Kristen Said Yes

Sorry for the recent lack of updates; we've been busy with the reception hall hunting. I was going to write a post about the two places we visited last weekend, but I thought it would be way more entertaining to hear it from Kristen.

So I hacked into her email account and copied one of her emails to Colleen:

Trying to find a reception place first...most important. Plus our church time is for 3 but we feel that 1 would be better esp. in the fall and gives us more time..so mom says I am afraid of Msg. Weber to change the time, but what do you think..I think that 1 gives more time for travel since we most likely will be driving someplace to get to reception We went up to The Garrison and Villa Bourgese on Saturday. Garrison was beautiful but expensive (not a lot included in the price for plate...$150, but then all these add ons..plus if we wanted heat in the cocktail room (which is like under a tent) it would be extra...you know my mom and the cold..haha. Plus, not a lot of photo opts inside if it's pouring. The next place was further north and would be like an hour from St. Francis if we went with it...and i was so anxious the entire time...great photo ops if it's raining but max of 3 events at once!!!! CRAZINESS! That date, Oct 23 already had another wedding for 230 people and guess what....ONE BATHROOM for all the events!!! CRAZINESS!! Plus Chris liked the room that that other wedding has, so that's a no go. However, it was a good price and you got a lot for your money..however, I was like...nope! It's a bridal factory! Okdokies...I have to get to surgery..hip pinning for fracture....will ramble on more laters!!


And there you have it, straight from the Bride-to-Be's mouth.

Big day coming up this weekend; Kristen and I get to meet with the priest of the church where we're planning to "tie el knot".

I've been given strict instructions by multiple parties involved to keep my lips shut.

From the great philosophers in the movie Madagascar, as their fearless leader once said; "Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave."

I know I'm going to get asked if I attend church, and I know that part of me wants to say that God never intended for churches to exist, and I'll spare you my long winded explanation for why I know that.

But I'm pretty sure that would point me in the wrong direction, not the best way to start off a meeting with the priest.

Kristen says that the guy just wants to get to know us.

I'm hoping he has a sense of humor.

On our way back from visiting Mr. and Mrs. Matroni, we made a pit stop at Kristen's Aunt and Uncle's house.

Kristen ran in screaming at a higher register than I've previously heard, which convinced me that her ring gives her super powers.

Once little Connor Baby stopped crying (apparently dogs aren't the only ones that are effected by the high pitch squealing) and Kristen stopped shaking (apparent side effect of new found super powers) she was able to introduce the ring to the rest of the Bladel family.

The highlight of the visit, of course was Mr. Connor.

Kristen got to feed the little dude, and upon further review, he and I pretty much have the same problems keeping our food in the mouth.

Connor is quite the swimmer too; he manned a crab flotation device, officially making him King of the Pool.

The 2009 Bladel Pool Baseball Championship Game was played, with the home team of Uncle Jim, Momma Bladel, Sean, and Liz taking home the trophy thanks to a 5-1 drubbing over my team.

I don't want to talk about it.

Kristen's family surprised us with a little cookie cake celebration in honor of the engagement.

Apparently word has gotten out that we like cookie cake.

And I'm pretty sure that they know about our Chili's fixation.

Since I swore off Technology for the entire weekend, any of the following photos are courtesy of Kristen's camera.

I swear I didn't check a single email or voicemail or look at a computer.

Who am I kidding, I never check voicemail.

I had 48 new emails when I got into work this morning.

For those of you who don't know, Jimbo and Michelle were just married this May. I was lucky enough to be one of the groomsmen in Jimbo's party.

And now I can finally honestly say, that yes, It was the door that I was supposed to be guarding which the homeless guy used to enter the church.

Sorry, I kinda dropped the ball there.

Jimbo is slated to be in my starting rotation, so sure buddy, let all the homeless guys you want to just mosey on in.

So Jimbo and Michelle moved away from little old Hamden, CT to Margate, NJ. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the whereabouts of Margate, it's just two clicks south of heaven.

We headed to the beach for some grilling and swimming and drinking and horseshoeing and drinking and sun stuffs and fireworks and drinking and my liver still hurts.

I'm not sure what I was doing in this picture, but I'm pretty sure Michelle was frustrated with her husband's choice in friends.

Jimbo and Michelle were both lucky enough to keep their jobs. In fact, they both are now working from home.

Imagine that, two companies that actually trust their employees to work from home.

I know, I didn't think they existed either.

Right next to Santa and the Easter Bunny.

Kristen finally got to see fireworks this Fourth of July, as in past 4ths, I was either working at Annie's or we were in Philly watching the Mets get their heads bashed in by the Phillies.

In what is now becoming a "travel off" between Kristen's new shiny object and the Travelocity Gnome, the ring takes an early summer lead by hitting up Yankee Stadium today.

This was our third attempt at seeing the Yankees try to win in the new Stadium. (Actually we saw them win in an exhibition game, but that really doesn't count).

AJ Burnett was slated to take the hill against his former teammates; the Toronto Blue Jays.

One thing I hate about watching the Blue Jay; you have to sit through the Canadian national anthem.

And you have to watch the Blue Jays play. That sucks too.

