Surprise Kiss

Archive for January, 2010

Flirting is mandatory with your spouse and putting $5 a week away for that romantic rendezvous.

Don’t forget to get the items I told you to pickup for Valentines in my blog Are You Ready.

Keep those sparks Flying!
JoJo

© 2010, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

Are you looking for something different to do on date night? When you think of date night do you always think of a dinner, movie, live theatre or dancing? Do you ever think of doing something a little different? I am always looking for something a little different to do together. Were it makes it interesting for both of us. Sometimes we are already doing it but don’t think about it being a date.

My husband and I love to cook together and sometimes we will go on a Farmers Market Date. Living on the Central Coast in California gives us a bounty of fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables. We always find it fun to walk to each fruit and vegetable stand and access what they have, seeing if there is something we would like to purchase to bring home and enjoy for the week.

Farmers Markets are available almost everyday where we live. The one we enjoy the most is Farmers Market on Thursday nights in San Luis Obispo. The community closes down their main downtown street and lets the farmers put out their produce. The shops stay open later and there are street vendors selling food to eat. It is always fun to sit down on the curb and eat while watching the people walk by. There is entertainment sprinkled throughout, live music, a puppet show for the kids and sometimes kids dancing in the street. When you go there you feel like you are on vacation and you are at a country festival.

The other one we like is in Arroyo Grande which is about 15 min from where we live. Their Farmers Market is held Saturday at noon. It is a lot smaller than the one in San Luis Obispo but it is a good one too. There is usually live music and original art being sold. If we want to grab something to eat there are several good little restaurants in the same area.

Our daughter and her husband enjoy going to Farmers Market on Sunday. It is a nice walk from their home and they come back with fresh fruits and vegetables from the local farmers in the area. This is their quiet time together. They are not only eating healthier but because they walk to it they are exercising. Most importantly, they are keeping their marriage healthy by taking the time to be together, as they walk they talk and enjoy the scenery.

If you live where it snows and Farmers Market is only from spring through fall then go to a specialty grocery store together and buy a few fruits and vegetables you normally wouldn’t buy and bring it home to cook. Stop and have a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy the quiet time together.

Sometimes the simplest dates are the most enjoyable.

Don’t forget to pick up the items I told you to get on January 14th. 

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

© 2010, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

Valentines is in one month. Have you started to think about what you are going to do for your sweetheart on that special day? Typically people go out to dinner and give a small gift, card, chocolates, jewelry, etc. Which is nice, but why not kick it up a notch and at the same time not spend too much money? SurpriseKiss.com is here to help you make this year not too expensive but very memorable.

You will need to buy a few items and on January 29th I will tell you what to do with everything listed below:

1. Small heart shape pad or a pad with hearts on them (preferably sticky notes)
2. Kit Kat Candy Bar
3. Small Box of Animal Crackers
4. Reese’s Pieces Candy
5. Hot Tamales Candy
6. Toy Race Car
7. Sucker
8. Small Can of Nuts
9. Bottle of Bubbles
10. Dog Bone
11. Light bulb
12. Jump Rope
13. Pop Corn
14. Candy Kisses

The next four items I want you to get will be revealed on February 12th.

1. Glow in the Dark Stars
2. Blank Valentines Card
3. Flower Scented Candle (Wild Jasmine, rose, Lavender, etc)
4. CD of Outdoor music

If you & your spouse enjoyed my Christmas and New Year’s Eve ideas then you will like this one too!

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

© 2010, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

Do you ever snuggle up with your spouse or do you always sit across from one another? When you sit down to watch TV do you sit at the other end of the couch? Do let your children sit between both of you? When you go to bed do you snuggle up next to each other before you fall asleep or are you at the opposite ends of the bed? Or do you think when you snuggle you need to start kissing and then it moves on to sex? While snuggling can be a great start to foreplay, it can be just another simple way of connecting.

First let’s look at what snuggle means. According to Wiki it is – a cuddle; an affectionate embrace, often used in conjunction with family members and close friends. To embrace affectionately, to lie together snugly; to cradle in one’s arms so as to give comfort, warmth. When you snuggle, you move or arrange yourself in a comfortable and cozy position. When you snuggle up on the couch, you could mean you are cuddling up with a blanket by yourself. The snuggling I am talking about is the one with your spouse. We snuggle with our kids but do you ever snuggle with your spouse?

What is your favorite way to snuggle? Some of my favorite ways are:

• When we go to bed we snuggle until it gets too warm or my husband starts snoring
• When we watch a movie at home
• When we are having a cup of coffee in the morning
• When we are having a glass of wine in the evening and talking
• When we are walking along the beach
• When we are sitting on a park bench and watching people walk by or watching the kids play

There are of course many other ways to snuggle and I could go on and on but I won’t.

