Capturing My Joy

I can't even begin to tell you what it means to me to spend an evening with two "main men." On this Friday evening, I got to do just that. I know some people would look at our little family and wonder why it is such a precious thing that three of us would have time together. Well, Jerry works erratic hours as an auto body painter. He's been with the company 20 years, and he generally works a good day shift, but if there is work, he stays. And if he is busy, he will go to bed extremely early so that he can make it through the next long day. Shane many long days as a Manager of a tanning salon (yes, it's a great business!), and I never quite know when he'll be home. Other than to sleep - that's a certainty!

So when we were all able to go out to dinner, well, I loved it! Jerry treated us to fajitas at Chili's. We ordered the combo for two and then my boys wanted to try the Texas Cheese Fries and the Snacking Onion "things" with jalepenos. What a great meal of laughter and hot, spicy food!

Now that you've heard a little bit of the story, I'll tell you about the layout. We took the pictures in our backyard. I chose Paper Loft Well Worn paper for this along with 2 sheets of sanded down textured CTMH Outdoor Denim. The flowers and large letters are die-cuts from CTMH (a promotion last November). The epoxy letters are Latte from DCWV. All the Outdoor Denim accessories are from CTMH.

I've got journaling tags stacked on the side and attached with large brads. I don't mind if people that look through my books read the top tag, but there are some things written on the inside tags about our conversations that I want Shane to remember in his older years. That's part of my legacy to him on these pages.

Another thing. This pages is the Grand Finale pattern from the CTMH Imagine book. The right side easily allows for a 2" x 10-1/2" strip of typewritten journaling. I RARELY type anything in my books. I use tags, I print, I use cursive, and sometimes I even make mistakes. I think it's really, really important to handwrite as much as possible. I know in this day and age when all want our pages to be the prettiest or the most perfect, we often turn to the computer to journal. But, oh, how the story will come alive in 50 years when Shane is explaining this night to his children and running his hands across my handwritten tags. So I've learned to love how I write - whether it be good, bad, or ugly.

As always, click on the picture if you want to take a larger view!