An Ode to My 10 Year Wedding Anniversary and My Unconventional Gift to My Husband

Jeff and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary on July 28 which happened to also be the day of my consultation at MD Anderson - and my dad's birthday. So, we'll just call it a busy and wonderful day shall we.

Our original plan for celebrating our milestone was our Colorado trip. I agreed to loosen the reigns on the money and we'd do things together as a family - the best kind of celebration I could image. Our 10 years together have resulted in a full and happy life and celebrating that as a family just felt like the right way to honor and celebrate it. We didn't think we needed a fancy dinner or elaborate gifts of things to mark the occasion. Just our trip. Together. It was enough perfect.

But then things changed. Then we got back and were faced with brain cancer. Then it became a thing. Then we would be headed to MD Anderson. Now, some of you might not know the size of my family but I'll be introducing you to them later on, but let's just say that there were already 12 people staying Friday evening at my parent's house that Friday night in Tomball.  And while I LOVE my siblings and nieces and nephews - I just wasn't up for spending my 10 year anniversary evening with them. We got a hotel room and a sushi dinner was planned.

But now, what to do about a gift?! I can't drive, there's not a lot of time to find a spur of the moment gift - so I had to start to think outside of the very limited box I had.

Stay with me, but for the past 2 years, I've been growing my hair out because my husband likes long hair and I had nothing better to do. Also, a bun on top of my head works for every occasion and the one or two times a month I actually break out a hair dryer and styling wand is fun. I had pretty much decided to just let it grow until I got bored with it. I've had my trims and every 5 weeks a trip to see my girl, Sarah, so she can grant me my youth back (read: dye my grey roots brown). So, random, right, but I had an normal 5 week appointment scheduled with Sarah for Saturday morning. I decided to keep it.

My mom, Davy, kept the kids and my dogs here in Austin Friday evening. Jeff and I planned the return drive home early Saturday morning. I have my priorities straight people. You don't just cancel a morning at the salon. You DON'T. Even when you have a brain biopsy the week of. You keep that appointment and tell yourself you just got bored with your long, long hair. Also, little known fact, you can't dye your grey roots with an open wound and future craniotomy for at least 3 months - so a cut it was.

I did the nice thing and texted Jeff a picture of the cut I was going for, and said, my anniversary gift to you on Friday will be to actually do my hair, wear it down, and you can look at it, touch it, and I swear I won't put it in a bun on top of my head like I do every other day. See how kind I can be! I should also mention that Warren starts soccer - in AUGUST - every Saturday morning. It would have been SO HOT with 12 inches of hair on my head - a shorter cut meant a cooler and more enjoyable soccer mom experience.



Y'all the news that I wanted to cut my hair off was like I had dropped a bombshell bigger than the cancer. I actually think he mourned the thought of my long hair! I can't imagine why - every time I broke out the tools to do it up, he complained about all the lost hairs in the sink. Or they amount of hair in the shower clogging up the drain. Honestly, the short hair thing would solve a ton of annoying problems. Less product, less money spent, less time getting ready, no more hair in his sink.
So, it was going to be just me and the hubby (and Damien, my brain cancer) for the evening. We had a lovely evening! I got assurances from the doctors that a glass of wine on my 10 year wedding anniversary on top of the meds would be okay, but was asked to please not go overboard on the alcohol. I ordered a glass of wine, drank half of it, and managed to stay off the bar. We had a lovely dinner, got to the hotel and I was asleep by 9. Classic. But it was a huge day and I was tired so it was right. It was us. The new us. Honoring the past 10 years of us.

Anyway, enough about my super romantic evening, but we drove to Austin, and I made it to my appointment and I cut off all my hair. I decided to keep the pony because I have plans.

Short Hair Don't Care

Every few days, I'm going to steal a few strands of my super long hair and put a few pieces in Jeff's sink while I get ready in the morning. I'm going to put a few strands randomly on the shower wall. It's going to be glorious!

What better way to honor my husband's love of my long hair then to leave little love strands all over his life? It's either that or put it in a plastic bag in a memory box for some ancient civilization to find and think how weird this culture was to keep their hair in a bag. Ew.

A devious game begins...