Shelby's First Tattoo

Well I've finally done it. Thanks to some great input from my wife and a little blood from me we've got our first tattoo.

As many of you do not know I'm from Texas and I'm a proud Texan at that. If you ask where in Texas I'm from just reference the star. I'm nowhere near Dallas or Houston just FYI. So next time someone mentions that their cousin is from Houston and they wonder if I know them just visualize with me. Houston is way down there and I lived way up here. So much simpler now.

I forgot to mention the best part of the tattoo. Alicia's and my song it Lucky Ones by Pat Green so I was able to get that inside the Texas. I took the font strait off the CD insert and they were able to enlarge it. This was Alicia's Anniversary present to me and it was well worth it. We will have our 2nd wedding Anniversary on Monday the 22nd.

I never planned on getting this tattoo but the other day it just hit me. I love Texas, I love my wife and it would look great if it had burnt edges. OK maybe not exactly like that but it all came together.

All in all the experience was better than anticipated. It didn't hurt near like I though it would and it turned out much better than I ever imagined. I don't know how it could have turned out how I wanted it but this is 110% better looking.

Family Coming To Town

I don't think any of us really appreciate the family we have around until they are gone or they are too far away to see very often. For me this has been the case for 7 years now.

When I graduated from High School I moved to Avondale, Arizona (Phoenix) from Dumas, Texas leaving all the family I had known for 18 years. I again had to leave family when I moved from Phoenix to Mooresville, Indiana when I came to live with my future wife and her family. In 7 years I've left 2 parents, 1 step parent, 1 brother, 4 step brothers/sisters, 4 grand parents, 1 great grand parent, countless cousins, aunts, uncles and many more graves than I care to count. This latest move from Arizona has put me 30 hours from one set of friends and family and 16 hours from the other.

So when I do have family come to visit or we get to go back to Az or Tx it is something special.
I'm so happy to finally get to say that my grandparents from Texas are coming out to visit us within the next two weeks. My dad's family is great I love every last aunt/uncle and cousin. No one fights and everyone gets along despite the little spats that all families have. That being said not one member of my Dad's family (including my dad) has come to visit me and "MY" family since I moved out here over 3 years ago. This excludes my brother who was the only member of this side of the family to attend my wedding in October of 05.

Without all the family history or dramatics I'm glad that someone is finally coming out here and I hope it leads to others including my dad and his wife visiting. And on the other hand I hope we can figure out somethings for two people in or near their 80's to do with two 20 year olds and two small children. Either way I'm grateful that I'll get to spend some time with 2 of the 4 greatest grandparents in the world.