Today’s activity was to review a list designed by the experts at K-Y to gauge our, ahem, boundaries with one another and I have to say – we FAILED. MISERABLY. But after reviewing the list, and checking things off (practically all of them), I feel more like a marital winner than ever -especially with regard to the personal anecdote I want to share with you guys.

Go along with me and ask yourself these questions:

1-Do you sleep with kids and/or pets in your bedroom?

2-Have you used a telephone or laptop while in your partner’s presence in your bedroom?

3-Do you spend evenings surfing the Internet, messing around on Facebook, or playing Lexulous (addiction!)?

4-Bring your cell phone on date nights and use it to tune your partner out?

5-Leave the door open when you’re doing your bathroom business?

6-Clip your nails, brush your teeth, tweeze your eyebrows in front of your SO?

(more…)

So yes. I’m not going to mince words on this one: the shiny newness of relationships ALL FADE after awhile. Halle Berry can tell you that, like, fifteen times over, and oh, so can Jennifer Aniston. Everything bright and promising does tend to dull after so many instances of waking up next to the same old, funk-breathed face day in and day out. Let’s not kid ourselves.

However, in some relationships, that ‘newness’ fades into a comfortable companionship. My husband and I have been together a total of six years, married for four of them, and our ‘newness’ kind of went away six months into the relationship. Yes, some fade faster than others, and for how fast our pretty gift-wrapped relationship faded, I thought for sure we’d be through by the end of the first year. Fortunately, (and for, like, only the second time in my life) I was wrong.

The novelty wore off, but our comfort level sunk in. Like, WAY IN. These days, dressing up for a non-home-cooked meal consists of ‘good’ yoga pants and eating Chinese takeout on the floor in the living room. Party on, Wayne (party on, Garth). These days, repulsive emissions of bodily gas results in fits of laughter rather than looks of disgust. These days, it’s ‘Hey, you have a big old pimple on your back … let me get that,’ instead of politely looking the other way and trying not to focus on it during an honest attempt at climax.

Anyway. You get my point.

The main exercise for the day was to assess whether or not those things that initially attracted us still stoke the fires within. My husband’s finer qualities included a mutual love for Radiohead, a comprehensive knowledge of fine wines, and a banging sense of fashion. My husband claims that my major attractables included a great backside, an easy way of laughing, and kind eyes.

After closely examining these things this afternoon, and even though my husband’s swanky style has succumbed to Daddy-hood and my eyes are more apt to narrow in work-related concentration these days than to toss kind, simpering glances around, at the end of the day?  We’ve still got it.

The second part of the experiment revolved around snapping out of the daily grind of day-to-day life and experiencing one another in different atmospheres and situations.

So, next big milestone on the relationship to-do list?

Get in the car, go for a drive, and eat INSIDE the Chinese food restaurant. But guys? The yoga pants are staying.

Stay tuned for day four, and for more information about the Intimacy Experiment, make sure to check out K-Y Brand’s Facebook Page, Couples Place.

Also, don’t forget to enter for your chance to win a K-Y Intimacy Experiment kit of your own – leave it in the comments!

I wrote this posting while participating in a blog campaign on behalf of K-Y^® Brand and also received product samples to help facilitate my review. In addition, K-Y^® Brand sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate

So today’s day two, and I have to say … yesterday’s experiment with the addition of luxurious sheets and scented candles really did turn my bedroom into a, OK, I’ll say it, ‘Sanctuary of Love.’ Or at least of peace, anyway. And that? I LOVE. Today’s focus of the day is to realize that a good relationship isn’t just about sex (just as Taylor Swift).

This? Was not as hard as I thought it’d be. My husband is a full-time student (he’s FINALLY done this spring) who works part-time, I work from home full-time and also take care of our daughter, three years old, at home, full-time. WE’RE BUSY. Honestly? Sex is sometimes the last thing on my mind for days. So I thought this particular exercise would be kind of hard. I mean, actually making an EFFORT to be extra emotionally connected instead of just sweating it out for a half-hour in the bedroom on occasion? Sheesh.

The experiment prompted us to focus on spending extra time hugging and kissing and caressing in a non-sexual way. We made it happen in passing; he’s had the flu for three days (sorry, husband, but I don’t want the mange or whatever it is that’s ailing you these days). We were to document how many times we physically interacted with one another aside from brushing fingers while passing the salt, and dusting feathers from our swanky new pillows off one another’s shoulder-  and even though we couldn’t, like, suck face and embrace a la Gone With the Wind, we still managed to touch it out at least twenty times so far today, AND we curled up on the couch to watch part of Stephen King’s The Shining while my little girlfriend napped. (Some of us like horror movies, you know – it can’t all be Twilight and Bridget Jones’ Diary.)

The bottom line was being connected on an emotional level, and I’m pretty proud to say, though we’re both wicked busy people with tons and tons of obligations both inside and outside the home, we made it work.

