Speaker 1: What's up, guys. Welcome to the Grangersmith Podcast, Episode twenty nine.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, Thanks for watching on YouTube. I'm sitting
Speaker 1: here in the parking lot backseat of Wildflower my bus.
Speaker 1: We're in Wisconsin, huge festival coming. I could see people
Speaker 1: bringing their launcheers in. This is going to be crazy.
Speaker 1: It's only eleven am and there's already a massive front
Speaker 1: row and we start at seven pm tonight. This is
Speaker 1: going to be one of the biggest never mind, I forgot.
Speaker 1: We're in the shutdown. I'm here at my house. No touring,
Speaker 1: no word about touring, no word when touring might even
Speaker 1: come back. So, by the way, if you hear someone
Speaker 1: talk about I hear concerts aren't going to come back
Speaker 1: until whenever. Just remember, no one knows. Everything you hear
Speaker 1: is speculation right now, So if someone tells you they
Speaker 1: heard a rumor that concerts are not coming until X
Speaker 1: amount of time, that's just somebody guessing. That's maybe a promoter,
Speaker 1: or maybe a musician or somebody. They're all just guessing.
Speaker 1: We don't know. Now. My thought is I would like
Speaker 1: to think here I go. Now I'm doing exactly what
Speaker 1: I just told you not to listen to I'm guessing
Speaker 1: here that we're going to be touring sometime in June,
Speaker 1: and I would suspect that it's going to be somewhere
Speaker 1: in the Midwest, maybe one of the states that never
Speaker 1: closed down, which is like Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota,
Speaker 1: I believe, Utah, or there's a bunch there's like eight
Speaker 1: states that haven't closed. I'm guessing it's one of those
Speaker 1: kind of states. Everyone six feet apart wearing masks, and
Speaker 1: that I imagine that first show we go back me
Speaker 1: taking a picture from the stage and it looking like
Speaker 1: the apocalypse. But the good news is any day now
Speaker 1: we're gonna have ye mask coming into the store, so
Speaker 1: at least will all be uniformed, and at least the
Speaker 1: crowd will be wearing a yee, a black with white
Speaker 1: ye yee across the mask. What a time to be alive.
Speaker 1: Other than that, you know, I've kind of just come
Speaker 1: to I've come to grips with the reality of where
Speaker 1: we are and what we're doing. I'm past the shock of,
Speaker 1: oh my god, we're not touring. When are we going
Speaker 1: to tour? Is it two weeks? Is it three weeks?
Speaker 1: Is it four weeks is it two months? I'm past
Speaker 1: all that. I'm more accepting that this is a time
Speaker 1: to grow my faith. This is a time to grow
Speaker 1: my YouTube channels. This is the time to build a
Speaker 1: relationship with the listeners and the viewers and provide some
Speaker 1: kind of value to you. It's also time to write songs.
Speaker 1: It's also time to produce songs. I'm making a few
Speaker 1: brand new songs right now, whether or not i'm writing
Speaker 1: them or I have some I've already written that are
Speaker 1: being produced by band members, and we're all doing it virtually,
Speaker 1: which is what I've always done anyway. I've always saying
Speaker 1: things here, I'll email the tracks, somebody will in their
Speaker 1: in their home studio, they'll put on the drums, they'll
Speaker 1: email it to a bass player, you know. So I've
Speaker 1: always done that. I've done that since two thousand and seven.
Speaker 1: That's nothing new, Uh, But I just want to I
Speaker 1: just want to say that, you know, and before I
Speaker 1: move on. Spending time with family, that's been something I'm
Speaker 1: really trying to focus on and something that is rare
Speaker 1: for me to be home every night. I've been reading
Speaker 1: stories to London every night. We've been reading right now
Speaker 1: We've been reading Where the Red Fern Grows, and with
Speaker 1: Lincoln we talk about fighting and battles and superheroes and
Speaker 1: really into the Avengers. Right now, we went from Star
Speaker 1: Wars to the Avengers. So all this this is on
Speaker 1: the Disney app, which I'm I'm not trying to sponsor here,
Speaker 1: but we're looked. We're hooked on that Disney app because
Speaker 1: it has Marvel, it has Star Wars. So that's kind
Speaker 1: of where we are, and we all just need to
Speaker 1: take a deep breath every once in a while and
Speaker 1: kind of focus in on where we are today and
Speaker 1: remember to reject the idea of a new normal. Stop
Speaker 1: listening to that. Guys. If someone says this is the
Speaker 1: new normal or we're working our way towards the new normal,
Speaker 1: reject that idea. It's crap. I don't want to hear
Speaker 1: any about a new normal. This is very rare. We're
Speaker 1: living in history right now. We're living a historic time
Speaker 1: that we'll be remembered. We'll be looked back on this
Speaker 1: and we'll think how crazy it is. But it's not
Speaker 1: the new normal. It's not the beginning of a new normal.
