Absentee Blogger

Under normal circumstances, I would be inclined to feel exceptionally guilty about my absence from the blog for the last week. Especially after having a highly visible conversation with myself here about how I would do much, much better at not being an absentee blogger. But you know what? I've had a lot go down in the last week that has caused an obscene amount of celebration that involved food I did not cook myself. No cooking = no good recipes to share.

Why was a celebrating?

I'll tell you why. I was celebrating because June was a spectacular month for me this year. June brought the following to me:

1. A promotion at work that involves a title change, increased job duties, and supervisory responsibility. Yeah, it was a pretty awesome change. With said promotion came a raise. I'll find out more about how that translates to take home pay when I receive my check on Wednesday. Cross your fingers it's a good thing because I need some extra moolah. See, I'm starting a big, fat savings account because....

2. I am engaged. Shannon popped the question on Tuesday, and I, of course, said yes. After we "slow danced" to Faith No More's cover of "This Guy's in Love with You" in the middle of our dining room while I was wearing my gym clothes. It went down just like that...with a little help from Zac Effron. Or his likeness. We went out together on Tuesday night to enjoy a newly engaged couple's meal at our favorite local Irish pub. I ate copious amounts of their hand-breaded fried mushrooms dipped in their sinful horseradish sauce. I imbibed in my favorite beer of the moment. We topped it off with a jaunt to a local ice cream landmark. Celebrating, you see? It happened all week. Not only for the engagement, but also because...

3. I turned 30 yesterday. The big three-oh. And you know what? It was wonderful. I was surrounded by wonderful friends and amazing family who made my day beautiful and filled with love. My backyard was transformed, through the hard work of my babiest sister T and Shannon, into a beautiful multicolored light and lantern birthday venue. Gorgeous. It was absolutely lovely even with the scorching 90+ degree weather. I couldn't have asked for a better day to enter into my third decade.

So, I hope you will forgive me (and I will forgive myself) for being an absentee blogger. It's just that so much happened. I felt as if I should take some time to live it all up and enjoy the moments as they happened. I wanted to be able to reflect on them without analyzing them too close to the time that they happened. And I did. I am glad for that.

Now we'll be back to business as usual. Although, I'll probably be focusing on a lot of healthy recipes for a while. Don't get me wrong,, I'll still throw up a shout out to a whoopie pie or a delectable cookie more often than once a month. However, I have to buckle down on this Weight Watchers road. I have 35 pounds to lose to be at my goal weight. My new goal? To be at goal for my wedding on May 20, 2011. I have less than a year to get cracking. This is me lighting a fire under my own tush.

Flame on!