Now granted we don’t do all of the above every single day but we generally do at least one a day. Snuggle is a de-stressor; when you are cuddle up to your spouse there is a warmth and connection you both feel. This is why I think more couples need to make the time to snuggle and not let the kids come between you. Now don’t get me wrong there is a time where you and your spouse are sitting on the couch or in the bed and the kids are between the two of you. It is a good way for the whole family to connect as on unit, but there is also a time when you and your partner need to connect as a couple. After all, it is a wonderful pastime and feel good feeling.

I’ve saved my most favorite way to snuggle for last!

• When we are in the nude

What about you?

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

© 2010, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

On November 10, 2009 I wrote about visiting my friend in Ojai and how we looked at four inns there, you can read the post here http://www.surprisekiss.com/?p=818 . One stood out above the rest. The inn is called Su Nido Inn. Their tag line reads “Your nest in Ojai” and it truly is. The inn keeper graciously invited us to stay at their inn and experience one of their rooms. We called the inn keeper, Michael, and made reservations for last Thursday, January 7th.  My husband made arrangements to take off work Thursday and Friday so we could really enjoy our time in Ojai.

When we arrived Michael showed us our lovely room and when we saw it romance was in our eyes.  We were given the Robin Suite which is absolutely beautiful! There was a small living room with fireplace, LCD TV and a private patio with village views. Also, there is a small kitchenette with microwave, coffee pot, complimentary snacks and under-cabinet refrigerator with complimentary drinks in it. The bedroom had a very comfortable King bed with a large screen TV. Michael told us people love their beds and some have commented that they had the best night sleep ever. The bathroom has a separate shower and soaking tub accented by mosaic art. There are Molton Brown, from London, amenities. My husband enjoyed the Molton Brown “Re-charge Black Pepper Body Wash.”  They also have a huge selection of DVDs to choose from in their lobby for you to enjoy in your room.

To say “Your nest in Ojai” is a wonderful description of the inn. We honestly didn’t want to leave and plan on staying here again. We walked downtown and enjoyed a glass of wine at one of the wine tasting bars; then walked to dinner and strolled back to our room arm in arm. In the morning we walked to a restaurant for breakfast which Michael suggested and then enjoyed the village of Ojai for a while. If you are looking for a small quaint village with art galleries, bookstores, shopping, fine dining and a place for romance and relaxation this is the perfect weekend or mid-week getaway for you and your spouse.

Here is the breakdown on what it could cost you. Please note my husband & I split breakfast, lunch and dinner so nothing was too expensive for us. We don’t like to over eat.

Su Nido Inn  $219.00 (Mid-week stay)

Room Tax           21.00
Total               $240.00

The Garden Market Lunch  $12.00 (In Carpinteria)
Casa Barranca Winery  Drinks   21.65 (2 glasses of wine with tip)
Osteria Monte Grappa Dinner   35.17 (We split salad, dinner and desert, tip included)
Ojai Café Emporium Breakfast   13.20 (with tip)
Total     $82.02

Total cost for a one night, 2 day visit is:  $240.00 +$82.02 = $322.02

If you saved $7 a week for a year you would end up with $364 for your weekend “Nest in Ojai!”

You can see the room we stayed in, Robin Suite, by logging on to www.sunidoinn.com

So continue to save your money and you could have a romantic and relaxing weekend or mid-week getaway for you and your spouse at the Su Nido Inn, “Your Nest in Ojai!”

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

© 2010, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

Give a little wink & smile at your spouse as they are walking by you today and don’t forget to put your $5 a week away for your romantic getaway.

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

© 2010, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

I was having lunch with a good friend of mine last week and she was telling me about how a group of her friends get together every couple of months and have dinner at their favorite Chinese restaurant. After dinner they break open their fortune cookie and read it out loud to everyone. The difference is that they add a few words at the end. I thought this was a fun idea for you to do with your spouse so I asked her if I could share this idea and she said yes.

For date night go out to your favorite Chinese restaurant or order takeout. If you are eating at the restaurant ask for chopsticks. It may take longer to eat but you will have fun laughing at each other and yourself. The first time my husband and I used chopsticks it took us two hours to eat. We laughed at each other and refused to give up until we had mastered the art of eating with those chopsticks. Because we didn’t give up we now can eat with them and every so often we will reminisce about how funny it was when we were trying to learn to eat with those darn chopsticks.   If you order takeout you can have the same fun by making sure they put chopsticks in with your order.  And then when you get home put on a kimono rob and sit on the flour and eat off your coffee table while you try to eat with those chopsticks.

Enjoy your meal together and then after dinner has been devoured break open your fortune cookie and read it out loud but at the end add the words “between the sheets.” My friend said it can get quite funny and sometimes it is very sexy.What a simple idea to make a very ordinary Chinese dinner memorable.

Wishing you a very sexy fortune cookie “between the sheets” date.

