Happiness

Looking for name change advice or some tips for newlywed life? The MissNowMrs experts have created state-specific name change articles and checklists for you. We’ve chronicled our recommendations for how to travel while changing your name AND how to handle voting during the transition.

We’ve also compiled our best guidance for how to handle difficult sister in laws, holidays as newlyweds, the ever-annoying baby questions, and much more. Why? Because, while we are name change experts, we’re also newlywed wives, moms, and sisters.

We hope our name change advice articles help smooth your transition to your new name, and a whole new phase of life. Congratulations and best wishes from the entire MissNowMrs team!

5 Surprising Ways To Show That You Heart Him

As thoughts of Valentine’s Day begin to surface, you might be stumped about what to get your husband this year. As a newlywed, you may really want to do something special but you don’t want to be lame either (most guys just don’t love flowers or balloons sent to the office). Think outside the box with one of these 5 Valentine ideas.

Floor your tough guy with a custom (temporary) tattoo on your tush or anywhere else he might find interesting!
Is your man a serious meat eater? Go straight to his heart (via his stomach) with a sweetheart steak. It really is a steak in the shape of a heart! If custom cut steaks are out of the budget, you can always use cookie cutters to make gourmet heart-shaped hamburgers for your sweetie.
Get creative with your spouse’s morning coffee by adding a cinnamon or cocoa heart right on top using one of these cute stencils (also great for dessert decorations).
Appealing to your Italian other half or just married to a guy who seriously loves pasta? Try whipping up this amazing heart-shaped lobster ravioli for dinner.
Heart shaped soap might not be a man’s ideal Valentine’s Day gift until you offer to hop in the shower with him! We promise he’ll love the concept by the time you’re both drying off.

The great news is that whatever you do, your other half will know how much you love them and frankly, that’s what Valentine’s Day is all about. Do you have any alternative V-day surprises for your spouse this year? We’d love to hear about them.
*Image from Lobels.com

A Few Minor Changes to Keep Your Marriage Interesting!

It takes work to keep your marriage interesting! Do you ever feel as though you’re living a life like the movie Groundhog Day? Where everything suddenly seems so routine that it doesn’t require any thought and you’re just going through the motions!? It’s important, and natural to get into a daily routine with your spouse, but it’s equally important to keep things interesting!

If you and your spouse discover that you’re living the WES (work, eat, sleep) life, take charge and throw in a few changes in your newlywed schedule! Simply going through the motions with your spouse in your day-to-day life can create a somewhat boring, monotonous atmosphere in your home and in turn can create tension and stress for both of you!

Not sure what to do in order to change it up a bit? Try having a date every other week! Take turns choosing the restaurant, and try somewhere that you’ve never been to before. So instead of coming home and having dinner in your pj’s in front of the TV, get a little dressed up and go out!

Another idea is to make plans with some friends that you haven’t seen in awhile. You may find yourselves having the same conversations, and frequenting the same hang-out spots when you’re around the same people, so schedule a date with some old friends! If you get home from work before your spouse, throw on some lingerie to start your evening off right!

Whatever it is that makes you and your spouse happy, stop putting it off, and make plans to do it this week! If one of you is experiencing stress, boredom, or unhappiness, it affects the other person as well so take it upon yourself to explore some new ideas! A big part of being married is being there for one another and offering your support, love, and comfort. It’s important to keep things interesting and positive in your relationship, so take a look at this article I found to get you thinking about ways to spice up your relationship!

What are some things that you and your spouse do to keep your marriage interesting and spice up your routine? We would love for you to leave a comment!

Fairytales vs. Realistic Expectations For Your Marriage

What are your expectations for your marriage? Most girls grow up dreaming about their wedding day. They dream about wearing a beautiful gown and walking down an aisle flanked by loving friends and family. Or they dream about an amazing ceremony performed on a beach. Either way, it’s a fairy tale. Even men tend to have fairy tale ideas about their wedding, and, their marriage as well. One reason why so many newlyweds have a hard time in those first two years of marriage is because they go into it expecting to live a fairy tale.

