Pepsi Wishes and Gravy Dreams

My Sweetie Pie and I are on a diet, and have been since the second week of March. Its through a healthy lifestyles program at the hospital where I work, and each week we meet twice to learn more about portion sizes and food choices, etc.

Today, as we drove home after church, we passed a man holding a sign advertising the incredibly delicious chicken fried steak at Nelson's Buffeteria. As we went by, my husband and I both felt our breaths catch in our throats. I looked at him and said, "We could split one. That wouldn't be so bad." He quickly agreed, and we turned down a side street to reverse our direction and head back towards Nelson's, the home of the aforementioned beefy, chicken fried goodness that is the size of the platter, with a side of mashed potatoes, all covered with cream *GULP* gravy and a large, warm roll...but as we started to pull back out, a wave of strength washed over me, and I turned to my husband and said "We have a weigh in on Tuesday, and I don't want anything to jeopardize it." He agreed, reluctantly, but thankful that I was the strong one (for once...most often he is the voice of reason). We came home and had a very yummy lunch of Shrimp and White Bean Ragout.

This diet has tested me to the very core of my being. For years now, we have prided ourselves on the delicious meals we have created for our family nightly, complete with everything that has now been taken away from us due to the program that we signed up for. Rolls, fried foods, gravy....mmm, gravy....just good Southern cooking that we enjoyed immensely but it wasn't doing anything positive for us nutritionally. We were taking in too much fat, too much salt...just too much, period. Now we are watching our intake, planning meals around what our bodies need, not just what we think sounds good.

It definitely hasn't been easy. And knowing that these are permanent changes we are making has taken some getting used to. When I asked our sons what they wanted to see on our family menu for the week, Pumpkin Pie said he'd like "some chicken wif gwavy on it,", and I said, tearfully, "Me too, baby! Me too..." The kids are getting used to the new way of eating around here as well, and Sweetie Pie and I both feel good about the example we are setting for them, not just with our diet, but also with the exercise we are fitting into our daily schedules, a model of healthy living that we hope they will catch onto and continue to live into their adult lives as well.

With all of this healthy eating around here, I've replaced almost all of my daily beverage intake with water. However, I am allowing myself to indulge, while still following the diet plan from the program, which allows me to have 8 oz of my favorite soft drink a day. So, once a day, I blissfully partake of one of these small cans of Pepsi.

We are committed to sticking with this way of eating for the rest of our lives, because we know its the best way for us to be getting exactly what our bodies need nutritionally. We are already noticing changes in the way our clothes fit, and of course, the numbers on the scale are going down...though Sweetie Pie's are going down much quicker than mine...

So Clean You Could Eat Off It

Usually at night, as I'm getting comfy in bed, I will check my email or Facebook right before I drift off to sleep. Tonight, my inattention to my husband led to the following conversation, which unfortunately is completely true and makes me look like a moron.

Sweetie Pie: I cleaned my butt off today.

Me: (half-listening, so genuinely confused) Wait....What? You cleaned your butt off? It was that dirty?

SP: (sarcastically) Yes! Yes, it was that dirty, but I cleaned it, shaved it, and even buffed it. You could eat off it! Good night! *rolled over in a humph*

About halfway through his rant, I realized what he really meant, so I started laughing hysterically, and when he heard me begin typing on my phone, he said, "You better not post this."

Oops...

Pillow Talk

I am convinced that if anyone were to overhear our conversations in bed, they might be inclined to think that my husband and I are a little kooky...I'm not sure if its the combination of his shear exhaustion and my sleeping pills or what, but we usually end up laughing hysterically with tears in our eyes.

For example, tonight as I was checking my email one more time before bed, I mentioned a particular emailed report at work...

Me: These charge stat emails always 'eff up my email.

Sweetie Pie: 'Eff up? How do they mess up your email?

Me: I don't mean they mess up. When I say "'eff up" I mean "fill up"....yeah, that's what I mean.

