Archive for the 'Just For Fun' Category

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Dr. Hirsch’s 5 tips for how to have a great vacation

Posted on July 10, 2012 in categories: Expert Advice from Dr. Hirsch and Just For Fun. 0 Comments

A special post by Dr. Abigail Hirsch

Every summer I’m surprised how often we hear from folks just back from a “really challenging” vacation. Why are family vacations so…well, not a vacation? How can you actually have a great vacation? Having just taken some time off with my family, and therefore having had the time to indulge in reading the Sunday New York Times, I came across a great article on just that topic. In it, writer and father Matt Richtel outlines how to prepare our brains to to turn down the mental static and let us really relax during vacations.

The article inspired my to write my own, and voilá, here are the Power of Two Top 5 Tips for How to Have a Great Vacation:

  1. Vary the rhythm. Concerts are better when there is a variety of music. So too are vacations more fun when they have a mixture of fast and slow, active and vegetable, excitement and low key.
  2. Leave room for spontaneity. The highlight of our recent trip was discovering in the paper one morning that the Ultimate
    Have a great vacation, stress free.

    Have a great vacation by leaving technology–and schedules–behind.

    Frisbee National Championships were being played just down the street. Doing something unplanned and novel is great for putting some pep into your day, vacation, and relationship!

  3. Make a digital intruders plan. For many of us it’s hard to put down all the digital connections. So all the things one goes on vacation to take a break from often come charging right on in. To unplug and really have a great vacation, try setting a fixed time each day to check-in and let people know you are checked-out. I love getting up an hour early, finding a new coffee house, and doing a one hour check-in. Then the phone goes off and it’s time to enjoy my vacation.
  4. Hone those skills! The nature of vacation is that it’s a chance to make all kinds of decisions that are just routine in one’s day to day life. Where to eat? What to do? How much to spend? Make sure your communication in marriage and Win-Win Decision Making skills are ready to roll. Check out my workshop video if you’re new to this or need a refresher.
  5. Most of all LAUGH. Really, lighten up, it’s vacation after all. When the boat is so late you miss your train or the kids spill ketchup all over their shirts, take a deep breath and smile. You can have a great vacation or a lousy one–all depending on how you look at it. Choose to see each challenge as an adventure! If you’re late, hey, it’s not like you’re on a schedule anyway!

Happy Summer, and have a great vacation!

Abigail and the Power of Two Coaching Team

Categories: Expert Advice from Dr. Hirsch and Just For Fun

25 crazy wedding dresses

Posted on July 3, 2012 in categories: Communication, Just For Fun, Marriage Prep/Engagement, Media Mondays, Naomi and Weddings. 1 Comment

For some weddings the crazy wedding dresses are really what the event is remembered for. From haute couture to home-sewn whimsy, wedding gowns exist in an amazing array of fantastic to terrifying. For this post I’ve picked out the 20 craziest wedding dresses I could find. I hope you find them as entertaining as I do.

As much fun as it is to laugh at ridiculous fashion choices on the internet, crazy wedding dresses can be a real problem area of wedding planning. If you are close to the bride, giving feedback about a particularly ugly choice can be helpful when done tactfully and gently. Try using “I” statements and “yes…and…” instead of “but” when sharing your opinion (brush up on PO2′s skills for how to communicate in a relationship for some tips). Once she’s made her choice, no matter how trashy, ridiculous or ugly we may find that choice to be, we must keep our comments to ourselves at the wedding. Weddings are about the bride and groom and what they think is fun, not our fashion sensibilities. I may not have chosen the bikini wedding “dress” for myself, but I think it’s wonderful that the couple went and did something so outrageous and unique. They are expressing who they are. And just as the wedding is a celebration of the two betrothed taking and loving each other for who they are, so should we–their friends and family–celebrate  and accept the couple for who they are.

 

1. Never mind the medallion lace chest thing–this is probably my favorite of all the crazy wedding dresses just for her headpiece. I see a crab, an action figure, a bicycle…what else can you spy with your little eye?

Crazy wedding dresses--sometimes fun, sometimes terrifying!

2. Hello kitty!

Crazy wedding dresses--Hello Kitty style!

3. I actually don’t know if this counts as a wedding dress…

Crazy wedding dresses, ready for the beach.

