2011 In Review

2011 was an interesting year for us - full of plenty of ups, and plenty of downs - so let's review some of it, shall we?

I started this blog back in February with a list of New Year's resolutions goals. Some of those goals were accomplished, some weren't, but more on that later because I have some new and exciting 2012 goals!

In February, we also started work on our basement bathroom, which, if you remember correctly, we just finished in December. Nothing like the usual 11-month home project . . .

In March, I ran my first half marathon, which was also one of my goals for the year! This year, that same marathon series is going to be a Rock N' Roll Marathon, so of course I am running it again, but this time Chris and my brother will be joining me. Can't wait!! Although, I really need to get in training mode . .. .

In April, Chris and I tackled the jungle of our front yard, tearing out ivy and planting some grass in its place. We're still going to have more gardening work to do in the front this spring, but I am so thankful that we squashed that ivy. Those original photos of it still make me shudder!

In May, while we were finishing up school for the semester, I expanded my baking repertoire by making some Mint Julep cupcakes (they were ok) and we decided to compete with one another in our own version of a Book It challenge (and in case you are wondering, we are still in the process of reading the books . . .)!

June seemed to be the epitome of highs and lows for the year - we celebrated our babies 5th birthdays and our 2nd anniversary, but also received the devastating news that one of our good friends was killed in Afghanistan. It was a rough month, but it changed us and has given us a better perspective on life.

July was pretty uneventful, except that Chris took me to the Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 2 midnight premiere, on a work night! (I have such a great hubby!)

August was a booming-blogging month for me with a total of 11 posts! I got a little crazy :) Anyway, I started on a few painting projects around the house, such as the chevron wall and the guest bathroom. I also started my Tourist Tuesdays and Washington Wednesday posts, since this blog is supposed to be about our Washington life and all. Lastly, we experienced the momentous Washington Quake, which was crazy crazy stuff! Oh, and we celebrated our 1-year anniversary in our home, with messy house photos!

September through December were marked by travel and home projects, which were nice distractions from school work. Between Chris and I, we traveled to St. Louis three times (here, here, and here), Kansas City, Florida, Milwaukee, and, last but definitely not least, MEXICO! We had fun putting up new art in the house, getting my chalkboard-paint on, and finally finishing a bathroom too. And, my beloved Cardinals won their 11th World Series!

On top of all of the things that I blogged about in 2011, Chris and I were also blessed with making new friends, even more travel opportunities, great adventures around DC, and more home headaches and accomplishments that I can count. 2011 has truly been a great year, despite the heartaches, but I am SO ready for 2012. Bring. it. on. :)

How to . . . move from Wordpress to Blogger

While I know pretty much none of my readers will be interested in this post, I must write it for any other lost souls out there searching the internet for instructions on how to move their own blog from Wordpress to Blogger.

When I googled "how to move blog from Wordpress to Blogger," I got a TON of articles/blog posts/etc. about moving from Blogger to Wordpress, but a very limited selection of instructions for leaving Wordpress to go to Blogger. (Apparently it is very easy to go to Wordpress, but more difficult to leave it!) That is, until I found this website: Wordpress2Blogger Conversion.

It is really simple:

1. Login to your WordPress account and navigate to the Dashboard for the blog that you'd like to transfer to Blogger.
2. Scroll down the left-hand navigation bar to Tools and click on it.
3. Underneath Tools, 'Import,' 'Export,' and 'Delete Site' are listed. Click on the Export link.
4. Choose your filters and download the WordPress WXR export file by clicking on Download Export File. Save this file to your local machine.
5. Then, using Wordpress2Blogger Conversion, browse to that saved document and click Convert. 
6. Save the converted file to your local machine.
7. From there, you can log-in to Blogger, click on the Create a Blog link from the user dashboard, and then click on the Import Blog Tool and follow the instructions. 
8. OR, if you are like me and already created your blog, you can log-in to Blogger, and go to Settings for the blog on your Dashboard. The first options under the Basic tab are to 'Import,' 'Export,' and 'Delete Blog,' so go ahead and Import the converted file you saved.

Voila!

Now, I had read that by doing this, you would lose all of your blog's comments and that was a consequence I was willing to take, but I actually didn't lose any of my blogs comments!

However, you will lose your stats and whatnot, since it is a whole new url/blog, but again, I didn't mind that. ALSO, the Wordpress2Blogger Conversion only allows downloads smaller than 1MB (I've read that 1MB is about 50 posts), so if you have a lot of posts, you might have to export, convert, and import multiple times to migrate all of it. Lastly, I did have to go through my posts to verify that the formatting and images looked ok, which took a little bit extra time, but all-in-all it was a SUPER easy switch. AND, I am SUPER glad that I did it!

