Yay for Uncle Mashew!

This week we were so excited and proud to celebrate Adam's youngest brother's high school graduation. They're all finished! Matty is going to Belmont in the fall and we're so excited for him, including Sydney who celebrated with her well-rehearsed phrase "Yay for Uncle Mashew!"

BA graduation ceremonies are quite epic - in length and tradition, so it was strange to be sitting through our last one! Between our two families, we've had 6 kids graduate over the past 12 years.

Matthew singing with the senior Academy Singers:


Getting diploma-ed! They said such high compliments about Matthew!


Celebrating with family!


Congrats to Matthew - we're so excited to see what the next 4 years hold for you at Belmont!

Update!

Someone just earned themselves a bright and shiny B!!! Welcome to the club - we've been waiting for you!

More Sydney

I thought I would post a couple more Sydney pics to tide you over until I have a chance to blog again!

This girl loves her bubbles:


Helping Grandaddy in his office:


Eating a cookie from Moe's and drinking from her big girl cup!

Where in the world are . . .

Well - we have quite a line-up of traveling this year, so the next 6 months or so will be a constant game of Where in the World are Mary and Adam?

This week, we're in Nashville and Atlanta for 2 weddings and a graduation.

Yesterday we:

rode in the car with Sydney:


Uncle Abba and Syd found their tongues:


Ate Zoe's Chicken roll-ups for lunch.

Met Jinni's new son - Sam!


Ate J. Alexander's for dinner - queso, the best salmon in the world, and chocolate cake! Yum!

Today we're having a laid-back day of babysitting Syd, hanging out with family, and celebrating Matthew's graduation!

The only drawback to all of this fun is that I forgot Lamby . . . sad, sad day!

American Idol Finale!

Yup - we made it! Ryanne, Courtney, Allison, and I had a great girls day up in LA attending the American Idol finale! The day didn't go exactly as we planned, but it was still so fun!

The line officially started forming at 10:00am, though our ticket time said we had to arrive by noon. I thought we were doing good to get there around 10:45. Turns out we were about 1800th in line! No big deal!

So we got in line and waited . . . and waited . . . and waited. I knew there would be some of that involved but I didn't really anticipate the 6 hours of waiting outside on the sidewalk that ensued! It was a little crazy, but luckily I was in such good company that it wasn't too bad. Allison brought Triscuits, we found a DC machine, and there was definitely entertainment all around in the form of fellow line-goers, street preachers handing out over-sized $1000 bill tracts, and other assorted food and drink vendors.

Finally, at a little after 4:30, they brought out some un-used will-call tickets and we got to go in! Seats! Air Conditioning! Yay!

We were ground level about 30 rows back which were actually great seats! Both David's really sounded AMAZING live and it was fun to see it all in person! Adam and I watched the delayed West-Coast playback tonight, and with the help of Tivo, were able to see half of my face and most of Ryanne's hair for about 1 second! We're famous!

Unfortunately they were very strict about the no cell phone or cameras policy so my scanned in ticket is the only souvenir I have to show . . . sorry to disappoint!

Afterwards, we were starving so we went over to the original Pantry Cafe for some much needed nourishment.


These girls were troupers all day (sporting the sun burns to show it) - and we had so much fun!


Who do you think will take home the cake tomorrow night?

Moine Wedding

Yes, I know - everyone has blogged about it but thought I'd throw my two cents in!


We had a great time on Friday celebrating Jared and Alanna's wedding! We weren't shooting, just celebrating which is always so fun!

The beautiful lakeside ceremony:
Wedding Party friends looking dapper!


Dinner with the Carsons:


Hanging out with the beautiful bride!


I think that Kyle has a future in photography - here's some of his handiwork:


It's been SO hot here in CA but the evening was actually perfect!! What a fun night of good food, friends, dancing, and ice cream sandwiches! Congrats Jared and Alanna!

Oh, snap!

Does anyone really say that anymore? Well, I do. And I just said it because I just found out . . .

We got tickets to American Idol on Tuesday!!


Yup, at the beginning of the season, I randomly submitted my info to be on the waiting list for audience tickets and I just got a confirmation email that I could choose to get tix on either Tuesday (the performance show) or Wednesday (the results show) of next week.

For those of you who aren't in the loop, this is the last week of Idol and so it's down to the Davids Cook and Archuletta. We already have plans for Wednesday, so we'll be taking in the face-off on Tuesday night.

