I was not here for this past week because I was out of town, but over the past several weeks, I have learned a lot. The week before I left we talked a lot about how essential it is to have definite steps in the relationship. And I thought that was super interesting. We talked about how there needs to be, first, an actual dating period. In that dating period, a boy and girl need to go on actual dates, not just hanging out together. We talked about the 3 P's. And in order for a date to be actually considered a "date" the date needs to be (1) paired off, (2) paid for, and (3) planned. If it does not consist of these 3 things, it is not considered a date. Furthermore, the second thing that needs to be in a couple's relationship is a courtship period. During a couple's courtship period, the couple still needs to go on dates. This is where the couple is paired off exclusively, and in class I tend to think of this period as when the couple is a "boyfriend" and "girlfriend." Furthermore, this period is also a trial period. When a couple is in the "courtship" period of their relationship, this is the determining period to see if a couple will make it to the next phase, which is then engagement. In the engagement period, there needs to be an actual ring and a date. Moreover, the next phase is then marriage. One of the things that we talked about in our class is that most many couples spend more time on planning their wedding, when in reality, they should be spending more time on planning their marriage. I thought it was really interesting talking about these things in class and learning about them because I hadn't really thought how important it is to have definite steps in the relationship and when a couple does not have these definite steps in their relationship, how it can effect their entire relationship. I am really glad that I learned about this in class and that me and my husband had definite steps in our relationship, because I think that has blessed our relationship and marriage greatly.