Facial hair, Random stuff I miss.

Dear Michael,

It's funny the random things that I miss. This morning I was thinking about finally giving away your electric razor to my brother in law. He doesn't have one and I sure am not going to use it. But its been hard for me to give anything up so far. I think I am finally ready. Anyways, I was thinking about it and it got me thinking about your facial hair. Funny how there are things I would never have thought twice about that now I really miss. Like how you used to drive me crazy by moving stuff so I couldn't find it, and now I hate how everything (that's too high for Little E to reach) stays in the same place unless I move it. Things don't get done unless I do them. Its slowly driving me batty! Anyways, back to what I missed this morning.

Michael showing off his goatee. :) He is taking the picture himself. I love the half smile. You can tell he thinks he looks great!

I miss seeing all the colors in your beard when you tried to grow it out. (You never could grow a full beard, only a goatee. The sides never had much hair. I always liked that about you. It meant you got less scruffy.) I miss the red hairs especially. You were so proud of those little red hairs. I miss the random huge black hairs that you would pluck periodically and show me while saying "can you beleive how thick this one is?!"  They were 3 times the thickness of your other hairs. I also miss your random obsession of whether or not you had gray in your beard. You would grow a goatee every once in a while and all of a sudden see a blond hair in it. Then you would bring it to me and say "Is this gray?! Is it? Do I have gray hairs already?" I would always reassure you that it was just blond but I don't think you ever believed me. I promise I wasn't lying to you though. I really do think they were just blond hairs. You never got old enough to see your first gray. Stinker!

I miss how you could never leave your goatee alone if you grew one out. You were always stroking it, or playing with the part right under your bottom lip with your top lip or tip of your tongue. You even told me that you couldn't stop touching it because it felt so weird and would eventually shave it off because you didn't want to play with it in front of your class, but you couldn't help yourself. lol

5/14/2009 6:31 pm
Michael on his 30th Birthday! Chilling at home in the living room. I love his crazy hair and that he is wearing the tshirt that I tried to throw away because he had loved it to death. (He caught me...) lol This was another crazy hair day.

Michael holding our nephew G. This was a little bit after he had shaved his head, it was finally growing back in.

I miss you taking Little E's hand and rubbing it on her face while saying "Smooth..." and then rubbing it on yours and saying "Rough!" while she giggled hysterically. I miss you rubbing her belly while she laughed until I had to stop you so you wouldn't give her beard burn. Her tummy would be bright red when you were done. I miss you using your beard as a torture device for me. If I didn't give you your way you would pin me down and give me a beard burn too. It used to drive me crazy, but now I really miss it!

I miss you letting yourself get kind of scruffy and then every once in a while grabbing your non electric razor while giving me a look and running off to take a shower. Then you would come out with a baby smooth face and let me stroke it and then you would kiss me so sweetly. I loved those kisses. I always looked forward to days you were trying to impress someone (sometimes it was even me!) so you would give yourself a close shave. :) You were always so handsome.

Micheal's poofy out of control hair. You can tell he was really feeling it that day. lol This was while we were pregnant with Little E. 3-22-08

Michael's fake mow-hawk. (Farmers tan is from doing track.)

I remember when we lived in our first apartment and you shaved your head because you had gotten a really bad hair cut from the beaut. You let me try a little bit because it was hard for your to see the back. I was so scared I would cut you and vowed never to try shaving your face ever again! But I did learn to cut your hair with a pair of clippers. You sure were a brave man. We got the clippers the time you shaved your head, but tried our first real hair cut in the garage of our second house. That first hair cut was awful! But you never admitted that. You just told me it looked great. I did get better in time though. You often liked to do the honor of the first part of the hair cut so you could give yourself a fake mow-hawk for a few minutes. lol It was funny how you would swing back and forth in your attitude with your hair cuts. You would teach your class like a crazy mad scientist when you had crazy long hair, and then decide things were out of control and cut it all off military style. Your kids always knew they were dealing with a much stricter Mr. "McCool" when they saw you had cut your hair.

Michael's hair cut, Military Style! Another self taken picture. lol

Anyways, its funny how sometimes I start thinking about some "thing" and all of a sudden I am missing all kinds of stuff that I never thought twice about before. It makes me try to hold tightly to everything I can. Every memory I can come up with, and everything new our children are doing. I know I will miss all kinds of stuff they do someday too.

I love you, I hope you won't mind me sharing your things with other people. It seems like it is slowly starting to be time to let go of them... but I'll never let go of the memories.

While I am at it, I think I will record the story about the day you shaved your head. :) You had gone to get a hair cut from the beauty collage and came back complaining about how bad it was. You thought it was uneven and really didn't like it. It was almost the last day of school (this was while you were student teaching I think.) so I told you to just shave it off. You used to do that when you were on swim team in high school and had told me about how fun it was to do that and how weird everything felt. There was no insulation so your head was either really hot or really cold. Plus you would sunburn so easily. lol I told you that it would grow back and you may never get the chance again. You agreed and off to walmart we went to get ourselves a pair of clippers. We justified the purchase by saying I would learn to cut your hair and save us money, which I eventually did. Then we came back to our apartment and slowly shaved your head in the bathroom. I couldn't beleive how much hair you had, even after a hair cut! Then you got out the razor and began to "bick" it. You couldn't see the back so I helped you with that part, even though I was terrified I was going to cut you. When we were done I couldn't beleive how little your head looked without the hair. It took me a long time to get used to looking at a bald you. I decided then and there that I liked you a lot better with your poofy hair.

After we were done it was time to go over to my parents house for dinner. This was during the time that my little sister was still living at home. She was a senior in high school and loved pestering you. You liked to wear your baseball cap, but she always stole it and put it on herself to bug you. It was a constant joke between you two then. So we decided to play a little trick on her and my mom. You put on your hat (the green one with the mushroom from mario I think...) Then we headed over. You nonchalantly went in and sat on the love seat. Kara came in and walked past you while swiping your hat, but not even looking at you. Then she turned around to show off her new look and screamed and fell to the floor! It was so funny. I wish I had it on video but we didn't even have a camera then. We were still using the disposable ones. We didn't get a digital one until Little E was born. Anyways, my mom came in to see what Kara was screaming about, took one look at you and started saying "I don't like it! I don't like it!" You were laughing so hard and enjoying all of the attention. Then mom tentatively came up to feel it, shook her head again and kept on saying "I don't like it..." It was a really fun night. And we had a great time going bridge jumping a few days later. You liked how cold the water felt on your head, and how hot the sun felt. It was all so new and extreme. I am still glad I made you put sunscreen on it though. You could have had the worst sun burn of your life. lol

I love you and miss you so much. But I am grateful for all the great times we had. :) But I do wish I could run my fingers through your amazing hair just one more time, have just one more kiss with your baby smooth face, or heck, even just one more beard burn.

Love,
Jenny