Long time no blog

What can I say it's been a long time since I have blogged about how my wedding planning has been going. Well mostly because I haven't really gotten around to doing anything... We have to set a date in order to do any planning but I have been looking around a lot online at venues, catering, photography, etc. but in general its super expensive in the south bay. Any location that is decently priced has no catering and the places that do have catering are over $5000 dollars...its nuts. That's like my entire budget believe me I would love to have the beautiful table/chair covers, huge center pieces, and sit down dinner with china...but that's not in the budget. As much as I love my guests its kinda like either I only invite a total 50-70 people to have a dream WEDDING and be able to go to my hunnymoon or invite everyone like 100-150 people and eat cheese and crackers with a BYOB drink service...LMAO
No I want to invite as many people as possible and make a beautiful ceremony its just going to take a lot of hard work.

The One

This last Saturday was a very special day. My sister, mother, and I went to David's Bridal to try on some dresses. We got through about ten and some of them were amazing.... others were well crap..lol well at least on me. My sister is always such a help and rather hilarious. I'd walk out of the room and she would either say "next" or "Oh...nice"

The picture to the above was the first one I tried on and it was the first 10 out of the group. I loved the lace applica that flowed into some beautiful tool and a rhinestone belt with keyhole back. It was really pretty but it was the first one and we had a few more to go..lol I really wanted to try on a lot different styles which was exciting. The next one on the left was not so lovely and I especially love my sister's expression in the background. As in "mmm not so much...." face...

lol we had so much fun. My sister and mom were a great panel of judges. I should have given them cardboard numbers 1-10 so they could be like the dancing with the stars judges and my third judge was one of the ladies there that just jumped in and out of the dress area to put her two cents in.
It was really difficult to stay in budget because I really didn't want to spend more then a couple hundred dollars but all the dresses that were low in cost...well looked low in cost. They had no flare no personality it was like if you were in high school and decided to wear white to prom...and bought a bad prom dress. It would have been a waste of money and not what I really wanted...and I don't think my sister or mother would have left me get one of those...There were a couple of dresses that were amazing though like the one next to the ugly one...It was lace with rhinestones and pearls on every square inch of the dress. I couldn't breath...at all. It ran about two sizes smaller then normal...I thought I may faint Pirates of the Caribbean status . Don't get me wrong this dress was beautiful but as my sister put it so well " this dress would make anyone look amazing because it is an amazing dress...The dress is wearing you." I liked the way she put it because she was right. Which is probably why I didn't choose that dress. It reminded me of a huge church wedding with the long veil and Italian mother crying...lol like out of a movie. However the dress that I did choose was well even better then the second place dress why? Mostly because I have never seen anyone wear anything like it. It is unique and fits my body type, frame, style and most of all personality. It is fun and flirty with a twist on the traditional style wedding dress. I think people will be shocked when they see it but what I care about most is the look on Oscar's face that day. Well That's all I can give you...no pictures of my actual wedding dress sorry...lol but all in all I shopped twice and tried on a total of 15 dress in the two settings. I had a great time with my sister and mom and will never forget the laughs we had.

Teacher?...

So most people know that both my sister and my brother are teachers and I'm seriously considering getting a BA in general education for teaching. I basically got this idea because my current Radiology teacher is having to do that now. My professor graduated from El Camino's Radiology program with an AS in Radiological sciences a few years back and did the technologist thing for a while working in hospitals and clinics but then she decided to become a teacher. Putting her right back in school to get her BA a few years later. So right now I'm in limbo because I have three classes before I can apply for the radiology tech. program and once I apply I have to wait two years to do the program because it is so impacted (and it a total of two years to do the progran). So two years to just sit around....and volunteer at the hospital....?
Come on two years is a long time and I have a future to plan and dreams to fulfill. I want my BA but I can not get it in Radiology until I have an AS in Radiology...So here's my thought... Why not get a general education BA in the two years while I have to wait around because who knows I may want to teach radiology at the college level someday. I mean I know if I do that I will have to take additional advanced classes for the Radiology level but...when that day comes if I want to do it I will only have to do half the work because I will already have a BA in Teaching. I mean this is just a rough idea...but it may be a really productive way to use two years of my life.
My mom likes the idea but started laughing saying "wow now I have three teachers in the family"

School, dresses, and LOVE>>>>

School....LET IT BEGIN!!!! lol Well I'm studying to become a Radiology technologist. I'm taking an intro class at the moment with a very nice lady that sort of reminds me of my sister...she's hip she's with it...

