Attraction to the Supernatural

As children we all tell ghost stories to scare each other, and some of us as adults grow up to be fascinated with what may lie ahead, what truly happens after death. This can be seen with the slew of television programs out there such as "Medium, Ghost Whisperer, and Supernatural" to name a few. My children are no different then the rest and are constantly looking for the next urban legend or ghost story to try and disprove. With all the stories and myths, it makes me wonder if somewhere they may be a small amount of truth in what our parents name "ghost stories" or flights of fancy and tell us we are to old to believe in anymore.

I have had my share of weird happenings, starting at a very young age when, at the funeral of my grandfather I seen something black and shadowy and very creepy feeling leaning over the casket, as I 7 year old I was frightened and did something that got me yelled at later. My family is not Catholic and I was not raised in a highly religious family but I crossed myself ( to this day I have no idea where this idea came to me from). This was by far not the first time I had felt like I was not alone and I refused to sleep with my door closed at night, my parents installed a kickstand on the door that would block it open, and even then at least once or twice a month I would wake to watch the door swing shut. I was always told I was dreaming or sleep walking.

After getting married and moving to a different state, the events seemed to follow me, getting worse when I got pregnant with my oldest child. I understand what earthquakes are and since the TV was on and no warnings were present I can be fairly sure what I am about to describe next was not an earthquake. We lived in base housing that was probably new somewhere around the first world war, it had a screen door that led to a set of stairs which then ended in a metal door. I was sitting on the floor sorting baby clothes when the metal door bowed completely in and proceeded to rattle for about 60 seconds. This scared me, I was not sure what to do. Since then in several other houses we have moved to I have had similar experiences.

This has led me to have an intense interest in anything supernatural, I have discussed these things with my older daughters, since they to are starting to exhibit some of the same feelings I have, and claim to have been subjected to several different experiences. Now I know how children can be, that they are prone to imagination and wanting to sound cool. But after what I have experienced I will always keep an open mind.

I would love to hear other stories of sighting and experiences. Please feel free to add them to comments or send them to me at sappheria@gmail.com. I will post them here, just add your state and initials if you wish, and please keep them clean.

As an interest point I live in Kentucky which is the home of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium seen in the movie Death Tunnel. And I grew up in Washington which, is the location for the famous house Steven King based Rose Red off of. Yes the Rimbauers are real people and so is Rose Red as they call it (Rimbauer Estate).
http://www.geocities.com/aesgaard41/rosered.html
http://www.therealwaverlyhills.com/

The Balance of LIfe

I honestly thought when I started this blog that I would be able to balance work, school and kids and still have time to right each day. Man was I wrong, I suddenly found that I do have a limit to how much time I have in a day and no amount of wishing will allow you to add extra hours. Finishing my degree has gave me a great deal of my life back, I do admit that it was totally worth the time and effort, but for those who are questioning furthering their education past a bachelors degree, the rewards will be worth the time and effort.

My mother-in-law once stated that anything past a B.A. is a waste of time and money, considering she no longer teaches school since she would not further her education, I am glad that I did not take that advice to heart and went with my own decisions. I was taught to respect your elders and listen to their advice, but often lately it seems the older generations are willing to learn and adapt less. Is then a trend everywhere or am I just seeing this trend more now that I am living away from home. After I graduated with my B.A. I thought I was ready and that finding a entry level position in my field would be easier, was I ever wrong, it seemed just as I had met one set of requirements new ones were introduced. This is what caused me to go straight from BA to Masters and so far the move has been successful.

Everyday I read news about how expensive school is, and how graduates will have a hard time finding jobs. My question is if this is true and a consistent trend, where will it all end? Will Society just find a new way to separate the masses and continue with a more hidden separation of the classes. From the beginning of time, there has been some sort of classification system among humans, simply from those who were were stronger and more apt survive, all the way to intentional segregation. The new constantly changing job requirements are just a new way to make it harder to rise above your "station". Not that it is impossible, just often difficult for those without the resources or support to help them find the way. I am hoping to give my children the needed support to excel, to give them a accurate glimpse of the world around them, and help them learn that what they learn is theory is not always the reality of life. When are we going to take a page from history and see the writing on the wall and work to find a way to change history not just let it repeat its self.

