Sunday Sound Out

From New York (you thought I was gonna say Chicago there, didn't you?), the city where you can walk in nothing but a hat, boots, and tighty whities, and no one will think twice about it, it's your host, the woman who took four hours to get all Jackson's football pads on him tonight, Dawn Meehan!

Hi Dawn, My 13 year old son refuses to get a haircut. It is so long and thick & curly and his bangs are down to his mouth. Bad part is he won't comb it to the side to even see his eyes. I am a hair designer and He is the worst client I have ever had! School pics are in a few weeks and I don't want this picture hanging on the wall.
You have two choices here. You can cut it in his sleep and claim "Notme" did it when he yells at you upon waking. Or you can let him wear it the way he wants and put his school picture next to a picture of Chewbacca in his scrapbook for future embarrassment.

I've been racking (wracking?) my brain trying to figure out what these pictures [all the junk under my couches] reminded me of, and finally I got it! It's like a page out of one of those "I Spy" books! You could make up your own game!
Oh yeah, I've done that before. Read this post HERE.

My boys frequently like to camp on the thard diningroom floor or on the outside porch. With or without sleeping matts or air matresses, whether there are bugs or not, my kids would rather sleep in the floor or ground somewhere. Remind me again, why do they each need to have a bed?
They don't! I think Brooklyn has slept in her own bed twice in her four-and-a-half years. And I'm thinking of moving the beds out of the boys' room and turning it into an office for myself.

How funny about the Sprite. (well funny now and thank God no one got hurt by the glass. Wonder how it happened!?)
I have no idea. I mean, it's not like I was clumsy and dropped it. I think it just magically exploded. I'm sure it didn't slip out of my hand as I juggled my purse, my camera, a couple bags full of swag, and two bottles of Sprite. I'm way classier than that.

we all know that Joe wasn't a good husband and "now" is not a good father but "was" he a good father?
Yeah, he was. He spent time with the kids, played with them, hung out with them. I think that's making it even harder on the kids now. They've got to wonder what they did to make him abandon them. I keep telling them it isn't them. They've done nothing wrong. Their dad loves them, but is just making a lot of really horrible choices right now.

Who's watching all the 12 kiddos while you are gone? And is going to BlogHim/Her a paid gig? It sounds fun, regardless!!
I only have six kids and my parents watched the youngest four. Austin and Savannah were on a mission trip with church, doing work in Michigan until Saturday. My parents picked them up Saturday and watched all six overnight. They're taking the next five weeks to recover.
And yes, I went to BlogHer this year for Unilever because of writing I'm doing for the Dontfretthesweat.com website. I love working with Suave, Degree, and Dove deodorants and giving practical advice on raising tweens! This has been such a really great opportunity for me, talking about tween issues, and working with products I already use! Especially if you have tweens, you need to check out the site when you have a minute and leave me a comment over there!

Sounds like you had a great time, that's awesome!! Is returning to your normal life comforting or stressful (or both)?
It's totally stressful which is comforting. I'm used to stress and chaos. It's my life. :)

Check out my post about the kids' and my trip to the Ronald McDonald House to serve lunch. It's the first post about our pay-it-forward project from 77Kids by American Eagle. You can read it HERE.

And finally, I know a lot of you have signed up to receive newsletters from me. And I know I haven't sent out a single one. (Hanging my head in shame). But that's all going to change. The first edition of my most awesome newsletter will be on it's way to you shortly! Along with some amazing, surprising news that you won't want to miss, there will be a fabulous giveaway that everyone is going to want! If you don't want to be left out of the spectacularness of it all, it's not too late to sign up! Come on, all the cool kids are doing it! Scroll down a bit on the left side of my blog to the blue box that reads, "Get book news and updates from Dawn". Fill in your email address and voila! You'll be able to receive the first edition of my newsletter delivered right to your computer!