Well, the dad-meeting is all over ... He came and we all went out to dinner. He was nice and friendly, he was funny and charming ... I almost forgot not to like him, and I can't decide if I'm happy about that or not.

Plus, he and Ryan look just alike, so I had a glimpse into the future ...

God, I had so much nervousness building up in me that when Ryan's dad left (heading out after all) for his brother's house, I couldn't help letting out a sigh of relief! But it wasn't a bad meeting; he and Joey got along well. He was patient with her and kind to her. Chris and Ryan didn't argue or come to blows (apparently they have before), and they talked about cars a LOT, so I got to see Ryan in his element. But it was okay because it left me out of the conversation.

Rude? Yes ... But I am grateful for it. Having nothing to say and knowing that I might not be heard anyway saved me from maybe saying something idiotic! So it really wasn't that bad after all ...

When I signed onto sparkpeople.com, they asked for my height and weight and stuff like that. Then they asked me what my goal weight was, and recommended how fast I can do it while still being health conscious. Then, for the sake of not asking too much of myself, I doubled that time, and got myself started. They gave a recommended range in the area of calories, carbs, fat, and protein, and I have been struggling to stay in those range limits. I am usually around 2000-2500 calories a day, and that isn't bad, but my range is supposed to be in the 1400-1800 range. This will be the second day IN A ROW that I have been in those ranges and drank all of my water, and still not been hungry!

I typed in my dinner already, just to see what it would do, and I can have two waffles WITH butter AND syrup for dinner, and I'll still be below my calories for today! Awesome! But here's the bad part of that. I don't want to be under my calories, because I don't want my body to go into "starving" mode ... I am surely NOT starving any time soon. So I don't want my body to think it is ... Uh-uh.

 But I was so excited that I wanted to post something and just say YAY! Oh, and ...

 My Father, My Holy Father, today I am thankful for my success on this, which would never come to pass if it wasn't your will. I also ask that you continue to be beside me, and lend me your hand ... AMEN.

Well, today was supposed to be a meet-the-family day for me. We had planned to go up to Newport (long drive for those who don't know) and into the Smoky Mountains to see Ryan's grandparents. This would've been the first time I'd met them, even though I'm sure they've heard plenty about me and Joey already ... they are Leslie's parents. Anyway, I was nervous. I wanted them to see me and think that Ry had picked a good cute girl, so I was trying to decide what to wear that would be cute. But one day I said something to the effect of, "How should I dress to meet them?" And he said that his grandfather's idea of dressing up is to put on a clean flannel shirt. So that just made it worse ... Now I had to figure out how to be cute without being uppity. Anyone think I've gone off the deep end yet? Well, if you don't just keep going ...

I got lucky, but I was disappointed about it this morning. Ryan was sick all night with a fever, so we didn't go this morning. I was glad to have it put off, but I was disappointed to have to keep it in the horizon. Here's why I was glad to have it put off ...

Not only do I get more time to stop being a dork about it, and quit being nervous ... Ryan keeps telling me not to worry, but I can't seem to help it ... I want them to at least not hate me ... I'm not worried about what they'll think of me though, really. It is just that I don't want him to have to hear them say that he could do better, or you know, blah,blah,blah. I have been the one with the griping family before, and it makes things hard. So I don't want him to have to deal with it. And when you add a child to the mix ... See my worry?

Okay, reason number two for me to be happy about some extra time before meeting the grandparents? I have to meet Ryan's dad on Wednesday. So at least now there's a break between the two meetings. I'm freaking out, because I don't just have to meet him. I have to cook for him, and play the hostess because HE'S SPENDING THE NIGHT AT OUR HOUSE!!!!!!! Normally, I am easy-going enough that this would not be an issue. But ......

Not only am I likely to be obviously nervous, but every story that I hear about this guy makes me like him less. It sounds like he's an older Richard. (Drugs and lies and lots of it.) If he feels this, he will automatically NOT like me. For Ryan's sake, we can not have this. It just can not happen. So I have to play emotional hide and seek. Also, he's going to sleep over at our house ... That means that he will hear Joey cry out in the morning, and see me in all of my scary morning glory all at once ... IN THE BEGINNING! Not good. And another thing ... Just in case he does like me, what if he likes me too much?! Ryan says that his dad has a real bad habit of hitting on Ry's girlfriends. They have a really bad habit of fistfighting, too, for various reasons ... Plus, well, I'm just nervous ... I'm just nervous ... NERVOUS!

