Sunday Sound Out

It's that time of the week again. Time for me to scroll through hundreds of comments and try to pick out all the questions from you, my loyal readers.

Let's see here - thank you again to all my readers who took the time to send us cards, letters, postcards, pictures, and information about your towns! We really do appreciate it! Here is an updated map. I'm caught up with all correspondence received up until last week.


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Thank you to everyone who has voted for my blog in one of more of the Blogger's Choice Awards. I guess the voting will continue throughout the year.

And now for your questions...

OK - I have to know how to do that glorious cheeseburger cake!!!!!! How are the layers done? - Gramma
The "buns" are yellow cakes and the "burgers" are chocolate cakes. I think I just used commercial chocolate frosting on the chocolate cakes and I used no icing on the yellow cakes. Then I put icing "lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, onions, and sesame seeds" on the cakes. Super fast and easy!

How is the play coming along? Are you finding it to be a good release/time off or is it another thing on your to-do list? Hey, your husband could video your scenes and then you could post it on your blog for all your readers. What do you think?? - Lisa, San Antonio, Texas
Eh, the play's going ok. A fellow cast member switched parts with me so I have a much smaller one now! Yay! Thank you Pam! Maybe now I'll be able to memorize my lines before opening night. And as far as putting my scenes on here...ummm, I think no. I was in Arsenic and Old Lace last year. My friend wanted to see the DVD of the play so I mailed it to her. She was only able to handle watching 5 minutes of it before she went blind.

Did you take the (cake decorating) class at Harper? COD? MCC? - Michelle
Yep - Harper!

Here's a question for you: when you delegate to the kids, do you go fix what they've done afterwards? - Raising Country Kids
Hmmm, it depends how insane busy I am on that day.

Now, along with all the other things you need to accomplish, how's that Dr appt coming along? - Kathy
I'll have you know that I called to make an appointment and was told, "The doctor doesn't have any openings for new patients until June."
"That's fine. That fits right in with my procrastinating. Can I schedule the appointment for June then?"
"No. You'll have to call back at the end of March to set up the appointment."
Wanna take bets on whether I'll remember to call at the end of March?
Then I called my OB to set up that appointment and was told that they could see me right away in April.

I used to wait tables as well, and have similar dreams frequently. Except that instead of missing my tie, I'm missing all upper body clothing. And no one notices. - Janet
Uh yeah, if that was me, people would notice. "Excuse me Miss? Could you please lift your boob out of my soup?"

Question for your SSO: With 6 kids, how do you handle daily chores? Do your kids work off a chore chart? Do they get paid for doing those chores?
Lisa in San Antonio
I usually just scream at them to do something and then I break down and do it myself.

Just one question, how many lists do you have? I have a daily list, a meal plan for the week list, a grocery list, a wish list, and a finish that project list! Allisha
Oh man! I've never thought about it before! Oh great! Now I'm going to have to make a list of my lists so I know how many there are!

Maybe a question for your Sunday Sound out thingie... when did each of your kids start walking/crawling? - anonymous
They didn't walk. They ran. And before they were a year old. I remember back to when Austin was a baby. I'd walk with him, holding his hands, trying to teach him to balance and walk on his own. By the time the third came around, I knew that walking was highly overrated and every time Jackson would start to stand up, I'd just kick him back down. It didn't work though.

Didn't you know that the more kids you have, the more puke you have to deal with? - anonymous
NOOO! No one told me that! That's not something you read about in those parenting books - the more kids you have, the more puke there will be to clean up.

ELDERBERRY Extract~!! it's an immune booster that helps short-circuit the flu or help those around it not get it. - Kate
And it can put lonely old men out of their misery if you mix is with cyanide, strychnine, and arsenic.

A question for your Sunday Sound-out: You mentioned in a previous post that you can't go to bed knowing you have e-mail in your inbox. Were you checking your blog comments while you were sick, or are you past all the excitement of thousands of e-mails a day? - Stephanie
Ugh, I've given up on that. At any given time, I'm a week or more behind on my email.

