My tattoos

OK, so I thought I would right a post about my tattoos. I have three and would love to have more...to bad these things cost money.

The first tattoo I got was about 3 years ago, I was 18, a freshman in college, and out on my own for the first time, and yes I still like it. I got it on my wrist, which hurt pretty bad, but not bad enough to keep me from getting more. I got the word ahavah (but written in Hebrew) and it mean love. I don't know if you are familiar with the organization call "to wright love on her arms" but I dealt with a lot of the same things in high school as this organization is spreading awareness about. When I first heard of the organization I knew right away I wanted to get a tattoo of the word love on my arm, but I wanted it to be different. Back in high school, one day at youth group we watched this video that I will never forget. It was part of a series called Nooma by Rob Bell, and it talked about the different words for love back in Jesus' time when they spoke Hebrew. There were 3 different words for our one word love, and they all meant different thing. This changed the way I thought about life, because I had always been confused by the word love and how in our culture we use one word to describe so many different emotions. In the video it said Ahavah was a never ending love, a Godly love, a love that could conquer all things. So that's what I decided to get on my wrist. Ahavah...now I can never forget how loved I really am.

My second tattoo I got not to long after I got married. One of my best friends was about to get married also, and the coolest part was her soon to be husband was best friends with my husband. Dusty and Megan have been great friends and we have had many wonderful times with them. Megan and I started talking one day and decided we should go get tattoos together. We decided to get the flowers that we both had in our weddings...orchids...on our feet, hers are green and mine are pink. Orchids are the most beautiful flowers in the whole world, and I think to both Megan and I they represent what a awesome, and beautiful relationship we have with our spouses, and we will never forget how beautiful our wedding days were. Oh an by the way, this picture was the day after I got the thing...so no my foot is not always bulging out of my shoes.

My third tattoo I got just recently, and it is a hard one to talk about. On Monday Sept 21 a dear friend, a woman that was like a second mother to me, a woman who came to my shows with the band whenever she could, a wonderful person and a friend to everyone she met, passed away of a heart attack. Rose Graf Rutledge was the mother of one of my best friends Sarah Rutledge. I will never forget getting that message on my phone, it was my friend Alana and she said the rose has passed away and that Sarah was on her way home from school. I burst into tears immediately, such a wonderful person as rose could not be dead! I spent the next week, crying when I was by myself and trying to smile when others were around. I drove to bloomington as soon as I got off work that night, and I helped Sarah with whatever she needed. The next day when we were out running errands ( you think grocery shopping and picking up the kids sucks) like going to the bank to close her accounts, and picking out flowers for her celebration ( we don't like funerals, rose wanted a party). we stopped for lunch with one of Roses best friends, and Sarah and I started talking. We decided we should all get tattoos in honor of Rose. We told everyone we know that is close to rose that we thought would join in and on Thursday we all went and got little rose flowers. Sarah and I both got ours behind our ears. It is a tattoo that will help me remember that life is precious and we never know when it might be over, so life like there is no tomorrow and treasure the time you have already had. Oh and PS to Rose up there in heaven...That Thing HURT!!