THE UNEXPLAINED: Things that have happened that I will never understand (part deux)...

Hey y'all!

As I had stated previously in this post, I'd had a few other experiences that I would share with you. Now, as I stated before, most 'paranormal' things are nothing more than average everyday things that your imagination grabs hold of and runs with. That creepy noise in the attic? - boxes shifting. The water faucet that turns on by itself? - water pressure from the lines on a loose knob.

That being said, I had 3 experiences in one house in rural Virginia and then 2 incidents in a house in Newport News, VA. To save everyone on their Friend's Page, I'm placing these behind cuts... :-) No one can say I'm not courteous, right? LOL

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Right after I had our second daughter, my husband and I decided that the rent in Northern VA was just too insane and we decided to rent a place in the Shenandoah Valley area. It was goregous old farmhouse that was in need of some TLC but nothing major. The landlord was doing most of the work and so we didn't sweat it. It was a two-storey house with a celler. Not a basement, a celler. We didn't have a well, we had a cistern and one bedroom didn't even have lights or outlets in it! So as you can tell, it was an older home.

We had been living there about 6 weeks when my husband's best friend called and said that his unit (he was a Marine) was being sent to Operation Iraqi Freedom. His girlfriend/fiance needed a place to go and he was asking if she could stay with us for a while until they got everything figured out. We didn't have a problem with it and so a week later she drove from California to Virginia to live with us.

She had been there for about a week and we had moved the two kids into a room together and had her in the room with no lights and no outlets. I had just laid the girls down in their room in their cribs (they were 2.5 and 1.5 at the time) and had sat down with my husband and our roommate in the living room when we heard this sound that can only be described as how a washing machine that is off-balance sounds. I had been doing laundry earlier that day, but had been done for hours, so I knew it wasn't the washer. We all heard it and we were all confused.

I went upstairs to see if the girls were horsing around in their cribs, but when I got up there and quietly opened their door, they were sound asleep in their beds. What in the world...? I could still hear the noise, but it was very faint upstairs. I headed back down to the living room and I got closer to the first floor, the sound got steadily louder. When I reached the first floor, my husband and roommate were both standing in the kitchen staring at the celler door. They had determined that the noise was coming from there.

Instantly, visions of rednecks with chainsaws started flashing through my mind! (cut me some slack... I was 15 mins from the WV border, ok?? LOL!!) I looked at my husband and had a conversation that went like this:

ME: Someone needs to go down there and check it out.

HUSBAND: I'm not going down there!

ME: There could be someone down there! What if it's a squatter or something?!

HUSBAND: And what if it's not?

ME: 0.o (stink eye followed by the 'wife silence')

HUSBAND: Seriously! Baby, I'll fight 15 dudes and whoop some ass... But I ain't screwin' with no ghostiesesesesssss!

ROOMMATE: It could be an animal.

We all listen as the noise continues...

ME: Look, ONE of us has to go down and check it out!!

Not missing a beat, the two of them turn in unison and present me with a flashlight and the home phone, pre-dialed to 911

ME: FINE ya pussies! I'll do it!

I turn and put my hand on the door knob

ME: If I don't come back, you make sure you tell the kids I died because my husband and roommate too friggin' chicken to protect them!

I proceeded to open the door, turn on the flashlight and attempted to ignore every horror movie I have ever seen in my life where the stupid bimbo goes to check the scary noise in the basement and gets hacked to death with a machete. My only comfort was, I had a FLASHLIGHT and not a candle... LOL

The whole time I'm starting down the stairs, the noise, that gawdawful off-balance washing machine noise, was still going on, getting louder and louder. It took everything I had, I'll be honest, but I had to be sure there wasn't some rabid animal down there or some drugged out hobo living in our basement! - I had kids to worry about! I reach the final step, turn to go into the celler proper...

...and the noise stopped.

WTF??

I looked over every square inch of that celler... checked the washer (empty and dry inside), checked the windows (locked from the inside), searched for animal hidey-holes and found NOTHING!!! I never could figure it out!



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In that same house, if my husband and I ever argued, EVERY light in it would start flickering and stuttering. The second we'd stop and make up, the lights would act normal! If I was in the kitchen, the door to the front entry closet would open and slam shut! ALL THE TIME! Friends and family had even witnessed both of these take place. Can't explain it!



