Baby Dedication X3!

Yesterday, three out of our four summer babies were dedicated (the three that go to my church in Long Beach). We were so excited to celebrate this happy occasion with family. Every one's in-laws came to town (Sarah's, Mary's and mine - because Ian's sister's baby was one of the babies) and my parents of course came to the service. It was so special!

Levi was up first - here is our Pastor of Life Groups about to pray for him (sorry for the terrible quality - our church has awful lighting and I'm, um, not a good photographer). Levi was his awesome, smiley self though, despite some last minute spit up.

Next up was Abbie, Mary and Mike's little girl. Her other grandma made this amazing pink dress that she looked SO cute in. Our Associate Pastor is praying for her in this photo - she grabbed his face the whole time.

Then came baby Rowan, Heather and Rob's son - he was cool as a cucumber, as his awesome orange tie indicated. He just listened and took in the whole scene (Abbie actually babbled the whole way through his prayer, which our Senior Pastor led, but you could still catch most of it).

After the service, my father-in-law took a turn holding Rowan. They are so enjoying being grandparents, despite his face in this photo - he never smiles for photos. =)

Then, we were finally able to capture a family photo that wasn't at a wedding and included Rowan! He is actually starting to cry, which is why we're laughing. But it looks like he's laughing, so it is perfect!

It was a great weekend, celebrating the truly wonderful gift of children. May they all know the Lord at an early age and be his their whole lives.

Things I Love About Fancy Restaurants

1. When you arrive, they greet you by name and are so smiley, like they are sincerely glad you're there
2. When they seat you, they place your napkin in your lap - if you're wearing black, they take the white one away and replace it with a black one, so you're spared from the horror of getting white lint on your black outfit
3. When the waiter comes to ask how you're doing, he calls you Madame
4. They don't rush your meal - twenty minutes for the appetizer, an hour for the meal, twenty minutes for coffee and dessert
5. There is always bread (free!) and sometimes the butter is even flavored (more on this below)
6. There are always candles
7. In between your courses, they replace your silverware
8. The portions are just right - very fancy restaurants don't need to impress with you giving you huge portions (which distract you from the fact that the food is so-so) but a really nice one will always give you enough
9. After your meal, if you order dessert, they come by with a crumb scrapper (does this thing have an official name?) and clean your tablecloth so you are, again, spared the horror of sitting in your own mess
10. The atmosphere - this depends on where you go, but the lights are usually dim, the walls usually covered in cool art, there is nice but not overbearing music playing in the background and the tables are not jammed all close together

As you might have guessed, Ian and I went to (yet another) fancy dinner out last night. Through my work, I got invited to a "rehearsal dinning" for a restaurant that was opening a newly renovated room called the Queensview Steakhouse (you can see the Queen Mary from the MANY windows on that floor). Our whole meal was free - an appetizer for each of us, the bread (of course - and they served it with chestnut butter - have you ever heard of such a thing?), a New York steak for him and a petite fillet Mignon for me, decaf coffee for both of us and a Key Lime tart (so good!) to share. All of the food was so delicious and the service was great and the views amazing - basically 360 degrees of the Long Beach harbor. Of course, we were enamored with the fact that it was all free, but as we sat in our candle-lit table, we said to each other, "I love eating at nice restaurants."

Our lives are so rich and we're truly blessed. All this fun celebrating and eating out will someday come to an end as other responsibilities take priority, but we're living it up in the meantime. Especially when it's free! (Don't worry, we left a tip.)

Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon

On Saturday, I made Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon. I feel that I have now passed some sort of cooking rite of passage. Inspired by the movie Julie and Julia (which is really cute if you haven't seen it, and since Ian gave it to me in my stocking, you can borrow it from me!) and a very low key request from my husband that I try it, I set aside the 5 hours necessary to make it.

I went to the store on Saturday around 1 and then came home to begin my task. Here is what my counter looked like when I had all the ingredients laid out.