4. The Octo-Bride!

"The Octo-bride." Crazy wedding dresses.

5. Next up: The bride is just glowing…no, literally, she’s glowing! This is a wild art project, and I think it would be quite fun to dance in later in the night at the reception.

Glowing crazy wedding dress art.

6. Another luminescent gown design made of a fabric of thousands of flat LEDs. First featured in WIRED magazine.

Another glowing wedding gown.

7. Many couples are patriotic, but this bride takes it to the next level! Perhaps she got married on the Fourth of July?

"I pledge allegiance to my husband..."

8. Wedding gown trains became popular in the 1870s and have grown to elaborate proportions. Like much else about the wedding, the overflowing and ridiculously long train symbolizes plentitude, opulence and fertility. This one may be a little overboard…

Crazy wedding dresses: the longest train.

9. The bride is a work of art!

Nature calls...

10. Nothing can extinguish their passion.

Nothing can put out their passion.

11. Real crazy wedding dresses require at least 8 helpers to move in.

Crazy wedding dresses

12. Is the groom in there somewhere?

Crazy wedding dress Cinderella

Categories: Communication, Just For Fun, Marriage Prep/Engagement, Media Mondays, Naomi and Weddings

Fathers Day quotes

Posted on June 16, 2012 in categories: Just For Fun, Marriage and Kids and Naomi. 0 Comments

Sometimes it’s hard to find the right words to tell Dad you love him. I’ve scourged the web for the best funny, touching and wise Fathers Day quotes. Enjoy, and have a great Fathers Day tomorrow!

 

1. “My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard.  Mother would come out and say, ‘You’re tearing up the grass.’  ’We’re not raising grass,’ Dad would reply. ‘We’re raising boys.’” ~ Harmon Killebrew

2. “Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope.” ~ Bill Cosby

3. “It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.” ~ Johann Schiller

4. “A father is a man who carries pictures where his money used to be.” ~ Anonymous fathers day quotes

5. “Spread the diaper in the position of the diamond with you at bat.  Then fold second base down to home and set the baby on the pitcher’s mound.  Put first base and third together, bring up home plate and pin the three together.  Of course, in case of rain, you gotta call the game and start all over again.” ~ Jimmy Piersal, on how to diaper a baby, 1968

6. “My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.” ~ Clarence Budington Kelland

7. “A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.” ~ Unknown

8. “By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.” ~ Charles Wadsworth

9. “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” ~ Mark Twain

10. “The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher

11. “Small boys become big men through the influence of big men who care about small boys.”
~ Anonymous fathers day quotes

12. “I talk and talk and talk, and I haven’t taught people in 50 years what my father taught by example in one week.”
~ Mario Cuomo

13. “A father is someone that holds your hand at the fair makes sure you do what your mother says holds back your hair when you are sick brushes that hair when it is tangled because mother is too busy lets you eat ice cream for breakfast but only when mother is away he walks you down the aisle and tells you everythings gonna be OK.”
~ Anonymous fathers day quotes

14. “There are three stages of a man’s life: He believes in Santa Claus, he doesn’t believe in Santa Claus, he is Santa Claus.” 
~ Anonymous fathers day quotes

15. “I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.” ~ Umberto Eco, Foucault’s Pendulum

Categories: Just For Fun, Marriage and Kids and Naomi

The best Fathers Day video ever.

Posted on June 11, 2012 in categories: Just For Fun, Marriage and Kids, Media Mondays and Naomi. 2 Comments

It’s an oldie, but a goodie!

Ok, so this fathers day video is only from 2010. I’m sure you’ve seen it before–at the same time, every time I watch I find it equally hilarious. This video by Church on the Move (who also made a great Mothers Day video) pokes fun at and celebrates dads in all their suburban glory: changing diapers, taking care of the house, and bringing home the bacon. And their rapping isn’t half bad….! Those rhymes definitely make it into my list of best parenting quotes.

My favorite part of the video is when dad #1 starts watching videos with this kids and cries during Aladdin. Watching children’s entertainment can be both mind numbing and eye-opening. I know many parents who quite openly enjoy movies aimed at kids. They can be funny, poignant, and clever without all the violence and darkness of adult movies–which, frankly, we all need a break from once and a while.

