My Next 30 Days

So Gerald and I watched this documentary on Netflix called, Forks over Knives. Have you seen it? Pretty intriguing. It presents the research to show how societies that eat animal products (meat, dairy) have higher disease than people who eat a whole foods-plant based diet. It also showed that eating a whole foods-plant based diet would not only help prevent disease, but could reverse the effects.

Reverse? Really? Well I've got two monster knees with arthritis that I would  love to experiment on with this diet. So we are! For the month of November (minus Thanksgiving--cheat day!) Gerald and I will be eating a whole foods-plant based diet to see how it affects us. That means no food from an animal (so long milk and cheese!), along with no added fats/oils/synthetic sugars (bye soda!), but instead eating whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans and natural sugar. To make things more interesting we're doing "before and after" of our weight, blood pressure, and heart rate. Do you think we can pull it off? We'll find out. It's already the end of day 1 and I want cows milk!

Here's a picture of our new plant food. 

We're excited to see where this leads. Perhaps just until December or maybe even more permanent...If anything I'm excited to cook with new foods. Most Americans only rotate between 6-10 meals a week, so I'm happy that this is forcing us to try different things. Plus, I find it hilarious that the manliest man I know is giving up meat to eat quinoa instead. And yes, I did have to google how to spell quinoa. Next I'll find out how to cook it!

I'll keep you posted on our adventure!

My New Carr

"Hello, I am a 12 week old Siberian Husky.


My family brought me home 6 weeks ago.


I love to play in the yard and wrestle with my best friend, Kellie.

She is really good at wrestling... I am getting so big that soon I will win when Kellie and I play.

For now I will just try to run faster than her and distract her with my beautiful blue eyes.

My other favorite thing is chewing on sticks. My family has lots of toys for me but I will always find a stick instead.

I am a nice pup but my family says I can sometimes be a trouble maker. Good thing they keep me entertained.

I love to get my tummy rubbed.

My family is very happy I am here but wishes I could sleep in just a little bit longer in the mornings.



I hope to meet you soon so we can play.


Oh by the way, my name is...RACE CARR!"

My Big Move

*ahem* is this thing on?

Oh, hello there! So glad to see you're still hanging around even though this site seems like a ghost town. Well, it's no big secret that I don't write posts that frequently except with major events or when I want to update you all on my life. So let's continue with tradition shall we?

Gerald and I moved out of our apartment on 2nd and into a new flat in South Weber.
Meet our new landlords! They're my parent's for those of you who didn't know.


That's right, we are now basement dwellers and it's awesome. My parent's have been renting their basement for the past 4 years or so and were soon to be out of tenants. What a coincidence that at the same time our lease was up for our apartment. So we decided to move.

It's a win-win for both parties. We save money since rent is cheaper than the old place, there's a beautiful yard, more space, and our landlords throw some fun parties every so often ;) We're also providing some income for my parent's and are available to help them with whatever they need.

Like I said, my parent's have turned the basement into an apartment. Full kitchen, laundry, separate entrance. It's lovely. Our plan is to stay here a year or so. With the money we'll be saving we hope to eventually buy a house or use it towards schooling depending on what G decides to do after getting his bachelors.

So if you're in the neighborhood come stop by and see our new place!



Shout out to all of you who helped us move!

The Bute fam. Yes, even little Lucy was there to help boost moral!


The in-laws!


The Eppens/Madigan clan.


Derek!
.

and mom and pop.


You guys are wonderful and we love you all!

My Friend

I know I haven't been in the blogging world since...who knows, and I can't promise things will be any different after this post, but I just had to write something.

Today I heard some tragic news. A high school math teacher of mine, and friend, passed away last night. Her name was Nancy Anderson, or Mrs. Anderson to most of us. She had been battling cancer for some time. It went away for a while but in the end, cancer did what cancer does best. But for all of us--family, friends, teachers, parents, and fellow students of hers--that isn't the way we see it, or at least, not how I see it.

Nancy was a person who followed Jesus more closely and had a devotion to God that surpassed anyone I've ever met. Her love for God flowed through everything. You could see it in the way she spoke. In the way she taught. In the way she prayed, laughed and joked. She was one of the first people to help me see that God is not just a "spiritual idea" on how to live a moral life. He created all things, therefore, he is and is in all things. There was no "sacred and secular" to Nancy. It was all sacred.

