For Aleida........

Photo Credit: Aleida Franklin, http://ricanlaw.typepad.com/the_scrapping_rican/

This layout will be placed in a book with many other layouts created by her friends at Studio Calico, the law firm where she worked and other scrap friends around the WWW. Once completed it will be sent to her husband and children. I did a few things on this layout on purpose. Number 1 I used kraft paper, because all of my favorite layouts she did used browns and earth tones and Number 2 I used the Kaiser wood flower, because she had a love of all things Kaiser - especially the wood flourishes.

To save your eye sight and prevent wrinkles here is the journaling:

There is so much I want to tell you about your wife, your mom...my friend. So much that there is no way it will ever fit on this page. I will try, but at the end I know it will feel incomplete. First and foremost, she loved her family. Passionately. Never did a day go by that she didn’t have something wonderful to share about the three of you. Through her I feel like I know you without ever having met you in person. That love carried over to her friends. She loved her friends and had many more than you will ever know. She was a collector of friends. We have an email loop. We talked every day all day long. She brought all of us together. I am thankful for that as it is what is helping me and the others come to terms with this immense loss. There’s much more...she intensely disliked scrapbook idea stealers. She would say you can borrow an idea, but give credit where credit is due. She also hated people who slammed others. When her friends were slammed she fought back in their defense. She was feisty. She told things like it was. She had a naughty side to her. That was a good thing. Too many people worry about what they say. Due to that naughtiness you would not believe what she taught us. Maybe you would. She was super creative and adored scrapbooking. She was a ball of fire. She was a super woman. How can one person keep in touch with so many and not have super powers? She emailed and phoned everyone. I mean everyone. She complimented freely. She had a knack for knowing when someone needed ego building and did everything in her power to be the ego builder. She was hilarious. She loved to shock. She wanted the best for her family. She wanted the best for her friends. She is missed intensely by many. Me included. And this is not all. There is so much more I want to say to explain why I loved her. This is incomplete and I cannot find the right words to summarize, because there aren’t any summary words to fully describe what she was/is. No...this is not everything. Not even close.