Amberly had stopped down to visit Bryan's grave and right after she left, she got behind a car with "317" in the license plate. Of course that made her think of Bryan but then a car pulled in front of her that was GREEN car with WHITE BUTTERFLIES all over the trunk!

My mom loves Outback Steak House and we wanted to celebrate her birthday (belated) by taking her to dinner there. The day that we were planning to go, I received an email in my inbox first thing that morning with the subject "Like Outback Steak House? Enjoy a meal on us!" I had to laugh because I knew it was Bryan's way of letting us know he would be there with us! Outback was one of his favorite restaurants and he never missed a chance to go there. If you have read past journal entries, you would know that the timing of these types of messages are so important. Had I received this the day before or the day after, it would not have the same significance. But this has been a way Bryan has had of communicating with us since the beginning ... I don't know how he manages to "steer" cyberspace emails to me but he does!

March 17 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRYAN!!!!!

First of all, Happy Birthday to my wonderful son ... as always, I miss Bryan today just a little more than normally because I remember his laughter and joy of living so poignantly on his birthday. As I drove past the church this morning where he is buried, I wished him a happy birthday, said a little prayer, and asked him to give me a sign if he was around me. Not 10 seconds later a car pulled in front of me with the numbers 9 17 in the license plate (the date of his passing and birth). I just smiled because I KNEW it was his way of telling me of course, he was here! How could I doubt him? But that wasn't enough ... as I was driving in a commercial on the radio caught my attention -- don't ask me why -- about lasik eye surgery. I have not seriously considered this even though I probably should since I am constantly losing my glasses, but for some reason this particular commercial resonated with me and I was trying to remember the details so I could look into it. Half an hour later, in the store I was downloading email when in comes an email from LASIK VISION with the subject "Schedule your complimentary LASIK evaluation today!" OMG! I almost fainted! LOL It was just tooooooo funny ... Bryan was letting me know he was with me in the car and heard the commercial and, yes, he probably DOES want me to get it. Toooooo funny! And just like Bryan's sense of humor!

My mom had to go in to the hospital briefly today and Mike went to pick her up. As they were driving home, they were talking about Bryan and my mom noticed that as they were talking, a hawk appeared right over their car! She pointed it out to Mike and they were both amazed that Bryan was letting them know he knew they were talking about him and remembering hm today.

I left work early and was a bit disorganized as I got into the car and started home. Amberly had asked me to call her so when I got settled and moving, I dialed her number. Just as the phone rang something made me look at the clock and it was -- you guessed it -- 3:17! I told Amber as soon as she answer to look at the clock and she just laughed and said OMG 3:17! LOL Totally unplanned and I do not normally even look at the clock but he made sure I noticed it.

A few days after my mom had come home from the hospital, she was sitting in her living room and noticed a hawk flew downward across her window. She immediately thought how strange this was as she never sees hawks outside her second story window. As she was still looking in that direction, it came BACK up to her window, circled once as if he was looking right in at her, and then flew off. Of course she thought it was a sign from Bryan and as soon as she told me, I knew it was as well. And not two minutes later a hawk appeared outside my car window as I was driving ... confirmation!

July 27, 2011

Today Mike and I had a long trip to make to a stone engraver. For quite some time, he and I have wanted to put a memorial paver at the playground at Eisenhower School (Bryan's elementary school). There was a section there where they had a small arrangement of pavers with various names and businesses on them. We finally had the approval to do it and ordered the stone and today we had to make the long drive to Ellwood City to the engraver to have Bryan's name put on the stone. Deciding to make it a fun excursion, we planned to have lunch at a local restaurant in the area. But of course, we were not familiar with the area at all. When we arrived, we realized we were in a very rural country area with nothing but farms for miles. And the only "restaurant" we saw was Al's Corner Deli, complete with gas pumps out front in the parking lot! Not our idea of a brunch!   So we asked the engraver where we could find a decent meal.  He told us about a place just a few miles away called Olde Stonewall and that it even had a golf course.  So away we went to find Olde Stonewall, not expecting much but optimistic that we would at least have a decent meal.  What we found upon arriving there totally blew us away!  After driving through backroads and cow country, we arrive at -- LITERALLY! -- a CASTLE!