Speaker 1: We're not going to never shake hands again. We're not
Speaker 1: going to wear masks everywhere we go, We're not going
Speaker 1: to social distance all the time. We're not gonna keep
Speaker 1: taking checks from the government. What. No, it's not new normal.
Speaker 1: This is a crazy reality of living and that's what
Speaker 1: it is. So just beware everybody, beware of what you're hearing.
Speaker 1: And also remember, just as I said with touring, how
Speaker 1: no one knows when we're gonna start touring. Guess what,
Speaker 1: no one knows about this virus either. No one knows
Speaker 1: the infection rate, no one knows the death rate. We
Speaker 1: just know there's all kinds of speculations about the deaths
Speaker 1: and the pre existing conditions. And guess what I heard
Speaker 1: from my bus driver Butch. Yesterday a reputable article came
Speaker 1: out talking about the testing, talking about these tests and
Speaker 1: a massive amount of tests that went out from the
Speaker 1: CDC that were tainted with the virus on the test.
Speaker 1: What seriously, I read it myself, I saw it my
Speaker 1: own eyes. Reputable. Now is it fake news? I don't know, maybe,
Speaker 1: but it's out there. That information is out there, and
Speaker 1: there was quoting sources on how they found the CDC
Speaker 1: was sending out test tainted with the virus itself. Just
Speaker 1: because I'm talking about this means this podcast probably will
Speaker 1: not be heard. It's going to get sucked into a
Speaker 1: vortex wormhole and spit out, and my algorithm's going to
Speaker 1: die and no one's actually going to hear it except
Speaker 1: for the hardcore fans. Because that's also the thing that's
Speaker 1: happening is our social media is being monitored, cell phones
Speaker 1: are being monitored. It's not the new normal, guys. Let
Speaker 1: me get on task here. I want to talk to
Speaker 1: you about the sponsor of this podcast, episode twenty nine,
Speaker 1: Yee Yee Apparel, which, by the way, we have a
Speaker 1: new web address. It's yee dot com, so you could
Speaker 1: find this stuff at grangersmith dot com, earldiblis Junior dot com,
Speaker 1: eee apparel dot com, and now ye Ye dot com.
Speaker 1: Y e e y e e dot com makes it
Speaker 1: super simple. It took us several years to acquire that email,
Speaker 1: that website address because it was it was owned by
Speaker 1: some dude. He's he's owned it for you know, ten
Speaker 1: or twelve years or something like that. So we we've
Speaker 1: been on him trying to negotiate how we can finally
Speaker 1: take a hold of that u ur L and we
Speaker 1: got it so ye dot com. It's it's easy to remember.
Speaker 1: It's also just gonna shoot you over to ee apparel
Speaker 1: dot com right now if you go there, if you
Speaker 1: go to EG dot com, if you look at some
Speaker 1: of our apparel, I will admit that right now, currently
Speaker 1: it appears like we are sold out of almost everything.
Speaker 1: We have a bunch of hats, but if you're looking
Speaker 1: for shirts, it looks like we're almost sold out of
Speaker 1: everything that is actually by design. This is a new
Speaker 1: business mind that were that we have been doing, my brothers,
Speaker 1: Tyler and Parker and I. It is extremely expensive and
Speaker 1: very difficult to keep a whole bunch of stuff constantly
Speaker 1: stocked on the shelves. And our business manager, our accountant
Speaker 1: was would always freak out because throughout the year three
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty five days, we would have shelves that
Speaker 1: were really stocked with triple X, double x, XL, large, medium, small, extra, small, kids, youth,
Speaker 1: whatever and everything, and we would we would make a
Speaker 1: conscious effort to keep it stocked, keep it stopped, keep it,
Speaker 1: you know, keep new new sizes coming in, new new
Speaker 1: designs coming in. And it was really it was really difficult,
Speaker 1: and it spread us really thin, and it was stressful,
Speaker 1: and and you imagine if you're trying to act like
Speaker 1: your Walmart and keeping your your shelves stocked, it's just
Speaker 1: not a good business model. So we switched to a
Speaker 1: new business model, which a lot of you have probably noticed.
