Posted June 8, 2004 - Not too long ago I was going over the home video of our time at my parents' place (we were there from mid January 2004 to mid February 2004) when something caught my eye. The video was of my dad and my son. Immediately I noticed that flying around my son seemed to be these little bitty orbs. They just looked like white specks. I thought maybe it was just a bug, but I don't know. My son went over by my dad and started playing with a wooden puzzle when after a few minutes a blob of light that looked like the size of a golf ball maybe, zoomed across the screen and as it flew by it appeared to knock one of the puzzle pieces off the table. Now, I assume it was a coincidence because the piece was right near the edge of the table, but the strange blob of light was creepy enough for me! I am still trying to figure out how to get that footage on this website, but I don't have all the neat little gadgets that hook things up to my computer. Hopefully someday soon!

We traveled across the states soon after and as soon as we moved into this house, I had a feeling something was off. I don't sense any danger or evil, but my husband and I both have seen things out of the corner of our eyes regularly. One night we were in the den sitting down to watch a movie when my husband looked at me funny and asked me if I just moved my arm up. I thought he was weird and told him no and he said that he seen a shadow move in front of us and the only way that could have happened was if I had lifted my arm way up above my head and moved it around, because of where the light was behind me. It gave me chills. A few nights ago we were in bed for the night and I was laying there reading while my husband slept. All was quiet, the children were all sleeping when all of a sudden...a book on the bookshelf across the room just fell over with a loud thump. Jeez that scared the *bleep* out of me. Those books had been sitting there for several days with no problem, there was no breeze, no nothing.

Update -- While we were home visiting we were often over at my in-laws place and took many pictures. One of them turned out something interesting, a moving orb. I have to say I still have my doubts about orbs, not sure if they are truly spirits or what, but if they are, this is a good one. Have a look!

In March 2003, my husband had a couple more incidents. One of them was when he was in one of the bathrooms. It was late evening and kids were all sleeping. I was in the other bathroom getting ready for bed when he came out of the bathroom and asked me why I didn't just come in the bathroom. I didn't understand what he was talking about and I asked him what he meant and he said "Didn't you just knock on the bathroom door?" I told him no, I had been in the other bathroom. He said he swore somebody had knocked 2 times on the door and he thought it was me and told me to come in. I teased him that it was just the neighbors, but he insisted that it was on our door.

I had seen things a few times, and always just assumed it was my imagination or a trick of the light, but after one night, I'm not so sure anymore. It was about midnight and the girls were fast asleep. I was on the couch watching David Letterman and from my location if I turned my head to the right, I have a good view of my little one's bedroom door and I could see most of her bed from there. Well, I heard the floor creak in the hallway towards her room, and I could see my daughter out of the corner of my eye and I turned to look, and there was nothing there. All of my hair stood on end because I was sure there was something there. There have been numerous occasions that I thought there was something standing in her room at the foot of her bed, while she slept. I'd go look, but never find anything. That night, all I could see was very whitish, glowing pink, with a blond head. Then when I was going to bed, I don't know if I was just spooked still from what happened or what, but this has happened to me before, so I don't know. There was a vanity mirror in my bedroom that was built into the apartment. That night as I was passing by it, I felt this sudden fear, like if I were to turn and look into the mirror, someone would be looking back at me. I can't explain it any better than that, I know it seems like just an irrational fear, but it had happened on more than one occasion. The weird thing is, there's another mirror in the room on my dresser, that is just as big, but it wouldn't bother me at all, even at the exact moment that I was terrified of the vanity mirror. I was so freaked out for a while that night that I almost crawled into my older daughter's bed and slept with her. It didn't take long though and the feeling passed.

