Thanksgiving Recap

I know, I know. Everyone's blogging about their Christmases by now, but I thought I would throw you a curveball and tell you all about our Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Extravaganza 2.0!

We had such a great Thanksgiving this year celebrating with friends! Our Pasadena friends Lauren and Andrew, Robin (we missed you Ben!), and Darcy & Adam, all came down for the day on Thursday for food and fun!

We almost doubled our guest-list this year from last year, so I was a little intimidated at first that it would be lots of work, but it actually ended up being so much easier as everyone handled a couple of dishes.

Andrew provided us with a wonderful turkey, made with love!


The boys taking a break from slaving in the kitchen for some football action:


As usual, the food was abundant and tasty!


The whole crew!!

After dinner, we all were feeling the turkey lethargy, so we crashed while watching Goonies but I think only the boys were entertained enough to stay awake!

We closed out our night with a friendly round of Loaded Questions. It was a great day of food, friends, and fun.

Our Thanksgiving weekend is always relaxing as we both get to be home for several days in a row! What a treat! We were so excited because the Holladays were home from NY so, in honor, we all got together for a much-anticipated Settlers tournament.



I don't mean to brag, but I did go home with a Lord of Catan title in my pocket.

Happy belated Thanksgiving! Oh, and Merry Christmas too!

California Visitors!

We were so excited to have our first non-family California visitors this month! The Hesters were super sweet to come all the way out to see us for a long weekend. Unfortunately, we don't have that many pictures as we had a very low-key weekend with not much to show but it was exactly what we needed after a busy few weeks! We love the Hesters and loved just getting to sit and catch-up and hang out rather than being so rushed as we usually are when we see them in Nashville.

As with most visitors, we made trips to the Spectrum, In 'N Out, Sprinkles, Golden Spoon in addition to multiple rounds of Settlers. We also had an LA day of Pink's hotdogs, Amoeba records, and vintage shopping in Melrose. Our day also included our first trip to Pinkberry!

We've heard lots about it (both good and bad opinions) so we really enjoyed trying it ourselves! For those of you who don't know, it's frozen yogurt. No, not Golden Spoon/TCBY Frozen Yogurt, but yogurt that's frozen. You can choose between original and green tea yogurt and then top it with your choice of candy, fruit, cereal, etc. My verdict was definitely positive! I don't think it will be a total obsession (like Sprinkles) but I definitely will be frequenting it again soon, especially since we're getting one at the Spectrum soon!


Thanks so much to Ryan, Jordan, and Baby Hester for coming to visit us!

Birthday Recap

Wow! I'm alive, I promise! It's been such a crazy few weeks with finishing up our Christmas work, trying to get out of town, finishing up my job (have I mentioned that I quit my job? that's probably another blog), Christmas shopping, etc! Whew - I'm tired just thinking about it all! One of the things that I've most been looking forward to is getting back to blogging! Yay!

So there's lots to re-cap from over the past couple of months . . . I'll try to keep it brief so we can catch back up to real-life and what's going on now!

In November, we celebrated my birthday! It came and went pretty quickly in the midst of everything else going on, but we did take a night off to celebrate with some friends. This year we did a combo party with Kyle since his birthday is the day after mine. It's fun to share birthdays!


We had a fun night of celebrating at BJ's (can't go wrong with pizza!) and it was great to see friends and have a great night out!

Colbie Caillat

I've been listening to Colbie Caillat today and she makes me happy.

READ THIS BLOG CAREFULLY

Ok, friends.  When we've done this in the past it's created some mass confusion and rumors so PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY before jumping to conclusions.

We have exciting family updates from two new girls.  So, to review, the hot pink B is for our blogging friends (I'm sad to report no increase in this).  And the Asian baby symbol is for girls who currently have a child or are pregnant (e.g.  if they have a child already and have the baby symbol - this doesn't mean they are pregnant!!!).

First, debuting in June, is Baby Hester - yay for Ryan and Jordan - we're super excited!  And, as promised, the vertical child-stacking has begun as the Hinsons jump out to the lead with 2!

