upgrade vm to Wheezy and install mysql 5.6

gistfile1.txt

#Let's back up just in case
sudo mv /var/lib/mysql /var/lib/mysql-saved

#replace your /etc/apt/sources.list with the lines below: (beetween BEGIN/END)
#---BEGIN
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main

deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main
#---END

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install apt dpkg aptitude
sudo apt-get -y dist-upgrade

#IMPORTANT: As you're doing the dist upgrade, be sure NOT to replace /etc/sudoers when prompted


# restart
sudo su -
reboot

#Be sure to get this output:
cat /etc/debian_version
7.6

#append these two lines to /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://packages.dotdeb.org wheezy all
deb-src http://packages.dotdeb.org wheezy all

sudo apt-get update
export PATH=$PATH:/sbin
sudo apt-get install mysql-server-5.6
#choose no password for root

sudo mv /var/lib/mysql /var/lib/mysql-5.6
sudo mv /var/lib/mysql-saved /var/lib/mysql
sudo chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql
sudo /etc/init.d/mysql stop
sudo /etc/init.d/mysql start
mysql -uroot -p
show databases;
#be sure to see your dbs (homestars_development)
#see the version output to be "Server version: 5.6.19-1~dotdeb.1 (Debian)"
#if the above is true
rm -fr /var/lib/mysql-5.6

I was unable to bring the vagrant box up again

$ vagrant up
[default] -- /vagrant
Failed to mount folders in Linux guest. This is usually beacuse
the "vboxsf" file system is not available. Please verify that
the guest additions are properly installed in the guest and
can work properly. The command attempted was:

mount -t vboxsf -o uid=id -u vagrant,gid=getent group vagrant | cut -d: -f3 /vagrant /vagrant
mount -t vboxsf -o uid=id -u vagrant,gid=id -g vagrant /vagrant /vagrant

am looking at this article:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22717428/vagrant-error-failed-to-mount-folders-in-linux-guest

There were some issues with copy/paste format. There was a lot of text not visible to the right. I've changed it and went over the process with Ian. See updated notes.

Jodi, let me know if you're still stuck. I could help