Not any new ghostly activity to report really. Since I've last posted things have been relatively quiet here in Germany and apparently also at my parents' place. I am now pregnant with my third child and we moved to a larger place with 4 bedrooms in May, and the place we now live in is peaceful and I haven't sensed anything creepy at all. Anyway, the biggest reason I'm posting is because I was just reading some stories at another ghost site and it mentioned a rocking chair and for some reason I all of a sudden remembered something a good friend of mine had told me about. We were visiting my friend and her family in West Virginia probably 6 years ago or so and they were telling my husband and I about the house. They said that our friend's Grandma used to live there, but she had passed away quite a while before they moved in. Apparently, she still visited with them though. They had a rocking chair in the living room area that would apparently rock by itself sometimes. Nothing around to make it rock, it would just start up then eventually stop. They also used baby monitors and believed that sometimes something would interfere with the reception and they believed it was the same spirit that caused the motion of the rocking chair. They would be hearing their kids playing in the play room then all of a sudden there'd be nothing but static. I'm not sure if ghostly activity should be assumed here, but they sure felt that way. Maybe it was just Grandma, keeping an eye on the kids for them.

January 6, 2002 - Happy New Year! Over the past several months there have been a few things that went on to give me the creeps. My little girl, who just turned 3 a couple of months ago, seems to sense a lot around here. Often in the night she will wake up and tell me there's a ghost in her room. I never see anything there though. I'm not sure if she's just dreaming or what. One time I asked her what it looked like, or who it was and she finally said it was a man. Now my older one has occasionally seemed freaked about something. One day she asked me, matter-of-fact like, why she hears someone behind her sometimes. I asked her what she meant (she's 4) and she said that sometimes she can hear someone walking behind her, but when she looks there's nobody there. I told her she's probably hearing the neighbors walking in their place upstairs and she said no, it's coming from right behind her. She can hear it on the floor. A couple of nights ago she really freaked me out. Soon after we put her to bed for the night she got up and came and told us that something scared her. I walked her back to her room and asked her what it was and she said a toy had moved under her bed. I looked under the bed and didn't see anything but a few harmless toys. I talked to her a little bit and then she looked at me kind of strange and asked me in a confused voice, "Why did it do that, Momma, why did it float like that, all by itself?" I'm telling you, she really freaked me out with that one. The way she asked me, it just didn't seem at all like she was just making it up. I just didn't know what to tell her after that. A while back my husband was taking the trash out. The dumpster is just a short ways from the building. As he turned around he happened to glance up at our window and he seen our bedroom window lit up and he could see me standing there looking out at him. He waved and he seen me wave back. Well he walked a few feet, then looked back up and the window was dark and he couldn't see anyone there. He thought something was strange about it and when he got back upstairs he asked me if I had been watching him out our window and I told him, no I had been in the kitchen the whole time. He looked kind of odd and I asked him why and he said he just seen me standing at our bedroom window, watching him. Ah ha, good, I'd rather the ghosts pick on him instead of me.

The creepiest thing to happen was again in the master bath. Mom has a picture that sits in her bathroom window, she's had it there for as long as I remember living there. She was in there getting ready for work (facing the picture) when it suddenly just fell forward out of the window. This window does not open and there was no breeze blowing through that could have made it move.

The first thing to happen that really got my attention happened not too long after that. One morning I was alone in the house, or so I thought, sleeping in since it was summer. I had listened to the sounds of my parents getting ready for work, drifting in and out of sleep, and I remember hearing both of their cars start up and drive off, leaving me alone in the house. Not too long after that I awoke rather abruptly to a noise. The noise wasn't completely out of the ordinary, but I shouldn't have been hearing it since I was the only one in the house. It was coming from the living room - It sounded like someone was shaking and crinkling a newspaper. I sat up in bed to see if I could hear it better, thinking maybe I was mistaken, but it didn't stop. It lasted for probably 30 seconds or so, and even after it stopped I think I sat there for another 20 minutes just listening. The longer I sat there the more freaked out I got, because it was obvious that there was no one else in the house, the heavy silence was unnerving. I finally got up and ventured slowly into the living room, the whole time expecting someone to tap me on the shoulder and say "boo!" I made it out to the living room and of course, I found no one. There was no paper to be found either. Whoever it was that had the paper, took it with them when they left. I have heard this sound a couple of other times about the same time of day, but it was always the same thing - I was alone and couldn't find what was causing the noise.

