Beginnings

I realized just how horrible I have been about posting on this blog. I started it a while back to keep people up to date with my daily life, especially as those I love no longer live right next door to me. It's been over a year since I last posted, and what a year it has been. So much has happened, but one of the biggest is I moved across the country.

For 6 months I lived in Berkeley, CA. It was gorgeous there. The weather was between 55 and 72 degrees daily. Being on the San Francisco Bay with breathtaking views was truly and experience. Sadly I don't have many pictures as my camera is lost battery power and I couldn't find my charger, oh and I lost my USB cable. Are you noticing a trend?

I always thought that the pictures of San Francisco must be altered some to make it look prettier, and that the pictures of the golden gate bridge must be taken at special occasions when it could really look that beautiful and have the fog hit it in just such a way. But I quickly found out that California is just a land of fairy tales and beauty. Driving to IKEA we would look to our right and the bay would lay out before us like a cool and serene gem with the city in the background. It's amazing how quickly we become accustomed to such magnificence and it becomes 'normal'. I appreciate it doubly now that I am back home in North Carolina.

I had adventures, learned a lot about myself, thought I was going to get murdered, was on the bridge when there was a suicide attempt, got lost, befriended homeless people, had a random person smoking crack in my neighbors back yard, made friends, lived in a place I never thought I would, saw beauty, walked into as many art galleries as I could, and had an all around experience. It is easy to glorify things more when you are no longer there. I am not saying it was an easy experience. It pushed me in every single way, but I know that we can only grow from our experiences. I can honestly say that I know that being back in NC is the right thing for me at the moment, but I have absolutely no regrets moving out to CA.

Melia

Melia decided it would be a good idea to try
see how my nose tasted. This pose didn't last long
seeing as this cutie now posses some sharp chompers.

She can always make me smile.

Kisses, hey I do whatever it takes to steal
kisses from Melia. Now like she has a shortage
of them. But she's just so stinking cute.

Do you see those cheeks? Normally I don't
do the whole pinching cheek thing. A year ago I
would have said that I was totally against it.
But you just cannot resist pinching those chunky cheeks!

Melia is growing up so fast. The night these
pictures were taken was the first night she walked.
She had taken a step before, but she took 3 steps
directly toward me. I was entirely too thrilled. She
went from those three steps to taking up to 5 just
in that one night. Now she walks around almost everywhere.
I cannot believe that she is almost one years old!

Summertime and the living's easy

My best friend Vye and I were fooling around with the camera
while her hubby, Tofer, was on a road trip to CA. This is just
one pic from the montage, we were having flashbacks to being 16.
Pretending to be blond, not too far from the truth at times.

My adorable little Persephone is getting so big.
I have to give her kisses often; slightly in love.

As most of you know, I am a nanny for a 2 year old
little girl. Her name is Schei and right here she is
cheesing for the camera, this is her interpretation of
"smile!". She's a real cutie and I'm going to miss her
a lot when she starts going to a private pre-school at
the end of this month.

Annnnddd... one of my favorite people in the world!
Here is Melia, she met a new friend, Dawson (I think)
when we went out to dinner at Home Grown right down
the street where AJ and Julie live. Personally I think she
is too cute for words. It's amazing how fast she is growing.
She now crawls like a speeding bullet and can stand up as
long as she holds on to something. She also plops down fairly
gracefully, something she most definitely got from Julie's side;
if you know any of the Stolldorf children you will know that
we are some of the biggest klutz's around. Perhaps Melia will
grow up to be a ballerina or something graceful, that would be
something new to come out of our clan. I don't get to see my
adorable niece nearly enough, as I'm normally in Durham and
between my work and AJ and Julie's work we don't get to have
as many visits and we could wish, but I'll work on getting more
pictures of Melia for all of you doting aunts, uncles, and the
great-grands/aunts/uncles and so on.

