Spirits: Part 5

My apologies if this stuff creeps some of y'all out or if you think I've completely lost it. I'm really just a regular person. There's usually not a lot of drama in my life and when there is, I don't encourage it. Believe me when I say that when these unexplained occurrences started happening, I was the first one to think my imagination was getting the best of me and I'd reel myself in. Be realistic. Look at other things that might explain what I heard, felt, or saw. It wasn't until Alley Cat and Hubby also began voicing their own experiences that I began seriously thinking that what we were dealing with here was paranormal in nature.

I may have had an easier time accepting that it was spiritual or ghostly (whatever term you prefer) because I grew up in a house that was haunted. Because of this, I am soooo, soooo glad that I contacted this paranormal investigative group. The evidence is beginning to come in, although it hasn't all been collected and examined. There were 7 investigators - each with audio recorders, digital cameras and there were a couple of infrared video cameras - in addition to the other electro-magnetic field equipment and such. Each of these people will spend part of their time this week listening to 5 hours of audio and or video, in addition to hundreds of digital pictures. Plus, they all have regular jobs and families so of course, it's not done overnight, darn it.

What I have been told so far is that they have picked up several EVP's (electronic voice phenomena). From what I understand is that spirits generally vocalize on a different frequency level than humans. Dogs may be sensitive to spiritual vocals. Certain people with special sensitivities to the spiritual realm can often hear these entities talk. Most humans without developed sensitivities may hear an odd murmur or nothing at all. However, electronic audio equipment can usually pick up the different frequency with quite a bit of clarity. Computer software is sometimes used to help tweak the frequencies to clarify the sound, isolate the sound or reduce background noise. So if the team picks up something odd on audio - they then have to isolate it and tweak it.

So far we have one confirmed voice that didn't belong to anyone present. It was captured on the audio of a video recorder that was set up inside the pantry with the door open, looking out with full view of the kitchen. The investigative team was in the dining room and moving into the kitchen area when the word "HURRY" was picked up on audio. Again, no one in the group said this.

One of the investigators sent me these pictures tonight. They were taken 2 seconds apart. The team uses the 2-picture step to have a before and after confirmation picture if an anomaly is picked up. The team is also very cognizant of holding their breath while taking pictures and being spaced out away from other people who may be breathing. (Hah, let's HOPE they're breathing!) Hot breath in cold air can show a breath mist on night shot photos, but when tested, it takes between 10-15 seconds for the created breath mist to dissipate. Again, these photos were taken 2 seconds apart and the investigator is adamant that he held his breath and was not near anyone else when he took the pictures. They were taken about 20 feet from the west end of my house, looking towards a workshop building that had at one time been used as a dog kennel with a dog run behind it. Click on the images for a larger view.



I think at this time the photos are still ruled inconclusive due to how cold it was outside. But again, this investigator was VERY ADAMANT about holding his breath. Some of the investigators said they could make out one or more faces in the mist - I can too, but am going to err on the side of practicality and view it as how one can make out a teddy bear in a cloud. I do not know yet at this time if there are more pictures showing anything else similar.

Hopefully my Mom and Dad can come down to stay this weekend with the girls while I am gone. Mom said she would, but I detected a little bit of scaredy-cat in her when she begged and pleaded for Dad to come with her. Okay, maybe not begged and pleaded... but I think she did a little on the inside. My Dad said he'd come down with her, but he'd stay at my brother, JRP's house, not mine. Hah. He was kidding, but this stuff kinda freaks him out a little too - living in that house for 30 years he can't deny something else exists beyond the world we're living in.

I've been watching my 3-year-old nephew for the last week, picking him up from daycare until my brother gets off work because he started a new job. So tonight JRP worked late and I saved some dinner for him. While he was eating his warmed-up dinner I filled him in on all the ghostly goings-on. It went like this.

JRP: You're shitting me.

Me: Nope.

