I Smell Like the Zoo

We went to the zoo again today. This time I went with my friend Jen and her 4 kids. Lexi brought along a friend also so there were 11 kids between me and Jen. Jackson spent the first half of the trip dreading the moment we reached the play zoo because he knew he had to return the geode he stole the last time we were there. We walked up to the first employees we found which just happened to be teenage boys. Anyway, Jax burst into tears and told them that he'd taken the rock and was sorry and wanted to return it. The teenage boys looked shocked and said, "Good job! Thanks for being honest and bringing it back, dude!" (I was kinda hoping to find a grumpy old man who would give him a lecture about stealing!) So that's taken care of and hopefully he never does it again.

Here are some more pictures. See- keep reading my blog and eventually you'll see the entire animal kingdom from the comfort of your couch in your nice air-conditioned home! No walking required.

Timon


Brooklyn in her natural state.


A stick insect. Ewwww!


The fountain is back! Yay! I'm glad they didn't take it out. All they did was add these....


Sharks!!!


The gang minus 2 kiddos


polar bear. He was playing in the water and putting on a fun show. We watched him for a long time and when we finally moved on, this is what Brooklyn did...


You got it. She threw a fit and even jumped out of the wagon while it was moving and ran back to the polar bear.


Maybe I should buy her this polar bear to stop her crying.
BAAAAA HAAAAA HAAAAA!!!!! NOT! In case you can't see - the price tag reads $2,699.95!


Chito and Rita are spectacled bears. What kind of bears? Spectacled bears!


The gang minus Brooklyn. They're soaking wet from standing in a sprinkler by the elephants.


baby giraffe


bison


It was a long day


and we were stopped by an even longer train on the way home. 150+ cars!


Brooklyn's head kept flopping forward so Austin came up with this creative restraint system. Yep, they're goggles.



From the zoo, we had to go straight on to Jackson's last baseball game. I was all hot and sweaty and my hair was gross and I smelled like a camel. Lovely. I just always feel this obsessive need to hop in the shower the instant I get home from the zoo. Anyway, Jackson did a great job pitching and hitting, but the team lost so they came in 4th for the season. Not too bad!

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Someone just left me this comment:

"I don't know if you read all your comments... I seem to recall you saying somewhere that it can take you awhile to get through your e-mail... I just wanted you to know I gave you an award that I am supposed to pass on for blogs that are fun to read. It is a long post and I've got another award before that one... you are the last one on the list if you don't want to read through it all. I don't see where you've posted any of those kinds of doohickeys so don't feel like you have to put it on your sidebar or anything. You just make me laugh."

Thank you so much and thank you to HMC who gave me an award last week and to all the awesome, sweet bloggers who have given me awards in the past. You're right - I don't put them on my sidebar because I don't think I'd have enough room to put all of them there. (Man, do I sound full of myself, or what?!) I absolutely appreciate all of them however! You guys rock!

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I did pick the winner of the SafetyTats Saturday night, but then forgot to post it! Oops! The winner is...
Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:9
Timestamp: 2008-07-12 02:25:10 UTC

The 9th comment came from...

I would love to have some safety tats! Very good idea!
By Amanda, at July 11, 2008 1:32 PM

Congratulations!!!

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For those of you inquiring about the Luvs diaper coupon, I removed the link because they "ran out of coupons" a couple hours after I posted it. I thought that was crappy, so I took the whole link down.

Sunday Sound Out

I realized I hadn't done a Sunday sound out in a couple weeks. So, after going through 3 weeks' worth of questions, here goes...

I have been wondering for a long time, is the little girl from the St. Jude children's research thing Brooklyn?
Yep, that's Brooklyn on her first birthday.

Wow Austin is one smart cookie. Is he planning to be an engineer or an artist or architect or something similar when he's older? With that attention to detail at age 4-5 he will go a long way!
I just asked him, "What are you planning on being when you grow up?" He answered, "A person."
If only he could use his genius for good not evil...

I would like to post a link to your blog on my own, under a blogs that I am reading section, on blogger. Copying this link never works though. Is there a secret I don't know about?
I have no idea, but several people have told me this. Maybe try using mom2my6pack.com instead of mom2my6pack.blogspot.com?

And what the heck is Sonic? did I miss a post? I'm from Canada, so I've never heard of it.
It's a fast food restaurant where you can pull your car up, order, and pay for your meal and then waiters on skates bring your food out to you. They have an AWESOME blackberry Sprite too!

I had an SSO question for you but by the time the comment window popped up, I'd forgotten it already. Do you suffer from Mommy Brain like I do?
I'm sorry. What was the question?

