Charlie Joe Garza

So as you may know, Matt and I have been thinking about getting a dog for a while... Well we finally got him!! This is Charlie, our new baby boy. He's a Basset Hound. Born 1/2/09.

Ready For New...

So unfortunately I  don't have any pics to put up with this post. However, it has been a very busy month. At the beginning of the month we were trying to figure out what was wrong with Matt, so he had a lot of medical tests going on. It turns out he has Hashimoto's Disease. Luckily all he needs is Synthroid medication for that. :) Then about a week and a half later my mom goes in the hospital... She had a mini stroke. She was in there for about 5-6 days. Thankfully all that was effected was her speech. She is working at it everyday and gets better with it everyday. I am just so glad that it wasn't anything more serious. A few days after that was Christmas and we spent that with our awesome friends David and Dawn! It was a great day. We brought Sarah over and she played with their new puppy Coal (black lab, pics later). We ate awesome food and played Scattergories and Taboo. It was very fun. I did miss being with family and it didn't really feel like Christmas Day but I can't complain. The day after Matt and I didn't do much. Just some running around and then stayed home and cleaned up a bit because Matt's brother Mike came here on Monday. So we've just been hanging out with him and having fun. It's so nice to see family. I'm looking forward to a couple weeks from now when Joe and Donna come. I love them so much and I'm thrilled that they will be here for 3 whole days!!!

Well tomorrow starts the New Year and I'm excited for it to be here. I'm not sure how it can top 2008, but we'll see. Every day that I spend with my awesome husband is a great one. So bring on more days for us to spend together!! I hope every one's had a great year and I hope the new one brings even more joy and love and happiness. Stay healthy and have fun. 

Happy New Year,

Myliea

Oh, Christmas Time!

So, the day after Thanksgiving Matt and I went to Wally-World and got our pre-lit tree, candy canes  and a star. We put it up that day with only the star and candy canes. About a week later I was able to go back and get some ornaments and stockings. So, last Saturday we put our names on each stocking and the ornaments on the tree and now it looks absolutely beautiful! I am so grateful for Matt's school loan b/c without them we probably would never have been able to afford this. :)

This is the beautiful tree all lit up.

The tree lit with the stockings :)

My spoiled baby in her spot with the stockings above the coutch. 

Thanksgiving Garza Style!

Matt, Me, Stephanie, and Sarah.

Our super awesome spread: salad, veggies, green bean casserole.

Thanksgiving Pizza: turkey gravy, turkey sausage, turkey breast, spices, mozzarella cheese.

Thanksgiving Pizza 2: same as above with the addition of mashed potatoes and stuffing. (Matt's fave of course.)

My very own Pumpkin Cheesecake!! (It looks retarded...)

Stephanie's Turtle Pumpkin Cheesecake (yummy!).

Thanksgiving was different this year. It was our first one being married, but also our first one without family. Luckily we have a friend who's new here as well and doesn't have family around either. We had a nice lazy day at the house...cooking, watching TV and movies: Rudolf and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. It was a great day! Oh and we had thunderstorms on and off all day, while it was sunny out, in the 60s. Awesome! I love it here!

Have a beautiful day,

Myliea

Twilight Movie!!

Rockin' my Twilight tee before the movie!

Me, Dawn, and Jodi at the midnight showing of Twilight.

So yesterday afternoon I decided I was gonna go with Dawn and her friend Jodi to the midnight showing of Twilight. I am so glad that I did. It was a lot of fun!! We got there about 2 hours early and it was the longest 2 hour wait ever!!! luckily we got good seats at the top but I am so impatient that Dawn and I went to get Starbucks while we waited... I absolutely adored the movie. Although it wasn't 100% like the book it was still very enjoyable. A few things irritated me but you can't get a 500 page book down to a T in 2 hours...just not going to happen. I am happy that they got the key points of the book in and made it a great movie. I hope the next one is just as good. I am so super tired today though. Oh well that's what I get for going to sleep after 2:30 in the morning and waking up around 7 for work. Well that is all.

Have a grand weekend,

Myliea

Dinner With New Friends!

So on Sunday we went over to one of Matt's friend's house for dinner and what not. We had a lot of fun! His friend Dave and his Wife Dawn hosted the shin-dig. They have 3 boys: Noah, 6, and Michael and David, 3. His other friend Dave and his wife Lindsey also came with their 2 kids: Payton, 3 and Kylee, 8 months. We were the first to arrive and so I was playing with the boys and my digital camera for a little while...