JRP: Bullshit. You shouldn't have told me that. I can't believe you told me. Dont' tell me anything else.

Me: Why are you scared?

JRP: (looking around anxiously) You hear the footsteps in here?

Me: Yep, they start over here (I point) and go until right past the pantry door.

JRP: (gulp) Hell yeah that scares me. Shit.

Me: (laughing) YOU? Scared? But you're a tough guy!

JRP: (nervous laugh) Yeah, but remember, the red room was mine for a few years. Refer to Spirits: Part 1 for the red room background.

Me: It was my room too. I just took out the light bulb and left the closet door open. Why, what happened to you in there?

JRP: I unscrewed the lightbulb because it kept turning on. You know, like a quarter turn so it can't make contact?

Me: (nodding)

JRP: So the next morning the damn thing is ON! I mean, something SCREWED IT BACK IN and it was on again. My door was locked. No one else had been in there. Shit.

(JRP says "Shit" a lot when he's scared and at a loss for words. I've seen this behavior exhibited in various males when scared, nervous or tense. An odd phenomena in itself. I mean, shit.)

I basically had to pull him into my bedroom to experience the difference in temperature of my bedroom and closet from the rest of the house. This made him very uneasy. I can't recall any time I've seen my brother scared as an adult. Sure, when he was a little kid and I'd turn my eyelids inside out, go into zombie mode and tell him there were dead people in the attic. But that was loooong ago. And, by the way, despite my adolescent torture treatments to his small child psyche, I'm still his favorite sister. Go figure.

He was pretty incredulous that I had asked him and his wife and his kid to stay at MY HOUSE while I was gone next weekend. Yeah, I admitted that's why I hadn't told him about this whole thing beforehand. I think I lost some points with him on that admission, but hey, it was the truth. Hopefully though, my Mom and Dad won't be scared of staying in our spook house. They're cool like that.

I love ya Mom and Dad.

JRP, you're a wuss. And for the record, if you read my blog you would've already known all this. So there.

Spirits: Part 4

First off - great investigation last night. My thanks to Christy, Kendall, Carrie, Joe, Roger, Bobbie & Sarah at Oklahoma Paranormal Research & Investigations.

I was very comforted to learn that I. AM. NOT. LOSING. MY. MIND. I could take you through a play-by-play of the evening, but I did that with my mother on the phone this morning and it took quite a while verbally and I doubt y'all want to read a post that's 1,000,000 words long so I'll try to summarize as much as I can.

The final conclusion is there is a mild haunting taking place. It is not the previous female homeowner who passed away. It is not demonic. The fact that it is not demonic in nature drastically reduced my fear level. I hadn't alluded to it much on the blog, but one of my great fears was that it was a demon entity and y'all don't know what a chicken butt I am about that kind of stuff. Omen, Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, ... those kind of shows. I don't watch them. Never.

Christy quickly sensed a male entity - a human one. He's not with the house, he's with the land. He comes out of the back woods and she was very drawn to go out to the back of the house. The whole team did a very thorough sweeps of the house and part of the land - it was quite dark so the land area was limited to just the nearest vicinity of the house. She commented that she would like to come back during the day and go out into the woods where's she's being drawn to.

This entity - he's elusive. For the first several hours she referred to him as "The Runner" because she'd try to draw him in and find out information about him but he kept running away. He didn't like her. She wasn't afraid of him. He didn't want her to know anything about him. He wanted to be known he was here, but didn't want her to find out personal information about him. She got the name, "David." She feels he's been here a long, long time - like early to mid 1800's. He's been running from something or someone. Possibly in life - and he's still running. He may have been an early pioneer or outlaw - that's just guessing on my part, Christy felt like he had done something wrong and was hiding from people because of it. She had a very difficult time getting information from him.