Ice cream of the month, huh? How is it? Both my husband's and dad's birthdays are in the next month plus, and I have no clue what to get either!
It's ridiculously expensive, but if you've got someone who doesn't want or need anything and you can't think of any ideas, it's kinda neat.

......so did you play miniture golf?
No, we still haven't gone! Something has come up or the weather has been bad every day. I still owe them 18 holes! This week....

I noticed underneath Brooklyn's crying, that you were listening to the soundtrack from "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" (could they have come up with a longer name?!) It's a favorite of our family's but it got me to wondering: What audio selections do you offer in the car and, most importantly, who gets to pick?
My car - I pick. And if the kids complain, I put on opera. They love that.

I'm totally digging the fact that Brooklyn stopped crying as soon as "Go, Go, Go Joseph" came on. I wonder, does she always do that, or was this time just a fluke? :)
It was a fluke, but she used to stop crying EVERY TIME she heard THIS SONG when she was a baby.

Hi Dawn, What kind of Van did you buy.
A Pace bus Chevy Express

I wondered if you had ever considered with the success of your blog/book if someone will offer you a reality series and if you would be willing to do that?
Thanks!
I've never really thought about it, but I don't think I'd be interested in having America invade my home on a weekly basis like that.

Wow! I thought I was the only one that had to deal with tantrums like that!! I thought my 2 1/2 year old son was just going to be a bad child! You have given me hope that maybe it IS just a phase...do you have any suggestions??
Duct tape over his mouth and/or ear plugs for you.

Does Brooklyn normally freak out... scream so nicely, every time you put her in the car seat?
Oh no.
It's not exclusive to car seats.

If you could go anywhere in the world on your next vacation where would you go?
P.S. if you had all the money in the world.
There are too many places I'd love to see, so I guess if money wasn't an option, I'd take a trip around the world.

So does that mean you do about 9 to 10 loads of laundry a week?
Double that.

I was wondering - do you yell a lot?
WHO TOLD YOU THAT?! WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I YELL A LOT? I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE CLOSED MY WINDOWS YESTERDAY!

And how did the marshmallows taste? I watch Alton Brown, and I've seen his marshmallow tutorial, and I cook a LOT and I'm still not willing to try out his theory that marshmallows don't have to come from a bag!
They were actually pretty good. But I've never found anything wrong with the kind that come in a bag either.

Question: Are you like me and feel GUILTY when you ask people to watch your kids? I HATE IT! I would rather drag them to the store, tantrums and all, than inconvenience someone else with MY children. I know that is silly but it's the way my brain works!
YES! Joe and I went out for our anniversary yesterday. I hate asking anyone to watch the kids. That's why we end up going out once every 2 years. It's pathetic. We had dinner and then called home to ask permission to extend our curfew so we could go see a movie.

Glad no one was hurt. I have to ask, it looks like hubby's burb is a 3/4 ton. I have one just like it but it is a rare diesel model. Is joe's burb a diesel too?
Ummm, it's white.

Do you wear your hair up or down?
I used to be the queen of the ponytail (very classy, I know), but I recently got my hair cut short. :(

Oh my good gravy, thank goodness no-one was hurt! How about his truck? Was it dented/scratched? Hopefully it's ok?
The truck was just dented a little when the branch fell on it, but more importantly, what does "good gravy" mean and where did you come up with that saying? LOL! You sound like my friend Janie!

just a stupid question, maybe SSO material. where do you rent your movies from?
the library or Blockbuster and now I remember why. Joe and I went out to the movies last night and saw Indiana Jones. It cost us $20! TWENTY DOLLARS!!! Just for the two of us!

Ummm Dawn, should I ask why you continue to go camping when someone is very politely and subtlely telling you not to?
I'm gathering material for my third book.

So my question is, where are all six kids if you were driving a truck?!? Tell me they weren't in the camper. Is that legal?!? Perhaps you have an RV?A truck - Suburban that seats 9. Although letting the kids bounce around in the camper sounds like a wonderful idea for next time!

Peoria, Peoria... Seems like there was some tv show or movie that took place in Peoria? Do you know what that was?
Children of the Corn?

Clearly it's been a while since I've been camping, but how, while camping, do you have internet access to tell us these wonderful stories??
I don't know. A lot of campgrounds now offer WiFi. We just stayed at a Jellystone that had internet access.

Question
What consequences and rewards do you use to guide your children's behavior? Timeouts, chores, restitution? I am being totally serious.
It depends on the child and the offense. There is no "one discipline fits all" answer in my house.

I'm curious Dawn. What are schmoes? I'm wondering if that's what we call s'mores here in the east. Graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows??
LOL! Yep! "Hot delicious schmoes" is a line from Toy Story 2.

