Mammoth and 3 years!

Nick and I had the amazing opportunity to go to Mammoth for the past few days with our friends the Hoovers and the Weavers.  We stayed in an amazing condo, and had a great time sledding, watching movies, snowboarding 

and hanging out!  It was such a relaxing time to get away from the busyness of life, and spend some quality time with good friends!  Snowboarding in Mammoth kills snowboarding at both Mountain High and Big Bear!  We had such a great time, and I got to use my new snowboarding jacket Nick got me for Christmas!!  

Today 12/29 is our 3 year mark of being together (dating), and we of course have to celebrate by going back to where it all started...good ole' BR: Baskin Robbins that is.  Nick asked me to be his girlfriend there, took me there for our one year, and asked me to marry him there so it of course holds a special place in our hearts!  After that is off to pick up some friends from the airport!  

Tomorrow is an exciting day since Nick and I get to go to mini high school reunion for me.  My old group of friends is getting together and it will be fun to see them, meet significant others and see where everyone is in life!!!  Time flies quickly, I can't believe 2008 is coming to an end!

Christmas time is here!

Yea, for Christmas time!!  Nick and I are finally on break from school and loving our time off!!!  We have a jam packed Christmas break!  This past weekend we went to the annual Christmas party at Kurt and Kellie's house.  We posted some of the pictures from that fun night!  This past Sunday the 21st we went to a hockey game with the Sowas and then to Christmas lights lane in Rancho Cucamonga for our annual tradition of looking at Christmas lights!  We of course had our favorite holiday starbucks drink with us: chai eggnog latte, quite amazing!  For Christmas Eve we will be with Nicks family, and then onto my side for Christmas day!  On the 26th we will head up to Mammoth to snowboard for a few days with some friends!!  We will bring in the New Year with our annual trip to the Rose Parade!  Nick celebrates #25 on January 4th, and then it is back to work for him!!  I will have one more week off before going back to school!

God is so good and merciful to us and what a wonderful reminder we have this season of celebrating the birth of His son into our world to save and redeem us.  Jesus truly is the reason for this season!  Nick and I hope you have a wonderful holiday season as we begin a new year!

Getting the dress wet!

So I need to mention the new picture we have for our blog page.  After one year of marriage Nick and I decided to get dressed up again, me literally in my wedding dress and go to Castaic lake and get my dress WET!  Nick's brother Chris (who is an amazing professional photographer) graciously took our pictures for us.  We had a fun time, and ended up with some really sweet shots.  I am going to post our favorites, not including the big one that you see as soon as you click on our page!  It was a fun memory and the dress is fine, don't worry ladies I did not ruin it:)

***comment and tell us 

 which picture you like best for us to blow up to put in our bedroom!!

November!:)

Time for an update from the Patey's...

Recently the big news going on with us is the real possibility of going to India this coming summer for 5 weeks.  

I chopped my hair recently which is pretty exciting, and it is so short.  I am uploading a picture of Nick and I along with Kurt and Kellie who we hung out with this weekend.  Kellie, is almost 7 months pregnant, we can't believe how time flys!  We are so excited for their baby boy to enter the world!  

Besides that we are ready for a break with the coming holidays, and are excited to spend some time with family coming up.  We are not coaching volleyball this year and are glad for the extra time to hang out with friends and family.  We have been able to hang out a lot with good friends lately.  Some of our good couple friends that we have hung out with lately are the Andy and Katie Sowa, and we have had a blast hanging, going to hockey games, and having dinner with them.  God is so good to provide great friends.

We are blessed by our church, cornerstone in Glendora and we love being a part of it.  We are walking through the book of Exodus right now and we love calling that place home:)  

That is about it for now.  Nick has the whole week off for Thanksgiving so he is going with me to work tomorrow!  What a fun day that will be:) He is going to get to see me in action with the 7th graders and see how crazy it is! JK  We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, there is so much to be thankful for this season!