Oh Dawn! The things we'll do for our kids! I hope you all feel better SOON. I'll keep you in my prayers. And I hope Brooklyn is still speaking to Clay. LOL - Karla
She's speaking to him, but she calls him, "ClayPunk".

Also: What kind of camera do you use that takes such great pictures? (especially at night of the eclipse) - anonymous
I have a Sony Cyber Shot with a 12X optical zoom. I got the display model for 50% off too! Score!

Today Dawn you can be an honorary Brit and have an extra 'Mother's Day'. Today (Sunday) is Mother's Day here in the UK - and let's face it with so many kids you deserve an extra one!!!! - Gail
Woo Hoo! I never knew that other countries celebrated Mother's Day. It's interesting that it's on a different day too. Learn something every day!

Why exactly DID Joe paint the closets? To brighten them up so you could see inside better? That's the only thing I could come up with. - Robin
Because he's Joe.

Are you still in touch w/Mimi??? - anonymous
Of course! We email a couple times a week and I read her updates whenever she posts them. I loved her update from a couple days ago, in fact. It gave me goosebumps....

We left ,picked up Dana and went to have lunch . Then T. wanted to go to Julian's grave site , step I hadnt taken yet.
It was strange , I didnt let myself think too much as William was with us, therefore didnt let myself feel much...
Since most of you cant be here and visit Julian here you are ...


I didn't let emotions take over that is until emotions didn't give me a choice...
As we were walking out , William pointed at something and wanted to run after it . We looked and there was a yellow butterfly . WOW !!
Then a second one fluttered around .As we kept walking towards the gate , we saw more and more yellow butterflies .It gave us goosebumps all over... We must have seen a dozen ... We thanked Julian for his gift , and walked to the car still in a happy daze... As we approached the car ,outside of the gates , we looked for butterflies everywhere, but NOOO, we couldn't see any. William turned around and pointed to the otherside of the gate " Butterflies in there" ....
It was amazing and heartwarming...

I just put a new toilet seat on and installed a new spayer for my kitchen sink. - Kristine in MI
OK I know this was just a typo, but it cracked me up anyway. Now you can wash your hands and have your cat fixed in the kitchen sink at the same time!

So Dawn, when you are planning an event at your house, do all the kids chip in the help out? - Korkie
You bet your butt! They were awesome with this last party. Austin and Savannah did a ton of stuff to help me!

Hubby just found a dead mouse behind our fridge.... my question is what do you do to get rid of the decaying dead mouse smell once you have gotten rid of it. I can still my the lingering wafts of decayed meat. - Korkie
Just have the kids throw up in the house. That'll cover up any other smells.

I was surprised to see how many other people "don't do barf". One time, one of the boys threw up on the carpet in their room. After my husband cleaned and cleaned and extracted it, it still smelled so I cut the whole patch of carpet out and tossed it. We went with a big square of bare floor there for years. If it was up to me, we'd move to another house every time someone threw up.
I also do anything in my power to avoid getting sick myself. A couple years ago, we had friends over for New Year's Eve. My friend had some stomach virus and was feeling kinda oogy. She said, "I think I'd feel better if I could just throw up." OK, she might as well have said, "I think I'd feel better if I chewed my foot off." Ewww! So after a while, she went to the bathroom, threw up, and came out saying, "I feel much better. What's for dessert?" Oh my gosh! If I'd thrown up at someone's house like that, I would've curled up in a little ball, and stayed in her bathroom crying for the rest of the night.

I was also surprised how many of you are neurotic crazy curious about the idiosyncrasies of cartoons. They're CARTOONS people! Not reality. It's ok if Donald Duck doesn't wear pants and yet wraps a towel around his waist when he gets out of the tub. He's an ANIMATED DRAWING OF A DUCK! It's ok if Max & Ruby's parents aren't in the cartoon. It's a PRETEND SHOW ABOUT BUNNIES! Deep breaths. In, out. In, out. It's ok.