Our Adventure

For the entries I know the date for I am including them. Most of the entries are from 2004, but things still happen if a bit more rare now.

7/15/2004 12:44 PM - Thought I'd give a general rundown of some of the events at my house and see if anyone else has had similar happenings.

We bought our house about two years ago, and it was shortly after that we realized that we weren't the only occupants. At first it was just odd little stuff like things being moved, or doors that were shut when we left them open so we didn't think much of it at the time.

The first thing that really happened was when my husband (D) went to bed one evening. Our monster had already been tucked in, and I was the only one still up. Our dog was in the office with me, thought I'd clarify that right now. Anyway, D got up, opened the door and went out to the kitchen, turned around and came back, poked his head in my office and asked if I had put the dog in the bedroom and/or let him out... Obviously I said no. He freaked a little because he said that he heard the sound a large dog makes when he circles and plops to the floor. He thought it was our dog and called his name, and when there was no response (Cody, our dog would have went to him and let him know that he was there) He got up, telling the 'dog' that he would be upset if he would trip over him getting to the light switch to let him out. He made it to the light switch with no problem, and realized when he flicked on the light that there was no animal in the room.

Our monster and myself have always been 'sensitive', and although my husband believed in the paranormal, he never really had any experiences with it. Since moving in this house though, he has had quite a few experiences. We just figure that Sam (that's our ghostly dogs name) wanted to introduce himself, and he's taken a liking to my husband.

The next event was over funnels. Yep, I said funnels. Our house is about 45 years old, and although in pretty good shape, it is an older home and there were things wrong with it. Not structurally, but things just didn't work right, like cabinet doors were hung crooked and so forth. Well we started noticing that every time we complained about the house, something would disappear and then reappear later in a different spot. It didn't hit us until my husband made a particularly loud outburst. I had washed and put away a funnel in the kitchen, so I knew where it was at. I went to use it again, and the entire set was missing. It drove us absolutely nuts that we couldn't find it. We searched everywhere, and I mean everywhere in the house, not just taking the kitchen apart. We found it a few months later, and you'll never guess where. We still had boxes we hadn't unpacked, in fact these boxes hadn't been unpacked for about 10 years. (D was in the military, and these boxes were heirloom items that we packed up when we left our home 10 years ago, and had never unpacked.) Well, we figured now that we have a home of our own, it was time to unpack them and inside one of the boxes was the funnel set.

I wish I had kept a journal so I could keep the events straight. But in no particular order we've had: voices in the basement, once sitting on the patio we heard someone say 'ho, anyone home?' from inside the house when no one was there. We've seen Sam (a medium size golden retriever, who incidentally likes to play tag with our dog Cody) and we also have a cat who has been seen (she hasn't let us know her name yet) and a friend has told us that we have a dog, a cat, and a bird in the house - told us this before we knew about Sam and the cat by the way - but the bird hasn't made an appearance that we know of. Things still disappear from time to time, we've finally figured out that the husband of the former owner is our jokester, and probably does this because he was the one that did most of the work inside the house, so when we complain... Someone sitting on our bed and gently stroking my leg, steps along the hallway, doors open and heads pop in - to check up on us, and lights that don't work. A lot of impressions, husband feels that someone had a heart attack in our front hallway, not sure if they died there or not. He's heard conversations between two people in the basement, although can't quite make out what they say, but says one is an older male, and the other a younger male.

Once when I was ill, I laid down on our bed, the door way is right across from where my office is at. I saw a shimmer walk over to the bed and lay a hand on my forehead. I felt the hand, saw a light, and felt better almost instantly (which means my migraine went to a very dull headache, and I feel asleep right after and when I woke up it was all gone). My husband could see me from where he was sitting and he never saw a thing. We've also had other visitors. Our monster was very close to her Papa, and he occasionally pops in to check on her. I can tell when he's here, but she sees him.

