The "Other" Side

As a little girl, I loved to read. I look back and I did everything I could to get my hands on books to read. My summers were spent reading and some playing outside, but I remember thinking I would rather read than be outside in the heat. My favorite books were mysteries, especially ghost stories. I think I read Christina's Ghost at least 3-4 times per school year. Ironically I still don't own a copy of the book. Another book by Betty Ren Wright was The Dollhouse Murders. Really anything I could find with a ghost story and a mystery--fact or fiction--I was anxious to read.

When we moved to the "old house" in Llano, we were told there were "spirits" in the house. I didn't believe it, though there was a part of me that wanted to believe it. While I am not sure if there are really spirits there, a few weird things happened while we lived there that made me question if they were really there. The TV would often turn off if you left the room and sometimes the doors would shut.

Two things happened that really made me think someone or something was there. One night, in the middle of the night the TV turned on. To a station of nothing but static. The weird thing is the TV was one of those really old kind that ONLY turned on when you turned the knob. You know, the kind before remotes. The on/off knob was also the volume, so when you turned it on, the volume was very low and you had to continue turning to increase the volume. Well the TV turned on to a static station at FULL volume. And it was in the added on room that had an exterior door and lock and the door was locked and no one was sleeping in that room that night. I am not sure anyone really slept in that room again.

The other thing was in the detached garage. My dad was in there working and went in the house for a moment. When he came back, there was an old knife on the floor in the middle of the doorway of the garage. No doors were shut, so nothing could have knocked it loose. Just weird.

In December 2011, Kyle's grandmother passed away. Taryne was a little over 2, but pretty vocal on most things. At the church, she talked about the angel in the front of the church. The only angel was the small one on the nativity set on the side of the church. She insisted and pointed to the front, up high and told us there was an angel there. This lasted before, during and after the service. Kyle suggested that it could be Mamaw and Taryne quickly agreed. I had quite a bit of trouble keeping myself together during the service. I am sure part of it was being pregnant, but the other part was her constant pointing at the angel in the church, that only she could see.

When we moved in the the apartment our first year in Knoxville, Taryne constantly talked about the "shadows" in her bedroom at night. At first we thought it was just getting used to a new room and getting to the age where normal shadows scare little kids. When we moved to our current town home, the shadow talk stopped immediately. We thought she might continue since it was a new space, but she has not brought it up once.

Why am I writing about all of this? Well, Taryne recently mentioned the "shadows" from the apartment and that she was glad we didn't live there anymore. I asked her if they bothered her and she said no, just scared her. I really makes me wonder what, or who, those shadows were and I am now really glad to not be living there anymore! To be quite honest, I was surprised she remembered it. She even brought up the angel in the church. I was truly amazed she remembered both of these. It has been over a year since we lived in that apartment and over 2 1/2 years since the funeral.

Savannah, GA

In October, we made our first trip to Savannah, GA. I gave a presentation on religion in sports comedies at a popular culture conference. After my presentation, we enjoyed the evening with dinner with some seafood. On Saturday, we took Taryne and Hayden to the beach. This was their first trip to the beach. It was the first trip to an Atlantic beach for any of us. It was early October, but the water was pretty chilly. The most amazing thing about the beach was the sand dollars.

As a kid, we would often find small pieces of sand dollars on the beach in Galveston, but I had never seen a whole one on the beach...only in a souvenir shop. As we were playing in the sand and searching for shells, this girl came up to me and handed me something. It was this dark brownish-gray color and I honestly didn't know what it was. I must have looked confused because she told me it was a sand dollar. Really? It was whole! Then I realized it was ALIVE! That freaked me out a little. I went to hand it back to her and she told me to keep it. I then asked where she found it. She said out in the water just under the sand. Really? Later as we were on the edge of the water, I noticed a few of the air bubbles popping up were in a circle...so I quickly dug a little of the sand away and there was another sand dollar.

After the beach, we went back to the hotel for a small nap and then to downtown Savannah to check out the squares. There are a little over 20 squares around the downtown area. Each one has a unique feature and story. After a lot of walking, we had dinner and decided to call it a night. I think we thoroughly wore out Taryne and Hayden that day!

Olympic statue...the sailing competition from the 1996 Summer Olympics was held in Savannah

Tybee Island

Sort of blurry, but one of the sand dollars

She wanted to hold the bird so bad!

Visiting DC

My sister, Tanya, and her husband, Charlie were expecting their second little girl in May. They (and my niece Theia) live in the DC area and now that we are closer (closer than TX) we finally made the trip to visit and meet my new niece.

Taryne, Hayden and myself left early to make the 8 hour drive to DC. It was a crazy drive and a long drive, but the drive was beautiful! I loved driving through Virginia. Despite all the stops (have you been on a road trip with a 3 year old and a 1 year old?) for diaper changes and potty breaks and drinks, we finally made it!

I had high hopes to see a few specific things in DC, but with all the craziness of 3 small children and 2 adults (me and my mom) who had never been to DC before, my plans were altered and we only visited the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. I really wanted to see the Declaration of Independence but the line to get in the building was super long. 

I was able to meet my sweet new niece, Miss Adeline Grace. Taryne and Hayden had a ball playing with Theia and Mimi. I hope we can go back soon to see more of DC and both of my nieces.

The "twins" Theia and Taryne

Riding the train to DC

Sweet little Adeline

Tanya, Adeline and Mimi

Holding little Adeline 

The Natural History Museum

 I have no idea what buildings these were but they were beautiful!

The National Monument

(under construction)

Alliums...so beautiful!

 National Archives

Water feature in the Sculpture Garden

Splash Pad in Rockville, MD

This is my favorite picture from the trip!

We were so glad to see this on our way home! Just 2 hours to Knoxville from this sign!

I am so thankful we were able to visit and meet the newest addition to the family!