Happy Belated Birthday!

Well, I'm a couple of days behind (as usual) but I still wanted to wish a very happy belated birthday to my sweet grandmother, Mither! She celebrated the big 8-0 on Saturday! She's such an amazing woman and an inspiration to us all. I have so many great memories of time spent at her house growing up and over the years. Just to name a few:
- Learning how to cross-stitch
- Getting many many many haircuts!
- Eating many many many amazing meals!
- Playing checkers
- Learning how to paint my nails!
- Yummy waffle breakfasts
- Going to church with she and my grandfather
- Annual cousin football games
- Being loved very much!

My family got together to celebrate her over Labor Day. We were SO sad that we couldn't make it but here she is with her family (including all 3 dogs)!

Happy Birthday, Mither! We love you!!

We're live!

Ok, we're officially up! Please check out www.maryrosenbaum.com! Yippee!

Thanks so much for everyone who has linked to my photo stuff - please be sure to update your links so they link to the new website rather than the old photoblog.

What do you think?

Here we go!

Well, the transition is officially beginning! I started the process tonight for my new photo website to go live! Yippee! I can't wait for it to be up and going - I'm not sure how long this process is going to actually take. It's not 100% complete but there's enough up now to get started. SO . . . in preparation for this transition, here's the new state of Mary Rosenbaum on the internet:

marylrosenbaum.blogspot.com - no worries! I'm staying right here!

www.maryrosenbaum.com - the new website in a matter of hours or days

maryrosenbaumphoto.blogspot.com - an actual photoblog rather than a blog that I've tried to make look like a makeshift website. I'm attempting to divide and conquer - personal stuff will appear on this blog and photo stuff will appear on the photo blog. We'll see if I can handle steering 2 ships at once!

I'll keep you posted as the transitions happen. Some of these links may be down at one point or another over the coming days. But be patient! We'll get it all straightened out! Yay!

Our Weekend in Big Bear

More info to come . . .

Change

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. ~Anatole France


How true and how pertinent to this time in my life! As some of you may have learned, the Coca-Cola bottling company has recently switched the lids on their 16.9oz and 20oz cans. No data has yet been collected for the 2 and 3 liter bottles.

It's just not the same. Every time I reach for my Diet Coke, it just feels like something is missing. The new lids seem smaller, rounder, weaker.

Maybe the change is for the best but I'm feeling this one deeply.

This photo is a memory of the past. Try not to think about what might of been.

Adam Rosenbaum Photography

Ok, so he's not quite starting his own business yet, but I have to brag a little as I think my husband is turning into a really great photographer! Of course I drag him along on lots of my shoots and he's started using my second camera and getting some amazing shots! We've had a couple of photo "lessons" which typically consist of me trying to explain metering and stops and 18% gray in a hurry just before a shoot or over the phone and he has picked it up amazingly well! Here are some of his shots from the recent shoots we've been on.

It starts

As we all know, it was the big opening football weekend. It's amazing how much this changes the everyday life and conversations around our home. This is what my couch looked like all day on Sunday.



2 laptops, 4 fantasy teams, 1 tv, and who knows how many games or hours of football conversation were had.

It did give Lauren and I the opportunity to start planning The Second Annual Thanksgiving Extravaganza. It's never too early. It's going to be 2x the running, 2x the celebrators, 2x the fun, but hopefully only about .5x the food. I think we maybe overdid it a little last year. You can read all about it here.

Going Home

Just a couple of days after we returned from Orlando, Adam's grandfather's sickness got worse and he passed away. Things were a little crazy as we tried to re-arrange schedules, book last minute flights, and get ourselves back East to be with family. Adam got to leave in time to see his grandfather - just a couple of hours before he died. I flew in a couple of days later, just in time to hop in the 15 passenger van that we all rented to drive us all back to Charlotte, NC where Adam's grandparents spent most of their lives. Melissa already wrote a wonderful play-by-play of the Charlotte trip, so I'll refer you to her to read all about it here. I loved getting to go to Charlotte with everyone - seeing the house that Adam's mom grew up in, the church where Adam's grandfather was the associate pastor for 30 years, and hearing stories from everyone of their memories from time there.

After we returned from Charlotte, we got to spend a couple of days with family and friends in Nashville. We are always stretched to the max when we are there, but we were thankful for the time home, as we wouldn't have been able to make it home this fall otherwise.

My mom has been so great and has been sewing new curtains for our house - when she found out we were coming to town, she went into Super Sewing Mode so she could finish a new set for us to bring home with us. We love them! Thanks, mom!


We also had the traditional trip to J. Alexander's with my family and the new tradition with the Rosenbaums of a family game of Settlers (Andy is the new Lord of Catan).

