Good Mornin'

After a couple of months of keeping to myself and after a night of 12 hours of sleep(!), I think it's time to fire up the blog-writing neurons again.

Things have been quietly hopping around the Flanagan household:

*In mid-November, I won the Bunch of Losers contest that I had set up in August; basically, it was a group of my friends who all wanted to lose weight and came together in a magical fashion to compete with weight-loss percentages. At the end of the three months, I edged out Shelley by .01% to take the whole enchilada. I was back down to my marriage weight and got some pretty cool muscles in the meantime. We all gave ourselves a month or so off until the next round starts (which will actually be next Monday, the 28th). A lot more people have signed up for this next round, and I hope they all stick with it, because those who stuck with the last round really benefited from the experience.

Here's the picture that started it all:

And over 20 pounds later (and 5 pounds more since this photo's been taken!):
I'm grateful that in my unhappiest time, I was able to start something that not only made myself feel better, but influenced others to make positive changes in their lives. It's not that I'm a bona fide savior or anything, so don't think I'm anticipating an ascent to Heaven. If anything, I'm anticipating a small trip to the mall to buy smaller clothes.

* My parents and my youngest sister Kellie came up to Utah for the week of Thanksgiving. We were so grateful to have them here, especially when the news came that Grandma sold her house and would need help packing up her stuff. Daddy was extremely helpful to her, and thus let the rest of us have fun, While-The-Cat's-Away style. We went shopping, got haircuts, played Mario Kart, and watched the Thanksgiving Day Dog Show together. We missed Rick, Shelley, and Jett (who were in AZ with Rick's family), but luckily we get to see them next week!





*Caleb finished his second-to-last semester at BYU in mid-December. I'm so proud of him for holding down full-time credits, three jobs, and a very active little boy throughout the entire semester. The light is at the end of the tunnel, and we are both starting to get subconsciously antsy to be "grown ups." That certain thought has been a theme in my life, since I was a baby who couldn't walk or talk through when I was a teenager who wanted complete freedom. We are excited for this stage to end, nonetheless.

*Jack Flan turned one on December 15th. We kept the party small and robot-y. Jack had a WALL-E candle, courtesy of his Grandma Chatfield, and opened up a ton of presents from all the people who love him. Unfortunately, now he knows that wrapped presents are for opening, which is making the Christmas presents unsuspecting prey. He's in the 25th percentile in height (sorry, buddy, your parents didn't give you much help in that area), 50th percentile in weight, and 90th-ish percentile in head circumference. Jack has been walking for three months, climbing on and off the couch for a month, and enjoying opening and shutting doors of all sizes. He is a general pro at being a little boy, and for that, we are grateful (and terrified!).

*I keep on plugging away at the Northridge Media magazines I work for. There is something magical about being a part of this crafting community that I would have in nowise participated had I not followed Shyla's lead and worked at Archiver's. I'm reaching the 2-year mark, which is the longest I've ever been at the same job. I guess being married and not going home every summer will have that effect on a person.

This boring catch-up post is really just to get things out of the way for more raucous, frivolous, and gargantuan adventures to come. I've missed blogging, mostly because I know that in 5 years I'm going to look back and say, "What the heck was I doing for those two months? It's a good thing past-Holly had the wherewithal to put a catch-up post here for my aging memory."

You know, because I'll be the gray age of 30.