesome down there, it was late in the afternoon, and we spent several hours just watching the three little ones enjoy the sand and ocean and eventually moved them up to the pool area.

Mother had fought the crowds of Wal Mart and finally returned with a van load of groceries. There were six of us total and I can tell, she had no intentions of running back and forth to the store.

We finally got everyone situation in the rooms, got groceries put away, kids showered and we were exhausted. It was about 10 o'clock and well beyond our bedtime! When we decided it was time fold out the couch for one of the children, I asked a question. "Has anyone seen any extra bedding or sheets?"

No one had and we began to search in a desperate panic. We searched high and low and only found a blanket (which went straight in to wash) but no sheets at all. Poor Mother spoke, "I'll just go back to Wal Mart and buy some."

She offered to take my daughter and I was thinking that's one less kid for us to watch reluctant but agreed. The remaining folk went onto the balcony and told ghost stories. I had my son and his little cousin so scared. Their wide eyes hung on my every word as I told story after story. Lightening crashed and thunder roared. Rain drops fell and forced us off the balcony back inside. After driving through a monsoon, Mom finally returned and she had sheets, and my daughter. My child took off her hearing devices and said, "I'm going to bed!" and she was asleep within 2 minutes.

We patiently waited for everything to finish washing and drying and my sister decided to sit next to Mother on the couch. When she did, she raised up and said, "What was that?" She lifted the cushion behind her and pulled out a pack of unopened sheets...PERFECT. We three adults burst into laughter and we were frightening the children.

We went to bed LATE early in the morning thinking we'd sleep til at least 7 a.m. but I was awakened by my bedmate at 5:30. "Mama! I had a nightmare!!" And it was all my fault for telling those horrible stories to those poor children.

Ghost Stories (part 1)

I told you that since moving out of the haunted house I grew up in, there have been very few paranormal experiences around me. So I feel like that spirit was either attached to someone else in the house or the house itself...it did not follow me here.

We've lived in my husband's grandparent's home for many years now. Though no one actually died in the home, and the house has remained in the family since his grandparents' passing, we have had a couple of odd occurances, none of which frightened me like before in the house I grew up in.

One day, within the first year or two of living here, I heard my dogs barking like crazy. I looked out the window to find them crouched and ready to attack if necessary as they barked at something that was apparently really close. I looked out the window, I saw nothing. I moved to another room as the dogs continued to bark towards the barn and looked out of those windows which gave me a variety of angles...I say nothing but two crouched dogs who were adament that something was there, that wasn't supposed to be. We live in sort of a remote rural area so if something unusual comes along, my dogs have a fit. I continued my search out every possible window and still saw absolutely nothing between my house and the barn...weird.

After a few minutes they stopped and my phone rang...it was my mother-in-law who lives a hundred yards or so behind my house. "Can I talk to Chad a minute?" which is her son. I told her he was at work and she insisted she just saw him (or someone else) walking from the house to the barn. I stood firm that he was work and had been for hours and neither the kids or I had been outside in last couple of hours. She went on to tell me that her inside dog was was going nuts barking down toward my house and when she looked out, she saw a man walking to the barn in plain view from my house to the barn. He was wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt. I then informed her that my dogs were going nuts too, but I looked the entire time they were barking and saw nothing..."It was Daddy," she said. He had come to visit and check on his house and barn. Weird coincidence or paranormal activity?

Phantom

If you know me personally, then you are likely already aware that I grew up in a house with six total living people and at least one phantom presence. Many of you have heard these stories over and over again but no matter how many times we go over them, they are just as real today as when they happened to my family growing up in that house where my parents still reside.

We all seemed to experience different individual hauntings but when one of us had an experience, we could empathize with each other, knowing that fear and praying 'it' would just leave us alone. I don't think it ever crossed our minds to just leave or move, it was OUR home and we are naturally stubborn people. I can tell you this though, after I grew up and moved out, I've had very few paranormal events, and I felt an extreme sense of relief that I could actually go to bed and go to sleep without being harassed by a dead person. For me, it was mostly vocal harassment, from loud door slams (even though the door was already closed) to saying my name or my sister's name really fast over and over and over in my ear at night while I was fully awake! I can still hear it today "VAL-VAL-Val-Val-val-val-val..." to the point you realize it is deliberately trying to drive you MAD. My sister and mother experienced physical harassment such as their covers pulling down the bed and my dad would actually see 'it'. I have so many stories, and yes, they are still reporting events today in that same old house. We've not researched to find out who (if anyone) died there. But I am looking into that! I will begin these stories soon, so stay tuned.....