Pronounced Mr. and Mrs. Jay Hobbs

Wow! For five and a half months, I'd look at the ticker on our blog, moving steadily closer to our wedding date--"three months left", "two months left", etc.--but now, I'm looking at the same ticker telling me "eight days since the event." That is insane.

Our wedding and honeymoon were absolutely spectacular, complete with breathtaking view after breathtaking view in Banff National Park (in the Canadian Rockies). We'll get some pictures up later this week, but I don't want to spoil the surprise and the shock and awe that my family will feel when we show those pictures to them this week up North.

God has been extravagant in giving us all things throughout this time, through our family and friends' generosity, and He's making Himself look great through working in our financial situation via one great job opportunity that's on the horizon. Our friends, the Fishers, wrote us a card for the wedding that contained this blessing--one of my favorites from those cards--"We're looking forward to God doing violence to the gates of hell through you guys." That was a great blessing, and God is working to provide for us in great ways while accomplishing His purpose through us.

The job I'm talking about is the head SID job at Concordia University, which is one of Cal Baptist's rival schools and one that it'd be super easy to transition to because of their reputation for doing things in a competitive, respectable way. I'm interviewing with the Athletic Director this week before we head North, so be praying for us this week and keep checking our blog for updates--I'll be posting.

Striving to please Him in all that we do,
J&J

A few more happenings in the Jay-nelle world...

Some photo updates on the fun happenings in our lives...

A few days ago the nursing school at CBU had their dedication cermony, where Janelle,
along with all her classmates, lit candles and dedicated themselves to serving the Lord as
the future nurses of the class of 2010.

As mentioned before, we went on a little picnic outing to Yorba Linda for Jay's birthday last week. We had so much fun spending time together, eating some delicious sandwiches (as you can see) , and having ducks visit us for most of our time there. :)

We've also made our way to Hollywood, where Janelle's parents took us to see Wicked for Janelle's birthday. The play was amazing, and it was great to spend time with family. Thanks Chad and Teresa!

Damaged Bimmer, Thriving Relationship

Yesterday was date day, and it went out almost without a hitch. I say almost because on our way back from the date, a picnic outing to Yorba Linda Regional Park, we were struck--not by a thought or idea, but by a Peterbilt big-rig.

So, the Ultimate Driving Machine has a dent in the rear-quarterpanel fender, big deal, right? At least we're still getting married June 7th--plus, we're still covered by the blood of Jesus and restored to a relationship with the living God--good news all the way around!

Our wedding plans are going great, by the way, Janelle and I went and worked on our invitations with the great Peter Ross last week, where my genius idea to include the Hobbs family crest on the invitations themselves was unceremoniously shot down by my beloved. But, here's what it looks like, as prominently displayed on my grandpa Hobbs' gate in Newcastle, CA.

Here are some more engagement pics, courtesy of the great Bill Blakey, photographer extrodinaire. Enjoy them!

(And, as a side note, in case you saw the article in the trustworthy Auburn Journal, you can go ahead and utterly disregard all claims that it makes, besides our wedding date and the photo, which are both uncharacteristically accurate).

*If you're looking to kill another couple of minutes, check this article out too, which was found by Dusty (or Dustin, depending on who you talk to). This one's for free!

Pink is the New Black, So Get off My Back, Jack!

Saturday was the big day! Sorry, I know we told all of you that June 7th was it, but we figured, "What's 2 months and 3 weeks anyhow?"

Just kidding, we didn't actually move up the ceremony, even though Ken Flower would have us move it to align properly with his birthday, so you can put down that phone, mom.

But what we did do was pretty cool in its own right: we busted out a trip to scenic downtown Riverside, which actually has a ton of nice spots to offer the newly engaged couple.

It wouldn't have been anything more than a trip for two downtown had it not been for our friends, the Blakeys--all three of them, including the camera. Billy and Cory took some amazing pictures, which you can check out the best of them at their blog.

Saturday was a pretty busy day all the way around. I finished a paper for school (about the Ephesians 5:24-33 analogy of Christ and the Church) at about 2 a.m. Friday night, and Janelle and I met for breakfast the next day a little before 9. From breakfast, we went by Bed Bath and Beyond and Target to register for the wedding, which took about 4 hours altogether.

I can't say that it was the greatest idea to register and take engagement photos on the same day, but we survived without really arguing about anything, although both of us were a little bit cranky in the middle of the day.

Another thing that's new in the life would be the free trip to the Bahamas that Janelle won for us at a bridal expo the other day. We had to cross a great wilderness called shameless sales pitch, but we made it across that burning wasteland with no monthly payments, no timeshares and no sheers that were so sharp they could cut a penny in half--although that was pretty tempting, I admit.