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In 2008, my husband and I rented a house in Newport News in a decently nice neighborhood. The house wasn't too old... maybe built in the 50's. We fell in love with it and had no problems with it until we had been there about 10 months. It was mid-June and our younger daughter had a dance recital that evening. I had left ahead with her and my husband, his mother and our oldest daughter and our 2 yr old son followed a little while later.

The dance recital was a great success and our daughter did amazing! We were so proud of her and after the recital, even though it was late, we all went out to Coldstone's for ice cream. We finally got home around 11 or so and my husband's mother went ahead and left to go back to her place in Northern VA. What we noticed at first was that when we pulled up, the front door was halfway open.

..uh huh.

Now, my MIL's dog, a massive 160+lb yellow lab/saint bernard mix was in there, so we figured someone had TRIED to break in, but found him and left. My husband went in, did a sweep of the house and it was empty and everything seemed fine. We helped his mom get loaded up and on the road and got the kids in bed. By this time, it was after midnight, but my husband and I were still kinda hyped up, so we went into the living room and started watching TV.

We had been settled there for about 15 mins, quietly talking, when I heard the upstairs neighbor get up and walk across to the kitchen area.

...

It took me a minute to realize, WTF?! - we're in a HOUSE! We don't have anyone living above us!!!

At that same moment, my husband paused the TV and asked me if I had heard something. I said I had... he asked me if it sounded like someone walking upstairs in the attic? I said yes, it did. It clearly sounded like someone had walked, upstairs, from the entry door area over the kitchen.

We both freaked out! I grabbed the kids and hauled ass outside while my husband called 911. We were both convinced that someone had hidden up there when they saw us come home from the recital! The police got there with their AR-15s, police dogs, etc... Lemme tell ya, NN police don't play when it comes to possible home invasions! They searched the house, the neighborhood and sent the dogs up into the attic.

Of course, they found nothing. Their answer? - boxes had shifted around.

Now, I could have bought that, but the path we heard the footsteps take, we had NOTHING over in that area. There were no signs of an animal (no skat, no scratchings, nothing!). We never did find out what caused it, but it was distinct and it was most definitely heavy, human footsteps!

Later that same year, in the Winter, my husband and I, as a spur of the moment thing, decided to pull out the sleeper sofa in the living room, light the fireplace and sleep out there that night. It got really late and we decided to turn off the TV and shut off the lights. I got up to turn off the lights while my husband turned off the TV. Now, keep in mind, this house had a family room in the back that we never used, but the kids used it as their playroom. It had its own TV, but the outlet had shorted out or SOMETHING and wouldn't turn on anymore. At any rate, the TV in the living room was shut off as I turned off the lights. I turned to get in the bed when I heard talking.

..huh?

My husband heard it, too! He asked me if the TV in the back was on? I leaned back, could still hear the 'conversation', but no; the TV wasn't on. WTH is going on?? My husband and I could distinctly hear a man and a woman talking. It was loud enough to hear, but not so loud that we could hear what was being said. My husband got up and walked outside to see if there were some people hanging around the house, but no! - conversation didn't stop and there was no one out there.

I walked through the house, thinking maybe a radio was on or something... nothing. Whatever it was, we couldn't locate it. I was finally so officially freaked out, I went to bed! LOL I figured if I was going to be eaten by something, I'd rather be asleep for it.

We never heard it after that, though.

THE UNEXPLAINED: Things that have happened that I will never understand...

Up until I was about 16 or so, I didn't really believe in the paranormal. Even now, I'm more likely to search for a 'normal' explanation of something that has happened rather than immediately jump on the "It's A Ghost!!" boat. I'm the one that always scoffs during the episodes of 'Ghost Hunters' and 'Ghost Adventures' and I'm sorry, but I never hear about 95% of these EVPs that they supposedly get. I'm almost 36 yrs old and I will be the first to admit, however, that through the years, I have had several experiences that defy basic, normal reasons for why they have happened. I am going to include, below the cut, a few of them and ask that I get your opinions of them. Maybe I'm missing something from the equation that I haven't thought of before? I don't know...



Having had a father that worked for a government contractor, I ended up spending most of my adolescent years in the country of Turkey. My parents and I had just moved into a new house out near the beach shortly after my 16th birthday when it was decided that I needed to come back to the States for some school testing. Why is this information important? Because I didn't *know* the house was haunted. I hadn't really lived there.