As this fathers day video shows, the dads in our lives deserve a big shout out for what they do for their families…and they totally have the bragging rights to rap about it. It also made me think: since being a dad takes up so much of a dad’s life, maybe this year we encourage our dads and husbands to pursue their own interests and take a break from the job. Give him the day to do what ever he wants…without the kids. This sounds like exactly the opposite of how fathers day should be celebrated–it’s all about the fact that this wonderful man has kids, right? It should be celebrated with the family! At the same time, he’s a father 365 days a year, so maybe today is the day he should get the day off!

Enjoy this fathers day video and have fun this weekend–whatever you end up doing!

Fathers Day video via Church on the Move

Categories: Just For Fun, Marriage and Kids, Media Mondays and Naomi

20 awesome parenting quotes

Posted on June 4, 2012 in categories: Just For Fun, Marriage and Kids and Naomi. 0 Comments
While reading through some great parenting quotes for this post, I noticed that quotes from the 1800s through yesterday had two common themes. Despite so many changes in society, people throughout time seem to have found essential truths about raising children.
The first theme of parenting quotes deals with setting an example for your children. They learn more from what you don’t explicitly teach them. You are their reference for how the world is supposed to work. They learn this by watching and interacting with you, consciously and subconsciously absorbing your behavior and reactions.This is especially true for knowledge of relationships. While each of us has our own unique personality and genetic dispositions, much of how we learn to interact with others is determined by how our parents act. Are you patient or quick tempered? Do you tend to argue loudly or avoid confrontation? Do you consider divorce a normal outcome of marriage? Think back to how your family acted, what behaviors were valued and modeled, and which were ignored or admonished. Knowing where your idea of “normal” comes from can empower you to change negative patterns.
Of course, the notion that your children’s futures are being shaped by every move you make is terribly nerve wracking. We have to be perfect all the time! Actually, this leads to the second common theme in the parenting quotes: just do your best. No one knows how to be the perfect parent–there really is no such thing, anyway. For every theory on parenting there is a counter theory in vogue two years later. All you can do is your best–nothing more, nothing less. In fact, when you make mistakes, admit them to your children. Use the moment to engage and teach them. When the day comes that they point out your own errors and give you advice, you’ll know that you have taught them well.

20 awesome parenting quotes

  1. We are apt to forget that children watch examples better than they listen to preaching – Roy L. Smith
  2. My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it
    - Clarence Budinton Kelland
  3. The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother, and the most important thing a mother can do for her children is to love their father – Anonymous, parenting quotes
  4. There is no point in being grown up if you can’t be childish sometimes – Dr. Who
  5. A father is someone who carries pictures where his money used to be – Lion
  6. Your children need your presence more than your presents – Jesse Jackson
  7. Stop trying to perfect your child, but keep trying to perfect your relationship with him – Dr. Henker
  8. To understand your parents’ love you must raise children yourself – Chinese Proverb
  9. Creativity, flexibility, tolerance and love are natural states of mind and our purpose is to nurture them to full blossom – Ronit Baras
  10. There is no such thing as a perfect parent so just be a real one. – Sue Atkins
  11. It is not a bad thing that children should occasionally, and politely, put parents in their place – Colette
  12. Parents make mistakes too, don’t try to hide from them or cover them up. Admit them and teach your kids from the mistakes you make – K. Heath
  13. Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories.  ~John Wilmot
  14. Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.  ~Robert Fulghum
  15. Parents often talk about the younger generation as if they didn’t have anything to do with it.  ~Haim Ginott
  16. Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve.  ~Roger Lewin
  17. Because of their size, parents may be difficult to discipline properly.  ~P.J. O’Rourke
  18. No matter how calmly you try to referee, parenting will eventually produce bizarre behavior, and I’m not talking about the kids.  ~Bill Cosby, Fatherhood, 1986
  19. You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around – and why his parents will always wave back.  ~William D. Tammeus
  20. The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life. – Richard David Bach
Categories: Just For Fun, Marriage and Kids and Naomi

Top 20 Mothers Day Quotes

Posted on May 11, 2012 in categories: Just For Fun, Marriage and Kids and Naomi. 0 Comments

My mom’s favorite of mothers day quotes was, “Why one day? Every day should be mothers day.” I have to agree. It’s not until you’ve had your own children that you can really appreciate how amazing your mother is. And once you realize that…wow. Thanks, Mom. I should tell you that every. single. day.

