Let's give this another go

I'm fairly certain no one's following me anymore, but I'm ready to give this blogging thing another shot.

I've gained some weight but I've been back at WW for about six weeks. I've lost almost six pounds. This includes nearly four weeks of being out of town. I'm fairly pleased with the progress and am glad I'm back in town and can be more structured. I'm mostly back just to have a place to write down how things are going.

A lot has happened in the year+ that I've been offline. The biggest news is that after dating for a little more than three years, Max and I are engaged! We got engaged on July 17th while visiting Mesa, Arizona.

Unfortunately, much of our last two years together has really been rough for Max. You might remember that Max's brother died after a short and excrutiating bout with colon cancer. We've had a lot on our plates with his brother's estate. We are still dealing with probate attorneys and taxes. It's been a lot of stress for the last twenty months.

To make matters even sadder, Max's mom passed away in April. She had been battling breast cancer for about ten years and hit a rough patch early in the year. We had already planned a visit to her home in Mesa, Arizona during my spring break from school. That's when she passed. She was in hospice, and we were there for a couple days before she died. We then buried her in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania next to Max's dad. Max is now an orphan with a couple of cousins, aunts, and uncles, but his family is very small now. I find it very sad that he has so few family members and that I won't have any in-laws.

The second week of July, I headed out west to Arizona where Max's mom lived. As a teacher, I have a lot of vacation, whereas Max has almost none. I drove to Texas to my parents' house. My mom had decided to accompany me to Arizona so that she could help clean out Max's mom's house with us. We drove to Arizona, and Max flew to join us there. We spent a week there -- cleaning, donating, choosing things to bring home with us. The goal was to pack up my SUV with whatever we wanted for our home, and I would drive it home with me. I did that and included a week in Texas on the way home visiting friends and family in my hometown. On our last night in Arizona, Max took my mom, his aunt, and me out for dinner. It was on this evening that he proposed! I was shocked! Somehow, he had picked out a ring all on his own. When he was told that he wouldn't be able to take it home with him that day, he decided to have it shipped to his 83-year old aunt's house in Arizona (and not pay any taxes because it was being shipped to another state). His aunt loved being in on the surprise and keeping my ring in her underwear drawer for a week!

Max and I have now been living together for about two years. It's been great! It took a long time for him to propose, but I'm sure you can see that we've had a lot on our plate.

I've just started getting ready to plan a beautiful wedding. I'm sure there will be more plans to share along the way.

I look forward to catching up with each of you. If you're still out and reading my blog, drop me a line to let me know you're still out there!