I hope this helps anyone out there as lost and nervous as I was making this switch!

OWL's New Home on Blogger!

Welcome to Our Washington Life's (OWL's - cute acronym, right?) new home at Blogger!

I am really indecisive, as I've mentioned here, but thanks to some "inner soul searching" on my part, and some long email, gchat, and phone conversations with Danielle, I decided to move our blog from Wordpress to here!

While I know that Wordpress offers a huge amount of flexibility and options, and that many professional bloggers and "web-people" like love Wordpress, I was just not feelin' it...

First, I felt like my design was boring. I made it as fun as I could, but without paying Wordpress for more options and design flexibility, AND, without knowing enough about HTML and CSS to design something "cooler" anyway, it made making a funner more fun blog pretty impossible for me. (Plus, as much as I would love to learn all of that web-designy stuff, my goals list is already pretty long!)

Secondly, the whole point of this blog was to share Our Washington Life with our family and friends all over the country. It wasn't about using "the best" blogging platform. And, it certainly wasn't about me conquering the intricacies of said blogging platform. The whole point was for me (and hopefully Chris soon!) to write, and share, and communicate with our friends and family. It was supposed to be fun for us, not frustrating!

So, weclome to OWL's new home on Blogger!  Please bookmark our blog, subscribe to it, and share it because it's for you!

Welcome!!

Welcome to my blog! (Whoever you are out there!)

I’m going to keep this very first post short and sweet (hopefully) and let you know why exactly I am joining the blogosphere. Two reasons:

• 1) To stay connected and share my life with my family and friends across the country; and


• 2) My New Year’s resolution. (WhenI say “resolution” I really mean something more like “goal” because I hate the idea of resolutions)

No, my New Year’s resolution goal was not to start a blog. Well, not exactly. My New Year’s goal was to try to do everything that I’ve always said that I wanted to do. Kinda overambitious, right? But really, what have I been waiting for?

. . . I kept finding myself thinking that I wanted to do such-and-such, but never thought when I wanted to do. I never gave myself a timeline or date, until now. 2011 will be the year that I start doing everything that I've said I wanted to do:

• Keep in touch with family and friends better. Since we moved from Missouri to Washington, DC it has proved difficult (for me) to keep in touch with family and friends in the Show Me state and beyond. This blog will help (along with letters, cards, emails, and calls.)


• Blog. Ok, ok, yes, blogging was part of my New Year’s resolution goal. Honestly,  I’ve been thinking about starting one ever since I moved out to DC in order to share our life with friends and family “back home.” It’s been over 2 years since we moved, so I guess it’s about time I start sharing.


• Get certified to teach secondary social studies. Since I was in high school I’ve wanted to teach high school. (I had a not-so-great teacher that I swore I could do the job better than her!) Buuuut, because I am the WORST decision-maker EVER I always found other interests that I thought would lead to “cool” careers. So, I have finally started classes this semester that will, hopefully, lead to certification by May 2012! (Remember, I cannot make decisions for the life of me, so who knows if I will actually ever teach!)


• Run a Half Marathon (or two . . .) I ran in high school. I earned a scholarship to run in college (although I quit the team 3 weeks in). But, I’ve never even ran a race longer than 6 miles. That will change come this spring though when I run the half in the 2011 National Marathon on March 26! And, I am already contemplating another half marathon, the Marine Corps Historic Half, on my birthday and even a trail-run race along the Potomac!


• Skydive. (Over the Keys perhaps, Kelsey?)


• Do genealogical research. (Dorky, I know.)


• Learn to sew. (First I need a sewing machine. And, something to sew.)


• Learn some photography skills beyond auto and manual settings, and the flash.


• Eat healthy/Perhaps learn to cook healthy-ish things. (I will NOT be giving up french fries though!)
  


• Read more. Obviously, more history books. Well, honestly, probably more historical fiction. And, regular fiction. Although, I could get fancy and read about something like historical architecture, who knows ....


• Decorate my/our new house! (This one I am probably most excited about, but I’m afraid it will be a never-ending process with my oh-so-decisive decision-making skills.)

So, there you have it, although not short and sweet as promised (sorry!). One of my New Year’s goals was to start a blog about living here. And one of them was to stay connected with everyone I love out there. And then there is everything else. . . So, over the course of this blog’s life I will be sharing with you the progress towards my current and future resolutions, and mine, er, our life (let’s not forget about Chris) in Washington. Duh.