Speaker 1: And what that is, what that has meant for us
Speaker 1: is that we're going to do major launches with new
Speaker 1: apparel and new lines about five times a year. So
Speaker 1: for instance, we just did Ye Day, and we just
Speaker 1: did the spring launch before that, and then before that
Speaker 1: is was probably I think we did like a twenty
Speaker 1: twenty New Year blowout, and then before that, of course
Speaker 1: is Black Friday. And then so coming up, we have
Speaker 1: our next big release is June the twelfth. That's our
Speaker 1: summer release. So if you mark that on your calendar,
Speaker 1: if you're a fan of Yee Apparel, then mark June
Speaker 1: the twelfth on your calendar, and that is going to
Speaker 1: be the next big release with all new items. That's
Speaker 1: when Amber has a bunch of new items and we
Speaker 1: have a bunch of men's stuff, a bunch of youth stuff,
Speaker 1: and we will launch that. So what we do our
Speaker 1: business model is we launch it all on June twelfth
Speaker 1: and try to pick a number that we could sell
Speaker 1: everything we have. And now that number floats and we
Speaker 1: try to make it up as we go. But as
Speaker 1: you saw from Yee Day and we just did we
Speaker 1: just did that launch. We sold out of almost everything
Speaker 1: in like five minutes of the launch. We launched at
Speaker 1: ten am on June seventeenth, or excuse me, April seventeenth,
Speaker 1: and we sold out of almost everything in about five minutes. Now,
Speaker 1: we didn't expect to sell out that soon. We were
Speaker 1: hoping it would sell out in like a week. So
Speaker 1: what that means for us is we just need to
Speaker 1: raise the inventory a little bit, or raise what we order,
Speaker 1: and hopefully on June the twelfth, you'll be able to
Speaker 1: get in that day ee dot com, find what you
Speaker 1: want in the size that you want, and you'll you
Speaker 1: could get it like in a course of about five days.
Speaker 1: If you order within like five day window, you'll get it.
Speaker 1: That being said, I would highly encourage on June the twelfth,
Speaker 1: you go pretty early. Knowing the fans that we have
Speaker 1: Ye Nation is unbelievable. But I'm trying to explain if
Speaker 1: you've been following us for a long time, that's why
Speaker 1: you go to the store now and everything looks sold out,
Speaker 1: and it's a little frustrating, but at the same time
Speaker 1: it really helps us to drive everything in big spurts
Speaker 1: and then sell out and then we're not holding on
Speaker 1: to cash inventory on our shelves and we're able to
Speaker 1: use that instead to go back into new designs. So
Speaker 1: what you can do in the meantime the most impactful
Speaker 1: thing you could do to support us, or if you're
Speaker 1: just if you love the brand, you could join our
Speaker 1: Shirt of the Month club. It's like twenty bucks a
Speaker 1: month something like that, and you tell us your size,
Speaker 1: and then every month, at the first of the month,
Speaker 1: we ship out your brand new shirt that is not
Speaker 1: for Stelle on the store, it's not for sale anywhere else.
Speaker 1: It's exclusive to the Shirt of the Month club. So
Speaker 1: we work really hard on those designs. We go through
Speaker 1: these designs and and kind of hand pick what we
Speaker 1: think is the best for that month. And then one
Speaker 1: day you're gonna go out to your mailbox. You're gonna
Speaker 1: open up the box and there's your new, brand new
Speaker 1: shirt of the month in your size. And I think
Speaker 1: it's really awesome. It's gone over really well. I love
Speaker 1: all of the shirts, and it's great for this new
Speaker 1: business model where most of the things are going to
Speaker 1: stay sold out. You are going to get your own
Speaker 1: shirt every month no matter what. You don't even have
Speaker 1: to look it up. So the other thing I need
Speaker 1: to say. The last thing I'll say about EE a
Speaker 1: Peril is that the EE Day sale went so fast
Speaker 1: on April seventeenth that sold out in five minutes. So
Speaker 1: we are because that was our mistake. We didn't have
Speaker 1: enough inventory. Then what we are going to do is
Speaker 1: we are restocking some of the fastest sellers from that
Speaker 1: day any day now. So on EE dot com any
Speaker 1: day now from when you hear this or watch this podcast,
Speaker 1: be checking on that site, and suddenly those fastest sellers
Speaker 1: are going to pop back up in stock again. So
Speaker 1: all that being said, thank you so much for the support.
Speaker 1: We're so grateful during this crazy time that we have
Speaker 1: this apparel company that me and my brothers started from scratch,
Speaker 1: and it's we're so passionate about it. And what we
Speaker 1: always try to preach is that we're selling a lifestyle
Speaker 1: and it is something that has become bigger than any
Speaker 1: of one of us individually, or the music or any videos.
Speaker 1: It's it truly is Ye Nation, and it truly is
Speaker 1: a group of like minded people that love to live
Speaker 1: life to the fullest. And to me, that's always what
Speaker 1: it's really been about. I'm excited about this podcast today,
Speaker 1: episode twenty nine. I'm bringing the special guests who most
Speaker 1: of you know, Amber, my wife, and I was just
Speaker 1: thinking about it last night. I was like, what should
Speaker 1: I talk about on the podcast? And I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: we have several stories in our lives about signs from above,
Speaker 1: talking signs, spiritual signs from heaven, whether it's an answered prayer,
Speaker 1: whether it's an absolute surprise, a reminder, a memory, a dream.
