Guess what I did.

So are you guessing???

Not so much?

Fine. I will just tell you then. I got a tattoo.

I know that that probably doesnt surprise anyone... but it is my first one (believe it or not.) I actually got it on September 2nd.... But I didnt wanna say anything about it till I could show you a good picture of it. First you get to see a yucky picture of it first though!



Looks gross right? It is ok. This is immediatley after I took off the bandages for the first time. I couldnt wait the full 24 hours that they recommend that you wait.... cause well.... the tape was burning a hole in my skin! See how agrivated my skin looks where you can obviously see the tape marks???

So off came the bandages... I did wait till it had been 24 hours to wash it for the first time though! And guess what??? It looks much better now! Not perfect... I am told that that is because I still have two weeks worth of healing to do. So I am not to worried about that. I also get free touch ups ( I think they are free. They are either free or really cheap.) so if it is a little funky on the color then it can be fixed.



Now I know some are wondering what the heck my tattoo is... and for those of you who know what it is and know me well you are probably asking yourself, "WHY?"

Here is the thing. Neal and Devon and Ian were big fans of Star Wars. I am pretty sure that Neal was even buried with his light saber. Anyways. As some of you may or may not know, Neal Devon and Ian were murdered last year. I refuse to go on about the details here, cause I wasnt there to know exactly what happened. All I do know is that they are gone and that Manling (Neal's wife and the mother of both boys) is going to be tried for the murders. That is all I will say about that, but if you want to know everything that the media knows you can read some of the articles that can be found here and here and here. Actually that last link is the link to a blog about the murder. I wouldnt bother with most of the comments... but there are quite alot of them written by Neal's Mom. Those are ones to read if you want info.

Anyways. Regardless of what really happened, they are gone.... and so is a piece of my heart. Devon could always be counted on to make me smile. He was a funny and very intelligent little boy with a heart of gold. I have picture upon picture of him playing with my boys as babies. The last thing that Devon said to me was "I cant wait for you to come home for Christmas! Then I will get to meet your new baby girl and I am sure that she will be the sweetest prettiest girl that I have ever met! You will let me hold her wont you??" To which I replied "Yes Devon. Of course you can hold her silly boy. I love you, now give the phone back to your mom!" Ian was Alexanders best friend. They were only a few months apart. I have so many pictures of the two of them doing things like playing race car in empty boxes from Sam's Club or dancing on the open door of the dishwasher. They were like two peas in a pod. The last thing Ian said to me was "I miss Alexander. Send him home please. Devon!" at which point he handed Devon the phone.

And then there was Neal. What cant be said about Neal. Neal was smart. He loved his family like you wouldnt believe. He wasnt perfect. He had his issues, but he was the kind of friend that you could sit outside with and talk all night about what was going wrong in your life and he would give you his take from more than one perspective. He would do things like call me to tell me that a really funny episode of Star Trek was on... or send Owen his copy of a book that he thought Owen would really enjoy.

So my way of coping with their loss was to get a tattoo of the same symbol that Neal's mom chose to put on their headstone. If she felt it was the perfect symbol to immortalize on their final marker... then who am I to argue. Besides, I agree with her that the rebel alliance symbol from Star Wars is perfect. The date... well... if you read the articles... then you know that that is the date that they died. I will always miss them... and now in my own way I am letting the world know that they will always be with me.