While I love and appreciate all my mother has done for me so much, sometimes I don’t know how to communicate it with words. Maybe you’re just as stuck as me! To help with that, I’ve researched some wonderful sayings to use as Mothers Day quotes. Whether you just want to write them on a card, on a cake, or make up an awesome rap, I hope they can give you inspiration to tell you mother just how awesome she is.

  1. “God could not be everywhere, and therefore he created mothers.” ~ Jewish proverb
  2. “It was my mother who gave me my voice. She did this, I know now, by clearing a space where my words could fall, grow, then find their way to others.” ~ Paula Giddings
  3. “She is my first, great love. She was a wonderful, rare woman – you do not know; as strong, and steadfast, and generous as the sun.” ~ D.H. Lawrence
  4. “She could be as swift as a white whiplash, and as kind and gentle as warm rain, and as steadfast as the irreducible earth beneath us.” ~ D.H. Lawrence
  5. “There never was a woman like her. She was gentle as a dove and brave as a lioness.” ~ Andrew Jackson
  6. “It was my mother who taught us to stand up to our problems, not only in the world around us but in ourselves.” ~ Dorothy Pitman Hughes
  7. “A mother is not a person to lean on but a person to make leaning unnecessary.” ~ Dorothy Canfield Fisher
  8. “There’s a lot more to being a woman than being a mother, but there’s a hell a lot more to being a mother than most people suspect” ~ Roseanne Barr
  9. “An ounce of mother is worth a ton of priest.” ~ Spanish proverb
  10. “Only mothers can think of the future–because they give birth to it in their children.” ~ Maxim Gorsky
  11. “My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.” ~ Mark Twain
  12. “You couldn’t fool your mother on the foolingest day of your life if you had an electrified fooling machine.” ~ Homer Simpson
  13. “One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don’t come home at night.” ~ Margaret Mead

    Use this day to appreciate all the strong mamas in your life.

  14. “To a child’s ear, “mother” is magic in any language.” ~ Arlene Benedict
  15. “I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine – she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights.” ~ Terri Guillemets
  16. “Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease.” ~ Lisa Alther
  17. “If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?” ~ Milton Berle
  18. “A mom’s hug lasts long after she lets go.” ~ Author Unknown, Mothers Day Quotes
  19. “I cannot forget my mother.  [S]he is my bridge.  When I needed to get across, she steadied herself long enough for me to run across safely.” ~ Renita Weems
  20. “It’s not easy being a mother.  If it were easy, fathers would do it.” ~ From the television show The Golden Girls
I hope you enjoyed these mothers day quotes. Which are your favorites? Help me add to the list!
Categories: Just For Fun, Marriage and Kids and Naomi

Body Language: Fantasy Photoshopped Celebrity Couples

Posted on April 30, 2012 in categories: Communication, Emotional Regulation, Intimacy, Just For Fun, Naomi and Positivity. 0 Comments

Ever shared which celebrity you would date if you could? While your friends answered Brad Pitt or Megan Fox, did you answer “Waterfront-era-Marlon-Brando” or 30s Bombshell Veronica Lake? While now neither is impossible! At least for each other…. Thanks to modern technology (which has reached a new level with the use of deceased celebrities’ holograms) , here are 10 impossible but amazingly classy combinations of celebrity couples regardless of era.

Beyond the brilliance of the photoshop job on some of these pictures, what do you think about the premise? Would these relationships work out? We might be able to tell just by looking at the posture of the couples…and in this case, how well the photoshop artist mimicked the postures of real, loving couples.

I’ve written before about cute couples photos and how pictures can both reveal and hide the reality of situation. A smiling couple isn’t necessarily a happy couple. Beyond looking cheerful, the position of our hands, the tilt of our head, and our stance towards our partner reveal subtleties about our relationship with our spouse. Celebrity gossip magazines like to capitalize on these hidden clues by bringing in body language experts to analyze couples photos for potential marital problems. Sometimes they’re spot on–the couple is going through a rough patch. Other times the picture taker simply caught the couple in motion or at a bad angle.

