Ink.

Our house is somewhat glued back together.

We now have a fridge, hot water & a working washing machine. 

OH but i did get a $25 parking ticket at work 

& our new Cube's alarm system isn't working right.

Saturday we met Mallory and Jer at Neptunes Sandwiches for lunch. 

(AMAZING! & cheap!)

& that evening Ryan finally got his birthday present. 

2-3 years ago Ryan got a tattoo on the back arm. 

It's an old biblical etching of God sitting on top of the world. 

His tattoo guy that's done all of his tattoos really messed it up. 

He had to get it done twice because it kept fading away.

Before: (Original guy's work)

 After: (Eric's work)

Instead of "fixing" what Jerry had done, Eric made a new stencil and slapped it over the old work and started from scratch. He did a really awesome job. We were only there for just under 2 hours too. If anyone wants a good tattoo guy for decent prices you should check out Eric at Bloodline Elite Tattoos on N. May.

We went to see my cousin, Jake, play at VZD's afterwards with his band Black Canyon. I really enjoyed it and I really enjoyed seeing Jake. I can't believe we hadn't seen him in 2 years. I have missed him so much.

Ryan and I have had this ongoing "we're going to start going to church again" thing for about 6 months now. There's not a reason that we haven't been going other than laziness. We've still considered ourselves to be members of Frontline and support what they do but we just haven't gotten up on a Sunday in so long. It's hard to break the habit of sleeping in once you get used to it. The past few weeks we've had so many in depth conversations about religion, church, beliefs, and who we want to be. They've all led to the conclusion that neither of us feel fulfilled and we both know we need God as priority and some sort of church family as a support system. We don't know exactly where the support system will come from but that's what we're trying to figure out.

I have a hard time letting "church" (as the building and people) become a part of my life. I have so many fears of what happens in a church. Ryan says I have PTSD with church. I had never thought of it that way but it's true. Most days I wouldn't admit this but I see now that I have to to be able to move past my fears. It amazes me that I turned out the way I did. It shows that my mother is the most amazing woman alive. The fact that our entire church life until I was 17 was one hurt after another and I still came out with my beliefs is a miracle. I may be confused a lot and I might have lost my passion but I do still know what I believe. That is the most important part after all. The fact that Ryan always has a tremendous amount of patience for me is unbelievable. I am sure there are times when he just wants to shake me and shove it all down my throat but he never does.

I said all of this to say, we went to church on Sunday and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

That is a big step in my book.