I took the week off work.  My family is heading in and I wanted a couple days before they arrived to clean the house, and just to relax. The house is looking good - at least to my standards. I did consider hiring Molly Maids to do a final scrub down, but Thomas convinced me that we would do a good enough job.

As for relaxing, it was a great weekend. Catherine made me dinner, in exchange for checking up on her cats while she’s out of town this week.

Thomas and Dave waited in line for a few hours Saturday night for the Nintendo Wii. I took them hot chocolate and waited with them for a bit. I’ll admit that I made fun of them for waiting, when most of the others were middle school boys, and I fussed for buying a silly toy, but it is fun, and my arms have had a workout from playing.

Sunday, I was brave enough to present my credo - my beliefs - in front the entire church. I know I sounded very nervous, but it went well. Thomas presents his next weekend. This was an optional part of becoming a member at UUMAN, but it was really an interesting lesson to define out my beliefs clearly enough that I could state them to an audience.

Anna and I went bridesmaid dress shopping too. We got some good ideas on possibilities, but I need to check in with the other two bridesmaids. It was interesting that her top choice matched my top choice from what I had seen online - I wonder if I was influencing her.

I ordered a new camera, which should arrive tomorrow - the Nikon D50. It’s a digital SLR, which will allow me to hopefully take much nicer photos, and share lenses with Thomas. Now we have even more reason to find a good birding/wildlife site for our honeymoon.

My family should arrive this evening. I’m looking forward to having a full house and will post more later. I’ve got to get back outside and see if I can dispose of the ocean of leaves that ate my driveway.