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...

Tim and I celebrated our 18th anniversary yesterday.  The past 18 years have been filled with many joys and some sorrows, but through it all I've been blessed to have a wonderful husband who has stuck with me. I looked up the song "Cherish The Treasure" this afternoon.  It's the song we had played during our candle lighting ceremony.  After the candle was lit, I remember very vividly standing looking at Tim while holding his hands. His eyes were filled with tears, which made me cry too. Listening to the words "This sacred vow I make to you does not contain an if.  Though I'm aware that trials lie ahead."  I never could imagine the trials we would have to go through, especially about 2 years into our marriage with the loss of our daughter Gabrielle Renee.  We've also had a lot of health challenges and just the normal couple/parenting issues. I'm so glad God sent me Tim.  He was a specific answer to prayer.  I had cried out to God to send me a...

Mom, Dad, Anna and I 9/7/15 I always love going home and I never like to leave.  After all, it's the place we moved into when I was two and I lived there until almost 19 years ago when I moved here to Elmira.  There's a lot of memories stored in that cape cod house on Montague Street. One great memory jogger was looking on top of my Dad's record shelves.  In the late 70's or early 80's he painted ceramic classical composer busts.   I remember Dad sitting at our kitchen table painting them.  They still adorn the living room 35 years later. Also on the shelf was a 25th anniversary plate I bought my parents 24 years ago.  Next August they will be celebrating their 50th anniversary. Like most visits, this visit was quiet.  We just sat around and talked most of the time.  Some of the time we had our cameras out and were taking pictures. The above picture is one my mom took on her tablet. We had the most delicious meat lovers pizza from a l...

On January 23, 2015 about 3 in the afternoon, our family's life took a big turn.  My dear husband Tim came down with a sudden, severe headache that as of today, August 30, 2015 has not gone away. He's been at the ER (technically twice), admitted to the hospital, been to our primary doctor, been seen by 2 neurologists and a PA.  He's had 2 CT scans and an MRI and tried mulitple medicines.  Nothing showed up on the scans, no medicine, even an IV medicine stronger than morphine has touched it. He even went through a 3 week program at Cleveland Clinic which incorporated, IV medicine, physical therapy and pschyological sessions.  That didn't work either.  The Pschycologist told me during a family conference call nothing will.  The nerve damage is permament. He has been diagnosed with a condition called New Daily Persistant Headache along with chronic migranes. It's a diagnosis that brings much frustration.  It is not a well known even by the Cleveland Cli...

I just had to update my resume.  I'm looking for a job after 17 years of not officially working outside of the home.  I've done different things since having my oldest son Elijah, but it's been nothing permanent.  It's honestly a scary thought going back to the workforce. Years ago, my husband told me he wanted me to go back to work when Nate was middle school age.  That time has arrived.  I still can't believe I'll have a senior in high school plus a 6th and 7th grader. My kids have grown up so fast! It's going to be interesting to see what the next few months will bring.  I'd love to get back into my field of communication studies.  I just applied for a job that would incorporate my love for writing.  I hope I get that job. I'll keep you updated!

December 29, 1999 3:12 PM.....a highly anticipated moment met with mixed emotions.  For 5 months I was told that the baby I had just  given birth to was going to die.  It was very apparent when our Gabrielle Renee was born that sadly the doctors were right.  As a matter of fact, Gabrielle's neonatologist told us moments after she was born that it was one of the worst cases of Anencephaly he had ever seen.  He was near retirement age, so he had probably seen quite a few cases in his career. It was an honor for me to carry our sweet girl to full term.  Today I'm counting my blessings we had her for the 14 hours (plus the 9 months in my womb).   She could have been still born.  Her doctor only expected her to live an hour if that after her birth. Last night at church we sang Jesus Loves Me per Tim's request.  He had another song picked out for our hymn favorite night.  I hinted I wanted Jesus Loves Me.  The moment Tim sang it to Ga...

When Tim mentioned he wanted a Hormel 3 lb ham for our Christmas dinner, I was thrilled.  Memories of my house filled with the aroma of said ham baking in our oven every Christmas morning flooded my mind.  YUMMY!  I can't wait to pick up on the tradition tomorrow morning. Some other Christmas memories have been brought back in the past week.  My oldest son, Elijah, brought home some Turtle candy from his best friend's house one night.  Mike's mom works at the local candy factory that makes the delicious nutty treats.  It was a tradition on mine in my Grandma's later years (she's been gone 11 years), to get her a box of Turtles and something with a teddy bear theme. The same Grandma also liked pretty sweatshirts.  I saw some at Kmart when I was there.  I bought a beautiful black sweatshirt with a cardinal on it on Saturday.  It reminded me of watching my Grandparents feeding peanuts to the cardinals off their back door.  It's a tradit...