Body language cues are subtle and complex, and good to know about. Some communication experts believe the up to 90% of what we say comes in the form of non-verbal communication. WebMD has a useful article on the most common body language indicators for communication in relationships and in the office.

Synchrony: Synchrony is when your body language mimics your partner’s. This is a subtle yet important way we express empathy and agreement with the other person–you “sync up” physically as well as mentally and emotionally. The more we mimic, the more likely we are to have a similar opinion, and to feel positive and supportive emotions. This can be indicated by copying your partner’s crossed arms, or arms on hips, or tilt of the head. It’s kind of fun to catch yourself doing it! On the other side, if you are projecting opposing body language such as facing away, avoiding eye contact, or fidgeting, it may be a sign that you are feeling oppositional.

Always, if you’re picking up unspoken negative body language from your spouse, act on it and ask directly if anything is wrong. Never just assume wordlessly–sometimes our interpretations are way off!

One last fun tip from WebMD is for dinner with the inlaws:

“One of the most important body language signs you should convey during your first encounter with your partner’s parents is eye contact with your partner,” says [Patti Wood, author of Success Signals: A Guide to Reading Body Language.].

Your partner’s parents want to know that you are interested in and care for their child. The best way you can tell them that you are “the one” is to look at your partner with love and affection.

With this new knowledge, enjoy these photos and have fun creating story lines for the couples based on their body language.

 

Paul Newman and Scarlett Johansson

Marlon Brando and Penelope Cruz

Demi Moore and Paul Newman

Catherine Zeta Jones and Robert Vaughn

Ann Margret and Tom Cruise

Humphrey Bogart and Drew Barrymore

Elizabeth Hurley and Clarck Gable

Vanilla Ice and Veronica Lake

George Clooney and Grace Kelly

Elvis and Angelina Jolie

Gary Cooper and Scarlet Johansson

Kirk Douglas and Halle Berry

 

 

 

 

 

Categories: Communication, Emotional Regulation, Intimacy, Just For Fun, Naomi and Positivity

Cute couples photos through the ages

Posted on April 10, 2012 in categories: Just For Fun and Naomi. 5 Comments

My grandparents visited the other day and we ended up looking at some old family photos. I saw adorable pictures of cute couples like my parents and aunt and uncle. At the same time, as the clock went back, the couples in the pictures–my grandparents and great-grandparents–showed less and less emotion. There were only a few snapshots of my family that could be considered lovey-dovey “cute couples photos” from before 1960.

Did people have a different overall type of relationship in the past? Or is it just the acceptance of PDA (Public Displays of Affection) nowadays? Or is it the changing role of photography? Can we rely on photographs to tell the deeper story of a relationship?

Couples have had pictures of themselves made for thousands of years. Back in day, if you were rich enough you would have a portrait painted of you and your spouse when you got married. Then photography came along and by the mid 19th century became a cheaper, popular way to document your family. In the early days of photography, taking a picture was a lot of work. Couples had to sit still for ten minutes or longer, often dressed in their stiff and uncomfortable finery. Smiling was not in vogue. As a result, a lot of couples’ portraits turned out like this:

 

These days there are endless snapshots of cute couples all over the internet. Newlyweds kissing at their wedding, grinning over a vista on their honeymoon, making funny faces at the camera for no reason. We can document our marriages moment by moment with the click of a digital camera. We can take thousands of photos a day, if we want, at no cost. In a way, this allows us to wear our hearts on our sleeves and see all the loving intricacies of our relationship reflected in film.

Here is a gallery of some of my favorite cute couples photos. What can we learn from the relationships behind them? What strong marriage skills are they exhibiting? Which do you think show paid models, and which are genuine? And, what do you think pictures of you and your spouse can reveal about your marriage?

 

 

Categories: Just For Fun and Naomi

10 Quirky & Fun Date Ideas

Posted on April 3, 2012 in categories: Just For Fun, Marriage and Your Health, Naomi, Positivity and Sex and Marriage. 0 Comments

Relationships provide security, love, support, and sexual fulfillment–and they also should provide fun! Enjoying each other’s company, taking time to have adventures and new experiences together, is a key element in how to make a relationship last. Date nights are a great way of reconnecting with your spouse after a long week of chores, appointments and responsibilities. At the same time, it’s important to not let your date nights turn into routines themselves–the point of the date is to try something new together and put a little pizzazz into your connection. Try these fun date ideas if you’re just starting out “dating again” or you’re looking for something new to try.

