Time alone...

Well, if you cannot tell by my sudden lack of blogs, I have been a very busy lady. Since it is summer time, the shop itself isn't busy, but everyone is taking time off for vacations. Not to complain, but when the other girls go off, especially when going on trips together, it means I get to be the one to pick up that slack. For the last month or so I have been working 6 days a week, but have been able to keep it under 40 hours somehow. I usually leave early and don't do anything work related when I get home. I have also been trying to finish up wedding things, but being at work all the time, then coming home exhausted and not wanting to move from the couch doesn't help get anything done.

Dave and the boys went to see their friend Tyler and help him celebrate his birthday this last weekend, and since I had to work, I had to stay home by myself. Friday night a few of the girls from work came over and we ate brownies and watched a movie. It was nice to have the company.

Even though I didn't get Saturday off, I only worked a few hours in the morning, then I had the rest of the day off. I wasn't really sure what to do with myself... so I just started doing the things I wanted to. (I realized at the end of the day, that this is what I did all day, and it was WONDERFUL. I didn't have to do anything for anyone else, eat what others wanted to eat, or entertain anyone but myself.) So I ate. And ate again. Watched some Netflix while eating. Then I took a nap. Then I showered (with the door open). I called my sister. I got ready to go see a movie by myself, but I ended up driving to the coast. I watched the sunset by myself. Drove back from the coast, following the light of the BIG FULL MOON. Ate fast food while driving. Watched more Netflix until I fell asleep on the couch.

I totally needed that time to myself. I wasn't lonely at all... I was a little bored though. It's not often that I have time alone to spend doing things for myself, instead of working or cleaning.

In a few weeks, Dave will be gone backpacking with his dad for a week, so I will be alone again (but I am scheduled to work six days and OVER 40 hours that week). Should be good. :)

Wedding Shower

On June 25th, our good friends, the Page family, hosted a "couples" bridal shower for Dave and I. When we had been engaged, Jody immediately expressed that she wanted to host a party for Dave and I. She wanted it to be a couples' shower so that everyone could come and be together. It was mildly stressful for me, because both my parents were coming, plus extended family, plus Dave's family. I began to think of it as a "run-thru" before the actual wedding. Jackie and my mom came up on Thursday before the shower and stayed with Dave and the boys and I. Then we all headed up on Saturday morning for the party!

The first family photo in a VERY long time... I made sure that we got one though.

Dave and I with my Mom and Dad.

Me and my beautiful rehearsal bouquet. I had no idea that this was a thing... but Jody and Aunt Molly brought Jackie a paper plate and with the ribbons from the presents we received that day, her and my friend Ali put this together for me. I LOVE all the colors and can't wait to use it for the rehearsal! (And it's hanging on the wall in our room right now with all the cards we got... including the one from my Dad that made me cry in front of everyone :))

Opening presents. We got the BEST ones! Dave has already made bread with our bread maker (and it was delish!) and we have made waffles every morning this weekend (thanks Dad!) And we have used all the BBQ gadgets that we got too!

Love this photo!

It was so fun! The girls took me out to the bars in downtown Portland after the party... and when we got home around 1am, all the boys were up making waffles and nachos! We had a REALLY good time. I felt so lucky to have so many amazing friends and family that came out. We have the best family and friends EVER... and we are even more excited (if at all possible) for the wedding and having that whole group plus some together again! <3

It was a great break from the stress that has been building up in my system... and after having a nice long chat with my boss about how things were going, I felt reassured and refocused on my duties as a manager. I know it doesn't seem like a big deal... but sometimes it's hard to keep track of everything. Especially after the shower, I can focus back on work and doing my best everyday, instead of worrying about what I need to get done when I get home from work.

Speaking of which... since Jackie has been here, I've put her to work, helping me with the wedding invitations. I won't give anything away but they turned out AMAZING and I can't wait to send them out to everyone (Abby... you're lucky you get to see it before ANYONE else!;))

Happy Independence Day everyone! Jackie and I are headed to the beach! It's supposed to be really nice! Dave and the boys went on a mountain bike ride on the Mckenzie river... so we will see them tonight!

Stress is bad for you: A rant of sorts

Days left until the wedding: 97 (double digits baby!)

The last to weeks have been very high stress for me. The biggest reason is work (I'm working 6 days this week, which comes to about 46 hours of work). I know what you might be thinking out there in blogger land... "How could managing a coffee shop be stressful?! What could possibly go wrong?!" The answers... yes very stressful and everything can go wrong.