It was probably only a couple weeks later when I heard him again. It was the same kind of thing, only the noise was totally different. I was again alone and dozing during the early morning hours. My parents were gone and there was no one in the house. By now I had gotten pretty familiar with the sounds the house made, whenever someone had water running outside, or in the master bathroom, I heard it clearly. Well, this morning, I believe I got to listen to the sound of this "ghost" taking a shower! Okay, at the time it was not funny. As soon as I woke up enough to realize I could hear the water running when it shouldn't have been, I thought, "Oh, here we go again." It's one thing to hear a strange noise, and then move on thinking nothing of it. But it starts to get really creepy when it happens again. This time I didn't even bother sitting up, the noise was loud and there was no mistaking it. It didn't last too long; I can't remember how long I lay there, thinking. I tried to convince myself that Dad had just called in sick and didn't go to work or something. I finally got up and opened my bedroom door. The room it would have been coming from was right across the hall. I peeked down the hall towards the living room trying to see what may have been down there. I walked up to the closed bedroom door and listened for several minutes. Finally, feeling like an idiot I turned away and headed for the living room, thinking maybe I would find some clue to indicate Dad was home. He always had a lunch box that he took with him and it was nowhere to be found, so he had taken it, plus his truck was gone. Mom was definitely not home either. So who the heck was in Mom & Dad's shower?? I went back to the door and knocked. Nothing. I knocked again and feeling foolish, but yet, still unnerved, I said "hello?" still nothing. I opened the door and still found no one. The bathroom was ahead of me and around the corner to the right, out of sight. I would have had to walk ten feet into the room to go look and for the life of me I couldn't bring myself to enter the room. It felt as though someone was standing in there, around the corner, waiting. I just backed on out of there and shut the door. Oh man, was the hair standing up on the back of my neck! It is even now, just remembering that feeling. I checked the whole house again and even went outside and looked around, but found no one or nothing to explain the sound of the water running. Since then, I have heard the shower running several times, and it's usually always in the mornings. Being the chicken that I am though, I never did go investigate the shower when I'd hear the noise.

One thing I always find interesting is the uncanny ability kids and animals always have of sensing the things, or even seeing the things that we average, ordinary adults cannot. Our cats were no exception (neither were my kids). Long before I got married, while still a teenager, my parents and I were all hanging out in the living room. At that time we had two cats and they were doing what cats do best, just lounging around in the room with us. For whatever reason, they weren't exactly in a relaxed state; I guess they were sensing something even before they could see it. Someone happened to notice this, and then to our curiosity, both cats began to watch something moving across the ceiling of the room. They didn't seem to be alarmed, but they were very watchful. None of us could see a thing, not a bug or anything. Whatever it was had their complete attention, as they both appeared to be watching the same thing from different locations of the room. It only lasted a few minutes, though afterwards they seemed to keep looking around, as if it disappeared and they expected it to come back. Now, if this alone had happened, I would have just forgot about it, but I couldn't forget the fact that I had heard and sensed things as well. Later on, after I was married and had my first child, I discovered my infant daughter seemed to sense things as well. I only noticed it once, but it was enough to make the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I was sitting with my daughter in my lap and she was facing me. She was doing what babies love to do, just hanging out with me, wiggling and squirming and bouncing and drooling, when I noticed that her attention all at once seemed to focus on some point behind my shoulder. I probably wouldn't have thought much of it, except for the fact that I remembered the cats, as well as everything else. She stared at this whatever, and then seemed to smile at it as if it were making funny faces at her. I turned around and looked, sure I was going to come face to face with some...thing. Nothing. Later, after my husband and I had our second daughter, my husband had a brief encounter with the imaginary something. It was his turn to get up in the night with our little one; she wakes up in the night every night and stays awake for hours. Annoying habit I must say. We were visiting my parents and all sleeping in one room. Scott took the baby into the living room giving her a bottle and stretching out on the couch with her. He hadn't turned on any lights, and there was one small night light in the living room, just enough so you can see without bumping a shin on some hard, pointy piece of furniture. As he was burping her, at first he didn't really pay much attention to what she was looking at, but he soon noticed that she seemed to be watching something. It was as if someone were walking back and forth, just out of the reach of the light. He said it really gave him chills and let me tell you, that's got to be a first.

