more than we can ask or imagine...

As another year comes to a close, my junior year in college to be exact, I like to reflect on how God has blessed me in the past year. This year I was lucky enough that I don't even think I could count all the blessings I've received, and if I tried to put them all in a blogpost no one would ever read it because it would be so long. Instead I'd like to share with you all the "biggest" blessing, or at least the one that always comes to mind first, and that is the house.

Back in February/March of 2010 when trying to decide housing for next year we decided to look for a house to live in instead of an apartment. What we found was an 8 bedroom, 8 bathroom house that was pretty rough around the edges. It was dirty and gross at the time but we decided we wanted it anyway. We started trying to find 8 girls to fill it with us, which was nearly impossible, but at last we had 8. I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about living with SEVEN other girls, who wouldn't be? And to top that, I barely knew more than the names of three of the girls.

It's safe to say that we moved in as strangers, literally, some girls met others for the first time the day they moved in. We quickly started getting to know each other and there were always other people over first semester. The house became a huge blessing for Cru at UT too because no matter what there was always room for more, unlike in an apartment we could have a movie night and no one had to be excluded. I remember the first party of the year the boys (and some girls) made a 5 story pyramid in the living room. We also held the Cru Halloween party there which had over 80 people and there was still room.

This displays how large our living room is

The Rave-o-ween

The real blessing wasnt the extra space or everyone having their own bedroom and bathroom or anything like that, the real blessing was the people. I knew it was going to be another hard semester for me because all of my closest friends were in dating relationships. When you're surrounded with that its hard to stay content and patient, but God gave me something I didn't even know I needed, single friends. I'd barely knew Allix and Beka before we moved in, but they quickly grew to become two of my best friends in that time and I am so thankful.

Beka and Allix

The second semester started and we hardly ever had people over at first, probably because all 8 of us had become such good friends that if I came home and any of my roommates were home I was perfectly happy with hanging out with them. All 8 girls that lived there did for a reason and it wouldn't have been the same without them. I'd lived with Amy, Misha, and Brittany before and I loved getting to live with them again. Amber was the house masseuse and counselor, you could just go lay on her bed and she'd give you a massage and some wise advice too. Victoria, Vix, Vixie, Vixen, etc. always served as the comedic relief, and there was never a dull moment when she was around. Beka became one of my closest friends and she was our beautician always willing to do anyone's hair or nails. And of course, Allix... She became my partner in crime, whether it was bumming rides off everyone or terrorizing Vix by "saying Jan in a midwestern accent" millions of times. The ninth roommate was a male (not casey or scott, sorry) but Dooley, our little poopface dog. Though he peed on my carpet, my bed, and myself he was always so fun to have around. Last but not least, #hashtag, yes that's our betafish's name. I wouldn't have traded any of them.

If only #hashtag made it in this one

The perfect group

Half the house has moved out now and its not what it was a month ago, but I think that anytime I look back on this year or college as a whole I will remember how blessed I was to live there and all the good memories we had together. Like I said we moved in as strangers, but now that we're all moving out those girls are like my sisters. I didn't even know that was something I needed, but God did and he blessed me with them. Next year is going to have a hard time topping this one.