The Odd Couple

We’re about to get really honest here, people……

I’ve gained a few L-B’s since Senior Prom. (gasp!)

About 10 in college for basic college reasons, and about 15 once I moved to Florida, because living with a boy means you eat a lot of pizza, drink a lot of beer, and order chinese food about….2-3 times a week. Even throughout the training of my half marathon, I did not lose one pound!

My two very best friends are both getting married this year, and I am a bridesmaid in their weddings. The first one is in April and the second in November. So I’ve decided to take some action and whip my butt into shape!

So far I’ve lost…. drum roll please…… 9.6 pounds! I’m taking the old school approach using Weight Watchers, and I think it’s working well for me! I didn’t gain at all between Christmas, New Years, and moving to a new city! BUT I need to kick it up a notch so…

I started P90X this week and I’m super pumped about it! I’m on day 5 today and I’m definitely feeling it! So far I really like it. It’s not annoying like some workout videos, and I like having a plan set for the next 3 months where I don’t repeat the same workout over and over. I’ll keep blogging about my progress and if I like the outcome, maybe I’ll even post my before/after pictures! 

Confession: I accidentally left out a MAJOR milestone moment from the blog! The Ekern Girls Vegas Weekend Half Marathon!!! The weekend was AWESOME with all of us hanging out. The race was great. We all finished. After the race….COMPLETE DISASTER! You can google it if you want details or check out their Facebook page, but I would not recommend a Rock ‘n’ Roll Race for anyone. Unless, of course, you want water to run out on the course, a standstill line directly after the finish line, zero exit strategy, to be trapped in a casino after running 13.1 miles, to see people fainting and puking left and right, the list goes on and on. However, the Ekern girls will continue this tradition and try to do a race every year (just no more in the Rock ‘n’ Roll series)! Love it and love them! :)

You are all probably very confused. A lot has changed since our “We’re moving to Miami!” post a couple months ago. I’m sure some of you have conjured up some interesting ideas of what happened, but I’m just going to give you the full-on explanation! (Warning: It gets a little lengthy). If you want a shorter version scroll down until you see this **.

October and early November was a pretty stressful time, because we had to make some major decisions about the future (sometimes being an adult is NOT FUN!) Joe was offered a full time position near Miami, prompting us to start the process of moving there. We put our house on the market (assuming it would take forever to sell), and visited Miami to look for a new one (we had valid reasons for buying as opposed to renting). Our house ended up selling in ELEVEN DAYS so, in a bit of a time crunch, we found a place that we liked and put an offer on a foreclosure in a nice neighborhood that backed up to a lake.

Once our offer for the house was accepted, the inspection came back with major problems that couldn’t be negotiated because it was a foreclosure. Over this time, things were getting a little difficult with Joe’s future job. Paperwork wasn’t being sent when it needed to and he still hadn’t been given an official start date. Although he had the job and had gone down there to get everything processed, it just seemed very unorganized and uncomfortable.

After having a long, serious discussion, we both agreed that Miami wasn’t the place for us. We didn’t feel “at home” when we were there, and neither of us were really excited for the move. Things were going wrong left and right, and we felt that the best option for our future was to make a new plan. We retracted our offer on the house. When he finally got a start date, and it was in literally one week, Joe officially rejected the job offer.

We learned a couple of very important lessons throughout this process.                        1. Communication is really important. If we had voiced our opinions/fears/hesitations about Miami earlier on, we could have prevented a lot of stress. We communicate very well, but with a decision this big I think we were just afraid to change our minds. 2. Just because it looks good on paper doesn’t mean it’s what’s best for us. 3. You never HAVE to do anything, no matter how far it’s gone. It may get complicated, but things will work out either way.

A little while after we decided not to move, I received my acceptance in Miami Ad School, and I decided that I would go anyway and just get a cheap apartment for the short 3 month program. Joe continued working at his base in Jacksonville because he was on orders til the end of January. We had to move out of our house on the 15th of November, so Joe stayed at a hotel and I went home to STL for a while. I ended up deciding that Miami Ad school wasn’t right for me, so I explored my options. Meghan found Brainco, an advertising school in Minneapolis. The program is more “my style” and the location is much better since I have family here.

I know that some people may be “judging us” because they don’t understand the situation. It sounds like we made a lot of questionable decisions. It WAS extremely stressful, but we are a young couple that’s allowed to make mistakes like this. We can adapt easily and make changes today to make the future better. I’m glad we learned these lessons now, and we can bank this knowledge for later in life. And the best part is that our relationship is much stronger because of it. 

