Our Weekly Forecast

Since we had a snooze-fest of a weekend this last weekend aka it was one of those weekends that are boring as shit nothing blog worthy happened, I figured it would be kind of fun to give you all a outlook on what my week has "planned" and I say planned loosely since they are more like things I NEED to REALLY do but if life allows it kind of way. 

I am not just a blogger but a mom, wife, in the process of starting revamping my own business along with the many other hats that mom's wear. 

This last week was tough on blogging since I had my youngest home sick the majority of the week and we all know when they are 8 they still WANT mommy. I LOVED being able to cuddle up and watch movies with her and just have that one on one time with her. I know all to well once they hit Middle School it is ALLLLL OOOOVVVVEEERRR!

Hints: My middle schooler is home today...

ugh!

This is the worst possible timing too, this weekend we are headed up to Omaha, Arkansas where my biological dad lives to celebrate an early Thanksgiving. So this week is cleaning house, tying up loose ends for What the Photography (my biz) and packing!

Plus due to a certain text message this weekend I will be rearranging MY ENTIRE house for something HUGE! More on this to come, and with this HUGE change it will mean more stories and my beautiful chaos will be more chaotic...BECAUSE everyone knows that is just want you NEED right before the holidays, but in all seriousness though my brain and stress has hit a WHOLE new level I am actually kind of excited for it. I am just not sure the hubby feels the same excitement. 

SO on to 

THE LIST

Today I had to go put my car in the shop and lets just say I HATE not having a car...

Then it was off to get the sick Alora, who of course thought she was dying... girls...

This afternoon I am running the neighbor kid across the street to an appointment he has for his mom and in between it is cleaning, blogging, dinner prepping and of course house rearrangement 101!

Dakota has a dr appointment in the morning  and those are my ONLY set things for now...

BUT

I NEED to...

Pack three kids and us for the weekend trip

Grab Christmas gifts for the weekend trip since we are merging them together

Plan our Christmas card photo shoot and maybe JUST maybe do it

Rearrange the house  

Get together my Christmas Card List

Pick out Christmas Cards

Square away our fur-babies sitter for the weekend

Clean House

Prep for Thanksgiving Break  next week 

and

Continue on my Website building for WtP!

That I am sure is ONLY the START! 

Our weather right now is cold wet and makes you want to lye in bed all day and sleep so that is just so VERY helpful... 

Anyways I am off to the kitchen so I can get something accomplished today... 

See you all tomorrow! 

{Hugs}

Sandra

Tatted Thursday: Featuring Ant; Part Two (After Me)

 Last week I kicked off our Tatted Thursday blog series with sharing with you guys my husbands ink work (here). I had ALL intentions on throwing them all at you at once but since he started his ink collection since he was about 13 or 14 years old,

it would have just went on for what very well may have seemed like forever!

When I was writing this I realized that Ant's tats are in NO kind of order and I ask that you  bare with me on this fact. 

He has been working on his tat collection for almost 18 years and some of the older ink's information is a little fuzzy for us old folks...

They will seem pretty random chaotic ...

SO...

I tried and categorized them as best as I can...

Before Me (Part One) and After Me (Part Two) ;)

So now we can FINALLY move on to...

Part Two:

After Me

PAIN:

Shop Name/Location: Forbidden Images; Dothan, Alabama

Artist Name: Jeff

Placement: Left Calf

Pain Scale: 3

Price: $140-$150

Age: 26-27ish

Meaning/Story: He says in a way it is the summary of his life, PAIN in larger letters as the red Kanji characters read Blood, Sweat, and Tears.

Dakota

Shop Name/Location: Anchor Tattoo;  Bryant Arkansas

Artist Name: Chad

Placement: Left Shoulder Blade

Pain Scale: 5 to 7 (depending on location)

Price: $100

Age: 31

Meaning/Story: Dakota is my our oldest child and VERY much into music, I designed this tattoo for Ant to represent her. Though he is not her biological father he has been with Dakota since she was about 2 years old.

