wow - what a weekend. so much lovely activity that it kinda blew by me. ready for the play-by-play?

friday night: got in the car, and matt gave me a box. the lens i ordered friday morning? arrived friday afternoon. bless you, amazon, your free shipping upgrade trial, and your local warehouse. bless you. dinner w/ my parents, too many sangrias, a trip to joanns, and a little shoppyshoppy. mmmm. joanns.

saturday morning: up early, tidied quite a bit in my studio. prayed that it wouldn't be raining in federal way, where i would be doing an easter shoot for my sister-in-law and her kids in just a few hours. headed out, the rain just got worse. got to her place, decided we'd do the shoot indoors. slightly fussy baby (she didn't like my backdrop!) and an uncooperative pre-schooler... but we got past it and ended up having lots of fun together. even got some good pictures.

saturday afternoon: photo proofing followed by lunch with matt. got to watch one episode of my last Manor House disc before he called to ask if i could help with setup at the church, as 2/3 of his team had flaked on him. swung chairs around for about an hour (and consequently, felt it all day sunday); got home at a decent hour, and was sorely in need of some alone-time (more on that later) so matt, a very good sport, locked himself away in his office for an hour and a half. watched the rest of my Manor House disc, then vaccumed and mopped. that felt good.

sunday morning: up early again - something very satisfying about having time to yourself before the rest of the day "begins". off to church, taught the kids. this was our first weekend completely without dan, our children's pastor, but we made it, with only one major meltdown from a little guy who didn't like that he didn't make it through the 2nd round of the game, and tried to play in the 3rd round. when i asked him to sit down, he tried to destroy our prize table. yikes. we learned a few things yesterday that i'm sure will help us grow in our ministry. (more on that another time.)

sunday afternoon: took my camera and the gift album i just finished to my mom's, where the falling rain again foiled my attempts to take pictures outside. this time, my subject was my favorite dog in the whole world - trenton, a 2 yr old yellow lab, who belongs to a family friend is about as well-behaved as they come. we took photos indoors instead, which were still fun, but not quite what i'd been looking for... (he just wanted to sleep).

sunday evening: back home, we had just a few hours to relax, proofed more photos and then we were back to church... i volunteered childcare for our quarterly Essential Elements service, (baptism and communion) while matt watched two of our students from the kids' church group get baptized. i only had dan's little girl, julia, who is unbelievably fun, so he relieved me after the baptisms so that i could take communion. i forgot how much i love sunday-evening services. something so relaxing, low-key about them. got home, made a quick spaghetti dinner and planted myself firmly in front of Extreme Home Makeover, hosted not by Ty this week, but by Kermit (yep, the frog). too fun. i organized all of my scraps while i watched (more on that later).

went to bed late, woke up this morning and thought "surely it's not monday already!" but i'm here, and surviving. and the busyness isn't over yet - we have a business meeting at church tonight, and then i think things will slow down for the week... hopefully. :)

i feel the need to talk a little more about my organization thoughts later, so i'm sure there'll be another post this afternoon. oh, and the thoughts on the days of Jesus' last week of life are coming too - written down, but at home. will try to post them tonight.