Presently, I’m in Minneapolis and I love my new school so far! Joe is in STL waiting to hear on a few full time spots in several different locations, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens! It’s unfortunate that we are living long distance, but we’ve done it before and we’ll be just fine! I’ll be done with school in July, and hopefully our next step will be figured out by then! :)

Finally, I really want to thank our families for being so supportive (from helping us get the house ready to sell, to helping us make a decision on a new one, to offering us a place to stay during this transition). There were a lot of tears and stress, but your advice and support really helped.

**Long Story Short: Joe got offered a job in Miami. We sold our house. We put an offer on a new house. The new employers were unorganized. The house had tons of problems. Joe turned down the job. We decided not to move to Miami. I got into Miami Ad School. I moved home and Joe moved to a hotel til Christmas. I decided not to go to Miami Ad School. I got accepted into Brainco. I moved to Minneapolis. Joe is waiting to hear from several jobs.

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you had a great day! :)

Anonymous asked: having trouble commenting. what is the skinny??

I just fixed it. If you click on the post, a comment box should appear now!

There are many changes happening in our lives, so we figured we would give the blog a new look to match! It provides larger photos and seems easier to read. Hope you like it! :)

I’m not very good at staying on top of this thing, but if you haven’t heard yet - I got into Miami Ad School!! I will be attending the Account Planning Bootcamp in January. The program is about 12 weeks long and will hopefully open up some awesome job opportunities for me in the ad industry!

This past month or so has been very stressful for Joe and I, and it’s not getting any easier. But knowing that I got into school has eased my mind just a tad. Now I can enjoy the holidays with the fam. I’ll be up in STL until school starts and Joe is finishing up work in Jacksonville until Christmas-ish and then we’ll make our next move! :)

If you want to learn a little about what I’ll be doing at school and in my future career, go to this link: http://www.miamiadschool.com/advertising-programs/account-planning 

We wish everyone a happy short work week and Thanksgiving!

Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head!

Another Birth-o-Ween has come and gone, and it was great (thanks for the presents from both our fams! :) ) But now I’m old (bummerrrrrr). And, if I may say, Halloween in FL was weird.

Halloween is usually filled with orange, red and yellow crunchy leaves, pumpkins everywhere, chilly weather and the smell of crisp autumn air. Not in Florida, my friends, not. in. Florida. I will say that the weather did get chillier and quite gloomy, which was awesome, but it’s as if no one here celebrates America’s favorite holiday! I don’t think I saw one carved pumpkin, one scarecrow, one orange trash bag printed to look like a Jack-o-lantern. What is this? I guess it’s a “southern” thing.

Unfortunately, our house was on the market so I couldn’t decorate (devastating!!!). But at about 4:00pm last Monday, Joe drug out my Halloween totes and we spruced up the door step just before the trick-or-treaters were due to arrive. And then we only had about 15 kids stop by - totally lame. I guess the times are changing.

But I’m very excited to say that our house closes on the 15th, and the pups and I will be trekking up to Missouri for a few weeks while Joe wraps up his work stuff in Jacksonville. You may find me laying outside in my chunkiest sweater and Frye boots, soaking in the REAL November weather. What can I say? I’m a Midwestern girl at heart!

This is hilarious. I posted to Facebook, but in case you missed it, check out this funny video. Parents told their children that they ate all their Halloween candy and their responses are so good! The last two boys are the best! 

Happy Halloween! :)

It’s game day, bitches!

I told you that we had news that would be worth the wait, and here it is……..WE’RE MOVING TO MIAMI!

You might be thinking, “But Emily, didn’t you just move to Jacksonville in april?” Indeed I did, but Joe got an awesome job down there and it was too good of an opportunity to pass up! This will now be my 15th move since I was born.

We started the hunt for a place to live about a month ago, living in fear that our current home wouldn’t sell in this tough market. But, on our way back from Miami last weekend, we got an offer! Now, as the paperwork processes, we are heading to Miami as I type this to hopefully find a home we love! (we’re a little bummed at the short notice cuz we really wanted to be on House Hunters. Maybe next move!)

I’m in the process of applying to a school down there that offers a 12-week crash course in Account Planning (an advertising career). And Joe should be starting his job at the beginning of next month.

To top all of this off- my parents are moving too! They are being relocated to….Ocala,FL! So now we’ll be in the same state, which makes me a happy camper!

We’re looking forward to starting this new adventure and we’re so glad to have family and friends to share our excitement with!

So, our blog has been TOTALLY LAME since I started my big girl job because I’ve had zero time to even think about it. This post is to promise you that time will free up soon and posts will ensue. We have updates and news galore so please stay tuned - it’ll be worth the wait! :)

This video is a good example of what Joe aspires to be. Here’s hoping he’ll be like this guy in the next 10 years!

(Source: youtube.com)

The reason Joe had to be a lumberjack. This is our backyard after 2 huge 20 year old trees fell in a storm last week!