Now, I've tried to get my Dad to tell me his stories again, but so far he's yet to do so. I will go ahead and tell you what I remember. The home that my parents live in is a simple one story, with several bedrooms. One of the bedrooms, a guest room, was by itself off of the living room. Dad was in the living room alone (except for the cats) and he was getting ready to leave. He went into the room to fetch his coat out of the closet, then came back out and closed the door. We always left the door closed because we didn't want the cats making themselves at home on the bed, getting it all furry. Anyway, he was still by the door as he was slipping his coat on when he heard something knock on the door (I believe he said they were two sharp raps). He stopped and listened, wondering what the heck was going on. Then he thought that maybe one of the cats had followed him in and didn't come back out before he closed the door. He opened the door and called, but there was nothing in there. He came back out and looked around and found all the kitties were accounted for. Hmmm....

I know there are many skeptics out there, and even after all of the stories my family has told about the ghosts they've encountered, my mom was still a skeptic when we moved into this house that I am telling you about. Even after the stories my dad and I had told her, she was still not too sure about it all. Then one little thing happened, to make her start to wonder. She was in another one of the guest rooms (later to be converted into an office). My parents read a lot and my dad collects hardback books. At this time they kept all of their books in this guest room and Mom was in there browsing through the books, I guess looking for a particular book to read. Still searching, she sat down on the edge of the bed. Apparently she wasn't the only one looking for a book. All of a sudden she felt something sit down on the bed with her. Everyone knows that feeling. She turned to look and of course there was no one there. My mom also feels that this ghost is a peeping tom. He seems to hang out the most in the master bedroom and bathroom, maybe because it was officially his at one time. Mom says that on several occasions while she's been in the shower, she all of a sudden feels a cold draft blow through. She has found no explanation for it. She'll look over the shower door and find the door still closed. There are no windows that open in there and there is no vent. Who knows, maybe he just wants another shower.

There was one night that I had a little scare. It was something I forgot to mention before. This was before I had kids, but I was home visiting with my parents while my husband was in Somalia. I was staying in a guest room (the one with all the books), and it was the wee hours of the morning. Something woke me. A loud something. It scared the daylights out of me it was so loud. At first I thought I had maybe dreamt it, and I guess that is definitely possible, but I just can't believe that's all it was. It scared me so bad, I couldn't even move. What woke me was the sound similar to someone dropping a very large book (maybe War and Peace) from about shoulder height onto a hardwood floor. My parents do have hardwood floor in the guest rooms. Although I don't know why, it seemed to me like it had come from the door. I probably lay there for about 20 minutes, just listening. Finally, knowing I wouldn't be able to sleep unless I checked the house first, I got up. It was not easy opening that door, let me tell you. I waited with my hand on the knob for a few seconds first, then finally just swung it open. Many things had gone through my mind while lying in bed listening to the house. It could have been someone breaking into the house or it could have just been my dad up for a midnight snack. To make myself feel better, I began turning on lights as I went; I checked every single room except my parents'. I also checked all the doors and windows but found nothing amiss. Apparently it hadn't disturbed my parents because they never got up. I felt better and went back to bed, but it was a little while before I could go back to sleep. It wasn't but maybe two weeks later that something woke me up again, though I don't recall hearing anything. It was just a feeling. I lay there for a little while before I realized that it felt like someone was in the room with me. I could see a little, because the streetlight outside shines through the curtains. But, there were still plenty of shadows and there was one shadow in particular that seemed to be the source of my unease. I strained my eyes, trying to see, I also tried looking from the corner of my eye, but I couldn't see anything. Eventually the need to relieve my bladder seemed more important than a staring contest with a shadow, so I let it be. When I came back, I didn't bother turning on a light, whatever it had been, felt like it was gone.

