Ink and metal. Metal and ink.

I could be very biased, considering I grew up running around my grandpa's tattoo shop, but I don't understand the huge stereotype that is associated with tattoos and piercings. I do understand that it's not everyone's cup of tea. But what in hell is? Maybe it isn't that big of an issue. Maybe people should just let it be and ignore it like they do most things. I wont. I refuse to. 

I see my body as a canvas. A blank one. One that deserves to be covered in beautiful art. My body is plain. The only markings I have being that of bearing children. Stretch marks. They're beautiful, as well. They're purple and red. They line most of my body. Stretching from one spot to another, creating depth and meaning, showing love and adoration. I also have freckles. Mostly on my arms. Little brown dots that give my skin personality. But what if I want something more for my skin? What if I want to tell a story simply by showing someone my leg? What if I want to paint a picture of a completely different world, and hold onto it forever? People wear their hearts on their sleeve... Why can't I wear my dreams the same way? 

I have seen every type of person you can imagine in my grandpa's tattoo shop. School teachers, biker dudes, moms, dads, grandparents, sisters, brothers, lawyers, janitors, fast food workers, christians, satanists, teenagers. You name it, they've walked into the shop at some point. Looking for something. A tattoo or piercing does not define a person. That person defines the art. Looking at someone with a tattoo or piercing, or multiples of the two, and thinking "What is wrong with that person?" just makes you a disgusting human. It makes you just as judgmental as the person who asks why that white girl is with that black guy. Or the person who tells you you're going to hell for having premarital sex. Think what you want of this viewpoint, but I firmly believe what I'm saying.

Our bodies are temporary. Just a shell to hang out in until it's time to move on to bigger and better things. Depending on what you believe in.. but I believe that it's temporary. We need to take care of our bodies, sure, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy them, too. They are ours until they are the Earth's again. Just like our time in these bodies, the tattoos and piercings will slowly fade. They'll disappear. They'll be gone. The human body is an amazing and beautiful thing. Why not enhance that beauty? Let go of the judgment. Stop thinking about the bad. Really look at their artwork and think about it. That lilly could be for their grandmother who passed away, who's name just so happened to be Lilly. That banner with Hebrew script could be a quote from their favorite bible passage. That random symbol that you can't make any sense of... well that could be something their brother drew before going to fight in a war. Don't be so quick to judge a book by it's cover. 

TTFN

Dani

Pulling my hair out.

Zachary Caine was born on Saturday, February 25, 2012 at 2:41 AM weighing in at 9lbs 3oz and 21 inches long. From the time active labor began until he was born, 5 hours. That's all. I did end up giving in and asking for an epidural. I got it. But it didn't begin to work until about 20 minutes after he was born. The only part of my body that was numb for his birth were my feet HAHA. It was a wonderful experience, being able to know exactly when to push and how much harder I needed to. Feeling every bit of it, sure it hurt, but it showed me that I could do it without the epidural. IF I decide I want more children.

It's been pretty crazy since he was born. I know, it's only been a bit over a week, but it's been a crazy time. My 2 year old (Kaiden) is adjusting real well. He wants so badly to play with his baby brother. When I leave Kaiden with mamaw to go pick daddy up from work and take baby Zachary with me, he yells at me and tells me I can't take the baby with me. When we all three get home, he's extremely excited!! He doesn't notice me much (lol) but he gets very jumpy and starts yelling "BEEBEE! DADA!!!" It makes me so happy. 

I love my family full of boys. So very much. More than I ever thought I would. And I'm adjusting quite well considering Kaiden is in the stage where everything "No" is absolutely "yes!". Zach is a wonderful baby. Only crying when I change his diaper or he is hungry. I'm not used to that. I'm still not used to the fact that I have a 2 year old. I have kids. I'm a mother. Wow.

I can't wait to see what the future brings for us. For MY family. My guys. Will the boys be football players? Will they want to be in dance? How smart will they be in school? What will they want to be when they grow up? Will they make me a grandma? Who will they marry? Where will they go in life? Will they be proud of the mommy they had as children? There are so many questions I can't wait to learn the answers to, but so scared that those answers will come too fast. I don't want them to grow up, but I can't wait until they do. So goes the life of a mother.

TTFN

Dani

23 hours and counting!!

That's how long I have until I'm going to be induced for baby boy number 2, Zachary Caine! Today, I am 40 weeks and 5 days pregnant. The little booger doesn't want to come out, so he's getting his eviction notice. 

When the doctor set my induction date on Monday, I was utterly terrified. Sure, I already have one kid, I know how it can be with a newborn. It's just different this time! I'm not doing it alone. I have a HUGE support system of not only long distance friends, internet friends, and fans on my facebook pages, but I have people in my house that are here for me, to help me, to guide me, to keep me sane. Most importantly, I have my boyfriend, Chris. Who honestly, is such an amazing soul. He just doesn't know that. 

My first son's father was a.... well... a joke of a man. He could do all manly things. Fix cars, chop down trees, shoot a rifle, skin a deer, and cheat on his pregnant woman. We split up when I was 7 months pregnant. He hasn't seen Kaiden in over 2 years. Great father, huh? We can't win them all. It's all okay, though. Chris has stepped up in an amazing way to be there for Kaiden. He IS Kaiden's daddy. And now we get to share another child. It's a beautiful and amazing feeling. Especially knowing that I get to share all of the sticky black poopy diapers and spit up with my other half this time around. 