Sweetie Pie: (between stifled laughter) What? 'Eff up means fill up?

Me: Yes. That's what I mean when I say it.

Sweetie Pie: So...tomorrow night when we're cooking dinner, can I tell you to "'eff up a pot with water"?

Me: (roaring in laughter by this time) Yes, and I'll pretend I'm Rachel Ray. I'm going to 'eff up this pan with EVOO.

By this time, we were both laughing so hard we could hardly understand a word the other was saying.

I thank God every day for a spouse that can make me practically pee my pants from laughing so hard on a daily basis.

Wuv, Twue Wuv...Wevisited

I posted this a year ago, and I just had to repost it one more time because its my most favorite blog post ever. Enjoy!


October 30 is an anniversary of sorts…

First, let me preface this with a brief history.

It was October 29, 2000…I was sitting in my dorm room at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, chatting with some friends on CollegeClub.com. (It was a rudimentary version of what would become the likes of Myspace and Facebook.) A chat request came from someone named Hatchet69.

Hmmm….sounds like a perverted serial killer, I thought to myself…but basking in the anonymity of the Internet, I accepted the request anyway.

I don’t remember exactly what we talked about, but I do remember enjoying our conversation…I don’t know why, but I felt drawn to this faceless individual. We hadn’t even exchanged pictures, but by the end of the conversation I had agreed to meet him for dinner.

Fast forward 23 hours…there I was, pulling into the parking lot of Del Rancho, thinking to myself, “WHAT AM I DOING? No one even knows what I’m doing or where I am. This is the stuff that Lifetime movies are made of. I’m going to be just another dumb girl statistic! STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!”

I took a deep breath, got out of my car, and out of this huge black pickup truck hopped a cute guy in black Wranglers and with a shy smile. There was an awkward moment where I was trying to figure out if he was Hatchet69 and he was trying to figure out if I was NSUTheaterGrl. We laughed nervously and went inside. Over dinner, the awkwardness subsided, and we were soon having a good time. After dinner, we went looking for a movie, but couldn’t find one, and I mentioned the Haunted Castle. The 20 minute car ride to Muskogee was nice. We sat on opposite sides of his truck with the middle console down…I rested my arm on it for a moment. I wanted him to hold my hand, and was engrossed in thinking about moving mine closer to his when he grabbed mine. It caught me off guard and I yanked my hand back to my lap in reaction. He sheepishly shrunk back over to his own side, and for the second time that night, found myself saying in my head “STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!”

I have always been a fan of scary attractions, and he wasn’t about to tell me that he didn’t like them one bit. When we entered The Castle, he wrapped his arms around me and held on tight the entire time. He was unbelievably scared, but didn’t want me to know, and there was no way I was going to let on to him how obvious it was.

After The Castle, we weren’t ready for our date to end. He shyly asked if I wanted to meet his grandma and grandpa. I thought his request was absolutely adorable, and so we drove out to Ma and Pop’s house. We visited with them for awhile, watched some bull riding, and then headed back to my car, neither of us ready for the night to end.

When we got back to Del Rancho, it was close to midnight. I had class the next day, and he had to be at work in Broken Arrow. Still, the impending fatigue we were going to feel the next day couldn’t get either one of us to leave any faster. We sat and talked for a long time that night, and then one of us would remark on how late it was, only to end up talking about something else, until we realized it was 7AM.

The rest, as they say, is history. Four months later, we were engaged, and three months after that, we were married. Now, eight years and three kids later, we are still going strong.

I feel so blessed to have found such a wonderful person to spend my life with. He’s my rock, my best friend. He can make me laugh, even when I’m frustrated with him. He works hard to provide for his family, going in before everyone else to get off in time to pick up the kids from school so that they don’t have to go to after-school care. He has a handsome smile, a kind heart, and beautiful blue eyes that still make me melt. When he sends me an email during the day, or text messages my phone just to check in, I can still get butterflies in my stomach because I am so happy to hear from him! I love him more today than I ever could have imagined that night back in the parking lot eight years ago…

A Kick in the Gut

Okay...I'll admit. I'm a bad blogger. I just can't find the time to do it these days. I have tons to write about...I'm full of "Not Me's" on Mondays...I could probably post a few pics of my house on Fridays for "Show Us Where You Live" since its currently clean and fairly complete and actually semi-decorated in most rooms. I was even on vacation for two weeks, and not one single blog was created...for that, I apologize to the few who link to my blog and the even fewer who come here hoping for a new glimpse into the life of this Ryan household. Here's a recap...

We started attending a new church in late May and immediately felt like we belonged! The kids love their new church activities and Clint and I have had a great time getting to know everyone in new Life Group. In Sunday school, we've been watching a video series called "Love and Respect" by Emerson Eggerichs. After a few videos, I went and bought the book. The basic premise of the book and the video series is Ephesians 5:33: "Husbands must love their wives and wives must respect their husbands." I was enjoying the videos...reading the book...thinking "This sounds pretty easy..." and then...while on vacation, I flew off the handle. One of those crazy, yelling, irrational rampages. No one was safe...the kids were grounded from anything I could think to ground them from...Wii, TV, computer, toys, snacks, pillows (it was a weak moment). And when Clint got home, he got it too. There was an ice chest in the living room that had been there over a week, and as I walked through the living room with an arm full of clothes, I tripped over it. Once I put the laundry down, I limped back into the living room and kicked the ice chest towards him, telling him in so many words just what kind of non-contributing member of our family I thought he was. All of this, I'm sad to say, was witnessed by our children. Of course I apologized, but the damage was done, and my kids saw first hand how not to control one's self. A few days later, I was reading in the book again and came across a passage that said:

"When your sons grow up, do you want them to be married to a woman like you?"

That statement hit me like a ton of bricks...it was a total kick in the gut. I know I was not being the way I should be. I was being uncaring, irrational, impatient, disrespectful, unrealistic....the list goes on and on. I have now made it my goal every day to exemplify the kind of woman I want my kids to be married to...patient, rational, calm, kind, loving, helpful, and most of all, respectful. I am trying to be more patient with them, taking a deep breath when I get aggravated, and setting realistic expectations and sticking to realistic punishments. I know I can't do this by myself. Not only am I praying to God every day for guidance, strength, and discipline for myself, I've also enlisted the help of my husband. When I start to get hot under the collar, he's there to talk me back down, and let me know that I need to chill out. Since I asked him to keep me in check, its not so hard to hear that I need to cool it. And because I'm treating him with more respect, like the way he deserves to be treated, he's showing a lot of love and being a huge contributor to our household right now. He's always been a great provider and I've been blessed to have him as a partner, but I haven't been showing him. I have spent way too much time nagging him about what he isn't doing instead of acknowledging the contributions he has made to our household, like getting up at 5am to go to go work so that he can get off in time to pick up the kids from school or camp, or coming home and doing laundry or dishes or whatever else needs to be done. As long as we work as a team, together, things are so much easier around here. I feel so blessed to have him, and as our youngest son gets ready to start school next month, and things continue to get crazier around here with gymnastics, and dance classes, and church activities and whatever else we can come up with, we'll be able to handle it all.

I'll shout it from the rooftops. I RESPECT MY HUSBAND! And I feel so incredibly loved. :)

Rescue Mission

Tonight started out like any other night. After dinner, we took a family walk like we do every night. When we got back, Clint started watering the garden and the boys were playing in the back of the truck. What began as joyful frolicking soon turned into a dire situation.

Beau was playing with his Batman on the top of the truck when suddenly, it slipped out of his hands, in between the truck bed and the back window. Batman did not fall through to the bottom. He appeared to be lost forever.
But wait! Dad came to the rescue! He climbed under the truck, and reached into the dark crevice, searching into places no one else would dare put their own hands.

