It officially one week to the wedding after tomorrow!!! I can not believe how quickly times has passed and I am SOOOO ready for all the planning to come to an end and for me to just celebrate and enjoy!  At this point, if something goes wrong despite me trying to plan and think of every possible things that could go wrong..I am like whatever.  The wedding will take place regardless and all that I would care about is that it will be a blessed wedding and for me to enjoy being with my loved ones.  I am planning on eating and dancing with my friends and family! 

Anyways, even though I am currently in my summer break, I still feel like I am fairly busy every single day.  One thing is that I have been diagnosed with the beginning stage of Lyme Disease about two weeks ago and I have been taking antibiotics for it!  It is crazy...but I am VERY thankful that I went to my docotor and got the bloodwork done and that this was discovered at an earlier stage.  There's way too many people whose Lyme disease does not get diagnosed for a loong time and the effects of it is not good.  I got another blood work done on Wed. to make sure that I really do have the Lyme disease as it is something that often give false positive as well.  It would be great if it was false positive...but we will see.  I have not really had any of the join aches and stuff associated with it though.  However, I felt fairly nautious in the beginning when I started taking the medicine.  I will be done taking it the day before the wedding (thankfully!).  This whole situation has been crazy, but it has brought me more awareness to make sure I check my body and also check others as well whenever I go outside where I could get ticks...deer tick is definitely common around this area. 

Oh another note..I almost thought my wedding dress was not going to zip up the other day!!!  That REALLY scared me..so I have been exericising (trying to) daily and eating better until the wedding day.  Gosh I can't wait to be able to enjoy food and eat whatever..hahaha. 

I am sure the next time I will be posing will be after the wedding and after I come back from the honeymoon!  Pictures may take a while though...I will be back as Mrs. Aya Osada Costello

I had a day off today due to the power outages at many of the schools in P.G. County.  I knew the storm last night was terrible, but did not think I would have a day off  I am happy, but I am at home doing work as I have a ton of work that needs to be completed with the end of this school year coming to an end as of next Tuesday!!!  I am VERY excited and very much ready for the school year to end, but in order for that to happen...I NEED to finish up some paperwork.  I don't think I've felt this pressed at work in a while, so I have been forced to bring home work the past few weeks.  I can slowly see the light at the end of the tunnel

Anyways, my wedding is less than a month away now!  Ahhhh.  It's amazing how much more I still need to do last minute..things you just can't do until you get all the resposnes back.  It is also annoying when you do not get the responses in time so you have to keep bugging that person to make up the mind.  No matter how organized I try to be with many lists of to dos...there's always something that comes up last minute and changes take place.  I think I have been handling fairly well with the last minute changes and is looking forward to the wedding day to come 

Oh yes, I also got the new car!!! FINALLY.  I got a Honda Fit Sport model.  It is a red car!  The choice was between black or red, so I went with one of my favorite colors, RED.  I actually love this car a lot better than the Toyota Corolla that I had.  It is a hatchback, so the backseat can fold down, which makes it convienient when you have a big stuff to put in.  It is like a mini-size of a mini van  So yes, I drove my brand new car to upstate NY all by myself (5 hour drive) for the bridal shower that Matt's mom has done.  It was really good.  Matt and I got a lot of things that we really can use for the kitchen and for our condo.  We should be able to host a get together at our condo

Matt's brother, the wife and John (the toddler) had the settlement for their new house, so they have moved out last weekend.  It is awfully quiet in our condo.  We got our space back to put away things, which is nice, but I sort of miss having them around.  It was nice to have people there when Matt and I got back from work.  We especially enjoyed John.  I think Matt really misses him too.  It was really sad..when we were over at their house two days ago..when we were about to leave..John got whiny and wanted us to pick him up and proceeded to walk to the door as if he was going home with us.  We will be seeing more of John now that they live close by

Alrighty..I need to get back to work now.  I will try my best to update more often..but I don't even know if anyone still reads my blog. 

Finally! Some updates...

It's been a very long time since I last updated.  Well, I actually tried to update a few weeks ago, but I accidently deleted the blog before I had the chance to save it..so I said forget it..and never got around to it.  I feel like there's some updating to do since the car accident.  I feel like that is what I last wrote about.  Anyways, even though the car accident issue has been settled rather quickly (Thank God!)..I still have not bought the new car yet.  My dad has offered that if I am willing to wait till the end of May, he is willing to pay for the car so I can just pay him back the money each month with low interest rate than any other place would offer.  I took that proposal as I can negotiate a better deal when I can pay for the car with cash..plus hey..it's always a lot easier when I don't have to go through the dealer in terms of financing for the car.  This time, I may return to Honda instead of Toyota.  I have found a car of my interest...we will see.  I will definitely have Matt come out with me to the dealer as I HATE having to go to the dealer and talk to the salesperson.  They are trying to do their job..but they can be intimidating!!!

Anyways, so I had the bridal shower and the bachelorette party two weekends ago My sister and Mindy with the support of Remi and Kitty did a wonderful job of planning the wonderful weekend fun for me.  Everything was perfect and I am soooo thankful!!!  The bridal shower took place at the Sunflower restaurant which was beautiful.  Here are some pics:

My sister created the beautfiul menu, the placemat and etc. 

Look at the cute bridal shower sign!

