The Life and Times of Emily Jane

Engagment Photos: Love in the City

Whew! Life has been busy. But, it seems like it is always busy for me. It has been a crazy last two weeks. Twoweekends ago, Jared and I flew to Michigan for our friends Bridget and Derek's amazing wedding. Last Wednesday I started work at Gelita. Last weekend, we flew to New York for a wedding in Long Island. And, I have continued to be in two grad school classes. Life is busy!

I just had to steel some time to share the engagement photos that Jared and I took with our amazing photographer, Emily Steffen. We started out in Sioux City for some classic engagement photos. Here area  few of my favorites.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

After the session in Sioux City, we headed out to Jared's family farm for even more photos. I will be back in a few days to share those as well. And let me tell you (in the most modest fashion I am capable of)....they are fabulous, gorgeous, and amazing. So, be sure to check back to see them!

3rd Annual Brian Surgeons

The Background: It was the spring of 2007. The weather was beautiful outside and a group of college friends congregated on a porch in Madison, WI to enjoy the lovely weather, drink some adult beverages, play some games, and laugh hardily. The game they were currently playing was Apples to Apples, a known drunken good time. Well, Emily lays down a card that says "Brain Surgeon". Adam (aka Parksy) picks up the card and throws it back onto the table, disgusted, and says "Brian Surgeons, I don't know who the f*** that is!!"

And that, my friends, is how Brian Surgeons was born.

He comes back on an annual basis to have some adult beverages with those great college friends.

Every year, my college buddies and I meet in Madison during the summer to play a game of Bar Golf. Bar Golf is a form of a pub crawl where you have a set number of bars (wholes) and you have to drink certain drinks at each bar to get a score (birdie, boogey, etc). It is always a great time.  Here are some photos from The 3rd Annual Brian Surgeons Bar Golf Classic".

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A little lonely....

Things have been pretty good since we left New Jersey. I am really enjoying spending time with Jared and having a lot of 'us' time.

But, I do really miss our life in New Jersey. I miss work. I miss our friends there a lot. I just miss that life in general. Most of the time, I am okay with it all. But other times, like this weekend, I just miss it all a lot.

It will get better. But, I just wanted to be honest about how this transition is a little hard at times.

Farewell Fiesta

Lindsey threw Jared and I an awesome Farewell Fiesta the Saturday before we moved out of New Jersey. She really did an excellent job. She put a lot of thought, time, and effort into getting fun party favors and making amazing food and drinks. She made white and red sangria and margaritas as well as beef tacos and chicken enchiladas. Num!

 

A lot of our friends came to say goodbye and hang out one last time.

 
 

 

 

 

 

Lindsey also got together a bunch of outdoor games (beer pong, flip cup, ladder golf) and set up a bonfire so we could enjoy one of the last warm nights before Fall started to creap in.

 

 

 

 

And now I have to post one of the most hilarious photos of the hostess. Thanks, Lindsey, for throwing us such a great send-off party and for being such an amazing friend for the last three years.

 

Hello Again

I have been a very bad blogger. You see, life got really busy and complicated and I just didn't have time to blog it all. And to be honest, I needed time to process all of the changes going on. But, I am back.

I want to give you an overview of all of the happenings in the life of Miss Emily Jane the past month today. I will try to come back in the next few weeks with more details of some of the bigger happenings.

So, last I was here, I had just told you all that I had resigned from Kraft. It was very hard to do, but everyone was so kind about me leaving. There are some really great people that work at that company! Even though they are great people, they did tie me up to keep me from leaving the last day. ;-)

 

Lindsey threw Jared and I an amazing fiesta themed going away party. She had really cute little details like little umbrellas for our drinks, fun napkins, and cute little mustaches. It was really, a super fun party. I have really missed the really fun times with my Jersey Crew.

 
 

The following morning, Jared and I started the 2 day, 20 hour drive from Morristown, NJ to our new apartment in Sioux City, IA. It was a very long drive, but good quality time for Jared and I. It feels amazing to know that we are back together again, in the same city, and we will be together pretty consistently until he goes to Officer Training in November.

 
 

All of our stuff arrived a few days after we did, so we spent the first few nights on an airmattress with only lawn chairs to sit on.  When our stuff did arrive, it was horrific to say the least. Prety much every piece of nice furtniture we had got scratched and beat up. Badly. Even curtain rods got abused. It was a big lesson in letting go of control for me. They are only material possessions, but they were really pretty material possessions that I spent a lot of time and money picking out. :(

 
 

The day after we unloaded all of our busted up stuff, Jared and I headed to Madison, WI for a little reunion with my college buds. Brian Surgeons 3rd Annual Bar Golf Classic. I will for sure be back to explain about this. It was a great weekend!

 
 

The week after Brian Surgeon's, I spent my time working on my two Engineering Management classes, went on an interview, did a lot of wedding planning and setting up consultations, and prepared for our Engagement Photos. We had the Engagement Photos with our fabulous photographer, Emily Steffen, on that Monday. It was seriously so much fun. Emily was really encouraging and made us feel really comfortable. I will post more photos later, but you can check out her blog posts of some of the photos here.

The Tuesday after the Engagement Photos, I got back into the Mini and drove back to Wisconsin - this time to Oshkosh. Alissa was due to have her baby on Friday. With Lucy being a week early when she delivered, we figured Alissa was about to go at any moment. While we waited, my mom helped me do a bunch of wedding planning stuff. We went to cake tastings, consultations with florists, and wedding dress shopping. It was good to be able to get a bunch of stuff done while there. And then on Saturday (in time for Jared to be able to be there), Alissa had our sweet, precious, baby Vivie. Her name is Vivienne Elise Schade, to be exact. And, she is just the sweetest, most innocent, most kissable little doll ever. I will for sure come back to tell more about that, because it was an amazing experience to be able to be there at the hospital when my new little love was brought into this world. I am very grateful to have been able to experience that. And now you can fiest your eyes on her adorableness. :)

 
 
 
 
 

That following Monday, Jared and I followed each other on the 8 hour drive back to Sioux City. That week, I had three interviews - whew!

