VIOLENT Dibble/Washington/Goldsby Tornado! May 24, 2011

So, living in Dibble, this is how I spent my Tuesday evening. What did you guys do?

Interview with Cathy Nance

INTERVIEW WITH PARANORMAL INVESTIGATOR

CATHY NANCE　

When did you first become interested in the paranormal?
 I would have to say that my interest has always been there because I had many experiences through my life. I needed answers as to what it was and why the minute that it began.  
Have you always believed in ghosts?
I have always believed in ghosts because I always saw them or had experiences with them. 
How long have you worked as an investigator?
I have been investigating on and off my whole life. I became really serious when I joined a team in 2008. We were going out every week and sometimes up to 4 times per week.  
Do you get more calls from homeowners or business owners requesting investigations?
We get more calls from homeowners.
What percentage of the places you’ve investigated seems to have paranormal activity?
Half of the locations have things we can’t explain. Of those locations we look really hard at the evidence before we say a location is haunted. We do not say a location is haunted or has paranormal activity just because we have some things happen we cannot explain. 
Not asking for names or locations, but can you tell us about one of your most memorable investigations?
One of my most memorable locations was in south Oklahoma. The location had an evil attached to it that you could feel as soon as we went in. One of our members fell down and was muttering things that could not have been her own voice. We began to ask the entity to leave her. We captured the whole event on film. It was scary to be there. I was going up the stairs by myself and something came up behind me and was breathing on my neck but there was nothing there.

Considering all the available tools to paranormal investigators, which one or ones have, you personally had the best luck with?
I love my camera and my audio recorder, I take hundreds of pictures when we go out. 99% of the time there is nothing unexplainable in the photos. I have captured some pictures that are fantastic though! I also love evps. Especially when they are communicating with you by answering a question or remarking on what you are doing. 
Which ones have produced the least results?
I have no problem with any equipment. I believe it all has its place on an investigation. “Feelings” are something very hard to prove so of everything we use “impressions” would have the least impact.  
Certain places such as cemeteries, old hospitals, light houses, etc have the reputation of being haunted. In your opinion, is there any validity to this?
Yes there is validity. I believe that as we move through life sometimes whatever we are doing or saying can become recorded to the environment and can be replayed over and over. I also know that I have encountered intelligent spirits before within these types of locations,
Even though my debut novel, Angelina’s Secret, is a work fiction, the story eludes to the fact that children are more sensitive to the presence of ghosts. Have you found that to be true?
Yes children are more sensitive. Animals are also more sensitive. Specifically children are fresh from the other side and so they retain some essence of it. Many children have invisible friends until they are around the age of 3. Somehow 3 is a significant age for abilities to see. There are also children who continue with this until the age of 7. This is another significant time in which most people loose whatever abilities they had. A very small percentage of people retain the ability. These people we refer to as psychics or gifted.
Do you have any other stories you’d like to share? 
As a nurse once I was working the skilled unit in a facility. I was passing medications that day. I was almost at the end of my med pass and only had 3 more rooms left to go into. As a charge nurse I had keys to the facility which I carried around my neck. These keys were numerous and heavy. I knew some keys by heart from using them constantly. Other keys were almost never used. If I had to find a key it may take me awhile to do so. One of these keys was to the alarm system. If the system was tripped I would have to run to the alarm and look for the key to turn it off by trying each one until I found the one. I did not like to do this because it hurt my ears and bothered everyone. It always took way too long for me to find the right one too. So on this day I was almost done with my pass and I was at the moment pulling meds for a patient. I saw out of the corner of my eye a woman coming down the hall. She was young with long blond wavy hair and was wearing a long beige coat. It was Saturday and a normal day for visitors so I was going to make note of where she was going. She passed right behind me in full stride going down the hall. I turned to tell her not to go out the end of the hall which had an alarm which would trip. She disappeared! Boom nothing there! I thought wow where did she go. I had to put the medications back into my cart and lock it up quickly. I then proceeded down the hall into the few rooms left to look for her. She was nowhere to be found. This is an example of a typical experience for me. It is also a perfect example of a hospital and how activity can happen anywhere

Meet Society Of The Haunted

A year or so ago I had the pleasure of meeting a group of very interesting people. Like most of us, they all have "day" jobs. It's what they did after hours that I found intriguing. They were and are paranormal  investigators. After working all week at their regular jobs, they spend their down time looking for ghosts.