Here are my bridesmaids.  From the left, my sister, Mindy, me (of course), Remi and Kitty!

From the left, Natalie, Tracy, Cindy, and Karen.  Oh the food was delicious too!

Some of my work friends!

Look at the cute cake The gift opening was fun too.  I could not believe how much I got!  Thank you everyone.  Matt and I are slowly starting to have decent items for the kitchen! 

Look at how cute the purse is.  My sister made it. When you open the purse, there are list of tasks I had to do for the night (me having to ask guys to do a certain thing).

My sister and I.  Oh yes, some of us stayed over at a hotel in downtown Bethesda after fun night out in D.C.  It was a very nice room!

See the inside of the purse!  Very cute indeed. 

Wiht some of the girls.  All the way to the right is Amanda (one of my future sister-in-law to be!)

one of the task was to find a guy to speak Spanish and to find a guy who would serenade me..and yup I chose the Mariachi band peeps at the Mexican restaurant where the bachelorette dinner was.  It was VERY embarassing as I had to later on dance in front of people...but it was all in fun

Bachelorette party crew!

Went to the comedy club after dinner.  One of the task was to take a picture with the comedian and I sure got the pic to prove it!

One of the task was to get I believe 5 business guys who were single..so here are two!

All the fun went by soooo FAST!  I am not looking forward to the wedding day as I will be with many of my friends I have not seen for a looong time

Oh...this past Tuesday was a surprise bridal shower at school.  I was VERY surprised as my co-workers did a great job of tricking me thinking I was heading to the multipurpose room for a last minute staff meeting..it was funny as I was complaning as I walked down the hallway.."Gosh stupid staff meeting.  This is why I never ever get anything done in the morning!"  Thanks everyone for a great surprise and the great breakfast food!!

Alrighty..well let me work on the wedding program sample as my sister will be the one (thanks!) creating one. 

Gosh I have not updates in ages!!! I always tell myself that I should update but things have been way too hectic and I just have not had the time.  Anyways..a lot has happened in the past few days!

The biggest of all is that I got into a car accident!!!  It was a hit and run situation where the guy who hit me from behind on the beltway just took off right as he hit me.  Because the impact from behind was big, I hit a car in front me which at that moment, I had no idea what the heck I hit.  I thought I hit the wall on the side instead, but of course it was another car.  Thankfully..I was not hurt.  Of course I had the sore neck and sore lower back pain the next few days, I am perfectly fine as I write this.  Also, I am VERY thankful that two kind witnesses of the accident (well one guy did not see me get hit, but he still pulled over to make sure I was ok) took the time to pull over to make sure I was ok.  One of the guy who was in the lane next to mine witnessed me getting hit and saw the guy take off.  However, since he took off too quickly, no one was able to get the tag number or anything.  It was scary..but this is the second time I have gotten into a fairy big car accident where I was not at fault..and both time, I TRULY believe God has protected me and has watched over me through this process.  The first accident I got in, I had a witness who was nice enough to pull over to testify that I had the green light..and this time too..I had a witness who saw me get hit and due to that, I hit the car in front of mine.  Even my sister, who is not a Christian said to me..."When you called me that night, I truly thanked God for you because I truly felt you were protected."   

Anyways, ever since the accident, I am being a lot more cautious and see how agressive some of the drivers are out there!  It is so dangerous.  My car is totaled and I will be getting back more money than I have left on the auto loan..which is helpful as I have to look for a new car to buy..I am glad my insurance company offered a lot more than what I had expected..Matt will definitely help me look for a new car.  I am driving Matt's car in the mean time as he takes the metro to work so he doesn't really use his car anymore.  Also, the day of the car accident..he happen to not go to work so he was home to be able to pick me up. 

So yeah, dealing with the process of getting things straight after a car accident is never fun and it definitely has not helped me with the upcoming bridal shower/bachelorette party and my wedding that will be taking place in about 2 months!!!  However, I need to stay relaxed and continue to pray that God will take care of everything.  Plus I have a wonderful family, future in-laws, Matt and my friends who have been very supportive throughout this process.

On a different note.Matt's middle brother, his wife and the baby (1 and half) will be moving back to VA this Saturday and will be staying with us until Matt's brother finds a job and they find a house to buy in VA.  It's hard to tell how long they will be living with us..but I am assuming at least for a month!  It will be a big change but at the same time, I am VERY happy that they are moving back and they will be closer  It's always so nice to have a family memeber (future family member) nearby.  I also enjoy hanging out with them.  Matt and I will definitely get the experience of what it will be like to have a child! hahaha

Does anyone know or can provide me with information about doing a Unity Candle Ceremony during the wedding ceremony?  I have heard of people including this and Matt's mom wanted to know if this can be done.  I think the idea of it is nice, but it would be helpful if someone who has done it or someone who has seen one can provide me with more information.  I have found out a lot of different ways to doing this during the ceremony. 

Today is my last day of spring break  It surely went by fast...and I feel like I got to relax, but I also feel like I did a lot of erranges within the house (ex. laundry, cooking, cleaning) and wedding stuff.  Oh well..I definitely feel less stressed when list of things to do are done  hahaha. 

I have also been watching a lot of the NCAA basketball games.  Gosh..some of the teams were such disappointment!  I am doing ok..in terms of the bracket I am doing with some of the co-workers.