Sunday Sound Out

I need to take a minute to thank everyone who has sent me email the last couple months. I've gotten the most awesome notes from people who have read my book and taken the time to tell me how much they liked it. I want you to know that I read every single email I get and I appreciate them more than you know. I just haven't been able to keep up with all my mail and respond to all of them. But THANK YOU so very much!!!

Today, Austin had his confirmation. I think it's cool that confirmation Sunday fell on Pentecost.



I can't believe my baby is getting so old! He's far surpassed me in height (which isn't saying much, I know). I'm wearing high heels in this picture! And he'll be graduating 8th grade this month. I don't know how that happened. I swear I was just pregnant with him yesterday.

And now for your questions...

Uhhh got a ticket [to BlogHer] this weekend for free? How? And why didn't you tell me? I'm one of those procrastinators on the mile long list and it's in my own backyard!
I never said it was free! Oh no, I had to pay a premium for waiting so long to register. I just lucked out when they got to my number on the waiting list. Anyone going to BlogHer, look me up and say "hi"!

So does a Nintendo game survive being washed?
Surprisingly, yes, it did survive. It might have just been a fluke though. I don't recommend washing your DS game cartridges.

What I think is the most precious is that you could tell which kid it is [Brooklyn with the blue mask/wig/mummy getup] ....mine did stuff like this and I had to identify the kid on the old camera by the furniture and color of the walls....sigh
I'll let you in on a little secret. I didn't know it was Brooklyn until I saw this picture with Clay in the background...



And I always have to look at background clues to tell pictures of my kids (when they were little) apart. See what I mean...








Happy Birthday to your girls! How did you cut the lip gloss cake?
With a knife

How hard is the lipgloss cake?
Like you said - it's cake. Cake is generally pretty soft.

How did you get all that gunk [Desitin, Vaseline & bubble juice] off your floor?
Gasoline and a match

I've got three with a birthday all within two days of each other (two are twins) and I was debating if we do two celebrations or one. Making two separate cakes seems like a good idea to make the day special for both of them without getting birthday overload. DId you invite friends to this double celebration or was it just family?
This was just family and family friends. I usually double up for Savannah and Lexi and do one party for them because their birthdays are 7 days apart. It saves me time and effort and money, and this way, our guests don't have to block off 2 weekends and drive out for a party 2 weeks in a row. And so far, the girls have never minded sharing a party. I let them each pick out a theme and we decorate and use cups and napkins and such from both themes.

SSO question: Where do you get all your cake ideas? And do you just put them together out of your own brilliant mind? Or do you find directions somewhere? And just how would you go about making fondant foil?
I get a lot of my ideas from the Wilton books or from watching cake contests and Ace of Cakes on Food Network. I find some ideas online too. Austin suggested I make a big Hershey bar for Savannah. I liked his idea, but decided to do a kiss instead. The lipgloss idea just came to me because Lexi loves lip gloss!

Did they actually try their indoor slip-n-slide? Did it work? It's kind of ingenious really, for a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old. :)
Oh yeah they tried it! No, it didn't so much work. And "ingenious" was not quite the word I'd use.

So, um, what flavor was the Hershey kiss one?!
You'd think chocolate, right? For a girl who loves her chocolate, it's surprising that she doesn't like chocolate cake. Go figure. It was "funfetti".

What kind of punishment did you give Clay and Brooklyn for the mess they made with the bubbles, rash creme and vaseline? Do you bother anymore? I'm wondering because I don't know if they do things like this because they know they can get away with it or because they don't care if they get punished? I don't have six kids, but sweet Jesus, my boys would never think of doing some of the stuff you write about because they would be in so much trouble! Plus I'd make them clean it up and that's almost worse than the punishment!
I threw Brooklyn in the tub because she was covered head to toe with diaper cream. Then I put Clay to work helping me clean up the mess. Unfortunately, he just kinda smeared it around and made more work for me so I sent him to his room. After Brooklyn was bathed, she had time out too. The thing is - the kids didn't do this to be bad. I think sometimes kids get into stuff because they want to explore and experiment and learn and they don't always think things through. That's a learning process that takes time. (Some people never get it!) When they do stuff like this, it's irritating but I don't get too mad.

On the other hand, a couple days ago, Clay brought a ball in the house and was tossing it up in the air. I told him twice to take it outside, but before he went out, he managed to hit and shatter a picture frame on the wall. I was mad because it wouldn't have happened if he'd listened to me and taken the ball outside where it belonged. For punishment, I couldn't make him clean up the glass because that would be dangerous. Instead I took a few dollars out of the birthday money he'd been saving for a toy and told him he had to buy a new frame.

I think there's a difference in deliberately disobeying and kids just doing goofy kid stuff. I try to separate the two and respond accordingly. I like when there are natural consequences to their actions. I try to apply logical consequences when there aren't. Do I do it consistently and perfectly? Heck no. Do I sometimes say, "Are you bleeding? No? Then I don't want to hear about it! Work it out!"?Heck yes. Do I sometimes tell Joe I simply must run some errands and then make a speedy getaway so he can deal with it? Heck yes. I never claimed to be perfect.

If it weren't for Clayton you wouldn't have half of the material that you use to write about. Aren't you glad God gave you the wealth of material in the form of Clay?
Honestly? YES! The funny thing is - my friends remember when I used to tell "Jackson stories" all the time. Jackson grew out of that stage and I know Clay will too. Sooner than I can imagine, I'm sure.

Do you own a steam carpet cleaner??
I probably should, shouldn't I? It would sure come in handy.

And has your website always been "the official site of ..." or is this new? Are people trying to create fake Dawn sites?
"fake Dawn sites" LOL! Not that I know of and yeah, it has said "the official site of author Dawn Meehan" since my website was designed in October.

