Ghost returned?

I don't know if I'm a total believer in ghosts or not, but it's kind of fun to think that MAYBE I have one.  A few months ago, I blogged about my ghost and how a touch light would go on by itself.  Since warmer weather moved in, I unplugged that device to make room for a fan, so "my ghost" hasn't had the ability to turn on the burner.  

Maybe my ghost is amping up on its wanting to be known because I was sitting on the couch (alone - D is at his dad's this week) and my kitchen light turned on.  This is a large flourescent light on the ceiling and only 1 switch turns it on an off.  When I got up to look at the panel, the light switch was flipped to the ON position.  MAYBE the switch was only 1/2 way down and it finally flipped up, but when I recreated it, it was really difficult to get the switch into that position AND when it did and finally *popped* up to ON, it made a very audible CLICK sound.  I heard no sound, but I was 10+ feet away with the TV on.  None of my lights have ever just turned on before.  

Regardless of how it happened, it happened and it gave me goosebumps from head to toe.  I don't know what to believe because it's so strange.  

It could be:

a ghost

switch left 1/2 way

faulty ground wiring

I guess I don't really care why  it's happening.  It's kind of cool thinking that I may have a ghost.  As long as Casper remains friendly, we can be roommates.  

1000 tickets for the 7yo, please

This year David wanted to celebrate his birthday at Chuck E Cheese and after looking around at alternatives, it turns out the CEC is about the cheapest.  David made a list of kids he wanted to invite, and the invitations were sent.  Now, I remembered the 'golden rule' of invitations - about 20% of your invited guests will RSVP no.....unless you're talking about David's birthday party.  Only 1 kid didn't RSVP....OMG!  When we sat everyone down, there were 12 kids!!  Again, I'm unsure how the count got so far off.  I thought we invited only 10.

About a week before D's party, we talked about what cake he wanted me to make, Bugs Bunny it is....until I couldn't find a Bugs Bunny pan, so it was changed to Spiderman.  I made David's cake, only after a few manic moments that I wouldn't be able to finish it.  I was texted off the ledge a few times - thank you!!

This was the first year that I had David's party outside the house.  Living in a small apartment and kiddo's getting bigger, it just didn't seem like I'd be able to pull it off comfortably.  Let me just say:  I LOVED IT!!  No set up, no mess, no clean up, no worries!!  Plus, it's Chuck E Cheese, each kiddo got tokens and off they went to play!

David got to go into the ticket booth to catch tickets.  We had an awesome host because David didn't technically catch the ticket worth 1000, but when the booth was opened, that ticket landed on David's shoe and our host let David have it!  He was 1 very excited kiddo!  2.5 hours later and 1300+ tickets to spend, David walked away a very very happy boy!

Too much and very late

BAH!!  I've been such a slacker with blogging!  With my computer crashing and photo's gone (2011 at least - yep, I did request them but no reply was ever given) it's been hard to get back into the swing of things.  I have everything from David's Birthday to present time to post!  ACK!  Ok, I will get on that asap.

In the mean time, my life is trucking along.  Some exciting things and same ol' same things happening.

Stay tuned my devoted followers (yea, right), I will be a blogging fool soon.

Trip 2012 including the Road

Only 1 will really know the meaning behind this blog, and it makes me smile. Sorry to those in the dark, that's where you shall remain for now. 

For when you clean
Really? It's the Foo Fighters....all good
Sing it LOUD!! and make me laugh
Run
Tangled

Sunshine, wine and a lot of fun!  Let's do it again.

Dreaded 3's

Years ago I know I blogged, cried, moaned and whined about how year 3 is the new 2 -  for kids.  Today I'm here to discuss why bad things seem to happen in sets of 3.  WHY??!! 

Here are the 3 things that have happened to me in the last 2 weeks, in order: 

1.  Amos - I recently noticed how skinny he was.  He hasn't ever been a plump kitty, but lately he's boney.  EW!  I called the vet and had him brought in for a check up.  He's down to 8lbs!!  From 11!!  That's pretty significant.  They drew some blood and the results came back unfavorably.  Amos has kidney disease or failure (a urinalysis will determine), heart disease and pancreatitis.  It's not looking good.  I had him in for his urinalysis and was found to have a UTI.  A weeks worth of meds and I'll bring him back in later this week for another urinalysis. 

Amos is NOT supposed to be this sick!  I've had it in my mind that Oreo will go first, then in a few years Amos.  UGH! 

2.  Just before spring break, David had a school recital and it was then I was informed that M was laid off from his job.  GREAT!!  Luckily he kind of saw it coming, so he had some leads for other jobs and found one fairly quickly.  However, it doesn't come without it's problems as well.  Without going into great detail, he and I will be discussing finances soon, perhaps through an authority figure. 