Hi again Dawn, I am just curious if the masquito's < ( bad speller here) are really biting you all this year? They are terrible here in Michigan. I was told the bats are dying of some disese and therfore not eating them.
The mosquitoes stink. We just try to stay inside at dusk here. I hadn't heard anything about dwindling bat populations though. I figured it was just from all the flooding. I think Deb (boufmom) has some extra bats if anyone needs some!

Wow, so am I correct in assuming that you also live 3 hours away from the Brookfield Zoo? And you went twice in like a week? That's crazy! haha!
Ahhh no. I'm a few minutes away from the zoo.

From what I recall of central Illinois, you can just about see the ones shot off in Peoria from any point between Chicago and St. Louis. Am I right?
HAAA! Yep, I think you're right. Illinois is extraordinarily flat.

great post....But this is jus out of curiosity.I think i have met you YAHOO messenger.Do you write poems???
Ummm nope. I'm not on Yahoo and I definitely don't write poems.

Welcome home Dawn, Did you have any troubles with the truck on the drive home? Also was wondering what kind of tent or camper you use for your large family?
We have a kinda big camper. No tents for me anymore. No way. I'll take a camper with a bathroom, a microwave, and air conditioning thankyouverymuch.

Honestly, I bet you do love camping. It's just all the "other garbage" that you could do without....
Or not.

How hot is it in Chicago in August? I'm coming for a visit on the 14th and don't know how to dress. It's 100 degrees until October here in Mississippi.
It could be 100 or it could be 60. It's hard telling. Generally though, it's pretty hot (80s) and humid in August.

I have a question....how do we e-mail you? I've wanted to for awhile but I can't seem to find your e-mail address on your site. I swear I won't stalk you! Well, not anymore than I already do.....
mom2my6pack at aol dot com.

Dawn - A few questions for ya....reading your grocery store adventures is always a pleasure, but I have to wonder, at what age are you willing to leave one or two of the kids at home for the grocery run? My oldest is 11, and I'll leave him if I know he is A) occupied with something and B) my trip is under an hour.
I could leave the older ones at home for a short time while I went to the store, but I don't necessarily trust them to watch the little ones while I'm gone. Sooo, I'm mean and I make them all come with me so the older ones can help me out with the little ones.

Also, you mentioned Clayton's middle name and now it piqued my curiosity......what are all your kids middle names?
I have a hard enough time remembering their first names! Now you want to know their middle names too?
James
Lee
Raine
Anne
Reid
Rose

So do you always sit it out when you don't like your kids' friends?
It's only happened twice that I can think of, but other than hinting at some things, I left it up to my kids to decide. I figured if I forbid my kids from seeing them or said bad things about them, it would make my kids mad and make them want to hang out with them even more.

You know you really are starting to seem unreal to me. What a great way to handle this situation! You seem to be able to handle any situation, with grace and dignity
SNORT! That's just because I left off the part about my shaking in my Crocs and feeling like hurling all over the place.

OH - MY - GOSH! Brooklyn is so adorable in that picture. Have you ever considered trying to get her into commercials or modeling for catalogs?
Thank you and nope. I wouldn't begin to know how to go about that and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have time for it anyway.

You've got to help me (b/c you have so much extra time on your hands) - but I'm desperate and pls forgive my ignorance- for some reason I stopped receiving your updates in my email for a long time (I know, gasp!). Then recently, I went to your site and clicked to subscribe, but now I get the updates fully in email with no links so I cant see comments,etc. Tonite- I tried again, but can't figure out how to sign up for the email alerts that give me a link to your blog. (long winded cry for help) - where do I sign up for this?
I think you can click one of the links to the right of my blog (Feedburner, etc.)

Good for you! I think you handled that excellently! Thanks for sharing the experience with us so we could learn from it too. Ever thought about a parenting video!??!?! I'm sure the book will be full of "lessons learned" but a VIDEO...now THERE'S an idea!! =)
I have actually. We'll see...

BTW.. Dawn what is your secret (and Savannah's) for saving so well? I'm very impressed at how she was able to save so much $ at her age.
I don't have a secret. I have no idea. It's just how Savannah is. Jackson, on the other hand, can't keep money for a day without wanting to spend it. They're all different.

Way to handle a tough situation diplomatically and turn it in to a learning lesson. This does remind me of the Brady bunch. The end of every show was wrapped up with some pertinent life lesson, e.g Greg and his "Exact words".
LOL! Where did the Bradys go? Where are all the family shows we grew up watching? Full House? The Cosby Show? Little House on the Prairie? Different Strokes? Family Ties? The Facts of Life? Growing Pains? There's nothing good on tv anymore. Stupid reality shows (I get enough reality in my life) and stuff that isn't appropriate for kids. What happened to all the family shows??? Even the commercials are bad. Who wants to see 100 commercials for E.D. during a baseball game broadcast during the day??? Ugh.

