Amelia Island Day 2 or so

Today was a good day. We went to several CE meetings and then we both had the opportunity to sit on a panel discussion for pharmacy students. I gave Chris a hard time because he signed us up for this(with my reluctant permission, of course) because it was cutting into my beach time. The conference was actually over at 1:15 today and so I would have been headed straight to the beach, but instead I sat on this panel until 3:15. Anyway, I sat in this room surrounded by all these full time pharmacists, most of who worked in a hospital setting, and I felt rather out of place. As we went around the room and described our work situation and how we got there, I listened to lots of people say that they did a residency, they started here and moved to this job, blah blah blah... When it came to my part, I began to tell them about my job... no nights, no weekends(unless I choose), no holidays, no insurance, no money exchange, 9:30-6, two days a week... I thought about all this and while no one had any questions for me(other than the moderator who was quite impressed with my great job flexibility) I realized that I really am quite happy. I love my job, but I really love being at home with my kids more. I guess that I have the best of both worlds. We ran into that same moderator at dinner tonight and he said something that really made me think...He was asking more questions about my specific job and he was saying how much he appreciated me sharing this aspect of pharmacy during the forum and then came the statement that I won't forget . He said that while my job was so very different, he said that I obviously appeared to be the happiest of all of them. Boy is that an understatement. I'm not saying that all these other people aren't happy, but what I do is so rewarding. I still struggle with the challenges of being both a stay at home mom and a professional, but I do know that this is where God has called me and there is not a bone in my body that would give it up. We did finally make it to the beach today and had some time to relax. Chris read a book about MRSA(methicillin resistant staph aureus-in case you were wondering)--surprise, surprise he's reading a book on bugs, and I took a nap on the beach(yeah--I never get a nap). We both enjoyed the relaxation and then ended the night with a walk on the beach before going to dinner. It has been a great time of relaxation, but we are ready to head home tomorrow and get our girls back.