Making my comeback!!

Well, here I am!! After 6 LONG months, I've finally decided to make my way back to blogging!! Hopefully I haven't lost everyone during my separation/divorce/move/sabbatical, but if so, I hope to get you all back soon!

As many of you know, life was pretty much unbearable for a while. I mean, let's face it, 2010 was looking like a year I wanted to completely forget. My ex and I decided to separate, I moved into an extended stay hotel, finally got an apartment (but was far away from many of my friends), went through a very ugly and difficult divorce, gave up my dog in exchange for getting my life back, and pretty much became a recluse... it just seemed that nothing was going to go my way. Not only that, I endured three of the most stressful things you can go through in life all at once: Divorce, Moving, & Job Change. For many of those months, I blew off my friends, hated myself and didn't want anything to do with finding happiness.

Amazingly, most of what happened over the 4 months during the divorce proceedings is a blur now. I know that some of my friends probably don't understand why I didn't talk more, call more, e-mail more... but honestly, it was the most difficult thing I have ever experienced. It's not that I didn't want to, it was that I couldn't talk about it, e-mail about it, text about it, etc. I wanted to block everything that was happening and pretend it wasn't really true. The man I had cared for 5 years of my life had hurt me in more ways than I would wish on anyone. And to make it 100 times worse, he wanted to take my dog, my baby, my little Maximus Cooper Henry away from me.

As I look back now, I do not regret the divorce, or leaving him, or wishing for more out of life. I knew I deserved someone better for me. Someone that cared for me unconditionally and someone who was without a doubt, my perfect compliment. Thankfully, I had the courage to acknowledge that and to fight for it!!

I still miss Max!! Even now, I tear up thinking about him, but I realize that the experience was a huge life lesson for me. He was the first dog I had bought for myself. I trained him, groomed him, took him to the vet, and spent countless hours just loving on him. BUT, he was a dog and I knew that someday I would lose him, I just didn't want to accept it. I've moved on now to another sweet shi tzu puppy, and he is a handful. He wants to be right next to me all the time, loving on me, and playing with me. And although he doesn't take the place of Max, I realize now that he wasn't supposed to and that no dog will ever replace him, but he makes me just as happy!

So... that's some of what has happened in the last 6 months but not to worry, there is a lot more to come.... much HAPPIER, MORE EXCITING, AMAZING things to come!!!
I have realized what I was looking for all along and finally got my happiness!