Archive for May, 2011

Appreciate the positive in your marriage and keep saving $5 a week for your romantic getaway.

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

Need help with cooking for romance, relationship or travel ideas? Then go to my Surprise Kiss Store above and click on the tab to see the authors I like to read and games that are fun to play with your sweetheart.

© 2011, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

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What are you doing this Memorial Day Weekend? Do you plan on having some fun family time? Or are you planning on having a barbeque with friends and family over? Maybe you are working on the house or maybe getting a little rest and relaxation? What ever you do I hope you find a moment to enjoy some couple time with your sweetheart.

Want to have a little fun and bring out the kid in both of you?  In the morning hand your sweetheart a note that says:

“I’d like to bring out the kid in us. Let’s work up a sweat by going to the park or beach and playing a game of Frisbee. When we get home we can shower together and then we can hop in bed and work on giving each other the pleasure of our love!”

Set a time to go to the park or beach. Dust of the old Frisbee, grab a blanket, pack a picnic lunch. If you really want to feel like a couple of kids you could make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. For dessert, get ice cream cones from the ice cream store.

Not all dates have to be the adult kind. Sometimes throwing in a little child like fun is just what your relationship needed.

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

Need help with cooking for romance, relationship or travel ideas? Then go to my Surprise Kiss Store above and click on the tab to see the authors I like to read and games that are fun to play with your sweetheart.

© 2011, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

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Last Wednesday, May 18th, I wrote about a couple who were having marital problems. I felt they had lost not only their connection to each other but Tanya felt very guilty about having an affair. She was not only punishing herself but her whole family. So how do you try to patch up such a big hole in their relationship? It is not as easy as patching a hole in your wall in the house. In a marriage when you are both hurting it stays with you unless you decide to let it go.

So how do you mend the hole? This Wednesday we will discuss the importance of having separate goals and letting your partner know about them. Talking about your separate goals will start to open the communication.

My recommendation to them is they find a way to start commutating. Find some time alone during the week to write down what they want out of life individually. Then make a date to get together for an hour or so to meet without the children and talk about their personal goals. Go to the local coffee house, park, beach or lake and sit down and really listen to each other. Tanya and Michael need to remember their personal goals are not about them as a couple it is about them as individuals.

Most couples once they are married really don’t talk about their personal goals. They just assume their partner knows. Communication is so important during marriage and so many times couples stop communicating. Discussing what they want for their life, their dreams and goals, will help them to start looking at each other in a different way and hopefully they will start to remember why they fell in love in the first place.

Every couple should be sitting down at least once a year to talk about their personal goals. You might find out something new you didn’t know about your partner and it will make you look at them differently. You will each become a little more interesting to each other.

Next week we will follow up with another recommendation for Tanya and Michael.

Keep those sparks flying!

JoJo

Need help with cooking for romance, relationship or travel ideas? Then go to my Surprise Kiss Store above and click on the tab to see the authors I like to read and games that are fun to play with your sweetheart.

© 2011, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

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When you save $5 a week for a year to go away for a romantic evening you will be treating your marriage well and that is never wrong.

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

 

Need help with cooking for romance, relationship or travel ideas? Then go to my Surprise Kiss Store above and click on the tab to see the authors I like to read and games that are fun to play with your sweetheart.

© 2011, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

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Sorry I didn’t post an idea for date night on Friday. It has been a little hectic around here. Larry’s mother went into the hospital on Tuesday and all our attention has been directed toward her and her recovery. She is still in the hospital but we are hoping she will be out within the next couple of days.

This is a blog I posted on August 6, 2009 and thought it was worth repeating. Enjoy!

Do you wish you could bring back the feeling you used to have when you were dating? Well you can! You need to have a desire to revitalize your relationship and implement romance whenever you can. Remember when you were dating and you talked and did silly things. Most couples once they have tied the knot and have been married for a while, they seem to think that they don’t have to do those silly little things they used to do when they weren’t married. What they forget about is how special you both felt because that person went out of their way for them. Usually it didn’t cost a lot or nothing at all to do something special.

Romance is a little serious, a little fun and once in a while a little surprise. Mix them all together and you might get one big bang! Pun intended. Want to add a little fun and surprise to your relationship today? Well try this idea.

As soon as your spouse comes home after being away, walk up to them and give them a big welcome home. Then put your arms around them and request a one minute kiss. Plant those fabulous lips of yours on their mouth and proceed to give a great big one minute kiss.

My guess will be one of two reactions. They will either proceed to respond to you with that one minute kiss or there will be some laughing and a “What?” response. Now if you get the second response my recommendations is not to get mad, this is meant to be fun not to make you both angry. Start laughing along with them and continue to laugh. Your spouse may think you are a little crazy but that is OK. Isn’t love a little crazy too?

Let me tell you what happened to me when I did it to my husband. One evening when he got home from being out, I ran up to him and said “Welcome home sweetheart!” and then announced to him I wanted a one minute kiss. Well, he started laughing and planted his lips on mine but instead of it being passionate he started to count 1, 2, 3……….. until we were both laughing! Needless to say we both surprised each other in ways we did not expect. Every so often I think about our one minute kiss and have a big smile on my face when I do. There’s a good feeling about our relationship and neither of us spent any money for this special memory. Please don’t expect the same outcome as mine but remember to keep it light and fun.

Bring a little surprise to your relationship and keep the fun and passion in your life together. Ask for that One Minute Kiss! Let me know what happened.

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

Need help with cooking for romance, relationship or travel ideas? Then go to my Surprise Kiss Store above and click on the tab to see the authors I like to read and games that are fun to play with your sweetheart.