I moved back to Turkey approximately six months after we had originally moved into the new house there. It was late October, and as it was usually cool in the evenings, I slept with my windows shut and locked. I routinely checked these every night before I would even consider going to sleep. In order for my bedroom door to stay shut, you had to lock it from the inside. Again, I slept with the door shut, so therefore, it was locked. I distinctly remember checking it before I went to bed.

Anyways, I'm laying there, in bed, sound asleep, kind of on my back but on my side too, and something wakes me up. It's cool in the room and extremely quiet. That was the first thing that tipped me off that something wasn't right. I rolled over onto my back and lifted my head up and looked down at the foot of my bed. The room was bright since there was a full moon and I could clearly see that there was *someone* sitting at the foot of my bed. I could feel the weight of them sitting there. I remember thinking to myself "Uh huh, that's fascinating." and then I rolled over and went back to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up, and looked and I could see where someone had been there, sitting at the foot of the bed. What was weird... The windows were all still locked tight, from the inside and the bedroom door was still locked.

The incident, 19+ years later, is still crystal clear in my mind. I still get a little freaked out about it if I sit and analyze it too much.

But I did find out that the house was built on an old Turkish cemetery. That would explain the other things that took place in that house (possibly??), not only to me, but to my other family members as well.


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Shortly after the above experience, I was getting ready to go up to the base (my father worked on a base called Sinop. It was an Army/Navy base that has since closed down and reverted to Turkish military use) and my parents were already up there waiting for me. It was bitter cold in the house, as they basically built the homes with cinder blocks and plaster but not insulation, etc and this was late Fall/early Winter. Because it was so cold, I had locked the one cat in the living room with the dog and made sure that the door was secured. I took MY cat into the bathroom, closed the door so he couldn't get out, and started my shower.

As I was in the shower, washing the conditioner out of my hair, I noticed that the water got cold what seemed really quickly. I figured I had been in the shower longer than I thought and quickly finished up. As I got out of the shower, I could hear water running, but thought nothing of it and passed it off as the tub draining, etc. I walked out onto the 2nd floor landing of the house, wrapped in a towel and the cat in my arms, and stopped. I could clearly hear water running, fast. Puzzled, I put the cat in my room, grabbed my robe from the back of my door, and headed downstairs where the sound was coming from.

I reached the bottom of the stairs and the first thing I noticed was that the living room door was still closed tight. Completely confused, I walked into the kitchen and found the hot water faucet in the sink turned on FULL BLAST. Freaked out, I reached and turned off the water and turned to go back upstairs to get dressed and get the hell out of the house, when the water turned on AGAIN. At that point, I called a cab, got dressed (sans makeup and drying hair) and hauled ass out there!!


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The last DISTINCT one that took place was on New Year's Eve. Sinop is a harbor town and ships will come in and anchor in the harbor whenever there is a bad storm blowing in. This particular year, we had a blizzard on it's way and the harbor was packed full of ships (tankers, cargo ships, fishing trowlers, etc). My oldest sister (she was the only one other than myself that was still in Turkey at this point) and I were in the living room watching a movie, while our parents were in the dining area (but in the same 'room' technicially) playing a game.

We noticed that midnight was approaching and it had just started snowing. Gathering up the champagne from the balcony outside (it was so cold, it had chilled quite nicely! LOL) and locking the door to the balcony, I walked over to windows and watched the ships getting ready for the New Year. I could see all of their lights coming on, etc and since there were so many of them, it was like a starry night out on the water. At this point, it was almost eerily calm as it was just snowing, the harbor waters were calm and the storm hadn't actualy hit yet.

We started counting down til midnight and as it hit midnight, all the ships in the harbor began blowing their horns, etc, announcing the New Year. At that EXACT MOMENT, every window and door to our house blew open and this massive wind, out of nowhere just blew through the house! As soon as the horns in the harbor stopped, the wind stopped. All four of us could only stare around in shock! We couldn't even say anything! We went around, closed everything up so that the animals didn't get out and went to bed. I mean, what else could we do, you know??


I can't explain these things... Most everything I can explain away. Since I moved back to the States right before I turned 17, I have had like 4 other things happen that I just can't explain.

TBC...