Dice

Shop Name/Location: Forbidden Images; Dothan, Alabama

Artist Name: Jeff

Placement: Right Calf

Pain Scale:  3

Price: $100

Age: 26-27 ish

Meaning/Story: This tattoo was picked out by Ant's youngest brother. So in a way you can say it represents Brad :)

The Skull

Shop Name/Location: Notorious Ink; Headland Alabama

Artist Name: Billy

Placement: Left Chest

Pain Scale: 4

Price: $75

Age: 27

Meaning/Story: There is no story or meaning behind this one, the itch for ink was present and it is what he had liked at the time.

SDJ

Shop Name/Location: Screamer's Tattoo; Ozark, Alabama

Artist Name: Dragon Dave

Placement: Left Side of Neck

Pain Scale: 3

Price: $40

Age: 22

Meaning/Story: These are my initials that he got after we had been together for a year. Our families FREAKED THE FU$& OUT! ;)

Black Tribal

Shop Name/Location: Forbidden Images, Dothan Alabama

Artist Name: Jeff

Placement: Back of Left Forearm

Pain Scale: 6

Price: $120

Age: 25ish

Meaning/Story: He has always liked tribal and decided that after talking to Jeff that they would piece two pieces into this one "custom" idea tat.

Faith

Shop Name/Location: Anchor Tattoo; Bryant, Arkansas

Artist Name: Chad

Placement: Left Triceps

Pain Scale: 6

Price: $120

Age: 29

Meaning/Story: He decided on this ink work after I have bitched reminded him over and over and over again to always have faith. I am usually the think positive about EVERYTHING type of person and I have tried to rub that trait off on him in our time together... so far it has not worked but now he at least has a reminder with him at all times and I can save my breath for something else. ;)

LEANNA/ CLOUDS

LEANNA:
Shop Name/Location: Forbidden Images, Dothan, Alabama

Artist Name:  Jeff

Placement: Right

Pain Scale: 6

Price: Free
 (this tattoo was priced into the sleeve start up at a HUGE discount)

Age: 27

Meaning/Story: Ant's youngest sister gave birth to her daughter LeAnna very prematurely. LeAnna graced us with her presence for just a few short moments before she went to heaven to watch over her family. The entire family was devastated and  her uncles paid tribute to our sweet angle with her name and halo on them for us to always carry her with us. 

CLOUDS:
Shop Name/Location: Anchor Tattoo; Bryant Arkansas

Artist Name: Chad

Placement: Around LeAnna's Tribute on Right Bicep

Pain Scale: 5

Price: Priced in with sleeve hours

Age: 31

Meaning/Story: With LeAnna's name being on the arm with the sleeve Ant wanted to make her name stand out more and not get lost in the tribal shuffle... Chad and him came up with this idea after a few hours working on the sleeve.

Patience

Shop Name/Location: Anchor Tattoo; Bryant Arkansas

Artist Name: Chad

Placement: Left Wrist

Pain Scale: 7

Price: $60

Age: 29

Meaning/Story: Ant had an old family friend who him and I absolutely ADORED!
Watt was such a character and I always enjoyed going to visit with him. Watt would always tell me as I would get ready to leave from my visit to be patient with Ant. He was a good kid and he would get his shit together he just needed someone like me to make it worth it...
After Watt had passed I had told Ant about my idea or getting the word patience or a Kanji Character tattooed to me to remind me to have patience with him through out our life together... and well the sucker totally stole my idea when I was across country :)

  Family

Shop Name/Location: Anchor Tattoo; Bryant, Arkansas

Artist Name: Chad

Placement: Right Wrist

Pain Scale: 7

Price: $60

Age: 29

Meaning/Story: Ant has become a HUGE family man, his family is his motivation for everything that he does and with 4 girls in the house GOD knows sometimes you need an extra reminder on why you go about your day to day routines.

Aaliyah

Old English 

  Shop Name/Location: Screamer's Tattoo; Ozark, Alabama

Artist Name: Dragon Dave

Placement: Backside of Right Forearm

Pain Scale: 5.5

Price: $100

Age: 23

Meaning/Story: Aaliyah is the name of our youngest daughter. After she was born he pretty much made a be-line to the tattoo shop to get his baby girl's tribute tattoo inked to him.

