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.

Last Day at Lincoln

Helping a student in my 4th grade classroom

Semester 1 group

Yep...we're so professional :)

Doing the Lincoln Elementary school Pledge

One year.

I can't even believe it was year ago I was trying to figure out what I was going to do for the rest of college career. I didn't have a major or a minor and was thinking about taking off to Colorado for a semester via National Student Exchange. Then I heard about an opportunity to take classes at Lincoln Elementary in Waterloo.

I had know idea what to do. I prayed a lot about it and decided I would at least apply for LEPDS and see what happened. It turned into me declaring a major, minor and throwing myself into education. I have learned so much! God has provided me with many memories from the past year. I can't even remember college before I drove to Lincoln every day.

I have formed so many relationships both socially and professionally. The thirteen girls that took off on this journey with me are some of my best friends and I have had so many laughs with. At the beginning of this semester our professors didn't know what to do with us because unlike all of on campus classes we all talked, even on the first day. People often get annoyed with us talking about all of our inside jokes. DO IT! :)

Professionally I feel like I have grown so much. I remember the first day I stood up in front of my 4th grade class and introduced myself. I was shaking and SO nervous! My last lesson I did I felt so comfortable and even confident standing in front of an unfamiliar 4th grade class with all of my peers and an instructor watching. I also made so many connections with classroom teachers. I know I could go into almost any classroom at Lincoln and ask to do a lesson or observe something and the teacher would welcome me. What great connections!

I feel like being at Lincoln has stretched me in so many ways. I have learned so much about the diversity found in so many schools across America. I have been able to be apart of a professional environment that most students don't experience until they get in the workforce. I have been held to higher expectations then I believed I could meet. I have seen the difference in my other classes. I am aware of so many more strategies and techniques than many of the pre-service teachers in my other classes.

I will miss the women I have done life with for the past two semesters. I can't even wait for what God has in store for my last two semesters before student teaching. I have confidence that God will open more opportunities and more chances to build relationships with the people I am around daily.

*NERF GUNS*

So this is a little late, but definitely a highlight of my college career! So Sunday before Thanksgiving when NO ONE was in ROTH we decided it was time to have a Nerf gun war. It was SWEET!!! We started out by playing on the third and fourth floors and if you got hit once on the head or twice else where you had to make a tally on the door. I of course had five tallies and lost the game but got Shane twice in a row in the head...so i decided that's OK :)

Second round was on the first floor but got cut short because of our RLC hearing us and asking us to move it from outside her apartment.

Third round...and probably the best....was in our apartment without lights. Two people hit upstairs as three of us go up the stairs to try to hit them before they hit us. We did this twice. Then decided to have two people go out of the apartment as three of us hid on both floors. I hid in the closet and while Kate distracted Ryan and Adam I surprised them form the side...we still lost, but here are some fotos!

Life's Hills and Valleys

This is one of the coolest people EVER! Wednesday night Kate and I traveled to Des Monies to see The ROCKET SUMMER! Bryce Avery is the singer...he has the most amazing and unique mission field I know of. He is a Christian guy who tours with non-christian bands. The bands before him were cusing up a storm and he was speaking the name of Jesus! The picture above is from the first song. He started by playing every instrument and doing the intro to the song by himself. It was amazing!



This pictures is taken when he came to he side of the room. We were standing right next to the temporary stage. All of us UNIers were lined up around the little stage....it was AWESOME! He sang the song he did for Invisible Children in Washington DC

This is the whole group from the night!

Haikus!

Tonight we had a bible study hangout which turned in to us writing some Haikus! We were at Cup of Joe talking about how Brittany went to a poetry slam there. We all decided that we couldn't write poetry so this resulted in us trying. Here are some of my favorites!

*

Sipping a cup of joe

hot, steaming, deliciousness

this is all i know

*

Little green turtle

Alligators eat him up

Poor little turtle

*

Pretty, pretty pink

some lipgloss on a sink

he gives me a wink

*

Wishfull shoe closet

Amy needs more shoe boxes

Make a deposit

*

I don't like your face

A discussion we must taste

do not leave in haste

*

We would like to thank Cup of Joe for providing the napkins on which this art was created and of course the Lord for our minds and the placing a random pencil in my pocket!

True Fellowship

Main Event was this weekend in Kansas City. It was a wonderful weekend with lots of learning and I just praise God for everything He taught me through it. However, I think one of the greatest things I got out of it was true fellowship that I hadn't experienced for a while. I get so busy and don't take the time to seek out other believers to really do that with. It's funny the way that God can show himself to you through other people.

Saturday night we went to host homes in the KC area. Our was in Liberty, which is just north of the city. I had honestly been anxious all day while remembering the intimidation of being in other people's home when I did this as a freshman and now I was going to be initiating question with the family.

We got to the home and were welcomed by Cindy and Perry. I got the privilege of getting to know Cindy a little better as we worked to finish up dinner. The food was amazing and it was great conversation. We asked them if they were willing to share with us their testimonies and anything God had been doing in their lives. I was astonished and encouraged by the honesty they both offered up to us. I was even more amazed and humbled when they asked us each to share what God had done in our lives. It was awesome to hear each person in our group share a distinct and personal "God story." Some were easy, some difficult but each was special and God proved his faithfulness.

My favorite part of the night was right before we left Heather asked to pray for the family. Cindy and Perry both broke into tears as we prayed over their home and two of their three sons who don't yet know the Lord as their Savior. I was moved at their vulnerability to strangers. Not only had we become closer to their family but to each other.

I have learned that this is what true community and fellowship is. God designed us to be relational people who are here to encourage, pray, and share with each other. I used to think that it was enough just to be in the same room as another believer but true fellowship is when God is recognized and included in the relationships. I praise the Lord for this and the joy that comes with it!!!

He has shown me tonight that I have that in my bible study. We were able to process somethings tonight together and I felt like I we grew closer because of it. Sharing our hearts was the key to being in community because we were sharing what God had truly shown us. I thank God for each and everyone of those girls and the desires I see in them to seek after Him!

Our Main Event Small Group at our host home: