My heart will break
I have loved you for so long…
No, I’m not quitting blogging. I am going to take a stab at using Wordpress instead of MT.
Why would I want to learn a new publishing platform, you ask? Well, I find that I just have too much time on my hands. Yep. Three kids are not enough to keep me busy. Neither is my role as CEO (OK, glorified bookkeeper) in the office. My contract educational work isn’t enough either. Nope. I just sit here all day twiddling my thumbs, so I thought I’d take on a new task.
I wish I were that bored. Not all the time…but sometimes it would be nice.
Truth be told, it all started when SAJ so generously created new banners for me (FIVE! With four more to be revealed!). Learning how to change them was time consuming and frustrating. I had to enlist the help of Miss reddirtroad to tweak it for me. While I was mucking around, I thought I would do a few other layout changes. I was reading a help tutorial, which said something like this:
"MT doesn’t have the "push button" simplicity of Wordpress’ Pages feature." It then rambled on how instead of a one-step process to do what I wanted using Wordpress, I could go through a TWELVE step process to do the same thing in MT. While the Type A person in me is always up for a challenge (and probably in need of a twelve-step program), the rational part of me (she shows up every once in a while) told me to consider switching.
I emailed the wonderful Whoorl for her two cents (that’s a penny U.S. with the exchange), as she just switched from MT to Wordpress. She had nothing but good things to say. I emailed reddirtroad as well, and she told me that she sets up all of her new clients on Wordpress.
Sold!
I just signed up with Bluehost, and tonight I’ll do the switch. What does this mean for you, my throngs of adoring fans?
Not much. My url will stay the same. They say it can take up to 72 hours for the switch to happen, so I’m guessing you’ll just see a blank screen in the meantime. For all of you who either link to me, or show up as "no referring link" in my counter (hi!), just keep checking back and one day soon I’ll mysteriously reappear. For you Blogliners, I think you’ll have to check manually until my site is up and running because the feed will likely be different. I think.
Hopefully I’ll master Wordpress quickly and be back in action sooner rather than later. Will you miss me?
Have a great day, folks - it’s supposed to get up to 16 degrees today and 18 tomorrow!
**Updated to add:
Transfer has been started. It can take up to seven days for my current host to release me.
SEVEN DAYS! I am NOT A PATIENT PERSON. The wait MIGHT JUST KILL ME.
So…I may still be posting here in the meantime. Or not. Or maybe I’ll just post more pictures on Flickr. Or not. Maybe they’ll release me sooner.
Dear host: If you love me, set me free…
Hannah tagged me last week with a meme about the nearest book to me. Problem is I haven’t read a book since, well, before Nathan was born. Oh, the days when I only had one child and he had two long naps a day. Those days are long gone, my friends.
She just tagged me with this meme to list five quirky things about myself. Only five? Easy peasy!
1. Like Hannah, I am a listing MACHINE. I make lists and then rewrite them to re-organize them. And then rewrite them again. I will take my grocery list and then rewrite it in the order that I’ll go through the store. I use headings for each section. If the sections are too close without EQUAL blank lines between them…I’ll start over.
2. I LOVE spreadsheets. I use them for my accounting work (obviously), but I also use them for every day things. I have all of my stamp sets that I own in one file, and my stamp “wish list” in another. I have also put all of our regular meals into a spreadsheet so that we can look at the list and plan meals for the week. Spreadsheets rock because there are headings! And bolding! And highlighting! And everything is evenly spaced!
I need to get out more.
3. I chew on my lip/inside of my cheek. I don’t even realize that I’m doing it. Kind of like when I bit my nails as a child. When my Mom came to visit, she said, “You’re still biting your cheek, hey?” I was? I used to? I still am? Apparently so. I was driving yesterday and contemplating what five quirks to write about and realized I was chewing on my lip. There you go.
4. I eat oatmeal for breakfast every. single. morning. I make it with skim milk in the microwave and then sprinkle Splenda and cinnamon on it. I then make my hazelnut “latte” in the microwave as well. This is not news to many of you. But do you know that I drift off to sleep every night looking forward to it? And that when we go to visit family out of town I bring all of the ingredients along so that I can have it at their house? Heaven forbid I should have toast or cereal.
5. This one is news to me. I asked Matthew if he thought I had any quirks. He said that one IMMEDIATELY popped into his mind. I figured it was one of the above. Nope. He said:
“When you start telling a story you get quite animated”.
I know this. He brought in eggs from the chicken coop and handed them to me. I started to tell him something and before we knew what was happening an egg flew out of my hand and soared through the air…and crashed onto the floor.