3.  David and I were at a Birthday party on Saturday when my phone rang.  It was my sister calling to tell me that Mom had fallen and broken her hip.  She was just out of surgery.   Ummmm, what?  Just out of surgery?  Why am I hearing about this "just out of surgery" and not before?  I don't think Karen found out until around that time either and, really, I'm out here in WA....not like I can "be there in a minute".  Anyways, I didn't get any further details until almost Monday evening when I finally spoke to my mom!!!  Sunday she was too drugged up to talk.  2 days after surgery and she's been moved to a rehab facility.

Needless to say, all of that stress finally got to me.  I was going batshit crazy in my house, so on Sunday I decided I needed to get out.  I didn't have David - and it was his official Birthday, that sucked....  I got my ass into gear and headed off to hike.  I decided to conquer Beacon Rock and I did.  Made it to the top in about 35 min...  850 vertical feet in 3/4 of a mile.  I guess all my working out has really WORKED!  I even stopped and admired the view many times.  It wasn't crowded at all, and I even got adventurous at the end and went a little ways down the West trail....a harder trail.  But I was alone and didn't want to find myself in a situation I couldn't get out of, so I turned back. 

Mid level

Summit.  It was HELLA windy up there!!  I didn't think that I was going to make the hike because of the wind.                           (random people at the top took the pic...nice hair)

On the way down. 

Back that THING up!

I'm talking computers people!  I'm so fortunate that mine was recently backed up (Thank you) - yes, the hard drive on my Mac died.  Died.  No warning.  Well, there was a moment of warning - when it locked up, the screen flickered and then it died.  So, off to the Mac dr. my computer went, and a day later I have a new hard drive, more memory and faster processing.  I found it funny that when I picked up my computer, they gave me my old hard drive (all nicely wrapped and labeled) and as he handed it to me, the guy said "in case you need something off of it".....ummmmm, wha?  Isn't that why I got a new hard drive because the old one died.  Ok. Whatever.  I'm guessing that it has more to do with privacy stuff than recovering stuff off of it.

Back to backing up.... DO IT!!  Do it NOW!!  As I said, my computer was recently backed up which saved about 95% of everything.  Almost all of my pictures were saved.  I've lost all of 2011 pictures, but I'm hoping that those will be recovered in another way. I could have lived with losing a few months, but an entire year is pretty terrible.  I would've been devastated to lose them all.  All my pictures since D has been born were on that computer.  OMG!  I have a panic attack just thinking about losing those.

If you haven't gotten my mantra for this blog:  Back that THING up!!

My ghost

Since I can remember, I have always had a feeling of not being alone.   As if someone was watching me, but nothing ever happened, so I've just pushed back those feelings until recently.

At Christmas, I received a Scentsy type burner that turns on by touch.  I put it on my dresser in my bedroom where the dog cant get to it, David doesn't care about it and the cat is never up there.  Recently, Catrina and I broke up, I've been a mess, and this is when I started noticing the burner would be on when I would walk into my bedroom.  For a while I would just assume that it was me turning it on and not remembering, but after it started happening multiple times per night I wondered what was happening.  I don't hang out in my bedroom (no tv, fold laundry on the couch...etc), so it was odd that the burner would be on so often.

One particular night, by coincidence, I was having a bad night and I watched Ghost Hunters when I walked into my room and found the burner on again.  hmmmmm - I thought I'd just try something.  I said out loud:  "Thank you for being here with me, but will you please stop turning on my burner.  It's a little dangerous especially if I leave the house and I don't know that it's on, so please stop."  The burner hasn't turned on since!!  I'm not kidding!  WHOA!!

I thought I'd try something else last week.  I got that "feeling" again, so I said aloud "Hi.  Are you here?  If so, turn on my burner"  Nothing happened.  But the next night I went to go to bed and the burner was on.  Sometime last week, I got into bed and the burner turned on!  Just me in the room....the dog and cat do not sleep in the bedroom.  It never before turned on when I was present.   Apparently me asking it to turn it on has given it permission to turn it on again when it wants.  I have since moved the burner to another outlet to see if it was a fluke with the plug, but it's turned on by itself in that area too.  It only turns on when I'm at home - I've never come home from work and it's been on.

Parts of me just can't wrap my head around the supernatural, but most of me can accept it.  I have been trying to asses my 6th sense on the nights I find the burner on.  Did I get "the feeling"?  Can I feel something around now?  Do I have the feeling I'm being watched?  What did I do tonight that I possibly turned on the burner....  For now, I smile when I find it on and know it wasn't me who did it.