If my Dad were still alive, he’d be 76 years old in October of this year. But my Dad lost his battle with cancer 16 years ago today. My Mom and I were talking about it over the weekend when she was here. We said that not only do we still miss him, but he’s missed. My Dad had a way of making you feel like you were the only one in the room when you talked to him. He was funny. He always told us he was behind us 110%. We were lucky that we had a Dad that truly cared about all the activities we did and participated by being our photographer. This is one my my favorite pictures my Dad took of me – at the time I was embarrassed when he said “jump as high as you can!” but I love it now. I was a freshman in high school in that pic – hence the giant 80s glasses – I got contacts sophomore year. 
New readers can read about my 70th birthday tribute to my Dad. The night my Dad died I remember seeing “people” in the corner of the room. He’d been on hospice for just a little over a week. A hospital bed was brought into the living room for his comfort. He was really out of it most of that week. Not communicating very much – and Mom, did we still feed him through his feeding tube? I have no idea anymore. In any event, the “angels” as I like to think of them comforted me. It was around 6:00 p.m. and my BIL had just gotten at my parents house after work. We were all there – all the kids, their respective spouses, my Mom and all the grandkids. He looked up, saw us all standing around his bed, smiled and then laid his head down and he was gone.
I’ve seen ghosts in my parents house before. Once I was walking from the kitchen to the living room – my parents had a mirror on the wall and you could see the steps coming down from the second story. I saw a woman walking down the steps in what I like to call “Little House on the Prairie” clothes. Another time I was just about to fall asleep and completely felt someone sit down on the edge of my bed. I thought it was my sister playing a joke on me, but when I reached for the light and turned it on, nothing was there.
Fast forward to this weekend when my Mom is over – she was just about to walk into our bathroom when she got startled and said that she saw a ghost cat run from the bathroom. I’ve been sitting in the living room and have seen a man walk from our bathroom to Hannah’s room. I was talking to Hannah about the ghosts yesterday when I met her for dinner, and she said she’s seen a man walk from the bathroom to our bedroom before from her room. Spooky! So, do you believe in ghosts? Have you ever seen one?
It was tough getting up yesterday having had three days off and sleeping in a bit. Luckily I had the last of my breakfast tacos to heat up – still so good and easy peasy. I love how crispy they get in the toaster oven.
I haven’t worn my fitbit since last Friday – what?! I had every intention of getting back to my steps, but half way to work I realized I forgot to put it on. So I took advantage of the outdoor pool at the gym. All the kids are back to school so it was just me and the lifeguard.
Well, it was just me and the lifeguard. I saw something floating in the lane beside me the first few laps I did – I chalked it up to a leaf that had just fallen in the pool. Nope. It was a dead baby mouse! I had the lifeguard scoop it out for me – icky. I switched lanes to the farthest one away from where it was. I ended up swimming 35 minutes without stopping (except a couple times to adjust my goggles – which Mom, I love the pair you got for me) and then listened to music for 10 minutes while I laid in the sun. Nice.
Lunch was taco salad – a smaller version because I knew I was eating out with Hannah. I had Romaine lettuce and cucumbers on the bottom, then 1/4 cup taco meat, 1/4 cup garbanzo beans and 1/4 cup Mexican rice, then topped with FF ranch and hot sauce, and a bit of crumbled cheese.
I met Hannah up at Wok n Fire near my office. I told her we could meet half way between her house and my work, but she had a taste for it. Because of the sun, we kept having to move to get the right light – Tony said that it looks like I photoshopped Hannah’s head in the picture and wanted to know who I really was having dinner with – ha!
If you sit anywhere in the bar area, you get half price appetizers and half price traditional rolls. They also have $3 Sapporo beers, which I normally love, but Hannah doesn’t drink and I know me – one would lead to two and I needed to drive home. So we split the potstickers, the fried calamari – I got the red Thai curry tofu dish with brown rice.
I only ate half of my entrée, so I am having the second half for lunch today. Just going to add a bit more veggies to it. So good! It was nice catching up with her in person. We talk on the phone nearly on a daily basis and facetalk, but it’s not the same.
Hope you stop by tomorrow. . . . My Bizzy Kitchen turns SIX! I can’t believe I’ve been blogging since 2008. But I like to think of it as my living diary – how cool will it be for my future grandkids to be able to read about my life from the age of 40 to now 46? My grandmas diary read like this: “chilly day. make chicken. played bridge.” That was it. I need more details!
Alright, time to get my act together – I hope I get to read some good ghost stories! And Dad, I know you are looking down on us, but I miss you every day. I love you!