As soon as we hit up the nose bleeds, the camera came out and the ring was introduced to the new Gem of the Bronx.

The game also happened to be Momma and Poppa Lima's first time at the New Yankee Stadium.

Momma Lima had a weee bit o' trouble making it up to the seats, as her fear of heights took hold.

We stayed until the eighth inning; the Yanks had a 3-2 lead at that point and we needed to get on the road to visit the Newly-weds, Jimbo and Michelle.

As we were walking out of the Stadium, the crowd erupted and the ground started to shake.

We missed A-Rod's home run.

Congratulations to Officer Bestman; my little brother graduated from the NYPD today.

Depending on who or what mathematical equation you listen to, Officer Bestman finished either second or third in his class.

If you go by sheer numbers and averages and all the things that determine grade point average and rankings, then he finished second in the class to Officer Butt.

Hehe.

According to the NYPD math gurus, however, Officer Bestman finished third overall. Apparently a 96 average beats a 97.6 average in New York City.

Pictures were take, of course. First stop was the Post Office around the corner from Madison Square Garden.

One of Officer Bestman's classmates made an arrest about an hour after graduating. Talk about a kiss ass.

The Lima clan then headed over to some insane BBQ place where I/we preceded to add thirteen collective inches to our waist lines.

Kristen was uber excited to show up to last night's Modsquad game.

You know, to do her scorekeeping and photography and lineup reminder duties.

And something about a ring thingy.

After bargaining with whichever god controls the weather for about 25 minutes, I eventually realize he-she was too busy to answer my calls.

Thunder, lighting, rain, high winds are apparently good excuses to cancel a softball game. If we had just waited two hours, we would have been fine to play.

Kristen comes from a family that excels in pool baseball, trust me, they could have played on that field last night.

So the team huddled under the bridge near the field, and my boss man surprised us with a bottle of Sparkling Wine. Our Number One Fans also brought cookie cake, which meant I'd have to find my spatula to peel her off the ceiling later that night.

We got some practice in with the whole "cutting the cake thing" but no, there wasn't any cake smashing incidents.

Yet.

Kristen wanted to head over to the park to take some photos of "our spot" and to get some nice shots of her ring in the sun.

Since our softball game was canceled for no good reason at all, we decided to head over to the river around 2.

We picked up a notebook to work on our guest list (we're trying to be proactive with the wedding planning, but honestly, neither one of us has a clue).

As we got closer to the park, we noticed there were a ton of motorcycles flying around us. That's when I remembered that today was the March of Dimes Bikers for Babies event.

And they were having it in OUR SPOT!

We ran into one of my co-workers and hung out with her husband and some guy named Dee Snider for a couple of minutes.

Yeah, Dee Snider.

I know, you didn't realized that's how I roll.

Kristen wanted to head over to our area and squeaked out the greatest "fake angry line" ever; "There's a Biker in our spot!"

We eventually headed over to the spot where I proposed and eventually we got a lesson in "high and low tides".

Our spot was now underwater, as the high tide had come in and fully submerged the spot where I proposed to Kristen.

Stupid moon.

We took a couple of photos around the area and then I went to work as Mr. Photographerman, snapping away at Kristen's hand.

She'd make a good hand model.

Big day for grilling; weather is finally starting to turn around.

We went to get the ring re-sized this morning, turns out my diabolical plan to secretly find out Kristen's ring size was a bit off, and the ring happened to be one size too big.

We went over Bourghol Bros because Kristen's mom said the place was very reputable. They were nothing short of wonderful folks and fixed the ring in a little over 25 minutes.

Kristen's hand started shaking again when she went to put the ring back on, so its day four and she's still excited.

Her co-worker was having a birthday party, so we went there to show off the ring, err...celebrate the birthday.

Later on, we stopped by Kristen's brother's girlfriend's house for some more bbq, pool pong, and the great rum laced watermelon toss.

I asked John to be apart of my "starting rotation" and he said that he's in.

Looks like I've got my groomsmen all set, how about you slacker?

John and Shannon later made a really nice toast, but I don't think Kristen heard it because she was a bit busy taking photos of her ring.

Today marks a big day in my life, I asked my beautiful/wonderful/smart/cute/awesome girlfriend to marry me, and thank the gods, she said yes.

This is the first entry in what will be a (hopefully) many entries detailing our past, current, and future lives together.

Back to the story.

I called Kristen at work and asked her if she was interested in going out for ice cream (Hoyer's) and then heading down to the river (Haverstraw Bay Park).

The park happens to be one of our favorite places, as we used to meet up for lunch during the past few summers when she was finishing up her Masters degree and I was fortunate enough to be working half days on Fridays.

It had rained all day/week/month so there weren't too many people hanging around the park (good thing, I was nervous). The weather had cleared up a bit and it was getting a little warmer. The sun started to set in behind us.

Kristen is a big fan of three things; water, ice cream, and being outside.

Check. Check. Check.

We found a spot right next to the river and decided this would be a good spot to eat the ice cream.

The ring was burning a hole in my pocket.

After blabbing some story about how difficult her last name was to spell, and that "Lima" was a lot easier, I got down on one knee, almost falling into the river and asked her the big question.

She said yes.