I've decided to take the next step in my life, and marry the woman of my dreams. In many ways, I'm like a 13 year old girl. I have been dreaming about my wedding for a long time, picked out colors, time of year, what my tux would look like. I always wanted a big wedding, with all my friends and family, and party all night long! It's going to be a blast....

Now that I'm actually planning it... not everything is all that it seems. I discovered recently that the wedding industry is roughly a 60 billion dollar a year industry, and I see why. As soon as you tell someone you requesting their services for a wedding, they double their rates. And there are so many things you need to get in order to have a wedding, and so many of those things cost SOOO much money. Here is the list that my fiance and I made when we got engaged of things we would need.

1. Officiant
2. Wedding dress
3. brides maid dresses
4. tuxedos
5. Dj
6. Venue
7. Photographer
8. Video-grapher
9. Decorations
10. Website
11. Caterer
12. Cake
13. wedding favors
14. hotels
15. bouquet
16. Florist
    

Since we made that list 5 months ago, it has doubled with more things we didn't even think about, more vendors I have had to call to get pricing from (which no one wants to give, like they want to wait and see how much money you are willing to pay first). A big headache. And once you add everything up and realize how much even a small wedding cost, you get the "All this for a party?!?!" mentality, a mentality that has burst the bubble of everything I imagined since I was 13.

Weddings are a happy time.  Planning them... not so much.  I know I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, but if you have the money, hire someone to do it for you and sit at home watching TV, well worth it.

 

 

Life has bee good lately! I mean, I'm not getting everything my way, but most of it is and I like it. I am definitely in a "The Lord Givith" time in my life, and trying to stave off the "The Lord taketh away" times. I'm still working on watching all of the House episode, im in the middle of season 6 right now, great show.  I've also been watching the new season of masters of sex, not as good this season IMO.

My family got invited to audition for the family feud a few weeks back! That was a lot of fun.  We won the audition, heres a video of me getting us over 200 points to win the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE6ug3VukLc

We are supposed to be invited back for the show sometime soon, keep everyone posted on when that happens!

Other than that, same old same old, trying to keep loosing weight, its hard, I still have 7.8 pounds to go, sigh. Wedding planning as well is not all that fun but we are getting it done!

 

 

I was having a discussion/debate with a atheist friend of mine recently.  I like to talk to atheists about stuff because, as it is interesting to me to see how someones religion affects not only their actions, but also their opinions, its just as interesting to me to see how the lack of religion can affect someones actions and opinions.  This friend was curious as to how I came to be a christian and am a christian still. He was curious because, to him, he doesn't understand how someone as "logical and intelligent" as I (his words not mine folks) could believe wholeheartedly in something for which I have no proof, and something that in his eyes contradicts itself repeatedly (not just Christianity, a lot of religions in his eyes). He definitely subscribes to the belief that man created god and not the other way around. The conversation got really deep and obtuse but it basically ended with me telling him he was entitled to his opinion but that's what faith is, believing in something from your heart without anything society would deem as "proof", and that I was happy for him that he was content with his life without any faith, but me personally, I NEED my faith.

There was one part of the conversation though I wanted to highlight. He asked me if I "did the right thing" out of fear of what god would do to punish me. I told him "99.9% of the time I do the right thing because its the right thing to do, but there have been times where I've found myself wanting to do something, willing to deal with societies consequences, but not gods, and 'did the right thing'". The more and more I thought about it after the conversation ended, I realized that that statement isn't completely true. Sure I do the right thing because I'm a good guy (I think) and its the right thing to do, but even those decisions, in the back of my head I wonder if I'm not doing them out of "fear" of god, but in hopes that god will "reward" me.  Is that the same? When I was going up my parents rewarded good grades, and punished bad grades, and I often wondered, did I get good grades out of fear of the punishment or motivation for the reward.

The question I am battling with is are these two concepts different or the same? What should be your motivations to do the right things in life? Should it be out of fear? Should it be because you want the reward? Should it be both? Should it be neither? I should have wanted to get good grades for myself, but with my parents influence I'm not sure if that was even an option in life.

Something to ponder...