The fun date ideas I’ve included are all cheap or free. Money is almost always a form of stress on a relationship, and I like to avoid equating a “treat” with something expensive. Dates are also a good opportunity to do something active and healthy, get outside and get moving with your honey-bunny. Oh, and by the way, exercise increases circulation which leads to more vavoom! in the bedroom.

1. Take a hike

Getting out into nature is good for your body and your mental health. If you live in an urban area it can be a real breath of fresh air for you and your relationship. Check up on your local parks with the National Park Service’s “Find-a-Park” tool. Make a bag of your favorite trail mix and/or pack a picnic and head out on the trail.

2. Stroll through a street fair

Spring is here and that means festival season is coming! Check your local paper for street festivals and other free outdoors events. Try hitting up a flea market or other goods fair together. Put together a scavenger hunt for the best and ugliest/weirdest items you can find.

4. The Staycation

Do you live near an ethnic enclave in your city? Try exploring the markets of Chinatown, Little Italy, or the Jewish neighborhoods in your area–whatever culture you are least familiar with. Look up some recipes before hand and have fun shopping for the ingredients. Ask questions, taste samples, explore.

3. Beach Day

This is a fun date idea for a nice spring day. Stroll the beach, play in the waves, make sand castles. Bring a book of short stories and read aloud to each other under the shade of an umbrella.

5. Blast from the Past

Turn back the clock to both your preteen years. What was your favorite movie when you were 13? Buy lots of candy and cook up some teenage snack food. Put on footie-pajamas and dance to old tunes. Take turns telling each other funny stories about your childhood and do those things you thought being an adult was all about–you know, like eating an entire tub of Marshmallow Fluff.

6. Bust a Move

Another of the healthy fun date ideas. Sometimes live music performances featuring dance music–salsa, bhangra, country, swing, hip-hop–offer free dance lessons before the show. Buy some tickets and show up for the lessons together–don’t worry, everyone else will be new at it, too! If you get hooked, why not try taking weekly lessons?

8. Adult play time

 The availability and comfort of sex in marriage is one of the great things about being hitched…and one of its major problems. Bring back that pulse-racing desire of your first encounters with daylong sensual adventure. Step one: get the kids out of the house. Step two: spend the day seducing each other. Serve sexy foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Make a sexual wishlist at the beginning of the day and take a trip to an adult store together for the necessary equipment. The catch? Hold off on the lovin’ until later in the evening. Building up the tension and desire during those hours will pay off when the time comes!

7. A night at the museum

 Lots of museums have free or reduced price days for locals or the general public. Also, there is a growing trend of late night events. In the SF Bay Area the Academy of Sciences, Asian Art Museum and Chabot all have nighttime programs that include full admission to the museum plus live music, drinks and entertainment. The cost is usually the same or even less than regular admission.

9. Deal adventure

 Sites like Groupon, Google Offers and Living Social frequently offer discount activities that make great fun date ideas and definitely encourage spontaneity. Try scuba lessons, horseback riding, hang gliding, dance lessons, or a spa day for a fraction of the normal price.

10. Funcheap.com and beyond

Websites like SFFuncheap are a great resource for finding any local event that are…well, fun and cheap/free! You can filter your search by location and type of event. FunCheap is for the San Francisco Bay Area only, but lots of similar sites exist for other metropolitan areas.

Categories: Just For Fun, Marriage and Your Health, Naomi, Positivity and Sex and Marriage

The 25 best funny marriage quotes

Posted on March 20, 2012 in categories: Just For Fun, Marriage Prep/Engagement, Naomi, Positivity and Uncategorized. 6 Comments

Funny marriage quotes are great for all sorts of occasions, from making toasts to giving advice, to simply making us laugh. They also open our eyes to the essentials of things like communication in marriage and balancing individual desires with your spouse’s needs. Talking about marriage and love is as old as…well, talking! So there’s lots of good material out there.

