My Little Punkin Head

I think Steve and I have adapted fairly well to both boys spreading their wings and launching to college campuses that are 600+ miles from home. I think we really have. I love that he and I have time together, and I am naturally one to crave peace and quiet. Goodness knows we have both of those now in plenty. All in all, life is fairly good presently for all four of us, and we are all enjoying where life's path currently has us placed. I will say, though, that it is hard on me to miss celebrating my April birthday boy's big day with him on the day. Oh, yes, I am that girl. I believe in a birthday day. I was raised with it. Growing up, it meant we had a chore free day that started with being sung to in bed, and it ended with a home-cooked family meal around the formica table that was one of our choosing. Good times, those childhood birthdays. 

As I grew up, I was for the evolution of the birthday day to a birthday week, which gave way to a birthday month. Oh, the birthday month is only in my head. Dear hubby won't play along with it. {I guess I am already far too big of a brat for his indulgence.} ;-) But, birthday month nonetheless do I have. And my Philip ascribes to the birthday month notion as well. It is nice to not be the only one in the family as such. :-) So now this April birthday boy of mine has turned twenty and twenty-one without me, celebrating his day in Nashvegas among his college friends.  Without me there to celebrate with him. He ought to be ashamed. ;-) It's just another measurable moment that gives proof to his emerging adulthood. 

This past April, that little adorable baby boy of mine turned the big twenty-one. Now, our sons enjoy our company, but when it got down to it, it just didn't seem like us visiting him on campus that weekend would be how he would want to celebrate his big day. Steve and I are not that hip. ;-) So, we sent Andrew from Denver to Nashville in our stead. Andrew doesn't have Friday class anyway, so he flew over on Thursday evening and was there on the big birthday day, on Friday, April 10, when Philip Edward turned twenty-one. 

He's a long way from that little punkin head now, isn't he? Somehow both of my tow-headed blonde little boys turned into redheads. Redheaded young men with big red beards. Yes, he is older, and yes, every day is a gift. It has been my absolute joy and pleasure to have a front row seat in the metamorphosis of little blonde Philip to big tall red-headed Philip. 

There are parts of him that have remained constant throughout his life, the chief component being his strong and undying affection for all things Star Wars. He was collecting the little figures before he could even properly pronounce them, and somewhere in storage right now are the remnants of his Star Wars Micro Machine collection, including the big Death Star. He has always been a reader. He has always been a gamer. He has always loved traditions. He has always loved for the four of us to be together. He has always laughed heartily at the antics of his brother. He has always loved animals. He has always been quick to smile, and quick to frown, ever expressive, letting us know quickly and easily where he stood on things. He has always loved fruit and sweet drinks, travel and adventure, trying new things, and having some stay at home downtime.

He is developing an affinity for photography. He secretly nurses the skill of writing. He yearns for a life of purpose. I cannot see past the curve in the earth, and neither can he, and so we wait expectantly to see how his life fully unfolds, and to see what fork in the road God will lead him to. It is such a gift for me to continue to see him grow, even though physically he won't get any taller. His growth now will predominantly be on the inside, as he continues to be molded by life choices and his burgeoning adulthood personal decisions.

If I could wish anything for him, it would be to live in his skin comfortably, to own completely all of his gifts, and to set about to use them with the greatest purpose imaginable. I feel like he can do this. I feel like he will do this. And I aim to sit and watch and enjoy the show for as long as possible. We had an absolutely wonderful time celebrating his birthday during our May family vacation. I know that our time together is less frequent than any of us would like, but I am forever grateful that we do all enjoy being together, and that we have such fun together. It may have been his birthday, but celebrating it together in May was my gift.

Look who's 21! My little punkin head, that's who. Happy Birthday, Philip. Thank you for being a gift in 1994, and every day of your life since then. 

Look Who Is 21 ~ Philip's Birthday ~ April 2015 ~ as seen in CREATE by Scrapbook Generation

This layout was featured in the September issue of Create by Scrapbook Generation which can be seen here on their website. 

