goodbye blogspot. hello wordpress.

unfortunately this will be my last post on my blogspot. but please check out my new wordpress blog at

www.lgossett.wordpress.com

you can all my post from here on there and keep up with new ones!

5 things

a blog for fun. idea stolen from my idol/friend/mentor/lover Lauren Walker...

5 Things


5 things under $5 that I can’t live without
1. tresseme hairspray. (thanks to kate)
2. G2 pens
3.Orbit Gum
4.sunglasses (I have to buy really cheap ones cause I lose them on the daily)
5. Ice. i'm not sure what the price is on that one but i love it.

5 favorite movies (right now)
1. Juno
2. 27 Dresses
3. Father of the Bride
4. Raise your voice
5. Baby Mamma

5 Baby names I love
1. Jack
2. Bess
3. Charly (girl) or Charlie (boy)
4. Gemma
5. McClaine

5 Songs I could listen to over and over again
1. Warwick Avenue - Duffy
2. Lucky - Jason Mraz and Colbie Calait
3. Touch my Body - Mariah Carey
4. Now that you're home- Manchester Orchestra (top play count on my itunes)
5. Miracle- Cascada

5 People who have influenced me in a positive way
1. Mom. of course
2. Reggie Carrol
3. Bessie Olgesby
4. Paige Swink
5. Jane Dorn

5 Things that are always in my purse
1. G2 pen
2. Sketchbook
3. cell phone
4. keys
5. my flat wallet that i love

5 moments that have changed my life forever
1. When I was saved.
2. Starting College
3. Graduating College
4. Moving to Columbia
5. Mission trip to India

5 Obsessions I have right now
1. blogging and reading blogs
2. craigs list
3. Family Guy
4. my mac book pro
5. my new house.

5 places I would like to go
1. Greece
2. New York (again)
3. San Francisco (to see caroline)
4. Europe
5. somewhere tropical

gimp.

that's the name my wonderful roomie beth gave me today.
i'm walking around rather oddly today cause i'm so sore from my workout yesterday
yesterday my good friend Jay trained me and my friend Lauren.
It was crazy intense. But I loved it and I finished so I guess that's a good thing.

you can check him out at

www.bodybyjay.com

i'll try and keep you updated on how the body by jay/extreme lon makeover/just say no to milk before workout/ street heat experience goes.

ps. i'm seriously considering taking the shoes back. (see post somewhere below.)

awesomeness.

these girls I miss.

new shoes.

so I treated myself to some new shoes yesterday.
I still haven't worn them out of the house yet.
cause I might feel guilty and take them back.
but they are really stinkin cute.

Things God is teaching me these days...

1. For his guidance, direction, blessings, and oddly enough conviction to be present in my life I must consume myself in his word. I do not study his word as much as I should, but I have been better about it lately and it has made all the difference.

"The entrance and unfolding of Your words give light; their unfolding gives understanding (discernment and comprehension) to the simple." Psalm 119: 130

2. To be patient. To not worry. These are easier said than done. Waiting on phone calls about jobs is rough. I sit here in my head and think the worst. They don't want to hire me, gah I'm never going to get a job, when maybe they are just going to call me tomorrow, and I need to stop stressing. Like I said this is really hard, and even though I feel like God is telling me not to worry about it, I still do. But all this goes back to point 1, I need to surround myself in his word because the peace and understanding is found there. Actually I feel like God is pounding these things in my head right now as I write this blog, because I had no intentions of writing a blog this morning, maybe God just wanted me to have to stare at it instead of pushing it aside.

Be evident in my life O God. Draw me near to you and let your word speak to me. May I not push aside the importance of spending time with you daily anymore, and may that time bring peace and understanding that I can't find anywhere else but with you.

this one still gets me everytime

can't wait for this year.

ben goes to prom.

so here is a lil slideshow of my brother going to prom this past weekend... i usually don't blog stuff like this but i'm especially emotional and a lil homesick this morning.



he's graduating from high school, i'm graduating from college, and lil maggie is going to middle school next year. it makes me sad that' i'm moving and won't get to see them as much but I know that nothing will change and that the time I do get to spend with them will be treasured.

still surreal. nevertheless, welcome home.