Share a Little Comfort

What do you think of when you hear the term "comfort food"? Warm chocolate chip cookies, chicken and dumplings, freshly baked bread, and mac-n-cheese are the first things that come to my mind. My kids could live on macaroni and cheese. I think I've personally kept Kraft in business over the years from the amount of mac-n-cheese I've bought, so when they asked me to help spread the word about their Share a Little Comfort program in exchange for some blue boxes of cheesy goodness, I was happy to say yes!

We can all help share a little comfort through the national hunger relief organization, * Feeding America. Simply visit ShareALittleComfort.com to contribute a box of "The Cheesiest" to Feeding America. For every click, Kraft will donate a box of mac-n-cheese - up to a million boxes! Kraft will also be donating $100,000 to the organization.

Anyone use Twitter? If so, you can help out that way too. Every tweet that uses the Share a Little Comfort hash tag (#BlueBox) will count toward the million boxes. How easy is that?

And while you're at ShareALittleComfort.com, you can check out Kraft's recipe ideas, money-saving tips, and you can download coupons for savings on your favorite mac-n-cheese products.

Want to win a year's supply of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese? Leave me a comment here and let me know how you serve "the cheesiest" to your family. Do you serve it as is? Do you doctor it up by adding cubed chicken and broccoli, or hotdog chunks, or something else? Do you use it as an ingredient in a casserole? Leave your comment with serving ideas and I'll choose a random winner on Wednesday, June 3. Winner will receive a year's supply (50 boxes) of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese!

* About Feeding America

Feeding America, formerly America’s Second Harvest, is the nation’s leading domestic hunger relief charity. Each year, the Feeding America network provides food assistance to more than 25 million low-income people facing hunger in the United States, securing and distributing more than 2 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually.

Achoo!

I know I haven't been updating much, but I have a very good reason. I've been sick, sick, sick. Fever, achy, snot-nose, yuckness. I'm finally much better and only have a cough left at this point. This morning, as I was waiting for my computer to turn on, I reached for a tissue (the box has been sitting right next to my computer for the past few days because I'm constantly using them) and saw writing on the box. I picked it up and looked a little more closely. Savannah had taken a marker and written me a note all over the Puffs box! I just had to share because I thought it was sweet and the note was so sillly, I could just "hear" Savannah rambling on, saying these words to me. It made me smile this morning. :)

Hello Mom,

If you're reading this, you're probably using a kleenex so your nose is all runny. I'm sorry. Well, I hope you have a good blowing of your nose cause if you don't want to be sick anymore, you need to blow your nose and I'm keeping you company cause you're reading this and it's sort of like me talking to you, so technically I'm talking to you and keeping you company! Hopefully, as you're reading this, it's making you feel better! 8) I LOVE YOU MOMMY!

P.S. Thank you for helping me buy my iPod! Hopefully it gets here soon.

LOL! I LOVE it when my kids do something sweet and unexpected like that. And Savannah has been saving for an iPod for a while. She got some money for her birthday that she put toward her iPod fund. She was a few dollars short, so I kicked in to help her get it. Now she's been anxiously checking the mail for it.

Happy Birthday Savannah & Lexington!

I'm skipping Sunday Sound Out today because I didn't have too many questions this week, and because I'm still sick and would really like to get to bed before 2:00AM, and because I want to share some pictures from this past week instead, and because it's my blog and well, I can. :)

After Brooklyn's conversation about going to the "Duck Store", I took the kids to Target (the Duck Store) and when we came home, these guys were in our front yard.



Later in the week (at least I think it was later. My days are all kinda running together right now) I was cleaning the bathroom while talking on the phone to my friend, Jen. I heard Clay and Brooklyn giggling in the kitchen, but just thought there were playing. I was wrong. I emerged to find 4 empty bottles of bubbles, 2 empty tubes of Desitin, and 1 empty tube of Vaseline. They had tried to make an indoor slip-n-slide by pouring the bubbles on the floor and lubing themselves up with diaper cream, then sliding across the mess. Yeah, the fun never ends around here.







And because we spend such a large amount of time at the baseball fields, here's Austin. He's on the Diamondbacks this year.


And Savannah...

Then, on Wednesday, Clay graduated from preschool. On Thursday, he awoke bright and early and got ready for kindergarten. I had to explain to him that he won't start kindergarten until the fall. He is NOT happy about that and lets me know every day. The reason he wants to go to kindergarten so badly? According to him, it's because he'll get to do experiments every day in kindergarten.


Clay with his awesome teachers...


Then on Friday, as I was cooking up a storm for the girls' birthday party, Brooklyn and Clay walked in the house from where they were playing right outside the kitchen and Brooklyn said, "That bird scared me."
"A bird scared you?"
"Yeah, I thought he was going to fly into me!" she exclaimed, her eyes wide.

"What bird?" I inquired.

I noticed the look on Clay's face and thought "uh oh".

"What bird is she talking about, Clay?" I directed my question at him.

"I put a bird in a cage so he could be my pet," Clay answered.

"A bird in a cage??? What cage? What bird?"

"I'll show you!" Clay proudly announced.

I followed him outside to the garage where a full grown robin sat next to a window. The "cage" Clay told me about was actually just a roller skate he'd set on top of the bird to keep it there.

"CLAYTON!" I yelled, exasperated. I removed the skate from the poor bird while I ducked and covered so it wouldn't fly at me and peck my eyes out.

The poor thing kept flying into the window, however. I mean, who could blame him for being a bit confused after he'd just been trapped under a roller skate by some misguided 5-year-old? He flew into the window numerous times before I finally had the bright idea of tapping on the outside of the window to scare him into flying the other direction and out of the garage. It worked. Then I had yet another conversation with Clay that went something like, "You cannot catch squirrels, you can't play with nests, you can't bring dead animals into the house on a snow shovel, and you can't put roller skates on birds." Then I poured myself a glass of wine.