Sketch Credit: Scrapbook Generation 

Paper: Carta Bella, Jillibean Soup, We R Memory Keepers

Chipboard: Cosmo Cricket

Stickers: Simple Stories

A Fresh Pot of Coffee...Come On Over

She taught me to invest in others. She taught me to give generously, and then give just a little bit more. She taught me to laugh loud and often, at myself and with others. She taught me to listen - to my heart, to my intuition, to the person sitting next to me, to my spouse. She taught me to believe in my children, to defend them, to fight for them, to protect them, and when appropriate, to spoil them. She taught me to entertain graciously - to have an open hearth and a ready home, and to light it up with the love of others. She taught me to put my best foot forward, and that said foot should be in sporty shoes and have a matching handbag. She taught me how to fight for myself and to win graciously. She taught me how to shake off the naysayers and be true to my own path and my beliefs. She taught me the beauty in unrelentless love, that spans decades, for your family. She taught me how to love a best friend, and to not be afraid of having him for your husband. She taught me how to cultivate an enduring marriage, and to shine the light on your mate from the twinkle in your eye. She taught me how to find joy in the little things, and that there are no little things. She taught me that it was better to live the gospel than speak the gospel, that Jesus was bigger than our problems, and that God was our father. She taught me that it was okay to love coffee, chocolate, fritos and puppies. She taught me that - in all things and times and places and spaces - people mattered most, and loving them was the best work a woman could do. She was a beautiful soul, and my life is blessed beyond measure for having had her in it for all of my life, and yet not near enough of my life. Heaven has been waiting for her for awhile, because who could not be excited about the chance to sit on the couch next to Barbara and catch her up on life, and whisper secrets, and giggle over coffee about the best shared things, the stories we hold dear to our hearts, the love for life and family. Every person she loved here will carry a piece of her in their hearts, in the giggle of a story, in a shared devilish grin, in a wink across the room, in a knowing glance of empathy, in the holding of a hand, in the telling of a story. And I think she would like that. You were loved beyond measure. And you will be missed beyond reason. Thank you for being such a beautiful soul, and for sharing yourself so generously with the world. You were a gift to us all. You were a gift to me. And now you are a gift to heaven. Save me a seat, dear one, and put on a pot of coffee. I will be there sometime. And I will want to sit next to you when I get there. 

I wrote the above today, this Sunday morning, about 24 hours after I got the horrible phone call, and about 26 hours after her actual passing. Even though we age, and life's end is inevitable, there is never really a time, a moment, a second, when you are willing to acknowledge and concede the end. At least not this gal. I want every second to count, and then I want them to count again.

Barbara was a gem. She was a sassy women in an age and time when sass wasn't always necessarily accommodated. She had two daughters older than me, and she was gracious enough in her love to allow others in, including little me, and in my mind I liked to think of her as more than my mom's coffee buddy, more than an aunt, more than a friend. I explained to others that she was my "second mom". She loved me enough to want the best for me, and knew me well enough, and knew my family well enough, to guide me with wisdom, tenderness, and love in any and every situation when I sought her counsel. 

Early memories include sitting on her lap while she shared coffee at our kitchen table with my mom. There was hardly ever a time when my mom could get away with going to Barbara's without me begging to come along. I knew her favorite slippers, I knew the kitchen drawer that held the Fritos, I loved the step up in her bedroom into the "secret area". There is no telling just how many secrets were shared within the dark rich paneling that ensconced her family room. I adored her Christmas decorations each year in her dining room and living room. Each time I would visit, I was prepared to move the newspaper out of the way, be ready to catch up on life, and would delight in seeing what treasures she had picked up lately. I loved how she loved her husband, and I marveled at how deeply he adored her. If there was ever a moment when I thought a perfect marriage could exist, I would say it would have happened on 310 Cedar Lane, in one of the moments I was blessed to be in their company.  

Barbara loved the saying, "If you don't have something nice to say about someone, come sit next to me," which she would always finish off with a tilt of her head, her deep raspy chuckle, a twinkle in her eye, and a sheepish grin. But the truth of that was that while she loved to hear the latest in your life, she was quick to offer wise counsel, and having had many siblings, she had a life perspective that countered brash youthful ideals and helped me stay grounded. Through all phases of my life. There probably has never been another soul with which I have been so painfully honest. I would tell her anything and everything, and I knew she wanted to know because she loved me, and wanted to help me ferret out the ups and downs, the highs and lows of life. I was her Penny Rooskie, her Penny Renny. And she was charming enough to let me think I was her favorite.

