The blog is two years old. We launched in November, 2007. There have been some ups.. notably meeting some wonderful ‘Searings’ who contacted me through the blog. I would be very remiss if I didn’t specifically mention Laura Davenport, who took me under her genealogical wing and guided me through some very basic questions, and who built my own tree on Ancestry. She continues to provide valuable advice almost daily. I have recently joined Ancestry and again her guidance and advice have been most helpful. I literally would not have been able to know as much about the whole Searing Family without her help. And there have been others…you know who you are! One day I will get permission to list these folks who are willing as advisors who can be contacted through the blog.Other ups have been the increasing number of Searing family contacts on Facebook and Twitter. Although people make fun of the ‘social media’ I think they represent an important way to stay in contact with other family members. We also have quite a bit of traffic in our monthly reports, most of which I attribute to Google and other indexing bots…but some has to be Searings checking out the blog….The downs I take fully upon myself. I have let entries pile up…projects go stale..ideas die on the vine. But hey, its a blog, my blog, so I can be responsible for it or not. I hope to be more responsible in the third year….:) . I still think a lot of the subcategories are valid in illuminating Searing accomplishments, although clearly these are individual achievements…there is obviously nothing magical about the name…except we ‘share’ it or it is in our genealogical background.This coming year I would like to see more entries, more often, find a way of adding pictures and web links, fill out some of the subcategories, complete the ‘census’, and perhaps add a category on Searing family web site references . I would like to find more Searing bloggers to cross link. I would also like to use my Ancestry membership to make my work on developing family trees more transparent. And..sticking my neck out…I would like to launch a Searing Family web site using The Next Generation software of which I am a proud owner but haven’t done a thing with!OK, ’nuff said for now. Comments, suggestions, criticism, ideas…all welcome. I’m always excited when a ‘Searing’ ‘checks-in’ through the blog…means someone besides myself is reading it! I am looking forward to a third year.