1 Year Anniversary!!

Happy 1 Year Anniversary, Jeremy!!!!

written Sunday night:

Hello everyone :)

Today Jeremy and I celebrated our 1 year together! It's officially on October 12th but since we won't see each other then we thought we'd get together today. Last night we got to spend some quality time together- something we do not take for granted!!! It was so great to have a block of time just to hang out with him! We watched 50 First Dates and just caught up on life.

Today after church Jeremy surprised me with a picnic lunch in a GORGEOUS private park in San Merino (where they filmed Father of the Bride!) Side note: Corinne, my roommate, saw the FofB house and she's going to take me! And YES, anyone who comes I will take to see that same house!!! Ah I love it! Anyways, he had everything thought of from fruit to the kind of iced tea I like! And, may I say, that man had ROSE PETALS! What a perfect guy :) We spread out our blankets and ate our lunches, he played the guitar, and we just had the best time!!

Then, he told me to look in the basket and there was a little box. And all girls know: little boxes contain big things!!!! :) I opened it up and there was the most beautiful diamond necklace. It's a timeless (I think) necklace where the diamonds go small to big, symbolizing the start of where you are and the future to come. How SWEET! Ah, my heart melted. :) :)

It was a great gift, great time, and even greater company! I love him!!!!

I won't get too mushy gushy for you all :)

So, to Jeremy: Happy 1 Year! Can't wait for many more to come!!

With love from my living room couch,

Paige

...AND THEN (Monday)

I woke up to the most beautiful roses!!!!!!!! 2 dozen pink roses and the most thoughtful card! This man has gone above and beyond!!!!!

20th Birthday Weekend!!

Hello All!

I had such a great birthday weekend! Thank you for the encouragements, cards, gifts, etc! :)

On Friday Jeremy and I headed to Sacramento. It was a great time to drive with him and talk. Since we're so busy in school it was a great break! I was pretty much freezing the whole drive. He was hot. Lol!

Here's the GPS system Jeremy got me for my birthday!!!! We made good use of "Carmen" the Garmin!

That night we pulled up and everyone was outside! It was so fun seeing the kids after 5 weeks! And man, have they changed!! I wouldn't have even recognized Chet! He's lightened up and a little more bald :) Ha! Oh man is he cute though!!! And Evie was a lot less shy and really talkative! She LOVES to repeat things, help you do things, and is now just chattin' away... sometimes in her own language!

That night we got to go see Mati's volleyball game!! It was a fun time and she played so great!!

Kisses for baby Chet!! Oh my goodness is he not the cutest little boy!??

We all hung out that night, ate pizza, and it was great catching up! Saturday morning we all went to family breakfast at Barb's house!! Nate, Stacey and the girls were there, Robb, Ashley and in her belly Hailey, Brooke, Josh and the kids. So great to spend time with everyone! It's never enough time though.

I got to hold baby Taryn for the first time!! She's 5 weeks old. (Stacey and Nate's daughter)

Then I went and got a haircut by the wonderful Kelli Moore, came back and "watched" football, went to the park to see Evie play now that she's a big girl and can do all the things on her own :) and just hung! That night we went to dinner at Outback- my favorite birthday spot :) After the 3 hour dinner (odd service), we headed back to the house opened presents, ate cake, and played games!

Here's our "family" portrait! Lol! :)

Evie calls Jeremy either "Jer Me" or "Mer A Me" SO CUTE!!!!

Chet doesn't say much. :)

Dad and Chet!

Live by the phrase "bald is beautiful"!

Sunday morning we went to breakfast with Dad, hit the spa, and then went to church. After church we went to Jacks Urban Eats (another favorite spot!) and then hit the road about 2. Sad leaving family always! It was a great visit. :) Thank you family for making it such a great time!!

When we got home my door had a note on it and my roommate Corinne had put spoons all over the decorated house with encouragements attached to them. Ok, weird I know, but I really like spoons. I'm sure my mother is rolling her eyes at this! Ok so I have a slight problem with spoons! I like them!! Big ones. Melon scooper spoons. I used to eat cereal with all different types of serving spoons. And for by birthday, among other things, she got me spoons :)

And that's that! Now I'm back to school! Busy as usual. Hopefully Jeremy and I can make some time to hang out!! We have our one year next week on the 12th. Funny how quickly time flies by!

With love from my Church History class :) (Don't worry Mom, I'm paying attention too:))

Paige

Time!

