I Am Stepher

What the heck is going on here? 

http://thelovemagazineblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/vuitton-heads.jpg

I never thought I would type those words before.  I am not tech savvy at all.  In my opinion, this was super complicated but might not be so bad for someone who knows what they are doing.

When I wanted to switch my blog from blogger to WordPress I first started out by trying to get someone to do it for me.  When that didn’t work I tried doing some research online.  There were lots of posts showing how to transfer the contents of my blog to WordPress but no one knew how to get my URL iamstepher.com to redirect from the hands of google blogger to the wonderful WordPress.  The only reason I am posting this is because I think there area lot of people out there that really need to know how to do this.

This is what I did: 

First I transferred all of my blog posts from blogger to WordPress.  Basically you sign into Blogger dashboard and under Basic you choose “export blog”.

 Next, I called Go Daddy and asked them to transfer my blog from Enom (the company google works with) to Go Daddy.  The reason this is important is because Go Daddy allows you to manage your own back-end system and Enom keeps everything with Google.  They try to up sell you into buying the URL for 10 years but I stuck with two.  They also send you a document walking you through the next steps. 

Next, contact Google and ask them to unlock your blog and send you the  EPP/transfer authorization key. Contact them here:GoogleClients@enom.com .  They sent me the information within 24 hours.

Log into Go Daddy and click on your domain and it will launch your domain dashboard.  Click on pending transfers and type in codes from Go Daddy and Enom.  Wait 5 days for automatic acceptance from Enom.

Last, log into Go Daddy to modfy your name servers to the Word Press name servers.

Andy and I have been dating for 4 1/2 years as of yesterday. My birthday also happens to be our half anniversary…not they we celebrate it… I just like to keep track.

As a little background to this post- a memory of mine from 2006. I was a young 22 and had just started working at my current company. A coworker of mine was complaining to a group of girls (myself included) about his girlfriend and her relentless pressure to get engaged. At one point we asked him “how old is she?” he responded “she is 27”.. “eeewwwww” we all shouted. “Imagine being 27 and not married or engaged” we all cried. At the time, nothing seemed worse than being a desperate 27 year old. At the time, I only thought I had until 35 to get all of my living taken care of. (I will blog about this another time).

In the past two weeks, three, count um’ 3 of my good friends have gotten engaged. I am nervous to even write about this for fear of coming across as selfish and not excited for my friends. I am an so so so excited for them all. We have all been in the same boat for the past year wondering when the heck our significant others were going to get their act together and drop the question already.

The funny thing is, one year ago I couldn’t have cared less about getting engaged. I actually thought we should wait a little longer. Not because I am not 100% certain that I want to marry Andy (I absolutely am!), but because I was thinking -whats the rush??

Somehow some way in the past 6 to 12 months I have become completely crazy about getting engaged. From my perspective, I feel like the more people asked why Andy hadn’t asked yet- the more I started to wonder why Andy hadn’t asked yet. This has lead to anger, hostility, debating, venting, etc. to Andy, friends and whomever would listen. As I reflect on this I cannot pinpoint exactly when the happy easy going Stepher turned into the angry wedding obsessed Stepher. I should clarify- I am actually not wedding obsessed. To be honest, I rarely even think about the wedding. The majority of this negative energy goes towards evaluating what is so wrong with me that Andy hasn’t seemed to find the time to ask. Did I say something wrong, am I gaining weight, is he mad at me, is he having second thoughts, does he not like when I wear my hair up, what if I would have made him a better dinner last week, what if I wouldn’t have snapped at him the other day, what if he was going to ask but then he realized that I am a total nagging bi*ch. AHHHH!! Its all so much pressure.

Now back to my friends getting engaged. The nice part about all of this was that we had created a type of support group where we all understood each other. We were different from our married friends and all was ok because we were in this together. The best part was, when two of us “unengaged” were together, we could evenly spread out the “WHEN” questions between us. Now, I am left the last “unengaged” of the group. There will be no one to turn to and roll my eyes when the questions start coming. No one to mention to my grandma when she says “all of your friends are married” and no other relationship to compare ours to when thinking about why it hasn’t happened yet.

I am the last of the unengaged and to top it all off…yesterday I turned 27. “Ewwwww”… I know! After a good cry I realized that 27 is not really that bad. I need to just concentrate on all of the good in our lives…including all of the beautiful weddings i will be going to this year with the person I love most, Andy. I also need to realize that maybe the reason Andy hasn’t popped the question is because he was waiting for 5 minutes to go by without me asking him about it. 🙂

So, this is the last you will hear from me about my possible engagement. Friends, feel free to continue asking newly married friends “when are you having kids?”, Newly engaged friends “when is the wedding?” and Stepher “When are you going to update your blog?”.

That is all!

I know this might look bad but I just had to post it. See below for the explanation.

Two strangers just hanging out… There is some craze going on in Japan with dressing up like and Anime character and getting your picture taken in different settings. Oh yea, all while having a tea party.

I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and Andy so kindly went along for the ride. Most of the girls come in plain clothes and then choose from a huge selection of costumes. I am technically a big girl in Japan so I had to go with the only costume that fit. Otherwise I would have gone as a cheerleader to my photo shoot. The idea is that you have a girls tea party in one of the different settings. It was very awkward but ended up being kind of fun. Especially when they started handing me props. The little violin was my favorite. The best part was that they couldn’t figure out why Andy and I were laughing so hard. Apparently this is all completely normal in Harajuku.

This will be Adhar and I in one week. On a whim we decided to use Frequent Flyer miles and Marriott points to go to London and see Lady Ga Ga in concert. I have never been to London and I am super excited.

This is a preview of what we will be doing…..

Check out the awesome Valentine’s Day gift Andy made for me.

www.boneworkers.com

Don’t worry, he also gave me a laptop bag on wheels. I plan to write more about this later.

Baby Bianca Michelle Cervantes is here. She was born on Friday, February 13th. Friday the 13th! She is perfect.