A Very Engaging Blog

New name

2009-11-04T12:39:00.000-08:00

I feel like the blog needs a new name. Maybe it's just me who even looks at this anymore, but hey since it's here why not? So we have been married for 3 1/2 weeks now. Life is challenging as always, but it continues. Lil Jay has really taken to BH. Yes he gets jealous sometimes and wants his dad, but there is a connection forming between the 2 of them. It makes me happy. We are getting our apartment all organized. It's hard to stuff so much into a 2 bed apartment. The cruise was amazing. We took like 239 pictures and video. Nanaquins will have to post some of the pictures somewhere. She is way better at it than I am. The food was amazing. It was like going to a classy restaurant everyday with the food prepaid for and all you can eat portions. I had 2 desserts most nights and several appetizers. We kept the towel animals and took a group picture the last night. Well most of the animals made it. I had to improvise the sea turtle. It looked more like a tortoise, but still looked pretty cool. (And this was in no thanks to my new bride. She decided to videotape my follies and laugh in a mocking tone while I slaved over the sculpture she wanted. ) Hey honey. I love you. And if you can't laugh at yourself trying to fold a towel into an animal shape, then there just is no humor in your life. Words of wisdom by J-ride.

6 days and counting

2009-10-05T13:33:00.000-07:00

It is less than a week from the big day. We are really excited. I wish there was another word for excited. In Spanish I would use "emocionados". That means full of emotion, but you probably could figure that out by yourselves. It looks like there isn't much else to do. The decorator is all set with plans and everything. I just don't know what else there is to do. We are already moving things from Banana's home to my lil apartment. I don't know what we are going to do with all of the stuff we have. It's mostly furniture.
I am getting nervous. It feels so good to get nervous. Like this is a big commitment or something. Because it IS!!! I know that and I would hate to screw anything up. Most of you already know and if not well now you will, I was previously married. It wasn't my fault entirely for the failure of my 1st marriage. I take responsibility for my part and look at myself constantly so I will not repeat the same mistakes. I can envision us being happy together. We lean on each other by supporting the other person. If that even makes sense. I grow by helping her become the best and greatest person she could be, and I feel she does he same. It is wonderful.

We've got the playlist!

2009-09-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

We start with the nice, slow, easy listening type music for the time we're standing in the line up. The list goes as such...

For Always - Laura Bradley
In Her Eyes - Josh Groban
Caribbean Blue - Enya
You're Still You - Josh Groban
Come What May - Moulin Rouge
Flora's Secret - Enya
When You Say You Love Me - Josh Groban
Come Away With Me - Norah Jones
Only Hope - Mandy Moore

Then we cut the cake and begin the dancing with our first dance...

I Love You Always Forever - Donna Lewis (First dance)
Slipping Through My Fingers - Abba (Father/Daughter dance)
Truly Madly Deeply - Savage Garden
Must Have Done Something Right - Relient K
At The Beginning - Donna Lewis
1, 2, 3, 4 - Plain White Ts
We're In Heaven - DJ Sammy
I'm A Believer - SmashMouth
Stop and Stare - OneRepublic
Dreaming of You - Selena
A Little Less Conversation - Elvis

And of course, just for fun, we've got to do the bouquet and garter toss!

Ladies Night - Atomic Kitten (Bouquet Toss)
Sexy Back - Justin Timberlake (Garter Toss)

Then we end our evening at the reception and head out for the real night to begin!!!

I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas (Last Dance)

I really hope everyone comes ready to party and dance. We want everyone to get involved and have a good time!

Coming along and Honeymoon plans

2009-09-16T12:32:00.000-07:00

Invitations are in the mail!!! Wow I am really excited. I hadn't realized all the many things Bananaquins has accomplished with the wedding preparations. I knew most, but now I know the flowers, decorations, and catering is taken care of too. Thanks to all of her family for the preparations. We would really be worrying and stressing out without your help. I don't know if my dear sweet bride-to-be can put the invitation on this blog or not, but your invitations will be there soon enough. Everything is looking good for the 10th of October. Some of you may be wondering about the special time afterward. I think Banana has already told many of you, but for those who have not heard, we are goi9ng on a 7 night cruise. We will leave on Sunday October 11 @ 5:pm. The cruise will leave from Long Beach, CA and go to Puerto Vallerta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. We will return to Long Beach at 9:AM Sunday the 18th. This is a way awsome cruise because my parents spent their honeymoon in Mazatlan and I purchased the ring in Cabo San Lucas.

Sadness and Joy, Sorrow and Glee

2009-09-11T12:17:00.000-07:00

This is a very difficult decision for us to make. We appreciate-- well I guess I'm not supposed to speak for my beautiful fiancee but I think she feels the same-- all the love and support we are getting for our happy day. October is right around the corner. Both of us are disappointed that our marriage will not initiate in the temple, but are thrilled to become a family. There is still time to vote for (or change your vote) for which temple we should go to. This is a very real goal and we want your input.

