Independence Day Weekend

Weekends involving holidays are always special to me, even if I work 2 out of 3 of the days. Aside from working at Panera Bread, I spent the majority of the weekend relaxing, without any real plans.

On Friday, my Dad came into town and we went out to lunch, visited a park, and browsed a used bookstore. Dad and I are similar in the things we like to do/see, so I look forward to his visits.

Later that afternoon, Terry and I went on a 2 hour kayaking trip down the Catawba river. It was both relaxing and a workout. Unfortunately, I didn’t listen to him and neglected to put on enough sunscreen, so I am suffering from my first sunburn all summer. I used to let it happen to me all the time, but now I am typically more cautious. What they say is true- you can get burned on a cloudy day! Still, it was the perfect afternoon and I’m ready to get out there again!

On Saturday after work, Terry met me for a quick lunch before we headed to the Carolina Place Mall in Charlotte. Even though I’ve been working at Panera for 6+ months, I still love the food there.

We talked about finding a festival to go to, but knowing that I would have to open at work again the next morning, I was wanting a more chill day. We are expert window shoppers, so a trip to the mall sounded like the right amount of activity.

To ensure we were at least a tad festive, we grilled out for dinner. Terry put on some turkey dogs and I made these stuffed onions (minus the cheese). The dogs were great, but sadly the onions were not. I am sure forgetting to put the cheese in didn’t help, but the onions were lacking and had a bit of a weird flavor. Luckily we had slaw & Sun Chips to make up it.

We got the crazy idea to try highlighting my hair later that night. My mother-in-law gave me a box of at-home highlights, but I had been too nervous to try them. I was in a “what the heck” kind of mood, so I told Terry to try it out on me. Well, our optimism was sweet, but it came out looking pretty tacky. It was laughable- I had big chunks of blonde in just a few places. I told him this must have been payback from the time 6 years ago that I gave him a very poor haircut. The picture below is actually better than it really looked…

Now, after a trip to Target it’s all over dirty blonde/light brown. I like it! Maybe next time I will go even lighter! My curiosity is strong to know how it will look.

 Overall it was a great weekend, despite lacking in the tradition holiday festivities.

In other news, this week I will be transitioning to a low-fodmap diet. I have for a long time struggled with IBS and I’m to the point now where I will try anything for my symptoms to improve. It will be challenging, but I am really hopeful after reading other’s experiences with it. I will try to chronicle my progress here in case anyone else is interested in the diet. It will certainly force me out of my comfort zone, but I really want to focus on my health and feeling better, so I am ready to push past any unease regarding diet changes. Fingers crossed and prayers appreciated!