Marilyn Ryan Sunset Point Park

Grandma would have been so blessed to see the park that was dedicated to her last weekend October 25.  Because she was the first mayor of Ranchos Palos Verdes the city dedicated the most beautiful park to her and named it after her.  It is literally on a cliff overlooking the ocean and is at the entrance to the Donald Trump golf course.  It was a tented occasion with the mayor and other city council members there, amazing food, and an open bar.  The only thing that would have made it perfect was for Grandma to see the park.  She was a strong determined woman and I miss her.  I am glad for the times I spent with her specifically in 2004 when I traveled with her to Boston and Maine.  Those are the times I will look back on and remember fondly.  Many people showed up to pay tribute to her and to honor her and we were glad to be a part of it, and proud of her.  I am attaching some pictures of the event and the view so you can all see what exactly I am talking about!

Back to School!

Well, the last time I wrote on this I talked about how excited we were for summer to happen.  Since summer feels like it is long gone about now, I thought I should update our blog!  

Summer was wonderful.  Nick and I traveled a ton!  We went to Reno for club volleyball.  We traveled up to Big Bear and stayed at an amazing Bed and Breakfast called Gold Mountain Manor for our one year anniversary.  We traveled to Colorado for Katie and Andy's beautiful wedding and then motorhomed it with my (Jenny's Parents) for almost two weeks!!  We traveled to Bass Lake with Nick's family for a week and had a great time lounging on rafts by the dock and hanging out with family.  We also were down in Valley Center for one weekend in August for Brooke and Charlie's wedding, which was absolutely beautiful!  All in all it was a great summer!!!

The exciting news of the fall is that I (Jenny) got a teaching job!!  I am teaching 7th grade World History at Magnolia Science Academy in Reseda.  It is about 30 miles from us, and the commute is probably the biggest bummer.  Morning traffic is fine, in the afternoon it takes somewhere between 45 min. to an hour to get home.  The kids are great, I love my classroom, and the program is really impressive.  Many of the students come from lower income families, and by the time they graduate (it is 6th-12th grade) they are UC ready!!  

Nick started his third year teaching at Azusa high school and is still teaching Algebra 1 and Algebra intervention along with AVID this year.  He is enjoying his students and his new class where he gets to help middle of the road students to excel in high school.  

We started going to Cornerstone church in Glendora and are really loving it.  We started attending the newly married sunday school class there, and feel very welcomed and connected there as well.  

Big news for us right now, is we are trying to save, save, save to buy a house eventually!  As to where we are not completely sure yet, possibly Santa Clarita, but we are waiting to see where the Lord leads us.  

Nick and I are doing great and we can't believe we have been married over one year now.  We are doing great and excited for this time in our lives where we are both teaching and enjoying living life together.  

Summer time!

IT'S SUMMER TIME!!!  We are so excited that summer has officially arrived!  We kicked it off by going to a sushi lunchdate today:)  This weekend we have volleyball, and my cousins high school graduation party to attend along with Father's day.  Nick is going riding with his dad on Sunday and that evening we are going to a bbq with my parents:)  Good times!

Almost done with grad school, and teaching!  We are sooo very excited!:)  I can't believe summer is almost here.  I have 3 night classes left and then she will have her credential!  I am almost done with my student teaching.   Nick is just about done with his second year teaching math at Azusa high school.  We have been married almost 11 months now!  wow how time flies. 

This summer will prove busy!  Lots of weddings: Jon and Victorya, Katie and Andy, Matt and Elaine, and Brooke and Charlie!  So excited for all of them!  We are traveling to Reno at the end of June for vball, we come back celebrate our one year and then off to Colorado for Katie and Andy's wedding.  We are motorhoming it with the Bricks (Jenny's parents) and will be gone for about 10 days!  We come back from that and are off the next weekend to Bass Lake with Nicks family for the annual vacation.  

It will be busy busy busy, but we cannot wait!  We are so excited to relax!:)  Hope everyone had a nice memorial day weekend.  We were housesitting, and coaching my 12s two day tournament.  

Birthday week along with Spring Break!!