Speaker 1: But I believe these things are very real and we
Speaker 1: have we have a couple of stories I'd love to
Speaker 1: share with you. So that's what we're gonna do. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get Amber in here. Welcome to the Granger Smith Podcast.
Speaker 1: All right. I got Amber with me and we were
Speaker 1: together a lot on The Smiths, So we got to
Speaker 1: make it different. If people watch us the smith you
Speaker 1: got to make it different. Thanks for having me. Oh
Speaker 1: you're welcome, young guests. So I was thinking last night
Speaker 1: what should we do for this podcast? And I think like,
Speaker 1: one of the cool things that we have a lot
Speaker 1: of it in our story is these signs that we
Speaker 1: see from above, signs from above, and I don't write
Speaker 1: them down. Do you write? You write about got a journal,
Speaker 1: and so I brought you because I could tell a
Speaker 1: couple and you could tell a couple and you could
Speaker 1: help me remember mine. So do you want to go
Speaker 1: first for me? Let's do it? Well, you can start
Speaker 1: so so as you're listening to these guys also, and
Speaker 1: I kind of grew up here in these My mom
Speaker 1: is very, very spiritual, So she has a ton of
Speaker 1: these kind of stories and so I've heard them my
Speaker 1: whole life, and she's she's so spiritually connected that she
Speaker 1: has a story after story that will just blow you away.
Speaker 1: It's like, how does a human even do that? But
Speaker 1: I think we all have that capability to be to
Speaker 1: hear God's voice and or angels or however you want
Speaker 1: to look at it. But I feel like if you're
Speaker 1: not if you're not aware of it, if you're not
Speaker 1: listening for it, if you're not paying attention, then it's impossible.
Speaker 1: It's the same with remembering dreams. Some people can remember
Speaker 1: their dreams really, really well. And some people are like,
Speaker 1: I don't even dream, Well, you just have to kind
Speaker 1: of be connected to that, be aware. So what I
Speaker 1: was going to say is, if you're listening to this
Speaker 1: or watching this and you have your own stories, comment
Speaker 1: below and I'd love to hear your stories too. Sorry
Speaker 1: about roomy. Yeah, and be and also being open to it.
Speaker 1: I think just having your heart and your eyes and
Speaker 1: your ears and your mind open to receiving those signs
Speaker 1: is kind of a big step too. So do you
Speaker 1: want to start with your signs? Yeah? You want to
Speaker 1: start with or are we talking about signs all in general?
Speaker 1: Like your dad? Yeah, it's like what mom says or
Speaker 1: you know, there's no such thing as coincident those kind
Speaker 1: of signs, only appointments. Yeah, So we have about twenty
Speaker 1: five minutes and I will start. I guess I'll tell
Speaker 1: the story about one of them was really meaningful from
Speaker 1: my dad. And I was on tour and I was
Speaker 1: went to a meet and greet and I met a family,
Speaker 1: and I meet a lot of families that have lost somebody,
Speaker 1: and this always happened, and it's always just as impactful
Speaker 1: for me to meet these families and hear their stories
Speaker 1: and I've got to the point where I could recognize
Speaker 1: them when they walk in. I could just know. I
Speaker 1: know the look on a family's face when they're walking
Speaker 1: in and they're about to tell me that they lost
Speaker 1: someone and they're coming to the concert to celebrate their life,
Speaker 1: either because they love they love getting out and celebrating
Speaker 1: with country music, or specifically because that person loved my
Speaker 1: band and we are now a living embodiment of their passion.
Speaker 1: Ye ye, So I see that a lot. And this
Speaker 1: one particular time, I saw the family come in, and
Speaker 1: this was a young girl that died in a car accident,
Speaker 1: and I actually knew her. She was a fan. She'd
Speaker 1: been to mini meet and greets, and they brought they
Speaker 1: brought their daughter, the girl's daughter, and she was like
Speaker 1: like a three four And I went through the meet
Speaker 1: and greet and the little girl had a little sign
Speaker 1: for me that said, my mommy was a fan, now
Speaker 1: I'm the fan. And it was just hitting me so hard,
Speaker 1: and I was like trying to hold back tears and
Speaker 1: trying to be connected with this family and be aware
Speaker 1: and be present with them, and at the same time,
Speaker 1: I was kind of fighting my own emotions on it's
Speaker 1: just difficult knowing that I had one person that loved
Speaker 1: your music and now they're gone, and you know how
Speaker 1: bad that family's hurting. So I went back to the bus.