We're so excited for all of you guys!

In other news, I've still been missing you guys.  I actually dreamed that I had time for blogging one night - it was awesome.  I do think I'm starting to be able to see the light at the end of the working tunnel.  You know it's bad when I haven't even blogged about Thanksgiving, California visitors, Nashville trips, so much!  I'm hoping to catch you all up soon.  I'm still updating photoblog as much as possible - I have some really fun shots of some little ones to post hopefully later today so check back!

It's here!

I just walked in to "downtown" Laguna to get the mail.  It's twilight, and all of the palm tree trunks are wrapped in Christmas lights, the "winter-themed" (we're very PC in Laguna) art palettes are hanging from the lampposts, and the Laguna Pres church bells are playing Silent Night.

I love Christmas in California!

I miss you.

I'm working but will be back soon. Check out what I've been doing for the past week or so on photoblog.

Passing on our Legacy

It is with a swell of pride in my heart and a tear in my eye that I write to you today. There are so many things that we all desire to achieve in life, and one of them is passing on our wisdom and life lessons to those who come after us.

In light of this, I couldn't be prouder to introduce to you what has now become the next generation of bloggers. I'm so pleased to see these young ones walking the straight and narrow at such a young age.

Congratulations and welcome to our world!

Dana Warren Herring
Hayden Casey
Lindsay Greer
Aubrey Naish West

The makings of a great photo shoot

2 spots left . . .

We are getting so excited about our trip to Nashville! I have 2 photo timeslots left if you are interested or if you have friends who you think might be. Please feel free to pass my info along! I have gotten a couple of questions about if the photos have to be used for Christmas Cards - definitely not! One of my package options is just for the shoot and then you can order individual prints.

Who wouldn't want a turn in front of the paparazzi lens . . . .

Also I'm booking CA timeslots for the next few weekends. I know Christmas seems far away but it will be here before we all know it!

Wow. I'm glad I cut my hair.

4th Annual Christmalloween!

I'm discovering how much I enjoy annual traditions. It's so fun to look forward to our favorite yearly celebrations, and I love saying "The (insert number) Annual (insert holiday/party/celebration)".

With the holiday season upon us, we have many of these annual traditions to look forward to! We kicked off the fun this week with the 4th Annual Christmalloween.

What is Christmalloween, you may ask? Allow me to elaborate. 4 years ago (so I'm told - I wasn't around in those days), "the boys" were at their house on Halloween and started giving away random items from their house to trick-or-treaters. The concept of giving gifts rather than candy soon developed into a full-blown Christmas party that now involves house decorations, Christmas movies, a Christmas Cookie station, and lots of wonderful gifts for all of the children.

So Wednesday night we adorned our red and green (I forgot to get a photo of us! bummer!) and headed out to participate in the festivities. It was a great night and the kids absolutely loved it! Several kids came running up yelling "The Christmas House! The Christmas House!" and I think we saw a few little characters come through the toy line more than one time. What a fun night - here's some photos:

The cookie/cupcake decorating station:


Santa Josh handing out gifts to the kids.

This lucky girl got the That's So Raven puzzle:


A Hello Kitty pack - "You're a kitten and she's a kitten!"

A Pslams calendar for the too-old-to-trick-or-treat-kids:

Friends:


What a fun night - we can't wait until the 5th Annual!

Halloween Celebration . . .

. . . at Disney!! (have you noticed how much I use ". . ."? - it's probably my favorite punctuation; that, or the semi-colon)

We started out our Halloween celebration this year by going to Disney!

Don't miss the mickey made of pumpkins:

Friends waiting for Space Mountain - it got shut down about 10 seconds before it was our turn - we still haven't been on it!!:

More friends - we were trying to be awkward. I think it only worked for me and Kyle . . .

We love Disney.

I think I've always known deep inside . . .

Which Hogwarts house will you be sorted into?

A poem that I found online and did not write:

There may be those of greater fame
From houses of another name,
Whose grand exploits and daring ways
Will draw attention through their days.

