Good Reads

I am an avid reader. I will read just about anything I can get my hands on, and much to my time-wasting joy, there are hundreds of blogs just waiting to be perused. I can read all day long, and never get enough.

One of my favorites to check on is Mama MLDB. I don't know MLDB personally, but I went to college with her husband, and got turned on to her blog through his. I find her writing to humorous and insightful. I think I could have a lot of fun hanging out with MLDB.

A newbie to the blogging community is SlackerMom. I first met SlackerMom about 8 years ago, and only recently reconnected with her on Facebook (more on FB and my addiction another time.) Her post Tears in a Jar pt1 broke my heart. I give her so much credit to not only keep her faith in God through all of her heartache, but to have the courage to share it. I don't know if I could be that brave. She's mentioned The Fireman many times on her blog, and so I had to check it out. I like what I've read so far.

The blog I have visited most often and learned the most from is The Story of a Princess and her Hair. My daughter has hair that hangs to her waist, and so I am always on the hunt for something new and exciting to try. We have not only duplicated many of the styles on Princess, we have modified them, too. One of Rylee's favorites is a heart braid, and we have done many different styles that have incorporated the heart. I will have to post some of our hairstyles soon.

A new friend of mine posts a family blog, The Shipley Family. I like reading this one because, as new friends, it is a good way to learn about her and her family. She has four beautiful children, and much of her blog is about the every day life and happenings of them. I love that she incorporates pictures with her posts,I'm glad to find someone else as picture-snapping crazy as I am.

I hope some of you take the time to check out some new reads, and if you have found any blogs that you like, please pass them on so I can expand my "library".

Until next time,
Chelle

Tattoo part 2

At last the long promised tattoo after post.

Friday evening arrived, and everyone met at my house. Also getting tattoos were friends Peg and Amy. We all piled into Lisa's van and headed down to Pincushn. I had spoken with Brett earlier in the week, and let him know that Peg and Amy were coming, and while he would be doing Jen, Lisa and my tattoos, he said someone else would be doing Peg and Amy's. When we got there, we discovered that Brett is the only person working, and that Amy had not decided on a design. While Amy looked through the books, we gave Brett our final decision of a design for the matching tattoos, and Peg gave him her design. We realized that our new design would not fit the ankle bracelet charm he originally designed for me, but we decided I would get the charm first, and he would redesign a bracelet to go with it for a future date.

First up was Peg. She had decided on the kanji symbol for truth. She chose to have it on her ribs. As this was her third tattoo, she was not at all nervous, and had her new ink in less than 10 minutes.

During this time, Lisa was feeling very nervous, and starting panic a little bit.

Next up was Amy. She had finally decided on getting kanji for patience, and her father's initials under it on the front of her right hip. She tried very hard during her tattoo to not show that she thought it hurt, because she didn't want Lisa to chicken out.

We made Lisa go next, because she was starting to worry too much. She had decided to have it put on the outside of her right calf, because she thought it would hurt less there. Brett told her it would feel the same no matter where she got it, and she might has well get it where she really wanted it, because she couldn't move it later when she decided it hadn't hurt. She decided to move it a little lower and closer to the ankle. She obviously found it to be a very painful experience. She winced and cursed throughout the entire process. She chose to have very little color to her tattoo because she has a lighter skin tone, and didn't think the darker tattoo would look good on her.

Jen went next, and had hers put on the front of her right hip. She said if she was going to have one, she wanted to be able to see it, but not to have anyone else see it unless she chose to show them. Jen had looked at many different pictures, and had found a tattoo that she really liked the coloring of, but with a different design. This required a thicker outline of the tattoo. She took it much better than Lisa, getting her ink with no sign of discomfort.