Unfortunately, all of married life can’t be a fairy tale. A fairy godmother isn’t likely to come sweeping into your home brandishing a beautiful gown for you to wear to the ball, nor is your new husband likely to cover you in chocolate and roses every day. While you should expect your new marriage to be a wonderful time in your life, you might want to tone down your fairy tale expectations to avoid putting too much pressure on yourself and spouse.

If you want your marriage to last, the most important thing is to recognize that married life isn’t a fairy tale, it requires work. Yes, there are a lot of fun and amazing things that you can do together, and there are certain days where it will feel magical, but eventually, you’ll find yourself dealing with the mundane or the frustrating. You’ll have to deal with in-laws or boring friends or demanding work schedules. How can you keep your relationship together with real life intruding?

Make your relationship your top priority. No you’re not Cinderella and that’s not a prince that you’re married to (unless you’re Kate Middleton), but he is your partner, and together the two of you are a team. Like your favorite sports team, you have to learn how to work together in order to keep your marriage together.

A big part of making sure that your life together is a happy one, and is the fairy tale that you hope it to be, is in enjoying the simple things that your share. Enjoy the time that you have together, and the silly and fun things that you do as a couple. This makes your married life much better than a fairy tale, it makes it a happy, healthy relationship! Now that’s something they should write stories about!

How are you keeping your marriage happy and healthy? Have you both been working to make your expectations for your marriage a reality?

In-laws And Boundaries

Some husband and wives adore their in-laws. Others, well, not so much. You don’t have to adore your in-laws, but if you want your marriage to be happy, it’s important that you learn how to tolerate them, and that you set up some boundaries. Setting boundaries about your in-laws can help to make a marriage run much more smoothly and can stop fights before they even occur. And the best time to set those boundaries is right after the honeymoon is over, so that there is no confusion about what’s going to happen.

Discussion Time:
You can’t set boundaries about your in-laws without having a discussion, so set a date for the two of you to get together, with no interruptions, to discuss your issues. Before you have the discussion make sure that your partner is aware of what the discussion will entail so that they can come to the table ready, and so that they won’t feel ambushed, and you, yourself, should get a list ready of things that you want to discuss.

Remember, during the conversation, that you’re talking about someone else’s family. Even if they have a hard time dealing with their own family, and often say things that aren’t very nice about them, you have to be respectful. You wouldn’t want them disrespecting your family members, even if you have problems with them. They’re family and as such deserve to be spoken about in a respectful tone.

Setting Boundaries:
Once you’re ready to talk it’s time to get down to business. Setting boundaries for in-laws may be a simple process or it may be one that takes some time, and to many couples it may originally feel like making some sort of a contract. These boundaries can be anything, from specific ones to more relaxed ones. Some couples, for instance, enjoy their privacy and so they agree to only visit their in-laws once every few months or so. Others want more contact and agree to go to dinner with their in-laws every few weeks or even more. The type of boundaries that you set are completely up to you. It’s most important to remember that your in-law is your spouse’s loved one, and that you need to take their needs into consideration, which may mean dealing with someone that you don’t care for very much.

What boundaries have you set for your in-laws? Are there any you wish you would have set earlier in your marriage?

A Happy Marriage, A Partnership!

I came across an interesting article the other day, and found it to provide some good ‘food-for-thought’ for married couples, and I wanted to share it with you! Have you heard people say that once you’re a newlywed it is no longer a “Me” thing it’s an “Us” thing!? To a certain extent I suppose that’s true but don’t forget that you are still your own person, and have your own needs, thoughts, desires and expectations for your life… you’re just now working as a team with your partner to achieve these things!

Have you stopped to think about the reasons why you fell in love with your spouse and what makes you happy in your marriage? The article that I want to share with you describes how couples are looking for more of a “partnership” in a relationship, to mold and shape each other into becoming a ‘better’ person! Individuals in a relationship can offer things to one another that maybe they were lacking on their own, ultimately creating a more self-fulfilling, happy marriage! I found this to be very true for my husband and me, in the fact that we compliment one another in different aspects of our life; which makes us a good team. He provides me with certain things that I was lacking on my own, and vice versa. I suppose this is backing up the “two heads are better than one” concept!

Share with us the things in your marriage that you and your partner ‘compliment’ one another in and what makes you a great team!