That being said I am hoping to have more time to post, and want to make posts that are not just wrapped around the life of my children, I have discovered new books and a new love for anything not school related.

Procrastination is a bad thing

Ok since I started my new job, I have come to discover the joy of procrastination. Between the kids, my job and school it seems that there are not enough hours in the day to cover everything. School to be honest is getting the short end of the stick in this instance, I am four classes from my Masters burnt out and seriously sick of not having a life on the weekends. It was so bad that last weekend I decided to flat out play hookie and go out of town. So now I get to play catch up to be sure the last two weeks goes smoothly, so my hats are off to all those moms and dads out there who try and balance everything and life without losing their minds.

Well its almost Halloween time and that means the rush for presents, our youngest will turn five on Halloween and the inevitable Christmas shopping raises its ugly head. Went shopping today you would not believe the insane stuff they market to kids, parents get to wade through zillions of toys that seem to only have one use. The babies favorite is a dog that swims to you in the bathtub, that its total claim to fame it walks and swims and is eletronic so that means the price tag is outrageous of course. I remember when toys were more simple and would keep a childs imagination active for more then five minutes.

As that wonderful pumpkin time approaches my children are asking everyday when the pumpkins can be bought, not only for the joy of ripping the guts our of pumpkins and making scarey faces but for a yummy treat as well.

Ingredients:

• Pumpkin seeds
• Cooking spray, olive oil, or butter
• Optional: Salt, garlic powder, onion powder, seasoned salt, or other seasoning of choice

Preparation:

Rinse pumpkin seeds. Use your fingers to remove all the pulp. Drain pumpkin seeds and discard pulp. Spread out on paper towels on a cookie sheet to dry overnight.

Preheat oven to 250 F. Line a baking sheet with non-stick foil.

Toss pumpkin seeds in olive oil, butter, or spray with cooking spray. Sprinkle with salt, garlic powder, onion powder, seasoned salt, cayenne pepper, or your choice of seasonings. Toss to coat.

Bake about 1 hour, tossing every 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Cool pumpkin seeds before eating. Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 months or refrigerate up to 1 year.

If you like your toasted pumpkin seeds extra-salty, soak overnight in a solution of 1/4 cup salt to 2 cups of water. Dry an additional day, then proceed as above.

For more pumpkin yummies see them at
http://homecooking.about.com/od/vegetablerecipes/r/blv310.htm

New jobs are awsome

Nothing is better then waking up in the morning all excited about starting a new job. I don't care how many times I do this or even when I know that what I am doing is the same as other positions I have had there is that moment of blind panic when your brain is screaming that you do not know anyone there and what if they do not like you. As soon as you realize that is fine you begin to second guess your skills, ok so what if you spent years in college, maybe this is the day when your brain freezes and you cant pick up a pencil without dropping it.

Lol all this takes place within mere minutes then you walk through the door and realize that its like riding a bicycle and you fall right back into the flow of things the only thing different is the type of company they are. This was my day today and I came home more awake and alert then I have felt in weeks, everything went awsome and despite my doubts the day flew along and was over way to soon.

I would not suggest changing jobs just for the thrill, but everyone should feel that exhiliriation once in there lives of doing something new and different.