Part of the experiment was also to ask ourselves these questions, and if we could say ‘yes’ to at least half of them, we are officially connected on an emotional level, and not just two roommates sharing a flat who happen to have the occasional sex, and oh yeah, a child together:

- Hug/embrace
- Hold hands
- Kiss
- Say ‘I love you’
- Call during the day to say ‘hi’ and check in
- Compliment each other
- Email each other
- Eat meals together
- Take time to really talk about each other’s day
- Do chores together
- Go on regular date nights
- Watch favorite TV shows or read the newspaper together
- Socialize with other people together
- Cultivate/participate in mutual hobbies/common interests
- Go on vacations together

Guys? It appears that we’ve got this down pat.

How many of you can say that you do at least half of these things?

Don’t forget to check out The Bachelorette‘s Ryan and Trista’s journey so far … I’ve never met a more likable celebrity couple in, like, life. You can also follow the experiment on K-Y’s Facebook page, Couples Place, too. And of course, DON’T FORGET TO ENTER for a chance to win your own kit, too! (Leave it in the comments, guys.)

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s experiment!

I wrote this posting while participating in a blog campaign on behalf of K-Y^® Brand and also received product samples to help facilitate my review. In addition, K-Y^® Brand sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

As I said in a previous post, K-Y Brand has created the premise for an intimacy experiment and I’M DOING IT, GUYS. The whole shebang is basically a 10-day relationship-tweaker test that features ideas for couples to better their relationships through heightened intimacy, involving K-Y product, sex tips, and ideas to spice up your relationship. It’s all good stuff here, all the time, and as you guys know, I’m no one to shy away from sharing way too much information, as some of you lament, and as some of you love. You can follow my journey here, on K-Y Brand’s Facebook page, Couples Place, and through Trista and Ryan’s (of The Bachelorette fame) Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Anyway, day one of the experiment focuses on turning the bedroom into sanctuary of love, guys. A SANCTUARY OF LOVE. I don’t know about you, but as a parent to a three-year-old, my room hasn’t been much more than a six-hours-of-sleep pit stop between days that seem to run together anyhow, but OK. ‘Sanctuary of love’ it is.  Good thing?  The experiment encouraged me to make my room all pretty and cozy and comfy, and allowed sex vibes to just flutter throughout like candy-coated zephyrs in a variety of iridescent colors, and that was a big accomplishment.  I’m feeling sexual already (not that it, you know, takes a whole lot).

As most of you might know, I’ve been in the wicked throes of moving for the past few weeks, and though this past week was the final week of insanity, things aren’t exactly yet where they’re supposed to be. However, I did make the honest effort to head out, buy some (um, more) candles, sheet sprays, room sprays, diffusers, atomizers, and a brand-spanking-new set of Egyptian cotton, 600 thread-count sheets in a dusty taupe, and with all that, I feng shui-ed the crap out of my newest bedroom and I DID A GOOD JOB.

The room is now warm, inviting, and above all, sexified. I mean, it wasn’t too cluttered to begin with, ’cause I’m a neat freak of epic proportions (crazy, right?), but now it’s literally a haven for sensuality. Honest.

Now. Whether or not I’m going to utilize the newfound appeal of my bedroom for its intended purposes tonight will remain to be seen, but in either case … it’s sure to be an inviting prospect, that’s for certain.

Stay tuned for more, and don’t forget to enter for yourself – rules and regulations (OK, there’s actually only one – you have to have a blog of your own and blog about it every day for ten days) to enter are here, but do it. Really. I have a feeling you’re going to enjoy yourself.

I wrote this posting while participating in a blog campaign on behalf of K-Y^® Brand and also received product samples to help facilitate my review. In addition, K-Y^® Brand sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Hey guys!

If you’re anything like me – at all – you probably like sex, and lots of it. Drunk sex, makeup sex, angry sex, theme sex, the list goes on and on. Because of that, and because of my previous experiences with K-Y, *I was contacted and asked if I’d like to participate in the 2011 K-Y Intimacy Experiment, along with some other awesome celebrity gossip sites and even a celebrity couple – The Bachelorette‘s Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter. For the next ten days, myself, the other bloggers, and both Trista and Ryan will undergo various stimulating experiments involving tested and true sex tips, fabulous products by K-Y, and role playing scenarios to spice up our sex lives and relationships. On February 14th, the experiment will be open to the public – and this is where y’all come in.

How do you win, you wonder? You can enter in the comments in each related K-Y Intimacy Experiment post (one entry per post). The only rule is that you must maintain your own blog, so that when the time comes, if you win, you can undergo the experiment yourself and write about it, as I will for Evil Beet, and as many other bloggers will throughout the celebrity gossip blogosphere.

Two winners will be chosen randomly, so be sure to use your proper email address when you sign up to comment.

You can follow the progress here at Evil Beet and also check the experiment itself out at the Couples Place Facebook page here.

Trista will be Tweeting the couple’s progress, and you can also check out her tips straight from Facebook, too!

Stay tuned!

*I wrote this posting while participating in a blog campaign on behalf of K-Y^®Brand and also received product samples to help facilitate my review. In addition, K-Y^® Brand sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.