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!