Shay's Journal Entry

Shayla, minus a shirt - hmmmmmm....wonder what she did with that? October 2003, playing in the leaves with Christi while daddy was trying to rake them. Age 4. Last Sunday, at Shelby’s reception back at my sister and her family’s home after church, Tina asked all of us to write about our favorite fall memories in her journal. I had never been asked to write in anyone else’s journal before. Aunt Marty quickly piped in and said to me, “Well, I thought you were the best at delegating in the family, but I think your sister’s got you beat with this one! Here, write in my journal for me so I don’t have to do it!” I proceeded to warn my family that Tina had a great idea of delegating her journal work so when they all come to our home for Christmas this year, they’ll be washing our windows – hee hee!

Seriously, I found the shared journal experience to be a fabulous one! After everyone contributed, it was awesome to go back and read it all, learning about memories of our family from various perspectives. Great idea, sis, but I’ll keep writing here in my own journal (It’s nice and slanted from my warped perspective this way) and you can just get ready to clean the litter box when you come here – hee hee.)

Shayla wrote to “Dear Patty” because that was the character’s name on the outside of Tina’s journal so Shayla addressed her entry to “Patty” – too funny! I’ve corrected the spelling errors in Shayla’s journal entry and included the correct copy below. Enjoy! I love learning new things about Christi!


Dear Patty,

I like fall because of the leaves. One year, Christi and I were playing by the creek. The leaves were in rainbow order. She loves rainbow order!

Halloween is fun! Halloween is an actress’s sport. You get to be what you aren’t. I was Christine from Phantom.

If you can keep a secret, I only sometimes like Thanksgiving. Sometimes turkey gives me a tummy ache.

Love,
Shayla Thomas

Christi, fall 2003, age 6Christi did love “rainbow order”. She would arrange many of her things this way, including her books. If she would have been a librarian I’m certain there would have been a new classification of book order determined – rainbow order, according to the color of their covers (hee hee). I remember Christi trying to explain Rainbow Order to aunt Marty who said, "You have to remember, Christi, I didn't go to kindergarten. Then Christi immediately responded with that infectious giggle, "Neither did I!" In analyzing the entry, I found it quite interesting that she writes about Christi in the present tense. Perhaps Shayla knows best; perhaps she IS with us today! This is my favorite line: Halloween is an actress’s sport.

Now it’s just the mom in me analyzing the information here, and this could be a long shot (cough) but perhaps the tummy ache comes from eating too much?? Hmmmm. Just a thought. Can you believe, I later caught Aunt Tina conversing with Shayla about what she’d rather have for Thanksgiving dinner and it appears Tina will be adding ham to the table this year. That little Shayla sure is treasured! Did my sister ask me for my favorite food? No. Looks like I’ll be bringing my own cheesecake! Hee hee.


Christi had many great fall memories, but I'm willing to bet if Christi were to write in Tina's journal, she'd write something about spending a fall day with aunt Marty on her farm (as pictured in these two photos taken there).




Here’s wishing you and yours a great weekend! May God richly bless you all!