I had a combined birthday party for the girls yesterday. Lexi will be 8 on the first. She was being so goofy here! LOL!


And Savannah will be 13 tomorrow. Eek! I officially have 2 teenagers now!!!

Lexi's lip gloss cake...

Savannah's Hershey's kiss cake. I meant to save some white fondant for the paper strip, but forgot, so I cheated and used paper. I was going to make fondant foil too, but ran out of time and cheated on that as well. She liked it anyway. I mean, her motto is "Give me chocolate or give me death"! Actually, I'd still be trying to get ready for the party now if it weren't for all Savannah's help in the kitchen, and Joe's help cleaning the house too.

Sick

Sorry, no post tonight. I'm sick. Sore throat, fever, feel like garbage. My friend Melissa has diagnosed me with Swine Flu. LOL! Going to bed...

Crazy Googlers!

It's been a long time since I checked my stat counter to see the keywords people have googled that brought them to my blog. I took a look at it this week and this is what I found...



let's do lunch diet program
YES! Now, that's MY kind of diet program. Let's do lunch!

what to pack for kids when you go out of town
If you're going out of town, you should probably pack for yourself, not the kids. Remember pants!

teeth marks soap
You mean like this?


flour sack babies really a relevant way to teach children how to be parents
No, but you can make some delicious chocolate chip cookies with them.

212 year old not interested in potty training
Yeah, once you hit 212 years, I think it's perfectly acceptable to wear diapers again.

i have a wet pullup on any one wants to respond
I really want to respond, but alas I'm speechless.

jeff foxworthy anal seepage
Poor Jeff. Sounds like a personal problem.

perforated eardrum still hurts
What?

suffocating dinosaur costume
Yes, this mom doesn't want to make any ordinary dinosaur costume for her son. She's looking up patterns for a "suffocating" dinosaur costume.

why would a cat attack a person holding a crying baby?
to get the baby to shut up?

hr huff n puff carton
OK, this person is probably referring to the warped old cartoon, H. R. Pufnstuf. Unless it's a new brand of cigarettes, perhaps? "I'll just take a carton of huff n puffs please."

stay at home mom gets nothing for mother's day, should i be angry
It depends. Is the stay-at-home-mom you?

if i got stung by a bee and i'm 6 months from having a baby
Yes? What's your question?

mom love girls old 3 and short com
Huh?

love mom baby old 3 girls short com.
Ohhh, that's better. Wait, no it's not. Huh?

lego indiana jones tips how get thru the darkness
I don't really think you want THESE tips...

6 kids family large blog
I have 6 kids, but just an average sized blog.

dawn meehan i don't have an accent Sunday sound out because i said so \
Hey, I don't have an accent either!

hippotomushrooms
Uh???

what do you do when you find the blue thing after having dinner? indy
Ummm, just where exactly did you find this blue thing?

my three year old stuck clay up her nose
Hey, my three year old stuck a Tic Tac up her nose!

math riddles 100 smurfs purple hair midnight
Those of you who have read my blog for any amount of time, know I'm not mathy, but seriously, does this make any sense???

riddle midnight smurf hair purple
Uhhh, still not getting it.

jax parrow
It's the new creative spelling for Captain Jack.

can i pick my 11 year old friends
If you're 11, sure you can! If you're an adult, maybe you'd better find a little older friends.

hairball looking spider
I don't know, but I have seen a spider-looking hairball.

nephew forced to wear poodle petticoats
Poodles have petticoats?

how to make cheap light sabers from pool noodles
Step 1. Buy a pool noodle
Step 2. Give it to your kids
Step 3. Pay ER bill when your child is injured with pool noodle light saber
Step 4. Realize they aren't so cheap afterall

what is a good comeback for that is not what your mom said last night?
"Oh yeah, Reilly? Well, the jerk store called, and they're running out of you."

In My Washing Machine are Many Things

I would think the world was ending if I ever switched loads of laundry and I didn't find any rocks, twigs, Legos, Polly Pocket clothes, dollar bills, gum, notes, nails, screws, bolts, washers, Nintendo DS game cartridges, Magnetix, wrappers, pencils, lip gloss, student IDs, disposable diapers, baseball cards, coins, candy, or misc. garbage I've picked up off the floor intending to throw away.

This is what I found today...

Fruit snacks. No one had them in their pocket. I asked the kids and they all insisted it wasn't them. They just magically appeared. Funny how that works, huh?

I just hope I got them all before I put these clothes in the dryer or I'm going to have one nasty, sticky mess. I'm kind of afraid to look.

And on an unrelated note, I found these pictures on the internal memory of my camera. I'm not sure how old they are or which one of the kids decided to dress up Brooklyn like this...

Yep, I encourage the baby to look like a psycho killer, zombie, pirate wrapped in Ace bandages with bad hair.

Sunday Sound Out

From Chicago, where we have no problem spelling or pronouncing Des Plaines, it's Sunday Sound Out with Dawn Meehan! Tonight: answers to your questions and musical guests the Proclaimers! And now, the woman single handedly responsible for getting the Blackhawks to the Western Conference Finals, it's Dawn Meehan!

And now, it's time for viewer mail...


Just curious -- why would your parents, grandma and sister makes plans to get together that didn't include YOU?
I know right?! It's either A: they figured I'd be doing something with my family and didn't bother to ask. Or B: they didn't want me and my loony kids running all around their house. I'm going with "B".

