Under His Wings

The room was filled with voices quite familiar to me. I was invited for the second time to the Binghamton Broadcaster's Reunion that was held this past Saturday. The most honored and respected man int the room was Bill Parker, who has been a fixture of the Binghamton broadcasting world for 65+ years.  He was recently inducted into the New York State Broadcaster Hall of Fame with the likes of Walter Cronkite, Mike Wallace, Regis Philbin and Al Roker (who started his broadcasting career in Syracuse in the early 1970's).  When I was growing up, Bill was on the air in the mid morning hours. Most of the people attending the reunion I did not know personally, but there were a few that have meant the world to me. When I was about 13, I decided I wanted to pursue a Broadcasting career.  I know it was because in my formative years (6-9) my Dad was a radio announcer at our local public radio station.  I mentioned that to a few people at the reunion.  There was one lad...

photo courtesy of en.wikipedia.com On Labor Day we decided to take a last minute trip up to our State Fair, about 2 hours away.  On the route to get there, we had to go through Cortland NY, where I lived for 2 years.  Wonderful memories were made there while I attended SUNY Cortland.  A lot of those memories flooded back as I wandered around Walgreens (a new addition to town since I graduated in 1992.) I kept myself busy with a lot of fun activities.   I was part of Cortland State TV (CSTV).  I was an anchor/reporter my first year and news producer/director the next.  I also was on the production crew on various other shows.   I helped my friend Janice lay out the school newspaper, Dragon Chronicle.  There were many sleepless nights doing that :).   I attended Faith Baptist Church, where my former youth pastor Allen Carpenter was pastoring.  Sadly, he and his wife have both died.  I sang in the choir while there.  Th...

I had a friend tell me years ago if you wake up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason it's God's way of telling you there's someone who needs prayer. I have a lot of sick and hurting friends right now.  I don't know who specifically needs prayer at this moment. Here it is 2:15 in the morning on a Friday and I'm wide awake.  Today it's for a reason.  I've been sick for the past 2 days with flu like symptoms.  Achy fever ick!  I just took some pain reliever.  I was hoping to be better so I wouldn't have to make 2nd trip to my dr. in little over a week and I have my regular appt. coming up with him on Thursday, but for the sake of my family I want to get better. I'm tempted to complain as I've been sick with sinus stuff since the beginning of January.  Light is at the end of the tunnel for that.  I have been feeling a lot less congested and my appointment to see the allergist is finally coming.   Honestly it's been frustr...

This post I've been pondering for a few weeks.   It's been a very emotional few weeks for our family.  As mentioned in this post, my family and I our former longtime pastor died on 1/22 due to a longtime illness.  Last week my mom's cousin Alan died somewhat unexpectedly a week ago.  My son lost a friend in a tragic fire about a week ago.   It's been hard to put into words what I've been thinking, but I did want to honor my dear friends who had such a big influence on my life.  My prayers go out to their families. Also, please be in prayer for Sheli's dad, Don, who has been very ill the past few months.  Four years ago to day I got a phone call from my mom that I never thought I would get.  My dear childhood friend,  Sheli, had died.  It was of a pulminary embolism due to recent surgery.   Honestly thoughts of regret went through my mind.  Just a few months earlier I was standing talking to Shel...

Psalm 118:24 This is the day that the Lord has made.  I will rejoice and be glad in it. Have you ever had one of those days where everything that can go wrong, goes wrong? This morning, my 8 year old chose today not to cooperate getting ready for school.  Of all days, my van would not start.  Thankfully my neighbor was out walking his dog and was willing to help me. When he got the van started, I came inside and was a bit on the flustered side.   I thought what else could go wrong? It ended up that I had a nice talk with my Mom.   I love our morning talks!   Then my dear friend Diane called like she usually does.  We had a really great talk this morning too.   It's a bright sunny day.  I have no reason to be frustrated.  I'm going to get up now and get some cleaning done.  I do hope that this sun stays until after 3 PM.  I enjoy watching Nate and Anna play on the playground with their friends ...

It's about 7:30 on a Saturday evening.  Darkness has fallen.   As I have sat here on the front porch for the past last hour it has been so neat to watch the sky go from puffy dark clouds to total darkness.  This is actually my favorite time of night to be outside, but I never take the time to do it. Many nights growing up I spent summer/early fall evenings sitting with my Grandparents on their back patio.  I loved sitting in the nice cool air!  For those of you who don't know, I had the priviledge to grow up across from my mom's parents.  It was so much fun, yet now a bit sad knowing they aren't there to visit when I go home to visit my parents. Tonight, many years later sitting on my own front porch.  I am hearing the crickets chirping, some dogs barking and my daughter asking me why I'm outside barefooted.  Ha ha.  I see and hear the traffic from the nearby highway.  That also reminds me of my old neighb...