After high school I would still come by and visit Mrs. Anderson and some of the other faculty and leave her notes if she wasn't there. She always wrote me notes in reply and I still have one of them. It's written on classic "teacher paper," which is paper with apples, letters, and rulers all over it and for some reason, daffodils too. All it says is that she's thankful for my notes and hopes I'm doing well in school. Nothing too important, at least, not important enough to have kept in my wallet since 2006, but today I am extremely happy to see that note. Especially the, "Love, Mrs. A." at the bottom.

The last time I saw Mrs. Anderson was when she came to my bridal shower in August. I was so surprised to see her there because her health had been getting worse, which made me even more appreciative of her.
This is a photo from the bridal shower. Sorry it's a bit blurry.


There is far too much for me to write about this wonderful lady and the way she impacted my life, and this post is definitely not doing justice but when I think about Mrs. Anderson I don't dwell on how she died but on all the beautiful things about her. Never have I known a person to be cherished by everyone she came in contact with, and to love God as much as her. Even though today was sad, I know that she's dancing in heaven with Jesus....and teaching everyone else the quadratic equation.

I love you, Mrs. Anderson.

My Random Thoughts

Hello.
Here are some thoughts that are going through my head at this moment that I'd like to share/update with you lovely people.

I started another internship. I'm at Highland Interiors in SLC working with 3 unique and talented individuals. There's Mac, the boss from across the pond, Ilan (elan), Mac's right-hand man from Venezuela, and Lacy, the one that keeps them both under control. We're a pretty diverse group and I like to think I fit in well with them.
One reason I like hanging around this firm is because of their clientele. We're talking big money spenders here, so I get to see some pretty awesome places. Including one house that I'm convinced is being built just for the husband's cars. The garage has a hydraulic platform that lowers cars down into the basement. It's the ultimate man space, or batcave, however you want to see it :) Either way, 10 cars can fit in the space.

Wedding plans are moving along pretty well I think. We just have to meet with caterers/cake/and flower people to finalize everything, take pictures and order invitations. It's still a lot, but at least I found my dress and got that off my mind. My only worry is weather. It better not rain. We have an alternate location in case it does, but it better not!

We have an apartment now. Gerald moved in last week and I'll move in after the wedding. It's in a great location off of Washington (Harrisville, technically...?), and once we get some furniture in there it'll look awesome! One thing I've found out while looking for furniture is that even though I'm an Interior Designer, I'm having a really difficult time designing my own home. I think it's because I like too many different things and I can't figure out how to make them work together. Or it's because I can't decide how I want the space to look...But I think it's Gerald's fault. jk. :) but I dont' know how to mix his style in with mine and that's what's getting me stuck. But we do have 3 months to figure it out and the rest of our lives to get it accomplished! :)

In June I visited Texas for the first time. I went with Gerald's family down to San Antonio to have a fun time at the beach and visit the rest of the family. The beach was awesome and Gerald's family wasn't too bad either :) They also took me to their old house where they grew up and I'm glad I got to see that part of Gerald's history.
I loved the vacation time, but Texas was hot, humid and not very pretty to look at. Sorry Texas fans...I did however, enjoy the river walk in downtown San Antonio along with Alamo. Who doesn't like the Alamo!?

Adios Muchachos!

That is all.

My past 3 weeks

I promised I would start blogging again once I finished that little thing called college, so here I am! Disclaimer: this is going to be a long/heavily photo featured post.

Remember this photo from my last post 4 months ago?

Well it finally came true (happy dance).

Even though school is over and I can breathe again, it's more like holding my breathe...or baby breathes...meaning, I'm still busy, busy, busy...which is why this post is being written a month after school ended.

Speaking of school:
This past school year was the worst! Oh man, most stressful, exhausting, and any other negative word that's in the dictionary. Honestly people, no exaggeration--I was certain I wasn't going to make it. It seemed like no matter what I did I was always a step behind. I was working on my senior project (and other stuff) sunup to sundown and then after sundown until the sun came up again. No lie. Ask my roommates. Even writing this out and remembering how awful these last two semesters were is making me angry...that's why I was completely blown away by how this semester ended.
My Interior Design department has senior portfolio review, which is a presentation of our senior projects and our portfolios. This year two judges (professionals from the Ogden design world) judged best senior project board layout and best portfolio, and I WON BEST PORTFOLIO! Can you believe it?! What an amazing reward for everything that happened my senior year. Yeessssssssss!!!!!

