Welcome mat or invisibility cloak?

I've always been weird about having packages shipped to my address while living in an apartment. I think that a package just sitting on the doorstep would be too much temptation for any sticky-fingered or even slightly curious neighbor. But I should have known better. FedEx and UPS have been delivering packages for years. They do it every day. They know a lot more about delivering packages than I do, so I should have known that they would have a plan for preventing packages from getting stolen when they have to leave it on the doorstep. I came home to this today:

Sub-scrizzibe!

For those of you who enjoy my blog (and I can't fathom anyone NOT enjoying it :)), there is a way to get an email containing my new blog post each time that I post a new blog! I know; how exciting!! All you have to do is type the email address of your choice in the "Subscribe via email" box to the right of your screen, and each time I write a new blog the message will be delivered to you in your email. No catches and absolutely no strings attached.

BUT WAIT!!! THERE'S MORE!!!! If you subscribe now...............just kidding :)

Faux Pas

As I have progressed further in my pharmacy education, it has been my desire to be more knowledgeable in every aspect of the field of pharmacy. I hate it when I do not know the answer to a drug/medication question, and I aspire to be able to answer patients' questions. (I will really feel like I have arrived at the pinnacle of pharmaceutical knowledge when I can answer a single Corrie Aldinger question ;))

So, while working at Fred's Pharmacy during my PY3 year, an elderly gentleman came up to the counter asking for some OTC help. "I'll handle this one," I thought to myself as I approached the counter.

"Ya got anything for diarrhea?" he asked.

Now let me stop the story right here, and let you know that what came out of my mouth next was something that I wished I could have grabbed out of the air and shoved back into my mouth the second the words left my mouth. Diarrhea is one of those simple cases that we pharmacy students learn how to counsel very early on in our educational careers. However, in what I like to call a "Brain Fart" moment without even thinking, I responded with "To stop it?"...............To STOP IT?!?!? What was I thinking?! No, Nathan, I'm sure this gentleman would like to crank his diarrhea up a couple of notches!!

Needless to say, the pharmacist told the story to anyone with ears to listen, and they all even got me a plaque with the conversation on it so that I may always stay humbled :)

Summer of Trust

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. --Proverbs 3:4-6 (NASB)

Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! --Luke 12: 22-24 (NIV)

I went to these passages again and again over the summer. Anna had been looking for a teaching job in the Jackson area in order to provide for us while I am in school. We went 2 months with ZERO luck in her finding a job, praying fervently. We were moving in less than a week, and yet, strangely, both Anna and I had a complete peace from God. We knew that God's plan is always best, and for whatever reason, He did not want Anna to have a teaching job down here. And then it happened; Tuesday (4 days before the move), Anna received a phone call from a principal at a Jackson Public Middle School with a teaching opportunity for Anna. Anna drove down to Jackson the next day, had an interview, and was given the job! Praise the Lord! Great is His faithfulness! God used this summer to teach us to trust in Him and bring us closer to Him as well as bring us closer together, and it could not be more worth it!

For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord. --Psalm 117:2 (KJV)