Some Cool Stuff

Here's another way cool product! My friend Kristyi (yes, I spelled it that way on purpose. She can't decide if her name ends with a "y" or an "i" so I use both. Don't ask.) Anyway, my friend Kristyi emailed me a link to this website and I thought it was such a good idea, I asked the owner, Michele, if she'd send me a sample so I could review it and pass it on to you.

Have you ever been separated from a child while at a museum, zoo, amusement park, or mall? Do you remember a time when you were a child and you were separated from your parent? Those heart-stopping moments are hard to forget. Having 6 kids, I'm forever doing the head count thing. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5....Where's 6? WHO'S 6???

I remember shopping with Austin (3 years old) and Savannah (1 1/2 years old) at Toys R Us one day. On this particular trip, I had Savannah sitting in the seat of the cart. Ordinarily, I would've put Austin into the basket of the cart, but a case of temporary insanity caused me to let him walk instead. So, I'm pushing the cart along and doing my shopping and despite the glazed look in his eyes that says he's about to take off like a rocket through the store, Austin is surprisingly following along. I turn and make sure Austin is still beside me every few seconds until one time I look, and he's nowhere to be seen. I'm sure he's just walked over a little ways to look at an especially cool toy, but still my heart starts pounding as horrible little thoughts invade my mind. I turn the cart around and retrace my last several steps. No Austin. I'm getting worried and walking faster as I push the cart up and down the aisles looking for my son. I call out his name, but to no avail. Thoughts of every tragic thing that could happen race through my mind.

Then I hear over the loudspeaker, "Mrs. James, please come to the customer service desk. Mrs. James."

I don't think anything of the announcement for about five seconds and then it hits me. I rush up to the desk and sure enough, there stands Austin. After I grab him and kiss him and sufficiently embarrass him while thanking God for keeping him safe, I tell him, "Austin, honey, that was very good of you to go to the service desk and tell someone your name. Good job, sweetie. But Austin, your name is Austin Meehan. James is your middle name, honey." Of course, that was followed by the required, "Now don't EVER take off like that again!!!

Anyway, Michele, creator of SafetyTat and mother of 3, came up with the idea of SafetyTat after taking her family to an amusement/water park. As they arrived at the park, she realized there were 4 million people there and although her children were obedient, good listeners, they were still kids and she knew that it only takes a second for one to get separated in a crowd, or for one to start following another person thinking it's mom or dad. Although her husband helpfully suggested they fashion a chain gang out of duct tape to keep the family together, Michele had other plans. She grabbed a pen and wrote her cell phone number on each of the kids so if they were inadvertently separated, anyone with a cell phone could call her to reconnect parent with child. It was a great idea, but the ink washed off at the water park so Michele came up with the idea of tattoos! How awesome is that? Kids LOVE temporary tattoos! And if they're separated from you, you're just a phone call away. What a piece of mind!

Michele has a variety of really cute designs from which to choose and not only that - she has special tattoos that say, "I Have Non-Verbal Autism" and "Alert: Diabetic" among others. That's something I would have never even thought of! Clayton's godmother has an adorable daughter with autism who is non-verbal. If she were ever separated, she probably couldn't communicate to a stranger effectively.

The tattoos go on easily and they STAY on. I tried scrubbing them off my kids' arms with water and a washcloth and they stayed put. They can be removed with baby oil, but my kids insisted I leave them on. They love them!

Did you know that over 2000 kids get lost every day? 90% of families will have the heart-stopping experience of losing a child in a public place and 27% (1 in 3!) of families that visit an amusement park, will lose a child while they're there. Now that it's summer, people are going to water parks, zoos, museums, and amusement parks by the thousands. Give yourself peace of mind and keep these outings fun with SafetyTats!

And now, just enter code "6pack" to receive FREE shipping on orders placed now through July 30! PLUS, Michele is giving away one FREE pack of 30 SafetyTats! Just leave a comment on this post and I'll pick a random winner this Saturday night.

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And lastly, this is the final call for Melissa! Melissa, who left this answer on my blog quiz:

1) C2) B3) B4) B, C, D, E5) C6) C7) D8) A, B, C, E9) F10) False
By Melissa, at June 30, 2008 3:26 PM

I need your address so we can send you the prize you won. If I haven't heard from you by Sunday, I'll choose another winner.

And I need email addresses for Debbie (mom2cors) and Carol C. and Sharon P.

Please email me mom2my6pack@aol.com. Thanks!