Here I am at portfolio review.
And as if winning best portfolio (and actually finishing my project and portfolio) wasn't big enough, I ended the semester with a bang! GRADUATION!

Graduation was such a fun day!

My school buddies! (minus Jenn). We couldn't have done it without each other.

Traditional grad photo...in front of a giant cement column. So classy :)

Parents.

Grandparents

My Aunt Eunice even came from Oregon for graduation!

Graduating, parties, celebrating! Now that's my kind of day :)

Here we are covering up Amy's belly...
Speaking of the new baby--

Meet Benjamin Peter Gompert!
One week after graduation (April 29) little Benny was born! He looks like an old man in this photo but he really is a cute baby. Not an alien baby. And Jane is cute around him too. Just hear her say "Benshamin" and your life will be complete....

If you haven't noticed in this post some major events have happened within a week of each other: graduation, new baby Benjamin, and....drum roll please....! ENGAGEMENT!

Gerald, Allyse (G's sister) and myself went on a hike to Waterfall Canyon and Gerald proposed at the top. I knew what was going on 5 seconds before it happened (even though Gerald says otherwise), and I still can't believe it did. Weddings! Woot! Woot!

This is my, "This is so crazy!" smile.


September 24th! Save the Date!

Soooo as if my life wasn't full of plenty of exciting and new blessings, the story continues this summer (in a different post of course) with finishing my internship in Eden, starting a new one in Salt Lake, taking a trip with the Carr clan to Texas....and that's just in the month of June!
This is an exciting time in my life and also a very anxious time of "unknowns"...but I wouldn't have it any other way. God is good. He's made that very clear over this past year :)
It's good to be back and breathing again.
That is all.

My Return

...Is this still my blog?

Judging from the looks of it no one lives here anymore...

Wait, does that mean a ghost is actually writing this post?!
(I hope it's Space Ghost)


Well, well, well...look who decided to finally show up on her own blog...ME!
Sorry folks, the past 5 or so months have been Caarazy! and the next 3 are going to be even crazier (is that a word?).

Let me fill you in...

I started school 2 weeks ago. It's my last semester EVER. weird.
I graduate April 22 (mark your calendars!), but I'll pretty much be finished April 1 (say what?!). That's when my department hosts our "portfolio review." Anyone and everyone gets to come and view a summary of what I've been doing these past 5 years. Yikes.
Needless to say, I have 2 1/2 months to finish my senior project, organize my portfolio, print, blah, blah, it's going to be crazy. And if any of you were in the interior design program you would see my pain. But most of you were seniors at one point so imagine the time where you were the most stressed out and multiply it by 3. That's how I feel right about now.
Geeze....

Moving on, I started an internship last week. It's at "Eden Design" up in Eden (duh!) above the old general store, and it's going pretty well so far. Right now she's doing a renovation of the Ogden Athletic Club so I'm helping her draw up a proposal of materials and such.
I also helped pick out furnishings for a condo at powder mountain owned by a guy named Greg. It wasn't until he left that I found out he was Greg Arnette of Arnette sunglasses. Hey man, I own a pair of your glasses!

I'm up there 3 days a week so on top of everything else (school, work, intervarsity), this is the busiest I have been in a long time. Probably ever.
School, work, homework. School, internship, homework. School, internship, intervarsity, homework....and the cycle continues.

In spite of that busy schedule I try to squeeze time in for my main squeeze (yes that's cheesy. deal with it). Gerald moved home in December (aaahh, and the crowd goes wild...!!), started school at Weber, and lives in the apartments at the Junction. Oh yeah, did I mention it's 2 feet away from a movie theater, restaurants (like costa vida. sweet pork salad! whaaat?!), coffee shop, and pretty much anything else.
However, the view isn't the greatest (out the window is an orange wall of the theater), and a bird almost always poops on my windshield when I park there....fat bird...but i'm pretty sure G is enjoying not having to share a box with a random roommate in the army anymore, so that makes me happy.
Welcome home, Gerald.


So as of now, you probably won't see anymore posts from me (possibly from the ghost from time to time) until April 1 is over.
On that day I will finally be able to breathe again.