NEXT '09

This weekend has been without a doubt one of the most amazing weekends ever. I attended NEXT (formerly known as New Attitude). This conference is given by Sovereign Grace Ministries and it is mostly for my generation of young people (youngish anyway). The speakers were Joshua Harris, D.A. Carson, Kevin Deyoung, C.J. Mahaney, and Sinclair Ferguson. Each of the sermons were amazing, all together they went over Jesus. First we talked about His preeminence, then who He was, then His life, and finally Sinclair Ferguson (AMAZING!) did two sessions, one of the resurrection of Jesus, and the other on His return.
I was struck anew with God's grace and compassion for me. I am still in awe that He would have chosen to save me. This weekend just brought me closer to my God, and gave me the full realization that this life is only for HIM. He is not a means to an end, He IS the end. I wish that everyone could have come to this conference you all could share in the awesomeness of God and benefited from all of the teachings. God met me not only in the sermons but in worship. It seemed as though this weekend God wanted to make my sight clear and see Him more fully. The first night during worship I suddenly felt His presence and He spoke to me. Although I gave my life to Jesus several months ago, I was still holding back on some of the sins I had committed in the past. I didn't even realize that I was doing this, but as God spoke to me I saw that I had foolishly held on to one sin in particular and had convinced myself that I could never be as good of a christian as everyone else because I had committed this act. Almost as though He was standing right next to me I heard Him say, "Do you really believe that your sin is more powerful than my blood?" That woke me up! As though showing me His wounds to prove what He had done, He reminded me that He had made me whole again; His blood covered everything. How could I have ever doubted Him? Although I hate my sin, and will never be able to change it, I can only glory in my Redeemer more for what He has done for me. I feel as though my eyes have been opened yet again. To realize that this is only the beginning and I will have the rest of my life and eternity to get to know God more makes me tingle with anticipation.

Terri and Vance, I don't know how to thank you enough for paying for registration which allowed me to go to this conference. It was life changing. I love you so much!

Summer Ambition

Summer is almost here, I can smell the freedom. I was trying to decide what this summer would be dedicated to. After careful consideration, I decided to read as many classics as possible. I love reading, but feel that there has definitely been a lack in my knowledge of literature. I've already gotten together my first list of readings which include Poe, Whitman, Frost, Plath, Yeats and more, after I catch up on my poets I am going to start on classic novels and just all around good authors and books. Obviously some of you out there *cough* Terri *cough* and others know a lot more literature than I do and I would greatly appreciate any advice on some good books to read this summer. I have a feeling it's going to be a fabulous one. Here's to lovely weather, a good book in hand. cheers.

Baby Persephone

So, for those of you interested, here are more
pictures of my little kitten, Persephone.
I've been wanting a pet ever since I was 3.
But we all know that mom was allergic, and
dad pretended to be allergic to animals, which
left me only with goldfish, not exactly the most
exciting pet for a little kid. But now I'm a big kid
and so I decided to get a real pet. And yes i do
consider cat's a 'real pet'. I was trying to figure
out how I was going to afford to get a real pet
and had sort of given up expecting not to be able
to get one until at least summer or next year.
But, amazingly I stumbled across a site that had
pics of some adorable kittens and fell in love with
this little one. When I e-mailed the owner asking
about this cutie pie I got a response back telling me
that they would not charge me anything and just
wanted to find a good home for their kittens but
didn't want any 'crazies'. Apparently I don't fall
under the category of 'crazy' and so I got my kitten!

Perhaps I am biased but I think she's adorable!

She was sprawled out on my futon, having a nice
cat nap. I think the flash woke her up. She gave
me a look like 'hey, I'm sleeping here!'

Again, who couldn't love her? She's extremely playful
and pounces rather than walks. It's pretty entertaining.

I get the feeling that she's somewhat of a ham.
She's always trying to get me to pay attention to her.
"look what I can do!" Hmmmm... sound like someone
else we know?

Persephone

PERSEPHONE

I got a little kitten. She's 9 weeks
old and absolutely adorable. Just brought
her home today, and she's getting used to
the apartment.

She's just so itty bitty! LOVE HER!