Also Chemistry 20 (beginning chem) its like being back in high school with Mr. Noble... but the thing that keeps me sane is

Salsa Dancing....
My professors name is Phoenix Cole... hes rather eccentric with his hand motions, soft spoken, funny, dainty, and a very graceful dancer but most of all gay as his blush pink colored V-neck skin tight long sleeve shirt he wore the first day of class. He can basically put a smile and everyone's face all the time. Let us dance...

The other thing that is becoming my new addiction is...
Wedding dress shopping online...lovin David's Bridal to death lol
Can't wait to go in with my mom and start trying everything on (that's under 100 a dollars) lol
I already sent the pictures of my favorites to my sister, sister in-law, and mother...we got a lot of work to do.

Now to the topic of LOVE>>>
What can I say being engaged isn't much different then being boyfriend and girlfriend... I think I always knew he was the right one for me. Although we drive each other to the point of being crazy...its mostly crazy in love.

Growing up
It's hard to think about becoming independent from my family in the world today. It seems a college education doesn't get you a job like it used to. It seems like only a masters or doctorate is worth anything in school anymore. It seems like being on your own with no one to help you is damn near impossible but I know together Oscar and I can make it through anything just like my grandparents made it through the Great Depression... Our generation can make it through this too.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is here already. It is Oscar and my second Valentine's day together. I unfortunately am working all day and he is off work which is rather depressing because I would rather be spending the day with him then going to work. I'm a little nervous to be at work today because I have a feeling my manager is going to be screaming at me. lol which ya know is so much fun but I'm not going to let that ruin my day. Last night I made my hunny his favorite dish Spaghetti and meat balls with home made strawberry cheese cake. Although I should have made more because he wanted like thirds lol but that's ok because we were at his house and his mom had made some chicken, rice, vegetable, potato gray dish. So he ate enough lol. I hope tonight Oscar does something nice for me. Although I have learned to not ask for something or expect something because he usually surprises me somehow lol. Last year he bought me a dozen roses, a stuffed animal that sings "Sugar pie hunny bunch" It was really nice and cute. Anyway that's all I really wanted to talk about lol.

Engagment

I think that titling my blog "Planning the Next step" appropriate for this chapter in my life because I recently had some amazing thing happen to me...But let us start at the beginning a very good place to start lol.

My boyfriend and I began dating last November and have been together for over a year. We met through a good friend of ours and have basically been together ever since. I love how he can make me laugh and smile daily. Anyway getting back to the proposal...lol

We had been discussing getting engaged for a couple weeks and on a not so particular day he surprised me (he always does) I got off work at about eight o'clock at night and he met me at work and wanted to go for a drive together. (He enjoys driving and talking when he feels stressed) So off we went driving and talking like we usually do. There is a very special place that he and I share a top a mountain over looking all of Los Angels one of the first places we got to know each other. Its a plain place- sticks, dirt, rocks, mud, no seating, and the only place for miles that you can see the stars. I think we first went there because it would remind me of home...lol so he took me there the first time so we could star gaze this was before we were even dating. As he drove I had a feeling he was driving there because it calms him when he feels anxiety (which is like never). He parked the car and we walked out to the ridge. We stood in the darkness over looking the city with the stars above our heads and the sky was so clear because it had just rained...


My legs were rather soar because I had been on my feet all day and being the country girl that I am I knelt down in the mud and started talking about how I had been feeling lately about school and our future. Which has been stressing me out to the point of tears... I started to tear up and get very emotional all the while Oscar is tugging at my shoulder to stand up but I didn't want to because my legs were hurting so bad. So finally I stood up even though I was ready to be crying my eyes out due to the stress of my life he grabbed my hands and held me close and said "shh you don't need to worry anymore... You don't need to cry or feel sad or stressed everything is going to be ok" and I replied "how do you know?" "because I love you enough to ask you to marry me?' (as he pulled a small box from his pocket and my heart started to pound hard) Well being as it was that I was already really emotional lol lets just say I started balling... but they were tears of joy this time...lol He slipped the ring on my finger and all of my worries melted away because I knew that from that moment on I would be taken care of and loved and that the love that I express would always be returned.

Well at least that's what I would pray for and if I didn't think that was true there would really be no point in saying "yes" to marring him lol.