***Edited*** The Luvs diaper coupon can be found HERE.

Life Lessons Learned

I printed out copies of the items Savannah's friend bought along with the lowest sale and clearance prices that were advertised online now. It added up to over $75. Savannah and I went over to her house this evening and both the friend and her mom welcomed us inside. I calmly and nicely said, "I don't want to argue or start a fight or anything, but I looked up the items that B. bought with Savannah and this is what I came up with. Perhaps B. just forgot about some of the things she got."
B. looked highly guilty and said in a small voice, "Yes, I think I forgot about some things."

Her mom went over the list of items and B. admitted getting all of them. Her mom said that she hadn't seen everything that B. had gotten that day. I can see how that could happen. Your kid gets home from the mall and you're trying to get dinner on the table; you don't look at her purchases right away; then you forget about them all together. I really think her mother was just confused and wasn't sure what the story was. When she saw it on paper, it made sense to her and she thanked me for coming over and showing her what had been bought. Her mom then wrote Savannah a check and told B. she'd be doing errands for a long time to pay it off.

Although I still don't think much of this girl's character, I can understand getting wrapped up in shopping and not making wise decisions about how you spend your money. Heck, every time I go to Target for laundry detergent and toilet paper, 10 more things tend to wind up in my cart! Anyway, Savannah now knows not to lend out money like that. A friend forgets her lunch money and wants to borrow a couple dollars - sure. Seventy dollars for shopping - notsomuch.

I do hope that Savannah will be nice and cordial to this girl in the future, but I also hope she remembers this and doesn't hang out with her outside school anymore.

Savannah said she still wanted to sell the clothes and her half of the "best friends" necklace that she and B. bought together on eBay, but since she got her money back, she wants to donate the money to Make a Wish Foundation. I think we'll list it next week after I get back from the BlogHer conference.

So, she learned that it isn't wise to lend out huge amounts of money like that.
She learned a little about this girl's character.
She learned to stand up for what's right.
She learned that not everyone is honest.
She learned that dear ole mom will be there to help her out if she needs.
She learned to forgive and move on.
And I learned that cleaning is bad.

Well, actually that had nothing to do with Savannah's money lending saga, but still, it was a lesson learned. Want to know why? While cleaning the other day, I found a pacifier behind my bed. We had tried to get Brooklyn to take this pacifier when she was an infant. She's 2 now. (Yes, that's how often I try to clean between the wall and my waterbed that can't be moved.) Anyway, Brooklyn never wanted anything to do with the pacifier. She was never interested in using it. However, since finding it the other day, she's had it in her mouth nonstop. That, my friends, is reason #48 why cleaning is bad.

I Want My Two Dollars!

How would you handle this? Savannah and her friend went to the mall at the beginning of June. After letting them shop for a couple hours, I picked them up. They had several bags of clothes with them. Savannah showed me what they'd bought - some earrings from Claires and some clothes from Aeropostale and Forever 21. They had lunch at McDonald's. Savannah had even bought Brooklyn an outfit from Baby Gap. Now Savannah used her own money for this shopping trip; money she'd saved from allowance and birthdays. She's a big saver. She carefully weighs the pros and cons and debates whether she wants to spend her money on it. How sweet was it that she thought of Brooklyn and used her money to buy her this cute outfit? I was really touched by that. (I was going to reimburse Savannah for the price of that outfit, but it didn't fit Brooklyn, so I returned it and gave the money back to Savannah.)

OK, so the other day, Savannah wanted to buy something with her money and I told her she could go ahead and get it. She didn't say anything, but she was acting strange. I finally pulled from her the fact that she had lent $77.08 to her friend back when they went shopping in June. Apparently Savannah had tried calling her friend to ask for repayment, but the friend never answered her phone or called Savannah back. Savannah was really upset about it. She was in tears, in fact. I offered to call this friend's mom to let her know about it. Savannah agreed.

So, I called her mom who told me she was unaware that her daughter had borrowed any money from Savannah. She told me to call her back the next day so we could arrange a time for me to pick up the money. ??? OK, whatever. I called her back two days later and she informed me, "We seem to have a problem because my daughter said that she only borrowed $20 from Savannah."

Now, I didn't want to tell this woman that her daughter was a liar, but I know that the earrings alone cost over $20! I'm the one who picked them up from the mall. I saw everything they'd gotten. It was more than $20 worth. Still, I didn't want to start a fight or anything so I suggested we let the girls talk and see if they could work it out. We put our daughters on the phone. This friend told Savannah it was only $20 and hung up on Savannah. Savannah was in tears again.