Why can't it just be easy to meet the family? Didn't you ever see "Meet The Parents"?

*sigh...*

Well, in the past few days lots of stuff has happened ... or not.

I went to my cousin's new place the other day, but didn't have time to hang out since I was there to take her shopping (she doesn't have a car yet). We got to talk and chill a little, but not like we would have if we'd just been chilling. I was taking her to run a lot of errands and we only had a few hours time, so we were in a huge rush the whole time. It was a good time, anyway, we heard a lot of flashback songs on the 90's channel on XM. We love that channel ... but I am really mad at XM at the moment because they took off my two favorite stations and combined them into one station that SUCKS!!

Anyways, I also had a speech retard moment the other day ... Ryan and I were in the store and he said something teasing and I said, "Well, I'll bite you ..." He put his elbow out as if to say, "I dare you!" Well, I leaned over and lightly bit him on his elbow. Lightly, okay ... remember we were kidding around ... Well, when I let go, I was like, "See? I knew I could get away with it!" But he, like always, had a comeback. He says, "Yeah but only because I knew you wouldn't really bite me..."

I started to say that he wouldn't have elbowed me even if I'd bitten him till he was gushing blood all over the floor. What came out? "You wouldn't elbow me like that even I bit you till you were blushing good all over the floor." Yes, I actually finished it before I realized I'd had a mental type-o!

And of course, then I had to top it off with a very ladylike burst of snorting laughter when I realized what I'd said! Oh dear ... It's like that crazy-fun girl AM rubs off online ... What will I do?

Also, I think I have mentioned that I found this cool website that helps you monitor or lose weight by giving you a place to keep track of yourself. It's www.sparkpeople.com, and I just love it there. I haven't lost any weight that I know of, but I have lost a few inches off of me ... YAY!!! And today? Well, today, I actually stayed within my recommended ranges of Calories, Carbs, Fat, and Protein. So yay me! I'm proud of myself, even though I am not really that much of an eater. When I ate normally and kept track of it just to see where I was on calories, I was in the range of 1500-2500 calories every day. So I wasn't doing bad, but you do need to keep them down and get your butt moving to be able to lose weight. So I'm working on it. And I'm succeeding ... Slowly. Oh so slowly, but surely. Yay!

They also recommend that you drink eight eight ounce glasses of water. I knew about that before, but now I'm really struggling to be able to do it. Mostly, it isn't that hard, but I'm having to really try. And I read this book called, "You're Not Sick, You're Thirsty: Water, for Health, for Healing, for Life." The guy who wrote it wrote another book that I am planning to look for that is called, "Your Body's Many Cries for Water." I learned a lot from the other book, so I'm looking forward to reading the next one ..."

Wow. I just looked over this, and it doesn't seem that that much has really happened to me lately. But I have had a lot of thinking going on. This isn't even all of it ...

Oh my gosh I have had such a bad day ... But then I ran across someone's playlist of favorites ... they're almost all older songs, OLDER songs. And I? Well, I knew them all! And what's worse? I knew them all WELL!

Check this out:

1.) Salt N Peppa - Push It
2.) Salt N Peppa - Let's Talk About Sex
3.) Salt N Peppa - Shoop
4.) Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby
5.) Salt N Peppa ft. En Vogue - What a Man
6.) Salt N Peppa - Express Yourself
7.) Salt N Peppa - Short D*ck Man
8.) Run DMC ft. Beastie Boys - It's Tricky
9.) Beastie Boys - Girls
10.) Beastie Boys - Paul Revere
11.) Beastie Boys - Brass Monkey
12.) Salt N Peppa - Supersonic
13.) Paula Abdul - Opposites Attract
14.) Sir Mix-a-Lot - Baby Got Back

Go ahead ... Let the teasing and berating begin ...