And just when we though Batman was lost forever (or at least until the next time I got going pretty fast down the road), Dad found him!

Beau inspected Batman thoroughly. He made sure that Batman didn't have any scratches. Batman had a wet cape, so Beau sniffed it, and proclaimed that it was okay, but that it smelled like "Poop water", to which Jack said "Let me smell!" and he concurred with Beau's previous statement by shouting "EW!".

Afterwards, the victorious father started to scoot out of from under the truck, and all three of his grateful sons came to help, or so it seemed. As Luke and Beau got by each arm to help pull him out, Jack took this opportunity to exact revenge for some previous occurence on Dad, by slapping him in the face. Not shaken, Dad emerged from under the truck and all was once again well with the world.

It's the Little Things...

Last night, the boys and I were sitting on the couch, just before bedtime, playing a game of "Telephone". You know the game, where one person whispers something in another's ear, and when it gets to the last person its the never the way it started. Sweetie Pie walked in and joined our fun little game.

Sweetie Pie whispered in Cutie Pie's ear: "I am in love with mommy."

Cutie Pie giggled, and whispered in Pot Pie's ear: "I am in love with mommy."

Pot Pie rolled his eyes and said in my ear: "Luke is in love with you."

It was the cutest thing ever!

My Biggest Boy

Cutie Pie has had a few moments of struggling this year in school. He doesn't have loads of confidence about his reading ability, and he's kinda moody sometimes. However, for the entire month of January, he hasn't had a single day with a "sad face", meaning he hasn't had more than one warning a day for this entire month! We're very pleased with his growing maturity, and tonight, we rewarded him with an extra special surprise...staying up past bed time to hang out with dad, eating popcorn and watching UFC matches. He's in "Big Boy Heaven"!

Oh, No! Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday!

If you read my previous post, you would have witnessed my gushing over what a wonderful husband I have, and how I have been working very hard to be the best for him. Well, let me begin this "Not Me! Monday" with my head hung in shame.


Currently, there is not a battle of wills going on at my house.



I do not go into my bathroom and find the toilet paper in this condition.


In aggravation for being the only person who replaces the toilet paper in the entire house, I do not remedy the situation by doing this...


Which aggravates my Sweetie Pie, who corrects it by doing this...


But, in retaliation for my not half-completing the task, he does this as well...



And even though there is a trash can directly under the toilet paper holder, we are not in a standoff, and we are not refusing to give in until the other realizes HE is wrong and throws all of the empty toilet paper rolls away...


Additionally, I did not encourage my son to take this picture at Lowe's yesterday...

*Giggle*

Man Whisperer

For Christmas, my MIL gave me a calendar with daily "training tips women can use on their man".
Some of the tidbits of wisdom include the following:

"The Man Whisperer knows that her man's place is around her pinkie."  I'd rather spoon.

"Nothing frightens men like a freeze queen. Sit or stand straight and tall, inhale slowly and deliberately, and then slowly exhale, widen your eyes and picture the inside of your body as the Arctic Ice Shelf. Instead of a warm nurturing embrace, give him cold hard steel."  Why would I want to frighten my husband?  Any of these games just delays getting to the fun stuff.

"All men are babies. Your job is to find the best baby in the bunch."  I know what babies are like.  I've had 3 of them.  My Sweetie Pie is far from being a baby.

"What the Man Whisperer tells herself every day: "He doesn't know how lucky he is."  Oh, yes he does.  He knows.  He tells me quite often.

"Assume the Attitude: Expect compliance."  Compliance?  No.  Contributing?  Yes.

"A man is scared to death of a woman who looks as if she might have a couple of thoughts."  My husband thinks its hot that I'm smart.

"Thought for the day. One word: Concealer".  Yeah, because obviously if he sees you with a zit he's going to hit the floor running.

