A (Vic)storia.

So just what is a (Vic)storia?

It’s a story about Victoria, of course!

Sarah and Victoria first met when they were about three years old and have been dear friends ever since. I may be a bit biased, but those are some mighty cute girls!



When Sarah was diagnosed with cancer, lost her hair, had weird tubes and wires coming out of her body, and spent more time in the hospital than out of it, Victoria’s friendship never wavered.












After Sarah’s treatment got over and life got returned to normal, that sweet friendship just got ever sweeter and ever stronger.








Years passed and the friendship remains.














So what does all this have to do with anything?


Well, here’s the rest of the Vic(storia).


For many years, Victoria has known that she wants to be a missionary to Israel.  Before that happens though, she wants to do other kinds of missions work in preparation for that calling.  Well, I’m excited to say that in December, Victoria will be traveling to India for two weeks to work at an orphanage. While this is a great opportunity for her, the challenging part of it is that Victoria will need to raise $4,400 by the end of November.
Victoria is going about the momentous task of raising those funds with enthusiasm and creativity and diligence.  She is selling bracelets, baking bread, doing house cleaning, providing tutoring—in other words, she’s doing everything she possibly can to raise as much money as she can on her own. 
As you know, though, that’s a lot of money for a 16-year old teenager to raise. And although I don’t ask for this type of thing very often, Victoria is so very special to our family (and has been such a big part of Sarah’s story and been a part of both blogs) that I would like to give you the opportunity to invest in this motivated, dedicated teen.  (In the interest of full disclosure, Victoria and her family didn’t ask me to say this and have no idea I’m even writing about it today.)


What a joy it will be to help Victoria make her journey to India--a journey that that will be a big part of preparing her for future journeys as her life story continues to be written. 
Here is her blog address which will give you the details you need.  Thanks, in advance, for your generosity in supporting the life calling of this amazing young woman.

New commenting system update

Work is still being done on getting the new commenting system up and running. The blog designer who is installing it found some problems with my template and then as she was about to work on those problems, her sister was admitted to the hospital.  So it may be a few days yet till everything is working.

And while I’m on that subject, Mrs. Pam asked, “Is a user name different from a real name?”

Mrs. Pam, a user name can be whatever you choose to make it.  You can either have it be your real name, or you can name yourself a fictional character, or you can combine your name with numbers like BeckySmith62.  (My name and year of my birth.)  The only thing that would get in the way of creating a user name is if someone has already taken the name you select. 


Edited to add:  Kristina left a comment with the following excellent advice:
 It's probably not a great idea to make a username with your full name, and it definitely shouldn't include the year of your birth. Although most of your regular readers are obviously awesome people, there are many others who run programs to search the web for just that kind of thing. You would be amazed at what people can extrapolate from what seems like a few small pieces of information...

A few more comments . . .

In the Wedding Wednesday post, I asked if anyone wanted to guess what the plastic thingie was on Meagan and Nathan’s bed on the cruise ship.   Amy and Jodi chimed right in to correctly guess that it was placed there to keep the bed from getting dirty when luggage is set on the bed.


Christie had a sort of humorously helpful guess, "The shiny thing on the bed... hmmm... maybe it's if sea sickness kicks in, the bed will be protected!!!"



I think I could have stared at that picture for a half hour and never figured that out since logic is not my strong suit.  Thanks ladies, for helping me out.





Speaking of things I don’t understand, take another look at these two pictures which I posted last week.






I remember thinking when I took the pictures that I had no earthly idea what these big blobs were but I went ahead and took the photos anyway because they were so . . . well . . . interesting.  (Truthfully, I thought they looked dinosaur poop.)


Shortly after posting the photos, I got these two comments about them:
Anonymous said,  “In the picture of the sand with the ... well I'm not sure what it is in the foreground. Dog poop? Sticks? Anyway with some brown... stuff... in the foreground, the shadow it casts look just like the Batman Signal. Hehehe.”


Lizz said, “What is that "thing" on the beach? It looks disgusting but then you see the shadow of it and it looks like the "thing" is saying "Look at me! I'm Batman! See my shadow? Beware!"


You guys are absolutely right about the shadow in the second picture looking just like the Batman signal! I never would have noticed it if you hadn’t pointed it out.


The bottom line with this little story is that I still don’t have any earthly idea what Those Things are—apart from Batman Shadow Casting Mechanisms.  If any of you could clue us in on this subject, we puzzled people would be most grateful.
 
Anonymous said,  “OK...not really into the computer stuff, but love seeing the lovely pictures you post.  But, all of us need to be concerned with our health....how about healthy recipes. Your recipes are delicious,and so beautifully presented. However, I cannot in good faith serve them to my 50 something husband with all the sugar, crisco, salt, etc. (Nor should I serve them to myself because I also am +50)...and my young adult kids also are so weirdly "healthy conscious".so...how about sharing our "healthy but yummy" recipes? I have a ton of them! Absolutely no salt ever on the table...garlic is a great/healthy substitute...etc.. I can go on forever with my 5 kids giving me suggestions!”



Anonymous, thanks for this great idea.  You’re absolutely right that we all need to be more aware of healthy foods and healthy recipes.  You’re blessed to have young adult kids who are “weirdly health conscious;” it’s obvious you’ve done a great job instilling that in them.


I would love to have some healthy recipes shared here on Smithellaneous.   (And I actually have a few of my own I could contribute!)  Let’s wait though, until the new commenting system is up which might make it easier to group all the recipes together. 



And two pictures in closing:


I’m finally learning how to create bokeh (the blurry background in a photo) and had to show off one of my bokey-esque photos.




And I’m posting this one (from the engagement picture series) simply because it makes me smile