Oh Finals! So glad you are done!

What a week! The stress is over! And what a stressfull week it was. I was not stressed at all coming into this week, until Tuesday. Tuesday, December 15, 2009....what a day. You know the typical finals week nightmare: you sleep through a final. Well I got pretty close.

7:45am
My alarm goes off. I realize that I have a final in fifteen minutes and I should be on my way to campus instead of lying in my bed. I throw on my pants that were lying in front of my closet after staying up until 3am finishing a tri-fold for my 1pm final. grab sweatshirt, grab toothbrush and toothpaste, grab my compact to cover the bags under my eyes, realize Teckie never called to wake me up. We have our 8am class together and surely my morning person friend who is usually up by 6 has realized that i wasn't awake. I run down to her apartment (the floor below me) and knock...wait...ring door bell...wait. I see my sleepy friend and hear her start freaking out. She too slept in and was awaked my rap-tapping on her door. I run down to start the car as she gathers herself for the presentation she has to give in 13 minutes.

8:01am
We reach campus and arrive to class only a minute late. Although we made it on time we are still not totally with it. Teckie gives her presentation.

8:57am
I go straight from class to babysitting...my second home here in Cedar Falls. As I tell Tracie the events of my morning I brush my teeth. Dawson and Graham find is fasinating that i don't need to stand over sink to do. :) Tracie tells me she is going to be home at noon so that i don't have to rush to my next final at 1. This gives me time to go back to apartment and grab my tri-fold that I didn't put in car this morning because of the shock of waking up late. I text Teckie to tell her I'll pick her and our trifolds up.

11:26am
While making Dawson his second sandwhich with balongna and mayo I start to gag. I have never appreciated the smell, texture, or taste of maynasse. I had successfully made it through the first sandwhich but it doesn't work this time. I start gagging...run to the bathroom and throw up. I have never thrown up in a situation like this before. I attribute to stress.

12:10pm
Tracie is ten minutes late. I'm not too worried but try to call Teckie to have her bring my trifold to class via bus and can't get a hold of her. I begin to get a little panicky...again, i attribut this to stress.

12:20pm
Tracie is still not back and I still can't get a hold of Teckie. I go into panick/anxiety mode. Even though I know it's going to be fine I can't help but thinking something has happened to Tracie. I begin searching my mind for all the possible senerios: I can take the kids to calls with me, I can have them go to the neighbors, etc.

12:25pm
Tracie pulls up. I am very relieved by have worked myself up to the point of tears. At any second I will explode. She asks me if i'm ok. I tell her I'm fine I just need to leave. She pays me and follows me out of their house as i begin to bawl. Tracie stops me helps me to calm down and prays for me (she is amazing!) I thank her and drive back to ROTH crying the whole way. As I go around the whindy road that leads to ROTH i start sliding and my car does a 180...luckly no cars were coming and I was able to just turn myself around. Not thirty seconds later I start sliding again...again God is good and placed nothing in my path.

12:40pm
I arrive a ROTH and grab my tri-fold and Teckie. We head to campus. We never have a problem parking on campus this time of day, however, because people actually go to class during finals week campus is crazy. All of our parking options are full and we end up parking a ways away and being about 7 minutes late to our trifold presentation. Luckily we weren't the only ones and it wasn't a big deal.

3:10pm
After our presentations, having half the stuff fall off of my board and the emotional rollercoaster of the day, Teckie had to do a few things at St. Stephen's. I slept on a couch in the basement as she read though essays for antioch. The craziness is over but my back feels as though i have been lifting Elephants.
I talk to Tracie. We had talked earlier about it being ok if she was just back before 12:30. Our miscommunication had cause the mix up

6:00pm
We meet friends at Panera to begin preparing for the next day of finals. Another trifold is on the agenda for this Tuesday night.

One of the craziest days of my life. I have to say that it was an accumulation of a bunch of factors that made it such a hard day.

That night as I was working on my tri-fold for the next day that Teckie was listening to a Personal Wellness video about stress. Most of the things the professor was telling us we had experienced first hand. Stress lowers your reaction time (sliding while driving), Tiredness makes you less effective on your tests, etc.

I would also like to note that i had to do two tri-fold for finals week. I think tri-fold are really dumb...because I worked for hours on both of them and spent money on both the actual board and the stuff to decorate it. I used one for about 1.5 hours and the other for about 9 minutes. Now I have two boards in my room that I will never use and can't store very easily. Other options...throw away? I hate having to waste something like this but my options are few...any suggestions?

I am really thankful for this upcoming break and am feeling much better and a lot less stressed. I had to write 6 papers on Wednesday and Thursday and that was nothing compared to Tuesday. I think God gives us days like Tuesday to remind us how he has blessed us in other ways: like the people he has put in our lives. For me that is Tracie, Teckie, my roommates, my bible study girls who's laughter helps me deal with the stress, Dawson who prayed for me Tuesday night (he is 9) and of course my family and friends who are always praying and always encouraging me. He also commands us in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 to

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

I know I have been truely blessed and am thankful for God's grace and the people he had placed in my life to remind me in times like Tuesday that I'm not doing it on my own.