Fourth of July weekend!

Ben and I had a great fourth of July weekend! It was so nice that he had Friday off from work--it gave us a chance to get some things done and just relax together. Lots of fun!

First and foremost, I was able to get my hair colored on Thursday...thank goodness!!! I have my priorities, and one of them was making sure to get my hair colored at least two weeks before the wedding--I just made it! Thanks to a great recommendation from one of Ben's friends, I found a nice salon and an AWESOME stylist. She actually had to dye my hair twice because it turned a funky orange color the first time (is anyone surprised by this? I'm not. That is precisely the reason I pay people to color my hair and no longer take any chances with boxes of hair dye!). Another shocker, I was in the salon for over 3 hours. I just know not to plan ANYTHING for directly after a hair appointment because they always always take forever. Anyway, here is me attempting to take a picture of my gray roots and reddish hair before it was dyed.

Pre-dye

You'll get to see somewhat of an after picture later in the post. :-)

Ben and I started off our weekend by hitting up the library and getting Ben a card....FINALLY. I am so excited to have access to free books again, and I checked out four new ones. Which I haven't started reading yet. But, I have goals!! Unfortunately, we did not think to take any pictures of our library experience. I'm sure Ben is disappointed I didn't snap his picture as he applied for his card...haha! The branch we went to is small and cute and near this apartment, but we'll probably be finding a new branch once we get settled in the new place--which will begin happening this coming Friday, which is just insane. But yeah! Yay library!

Then we began one of our big projects of the weekend, re-finishing Ben's thousand year old dresser. OK, probably not 1000 years old, but one that has had since he was a kid. We hauled it out to the tiny back porch he has, and started sanding.

Dresser, being sanded

Ben, sanding

Me, sanding and being goofy (I can multi-task!)

Trying to sand and look normal (notice the new, darker hair!)

Me, starting to stain the dresser (that's my "this staining stuff is hard, I am going to leave awful brush marks on the dresser, I can't believe Ben wants me to stop staining and smile for a picture" face!)

A good shot of the side of the newly stained dresser!

Dresser back inside with un-stained drawers--a project for another day!

We're really happy with the color of the dresser, and I think we would have pushed through and stained the drawers had it not rained for most of the rest of the weekend. It was a fun project!

On Saturday, we were met with packages on our doorstep when we went to leave the apartment! UPS must have dropped them off sometime Friday afternoon, and we didn't go out that front door again til Saturday morning. A pleasant surprise!

Our packages were from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and the inside boxes were wrapped yet another way...hehe! I like seeing all the gift wrapping options Bed, Bath, and Beyond offers! :-)

Here is Ben with one of our packages.

And what it contained.

Woohoo for bottler openers and pizza slicers!! We also received a big box of towels from Ben's aunt and uncle. They're beautiful and soft, and I can't wait to hang them up in our new apartment!

On Saturday night, we attempted to see the fireworks downtown, but our plan of driving down right when they started and parking on the side of a street was thwarted by hundreds of other people who had the same idea! :-) We drove around for a while and saw a few fireworks from our car windows. Next year, we will definitely be arriving earlier! :-)

The best shot I could get of any fireworks at all (doesn't the blinding street lamp add a nice touch??)

We spent Sunday mostly relaxing. We did go sign our lease on the new apartment so that I can go by Friday and pick up the keys while Ben is at work. And we worked our little fingers to the bone finishing up the wedding programs. I am so grateful that Ben helped me, and I am SO relieved that they're finished! I think I want all of our guests to take them home and frame them after all the hours I've spent working on them. :-)

Well, I am off to maybe read a book. Or watch last week's Bachelorette. Or pack up some things. :-)