Most events are funny in nature, like watching Cody play tag with Sam (who normally appears as a shimmer). We've all laughed hysterically to watch them, but as soon as they see us they quit a bit startling at first to have an invisible animal brush up against your leg though, especially at night.

We've heard stories that would make your hair curl, but we've been lucky that our experiences have been mostly positive, if somewhat frustrating at times (like the funnels, or when my cell phone charger cord disappeared for two weeks and then reappeared in plain sight in the office). Besides learning to quit complaining about the house, we can always guarantee that when one of us doesn't feel well that our menagerie of visitors comes to make a visit, and we've come to realize that they are here to protect us.

7/16/2004 5:04 PM - We've taken pictures around the house, but it'/s of us or people at gatherings, we've never deliberately taken one to see if we can get something. So far though, as far as we can tell, our photos are normal with nothing odd about them, other than my continually changing hair colour. We had thought about it maybe being a portal, but it doesn't quite fit. We know our ghosties, their family, Mr. C (our gentlemanly jokester), Sam, and the cat are connected with the house and the bird if it ever shows up. Long before Sam and the cat made an appearance, a friend of mine told me that there is a dog, cat and bird buried by a specific tree out back, and as much as I'd like confirmation, I ain't going to dig up their bones, if they were as wonderful in life as they are now, I wouldn't disrespect them that way. But I do have to admit that we have one less than pleasant 'visitor'. It doesn't happen very often thank goodness, as it is unsettling. With the Dragon's (my husband) work schedule he retires early, of course the monster has an early bedtime, so often in the late evenings I'm up by myself (doesn't help that I'm a night owl to begin with). We are used to footsteps in the house, but this visitor has a different step pattern. Most of the house is carpeted, and most of our friends when you hear them walk, it's as if on carpet. This one, it sounds as if they are heavy steps on wooden floors. A feeling of, not sure how to describe it, weight is felt, not a depression, but definitely not of a happy nature. It starts on the stairwell coming up from the basement, walks down the hall and then stops right outside the office door. There are some nights (when this happens) that I can't walk outside of the office door, even though the bathroom and my bedroom door are across the hall, just three feet away. Kind of odd that he has only been felt and heard coming up the steps, walk down the hallway, and hang out just outside the doors in the hallway. (Our house is a typical ranch, but at the end of the hallway where all the bedrooms are, the hallway is circular and all the doors lead off from there. The circle is about 4 foot by 4 foot.) He's never been felt in the dining room, kitchen, or living room. And although it can be uncomfortable at times to be in the basement, he's never been felt anywhere but the stairs leading up from the basement, and down the hallway.

Being pagan, I've had the house blessed, cleared, and I have a protection talisman charged every six months for the house. As a general rule we said as long as they behaved themselves they were welcome to stay, but anything negative had to go. (Done that way simply because we are comfortable with and don't mind some of our visitors.) As I said it doesn't happen often, but we can always tell when it is in close proximity. Our visitors are here off and on, rarely together, but when all of them show up in a 24 hour period we know that within 48 hours our dark visitor will make an appearance. We realized that they were here to protect us, or more specifically they hang around the monsters room. Since I'm usually the one up during the evening hours no one else has saw him, with the exception of once. It's hard to describe him, it's more of a shadow of a man, he's tall, has short hair, and it's as if a cloud is around him, although it's not visible, more of a feeling, everything is coloured black or in dark tones. When he's around you can feel anger coming from him, but not so much directed at us, or me, but just in general and we happen to be here for him to take it out on.