I've never really known the luxury of time. I know most mothers have probably experienced this when their baby is down for a nap and you suddenly have this freedom of "What to do!?!" And although I am not a new mother, I do have a little baby named "College" around who is soaking up all my precious time! And tonight my "baby" is at the sitters! Yes, that's right, a class got cancelled. And not just any class, but a 3 hour class. And although this would be my crunch time to do as much as possible in my only 3 hour window of the week, I now find myself with SEVEN hours of time. So instead of running around like the rabbit in Alice and Wonderland, I can enjoy extra time.

This, my friends, is luxury!

Off to be productive with all my free TIME!

I know you're jealous. ;)

With love from my apartment,

Paigey

P.S. Jeremy and I are leaving on FRIDAY for home! Looking forward to the quality time driving there and with the fam! :)

I love my family!

Hi Everyone!

I'm a week away from going home. It feels like 6 months since I've seen them last and it's been what, 5 weeks? All to say: TOO LONG! I am so so sooo excited to see the kids! Evie's vocabulary has taken off and she is becoming such a big girl. Brooke keeps telling me things she is doing on her own at the park and I can't even imagine it!! She has balance? :) And Chet is cooing SO loudly! Every time we are on the phone he is just "talking" away! All to say: I can't wait to see those chubby little kids with the cutest dimple each! :)

School has been going surprisingly well! I say "surprisingly" since I really didn't know if I could accomplish what I have taken on: madness. But I am enjoying classes, learning a ton in my Communications major. It gets a bad rap for being an easy major, which in comparison it is, but I am learning so much it makes it well worth the money. I am having to do a TON of presentations, formal and informal, and wherever I go I know that skill will be great.

Work is going well also. The Registrar just slowed down as people can no longer add/drop their classes. Now we are doing projects and have a month to prepare for the craziness of adding classes! Babysitting is great and I'm really enjoying the kids. :) Luckily I'm not too busy and still can get some quality time with Jeremy!

That's pretty much it! I haven't really had time for super fun things that cause me to take pictures so none to share in that department! Life is good. God is GOOD! Providing jobs for Dad and the many other praises that we owe to Him.

I miss you, Family! Can't wait until I see you ALL next! Some next Friday, some after that :)

With love from the coffee shop at APU,

Paige

Sacramento bound! (Soon!)

HELLO!

In two weeks I will be coming home for my birthday in Sacramento! (Oct 2-4) Excited to be with wonderful family and enjoy seeing everyone! Especially the kids as they have gotten so much bigger and are developing so much!!

On Friday I went out to celebrate Holly's (my old roommate and good friend's) birthday! Here are some of us at the sushi restaurant: (Left to right: Joe, Daisie, Myself, Birthday girl Holly!)

Saturday night I went to the Mrs. Aaron's parents house to celebrate their September birthdays, which included Jeremy's!!! We had a great time and as usual, delicious food!! Here are the birthday boys and girls: (Left to right: Grandpa Curt, Jeremy, Hannah (Jeremy's cousin), Erin (Jeremy's aunt)) Happy birthday to you all!!

I'm excited to be home soon! Love school, love it down here, but home is such a great place to be too!!!

With love from APU,

Paige

Address & Pics :)

Hello! I forgot in my last post to share my mailbox address. Now, no worries, this has no correlation to the address of my apartment so no one could stalk me! It's an off site location I check regularly and it is the same one I have had since I got to APU:

Paige Jennings

Azusa Pacific University

901 E. Alosta Ave Unit #8164

Azusa, CA 91702

In addition, here are some of the pictures missing from my last post. The internet in my apartment is FIXED!!! So anyone who wants to make a Skype date let me know!!! Skype name (PaigieJennings) *note the "ie" in Paigie!* And now I'll be able to email and update things more often. :)

Jeremy and I at the first football game! Barb's old neighbors, the Oliero family, had their son Blake playing on the opposing team!

South Africa reunion!!! So great to see our director Reg and all of us in one group again!

Price is Right! The only picture of the day :( (couldn't take our cameras)

Kalie came to visit!!!!!! Oh what a great, great time. Seriously was the best thing ever to see her!!!

Last years roommates. Love all of these girls so much!

With love from APU,

Paige

Starting Fresh

Hello!!!!

It feels like so much has happened since I have blogged last!!! Actually, so much HAS happened!!!

I am onto my 2/14 weeks of classes. It's amazing I'm already into the semester that much! Spring seems to be so much longer it is crazy that Fall is so short!

