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.

My Mission Field

Most of you know this, but for the past year or so I've been involved with a Christian group on campus called, InterVarsity. I am technically the, large group coordinator (large group is the name of our event when we're all together. pretty simple), but you can call me Chief. or El Jefe. jk. Over the summer we met every Thursday to have worship, watch one of the Rob Bell Nooma videos, and have discussion about it. For the most part it was fabulous.

However, during the summer I was exhausted. I was burnt out with school, friends, church, InterVarsity, deployment woes--I was exhausted with life, basically. Even though I was in leadership, it was hard for me to see why I was involved with InterVarsity and how it was benefiting me. Wah, wah, wah...talk about selfish, right?

So I recently went on an InterVarsity leadership retreat that helped change my perspective towards being involved in this awesome group. We watched a video called, "ee-taow," which is the story of a missionary family that moved to Papua New Guinea and lived with the Mouk people, and brought the light of Christ to the province. One word: ama-za-zing!

The video was powerful to me because it was unlike any other missionary video i had seen prior. It showed what true discipleship is and that I can obtain that same transformation with the students at Weber State. You know why?! Because God is awesome! That's why! He used Mark (the missionary) and his family to reach the Mouk people and he can do the same with InterVarsity. Pretty sweet. I've always known that I could be part of God's plan for WSU but I guess I never truly believed it...until now. dun, dun, dun. :)

So what does this all mean?
I'm a senior now.
This is my 5th year at Weber.
I've been here every day for the past 4 years and....nothing.
I have done nothing to help make God's presence known on campus.
Now is the time.
I feel like I have finally understood my purpose. At least for these next two semesters. :)
I want to serve this campus.
I want to minister to new students and more specifically, to students that don't know Christ yet.
I want God to use my life as an example of his grace and power, and I want to grow closer to him and the IV community...they really are terrific people.

the leaders at our retreat after a hike.

The whole gang at Catalina

InterVarsity is the largest and only Christian club on campus right now. If not us then who? If God calls his people to share his love and I am one of his people, then I am part of this plan to bring his light to Weber!

I am so confident that something amazing will happen at Weber, and I feel completely humbled that God would want me to be part of it.

"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
And I said, "Here am I. Send me."
Isaiah 6

My 9/8c

For the past 10 weeks my 8pm time slot on Monday nights has been filled with laughing hysterically while watching Last Comic Standing. Have you seen in? If not then too bad! The finale was tonight and you missed it!...sucker.
But! on the off chance that you weren't offended by me calling you a loser, you should check it out next season and allow me to tell you about what you missed this season.
This season Filipe Esparza won.

Boo!
Tommy Johnigan should have won, but alas, he got second place.

My favorite part of the finale had nothing to do with the contest. Tom Papa was a guest performer and he made my parents and I laugh so hard. Some of you may know him as the host of the hilarious show, Marriage Ref.
Watch it. Laugh. Go. Now!
Last Comic Standing - Tom Papa's Stand-Up Performance - Video - NBC.com

Here's my favorite bit from Tommy Johnigan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXg2DhIqFcY

One of the reasons I love this show is because you get to hear a variety of comedians every week. Endless laughing! Also, when people get kicked off it's no big deal. Yeah, they're bummed, but it's completely different compared to watching someone get kicked off American Idol or SYTYCD. They play a video to "remember their journey" but it's happy, hilarious, and no one cries. Score. Oh yeah, did I mention Craig Robinson (Darrel from The Office) was the host? What a riot!
So there you have it. Hope that impacted your life in some way.
That is all.

My Big Plans

I have a lot of thoughts in my mind and events I want to update you on, but for now I will just leave you with exciting news.

Gerald's deployment in Afghanistan is over in 2 1/2 weeks!!
Only 17 days left!

I can't believe it's already been a year (and I'll post on that later), but I am so ecstatic that it's almost over!

oh yeah, the other half of the good news is that I'm visiting Gerald over labor day weekend!

Did I mention Gerald and I, and some of our friends from N.C. are renting a beach house for the weekend?!

The house is located on a canal that filters into beach and I cannot wait to show you pictures.

Yeeeeessssssss.
Only 3 1/2 weeks to go!

My Stupid Plastic Bag

Come listen to my tale of how I lost (then quickly found) my sister's wedding veil.

Suzy had borrowed Amy's veil for her wedding in June (and looked smashing with it on), and last week I went to pick it up. The veil was inside one of those thin, plastic, dress bags that usually hold dresses (duh!), but today the bag was my enemy. I was driving home on the highway, going about 55mph, with my front two windows down and I hear the bag rustling in the back seat. Just as I decide to roll up the windows because something could fly out, that stupid plastic bag flys out the window. awesome.
So obviously I had to go back and look for it. The journey begins. I guessed on where the bag may have landed and searched everywhere on the south side of the Weber river. Everywhere! I probably looked like a crazy lady to people driving by, but what's so crazy about walking through weeds and sifting through garbage? jk. Towards the end of my search I'm talking to myself and can't do anything but mutter, "why isn't it stuck on the fence!" There was a fence next to the highway and everyone knows that every bag that blows around will eventually get stuck on a fence. Like so.....

Well, the bag was not stuck on the fence! I was losing my mind. My mom told me to search on the other side of the river and as I'm turning around to get there I am trying to figure out why this is happening. I'm pretty strong in believing everything happens for a reason, but what could possibly be the reason for losing a wedding veil?! There is no lesson I could learn from this. It's not like I was irresponsible and didn't make the plastic bag wear a seat belt!
I start looking on the north side of the river, which looks like a plastic bag graveyard, and as I'm about to scream to the sky, "WHY?!" I see the bag. That stupid plastic bag...

So there you have it. Still have no clue why it happened. Maybe sometimes there is no reason for things happening in our lives...either way, I'm not letting a plastic bag make me search my soul for unknown answers...I will however, let it lead me to find this...

looks like something off a Project Runway challenge.

Kind of cool.
That is all.

My Wasatch Front

Reason #172 why Utah is awesome:

One of the many great things about living in Ogden is that I can hike...in Ogden. I don't have to travel far to climb the mountains I love and they're always there when I look out my window.

Allyse and I have been hiking at least once a week, and it has been wonderful. Lately we've only been doing waterfall canyon and would love your trail suggestions.

We tell ourselves hiking is our training for the big hike at Catalina next year. We don't want to die like we did last time, and this is our way of changing it. In all honesty, we just love hiking. Who doesn't!?

Plus, it's more fun than going to the gym--sorry to all you gym people out there, but climbing a mountain is waaaay cooler.

Also! There's a big benefit of finding a waterfall at the top!




You're welcome to join us if you want to come!

"Naaaatuuuureee!!!

Goulet."