Despite currently taking a class on quantum mechanics, I still had trouble answering this one. Y'all seem to be hung up on electrons absorbing energy. Entire atoms and molecules also absorb energy. The bonds between two atoms can become excited and reach a higher vibrational energy state. Also, the way that atoms rotate around each other can be changed with the input of energy (via a photon).
This gives us the ability to identify an atom by IR (infrared) spectroscopy. Remember that there are extremely few energies that can be absorbed by a given molecule, and these energies are characteristic of the type of bond in the molecule in the case of IR. This site describes IR decently:
http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/sci/che...ec/irspec1.htm
So it's not just an electron with different energy states, there are other energy states that relate to molecules and their interactions.