Marital Advice - June 2014

June, 2014

When Andrew and I got married 12 years ago, we had a little blank book someone gave us called "Good Advice for Marital Bliss." At the reception, we had our niece Sara ask people to fill it out. I was very proud of her; she encouraged quite a few to add entries. I came upon the book again this last winter and thought that for our anniversary this year, it would be nice to take a look at them again. Some had signatures, but I'll leave those out for this. But not the grammatical errors. Those I'm leaving in. ;-)  I'm also leaving out the general comments like "Congratulations" and such, as they missed the point of the book completely, even though the sentiment was nice. I also tried to keep the general formatting.

I've copied them here, and perhaps you, reader, can tell me what you think.

"Compromise!
Do with love!"

"There are always two sides to every story"

"Life is short - Have fun and remember that nothing is worth getting mad about."

"Congratulations - May your Life be Blessed with Lots of Love Joy and Happiness"

"Communication is the Key to a happy Marriage. Always be willing to say 'I'm sorry & make up before you go to sleep!"

"Always take the time to listen!"

"Always be as happy as you are today!"

"Respect each other while you love each other!"

"Be nice to each other, and remember to laugh! :-)"  (The smiley face was right side up.)

"Love each other and forget the faults. Make each other smile"

"Keep your sense of humor and save your arguments for only those things that really matter."

"Never go to bed mad!"

"Remember your sense of humor always! Stay in the present and enjoy each day with each other"

"Andy - Don't ever stop treating her like a princess and Danielle - Don't ever stop letting him treat you like one."

"It is when you can go through the hard times together, it's when your love will shine through.
Now that your chained together, it's when your journey begins. Congratulations, and Best Wishes Buddy and Danielle.
Be a friend, a lover, husband/wife. Smile through the hard times, cause a smile brings another smile. I could go forever but I won't."

"Have sex every day use condos because kids before you expect them very expensive.
Keep it in your pants unless you have 1.3 million dollars to spare. on average that is what you will spend on a kid from newborn to 18 years advise from a 25 year old with 2 kids
eat, drink and be mary"

"Single mom's advice to a married couple (why I have no idea). 1. Remember, any decision you make with effect the both of you. So no eating beans before bed. 2. The sex will wane in Quantity, not Quality. 3. What does love have to do with it? Everything!!!... For you guys, not me. Where's the beer?"

"The answer to all your questions is:
PANCAKES
(& watch Cheers a lot!)
Don't talk about 'Fight Club'
Life is nothing but clown shoes.
Never Play Leap Frog with a Unicorn"

"LAUGH ALOT!"

"Love each other forever."

"DON'T EVER SAY NO!"

"Make up at nite before you go to sleep if you have to fight"

"Fight a little
hug more
kiss more
love forever!"

"The best advice I can give is 'To Thine Ownself Be True.' Each needs to be happy in their own way as well as compromise to be happy together. Communicate, to know how you both feel and come to a common ground."


So, there we go. I can't say I have a favorite, or a piece of advice that I think really would have changed how our marriage went over the last twelve years. But I do think a sense of humor is extremely important. Then when you criticize each other, you can do so ironically.