Are you going to BlogHer??
Yes! Procrastination pays off again! I put off registering for BlogHer and missed out on tickets and was put on a 50 mile long waiting list. This weekend I was one of the lucky ones who was able to get a ticket though. Yipee!
Do you think this is where Austin learned all about procrastination? He put off his social studies project until the night before and managed to get an A on the thing! Ugh! How are we ever going to learn our lesson about procrastination when things keep working out for us?

I'm so craving a Chicago hotdog! I know Portillo's delivers via mail but it is too freaking expensive!
I was just thinking about Portillos earlier today because I wrote a post about fun hairdos from Suave and I mentioned celebrity stylist Luke O'Connor in the post. He was telling me how much he loves Portillos as he did my hair in Beverly Hills. LOL! You can stop by my review blog to enter the giveaway for a set of Suave haircare products HERE. And you have one more day to enter to win a case of V-8 V-Fusion HERE.

Any particular reason you changed the RSS settings so that the full text of the entry doesn't show up in feed readers?
Just to make you crazy. Oops sorry, that's the answer I reserve for my kids. Actually, it was an experiment to see if it affected traffic to my blog. I think it'll be changing back this week though so hang on a couple more days.

So what made your friends think any of this [amount of junk in my van] was hilarious? They obviously don't have kids.
Bingo! You hit the nail right on the head.

But since we are in the van as much as in the house, don't we need extra toys, food and clothes in there?
Yes! In fact, I say car manufacturers should take this into consideration and install toilets and fridges standard on all minivans.

Exactly how big is your car Dawn?
It's just your standard 43 passenger van. Why?

Wait, how many cars participated in that photo shoot? Wow, that's a lot of stuff! Aren't you glad it's not all on your living room floor?
Uh yeah, not on my living room floor, uh huh. Yeah, because that would be bad. Excuse me while I kick the piles of toys and junk under the couch.... ahem.

How ever do you fit the kids in the car?
I'm supposed to put them in there too???

Took more time to take photos and write this post than it would have to clean all that stuff up - at least with the car to trash can method.
Yeah, but taking pictures was more fun than cleaning it. Duh.

Out of curiosity, after the pics, did you ummm clean out any of the detrius?
Ummm yeah, sure, sure I did.

I just went to my library website and typed in "dawn meehan" to see if they have your book, and the search results came back with "Did you mean 'dawn elephant'?" That just cracked me up, so I had to share!
Have you seen the size of my butt? I completely understand why "elephant" came up while googling my name!

Do you know what books stores will carry it [Because I Said So]?
Family Christian book stores and some Barnes & Noble stores carry it. You can also get it online HERE or HERE. Or, if you'd like an autographed copy, you can get one HERE.

very cute of Brooklyn, so Dawn, did you get her that after she had spent so much time telling you what she wanted?
Ugh, you know what I got her? I got the kids some sidewalk chalk and a 6 pack of bubbles for them to play with at the older kids' sporting events. Know what Clay & Brooklyn did with the bubbles while I was on the phone? They poured 4 bottles out on my kitchen floor and then stripped down and lubed themselves up with Desitin and Vaseline and made a kind of indoor slip-n-slide. I had to video blog that one. Seriously, where do they come up with this stuff??? I never would have dreamed of doing something like that when I was a kid. Savannah never did crazy stuff like that. :::sigh::: It took me over an hour to clean the floor even with Clay's "help"!

I finally ordered your book today, from the Christian Book Distributor on line. Am I a fan, or what? How many of your males readers have said the same? (s.s.o.)
I think you're one of three male readers, Rick. You're an elite group. Congratulations!

*lol* -- I've seen worse, when it comes to dinner time, ;-)
So have I. Almost every single night, in fact. I really should've shot some more footage before that video blog was put together.

I see Mom sits at the head of the table ;0
Actually, no, Brooklyn sits there (which is somehow fitting). We just rearranged a bit to try and fit everyone in the shot.

And should I even ask what came flying [across the table during dinner]?
Probably not. I try not to ask. Sometimes the answer is just scary.


And put your hands together for our musical guests, The Proclaimers (just because they have fun Scottish accents.)

Dinnertime

Check out my latest video blog at Guideposts website! Dinnertime at my house



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Make sure to stop by my review blog for a chance to win a $100 Lands' End gift card HERE
and a case of V-8 V-Fusion juice and an LLBean tote bag HERE!

Foreign Language Lessons

Out of nowhere, Brooklyn said to me tonight, "Mom, you need to go to the duck store."

"The duck store? What's the duck store?"

"The DUCK store!" she repeated like I was an idiot for not knowing what the duck store was.

"What do you get at the duck store, Sweetie?"

"DUCKS!" she said and rolled her eyes just enough to convey the idea that she thought I was completely simple-minded and she marveled at the fact that I'd made it to the ripe old age of 39.

"Well duh. Of course you get ducks at the duck store. What else would you get at the duck store?" I asked rhetorically.

"Crayons!" came her answer.

"Well, of course! Crayons! So, let me get this straight. I need to go to the duck store to buy you a duck and crayons?"

"No, you need to get me a present."

"What present?" I asked, getting more confused the longer we talked.

"A duck and crayons!"

I refrained from slapping myself in the head.

"Is this a real duck?" I inquired.

She looked at me like I was insane. Again. And said, "No, it's a duck that washes off crayons."

It finally hit me. She wants this...

We had one of these bathtub sets a looooong time ago. I can't believe she remembers this!

Foreign language interpreter: just another one of mom's jobs

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Make sure to stop by my review blog for a chance to win a $100 Lands' End gift card HERE

and a case of V-8 V-Fusion juice and an LLBean tote bag HERE!

A Look Into the Depths

...of my van, that is.

