Spring Break!

So sad that we don't have the same Spring break:(  Mine is this week, and Nicks is next week.  However, since my 25th falls at the end of the week, my wonderful husband is taking Thursday and Friday off of school and we are going to Las Vegas to celebrate!!  It will be a fun birthday to remember, especially because we are going to see The Blue Man group!  I can't wait!!!   I will definitely post pictures of our fun trip in my next blog.  

Other new news...not much else going on actually.  We are continuing to prepare for India, and have a long book list to be reading as we prepare!!  

Good news about Nicks Job.  The Azusa district took back all the pink slips given out about a month ago, so it looks like Nick has a secure job with Azusa next year.  

That is about it for an update with us, more to come soon!

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.