 Sleeve

Work in progress

Two different states, shops and artists

PART ONE- THE START- 2012
Shop Name/Location: Forbidden Images; Dothan, Alabama

Artist Name: Jeff

Placement: Right Arm Sleeve

Pain Scale: 1-10 depending on area being worked on

Price: $ 425 start up cost

Age: 27

Meaning/Story: When we left the hospital from loosing our niece LeAnna, Ant decided he would replace one pain with another and decided to start on sleeve-ing his arm after all the years of talking about it. The first initial start up of his arm was 12 different tribal pieces placed and lied out around his already existing tats and almost 6 hours in the chair.

Part Two: PROGRESS and ADDITIONS - 2013 to ONGOING
Shop Name/Location: Anchor Tattoo; Bryant Arkansas

Artist Name: Chad

Placement: SLEEVE CONTINUED

Pain Scale: 1-10 depending on area being worked on

Price: $100hr up to 6 to 7 additional hours

Age: 31 and counting....

Meaning/Story: Chad has been kind enough to help Ant bring his sleeved arm to a reality. These two have brainstormed and have added on new anchor points to the sleeve and ways to make everything "work" after it being an ongoing process..
We are all so VERY excited to see it "finished" but there are still several more hours to go...
Plus side?
I never run out of gift ideas for my so very hard to shop for hubby!

Do you want to have your ink featured?

Here's how!

*DISCLAIMER Pain scales depend on the individual getting the tattoo. These are not in anyway a guarantee  on how much a tattoo in a particular area will or will not hurt YOU.
The pain scale is based on a 1-10 scale (10 being the worst) and is just used to give you the reader an EXAMPLE. The pain scale is that of the featured person and their personal opinion on how much it hurt THEM.

** DISCLAIMER  tattoo pricing usually is charged by the hour. Depending on the location, size, detail, colors etc. will depend on the price of your tattoo. These prices listed are just to give you an idea of what some ink work could cost you. We are also DEDICATED tattoo enthusiast and are VERY LOYAL to our artist. SOME artists will show appreciation for your dedication and charge their repeat clients  with a discounted rate... This may or may not be typical in your area. Also me and my hubby always TIP our artist some pricing may or may not include the tip that we gave them... we can't remember :(

Tatted Thursday: Featuring Ant: Part One (Before Me)

 I am sure EVERYONE has been wondering where in the HELL is the posts about ink?!

How can a blog be called Inked & Sassy and there has NOT been ONE SINGLE posts about Tattoos! Jeesh! ;)

Well here you GO!

I was wanting to feature my personal ink first BUT since I have not had the chance to get them all photographed it was easier to sucker get my hubby to share his first.

I will go ahead and warn you though his will be continued through out my blogging career as will mine since we are both HUGE ink lovers AND we both have an "Ink Wish List" so to speak.

Ant's tats are in NO kind of order and I ask that you  bare with me. He has been working on his tat collection for almost 18 years and some of the older ink's information is a little fuzzy for us old folks...

They will seem pretty random chaotic ...

SO...

I will categorize them as best as I can...

Before Me (Part One) and After Me (Part Two) ;)

Without further ado... 

Part One: 

Before Me:

8 Point Star

1st Tat

Shop Name/Location: In his home

Artist Name:  Couldn't recall

Placement: Left Shoulder

Pain Scale:  2 *

Price:$ $30 **

Age: 13-14

Meaning/Story: Since this was his first tat there was no story behind it. 

Though the tattoo was done by a professional artist I HIGHLY recommend that tattoos are done in sanitized locations with health department inspections and pass within their guidelines.

Egyptian Cross

Shop Name/Location:  Screamer's Tattoo; Dothan, Alabama
(The Dothan location is no longer open BUT he does have a few shops in the local area)

Artist Name: Dragon Dave

Placement: Right Bicep

Pain Scale: 3*

Price: $85**

Age: 16-17 yrs old

Meaning/Story: He liked the uniqueness of the cross and in the area where he grew up it was a one of a kind tat. Not many folks there would have chosen the same.

Superman Symbol

Shop Name/Location: Forbidden Images; Dothan Alabama

Artist Name: Jeff

Placement: Right Shoulder

Pain Scale: 1*

Price: $60**

Age: 18ish

Meaning/Story: Superman has always been Ant's favorite super hero and now he wears him on his arm with pride.