But when the tale is heard to tell
Of those who live not famed, but well
Who falseness scorn and sloth eschew
Regardless of what others do,

And who believe the greater end
Is never to desert a friend
And wisdom is reward enough,
Rest certain these are Hufflepuff.

So let it be full understood
That Hufflepuff means brotherhood
Our loyalty lies with Hufflepuff;
We have but thee; we have enough.

Welcome, Baby Jill!

My friend Sarah had her baby tonight, Jill!! We got to stop by to see her and she's so precious!! The phenomenon just continues to amaze me - she's not there and then she's suddenly here. I know - it sounds ridiculous. I mean, I knew there was a baby inside of Sarah but it's just amazing to actually meet her in person! Welcome, Baby Jill!

20 things on our refrigerator

Mr. Whirlpool sure was genious when he thought to make the outside of refrigerators magnetized.

Tonight I was standing in my kitchen looking at everything on my fridge and thinking about how much I like pictures and seeing what pictures other people choose for their houses. Whenever I go into someone's house I can't help but go straight to their picture frames and refrigerators to see what they have on display! Well, in honor of that, I thought I would share my refrigerator with you! As usual, click on the image below for a larger view.


1) Courtney and Kyle's wedding postcard - she wrote all of her thank you notes on postcards that were made from one of their wedding photos! Brilliant - not much space to fill up there on the back!

2) Pick up Stix magnet for quick takeout!

3) Mark and Emily - I have no idea where this photo came from - my mom sent it to me once and I have no idea where she got it, but I'm glad they're on our frig!

4) Picture of me and Shannon from college - freshman year spring break! It was on our mini-frig in the dorm every year and still lives on today . . .

5) Sydney from Christmas last year!

6) Marc and Emily (not to be confused with Mark and Emily) at their wedding

7) The Harry Potter card Reba sent me for my 25th birthday: (outside of card:) "Remember - no magic is allowed outside of Hogwart's, (inside of card) but you'll be forgiven for making some cake disappear!" Love it! I have a strong affection for HP, and I love Rebs and birthday cake, so it was the perfect card for me!

8) The Ma'in's - Callen and Mike at their wedding!

9) The Richies - this pic is maybe from Northern Ireland? This year there will be 2.5 people in their Christmas photo!

10) The magnet we got on our honeymoon in Maui

11) My cousins Tyler and Weston

12)The birth announcement I got to design for Samuel Albertsen - maybe I'll post a real shot of this soon - he's a cutie!

13) The orphan from India that we helped support this year

14) a photo of us with Ryanne and Jonathan Witt the day we got our Disneyland passes!

15) My brother's senior picture

16) Another Birth announcement by MR - Annabelle Hinson! I'm getting to photograph and meet Annabelle for the first time in just a couple of weeks! Eeeee! I can't wait!! I know you're jealous!

17) The magnet Shan gave me - also from our freshman year of college - "There's nothing like a good friend, except a good friend with chocolate!"

18) Sarah, Daren, and Annie Blomquist - Baby Jill will be joining them any minute now! We can't wait!

19) The annual Loffi Christmas photo

20) Our running lists - Trader Joe's, Costco, Grocery Store, Target - what more could you possibly need in life that doesn't come from one of these 4 places?

I hope you've enjoyed looking at my refrigerator! There's more space to be had, so send us your Christmas card this year!

What's on your refrigerator? I'd love to see . . . .

Make new friends, but keep the old

Yay for a blog that's not about fire!

Last Saturday, Adam and I had a super fun day of old and new friends! It was great!

We started with a lunch date with some old friends that we've been so excited to see! There are a handful of friends from our high school who live in California - a little strange considering we graduated with only about 80 people. So we finally had a mini-Class of '00 reunion this weekend! Drew Allen and his wife live in Burbank, and Kaci Mullen lives in San Diego and we finally all got together at a place to celebrate our heritage - Sonic!

