"The best men know that they are very far from what they ought to be; and the very worst think that, if they were a very little better, they should be as good as they need be." ~ James Anthony Froude 

"This life was not intended to be the place of our perfection, but the preparation for it."  ~ Richard Baxter

Please ignore this message -- the quotes are worth reading but I'm really just trying to work on getting my blog set up better!

I have only to conduct an interview at Berea College in Kentucky for my application process to be complete. I can't go until mid-January so I am keeping myself busy with other things. Practicing patience still, you might say!

I haven't posted on here in forever -- I have typed posts up half way and saved in drafts so many times but never seem to finish them -- ugh! Anyway, I thought I'd post my favorite Shakespearean sonnet here today. Enjoy!

SONNET 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

~ William Shakespeare

Mood:  cheeky

Well, I have to say Bonjour mes ami's. I am sorry I have been away so long. I wish I were able to keep this more up to date for wonderful people like Christophe, who has been staying with me through the blog-sphere since we met in NY last year about this time. Thanks dear.

I guess you could say this is my anniverserie in the blogging world. I will have had this site for a year or two come August. I have been able to keep friends from around the world up to speed, and I think of my first and only internation kiss (on the cheek) every time I get on...lol. Well, I miss NY and wish I were there now. It is lovely this time of year, especially in Sleepy Hollow. But I have work. I graduated from high-school a year early (minus a few french papers and exams still waiting to be turned in). It was a wonderful week. I have a job that I go to once a week for a few hours...and am looking for another to add to the list. I went to a summer camp called CENTRIFUGE, or fuge for short, last week. I loved it.

I have picked up fashion again, which fufills me completedly. And am looking still at what to pick for my college major. I have been told to take a design major as it is what I truly love, but then I have also been told to look at a generic major...and then apply to the FBI for the bomb-squad, another thing I love to do. I wonder if it is at all (even if only slightly) possible to pursue both careers. I have an eye for fashion..that mon ami, is fairly obvious! Then again, I have a heart for chemestry, and pyrotechnics, and just plain flat out blowing things up. So why not do what I love and get paid to do it? But when does fantasy become reality? I can't exactly do both and in the end I know I will have to choose. Which one?!? That will be decided in another post.

I have to close for now but I hope that this post brings you all up to speed on my thoughts and how I feel at the moment... even if it is all just jumbled together in one big mess of words. Find me beneath it all...

Love Victoria

  Over the last two years I have been preparing for the day I meet my husband. It's been a long road and a hard study, but it is getting there. I chose courtship as not only to keep my heart pure, but to grow closer to God. My view of courtship is as a relationship which is known from the beginning to be an intent of marriage between the two partners. It is based on friendship first and foremost, and secondly, getting to know each others hearts and minds without physical lust getting in the way.

  Being as old fashioned as I am, I think that abstaining, even during the courtship and engagement from physical touch other than a hug or an occasional kiss on the hand would be a good idea for me. I will admit that I'm not perfect, nor will I ever be. I have made mistakes, and I want our first kiss to be on our wedding day, even if it is, regrettably, not my first. How good it will be to tell my children that I first kissed their father on our wedding day, and that I saved myself completely for our wedding night.

  Courtship is also about your families getting to know each other and to grow together. It's about long talks about what you want in life, how you want your kids to be raised, how the money will be spent, who will work, who will stay at home and raise a family, turn a house into a home, and when you will tithe (hopefully right of the top of everything...). You grow as a couple through not only friendship and faith above all else, but also through letters and spending time together (but never alone..) and with your families.

  If you treat your mother and father with respect you are most likely to treat your future spouse with respect. If you are a good son/daughter you will most likely be a good parent. But, are you a good Christian? I have a checklist of what I expect from my future spouse but I know that as long as he is a good, strong Christian and nothing more, everything else will be there regardless..

My parents have purchased our own domain. The following are the correct links to find us:

Family Website: http://www.mikeandsallie.com/

Mike's Blog -- The Gunny's Gouge: http://www.mikeandsallie.com/mike

Sallie's Blog -- Seaside Tales: http://www.mikeandsallie.com/sallie

Victoria's Blog -- Victoria's Garden: http://www.mikeandsallie.com/victoria

Please change all your saved links (if you have them) to the new addresses. We look forward to doing more stuff with our website and blogs now that we own our very own little bit of the web! Thanks!!