Welcome to July - or as we like to call it, "Work Less Month!"  

Of course, summer vacations are a great opportunity to get away from the proverbial Rat Race - but we invite our happy couples to take this a step further.

How often do you find yourself thinking about work when you are home with your Partner?
Are you checking your email while your kids are at the playground?
Do you sneak in a work call here & there?

Doing these things takes your focus away from your Partner - and they NOTICE! They may say its not a big deal, but trust us from married folk who have been there - it IS a big deal.  Of course, no one is perfect and things do happen but this month, put your focus on your Partner instead! Check yourself and make sure you are truly present when together. Change your way of thinking for one month and you won't regret it. This is a daily chore for some - so, keep the focus. A few tips to help you:

• Sticky Notes! Greatest invention ever - even better than those strings around the finger! Leave yourself notes around the house to remind yourself of what you SHOULD be thinking about when home.
• Enlist your Partner's help. Ask them to tell you - or ring a bell - when they see you wandering off inside your mind somewhere and away from him/her!
• Change your schedule - whatever works, but switch things up somehow to free yourself from old routines.
  

Whatever you do, we know it will be great and your Partner will love you for it even more - like that's possible, right??!!!

There are so many great stories in the news today - like the couples trying to break the world record for the longest kiss in Thailand (at press time its down to 4 couples remaining). The current record is 32 hours! Also, there's a great story circulating on a recent study done that suggests our first kiss with our Partner was more memorable than our first sexual encounter. Turns out we remember that first kiss in much greater detail. 

And with all the great valentine gift ideas, a favorite is one that outlines valentine gifts that give back. Feel free to post your links or suggestions for valentine stories here in our comments section!

Happy Vday! Love love love!

A recent study just released says we're all addicted to love - at least at first! It seems that falling in love (which only takes a fifth of a second by the way) is similar to the high one receives from doing cocaine. Now, we would not be able to make a first person comparison here so we will have to take their word for it. But couldn't they have come up with a more positive comparison - like giving birth to a child or your favorite baseball team winning the world series?

Excerpt: 

Falling in love can take as little as one-fifth of a second. And it's like cocaine.

So says a study out of Syracuse University, which posits that falling love puts 12 areas of the brain to work. And when this happens, it sparks a flood of euphoria-inducing chemicals - oxytocin, dopamine, adrenaline and vasopression. 

​Sorry - this article was retired and a link is no longer available.