hi people we're taking tests now

so here's the deal with our church: 1. it costs money to get married there 2. we couldn't meet with our priest until we'd been registered members for more than six months 3. we couldn't meet with our priest without taking a test 4. we couldn't meet with our priest until we met with a counselor to discuss aforementioned test.

so basically, we haven't met with our priest.

but what we have done so far is take that test. a one-hour long multiple choice test that both casey and i had to take separately. no sitting next to each other, no talking, no nothing as long as we had the test in our hands.

and with what could they possibly fill an hour's worth of test? some gems include "i'm afraid of my future spouse", "my future spouse uses sex as a way to control me" and "we have discussed and agreed on how many children we're having". in this 146-question exam, the dominating topics were sex and money, though questions touched on our in-laws, religion and children. you could only answer agree, disagree and uncertain, which was beyond infuriating. so i sped through the test. and managed to beat casey by a good ten minutes. here's me waiting for casey:

what's that you say? i wasn't allowed to take pictures during the test? damn straight i wasn't. who knows, i might have tried to communicate answers via my flash or someting equally nefarious. but we're rebels and whatnot.

meeting with the counselor on november 15th. we'll let you know how that goes.

the BEST man

hi! casey here. just to show you that janine is not getting married by herself i figured i'd post something, so i am taking the opportunity to introduce you to my best man. this is dave bonney and i have known him since the 5th grade, so that is about 18 years now. i spent much of my time growing up hanging out at dave's house. at one point his mom might have claimed me on her taxes because that is how often i was there. they had the whole italian family thing going on so i also ate a lot of their food.


dave has 2 younger brothers and is actually related to william bonney aka "billy the kid." you might have noticed that the title of this post is "the BEST man" not "my best man"
that is because dave is the BEST. dave and i were on the wrestling team in high school and he always did well. he always placed at tournaments and went to county finals. after high school dave joined the marines and was in for that whole invasion of iraq thing and then just got back from his 2nd tour last year. he should be done and out in a few months as long as they don't decide to ship him back (i told him i would write him a note saying he did not have to go) when he does get out he is looking into becoming a cop, but not one of those jerk cops who is on a power trip, he's gonna be one of the actually trying to do some good in the world cops. so as you can see dave is out there doing all the noble hard stuff that needs to get done so that the rest of us sinners can pursue careers playing video games and so he is the BEST. so the role suits him to a t.

engagement party part deux

so this past saturday was our second (and last!) engagement party. we rented out the mezzanine level at pitfire pizza company = yummy goodness. check out who came!

casey's friends from school/san diego: matt, jen (matt's gf), monique and coral

my mc peeps: libby and her boyfriend jacob / nicole, jerry and debbie

casey's mom with jay and shannon, his cousins / casey with dave the best man, dave's mom diane and dave's brother bryan / casey and me with his sister corie and donna

here is a shot of everyone eating and talking at our tables.

we had so much fun but are happy that we're done with parties! look how happy we are below!

and now for dessert...breakfast

on the last day of our trip, we had the best brunch at auntie penny's and uncle jacques.

there was so much food! (which i didn't get a picture of but there were people too!)

and a surprise cake for danny! she's sixteen now! the one below is her being surprised:

such was the fourth day. the next day we left for california. our engagement extravaganza spectacular is finally over.

we can be tourists too!

after recovering from the party the next morning with a fabulous breakfast of bagels, sausage, fruit and waffles, we set out to see DC.

team coleman in front of the washington monument / me'n'case at the jefferson memorial

me, mom and jessica at the fdr memorial

reflecting pool and washington monument- janel being cute / mom and james posing for the camera

us at the korean memorial

such was the third day

seven years

yesterday was our seven-year anniversary of our first date. now i can't exactly remember what our first date was (casey does all the remembering in this relationship) but i'm sure it was great.

oh yeah, it's a party

main course the engagement party / days of shopping amounts to this

the ultimate in sexy.


like the décor? brought to you courtesy of frank and mom's artistic expertise.


more fun:

our awesome chocolate cake with raspberry filling; casey and i in our coordinating outfits; the ultimate in cuteness with my cousin audrey and her dad joe; me and janel outside the party; casey and my signature pose; frank stealing the show with his awesome belly dance

such was the second night

i love my girls!

look how cute we are!

ok people, let's take this slow

so to recount our entire adventure in one posting would be considered cruel and unusually lengthy, so we're processing it in controlled dosages!

apéritif: the welcome dinner / a fabulous meal cooked at mom's house with plenty of family to go 'round

drinking. tarte. general yumminess abound.

oh and fun people too!

such was the first night.

we like to be fancy

makeup/hair consultant/and oh yeah, maid of honor Janel photographed some stellar shots of casey and me in "part one of our engagement pictures extravaganza!"

oh and because we're artistes:

my maid of honor...let me show her to you

janel king is my maid of honor. we met her in college- casey had a class with her making a film. now we hang out a lot.

she even lived with us for a couple of years. but now she lives in anaheim.

janel has a cute cat. and four brothers and sisters, all with 'j' names.

she likes animals. she's a teacher. she teaches animals six-graders in lynwood.

janel is writing a young adult book and also does special effects makeup. halloween is always fun.


pictures from top left going clockwise:

• casey and janel studying a map the last time we were in greece

• taken immediately after me karate-chopping a wine glass out of her hand and onto her pants

• janel playing dead sexy at a murder-mystery party

• janel and me trapped in the ropes course at california adventure

• center / the three of us at the beach aka casey is a pimp

start of something...new?

hi! we're finally getting married after dating for six and a half years. we decided on a long engagement, meaning that we'll probably get married sometime in september of 2010. yep, we're sliding into marital bliss just one month before casey turns 30 and five months before i do.

we got engaged while on a zip-line tour in Costa Rica in february of 2008. some fifty feet up in a tree of all places!

the picture at the foot of this page contains only a few choice selects from years of vain self-portraits. for a larger and more narcissistic picture of us, just click here.