For some reason this didn't publish earlier and go through to Readers...hopefully it works this time!

It is already Thursday evening?! Yowza! This week seemed to whiz by. I guess because I was way more busy than normal preparing everything to announce my plans for September. Are you in?

I know quite a few of you are and have already grabbed the reigns to spread the word. Another round of special thanks to the following awesome bloggers for putting up the 30 Day button or sharing a special segment in their posts. The fact that they go out of their way to share this on their blogs speaks volumes of their character. Show them some love and say hello! Let me know if I missed you or if you put the button on your site so I can give appropriate thanks to you as well.

• Mindy – Just A One Girl Revolution
• Maura – The MOH Diaries
• Rachel – Fit, Fun, and Fabulous
• Melissa – Live, Love, and Run
• Cynthia – Cook and Eat: Adventures of a Pretend Cook
• Marcia – Healthy Living Adventures
• Kathleen – Journey to Loving Me
• Laury – The Fitness Dish
• Andi – Andi on the Go
• Lindsay – Learning to Cook, Eat, and Enjoy Delicious Food

Once again, if you are unsure what we’re talking about and getting all worked up about here on Faith, Fitness, Fun then click and check out my new page to learn about the special 30 Days of Self Reflection to promote self-love coming in September! I’m stoked!!!!

Dinners from last night and today included a few failures and successes. They all evened out. And I’m in such a good mood I don’t think anything could have brought me down. Last night, I planned on having a portabella mushroom burger. It certainly looks delicious, huh?

Something was seriously WRONG with that mushroom though. I couldn’t bite through it easily and it tasted off. I couldn’t stomach it, which is odd because I prepared it the exact same way as normal. Dinner FAIL! I had to have a PB+J sandwich instead. 🙁

I made up for it with tonight’s dinner. I made sure it would be a huge success by cooking up my favorites. Sweet potatoes, roasted brussel sprouts, and eggs cooked with some blue cheese. Loooovvveee me some stinky cheese! Dinner SUCCESS!

Over the last few weeks, I have been considering failure and success a lot. I almost didn’t follow through with the 30 Days idea and it would have been strictly for fear of failure. I know numerous times the fear of failure has held me back in life. Now, I embrace challenge and doing what I feel passionate about. Life needs failure. It’s how we learn and grow. How boring would it be to never fail? It would be that much harder to appreciate the successes. Taking a step out of our comfort zones helps us to live fully and truly experience the joys of life. I also think it is vital to find new ways of defining success. It doesn’t mean you have to be THE BEST…just that you do YOUR BEST. Succeed or fail – go out and live!

• Do you like stinky cheeses?
• How do you feel about failure? Does it affect your decisions?

Please check out my new Examiner article! Every click counts in promoting me! Thanks!!!

Hey, hey, hey! I’m back from our travels. How was everyone’s weekend? I hope fabulous. I look forward to being back to normal blogging and being able to visit you all. I also look forward to being back home with my darling girl and my kitchen. I have no problem eating a few heavier meals over a vacation, but it never fails to leave me craving the best stuff afterwards. Onto the rest of my recap, shall we?

I left you with the wedding rehearsal, but no recap of the wedding. Let me remedy that. The ceremony filled the room with love. The emotion expressed on the bride’s and groom’s faces spoke volumes. And the worship included within the ceremony displayed the firm foundation of their relationship. I love watching weddings and feeling like my own becomes reaffirmed.

Here are a few of my favorite shots of the wedding. Aren’t my friends just glowing with love? 🙂

Look at those smiles!!!! I’m incredibly happy for them. Seeing my close friend marry a woman perfectly suited for him brings me so much joy. I had tears in my eyes when I saw his face as she walked down the aisle. They will no doubt enjoy a long life of love together. Love them both!

After the beautiful ceremony, we had a brief break back in the hotel room before heading to the reception. The reception venue overlooked a small lake and boasted amazing decor. It somewhat reminded me of our rehearsal venue, except at a lake instead of the mountains.

After the cocktail hour, we moved to the main hall for a seated dinner, toasts, and then dancing. The meal started with a Caesar salad and a roll with an asparagus garlic spread.

Then, the main course came out. Filet with potatoes and veggies. They simply brought out the meal without asking how people wanted their meat cooked. Pink does NOT suit me.

I tried to force it down, but around 2/3 of the way through I made a mad dash for the restroom instead. From there the night was downhill. Shortly afterwards, the cutting of the cake came.

I needed food because I had nothing in my stomach at this point and had a slice as soon as possible. I ended up feeling worse and getting a headache from having just sugar in my stomach. It tasted fabulous, but not so sure it was worth it.

I had to leave not too long after that. I felt so terrible! I wanted to be there to celebrate with them as long as possible. We headed back to the hotel by 10 and I immediately crashed. I’m happy I got to see the first dance, cutting of the cake, visit with them, and enjoy some other good company though.

Fortunately I woke up feeling better on Sunday. I took my time getting out of bed and getting ready to be sure. Then, knowing I still felt up to it, we headed out towards downtown Philly after another complimentary hotel breakfast. The trip started off a little rocky thanks to some bad directions, but we found our way. We started off in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Of course, we had to complete the obligatory Rocky climb. I didn’t pose like all the other people though. Haha!

After checking out the views from the steps for a bit, we went around back of the museum to visit the Azalea Gardens and Boathouse Row. What a nice area!

Then we decided to head down Benjamin Franklin Parkway towards 18th street to visit Rittenhouse Square and have lunch. It wasn’t too long of a walk, but it worked up my appetite. We had to search for a place to eat because apparently 1:00 on a Sunday equates to brunch around that area. Everywhere was serving eggs, eggs, and more eggs, I wasn’t in the mood for breakfast so the only decent looking option in the area was a pizza place.

A very good pizza place at that. We decided to share a medium spinach, mushroom, and onion on whole wheat. I liked that the the veggies stole the show. There was very little cheese and sauce, which tasted perfect with such flavorful toppings.

Lunch took longer than expected, so once we finished we had to take a quick walk through Rittenhouse Square and start heading back to the car to leave in time to get to visit Peter’s friends for the night. That didn’t stop us from taking a pit stop for some fro-yo. I have eyed all your fro-yo visits for some time and knew I needed a taste of my own. I picked up a mix of vanilla and watermelon flavors with some strawberries, blueberries, and a few M&Ms on top. Soooooo good!

It topped off our quick Philly day trip perfectly. Then we headed into West Chester to finish out the night visiting some friends we haven’t seen since our wedding. I don’t know them as well since it is a friend Peter used to work with, but I really enjoyed the company. I wish we had had more time to visit them. The few hours we did have to share a dinner with them in their home, play with their daughter, and sit and chat were wonderful though. And that about wraps it up. I really missed Makenzie, but this vacation felt more special without her. I joked that we could almost call it our “babymoon” vacation to get away and have fun before having the next baby. We had a great time…

• What was the best part of your weekend?
• What is the longest road trip you’ve taken? Was it worth it?