From R to left: Us truly, Kaci, her boyfriend Jeff, Drew and Michelle Allen


It was so fun to hear about everyone's lives, tell old stories, and connect with fellow Tennesseans-turned-Californians. We can't wait to see them again soon!

After Sonic, we drove up to Pasadena to meet some new friends! We had 2 photo shoots on Saturday afternoon with friends of Lauren's who are now friends of ours! We started with Darcy and Adam (I kept having to refer to "my Adam" when talking in groups). Darcy's in school with Lauren and I had heard the Kings refer to them often. They're a great couple and we had so much fun hanging out and shooting around Pasadena. Then we got to see Robin and Ben - we've gotten to hang out with them once before so it was fun to see them again! Robin's also in school with Lauren - all of these super cool Fuller students. I just love Pasadena - there are so many hours worth of photo shoots there so I was glad to get to begin to scratch the surface of it. We finished the evening with a great night of sushi with the Darcy, Adam, Ben, Lauren and Andrew. We tried out a place called A'Float Sushi where they have a sushi bar that has boats floating around carrying different types of sushi. It was really really good and really cheap! We'll definitely be going back!

The really good news is that all of these 'Dena folks that we saw on Saturday are all coming to Thanksgiving Extravaganza '07! Yippee! We're so looking forward to it!!

You can check out a preview of some of their pics on photoblog!

Fire Update: Thur evening

Are you guys tired of fires? I'm tired of fires and am ready for life to return to a normal routine. This is easy for me to say since I still have my house, unlike many others. Adam went back to class tonight, I'm at home blogging when I should be working, so there are signs of normal life beginning to surface again.

The update from here is much the same. Containment still at 30%, approx. 26,000 acres burned, and fire still posing danger but continuing to move Eastward away from us. Here's a new map - I put a couple of familiar landmarks on there for reference. The yellow is recently burned and the red is currently burning (click the image for larger view). Also keep in mind this is only "our" portion of "our" fire. There's a whole other map for Trabuco Canyon area, etc.


The ash and smoke seem to have been at their worst this morning. I wish I had taken a photo of our cars when I walked out to leave for work today - yuck. But there seems to be some improvement in all of that this evening, thankfully. It's a little tough to see but here's a view of the ash on our doorstep just now:


I'm hoping that the fire news is on it's way out of our life - I'm looking forward to blogs about things other than fires again soon!

Fire Update: Wed night

Fortunately, again, there is nothing major to report. The orange cloud in the distance has re-appeared tonight as well as what sounds like about 10 helicoptors flying above our house. It's almost kind of soothing - like white noise.

Air quality is a continual concern - most schools in the area are cancelled because of it and the atmosphere is emitting a weird greenish/yellow glow - it's pretty creepy. Kind of like just before a tornado. The smoke and ash is everywhere - in Laguna, here at home, everywhere.

As I've said before, getting information has been somewhat frustrating. The best/only updating website I've found pertaining to us is OCRegister.com - anyone else found something better? The info seems vague but at least it's something. We're currently at 14 homes lost and 22,000 acres. Our containment rating got up to 50% about mid-day but we're back down to 30% this evening.

Cabin fever seems to be setting in a little as well. We've been trying to exercise as much as possible lately which isn't currently an option due to air quality. Day 1 Fitness was perfect for us tonight - you can download a mini-training session from the website so Adam and I got a good work out in our living room!

Our stuff is still packed just in case. Of course these situations make you think, what would I take? Here's what we have:
1) The boring stuff: documents, insurance proof, official certificates, etc.
2) Photos from when we were kids - they used to have this stuff called film and you made photo prints from it - crazy. We actually have some!
3) Some baseball memorabilia that Adam has from his grandfather
4) Computer external harddrives and backup discs - work stuff for us both
5) A few days worth of clothes
6) Lamby! (no - not a joke)
7) Other small electronics - iPod, camera, etc.

What else would you bring if you were being evacuated?

