Happy List - my tattoo

D and i are back home from our little getaway trip to ATL this weekend. i was just recovering from my illness the day we left, and as luck would have it D was *just* getting my illness the day we left. which he proceeded to have the entire trip. but on the whole, it was a good trip, and i'm glad we decided to go. because of the illness there wasn't a whole lot of doing {which means not a lot to talk about}, but my mission to get my memorial tattoo{s} was successful. so i will talk about that for this week's happy list...

i actually scheduled my appointment for the tattoo as the first order of business for our trip, and i'm so glad i did. we drove straight into ATL, stopped momentarily at the hotel to deposit our things, and then headed straight for the tattoo shop. my tattoo artist, jenny, was so amazing! she is the most adorable tattoo artist i have ever seen {not that i've seen many before, but still}. and she is super talented too {check out her blog}. once i found her blog, i knew she was "the one." anyway, as soon as i told her what i was thinking, she set to work designing it. we brought Julius with us, so she had something to go by.

Juju's urn

Julius Luciano, i carry your heart in my heart

directly behind my heart so we are always connected

i also told her that i wanted something on my wrist - in a more noticeable spot, since i would not be able to see the one on my back often. i had seen one of the pieces she had done with all of the sanrio characters {i'm a big hello kitty fan}, and really wanted to get the little frog, keroppi, with his name/nickname underneath. why you ask? well, several reasons. 1. he had this little frog toy that attached to the handle of his bucket seat that he LOVED to look at. and when he found his hands/arms, he would always reach out for him and move him around. i used to comment all the time to D about how much he loved "mr. ribbit," 2. kerropi's huge eyes remind me so much of Juju's, 3. keroppi and Juju both have dimples, 4. when Juju was really teeny tiny and would cry, i would always say that he was making a "froggy" face. so getting keroppi as a tattoo just made sense to me.

on my wrist

the tattoos didn't take long at all. though they did hurt. man, i had forgotten how much getting a tattoo hurts {i had 1 previously that i had gotten while in college}. but i took the pain like a champ, and half the time i was talking to jenny, so it wasn't really *that* bad. i'm so pleased with how they both came out, so the pain was totally worth it. and i got an immediate sense of comfort once they were both done. it's so nice to look down, and be reminded of my little boy. and it's brings me a wave of peace to be able to look in the mirror and see that his heart is connected to mine. to know that part of him will physically be with me forever, takes my very breath away.