My Dad

Last Wednesday my dad had surgery on his right shoulder. He injured it when he flipped his riding lawn mower. I don't know how he did that, but he did. It turned out that injury may have saved his life.

While dad was recovering from his shoulder surgery, he suffered a heart attack. Since the surgery took place in a hospital in a small town, they had to fly him via a helicopter to a hospital in Greeley, CO.

After they stabilized him, they discover he had blood clots in all his arteries. They immediately started him on blood thinners, but that caused internal bleeding from his surgically repaired shoulder. After a back and forth with the blood thinners, they were able to stop the bleeding and begin thinning out the blood clots.

I almost lost my dad that day. Thankfully he is out of the woods and may go home today. What a relief. If dad would have been at work or home instead of in a hospital when he suffered the heart attack, he may not have survived. Interesting how an accident in the summer saved his life this fall. I'm grateful.

I Ain't Afraid of No Ghosts

It seems that there are a lot of families out there in which at least one member has a ghost story to tell. It could be as nice as a visit from a beloved grandparent to as creapy as items missing or moving around on their own. My mom and sister both have quite of few stories of the paranormal they have shared with me over the years.

Unexplained encounters has always fascinated me. I love shows about UFOs, bigfoot, and ghosts. Does that make me crazy or weird? I hope not. I am fascinated by the shows because of the possibility that there are things out there that make us question what we already know. I don't know what to believe for sure, but I am willing to look at any proof someone may have.

John Wornall House

Which brings me to a couple of Saturdays ago. I went on a ghost hunt sponsored by a local paranormal group. The house we were investigating was the John Wornall House. I was joined by Queentuffy, Average Jane, and Alex. Alex and I were in the "I want to believe, but I haven't seen enough proof" camp and Queentuffy and Average Jane were the skeptics. I believe every paranormal investigation needs to have skeptics in attendance.

Cassi, Mykala and Val of Premier Paranormal Research

The hunt was organized by the Premiere Paranormal Research Group. They gave us a quick tour of the equipment and we watched a video. Then we were ready to hunt. They split us up into three groups. The four of us I mentioned before were a group with Val as are investigator/teacher. Alex wanted to start in the scariest part of the house first. So, we started upstairs in the kids room. This room was rumored to have the most activity.

We sat in a circle on the floor of the kids room in silent darkness. We had a voice recorder in the center of the circle and an ir camera to gather any evidence. This was by far the coolest part of the night. We sat there waiting for something to happen. Val would ask questions in hopes that any spirit present would interact with us. Of course, nothing happened. The room did not feel creepy and I never felt uncomfortable to whole time.

The Carriage House

We moved around to different areas of the house including the detached garage they called the "Carriage House." Nothing unexplained happened in any of the other areas either. They was a strange light that passed in front of one of the ir cameras stationed in the kitchen. When I looked at the footage, it looked like light coming in when the door was opened. Even though it was clear to me that is was nothing, others in the group were convinced it was paranormal. Queentuffy labeled them "freaks." She may not have been too far off, but I appreciate their desire to see some evidence.

Though nothing paranormal happened (the evidence is still being reviewed) I had a great time. I can't wait to do it again.

Do you have a parnormal story to tell? If so, I would love for you to share it with me.

Tough Year

This has been a tough year for Queentuffy and I. Queentuffy's dad is still fighting cancer (and doing a great job) and earlier this year my mom was diagnosed with Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Luckily both her dad and my mom are doing great. Mom was declared cancer free at her last PET scan and gets here chemo port removed in 2 weeks. Queentuffy's dad is putting on weight and looks and sounds his best since this all started in June 2009.

Financially it was tough because we had to exist as a one income household for about 6 months. It was rough at times, but we made it through. After we become a two income household again, we refinanced the house and have made a few changes to keep things rolling. We could always do more to save money, but somehow we cannot seem to stay focused.

Now for the good news. I just learned today that we are going to get some of the 10% pay cut back. Only 2%, but I will take it. I hope this trend continues. Being back to where we were in 2008 would be great. It will be nice to plan vacations, again. I hope everyone else is feeling as optimistic as I am.