Windy Day...
Whew... what a windy day! It was quite a struggle to get my 6-year-old, my 3-year-old, and my 2 1/2-year-old nephew to my 6-year-old's bus stop this morning. :P I hope these winds will subside before school lets out.

I got word today that an interview I submitted for an online publication will be published in their February issue (which should be appearing online within the next couple of weeks). The good news is that it gives me another writing credit under my belt; the bad news is, I'm not getting paid for it. :P But I'm at a point in my freelance writing career where I can't afford to reject to take an opportunity simply because I'm not getting paid for my work. I'll provide more details after the piece goes to press.

I realized that I forgot to mention in my first post in this Blog that I'm the founder and maintainer of the TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! JEM Mailing List, an e-mail list devoted to the 1980's animated show and doll Jem. A few months back, we coordinated an effort to send hand-written snail mail letters to Rhino to convince them to release Jem on DVD... and it worked. :) Our contact there said he literally had HUNDREDS of letters from around the globe come across his desk. The gal who provided us with the info for the gentleman we sent the letters to was given a copy of the first DVD of the first box set, and it sounds promising. I don't have an official release date for the set yet, but will post that here as soon as I know.

Dan's going to sit down tonight and go through our tax return one more time to be sure he figured everything out right before filling out all the paperwork. He'll go to the library tomorrow, make all the necessary photocopies, and then we can get the return out in the mail. :) And if his figures are accurate, we're going to get a really good tax refund this year. :)

Some Updates...
Sorry it's taken so long for me to post again. We had a busy weekend, then I fell ill early Tuesday morning (was getting up and running to the bathroom most of the night, due to crud coming out of both ends). I'm feeling a bit better today, though. Still not back to feeling completely normal yet, but at least I feel better.

I posted about our water being shut off on Friday. It ended up being shut off for about 3 1/2 hours.

My 6-year-old also went in for the appointment at the eye doctor's yesterday. She got a new prescription; the doctor said it wasn't so much that her eyesight had changed, but that she could more accurately answer his questions (which enabled him to be able to give her a more accurate prescription this time around). She chose pink plastic frames for her new glasses... and the total we have to pay for her new glasses will run about $115. Oy vey!

Oh, yes, I almost forgot to mention that I got my tax forms from digitalmediafx.com in the mail yesterday. So if things go well, we'll have our tax return out in the mail by the end of the week, and have our tax refund back by the end of March. :)

Having To Cope Without Water...
The manager of our apartment complex came by while we were eating lunch (almost an hour ago now) and said he had to turn off the water to our building, due to a broken pipe in one of the downstairs units. Now I've got a load of lunch dishes piled up by the sink that I can't wash, and I can't work on toilet training my 3-year-old son (I had just started letting him take naps in his training
pants this week, but I had to put him a diaper this afternoon because of the lack of water... :P). I also have my 2 1/2 year-old newphew with me today (but luckily he's not very far along with toilet training!).


Now, of course, I need to use the restroom myself, but am not able to. Oh, the joys of having to go without water (even for what should be a
relatively short period of time... :P).

On another note, Dan did make an appointment for our 6-year-old daughter at the eye doctor... she'll be seen Tuesday morning (January 27).

Some Good News...
I just heard back from my employer at digitalmediafx.com, and he says the tax paperwork I need should be out in the mail either on Saturday or Monday. Yay! :)

Also, my brother-in-law has employment again (since he and his wife were both laid off in October of 2002, they've had various contract and temp work for the past year; my brother-in-law was let go from his last assignment right before New Year's Eve, so it's good to hear he's working again). And with him and his wife both currently working, I get to watch my 2 1/2 year old nephew (and they pay me $100/wk to watch him).

On the downside, though, I think we need to get our 6-year-old's eyes checked again. She got glasses a little over a year ago, but her kindergarten teacher is concerned that she may need new glasses with a stronger prescription to see better (our daughter's been having some problems with her fine motor skills). Hopefully, Dan will call the eye doctor today and schedule an appointment for her.

It's All 'Bout The Money... :P
Meja had a song with that title a few years back (although I prefer the dance remix version, myself :)).

Anyway, just had to post a little bit (all money related, hence the title of this post).

Dan found out his work is handing out their W-2 forms at work today (so the only paperwork we need now is my form from digitalmediafx.com; I wrote my boss an e-mail yesterday, asking once again for it... hopefully we'll see it soon).

Today when I took my 6-year-old and my 3-year-old to my kindergartener's bus stop, one of the mothers offered to give me a phone number for a place that can help get people into a program for low-income people who need help paying their electricity bills. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I don't need it. Unfortunately, some of the parents at the bus stop (which is located outside an apartment for low-income residents) assume that since we live nearby and catch the bus there, that we must be in a similar financial situation (back in November, people were telling me where to get forms to get kids into the program where low-income kids are sponsored for Christmas). Again, I didn't have the heart to tell them that I don't need that kind of help. And I also haven't had the heart to tell these parents that we're going to be trying to purchase our first house later this year (either in the spring or in the summer, hopefully). I know these parents have good intentions when they offer help like this, but it makes me feel rather awkward.