Thursday night after my book signing, my friends helped me carry a heavy box of books and my video camera and tripod and such out to my car. As they put the things in the back, this is what they saw...

In all honesty, I didn't think twice about it. My van is actually fairly clean right now. These guys, however (or the ones who don't have kids anyway) thought it was hilarious that I had so much stuff in there. So, I decided to take pictures.

The view from the back - 2 baseball bags, a hockey bag, a case of water and a box of books...

Here's a close-up of a wad of chewed gum. What? Where else would you put nasty, old chewed-up gum?

Clay's bat bag, Jax's water bottle, and a bag with a little Video Now player (minus batteries) in it...

Jax's hockey bag...

Lexi's Nintendo DS. So THAT'S where it is!

a naked Strawberry Shortcake doll (for some reason, all the dolls in my house and car are naked. Should I be concerned?), Matchbox car, stuffed doll, and a lawn chair...

an Oreo cookie wrapper and a snow scraper... Yes, I'm aware it's May, but you just never know...

Water bottle, softball, and a used straw just because...

a naked mini Bratz doll with no feet Yes, I know my kids are probably disturbed. But check out that cool hairdo!

a couple of Brooklyn's glamorous jewels...

some of my reusable grocery bags and more jewelry...

a broken hockey stick, another doll, and a cloth bag full of toys under the seats...

a broken lid from a fast food soft drink cup...

a pile of garbage...

a pair of pants... I have no idea!

an elbow length glove and a doll hairbrush...

an empty bag from Disney World...

a swim vest still in my car from when we went to The Dells in January...

a pirate argh!

a year book, baseball cap, sweatshirt, and poncho...

Barbie keys...

straw wrapper, cookie wrapper, and smashed dandelion...

Brooklyn's sweatshirt, crumbs, and dandelion parts from the bouquet Brooklyn gave me the other day...

Belle and the tray from the stroller that broke last month...

another swim vest that's been in here since January...

Moto Moto who repeatedly says, "Grrrr, I'm every hippo's dream" until we're all shouting, "Shut up Moto Moto!"

a magnet that we made in Sunday school...

another Sunday school project. The kids in my class kept asking Austin to draw them sharks to add to their fish.

My area is fairly clean - 3 week old water bottle, coconut lip gloss, change and some misc. papers and CDs.

Sleeping Beauty...

a paper that Lexi drew on. It says, "I love you Mom!" Awww...

The only problem I see here is that there is a serious lack of fruit snacks, fries, and Goldfish crackers. What's up with that???

Sunday Sound Out

From Chicago, where we eat our hotdogs with mustard, relish, tomatoes, hot peppers, onions, and a pickle, it's Sunday Sound Out with Dawn Meehan! Tonight: answers to your questions and musical guest Anita Renfroe! And now, the woman who reached 5 million hits to her blog today, it's Dawn Meehan!

I hope all the moms and mom-like women out there had a nice Mother's Day! I was going to invite my parents, grandma and sister over for brunch, but they already had plans to get together. So I resigned myself to staying home and doing nothing. Since I was first pregnant with Austin in 1994, Joe has said the same thing, "Why should I do anything? You're not MY mom." So Mother's Day has not typically been a fun day for me. This year was different. I taught Sunday school and Joe made brunch after church. Austin and Savannah played with the little kids and occupied them so I could take a nap while Joe went to his parents' house. And Joe made dinner this evening and he didn't use lemon-lime Kool-Aid at all.

For years, I wished that he would just help the kids pick out a card or make a card or acknowledge Mother's Day in some way. This year, I think he tried to make up for the past several years and got me way too much stuff. I'm so happy they replaced the necklace I broke a few months ago. They also got me a Keurig coffee maker with some coconut coffee and a tray to set my laptop on so it doesn't burn off my legs. Clay decorated an oatmeal container and filled it with paper flowers, Jackson and Lexi bought me musical cards, and Savannah, Jackson, Lexington, Clayton & Brooklyn made me cards and pictures. It was nice. :)

So I remember you twittering and asking if you should get an iPhone and then twittering how you got your iPhone. How do you like your new iPhone?? (I love mine a lot!)
I love my iPhone! I'm still not fond of the keyboard, or how it likes to "correct" me while I'm typing. If I type "AJ" when talking about my son, for example, it likes to "correct" me and change it to "an". If I write "hee hee" to indicate I'm giggling, my iPhone will "correct" me and change it to "her her" because really, why wouldn't I write "her her" when I'm laughing? Grrr, that part can be frustrating. On the flipside, it's nice that it corrects me when I write something like "dtive" and it changes it to "drive". It's a toss up. But overall, I LOVE it!

Regarding your SSO pics: Why would you shut the bathroom door when you're all by yourself??
Because I'm nuts. Even in a hotel room by myself, I have to shut the bathroom door. It's just one of those things that proves I'm crazy idiosyncrasies that makes me adorable.

Am I the only one that doesn't know what the slaughter rule is?
It's a rule in baseball that keeps a team from being "slaughtered" with a score of like 428 - 3. In the fifth inning (my kids only play 7 innings) if the one team is ahead by 15 or more runs, the game ends by slaughter rule.

So which team got slaughtered, Austin's or the other guys?
Actually, Austin's team rallied that night and only lost by a couple runs. Despite the fact that Austin pitched 3 innings and ended up throwing 102 pitches! (He only walked one kid during that time!) Savannah's softball team, on the other hand, was slaughtered their first 2 games.

I'm thoroughly chuffed to find your book available in South Africa. Any chances of you coming here for a signing?
First of all, is "chuffed" a good thing? And, although I'd love to visit South Africa, I don't think I'll be heading there anytime soon.