What a lovely tribute to your Dad. I remember a YouTube video you posted of him from when Hannah was a baby, I think? I just remember thinking that you sounded like a lovely female version of him. *hugs*
I definitely believe in ghosts and I believe that I’ve seen several. I had a basement bedroom growing up. My brother and I used to jump on my bed in the dark to see who could last the longest without hitting our heads on the ceiling or falling off and landing on a wall. Clearly, it was winter and we couldn’t go outside to run and play, nor did we have video games or cable TV! We would take turns shutting off the light and yelling “go!” One time, I went to shut the light off and we both saw this huge lit-up face in the millisecond after the light went out. We turned the light back on, and I asked my brother if he saw a face. He said yes, and we both got a super eery feeling. I never saw the same face again but I did “feel” things in the years to come.
I used to work for a nonprofit that occupied a former hospital. The employee entrance came through the basement, and we also evacuated to the basement for tornado warnings in the basement. Well, as with most hospitals the basement was the morgue, and weird shit would happen in the building for DAYS after tornado warnings where we had to go down there. People would get stuck in elevators, the 3-digit codes for the door locks on the stairwells would stop working, and the people who lived in the building complained of seeing “fireflies” in their rooms at night. It *was* a mental health inpatient program, but still! I swear the tornado warnings and all the people going into the basement stirred up all the ghosts who “hang” in the morgue. So glad I no longer work there!
I’ve lived in 2 haunted houses in my life. The first one was the house I grew up in. It was about 120 years old and we would often hear people walking around on the second floor when we knew nobody was up there. My mom and brother both saw a ghost in the house at various times, but I never did.
Then, the first house I bought by myself was definitely haunted. I would come home from work to find all the ceiling fans on. A friend saw a little girl run through the dining room and disappear into the wall, My mom heard all kinds of loud noise coming from the kitchen but when she went in there, nothing was out of place. My nephew went to go into the dining room from the kitchen and couldn’t get the swinging service door to open, he said there was someone on the other side pushing it against him. I could go on and on! whoever it was was friendly and not scary, so we lived in harmony.
Cool stuff!
What a precious memory. Makes us all stop and think about what’s important to us. And the ghosts? Other than those that lurk in my mind, I’ve never had the experience. I’ve wanted to. I do dream about pets and people that have died but never seen a ghost. Great photo of you and Hannah. And now I’m hungry!
My Dad would have been 76 this year too, as you know I’ve lost him to this terrible disease too 14 years ago. And like you I still miss him.
How exciting that it’s your blogs 6th birthday tomorrow! Haven’t been around that long (6 years ago I hardly knew what a blog was) but glad I found you.
I liked the tribute to your father. My dad’s birthday is today, if he had lived longer then 43 years, he would be 96 today. See my blog at: http://cards4ubylouise.blogspot.com
As for ghosts….I believe those are evil demon spirits. There is a scripture in the Bible Ephesians 6:12 that says “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places.” I dealt with those evil spirits…33 years ago I was into the occult doing astrology, I had many books on all that junk.
I rededicated my life back to the Lord….someone said I needed to burn all those books, that there would be a dark cloud hanging over my home. So one night about midnight…I had just come home from a church service. I decided to burn the rest of books that I had started burning earlier in the afternoon in the incinerator outside. I Thought for sure I would have to start up the fire again but there was a tiny ember in the bottom of the container. So I started throwing some more books in there. The fire got bigger and bigger, suddenly I heard footsteps coming up the drive way and there was no one there….then I saw a couple of sets of eyes looking back at me from the woods……Oh my I got so scared, I through the rest of the books in the incinerator and ran into the house. The next morning all the books were burned.
So yeah…evil demon spirits, I certainly would not want to play with them. I don’t understand why people like to go to those scary movies, cause they are only opening themselves up to the evil in this world. Okay, I will get off my soap box.
Have a great day and keep looking up!!!
This whole thing is very confusing to me.
You say you don’t believe in ghosts, but you have seen them?
I believe in them but have never seen one. If I saw one I would ask them why are they here.
I need to find a woman that makes sense.
Oh lord ghost stuff — I have a story yes, but it still scares me too much to talk about it…it happened at this really strange resort in Indiana many years ago. A place called French Lick. Anywayyyy — FaceTime! isn’t it the best?! Since our daughter moved to Oregon in June I have fallen in love with FaceTime and being able to see our girl. <3 That second to the last paragraph about your blog being 6 years old almost makes me want to take the leap and have my own blog again. Wow….it IS kinda odd to think about kids and grandkids being able to look back at all these posts and follow your life! Hmmmmmmmmmmm….I wouldn't even know where to begin or what to say.
Sweet words to your dad!!
I’m glad you said that you hadn’t been forgetting your Fitbit – I was worried about your step count and hoped you were OK!!!
Umm…what is up with dead mice? I had to deal with one on my own the other day – fun times!!!
The house my father grew up in had “visitors”. I only stayed overnight there once and did not see or hear any ghosts but I was petrified from all the stories I had heard! It carries quite a different ambiance during the day or if other people are present…probably just my imagination!