“Then you start talking faster”
Is that even POSSIBLE?
“Then you smack your leg in excitement”
Really?
“If you’re sitting at the table, you smack the table”
REALLY??? I had no idea.
“Yep. When you start getting excited I sit back and think, “There she goes!”"
I was laughing pretty hard. I asked him how long I had been doing this. As long as he’s known me, apparently. He said he hadn’t said anything before because he didn’t want to make me feel self-conscious. He’s so sweet.
Christy was over yesterday with her kids and I told her this revelation. She concurred, and expanded on it. She said that when I’m telling a story I get progressively more excited. Then everyone starts leaning in and their smiles get bigger and bigger in anticipation of what I’m about to reveal. And that I do this shrieky laugh thing that cracks them up.
I now know where Graham gets HIS quirkiness. ME. Poor kid.
This is where you either tell me that it’s cool to be quirky, or that you’re just like me. I can’t be the only weirdo out there. Right? RIGHT?!?!?
I never know who to tag, so I’m going to do what Kami did. I tag you, you, and you. Done.
If you looked at the above and your eyes glazed over, have I got a treat for you! Pictures of the kidlets, because it’s been awhile. Besides, this cuteness should be shared.
G-Force:
Nate-Dawg:
Miss Emily:
I think she looks quirky in that photo. Like Momma, like daughter.
Tomorrow my Honey turns 30. I could wait until tomorrow to post this, but it’s been eating at me to get it out. Here goes.
Matthew and I have been together for a little over seven years and married for…almost seven years. It was six months from when we started dating until the day we said “I Do.” I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: we just KNEW. You know?
He is the kindest, hottest, funniest, smartest, most hard-working, loving, sweetest, GREATEST (I could keep going, but I won’t) man I know. Not only is he the most PERFECT man that God could have given me as a husband, he’s the best Daddy my kids could have ever asked for.
He always, always, always puts everyone’s needs before his own. He gives me all the time (and more) that I could ever want to have “me” time, and yet he never wants to take that “me” time for himself. He works full-time in our office, and has worked so hard in the evenings and on the weekends to make our home into what we want it to be.
He is also a completely hands-on Dad. He is my 100 percent equal partner in this parenting gig. Here he is the other day watching the boys ride their quads, with Emily on his back, taking a work phone call…so I could get some of my own contract work done.
In fact, some days I feel like he is more into it and better at it than I am. He has far more patience than I do, and helps to balance me out.
He is my best friend, my sweetheart and my true love. I can honestly say that I am thankful for him every single day, at many moments throughout the day. I don’t know how I scored so huge, but I will be eternally thankful. The funny thing is, we both think that we’re the ones who got the better end of the deal. I think that’s the key to having a great relationship. Each of us thinks that we’re the lucky ones. Truth be told though - it really is ME who is the lucky one.
I would not be who I am today if it were not for this amazing man that I GET to call my husband. I get to! Yay me!
Whether you know him or not, please join me in wishing Matthew a Happy Birthday. If for no other reason than because I love him so very, very much.
Love you, Honey. You’re an old fart now, like me. Finally! Happy 30th birthday!
Last night, nine of us girls went out to celebrate Christy’s birthday. Christy is from that elite class of the human race called The Beautiful People. She married another one of The Beautiful People and (shockingly enough) they have created three Beautiful Children. Ben is Graham’s BFF, Megan is Nathan’s betrothed, and Olivia is one of Emily’s peeps.
Not only is Christy a stunner, she’s got the biggest, warmest heart that it makes her even more beautiful. If that’s even possible.
I took a few pictures last night, and I must warn you. The collective beauty of these friends of mine might SINGE YOUR RETINAS.
I suggest you turn the contrast down on your monitor or don a pair of sunglasses.
(Note, I’m too lazy to link - check the right side for these names if you want to.)
Stephanie, Christy, Tianna
Amanda and I. Note her alabaster skin. Note my “laugh lines”. Ha. Ha. *cough* *cough* Sigh.
Me, Adele, Christy
It was a great night, per usual. Always a lot of laughs to be had with those crazy girls. I may be the old fart, but they keep me young.
It’s a weekend of birthdays. We’re about to head out for a birthday party in honour of Karen’s son Ben. He’s two.
Tonight we’re heading out to celebrate Matthew’s THIRTIETH birthday. The actual day is Monday, and he’ll get a whole post (or twenty) devoted to him.
Have a great weekend, folks!