He was in the house. Everyone heard him - saw the same shadows and movement I've been seeing, heard the footsteps, heard the cabinet doors in the kitchen opening, movement, and knocking sounds. I won't know for about a week exactly what was captured on equipment, but she's fairly certain there will be evidence in some form or another on camera, video infrared camera and/or EVP (electronic voice phenomena). There were unusual temperature readings and electronic magnetic readings. . . I am not quite sure what these meant, but it alerts them to things. (How's that for a basically useless description? Here's a link to the equipment they use.) At one time, towards the end of their investigation we had a sit-down in my bedroom which is the "heart" - where his presence is the heaviest. A noise, something between a whisper and a low vocal was heard and did not come from any of us present. This was in response to her repeated questions and confronting him with bits and pieces information she was getting about him. I think altogether there may have been 3 or 4 audible sounds, like a murmur, or voice not quite audible to human ears. However, Christy said what we hear with our human ears is usually much clearer and coherent on audio playback of their equipment. While in the bedroom, a mirror I had leaned up against the wall, with about 4 framed wall art -- wall decor I haven't gotten around to hanging up yet. The mirror loudly fell over and thumped against the wall. No one was near the mirror when this occurred.

Now for you skeptics out there, trust me when I tell you this team was very professional. Audio recording happened from the time they entered the house until the time they left. Every single time someone sighed, bumped something, thumped, burped, stomach gurgled, -- made any noise that may come across as "odd" when played back - they acknowledged. There was an ongoing litany of *thump* followed by "That was me." *grumble* - "That was my stomach" *swishing noise* - "That was me shifting". . . you get the idea. While taking outdoor shots, it was very cold - they'd space out about 4-5 feet between them, call out "I'm in" when they were about to take a camera flash shot so there wasn't cross-flashes. They would hold their breath while taking a shot to prevent breath mists in cold air. They always took 2 shots of the same thing, so if one shot shows an anomaly, the other shot would be a comparison.

Christy said this "David" isn't like the usual human spirit. The usual spirit wants to communicate with someone who can communicate with them - they want to tell their story, make contact. David doesn't. She referred to him as a prankster and bully who gets his jollies out of scaring people. He can take different forms, depending on the targeted persons fears. And he's been doing this a long time and is very, very good at it.

He knew my weaknesses - my fears and he used that against my dreams. Anything happening to my children, anything demonic - those things scare me to the very core of my being. My dreams were about that and they were very, very lucid. She said he's not demonic, he just took that form in my dreams to scare me, to break me down.

Christy didn't want to know what rooms or areas of the house I had experienced the most activity. Without knowing, she nailed it. She said she first encountered David in the master bedroom closet - he basically told her to get out. The presence, the heaviness was also felt in my bedroom. Several members of the team would get a pounding headache or waves of nausea in my bedroom or closet. But when they left that room, it would go away. I must be immune to that physical pronouncement - I feel a heaviness, a suffocating heat, a weight - but never have had a headache or nausea like that. Bobbie also felt the heaviness, felt suffocating. Carrie felt something so pronounced in the bedroom and closet that she had a hard time holding the video camera and said she felt like she was about to fall over.

David didn't want to be brought in - he was elusive. When we were not in the kitchen, he would make sounds in there. When we went into the kitchen the noises would stop. Christy said it was like hide and seek, or cat and mouse. He likes playing with people. When she was in my closet, she asked me if I have a fear of closets. I immediately replied "no." She said that he thinks I fear them. She asked if I had a fear of being locked in a closet and not able to get out. I told her I didn't until she mentioned, but now I will. *chuckle* She said this fear might go back to childhood. UHHHH. Yeah, remember the closet upstairs in the red room of my parents house that George used to always open the door and turn the light on? I was scared of that closet. (Read Spirits: Part 1) Apparently he knew that and tried to use that on me. I wasn't ever scared of the closet in there though, thought it felt creepy, thought it was hot - and it was, a floor reading of 81 at one time and 83-84 a few minutes later. The baseline temperature in the house was 68-69, but my closet and my bedroom and the kitchen area were significantly higher. Mid to upper 70's. The area where the most activity occurs. Fortunately the girls' rooms and that end of the house is clear - nothing scary, nothing odd happening over there.

