Does this thing work?

I'm new to the blogging community.  I created this blog back in July 2011 but didn't know what I was doing then and still don't.  I didn't even know how to find it after I set it up (is there a level before beginner?  If so I'm in that level).  Despite having many friends who blog and being told I needed to start a blog, I was an anti-blogger, thinking it was a waste of time or worthless or I'm not even sure what I thought.  Now I accept the fact that I just had no knowledge about the blogging world and was afraid to step into the unknown.  However, recently I've decided that I need to take that step because I want to be able to stay abreast of the happenings in my friends and families lives and allow them into mine.  I'm not big into Facebook, mostly because I don't like having a lot of my information out there on the "world wide web" and I'm told blogging can be more private (although I don't know yet how to make it that way) so I'm stepping out into the unfamiliar blogging world and hoping to find you all there.  Here it goes.