Do they always put you in a room by yourself with two beds? Doesn't that make you feel lonely when you wake up to a room by yourself and another bed that's empty?
Uhhh no. It makes me want to get up and jump from bed to bed and sing happy songs that I got a good uninterrupted night's sleep.

Ew on the Escargots....So what do they taste like?
Garlic-flavored chewy slime.

Whats with the PRA in sky writing in one pic?
Someone had made a smiley face and written "Jesus loves you". I didn't see the "PRA" until I looked at the picture, but I'm guessing they wrote "pray".

Thanks for the review of the family suites at the All Star. Any photos of those rooms? We have been staying at a Disney Vacation Club (Old Key West) during our last two trips (which is pretty affordable when you buy someone's "points"), but I think the suites might be more up our alley.

I do have pictures, in fact! I set up a Flickr account and will upload all my Disney pictures there tomorrow.

By the way, how is your book doing? (Is it okay to ask that?)
No, it's not ok to ask. Just kidding. Sorry, I just had a smart-aleck moment. I think it's doing pretty well. Now go out and buy a couple copies! Oooo, actually, I just added a link on my website for people interested in buying an autographed copy of my book. You can check it out HERE.

But I must ask...How in the world did Clay get the ladder up against the tree?

There was no tree. It was a short ladder and he just set it up under the gutter where the nest was. Although I wouldn't put it past him to drag out the 6 foot ladder and get it set up against a tree!

I've done dozens and dozens of interviews this month. People tend to ask me the same questions over and over in interviews. But not my friend Cindy from Hello Dollface. Nope, she was the first one to ask me if I liked the Jonas Brothers or Hannah Montana better. LOL! I got to meet Cindy at the Glamor Reel Moments back in October. She's a sweetheart and she's beautiful and she's skinny. I hate her I'm lucky to know her. You can check out her review of Because I Said So HERE.

And I wanted to put a list of my fellow bloggers who were on the Disney World trip with me. They're some really awesome women with some really great blogs! Check them out!

Christine at From Dates to Diapers,
Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry,
Megan at Velveteen Mind,
Lisa at Crazy Adventures in Parenting,
Emily from Mommin' it Up,
Amanda from Oh Amanda,
Marsha at Sweatpants Mom,
Andrea at Mommy Snacks,
Lindsay at Surburban Turmoil
and Maria Bailey of Blue Suit Mom, DisneyWorld Mom panelists- Margaret Fries and Amber Vaughan, and Laura and Leanne from Disney

Stop by my review blog HERE to see my write-up on swimsuits and enter for a chance to win $100 gift card from Lands' End!

And finally, in honor of Mother's Day, is Anita Renfroe with her Mom Song...

Mother's Day Giveaway Winners

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:

206
294
173

Timestamp: 2009-05-09 03:03:54 UTC


1. Winner of autographed copy of Because I Said So -
Diagnose Rachel said...
happy mothers day dawn!hope someone bakes up something special for you! Reading your blog is a treat to mothers every day!

2. Winner of the Mom's Butterfly Bouquet floral arrangement from Teleflora
Heather M. said...
I bought a book for myself and a book for my M-I-L and my own mom! I think they're a terrific tribute to moms everywhere from Ubermom Dawn! :)

3. Winner of a Mommy bracelet personalized with initials and birthstones from MyMommysBracelets
anawinston said...
you always have such great ideas!! thanks for sharing (PS I already have your book - maybe I could win something else!)

Congratulations! Please email me at mom2my6pack@aol.com with your shipping address. Thank you to everyone who left a comment!

Mother's Day Ideas

Mother's Day is right around the corner. It's May 10th for those of you who don't know. Go mark it on your calendars. I'll wait.....

And husbands, telling your wife, "Why should I do anything? You're not MY mom" does not fly. Your wife may not be your mom, but she's the mother of your children and, unless you want to sleep in the doghouse, show her that you appreciate all she does. Picking up something from the gas station on your way does not count either. If you show up with scratch-off lottery tickets, gum, a newspaper, or an evergreen shaped air freshener she'll know that you stopped off at the gas station. If you value your life, do not attempt this.

It doesn't have to be anything big or expensive. A homemade breakfast in bed is GREAT! Taking the kids out to a movie so Mom can have a little nap is heavenly. Letting Mom go get a pedicure is wonderful! Handmade cards and kiddie handprints (on places other than the walls) is also heartwarming and touching.

Or if you want to do a little more, try one of these ideas...





1. My book, BECAUSE I SAID SO, of course, is the perfect Mother's Day present! Order your copy of Because I Said So at Family Christian stores HERE, or Amazon HERE!












2. A fresh floral arrangement from Teleflora. Teleflora has been connecting customers with the nation's best florists for more than 70 years. All of their floral arrangements are professionally arranged by a local florist using only the freshest flowers available, and each gift is personally delivered in a vase. Check out their gorgeous arrangements especially for Mother's Day. And while you're browsing, make sure you take a look at the Mom’s Shopping Spree Sweepstakes, which kicked off April 20 and runs until May 15. The grand prize is a $20,000 shopping spree; first and second prizes will be shopping gift cards! Now, THAT'S a Mother's Day gift!!!








3. A ring from Whimsy Worldwide. These rings are so unique and fun! They're really strong and durable and showcase the wildly popular collectible Trollbeads, Pandora and Chamilia glass beads. You can change the beads to match your outfit or mood. If you have a Pandora (or similar) bracelet, you already have an array of beads that fit into this ring. You can have fun switching them whenever the mood strikes! If you don't, you'll soon fall in love with collecting these beads and showing them off on your Whimsy ring! Click HERE to find a retailer near you.



4. A mother's or grandmother's bracelet from MyMommysBracelets. Vanessa's got a wide array of gorgeous bracelets from which to choose. She uses high quality components including genuine Swarovski Crystal and pearls, Sterling Silver and gold filled beads, and each bracelet comes beautifully packaged in an organza pouch for easy gift-giving.










