# 100 State of the Blog...

Well, dear readers, its here. My One Hundredth Post. Its an exciting milestone for such a blog as mine. Its a better, stronger blog than it was 99 blogs ago. Also, I am 60 views away from hitting 5000 views, which means that this blog is headed in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go! That's yet another exciting milestone. You are the greatest blog readers in the world. I personally think that such an occasion as this deserves lots of presents, or at least a card, but I've previously asked for presents and cards before during exciting times, and you readers have not risen to the occasion, so I won't even bother this time!

I'm going to take this opportunity to address you, my readers, through this medium and discuss some of the tasks I've accomplished, and goals I'm continuing to set for this blog in my first 100 blogs.

First of all, I continue to need you, the reader's, input into this blog. The real credit for this blog belongs to you, the American readers of this blog. I want it to be a blog for the people, of the people, but not by the people. I want it to be by me. If you want a blog, start you own. You can't have mine. But I do want this blog to be a place you, the reader, enjoy coming to, after a long, tough day at the office. If only to remind yourself that your life is way cooler than mine! So, in that vein, if you have ideas or suggestions, please let me know! I really LOVE comments, but I don't get many! So leave comments! Tell me what you think is funny, or dumb, or confusing! It makes this blog writer very happy to see that people leave comments!

I started this blog as a project on "myself" and a challenge to myself to blog each day. Well, I've failed at this. And I'm ok with that. Many of you (ahem, Nick and Mom) like to remind me of this failure, but I don't really care. Its not always easy to come up with clever or witty stories to tell each and every day, and so I'm not going to be too hard on myself. Our blog has come a long way! I have a vision for our future-- I'm going to make more of an effort to blog each day, especially now that I'm settled in Cleveland and have reliable internet and time to blog each day. But, I'm not perfect and won't probably blog everyday for the rest of the year. But I will try! Also, I care about children and our families.

As many of you know, I've been sorta un-Jessica-ish this past year or so-- a bit down. However, I'm feeling a lot better, and I do believe this blog has probably a lot to do with that. I've met with real blog readers-- like Karen in Brandon, or Stephanie in Laurel. It makes me feel really happy to have someone tell me that they read my blog and they think its funny or that they enjoy it or whatever. Of course, no one (yet!) has said they read the blog and think its unoriginal or silly, but I don't really care if they did. I'm taking the positive and leaving the negative! I believe I understand the readers. My record on the blog is clear.

I've journeyed into the heart of America and this blog, and I love that this blog has become a true part of my life-- when I talk with my friends or family or even at work, they mention reading things on the blog, or people suggest stories for the blog, or laugh about something random from the blog. Its something I think about a lot-- trying to come up with an interesting idea or theme (you can usually tell the days when my creative juices aren't really flowing!)

Whether my posts are always interesting or always silly or somewhere in between, I've really enjoyed writing on this blog, and I plan to keep doing it! Together, we're one people bound together by a common set of ideas-- reading this blog! So keep reading! Or don't read, just click on here to "view" so it looks like I have more viewers! 5000 by Easter!!! Thank you to each one of you who do read and I hope you will keep enjoying it! It really does make my day to hear about someone who reads my blog! Let's find out how great a blog we can be!

And let me leave you with one question, readers-- are you better off now than you were 99 blogs ago? I know I sure am!