Graduation

I graduated today! Pharmacy school, check! I'm officially a doctor of pharmacy. I couldn't be happier to be finished!

I'm so excited, relieved, proud to be done with my doctorate degree in pharmacy!

My amazing, loving, supportive husband. I could not have done this without him! He saw a lot of ugly first-hand and encouraged and loved me through it all!

My sister Erin made these adorable graduation cap cupcakes with my school colors! 

My friend Lauren had mailed me some gold nail polish, and it matched the diploma case almost perfectly!

Graduation festivities included grilling with Andrew's side of the family on Saturday and brunch on Sunday, then dinner at Ruby Tuesday's with my side of the family Sunday after the ceremony. Lots of good food and family time squeezed in before our move!

♥Shannon

Accomplishment

By the grace of God, I am DONE with pharmacy school! It is the most amazing feeling! To think that I have spent the last six years with very little sleep or socialization, and a whole lot of sweat, tears, and caffeine, and that all of that has actually come to an end and really did pay off....It is too much to wrap my mind around. So many times I didn't think I would be able to do it. I know with all my heart, mind, and strength that it truly was the grace of God that got me through this program! Because if it had been all on me I would have failed out long ago (and that's the truth).

My heart is in a strange place, although it is a really good place: I feel intensely relieved, surprisingly proud of myself, and utterly awestruck by God's faithfulness. I've been wondering if I will muster up some kind of sad emotion that it is all over but that definitely has not happened yet. There is only relief and pure joy.

And while I have complained lots about school being ridiculously hard and never being good enough and not wanting to work and just wanting to be a stay-at-home mom one day (yeah, there was a whole lot of complaining that went on these past 6 years!), I am so proud of myself for completing a doctoral degree at the age of 23. It has been a long journey and surely this is only the beginning!

♥Shannon

Tuesday Blabber :)

Oh hello! Life has been running at about a million miles per hour, it feels like. I am less than 2 weeks away from graduating and I have a lots of things on my to-do list to get accomplished in the next week and then the next 2 weeks before we move! Here are a couple things:

1. It has been raining here basically nonstop for the past 2 weeks. It is so dreary and makes it hard to be motivated!

2. I am feeling really confident about being a pharmacist. I think it took until these last few weeks to feel that way. The pharmacist on this rotation has given us a lot of independence to interact with patients and make medication decisions on our own. It has been an awesome way to finish off my rotations and my pharmacy schooling!

3. I am not feeling really confident about moving. I'm excited and ready to start a new chapter, but at the same time I'm so, so sad to leave my family and friends. I think it may be a hard and lonely transition. But it does feel right, and I know that God is calling us to Wyoming (why...I guess we'll see!)

4. I got a couple boxes of my childhood/high school stuff from my mom's house a few weeks ago and have had fun strolling down memory lane and reading through my old journals. I have always been quite the journaler (though not as much in college) so I basically have my whole life chronicled. It is fascinating stuff, let me tell you. However, some things have been painful to read through...my dad leaving, feeling insecure in friendships, feeling insecure in my body, feeling caught in between being a child and being a woman. I do not miss those days, and it is amazing how reading them can stir up old emotions that I have not felt for nearly 10 years.

5. I found a poem that I wrote in 2004 (age 14) about reaching for your dreams and stepping out into the unknown, and at the bottom it says "inspired by Grandpap". I so wish I could remember the specific conversation that spurred me to write that poem now that he is gone. He was always encouraging me and always so proud. :)

6. Packing makes you realize that you have way too much stuff.

7. Some iPhone photos:

I got to babysit my cutie niece Kaylie the other afternoon. One-on-one baby time is the best. You can baby-talk as ridiculously as you want and get all the snuggles to yourself.

I finally bought myself a copy of the ESV Study Bible!! It is amazing. So much awesome info wrapped around the Word of God.

Box of notes from friends in high school. I actually have no desire to read these because I know they are full of immaturity and drama! Ha!

Andrew and I went to our friends' house and it was a windy cool evening - the boys played frisbee while I played with flowers

I picked up my cap, gown, and hood today! Check out that unfortunate color combo...olive green velvet (pharmacy doctorate color) with purple and yellow (STLCOP school colors). So exciting nonetheless!

♥Shannon

The Storm

(source)

Last night we had a storm. Tornado warnings went on for quite a while and the rains and winds were a bit scary, frankly. In this little shanty of a home we rent, there is no basement, and our plan has always been to run to the neighbors' and take shelter in their basement in the case of a tornado. However, rains and winds picked up really quickly and we were not expecting the tornado warning at all, and before we knew it, it seemed too risky to run outside.