As I sat at the playground on this cold Spring day, I took the time to reflect on my blessings. My three children were playing happily together. It brought a smile to my face. These children are a dream come true. The past few weeks have been filled with memory joggers of how interesting, fun, and honestly at times frustrating life has been. Through it all I have had very special friends and my patient family to get me through it all. Some examples of those reminders of how family and friends have meant the world to me throughout my life. I've been able to expand the list of friends who I've found online that I've lost touch with. That's been a neat experience! I'm thankful for all my friends who in their own special way had an influence on my life. I've also been able to make new online friends who I may never meet in person, but we have become prayer warriors for each other. That has been very encouraging too. I also had great support on Facebook and other mes...

I went on a Christmas shopping adventure today. I'm honestly not much of a Christmas shopper. I leave most of it to my wonderful husband! I did find some neat treasures for my family and friends. I found a crock pot plus a recipe book (at a different store) for about the same amount of money I would have spent on just the crock pot itself. I'm looking forward to hearing about the neat concoctions my friend will come up with. She loves trying new recipes and her crock pot she has been using has a broken knob. I thought it would be a perfect gift for her. I bought my other friend a nice blouse. I found it at a store she likes to shop and doesn't get to very often. I know this will look pretty on her. At the same store I found my husband a pair of gloves he wanted which was selling about half the retail price. I did mess up a little bit though. In picking up a gift card for my dad, I looked at the picture and not the greeting. "Happy Birthday" it said....

4 years ago I joined my local MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group. I spent 4 years as a "MOPS mom" and this year I am a "MOPPETS" worker. I have been watching the babies. It's been so much fun. Although last time I was alone and I had 6 babies screaming at the same time. That was stressful. Through this group, I have met many wonderful friends. I haven't really had the opportunity to visit with them too much the past few months, so I was glad to get an invitation from the MOPS coordinator, Carrie to go Christmas caroling in our friend Laura's neighborhood and a party at Carrie's house. I took my 2 younger children with me. I wasn't sure how they would like caroling. Other than a few incidents of Nate hiding his face in my coat and Anna's feet getting cold. It went well. It was nice hearing some really great harmony as our small group sang. Nate requested to sing Jingle Bells at least 3 times. We only sang it twice though, At the...

I was a bit hesitant to do it, but a few months ago I joined Facebook. Now I'm so glad I did! I now have over 100 friends on my list. I have some of my MOPS forum friends, but most of the friends I've found are either from the church I attended growing up, the Christian school I attended or my high school classmates. I even found some of my cousins (actually my dad's cousin's kids). Many of the people I haven't seen in years! Many great memories have been coming back. Cool! I was even more hesitant in joining MySpace, but I've kept my friend list to those I know. Both of my brothers are on there. It's been neat to get back in touch with friends and family and get to know some of my newer friends better. I'm going to continue my search.

We just got a letter today from our former church that we're invited to their 45th anniversary celebration in September. Glen Baptist Church was the church my husband Tim and I settled at a little over a year after we got married. Our oldest son was about a month and a half old when we started attending there on a regular basis. We became members the next summer. During our 6 years at Glen, we made many very special memories. I was involved with the children and music ministries. My husband was a Sunday School teacher and deacon. The people there were true friends. They were there for us during our most painful time of our marriage. In August of 1999, our daughter Gabrielle was diagnosed prenatally with a fatal birth defect called anencephaly. People at Glen Baptist were very quick to offer their support and love for us. After Gabrielle was born, our pastor came home from a long trip out of town to see Gabrielle. He was the only one outside our family who held her. Many...

Have you ever met up with a friend you haven't seen for a long time and it's like you talked to them yesterday? That's the feeling I got many times as I attended the 20th reunion for my Christian school I attended from 1975-84. I was invited to the reunion by my friend Terri (the second woman from the left) back in March at our dear friend Sheli's funeral. That was a wakeup call! I had the opportunity to get back in touch with Sheli after her mom died last summer and I didn't do it. Now it's too late, so when I was invited to the class reunion, I vowed to myself I'm not going to let these friendships get away again. Going to the reunion made me sad in a way hearing about the fun I missed. I never really clicked with my high school friends. Now it's time to make new memories. There are a few of my friends that we said we would get together. They have kids my kids' ages. I've been invited back for the 25th reunion. There's o...