Engagement Photos

I have yet to blog about our fantastic photographer, Jessica Kaminski. She does all sorts of photography, from food to fashion to weddings to goofballs like JT and I. I LOVE how her colors “pop” and J and I both really loved her photography style. Not to mention, she is so unbelievably cool! We really had a blast talking with her at the engagement session, and we can’t wait for her to photograph the wedding.

So, naturally, I was *thrilled* when our engagement photos arrived today! So I thought I’d share a few with all of you so that you can see what an amazing job Jessica did (especially amazing when you see what little she had to work with… remember our first engagement session?).

Without further ado, our pictures. (all pictures below were taken by JKaminski Photography and should be credited appropriately).

Let’s vote: which one is your favorite? (some of you may be seeing these again…)

five-month frenzy

Only 5 more months until the BIG DAY!  How exciting!  And frightening…  We still have so much to do, even though I feel like we’ve done so much already.

We started going through potential bible verses for readings in the ceremony over dinner tonight.  I haven’t ever really read much of the bible, but we found lots of good stuff tonight.  For example, dig into Song of Solomon (or Song of Songs, depending what bible you’ve got) for some flowery love poetry.  Emphasis on the flowery.

Jason’s also got all sorts of helpful suggestions for other readings on love… we’ll have to see what those are about.  So far, my favorite verses are the most popular ones (i.e., 1 Corinthians), so if anyone has any other suggestions for verses, please share!  I looked through all of the programs from weddings JT and I have attended (because, for whatever reason, I feel compelled to save things like brochures and invitations from every wedding we’ve ever attended).  Anyways, almost every wedding used the verse from Corinthians.

Other than that, we’ve got to pick some songs for the service, write vows, and attend to all sorts of details for the reception.  And I do want to sign us up for some dance lessons. <Jason groans> I hope all of you have been practicing your dance moves – you’ve only got 5 months to perfect them (ahem, Uncle Brian) before we expect you on the dance floor!!

He passed!

For those of you sitting on the edge of your seats in anticipation, Barley passed level 1 obedience class yesterday!  You can send your congrats to him at Barley.Dogg (at) gmail.com.  No, I’m not kidding.  The dog has email.  And an iphone.  Or so Jason tells me.

A brief update on the weekend:

- Premarital counseling ended up being more of a discussion about what we want in the wedding.  Basically, we can do just about anything we want.  So we’ll be picking out verses and songs and whatnot in the upcoming weeks.  Suggestions?  Let us know.  Also, we’ll fill out a PREPARE inventory, which is a questionnaire that will give the pastor some things to talk with us about next time.  We’re supposed to fill in these scantron forms and send them in in the upcoming weeks.  We already peaked at the book… but we’re not cheating.  I promise.

- Cake = yummy.  My mouth is watering just thinking about how delicious our wedding dessert is going to be.  Folks, you are in for a real treat! Mmmm…

- The florist appt went well, but we’ve got more deciding and meeting to do before plans are finalized.

- My Grandma’s  75th birthday was Saturday night, so my mom and aunts and uncles threw together a surprise party!  How fun!  My family is pretty darn cool, even if one of the more entertaining members of the family skipped Grandma’s birthday to go clay pigeon shooting.  Only in Wisconsin. (hee, hee, just teasing, Uncle Brian).

- My Grandma, Mom, and I went shopping for fabric for the flower girl’s dress.  Turns out the color of my dress is INCREDIBLY difficult to match (why are there so many shades of white?).  We haven’t found anything yet.  But!  My mom has some leads on other fabrics that might match, so cross your fingers.

Jason and I will be taking a trip down memory lane this week as we begin to scan pictures for a wedding photo montage.  So stay tuned and you might get a glimpse of how cute I was in the 80s.  Perm!  Huge bangs!  Rolled socks!  Yes!

learning about marriage

I thought I’d spend a second blogging about this thing we call “marriage” since we’ve been spending much of our time lately preparing for a wedding. It’s funny how people respond to the news that we’re getting hitched. People have surprisingly depressing sentiments about marriage – “The first year is the worst.” or “Marriage is hard.” Really? Thanks. That’s just about the equivalent to you telling me how much root canals hurt right before I go to get one.

In other words, married folks – time to put on your happy smiley we-love-marriage faces and tell us the truth: It’s going to be great. Or, if that’s not the truth, just fake us out for a while. We won’t know the difference until it’s too late.