Last week I had to "let go" of an employee for the first time. This person had been causing me some small headaches here and there, and was difficult to train. They did this weird thing two weeks ago of going over my head and putting in their two weeks notice to MY boss, the owner of the company, just a few days after I had written them up for being late. This person never mentioned to me that they had been hired for another job and was planning on leaving, even though I knew about it from my boss. Long story short... last week during finals week this person didn't show up to their assigned shift, no phone call, no nothing. When they called to apologize to me about it, I explained that I knew about them leaving and I already had their shifts covered for the rest of the week. "It was meeting you..."

So, this week I had to change the schedule up a bit because of this person no longer working for us... and come to find out my newest hire has two other part time jobs that limits them being able to work when I need them to work. When I had hired her, she had one other job... but this second is a surprise. But now, not only that... she seems to know everything already and doesn't like being told what to do (It is my job as her manager and trainer to tell her what to do, and how to do it... this is a problem...) So we shall see...

But I ALSO have a girl leaving at the end of the month to have her kidney removed and put into her father, for which she is a match. He is very sick and needed a new kidney. She is so brave. And it's too bad she is leaving because she is an AMAZING barista (never known someone with rosetta making skills like that girl).

In the mean time, no one told me that Food Services of America (our food supplier) is no longer carrying Monin caramel syrup, which is our second most popular flavor. So the last two weeks I have ordered it, and it never comes... all four bottles I have ordered each time. I finally started to demand answers, and found out that they no longer carry it. Ugh.

And the last thing sitting on my shoulders like a 1,000 pound parrot is the wedding. Again, don't get me wrong, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Dave and cannot imagine the rest of my life without him, and I cannot WAIT to call him "hubby"... but it is the event itself that is stressful. First up, a week from today is our bridal shower. It's going to be great fun! But all of our friends and both of our families will be there. I just want everything to go just right. And hopefully it will :) But... you never know... And I need to go purchase our invitations and start putting them together, before I forget or loose track of time.

But it is times like these that make you appreciate what you DO have. Like AWESOME employees. Gina and Sara rock my socks off. They are amazingly hard workers with their heads on straight. They love the shop as much as I do, and it shows. And my loving fiance, who listens to me rant when he gets home from work, and always offers helpful advice. And then gives me good hugs and kisses.

As I keep telling myself, everything will work out in the end. It always does. I think my two most recent hires will be amazing baristas and hard workers. And three months and one week from now our wedding will go off without a hitch! It will be fun and amazing and beautiful. Oh I can't wait!

Wedding Planning: Gettin' it done!

Days left: 110

So now we are inside of 4 months left until gettin' hitched. Mind blowing for Dave and I. I told him we are almost under 100 days and he just gave me his nervous laugh. We both know that we are excited to get to our wedding day!

This morning over breakfast we were talking about how crazy busy this summer and the rest of the year will be for us. We started to joke and say "remember how busy 2011 was?!"

Today was fun... we did a "Mary's Peak Rally" with Romo.

Dave with his serious driving face

I let my hair air dry during the drive... it was flying out the window the whole time...

Somewhere near Alsea...

We came home in time for the weird warm weather rain to start again. So I decided to sit down at my laptop and get some wedding things done. We have been shopping around for Dave's wedding band, and last weekend he finally found the type of ring he really wanted. Only problem was, gold is the metal he wanted and it's REALLY expensive. So we have been hunting on the internet for the ring he wanted at a decent price (and by decent I mean under $500, no joke... gold isn't cheap right now). But we did! We found the exact one for a great price! So I ordered it fast, to avoid the price changing tomorrow. (It's happened... haha).

We have also picked out favors... which we are waiting to order so they aren't just sitting around, and I think we have decided our wedding invitations too.

I ordered my veil this week and I already found my shoes. I was describing my veil to Romo's girlfriend, Krista (Ta for short) and I guess Dave was eavesdropping. He told me later that he heard me and said he's really excited to see me all done up. Then he said "Man, I better be looking GOOD because it sounds like you will be looking HOT." Just put that kid in a suit and he looks AMAZING. I know he will be looking good.

Half of my bridesmaids have their dresses officially bought and ready to go.

Cupcakes (yes, I said cupcakes) are all lined up, with all four flavors (yes... FOUR different flavors!) picked out, just the official decorating decisions need to be made.

It's all coming together. I'm feeling less stressed about it all the time. There are a few things here and there that I still have yet to book or make official (like a DJ... but I'm waiting to hear back about prices). But overall, I have worked really hard to get so many things done already it won't be hard the next few months. It will just be the day of stuff that will have be freaking out. Luckily I have the most amazing bridesmaids in the world, so I know they will be helping me the week of and day of.