Finally it was my turn. I knew I would be getting mine on my right ankle in the front. Originally I had planned to have it partly on the top of my foot, but Brett mentioned that I would not be able to wear shoes for up to a week, and seeing how it was March in Michigan, I chose to have it a little higher. Talk to ten different people, and you will likely get ten different answers on how a tattoo feels. I will tell you that I found it to be uncomfortable, but not intolerable. I could best describe it as feeling similar to getting scratched with a sharp needle, like when trying to remove a splinter, with intermittent feelings of getting a small electrical shock. The only time I had any issue with it was when Brett was on the very front of my ankle, as he kept hitting a reflex point, and I thought I was going to either kick him in the face, or cause him to mess up. After seeing both Jen and Lisa's final result, I chose to have mine colored the same as Jen's.

With everyone done, we were given our after care instructions, and headed back to my house to admire our ink.

I'm pretty sure that everyone was very happy with the final results. I can only speak for myself (and Peg as we're going together) when I say I can't wait to go back for more. Peg has mentioned possibly getting the four leaf clover design, and I want to get the rest of my ankle bracelet finished.

I have to give kudos to Brett and Pincushn. He runs a very nice, clean place, and was so awesome about giving 5 tattoos in about 3 hours. I know I will never go anywhere else for my ink.

Until next time,
Chelle

It's been a really long time, sorry.

Okay, I know it's been forever and ever since I've posted. I apologized to those 2 or 3 people who read this.

So let's do a quick catch up:

I last left you just before we got our tattoos. I will have to post about it in depth next time, but I will just say that I, personally, could not be happier with it.

I got hired in at Zeeland Community Hospital in July as a housekeeper. I absolutely love it there, and hope to start my CNA classes after the first of the year.

Rylee had her dance celebration in May, and is enrolled at W.E. Dance Academy for a second year. She absolutely loves dancing, and singing. Her current favorite song is "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift.

I know this has been a short post, but I promise to post again, SOON.

Until next time,
Chelle

Tattoo

I've always wanted to get a tattoo, but was never willing to take the final step. Then there was the issue of deciding what would be a permanent part of my body.

I was given the nickname Taz at a very young age, so I debated getting him, but didn't want to be 80 with a cartoon character somewhere on my person. I also considered having the name Taz worked into some sort of tribal or decorative art work, but never could figure out what I liked. I also contemplated getting a trinity knot, but again, never found one I liked (not that I looked too hard) I think I was subconsciously delaying it.

When my father passed away in August, I decided I was going to do it. I have a really good friend who had gotten a memorial tattoo when her father passed away, and I liked the idea. After much searching, I found something I really liked.

While it wasn't Taz, it does have a Celtic knot, similar to a trinity knot, and I liked that it represented my Irish heritage as well.

I was telling my sisters, Jen & Lisa, I was going to get it, and why, and we decided that we all wanted to get it together; a symbol of our sisterhood.

Now came the hard part. Where to get it. After much deliberation, I decided to go with the ankle. I still had thoughts of sometime in the future getting Taz somewhere. I went and talked to Brett, who will be doing our tattoos, and gave him the picture of the shamrock. I had the idea that he could make a ankle band with Taz as part of the band. He came up with a really cool ankle bracelet, and the shamrock as a charm, but was unable to work in Taz.

It was time to set the appointment. First Jen had conflicts with a date that worked for me and Lisa. Then Lisa's work schedule interfered with when Jen was free. We were finally able to get a day that worked for all of us, this upcoming Friday. With the date set in our minds, one last call from Jen started a whole new set of conflicts.

She had always wanted a four leaf clover, but said if we were getting the same thing, then she'd do that. I told her that she needed to make sure that she was really happy with what she got as it was a forever thing. I figured the meaning behind it would still be the same, even if they weren't identical. She liked the Celtic knot, and wanted to see if Brett could do a four leaf clover with the knots.

I called Pincushn to set up our appointment, and to talk to Brett about the possible change. He let me know that he had previously drawn a four leaf clover with the knot, and would put it in my file for us to look at on Friday.