Speaker 1: Needless to say, I was just really frustrated and upset
Speaker 1: and emotional, and I was going to get dressed and
Speaker 1: start playing the show in about thirty minutes. And I
Speaker 1: go back to my dressing room and as you guys know,
Speaker 1: I've lost my dad in twenty fourteen, and I made
Speaker 1: a bracelet that represented him as it was like a
Speaker 1: chrome bracelet, like a heroes bracelet, and it had the
Speaker 1: success poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson the very end, this
Speaker 1: is to have succeeded. It's the very end of that poem,
Speaker 1: and it said, this is to have succeeded. And on
Speaker 1: the other side it said Chris P. Smith nineteen fifty
Speaker 1: two Dash twenty fourteen. And I have I don't wear
Speaker 1: it all the time because it's hard to play guitar
Speaker 1: with it. So it was in this little drawer and wildflower.
Speaker 1: I go up after this meet and greet and I
Speaker 1: sit down and I'm just like thinking, you know, is
Speaker 1: this worth it? Like can I emotionally keep going through
Speaker 1: meet and greets and talk to people like this and
Speaker 1: go through and hear these kind of stories and then
Speaker 1: go play a show like is that even possible? Like
Speaker 1: this is tough, you know. And I had a picture
Speaker 1: and I like a four x seven picture of that girl,
Speaker 1: and I was like, this is tough. I think I
Speaker 1: even texted you. And I sat down and I went
Speaker 1: to put my boots on, and I put my boots
Speaker 1: on and there was something in the bottom of my
Speaker 1: boot and then took off my boot and there was
Speaker 1: that bracelet. That chrome bracelet was in the bottom of
Speaker 1: my boot. There's no way it couldn't It could have
Speaker 1: gotten from that little drawer out of the drawer and
Speaker 1: then dropped into the boot which I had just placed
Speaker 1: there before the meet and greet. And I was just like, wow,
Speaker 1: this is to have succeeded, Like are you trying to
Speaker 1: tell me something here? You know? I mean, it's that
Speaker 1: was a crazy moment. I just sat there. I was
Speaker 1: blown away for a long time. Yeah. We always say okay, God, okay, God, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: can here you have something on your hat? Okay okay.
Speaker 1: So I guess if we want to how much time
Speaker 1: do we have if we want to stay on your dad.
Speaker 1: London when she was two, Okay, so hearts. Hearts have
Speaker 1: been very important with seeing signs from from Chris and
Speaker 1: and Debbie Granger's mom. We see right after Chris passed
Speaker 1: there it was really special between them. Right after Sorry
Speaker 1: Chris passed, we were just seeing hearts everywhere in the sky,
Speaker 1: in pieces of lead or pieces of thread that fell
Speaker 1: off our jeans shaped in the shape of a heart.
Speaker 1: If we cracked an egg, open it, the yolk was
Speaker 1: in the shape of a heart. We just saw hearts
Speaker 1: all the time. So we would always send send pictures
Speaker 1: to each other through the family and say, you know,
Speaker 1: we saw another heart today, or we felt we felt
Speaker 1: Papa today. But London, she was two. She was just
Speaker 1: so connected, you know, little children are so connected, so
Speaker 1: innocently connected. And I remember one big one for me
Speaker 1: was we were driving over to our friend's house. She
Speaker 1: was giggling in the back seat and I kind of
Speaker 1: looked back and I was like, what are you what
Speaker 1: are you laughing at? And she just goes Papa, and
Speaker 1: it just kind of took took me aback, and we
Speaker 1: got out of the car and she was looking up
Speaker 1: at the sky and she goes Papa and I said,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? She goes, see Papa's sprinkling
Speaker 1: hearts everywhere. See, obviously I saw nothing, but a little
Speaker 1: innocent two year old felt that presence and it was
Speaker 1: and it was a heart, you know. It wasn't like
Speaker 1: stars or something else. So that was a big sign
Speaker 1: that I held onto with London. She's just you know,
Speaker 1: little children are very spiritually connected. Do you want to
Speaker 1: talk any more about your dad or do you want
Speaker 1: to go to signs for rip? So I guess the
Speaker 1: big sign I had recently with riv is I was
Speaker 1: seeing and by the way, it happened to me yesterday,
Speaker 1: I saw on it. Some where my eyes go straight
Speaker 1: to the word river. It's either a street sign or
Speaker 1: a vehicle or a state park sign or river crossing.
Speaker 1: But I've learned through touring in the last several months
Speaker 1: that the river is probably the most popular word you
Speaker 1: could put on a sign. And I see it in
Speaker 1: every city we go to, in every town, in every country.
