Mission accomplished! {a blog transfer story}

Christmas is over, and I’m so ready for 2013. I took my tree down on Christmas Eve before we left town so that when I arrive back home I can hit the ground running full speed ahead into the future. This Christmas season has been amazing in so many ways, many of which I have blogged about. But now, I’m ready for New Years. 

I have at least two New Years related posts pending in my brain, and then come January I plan to really scale back the posting, if not take a break completely.

The past four months have been really great for me as a blogger, but very overwhelming and time-consuming at the same time. In August, after losing several hours worth of work on one of the most heart-rending posts I have written, I decided that my time with my blogging platform was over. I was so tired of losing content, waiting an hour for the website to even load, and having to switch browsers constantly just to be able to edit my posts because of all of the glitches. I cried tears of frustration and told my husband that I couldn’t take it anymore. I had heard so many wonderful things about WordPress, but I knew that it would be a HUGE undertaking to move four years of blogging content over to another platform. I was terrified of losing my content and having four years of work disappear before my eyes, but he encouraged me that it was possible and  that he would do whatever he could do to make it happen for me.

Initially, I was trying to get someone else to help me. A friend of a friend. Then that didn’t work out. So then I turned to google and found someone else to help me with the transfer. After a few emails back and forth I was again close to tears as I was swimming in terms I didn’t understand at all and seeing the price tag on this thing known as my blog go up higher and higher and higher. I was getting advice from other blogging friends about how they did their transfers and tried to follow their advice and not get overwhelmed at the cost of blog hosting and learning the differences between wordpress.com and wordpress.org.

It was so frustrating. 

So my husband, ever the fixer, told me to stop. He got online and talked with a gamer friend of his who is knowledgeable about computer programming and WordPress. He offered to transfer my entire website to wordpress.com for free.

And so, this process began. Little did I know how long it would take. 

I started this new site, tried not to get too confused managing two domains, and continued trying to produce new content while keeping all of my readers and followers aware of what was going on. Jeremy is a busy guy with his own life to live and work to do, so lets just say it took several weeks before anything happened. I was perturbed, but now, I can say that it was worth the wait. Finally posts from my archives started appearing on my new website. Unfortunately, the media library was too big to transfer, so I would have to go back through four years of posts and reinsert them all myself.

This process really turned out to be a blessing as well. I took this as an opportunity to re-edit all of my photos with better photo editing techniques and add watermarks for my family’s privacy and personal protection.

But it took a long time. 

My goal was to get the website done and ready by January first. New site for the New Year! 

But then, I became pretty obsessed about the archives. I just wanted it to be done. Over. FOR GOOD! And so I plugged and chugged and huffed and puffed (sorry…I overheard countless hours of Thomas during this endeavor) and just knocked out one post at a time. As the number of posts pending started decreasing, I bumped up my goal a week. I wanted to be done before Christmas day so I could enjoy the holiday.

The new goal pushed me on even more. I have to get it done! I have to get it done! 

I took obsessive-looping thoughts to a whole new level.

I knew it was a short term project. I knew that once it was over I would be able to devote more time to my family. But even when the guilt bore down on my back, I just kept working. I neglected my family, my housework, and my social life because I just. wanted. it. DONE!

The pending posts pile got smaller and smaller.

If I do x amount of posts per day then I can be done by December 3rd…which just so happened to be my four year blog anniversary!! I was going to make that goal no matter what. 

I had grand plans to get my new website up at the new domain on December 3rd and do a video blog introducing myself and telling everyone thank you. It was going to be epic!!!!

And I did meet my goal…at least when it came to finishing my archives. I finished my last pending post on the afternoon of December 2nd and had my request submitted for the domain transfer before dinner.

But domain transfers can take up to a week or longer! Who knew….not me! 

And then there was the Christmas blog carnival and a plethora of other Christmas-related posts that kept popping into my mind and the epic “HERE IS MY NEW SITE” post never really happened, while the domain transfer went off without…well at least TOO many hitches.

But now, I’m pretty much exhausted. Blogger burnout I guess. I’m ready to focus more attention on my family and on the future that we have ahead of us. To take time to be more intentional with Ezra. Read more books. Be better about taking care of the house and home I have totally neglected over the last four months.

But before I do, I wanted to take some time to thank a few people who deserve mention for how they have helped me over the past few months:

To Jeremy: I do hope you read this. Thank you so much for offering your services and helping me with this undertaking. For doing this just out of the generousness of your heart and your friendship with Russ. I’m sorry for all the impatience and nagging that I sent you through my husband. Thank you so much, I am forever in your debt.

To Yola Tech Support: Thank you for being honest about the flaws in your blogging platform and telling me that I needed to switch to WordPress. You kind of put the nail in your own coffin on that one. But thanks.

To Kathryn: Thank you for being one of my best friends and a great model for me as a blogger. Our niches are different, but I have spent hours reading your posts and looking at how you have things set up on your site and tried to mimic you. And in this case, imitation truly is the highest form of flattery. Thank you for raving about WordPress and helping clarify things for me about how things work. Thank you for helping me set up my Pinterest page. Thank for for your comments and allowing me to guest post on your site so much. Seriously…thank you so much for everything you are to me as a friend and as a fellow blogger!!!

To Julie DeNeen at fabulousblogging.com: Thank you for being such a wealth of information about so many blog-related topics like stats and SEO and all that craziness. I’m still a little lost but you have helped me more than you know!

To Janine Huldie and all the other Bloppy Bloggers: I know I don’t visit the group much, but thanks for all the bloggy love and comments. Janine, you still hold the spot for the top commenter on my website.

To the Makers of Netflix, Thomas-and-Friends, Barney, Leapfrog, Praise Baby, and Baby First TV: Thank you for becoming the best babysitter and my son’s best friend while his mother neglected him to work on her blog. I am hoping to thank you by neglecting YOU in the month of January and spending more time with HIM.

To the Fort Knox CDC workers: You rock. Thank you for offering such amazing childcare at such low prices and letting me utilize your system. Ezra loves seeing you guys, and you helped me get this website up by being there to watch him while I hunkered down in the library to knock out more archive posts.

To the sweet-Asian-lady-who-I-can-never-really-understand who works at the Fort Knox Java Cafe: I know we don’t talk much, but it’s nice to have someone else there in the cafe who smiles and is friendly. I’ve come to look forward to my visits to you, even if I sit there on my computer and don’t really talk to you. I promise…it’s not just about the coffee and free wifi.

To Russ and Ezra: Thank you for putting up with a messy house, crappy dinners, and being completely and totally neglected for the past four months. I promise that I will try to be better from now on, because you deserve it.

To all my readers, email subscribers, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest followers: You are my inspiration, my muse, my friends, my confidants…I don’t always blog for you…in fact most times, I blog for me. But I hope that you are blessed, encouraged, and benefit from the content here. Thank you for laughing with me and at me, crying with me, and encouraging me by coming back time and time again.

Here’s to another year of beauty, love, and grace at Beautiful In His Time.