Living with Corinne couldn't be going better. Not only do I enjoy her as a person, but I really look up to her and respect her. I came to APU because of her. With her positive experience with Communications I switched my major. Cut my hair like hers ;) Basically I love her and wouldn't mind being her shadow :) I have the greatest conversations with her and really feel sharpened and uplifted spiritually by knowing her more. What wonderful qualities! Plus, she's fun :)

Classes are great! My first day I had my two easier classes so I was a little worried about not learning a ton, but since then those have picked up their pace and my other classes definitely will take up pleanty of my time! Here are the classes I'm taking:

-Spanish 102 at our neighbor community college (time consuming but not hard & very enjoyable. Love my professor!)

-Intro to Mass Communication (The easiest of the bunch)

-Intro to Communication Studies (Have a professor that demands perfection! Will spend more time on her work & studying her reading)

-Presentational Speaking (the only class I haven't had yet. Tuesday nights. Should be GREAT!)

-Interpersonal Communication Processes (My professor was excited about bumping this up to a 400 level class- just for kicks. Ha! So who knows how hard this will be! Seems intersting)

-Small Group Communication (easier)

-Church History (Will LOVE THIS CLASS!!! Sounds boring- I know. But I couldn't have a better professor for a history class!!!!)

And here are my odd jobs:

-2 days working in the Registrars office doing secretarial work

-3 mornings I am an alternate for working chapel

-2 days I babysit kids after school

-leading a discipleship group one night a week

So my load isn't too hard, it is just VERY time consuming!!! Luckily I switched some classes around so even though I wake up much earlier I get to have meal breaks before work. A much needed rest!

The reason I say this is I will need patience from all you lovely people this semester. I really try to be someone who pursues relationships and keeps tabs on people. But phone calls and long emails is really hard when I have such random times off. Weekends are my time to do homework so I am not always going to be super free. BUT I say this because I still want to keep my relationships just as close! I will just need some grace as I won't always be able to talk. Texting is always the easiest way to keep in touch in between calls. :)

Some things I would appreciate prayer for:

-Leading my "D Group" and really being intentional in how I lead, speak, and present myself as a woman of the Lord! Being a great and caring leader.

-Getting back into the WORD! Whether that is meditation on passages or reading chapters. I really need to be filling up since I feel like I'm pouring out.

-I'm starting to plan next summer's events. I'm trying to coordinate an overseas missions trip (location unknown) with Jeremy and possibly others, as well as figure out internship opportunities. I need to be actively seeking and actively listening to the Lord's promptings!!

Which leads me to the next one:

I really am not sure what I'd like to do post-college. But since I graduate next December those questions are on my mind more and more! Since South Africa I have realized a few things:

1) Although I would love being a wedding planner I probably wouldn't want to do that full time. Maybe as a hobby or a summer job when I'm not...

2) Teaching. Elementary school. Since teaching in the South African schools I have wanted to continue doing that. Now I don't know if that means I will actually become an elementary school teacher, but I have been encouraged in the past to do so and now I am wondering if those were all little seeds which is leading me to a possible job? Like I said, I'm prayerfully considering pursing that!

I don't mind being asked the tough questions. "Are you reading your Bible and spending intentional time with God? OTHER than when you walk from class to class?" is probably the one thing I'm trying to change the most right now.

So that's my life in a nutshell! I got to spend some great, quality time with my GREAT friend Kalie who is currently home in Arizona. She visited for a weekend with her awesome boyfriend Ryan and it was such a breath of fresh air. You know how good friends can do that... be that person that you miss but you don't realize until you see them again how much you actually DID miss them!

Jeremy and I are doing great. So so great!!! Next month we have our official year together. A little inaccurate considering we have been quite close for some time now, but that's the date we celebrate :) He really is the greatest guy. Family who haven't met him, I will make that happen soon! I could be mushy and go on and on but I'll spare you ;)

(Just saw a guy trip on carpet. Always an embarrassing thing- tripping alone! You just keep walking and pretend that was totally normal)

Oh! One more thing! Being back at APU has been great in another aspect: seeing friends from South Africa! It has been SO great reuniting, laughing over hilarious memories, and continuing our friendships. I can't help but smile in thinking of how many great people I have around here who are genuine, loving, amazing people.

I miss you family in Sacramento! I miss Evie and Chet SO Much! I honestly can not believe how quickly they have grown. Now I understand why older people always commented on how much "older I look! Like a young woman!" Because I DID change! To me it was nothing- to them it was amazing!

With love from the library at APU,

Paigey