Anyway - overall, I feel immensely relieved. The conclusion was this is a spirit that we probably won't be able to get rid of. But, he gets his jollies scaring us so if we aren't scared or ignore him then he may get bored and leave us alone. Christy said she wouldn't be surprised if neighbors adjoining this property have also encountered him. He's tied to the land, not the house - and there are about 5 houses that adjoin this land within a 15 acre area.

I finally slept. It was at 6am with one dog in bed, one dog in the floor, a lamp light on and the TV on, but I did sleep. I woke up at 10am and felt like I had slept a solid 8 hours. I feel very rested. I immediately called Mom and recounted everything to her. I just talked to Alley Cat and she's relieved also. We've BOTH got to put on our big girl panties and not let him scare us. Show no fear. Ignore him. Tell him to go away, pester someone else. If I stand up to him and she doesn't he's liable to start in on her more so she understands that she can't let him get the best of her. She said she thinks she can do that. I do too. Now that we know what we're dealing with and it can't actually hurt us and it's not demonic - he's just a mean cranky old spirit who gets a kick out of scaring people. I can handle him now.

I will still keep you posted if activity occurs or when Christy comes back out to do a daylight "sit-down" with the spirit out in the woods. Also, if they did pick up documented evidence on their equipment she'll eventually get this investigation posted on their website and I'll share the link on here to check it out.

Thanks, especially to Flea for really being a huge comfort to me yesterday. I enjoyed talking with you and yes, we will do lunch soon. Hugs to others who sent me e-mails of encouragement. I appreciate it. I didn't think I was actually going nutty, but hey, that's been known to happen and at a certain point, I did begin to question myself at times. This investigation, this confirmation is very nice to have.

I'm off to put on my kevlar big girl panties and open a big can of good ol' fashioned Oklahoma Whoop-Ass. *grin*

Spirits: Part 3

I wish I could be my usual witty, happy, carefree self. Alas, I have been a ball of anxiety. You know the things that go bump in the night? Well, the other night hubby was out of town and I maybe got 3 hours of sleep, if you combine all the 15 minute light naps in between hearing noises and seeing things that I shouldn't be seeing.

I began to question my sanity. Seriously. The next morning I called hubby and raved like a lunatic for a while. Thankfully, he doesn't think I'm nuts. Or if he does, he's been smart enough to not say anything. I went online and Googled paranormal investigators in Oklahoma City. I found a group of people that's been doing them for 7 years. They use all the latest equipment and try through scientific means to explain the happenings - electro-magnetic readings, temperature readings, knowing where the plumbing, pipes, electrical wires are to make sure they're not the cause or interfering with odd readings, doing audio recordings, visual recordings and they also have a psychic on their team. If they confirm unexplained findings they do more research into land records, previous owners, etc.

I walked around wringing my hands wondering if maybe I was being irrational, or making a big thing out of nothing - but honestly, I'm not. This isn't a flight of fancy. Or my imagination getting the best of me. My dogs bark at NOTHING - the wall, their eyes will track unseen objects or whatever the hell it is with hackles up, growling and ears flat. I have nightmares and vivid dreams like I. HAVE. NEVER. HAD. BEFORE. I don't even want to tell you about them again, because they're that horrible to think about. I hear noises that ARE NOT heating vents, ductwork, plumbing, pipes, wind, boards creaking, water heater or gas heaters kicking on. I know what those sound like. This is shuffling, walking, thumping, bumping, scratching walls, opening shutters, closing them, opening doors, door knobs clicking. And they've gotten LOUDER. I see shadows as if someone has passed across a doorway and briefly blocked the light from an adjacent room, the dogs will bark and growl at this brief shadow - I'll look around and nothing, nothing is there. No one. Nothing. But I saw it - a glimpse. They saw it. It's something. I don't know what the hell it is. But it's something.

