Search Results for: blog its never enough cherishing each married moment

Marriage Blog, I Bid You Farewell

An adventure that began two years ago in Pets, then expanded to Marriage a little over a year ago when I first introduced myself here, has reached journey’s end. Today I’m writing to say farewell. Dale should be rejoining you all very shortly. She’s already back to posting in Christian so I imagine it won’t be long before she makes a reappearance here. You’re also going to get a new face to Marriage, but definitely not to Families.com. Mary Ann Romans is one of Families most prolific bloggers. She’s written in different categories over the years and is currently covering … Continue reading →

The Dear Abby from a Distraught Widower

Yesterday Jade sent me an email with this enticing subject line: “Speak now or forever hold your peace.” At first I thought she was sending me some info about people wanting to get married who wouldn’t be able to for very much longer for one reason or another. Maybe because a popular marriage destination was closing or something. (Not that I know of anything like that happening anywhere. That’s just the conclusion I jumped to.) But, oh no, it was nothing innocuous like that. It was a link to Yahoo! News and a Dear Abby column posted there on Sunday … Continue reading →

Marriage Is…

Earlier this year, I wrote about the “Love Is…” cartoons created by Kim Casali and their significance to my relationship with Wayne throughout our years together. In the vein of those cartoons, sans the drawings, I’ve whittled down some of the lessons I’ve learned from Families.com members, other bloggers, and my own personal experiences to compile a list of a few things I think marriage is. Marriage Is…: Filling in the Rest of the Sentence 1. Not always easy. 2. Sometimes aggravating. 3. About needing to trade places (i.e. putting yourself in your spouse’s shoes) from time to time. (Especially … Continue reading →

Is It Possible to Affair-Proof a Marriage?

On Oprah’s “Why Men Cheat Part 2” show, M. Gary Neuman offered three ways to affair-proof a marriage: 1. Appreciate your spouse more. In fact, make sure to appreciate your spouse as much as you possibly can. 2. Have sex. Make time for sex. Enjoy sex. (He suggested women are bad about receiving pleasure. Men are better at that. By nature they’re takers and we’re givers. We’re not comfortable receiving. Be it sexual pleasure or tokens of affection. Mr. Neuman said instead of saying “You shouldn’t have” when your husband gives you something, you should say, “Yes you should have … Continue reading →

What I Think About on 9/11

When I think about September 11, 2001, I don’t think of the terrorists. I don’t think about the conspiracy theories floating around out there that our own government is responsible for the attacks. I don’t think about how much it changed our world and how we live in it basically overnight. No, when I think about the events that happened on September 11, 2001, my mind inevitably returns to the cloudy, partly rainy morning at our house in Jacksonville. The phone rang. It was my dad asking if I was watching the news. “No.” “Turn it on. I’ll wait.” “What … Continue reading →

100 Things Every Marriage Should Experience Before Dying

Have you heard of the book 100 Things To Do Before You Die? (Not to be confused with 101 Things To Do Before You Die, which, while the title’s similar, is an entirely different beast of a book and was written by a different author, Richard Horne.) Dave Freeman, one of the 100’s co-authors, died this past August. I’ve never read the book, but I certainly got a sense of the man. Here’s a snippet from his obituary in the Los Angeles Times: The “100 Things” approach later swept the publishing industry, said Neil Teplica, who wrote the book with … Continue reading →

The Older Couples on the Path

I’ve learned a lot on my quest so far this year to understand what it takes to have a long and successful marriage. I’ve learned secrets from Families.com readers and non-Families.com sources of inspiration alike. But one thing I failed to consider was something else. Something that struck me the other day as I was walking Murph on his favorite park path: your marriage can’t last if you don’t. Yes, I’m talking about keeping yourself healthy. Seems so obvious, but it wasn’t until I saw the older couples on the path that it clicked. I’m talking 65 and up. They … Continue reading →

What Makes Politicians Think They’ll Never Get Caught?

Or, that if they do, we should be understanding and tolerant of their moment of weakness? I’m referring to John Edwards’s admission that he cheated on his wife Elizabeth. “In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic.” ~-John Edwards, as quoted from an article by Pete Yost, AP, published on AOL News-~ Apparently he confessed the whole mess to Elizabeth and the rest of his family long before it came out in the media. But now it’s out. Now not only him, but also Elizabeth, have to face … Continue reading →

Funeral Arrangements: Loyalty to Dead Wife or New Wife?

In When Death Does You Part, Then What?, I wrote about the funeral arrangements disagreement Wayne and I’d had. Somehow I got to discussing this with one of my volleyball cohorts the other night. “But what if you die before Wayne and he remarries? What if his current wife wants to be buried next to him? Or what if it’s vice versa and your new husband wants to be cremated and mixed in with your remains and spread somewhere?” Now there’s an interesting question. It’s hard for me to imagine being remarried. It’s even more difficult to think of Wayne … Continue reading →

Test Your Relationship Memory

Do you ever get asked questions by others about your relationship? Wayne and I do. People are always either curious, impressed, or appalled that we’ve been together for as long as we have and since such a young age. Mostly it’s younger couples wanting to know how (and sometimes why) we’ve stayed together. (By “younger” I don’t necessarily mean younger than us in age so much as in their years together.) However, sometimes even older couples with a couple of decade’s worth of anniversaries on us pose us questions. When I was running my mom to various appointments, or spending … Continue reading →