me and my best friend beth moved in our new lil summer house yesterday..... it was a long day but ended with fun with friends grilling out at our place for beau's birthday (happy birthday beau!).... a great way to end the day.... i'm so happy to finally be here with all them and not have to go home 2 hours away but only 10 minutes. so awesome.... I've kinda been OCD about getting everything organized and keeping everything clean (yes you are still reading lauren gossett's blog) i don't know what's gotten into me. it's crazy but i love it. my room is real cozy, with a nice fan in the window, ha. and i had a lil bed buddie kate holcombe to keep me company for the night..... even kgc left her hubby for the night for a girls night at our new pad. i can't stop smiling, change is good. very good. i just know God has awesome things here in Columbia for me.... maybe one of them is the job i'm interviewing for on tuesday so cross your fingers!

ps. as awesome as my new house is, it doesn't replace the times i had with my girls at 321. i miss them already!

Prom Night

So I loved prom, getting dressed up, taking pics, fancy resturaunt, and if you know me you know I love to dance..... When all my friends as seniors decided to all go stag as a big group it was probably the best idea ever.... and watching my brother go off to prom this weekend will be bittersweet cause he's growing up so fast and this is his last prom, awww, .... tear.....

so i'm gonna use my imagination like I was taught to by barney himself and pretend that I'm going to the prom this year.....

this is the dress I would wear,



and this is the hottie i would take... i mean he would totally ask me....



see, he's ready to go, tux and everything.
and if i really wanted to continue with this stretch of imagination then me and zac would sing the whole night in a true musical fashion, like hairspray or high school musical, since he already has experience with that.

three twenty one.

i laugh a lot. and it doesn't take something really funny for me to laugh. it just happens. all the time. laugh laugh laugh. and i have lots of many different laughs. most of them are very unattractive. very. but that doesn't stop me.

but I don't think I have ever laughed as much as I have while I have lived with 5 (give or take a few, jamie, nicole) awesome girls. I am surrounded by the peanut gallery here. We can not all be in the same room without bringing tears to our eyes from laughing so hard. Jenna's quick wit, Brittney's great impressions, Lyndsey's peer mediation, Meredith's sweet but smart comments, and Jeslyn's never ending songs. There are so many memories in this house and 75% of them are filled with laughter. Although it seems here lately that the laughter turns into tears because of the realization that our time together is coming to an end. Change is never fun, never wanted, and always sooner than expected, but it is inevitable. I'm so sad about moving, stressed about school work, happy about what awaits me in Columbia, worried about surviving, and scared of failure all at the same time. But back to the girls. I am going to miss them. that's all there is to it. Yeah every other year was hard moving out but I knew three months later I would be back and surrounded by awesome girls again. Not being around a house full of girls all the time is going to be a hard adjustment. leaving these memories behind is going to be so tough.....

crawling down in the big vent in the floor... playing our favorite card game.... sending bumper stickers to each other and playing jetman all in the same room... cheerleading pyramids and playing superman... the bachelor.... that freakin loud washing machine... scaring each other countless times... the late night with the mouse... fun nights with the soccer girls... tons of cheese dips and fresh baked cookies... fun times with clifford and golddiggers funeral.... brittney's engagement festivities... homecoming week.... brittney being the last to walk out the door... making shirts with paint for move in day... annie get your gun with the baileys... the flood in the basement... roller chair races in the hall.... lots of hair in the shower drain.... hiding extension cords and candles.... lyndsey's first "drink".... tuesdays with matt.... spying on brittney and jonathan... the next door neighbor's loud dog.... making our christmas video... visits from katie b.... making a scene everywhere we go... our beautiful christmas decorations... brittney scaring us with her mad dad impression.... and i'm sure there's more.

i could go on forever... i could cry for days... but i can't avoid this next step in my life... it's going to be awesome... a new town, surrounded with new faces.... but these girls will forever hold such a special place in my heart... they have truly made my last year of college unforgettable... and for that, i thank them.

wompus woods.

