Yesterday, we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. 昨天,我们庆祝我们结婚25周年纪念日。

We can’t believe we are old enough to have been married for 25 years. 我们不能相信我们已经结婚25年。

Even worse than that is that we have been dating since she was 14 and I was 17. 更厉害的是我们从她14岁我17岁开始就是一对了。

So,it's been quite a long journey together. 所以我们一起走过了一条漫长的道路。

Recognizing the importance of building a successful marriage, we want to share with you our top 25 marriage tips. 认识到构建一个成功的婚姻的重要性,我们想要与你分享我们的排名前25位的婚姻秘诀。

The points we are going to share with you are not listed in any specific order.  It is our hope that these tips will help you enjoy a more rewarding marriage. 以下几点建议列出无特定顺序。我们希望这些建议能帮助你享受更多更有益的婚姻。

Honey why don't you just start if off.Okay. 亲爱的，那我们就开始吧。好的

1. Marry the right person. There is only one way you will know if the person you are dating is the right person to marry and that is by spending time together. 与合适的人结婚。只有一种方法你就会知道如果你约会的人是合适的人,那是花时间在一起。

We recommend dating at least one year before getting engaged. We dated for four years before getting married. Once we got married, there were no surprises. 我们建议相亲订婚前至少一年。结婚前我们约会了四年。一旦我们结婚,就没有惊喜。

2. Make your marriage your top priority. If you are married, there is nothing that should take precedence over your marriage and that includes your children and career. 让你的婚姻当作你的首要任务。如果你结婚了,没有什么应该优先于你的婚姻,包括你的孩子和事业。

3. NEVER say the word divorce. 永远不要说“离婚”这个词。

If you are committed to building a long-term healthy marriage, 如果你致力于构建一个长期健康的婚姻,

make a vow to each other that you will never say the word divorce or anything else that would leave the other person to believe you are not 100% committed to your marriage. 让彼此的誓言,你将永远不会说离婚这个词或者会让对方相信你不是100%致力于你的婚姻的其他什么东西。

And what we'll also share with you is that we have been married twice. 我们还想跟大家分享的一件事就是我们结婚了两次 。

The first time we got married we were married for a short period of time. Three months. 我们第一次的婚姻维持了很短时间，只有三个月。

And what happened one day is we got into a fight.One of us said the word divorce and the other said"Okay,great." 当时是因为我们吵架了，然后我们其中的一个说要离婚，另外一个说“好啊，太好了”。

And before we know we have signed paperwork and we were diroced. So,just never bring it up.It's just something you don't want to discuss. 我们还没有反应过来离婚协议书已经签完了，我们离婚了。所以，不要说离婚这个词。它不是适合人们讨论的话题。

4. Don’t argue over petty things. 不要争论琐碎的事情。

When we first got married we argued over every little ridiculous thing. 当我们第一次结婚我们认为每一个荒谬的事情。

It made our lives miserable. 它使我们的生活悲惨。

We then made the decision that we would no longer argue about meaningless things. 然后,我们决定,我们将不再争论毫无意义的事情。

Now when one of us bring up an issue, we both know it was a serious issue and we take it seriously. 现在,当我们提出一个问题,对方都是重要的事，我们就都会重视它。

5. Make a weekly date a priority.  优先考虑每周约会。

This is HUGE!  You wanna get dressed up, get out of the house and enjoy a special time together. 这是伟大的,打扮的漂亮，走出房子,享受一个在一起特殊时光。

You don't have to have a lot of money or spend a lot of money to do this. 要做到这一点你不需要很富有，也不需要花很多钱。

During these times together show an interest in the things that are important to each other and avoid talking about subjects that could create tension. 在这些时光关注感兴趣的事情是很重要的,避免谈论紧张的话题

6. Find at least 30 minutes to block out each day to spend time together. 挤出一天至少一个30分钟的时间在一起。

It could be in the morning before work or in the evening. 可能是在工作前的早上或晚上。

During this designated time, discuss what’s going on in each of your lives. 在指定的时间,讨论各自生活发生了什么。

We all have a lot going on, but if your marriage is a priority, spending time together should take precedence over all other activities. 我们都有很多,但是如果优先考虑你的婚姻,花时间在一起应该优先于所有其他活动。

And when our children were young,we would take 30 minutes before dinner. 我们孩子还小的时候，我们会在晚饭前花30分钟做这件事。

Todd and I unintterupted by our small children.They would know this is our time to catch up for the day.We made that our priority. 托德和我不会受到小孩子们的打扰。他们知道这是我们的私人时间，使我们首要的事。