Unfortunately Savannah didn't save any receipts. She has the card that some of the earrings came on. It still has a price sticker of $14.99 on it. (Her friend got an identical card of earrings plus one additional card of earrings.) I looked online for the prices of some of the clothing they'd bought. It added up to $70-something. Now, I don't want to sound naive, but out of all my kids, I know Savannah is the last person who would ever lie. I'm quite certain she didn't pull the figure of $77.08 out of thin air. That was the amount on the receipts (not including the tax) that Savannah added up when they first got home from the mall back in June.

The problem is - how do I convince this woman that her daughter is perhaps not being entirely honest about this. Just maybe she's embarrassed or scared of getting in trouble with her mom. How do I broach this without outright calling her daughter a liar? I don't know the mom. This isn't a girl Savannah's been friends with for years. She'd just met the girl this past year.

If it was my money, I'd probably just drop it and deal with the loss. But this is money that Savannah has saved for years. And what bothers me even more is that I had to tell Savannah to go against her nature and not lend money to friends again. She was trying to be helpful, thoughtful and generous and I had to tell her that basically she couldn't trust others to be the same way.

I'm just sad for her and don't know the best way to handle this. Darn those stupid parenting books. They never mention anything like this! I so didn't sign up for this! And you know, I wasn't overly thrilled when I first met this friend, but didn't want to say anything bad about her. This girl was absolutely rude and obnoxious during Savannah's band concert. A few of us wanted to slap her that night. But I figured Savannah could form her own opinion of this girl.

Savannah and this "friend" bought a couple matching outfits that day. Savannah has only worn hers once and no longer wants it. Maybe I'll eBay the clothes to try and get some of her money back.

What Was the Question?

A couple gentlemen paid me a visit today to talk about some business stuff. I'd never met these guys before so I should've tried to make a good impression, right? I should've cleaned my house and made sure I had plenty of refreshments on hand. I should've threatened the kids to behave drilled the kids on the importance of good behavior - maybe even teach them a nice little farewell song with which they could entertain our guests.



But I didn't. I just don't have the gene that makes you get all nervous when meeting people. I don't find it necessary to freak out about every little detail. I don't agonize for hours that my guests might not like my scratched up old Tupperware plates and cups. I don't worry that my china cabinet isn't sparkling. Well, I mainly don't worry about that one because I don't have a china cabinet. But if I did have a china cabinet, I wouldn't worry about it. Of course, my kids would've probably broken everything in it, so there really wouldn't be anything to worry about anyway....

I just don't stress about little stuff like that. My sister's the one who got the stress-out gene. She got it from my mom. My mom is hosting her bunko group next week. That means that for the past month she's been making lists of stuff that NEEDS to be done. She's cleaned everything despite the fact that it's just her and my dad in their house and they generally don't wedge granola bar wrappers in the couch cushions, spill pineapple juice on the floor, color on the tv, or shove dirty laundry in their closet. Their house is pretty much always spotless. It looks like a model home.

She's also landscaped, bought new dinnerware, tried out 52 new appetizer recipes, had the carpets cleaned, bought all new furniture, and built a 1000 square foot addition. OK, so I may be exaggerating a bit. A little bit.

Anyway, back to my visitors. Despite my stellar planning, I had to run out to the grocery store for some food for lunch. It was either that or feed the kids a can of stewed tomatoes and a some questionable looking celery for lunch. I've gotten spoiled with Joe being home most evenings. I haven't had to take all the kids to the grocery store with me in a long time.

I had one kid crawling under the cart. A couple more were writing, "cheese" and "poop" in the condensation on the deli case. Brooklyn was screaming her head off because she wanted to hold the little paper number I'd taken at the deli counter. Clay was sitting in the basket squishing grapes, Austin was teaching Brooklyn to say fun things like, "Get my gun!", and Savannah was giving me dirty looks because I tortured her by making her go with us.

After the grocery store fun, we spent the afternoon with our guests. The visit went something like this:

GUEST: Hi, nice to meet you.
CLAY: Mom! Look, a butt crack! as he indicated a dent in the pear he was eating
ME: CLAYTON REID! to my guest I'm sorry. It's so nice to meet you too.
CLAY: Look! Really Mom, there's a butt crack!
ME: Clayton, that's enough. to my guest He's charming, no?
CLAY: Butt crack! Butt crack! This pear has a butt crack!
ME: apologetically to my guest I dropped him on his head when he was little.
AUSTIN: Mom, come see my garden. I have 22 tomatoes growing now.
ME: That's awesome. I'll look at it later.
GUEST: So, besides your book, have you written anything else?
BROOKLYN: I want chips!
LEXI: Can I read this book to you, Mom?
SAVANNAH: Mom! Jackson's having pop!
JACKSON: Can I have a friend over?
BROOKLYN: I want chips!
LEXI: Can we go swimming?
JACKSON: Where's my baseball game tonight?
AUSTIN: Should I pick the zucchini today?
LEXI: Can I go across the street now?
ME: to guest Ummm, I'm sorry. What was the question again?

