I guess you reap what you sow...
Or maybe it's just karma.

Last Saturday, I had managed to injure my 3-year-old's finger in a door at Quizno's. Well, last night, my 6-year-old managed to cut some skin off my finger while trying to hand me a pair of safety scissors. Two hours later, when I couldn't get the bleeding to stop, I went to the emergency room to get my finger looked at. They managed to get the bleeding to stop, and now I'm wearing a big bandage on my finger (I don't know what the technical name for it is, but I'm calling it a "finger sock" (because that's what it looks like)). I have to wear it until tomorrow night, then I can take it off and put a regular Band-Aid on.

With the bandage on, I can't use my right index finger (the one that was injured). This injury has made me aware of just how much I rely on my right index finger (although I'm left-handed).

The quest for the missing sock is over!
I finally found my 3-year-old's missing sock! :)

Turns out it fell behind the dryer. I have to re-wash it though, since it was sitting in a dusty area overnight. :P Oh well... at least I found the sock. :)

It wasn't so bad after all...
It turns out that I didn't break my 6-year-old's dresser drawer. What happened was that when I was pushing down on her jeans so they'd all fit in the drawer, I managed to knock the bottom loose. Dan was able to push the bottom back into place, and everything is fine now. :)

But I still haven't found my three-year-old's missing sock. :(

Now if only I could kick this cold that I've had for a week... :P

Well, it *WAS* a good day...
Sigh. While I was putting laundry away this afternoon, I managed to break the bottom of one of the drawers of my 6-year-old's dresser. Dan will look at it when he gets home to see if it can be fixed. :P

I feel terrible about it. It was an accident, but still, I managed to break something of my daughter's. This only about a week after hurting my son's finger in a door at Quizno's. :(

And I also seem to have lost one of my 3-year-old's socks. Sigh.

A good day so far...
Today at work, Dan got a profit-share check... the first one they've gotten in several years there. So some more money to put into the savings account for our house fund (we're hoping to buy our first house sometime this spring or summer... *crosses fingers*).

I'm excited for tomorrow, because we will be launching our first "sneak preview" chart broadcast on our internet radio station, where we'll be counting down the songs on the next AeschTunes Top 40 chart two days before the chart is published on the website. The first broadcast happens tomorrow night at 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST. There's a "listen" link on our main website (https://www.angelfire.com/music5/aeschtunes).

Speaking of our chart & internet station, I got an email from a friend today, saying he's been listening to our station and finding some new music he wouldn't have discovered otherwise. He has also launched his own internet radio station at Live365.com to go with his personal chart, after seeing the efforts Dan & I have put into ours. I was very pleased to see that we're having some kind of an impact on the personal chart community. :)

The Interview Was Published!
On Friday, I mentioned that an online publication would be publishing an interview that I did. The interview was posted online yesterday. It's an e-mail interview I did with my sister about the fiction she has written for the publication.

"Interview with Shannon Muir, author of CTF2187 fiction" can be seen at:

http://www.sabledrake.com/2004/0402_Interview.shtml

And I thought Friday was windy...
Today's wind is even worse! Dan and I are both suffering from colds right now, and Dan stayed home from work because of it. However, Dan insisted that I take all three kids with me (our daughter, our son, and our nephew) to my 6-year-old's bus stop (he was afraid of passing his germs on to our nephew). What a huge mistake! Our path to the bus stop made us go directly INTO the wind, and there were a couple of times where we literally almost could not move. Those times, I had to yell at the kids to not stop and to keep going. We did make it to the bus stop, and my 6-year-old did make it onto the bus. When we got home, I made it very clear to Dan that the boys would be staying home after school when I go to pick up our 6-year-old at the bus stop.

And our electricity did go out for a brief second shortly before we headed to the bus stop; I'm really praying that the electricity doesn't try to go out again.

And I'm also hoping that my 6-year-old's Daisy Scout meeting will be cancelled tonight and rescheduled for next week due to the weather. Dan's not feeling well enough to take her and I don't have a driver's license so I can't take her. Even if Dan was well or if I could drive, I still wouldn't be eager to go out in this weather. :P

What A Weekend...
Saturday (yesterday) started off as a pretty good day. Dan got our tax return in the mail, and we went out to lunch at Quizno's... then something bad happened.

When we entered the restaurant, I thought my 3-year-old son had made it completely through the doorway, and I let go of the door... unfortunately, I misjudged, and the door closed on one of his fingers. :( I opened the door and freed him, and of course he was screaming. The employees reacted very quickly. One asked if we needed some ice, another asked if he needed a Band-Aid (right before they asked, his finger started bleeding). The employee who brought us the ice asked if he could give our son a cookie, and we said that was OK. When he came back, not only did he have a cookie for our 3-year-old, he also had a cookie for our 6-year-old. We got the Band-Aid on our son, ordered our food, ate, went home, and cleaned our son's finger and put a new Band-Aid. It doesn't appear he broke his finger... lost some skin and had some bleeding, but that seems to be all. He'll just have to wear Band-Aids for a while until his skin grows back.

I feel so bad and so guilty about what happened to my son. If I had exercised better judgment, this probably wouldn't have happened to him.

Dan and I have both come down with colds this weekend, and feel miserable. :( Our 6-year-old's also been fighting off a cold. Our 3-year-old's the only one who doesn't have a cold (and hopefully it'll stay that way).

I'm so tired right now, and both the kids are pestering Dan and I (although we both feel tired and blah). :P

We've also been working on some material for weekly chart broadcasts for our personal chart for our internet radio station, and it looks like I'll be doing a bit of the work tonight. I'll post more details about the broadcasts when we're ready to start publicizing.

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. :)