Please welcome…

Let's hear a warm welcome for Kathryn Anne Peck as she joins the blogging universe! I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say we are very interested in what she has to say, not to mention whether she will have time to post once school resumes in a few weeks...

Bring it on, Kari!

PAID IN FULL!!!

Yes, the title could refer many things, but those in "the Know" will relate to the feeling Amy and I had this morning when we logged on to the website for managing the loans from Amy's medical school and saw that message (minus the exclamation marks). It was quite exhilarating! In fact, I feel a song coming on...

2 Corinthians 12:8-10

"Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

I can't say it any better than that!

A funny thing happened…

You just never know how things will develop, do you? For example, when I started building this site, I was primarily wanting to learn HTML and other web-based technologies. Then I decided to get a domain and build a better site, just thinking it would be fun for family and friends to see news, photos, etc. At the time, a search for my name in Google brought up a bunch of news stories, press releases, and the like in which my father (who has the same name) was mentioned. (I did not appear in any.) Now, however, less than two years after Bredenbergs.com went online, we show up as the number one listing in Google for either my name or my wife's name, and we're 10th (still on the first page of results!) when searching for just our last name!

Ignoring for a moment that this is not a common name, and not many people actually search Google for it, let alone intentionally, it is still rewarding!

This visibility has, in turn, led to a number of visitors browsing across the site, including friends of my father (some of whom (see 4th comment), not surprisingly, think this is his site) and potentially far-flung relations from Sweden (see the comment)!

And it all started so simply.

Oh, wait, it's still pretty simple...

At any rate, if you happen across this site, whether by mistake, search engine, or some other means, please leave me a comment!