After her December 2012 fall, where she broke her shoulder, we were so thankful she recovered. When she fell the following December, breaking her hip, it was too hard to believe that fate could be so cruel, and it was harder still to concede that she would never fully bounce back from that. I saw her twice in her nursing home, taking Steve with me once, and my sons with me the second time. Her face lit up both times when she saw me, and as she greeted me, I just knew she was telling me, as she had for so, so, so many years, "Well, look who it is. Don't you look cute. Come sit next to me." Her brain couldn't make all the words make sense, but the woman I loved was there in her expressions, in her smile, in her eyes, in her hand gestures, and in the love for me that I could still feel. I still chuckle when I think about her going right for those brownies. She did love her sweets. After all, what better companion could a cup of dark, strong coffee have? 

Barbara, you will be missed. There will never be another you for so many of us. I pray sweet Carlton enough -- enough to get him through his remaining days here without his beloved bride of 61 years. My husband, my sons and I will always remember you, and we will love every memory we are blessed to have of you. Oh, to hear the phone ring, and the voice say, "Are you home? Put on a pot of coffee, I'm coming over," or "What are you doing? I've got a fresh pot of coffee. Come on over." Oh, honey. I'd love to. I'd truly love to.

Barbara ~ Remembering a Gem ~ September 19, 2015

Sketch Credit: Scrapbook Generation 

Paper: Carta Bella

Title:Rochester

September CREATE - You'll FALL for It!

It's another issue of CREATE! the most amazing part about being on this Design Team is that I get sneaks of everyone's projects as they are completed. And they blow me away every issue! Allison's cover art is just spectacular. Issue 16 is up and live, so go check it out! 200+ pages of amazing layouts, cards, tags, full of inspiration! You can find the CREATE magazine on the Scrapbook Generation website in the Magazine tab, or click the link above.

Now, some sneaks of my work! I did three submissions this issue. We had a product challenge where we featured stamps. I used ten sets of stamps on this two page layout and really loved how it turned out.

And this month Miss Debbie had a wonderful two page sketch feature that I opted to play along on. I love the versatility of the sketches, and turned hers upside down to create a fun birthday look. 

And what would a September/October issue be without a fun Halloween layout? I had so much fun playing with this new Carta Bella paper.

I will post a blog article about each of these layouts later this month, but go check out the fun magazine issue now! 

A Gift to My Heart All Year Long

I think in the span of November to January, I created 10 double layouts about Christmases past - 20 pages. They ranged from 2008 to 2013. It was a little gift to myself to camp out in the season, during the season. Honestly, scrapping Christmas seems such a herculean task to me. There are so many photos taken that whittling them down is hard, and scrapping them all is impossible. But I love the moments and memories enough to try. Sometimes it just takes me awhile. ;-) 

I have a very large Library of Memories. Keeping up with it all is almost a part-time job. But, undaunted and eager to keep the yuletide memories burning, I set out to decipher what Christmas events and years I had scrapped, what I wanted to scrap and hadn't, and what pictures would remain as jpegs. 

{Will my children ever mine this virtual treasure trove? Today, my iPhoto library sits at 47,451 photos. And while I have converted some negatives to jpegs, those span for the most part my post-digital years, which commenced in 2004. I don't even dare project a future number. I strive to keep the closets and clutter clear, but I can't let go of my images. They are each so dear to me. I have a semi-blurry shot of my boys with their arms up in the air, facing the same direction, doing basically nothing understandable to the discerning eye. But, when I see that photo, I am transported back to a Wednesday night when they came in from Cribs and I was sitting here playing Mercy Me's "This Life" and the boys spontaneously and immediately went into a synced dance move to the rave sound of my favorite band, which immediately surprised, delighted, and tickled me. How can I lose my jpegs? They are my stories.}

So, Christmas layout To Do list in hand, I printed off pictures, pulled stacks of patterned paper and cardstock, printed the hot off the press Scrapbook Generation Christmas Sketch book {I will forever feel the press date was my very own personal magical birthday present!}, grabbed a very few sets of punches and basic tools, and headed off to Florida with my mom. We were going to have two days to be together and scrap before Steve flew in to join us, in my very own beautiful room at the Grand Floridian. Mom and I sat at the dining table in the one bedroom Villa, and opened the sheers and scrapped for two days while we watched the monorail slide by against the sunny clear blue sky and listened to my Christmas iPod shuffle.

