Sunday Sound Out

Live from New York, it's Sunday Sound Out with your host, Dawn Meehan, and musical guests, The Newsboys!

Is Jackson your child with ADHD? I am the mother of THREE boys with ADHD.....I found that the amount of days he was grounded or given some punishment was endless. He wouldn't have even finished one gounding before he'd get another punishment. It just kept snowballing. I was given a piece of advice that seemed to work for us. When he did something wrong, he was given a punishment for that day only and then the next day we started over fresh. This gave him at least some chance of having a good day now and then.....
THANK YOU for the reminder! That is so true. That works so, so, so much better for him. I'd gotten away from that. Thank you!

Can we please see a video of you rocking out on Guitar Hero / Rock Band drums please???? You are my hero. I can barely do easy on drums and you're on expert level.
OK, but just remember - you asked for it. I'm kind of a spaz when I play. I'll do it this week.

Wow! Those photos are stunning!! Who took them? I don't see a photo credit anywhere.
Thanks. My bad. Jessica from Jessica's Visions took them.

Which is meaner, alligators or crocodiles?
Baby kitties are meaner.


I always wondered if the SSO was a pain. I was right.
I think that came out wrong. It isn't really a pain. I do enjoy going back over everyone's comments. It's just time consuming. For example, I'll look for pictures of alligators and crocodiles for a while. Then I'll decide to go with a cute, furry animal instead because that's funnier. Then I'll browse pictures of cute, furry animals for a while. When I find one, I'll contemplate asking the owner if I can use their picture on my blog. Then I'll realize I don't want to mess around with that and I'll remember that I probably have a picture of my little kitty from 19 years ago, so I'll search through a big box of old photos and every 5th picture or so, I'll stop and reminisce. After screwing around for like an hour with old photos, I'll scan a handful that I found. Then I'll spend 20 minutes trying to figure out why I can't find the scanned pictures on my computer. After that, I'll accidentally delete 2463 photos from my computer. I'll freak out and say, "Oh crap!" a lot. I'll find my pictures in the recycling bin and restore them all. Then I'll go back to trying to locate the scanned pictures. Once I retrieve them, I'll try to change the picture with Photoshop, but I'll realize it isn't working. Then I'll play around with Paint for a while until I realize you can't do much with Paint. Next, I'll go to Picnik.com and try to transform Kitty into an evil dude with weapons. At some point, I'll give up and just give him red eyes, a beret, and an evil-looking mustache. Then I'll insert the picture into my blog post. Then I'll spend another 10 minutes rearranging the text, trying to get the picture where I want it so everything lines up and makes sense. Finally, I'll come to the conclusion that the whole thing is stupid and I won't believe I wasted way so much time on something so stupid. Whew. Onto the next question...

Hey Dawn -- Just FYI, I linked to you today... nytimes.com/parenting.
Thanks Lisa! You guys have to check out Lisa Belkin's column, Motherlode, HERE. She's great!

But working from home is lonely - there's no coworkers to chat with, and I may go for many hours without speaking to anyone else, and there's no tech department down the hall to fix my computer when it breaks or store room full of office supplies to raid. I miss the social side of working in an office.
True, true. That's why we have blogs, Facebook, and Twitter - to connect to other SAHMs!

How do you get marker off your walls/counters/cabinets? I have seen a blog or two with one of your kids writing on a surface they shouldn't have been. Well I've had that too. I usually scrub until it's smeared and/or faded. Do you any advice for getting it completely off?
Yes, repaint your walls. Or move to a different house.
Honestly, I love Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. They work better than anything else I've ever tried. Still, there are times when even those don't work or when they work a little too well and they take off the paint along with the marker.

So did your luggage finally arrive, or are you going nekkid today?
My luggage made it to my hotel about 8 hours after I did. If airline personnel ever tags your suitcase with a cocktail napkin, kiss your bag goodbye.

Incidentally, if you fly out of MidWay you can take Southwest Airlines and you don't pay for checked luggage and you can check TWO pieces...yes that's right two and they're free! I don't fly anywhere Southwest doesn't go!!! I love them! And they have never lost any of my luggage in the 30-some years of flying with them!
Yeah, but I'd have to fly out of MIDWAY! Ewww! That's on the southside - Sox territory.

SSO?-Are you at all afraid of flying?
Nope. The woman who sat next to me on the way to San Francisco sure was though. She had a death grip on the arm rests and absolutely freaked out over every little noise. There was a good deal of turbulence until we got out of the bad weather in Chicago too. I felt so bad for her. I asked her a couple times, "Can I buy you a drink? Please?"

SSO question - I'm still new to Twitter and I just have to ask, why do your Twitter posts talk about you in the third person? Does everyone do that on Twitter? I just find it a little strange when you say "She has a middle seat." rather than "I have a middle seat."
LOL! He kept referring to himself in the third person. "Jimmy's under the boards. Jimmy's in the open. Jimmy makes the shot."
I speak in third person a lot with Twitter/Facebook because it prompts me with "Dawn is..." and then I fill in the blank. It makes more sense if I write "Dawn is tired because she didn't get enough sleep" as opposed to "Dawn is I'm tired because I didn't get enough sleep."

Maybe you've posted it in the past and I don't remember, but what on earth is the Easter Monkey?!
LOL! When my grandma moved up here from Florida, she had a box labeled Easter Monkey. It contained her Easter decorations and some sock monkeys she had made. It just struck me as funny though and we started talking about the Easter Monkey. I made everyone in my family an Easter Monkey a few years back. I'll take a picture of it when I drag out my Easter decorations.

So uhm. i thought you were Greek. How can you consider anything but lamb for Easter dinner?
He don't eat no meat? What do you mean he don't eat no meat? That's ok; I make lamb.

I absolutely love your idea for the act of kindness! May I use it in my post today?
Please do! Spread it around. And here's a resource from a reader that gives you ideas for random acts of kindness... http://www.doonenicething.com/index.php.
Here's another place where you can make a donation to help fight breast cancer if you're looking for another way to do a little act of kindness - HERE.

Ok what in the world is an easter monkey, and what happened at the ham saga of 98????
I had to call my sister to refresh my memory about this. Neither of us could totally remember the ham story! Our conversation went something like this:
"Hey Deb, do you remember the ham story from when Mom and Dad lived in the old house?"
My sister said, "You went to pick up the ham, but Mom had ordered it from another place, I think."
"Oh yeah! Wait, I think that was cake."
"Cake?" my sister asked.
"Yeah, remember when she insisted she ordered a birthday cake from Jarosch and they didn't have it. She went all ninja-like on them and left the bakery."
"Oh yeah, that sounds familiar," Deb said.
"And then the Jarosch people called around and found that she'd ordered it from another bakery!"
"Oh yeah! Hee hee"
I continued, "I think they even picked it up and brought it to their bakery for Mom."
"So what was the ham story?" Deb asked.
"I don't remember. All I know is I had to pick up a ham at the butcher down the street. I think she called them while I was there, but I don't remember why."
"You should call Mom and ask her," Deb suggested.
"Oh yeah, she's going to be mad enough that I'm writing this on my blog. I think I'll pass."
"Hmmm, yeah I don't really remember the ham story," Deb said.
"Me neither. I just remember that I can never set foot in that store every again."
So, there you have it. Although the ham story is funny enough to remember there IS a ham story, apparently it isn't funny enough to remember what the ham story is actually about.