Jen, meanwhile, had spent some time looking up different photos of four leaf clovers with the Celtic knots, and came up with this one, only as a four leaf.
She has also found a couple of others she likes really well, too. Now we have the dilemma of deciding what to go with.

I will be heading down tomorrow to see Brett and show him what we have found, and hoping he can get some sketches done before Friday. Be watching for a blog soon with pictures and the story of how it goes.

Until next time,
Chelle

Ryleeisms

My husband is famous for creating new words, similar to an existing word, and using them instead. His co-workers call them "Nolerisms" and have been keeping a log of them, hoping one day to publish a Nolerism dictionary. Rylee seems to have inherited his creativity with vocabulary. I've decided to start writing them down when I hear them, and will share them with you as they come along. Some of them come from her age, but are still great to hear. These are what are on my list currently.

Mogercydle~which is motorcycle, her daddy has a dirt bike and she loves to go for rides
Dirty Bike~dirt bike
Forleft~as in you forleft to do something
Radiomote~any remote, whether for the tv or the garage door
Musgik~music
Mackage~magic
Polar Gekspress~Polar Express, a movie we've seen over and over again
R-Y-Z~how to spell Rylee

One she no longer says, but was extremely embarrassing when said in public was "go fuk a walk" which was go for a walk, but somehow that "k" sound would get in the wrong spot.

I'm sure there are some I have forgotten, and will be sure to note them when I hear them, along with any new ones that I hear, and share them later.

Until next time,
Chelle

What is going on and other random thoughts

Yes, it's almost 4am, and I'm still wide awake. For some unknown reason, I don't feel tired. I wish I was. I think it's because of the Cherry Coke Zero I drank tonight, although it typically doesn't affect me.

I realize it's been a while since I've written. I've wanted to, but haven't taken the time to sit down and do it. Also, I have lots of ideas of what to write, I just don't have a strong urge to write any of them.

So I was looking at my blog, and realized there was no way for people to comment if they wished to. After changing a bunch of settings, it still wasn't showing up, so I had to go back and edit each post to allow comments.


I realize this is a jumbled up heap of random thoughts and has no flow whatsoever, but I'm hoping that's a sign that I'm finally getting tired. I think I will say good night, and attempt to go to sleep. Look for my next post soon.

Until next time,
Chelle

What a nightmare

We flew to Florida from Michigan Saturday. We arrived at the Ford International Airport at 11am for a flight at 12pm. After quickly checking our luggage and going through security, we had to wait about 30 minutes to board. Rylee did very good waiting, and was excited to get on the plane. We took her car seat on the plane and strapped it in, figuring she'd be most comfortable in a familiar seat.

Our flight taxied out of the gate and into deicing. This all seemed to go well. Then the captain came on to tell us that there was a delay in Detroit, so we were holding taking off, rather than get there and not be able to land. We took off about 10 minutes later. Rylee, happily chewing her gum, loved it. She watched out the plane window, and thought that it was so great that we were above the clouds.

Our landing in Detroit went fine. Rylee asked if we were in Florida yet, and I told her we had one more plane ride, and we'd be there. She pointed out the window and told me she could see Florida, much to the amusement of our flight mates.

We touched down at about 1:15pm, and our next flight left at 1:47pm. We thought the time was close, but we could make it. Fifty minutes later, we were still sitting in the plane, waiting for airport personnel to plow out the gate area.

After finally disembarking, we hurried to the nearest monitors, hoping our next flight had maybe been delayed. Unfortunately, it wasn't even listed on the board, an obvious sign to us that it had left. We decided to go to the gate we were supposed to have left from anyway, hoping that someone would be able to help us.

Little did we know that Detroit Metro Airport was so huge. We walked, and we walked, and we walked some more. Rylee wanted to ride the moving sidewalks, but Nolan was very upset about the flight, and in no mood to oblige her, which led to some whining from Rylee.