The Dragon believed me when I told him about this person, but he hadn't experienced it for himself until the last incident that happened. It was his day off and he was staying up later with me in the office. We have a TV so we generally sit in there; watch our home shows and talk. We heard a noise in the hallway and he went to check it out, as soon as he walked out of the office door and into the hallway, he said it got cold. His face got so cold that it started to go numb, almost as if it were an electric shock. Our monsters bedroom door is to the immediate left of the office door so he went to check on her. As soon as he walked through her doorway, it was gone, and he felt fine. He checked on her and the cat and dog that were in sleeping with her, and they were all fine. He walked back into the hallway and it happened again. He walked into the office, it stopped. Back into the hallway, back into the office, for about 10 minutes or so he kept doing this, occasionally walking into our room, or the bathroom, and it happened each time. More from just wanting him to cut out the walking in and out than anything I addressed the hallway and said 'all right, knock it off', and as he walked back into the office to make one more trip into the hallway, it quit. Since this was his first experience with it, we started talking, and that's when I found out that he had had some experiences of his own, like the voices in the basement. We had never really talked about it before in depth, so it was quite an eye opener.

It's been interesting living here. Our perceptions seem to be heightened, and purely out of parental reflex, we protect the monster as much as possible. She is much more sensitive than I or D is, and with a child's energy she not surprisingly attracts a lot of 'attention'. So far though with the protection elements put on the house, our live animals, and our ghostly protectors watching over her, she has not had any negative experiences, and we're bound and determined to make sure it stays that way.

7/19/2004 5:43 PM - It's my habit before I retire for the evening to check on the monster. One evening in particular I turned on the hallway light, as is my custom, and walked into her room. I pulled the covers up and then stood for a moment just to listen to her breath (silly to keep that habit up at her age, but can't sleep if I don't you know!) Anyhow, I patted Cody and told him to watch over the monster, looked at the window where our cat was lying and told her the same, and with one last look at the bed I started to walk out back into the hallway. And it hit me in that instant that I saw another cat curled up at the end of the bed by the corner. I stopped and turned back toward the bed, and it was gone. I walked back over and put my hand down in the indention where the cat had been and it was slightly warm. I got the feeling that we had been 'accepted'.

Every once in a while when I walk down the hallway to the kitchen I feel a dog brush by me. At first I always went to check on where our dog was at, and inevitable he was in the monsters room, or curled up on the couch in my office. Now I don't cause I figure if it's not Cody, then it's Sam.

The incident where we heard the voice in the living room was quite interesting. The monster was at school, Dragon has a rotating schedule so he gets days off during the week, and so we were sitting out on the back patio having coffee and brunch. We were just talking and out of nowhere we heard a male voice say "ho, anyone home?" We looked at each other wondering what was going on. We thought maybe one of the neighbours was on the front porch and said it through the window, which would have carried through the back patio door. So I raced inside and went to the front door, opened it and no one was there, so I proceeded to check all the rooms in the house, again no one there. The Dragon raced around the house to the front, and no one was in sight, and with the way our house is situated if anyone had been there we would have seen them leaving. (And there had been no sound of a car going by and/or stopping in our area) Still puzzles us to this day on who it could be. Personally I think it was my Dad as it's something he would have said. The voices in the basement are all in D's terrain, I haven't heard them. He said that it sounds as if an older gentleman and a younger gentleman were having a conversation. He walked down the steps and continued to hear the voices, but they weren'/t clear enough to make out what was being said. The voices were coming from the back corner where the pool table was. It lasted about 10 - 15 minutes and then quit.

I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed. I closed the door partway so the light wouldn't wake up the monster. There was just enough of a crack against the side where it connects to the wall so that you could see if anything passed. I was looking at the door, wondering what colour to paint, when I saw a medium size golden retriever pass by through the crack, but the other side of the door that was open about six inches remained blank. Nothing passed by on that side. The first time I saw Sam.

Doors will occasionally open and close on their own. The latest was just a few days ago. After the storms I had to clean up from some water that came in so I was using the wet vacuum to suck up the water and then I had to walk through the middle room (where the furnace and water heater are) to go through the garage and then outside to dump the water. The door leading from the basement into the middle room kept opening and closing, very gently. At first I thought it was from a draft coming in from the garage, but the door between the middle room and the garage was closed, so ther's no way a draft could of come thru. I can only guess that someone was glad I was taking care of the water problem.