Upon meeting them, it only took a few minutes to realize that these people love what they do and they take this job very seriously. They call themselves Society of the Haunted and they have 25 years combined experience in researching, educating, and investigating the paranormal. Many of the members have been featured on Animal Planet’s The Haunted. Cathy Nance, a friend of mine, is the case manager and you can get to know more about her and the group here. http://www.societyofthehaunted.com/ Go ahead and check them out. I'll be posting an interview I did with Cathy tomorrow.  

Are you terrifically innovative???

These are awesome. Let's see how terrifically innovative you are. If you can come up with some on your own please post them in the comments section.

From the Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational where they asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year’s winners. Each is an artificial word with only one letter altered to form a real word. Some are terrifically innovative.

1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people, that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The Bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

4. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

5. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

6. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

7. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

8. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

9. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

10. Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.

11. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

12. Glibido: All talk and no action.

13. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

14. Arachnoleptic Fit ( n.): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.

15. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

16. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you’re eating.

And the pick of the lot:

17. Ignoranus: A person who’s both stupid and an a**hole.

Life is full of...Blessings

If you've noticed that my blog isn't being updated as frequently as it once was, I apologize. The little thing that we refer to as life marched right into my house last week and bopped me on the head. The good news is, all of these things are wonderful blessings.
Sometimes, even blessings can cause a disruption in the flow of our schedules and that is exactly what is happening to me. The first and biggest blessing to greet me last week was my 6-week-old grandson. His mommy, my daughter, had to return to work, so now little Joey spends his days with me. A blessing? Most definitely! Exhausting? Oh yeah!
After having Joey in my care for only two days, I received my MS of Angelina's Secret back from my awesome editor at Spencer-Hill. Ahhh how I've waited for this. I've longed to dig back into this manuscript and really make this book shine.  Another step closer to seeing a lifetime dream come true.
Trying to schedule myself, (I'm big on that,) on exactly how to care for a newborn and dedicate the needed time to edit my MS I get an email from my agent. He notified me that a book I've been trying to get published for several years now is getting some serious attention from a publisher. This book is non-fiction and WOW it's going to requires a lot of additional work I never considered. I need to get model releases, artist releases, property releases, etc on things from years ago. This is going to take some serious time, which at the moment I seemed to have lost all sight of.
I will continue to try to post updates, little ghosts tid bits, and of course, things for fun--I just won't be doing it as often.

Extreme Counseling

This one is just too funny to not share.

And the Winner is....

Congratulations to Rachel Quatrone, Gypsywolf, and Mindy Fangedmom. You are the winners of an autographed rack card for Angelina's Secret. Please email me at lisajrogers@aol.com with your name and mailing address. Thanks for entering!!!

My Childhood Imaginary Friend Turned Out To Be A Ghost

The winners for the rack card giveaway will be chosen early Wed. morning. If you entered, be sure to check back. If you haven't entered, you still have today to comment under the giveaway section..


Cruising the internet a few weeks back I stumbled on an awesome website http://www.trueghosttales.com
As I was reading a few of their ghost stories I found one that really piqued my interest because it dealt with an imaginary friend who turned out to be a ghost. "Hmmm," I thought. Even though this story is very different from Angelina's Secret, I REALLY wanted to share it on my blog.  Unfortunately, at the bottom of the page it said that no part of the story could be used without permission. After sulking for a few minutes I decided to write to the nice people at true ghost tales and ask for permission--which they granted. So yay, no more sulking. I hope you enjoy...