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

© 2010, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

A friend sent me a copy of her New Years Resolution and I liked it so well I decided to change it and make it my marriage resolution for 2010. When you think positive about your marriage, you will be happier with your partner and your life.

I Promise My Spouse and my Marriage

• To not allow anything to disturb the peace in our marriage
• To have my spouse feel that they are worthwhile
• To look at the sunny side of my marriage
• To think only the best and to expect only the best of my marriage
• To be as enthusiastic about the success of my spouse as I am about my own
• To forget the mistakes of the past in my marriage
• To be cheerful and give a smile to my spouse
• To be so busy improving my marriage that I have no time to criticize it
• To be too happy and not to permit the presence of trouble in my marriage
• To think well of my spouse and to show it to him by my actions
• To believe the whole world is on my marriages side
• To kiss and hug my spouse every morning and every evening
• To change the way I think about my spouse and marriage by starting out my day with a positive attitude

May this help you to see your marriage in a more positive light every single day!

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

© 2010, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

Do you believe that life happens to you or do you believe you can be in charge of your life? There are two types of people in this world. The people who believe they have no control over their life, they are always the victim. And then there are the ones who believe they are in control of what happens to them, they are the fighters.

Now I am not saying you can control everything that happens to you. You can’t control whether or not you get cancer but you can try to eat properly and exercise. If you still get cancer you can control how you decide to deal with the situation. You can either give up or you can come up fighting. I am sure you know people who should have lived for many years but they gave up and just died. Then there are the people who only had a 20% survival rate and are still alive years later because they fought for their life.

So my question to you is “Do you let the romance in your marriage happen to you or do you take charge and make the romance in your marriage happen? Why do so many people think romance should just happen? Romance is a little like the flames in your fireplace. If you don’t add wood or have a gas line that is turned on directly in the fireplace the flame will burnout. If you are not adding fuel to the romance in your marriage the flame will burnout.

What do you choose to do with the romance in your marriage? If you want to keep the embers burning then for 2010 make your resolution that you will find the time and money to make it happen. As for me I continue to fight for the romance in my marriage. Even though I have been married for 42 years I will continue to think of romantic ideas for you and me to do to your special someone to let them know you care about your marriage and how much you appreciate and love them.

Get ready for 2010 because the plan is to “Keep those sparks flying!”

JoJo

© 2010, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

On Wednesday, December 30, I told you what I would be doing with my husband on New Year’s Eve. Well we had a change of plans, my daughter and I had met at Starbucks in the morning to work on my website and while we were on the web a little add popped up talking about a New Year’s Eve dinner at  Creekside Brewing Co in San Luis Obispo. We decided to click on it and see what the menu was like and where it was located.

Creekside Brewing Co is a small microbrewery located on a side street in downtown San Luis Obispo. The New Year’s Eve dinner menu looked very interesting and unusual. It was a six course dinner with beer tasting. It is kind of like a wine tasting dinner but it was less expensive. They said dinner started at 7:00 PM and ended at 9:00 PM. Early enough for us to get home before the real partiers got started. It sounded like something the guys would enjoy, so we called and made reservations for dinner.

This spur of the moment decision turned out to be one of the nicest New Year’s evenings we have had in a long time. The gourmet dinner was absolutely delicious and we learned from the brew master so much about pairing your beer with your menu. It was so much fun to taste the beer before we tasted the dinner and then eating dinner and drinking the beer. Some of the beers were very strong but when you paired it with something like a spicy shrimp and pozole corn it was outstanding. One of the most unusual items on the menu was the homemade gelato made with coffee, chocolate and stout. They served the beer with the same stout used in the gelato. It was a very dark beer served in a brandy glass. Who would have thought gelato and beer would go together but it did.

Eric was our brew master and he made it a very interesting an enjoyable evening. We totally enjoyed learning about the beers and how they were made and what type of foods to eat with it. Our husbands are still talking about what a great evening they had and how good the food was. My daughter & I were the designated drivers so we would take a couple of sips of the beers and let the guys finish off what we didn’t drink. We kept it a safe and fun evening. I will never look at beer the same way again.

For those who are planning on visiting or who live on the Central Coast I would highly recommend the next time you plan on going out to make it a point to have dinner there and enjoy the beers they have to offer. Ask your waiter what will go well with your dinner. You won’t be sorry you asked. Check it out : www.creeksidebrewing.com.  And for those who don’t live on the Central Coast check to see if there is a microbrewery near you and have a memorable evening enjoying their wonderful beers and food.

I know of so many people who once they have made plans are not willing to change things. They are so regimented it is sad. If we hadn’t decided to change our plans we would not have found out how good this place is and would not have had such a memorable New Year’s Eve. So when you have an opportunity to change things out, as long as it doesn’t affect other people,  go ahead get a little crazy and have fun. Change your plans!

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

© 2010, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.