Blake and Anjanette (Harrell) Riley

This is another joint post. We started dating during our Junior year Commencement dance and continued dating through high school. After graduation, Anjanette planned on attending Texas A&M to study marine biology while Blake headed to Arizona State University for an economics degree. Due to administrative mix-ups about housing and financial aid, Anjanette decided against Texas and also moved to Arizona. On our second anniversary, Blake proposed and we were married later that summer on August 12, 2006. Anjanette also started her bachelor's degree at ASU that fall.

Our last two years at ASU, we ended up heavily involved in the Arizona government through our jobs. Blake worked for the state legislature's budget committee, doing research and acting as a liaison between the legislators and a couple state agencies. Anjanette did an internship with the Secretary of State, and then worked for the Arizona Capitol Times, a newspaper that covers state politics. She reported on healthcare and transportation, with numerous front-page stories to her name.

This May, we graduated from ASU. Anjanette finished in three years with degrees in English and political science, and Blake received a BA in economics and a BS in mathematics. We since moved to Champaign, IL where we are doing our graduate work. Blake is in the economics PhD program at the University of Illinois here in Champaign with plans to become an economics professor. Anjanette is working towards an English MA with a certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language at Illinois State. Champaign has much more of a small-town feel than the Phoenix area, and we are being subjected to winter cold for the first time in four years, but we like it nonetheless. We spend most of our free time reading: her with a novel and him with a math text.

Our plans for this coming summer are still up in the air; Anjanette might be out of the country teaching English. But, either way, feel free to follow us at http://anjanetteandblake.wordpress.com.