There has been one time that this presence may have actually gotten a little carried away. My parents both have a nightstand on each side of the bed with a lamp on each. My dad is usually a pretty peaceful sleeper, though he may snore a bit. One night not too long ago they awoke to a loud crash, and the source of the noise seems to have come from right there beside the bed. Dad reaches to turn on the lamp, and it's gone. Come to find out it was the source of the crash, it was on the floor. I am sure that if my Dad had been thrashing around enough to knock the lamp off of the table, my Mom would not have slept through it. Did they do something to make the "ghost" mad? There's also something else about those lamps that's a little odd, though I am not completely convinced it's anything supernatural. They are touch lamps and they turn on or off just by touching them. Well, sometimes they come on by themselves, and usually always around the same time (sometime at night, I'm not sure of the exact hour). They don't do it every night, but enough to make you wonder.

Dad has now seen something that he believes was the ghost, on about three different occasions. The first time he was in the kitchen, my mom had just gone to their room, getting ready for bed. He could tell she was in there because he could hear the water running in the master bathroom. Out of the corner of his eye, he seen something move from the kitchen doorway, heading towards the back of the house, where Mom was. His first thought was that it was her. But then he realized that would have been a neat trick since he just heard the water running in the bathroom. He decided to follow, sure that it must have just been Mom. He got to the doorway and again, just barely caught movement out of the corner of his eye, going into the office (previously guest room with all the books). It only took him a second and he was at the doorway to the office, but there was no one there. He went back to the bathroom to ask Mom if she had been in the computer room, although he knew that wasn't possible. She said he had this look on his face and the first thing she thought was "he looks as if he's seen a ghost." I'm not sure how long after that it was that he seen it again. I can't remember the details for sure, but I think it was the same thing. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees movement going into a room. He follows, but there's no one there. The last time, he said he didn't even bother going after it, because he knew he wouldn't find anything. And he wasn't so sure he wanted to anymore.

Home for the holidays last year (Dec 2000) as usual, we stayed at my parents' place. We were sleeping in the guest room (yes, the one with all the books) and we set up a bed for our oldest daughter in my old bedroom, which is now the office. One night, soon before we left I had gone to bed alone, my husband was visiting his parents. Our little one was in the crib next to my bed and our older one was asleep in the office. I had a monitor turned on, so I could hear her if she needed me. She had recently been sick and wasn't yet sleeping the greatest. I was slowly drifting off to sleep, when I heard my daughter through the monitor stirring and whining a little in her sleep. She stopped for a minute, then again fussed some more. I was about to go check on her when something caught my ear. Through the monitor I could hear what sounded like a male voice. It stopped me dead in my tracks. I listened very closely, but could just barely hear someone talking, but it was so quiet I couldn't make out the words. She was still restless so, terrified, I went to check on her, I had no idea what I was going to find. Of course, when I got in there, all I found was my daughter. She was still asleep, and she had settled down a little. I checked the monitor, though I didn't think it was the problem. I made sure I was on the right channel, then sat down next to her for a bit, waiting for my heart to stop pounding. I have to say, that is about the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. I asked my dad the next day if he had gone in there, though I knew he hadn't because I would have heard him. I'm not sure if the ghost was trying to soothe her, or if he was the cause of her distress.

One night my mom had another run-in with the ghost. Dad was out of town on a job and she was alone in bed. She was still awake reading when she started hearing noises coming from the living room. She's lived there long enough to know what the house sounds like when it's settling down for the night, and this apparently was not the same. It sounded to her like someone was moving around inside the house. My parents both keep a loaded weapon in their nightstands by the bed, so she pulled hers out, in case it was not "Casper, The Friendly Ghost". Pretty soon the noises died down, and she didn't bother going to look to see if anyone had been in the house. I'm certain she believed she knew who it was. In the morning she found nothing out of the ordinary, everything was how it was supposed to be.