07-28-2004 - Been an interesting evening. We finally decided to paint the dining room and hallway (which are visible to each other). No problems when we painted the dining room, although got to say we did that in the daylight. Painted that one marmalade, definitely a nice colour of orange, anyhow after D went to bed I decided to surprise him and have the hallway painted when he got up, so at 10 p.m. I opened the can of Tropical Waters (a dark shade of teal), and I found that for the next 4 and a half hours, I was being watched. Sort of like they were curious to see how the colours would go together, and there was a definite mood of amusement. I honestly expected to hear laughter there for a while.

7/29/2004 10:04 PM - Was going to write this earlier, but got involved with something for a bit. We had a very disturbing night last. As my norm I went to bed around midnight. Nothing seemed out of sorts. I can't verify the time because my clock was covered and I never even thought about checking the time but sometime after I fell asleep I was awoken by our dog Cody barking. As he was barking I also heard noises in the basement, right below our bedroom. (The garage is directly beneath our bedroom.) I honestly can't swear to what the sounds were exactly, but it was not an animal, more like a person was shuffling through things. My husband got up to check what was making Cody on edge, and to check the sounds. Nothing and he checked the entire house. The noises had stopped when I heard him go down the stairs, and Cody also quit barking. A little while later it started again, but the noises were a bit louder. D once again went downstairs to check. Immediately after he left the room there was an overwhelming blackness next to the bed, about a foot wide, about four foot tall and the length of our bed. Our room is never totally dark since there is a street light immediately outside of one of our windows. I felt this shadow as well, and it was one of the few times I've ever felt a fear like that. Lying there watching it, I also heard the sounds of my husband going through the house on his way up checking things. As soon as he got near the bedroom door the shadow disappeared. I snuggled up to him as close as I could get and eventually fell asleep.

We were sitting out on our patio this today, talking about last night, and he said that he actually had gotten up 4 times during the night, and after the 4th time checking the house, he just quit. Got tired of trumping up and down those stairs I guess. But he also said that the reason he got up in the first place was not because Cody was barking, or the noises, it was because he heard Cody growl. He said that when he walked out of the doorway into the hall, Cody was sitting in our daughters doorway growling down the hall. I guess each of the four times he got up was mostly because Cody was growling. It was also odd for me, because ever since I was a child I had a slight fear of hanging a foot or hand over the bed, silly I know but I remember the stories of when I was a kid and something would snake out and grab you. As an adult my normal sleeping position is hanging my feet over the end of the bed, but last night I was unable to do so. It's only the second time I really felt overwhelming fear in this house. We also got to talking about the 'shadow man' as I call him. I see him as a shadow, although I can tell his general appearance and clothes. My husband told me today that he has actually seen him, and our descriptions about match. Tall, thin, short hair (he says it's brown) and clothing from the 1800'/s (we narrowed it down to somewhere around 1880 I believe). He also says that 'he' is full of anger and rage, and although we bear the brunt of it at times, that it's not directed at us, but just that we're here to take it out on. But considering what we know of the history of this house, his presence he predates that since this house is only about 45 years old. I was a bit sceptical on that, thinking that if he had belonged to a house that was here previously, that he'd be walking on the level of that house's floor, but when he's here, he is walking on the level of our floor. In any case, it was very surreal. Both of us are lucid dreamers, and normally have pretty good control, but last night we both had very odd dreams, nothing near what we usually have. Not sure if it all is tied together, but it made for a very uncomfortable night, and fodder for lots of java this morning.

8/4/2004 12:33 AM - Most nights since Cody barked we've been keeping him in our room, simply because he doesn't bark when he's in there, so at least we can get some sleep. One night he didn't want to come in though, and once again at around 4 a.m. He started barking. We didn't hear anything else though so not quite sure what set him off. Does seem kind of odd that he picks that specific time to bark though. For the most part things have been quiet here. With the exception of yesterday when I was in the basement putting some stuff away in storage. There was no one in the house but me, but I distinctly heard the floor boards creak as if someone were walking upstairs. It was also right above me, so that puts it in the living room. I finished putting the stuff on the shelves and went upstairs, and as I suspected, nothing was there.

