My little stress relievers

The beginning of this week was not so good. I had all of my finals on Monday and Wednesday, and I was stressed...I mean, STRESSED. You see, when situations such as these arise, my body does not handle them very well. My face breaks out, my muscles cramp, my back forms about a dozen knots, and my stomach goes into cahoots. Top all of that off with no sleep and anxiety and you had me, a complete frantic, shaky, mess. I had to do really well on my tests on Wednesday to secure decent grades for the Semester for my Western Civilization 101 and English 231 courses (two classes that are usually my strong points...not in this case), so I began studying a week in advance for the exams, and the day before I went 16 hours straight of non-stop cramming(that's from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m.). By the time I decided to give up and head home and NOT sleep in the library, since I had been debating on that all day, my head was screaming in pain and I was shaking. The previous week and a half had drained so much mental energy out of me and I was nervous as hell. As I laid my head down to sleep and said my usual prayers, I asked the Lord to give me strength to just get through the next morning. I didn't care if the tests were hard. I felt I had done everything I could do, but I had no strength. I needed the courage and will to fight through my exams. Plus, I just wanted to know everything was going to be OK.

Well, I got maybe about two and a half hours of sleep. My mind would not stop racing. So at 5:30 a.m. I decided trying to fall back to sleep was pointless and decided to crawl out of bed and start some reviewing for my first exam, which was to be at 8 a.m.. It had been raining/sleeting all night so upon arising out of bed I noticed that the rain/ice was no longer hitting my window. I opened up the blinds to take a look and this is what I found:



I was taken back. I know my life isn't hard, and everyone suffers from stress every now and then, but there was something about this snowfall that touched my heart. I had prayed a couple of hours before for the strength and determination to get through my exams...here was my source. I know it may sound cheesy or even a little ridiculous, but I feel that deep down, my mother and God were listening to me and sent me something so simple (well, this is TEXAS, so maybe 3 inches of snow wasn't so easy) and beautiful to calm my fears. It worked. The snow melted away all of my worries and anxiety, and as I stood out there in my sweatshirt and blue jeans in 28 degree weather watching the snow fall...I knew everything was going to be alright.

I enjoyed my long walk to the Zachry building across campus that morning.



It was beautiful! More snow fell later that day to completely blanket the college station area. My guess is it was around 2-4in. A friend of mine sent me a picture message later that night of a 5 foot snowman they built in their front yard! For us Texans, that is most definitely a once in a lifetime achievement!

My tests went OK. Once I finished it felt as if a ten pound weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I could FINALLY do as I pleased. I ran some errands, did some Christmas shopping, and fell asleep on the couch for a good 25 minutes. It was awesome! To top it off, I got to drive home to Moulton to this:



Jordan's female black lab had puppies Monday morning, and they are SO CUTE. I didn't grow up with a pet, most certainly never a dog. So all of this is new to me and this is the first time I've ever gotten to see a real puppy in person (I swear my childhood was still awesome though, no permanent damage done). These little guys put the cherry on top. I held one in my hand and it squealed for a bit, then fell asleep in my lap.



If this doesn't melt your heart...then I don't know what will.

I love that I don't need anything fancy or flashy to make me happy. All I needed was a little winter weather and puppy love to remind me how lucky I am to have the life I live. I thank God for the little stress relievers he sent me this week and I pray that he continues to help out other families during this holiday season who aren't as fortunate as I am. Lord knows their stress is a little more complex than mine was, and if anyone needs a little stress reliever, it is them.

Til then,

Merry Christmas