On our way to our gate, we spotted an empty gate, with a Northwest agent behind the desk. We went up to her and told her our problem. After doing some typing on her computer, she informed me that we were scheduled to fly into Houston, then into Tampa. Nolan and I shared a look, just as she said that there was also a flight leaving Detroit and arriving in Tampa at the same time as the Houston one. She made a call and got us on that flight. The only problem being that none of our seats were together. She told us the agent at our gate would be able to help us get them switched. Then she told us that we weren't leaving Detroit until 7:47pm. Keep in mind, it was only about 2:15pm, we had over 5 hours until our next flight.

After a talk on the phone with my in laws, I decided to try asking a different agent if there were any other options. He told me he couldn't do anything at his desk, but to go to Gate 43 to see what they could do. We were at Gate 15. So, we turned around and headed back the way we came. We got to the help desk finally, and were told that our new flight was the first Northwest flight to Tampa. I asked if there wasn't another airline we could take, and was told that because our delay was due to "weather", they wouldn't pay for a different airline. Great, we now had 5 hours to sit and wait with a THREE YEAR OLD!

We headed back to our gate. Along the way, we passed a gate that showed a flight to Orlando at 4:15pm. A quick call to the in laws gave us the go ahead to try to get on that one, as Orlando is only an hour drive from them. More bad luck, it was overbooked, and we couldn't get on it. Back to square one.

For the most part, Rylee was so well behaved. We had grabbed some McDonald's for her on our way down to our gate, Gate 10. She ate some of her food, and played for a while. Then people started showing up for the flight that left at 5:20pm (to Grand Rapids ironically). Nolan joked that we'd just get on that flight and when people asked what we did, say, "We flew to Detroit, sat around the airport, and flew home." At least he was in a better mood.

After the flight to Grand Rapids had left, I was able to talk to the agent about getting our seats together. Big surprise, this flight was overbooked by 16 people and she was going to have to ask for people to give up their seats and take the 9:20pm flight to Tampa. It definitely wasn't going to be us, no matter what they offered. She was very nice about it, and took down our three seat assignments, and said as soon as the people flying in the surrounding seats arrived she'd see if she could get someone to change seats.

Rylee did have some moments of boredom. Even a three year old has a limit on how many trips you can take to the bathroom, and how many times you can ride on the moving sidewalk before it gets boring. She finally settled down with her DVD player, and was almost falling asleep when people started arriving at the gate for our flight. As we started packing up our belongings and getting ready to do a final bathroom run, the agent brought over two new boarding passes. She had gotten two people to change seats and we were all sitting together. It was the highlight of our day.

We boarded the plane, and got Rylee strapped in her seat, waiting and ready to go. Before we even backed away from the gate, Rylee was asleep. She slept through the deicing, and take off, and woke up about an hour into the flight. After a harrowing and failed trip to the bathroom; after which I had to explain that even though it looked like one, it really wasn't a port-a-potty, and that there were no "creepy crawlies"; she consented to going back in. Despite a dead battery on the DVD player, she was able to play the DS for a large portion of the flight, which kept her happy.

We started descending into Tampa, and Rylee pointed out "Grammi's house" from all the lights below. We touched down in Tampa at 11:04pm, six hours and thirty five minutes later than originally scheduled.

Nolan and I had formulated a plan during the flight that as soon as the seat belt sign went off, I would unhook Rylee and unbuckle the seat. He would jump up and grab the bags and we would get off quickly, rather than wait because of the seat. We took the tram or "roller coaster" as Rylee called it from the gate to the terminal, and as we were heading down the ramp, Rylee spotted her grandparents. Her first words to her grandma were, "Hey, what are you doing here."

Luckily for us, our luggage had also missed the original flight, and arrived with us to Tampa. We grabbed it off the turnstile and headed for the car. Following an uneventful drive home, and some much needed dinner at midnight, we were ready for bed.

It was a long, temper-filled day, but waking up Sunday to sunshine and no snow on the ground, almost; not quite, but almost; makes the travel nightmare worth it. I just hope we make it home on time.

Until next time,
Chelle