Speaker 1: It's everywhere. But there's been times that being said that
Speaker 1: my eyes have gone straight to that word, like looking
Speaker 1: down or looking at the steering wheel, eyes glance up
Speaker 1: and the first thing they fall on is the word river.
Speaker 1: And then I noticed there was times when my eyes
Speaker 1: would do that four or five times in a row
Speaker 1: in the span of five to ten minutes. Like I
Speaker 1: would just i would look up and there'd be the
Speaker 1: word river, and I'm like, oh, that's weird. And I
Speaker 1: would think about something else and I would be doing
Speaker 1: something else, and then my eyes would go another direction
Speaker 1: boom there was again the word river, Like oh gosh,
Speaker 1: And then it would happen four or five times a row,
Speaker 1: and I'd be like, this is weird, Like there's a
Speaker 1: connection with all these I feel like there's a message here,
Speaker 1: or maybe maybe it's just association in my mind, just
Speaker 1: maybe you know what is it when you're getting married
Speaker 1: and all you see is made it's wedding, you know,
Speaker 1: bride's gowns on billboards. It's like the association that the
Speaker 1: brain starts making, if that's what you're thinking about. So
Speaker 1: I was thinking, Oh, maybe that's what it is. So
Speaker 1: then one day, in particular, I'm driving close to home
Speaker 1: and we live kind of close to the Interstate I
Speaker 1: thirty five in Texas, and then I'm driving towards the
Speaker 1: interstate and I see it river. Then look again River,
Speaker 1: and the third time, a third time and like thirty
Speaker 1: seconds uninterrupted full glance, and I say, and I saw
Speaker 1: the word river, and I just threw my hands up
Speaker 1: and I said, what what? What? God? What? Why are
Speaker 1: my eyes doing this? What? And right when I said
Speaker 1: the last what, my eyes hit one more thing and
Speaker 1: it was a semi truck I just entered. I thirty five.
Speaker 1: It was a semi truck. And in giant letters on
Speaker 1: the side of the semitruck it said peace. And I
Speaker 1: had a little red dove and I was like it
Speaker 1: was silent, and I was like, oh oh. And so
Speaker 1: then yesterday, since that story, that's happened several times. So
Speaker 1: then yesterday I saw the word My eyes went up,
Speaker 1: saw the word river, and then I thought, peace, Peace,
Speaker 1: That's what that means to me now. And it could
Speaker 1: never have been more clear. And I took a picture
Speaker 1: and I sent to you, and I strangely I ended
Speaker 1: up sending a picture back to you a couple weeks
Speaker 1: later of the same truck. I just happened to glance
Speaker 1: up and saw this huge the same exact truck that
Speaker 1: he sent me a photo up. I've never seen that
Speaker 1: send my truck ever in my life, and it just
Speaker 1: said peace massively, And it was during a time I
Speaker 1: was thinking about riv And it's those little things where, yeah,
Speaker 1: people could say it's a coincidence, you're just driving by
Speaker 1: a truck, but it's it's the moment your eye hits it,
Speaker 1: like you don't. You could have been looking this way
Speaker 1: and would have missed it, But in that moment, your
Speaker 1: eye hit what God needed you to see. So sorry,
Speaker 1: I was almost starting to cry there, y'all. I have
Speaker 1: so many signs. I have them all written down just
Speaker 1: because I hold on to them as little pieces of hope.
Speaker 1: And I guess if we if we want to start
Speaker 1: at the very beginning with RIV. Rain has always been
Speaker 1: very important in our family. It rained on the day
Speaker 1: we got married, it rained all the days that our
Speaker 1: babies were born, and on the night that the accident happened,
Speaker 1: it was a beautiful, beautiful evening and beautiful spring day,
Speaker 1: you know, sunny, And after it happened, we were driving
Speaker 1: to the hospital and this torrential downpour just started and
Speaker 1: we kind of looked at each other like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: like this is another one of these really important days
Speaker 1: in our lives. And it was just crazy rain nowhere,
Speaker 1: like the kind of rain where we were going like
Speaker 1: eighty miles an hour to try to keep up with
Speaker 1: the ambulance and we're like we kind of slowed down
Speaker 1: to like forty yeah, because we couldn't see it as
Speaker 1: crazy as we needed to get to that hospital. I
Speaker 1: had to slow down to half speed on the interstate
Speaker 1: because it was unbelievable rain. And then there was a
Speaker 1: rainbow at River service on a June day in the summer,
Speaker 1: in the desert, in the desert, a rainbow, which is
Speaker 1: God's promise to us. It also rained at the service
Speaker 1: through one tiny cloud in the summer sky in June
Speaker 1: in the hill country of Texas, in drought like conditions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and not the kind of rain that even wet the ground.