I find that, in a lot of ways, I don't have a lot in common with the other parents at the bus stop. That's the way things are, and there's not a whole lot I can do to change it...

I better wrap things up... my 3-year-old son is pestering me to play a computer game for him, and his pestering is starting to affect my concentration...

Trying To Help A Child Who Doesn't Want Your Help...
My 6-year-old's kindergarten teacher sent home some purple sheets of paper with a note on Friday that said she would like us to have my daughter practice tracing her hand and cutting it out (she has a lot of problems with cutting, and cuts with jagged lines and doesn't cut on the lines).

I was trying to help her today, and she really didn't put a lot of effort into what she was doing. For the first hand, she wanted ME to trace the hand. I gave in and did it. After trying to cut for a few strokes, she wanted ME to cut it out; I decided I could use it as a "learning opportunity" (she could watch me cut it out and then try to do it herself). With her second hand, she traced it herself. When she went to practice her cutting, she kept STOPPING AND SWITCHING THE SCISSORS BETWEEN HER HANDS. I tried stressing to her that she needs to use the hand that feels the most comfortable using the scissors, and to not stop while she's in the middle of cutting (to help avoid the jagged cuts she makes). She insisted that she HAD to switch hands. :P

At this point, I'm at a loss as to how to help her improve her cutting skills. She obviously isn't wanting to put a lot of effort into what she's doing, and doesn't want me to help her get better. Sigh.

Back Again Already...
Well, I heard back from my pastor concerning my e-mail. He was very surprised to hear there was no childcare for the meeting, because it is his intention to have childcare available for all church activities and meetings.

And he also appreciated my idea for the e-mail group. He'll have the church secretary send me e-mails for the people who fit into the category of "young families." :)

Feeling Left Out...
Well, it's time for me to post a gripe. After church today, there was a congregational meeting to approve this year's budget plus a couple other pieces of business. I had griped in the past to the pastor about the lack of child care for these meetings, and how it affected the young families' ability to attend these meetings (it's less desirable to go if you're constantly having to shush young children, because it's a disruption to others and it distracts you from the business being discussed). Last time we had a congregational meeting, there was child care. This time, however, there was not. I was rather upset, and it made me feel "left out" of church business, and losing a voice.

Well, we left right after church and went to have lunch. During lunch, I had a chance to calm down and I thought about how the pastor in his sermon today was talking about "turning water into wine" (from Jesus' miracle of turning water into wine at the wedding party). I came up with the idea of wanting to start up an internet mailing list for the young families of our church, as a place to discuss our issues, socialize, etc. I've e-mailed our pastor with the idea, so we'll see what he has to say about it.

BTW, Dan and I did manage to go see The Lord Of The Rings: The Return of the King last night. Overall, not a bad film; however, there were some things that could have done a little differently to make it better.

A Virgin No Longer... :P
Well, this is my first time using a blog... so I'm a virgin to this concept no longer. :P

Well, what can I say? I guess I can introduce myself...

I'm Lesley Aeschliman, a 28-year-old married housewife with two kids (ages 6 and 3). I'm a stay-at-home parent who is also a freelance writer. I'm currently working with my older sister on developing some animation series ideas that we could pitch someday. Just finished major work on a "spec script" for an existing animated program (which can be used to show potential employers how capable you are at writing for other people's shows, and it shows your writing abilities).

I have also served as the Lead News Editor for digitalmediafx.com (a website devoted to animation and special effects aimed at both professionals in the industry and to fans) -- however, I have not been able to post any news there since mid-September, because my boss asked me not to (he's promised on several occasions that a server upgrade would be happening, and that there would be a new way of posting news), to wait until after the server upgrade was done. Well, about four months have come and gone, and the server upgrade has not happened. Since I haven't been able to write any news stories, I haven't been getting a paycheck. :( Needless to say, I'm getting rather annoyed by this whole situation. I requested the necessary paperwork my boss needs to send me for tax purposes back on January 1... I haven't heard back from him, nor have I seen the requested paperwork. Sigh.

My husband Dan and I also run our own weekly personal music chart (https://www.angelfire.com/music5/aeschtunes); we also run an internet radio station through Live365.com in conjunction with our chart (there's a link to listen to the station at the website; I'm just too lazy to go get the link to the station page right now).

If you'd like to learn more about me, visit my website: https://members.tripod.com/~ljaesch

Enough of the introductions. Not a whole lot going on right now. I saw the movie Spirited Away last night; it was pretty good. Dan and I are going out to see The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King tomorrow (and leaving the kids with my brother-in-law and his wife). It's going to be so good to get out of the apartment for a little while and not have kids tagging along (don't get me wrong, I love my kids, but usually when I get to leave the apartment, they're with me).

I think that's all for now. I don't know how often I'll post in here, but I'll try to get in here as often as I can.