Tonight we had the chance to celebrate my birthday with some friends at the Cheesecake factory!!  What a fun way to start off our spring break!  It was a great time of hanging out and eating some good food!  I miss not seeing friends on a more regular basis!  It is such a blessing that Nick and I both have the same spring break, and that it is during the week of my birthday!  I can't wait!  We are going to go shopping all day at the outlets in Carlsbad, San Diego and then have dinner with the family to celebrate mine and Caitlins (my niece) birthdays!!  On Thursday I have the opportunity to go to Burke Williams, an amazing spa with my mom and sister.  I get to get a massage and amazing pedicure there!  Can't wait!!  Nick and I hit the 9 month mark of being married tomorrow!  We can't believe it!  WOW, God is good:)  He has answered our prayers by bringing married friends (and engaged friends) into our life along with a married group through the church we have been attending called LA church of Christ. He is so good.  We just started a new series called "Did Jesus really say that?"  We are so excited to be a part of a church we can get plugged in to!  

As for other news, I (Jenny) am hoping and praying for job opportunities to arise, and one possibility is at Maranatha in Pasadena, a private high school.  I have an interview there next month, and the vball coach (who used to be my old vball coach in college) has asked me to coach the freshman vball team there.  It is an exciting possibility, especially because it is only 15 minutes from our apartment!  We will see what doors the Lord opens!

New!

So the new stuff in life lately...I started student teaching this week, and my master teacher is awesome!!  I am very excited to be working with her!:)  The idea of being in a class all day every day for the next 4 months with no paycheck is not that appealing, but I am excited about how much knowledge I will gain from this experience! The other new thing is the hair!  Short, and much darker!  Nick loves it and I do to so that is kind of fun!  We went snowboarding last friday!  It was so much fun to have some us time, we went with Kurt and Kellie and had a great time (minus all the times I fell:))  We checked out a church with our neighbors last Sunday and were so welcomed there, it was great!  It is called L.A. church of Christ, and it seemed very right on about so many things.  The only thing we had questions about was the view of the church on baptism.  

Other than all this, we are busy busy!  Last night we went to Tony Romas and has some HUGE ribs!  wow they were so good!  We also did something called dream dinners, and if there are any girls out there, check this out, it is amazing and you will love it!! It is called dream dinners  they have amazing meals that are all portioned out and you go put it together and freeze it.  You then have dinners already prepped that only need to be cooked to have an amazing meal!!  I definitely recommend it!  That is it for the Patey update!

A prayer

I just started reading "Hard to Believe" by John MacArthur, and while reading came across a prayer written by a saint from many centuries ago:

"Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess everything, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive.   Let me find thy light in my darkness, thy joy in my sorrow, thy grace in my sin, thy riches in my poverty, thy glory in my valley, thy life in my death."

This spoke to me this morning when I read it, especially when we live in a day and age that encourages to do what makes us happy, do what makes me feel good, what a reminder that this life is not about me, and how everything above that seems difficult leads to Christ.

God's Amazing Beauty!

The mountains are AMAZING!!!  I see them covered with snow, and they are magnificent.  It shows the splendor and beauty of our Lord!  What a beautiful sight He has set before us!!!  I see the beauty and am reminded of a quote from C.S. Lewis

"If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is I was made for another world."

Sometimes I find myself looking at Nature, and its incredible beauty and I am still left with an ache inside of me, a longing for something more.  God in His unique moments gives us such a picture of beauty, it makes me wonder what Heaven will be like!!

3 day weekend!

Nick and I are thrilled that we are on a 3 day weekend!  Nick has Monday off, so we are looking forward to some relaxing time!  We are house sitting for my parents in Orange County, and watching their new chocolate labrador  puppy Dakota!  She is so much fun!!!  This weekend has been relaxing so far, since we have been watching season 6 of 24!  We had not heard good reviews about it, but so far we are loving it!  

We saw a great movie tonight on television called Runaway Jury.  It is an old movie, but we both thought it was a good one, definitely worth renting!

Volleyball has been keeping us so busy that we have been spending a lot of time in Orange County on the weekends, but we are having so much fun coaching!!  

