29 and Doing Fine

Today is Greg's #29 Birthday--just one more year until the big 3-0! You may notice that something is missing from the picture with the birthday cake: candles. Unfortunately Greg has a nasty cold and had to spend his birthday at home feeling sick :-( So he didn't want to share his germs with me by blowing out candles. We decided that we'll wait until he is feeling better before we have his birthday dinner. The barking birthday card that Mom and Dad sent is a big hit with Greg and especially the dogs! They go crazy when we open the card and dogs start barking "Happy Birthday." It is sooooo funny.

Another member of our family has been a bit under the weather as well. Poor Tiger Lily had to get declawed on Monday. She was going crazy with her claws on our new carpet, and she also destroyed a chair of Greg's (luckily it was old and falling apart anyway), but we realized that before getting a new couch, Lily's claws would need to go. It was a very traumatic experience for Lily and for me though. Greg had to work on Monday, so I took Lily up to the vet in Petersburg by myself. She was NOT happy. Then I worried about her all day and all night. I took Tuesday off of work so that I could pick her up and be with her during the day, but I wasn't quite prepared for the situation I encountered at the vet that morning. I told the vet that I was there to pick up Tiger Lily, and she said, "Ooooh, yes, she is not happy with us." When we walked back to the kitty cage, Lily's ears were flat against her head and she was growling and hissing. The poor kitty was so scared. The vet left the room, and I talked to Lily for a few minutes. After a little while she realized that I was there to take her home, so instead of growling she started doing her said little "meow" cry. It was so sad! I wrapped her up in a blanket, and she gave the vet a nice good-bye hiss on the way out. She was very drowsy, and I set up a nice kitty condo for her in the guest bathroom. She just chilled in the bathtub/kitty bed with her new snuggle bear all day, and I was so relieved and happy when she started eating and purring. I think that she was just really scared and upset about having to stay overnight at the vet. Her little paws are very tender, but she's been walking around a bit today. She still sleeps a lot, but we think she's perking up. Poor Sweetie! She is so cute and cuddly. Right now she is sleeping on her back right next to me. Luckily she's been getting a lot of tuna fish and kitty treats--kind of like getting loads of ice cream when you get your tonsils out.

The Great Ghost Hunt

160 years ago today was a very sad day at the Lincoln Home. Little Eddie, the Lincoln's second son, died at 6:00 in the morning on February 1, 1850. He was just one month short of his fourth birthday. It is generally accepted today that Eddie was sick with tuberculosis. He had been sick for 52 long days before his death. Friends and family came to the home to comfort the grieving Abraham and Mary Lincoln. Robert was six years old and didn't fully comprehend what had happened to his little brother. There are accounts of Mary crying and pacing the house all afternoon. In such a nervous state, she started pulling one hair from her head at a time. Eddie's body would have been washed, dressed, and placed in a small coffin. Embalming wasn't really common yet, so they would have put herbs and flowers around the room to help with the smell. His funeral and burial took place the very next day. Unfortunately this was only the first of many losses the Lincolns would endure. So, on the 160th anniversary of such a sad event, a few of the rangers wanted to do a little paranormal investigating to see if we could make contact with any sorrowing spirits. I haven't finished going through all of the video and audio evidence we gathered, but we didn't really have any unusual experiences while we were in there. I did take the picture shown above, which has a weird thing there on the left side--it looks especially cool in the inverted picture. We thought we might have captured something in this picture, but then I was able to duplicate the picture several times, so it must just be some sort of reflection from the camera flash. It's still pretty cool looking though. I will be sure to let you all know if the audio and video data produces anything interesting. This is the second paranormal investigation Ranger David and I have done at the Lincoln Home. The last time was in November, and we had a couple of really crazy experiences. I didn't have my camera with me that day, but we did have a digital voice recorder. At one point I asked if whomever was there with us could knock on something. David and I were standing in the upstairs back hallway of the home, and we heard six very distinct knocks right behind David. It was insane! We even captured the whole sequence on the recorder. A little later that day we asked if whomever was with us could open or close a door. We clearly heard the broom closet door downstairs close (it hadn't been open when we had gone upstairs). The voice recorder picked that up too. Unfortunately we didn't have a video camera that day--so we were sure to have one focused on the broom closet door today. We didn't hear any door opening or closing today, but I still need to finish going through all of the video evidence we captured. So anyway, it is all quite intriguing. There is a lot of controversy surrounding paranormal activity, but I personally believe that in places where a lot of happiness or sadness was experienced, spirits can still have some sort of connection with that place.