Leave me a comment here for a chance to win a signed copy of my book, Because I Said So, a beautiful Mom's Butterfly Bouquet floral arrangement from Teleflora, or a Mommy bracelet personalized with initials and birthstones from MyMommysBracelets. I'll choose 3 random winners on Friday at 5:00pm CT. The first winner will receive the book, the second will receive the flowers and the third will receive the bracelet. Good luck!

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There is more than one post tonight. Scroll down to see the other one.

Peep Peep

I spent all morning cleaning the boys' room. I mean, I really cleaned it! I suited up in hazmat gear and emptied out drawers, moved furniture, scrubbed walls, threw out food wrappers, and vacuumed up all the ants the food wrappers had attracted. I stripped the boys' beds, found 4 stray sippy cups in them, then washed all their bedding. I waded through mountains of smelly clothes, cleaned out the dresser drawers, and threw out tons of stuff. Finally, I brought in a pressure washer to hose the place down.

While I did this, Clay and Brooklyn played in the sand box. I could see them out the window and I checked on them several times. Until one time, I looked up and they weren't there. I had gotten a phone call and didn't realize how long I'd been on the phone until I checked on the kids and found them a few feet away at my neighbor's house. They had taken a small ladder and climbed up to see the bird's nest nestled in the crook where the gutter meets the downspout.

When I walked out, Clay was on the ladder looking in the nest. On the ground were 4 broken Robin's eggs. One of the eggs was broken in a small, plastic, play dish. I yelled at talked to them about staying in our yard and leaving daddy's ladder alone, and most importantly, not disturbing the nest and breaking the eggs. Clay told me, "I know we shouldn't have touched the eggs. We just wanted them to get bigger and then they broke." He looked genuinely sad. "But we're going to fix it," he quickly added. Then he asked Brooklyn to hand him the eggs. I looked at Brooklyn's hands and saw they contained 3 eggs from my fridge. Not only that, but she also held the 2 marshmallow peeps I'd found while cleaning the boys' room. (Yes, they were harder than granite. I know - ew)

If I hadn't interrupted them, Clay was going to put the 3 eggs from our refrigerator and the 2 "birds" (marshmallow Peeps) in the nest to make up for the eggs they broke. Oh yeah, that'll fix it. I'm sure the poor confused robin will never notice that her small, blue eggs have been replaced with chicken eggs and marshmallow Peeps. I can just see the "What the heck???" look on her little bird face now. She'd do a little birdy double-take and shake her head all confused, thinking she'd flown to the wrong nest.

Ugh, I'm hoping our discussion will sink in and he'll understand what he did wrong and why he needs to respect nature and leave creatures alone.

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

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I'll be at The Ice House Mall in Barrington, IL tomorrow (Thursday) from 5-7 for a book signing. There will be wine, swag bags for guests, a raffle for a mall gift certificate, and the restaurant is offering 50% off an entree when you present a signed copy of my book. Come join us for some pre-Mother's Day fun!

I Need a Clone

Jackson had a hockey game, Austin had a baseball game, and Savannah had a softball game last night. At the same time. At fields across town. This is why I have a strict "One Activity Per Child, Per Season" rule. Still, I'd pay big money for a cloning machine right about now. And I'd send one of my clones to the games until the weather warmed up and I no longer needed a down coat and a cup of coffee to keep warm.

I might send in a clone when my kids were pitching too because I find it very nerve-wracking watching them pitch. For some reason, all the pressure of the game seems to ride on the pitcher's shoulders. If the team wins, then hooray for the pitcher! If the teams loses, then it's all the pitcher's fault. Or so it seems.

Of course, I might have to send a clone when it gets really hot and humid too. I mean, I've seen players pass out from the heat in June and July. Yeah, that would be a really good time to send a clone, I think. And why stop there? While I'm at it, I think I could use a clone to do my laundry. Oooo, and I could use one to yell at the kids when they put their clean, folded clothes back in the hamper before they've even worn them simply because they're too lazy to put them away. I'm getting really tired of doing that. A clone to cook dinner would be nice. I think one to do the grocery shopping, one to clean the bathrooms, and one to run errands would be a good idea also.

That would leave me with plenty of time to play unending hours of dress-up, "restaurant", Hi-Ho Cherrio, and Rock Band with the kids. I would always have time to play one of Brooklyn's favorite games called "put on Polly Pocket's clothes, take off Polly Pocket's clothes, put on Polly Pocket's clothes, take off Polly Pocket's clothes, put on Polly Pocket's clothes, take off Polly Pocket's clothes". I'd also have all the time in the world to watch the kids play catch, or H-O-R-S-E in the backyard. I could watch Clay for hours when he says, "Hey Mom! Watch me!" as he skips off on one foot while flailing his arms in the air. "Did you see me, Mom? Were you watching? Can you do that, Mom?"

Yep, more of me is what I need. Well, actually I don't need more of me as in "I need to gain weight so there's more of me." I really need much less of me in that sense. But I could use a couple clones to help me out. That's what I want for Mother's Day. Are you listening, kids? Hint, hint.

M-O-U-S-E

A little more about my Disney trip...

Saturday, we started the day with breakfast and a talk about all Disney has done/is doing to make vacation planning easy. We talked about how you can tailor your Disney vacation to your family's wants, needs, and budget. From pitching a tent at Camp Wilderness and cooking your own food to staying at a deluxe villa with the Disney Dining Plan, you can find something that works for your family.