Many, many years ago my parents moved up to Oregon from California (about 25 years ago). At that time I was only about a year old. They moved into a cute little two-story home, but Dad believes the place was haunted. It was a 2 bedroom, with one bathroom and that was located downstairs. On one occasion my Dad remembers well, he woke up in the night and went downstairs to use the bathroom. The stairs were pretty creaky, so once he was in the bathroom doing his thing, he had no problem hearing Mom (or that's who he thought it was) coming down the stairs. He heard her come all the way down the stairs and then she went into the kitchen and he heard the fridge open. Now, she rarely, if ever, gets up in the night to raid the fridge, so curious, he called out "What are you doing?" but nobody answered. He finished his business and went into the kitchen, but Mom wasn't there. He turned and looked around, then headed back up the stairs, finding Mom still in bed. He then asked her if she'd just gone downstairs and she groggily replied that she had not. She was in bed asleep the whole time. They can't recall anything else happening there, but we only lived there for about 3 or 4 months.

Now I have no idea if this next little episode has to do with anything supernatural, or if my kid just has a good imagination. I always just assumed that she was just playing around, but I'll go ahead and put it in here, and let you be the judge. During Christmas of 2000 we were staying at my parents' place during the holidays. My parents had the girls and my husband and I were out and when we got home, they told us what went on while we were gone. Apparently my little one (she had just turned 2) was in the kitchen, when she came running back into the living room where my parents were, yelling about a ghost. They assumed she was just goofing around, she didn't seem real scared, just like she wanted everyone to know there was something in the dining room. She wouldn't be quiet about it, so Mom went in there with her and of course, didn't see anything but a dark room. She noticed there was a coat or shirt hanging on a chair, so she told my daughter that it was probably the shirt, that there was nothing there. My daughter started to get frustrated, insisting that there was a "ghoooooost!!!" Like I said, she wasn't freaking out or anything, she just wanted everyone to believe her. After the things that we've experienced in the house, I wouldn't be surprised if she had seen something. She may only be two, but she's seen Scooby Doo enough to know when you see a big scary thing, yell "Ghost!"

While I'm on the subject of my grandparents, I'll mention that my Grandma died of bone cancer about 5 years ago, and soon after that my Grandpa mentioned to the family that sometimes he thought she was still around. One thing I remember him mentioning was that they liked the showerhead set on completely different settings. Well he says he would get in the shower and turn the water on and it would be on her setting. He'd change it, then get in the next day and it would be back on her setting again. I believe he said something about being comforted that she was still around.

Another one of my father in-law's experiences, though very scary, I wouldn't call it paranormal. But who knows for sure. This happened in the hills near the small town where they live in southwest Oregon. The family was going to camp out like they so often did and my father in-law was going to meet everyone out there after he got off of work, he worked the swing shift at the local mill. On his way there, he came around a corner and what he seen in his headlights nearly scared him to death (and let me tell you, it takes a lot to scare this man). He couldn't believe what he was seeing, it was too big to be what it appeared to be. It looked like a wolf, but HUGE! He was driving a little pickup truck and the top of this things head came up to the top of the cab of the pickup truck. He knew this because when he swerved to miss it, his side of the pickup went right by and he got an up close look at the thing. It was black and mangy looking with huge fangs and he noticed it's muzzle and chest was covered in blood. Later he assumed it had probably just killed one of the local sheep or something. Apparently he's not the only one that has seen it. A friend of mine who lived out that direction had also seen something she couldn't explain, although she didn't get such a good look at it. She and her sister were going up the road when they seen a large shape going across the road ahead of them. Once they got up to where they had seen it they seen a very large rear end, that looked like a huge black dog, receding into the thick brush. I've really heard no local legends about a strange wolf running around and there are no mysterious disappearances or deaths to report. What lives out that way, may just remain a mystery.