© 2011, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

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I talked to a friend recently and wanted to tell you about her and her husband. Names have been changed to keep their privacy. Tanya and her Husband, Michael, have been married for approximately 12 years. They have 3 children which keep them busy with school, sports practice and weekend games, along with doing things as a family. Tanya and Michael both work fulltime. They are a couple passing each other in the hall. No romance, no companionship, just work and children.  No Fun!

As Tanya started to talk she started to open up to me more and more. Apparently, they are thinking of separating. They are both asking each other “Where is the Love”? Tanya in particular is very unhappy and wants out. They have tried counseling but only went for a short while, not long enough to help them make this very important decision not only about themselves but also for their children.

Tanya and Michael are arguing a lot and the children are beginning to notice it and feel the tension surrounding their marriage.  As we talked, Tanya confided in me that last year she had an affair with someone else but it was over now. Michael only knows she was attracted to someone else but she told him nothing ever happened. She said for her to have the affair there had to be something wrong with her marriage already. I agree with her. You typically don’t have an affair unless there is something missing in the relationship.

It is my personal belief if the marriage isn’t working then maybe you do need to get a divorce but you need to at least try counseling and not only for 6 weeks. What I heard from Tanya is a hurting woman who feels very guilty about having the affair so now she is looking at Michael and seeing all his faults to make her feel better. Isn’t it easier to see all your spouse’s faults and have a reason for why you had the affair? I feel Tanya needs to forgive herself before she can move forward and try to make her marriage work. What do you think? Before you can move forward with a huge decision of disrupting not only a marriage but the lives of 3 children who love their father and mother very much, don’t you think they deserve to seek counseling longer than 6 weeks? Mistakes happen let it go!

I hurt for both of them but most importantly their children. My concern is one day Tanya is going to wake up and say “Oh, my God, what did I do?” I had a loving husband and children whom I love very much and I did something I knew was wrong but didn’t try to find out why or how could I fix it. I had a loving husband who wasn’t perfect but neither am I.

Yes, Tanya was wrong in having an affair but none of us is perfect. Tanya needs to find a way to forgive herself without telling her husband (She doesn’t need to hurt him too) and see if they both can make this marriage work. After several months of counseling both private and together they still feel their marriage isn’t working then get a divorce, at least they tried.

What is your opinion? Have you ever had an affair? How did you handle it? Has your spouse ever had an affair? Are you still together? Let me know your thoughts and opinion.

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

Need help with cooking for romance, relationship or travel ideas? Then go to my Surprise Kiss Store above and click on the tab to see the authors I like to read and games that are fun to play with your sweetheart.

© 2011, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

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Wear something special for your sweetheart, like surprising him/her with your birthday suit tonight! Keep saving your $5 a week for your romantic getaway.

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

Need help with cooking for romance, relationship or travel ideas? Then go to my Surprise Kiss Store above and click on the tab to see the authors I like to read and games that are fun to play with your sweetheart.

© 2011, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

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The weekend is here and you and your sweetheart have so many things to do it is ridiculous! You want to make time for each other but you have looked and looked for a half hour to be together and there is no time to spare. So another weekend goes by and you have not had a chance to connect in a while.

Larry and I will have those weeks where we don’t remember the last time we sat down and talked to each other. That’s when we make it a point to make a date lunch in the middle of the week. We will go out to eat at our favorite deli or restaurant in town. If money is a little short I will pack a picnic lunch and we will meet in a local park. The one hour we set aside in the middle of the week keeps us connected. It reminds us we are a team, a couple who enjoys being together.

So if you have no time to set aside for your sweetheart make it a point next week to have a lunch date. Decided ahead of time what day you will meet and where you will go. No kids, friends or family allowed, just the two of you enjoying one hour together. When you do little things like this your sweetheart will feel like your best friend and lover.

What do you do to keep relationship connected when life gets too busy?

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

Need help with cooking for romance, relationship or travel ideas? Then go to my Surprise Kiss Store above and click on the tab to see the authors I like to read and games that are fun to play with your sweetheart.

© 2011, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

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Yesterday Ann Curry on the Today Show talked to Sarah Spagnolo from Travel and Leisure Magazine about new luxury hotels that are priced around $300.00. They primarily targeted, in the video, 5 hotels under $300.00.

Four of the hotels were in the United States and one was in Portugal. They all seemed really nice so I wanted to make sure you didn’t miss this video.

New Luxury Hotels

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I decided to look at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada and give you the brake down on what it would cost you to stay there for 1 night. Sarah Spagnolo mentioned you could stay there for $195 per night and up but I was able to find a rate of $170 per night in one of their Terrace Studio Rooms.

Here is what you would need to save if you planned on staying there at the rate I was able to find:

Price: $170.00 per night   Check-in: May 30, 2011    Check-out: May 31, 2011

1 night at $170: $170.00
Tax: 20.40
Total: $190.40

If you saved $5.00 a week x 52 weeks = $260.00 at the end of the year.

$260 saved – $190.00 hotel rate w/tax  = $70.00 left over to spend as you please.

If you follow my suggestions of putting additional monies away when you return something or get a rebate throughout the year then you should have a very enjoyable evening away in Las Vegas!

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

Need help with cooking for romance, relationship or travel ideas? Then go to my Surprise Kiss Store above and click on the tab to see the authors I like to read and games that are fun to play with your sweetheart.

© 2011, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

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Look for ways to show your love to your sweetheart in unexpected places. Like surprising your spouse with a romantic night away because you saved your $5 a week for a whole year.

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

Need help with cooking for romance, relationship or travel ideas? Then go to my Surprise Kiss Store above and click on the tab to see the authors I like to read and games that are fun to play with your sweetheart.

© 2011, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

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