I followed the recipe pretty carefully, just substituting bacon chunk for regular 'ole bacon (who even sells bacon chunk?), and tying my herb bouquet with string instead of using a cheesecloth (thanks Sarah for the good idea!). I dried each piece of meat, browned them in small portions, sauteed the pearl unions for 50 minutes and all the other steps, for the whole five hours.

Here is the end result:

We invited our friends Keith and Chanda over to help us eat it and had a lovely time. They were appropriately excited about the recipe. (Don't you love cooking for people who are interested in cooking?)

Final verdict? It's good, but it's not 5 hours good. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious; but a recipe that takes 5 hours ought to change your life. No life changing happened. It's not in the "never make again" category, but I'm good with this attempt for quite a while.

A Little Deeper

I don't know exactly why I've done this - I've got ideas, for sure, but I'll save those for a future post. I've hinted, skirted and been vague, and I guess today, all of the sudden, I'm done with that. I'm going to come right out and say it.

Ian and I are trying to have a baby.

There. It's out there. Whew! I think I finally realized that this space is supposed to be a place for me to process, and I've been worried about being "too open" or "too personal" but the truth is, it's a personal blog. And who am I worried about being too open with? I'm pretty sure the only people reading this are people who know and love me, people I don't mind having part of my process.

So here's our process so far: 9 months of trying (and I mean, trying). For some people, that may be no time at all; for others, it's twice as long as they ever had to try (if they even had to try). But the beautiful thing is, this blog isn't about other people. So I don't have to worry about other people's process. I'm here to work through my own. (Narcissism, party of one? Oh, there you are, Esther.) =)

I've had TONS of thoughts in the last 9 months, which I will certainly not attempt to detail here. That would overwhelm me for sure, and probably the two or three other people that read this. But today, I had a new thought, and given my breakthrough openness, I thought I would share it.

The crazy thing about trying to get pregnant is that each month, you wonder if your whole life is about to change. That's a big thing to gear up for every month. As the days count up (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35), you begin to think, "Is everything about to be different? Am I going to find out in a day or two that everything is going to change - my body, my status, my relationship with Ian, my future work plans, my free time, my finances (plus all the other things I don't know because I'm not a parent)?" Each month, you wonder if life as you know it will be changed forever.

And then each month (at least for us so far), the answer is, no. No, life tomorrow is not going to be different than today. No, it is not all about to change. No, next week will not bring new and uncharted territories.

Until in three weeks, you begin to go through it again. Very strange process indeed.

Man, Oh Man

Did we have a good time, or what?! We just got back yesterday from our 2nd Anniversary trip to Santa Barbara and we had an amazing trip. It was just want an anniversary celebration should be - full of time together, reflecting on the past year, celebrating this amazing journey we're on, relaxing, eating and making memories. We loved every minute of it - and we've got the pictures to prove it!

Here is where we stayed: Cheshire Cat Inn. It was a super cute B&B, with lovely staff.

This is our room - they had balloons and wine waiting for us when we checked in, with a card that said, "Happy Anniversary!"

Here we are, just after arriving, so excited to be beginning our trip.

One of the first things we did to celebrate was to exchange gifts. We are attempting to follow the traditional gifts, so this year we did "cotton." I'll leave it to your imagination to guess what's inside those gifts. =)

The rest of that day (Saturday), we walked all around State Street, the major street in downtown Santa Barbara, and down to the beach. It was so lovely. We were truly struck by how beautiful that city is!

That night, we went out of our official celebration (truly, though, it is just an excuse for us to go to another really nice restaurant, since we already went to L'Opera on the 10th). The restaurant was called Bouchon's and was a VERY nice French restaurant. We had a lovely time there - Ian had the lamb and I had the duck. When we arrived, they had flowers on our table, and all the waiters wished us a happy anniversary. I know it's silly, but those things go a long way in making you love a place!