Fire Update: Tue night

We're heading to bed now - it's Tuesday night and all in our neighborhood is quiet except an occasional helicopter fly-over or fire engine in the distance. We can see some glowing smoke in the distance but the skyscape tonight is nothing like this time last evening. Tonight we drove through the neighborhoods in our area and how strange to see everything perfectly still and "normal" compared with last night where the same streets were filled with flying embers, fire trucks, news crews, etc.

Unfortunately, the scope of "our" fire has worsened and took several homes today a couple of miles away. For non-Californians, we live just next to the canyons, a much more rural type of land where fires spread much more quickly and there is more vegetation and greenery to go up quickly. So several homes in a nearby canyon got taken today but overall the firefighters have been extremely successful in keeping the fire away from the more developed land areas. Here's a map of the scope that we're talking about - I don't want to pinpoint our house exactly but you get the idea. Currently our fire is pushing 20,000 acres of coverage.

Luckily the damage isn't nearly as bad as some of the other locations like San Diego, Lake Arrowhead, etc. This is the only OC fire that I know of currently but that also makes it feel a little like we're getting swept under the rug without much outside support. I think we finally got some planes in today which is supposed to make a big difference.

Have I mentioned that the cause of ours is arson? Someone intentionally set it off in 3 locations. I could go on about this but it's incredibly frustrating - all the manpower that could be used at other fires, all of the wildlife, property, land damaged. I can't even imagine what would motivate someone to do this.

Again, we feel extremely safe at this point despite the magnitude of the fire. Our stuff is still packed just in case but we don't expect to see any more of the action that we saw last night. It's been an exhausting last 24 hours or so with the preparing, watching, waiting, etc. - we are quite tired despite the fact that we never even were evacuated. Off to get some much-needed rest - sweet dreams!

Fire Update

Well, it was a long evening/night for us but all is well. From what I can tell the fire is still going strong but has moved on from our neighborhood. I think a lot of other homes are still in danger but we seem to be in the clear.

I came home from work early yesterday to help Adam prep for the potential evacuation that we were expecting. We spent the afternoon and evening packing external harddrives, photos, etc. I think it's probably always a good exercise to think through the loss of all of your possessions. We really do have a lot of meaningless stuff.

When I arrived home in the afternoon the fire was a good couple of miles away but by the evening it had wrapped its way around our neighborhood and reached probably within 1/2 to 1/4 mile of our house. Here was the view from our doorstep:


The fire was a good couple of streets away from us but with the strong winds, the embers have been starting smaller fires so we and the others neighbors who hadn't evacuated yet were wetting down the greenery around us. Ready for action!


At times, when the wind would shift towards our direction - the ash and smoke blowing at us were quite strong hence the gear above. Apparently dish towels and Brita pitchers are the key elements for fire fighting. At one point it looked like snow with all of the ash raining down.

Again, I'm not telling you this so you guys will worry (moms, etc.). We were being cautious and had cars packed and ready to leave quickly should the fire have jumped at all. In the end, from what I can tell, not a single house in Foothill caught fire. The firefighters have truly done an amazing job and stayed with this thing as it worked its way across the back of our neighborhood.

Around 11:30 last night we could finally tell a significant difference in the distance of the fire from our house so we were able to get a pretty good night's sleep. Thanks for your prayers - we are so thankful but are continuing to pray for those who are still in danger.

Ryan started the fire . . .

I've been singing this song in my head all day thanks to the craziness going on this week.

It's definitely been Fire Week in the Rosenbaum world this week. The excitement started last Monday with major dessert disaster #2 of the past year - Apple Pie. My mom has this amazing recipe where you bake the pies in brown grocery bags. It doesn't work out so well, however, when your bags burst into flames and your husband has to use the fire extinguisher to put them out. In my head, I was actually thinking, oh, maybe if he doesn't spray very much we can salvage the pies. Bummer.


So after surviving fire #1 of the week, we move on to the other fires of the week that started over the weekend, with our very own Foothill Ranch fire that started about 24 hours ago. Yes, the Santiago Canyon/Irvine fire just happens to be in our backyard. Luckily it's the only major fire in Orange County. We are thankful for our safety and the firefighters seem to have done an amazing job keeping the fire back from our neighborhood. Here's some views from the day - everything is quite smokey and ashy - yuck!