Grounding more punishment for the parent

Brittany has been grounded for two days for having a general bad attitude and being no help while trying to deal with the power being out. I don't know if this is just being 14 and she will get over it or the residue of moving 3000 miles away from her friends. I am beginning to believe that it is more punishment for me then her. Yesterday on of her friends came over and asked to talk to me, (this does not happen unless they want something by the way). He informed me he loved me and I was the best Mom since his mother, lol do I need to say they live right across the street and his mother used to babysit Katlyn. I looked right at him and asked if he was trying to get Brittany ungrounded,
" Yep" he said.
Well as I was not the one who grounded her I informed him that was up to her father who was at work. He asked when he would be home, midnight I informed him.
"I will see him at midnight then"
Obviously his mother was not going to let him come over at midnight but I thought the whole episode was rather amusing.
Since we have grounded her I have had more children at my door telling me that "they missed her and was going to die a horrible death if she was not ungrounded" for her part she hides in her room and talks to them on myspace, even though I do admit she has started helping out more.

Hurricane Ike

Living in Northern Kentucky I had assumed that we were safe from pretty much anything short of a blizzard or tornado. Was I ever proved wrong, Sunday morning brought heavy winds as what was left of Hurricane Ike slammed into Kentucky and Ohio and points beyond. The storm at first just rattled windows, then our power went down and shingles from neighboring houses started ripping off, several houses were damaged when the families trampolines hit them. To me this was all new and rather frighting as I was raised in Washington State, right by the Idaho border and the worse thing we seen was a Ice Storm one year, and lots of snow on a regualar basis.
Three kids and no power is a challange, lol this was made even more difficult when I discovered that the propane tank on the BBQ was empty and there wasnt a single store around us that had power. The radio was giving a timeline of up to a week for power restoration since most of the technicians for our power company and went to Texas to help with the clean up. Lets just say no one was looking forward to a week of Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches.
We managed to find enough candles to attempt to play games to keep everyone occupied, pictionary in the dark takes on a whole new twist, as simple words became as attempt to puzzle out odd drawings in the dark. The four year old thought all was great until it got dark and no amount of flipping the light switch would turn on the lights. She kept walking over to the television and pushing the button and looking at the set with an expectant manner, then turn and looked at me like "ok where is Dora".
Once the kids were settled and the four year old understood that the magic box she uses to watch Dora and other kid attractors on was temporarily out of service, the realization set in that OMG what was I supposed to do, I had a final assignment for class was due Monday and we had no Internet. Luckly I had a friend with a cell phone here that had data service still functioning. Finally I reached my school and found out they had expected these issues and was already a step ahead of me, letting all professors know that assignments could possible be late.
All in all this was a learning experience and I take my hats off to those who choose to live in the paths of these storms at full strength. There was a time when I wanted to live in Florida now all I can say is it will be a nice place to visist but not during Hurrican season.

Kids have the right idea

I have began to discover a disturbing trend among us adults. My two teens spend at least 2-3 hours a day on the phone networking and conversing with friends that they may or may not have seen simply 10 minutes ago. In fact they are simply comfortable to three way call each other just so they can listen to music over the speakers of each others computers. The adults today seem to have lost some of these skills.
Phone skills have taken a leave of absence, in what seems the sudden boom of e-mail etiquette. What has happened to the concept of calling back someone who has let a message on your answering machine. In your private life you can really decide who to call back but today's trend in business seems to be 'if its not email then its not important' this goes for not only job hunting but simple tech support for phone and cable companies. I recently called a business who told me that they would call me back with 48 hours guess what no call was forth coming, I ended up calling a supervisor complaining and then waiting another 48 hours for them to call me back. As a Human Resource representative I would be appalled to just ignore incoming questions from potential employees or someone who may even have the simplest of questions. Ok enough with the rant I will know leave my soapbox. Teens of today are doing everyday what business owners and members of many organizations seems to have forgotten as they grew into responsible adults 'communication is key'.
On another subject took the kids to the library today, they have a read away your fees going on, the middle girl stated tbat she would rather not have library books if it meant she had to read from the kiddie section. Of course then she immedialty grabbed a move off the shelves and began chasing her older sister around the library. What is it about taking teens in public that makes them drop several years in age, unless its the mall where all of a sudden its please go away adults are creepy, we will summon you when we are ready to go home or we need you to be walking credit cards.