The day after I had the horrible, horrible night and felt absolutely frightened, and later called the paranormal investigators - Alley Cat came home from school and before I told her about my creepy night or contacting investigators, she told me "There was something out there (meaning the main rooms in the house) this morning, Mom. I felt it. It scared me - I mean scared so I RAN out of the house all the way to my car when I left this morning." Talk about a lump in my throat. Seriously. What I felt, she also felt. It's a heaviness - this isn't the friendly spirit of a former owner who died. I don't know what it is. It feels menacing. It's heavy. It's dark. It's HOT - as in the temperature in my bedroom was over 90 degrees - and I had the door open to the sun porch with the fans on where it was 40 degrees out there - no way it could've maintained 90 degrees in my bedroom, but it did. The rest of the house, a cool 68 - 70. My bedroom becomes a furnace at times. With no explanation. The heating vents are stuffed with towels. So much to explain, I won't go into all of the nitty gritty details - but there is something or somethings here. I can't explain it myself. I can't even wrap my mind around it, honestly.

The investigating team will be here tomorrow night (Friday) to set up equipment around 10:30 pm and spend the night collecting data and doing their thing. I hope it will at least somehow confirm what just has me absolutely on edge. Hopefully, it won't just confirm it but also help to explain it. I can get my mind away from it during the day. But the nights are long and restless. Hubby has heard some noises, as I blogged about earlier. But it seems to kind of go away when he's home. I don't know why. Maybe it feeds on fear so it's targeting me and my daughter when we're alone. I don't know. Monkey Girl will be at her Dad's this weekend and she knows nothing of these goings on. I don't want to scare her or the child will be in my bed every single night. And so far, she seems pretty oblivious to anything that doesn't have anything to do with playing outside, Disney channels or Webkinz.com. And I'd really like for it to stay that way.

My husband asked, if they DO find something - then what? I don't know. I have no idea. Right now I just have to take it one step at a time because this is so, I don't know - so. . . odd. Foreign. I don't know what we're dealing with here. And until I do, I don't have the foggiest idea what to do about it. Anyway - I'll keep ya posted.

Spirits: Part 2

Not long after we moved into this house I started experiencing unusual "things". First, was just a gut feeling that I wasn't alone. Almost daily as I'm doing something in one of the rooms, usually the kitchen or living room - I'll catch a movement of some kind out of the corner of my eye and turn my head and nothing is there. No dog. No kid. Just me. Things I just shrugged off as nothing.

Then at night I started hearing noises. Not the usual house noises, heating ducts clicking or the walls settling from the wind... not those kinds of noises. Noises like someone walking in the kitchen located just off the master bedroom. Noises of someone opening and closing cabinets in the kitchen. Of other doors being opened or closed in the house. My husband was out of town for work for 2 weeks and I didn't sleep well those nights. I settled into a routine of locking all of the outside doors, turning off all of the lights except the one over the stove and closing all of the interior doors to bedrooms and bathrooms. Sometimes a light in the kitchen is on in the morning, although the kids deny turning it on. Sometimes the door leading to a big room off the utility room is open, again, the kids deny opening it. I've gotten out of bed in the middle of the night several times to investigate and have found nothing, but the noises are very real and loud. I didn't mention this to anyone. Not the kids and not my husband.

Last week my 18 year old daughter, Alley Cat, remarked to me that she hears noises and that's why she had turned on a stereo in the living room. She gets up early in the morning before I do to leave for school. She turns on the hall light outside of her bedroom, her bathroom light and a light in the entry way. She doesn't even go into the kitchen because she meets her boyfriend for breakfast before school. One morning getting ready for school, she felt like someone was watching her and then she heard someone walking in the living room. She called out for me, and looked, but I was still in bed.

