marriage ideas

so jared's reading this book called: "treat me like a customer: using lessons from work to succeed in life" he thought it was a book on customer service, which is something of a passion for him. instead, it's more of how to treat your spouse and children as well as you would your customers. it seems to be written to high level execs who miss the quality moments with their families b/c they're making deals around the world. obviously, this doesn't really apply to us, but there's several little marriage quizzes and tips throughout. of course, jared and i pride ourselves on knowing each other better than anyone else on the planet, so their questions were a bit ridiculous to us.

anyway, i came across this box, and think we're doing pretty good at this list. i'm going to list it and then add my own little comments, really as just a way to brag on jared (and myself)!

"need some ideas for taking risks in your marriage? the following are listed in order from easy to 'i never thought i'd do that'"

1. ASK YOUR WIFE TO PLAN YOUR NEXT VACATION.
ok, really? i guess this is supposed to be the easiest one. but we totally trust each other to do this. obviously, i'm an event planner and can plan a good vacation. but jared totally planned our nashville "staycation" honeymoon without any of my input. 5 years later he planned a total surprise trip to san francisco. i didn't know where we were going until about an hour before we got on the plane. he booked a cute little boutique hotel and everything!

2. SIGN BOTH OF YOU UP FOR SALSA DANCE LESSONS
actually, right now, we have 2 sets of ballroom dancing lessons. one was from a couple summers ago when we went to a free dance they have in centennial park every saturday night in the summers. the other is a pair we bought for half price off of groupon or something. we haven't gone yet, but we will...soon!

3. CELEBRATE YOUR NEXT ANNIVERSARY BY SERVING DINNER AT A SOUP KITCHEN
we haven't done this, but we have served at the rescue mission several times, including one year on thanskgiving day.

4. LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE TOGETHER
jared has been hounding on me for a while to do this....i can't accept the $300 or $400 or whatever it is to buy rosetta stone. i know there's other ways to do this, i guess it just seems overwhelming to me to do it on my own...since i averaged low Cs/high Ds in french in high school..and i really enjoyed the class!

5. WRITE A SONG AND SING IT TO YOUR WIFE ON HER NEXT BIRTHDAY
please..jared has written a handful of songs for me (a couple that i think he should've tried to get published!) and has serenaded me in public several times too. maybe this is something i should do for him....

6. TAKE A WEEKEND TRIP WITHOUT PACKING A THING
ok, what? if you don't bring your toothbrush and deodorant, you're not getting any hanky panky. i don't get the point of this one. but for the record, we're pretty awesome at packing light and packing well...

7. TRAIN FOR AND RUN A MARATHON TOGETHER
ok, this is probably one we could take seriously. but jared has some issues with his feet that need to be fixed before he can even think about running. but there's several variations of this that we could do.

8. VOLUNTEER TO GO ON A MISSION TRIP WITH YOUR CHURCH
another one that we could and should take seriously. we've gone on pseudo-mission trips to nice places in western europe, but never to honduras or africa. we should do this sometime...when we're better able to save/raise the thousands of dollars it takes to go. but this is def on our to-do list.

9. CELEBRATE A BIRTHDAY OR AN ANNIVERSARY IN A HOT AIR BALLOON.
cool idea, i'd be up for it. how much does that cost, though? maybe sometime we'll look into that. we have, however, celebrated my birthday by snorkeling in the carribbean, does that count? (i think it does.)

10. SELL YOUR HOUSE IN THE SUBURBS AND MOVE INTO A LOFT DOWNTOWN (OR VICE VERSA)
this is where it starts to be obvious that this is for a high-level exec. let's be real: our house is affordable. the awesome lofts downtown are not. the market has dropped since we bought. but we are in a house and neighborhood that we wanted to be in and really love, regardless of money. but i get their point. and i'll count this one as our random move to FL and back. those were both huge leap-of-faith moves and we believe our marriage is measurably stronger because of it. we'll make a crazy move again in the future, but right now we're staying put, being content and loving life with a less-than-possible income since i'm not working full time. (which, btw, was an equally huge leap of faith--having a modestly comfortable combined income, then cutting it in half--which happened to leave a $700/month deficit in the budget--for me to quit work to stay home and have a baby. we did all this planned. trusted in God. saved up some money. about the time the savings was gone, other little things were popping up to cover the need. we've never been late on a single payment. and, between little things i do and raises/promotions jared has gotten, we're almost making now what we were making when i was working FT. i love when leaps of faith work out like that!)

11. TAKE A SABBATICAL FROM WORK, BUY A MOTORCYCLE, AND RIDE THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE HISTORIC ROUTE 66
let me also simplify this one...how about a 10 day vacation, renting a convertible and driving route 66? yes? then that's also on our life's to-do list. we planned to do this between leaving FL and arriving in TN, but it didn't work out. maybe we'll plan for it in 2011.

12. BUNGEE JUMP -- BOTH OF YOU!
this i would so do. i'd also jump out of an airplane with him. (i think!) do they let you drink a shot before jumping? that might be required for me...

13. GET YOUR PILOT'S LICENSE--TOGETHER
i'm sure this is another trust-building activity. but neither of us really have a desire to fly a plane. hmm... (and again, how much would that cost??)

14. START A HOUSE CHURCH IN YOUR HOME
oh, goodness. jared wants to do this so badly. i do not. but we certainly are on a deep, active and ever-changing spiritual journey together. also in the possible future for us, starting a business. i, of course, events/weddings. jared dreams of having his own little pizza place.

15. ADOPT A CHILD
SO not the hardest thing on this list for us. we start classes in may. :)