So freshman year I was pretty much known to my friends as Laurenthegirlfromcowpens. yeah that's all one word. It was my thing. my defining thing. And I tried to defend the small town as much as i could but let's face it, with a name like cowpens it's an uphill battle.
Halloween comes around and we were wanting a good haunted house or trail to go to. Turns out my distance cousins have one in cowpens that you might have heard of called wompus woods. They are actually genius rednecks. They only work one month out of the year and their job is scaring people. So we get a group of people from school and they are coming home with me to get scared. sounded like a good plan.
We get there and it was fine... the girls were getting freaked out because a man on crutches was chasing us around and it wasn't cheap at ten bucks a head. So we get into the trail and it's kinda scary kinda cheesy, lots of chainsaws and cheap masks.
Then at one point in the trail it was christmas themed and there was elves with chainsaws and santa claus was behind them... it was kinda scary in a really bad dream kinda way... then all of a sudden I hear my name, and I look around to see who said it. Then I was so surprised to see who was saying my name, no other than santa claus himself, and he continued.....
"Lauren!, Lauren Gossett, is that you? It's me, Charles Huntsinger, Chopper? We graduated together, Oh FOUR!!!"..... I was just staring at him thinking surely this isn't happening, scary santa is really not yelling at me, this is a bad dream. But oh he was, and he continued until I snapped out of it to answer him, yes chopper i remember you, how are you? doing good obviously santa. All of my friends from Anderson were trying to laugh without santa/chopper seeing. It was so embarassing, but so awesome at the same time, so... cowpens.

of course santa in the wompus woods haunted trail would yell my name. of course.

annie firebaugh.

So I was sitting in the Cowpens Middle School locker room.... the school was probably built in the early 1900's and used to be Cowpens High School and not much remodeling had been done yet. With all this said there was no air conditioning in the locker room.... only one of those big fans up in the window.

So it was Hot. And we were in Sex Ed Class. And we were a bunch of 6th grade girls.

So it was hot, and awkward.

I kept fidgeting in my seat... just a bench like thing... squeezed between every other 6th grade girl in our CMS Physical Education Shirts, Umbro shorts, and probably adidas shoes... It really didn't make sense that we had to dress out to sit and learn sex ed but whatever....

All of a sudden I got really hot and could feel it coming on, that oh so familiar feeling right before i pass out.... everyone feels like they are talking to me in a tunnel, i feel like the floor is moving, and as if all the blood is leaving my head, no fun.

I look at my best friend Heather Chapman sitting right beside me and say, "Heather I think i'm gonna pass out...."

and I hit the floor. From what I was told after that everyone kinda freaked out. My teacher had no idea that I passed out so she really didn't know what to do. Everyone crowded around me waiting to see what happened and my teacher sent Heather to get the nurse.

When I woke up my mom was already on her way to the school. I felt perfectly fine when I came to but my teacher wouldn't let me move. She put me in a wheelchair and told someone to get my things from my locker and wheeled me to the nurse's office. When I got there my mom was there and she wasn't really freakin out like everyone else cause she was used to me passing out like a weirdo. So she got all my stuff together and realized that something was missing from my belongings, probably the coolest part of my wardrobe, my Timberlands. So that's when mom started to freak out, she said she was not leaving until we found the boots.

So everyone that had on timberlands in my class had to line up and show my mom their shoes.
How did we know they were mine you ask?
Because they were off brand, they were 579's.
And there they were, right on Annie FIrebaugh's smelly feet.
Great, now my shoes had been on Annie Firebaugh's smelly feet and the whole school knew that my Timberlands were fake.


And oh yeah.... the next day everyone at school rumored that I had seen a penis for the first time in the sex ed book and that's why i passed out. Awesome.

Isn't it crazy how everything meant SOOOOOOO much to us in middle school. It was so important what everyone thought of us. We had to be POPULAR. Wear the right clothes, listen to the cool music, hang out with the coolest kids, and "fit in".

I still have lil tingling of feelings every now and then worrying about fitting in and being noticed. But nothing like then. I have a God who loves me no matter what. Friends that love me no matter what. And a Family with never ending support. And it's kinda ironic too that in college the "cool" kids aren't always the ones who "fit in" but most of the time are the ones who stick out. The ones that go against the flow, make their own path, make a difference. But I don't want to be different for the sake of being different, which I have a tendency to do. I go against things for the sake of not going with them, when I should be praying about decisions and seeking guidance from God. I want to be me, me being whoever God wants me to be, I have to put my wants and desires aside and constantly seek him. I find myself coming back to this point often, seeking his direction, and slowly but surely it's becoming more clear. God is awesome and I can feel great things coming that he has in store for me.

"Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father,
And give attention that you may gain understanding..." Proverbs 4:1

story time

so while i was reminiscing tonight about fun stories i decided that I don't want to forget these stories so, i'm going to blog them... for the next a lil bit.... my stories are very random and probably better heard in person but just read it and think of my voice, in all it's great hickness, telling the stories...... the first one takes me back to freshman year of college.....

So I had a crush, I'll admit it, I was a new lil freshman, he was a tremendously tall freshman with the nickname "Timber". We had a mutual friend and we hung out some. It never was anything serious but one night after a lil trip to walmart that we shared he came up to my room and we hung out (innocent fun) he wasn't there long, just checked out my dorm for like 20 minutes and had to leave to do some homework..... nothing big, it was a good night.

Later on that night after he was back in his room we were talking online... he asked me if i was sitting at my desk and i said yes, why do you ask? he said take a look to your immediate right, i slowly and timidly turned my head only to see my dry erase board with big black letters that said "Lauren loves Timber!"

I immediately recognized the hand writing and turned red and screamed, "JESSICA HEAD!!!!" she came in thinking there was a fire or something and then realized what I was looking at and died laughing... I was so mad, so embarassed. I frantically typed to timber telling him that I was not a freak and that my roommate had done it thinking it was funny and never thinking he would actually see it and I babbled on and on apologizing and so distraught over the incident.... he was fine, thought it was hillarious, it wasn't until a few weeks later that i found it funny...

but now looking back on it, that moment in B3 dorm, freshman year, seems so innocent and fun. Oh to be a freshman again, oh to be so scared of college and having a fun innocent crush with no drama. I feel like life has become so much more complicated now. Go to bed early instead of late night walmart trips for no reason, looking for jobs instead of planning fun summer trips. college should be 5 years, and if it was 5 years I would probably wish it was 6, so I guess you can't stop the next stage of life, it's gonna come wether you like it or not, so i'm gonna embrace it, hopefully i'll have to open my arms real wide for this one, hopefully it will be just as great or even better than college.

maybe.

sunday school

so on sunday mornings when I am in Spartanburg (home) our family attends First Baptist Spartanburg.... we go to the worship service first and then to sunday school. Background: Our family went to Cowpens First Baptist my whole life until I went to college so I have only been attending First Baptist for a few years and only while i'm home from school. With that being said, I do not know many people. For weeks my sunday school teacher asked me my name every week and every week I had to tell him my name and who my parents were and he made the miraculous connection, again, every week. And pretty much college sunday school is not the "cool" thing to do. There are multiple amounts of different classes they have to divide up for high school because of the large amount of youth in the church but for some reason that I can't figure out, the college sunday school class averages about 7 or 8 and it's usually a different 7 or 8 every time. There are only two regulars that I notice are there without fail. So I always kinda dread sunday school, and I really only go because our whole family rides together so I can't really leave after the worship service while they are in sunday school.

But something was different this sunday.....

I walked in and the teacher says, "Hey Lauren!" (He knows my name?) he continues, "I am so excited you are here this morning, I really feel like you are just really going to enjoy this lesson and it is just perfect for the stage of life you are at right now cause I know you are graduating in May and planning to moving to Columbia. I really hope you enjoy it." at this point i'm thinking, what? He remembered my name, and everything i told him like 2 months ago?, and not only did he remember it but this lesson made him think of me and what I had told him.

God humbled me that sunday morning.

He used that so "un cool" sunday school class to teach me things and show me answers to questions I had been praying about and stressing over for a while.

He used the people in that class to amaze me and challenge me to get into his word every day and surround myself with him.

These are some important things I took away from that class....

1. God is intentional.

2. Don't depend on your ability to hear God as much as you depend on his ability to get through to you.

3. If we do not spend intentional daily time with God we are going to miss out on the awesome regular familiar time with God.

4. God always equips those who he calls.

God help me not to underestimate you or question your calling in my life. You will provide my needs and you will show me the way. My faith is weak but your abundance of grace is all I need. teach me to rely on you and surround myself in your word so that I can walk in your will daily.

lg.