If you follow @po2marriage on twitter you probably know I love to tweet funny marriage quotes. They tend to get to the heart of marriage problems and blessings in only 140 characters. One thing I’ve noticed while researching quotes for sharing is that there are a lot of really bad funny marriage quotes. I mean quotes that get their humor from playing on stereotypes and bad assumptions about married life, in-laws, wives, children and husbands. When we retell these jokes and quotes, we subtly reenforce the logic behind them–logic that is actually destructive to marriage. Take this quote, for example:

Marriage is a three ring circus: engagement ring, wedding ring, and suffering.

There are a lot of quotes and jokes like this out there. They are funny, but negative. They all have the same message: that marriage is the end of any happiness you have, that it is endless and inevitable suffering and that smart people don’t get married. In this way, a disturbing worldview is embedded in these jokes. Mindset is a large predictor of what will indeed happen in your life (Dr. Heitler wrote a great article about it). Sometimes I wonder if our high divorce rate is partly due to these negative  expectations–they becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If you are choosing some funny marriage quotes to say during a wedding toast, stay away from these kinds of jokes. Not because the bride and groom will take them seriously and be offended, or because they aren’t funny (the “suffer-ring” line is clever!); but because the best wedding gift you can give the couple is a message of a positive and loving future.

Here are my top 25 funny marriage quotes and wedding sayings (not ranked):

  1. “A happy marriage has in it all the pleasures of friendships, all the enjoyment of sense and reason – and indeed all the sweets of life.” ~ Joseph Addison
  2. “A happy man marries the girl he loves; a happier man loves the girl he marries.” ~ anonymous
  3. “You don’t need to be on the same wavelength to succeed in marriage. You just need to be able to ride each other’s waves.” ~ Toni Sciarra Poynter
  4. “Spouse: someone who’ll stand by you through all the trouble you wouldn’t have had if you’d stayed single.” ~ Anonymous
  5. “We don’t love qualities, we love persons; sometimes by reason of their defects as well as of their qualities.” ~ Jacques Maritain
  6. “Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.” – Samuel Johnson
  7. “A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, and always with the same person.” ~ Mignon McLaughlin
  8. “The bonds of matrimony are like any other bonds – they mature slowly.”  ~Peter De Vries
  9. “To keep the fire burning brightly there’s one easy rule: Keep the two logs together, near enough to keep each other warm and far enough apart – about a finger’s breadth – for breathing room. Good fire, good marriage, same rule.”  ~Marnie Reed Crowell
  10. “A kiss is a lovely trick, designed by nature, to stop words when speech becomes superfluous.” ~ Ingrid Bergmen
  11. “Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years.”  ~Simone Signoret
  12. “A long marriage is two people trying to dance a duet and two solos at the same time.” ~ Anne Taylor Fleming
  13. “Woke up in bed with a gorgeous woman, who I’m going to have lunch and the rest of my life with.” ~ Jason Barmer
  14. “Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.” ~ Albert Einstein
  15. “One advantage of marriage is that, when you fall out of love with him or he falls out of love with you, it keeps you together until you fall in again.” ~ Judith Viorst
  16. “In every marriage more than a week old, there are grounds for divorce.  The trick is to find, and continue to find, grounds for marriage.” ~ Robert Anderson, Solitaire & Double Solitaire
  17. “In the opinion of the world, marriage ends all, as it does in a comedy.  The truth is precisely the opposite:  it begins all.” ~ Anne Sophie Swetchine
  18. “A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity.  The order varies for any given year.” ~ Paul Sweeney
  19. “Love is a flower which turns into fruit at marriage.” ~ Finnish Proverb
  20. “A dress that zips up the back will bring a husband and wife together.” ~ James H. Boren
  21. “Love seems the swiftest but it is the slowest of all growths.  No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century.” ~ Mark Twain
  22. “Our wedding was many years ago.  The celebration continues to this day.” ~ Gene Perret
  23. “A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.” ~ Andre Maurois
  24. “There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.” ~ Martin Luther
  25. “We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness – and call it love – true love.” ~ Robert Fulghum, True Love
Categories: Just For Fun, Marriage Prep/Engagement, Naomi, Positivity and Uncategorized