Speaker 1: It was like just like sprinkling on our heads. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So a little sprinkle. And then a couple of days
Speaker 1: after the after the service, we had the craziest lightning
Speaker 1: storm I've ever seen ever. The lightning was going sideways
Speaker 1: and it wasn't just every now and then, it was
Speaker 1: every second for hours and lightning, you know, lightning m
Speaker 1: Queen with River. It was just very important to us.
Speaker 1: River loved lightning. He loved storms, He loved watching the lightning.
Speaker 1: He loved flickering the lights on and off all the time.
Speaker 1: He loved flashlights. And I we just stood outside as
Speaker 1: a family, crying, watching this lightning storm. And I remember
Speaker 1: Granger and I were lay in bed that night, and
Speaker 1: Granger didn't want to go to sleep. He's like, I
Speaker 1: don't want to close my eyes. He's not finished yet,
Speaker 1: so I'm still going. It was like a midnight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so lightning is another sign for us. Like I said,
Speaker 1: kids are very in tune. I was walking one time
Speaker 1: with Lincoln Uh and we were crossing the street and I,
Speaker 1: you know, he didn't want to hold my hand, and
Speaker 1: I said, buddy, you need to hold my hand. You
Speaker 1: have to be safe. Why do you not want to
Speaker 1: hold my hand? And he said, I don't need to.
Speaker 1: River's always holding me. River's holding my shoulder. You know.
Speaker 1: He was probably he was five, you know, And that's
Speaker 1: not and we weren't talking about River. That's not just
Speaker 1: something that he would just make up. Please tell me
Speaker 1: you're going to talk about the buzzer Oh, the buzzards. Okay,
Speaker 1: So that will lead into my biggest sign that I
Speaker 1: will hold on too for my entire life. I had
Speaker 1: just read a book about signs after River passed. I
Speaker 1: just completely filled my mind with books on hope and
Speaker 1: heaven and signs and NDEs, and I just wanted to
Speaker 1: know so much about heaven, and so this book said
Speaker 1: ask for a specific sign. You know, I know we're
Speaker 1: not supposed to ask God for things all the time,
Speaker 1: but if you're really hurting and you're desperate, you can
Speaker 1: cry out to God and ask him for a specific sign.
Speaker 1: So I went to bed that night and I just
Speaker 1: was really sad, and I said, please, God, if he's okay,
Speaker 1: if he's with you, show me a blue butterfly. You know,
Speaker 1: we saw tons of butter We see tons of butterflies
Speaker 1: all the time, but they're always monarchs, and I've never
Speaker 1: seen a blue butterfly. Went to sleep that night, and
Speaker 1: we woke up the next morning. I kid you not,
Speaker 1: there was seventeen buzzards on our roof. Seventeen really weird,
Speaker 1: like eerie, creat creepy, so weird, and big black buzzards.
Speaker 1: I told Granger, I always think of riv when I
Speaker 1: see buzzards because they're so graceful as they soar with
Speaker 1: their big wingspan, and so I was kind of like, Okay, God,
Speaker 1: well that's not a blue butterfly, but I'll take it
Speaker 1: like the opposite of a blue butterfly. But we were like,
Speaker 1: I guess God was going to give you a different sign,
Speaker 1: just to tell you that he's in control of your signs,
Speaker 1: not you. Yeah, like trying to be funny, and Granger's stopped.
Speaker 1: He's like a blue butterfly because he did. I didn't
Speaker 1: tell him that I asked for that, And so that
Speaker 1: next was it the same day or the next day,
Speaker 1: I think it was that same Saturday. Yeah. I went
Speaker 1: to go pick up our mail at the UPS store
Speaker 1: and I always tell people we had one package and
Speaker 1: two letters, and the very first thing that I pulled
Speaker 1: out of our box was a letter with a big
Speaker 1: blue butterfly stamp that said thinking of you and I
Speaker 1: have it framed. And that is something that God would
Speaker 1: have had to put into motion before I asked for
Speaker 1: He had to have known that I was going to
Speaker 1: ask for that for that to be in my mailbox
Speaker 1: the next day. And some people might say that's a coincidence,
Speaker 1: but that I specifically asked for a sign and God
Speaker 1: gave it to me, and I am holding onto that
Speaker 1: so tight. And now I see blue butterflies everywhere. You know,
Speaker 1: you people send me blue butterflies all the time, but
Speaker 1: that was my main sign that I will hold on
Speaker 1: too forever. Then I started seeing them everywhere. Then we
Speaker 1: got that little Zelda video game, oh yeah, for Nintendo,
Speaker 1: and me and the kids went and picked up this
Speaker 1: little game a few days later, and when we brought
Speaker 1: it home, it was a brand new game, a Zelda game,
Speaker 1: and we put it in just to kind of help,
Speaker 1: you know, pass the time. And the whole game has
Speaker 1: blue butterflies, tiny blue butterflies flying everywhere. That's part of
Speaker 1: the game. Like, God, that's so weird. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: think if I have any other The balloons in Germany
Speaker 1: when we took our trip back to Germany, remember we
Speaker 1: got off the train and red balloons you know from
Speaker 1: Heavy Man balloons as are always important to us. There
Speaker 1: was just random balloon floating up to heaven. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: so that was kind of special. There's been several balloon stories. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I see hearts in the clouds, you know. I anytime
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of riv or something, I'll look over and
Speaker 1: there's the perfect shape of a heart in the clouds
Speaker 1: were I did brain spotting back to lights and stuff.
