My Surprise

I will be turning 30 in 12 days. Oh Boy! :-(

With this big day coming Tom had a surprise for me. It came early on Friday. Now I'm going to give you a little back story first... Tom is on the list for the next Major board (his next promotion) and with that he has to have a physical, lab work and an eye exam. So he scheduled his eye exam for Friday @ 3:30. So here it is before 3pm on Friday and he's acting weird. He's pacing a little bit and I ask him if he's bored and needs something to do, I ask him if he's worried about his eye test (he had corrective eye surgery a few years ago) Blah blah blah.... He then tells me that after his eye appt he's going the store to shop for my present. No problem-o! However, I wanted to stop him from going to the store because I was pretty sure what I was getting....a steam mop. I've been wanting a steam mop for a while now. Now I know a steam mop as a birthday present, especially for the big 3-0 birthday present is....LAME! But I really wouldn't mind it. I saw the one I wanted on Ebay for $75. So I wanted to save him the hassle of paying more for it in the store but I didn't say a thing to ruin it. So away he went.... When Tom got home I was feeding Ty and Jack was playing. He walked in and was all weird again. He told me his eyes were fine and made up a bunch of other lies :-). After about 3 minutes of him being goofy and anxious he told me that my present turned out to be bigger than he thought so he would have to give it to me now. He told me to go to our room so he could get it from the car. So I took Ty with me and Jack went with Tom. I'm sitting in our room thinking....how big is a steam mop?? and Why can't he hide it somewhere for 2 weeks? Whatever.... So in he walks with nothing in his hands and no shirt on. I look at him and say..."why is your shirt off"??? I'm holding Ty and Jack's walking with him so I'm REALLY confused at this point. He turns around and I see a bandage on his left shoulder blade and I freak out......he got a TATTOO! Not just any old tattoo. A tattoo that represents us. Us as a family. See people....I LOVE tattoos!! I'm patiently waiting until I'm done breastfeeding to get my next one. I know my family think's I'm nuts and a lot of people out there don't like tattoos but I'm fascinated by them. It's the coolest form of art. I'm not talking about the little flower you'd get on spring break in Mexico, I'm talking about tattoos that have such depth and meaning that you're willing to endure the pain to permanently put it on your body to have with you forever. I've been trying to get Tom to get one for YEARS now. He always said..."I have no desire to get one" or something about "needles and how it would hurt." I gave up but would still try to persuade him. The funny thing is I'm addicted to LA Ink on TLC and recently I got him hooked too. Anyway, my amazing husband gave me a gift that I get to see everyday, forever that reminds me how much I'm loved and how much he loves us.




Tom came up with the design. It's in Old English font. The M is obviously for our family name. My initial is on the left then on the right is a J for Jack, a T for Ty and there's a space for our next kiddo. Our plan is to have 3 children and he actually left a space for the next initial...how amazing? Under the M is "Est. MMIII", 2003 in Roman numerals, the year we were married. That matches the tattoo I have on my wrist that is Jack's birthday in Roman numerals. I can't explain how this makes me feel. I know tattoos don't appeal to everyone and some may not understand what the big deal is but for Tom to get this tattoo and for what the tattoo represents is beyond words for me. I love it. It's the best present he's ever given me other than our boys and I've never felt so loved in my life! Never, in a million years, would I have guessed this over a steam mop! :-)