I live in Ohio, but over the years I have spent a lot of time in NJ, mostly visiting friends in Bergen and Morris County, and vacationing in Cape May Point. The traffic is bad a lot of the time, but that's the case in almost every metro area. The schools, esp. the parochial schools, are excellent. The wide variety of excellent restaurants is fantastic. The only real downside to living in NJ (outside of the inner-city blight of Orange Co. and Camden) is the price of housing. My house in Ohio would cost 3X what it would cost in a comparable neighborhood in NJ.
You definitely miss the restaurants. Try finding good places to eat in Alabama or Mississippi. I hope you like pulled pork!