DRUM ROLL PLEASE....

Warning.... another long one.... but pretty cool stuff.

Wow. This post has been a long time coming. At this point, I still can't believe this is all really happening. This is for those of you who don't know... I'm pretty sure all of you that actually read our blog already know... Now I'm rambling... I'm just going to cut to the chase.... 2 things most super duper exciting...

1. In just 4 short years this handsome guy....

will be known as

Dr. Gabriel Valenzuela

That's right... Gabe got into Med School!!!! Which leads me to #2 on the list...

2. We bought a house and we are moving!

That is right! We are moving to Phoenix Arizona!

And here goes the Story:

When I first met Gabe, he was just finishing up his two degrees at the University of Utah. He had taken the MCAT and started to apply to Medical Schools. In the midst of all that, he was offered and awesome job for Anvil Intl. And we decided to jump on it. We moved our bum cheeks to California and have been loving life. Except that Gabe knew his passion was else where. About last September Gabe starting playing around with the idea of going back to school. One night he called me from an out of town business trip and said, "I'm going to apply to podiatry school." So we got to work. What a project that was. Thank heavens he had already started on the applications a year before... or we would still be filling things out. But alas the application was done and off. And then began the waiting game. Many of you know exactly what I am talking about. Well luckily it didn't last too long before we started to hear from schools. He was offered interviews to every podiatry school. Everyone wanted to meet and interview Gabe... (What a stud I married!) Off to interviews he went...

He visited New York (where he got us those awesome shirts), Pennsylvania, Pomona California, Oakland California and got accepted to every school! (Again... Stud right?) But Arizona was very first on our list. First and foremost, AZ has an awesome podiatry program. It is also pretty close to family, and you can't beat the heat. We are definitely sun bums. But Arizona hadn't called yet. We kept waiting and waiting (impatiently, might I add...) When finally, it CAME!!! The letter came to congratulate Gabe on being accepted to Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona!

We were ecstatic! We only told our family and friends because we were both still working and wanted to keep our jobs until we moved. That was a long time to not talk about all of our adventurous plans! And I was just bursting at the seams to tell everyone about my amazing husband. But we kept working... and on the weekends we began visiting Arizona to look for a place to live... We had been saving every penny in California, thinking that if we were ever going to get into a house in Cali (which seems impossible with the outrageous prices here...) we would need to save, save, save. Well, it paid off. The home prices in Arizona are so awesome right now that we decided to try and buy. And so our house hunting began. Yes, our many random trips to Arizona actually had some purpose behind them. But along the way... We had some fun.

We saw the Mesa Temple lights with Gabe's friend Kreig and his cute wife Britany. Kreig is also going to Podiatry school... only in California (Darn it, we're switching places! I would have loved it if we could have been in the same place!) They then introduced us to his Dad... Our trusty realtor for the next 6 months.

We spent Valentine's Day looking at houses and enjoy a LOVEly weekend together...

We went down on Easter weekend and enjoyed the amazing Easter Pageant at the temple.

(A new Valenzuela Family tradition)

After a few hours of looking at houses, we soaked up the sun next to the pool...

And we looked at house after house after house to try and find our home. We thought there were a couple that were "ours" but turned out not to be... But then we found it!

And we bought it!

And I absolutely love it and cannot wait to get there!

Here it is... Our new home!

Isn't it darling?! I love it! And I love the palm trees!

This was the first night we looked at it.. Funny story. (maybe on another marathon post) But our realtor showed it to us at 10:45 at night. We knew we had to have it.

Some pics of our home's scenery. Like I said, I love the palm trees. A little piece of Cali.
I've already fallen in love with my flowers. I am a terrible gardener though. Lets hope they stay alive.

And here is a picture of Gabe's new second home:

Midwestern University!

I cannot wait for our new and upcoming adventures. And I cannot say enough how proud I am of my husband. He is such an amazing example to me of hard work and perseverance. I know he is going to do awesome in school and will be an amazing Doctor someday!

Wish us luck!

On June 30th, the sun will rise for us here in California,

And set in Arizona!

We are so excited!