So, we quickly set up a little shelter in our bedroom closet, the safest place in the house (every single room has windows!). Our closet is tiny, but we put a blanket down and our pillows, and it ended up feeling really cozy and secure in that little dusty closet. Less cozy though because Andrew forced me to wear his bike helmet. Anyways, I had brought my bible into our hideout and we spent that scary half an hour reading Psalms and reading about Jesus and smack-talking Peter and then talking about how we are just like Peter. And soon enough the winds calmed down and the warnings were over!

It was just a really surprisingly sweet time of bonding and fellowship together that we weren't expecting at all. The Holy Spirit is not confined by time, circumstances, or tornadoes! Amazing how He can make a take a scary, cramped, and dusty situation and transform it into a powerful, spiritual experience.

[[While our little house did not experience any damage, many other local neighborhoods did not fare so well. Please keep St. Louis and MO in your prayers, as many are without power and/or dealing with large amounts of property damage. There are also a few reports of injuries.]]

♥Shannon

The Next Chapter

I am so excited (and only slightly scared out of my mind) to share with you that Andrew and I will be moving to Casper, WY! I have accepted a job as a community pharmacist with a grocery store chain.

Casper, WY

Andrew and I made the decision in January to just kind of let God take control of exactly where we would be going. I started applying all over the state, but noticed that I felt particularly drawn to Casper. Not wanting to get my hopes up though, I continued to pray that God would provide a job for me and lead us to the best place for us, a place with a strong group of believers for us to fellowship with and grow with. A place where we can be discipled and disciple other. So when I received an offer for a job in Casper, I realized that it had been the Holy Spirit nudging me the whole time! Andrew and I prayed about it, wanting His will for us, and ultimately felt led to accept the job!

I will begin training mid-May in Denver for a few weeks until I get my license (should be about 3-4 weeks), and then will begin in Casper sometime in June. At this point Andrew is still looking for an internship, but if he doesn't get one during this summer, there are 3 different state or federal wildlife offices in Casper where he plans on networking and volunteering to make some connections that will hopefully lead to a job.

We are so excited to start this new chapter of our lives! I am apprehensive, yes, about being lonely and being responsible and just all the anxiety that comes with change. But at the same time, I'm so thankful for God's provision! We prayed, and He heard. "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act." Ps. 37:5 My huge sigh of relief after signing on showed me just how untrusting I really have been, but the Lord acted nonetheless. He is good!

♥Shannon

He stayed for a couple of days and passed away

My grandpa was a lover. He loved people, he loved his family, he was head-over-heels in love with my grandmother, and most of all he loved Jesus.

Just over two weeks ago, my grandmother went to be with Jesus after a couple long years of confusion and dementia. My grandpa stood faithful by her side for their 64 years of marriage. Even during these last several months of the pain and suffering of seeing his beloved's mind slip away, he was devoted to her. He buried his wife and sent her away to be with the Lord with tears, memories, and hymns of praise, surrounded by his family.

Tired and worn, faithful and true

My grandpa's past couple of years have looked quite different from my grandma's. His mind remained incredibly sharp; he stayed current with news, politics, and the church. It was his body that failed him. About a year ago he became unable to walk, suffering chronic pain in his legs. This past week he choked on some food and on Saturday they had a feeding tube placed for him. His mind was present and he was acutely aware of his suffering, yet he chose to focus on the cross. He went to be with the Lord after meditating on the Psalms, especially the verse 71:9 "Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent."

I wish I could express to you how much this man loved the Lord and all the ways he spent his life serving the Kingdom. Probably one of us should write a novel about his life, because the Lord used him in amazing ways.

But for now, I grieve the loss of my loving grandpa, who always took the time to ask me about my life and my faith. Who made silly jokes at the dinner table and could make a mean omelet. Who grew the most delicious cherry tomatoes and whose favorite dessert was hot chocolate pudding with ice cream (but also was quite fond of lemon meringue pie). Who was so proud of me for going to pharmacy school and always cracked the same joke about me discovering a miracle drug to fix all his problems. Who loved to tinker with gadgets and create new things out of junk and drove a little beat up blue truck for years and years. Who supported me and encouraged me to go on mission to Haiti when the rest of my family thought I was crazy. And who I will dearly miss and remember fondly for the rest of my life.

Harold Playford Humbert
April 13, 1923 - March 20, 2013



♥Shannon

Music for the soul

I have not been blogging much lately. Maybe that will change in a week when this awful rotation is over.

If you listen to this song, I think it expresses pretty well what has been going on and how I've been feeling.

"Your grace abounds in deepest waters,
Your sovereign hand will be my guide.
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me,
You've never failed and You won't start now

So I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise my soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours, and You are mine"

Oceans are rising, and I've been barely keeping my eyes above the waves...yet I find rest in His embrace where feet may (and do) fail.

(This is a unique-sounding song...it took a few listens for it to grow on me. And oh it did!)

♥Shannon