My Childhood Imaginary Friend Turned Out to be a Ghost

Well this is my story and I haven't told many people about it because it is 
not like any ghost story that I have ever heard, none of these stories ever 
even come close which makes me wonder what happened when I was small.

I was 3 years old at the time and we had moved into a new house, one that 
one family lives in the first floor and another family lives in the second. 
My room was in the corner of the house and it had a small walk in type 
closet that I loved to play in.

When we moved into this house I noticed a little girl living there, at the 
time me being 3 I thought she was a real little girl. She was clearly 
visible, not see through or a shadow. She looked just like me but with 
bright blue eyes, a pink dress and blonde hair.

I started to talk to the little girl and she told me her name was Sally, and 
that her parents had moved to North Dakota and left her here. I was only a 
child and didn't think anything of it so I told her that we would be best 
friends until her parents came to get her. I told my mom and dad about Sally 
and they brushed it off as she was a typical "imaginary" friend that most 
children have.

Sally and I got very close, she would tell me how she liked the color pink 
and summer time, Sally and I would play all the time and I could touch her, 
hear her, everything. We would hold hands all the time when we were in the 
grocery store and going to the park. My mom and dad started to get concerned 
because my mom would have to cook Sally a meal as well and to me I would see 
her eating and she would finish her meal as I would and we would return to 
play, but to my mother the food went untouched.

On Easter that year she only bought me an Easter basket and I demanded that 
sally gets one as well. So my mother went out and got her one and then hid 
both of them for us to find. One day I came into my room and smelled smoke, 
I ran to the closet and I saw sally laying on the floor with flames around 
her. I started to cry and I ran to my mom and dad and screamed there was a 
fire in my closet and sally was going to die. My mom and dad rushed to the 
closet and they found nothing, no fire, no Sally. But I could feel the heat 
of the flames and I was screaming in my mothers arms to save her. My mom 
took me into her room until I fell asleep.

My mother was very good friends with the land lord downstairs and they would 
talk often when seeing each other, so the next day my mom talked to the lady 
down stairs and out of curiosity she asked about the previous owners. The 
woman asked my mom why she wanted to know so badly and my mom replied she 
was just curious. The woman told my mom that the family that lived here 
previously had one daughter and one day there was an electrical fire in the 
closet off of the second bedroom and she died.

My mother being extremely frightened asked what her name was and where the 
parents had moved, the landlord seeming skeptical said the little girl's 
name was Sally and she was 4, after her death the parents moved to North 
Dakota to live with the wife's mother.

My mother came back up stairs and started to pack. We moved out that night 
to a house outside of Winnipeg on Henderson Highway. It was a very large 
house and when we got there Sally was sitting on the stairs going up to the 
bedrooms and I was happy to see her and that she didn't die. I told my 
parents that Sally was alive and she was here, and that she had moved with 
us. My mother already having dealt with a lot of stress and shock just gave 
up and she accepted Sally.

Then a few weeks later Sally was gone, and never heard from again. But she 
was my "imaginary" friend for over a year and I had full contact with her at 
all times. My parents refuse to tell me where the house we used to live in 
is because they know I will go back to see if anything happens.

Contributed by Carmella and Copyright © 2007 - 2011 TrueGhostTales.com ( 
http://www.trueghosttales.com/stories/sallys-ghost.php and 
http://www.trueghosttales.com/imaginary-friends.php ) all rights reserved 
and used here with express permission.

In Honor Of Mother's Day

Keeping with the Friday Fun e-mail, I just couldn't pass this one up.

 (Answers given by elementary school children)

Why did God make mothers?  She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.

How did God make mothers?  Magic plus super powers and a lot of string.

What ingredients are mothers made of?  God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?  We're related.

What kind of little girl was your mom?  I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?  Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES  to chores?

Why did your mom marry your dad?  My grandma says that mom didn't have her thinking cap on.