And, I managed to squeeze in a couple of quick photo shoots while we were there. Sydney is growing so fast - everytime we see her she's different! Most of the shots we've done of her are pretty casual, so we wanted to do something in her pretty blue Easter dress. Here are some favorites:
If you're happy and you know it . . .

I also took a couple of shots of the Hesters. Jordan has just launched a great new website called Day 1 Fitness where you can download a personal training video daily for just 99 cents! Brilliant, if you ask me! Be sure to check it out and buy a video here. We wanted to get a couple of headshots of Jordan, so we just brought Ryan along to get some updated shots of the two of them! Here are some favorites from this shoot:


The final shoot of the trip was an engagement shoot for Katie and John. I've known Katie since she was in 7th grade, so its crazy to see her getting married now! Her wedding is going to be so much fun next May!



Insider's Tip: See images from these and other photo shoots on the new www.maryrosenbaum.com coming soon!! Construction officially began this week! I'll keep you posted!

Bloggers and Babies

"They're so fun; you gotta get one!"

I love this quote. A girl said this to my sister once. And no, she wasn't talking about an iPod, she was talking about a baby. As if it's just something you go and pick up at the store.

I do have two new friends who are pregnant - how exciting! No, I'm not so obsessed with our wedding, this is just the only photo I have with a large portion of my friends all together! I'm sure we all know by now that the hot pink B is indicative of being a blogger, and the new Asian baby symbol (in honor of Rebs) is for those who have had or are going to have a baby soon!


Yay for Jinni and Melissa - both should be expecting special deliveries next spring!

Please also pray for my friend Abby who should be getting an arrival this week!

Belated Bloggiversary!!

Happy Belated Bloggiversary to me!!


It just occurred to me that I've just missed celebrating my First Annual Bloggiversary! It seems like that word should have 2 g's since its predecessor has 2 n's. Yes, August 12 marked one year since my very first entry. And oh, where we've come in a year! Here's some fun facts about my blog that you may not know:

Total # of entries: 97

Total hits: 11, 861!

Average hits in a day: 50

Time zones who love my blog (and me?) the most:
1) Central Time
2) Eastern Time
3) Pacific (where's the love, PST? I guess you get to get your Mary fix in person every day, so I suppose I understand)

Number of bloggers I take credit for: 12

Post with the most comments: Logo Vote-O

Coolest person who reads my blog daily: My grandmother, Mither!

Hours of joy gleaned from blogging: Infinity!!

I just spent some time looking back through all of my old entries and got really nostalgic looking at all of the big and small things that have happened! Wow!

Thanks for being a part of the last year of my life - its been one of my favorites!!

Initiation?

Well, I am now a true Californian. I have survived my first earthquake and lived to tell about it. And of course, I actually thought it was kind of exciting.

On Sunday, Adam and I were both sitting and working on our computers when the room started shaking! Such a strange feeling! It lasted long enough for me to thing thoughts such as:

"Oh gosh, this is really happening"
"Should I go hold the pictures on the wall?"
"I need to get out of my PJ's if we have to go outside"
"I should shut down my computer"

And then it was over. I've experienced one earthquake before in Alabama, though it was in the middle of the night so I half way woke up, thought that Jesus was coming back, then fell back asleep and only realized what had happened the next morning. So it was kind of exciting to be fully alert and awake for this one!

Of course they have websites that update almost instantly, so we immediately were able to see that it was a 4.7 and occurred only about 10 miles from our house! Crazy! So while it wasn't "the big one" from the last season of the OC, it was enough to blog about!

Here's a photo of the damage that occurred inside our house. Before the quake, this shelf looked like this:

After the quake, it looked like this:
I know, its traumatic, but I think we'll recover. And I've survived my CA initiation!

Cunninghammond Extravaganza: Finale

Mark and Emily's wedding was a great ending to a great weekend! Now that I am married, I enjoy weddings even more and am so excited for what all they have to look forward to! We saw some old SU friends and danced the night away in celebration!!

I did take a few photos (of course) but it was SO nice to be at a wedding and actually enjoy it rather than working!! Here's the photo tour of the day below. Emily was, not surprisingly, so beautiful! The best moment of the the day was when they saw each other before the ceremony, and Em literally ran down the aisle to meet Mark!










We were so excited that our friend Jason came down from Birmingham to shoot the wedding! I knew that M&E's photos were in good hands, so I was able to relax and enjoy the day! He's an amazing photographer (he shot our wedding!) - check out his website and some of his photos from the wedding here.

Now that Mark and Emily are all married up, don't you think that they should start a blog to tell us all about their adventures?