All this discussion of what marriage is or is not has been sparked by our upcoming premarital counseling with the Pastor at my parent’s church. What on earth are we going to talk about? Is our main concern. And, based on the experiences of those that have tied the knot before us, it appears that we’ll be talking about anything from natural family planning (as in, all the gory details) to who will be responsible for taking out the trash. So, frankly, we’re not that psyched about it.

But! We’ve been studying. Enter: the marriage book that my aunt sent us. No, I’m not a big “self-help book” fan. No, I’m not convinced that everything in the book is dead-on. And, no, we’re not that worried about what the pastor is going to say. But, we’re intrigued enough to try to get a head start. So, here’s what we’ve learned:

1. Marriage is hard – especially the first year. Yeah, okay, we get it already. Are you trying to talk us out of it or what?
2. If you want something from your spouse, you have to tell them. So obvious it’s tricky, right? I think we’ve got this one down. Like when I say, “Get in the kitchen and cook me some dinner!” Pretty clear, no?
3. Say yes. Why? Because if you say yes to helping your spouse, they’ll be more likely to say yes to you.
4. Spend time together. Honestly, folks, we spend way too much time together. What we really need are hobbies or friends so we have something to actually talk about during all that together time.
5. Budget. Yep, another secret to a good marriage (according to the book) is watching your cash. Something like 70% of people cite money as the biggest concern in their marriages. (Health concerns are second with 6% of married folks worrying about that).

So far, so good, right? I suspect we can handle it, even if you’re all trying to freak us out with your “marriage is hard” talk. Hard is a relative term anyways… like, are we talking “passing the 12th grade” hard? or “trapped under a rock need to cut off your arm to survive” hard?

Really, the only thing we don’t have thus far is a perpetual argument. You know, that one thing you argue and argue about but never can resolve? Yeah, sounds like we’re really missing out. -note the sarcasm-

And, barring any discussion of the female reproductive system, I think we’ll be okay on Saturday. And if we aren’t, at least we’re following our premarital counseling with some cake tasting. Nothing says happy wedding quite like cake.

what have I gotten myself into?

Oh crap.  SEVEN more hours of housework per week?  No thanks.  I formally retract the save-the-date cards (that will be arriving in your mailboxes any day now).  The wedding’s off… even if Jason does make delicious chicken tacos.

(okay, I’m kidding about calling the wedding off.  I’m not kidding about the chicken tacos.)

Exactly how much housework does a husband create?

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Having a husband creates an extra seven hours a week of housework for women, according to a University of Michigan study of a nationally representative sample of U.S. families.

For men, the picture is very different: A wife saves men from about an hour of housework a week.

The findings are part of a detailed study of housework trends, based on 2005 time-diary data from the federally-funded Panel Study of Income Dynamics, conducted since 1968 at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR).

“It’s a well-known pattern,” said ISR economist Frank Stafford, who directs the study. “There’s still a significant reallocation of labor that occurs at marriage—men tend to work more outside the home, while women take on more of the household labor. Certainly there are all kinds of individual differences here, but in general, this is what happens after marriage. And the situation gets worse for women when they have children.”

Overall, the amount of housework done by U.S. women has dropped considerably since 1976, while the amount of housework done by men has increased, according to Stafford. In 1976, women did an average of 26 hours of housework a week, compared with about 17 hours in 2005. Men did about six hours of housework a week in 1976, compared with about 13 hours in 2005.

But when the researchers looked at just the last 10 years, comparing how much housework single men and women in their 20s did in 1996 with how much they did in 2005 if they stayed single versus if they got married, they found a slightly different pattern.

Both the men and the women who got married did more housework than those who stayed single, the analysis showed. “Marriage is no longer a man’s path to less housework,” said Stafford, a professor in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from time diaries, considered the most accurate way to assess how people spend their time. They supplemented the analysis with data from questionnaires asking both men and women to recall how much time they spent on basic housework in an average week, including time spent cooking, cleaning and doing other basic work around the house. Excluded from these “core” housework hours were tasks like gardening, home repairs, or washing the car.

Click image to see more charts

The researchers also examined how age and the number of children, as well as marital status and age, influenced time spent doing housework.

Single women in their 20s and 30s did the least housework—about 12 works a week on average, while married women in their 60s and 70s did the most—about 21 hours a week. Men showed a somewhat different pattern. Older men did more housework than younger men, but single men did more in all age groups than married men.

Married women with more than three kids did an average of about 28 hours of housework a week. Married men with more than three kids, by comparison, logged only about 10 hours of housework a week.

From The University of Michigan