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!