David, Michael, and Noah decided to go through my purse and have some fun. 

This is Dawn and Me! We got along great!!! Yay for new friends!

We were teaching them to pose like a gangsta! hehe

I was attempting to get them to take a nice picture for their mom and dad....took a few trys.

That's much better! :)

Yesterday was Matt's first day of break (the lucky man gets 2 whole weeks off!!!!) and it's also my day off, so we got to spend the whole day together! It was the best day in a while. We woke up late, didn't do much, went to the doctor, cleaned up around the apartment a bit and went to see Zack and Miri with Stephanie. The movie was HILARIOUS!!!! I absolutely loved it. If you have not seen it you should. (Movie definitely NOT recommended for kids!!) Oh, and the weather has been in the 80s all weekend thru the end of the week, we actually set a recod high temp yesterday of 87!! (I love it here.) Today we have been married for 6 whole months, the best 6 months of my life. Hmm, I think that's it really. 

Have a spectacular day,

Myliea

Six Months Already!

So, a lot can happen in 6 months...

May- As you all know May 18th I got married. Let me just say it was the most perfect day (minus the temp only being in 50-60s). Everything couldn't have gone better. After our perfect day we went to my apartment and stayed there for the next 2 days. Monday through Wednesday of that following week consisted of packing and getting everything ready for our BIGmove. Of course, I hadn't even started packing up my apartment until like Tuesday (after the wedding, day before we leave). So, we get everything all packed up into my car, Matt's car and my Mom's van. On Thursday evening we rolled out onto the open road. We continued "rolling" (with a couple of sleeping stops along the way) until Saturday evening when we FINALLY made it to beautiful Glendale, Arizona! All the rest of May consisted of spending a lot of money(to furnish our apartment and buy food), unpacking and getting everything organized (I hate moving). 

June- Before Matt started school, we had nothing to do. So we did a lot of nothing for about 2 weeks. June 4th was his first day of orientation for school, it is also my birthday. So, on my birthday I got to sit around the house all day with nothing to do. After Matt came home we went to BevMo! (like Binny's in Illinois) and purchased about $60 worth of alcohol, then we went to Chili's for dinner where I purchased my first alcoholic drink (a Bloody Mary). We (Matt) have been looking online at different puppy websites, for the last 2 weeks, just trying to see if there was any breeds that we were interested in. As it turns out there was a Pembroke Welsh Corgi breeder about 30 min south of us. She had 2 females left, so on Saturday (June 7th) we decided to go "have a look". We played with little girls separately and as they were both absolutely adorable we were able to pick only one, the one with the knick in her ear who was $50 off because she is "damaged goods". And thus, we have our new baby, Sarah Bella Garza. The rest of June was rather uneventful. Matt started school, I found a job, and we had our hands full training Sarah.

This is Sarah and her sister before we brought her home. 

July- On the 4th of July we went over to Stephanie's place and relaxed and went swimming. It was nice to have a friend to hang out with. A week later Joe and Donna (the wonderful in-laws) came to visit for the weekend. They came in on Friday morning so we went for a drive up to Sedona. Well Joe decided to use his GPS navigation thing to lead the way. Somehow the destination that was entered was no where near Sedona. It turns out that it was int he middle of the Tonto National Forest on a trail the can only be reached by foot or off-road vehicle, which we did not have. So instead of seeing Sedona we got to see a beautiful part of forest with lovely cliffs and rivers. It was a beautiful, and very fun, drive. Whether or not the drive was successful doesn't matter. That night we went to Haus Murphy's for dinner. The next day was Matt's birthday. I had to work :( so Matt and his parents went to a movie, the mall and the Scottsdale Gun Club. That night we had juice stew for dinner, yummm. Unfortunately the next day was Sunday and Joe and Donna had to leave. It was a great weekend and we hope to do it again soon! One day, we had Sarah outside to go to the bathroom. There were 2 little girls out side waiting for their mom. One of them wanted to pet Sarah. Ok so Sarah is a 5 month old puppy at this time, she jumps and licks and wants to play a lot. So Sarah is jumping up to lick the girl's hand and her tooth must have hit the girl's thumb or something because she says, "She bit me." I look at the finger in question, nothing is on it. She then says it again to her sister. We're just thinking oh great. So a few minutes pass and we're not by the girl anymore, the mom walks out of the house onto the grassy area, mind you, Sarah is on a leash, Sarah tries to run after her to get pet and the mom says, "she's not going to attack is she?" (she does not know at this point that her daughter is claiming Sarah bit her). So after the mom says this we realize that she's probably afraid of dogs. The next night, I'm coming home from work and Matt is on our porch with a guy in a uniform, it turns out that the mom called animal control on Sarah. Now because it had been less than a month since Sarah received her rabies vaccine she had to be held in quarantine for 10 days... 