This went on for 2 hours.

I'm pretty sure we scared them right back home.
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OK, now I need to talk about something serious. I know, I know, I really try hard not be serious. I don't want to ruin my reputation as a goofy dork. However, I wanted to bring something to your attention. I've been super fortunate that I've never been affected by post partum depression. Oh sure, I did the usual crying because I forgot to put fabric softener in the laundry or tearing up over a battery commercial on tv, and other stupid stuff like for a couple weeks postpartum, but I never experienced full blown depression. There are a lot women who don't fare so well when their hormones go bonkers after giving birth, however. Reese Butler founded 1-800-SUICIDE in 1998 after losing his wife to suicide. This program helps 50,000 callers every month. 50,000 a month! Women suffering from postpartum depression, teenagers unable to cope, adults, dads, brothers, sisters, grandparents. Right now, the Kristin Brooks Hope Center/1-800-SUICIDE is privately funded. Information about callers is kept confidential. Trained psychiatrict rescue teams are sent to help; not the police. And they're trying to keep it that way. They need to raise another 55k by August. Yes, that's a huge amount of money, but every dollar adds up. Maybe some of you have been affected by depression. Maybe some of you have even lost loved ones to suicide. This is a program that can help. Check it out HERE.

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And finally, because I'm always in search of ways to waste time to enrich my mind with fun, educational games, I wanted to share THIS GAME with you. It's a Journey to the Center of the Earth game! This is a fun one to play with the kids. Just don't play it with your kids who are over the age of 5 or so because they will make fun of your lack of geographical knowledge, and they will marvel at how you ever made it to adulthood not knowing what country lies to the north of Zimbabwe or what layer is directly beneath the earth's crust.

Then after the geography embarrassment, the kids laughed at me as I smashed my little guy into rocks until he became unconcious. And I won't even tell you how long it took me to hop across the rocks to get to the center of the earth! In fact, after I killed my guy 4000 times, I gave up entirely. I think I'll just skip the game and let my kids play so they can taunt me with their vast geography knowledge. I'll just go to the movie instead. After all, Brendan Fraser is in it. Yum-o.

And the Winners Are...

Here are the 11 winners from my Super Spectacular One Year Anniversary Bloggy Quiz!

These are the people who got all 10 questions right!

Shannon from Delaware
Melissa
Keren
Carol
Amber
Sharon

And here are the other winning names that I randomly drew from the group of people who got 9 out of 10 questions correct!

mrsslats
Charlotte's Mommy
LaLa
mom2cors
zelcers

Congratulations! Write me with your mailing address so your prize can be shipped out.

1. Which one of these things has Dawn NOT shown us pictures of?

A. a bar of soap with teethmarks in it
B. her sister's Christmas tree
C. her thumb with a Strawberry Shortcake bandage on it
D. a komodo dragon
E. a doorknob

2. Which quote has Dawn NOT used on her blog?

A. Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that ~ George Carlin
B. Parents are not interested in justice, they're interested in peace and quiet. ~ Bill Cosby
C. Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much. ~ Oscar Wilde
D. When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear. ~ Mark Twain
E. Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. ~ Matthew 7:1-2

3. Which one of the following was NOT a blog post title?

A. The Bats Won't Poop on Your Head
B. You Put WHAT in the Toilet?
C. Here's Some Toilet Paper to go With That Butt Paste
D. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
E. Don't Put Chocolate Milk in Your Pants

4. Dawn has had pictures of Brooklyn in which of these places?

A. Stuck on the top bunk bed
B. Playing in the toilet
C. Sitting in the bathroom sink
D. In the kitchen cupboard
E. Standing in the dishwasher

5. The most comments Dawn has received on a post is...

A. 718
B. 353
C. 872
D. 903

6. Which of the following things does Dawn NOT hate?

A. vomit
B. styrofoam
C. broccoli
D. balloons
E. shoes

7. Dawn is well known for her beautiful decorated cakes made to celebrate the highlights in her family. Which theme has Dawn NOT shown us pictures of?

A. Bacon
B. Lightning McQueen
C. Monkeys
D. Bugs
E. Simpsons

8. In addition to cakes, a lot of other cooking takes place in the Meehan kitchen too. Which of these kitchen disasters experiences did Dawn write about?