Such a nice tribute to your Dad. I’m sure he’s smiling at you now. Do you ever feel his presence?
It’s funny that you would mention the topic of ghosts. I work on a locked psychiatric unit and most of us on the night shift have seen inexplicable things. The most commonly seen apparition is the woman who appears from the furthest room down the hall in a white nightgown. You can’t see her head only the billowing of her gown and her feet. It’s creepy. Then there is the dark man who comes out of a room where a man once hanged himself. The building I’m in is also a very old part of the hospital. Just last night the other nurse came down the hall from the bathroom with a skip in her step. She said she had felt something touching her hair almost brushing it upwards.
Another co-worker has the most interesting ghost stories. She and her husband have seen a male figure in their home. She hadn’t told her husband about the man although he appeared a few times. Then her husband saw him and turned pale. When she asked him about it he described the same male figure. There’s a lot more to the story too. They thought the man was gone but have recently seen him again. Two mornings ago they were in bed and their 1.5 year old had just crawled in with them. He was looking out towards the window when he said out of the clear blue the Polish name for grandfather (sorry I don’t know how to spell it). My co-worker’s husband called his grandfather that, but he died a while ago and now when he tells stories about him he says “my grandfather.” The point is that their son would have no way of knowing that word. Apparently he kept looking towards the window, smiling, laughing and saying the same word for grandfather. Weird!!
I love ghost stories!! Fascinating stuff.
You and Hannah are adorable together. Your hair is cute! And her head does look photoshopped. Glad you had a chance to see each other.
I remember his huge smile : )
Oh I didn’t realize your dad passed away at the same age as my dad, and we were basically the same age at the time! Sending lots of happy thoughts and prayers to you on the anniversary 🙂 PS I also packed a taco salad for lunch today with ranch and hot sauce!
I love me some Hannah..anyone that has a palindrome for a name is very cool in my book!
So sorry for the pangs of missing your dad. Mine was a deadbeat and I never knew him. So I love hearing about people who actually had loving and caring fathers.
I have not actually SEEN ghosts and if I ever did…well…I would be running in the opposite direction for days. But I have had some weird sensations and sounds/things that happen.
The craziest story is when we moved to PA and rented a house. My mom, brother and I. The owner was creepy and crazy looking. He told us kids like 4 times that we should explore the attic. It was basically a hole in the ceiling that you had to access from a ladder. He was insistent.
One day my crazy brother decides to do it! I begged him not to. But he kept thinking there was something cool we could find and play with. So he climbs the ladder and all we could see was black soot…I mean blacker than any shade of black I had ever seen. He stuck his whole head inside it. All of a sudden my brother says he doesn’t feel good and scrambles down the ladder. He went into his room and closed the door. So here I am maybe 13 years old…holding a ladder and looking up into a pitch black hole in the ceiling that had a chilly draft coming down towards my face.
I grabbed a broom and managed to wiggle it closed. I did not see my brother for the rest of the day. Woke up the next morning alone in the house. I was playing with my Barbies when my mother and brother came home. And I learned that he had taken an overdose of pills the night before and she had barely gotten him to the hospital in time to have his stomach pumped.
He never confirmed it. But I think something in the attic drove him to do it. Because he was 16 and totally normal until going up into the attic. Then within a few hours he took a whole bottle of my mother;s heart medication. We got him into a psych center that day and came home.
I begged my mother to sleep with me that night. But she wouldn’t. I guess she wanted to be alone or something. So I laid in my bed just thinking about things when I heard footsteps along the floor outside my room. I started smiling because I knew it was my mother trying to sneak into bed with me.
I got up thinking that I could surprise her first. I reached out into the hallway where the light switch was (and the attic door as well) and felt a hand covering the entire switch. I felt the fingers, knuckles and wrinkles of the skin. Again, I laughed and managed to sneak a finger in to switch on one of the lights. And there was no one there!
I wanted to check my mother but was too scared to go to her room. I hid under my blanket and listened to the footsteps all night until I fell asleep.
My mother eventually agreed that “something” was in that house and we moved within a few weeks.
A hard day to remember…but I love that you share so many “dad stories” with us. 🙂
What a heritage you had in your Dad and also have in your family. We may not have a lot of money in life, but if we have a loving family like your’s is….THAT IS THE TRUE RICHES of life. Even to have just a hubby who adores you makes you rich too. That is what you have in Tony and thankfully…..after 37 years, I have in my Hubs who is my best friend, lover and confidant. We are blessed indeed dear Biz, blessed indeed! My Mom who went to heaven seven years ago would always say it this way….”count your blessings, name them TON BY TON!” Blessings on your day, and I do so enjoy your blog….thanks!
Love you B! I miss dad tons too