So, it's Banff for honeymoon, Bahamas for 1-year anniversary. Boy howdy, we're stinkin world travelers!

Finally, we're both super thankful to the Lord that he's teaching us to trust in him in an uncertain time, with trying to plan out our lives together, especially the next year. There's that big challenge in James 4, where he calls such talk as, "Tomorrow, we will go to such and such city..." "boasting" and all such "boasting" as "evil". In short, his will is going to be accomplished, and our attitude needs to be, "Your kingdom come" rather than, "Here's my plan, Lord, now stay outta my way while I do it."

Thanks again to the Blakeys for capturing the future Mr. and Mrs. Jay Hobbs' in action.

We're so excited...and we just can't hide it!

Today makes it exactly one month since Jay proposed, and we couldn't be happier to be getting married.

The wedding plans are going so well, and we spend all our spare time together dreaming of that day, only 3 months away! In our first month of engagement, we've gotten a lot of big plans out of the way...

Some things we've finished so far include finding our reception site(my maid of honor's backyard:) and booking the church. We'll be getting married at our home church here in Corona. I've gone to the church since elementary school, and it's the very place that Jay and I met. We're involved with the college group there, and also love doing ministry with the junior high kids, so we're excited to be getting married in the auditorium where we meet to worship every Sunday.

Also officially booked and checked off the list is the honeymoon! We booked our trip to Banff National Park (pictured) a few weeks ago, and we're SO excited! :) For those of you who don't know, Banff is just an hour's drive outside of Calgary in the heart of the Canadian Rockies, and is full of mountains and lakes to explore. We can't wait.

Another big thing off the list is buying my wedding dress! I'll have to leave out the picture, since Jay isn't allowed to see, but it was definitely an exciting experience! I can't wait for the day that I get to wear it and walk down the aisle to say "I do". :)

Until then, we'll keep you posted with all the exciting happenings of our engagement.

We're Engaged!

Hopefully this isn't your first interaction with our big news, but if it is, we greatly apologize and beg for either your forgiveness or your swift and nearly painless judgment (hopefully your forgiveness, though).

At any rate, here are some pictures to let you into our little circle of joy. The beautiful girl who's pictured is my fiance, or, if you prefer, my bride to be. Actually, I prefer that one!

We've set a date for June 7th at Northpoint, our church home here in Corona, CA, the center of the universe.

Here's a little of our engagement story, as told by Jay.

I had planned on waiting until the middle of February to pop the question, but the opportunity presented itself and I went down to the jeweler on Monday, which, if you're as unfamiliar with jewelery as I am, you may not have known that many of them (including this one) are closed on Mondays.

So, Tuesday became the big day, and I went down to the jeweler along with our good friend Staci Worthington (who is set to be the maid of honor). There we saw the perfect ring, as previously picked out by Janelle herself, I threw down the dough and the excitement was on.

Tuesday night, I was a wreck before I went over to Janelle's parents to ask permission to marry their daughter (that's wild, I can't believe I'm writing that!). But they said yes, and so I figured that was a good sign.

Friday night, January 18th, became my new D-Day, and believe me, I was so nervous the whole week, leading into that night. We started it off with a little bit of Disneyland--a Nemo here, a Matterhorn there--and made it to the beach just before sunset, where I asked her to marry me and put the ring on her finger.

Now, my brother, Casey, had offered to pay for us to have a celebratory meal at Ruth's Chris Steak House in Anaheim and that's where our evening took us--the newly engaged couple. When we arrived at our table, on a side note, there was, sitting on the table, a wheel of cheese, which I know will take a little explaining.

Last Valentine's Day, you see, I had tried to rebel against the hoopla of the holiday and had purchased, much to my chagrin in hindsight, a cheese wheel instead of the traditional flowers, chocolate and card.

Well, our relationship survived that great self-inflicted storm, but Casey and all of his cronies (I say that in the most complimentary way) in Alabama won't let me live it down (which is not to say that they ought to).

We had a spectacular dinner, definitely the best meal we've partaken of in our time together, and capped it off with an impromptu get-together at the Burns' house to celebrate.

Thanks to Casey for the dinner and the cheese wheel idea, and to Dad (he was instrumental in planting the wheel on site), and thanks to Staci, Aubrey and all the girls for correctly conveying the information about the ring.

Oh yeah, thanks Chad and Teresa for giving us the go-ahead! Also, thanks for the sweet camera, which will serve to populate our blog with mucho pictures in the months to come.