It was part of my "magical birthday". You are more than likely aware to some degree of my strong affectation to all things Walt Disney World.  ;-) And for so very long, I have had the dream of doing my two very favorite things there - being at Disney AND scrapping. And dreams can come true! My sweetheart of a husband gifted me with my dream 50th birthday gift - six days at Walt Disney World: one day for each park, and two days to scrap with my mom. It was an amazing trip. I was just revisiting the photos two days ago. Yes, more scrapping dilemmas. But, I'll take those kinds of problems any day. ;-)

While we were there, in the land that starts Christmas the day after Halloween, in the hotel that pipes in the smell of baking gingerbread to create the backdrop for the amazing and beautiful and large gingerbread house, while poinsettias greeted us everywhere, and carols floated through the air, I got to scrap Christmas. I did basically just the foundations for my pages during those two days - but I was very pleased with my progress, and I will confess to perhaps a long dinner break at Downtown Disney window shopping, and a yummy sandwich at Beaches and Cream, and the sharing of an ice cream sundae that should be against the law it is so large. 

I have shared with you some of the other Christmas layouts that had their genesis during this magical birthday trip, and rather than post the last of these individually, I am just going to roll the rest of them out today. It's time to move on. The season is done, the decorations are finally headed into the attic today, and it's time to share these four final layouts.

Tree trimming, and artichoke dip, and the favored cheese ball and yes, those totes and totes of my beloved Hallmark Ornaments. And boys dancing to Christmas carols and delighting in their own memories. 

The worst Christmas ever - the year a stomach bug tore through 5 of the 6 of us like a domino freight train, and also the year that I gave Andrew houseshoes that he loved, but then later decided he hated, and the next year when I gave him another pair because that pair had worn out, not knowing he now hated houseshoes, that he pitched a little fit. And the year that I wanted an iMac so badly, but got a Kindle. 

The year that it was our turn for Granny and Papa - working hard to make everyone happy and pack meaning into every moment, knowing your parents are aging and your children are aging, and trying to make every moment count, no guarantees for the next rotation, four years out. The year of big boots, and Star Wars, and stamps, and toothbrushes, and Big Bang, and Root Beer floats. 

It all comes down to Comfort and Joy, I think, when you go to sum up Christmas. The comfort of hearth and home. The joy of being together, the joy of the season, the Joy in the meaning behind the season, the true gift of Christmas. Each year is its own story, with some of the same moments repeating. {Repeat the Sounding Joy, Repeat, Repeat the Sounding Joy!} And yet each year has its own unique moments. 

Christmas is a day. But it is such a big day that it cannot fit all into one calendar square. And so it becomes a season. And as I age, and as I mine my treasure trove of memories, it develops into more than a day, or a season. It is a gift to my heart all year long. 

   

Comfort & Joy ~ Christmas Morning ~ December 2013

Sketch Credit: Scrapbook Generation

Paper: Carta Bella

Title Font: Pacifico and Arial

Christmas in the Heart ~ Christmas Day ~ December 2013

Sketch Credit: Scrapbook Generation

Paper: Carta Bella

Title Stickers: Authentique

Christmas with the Family ~ Christmas Day ~ December 2009

Sketch Credit: Scrapbook Generation

Paper: Authentique

Title: Honey Script, Silhouette Cut File

Be Merry ~ Tree Trimming ~ November 2009

Sketch Credit: Scrapbook Generation

Paper: Simple Stories

Title Block: Simple Stories

Color Me Sketchy

Welcome to my blog - a new stop on this quarter's Scrapbook Generation Blog Hop. If this is your first stop, you might like to start at the Scrapbook Generation blog and then hop through each link.

I am excited to be part of the December Scrapbook Generation blog hop! If ever there was a scrappy blessing in my life, it would be SG! Since finding their sketches, and kit clubs, and eBooks, and now one-stop-online-shopping, I have been an SG Sketch Lover and avid fan! I have the original 8 books before their digital days began, and I grab their downloads now and the eBooks! Color me sketchy - I'm hooked on SG!

Below is a layout I made about last Thanksgiving. It was my oldest son's first year at college in Nashville, and he went to Colorado with his roommate for Thanksgiving instead of coming home to Texas. It was an adjustment for this mom, but as I set a table for only 3, I was committed to honoring the holiday, embracing our traditions, and counting my blessings. 

This recent SG sketch I purchased and downloaded was the perfect sketch for the story I wanted to tell and the photos I wanted to use. 

