et...voila!

I started the week in the library, in the commons, downloading Google Chrome (again, my obsession with Google continues) which I absolutely adore! I had a long night ahead of me. 2 presentations, 2 response paper, a 3 page extended CV, 200 pages of reading to finish, and a quiz to study for. at 3 am I went home to sleep for 3.5 hours.

School Tuesday came and went, I turned all the work in, did mediocre on the quiz and headed to dinner with C.J. to meet L.M., K.?, and A.A. for our first bible study together. It was INCREDIBLE! I could maybe go on for days but I'll just say for now that I am so grateful for the time to be with these new friends and am so excited about working through the Bible and the study 5 Aspects of Woman--a study that provides a biblical and theological framework based on a Genesis-to-Revelation study of five truths on the nature of femininity. Then I came home to finally spend some quality with M.E.A. and talk to by mom and brother on the phone.

Then Today! Such a fun day! I woke early to meet with my Young Life team at the office. Then I went to work and wrote an article, well two actually, on the same thing because all my bosses were on the phone and not checking their e-mail and I didn't know what to focus on and had nothing else to finish. Wednesdays are short at work for me because I want a day in the middle of the week to go out to Gibbs. I had sweet time with K.T., B.T., S.S., H.D., E.H.,N., M.G, D.M.,L., A.W., A.P., S.P., and K. and a great ride there and back with J.T. (so thankful for her).

After running to the grocery store, I met K.M.P. for coffee at the golden roast. I love my time with her. She helped me get through this past summer like a champ. We were T's in an world filled with F's. Not wanting to get back into the real world, I impulsively drove across Knoxville to my absolute favorite shop in town: Bradley's!!!! And this is what greeted me:

They got their new spring items from market recently and let's just say that if I hadn't gone with only 20 minutes until close, I would have been in there for hours just look at everything about 20 times. It actually is like the smallest store, but I just circle and circle and circle. It is a bit on the high end of gift shops, well my high end, but I almost never leave without milk chocolate covered graham crackers.

After reluctantly leaving at closing time, I found myself heading away from my car and into JoAnn (which I call JoAnn's, which totally slaps me in the face because I have on way too many occasions made fun of K.N.F and M.E.A. to name a few who add an 's' to the end of Kroger). Anyway, I wandered and explored. I maybe could spend all day in those two stores, conveniently located in adjacent storefronts.

Anyways, I wanted to be crafty. I wanted to be crafty so bad because I did not want to do homework...thoughts of Monday night are haunting me. And this is what I found!

They are brads by my favorite fabric designer, Amy Butler (www.amybutlerdesign.com visit and let your eye feast!). Et voila! I bent the pliable metal brads around simple necklace 18'' necklaces and made 9 simple, unique gifts for around $8 total. I also found some amy butler matting paper that I'll probably just use to write notes on and who knows what else! Woo hoo!!!! Now I am writing this blog and still procrastinating.

I am grateful, it's been a while.

Je me suis googlée. (Je viens d'inventer ce participe passé)

So today in class I heard for the gajillionth time that you have to be extremely cautious with the information that you put on the internet because once it is there, it is there forever. My professor told us to go home and Google ourselves to we are up to date on the info that is up because you just never know.

Here are the results for Julia Suddath when typed into Google's search engine. (By the way I happen to love to Google anything and everything. I the queen of answering 97% of the questions that M.E.A. asks by saying, "let's look it up." I am loyal to Google. Yahoo and the others just don't measure up.)



1. Julia Suddath: Facebook--clearly Facebook pays the big bucks for their items to appear at the top.
2. Julia Suddath: $1000 in Political Contributions for 2004--well, ha, even if I did have $1000 to give away when I was 16 and a sophomore in high school, I sure would not have donated it in the same way.
3. Julia Suddath: THIS BLOG--
4. Fall 2009 Dean's List UT College of Communication and Information: Thank you, thank you. You don't need to congratulate me.
5. Malik Julia: The results for searching "Malik Julia" on 123 people dot com HAHA
6. Julia Suddath Campaign Contributions -- Huffington Post: Well, clearly distant cousin Julia is certainly doing her part for padding the political campaign wallet.
7. About USJ: dear high school, how have you been??

Well it gets a bit general from there on out. However, this is my reminder to you in case you haven't been constantly reminded by many to be prudent with your online information.

Have a blessed day/night!

Quel achat! haha!

Ok so I can't believe I am admitting this, but I think it is way too funny not to go ahead and write.

Yesterday after a an early workout with M.E.A, we hit the trail to find a few books I needed for school at McKays. (P.S. I hate McKays officially now. I had my list, and even politely asked for some help upfront so I wouldn't be frustrated. The lady just replied that McKays is a 'point you in the right direction and let you pick through for yourself kind of establishement'. Which clearly made my jaw drop. So I said, well how bout you point.) Anyways, apparently McKays had already been picked through by more patient and experienced perusers. So we headed about a mile to The Bent Corner, a smaller used bookstore than McKays but with many, many more cats.

We gave up on the book search and decided to go to Target because my favorite grandmother-to-be N.U. gave me one of the best gifts ever...

This is what I bought:

and

Wait...did you get that? I got some very cute, flats (for $12.99--Impressed A.K.C.??) and new deodorant. The Scent: Sexy Intrigue. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! But it smells good, and hey, maybe it will help. Kidding, just kidding, not really, but yes I am. By the way, it is part of Degree's fine fragrance collection of Sexy Intrigue, Classic Romance, Delicious Bliss. And if you go to their website you can get a $1 coupon.

There, I admitted it. It's funny. At least I think so. All in all, a good day---except for McKays. Stupid lack of customer service.