The view on the drive to work this morning - this was about 9:30am:



Here's a view of our house from a couple of hours ago! Wow!



We really feel extremely safe right now so we don't want to worry anyone. Let's just hope that the Santa Ana winds slow down so the fires don't continue to spread! It's definitely been a crazy day here!

WHAT?!?!

Folks, I have NEWS! We (or at least I) have been missing out for years now. Am I alone in this?

A couple of weeks ago I was quickly running errands so I ran into the card section of my local CVS to quickly try to pick up a couple of birthday cards for Ryanne and Courtney. The doors slide open . . . cards, cards, where are they - oh. Yes. Here's the aisle.

Ok - Graduation cards, Halloween Cards, Anniversary Cards, Sweetest Day Cards, Baby Cards . . . wait. What? Sweetest Day Cards? Yes - I did read that correctly. October 20 - Sweetest Day.

I stroll over and pick one up. The inside and out - pink and red - looks quite similar to a Valentine's Day Card. I conclude that Sweetest Day must be the Canadian version of Valentine's Day? It's the best I can come up with.

Well, there's no mystery that can't be solved by Wikipedia, so here's their definition to enlighten us all:

"Sweetest Day is an observance celebrated mainly in the Great Lakes region and parts of the Northeastern United States on the third Saturday in October." Basically Wiki concludes that it's a holiday made up by candy makers to sell more candy.



The only reaction that I have to this is : Brilliant! I love this holiday! Seriously, way to make something up and just call it exactly what it is. A day for us all to buy each other candy. Retailers are happy, I'm happy - we're all happy! Chocolate for all mankind! There's no false V-day obligation to feel a certain way or buy particular items under the guise of love - just simplify that complicated day down to buying each other goodness and you have Sweetest Day! Seriously, who's with me?

Northern friends, can you shed any light on this? How have I missed out on this genious-ness for all these years.

Get pumped because tomorrow is SWEETEST DAY!!!

Christmas Photos

Check out my photoblog for info on the Christmas Photo special I'm running. I will also be in Nashville for a few days in November for some shoots and I have a few timeslots left.

LBH, I'm totally regretting that I undercharged for this whole portrait thing, so you guys should definitely take full advantage of that mistake :)

Please pass on the info to any friends/families that you know who might be intersted! Thanks!

TN vs. AL

Ahh - the rivalry of the old home states. Does anyone have connections to get tickets to this game? My brother is searching desperately!

How long will it last?

I'm taking guesses . . . how long do you think I can keep up with changing this photo out seasonally?


Hopefully longer than my Album of the Month series lasted . . . I know you're a true bloggie if you were around for those days . . .

Ryanne's Birthday!

October is quite the celebratory month in our lives, so we were thrilled to have yet another reason to celebrate last night in honor of Ryanne's 25th birthday!

A big group of us went to dinner at Rusty Pelican in Newport which was a fun change of pace. I had one of those "Wow, we live at the beach!" moments. I know, I work 2 blocks from the ocean everyday but going for work vs. for pleasure makes it a whole new experience! We don't go down there nearly enough!


We had an 8:00 reservation for 22 people but they were extremely accomodating to us. The food was great (shrimp and scallop risotto - how good does that sound!) and the company was even better.


AND . . . the very fun part of the evening was that we sat right next to a VIP table where someone you may recognize was sitting:

Yup! Creed from the Office was sitting at the the next table over. After about an hour of us all gawking at him, Josh W. finally strolled over (after looking up his real name on his iPhone - it's Creed) and said what a fan he and our entire table were of the show. Creed was very gracious and stepped over to our table to say hello and let us snap a photo of him with the birthday girl.

After dinner, we hit all of the local hotspots including the Costa Mesa Embassy Suites (that's right - don't miss the artwork):



and Patsy's where Josh G entertained us all with some Tenacious-D karaoke.
What a fun night - happy birthday Ryanne!