Autumn Blessings ~ Table for Three ~ Thanksgiving 2013

Sketch Credit: Scrapbook Generation

Paper: Carta Bella

Title: Silhouette cut file

You can find the SG sketches in their books and as downloads in the SG store, and there is a free one every month in case you wanted to try it out. Next on the hop is Laureen - http://mybusyscrapbookinghands.blogspot.ca/. Leave a comment on each blog and one lucky commenter will receive a free sketch bundle of their choice from the store. The winner will be drawn on Monday, December 8th, which allows you one week to leave your comments. 

In case you get lost at any point, here is the list of all the blogs:
Scrapbook Generation blog - http://scrapbookgeneration.blogspot.com/
Ruth - http://scrapmachine.com/
Steffanie - http://steffanies.blogspot.com/
Devra -  http://mycreativeview.blogspot.com/
TinaGale - http://tiggersscrapplace.blogspot.com
Lori - Http://savingmine.blogspot.com
Lori S - http://loriannie670.blogspot.com
Cicily - http://www.pinkdalmatianscrapper.com
Pamela - http://reflectionsofmyartandsoul.com/blog
Katy - http://scrappinkaty.blogspot.com
Laura - http://happinessequalscreation.blogspot.com/
Lyne - http://lynnseverydayideas.blogspot.com/
Penny - http://pennyscraps.blogspot.com (You are here!)
Laureen - http://mybusyscrapbookinghands.blogspot.ca/
Casandra - http://casandra-scrappinbliss.blogspot.com/
Sharlene - http://inspirationstationbysbe.blogspot.ca/
Corrina - http://anotherthingoffthelist.blogspot.ca/


Thanks for stopping by! Remember to leave comments on all the blog hop posts for your chance to win a free sketch bundle! 

My Game Boy

I read recently, "The days are long, but time flies" or something of that sort. As I contemplate turning 50 one month from today, I can definitely say that is the understatement of the year...or, more appropriately, the half century mark, if you will. I am not morbid about aging, and I don't have any unnatural feelings about it. I just really kind of sit here and shake my head at how fast it has all gone. 

One does not have to look far or hard to see how fast time has gone. Think back to your cell phone 5 years ago. Or consider the price of gas the first time you filled your car tank. Recall the dress code issues when you were in school. Find any little tidbit from your teenage years, and compare it to anything you see a teenager out there doing today. Time flies, and life evolves.

I will always be a bit of a technology buff, I believe, if I can continue to keep up with it. I will forever remember where I was the night Princess Diana died, because I was in my home "office" at my computer, a Compaq Presario All-in-One, with one disc drive in the front - a new ground-breaking 3.5" inch hard disk, which ushered in the farewell for the floppy disk. We paid $2,500 for that computer at Comp USA in Houston, and we were on the cutting edge to have a desktop computer at home. Now, mind you, this was all of 1994. Twenty years ago.

And the internet? As we knew it then, the internet existed as viewed from the portal through the parameters of AOL. We didn't even know the real internet. And accessing it? Dial-up baby. As in modem. As in nothing else could be going on communication wise. As in you had to have your phone line connected to the back of your computer and no phone talking could occur. It's funny to remember, and also kind of crazy to contemplate at the same time.

I bought that computer for my new working woman turned stay-at-home mom business. I was so proud of it. Business cards printed with my @aol.com email address, and the phone number that would ring if I wasn't out surfing AOL's news bites of the real world wide web. I do remember Kraft and Proctor and Gamble as being two of the companies that began ghosting their web address on the bottom left corners of their television commercials. And I also remember scoffing at why in the world anyone would ever need to know their dot com addresses. 

One of my tender memories, and I have the photo tucked away safely on a scrapbook page, is my oldest son, around 18 months old, standing on his tip toes, sippy cup in his left hand, and his right hand is extended up to the computer keyboard, and he is trying so hard to connect with that machine. I guess even back then he was wired a little like mom - interested in all things technology. 

Fast forward three years, and that little blonde boy that was so full of energy and light would be scampering around under my desk in a new house in a new city, hooking up the computer components, following the color codes on the peripherals to plug them in correctly. I can still see his little feet sticking out from the desk, his whole little body almost hidden underneath the desk and behind the tower. I had graduated at this point to a black Dell. Woot, woot.

It wasn't soon after this moment that I began battling this little tow-headed bundle of ideas for computer time. Yes, one computer in the house. He would want to play either Roller Coaster Tycoon, or his Tonka Construction game. I folded many loads of laundry to the sounds of either a dump truck backing up, or kids screaming as their coaster descended. If I were to hear either of those game sounds today, I would instantly be transported back to a house in San Antonio, where I fought the blacktopped barefoot imprints on beige berber like nobody's business.

