Communication, Communication, Communication!

Jesse and I have done a lot, A LOT of traveling over the years being a long distance couple and we have always had a good time roadtripping. When we are not jamming out to my ipod, he and I have had some of our best conversations. We have never had trouble opening up to one another and sharing our thoughts and future plans. Jesse knows some of my deepest, darkest secrets, my fears, my hopes, my dreams, and I know his. Communication is one of the top priorities on our list of relationship musts and I feel like we have an amazing line of communication! To us, this will be a strong building block for our life together.

I had heard of a book called "1001 Question to Ask Before You Get Married" and received it as a Christmas gift from mom and dad. We took it on our most recent trip to visit Momma Bear in Gtown and had a lot of fun answering the questions. Some of it was things we obviously discussed before we made a commitment to each other (i.e. How many kids, where would you like to settle down, do you want pets...) but other questions have really opened up our eyes to how we want our marriage to be and how we don't want it to be (i.e. do you want your marriage to be like your parents, how will you discipline children, what about daycare, jobs, etc.). Jesse and I have been skipping around a little because some of the topics are things we have already beat to death as you would expect when people date and decide to get engaged to ensure compatibility. The book has questions for every topic newlyweds may encounter (in-laws, family, children, pets, friends, finances, personalities...). We are not even close to finishing it, some questions spark long conversations, but have many more trips in our future to work on it!

Though some of the questions are no-brainer, early relationship questions, there are many chapters and many categories of questions that you may not have discussed fully or in depth with one another. There are also some relationship pointers throughout the book. I would highly recommend this book to any engaged couple. It not only opens up the lines of communication and makes you think about your future life together, but we had a lot of fun talking about the life we want to create together!