NO, I Have NOT Been Eaten By My Sweats!!!

I'm still here. I'm sure some of you thought I either passed on from malnutrion, was hospitalized with some flesh eating fungus contracted from my unlaundered sweats or lay passed out on my living room floor after inhaling noxious fumes from a recent burping and farting fest. While all of those could be in the running for the most plausible reason for my absence on the ol' blog scene, none would actually be correct. Over the past 7 days, I have been busy working overtime, preparing my personal tax documents...better late than never...working out, fighting off an VERY nasty stomach virus, and best of all - visiting with my baby girl. Keri has been home for Spring Break and it has been a fabulous week! Despite my 24 hour love affair with the toilet, you know, hugging the thing while puking my guts out, life has been filled with good things. We had some much needed mother/daughter time. And the revolving door was back in action. Lots of friends running in and out. Chaos of the most awesome kind!

I want to send a massive and very heartfelt thank you for all of the comments left on my last post. I feel I need to clarify a few things. My whole intention with that post was to try to make light of a challenging phase in any mother's life. We tend to wrap ourselves in the motherly robe and when it is time for the birdies to flee the nest, we can't really figure out what our role is. Change of any sort is tough. No doubt about it. One of my main reasons for blogging was to document my journey through this phase of life. It is everything I thought it would be. Like I tried to portray in my last post, it can suck! No better word for it. But I do see and appreciate the beauty of getting to remake myself. To find out who I am. Once stripped of that motherly robe, you feel a bit exposed and vulnerable. But rest assured, I am not one to go down without a fight. Many of you offered some wonderful suggestions on how to redefine myself. Several of them have already been attempted...some with success and some without. But hey, that's how it goes. And for all of you who are totally disgusted with my lack of personal grooming habits, please know that I have not worn the sweats all week. I said my good-byes, held a mourning ritual then tossed them in the laundry.

I also need to mention for the sake of my newest blog friends that I do have a wonderful fiance. However, he does live 3 states away with a 3 hour commute between us. To prove that life can have an evil sense of humor, his world got turned upside down right as mine did. When I became an empty-nester, he became a full-time single parent. That has added to our inability to move forward with our plans to marry as we are awaiting the final court decision. Our weekend visits are not as frequent as they once were and the opportunity for lengthy phone calls has been phased out. So I guess I was having myself a good ol' pity party. Missing the busy-ness of my old life and realizing it will be a while before I can fully move into my new world. But as always is the case with pity parties, they can only last so long. Mine lasted a mere 24 hours. Now I am back to grabbing life by the horns and making the best of it. You will have to stay tuned to see how well I tackle this bugger of a challenge and what trouble I get into while doing it. I can bet you one thing, it will be a wild and crazy ride.

Before I go, I thought I would share a layout of me and my guy that I did for Antonello's Pinkilicous Sketch Challenge.




Hope you all have a super fantastic Monday! Hugs to you all!