8/22/2004 2:53 AM - Just got back from a trip out of state a few days ago. D said that all was quiet while I was gone, but last night (actually the 20th) I was in bed and heard pounding. Couldn't tell where it was coming from, at first I thought someone was at the door, but our dog didn't bark and head toward the door as he usually would. Then I heard it twice more, spaced out and it sounded as if it were coming from a different place. Never did figure out what it was, asked D the next morning, but he said he never heard anything. A little while later I got the usual physical symptoms when someone/something is around. The hair on my entire body feels as if it's standing up, and if anyone has ever touched a low voltage electric fence you know the 'humming' feeling that goes through your body, that always follows the hair standing up, and then I get aware (only way I can describe it) of something outside of me. It's like seeing, but with my 'senses' instead of my eyes. Normally I can pinpoint at least a location if not who or what is there, but I couldn't this time. I don't consciously remember asking any question, but I distinctly got the name David. I didn't hear a voice, mine or another, didn'/t see the word spelled out, but at that moment I knew that the presence was David. Then it was gone and I slipped into sleep very weird. Not sure which one is the David as we seem to have more than one, but I'm sure in time we'll figure it out.

9/6/2004 12:43 PM - Was startled awake today. I had gotten up early but went back for a nap, and around noon I heard a male voice saying "oh my God". At first I freaked because I thought did I sleep the day away and Swampy had gotten home from work. I checked the clock and it said about noon so then I thought maybe he had come home from work early. Got up checked with the monster and no such luck. It was only her and I in the house. I had her check the outside of the house to see if someone was outside (as I had opened the windows when I laid back down for my nap), and no one was outside.

9/20/2004 10:09 PM - Not sure if this was part of a dream or if it really happened. About 3:30 or so this morning I heard a girls voice call out "Daaaaddy". It happened for a few minutes. At first I thought it was our monster, but the voice wasn't hers. I was tired so not sure if it was part of my dream, but I was sound asleep and woke up and heard it. I also had the usual physical sensation when we have a visitor. Was too tired to get up and check, but our monster said she didn't call out during the night so... Just another oddity at our house.

10/7/2004 11:45 PM - You ever have one of those nights that you have to force yourself to go into the basement? Well, tonight is one of them for me. When it rains here we have to keep a watch on a window that will flood, so I just made another trip down there to check it out. All day doing this and I didn't have a problem. This time though I could hardly walk down the darkened hallway upstairs to reach the steps going down, in fact I had to turn on lights when I normally wouldn't. I already started to get that creepy feeling on the back of my neck and shoulders. Turning on lights as I went I made my way over to the other side of the basement and checked the window. Thank goodness it was relatively dry, and I scooted back up the steps quicker than I have in a long time let me tell you. I was being watched, of that I had no doubt, and much closer than normal.

Things have been odd lately in the house, it can go sometimes weeks between events, and although it's been relatively quiet, there is an odd emptiness to the air of the house. We've started painting and working on the house, sometimes I wonder if changing it has signalled that we no longer need our protectors around, or if just we've been so busy we haven't noticed. Other than a lamp shade throwing itself off of our dining room chandelier nothing has happened since the last post that I've been aware of anyway. The house has an 'empty' feel to it that I have not noticed before.

10/23/2004 4:19 PM - For the past two evenings, during the latter hours of the day, thumping has been heard throughout the house. It sounds as if old boots are being dropped on a wooden floor. Sort of like someone is taking a couple of steps and then stops. I tried identifying where they were coming from, but when I head toward the room where I thought I heard them; they would come from somewhere else. There is only one exposed wooden floor in the house (in our monsters bedroom) although we suspect that underneath the carpeting in the rest of the house a few may actually be wooden floors. Three nights ago or so, I also caught a glimpse of our wandering cat. She still hasn't told us her name though. Just talking to the monster and she said that yesterday while she was reading in her room and she saw the cat sitting at the base of her vanity table, on second look she was gone. All in all though the house is eerily quiet. Although there is usually the space of a few days on up to a week or so between visits, the last two to three months have been so quiet that I think we're all a bit nervous.

