Help with CKeditor getting existing text and saving to db

I need help getting CKEditor to read into it the existing text that I have when the user selects the text field and be able to save it back to the database. I have CKeditor in my master page and when I run the program luckily ckeditor does show up but the text is missing from the page. Another question can I use spans for the text like in my page markup below:

Page mark up to get the text that is retrieved in a sql database:

<div class="view_form">
    <h3 class="padded"><span id="splash_title" class="editable markup"><%= GetGuiString("splash_title")%></span></h3><br />
    <span id="splash_text" class="editable markup"><%= GetGuiString("splash_text")%></span><br /><br />
    <span id="splash_text2" class="editable markup"><%= GetGuiString("splash_text2")%></span><br /><br />
    <span id="splash_text3" class="editable markup"><%= GetGuiString("splash_text3")%></span><br /><br />
    <br /><br />
</div>

Here is the master markup that has CKeditor:

<%--The markup version of the dialog form.--%>
        <div id="dialog-markup" title="Edit Formated Text">
            <p>Use this editor below to add formated text, the toolbar at the top<br />of the editor contains many useful functions.</p>
            <label id="lbl_Markup" for="txt_Markup">Formated Text: </label><br />
            <CKEditor:CKEditorControl ID="txt_Markup" CssClass="data gui_text" runat="server"
                Toolbar="Source|Bold|Italic|Underline|Strike|-|Subscript|Superscript
                    Cut|Copy|Paste|PasteText|PasteFromWord
                    Undo|Redo|-|Find|Replace|-|RemoveFormat
                    NumberedList|BulletedList|-|Outdent|Indent|Table
                    /
                    JustifyLeft|JustifyCenter|JustifyRight|JustifyBlock
                    Styles|Format|Font|FontSize|TextColor|BGColor">
            </CKEditor:CKEditorControl>
            <label id="lbl_MarkupEffDate" for="txt_MarkupEffDate">Effective Date: </label>
            <input id="txt_MarkupEffDate" type="text" name="Eff_Date" class="dateField data gui_date_eff" /><br />
            <label id="lbl_MarkupTrmDate" for="txt_MarkupTrmDate">Term Date: </label>
            <input id="txt_MarkupTrmDate" type="text" name="Trm_Date" class="dateField data gui_date_trm"/><br />
        </div>

Here is the function:

$(function ()
{
   // $( "#dialog-markup" ).dialog("destroy");
    $("#dialog-markup").dialog(
    {
    //CKEDITOR:instances['gui_key'].setData(html);
    //var textData = CKEDITOR.instances['gui_key'].setData(html);
        autoOpen: false,
        height: 600,
        width: 800, //600,
        modal: true,
        buttons:
        {
            
            "Save": function () {
                var GuiText = $(".gui_text").text();
                if (GuiText == "")
                    GuiText == " ";

                editableControl[0].innerHTML = GuiText;
                

                var guiKey = "";
                if ($(editableControl).attr('gui_key') != null)
                    guiKey = $(editableControl).attr('gui_key');
                else
                    guiKey = $(editableControl).attr('id');

                var MarkupGui = new Object();

                MarkupGui.key = guiKey;
                MarkupGui.levels = $('input[id$="hidden_Levels"]').val();
                MarkupGui.effectiveDate = $('.gui_date_eff').val();
                MarkupGui.terminationDate = $('.gui_date_trm').val();
                MarkupGui.textValue = $('.gui_text').val();
                //MarkupGui.hidden = hidFlag

                var DTO = { 'mg': MarkupGui };

                $.ajax({
                    type: "POST",
                    url: "GuiConfigWS.asmx/SaveSimpleToDB",
                    contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
                    dataType: "json",
                    data: JSON.stringify(DTO),
                    success: AjaxSuccess,
                    error: AjaxFailure
                }); //end of ajax call

                $(this).dialog("close");
                return false;
            },
            //ProcessGui("markup"),
            "Cancel": function () 
            {
                $(this).dialog("close");
            } //End of Cancel button
        } //end of buttons
    }); //end of dialog
});