Friend Appreciation Post

I just wanted to take a minute to brag about my friends.

I think I have the best friends in the whole wide world. Seriously. My friends are funny, smart, loving, generous, kind, and so great. They encourage me, laugh at and with me, stick up for me, help me, and love me. It's pretty great.

This last week I have gained a deeper appreciation for my friends. So...I wanted to tell everyone about it.

So friends, thanks. You are great. And I love you, too. :)

Life in the Tree Fort

Living off campus is a whole new experience. It's quiet, I get homework done, I get to use my own oven, underclassmen think I'm cool.... Like I said, a whole new experience. :)

A month or two before I moved back to Kansas, Leah's, one of my housemates, friends' floor full of international students helped move things into our apartment. They named our apartment the Tree Fort, because we have a few trees surrounding our house. The nickname has taken root, and I hope will soon be branching out to our other friends. (It is trending on twitter #TreeFort !!)

We have had quite a few laughs here in the Tree Fort. Each of us thinks we are funny. I think I'm hilarious, Leah thinks she's hilarious, Sarah thinks she's hilarious, and Shannon thinks she is hilarious. Even if someone else doesn't think I am funny, I think I'm funny; same with the other girls. For some reason we all think it's really funny to pretend like we are all asleep when someone comes home. You might think this is a childish game to play...it is. But it never gets old. It is funny every time. One evening Shannon came home and we decided last minute (as usual) to play. We turned the lights off and, since we were all in the kitchen area, just hit the floor with our eyes closed. Shannon opened the door, waited for a solid 15 seconds, then I think someone started laughing (which is typical). Shannon told us how she thought someone broke into our house and killed us, which living on Yuma isn't all that far fetched. (She's also a theater major, if that tells you anything!) :)

Cooking is a whole new experience as well. A couple of us...okay, none of us except Leah, really know what we are doing. I kind of know what I'm doing, but sometimes it just goes...awry. Last week I decided to fry up some chicken. Well...I set the smoke alarms off in the apartment. I thought it was pretty funny, but our house smelled like fried chicken for a long time. I didn't burn it, it just got really smokey. We also have this garlic salt that is unlike any garlic salt I've ever had. This stuff is potent. A little bit of this will give you enough sodium to last a week. Needless to say, I've had some very, very salty chicken. 

One great thing about living off campus is inviting underclassmen over. I know they want out of the dorms sometimes, the girls want to cook/bake, the boys want real food, and people always want to not pay an arm and a leg to wash their clothes. Thus they come to the Tree Fort! It gives us a great opportunity to practice hospitality, get to know underclassmen better, and pour into girls in a whole new way. The Tree Fort is a pretty relaxing place to get homework done, or watch a movie and unwind (my favorite!), or to laugh, bake, cook, do laundry, or basically anything else. 

I believe God is blessing our house. We all come from very different backgrounds, majoring in different things, think differently, and are passionate about different things. But we are all focused on Him. I think He can and does use the Tree Fort to reach out, minister to, and bless our friends. It's always awesome to see how God can take something that we think is a disaster and totally use it for His glory. Although this living situation is not anything like I thought it would be last semester, God is totally blowing my mind and teaching me so many things. To God be the glory!

Over and out.