So then I shared with her what I had been sensing and hearing also. I told her I felt like it was a feminine presence and not someone old. I had no evidence for why I thought this, it was just a feeling I had. I also strongly feel the presence in the master bedroom and bathroom. I don't hear noise in there, but the presence is very overwhelming sometimes.

When my husband returned home, I didn't tell him about this and I asked daughter not to say anything either. I wanted to see if he noticed anything. He did. The first night he was home, I slept like a baby for the first night in weeks - safe and secure that he was there with me. He, however, kept hearing noise in the kitchen - he said he thought he heard doors and what sounded like someone walking or moving about the house. He got out of bed at 3:30 in the morning and found the house quiet and everyone asleep. The next morning he told me about this and I told him he wasn't imagining things - we've also heard the same things.

This prompted me to go online the other night and see if I could do some investigating on previous owners and find out anything. I honestly wasn't too surprised with what I found and for me, it confirmed what I had been feeling.

This house was built in 1981 by Thomas and Beverly. Thomas is a veterinarian and that explains the large room off the utility room that has 2 outside entrances - with a direct path to an outbuilding with 5 kennel doors and a large dog run. By the way, this is the room I am in now that's being used as a computer room and second living room where the kids watch TV and play video games. Interestingly, a came across a probate record for Beverly. After more digging I found her social security death record showing her death date of 09/17/92. She was only 52 years old. Her husband later sold the house in 1995.

I plan on calling Thomas to ask him some questions about other things we would like to know about the house - regarding door hardware, a safe we don't have a combination for and some of the wiring that's been done that confuses us. I also hope to ask him about Beverly, if it's not too upsetting for him.

I can't quite explain it, but something in my gut tells me it's her spirit that is attached to this house. Just the way I somehow sensed before I found out about her that it was a female and that she wasn't very old. I don't blame her if she doesn't want to leave this house. It's a fabulous house and if her and her husband built it - she undoubtedly put a lot of herself into it. I wonder if she died in an accident or if it was health related. Such a young age, I also wonder if she had cancer and if possibly she died in this house. That wouldn't surprise me.

I'm not sure if she's a friendly spirit. I sense a negative energy, but I can't say for sure if that's with her or maybe something or someone else associated with the land. I'm hoping she's friendly as we plan on staying here. I talked to her today and told her I'd be happy to share this house with her and that I was aware of her being here. I told her of some plans we had for the yard, flower beds and garden. I think she might have liked flowers and gardening also. I'm anxious to find out more about her if her husband is open to talking about her.

I'll keep you posted. Oh, and by the way, husband doesn't think I'm nuts. He thinks she's probably here also.

Several of you have also mentioned your own encounters and I'm looking forward to reading about them. So share! Share!

Spirits: Part 1

I know not everyone believes in spirits. Spirits as in those who have passed away still inhabiting the same spaces we inhabit - except in a different form. I can understand how it would be easy to be skeptical if you haven't experienced the presence of spirits. I grew up in a large Victorian home built in 1893 that was originally used as a mortuary. My parents still live in that house today. The home went into disrepair in the 1940's or 1950's after the mortician owner died and it sat abandoned for decades until a couple in the mid 70's bought the home and remodeled it from top to bottom. Converting the old mortuary part downstairs and the family living area upstairs into a very large family home. Then my parents bought the house in 1977.

It wasn't long after we moved in that my oldest sister first met "George". KSS occupied the bedroom at the top of the stairs that had a private adjoining bathroom. We always called it the "red room" because it had red carpet. Yes, red carpet and paneled walls - think mid 70's decor. She used to mention how the closet door always seemed to open by itself in the middle of the night and the light would be on inside the closet. Every member of the family who slept in that room experienced the closet door phenomena. The walls weren't crooked, the foundation wasn't moving - the door latched securely and if left ajar it wouldn't swing open or closed so it wasn't a matter of a door off-kilter. We just assumed that for some reason "George" didn't like that door shut and he might be afraid of the dark because the light would always be on inside the closet. Later when that room became my bedroom as a teenager, I removed the closet light bulb.