Blue Tribal

Shop Name/Location: Screamer's Tattoo; Dothan, Alabama

Artist Name: "Frog"

Placement: Between shoulder blades on back

Pain Scale:  6*

Price: $90**

Age: 18ish

Meaning/Story: The tribal here was to be the beginning of a back piece, but years later the plans had changed and it just stands alone.... for now...

"X.S.J" 

"Vampire Script"

Shop Name/Location: Screamer's Tattoo; Ozark Alabama

Artist Name: Dragon Dave

Placement: Stomach

Pain Scale: 10*

Price: $100**

Age: 19

Meaning/Story:  The initials X.S.J. represent my hubby's first born biological child, his son, who lives with his ex out of state.

Only God Can

Shop Name/Location: B&E Tattoo; Dothan, Alabama

Artist Name: "Whitefoot"

Placement: Left Forearm

Pain Scale: 3*

Price: $80**

Age: 20

Meaning/Story: He chose this cross and saying to remind him and others that there is only one who can judge him or us and that is God. Only God Can Judge Me  is a daily reminder to let things go, and not to wrap your mind around what others or yourself may think of you.

Crown of Thorns Cross

Shop Name/Location: Screamer's Tattoo; Dothan, Alabama

Artist Name: Dragon Dave

Placement: Right side of Chest

Pain Scale: 4*

Price: $100**

Age: 18-20ish

Meaning/Story: He went through a phase where he was tattooing crosses left and right, this was a design that he personally like but had the middle letters changed to A.M.J which are his own initials.

RIP

 Shop Name/Location: Screamer's Tattoo; Dothan, Alabama

Artist Name: Dragon Dave

Placement: Left Bicep

Pain Scale:  1*

Price: No Charge**

Age: 17-18 yrs old

Meaning/Story: Anthony's grandfather dies when he was a kid and when he got older he wanted to keep the memory of his grandfather alive and with him with a tribute tattoo, when he got the tattoo he decided to go ahead and add his grandmother's initials at the same time thought she has only been gone from us for a few years. When I asked him why he decided to do that he simply stated that those two were never supposed to be separated from each other...

CROSS & SUN ACCENT

CROSS:
Shop Name/Location: Forbidden Images; Dothan, Alabama

Artist Name: Jeff

Placement: Right Forearm

Pain Scale: 3*

Price: $60**

Age: 20ish

Meaning/Story: Again this was during the cross phase in his tattoo theme (before me), he liked the cross and for many years the cross stood on it's own until he added the sun accent (after me)

SUN:
Shop Name/Location: Forbidden Images; Dothan, Alabama

Artist Name: Jeff

Placement: Accent around cross located on Right Forearm

Pain Scale: 4*

Price: $50**

Age: 24-25ish

Meaning/Story: He felt that after some time the cross needed something more to it, so he decided he would add some flair to the boring plain cross and accent it with a sunburst.

Check back next week where I will feature Ant's Ink Part Two (After Me)

Do you want to have your ink featured?

*DISCLAIMER Pain scales depend on the individual getting the tattoo. These are not in anyway a guarantee  on how much a tattoo in a particular area will or will not hurt YOU.
The pain scale is based on a 1-10 scale (10 being the worst) and is just used to give you the reader an EXAMPLE. The pain scale is that of the featured person and their personal opinion on how much it hurt THEM.

** DISCLAIMER  tattoo pricing usually is charged by the hour. Depending on the location, size, detail, colors etc. will depend on the price of your tattoo. These prices listed are just to give you an idea of what some ink work could cost you. We are also DEDICATED tattoo enthusiast and are VERY LOYAL to our artist. SOME artists will show appreciation for your dedication and charge their repeat clients  with a discounted rate... This may or may not be typical in your area. Also me and my hubby always TIP our artist some pricing may or may not include the tip that we gave them... we can't remember :(

While We Were Away: A Weekend Recap

This weekend was a wet and rainy one for us, the weather was SCREAMING fall which meant for us a laid back, indoors kind of weekend...