I'm not sure who I'm cheering for as I really like them both. I wasn't going to tell you this, but in honor of the occasion, I will confess that I dreamed last night that I was 17 and dating David Archuletta and we liked each other A LOT. I don't even have a crush on him in real life, so I'm not sure where that came from. Other recent American Idol dreams include running into Jason Castro at a local restaurant in Nashville and yours truly being in the Top 4 - I kept trying to convince everyone that I'm not really that good and this must be a mistake. But after everyone kept telling me that was the wrong attitude and I had to have confidence in myself, I gave it my all.

So I'm not sure how many tickets I have yet. If I have an extra, what would you do to get it?

Maybe I'll get to be one of the screaming girls at the bottom of the stage . . .

There's nothing to be abraid of

So we sat down and watched The Hills finally this afternoon - love it but a little bit of a bummer because our dvr cut off before the end. Not to worry - it will replay 500 times in the next 2 days so I'll be sure to catch it.

Two things that I can't believe I'm about to say about it:

1) I really like Justin Bobby now. He talks, he makes eye contact, he's had a shower. Great improvement and I like how he seems to really care about Audrina. Call me crazy but this new version of him is almost cute.

2) I really like Lauren's sidebraid.


So much, in fact, that I had concocted one in my own hair by the time that the episode was over. Then I looked in the mirror. And decided to try again, and again, and again. I wish I had taken a photo of each version. Props to Lauren because it wasn't easy. I guess LO or Audrina must really know how to braid! I did take a photo of my best attempt. What do you think? Can I pull it off?

Washington-Bound

Last week we were sad to say good-bye to our small group friends Marc and Emily as they left to move to Washington.


Marc and Emily joined our small group on the same day as us, so we always felt a connection with them since we were the newbie's! It's been almost 2 years since then (wow! time flies!) and we've loved spending time with them in group and are so sad to see them go!

Miraculously, everyone was able to come to their going-away dinner at Abbie's house. It was so fun for everyone to all be in the same place for once!

The highlight of the dinner was our plastic cups with labels attached that you can scratch your name into - brilliant!


The ladies:


Fellas:


It was a fun night of celebrating Marc and Emily! We will miss you guys but can't wait to hear what all Washington holds for you!

More Florida Trip

After Rachel's wedding weekend, we had such a great week at the beach. Melissa, Andy, and Sydney came down for a few days and then we had a few days just hanging out to ourselves. It was so fun! Here's a few more highlights.

Cooking with Uncle Abba; Syd may have been a little spoiled on her night in with us. That's what uncles and aunts who don't have kids of their own are for!



We went for a drive down memory lane aka Thomas Drive so I could show Adam some of our old digs when I lived in Panama City for a summer. For those of you who don't know, I spent a summer with Campus Outreach living at the beach, working at McDonald's (too bad those pics aren't digital), and ministering to people around us at work, where we lived, etc., etc. It was an extremely tough summer but rewarding in many ways. I had fun telling Adam old stories about working the drive-thru at McD's and living in a hotel room with 10 other girls and 1 bathroom. I don't think I have been back to that area since the summer of '01. Let's be honest, I forgot how dumpy some of the places around there were, but one in particular took the cake: The Panama Palms.



Yup - I was blow away by how gross it was - by far the most run down place in the area. Only one small strip on the backside was open - everything by the pool and basketball courts were shut down and roped off with junk piled everywhere - classy!


Ahh the memories!! Faux-campaigning for Sigma Chi Sweetheart, pranks, Shan trying to convince me that I should like Josh, watching Kelly and Brett fall in love (awww), opening shift at McD's at 4:30am, the Yother family visit, etc., etc. Maybe I'll do a whole SBP entry one day if I can find some old pics to scan in.


The wonderful place that we were staying was close to Seaside, Watercolor, Grayton, Rosemary, etc. I can't believe how much that strip has built up! It's always fun being in Seaside (where Truman Show was filmed) and all of those cute little communities.


We were so excited that Claire and Paul were staying just down the road from us all week so we had lunch with them one day - yay for friends!


We ended the week shooting a beautiful wedding in Fort Walton where I got to see even more college friends - hopefully more pics from this will be up on my photoblog soon! I'm a little behind!


On Sunday, we drove back up to Birmingham to fly home and I got to spend one too-short night hanging out with the Richies and meeting their newest addition, Vale! She's every bit as cute as she is in her photos and it was so fun seeing Melissa and Thomas as parents. Vale is a lucky girl!


