Happy 1st Blogiversary To Me!

Today marks the anniversary of the day I posted my very first entry on A Broad Abroad (a blog a blog). I started this blog thanks to many friends and family members who kept suggesting that my status updates on Facebook were pure gold and I totally needed to write about my new life out here in China. After I'd posted a series of pictures of how MIL destroyed my clean kitchen, complete with my running commentary, I had so many people compliment me on it that I decided to finally get off my then-big-pregnant-ass and blog about it. And thus, a blog was born. Incidentally, that MIL post became my third entry which you can view here. So first and foremost, I want to thank my family and my dear friends for encouraging me to do this as well as for sharing the links with other people you know. I also want to thank my wonderful husband, Jeremy (formerly known as Lane of course), for all his support too. You might find it surprising that he is proud of me for this blog, especially when many of the posts are in regards to how his mother has managed to scrape raw my very last nerve, but he says I've got to let out my frustration somewhere. Plus, he thinks it could make a great book someday. Honey, I'm sorry I don't like your mother but I do always try my hardest to be nice to her because I love you! That being said, I'll say something nice here: thank you to my MIL (who doesn't know this blog exists and even if she did, she wouldn't be able to read a word of it) for constantly giving me something to bitch about and thus, blog about. If not for enduring the massive cultural, educational and generational gaps between us, this blog would focus on a very cute baby instead.

I also want to thank all you people out there who I don't know personally. According to my stats, I have people from all over the world checking out my blog and I am honored. It's nice to know that people all over the world can relate. I guess MIL problems are epidemic after all! So, which countries have visited my site the most? Which posts are the most popular? Which post is my personal favorite? Settle down, Beavis. Here's the latest, direct from my stats...

Let's start with where my lovely readers are from. These are the number of pageviews by country. Please note that the list for all-time is truncated by Blogger.com so there are a bunch of other countries that have clicked on to my blog but because they haven't done so more than 20 times, they don't make Blogger's list here. Anyway, I'm not surprised my friends and family back home in the states make up the majority: United States 5,672

Next up, the UK, where I have one dear friend, Keiara, and her boyfriend, Stefan. With 330 pageviews though, I doubt it is those 2 alone. So thank you Keiara and Stefan, and all your friends in the UK!
With 168 views, the 3rd country is Germany, which is surprising because I don't know anyone who lives there. So thank you, Germany! You make the best desserts and chocolates ever, incidentally. Just sayin'!
Fourth up: South Korea with 154. I'm not surprised by this since, as you may recall, I lived there for about a year and have some wonderful friends there. So to Michelle, Ruda, Jason, Jacco, Travis and the rest of you (you know who you are) thank you for your support and we miss you and Seoul every single day!
Russia takes it for 5th place with 138. Just like Germany, I don't know anyone in Russia. I have been to Moscow though (a long time ago, when I was 15) and I have to say it takes the cake as THE coldest place I've ever been. I was tempted to say Beijing was but it was so cold and snowy in Moscow when I was there so it totally wins. And the people in Beijing are rude assholes. Thank you, Russia!

In the 6th slot, we have Singapore with 99 pageviews. My brother Phillip and his girlfriend Kimmy live there. So does my friend Danny from high school. Because Phillip has admitted he hasn't had much time for the blog, I can only assume that most of these 99 clicks are from Kimmy because she totally fucking rules. I'll bet Danny did some clicking too. Thanks Danny! But the biggest thank you of all to my big brother who has always encouraged me to be me and to go for it, and even bigger thanks to Kimmy who is like the sister I never had. I love you!

Canada with 38 comes in 7th, France with 35 comes in 8th, Slovenia with 28 comes in 9th and Malaysia with 21 comes in 10th. I lumped these together because I don't know anyone in these countries either. Wherever you are from, if you are reading this blog, THANK YOU! 

Now that we've established WHERE people are viewing the blog from, now let's find out WHAT you all seem to like reading the most. Here are the top 10:
10) Welcome Home New Couch! This is the one where we'd finally gotten every last drop of crappy decorations from MIL and FIL out of our house. 
9) A Month Of MIL - After having Raelynn, MIL came to torture me daily as part of Chinese tradition. As you can imagine, I was none too pleased with this arrangement.
8) Ancient Artifacts Discovered In My Home! You simply MUST see what MIL had been using to peel our vegetables with!
7) Fashion Design By MIL - Right before I had Raelynn, I created the first vortex for ugly clothes given to us by MIL.
6) 3 Cheers For The Bus Driver - After being subjected to a bus driver's dubious work attire, I created some lyrics of my own to spice up this popular children's song.
5) Diaper Fail - This was written back when my husband was trying to be a cheapskate about diapers and had purchased inferior Chinese diapers that you simply have to see to believe. The stupidity of this product is astounding.
4) The Many Faces Of Raelynn - This is MY favorite post because it's all about Raelynn when she was just 1 month old. I love looking back at this one and smiling at how small she once was. She's gotten so big and continues to make many more faces.
3) Sploosh! This post is all about my little Raelynn coming into the world. Hmmm...maybe THIS is my favorite too. Hey, I can have 2 favorites. I wrote it!
2) All The Things I Miss About America - You just don't know what you've got until it's gone. I miss home a lot some times and this lists some of the things I miss. Thankfully, you can find imported goods here for a big price but still, I so miss convenience!
1) Where In The World Is Samara Amchin? Last year, my dear friend Samara Amchin had gone missing. Her family was worried sick and her sister Dara had contacted me to see if I'd heard anything. Even though I was all the way over here, I tried everything I could do in my power to try to help. So I wrote a post about it hoping that she would see it or someone who knew her would see it. Thankfully, she is ok. She just refuses to speak to her family or her friends. No one knows why. She is no longer a missing person, but I am missing her very much!

So to all of you wonderful people, whether I know you or not, thank you for sharing in my joy with Raelynn and Jeremy, as well as my pain (with MIL and FIL). It makes me feel a lot less alone knowing I have partners in commiseration and it's an honor to share my world from the upside down side of the earth with you!