Ghost Stories

It's one of my favorite times of year when the weather changes to a crisp cool breeze, the trees drop their green for a shade of orange, red, and...dead. Nothing brings out the spooky like a backdrop of dead grass and trees with a chill in the air and a good ghost story to tell around a fire (well, a fire pit with Smores of course). I've heard stories from friends and acquaintances alike, but nothing gets the chill up the spine like experiencing a ghostly encounter yourself.

I'll share mine with you, but in return I ask that you post your comments in the form of a ghost story too :)

The year was 2002, spring time. I had just returned from active duty and happily settling in to our new home with my hubs and oldest son. The house was built in a new subdivision, barely cleared of trees and brush for all the homes that popped up years later.

Hubs was in the garage building me a bookshelf. I had walked out, closed the door behind me, and as I got halfway through the garage the tape player/radio that was sitting on a shelf by the door flew off and landed in front of me. Had I not ducked when hubs yelled out to me it would have knocked me out. Now you're thinking "well slamming the door closed could cause it to fall"...yes, but it didn't fall and I didn't slam the door. It was well after the door was closed and "falling" outwards 20 feet to land in front of me would take someone or something throwing it.

The follow up incidents to this is what made me want to sell and move. Hubs was asleep in our room across the house, our oldest was asleep down the hall from our office, and I was up working on school work in the office. All of a sudden I hear the living room TV turn on. I walked in thinking hubs had gotten up only to find the remote sitting on the arm of the recliner and no one around. I turned it off, threw the remote on the cushion of the couch and started to walk out. The TV came on again. I turned around, slowly as every horror scene of Poltergeist ran through my head, to see the remote sitting back on the arm of the recliner and the channels change before it shut off again. I slept like a baby that night...nearly wetting myself and crying for my momma!

A couple nights went by and hubs and I were lying in bed watching TV when we saw a very tall figure or shadow of a person walk by our bedroom door. The way our house was set up and the direction the shadow moved was from our front door (our son's room was near the front of the house down the hallway also) through our living room and past our room to the back sliding doors. Neither of us moved. I asked hubs if he saw that and he replied, "nope, I didn't see the tall person walk by our door. " Yeah, we both jumped out of bed and ran to our son's room to check on him before searching the rest of the house. We heard our bulldog (Lou) growling and when we saw him staring down the hallway from our son's room he just laid down and kept growling...

Needless to say we moved.

Here's a link to a pretty cool site that has some urban legends, ghost stories, and superstitions to get you in the Halloween spirit: Urban Legends Online

Annual Costume Ideas: 2010

Every year I try to put together a list of costumes that stand a chance at being unique for Halloween costume contests. This year is proving to be tough to top my ideas from last year. In case you missed them here is a recap:

1. Roasted Marshmallow: Big white t-shirt, stuff it with pillows or foam fabric, spray paint brown/black flame marks on it, wear brown tights; you can also use a wooden dowel or real stick to put in the back.
2. Jail Bait: jail house stripes (dress/shirt & pants) and fish hooks/etc. on a fishing hat.
3. Calendar Girl: Get a calendar and pin the different months all over a shirt and pants.
4. English muffin: Wear a size too small jeans so you have a muffin top, get a plain t-shirt and use a paint pen to color a British flag on it, and talk with a British accent. (seriously considering this one!)
5. Hula Chic: wear a grass skirt and lei with a hula hoop around you
6. Diet Dr. Pepper: scrubs, face mask, slim fast (any diet bar) pinned to scrubs, chili peppers (necklace/or pinned to scrubs), optional stethoscope (did this one in 2006)
7. Arch Angel: angel costume with golden arches (McDonald’s anything)
8. Blackberry: wear all black, use any type of plastic berries (paint them black) and hang on costume or as necklace, use pipe cleaners to make antenna for head.
9. Redheaded Step-child: red wig, plastic step stool to carry/hang, and a pacifier.
10. Ying Yang (couples idea): one wears black sheet with white dot painted on it, the other a white sheet with a black dot. (Did this for Bobbie and Erin one year!)
11. Faux Pas: Any sweatshirt/t-shirt will do, just add fake fur in the shape of a paw (get it, paw/pas…)
12. Teepee’d: Wrap yourself in toilet paper, add face paint like a Native American and a feather headband for comical accessories.
13. “Yoga”: dress in yoga gear with a Yoda mask (this was funnier when I first thought of it).
14. Bed of Roses: pin fake roses to a bed sheet, carry a small pillow or pin it to the sheet also and wrap it around you (also thinking about this one).
15. Goldie Locks: wear all black, get the little gold locks and hang all over the outfit; a blond wig may help with hinting at what you are dressed as.
16. Book Worm: use two or three sheets of poster board to fold in half (like a book--be really creative and write on it or paste magazine pages), wear a solid color as to not distract from the 'book', wear big fake reading glasses.
17. Invisible Woman: (very easy) buy a sheet of cammie netting; when people ask what you are dressed as, wrap it around you so they can't see you.

New ideas will come as I compile the 2010 list. In the mean time add your comments for suggestions or catch some others on my facebook page! Happy Costume Hunting!