One of the cool things about this restaurant was their use of local Santa Barbara wine, which they paired with each course of the meal. We really enjoyed what they offered, as well as the hot chocolate cake (which came with a candle - another nice touch!) that we ordered for dessert.

On Sunday, we had a lovely quiet morning in (at this place, they bring you a hot breakfast to your room on the weekends - so we ate ours in our bathrobes on our balcony!) and then we visited the Santa Barbara mission. Ian has now decided that we need to visit all the California missions. He's been to the San Diego one and I've been to the San Juan Capistrano one - so 3 down, 18 to go!

After that (don't worry, the trip is only a little longer, so you're getting close to the end of this marathon post), we walked down to the beach again, this time heading out to Stearn's Wharf. The weather was amazing the whole trip, which meant we got to be outside a ton, which I loved and Ian tolerated.

We had another lovely (though more low-key) dinner out on Sunday night. Then on Monday, we had another morning in and decided on one final hurrah before heading home. Ian loves botanical gardens, so off we headed to the one in Santa Barbara. It was amazing and a great way to end our trip (actually, we technically ended it with margaritas and Mexican food before we got in the car, but the botanical garden makes us sound much more educated and cultured, so we'll stick with that). =)

It may sound like a busy trip, but we had lots of relaxing time and did a lot of this -

Sitting our bed, looking out the window, talking and dreaming about the future. Only 357 days until our next anniversary celebration. I can't wait!

Designer Jeans - What Can I Say?

In the risk of sounding shallow and materialistic, I am here to say that I L-O-V-E designer jeans. In my life BDJ (Before Designer Jeans), I hated wearing jeans. Most run of the mill jeans are not made for short, curvy girls. Nothing looked good or felt good. Frump city, pretty much, with a side of saggy crotch.

And then a roommate introduced me to the joys of Sevens, Citizens and Paige Denim, and now I will never go back. Yes, they are expensive. But what's the point of having a $40 pair of jeans that you never enjoy wearing, compared to a $100 pair that you wear and LOVE! Still, it does mean I only get one or two pair of jeans every few years. But happy day! One of those days was Tuesday.

I got a pair of Paige jeans at Nordstrum Rack (can I get an amen for how awesome the Rack is?) and I feel like a new women. Is it sad that a nice pair of jeans makes me less dissatisfied with the way my body currently looks? Or is it not sad, but rather understandable, because dressing for your body type is a good thing and finding a pair of jeans that you feel like wearing doesn't come along every day?

Some quick self justification - I didn't spend any of our hard earned money on these expensive jeans. In the first place, they were reduced, because I bought them at the Rack. Secondly, I used a b-day gift card from Mom and Dad McCurry to cover most of the cost- thanks Mom and Dad! - for the balance, I also used some b-day money from my parents. So, in my mind, the jeans were a gift. =)

And man, oh man, I love them. I didn't know this was possible, but they make me look tall! And thinner! Hip hip hurray!

These jeans don't solve all my problems - I still need to eat smaller portions, eat less snacks at night time (though man, it is hard to pass up a bowl of popcorn while sitting on the couch watching a movie with Ian!) and make sure I'm getting the exercise I need. But, they have made me feel a little more attractive, and for that, I'm thankful.

Anyone else out there got some stories of how their life has changed ADJ (After Designer Jeans)?

Feed the Wolf

There are a a few blogs of people I don't know that I read. I'm not exactly sure why I read about people I don't know, but I do. One of them is about living frugally and one of them is about enjoying the small things. Both of these women entertain and inspire me, which is a great combo.

I read today on one of the blogs this story:

There is an ancient Native American story about an old Cherokee who told his grandson about the battle that goes on within us. "My son," he told him, "Inside every one of us dwells two wolves, one evil, one good. The evil one is angry and jealous, full of regret and arrogance, greed and sorrow, guilt and self-pity. The other is good. He is kind and loving, full of hope and peace, joy and compassion.