One night KSS had a friend stay the night. She had a king-sized bed that was a hand-me-down from my parents and Shawn said her and her friend went to sleep with the bed and bedspread made up in the regular way. Sometime during the night either Shawn or her friend had to go to the bathroom and was surprised (and quite a bit freaked out) that the bedspread was tightly tucked in ALL THE WAY around the bed. This was a long bedspread that hung to the floor. It was fully tucked in underneath the mattress so tightly one woke up the other for help to get out of the bed. (Shawn or Mom - feel free to comment if I've gotten any of these stories wrong a little bit. It's been told so many times over the years, I know there have been variations told.) Shawn's friend would never stay the night or go in Shawn's room again.

My mother's sister, my aunt - was one of those people who was very intuitive. She sensed things. She knew who was going to call before the phone ring. She knew when something bad had happened to a family member before being told. (By the way, my mom is that way also.) When we first moved into the house, the red room was used as a guest room for visiting family members. My mom woke up to find my aunt asleep on the couch in the living room. She told mom that there was no way in hell she was sleeping in that red room - something else was in there. She wasn't the only person who sensed "George" without ever being told anything about him.

The most startling thing George did was he appeared to two of my oldest sisters. Both times in the bathroom adjoining the red room. KSS said she was brushing her teeth and looking in the mirror and a man was standing behind her. Gray hair, mustache, bowler or derby type of hat, suit with a pin-stripe, vest and pocket watch. Very old-timey clothing. She turned around and nothing was there. She looked back in the mirror and he was gone. The same thing happened to my other sister. I never saw him.

I did, however, strike up a conversation with a lady at the hospital when I was a 14 year-old candy striper. This woman was very interested in me when she found out I lived in "the haunted house". Yes, our house had been called the haunted house for years while it sat abandoned and several of my teachers throughout my school years told me stories of how they would dare their friends to go into the house when they were youngsters. This woman at the hospital was elderly and she told me her husband's great-uncle was the mortician who built and lived in the home. I paid a visit to her house not long after that because she said he had old photo albums with the great-uncle in them. I kid you not, the uncle's name was George. The very name we had given the ghost just so we'd have something to call him. His picture was exactly as my sisters had described him - exactly. Her husband told me George had died of old age in that bedroom at the top of the stairs. That had been his room.

George still makes himself known from time to time and I think all of us, to this day, greet him or talk to him when we go back upstairs to stay when we're home visiting over the holidays. Although George is quieter now that he has the upstairs to himself several years ago he must've had a fit of some kind. My mother and my sister KDR were downstairs in the living room when they heard a LOUD noise - a THUD coming from upstairs. They were the only ones in the house. They went upstairs and there was an old antique chest of drawers in the red room. The kind that has a mirror attached to two spindle posts and the mirror can be tilted. My little brother had last occupied the room, but had since moved out - however several of his things still littered the top of the chest. Cups full of change, model cars, etc. The spindle posts supporting the mirror had broken - snapped. Now if it was just a case of old wood and it finally breaking due to the weight of the mirror, the mirror would have surely fallen forwards and knocked something off the top of the chest. The mirror was a good 5 feet from the dresser laying in the floor - MIRROR SIDE UP. Had it just fallen forwards, it would be face down. We say George did it. You tell me. Nothing, none of the cups or model cars were disturbed - the dresser was dusty and nothing had been moved at all.

So yes, I believe in spirits. Everyone in my family does. And believe me when I say that my redneck dad and brother are not the type to believe in something "frivolous". And they both admit, yeah, there's something up there.

The reason I told you about this is because I haven't lived at home for over 20 years. In all the places I've lived since then, I've never sensed or experienced a spirit. Until now. We just moved into this house less than a month ago and I've been sensing a presence.

To be continued to Part 2.