Computer games gave way to Game Boy and Nintendo DS and then PlayStation 3...but somewhere along the way, the boy returned to a computer game. When we lived in McAllen, he and his classmates stumbled upon a game called RuneScape and he would play this game on the family computer that we had set up - that same Dell that had been with us in San Antonio was hanging in there, on its last leg.

For Christmas in 2001, my amazing husband gifted me with the first iPod, it having been released in October 2001. {So, think about that for a minute - the iPod isn't even 15 yet.} Well, I was taken completely by surprise! I had no idea he was getting this for me, and I set out immediately on Christmas Day afternoon to begin importing my CD's into this new software called iTunes. Well, like an 85-year-old on Jeopardy, that poor computer didn't stand a chance memory wise. And my poor husband didn't realize that the Christmas iPod would require a New Year's laptop. I love that man for so many reasons, but one near the top of the list is that he will indulge my technological cravings. Time after time.

I left Best Buy on New Year's Eve with a newfangled laptop, of all things, and began once again the transporting of all of my LIFE, including music and photos, onto the latest version of personal computing. The old Dell, with some life in it still, was relegated to my sons - and the oldest launched full fledge into his RuneScape games, often with his younger brother sitting at his side, content to watch the medieval questing and simulated life.

Over ten years, in three homes, on four computers, my oldest son has played RuneScape. I can understand it a little. I fought my own demon of addiction with Zoo Tycoon when the boys were in grade school. I finally had to quit the game altogether so there would be clean clothes in the drawers and food on the table. {And that reminds me of an aunt that was an avid video gamer in her seventies...maybe it's just in our gene pool...}

During Philip's last year of high school, he became more intentional about hanging out downstairs. I appreciated that so very much. It gave me so much joy to see him hunkered over his computer screen on the couch, or at the desk in the family room, or in one of my slipper chairs here in Scrap Central. He lived for the release of new quests and has now accumulated quite the collection of holiday regalia from ten years of completing activities on his RuneScape account. I like seeing what he's done with his character. I like seeing him figuring out how to do something. I like seeing him passionate about ideas. I like seeing him game. 

The quest goes on. He's in college now. I miss seeing him here, hanging out.  But in the young man now, with his sophisticated MacBook on his lap, I can in the blink of an eye go back in my mind to that little tow-headed boy, camped out on the bleached pine desk in my San Antonio study, backing up dump trucks and building houses on the old black Dell. It is a joy to watch your children grow and change. And it is a joy to see some character traits deepen and morph, much as the very pixels on our screen have. Yes, the days are long, but time flies. 

Ten Years on the Quest ~ Philip & RuneScape ~ March 2013

Sketch Credit: Scrapbook Generation

Paper: Carta Bella

Letter Stickers: Pink Paislee and Cosmo Cricket

Simply Being Together

This past January was the thirty year mark of my having met this most amazing man. I wanted there to be fireworks in the sky, a romantic getaway for two, a weekend of moments to pause and reflect on three decades of being friends. It wasn't in the budget, though, and instead we sent off a college tuition payment. ;-) No harm, no foul. 

When I look at our life together, I am always amazed that God picked me to give such a wonderful gift of a man. There isn't a day that we get to spend together where we do not laugh, or smile at each other across the room, or finish each other's sentence, while wishing we had more time together. I don't mind getting older at all, but I am really learning to value the measure of a moment.

While having the blessing of scrapbooking for two decades, I have had the blessing of carving out a life for three decades with a funny, tender, sweet man who happened first to be my friend. The treasure in that lies in the fact that he enjoys me, he lets me be me, he strives to bring out the best in me, and he sees me for who I am, and not who he wishes I were. There isn't any higher calling in our life than that. I know I am who I am today because God gave me this man to help mold me and shape me into the best pieces of me.

Steve has always been very supportive of my scrapbooking, and also of my writing. There are many nights he will sit in here on a chair, with either his Airbook or my little TV on, and just camp out in here with me and let me create, and he is content. And every night that I am in Scrap Central, I am wishing he was in here with me. I think of our "last house", the one more I want to build, and I ponder how I can create a space that allows me to create right next to him. 

Last fall, October 2013, I was taking an online class. It's a spectacular class - it kind of made my eyes open up more to the possibilities with the sketches I love so much. The class is called Photo Arrangement Replay and it dissects the bones of the sketches and tells you how to put them back together. Well, one sketch called for a big element, and I immediately thought of a star, and I immediately thought of wanting to do a layout about going to the Cowboys - Giants football game.