"Deep down your man is wondering whether he's good enough. Your job is to keep him wondering."  I'd rather let him know I appreciate everything he does.

Dopey ideas like these are the reason I don't read Cosmo. Don't get me started on what I think of women who assume men are stupid and that these ridiculous tricks work. Why my MIL thinks I need to "train" her son to do anything is baffling to me. In my opinion, he's not in need of any training at all. He's intelligent, hard working, respectful, handsome, an amazing father....I could go on and on.

However, I must confess. I haven't treated my wonderful husband the way he deserves to be treated...that is, until about 2 weeks ago. I happened upon a blog written by MckMama (If you don't know who she is, you should find out right now!).  Upon reading this entry on marriage, my eyes were opened.  I saw him in an entirely new light.  Before, I based so much of my own happiness on what he did to make me feel special, getting down and feeling disappointed when he wasn't completely falling over himself in awe of me.  After reading MckMama's wise words, I made the change to just be happy on my own and to treat him with love and kindness, like Jesus would want me to treat him.  Well, once I started this, I noticed a definite change in the way he was treating me.  Once I started showering him with love and affection, as well as going out of my way to do nice things for him with no strings attached, he started doing the same thing!!!  These changes we made resulted in what we have now labeled "The Week of Pleasure".  

Now, we've never had a problem in the boudoir department.  As a couple of individuals who married without ever having been with anyone else in our entire lives, there is an amazing bond between the two of us.   We haven't had much time pass without some sort of physical contact between the two of us.  However, since my eyes were opened by MckMama's blog, our times together haven't just been more frequent; they've been amazingly better in every way.

Here's hoping it turns into "The Month of Pleasure".  

Husband Rant

For the most part, I scored pretty good in the husband department. He's supportive, caring, loving, helps with the kids, works hard to support our family, has a cute butt :), and he does his fair share around the house...most of the time. Today was not quite one of those times. The kids are out of school for Christmas Break, and because of circumstances beyond my control at work, I am unable to take off or even work half a day from home like I had planned. As a result, I had to drop Luke and Beau off at his office for a few hours of watching He-Man on Hulu.com so he could get a little work done before coming home. In his defense, he did pick up Jackson and take him and the other two to get Jack's glasses fixed. However, once they arrived home, little else was accomplished except almost defeating the Riddler on Lego Batman for Wii.

It would have been nice to come home and have some laundry done to fold or dishes washed and put away. I let him know, once or twice, that I was not pleased at the lack of tasks he got completed today, which he responded to with indifference and eye-rolling. However, I wasn't really that bothered about it. I had a nice time, winding down after a long day at work, while I cooked dinner with Jackson. After dinner, Clint, Jack and I unloaded the dishwasher. As Clint was putting away the utensils, he took the meat tenderizer and proceed to hit my butt with it. And then he said, "I thought you needed some tenderizing, because..."

Wait for it...

"You've been such a hard ass."

Yup, that's right folks...Its a regular vat of hilarity around here.

Its alright, though. I wouldn't trade him for anything. Even if his stupid jokes and the fact that I even have to ask him to do the sink load of dishes he keeps walking by irritate the heck out of me.

Wuv...Twue Wuv

Yesterday was an anniversary of sorts…

First, let me preface this with a brief history.

It was October 29, 2000…I was sitting in my dorm room at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, chatting with some friends on CollegeClub.com. (It was a rudimentary version of what would become the likes of Myspace and Facebook.) A chat request came from someone named Hatchet69.

Hmmm….sounds like a perverted serial killer, I thought to myself…but basking in the anonymity of the Internet, I accepted the request anyway.

I don’t remember exactly what we talked about, but I do remember enjoying our conversation…I don’t know why, but I felt drawn to this faceless individual. We hadn’t even exchanged pictures, but by the end of the conversation I had agreed to meet him for dinner.

