A Cure for this Obnoxious (Posted by Mary) Stuff (Posted by Jeff, just to be clear)

I know it's been absolutely abnoxious to have Mary "hijacking" my blog while I was away [and even when I wasn't... the nerve] so I've solved the problem. I changed my password for my log-in so now she no longer has access to my blog. I'll just have to make sure that I sign-out when I'm on the blog and I'll have to log-in each time, which will be a little annoying but it obviously serves a purpose. Okay, so I didn't really shun her, I just finally added her as an "author". So this blog, appropriately, now has two authors... Mary and myself. So, she will no longer have those odd titles to her posts. Instead, if you're curious who authored the post you'll have to look at the bottom of each post to see if it was me, or her. Although, astute readers will quickly be able to identify the different idiosyncracies that we both have in our writing. Anyway, problem solved.
So, let's all welcome Mary, officially, into the blogging world by leaving a comment that mentions one quirk/oddity or something interesting that you know or have observed about Mary (even the lurkers can comment!). She will now be able to leave comments on your blog as well that are actually from her. And the nice thing is that any comment from her is also a comment from me since I taught her how to blog, just remember that ; * ) The pic above is the one that Mary chose for now for her profile picture, the one below is the one that I wanted her to put in there. I guess I'll let her choose such things now that she's an official blogger. Welcome to the HammFamilyFun Blog, Jeff and Mary edition!

Blogging for One Year

Today marks the one year anniversary of me blogging.... which is something that I like WAY more then I would ever have imagined and more than most people know. I would love to be a professional blogger... it would be really cool, but the things I'm interested in blogging about would not interest the general public (except sports). Anyway, I've done well over 150 posts in that one year, which means I post, on average, about once every 2.25 days or so. I would like to do it more, but I don't have time to post about a lot of the quirky things that I learn about or read about... maybe in the future. For now, I'm content with my status as a "family" blogger and I love how it connects me to other people. I'm very grateful for my sister encouraging me to start a blog and being such a faithful supporter (read: commenter). A long time ago she commented that she loves blogs because she gets to know me in a way that she may not get to know me otherwise, and I totally agree. So here's to ONE YEAR of BLOGGING! Hooray... many more to come!

Blogging Blessings

I know that there are many blessings for writing a blog. I really enjoy blogging and wish I had more time to do it both for documentation purposes and cause I enjoy writing about quirky/fun things and stuff. I'd like to create my own personal blog but I don't really have the time to do that right now. Anyway, one of the biggest blessings of having a blog is connecting with and staying connected with people that you otherwise may not remain connected to. Such is the case with my friend Tymon. He served in the Elder's Quorum Presidency with me shortly after my mission and was a housemate with my cousin Jimmy. We've kept in contact over the last year or so via our blogs and it's been great. When the tragedy of the passing of his son happened last week, I was extremely saddened, yet grateful that blogs (and obviously his and his wife's) allow us to remain connected with others so we can learn and grow from their experiences. It was a blessing for me to learn of his family's tragedy and be reminded of the tenuousness of life and the importance to treasure each moment as a parent. It has been a point of re-evaluation for Mary and I as parents, and for that blessing I am grateful.

Along those same lines, my best friend Taylor has a blog that his wife, Leah writes and they posted real quick last week that they were headed to Utah. So when I saw that I called him up and we were able to host them for a night on their way back to Portland. If it hadn't been for the blog, we may not have connected as their decision to go to Utah was a very last second decision. We had a wonderful time with them, which I'll post about later, that was made possible by these great blogs. Anyway, I'm grateful for this way to connect and remain connected to other people that have spent various amounts of time in my life or Mary's life or both and that through this medium we can continue to have an impact on one another. It's great!

Become a Follower

I know, it doesn't sound that great or that inspirational. Yea! Be A Follower! Kind of lame, I know.
But this is different! Blogger now has this new feature that is pretty cool and allows you to see who actually is a "follower" of your actual blog. If your name/blog appears on my bloglist to the right then I have already done my work to become a follower on your blog. All you have to do is add the widget/gadget which is accessible under your "Layout" icon and then you just select the "add a gadget" icon and then you click the "Followers" icon and... viola, you're a follower. Join the club. I like how blogger is helping this thing to do some of the cool social networking stuff, but not all of the other stuff from those sites that I find somewhat lame.

FYI

I have been busy and gone a bunch recently (blogs to follow) so I haven't been able to update my own blog yet. Additionally, I haven't been commenting much recently, for the most part. Just so you know I have read your blog (if you have a link to the right) and caught up as of a few minutes ago. Thanks for continuing to post your stuff and to read mine!

Blog List

You'll notice that I added the "Blog List" on the right hand column of the screen to replace the previous list that was there of family blogs and friends blogs. This does two things, at least. First, all I have to do is check my own blog to see if there are other blogs that I need to check... this will obviously save me from the endless back and forth clicking required to check everyones blog.
Second, this feature also ranks your importance in my life on a daily basis (which I know is of profound importance to you!). If you haven't updated your blog in a while (or have never written on the blog that you created: Laurie Farmer!), then you'll be at the bottom of the list in your respective category (family or friend) and, of much greater importance, you'll be at the bottom of the list in importance in my life ;*P . My apologies to those of you who don't have whatever is needed to provide the info to blogger regarding your updates (this includes blogspot pals that require you to login to access their blog).

I will just mention for those of you that are interested in doing something like this (see link above, or check it out on your Dashboard, they have a Youtube tutorial and everything!): it's kind of a pain! You can't just take your existing list of links to blogs and make it a "blog list", you have to start from scratch and enter the links one by one and then go back and rename them to the name that you want to use on your blog for that person (Otherwise I'd have to remember who the heck "Something Completely Different" is, which I don't want to have to do). So, it does take a while, but I think it will be worth it. Let me know what you think!

My thanks in general to Blogger for creating this option!

Blog Centenarian

My hip cousin Kaitlin blogged about her 100th post a while ago, and I just reached that threshold... I think this is pretty cool. This is actually the 101st post on my blog... but Mary did one of them so this is my 100th post. I just looked and my sis is approaching #300! I'm sure there are many more to come for me!