I began pulling papers together, and I just didn't have the right ones. I didn't have all of the ones that I wanted. Drat that college tuition, and me cutting back some and being sensible. ;-) There were two stores "near" me at the time, one 66 miles south of me, and one 75 miles west of me. Yes, the metroplex is huge. I called the one south of me and they did not have the paper I needed. I called the one west of me, and they did have the paper I needed. Then, I debated inwardly the utter insanity of driving 75 miles to buy 3 one dollar pieces of paper. Well, the whole of scrapbooking can be considered insanity if you look at it on the dollars and cents/sense scale. I've never let that deter me yet. ;-)

What I love about this man of mine is that he gets it. When I told him my dilemma of not having the right paper, not being able to get it delivered from an online order until the deadline for the layout was past, and the possibility of driving 1 1/2 hours to a little store to which I had never before been and 1 1/2 hours back from same said store, he said, "Well, it's a beautiful day. Let's go." Yes, long ago, you had me at hello.

We left home around 11 am, trying to time the to and from trip legs outside the boundaries of any rush hour traffic situations, and we headed west, to Fort Worth, very nearly after a load of goats. Now, my mother would always say if someone was taking a long time and not arriving as expected "They must have gone to Fort Worth after a load of goats!",  meaning they were inherently lost, off base, running behind. If ever there was a moment in my life when I might be considered to be headed to Fort Worth after a load of goats, I knew with all of my being as I buckled into my seat that this might very well be that moment.

It was an absolutely beautiful day for a drive. We went on roads we had never been on before, unknowing at the time that in a month we would repeat this drive as part of the journey to visit a college with our youngest son. I like serendipitous moments like that. And while we were out and about on this beautiful fall day, we saw for the first time a restaurant called Pappa's Burgers. Now, anyone that grew up in Houston knows the fame of the Pappa's brand. And Steve and I have a long love of eating at all of their various restaurants, including the beloved but short-lived Italian Pappa Mia's off 1-10, and the genesis of their brand, The Strawberry Patch off Westheimer.

So, we knew when we saw that burger joint, as well as we knew we were on an incredibly silly field trip, that we should stop and redeem the sanity level by having a good 'ole Texas burger. And, oh, my goodness - what a burger it was! We sat on the open air covered patio and just had a delightful lunch. I have a secret fetish for Fritos and any burger that has guacamole and Fritos on it always gets my vote. I loved that burger. I do hope some day to make it back there for another one. The onion rings were equally good and Steve liked his burger, too. Truly a fun little find.

We finished up our meal, headed on to the store, I bought my paper, and we headed home, to Scrap Central, where I could finish this layout, For the Love of the Game. It was just an ordinary kind of day in our life, really. A day where we ran an errand. A day where we stumbled onto some good food and shared a meal al fresco. A day where we took in some of the beautiful soft hills of Texas. A day where we found some adventure and explored new places. A day where we loved simply being together.  And I have been blessed to have three decades of them. Yes, long ago, you had me at hello.

Fun in Forth Worth ~ Paper Diva Field Trip ~ October 2013

Sketch Credit: Scrapbook Generation

Paper: Carta Bella

Font: EggCream

Finally, I want to remind you to check out my three friends, Laurie, Stephanie, and Tina, on The Scrapbooker's Blog Tour! Today they will have their blog post up for their turn on tour and I would love for you to check them out! 

From last week's post:

Laurie Danielle is something I'll never be - the mother to a little darling girl! I've never scrapped "girl pages" and I just love her bright use of colors and the fun layouts she does of her little one! I am always inspired by her artistic bend. Check out her work on her blog, http://lauriedanielle.com. I think you'll love it!

Stephanie Feltus is a sweetie that I have had the pleasure of scrapping with more than once. I am always envious of her having started scrapbooking so young, before being married. She will have her whole life scrapped! Her blog address is  http://craftyholidaygirl.blogspot.com and I would love for you to check our her work!

TinaGale Husong is another friend that I have had the pleasure of scrapping with. Not in my home state, and not in hers, but up in St. Louis! Tina is a Mickey fanatic, too, and so not only can we dish die cuts, but we can dish Disney. Her blog is  http://tiggersscrapplace.blogspot.com and it is another great blog to check out!