Nick has not yet gotten his Xbox 360, Best Buy seems to be on back order!  But soon he will have the beloved Xbox so he can play Halo whenever he wants!  

Nick and I have recently decided we very much want to travel to visit Israel!  We think it would be amazing to walk and see the place where our Lord Jesus was!  So....that won't be any time soon, but we hope to be able to go with in the next few years. 

Recent activity of the Patey's

I thought it might be a good time to post a new blog since I finally have a working computer again.  We love Mac but our computers have pooped out on us recently.  I had to actually send my in for repairs, Nick's needs repairs and we both needed new battery chargers.  Thank the Lord my parents gave Nick an external hard drive for his birthday.  We listened to Apple's warning and backed up almost everything on my computer.  When I got my computer back, nothing was on it!  They had replaced everything I had with a new operating system.  

Nick and I are hanging out in Orange County for the weekend, because my 12 year old team plays in Oceanside tomorrow!  That will be quite a drive to be there by 7 am.  We are enjoying coaching for Impact though!  Today we watched Pursuit of Happyness.  I thought it was a beautiful movie, and I was touched by the story of what one man would do for himself and his family.  If you have not seen it, you should!  We both highly recommend it.  

I am officially registered to begin classes again at APU on February 4th, and at the moment I am not looking forward to starting classes again.  It must be done though, so I will put in my time so that I can finally get my credential!  

Nick and I enjoyed going to Santa Monica with some friends last night and had some great Italian food and watched some street performances.  There were 2 new things I had not experienced.  I had not watched a street performance before, nor had I been in one before.  Yes, I got pulled in to play the white girl, and our friend elaine got pulled in to play the mexican girl.  It was a one man show with a funny yet at times abrasive black man.  Part of his street performance was showing how white people, black people, asian people and mexican dance.  When it was my turn to dance with him we did high fives back and forth and basically skipped in place and pretty much looked like a dork, but yes I did dance in front of 50 or more people...and I don't dance!

There are a few new things that happened in the lives of the Patey's this past week, I am sure there will be many more to come!

Our First Blog!

Nick and I decided it was finally time for us to join the world of blogging!  We have friends and family who we don't get to see or talk to every day, and we thought this would be a great way to update the people we love about our lives!  

We celebrated our very first Christmas as husband and wife, and I must say it was my favorite Christmas yet!  It was so much fun to celebrate with both of our families and to also have our own Christmas morning just Nick and I.  It was truly special, and one I will never forget! 

We also had some family and a few friends over for New Years Eve and New Years Day!  We live so close to the Rose Parade it was literally walking distance from our apartment!  We had so much fun with everyone that we are already talking about ideas for camping out for the Rose Parade next year!

Nick celebrated his 24th birthday a few days ago!  We had a fun time celebrating.  On his birthday he got breakfast in bed!  That afternoon we went with our cousins Kurt and Kellie to the amazing hut on Azusa Avenue/Sierra Madre called Best Teriyaki.  Check it out if you are ever in Azusa...amazing and cheap!  We then went to see "I am Legend"  

The boys loved it...and the girls...well we didn't:)  That night I cooked Nick a special dinner and we had ice cream sundaes for dessert!

The whole family came out the next evening and met us at Acapulco's!!  After dinner we fit 21 people into our tiny apartment for cake and ice cream!  Nick rec

eived many best buy gift cards for his birthday since he is trying to save for an Xbox 360! 

We are trying to get ready to transition into Nick going back to work, but we are loving this vacation mode that we are one!!  Club has been keeping us busy as well, and my team has their first tournament this next weekend!  Yikes!  Other than that we are really wanting to get plugged into our church.  The pastor today asked for help with the technology during the services and after church Nick put our names on a sign up list.  Getting plugged into a new church and calling it home has been one of the hardest things for both of us.  We strongly desire it, but it has been tough.  

Last but not least we celebrate 6 months of marriage tomorrow on the 7th!  God is so good, and has blessed us so much!  Marriage has already been teaching us and growing us so much, we are excited to continue on this new journey together!