A Thankful Thanksgiving

Not everything went according to my plan this year, but many things did. And many things I never even thought to hope for happened, giving me many things for which to be thankful. As Thanksgiving approaches (yay!! I heart Thanksgiving!), I wanted to share a few things that I'm grateful for.

• I am VERY thankful for my husband. When we got married, I had high expectations about how our marriage would be and how we would feel about each other. Our two years of marriage have WAY exceeded my expectations. I am pretty much daily reminded about what a good gift Ian is.
• I am also very thankful for our home. Without my parents' generous investment, we would not have this home, or perhaps a home ever, at all. And we love our home. We love living in it, entertaining in it, working on it, relaxing in it, cooking in it and more. If you haven't been over and you're reading this, GET OVER TO OUR HOUSE NOW! (Well, maybe not now. Ian's grandparents are coming in town on Sunday and will be staying with us for about 9 days, so we'll be a little full. But come soon!)
• I know everyone expects this, but the truth is, I am very thankful for my family. I get to see my sisters every Monday night, my Sunukjian sister-in-laws once a month for a ladies night, my McCurry sister-in-law every Tuesday morning for prayer, several of my nieces and nephews at church, and that's just the regular stuff. I am so happy we live so close to our family and get to be intimately involved in their lives.
• This year, I've gotten to see more of my college friends than in years past and I'm so thankful for that. I had such an amazing experience at Biola and made some really wonderful friends and it blesses my heart that I still get to see and be involved in so many of their loves. I love you girls!

I could go on and on (and will, in my Christmas letter), but I'll wrap this up for now. Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday!

I love Fridays. I named my bike Friday - Fridays promise fun, freedom, exploring and relaxation, everything my beach cruiser promises. Which reminds me, I need to go for a bike ride soon!

Anyway, as we go into the weekend, I'm looking forward to a little resting and a lot of fun.

It's been a busy week, with a large work event last night, so I feel my weekend is especially well deserved. Here's a few things I'm going to do:

• Cuddle on the couch and watch a movie with Ian
• See a college friend for tea and a lovely chat on Saturday
• Baby sit one of our nephews so my sister-in-law and her husband can celebrate their anniversary
• Shop! We get to fill two Operation Christmas Child boxes and get gifts for two Long Beach foster kids. So watch out Target, because here I come!
• Read
• Sip lots of coffee
• Sleep in

Happy weekend to everyone!

Waldo and Wenda!

On Sunday, Ian and I worked at our church's carnival. It's the great neighborhood event where 3,500 people come for a free, safe Halloween experience. We worked one of the game booths (a hockey game that was very difficult, but fun nonetheless) and then hung out after our shift with family and friends.

We were Waldo and Wenda, his girlfriend starting in the second book (or something like that). It was very fun to be themed together and something most people recognized. We got quite a few, "I found you!" throughout the night, which was fun.



Sarah and Mary's families were also at the event. I don't have a photo yet from Mary's family (they were the Cinderella story past midnight) but here is one of Sarah's family. They are the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Sarah and Eric are Momma and Poppa Bear, Levi is Baby Bear, Caleb is the broken chair, Noah is the bowl of porridge and Hannah is Goldilocks, of course! (Though she does look a bit concerned about the whole situation, which I guess is fitting to the story!)



Happy Halloween!

A Few More Photos

My friend Sarah T. just sent us her reunion weekend pictures, so I thought I would post a few more. Thanks Sarah!

Surviving the Plague, Time with Friends

I'm back! After a terrible case of strep throat, which I barely survived, I'm back to the blog and able to report that I am a huge believer in anti-biotics. When you open your mouth to find that your tonsils are touching each other and covered in fuzzy white patches, it's enough to make you lay on your couch and cry (which I did). It's also enough to make you call in sick for two days (which I did) and run to the doctor (which I also did). But after 8 days (and two more to go) on antibiotics, I am my old self again. Thanks goodness for Alexander Fleming and his brilliant discovery!

Anyway, I was thankful to survive the plague and feel better enough to join my four closest college friends for a reunion at Huntington Beach. It's a great story, actually. The five of us met our first week of college at Biola, almost exactly 10 years ago. One of them was my randomly assigned roommate, one lived directly across the hall from us and the other two lived at the other end of the hall (though not together). Who's to say exactly what drew us together, but here we are, ten years later, still friends. We felt it was high time for a reunion, since we haven't all been together, when it wasn't some one's wedding, in a REALLY long time. And weddings don't really count as a full reunion, since someone is the bride and she isn't around as much. With that in mind, at the last girl's wedding in April, we decided we just had to schedule an official reunion. In college, we called our selves The Posse, so The Posse Reunion was planned for October 21-24.

We split the tickets to fly the two out of state girls in town and we had the best three days at our family's little place in Huntington (where the five of us have been MANY times before, both during college and after). We ate at the Sugar Shack (twice), walked on the pier, shopped at the new Forever 21 and talked and talked. It was such a wonderful time with ladies that I love dearly and know me very well.

In addition to lots of talking, we also managed to take a few pictures. We're silly, but we love it!

Every looking happy and nice. From L to R, it's Jess, Sarah S., Tali, Me and Sarah T.

This one is our first attempt at the "confused, what's happening look." Sarah T. had a hard time holding it together, which made me have a hard time holding it together!

Success!

And a victory picture for the brilliance of our photo shoot.

I love you ladies! And thanks, Sarah S., for sending me the photos!

McCurry Bi-Annual Walk

Last Saturday, we completed our 2nd McCurry Family Walk, making me feel confident in saying we have established a new family tradition. Twice a year, the McCurry family plans a long walk through an urban area. In March, Ian, me, Heather and Rob headed to San Diego for a 13 mile walk through Downtown San Diego.

This past weekend, Ian and I planned a 9 mile walk (everyone agreed 13 miles was just a bit too long) through Downtown and other parts of Long Beach. It was a great success. We had perfect weather, lovely company and ended at George's for some delicious food!

This picture shows Ian's aunt Carlene out front - she is training for the Breast Cancer Walk in San Diego - and the rest of us (even little Rowan in the stroller), except for Rob who is taking the picture.



And here is me, his handsomeness (aka Ian) and my in-laws strolling in Lighthouse Park. Doesn't it look like so much fun? It was!

Discount Deals

My friend Melanie in DC first introduced me to Groupon. It's a great, simple, noninvasive way to learn about deals. Every day, just once, they email you a special. If enough people in your area agree to buy the coupon (thus the Groupon name), the deal goes through. I've been a member (which is free) about two months. So I've seen about 60 deals. I've only bought two, so it's not like everything is amazing, but I did get $50 at the Gap for $25 (which is how I stayed on budget for Ian's b-day gifts) and $40 at the Auld Dubliner for $20 (I just took Ian there for a fun date this week). It's a fun way to try new things and save money!

The other thing I like is restaurant.com. They sell gift certificates for restaurants at a discount. You can buy low amounts, like $10 for just $4 or you buy much higher amounts, like $100 for $40. And they're good restaurants too, like Claire's at the Museum, Cafe Sevilla and others. Try putting in your own zip code and see what comes up in your area!

I wouldn't normally think of myself as a bargain shopper, but as we hope to some day go down to one salary, I think I'm going to need to be creative in our spending, especially if we want to do extra, fun things.

Anyone out there have their own ways of saving? Please share!