We were looking forward to our cities annual Spook City, but thanks to the rain it was delayed until tonight. Unfortunately, the weather is not looking like it will play in our favor again to continue the tradition and I will have to say I will be so very disappointed along with the kids if mother nature doesn't play nice this year. 

We have gone to Spook City every year since we have moved here and we all always look forward to it.

Since we were stuck indoors most of the weekend the hubby and I found it to be a great opportunity to finish cleaning out the house. 

I have been working my ass off going through every room cleaning it out, going through things and reorganizing from top to bottom. 

The rainy wet weather gave us the chance to tie up the loose ends and call it a wrap! Now to have my yard sale SOON! 

Since the weather rained us out on Saturday night's plans of Spook City we decided we would make it a fun night for the girls and do a Halloween themed movie night with Hocus Pocus (which they had never seen before) and Addams Family Values with junk food and candy!

Over the weekend though we did also throw in Captain America: The Winter Solider, Jurassic World, a few Transformer movies and Gremlins.
After trying to do a weekend of JUST Halloween based movies I have come to find out that our selection for the holiday is sad... which is REALLY sad seeing that we own close to 1000 movies... UGH!

This week we are celebrating Red Ribbon Week at school and all of the girls have a list of ways to dress up to be involved with the Awareness week.
Dakota (Junior High) and Aaliyah (elementary school) have their list at home and have prepped all weekend for the BIG week. Alora (the Middle School) announce it daily so thier is no list.. bummer...
Here is what we have to look forward too...

Elementary

Junior High

I will be sharing how it all went and what they came up with next week so stay tuned!


Also over the weekend through our social media I asked you our readers for help...
Check it out :

I hope you all have an amazing Monday!

Our 4 Year Move-a-versary!

On October 20th, 2011 Anthony and I packed up ALL of our belongings, 

Our three girls and Tank my snake into a 24 ft moving truck, a F150 pick up truck and my car

and said good-bye to our families in Alabama.

 

We made the 592 mile trip FROM HELL....

and moved to Arkansas...

 

Anthony was offered an amazing job opportunity from my God-father  that would allow him to change careers and allows us to become a better independent family unit of our own. 

We jumped at the chance and decided we would make the move. 

The trip ON A GOOD NOTE is about 10 hours long give or take how many times the kids HAVE to pee ;)

The move... well it was a trip from HELL.

 

My car was on the dolly attached to the moving truck captained by Ant and my snake tank. I was driving Ant's truck with the three girls in tow.

Our belongings were packed and ready to go, we did our good byes the night before at the in-laws and did ours with my family before we hit the road.

 

Things were going smooth, the kids were being good; we were just a cruising along til we reached the Birmingham area...

 

Ant called me because he saw smoke, he thought was coming from his truck.... I thought it was from someone else

And well it was from ours... smh...

The truck was DEAD...

So Ant decided we would take my car off the dolly, load up the truck and be good to go....

HA!

A mile (if that) down the road a belt on my car blew... FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC! We were stranded with 2 broke down cars, 3 kids and a snake, PLUS all of our personal belongings... I called my step-dad and he talked to Ant about what would be needed to fix the car... He said he would grab the part and meet us where ever the tow truck could take us.

Thank God for road side assistance, the tow truck took us to a Walmart parking lot where we would sit and wait for my step dad to come to the rescue. 

He made it there during hour 5 of being stranded I would say and him and Ant hit mechanic mode off the top!

The night was getting cooler and the car had no heat so I was throwing extra blankets on the girls tot keep them warm and Ant was trying to also keep the snake warm in the moving truck.

 

 

The guys got it fixed and after we topped off with gas we were back on the road. Since we were alreeady supposed to be at the new place at this time the girls were sleepy and slept the rest of the way thank goodness. 

We had pretty smooth sailing from that point and though we should have stopped to sleep we pushed through with red bulls and energy drinks. 

 

When we hit Memphis,  my breaks went out... 

yes I am totally serious... 

 

I drove  the last 158 miles from Memphis to Benton with no breaks. 

It was defiantly not something I would recommend or do again!

 

We made it to the new place early that morning and the rest is history. 

 

We have been here for 4 years and for the most part love it and don't see ourselves  moving like that ever again!

Happy Move-a-versary to my girls and Ant!