Valentines + Another Go at Blogging

Hello again.

After taking a 4-month sabbatical from the blog world — well, I'm back. I thought my valentine's post was a good enough opportunity for re-entry. There have been two main reasons for my absence. The first reason is BUSY. I think I am busy. In reality, I'm not sure if I'm a busy person or actually just a lazy person — it's very much debatable. But that's none of your business. Second reason, I'm a really good sister. You see, I have two baby brothers serving missions right now, and I've faithfully been keeping up mission blogs for both of them. What am I supposed to do? Keep up THREE BLOGS? Ain't nobody got time for that...

Oops. I guess there are three reasons. Third reason, EXISTENTIAL CRISIS. My blog just isn't sure who it is anymore or what purpose it is serving. First of all, the name is pretty dumb. *Oh Holli? Seriously? Secondly, the rainbow chevron stripes in the background need to go. Bleh... sick of them. And then there's there's the deeper psychological issues like... Who even reads this stuff? What am I writing about anyway? Now that I'm a mom, does that make me a "mommy blogger?" Maybe this thing should just be a photo tribute to Rose — she's obviously way more cute and entertaining than I am? Is my blog frumpy? Oh yeah, and WHO AM I? (Okay, this is getting a little dramatic. Remember that this is my blog's existential crisis... not mine.)

Well, after a lot of thinking and unproductive existential-crisis-ing, I have decided that I do care about this blog still. As a free agent who is responsible for my own authenticity, I remain wrestling to answer some of the questions about why I even have a blog to begin with. Seriously thinking about it — I'm really not the blogger type. In the meantime, I've come up with a mini "mission statement" of sorts (if you can even call it that). I want this blog to be a place where I can write about my goals, share the things I love, and tell stories about my life and the people in it. That is all. Who ever reads, reads.

I have so many things in my head that I feel that this dumb lil' weblog could be a great outlet for. So here's to another go at blogging. Hopefully I'll post a few things that are worthwhile every now and then. For now, here are some pics from Valentine's >>>

classic skating from holli hale on Vimeo.

When I told Jacob that I wanted to go classic skating, he said it was an "interesting idea." Interesting? Classic skating is a lot of things, but it's not interesting! Anyway, he warmed up to this interesting idea pretty quickly, and we had ourselves a night at the rink. And of course, I got my valentine's couples-skate... and a plastic, light-up, flashing heart necklace. So romantic.

The whole thing was incredibly dorky and exactly what I needed.

(Who said Valentine's had to be serious anyway?)

*When I started this thing, it was called "B.Y. Youth Gone Wild" — which I still think is a pretty funny name, but I outgrew it. After all, I'm no longer a B.Y. youth, I suppose. When I was traveling around, it was "Innocents Abroad." Another name I liked, but not really traveling much these days. And so I defaulted to the name I used for my URL address — Oh Holli. And why did I choose that for my URL? Because at the time I made this blog, I felt it was the thing people most often said to me — usually out of ridicule. I was (am) known for being a bit clumsy. I'd love to change it up again, but I haven't had any epiphanies for a clever name. And after six years of blogging is there really a point in changing it now?