Speaker 1: When we went to therapy, we were doing our brain
Speaker 1: spotting session, which is a light I'm sorry, an eye
Speaker 1: therapy to kind of help you get rid of visions
Speaker 1: and traumatic memories. So in the middle of it, I'm
Speaker 1: deep in this traumatic story. I'm telling the story of
Speaker 1: what happened, and I'm bawling. All of a sudden, every
Speaker 1: light in the building goes out right as I was
Speaker 1: talking about Riv and flicked back on, and me and
Speaker 1: my counselor are eyes just like he goes, that's never
Speaker 1: happened before. And then I told him the story of
Speaker 1: how lights are so important to us and lightning and anyway,
Speaker 1: that was another strange thing that happened. The Wheels on
Speaker 1: the Bus song when I was doing my devotionals at
Speaker 1: the kitchen table. This was just a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: after River passed. Had the Christian Alexa playlist on and
Speaker 1: it's all Christian songs. About three songs in the children's song,
Speaker 1: the Wheels on the Bus came on and it's the
Speaker 1: same song that River and I sang. And you can
Speaker 1: go back and look at a Smith's episode and we're
Speaker 1: singing it together, the exact same children's version on a
Speaker 1: Christian playlist, and I was like, Okay, God, you're trying
Speaker 1: to be funny. Yeah, but just I just so believe
Speaker 1: that God can speak to you and try to comfort
Speaker 1: you in your times of need if you're if you're
Speaker 1: open to seeing and feeling those things, I want to
Speaker 1: I want to see if you guys have I know
Speaker 1: you do, if you have similar stories, if you're listening
Speaker 1: on the podcast app, then go to my social media
Speaker 1: or Ambers Amber Emily Smith and and say hashtag Graander
Speaker 1: Smith podcast and then after that, after that, tell a
Speaker 1: little bit of your story whatever that social media platform
Speaker 1: allows you the space to do. But I think Facebook, Facebook,
Speaker 1: Instagram allows lot a lot, a lot of space, so
Speaker 1: Instagram would be good. But yeah, it's I want to
Speaker 1: hear your stories, and I think it's it's a good
Speaker 1: thing to share if you do have the stories, because
Speaker 1: maybe you have a really good story that you haven't
Speaker 1: shared with anybody because you feel a little weird about it,
Speaker 1: or you feel like you're kind of you're a strange person.
Speaker 1: If you want to talk about spiritual signs. But we're
Speaker 1: here telling you you're not crazy, and we'd love to
Speaker 1: hear your stories. And I know that you have a
Speaker 1: ton more. I have a ton more, and I keep
Speaker 1: a list of them just because if I am going
Speaker 1: through a hard time, I can always go back to
Speaker 1: this and say, look, you're okay, He's okay. God is
Speaker 1: with you, and look what He's shown me. And I
Speaker 1: encourage you to do the same. Wake up from dreams,
Speaker 1: write down dreams, write down signs that you see so
Speaker 1: you don't forget. Sometimes we get busy and we forget
Speaker 1: what God has done for us, and these just help
Speaker 1: me to keep the hope and keep the faith. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you guys for listening watching If you'd like to
Speaker 1: hear more of these stories on this kind of podcast,
Speaker 1: this format with Amber, specifically maybe my mom so she's
Speaker 1: so connected, you would love love jazz You've so let
Speaker 1: us know and comment below or go to social media
Speaker 1: hashtag Granger Smith podcast and love you guys if you
Speaker 1: want to see more of Amber. She does a series
Speaker 1: on YouTube on Earth Smith's channel called a Rise with
Speaker 1: Amber Every Sunday Morning for Some Reason. Series That's a
Speaker 1: Sign for Some Reason series listening to me right now. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's creepy series talking to me. Okay, anyway, love you guys.
Speaker 1: We'll see you next episode on Monday. You got there mentally,
Speaker 1: see you