August- The start of August brought my brother down for a week. It also meant we could finally pick Sarah up from puppy prison. We really didn't do much while my brother was here... I worked most of the time and Matt had school, so Josh got to spend some quality time with Sarah. We did hang out at night and just relax together so that was fun. It's nice to be able to spend time with my brother and not want to hurt him. I like that we're both grown now and get along very well. I hope he visits again soon. A week later I started my second job (only on Fridays to start) at Arizona Medical and Natural Health Clinic. I absolutely LOVE working here. All of the people that I work with and the patients that I see, are all wonderful and make a fabulous place to work. Then, at the end of August, Theresa was supposed to come visit. Sadly, she wasn't able to make it. Nothing else really happened. 

September- This was a rather slow month i guess. We didn't have much happen in the way of interesting. I did miss my cousins' and grandpa's birthdays and party. At the end of the month Theresa was finally able to come visit. It was only for the weekend, but it was so worth it! Friday morning I picked her up from the airport. We went shopping to start the day. It was so nice to have a girl to shop with! After we went shopping we got our tattoos! It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Actually, mine was a bit ticklish. Theresa's hurt though. After that we came home and got Matt to go shopping for dinner and get some awesome gelatto! The next day we went to the Scottsdale Gun Club and shot for around 1 1/2-2 hours. It was such a blast! We mostly shot off .22 rounds, but we still had some AR-15 rounds left so we all 3 finished those off. It was pretty much the funnest part of her visit (in my opinion). After that we went to the mall because Theresa needed to get Kinal a sweatshirt from here. We went to every sporting goods store in the mall until we found the one she needed. It turned out that the store we found the shirt at was right by the entrance we came in through. I had to drop Theresa off at the airport around noon the next day. After that Matt and I watched football all day and just enjoyed a lazy day together. There was only a few days of September after that. They were normal.

October- The month of October consisted of pretty much the same thing, work (for me), school (for Matt), spend time together, eat, watch tv, play, sleep. The only eventful thing I remember happening in this month was carving pumpkins, which I already posted about. The weather was still in the high 80s and 90s until the last week of the month. That was enjoyable. Over all it was a nice quiet month.

November- This month is not yet over. So far all that's happened is I voted for the first time. The candidate which I cast my vote for did not win though. On Monday the 10th my very very good friend, Andrew Serrano had a lay over in Phoenix so I was able to spend a few hours of catching up with him. It was so great to see him. It's been about 2 1/2-3 years since we've done that....way too long.  Now we're at today. I don't start work until 3 and Matt's in a final right now so I thought it's a good time to update on how our life has been since leaving Illinois. This last 6 months has been the best of my life so far. I can only see it getting better from here. I absolutely love where we are. Not only the geographical location but where we are in our lives. It's amazing! I can't imagine not being married to Matthew. I only wish we could've done it sooner. On Saturday I am working a massage party, with my friend Stephanie, for a lady that I massage at AZ Medical. I am looking very forward to it. Next week starts Matt's break. (Technically it starts on Friday after his last final but whatever.) Also the new expansion to WoW comes out very soon (if it isn't already out, I can't remember the date for it) so I'm sure that's how he will be spending his break. This coming Tuesday is the 18th, which means we'll have been married for six months! The following Monday is the 24th, which is six months to the day that we moved down here. Then it's Thanksgiving. It's not going to be a usual holiday for us. It's probably going to be just the 3 of us. I'm going to try to cook a turkey for us so if a future post talks about how we went out to eat for dinner, you'll know why. 

I think that's everything. Everything of importance anyway. All in all I love my life. Yes, I miss my family. Yes, I miss my friends. I also love the place I'm at in my life. I wouldn't change a thing. Thank you for enduring such a long post. I don't foresee anymore being this long. At least not for a while, HaHa.

Have a blessed day,

Myliea