Craziness

So it's been a whirlwind couple of days. Mandi actually ended up coming back in to town for a job interview, so I got to spend the weekend for her. Of course, that meant putting off pretty much everything else, which is perfectly fine with me. It does however, make for a crazy couple of days when I have to play catch-up with school and stuff. We did have quite a good time over the weekend however. Mandi became addicted to Sudoku, we went to a corn maze and had some fun, my team won the semis of our soccer tournament to get in to the final, and I got to hang out with Mandi for an extra weekend.

The soccer game was pretty exciting. We played the team that had won the league for however long it's been around (like 10 years or so) and dominated them. Unfortunately, that domination didn't show in the score as it was 0-0 at the end of regulation meaning PK's. We certainly should have scored before then. I had an excellent shot from about 25 yards out barely tipped over the bar, and I had one taken away from me (by my own teammate) when all I had to do was pass it forward in to the open goal. They ended up swinging wildly with their weak foot and kicking it out for a throw in. Man was I mad. Oh well. Penalties are never fun, and I hadn't taken one in about 6 years. I hadn't taken one that actually mattered for probably closer to 10. As such, mine was saved, even though it was a good kick. Keeper just did well to get it. We ended up winning the shoot-out 6-5 in 8 rounds. So it's on to the final in two weeks, since they've conveniently canceled the games for the frisbee tournament that I'm playing in with HU Apocalypse this coming weekend. All sorts of fun to be had.


Since Mandi left yesterday afternoon, things haven't been as fun. I've been doing homework frantically attempting to get things finished before they're due, and now I'm getting started on finding information for the 15 min talk that I have to give in a week. Along with whatever usual homework there is, as well as going to the lab. I missed yesterday, so hopefully that won't matter too much. Next week is the astronomy lab final for my students that I have to make and give to them. Having taught the same lab sections last year, I simply get to use basically the same one again, which makes it easier. I do the Elrod challenge, as I believe it is called, on a smaller scale, since I give them about 15-20 T/F questions and say that if they answer them all wrong and tell me they're doing it they get to double their points for that section. I'm pretty sure that Dr. Elrod at Harding does that, although since I never had him, I might be remembering the wrong name. Oh well. It's always fun to see the students faces after I tell them that, because most of them just don't get it and I have to take about 5 minutes attempting to get them to understand what I mean. Here is a usual exchange after I tell them this:

Student 1: Does this mean we can miss everything on the test and get double credit?
Me: No.
Student 2: But if I miss them all, doesn't that mean that they're wrong?
Me: No. It means that they're right, and you get double credit if you tell me you meant to do
this.
Student 1: So we do get double credit if we miss everything on the test.
Me: No.
Student 3: I don't understand what you mean by miss them all.
Me: I mean, you get them all wrong, and you will get 30 points instead of 15 for that section.
Student 2: So on the T/F section, if we tell you that we're going to get them all wrong, we get
double credit for this section if we miss every question.
Me: Yes!!!
Students: We don't get it.
Me (doing my best Will Ferrell impersonating Alex Trebek impersonation from SNL):
Please someone, take me now.

To me this doesn't seem like a very difficult concept, but sometimes I'm surprised how hard it is for them to grasp this. Last year, out of the 6 people that attempted this, nobody got it. It's only 15 points of the test, and I would think that everyone would go for it. I mean, you can effectively get your grade to go up a letter grade without much difficulty. Oh well, we'll see if someone can correctly navigate through all the wrong answers next week. And speaking of Trebek impersonations, it's been a while since I've watched those old celebrity jeopardy clips...

At any rate, I guess even through all the insane busy-ness that I feel like I'm experiencing right now, I need to realize that it's all going to be ok. There's this song by Jeremy Camp off his new album entitled "Beyond Measure" (which also happens to be the album title) that I think says this better than I can. The chorus line goes like this:

I know that I've been given more than beyond measure.
I come alive when I see beyond my fears.
I know that I've been given more than earthly treasure.
I come alive when I've broken down and given You control.

He's right. If I trust in God and let him have control, everything else falls in to place. What I need to realize is that it's OK not to know everything that's going to happen and be alright with things feeling pressing. God is there for me to help me get through it if I just turn to look at Him. I just need the humility to know that I can't do it all myself.