"The young boy thought about it for a moment. "Which wolf wins?" he asked his grandfather.

The old Cherokee smiled and simply replied, "...the one you feed."

I like this story. It's similar to what Jesus teaches, "The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." But I think what particularly struck me with the story is the feeding concept.

So even when the window is leaking or family members are struggling or the test result is negative (again), I choose to feed the good wolf, so that joy and hope and contentment win.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

That's right, yesterday marked the big 0-2 for the McCurrys! We had such a great time beginning our celebration (we are going away for the weekend to really do it up right).

When we got home from work, we exchanged cards. Awww...I love what that man writes to me! He's amazing. Here's us, after opening the cards - warning: just because we have a camera now does not mean we take good pictures. =)



Then we went to L'Opera, where we hope to celebrate lots and lots of anniversaries (to those who remember, it's where we had our wedding reception). We enjoyed an appetizer, some lovely wine, three kinds of pasta that we shared and the creme brulee (Ian's fav) with cappuccinos for dessert. It was very decadent and celebratory. Here we are, right outside L'Opera, after dinner.


On Saturday, we're leaving for Santa Barbara, where we'll be at a Bed & Breakfast until Monday (MLK Day, which we both have off). Up there, we'll look through our Anniversary Box (thanks Mom for putting that together after our wedding!), which has our vows, our program, answers to Anniversary questions from last year and a few other things. We started this tradition last year, and if my weepy, sentimental response to it was any indication, we'll be doing it every year. Ian also puts together some questions for us (mentioned above) and we take them up with us, reflect on them, write down our responses and then share them together (and then put them in the box for the next year). It's a very meaningful way for us to think about the year we had and our marriage in the years to come.

I love anniversaries and I'm so thankful I have dozens more to come!

What the?

This is my supposedly indestructible pizza stone from Williams-Sonoma. Normally, I LOVE their products. But last Saturday, when I was making homemade calzones, I heard a large crack come from the oven. When I opened it, I saw my pizza stone in three pieces. CRAZY! Fortunately, I was able to salvage the calzones, but can you believe this? What kind of pizza stone cracks? Williams-Sonoma is getting a strongly worded email from me, I guarantee you.

New Year's Eve Musings

Sorry, no, this isn't going to be about my New Year's resolutions. Rather, I wanted to reflect on the holiday of New Year's Eve itself. I had to work it this year, same as last year, because we had a large event Downtown. It went well and we had a way bigger turn out than we thought, but at the end of the night (or rather, sort of towards the middle of the morning), I began to look around at the people staggering down the street, or being helped into taxis, or throwing up in the alley and thought - "What is the point of this holiday? When did these people go from having lots of fun to having no fun at all?"

So, what is the point of New Year's Eve? Do we celebrate it because we're actually hopeful 2011 will be better than 2010? That it will it be different? Do most people use New Year's to orient their year or their birthday, I wonder? And by celebrating the start of a new year, what are we declaring? And does celebrating it do anything for the year, such as make you more likely to stick with your resolutions or your hope that it will be better/easier than the year before?

I can't answer those questions for the rest of the world, but I think instead of focusing so much on hoping 2011 will be better, I've been reminded recently to be thankful for 2010 and all the blessing and goodness of the Lord we experienced in it.

So maybe I could think of New Year's as a celebration of God's provision in the year that was just completed.

Anyone else have some thoughts they want to share?

Being Silly in Colorado

In my last post, I mentioned that we went a few times to the frozen lake near our cabin. On the first day we were there, we had a good time being silly on the ice. Below are some AWESOME photos of our really INCREDIBLE ice skating moves.

In this photo, Ian and I are attempting an over the head lift. The photographer wasn't able to capture it, but we actually did the Pamchenko (from Cutting Edge). We were amazing. =)



And here we are with Rob joining our ice skating team, with little Rowan to boot!

Needless to say, we thought we were very entertaining. Not sure what the other skaters thought.