  
Olde Stonewall Castle

To our delight, we had a fantastic lunch on the patio out back overlooking the golf course.  And even further to our surprise, it turns out that the golf course is a top ranked golf course in the U.S. and Mike is an avid golfer.  We so enjoyed our visit there that we plan to return next month for their Murder Mystery Dinner.  I have always wanted to go to one of those and this is the perfect excuse for us to return to this very beautiful place.  Now what makes this a sign from Bryan?? Well, first of all, this hour drive to take care of getting his stone engraved was a trip completely done for him.  And in his way, he manages to find us not only a wonderful place to eat but a golf club that Mike will definitely be visiting in the near future.  We both felt strongly that Bryan had a hand in us finding this place and making our trip so enjoyable instead of a rather sad task.  But the proof came as Mike and I stood outside after lunch looking over the stone wall in the picture on the right above ... as we stood there taking in the breathtaking scenery, a large and beautiful butterfly flew right up to us, almost in our faces, and then flew off.  We both just started laughing and said Bryan! 

Here is a picture of the lovely paver stone that will be placed on the Eisenhower School playground in memory of Bryan ... our deepest gratitude to Jace Palmer and the U.S.C. school administration for helping to make this possible for us. Thank you!

 

And this is a picture of the stone at Eisenhower School now that it is installed on the playground:

(click on image to see close-up)

July 28, 2011

A bit of a follow-up to yesterday's story ... tonight Cris happened to stop by the house and Mike and I took him out to show him the paver that was still in the car from yesterday.  As we stood there looking at it, I heard a hawk's screeching call overhead and so I looked up to see where it was coming from.  Of course, it was no surprise at all that it was right over our yard circling above our trees and calling out.  We all stood there watching it for a few minutes as it made two circles overhead and then flew off, calling out to us the whole time.  I had goosebumps realizing that Bryan was acknowledging what we had done for him and also shouting out a big hi to his little brother.

September 16, 2011

I just had to share with you all a little something that happened to me today while I was on my walk.  For the past few weeks, I have decided to start walking Ginger every day, partly for her training as she behaves terribly on walks and partly for my own health which is sorely in need of some serous work.  Seems like all I do these days is sit at the computer, so walking was a necessity for me at this point.  Anyway, as I was walking today, I noticed a small white feather fluttering down a few yards in front of me.  When it hit the ground, the breeze blew it right toward me and between my feet.  I smiled to myself and said, "Bryan, is that you?"  As soon as I said it, I felt his arm around me and sensed him walking beside me.  I had already walked several yards but something made me turn around to go and get that feather to add it to the ever-growing collection we have in his room.  To my surprise, when I turned back, the feather -- which had been blowing toward me as I was walking -- was now blowing toward me from the other direction!  It was bouncing along in the breeze and I thought, oh boy, I'll never catch that.  But when I got to it, it stopped moving so that I could easily pick it up.  Now you tell me ... how could the wind change direction like that??  No need to answer ... I already know ... Bryan!

October 25, 2011

Today my mom stopped over for a short visit ... it is always so good to see her and she doesn't get to come to our house very often.  What blew both of us away was that as soon as she came into the kitchen, we both went to the center island so that I could unpack a bag she had brought over for me.  The minute she leaned against the island, the chandelier right over our heads began to flicker madly.  I was totally amazed!!!  The OTHER chandelier in our ktichen is the one that always flickered in the past ... the one over the island has never, never done that.  But it was going crazy flickering.  We both knew immediately that Bryan was acknowledging her presence .. he had always loved his Grandma Mary and it was such a fantastic way for him to let her know that he knew she was there.  It was one of those "Wow!" moments that you just can't express.  And of course, it stopped after about a minute and stayed on solid ever since.   Thanks, Bryan, for remembering your gram this way.