The Haunting

For those of you who don't know, we live in a hundred year old house.  It's beautiful and charming with original wood trim, two fireplaces, french doors in the kitchen, hardwood floors, picture windows and a ghost.  Not to worry, she is very kind with a great sense of humor.  She adores the boys and plays games with them when they are supposed to be napping.  Some days she's in Jack's room and I can hear him  over the baby monitor say "Boo!"  and then squeal with laughter.  When she's with Mitch you don't need the monitor to hear him laughing.  These are the days that I'm less than happy with having a house guest because if the boys don't get a nap, the rest of my day is just plain chaos.  Any other time we really don't mind having her here.  She is never really scary or even threatening.  Sometimes you catch glimpses from the corner of your eye and your heart will kind of skip a beat, your lungs will stop functioning and you make a garbled sound in the back of your throat that might have been an expletive if you hadn't have been caught off guard.  But when you regain your faculties, you can almost hear her laughing at you.  I like her.   Her name is Tracey and she only has one arm because of a tragic farming accident in her childhood.  I know this, not because we've had seances but because during a baby shower held here for my friend, I met an older woman who told me about the previous resident and how she had visited this house when her friend was still among the living.  She also informed me that Tracey had died here, so we are pretty sure  the person she described is our ghost.  Jordan and I were actually thrilled with this information because having a name for her changed everything.  She is now an honorary member of the family who gets addressed by name on certain occasions.  Apparently Halloween is her favorite time of year because she is out in full force lately.  I guess it's her moment to shine.  We have a doormat that screams when someone steps on it that is her new favorite toy.  It is activated only with pressure on the weight sensor, but at times I've stood in the foyer and looked out the window at an empty porch while the doormat is screaming every 15 to 30 seconds.  A few times the door has even slowly swung open after the doormat goes off.  That's a special kind of spooky, let me tell you.  It's like she's saying "Honey, I'm home!"  I know she's reading over my shoulder right now because the 'activity' during my writing this has escalated.  The doormat has been going nonstop, the broom fell out of the CLOSED pantry cupboard and we had a mini brown out.  I think she's excited that I'm talking about her.  The hard part is trying to figure out if she is flattered excited or upset excited.  I'm wondering if I should even bother posting this....  I'm going to go with the logic that if she wanted to lay low, she would have.  I think she likes the attention.  Am I right Tracey?