143

Also known in pager code as "I love you."
I is 1 letter, love is 4 letters and you is 3 letters. 

143 has always been something special between my sister and I. We are 10 years apart so when I was in high school and pagers were the cool thing to have, she was 6 years old. She picked up on a few things from me having a pager, 143 being one of them. From then on out, 143 is always how we said I love you to each other. 

Let me get a little off topic for a bit now. (it will all tie together in the end) My sister Anna has a few tattoos. Some small and some big. I have never really been the tattoo type or really cared to get one. I wasn't against them in any way, just never really had something I wanted to put on my body forever. 

For my sister's 21st birthday last year, I told her that my gift was to get a matching tattoo with her. She was beyond thrilled and shocked. At first I thought we would do it right then and there but I got nervous. Anna was so patient with me as I kept postponing the tattoos over and over again.

Finally, after almost 1 year of talking the talk, we did it! A few weeks ago, my sister and I got matching tattoos!
We printed off a few different fonts and after I stared at them for hours, we picked one.

I paced up and down the tattoo shop with this paper on my wrist and kept talking out loud to myself. I was so excited and a nervous wreck all at the same time.

 Anna was the exact opposite. As calm and cool as you could get. Anna wanted hers a little thicker and bigger so two different guys did our tattoos. We were in two rooms side by side. My mom (yes our mom is the cool mom that went with us) went from room to room taking our pics.

Here we are with our bare wrists before.

Bob called right before and I am saying in a very excited loud voice, "I gotta go babe, I"M GETTING A TATTOO RIGHT NOW!" 

I couldn't watch. I just laughed and kept saying, I can't believe this is happening. It didn't hurt at all. I do feel like I have a high pain tolerance though. Or maybe it's the fact that I have been through some physical pain in my life, that made this feel like nothing. 

Then there is Anna, watching the whole thing and having a normal conversation with her guy.

Adam was the guy who did mine and he was so nice. He kept telling me that I will be back because no one has just one tattoo. He said you either have none or multiple. Not me I told him. I am a one tattoo kind of girl.

Here we are after!
 
I didn't tell my girls what I was doing and just thought maybe they wouldn't notice. Boy was I wrong. The next morning as I was fixing Ella breakfast she spotted it immediately and said, Mom! What is on your arm? Ha! If Ella and McKenna ever want to get a tattoo when they are older, my rule is not any bigger or more than her mom has. Bob was great with my tattoo choice too. He will always be the guy with none but has a good sense of humor about mine. The other day he was playing with the girls and they all called me in the room to show me something. He had tattooed everyone with marker. Even the baby doll. Love him.

Here is what it looks like today, about a month after it was done.

I'm still in shock that I have a tattoo but I love it so much and think it is so special that we both have 143 on our wrists.