Summer Blues

Someone recently told me that if I didn't have bad luck I would have no luck at all. Oh yeah, it was my sister. She found out that the house we are renting may be auctioned off soon due to foreclosure. I wasn't walking around whining it about it but in my family, there are no secrets and news travels fast, not that I was trying to keep it a secret.

Actually, I have not spent too much energy worrying about it. Truth be told, when I first saw the notice taped to front door I had to laugh, because that's my life. There are no easy fixes, tremendous opportunities or blessings from above for this little family of mine and its been that way for most of my life. But there are only so many times you can ask "Why me?" It becomes an absolutely ridiculous question after a while.

To be honest, we are far too busy to get mired down with this new bump in the road. Summer is upon us again and we have yet to really enjoy any of it. I had to leave town the same day of Gabi's graduation to stay with my mom through my step dad's hospitalization. Andrew and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary. We spent 4th of July inside because it was unseasonably chilly. And every free moment in between all of that was spent getting Gabi back and forth to high school soccer tryouts and club soccer practice.

We are still having no luck on the job front so the financial "Threat Level" has moved from Guarded to Elevated. I don't know how long it will take to get to High but I fear it is not too far off. By the way, anyone who needs cupcakes should call me right away.

I did try my hand at an outdoor sport with Andrew and we went out a few times to play tennis. That became an exercise in futility because in Orange County you pretty much have to pay to play...oh and I hurt my foot so I can barely walk. Andrew is such an understanding and loving husband, he told it is because I am old.

I am determined to have some fun so as soon as my foot is functioning again I am hitting the beach with my son. We won't be waiting for Andrew and Gabi as they have soccer every day for the next few weeks since she made the high school team and is also on a club team. Oh and Andrew is coaching her so they are useless to us.

July is almost over and I have to figure out a way to make the best of it, whether we have a place to live, money for food, sanity left or not.

Paranormal Times!

The other day a friend of mine asked me about my FaceBook profile that states I have a ghost in my house. I forgot I had that on there and I have since moved so it is old news. But, yes, we did have a ghost in our old house. OK, laugh or sneer if you like but it was an experience I will never forget.

For us, it all started when we went to Arkansas to visit my dad after he had a stroke a few years ago. My dad lives in Eureka Springs, AR. There is a hotel called the Crescent Hotel which is supposed to be one the most haunted hotels in the US.

My sister and I love that stuff so we took our kids there and walked around and took some pics. There was this really old phone booth next to the restrooms inside the lobby of the hotel and my sister put our daughters, Gabi and Madeline, inside of it to take a photo. She asked me if Gabi had a shiny barrette in her hair because in the image of the girls there was a blue ball of light sitting on Gabi's head and she thought it was a reflection of something in her hair. Gabi had nothing like that in her hair. We laughed and found it interesting at the time, but didn't spend too much time thinking about it. The Crescent Hotel has a Ghost Tour that you can take there but we thought it might be too much for the kids so we skipped it. That was late August.

So in late October, the week of Halloween in fact, Andrew and I were watching a television show about a guy who was possessed by the devil. It creeped me out, I won't lie. So, I changed the channel and we settled in to watch a comedy. Suddenly, there was a very loud knocking on the window next to the couch we were sitting on, as if someone was banging on it with their fist! Our cat jumped off the back of the chair and walked over to the window and stared at it for several minutes, which was weird because anytime anyone would knock on the door the cat would disappear upstairs. He hated visitors. I looked at Andrew and said, "What the f*#@ was that?" (Yes, sometimes I talk like a truck driver!) "I don't know, maybe it was the dog." Yeah right, the dog was in his dog run on the side of the house, the window in question was on the back of the house, impossible. We blew it off and went to bed. (I was still freaked out a bit!)

Two days later I was talking to my sister on the phone and I was telling her about "The incident". Andrew and Gabi were at a football game and little Drew was playing video games in the other room. I was mixing myself a margarita, telling her this story and then dammit, something was knocking at the damn window again! I freaked out and my sister told me to hang up just drink my drink.

Later that night, Andrew came home and we were laying in bed and I told him that I heard that knocking again, he just smiled and said, "Sure you did." A few minutes later, we heard it and he looked at me, "Do you hear that?" My only escape was to go to sleep. My niece came over that weekend and went to a Halloween party with her friends. The next morning she told me that she heard the knocking as she was walking upstairs to go to bed at 2am.

Several months later Gabi started complaining that the light in her room would go off and on. Then, one night in March, I was sick in bed and I heard Gabi get out of the shower and she opened the bathroom door to let all the steam out. A few moments later I heard her scream and she came running in my room and she was shaking and crying, she said< "Mommy there is a little girl, I wiped the mirror and she was standing right next to me and I looked over and there was no one there!" I have never seen her so terrified in my life. OK, now I am thinking, "Are you are f&#@ing kidding me?" I assured her that she just imagined it but she was not buying it and neither was I.

Gabi told me that one night when she was reading in bed a picture frame flew off the shelf and hit the post of her bed and the dog started barking and ran out of the room.

Later that year, I did cupcakes for a wedding. (It was beautiful if I can brag here for a moment) I came home late and Andrew had friends over with their kids. We were hanging out in the kitchen and I chatted with them as they were they were drinking. The kids came running down the stairs and Gabi, terrified again, "Someone was trying to open my bedroom door when we were all in there together, it was turning by itself Mommy!" Again I tried to assure her it was nothing. Then the cat started acting really weird.

I was standing on one side of the kitchen island and Andrew and the other couple were on the opposite side. We were laughing and talking, then I saw the plastic cup sitting on the island start to move. "Did you see that?" I asked as I looked at all three of them, and then it moved again. I don't think any of us really believed what we were seeing initially. It kept moving, we checked the counter for condensation or any moisture at the bottom of the cup and there was none! I realized that my digital camera was sitting there because I was using it at the wedding. I knew it took video so I began to record what was happening and I recorded a lot of the movement! Of course, when you watch the video, you will be barraged with expletives, hey, we were scared, OK!

Once the phone started dialing itself right in front Andrew and me. Gabi slept on floor of my room for that entire summer.

I went back to Arkansas without the kids and the night before I left I was standing downstairs making a mental checklist of all the things I packed. All of a sudden there was a rush of air that blew my hair at the top of my head. I thought the a/c went on but it was never on because it was April, not hot or cold.

When I was back in Arkansas with my sisters we took the ghost tour at the hotel. During the tour I started feeling sick and I had to leave the tour for a few moments to go to the bathroom, I felt like I was suffocating. Once the tour was over, I showed the tour guide, Carroll Heath, the picture of Gabi with the blue light on her head. He smiled and said, "Oh, you took one home with you." He was a medium. He was featured on the Ghosthunters show when they investigated the Crescent Hotel. Ghosthunters had a some good evidence in that episode.

Our house was quiet after that so I think it went back to Arkansas with me and stayed there.

We had the Pacific Paranormal investigators come to the house. They recorded voices of a man and a little girl. I was too freaked out to listen to it!

I'll save that story for next time!