Fast forward 23 hours…there I was, pulling into the parking lot of Del Rancho, thinking to myself, “WHAT AM I DOING? No one even knows what I’m doing or where I am. This is the stuff that Lifetime movies are made of. I’m going to be just another dumb girl statistic! STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!”

I took a deep breath, got out of my car, and out of this huge black pickup truck hopped a cute guy in black Wranglers and with a shy smile. There was an awkward moment where I was trying to figure out if he was Hatchet69 and he was trying to figure out if I was NSUTheaterGrl. We laughed nervously and went inside. Over dinner, the awkwardness subsided, and we were soon having a good time. After dinner, we went looking for a movie, but couldn’t find one, and I mentioned the Haunted Castle. The 20 minute car ride to Muskogee was nice. We sat on opposite sides of his truck with the middle console down…I rested my arm on it for a moment. I wanted him to hold my hand, and was engrossed in thinking about moving mine closer to his when he grabbed mine. It caught me off guard and I yanked my hand back to my lap in reaction. He sheepishly shrunk back over to his own side, and for the second time that night, found myself saying in my head “STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!”

I have always been a fan of scary attractions, and he wasn’t about to tell me that he didn’t like them one bit. When we entered The Castle, he wrapped his arms around me and held on tight the entire time. He was unbelievably scared, but didn’t want me to know, and there was no way I was going to let on to him how obvious it was.

After The Castle, we weren’t ready for our date to end. He shyly asked if I wanted to meet his grandma and grandpa. I thought his request was absolutely adorable, and so we drove out to Ma and Pop’s house. We visited with them for awhile, watched some bull riding, and then headed back to my car, neither of us ready for the night to end.

When we got back to Del Rancho, it was close to midnight. I had class the next day, and he had to be at work in Broken Arrow. Still, the impending fatigue we were going to feel the next day couldn’t get either one of us to leave any faster. We sat and talked for a long time that night, and then one of us would remark on how late it was, only to end up talking about something else, until we realized it was 7AM.

The rest, as they say, is history. Four months later, we were engaged, and three months after that, we were married. Now, eight years and three kids later, we are still going strong.

I feel so blessed to have found such a wonderful person to spend my life with. He’s my rock, my best friend. He can make me laugh, even when I’m frustrated with him. He works hard to provide for his family, going in before everyone else to get off in time to pick up the kids from school so that they don’t have to go to after-school care. He has a handsome smile, a kind heart, and beautiful blue eyes that still make me melt. When he sends me an email during the day, or text messages my phone just to check in, I can still get butterflies in my stomach because I am so happy to hear from him! I love him more today than I ever could have imagined that night back in the parking lot eight years ago…

The Skinny

How I wish this was a blog about weight loss...alas, that is not the case...

My husband was at home all week on vacation, watching the kids until they go back to school next week. He had a lot of fun, got a lot of things done, but all that time away from the stress of work left his brain little else to do but ponder such questions like "What would I look like if I shaved my head?" Well, here's your answer....

I love how everyone's first reaction when they see him is "Misti let you do this?" As if I could stop him! He'll do anything to up his biker cred (well, as much biker cred as an information systems manager can have)...I'm sure a tattoo is not too far down the road. And honestly, I can't complain...I think he looks hot...though now he can't say he doesn't wear a helmet because he likes to feel the wind in his hair...

He's not the only one making a change...the kids are destined to be bikers as well...

A Sensitive Handyman

My husband has become quite the handyman around here. He refinished a portion of the wood floors in our house and they look FANTASTIC! He put down new carpet in the living room and our youngest son's room. This week he is taking a few days of vacation, so it should be no surprise that when I mentioned I wish we had a bigger opening into our closet that I come home to quite a mess. Not only did I come home to him with a saw in hand, I also found him watching Oprah! He is supposed to go back to work tomorrow, but is upset that he is going to miss the next episode of Oprah and Gayle's road trip. Here's his progress...