On Friday, I flew from Omaha to Los Angeles to visit Erin! I was there Friday night through Monday morning. It was great to see her again - like really great. Erin and I were roomates our Junion and Senior years of college and traveled together to Costa Rica our Senior year Spring Break. I got to see where Erin lives and do some really cool things in LA. I will share more stories and photos later, but here are a few.

 
 
 

I traveled back to Sioux City on Monday, which happened to be my 26th birthday. It was really odd. With so much other great and exciting things going on, I barely realized my birthday coming on. I woke up on Monday morning and thought, well, I guess I am 26 today. Ha! Jared did take me out to a nice dinner that night and gave me some really great presents. So, it was a good birthday, just not nearly as exciting as last year!

 

Wedding Dress Shopping

A few weeks ago, I started shopping for wedding dresses!

I am going to be completely honest here...I wasn't really looking forward to dress shopping. I found it to be a scary part of wedding shopping. You see, I put a ton of pressure on myself to find the most perfect dress ever. Because, you only get one wedding dress you whole entire life. It had better be the most beautiful dress I had ever seen my whole entire life.

Lindsey was really helpful and told me we should just go and look - for fun. We started by just trying on everything for fun. I wasn't really looking for the dress. I was just looking for aspects of dresses that I really liked.

I started getting a bit more serious last week; and, I think I may have found the one. I can't show it to you here, but it sure is beautiful. I am going to try it on for my mom and sister in September and hopefully will purchase it then!

Here are a few photos of us on the dress shopping extravaganza.

Life - it is a changing....

Life sure is changing around here.

I am leaving New Jersey and moving to Iowa. I am so sad to be leaving the amazing friends that I have made here. I have met some of the greatest women and I will miss them an unimaginable amount. I am sad to leave this life that I have here. I have been able to have some great adventures and life will be slowing up quite a bit. And, I am sad to leave my job. The team that I get to work with is so supportive, kind, and fun. I have been given a lot of responsibility and great projects.

However, I am so excited for the new life that Jared and I will have. Jared has been given a great career opportunity. He is becoming and Officer in the Air Force National Guard in the Civil Engineering Unit. He has wanted to become an officer for a long time and this is the perfect position for him. To top it all off, the job is in Sioux City, IA - a half an hour away from Jared's family. It was just too good of an opportunity for Jared to say no to.

I am a little nervous about the move. I will have to make all new friends. There aren't a lot of Food companies in the area; so, finding a job that I can get passionate about will be difficult.

BUT, I am so excited to be starting a new chapter of life with Jared. I feel like we will be settling into life together as partners, in a very good way.

Eek. I feel like I am at the very top of a roller coaster. Excitement mixed with fear and a little anticipation!

Honeymoon Advice Needed

I have started dreaming of where Jared and I will go for our honeymoon. It is of so fun to dream of spending alone time with Jared on a beautiful beech.

But, it also brings up a lot of questions. Should we go right after our wedding or wait a few months? Should we go with an all-inclusive place? Where should we go? A few of the places that we have considered are Hawaii, Mexico, and a few of the Caribbean Islands.

I would love some advice from any of you out there. Where did you go on your honeymoon? What do you suggest for us?

Wedding Transportation - Trolley

We booked our wedding transportation. We got a trolley!!

We are having a catholic ceremony. So, that means the ceremony will take place much earlier in the day than most protestant ceremonies. That leaves a significant chunk of time in between the ceremony and the cocktail hour and reception for photos and celebration with just the wedding party. Honestly, this has been one of my favorite parts of weddings I have been in. You actually get to spend time with the bride and groom and the rest of the wedding party. I am really looking forward to this part of our wedding. :)

In booking the transportation, I wanted to find something with some character that also had a lot of space. The celebration aspect of the wedding is very important to Jared and I knew he would like the idea of including the guests of our wedding party. So, we went with a trolley that will hold 45 people!

Here is a link to some photos of the trolley. I am so excited for it and think it will add a little extra bit of character to the day!

Registering

We have started registering!!!

It might be silly or even slightly materialistic, but I have been looking forward to registering since I first started buying home good items. I love buying things for our apartment, both decorating and kitchen items. So, it registering is like making a HUGE Christmas wish list. And then people actually buy you most of it!

What is not to love?

We started the registration process at Crate and Barrel. We went to a registering event, which I would highly recommend if there are any going on in your area. Lindsey went with me for this one. Jared was okay with missing out on a few registering places. And who better to go to Crate and Barrel with than a best friend that loves cooking, entertaining, and decorating? She even went through all of the flat ware and compared each set, fork by fork and spoon by spoon, until we found the set I liked the best. She is amazing and we had so much fun!

 

Then, Jared and I went to Macy's in NYC a few weeks later. It was definitely more stressful a few times with Jared than it was with Lindsey. Lindsey helped keep it from getting overwhelming and always stayed on task. Jared was a bit more sporadic and would wander away from one section before we were done making decisions there. But once I told him that I needed some help staying on track and making decisions, he was amazing! And, it was really so cool to go through everything together. We kept thinking about how we were going to use the items. We love cooking together and we really love entertaining together. So, we got really excited for the items that we will get to use to cook and entertain (like the All-Clad pans and Kitchenaid mixer) with.