Mr. Conrad, Mrs. Vice President Conrad, Members of the Conrad household, Members of WordPress, Blogger and typepad, distinguished visitors and fellow bloggers. Today I sit before you, typing on my laptop, humbled by the opportunity to do so. I am also thankful that someone out there reads it. So tonight I return the favor by giving you the State of the Blog address (applause from both sides of the aisle)

What started one year ago as an on-line journal has grown into this crazy thing. We started with blogger, went to typepad, back to blogger, dabbled with MSN spaces and Yahoo 360, and eventually landed at our new home in WordPress. We have tried hosting through Yahoo, Dreamhost and are proud of our new alliance with Christianasp.net. Our categories are full, our posts are short, I am down to 2 email addresses and we are looking at 2006 as another great year.

In 2005 we have tackled the struggles of bringing baby number 3 into this world, being outnumbered, a father trying to cope with raising 2 blonde girls, a son that is at times the spitting image of his father, the ups and downs of the Christian walk and the encouragement of fellow believers, readers and friends. It has been quite a journey.

While the thought of retreating from the blog has entered my mind a time or two, I have committed to bringing the views from Leftfield until I don’t know what else to say. While at times the blog is heavy on the faith and short on the humor, it is a reflection of the world as I see it. There are high points and low points, but in the end there is a Savior. The state of the blog? It is strong. The writer might be a bit off, but hey, that is what blogs are all about. Ain’t America grand??