What a Busy Weekend!

Well, my weekend was really busy. I had fun, but I get stressed out when I'm around a lot of people for an extended period of time. I have always knew I needed my alone time, but I'm just now realizing that the reason is because otherwise I'm stressed. This worries me somewhat because I know when I have kids, alone time won't exist (except when I get a cherished moment when someone else is taking care of them). I still really want children, though. I think I'll just get somewhat used to the chaoticness, or something.

Anyway, so on Friday, Andrea arrived with Kayla and Natalie because Pat, Tina, and the kids were coming to Provo to take Ashley to BYU. It was fun seeing the girls, and overall, they're very well behaved and have fun with each other, which was good, but it seemed hard to keep them occupied (it doesn't help when we have no toys for them to play with!). I did find that Kayla loves playing games on children's Web sites, and that helped. But Natalie kept bugging her wanting to play Dora the Explorer games. Overall, though, they had fun with that.

We saw Ashley and the family later when we went to her new college apartment. I think she is really excited about starting college, and I'm glad we're nearby to help if she needs it. Saturday was filled with getting her situated and getting groceries to start her off. It takes me back to my first year of college. It's an exciting time, that's for sure! It wasn't till that night, when Andrea and the girls left to go home, that I really got some quiet alone time. It was good to see everyone, but it's good to have your house back, too. Overall, the weekend was really busy!

Editing Jobs

This is a shameless plug for myself, but I'm confident in my abilities, so I'm doing it. If you need a freelance editor, consider hiring me.

I went to Brigham Young University and received a BA in English with an editing minor. Since graduating, I've gotten experience in editing fiction, magazines, and technical information, as well as publishing on the Web. I am very detail oriented and good at what I do. Besides editing for a software company, I have been partially in charge of Leading Edge magazine which has given me a lot of experience not only in editing, but also in management and organization. I have also had a chance to work with big-name authors such as Orson Scott Card and Dave Wolverton through this experience. Along with that, I contributed in editing Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson which is due out next summer (as well as the two sequels, which has not yet been published). 

I have done other freelance work. One with a company that provides form letters for those who don't write well, and for a company that sells books that help teach children to read (I helped created advertisements). Whenever they have more work, they contact me to help with it. They have been very pleased with the work I've done for them so far.

So if anyone is in need of a freelance editor, please consider me. With my variety of experience, I'm a good choice. Through my editing classes, magazine experience, and technical experience, I have over five years of experience editing. I can help with a variety of editing needs including proofreading (whether books, Web sites, magazines, or whatever), fact checking, solidifying manuscripts and preparing them to send in to publishers, basic layout and design, and writing (which I have experience through my English major). If you are in need of any of these services, feel free to email me at my email through my MySpace.com profile (www.myspace.com/jillenabean), and I can give you more information.

My Name in Print

I am excited because there is a new novel out, Mistborn: The Final Empire, that has my name in the acknowledgements. That's right--my name in print! An author who went to college with me, Brandon Sanderson, was looking for readers to help develop this novel and get it ready for publication by Tor, the leading sci-fi/fantasy publisher in the United States. I offered my services. It's the most awesome way I've found to get to read a book before it's published! In fact, this novel is the first of a trilogy, and I've already read all three. (Granted, it was in its first stages and so it may be very different once it's published, but I know all the major events of what is going to happen. And no, I'm not telling! I don't think Brandon would let me read more if I did :).

So anyway, if you're in a bookstore, look for Mistborn. Open it up to the acknowledgements page and I'll be there. It's an awesome book and very original. Check it out!

Cell Phone Rant

Can I say that I would really like a cell phone! This is pretty much a tangent rant, but there have been so many times lately that I thought, "Man, if I just had a cell phone right now." It's starting to get really annoying. If I were just hired at my job already (and for at least the amount I was told I'd get), then I could finally afford cell phones for Aaron and me. That would be so nice! I asked my boss today what was going on and he said that they're stilling trying figure out a title for the position, a job description, and a salary that fits that job description. Hopefully the wait will be worth it and they'll decide that for what I do, I need to be paid more than what he had originally told me it would pay. Wouldn't that be great! Here's hoping. I just really hope it's soon. It's been 3.5 months since he wanted me to be officially hired. He's making it a goal to get done by the end of the month, but that doesn't mean much to me since he's made many goals in the last few months about getting me hired that haven't happened. But we'll see. I'm trying to be optimistic about it. At least I know that they want to hire me for the position when it does open!

How I Love My Car!

So I have had an adventure with my car for the past 2+ months. [sarcasm]It was so much fun![/sarcasm]. A couple months ago it was having issues with overheating and so we tried to get help from friends who could tell us what was wrong. We were pretty sure it wasn't the radiator since there was no water leaking from it. We found a hose that had a hole and so replaced it, as well as the thermostat, but neither fixed the problem. It got bad enough that we couldn't drive it at all. We were lucky enough to have a friend that had a car we could borrow.

Then we took the car to a mechanic. They tightened some clamps and supposedly fixed the overheating problem (cost us $80 to tighten clamps, but figuring it was fixed and it could have been more costly, I was pretty happy). Then on the way home, it dies. Apparently there is something wrong with the carburetor. Great, so back to the shop. They try to figure out what was causing the problem, but never really figured it out. They decide to rebuild the carburetor (which was just done last November), costing us $550+, and think they've fixed it. It works great for 36 hours and then dies, again. This time they say that when they rebuilt the carburetor, they didn't set something right. They didn't charge us for that, though, since it was their fault. That I appreciated since they were really causing us inconvenience. Well, we picked it up last night and so far so good, but I don't think I'll really have confidence that this car is fixed until I've driven it a few weeks with no problems.