In the mean time, our shower is in 2-ish weeks. Which should be SO fun! Hopefully there will be lots of pictures and stories from that!

Three days after our shower, Dave and I are going to see our favorite band, My Morning Jacket, play at Edgefield with some of our closest friends (haha come to think of it it will be Maid of Honor, Best man, and his best lady, and groomsman coming with us!)

Ooooo and the summer will keep getting more busy! Stay tuned for more adventures!

Love, Jess

Wedding Planning: The Website

So, now that I have officially been down to business, making plans and calling people and confirming things, I have updated our wedding website to a useable status. There were a few pages on there that I was waiting to work on because I needed more info. There are still a few things that need to be finished... but that will come with time. So family and close friends, check it out! Let me know what you think! I haven't given this to ANYONE yet, not even my parents, because I wasn't ready yet. But I'm ready now. Oh, and the address will also be included with the formal invitations, so those who are invited can check out all the details!

Planning: Photography!

Funny how my blog is called Keeping Up, and yet I can't even keep up with my own life. But as part of my life right now, I will briefly discuss my last wedding planning accomplishment: photography. For anyone who knows me well, or who has been to my house at any point in the last ten years, I love pictures. (It doesn't matter which house, as long as it is the space I have the authority to decorate). I knew that when I did get married someday, that the pictures would be really important because I would probably try to hang them everywhere in my house.

Sooooo, picking my wedding photographer would be an important choice. And I have made my decision final. Ben Becker. I first heard of Ben when the boys were talking about him every once in a while, but I finally got familiar with his work about a year ago. Dave's good friend Adam has a twin sister, Lin. Lin married Adam's best friend from high school, Ben. Adam got married last summer, and Ben was his best man. Since Dave was a groomsman too, we got to spend lots of time with Ben and Lin during the week-long celebration of Adam and Jamie's wedding.

Ben is a super creative, dedicated photographer. I'm really excited for him (and Lin) to be at our wedding and capture the most amazing moments. Even the ones that Dave and I might miss. And I want us to look like a rockstar (slash) couture model.

Here's his website. Check him out!

Planning, Planning: flowers

I realized the other day that I have gotten into the habit of thinking about wedding planning CONSTANTLY. I find inspiration everywhere, as I do with any creative project I'm working on. So it has become habit to go looking for inspiration when I'm not busy with work or Dave. I got so inside my head this afternoon on the way back from having lunch with Dave downtown that I tried to drive back to our old house in town (which is across town). And I had even said to Dave as we were finishing that I will be glad when I won't have to worry about the wedding anymore, and just enjoy being married to him... haha. But anyway...

My dress is in the making. They will be shipping it June 23rd to the shop I bought it from. I went last weekend while in town and picked out my sash color (which is a brilliant peacock blue).

I have been shopping around for flowers, DJs and Dave's ring the last few weeks. I think this sounds kind of crazy, but I might go with mail-ordered flowers. I know. Crazy right? I read in one of my many bridal magazines that there are wholesale flowers available online for cheap. So I went and checked it out. I had met with a florist about a month ago to get a quote, and it was much more than what I was expecting. This wholesale flower thing doesn't seem so bad. They come in sturdy boxes all arranged and ready to go. The only thing is, I will only have a general idea of what they will look like until they get here... but I guess it is the same as trusting design to a florist, right? I'm not that much of a flower snob to be super worried about their exact appearance. They will be flowers, bright colored ones, that smell nice. That is all I want for our flowers and our wedding. I'm getting to the point where little things like that don't stress me so much...

or maybe I'm just loosing it... haha.

Oh well. I e-mailed the online company, growersbox.com (the collection I like is called the Bright Collection and the picture above is an example of the bridal bouquet), to ask them a few questions, so hopefully we will get good answers. I think it will go well... I just have one of those good feelings. I feel like I can trust my gut feelings on something like this, especially if it means paying only half as much as using a local florist. :)

They also have boxes of just flowers and greenery that is cheap, allowing me to arrange my centerpieces in the way that I want. I would rather pay less and work a little harder myself (or put my maids to work ;)) than pay an extra $400

Above is what I am thinking for centerpieces. I will probably use different flowers than those above, but I love the idea, and they would be easy to put together the morning of the wedding.

Something I have looked up today, regarding our mini-moon, is where we will be staying the weekend after the wedding. Our first choice is McMenamins Edgefield, but they might already be booked that weekend (I'm not 100% sure yet, I need to call). Our second choice is McMenamins' newest hotel, the Crystal Hotel, which is in downtown Portland. It would be awesome if we could do that too, all the best coffee is right within walking distance ;) (*cough*cough* Stumptown) We have yet to book our room, so we shall see!