Les ruisseaux dans le désert.

Years ago a sweet friend, B.C.C., told me about the devotional aid Streams in the Desert. She was one of those friends that came into my life for a season and I will be continually thankful for her godly influence. Anyways, I've dipped in and out of this devotional from time to time, but this morning I could hardly wait for some reason to open it (well actually bring it up online because my copy is at my apt in knox.) The words took me to the book of Hosea, the happening of a man who marries a prostitute who leaves him many times for other lovers. It is a story that many have rewritten and seen exemplified in their own lives as they look at how they have been a just as unfaithful to Jesus. But today, the excerpt focused on verses 14 and 15, "Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. there I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope." Mrs. Cowman write how odd it is that there, in the desert, the Lord provides a vineyard, and there in the Valley of Achor, which means bitterness, He creates hope.

This reminded me of a conversation I had with my sweet brother J.C.S. when I went to visit him in early December. We had gone to a small hang out time with some old friends to play games and when we left he asked my one questions: "Why were you there?" He said he had been challenged by a good friend to ask that question of himself periodically to see where God had put him and for what purposes.

My answer, by the way, was, "to recognize old faces and to get a small glimpse of what the next phase of life (out of college) can look like."

The connection: I think that sometimes we walk into deserts and become consumed with our assumption of why we are there, so that when the vineyard is revealed we are uninterested and stubborn. At least I know I have.

On a completely other note, I am praying this morning for A.K.C. and M.E.A as they both are taking tests and interviewing, respectively. They are both brilliant and seeking the Lord for their futures. Much love to them.

La résolution de mon nouvel an--je veux arrêter de mordre mes ongles.

So, seeing that it now 2010, I am making 1 resolution. How in the world did 2010 get here so fast by the way? 2009 was on speed. My one resolution, however, could effect my health, my physical look, the ability of getting a job, but certainly how I deal with stress or times of anxiousness and nervousness. I want to quit biting my fingernails.

I've been doing it since forever. There has only been one time that I stopped biting 9 of my nails for longer than two weeks. That was the summer of 2008 while at Camp Vesper Point and in Maine, coming off of a semester in France and heading towards my first semester at UTK. Well once I got to Knoxville, I started biting my nails again, but that is understandable, right? I mean new school, apartment, and life. I tried to stop at the beginning of the fall semester of 2009, but it all went downhill when school got going again.

So here's to 2010 and the end to my famously short nails. I painted them a color I like two days ago in Florida and am praying, really praying for discipline in this. It may seem small, but it is huge for me.

my blog in 2009...fail

Well I started this blog in early 2009 with high hopes of being committed, funny, insightful, creative, perhaps so great that I got a movie contract---no, but really, I wrote one post, started several others and pretty much failed.

So, here's to the last week and a half of 2009, maybe I'll begin making this a habit.

I'm 'home' in Dalton, GA--I put the word home in single quotes because, let's face it, wherever my family is is where home is, but I've sort of lost a picture of a house to call home. Don't get me wrong, I love that my family has this house. It was purely provided by God for my parents to use for his glory, but the physical building is not what makes it home. In fact, I've recently tried to test myself. I think the word home and then try to decipher the picture that comes to mind. However this doesn't really work, because I am neither a definite S or N (for all you Myers Briggs lovers). I, a of all, have clearly overprocessed the whole matter, and b of all have to many images, memories, mental snapshots of my houses on Signal, Jackson, and a little of Dalton as well as faces of my family at lots of different stages of life and friends too--all just swirling in the atmosphere of my head that my amateur test of immediate response pretty much turns into a slideshow of my past. I wish you could watch it will me sometime.

Christmas at the Suddath's has a bit of a tide schedule. We seem to host many different groups a gatherings around this time of year because we're most often at home, since Dad works Christmas. So around 6ish most evening the week leading up to the big day, an influx of people spill through the front door, shake the cold off themselves like no one is watching, and ask where to put their coats and bags. Depending on the group, the tide heads out around either 9 or midnight. If you are the deacons and their wives, you're apt to leave at nine. If you are the sweet, make your insides tighten with genuine love, old friends from just up the road, we hope you don't mind sitting beneath the canopy of Christmas lights until the early morning hours.

Speaking of Christmas lights--my dad loves Christmas lights. If I'm right, it has something to do with a dueling pair of electricians from his childhood. So this year with mom in CA at the end of November, Dad got to work, reinventing his lights schematic to awe and shock all holiday guests. He has a strict colored lights only rule, with only a small bit of grace for mom's icicle lights around the pool. My mom thinks our living room looks like a Lite Brite from back in the day, but really it is classic Jim.

More to come about Christmas 2009. I am headed to the Rawlings for dinner, so it is sure to be a party. In the meantime, I guess just start praying this impulse to begin blogging again is not in vain.

2.5 days to Christmas!

Of onions and chocolate chip cookies

My dad has always said, "There are no normal people," and I believe him. We're all a little goofy, certainly messed up, and we've got layers and layers of ourselves just waiting to be peeled and pried open. My new friend Elise has this theory, of the onion and the chocolate chip cookie. The onion, clearly, has layers that are surprising, revealing, and even disappointing. The chocolate chip cookies of the world are the open-books, the immediate friends we make because we feel like we've known them all our lives, chosen first except by those health freaks and anorexics of the world, but not always worth the calories. Sometimes I know that I've wanted only cookie friends who want to go deep quickly, but I know the joy of sitting down with an onion, and both are immensly rewarding. It is interesting to see where people fall--or if they ever are cookies one day and onions the next. Isn't it amazing, though, that our God made us with different natures and personalities--different checkpoints of revealing our hearts to our friends?