Who's the boss at your house?  Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because Dad's such a goof ball.

What's the difference between moms and dads?  Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.

What does your mom do in her spare time?  To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What would it take to make your mother perfect?  Diet. You know, her hair. I'd diet, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?  She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.

 Don't forget to comment under the section GIVEAWAY for your chance to win an autographed rack card of Angelina's Secret!!! 
go here http://talkingaboutghost.blogspot.com/2011/05/giveaway.html

Bell Witch Cave

Continuing with the haunted vacation theme, if you know of a good place or have previously visited one that I mention on the blog please let me know. Today I'm looking at the well known Bell Witch Cave located in Adams TN. This place sounds awesome! You can tour the historic Cave,visit the Bell Cabin, or canoe the Red River. 
An American Haunting
No supernatural story in American history is more famous than that of the Bell Witch. In fact, tales of the spirit were so widespread that they caught the attention of a General and future President, Andrew Jackson.

To view the official site of the Bell Witch Cave go here http://bellwitchcave.com./

Winchester Mansion

Most people plan their vacations around something they want to see or do. They might even  just be looking for a quiet place to relax and unwind. Where vacations are concerned, the possibilities are endless. As they say, we all march to the beat of a different drum. When my husband and I plan a vacation we are typically drawn to places that are rumored to be haunted. If your drummer shares my fascination of the unknown, you’re sure to like the next several post. With vacation season approaching, I thought it would be fun to explore some of the better known “haunted places.” 

Today let's look at the famous Winchester mansion. Below you'll find an excerpt from their website to whet your appetite. 

Mansion Tour
Tour through 110 of the 160 rooms and look for the bizarre phenomena that gave the mansion its name; a window built into the floor, staircases leading to nowhere, a chimney that rises four floors, doors that open onto blank walls, and upside down posts! No one has been able to explain the mysteries that exist within the Winchester Mansion, or why Sarah Winchester kept the carpenters' hammers pounding 24 hours a day for 38 years. It is believed that after the untimely deaths of her baby daughter and husband, son of the Winchester Rifle manufacturer, Mrs. Winchester was convinced by a medium that continuous building would appease the evil spirits of those killed by the famous "Gun that Won the West" and help her attain eternal life. Certainly her $20,000,000 inheritance was sufficient to support her obsession until her death at 82!


To see more go here http://winchestermysteryhouse.com/ take your time to look around its pretty cool!!!
Before you go check it out, don't forget to go to yesterdays post, GIVEAWAY, and comment to enter for an autographed rack card.

GIVEAWAY

Look what came in the mail!!!!!!!!!! Rack Cards for my debut novel, Angelina's Secret.

Even though I thought about keeping them all to myself so I could hug them, and look at them, and love them, I've decided to give a few of them away. If you want one, all you need to do is sign up to "Haunt This Page"
and comment under this section between the dates of May 3, 2011 and May 10, 2011.
If you're viewing this from a different feed be sure and go to my official blog
http://talkingaboutghost.blogspot.com/ to enter.

On May 11, random.org will choose, **drum roll please** not one, not two, but three winners who will receive an autographed rack card for their very own. The winners will be announced on the blog and they will have 48 hours to contact me with their mailing address. This contest is open to US residents only.

There's no Their They're -- Fun With Homonyms

Monday, Monday why must you come and ruin a perfectly good weekend? **sigh** Ah well, we can at least be productive and learn something. After reading, "My Spell Checker" look at the rest of this article over homonyms.
http://www99.epinions.com/content_3048579204 
MY SPELL CHECKER 

I have a gnu spell checker; it came with my pea see.
It plane lee marks four my review miss steaks aye dew knot sea.

Eye ran this poem threw it, yore shore reel glad to no;
Its very polished in it’s weigh. My checker tolled me sew.

Each frays come posed up on my screen eye trust to be a joule.
The checker pores or every word to cheque sum spelling rule...