This has been a very VERY busy time. Banana has been flying threw the air getting all sorts of things accomplished. So far our invitations are in the print shop (She did a fantastic job in designing them, You rock Girl), Rings have been chosen and picked up (mine is still on order but I have a loaner just in case) Ribbon was bought, rooms were reserved, person to marry us is all set, DJ is booked, Photographer is still needed if you think of anyone let us know :) dress and cake has been ordered too. The other night I actually fell asleep before She did!!! Can you believe it? They were out until 10 doing all the shopping. I am doing my stuff too so don't think I'm not.

Life is great and wonderful. There is sadness mixed in with the joy, but the latter is definitely more prominent. Thanks again for all the support and love. We will keep everybody posted as even more things get finished.

October 10, 2009

2009-09-04T22:48:00.001-07:00

That's the date! So don't forget. Kinda came out of nowhere, so, we're hauling bootay to try and get everything ready.
So there isn't any surprise later I'll come out with it now. Because of how soon we'll be getting married and the process to go to the Temple, this will not be a Temple wedding. We're hoping to make that the event on our first year anniversary.

Now that's out of the way, I have to know... Is there ANYONE in the family who likes my fiance? Everyone's scaring the crud out of me. I wish I had some words of encouragement from someone!

Groom's Cakes and Bachelor Parties

2009-08-21T16:39:00.000-07:00

So I am thinking a lot about (well not a lot about but the topic has crossed my mind) about what to do for a bachelor party. I know its a little bit early to be thinking about and planning, but hey I need to contribute so here ya go. The grooms cake is a cake that represents everything the groom was BEFORE marriage. And most of them are pretty funny. It is traditionally a chocolate cake that contrasts the white pure wedding cake. Kind of like MORP is a backwards or anti-prom. Toppers for these cakes normally have the bride in her wedding gown dragging the groom by the shirt collar to the alter. Now I really do love my little Nanaquins so here is an idea to have. I enjoy math and tv and video games. There is a video game called Katamari and it is a little green dude who rolls a Katamari ball around the room. The katamari ball is like super sticky so it picks up everything it touches and gets bigger the more stuff it collects. It would be pretty funny to have a bride rolling the katamari ball and the groom stuck to it. Right? anyway also throw in some math theme like a Cartesian Plane (x and y axis used for graphing) with my favorite equation y-y1= m(x-x1) the point slope formula for a line. Or maybe some weird shaped object made out of different shapes? And about the Bachelor party...What do Mormons do for bachelor parties anyway?

Concerning Multiple Votes

2009-08-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

It's been brought to my attention that there may be some participants in the poll who are casting multiple votes. I won't point any fingers, but Amo, Charlie says, "We all went to Washington and had a great time, you can make a trip to California." Actually, I didn't go to Washington because I had studies to do, but I'm sure it was fun. Hmm, should we add the Washington Temple to the list?

Anyway, this isn't ACORN. So even if it's in my favor, please, no multiple votes.
Thank you for the support, though!

On other brainwaves, to those who voted for San Diego, you rock!

J-Ride, honey, did you vote?

Deciding on a Temple!

2009-08-17T08:51:00.000-07:00

I think we need to decide once and for all which Temple to get married in. To get everyone in on this, I have created a poll with our top 4 picks. I will post pictures as a visual aid to help in anyone's decision.

San Diego Temple in San Diego, CA

Mesa Arizona Temple in Mesa, AZ

Gila Valley Temple in Central, AZ

Mount Timpanogos Temple in Pleasant Grove, UT

J-ride intro

2009-08-14T12:34:00.000-07:00

This is Banana's blog, and I will not steal the thunder from beneath her leaves. I would like to introduce myself to the followers of such a divine creature. I am somewhat offended by the remark of Banana calling me human, but since that is the form I chose for this time I cannot be too offended. It was a sweet romantic proposal. I had many different thoughts of asking and then I finally floundered on what actually transpired. I could not control or help myself from loving someone some special. As stated earlier, we are still deciding about a specific date. Things move a lot slower in this life than my previous. We shall indeed keep you posted.

Getting Started

2009-08-13T22:13:00.000-07:00

First things first I guess. Hello! Banana here to announce my engagement to J-Ride. We got engaged officially... a little over a month ago, on July 3rd. I'm only just barely starting this documentation of the human engagement process because I only just barely got approval of the engagement from the Banana Coalition Headquarters in Chocoban. Many thanks, Choco Pacho! I know I said you would be the only man for me, but who knew I would meet a human who makes me so happy?
It seems the steps towards marriage is very complicated, so we don't know yet the official date of the ceremony. However, since getting the okay, I feel like a huge wall has been knocked down allowing us to progress with our plans.
Like choosing wedding colors!
I've decided on Cobalt Blue and Lavender, combining my favorite color with J's, with silver accents. I have decided to use a color scheme for this blog to match. Hooray!
More ideas to come as we get them.