10/25/2004 12:02 AM - Well, I guess we can tell that it's getting closer to Samhain, things usually start picking up about now. And pick up today they did. The monster slept in my room last night so I slept in hers and this morning when I awoke I felt the cat next to me. I reached a hand down to pet her and as I ran over her tail I quasi realized that something wasn't right, that it wasn't our cat Angel. Angel is very furry and has a long tail. The cat that I petted had a shorter tail and sleeker fur. I think our visitor is taking a liking to us although we still don't know her name. I didn't realize it at first and I had rolled over, that's when it hit me that it wasn't our cat and I turned back over and the cat was gone. The door to the bedroom was closed, and I looked around the room, but there was no cat in evidence, the visitor or our cat. This evening when the monster had finished her shower she came in the office (the doors are straight across from each other) and asked if I had heard that banging sound. She said that it sounded like it came from within the house, and repeated every few minutes while she was in the bathroom. I heard nothing.

Tonight for the first time in quite a while I felt that same old sensation I get when we have visitors here. As I walked back and forth from the office to the kitchen I got that eerie feeling, and felt uncomfortable without the lights on (it's my habit to not turn them on since I know my way around the house so well even in the dark). I'm fine as long as I'm not crossing in front of the doorway to the living room, that's where it emanates from (which is also where the stairway going down to the basement is located).

11/5/2004 12:10 AM - Been a busy week with Samhain and all it's happenings. I half expected it to be a bit more energetic around here considering the season and all, but it was a bit calmer than in years past. For a few days before Samhain we could feel energy building in the house, which seems to be part of the usual pattern. It would vary from room to room and time to time. Things would seem hysterically funny when they normally wouldn't be so. Objects that we had set down would be found somewhere else, anywhere from across the room, to the other end of the house. The lampshades would fall off of the dining room chandelier, one at a time, and seem to throw themselves at whoever was standing near. At times there was a tingle on the skin over our arms, or the back of our necks. Much different than the usual reaction I get when they are normally around.

As the colder weather starts to come in we get an over whelming urge to start baking. We've found that our elderly gentleman visitor is quite fond of the smells of baking. Odd bangs would happen around the house, and we could never figure out where they would come from. They didn' last long, and other than being mainly at one end of the house there didn't seem to be any pattern to them. Sometimes it would be as if someone was walking on a hard wood floor (most of our floors are carpeted); at others it would be as if someone were banging on a wall to get someone's attention.

When we went into the basement there was always the feeling that someone was watching us. The night before last I actually saw the figure of a person for a few moments before it disappeared. Not enough to get any details except that it was a human form. All in all, it was just little things, and it seemed to build up until Samhain (which was a wild day in itself with all the goings on and high energy here already), and it has slowly tapered off since then. It's almost back to the normal routine around here. One last thing, the monster had a party here and as always I was snapping pictures. All of the pictures were normal, except for one. I was standing in the doorway between the dining room and living room taking a photo as they were goofing and off to the left you can see a white 'mist'. The usual things that would cause something like this have been accounted for and marked off the list. So it leaves me to wonder if one of our visitors finally feels comfortable enough to want to end up in some family photographs.

11/8/2004 10:58 PM - A little after midnight our dog started barking and growling again in the hallway looking toward the living room. After a bit he quit so we didn't bother to check it out, but then again shortly after two a.m. He really started growling and barking and wouldn' quit. It lasted so long that D got up to check out what was going on, and even though he went through the entire house he found nothing. That type of behaviour always gets out attention because although he'll bark, it is rare that he growls.

Things have become so routine that we haven' taken notice for a couple of years now. But activity is starting to ramp up again, so it should be interesting to see what develops.

Fae