I got over my nerves. I'm very excited now. Very anxious. So ready to meet this little tiny soul that has been growing inside of me for 9 months now. I've felt him growing and changing. I've helped keep him warm. And even though he isn't out yet to cry and be upset, I have even soothed him. He makes my back, hips, and knees hurt. My feet swell uncontrollably. I can't eat very many foods without feeling like I'm filled with stomach acid to the brim. But this tiny little human is mine. I made him. I helped him form. 

"Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother."

Dani

(In)Activists?

Honestly, what is up with all of the moms calling themselves "lactivists" and "inactivists"? Why is there such a HUGE movement happening where all of these moms with certain opinions gang up on EVERY SINGLE PERSON who doesn't believe exactly the same thing they do? And why, oh why, do they think that Google really does know the answer to everything? That's like copying your research paper from Wikipedia. Seriously, don't do that. 

Last time I checked, which was honestly probably never, if you strongly believed in something and acted towards those beliefs, trying to persuade others to believe the same way as you, that was being an ACTIVIST. Regardless of the subject. So why are these antivaccine and anticirc moms calling themselves inactivists? It makes absolutely no sense!

Don't EVEN get me started on the completely idiotic ideas of these moms. Don't get me wrong, I am ALL FOR openly expressing your opinions and beliefs. But do so in a respectful manner! We are mothers for heaven's sake! Going around and telling another mother that she mutilated her child and she's an abusive parent just because she made the decision to have her son circumcised is completely ridiculous and just plain stupid. Telling a mom that she is lazy and selfish because she didn't breast feed her child is just as bad. So, you let your son keep his foreskin and made sure he sucked on your boob for 3 years. Good for you. Glad you did. Now leave me alone when it comes to my child. I'm not coming into your house at 3 AM and putting a formula filled bottle in your child's mouth. I'm not coming at your son's penis with a razor sharp knife hoping to cut off the foreskin. I'm also not tying my son to a tree and shooting him with a bb gun. I simply made the choices that I felt were best for my child. MY CHILD. Not your child. You do what you want with your child. I'll do what I want with mine. 

We, as mothers, have to make many decisions for our children before they have the mental capacity and ability to make those decisions on their own. We have to mold their minds. It is our job... no, our duty to make sure that we prepare them the best way we know how for the days when THEY have to do the same for our grandchildren. Regardless of what any other mom thinks, you're always going to do what YOU think is the best thing for YOUR baby. People can tell you you're wrong all you want, but when it comes to it being the spawn you created, it should NOT matter. Believe what you want, think what you want, but don't tell another mother she is WRONG unless she honestly is causing her child harm. I can see someone going apeshit because a woman decided to leave her open bottle of vodka on the coffee table and her 8 month old grabbed it and drank a bunch of it. In cases like that, sure, by all means, tell her how worthless she is. If she is knowingly hurting her kid, step in and say something. But when it comes to her basic parenting choices, it is NONE of your business! 

I'm not anti- or pro- anything other than parenting. I am pro-parenting. So I guess that would make me pro-choice. You decide your child's future, no one else. As long as you love your child, protect them, take care of them, teach them,  nurture them... I see it as you're doing a damn good job. 

DIY: Egg pore cleaner and moisturizer.

AHA! Youtube does it again! I was watching random skin cleaning videos and came across a wonderful technique I am about to go try!

Basically, you get one egg out of your fridge. Break it open, separate the yolk and the egg whites. Put the two separate parts in different bowls of course. 

The first part is the "pore strips". You just whip up the egg white enough to form some bubbles in it, smear it on your face in the places you want to cleanse, apply 1 ply TP or tissue, let it dry, peel it off. 

Second part is the natural skin moisturizer. This is the yolk. Pretty much, smear it all over your face. Let it dry. Wash it off. 

This supposedly works amazingly, so I'm about to go try it RIGHT NOW. I'll be sure to edit this and let you know how it works out.

TTFN.

Dani


Alright. It took me a big longer than expected because I'm over due pregnant and I do everything super slow. BUT IT WORKS! My skin is incredibly soft and CLEAN. I forgot to add before... Before you apply any of the egg process, wash your face with some steamy hot water to open up your pores. It should only take you about 20-30 minutes to do the whole thing, but I'm slow and huge at the moment! 


Definitely works. I'd recommend this to everyone. Tell your friends!

Intro To This

I should let all of you know, first and foremost, that I am NOT very structured "writer". When I write, things tend to end up in a big jumbled mess of my thoughts. My mind is an insane place with crazy wheelchair people rolling around in different directions, sometimes running into each other, and other times finding new ways to roll into. So you will definitely have to bare with me on more than one occasion.

There really is no specific purpose for this blog. I plan on bringing up a lot of the "issues" I see online a lot. Many debatable subjects that most people will just brush off because they are afraid they'll make someone angry with their views. I'm not afraid of making anyone angry. I'll do the occasional "this is what today consisted of" post. Sometimes posting things about how to do something-or-another or here this product works really good! It just depends on my mood at the time of the post. So, again, bare with me. I'm a bit of a psychotic freak. 

Honestly, I'm doing this purely for my own benefit. I need an outlet of some sort. Sure, I love my life as a stay at home mom. My children are my entire world and so much more than that. That is the exact reason I need an outlet. I need adult time. I can only "aww sweetie are you okay?" for so long before I feel my sanity slipping even farther down the drain. 

Enjoy. 

Dani