We made it!

So the last 7 or 8 months have been interesting, to say the least. My 23rd birthday came and went at the end of April without much fanfare; I got switched from taking billing/general inquiry calls at work to taking more equipment/programming upgrade calls, and finally getting some sales incentive bonuses for those upgrades in June; we had to move out of our beautiful house and wound up renting two rooms in our new roommate Rose's house a few miles away, which eased the rent burden significantly; we started and (almost ended) playing my first live-action role-playing game, or LARP, Vampire: the Masquerade, where we met several new friends in August or thereabouts, started catching up on bills in September and October; celebrated our first anniversary on November 1st, and are looking forward to Andrew's transfer/promotion from Manager of Tire Sales at the main Firestone to the Sales Manager position at the new one on base to be finalized soon.
So much more has happened that I don't even remember, both for good and ill, but we made it through our first year alive and kicking. They say the first year is the hardest; I certainly hope so, haha! Ironically, it seems like our biggest problems surfaced right around that pivotal one-year mark. It's funny the way life throws things at you all at once, too; this month has probably been the hardest on both us, with trials and tribulations coming from almost every conceivable angle for both of us, individually and as a couple. But as always, we remain focused on making it work, and so far, we've come out of each battle alive, "... hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair... struck down, but not destroyed" (2 Corinthians 4:8-9), which Christ as our anchor and lighthouse in every storm to guide us back to safe harbor.
Andrew has been getting together with several of his closest friends to put together a video series on YouTube called "Manprovement", which will follow them as they lose weight and get fit, quit smoking, get and keep jobs, get financially stable and secure, repair and maintain relationships, and give all sorts of manly self-improvement advice, sort of like the Art of Manliness blog does in text form. He's been really pumped up about it for a while, and is learning how we can make a living of sorts off of a series like that with enough of a fanbase, using things like Google Adsense and partnership with YouTube. While I think it would be awesome if they could make a million in their first year like Epic Meal Time almost certainly has, for instance, I am super excited about the changes that he and his friends will wind up making in their own lives, and especially for this fresh inspiration and excitement in my beloved as he plans this latest adventure.
I've lost about 18 pounds since April myself, and am aiming for somewhere closer to 115-125 within the next several months; and Andrew plans to get back to somewhere around 180, I think (where he was near his peak physical conditions previously) and to quit smoking (which of course is a great relief to me). If we wind up joining a gym, I know I'll get back in tip-top shape myself within a pretty short span of time, as will he; if not, just the fact that I have far less stomach capacity for food lately (God knows why, but I'm not complaining) is helping a lot in the meantime, even without working out right now. We'll figure something out for that later on, but either way, we're both pretty stoked right now to see how this pans out.
Andrew and one or two of his friends in particular have already been encouraged to exercise their gifts of wisdom and encouragement to get into something like life-coaching anyway, so that aspect of the series is also highly anticipated to produce wonderful results, if not in our friends' and our lives, in others, so now mater what, if anyone benefits from this endeavor, we'll be happy.