My new tattoo - May 24, 2009

My new anklet. It is made up of the birth flowers for Ray, the girls, our 4 parents, and me. Also, Shavon added a heart charm and Precious. And, because you are probably thinking it - no, I have not lost my mind nor am I going through some kind of mid-life crisis. I admit that, at almost 50 and about to become a grandma, a second tattoo seems "out there". Since I got my dream catcher tattoo in January, I had been contemplating another, an anklet, for several months. For whatever reason, I kept coming back to that idea. I knew it had to be about family, which is the center of my very existence and extremely important to me. I just didn't know exactly how I wanted to express that. I spoke with Shavon and we agreed that a chain of the birth flowers would be meaningful and special. The heart was added to symbolize "love", and a Scottie was added for our special "girlie", Precious. The Precious charm is an exact copy of the one that Ray has on his tattoo. These pictures were taken within 2 hours of the tattoo being completed and the surrounding tissue is somewhat swollen and pink. It will only get better. I am delighted with the results; Shavon does amazing work.

June, January and July birthdays.

The charms, June birthdays (Ray and Jen) and January.

September (Steph), May (mom) and heart charm, and our Scottie, Precious.

From left to right: January birthdays (Ang and Big Ray) and the July birthdays (me, dad, and Dottie).

Mother's Day 2009

What a fun and relaxing time we had on Mother's Day. When I woke up, I was greeted with 2 cards - one from the dogs (with a gift of cash to spend as I please - I'm not sure where they got the money) and one from Ray. Ray's gift is an evening out for the girls and I at a wonderful Italian restaurant here in Columbia so that we can have some girl time. While the morning involved prep work for our dinner time cookout, by around 1 or so I was in my swim suit and out on the patio to relax with a magazine. The girls started to arrive around 3. Stephy gave me a gift of cooking me a meal of my choice from a menu that she had prepared - it should be great as she is quite the cook. I also receive another "girls day" gift that all 4 of us girls can enjoy together. My choice - shopping, manicure/pedicure, massage, etc....that should be a fun decision. The Anderson's arrived shortly afterwards. We all enjoyed some pool time; the weather was great and the water just right! Maleah graduated from an inner tube to arm "floaties" and was bobbing like a little cork in the deep end before long! Ashlyn enjoyed her own little inner tube, humming into the tube as she floated around the pool. At dinner time we enjoyed some delicious hamburgers and hot dogs (thanks for manning the grill, Andy), as well as the old standbys like potato salad, cucumber salad, and chips. For dessert, there was a choice of fruit salad or chocolate pie. Later we took some pictures of our group, to include one of the all the moms, one of the kids, and one of the whole group. We had a really nice time just hanging out together.

"Little Mama" at 24 weeks. Baby Girl had the hiccups for a bit while Jen was trying to sun bathe.

Our friends, The Anderson's (Andy, Laura, Maleah, and Ashlyn), joined us for a fun Mother's Day pool party.

The whole gang!

The kids - Stephy, Maleah, Jen, Ashlyn, and Angie.