My birthday present

Tomorrow I'm turning 29 for the first time. I say "the first time" because this is it. I don't get any older. I can be "29 with one year of experience" next year, but I won't be 30. 29 is where this silliness of getting older ends.
So in celebration of my first 29th birthday, husband surprised me with the everlasting gift of a tattoo. Ok, ok, uncrinkle your nose. I happen to love tattoos. I think they are beautiful and sexy. Husband has three that I adore. I have one, who I wrote about back in June. His name is Sam the dragon.
I've been wanting these cute little birds to represent the kids for a year now. Husband told me when he got back from his deployment I could get them. But then there was moving and Christmas and Disney and there was never extra money to do it.

Yesterday he told me he had a surprise for me and he was taking me somewhere today. I was very excited. Of course. We were already scheduled to go out to eat tonight, (that part of the story later) so I couldn't imagine what else was in store. He took the kids shopping for my birthday gift last night. I couldn't imagine getting more gifts.

Today he asked me if I had any particular tattoos that I wanted to get. I said, ya, you know I want those birds. So he kind of pussyfooted around it until he just came out and told me that he had an appointment set up before dinner to get me my tattoo.

I went and got the picture of the birdies I wanted. And luckily he told me in advance so that I had time to shave! I wanted them on my leg and it would have been very embarassing to arrive with a hairy leg if he hadn't told me in advance.

Here are my birdies (on my pathetically white leg):

Three birdies for three beautiful children. The red one is Louisa because she is my bright sunshine. Always optimistic. The green one is Hunter because that has always been "his" color as in "hunter green". The blue one is for Drew because of his bright beautiful blue eyes that his daddy gave him. I'm so happy with how they turned out.

When I got there a walk-in had just sat down, so they told us to come back in 45 minutes. We went to the Harley shop and then came back. Husband and the kids dropped me off and in I went. And sat. And sat. A girl was picking out a butterfly tattoo that she wanted made impossibly small. A bald guy was trying to explain to her that there was no way he could get it that small and keep all the detail in it. He gave her an appointment and told her to come back because his "lunch" (at 4:00) was coming in and he wanted to eat. Then he looked at me and I could immediately see the pain in his eyes as he realized he probably wouldn't be eating when he his food finally came. He asked if I'd been helped and I pointed at the picture of my bird that was on his desk and told him that was my bird and I was waiting. He took me over to his desk and asked how I wanted it and drew it up for me. As soon as he started cleaning his station his food came in. I could practically hear his stomach growling and see his mouth salivating. I felt bad for him so I said I could wait 10-15 minutes while he ate. He insisted he was fine. I laid down and off we went!

I remember Sam the dragon hurting pretty bad, but I could handle it. I was very nervous as he started. The pain wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Heck, after a year of those agonizing stomach pains, this was nothing! He was outlining and pretty soon he stopped and cleaned me off. I asked if he got one bird outlined yet and he said he had all three done! Wow, that was fast! And not too bad. He did the color and I was good to go. Only took about 50 minutes.

Now I'm dreaming about all the stuff I want to add to it. It needs some flowers in the background, I think. Husband loves it, the kids are excited and I am thrilled!

Time to go to dinner. I had a gift card for Red Lobster and Olive Garden. We were certain there were both restaurants in Alexandria. We swore we saw both of them on a main strip where there's lots of restuarants. While husband and the kids were driving around he couldn't find either one. He called 411 asking for a phone number and was informed that neither restaurant was in Alexandria. Oh great! Well, now I have this $50 gift card I earned and what good is it going to do me!

We decided to go to Logan's Steakhouse for prime rib. A good alternative.

All in all it's a great start to my birthday! And I have a new beautiful piece of art that I get to show off.