We had so much fun just sitting and talking! I LOVED seeing their precious little house, and Melissa took me by the Urban Standard - so fun! I also got to swing by and say hi to 2 of my favorite photographers, Jason and Bryan. So good to see old friends! I admire both of their work greatly and it was fun to hear about what they've been up to lately. And yes, I have to admit that being there made me MISS Birmingham tremendously!! I love the culture, buildings, atmosphere, and people. I wish it wasn't so far away!

What an amazing trip we had! It was much needed relaxation for us both, and so good to my heart to spend time with people that I love!!

Music you should have

Well, many of you may remember the long-gone Album of the Month column. I don't consider myself to be one of those people who is always ahead of the curve and knows about the latest and greatest, but I am passionate about the music that I do like and love sharing it with others! Music is such a gift!

Last night at our small group we were talking about ways that we connect with God as individuals with unique personalities - via nature, service, intellect, art, tradition, etc. I was just thinking of how so much music - both "christian" and "non-christian" - has been an avenue for that in my life for many years.

So I do have a newest obsession and can't help but blog about it! Typically my style is anything that is acoustic and soul-searching and Jon Foreman's latest EP's are no exception. We started following his solo music a while back when we saw him play (by surprise) at Hotel Cafe in Hollywood. He is best known for being the frontman of Switchfoot, though his solo stuff has a different sound to me. Just to give you a hint of how sweet it was, he played acoustic and was accompanied by a cellist. Yep. Told you he was awesome.


Anyway, he is releasing 4 EP's inspired by each season and 3 of the 4 are currently available on iTunes. And I strongly recommend all 3 (each are 6 songs) as they are all amazing! And I'm also a big fan of the cover art. Well done.

Today I have been especially gripped by one song from the Spring release called "Your Love is Strong". Whew - it's a good one. Here are a couple of favorite lyrics that are simple but have been resonating with me today so strongly:

"Give me the food to live through today."

"Why do I worry? Why do I freak out? God knows what I need. You know what I need."

"Two things you told me. That you are strong and you love me."

I'll spare you long-winded rants about each of these simple statements but what simple and powerful truths in our lives! I know you'll all be shocked by this but I seriously have listened to this song like 20 times today. I'm such a fan of the "repeat" feature! No such thing as too much of a good thing!

So if you have $1 to spend on iTunes, definitely go for Your Love is Strong from Spring.

If you have $4 to spend, my top 4 are:
1) Your Love is Strong - Spring
2) Southbound Train - Fall
3) I am Still Running - Winter
4) Cure for Pain - Fall

If you have $15 to spend, get them all! Totally worth it!

It looks like you can hear all of Spring on Jon's MySpace page so check them out there. Let me know what you think!

Vacation Detox

Wheeeeeeeew! Wow! What an amazing few weeks but it is definitely time for vacation detox!

The past few weeks have definitely been such a whilrwind! Wow! From visitors here in CA to our trip to Florida, many photo shoots, and even more WONDERFUL visitors in CA - it has been amazing! But unfortunately I know it's time to return to real life which includes sleeping at normal hours, NOT eating cookie dough at least 2x daily, and catching up on plenty of work that has been waiting for me. It's painful - but it must be done.

I have lots of fun stuff to share but will start with a couple more photos from Rachel and Jonathan's wedding in Rosemary Beach. I know I've already said it but it was SUCH a great weekend - I had several flashes of feeling like we were all in college again on a big road trip to the beach . . . the golden days!

With the beautiful bride on Thursday afternoon:


Hanging out at the house - Missy and Andrew:



Celebrating Katie's birthday a little early with Reba and Annabelle:



Spooning with the ladies on THE swing (stole your pic, kali - thanks!):


Sweet friends at the rehearsal:


Waiting to walk down the aisle - one of Jonathan's groomsmen was Hunter Hillenmeyer who plays for the Chicago Bears. Couldn't resist a quick snapshot with him . . .


With the Kings at the reception:


Lauren's niece McHaney and Katie's daughter Annabelle loving on (or smelling?) each other:


Lauren and Rebs! It was so fun to be all together!


The wedding and reception were on the beautiful East Green in Rosemary Beach - it was so perfect!


What a great wedding weekend! Thanks for indulging me with all of these pics - it was just so fun that I couldn't not share more! Love it!

The Cookie Song

So, it's an exciting day here as I am posting my first video featuring yours truly and our niece Sydney! After much debate, I decided to go ahead and share this with the world despite the risk of letting my "material" get out. Adam already claimed the official copyright to this so don't even think about trying to steal it . . .