Their website is really easy to navigate and you can play around with different dates and hotel options to look for the best deal. You can even print out personalized maps for your family. Have a question and want an answer from an actual mom who knows all the tips and tricks to make your vacation the best possible? Go to the Disney Moms Panel and ask away! I met Margaret and Amber from the Moms Panel this weekend. What fun girls and boy, do they know their stuff! I think the best piece of advice I heard from Margaret was, "There's no way you can do everything here. Even if you stayed for 4 weeks, there would be things you'd miss.' Disney World just has that much to offer. You need to decide with your family, what things you really want to do and see while you're there. If you go in with the attitude of "I've got to do it all!" you'll be stressed, the kids'll melt down, and you won't be able to see everything anyway. That was my number one piece of advice from when we went to WDW back in October - take time to relax, hang out by the pool, or sleep in one day. We tried to "do it all" and we really pushed the kids, park hopping every single day from sun-up till sun-down. That doesn't make for happy families.

If you're planning a Disney World vacation, you can get a copy of the free vacation planning DVD HERE. Oh and when you check out the website, don't forget to check for specials HERE! Sometimes you can get totally awesome specials! When my friend Melissa went to WDW in September, she got the Dining Plan for FREE! All her family's breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks were included!

OK, after breakfast, we toured the new family suites at Disney's All Star Music resort. These are nice sized rooms that sleep 6, have 2 bathrooms, and a kitchenette, and because they're at Disney's value resorts, the price won't break your budget. After that, we donned hard hats and met Imagineers Brian & Diego who took us on a tour of Disney's new Bay Lake Towers, under the final stages of construction. They have luxury rooms that accommodate 12 people and are 2 stories! Seriously, these rooms were more than twice the size of my house!


Just call me Handy Manny


All us "Magical Moms" in front of Disney's new Bay Lake Tower (I've got to get a list of everyone's URLs so you guys can check out some new blogs!)


Imagineer Brian

From there, we went to the Magic Kingdom, where we toured The Baby Care Center. I bet a lot of people aren't aware this is even there. If you've got a little one, you've got to check this place out. If you want to escape the park for a while, you can breastfeed in a cool, quiet dimly lit room. You can change baby, feed baby in a clean high chair, or buy baby food, formula, bottles, diapers, and many other essentials you might have forgotten.





Room with high chairs for feeding baby in quiet, air conditioned comfort and little tables and a tv to occupy small siblings.


nursing room

We then had time for a Dole Whip, a ride on Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion, before going to lunch at Waves in The Contemporary Resort.






This is the drink I ordered at the Wave. It was radioactive.


yummy desserts at The Wave


The monorail inside the Contemporary

We had a few minutes to freshen up and then it was on to Hollywood Studios where everyone took a backstage tour of the new attraction, The American Idol Experience. Well, everyone except me and Lindsay from Suburban Turmoil. We blew that off and rode on Rock 'n' Roller Coaster three times in a row, thanks to our fast passes!


Cruddy picture of the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster taken with my camera phone because I accidentally left my camera back at the hotel.

After that, we met everyone else and saw The American Idol Experience.


From there, we had dinner at The Hollywood Brown Derby. And then it was back to the hotel. Whew! They crammed a ton into those 2 days!

Soarin'

Here's a little video of the ride Soarin' at Epcot in Disney World.

M-I-C-K-E-Y

Finally, I'm getting the chance to update! I'm here in Disney World, but we've been on a tight schedule. They sure packed a lot into these 2 days. I have to admit, usually when I go away for some blogging event, I really enjoy the time away from my kids. Don't get me wrong, I love, love, LOVE my kids, but I enjoy the time away too. This time, however, I've found myself thinking about them a lot because I know how much fun they had last October when we came here as a family. They've been asking when we're going to go back ever since then. Not that Disney World isn't awesome for adults, but in my opinion, it's just the kind of place that seems a little more magical when you see it through your kids' eyes.

I had a pretty great flight here to Orlando Friday morning. I sat next to a nice woman, Julia and her little boy, Nevan. She was normal (even if she did have Swine Flu masks. Seriously, she had them, but I guess she decided I wasn't too germish because she didn't wear it during the flight.) And the flight attendants, Brian and Joette, were terrific! A few minutes into the flight, Brian told me I was pretty so, naturally, he's my new best friend. Then later, after I shamelessly showed off my book, Joette made an announcement over the intercom that there "was a celebrity who had written a book on board the plane!" LOL! Snort! A "celebrity"! Although I had to laugh, I secretly thought it was pretty cool. I'm pretty sure the other passengers rolled their eyes and accused the flight attendants of drinking, however.

I'm exhausted and have to leave here at 7:00 AM(I KNOW!) because I have a book signing/speaking thing when I get home in the afternoon. Because I need some sleep, I'll share a few pictures from our adventures here and write more about it later. These are from Friday...


Joette & Brian. Isn't he a hottie?


outside my hotel


The pool at my hotel, Disney's Beach Club

towels on my bed

My gorgeous room

view from my room

Epcot yesterday - we had some free time to go on rides and then we had dinner in France.

escargot

trying not to throw up after eating a nasty ole SNAIL!

Illuminations

some bloggers from the UK who we met up with a couple times throughout our stay. They were very nice and fun and said stuff like "brilliant" and "lovely". LOVE their accents! There were also many awesome American bloggers I had the privilege of hanging out with. More pictures to follow...

Spaceship Earth


When I got back to my room, I found this...


and this...


and this...


and this...


and this...


and this...


and this...

and after I went to bed, I noticed Tinker Bell on my mirror...

And this afternoon, I noticed this banner too.

OK, now I'm off to bed so I can figure out how to set my clock. I requested a wake-up call for this morning at 6:30. They called at 7:18. Now, I'm not real mathy, but I'm pretty sure that's well AFTER 6:30.

More to come...