A. Joe putting lemon-lime Kool Aid on fish
B. Clay microwaving eggs for 55 minutes and 55 seconds
C. Austin melting the slotted spoon by making donuts
D. Savannah burning chocolate chip cookies
E. Clay turning the mixer on high and spraying flour all over the place

9. There is a lot of “gross” food found at the Meehan’s. Which one has NOT been blogged about?

A. Pizza
B. Sour chocolate milk
C. Moldy sandwich
D. Petrified hot dog
E. Banana peel
F. Cookies
G. Waffle

10. True or false: Dawn fed Clayton chocolate ice cream for breakfast on national tv.
False

Thank you to everyone for playing!!! And thanks for an awesome first year!
And thank you so much to the wonderful ladies who donated prizes to the winners!

Leslie at Simply Lovely Gifts

Patti at Precious Text

Vanessa at My Mommy's Bracelets

Annika at Red Thread Confections

Angie at Good For the Kids

Kim at Olive Kids

Dana at Couture Moms

Michelle at 4 The Kids

Rachel at Supper's on the Table, Come Home

Roxanne from Sassy Chics

I Love Camping!

I'm on my 9th load of laundry since returning home last night. I have a good 7 more to go.

I love camping.

Joe took Lexi to get her glasses fixed this evening because they were broken when we were camping. They're broken every time we camp. It's a rule or something.

I love camping.

I think my ears have finally stopped ringing from listening to the kids for 3 hours on the way home.
Mom! She hit me!
Go away, Jackson!
Mom! She's on my side!
Dad! She's kicking my chair!
Mom! Make her stop kicking my chair!
Dad! I'm thirsty!
Mom! Is there anything to eat?
Are we almost there yet?

And let's not forget Brooklyn's made-up Yogi Bear song. I believe the lyrics went a little like this: Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear. Repeat until your ears bleed.

Oh yes, and then there was Clay who kept repeating, "butt crack"

I think all minivans should come equipped with sound-proof glass between the driver's seat and the back of the van (like a limo) standard. It's not that we don't love to hear our kids, but we like our ear drums intact and would enjoy keeping them that way. Besides, there's a direct car-to-noise ratio. The more enclosed the space (like a vehicle), the louder the sounds. The louder the sounds, the more stress inflicted upon the parents. The more stress on the parents, the more they have an urge to drive their car off a cliff. It's simple math, really.

I love camping.

I have mosquito bites in places I'd rather not mention. My ankles are bloody scabs from all the scratching I did in my sleep. And creepy alien lightning bugs tried to abduct me and Jenny at the campground. Honestly! It's true! You can even ask Jen. She'll tell you. We had to jump up on our camping chairs so the lightning bug didn't drag us off under the camper. No, we weren't drinking, why?

I love camping.

The kids are off schedule from camping. I think Brooklyn woke up a half hour after I went to bed. It's been a fun day around here. Have I mentioned that I love camping?

...Back Home Again, You Know.

We went to this museum, Wheels O' Time, yesterday. They had 3 barns full of old "stuff" - clocks, cars, machinery, toys, etc. It was really interesting and the adults in our group would like to have spent more time there, but since we had to chase 10 kids who wanted to run through the museum at break-neck speed, that wasn't an option. I could just see Brooklyn or Clayton jumping in a hundred year old Ford model T and somehow managing to drive it through the barn, over typewriters, phonographs, ancient lightbulbs, and 200 year old cuckoo clocks before crashing it through the wall.

A bunch of old cars. Joe was hyperventilating.


An old fashioned washing machine. I guess I shouldn't complain about the 400 loads of laundry I have to do this week...


It could be even worse....


OK, so most of the exhibits were really interesting and there were many hands-on exhibits, but this one was particularly creepy. It's a presidential quartet, of course. I think the presidents were dug up from their graves for this one. (Before you write to tell me - yes, I know they're not all dead, but come on - look at them! It's night of the living dead here!)


Here's the gang minus me and I think only 2 of them were throwing melt-down fits at the time. Not bad.


Just playing with my camera here and making the kids wait for me to take more pictures. They love it when I do that.


OK, so I wrote how the pool had a salty taste. I failed to mention the film of nastiness that was floating on the surface and the layer of crud on the bottom. Then, I noticed this sign outside the pool today.
"Any person having an infectious or communicable disease is prohibited from using a public pool.
Persons having open blisters, cuts, etc. are advised not to use the pool.
Spitting, spouting water, blowing the nose, or discharging bodily wastes in the pool is strictly prohibited."
Barf. Antibiotics anyone?


And check it out! The happening town of Goodfield, population 700. Yes, that's right. This town has about the same number of people that were in my graduating class! It doesn't get more exciting than this.


This concludes the run-down on my fun-filled camping trip. Until I lose my mind and agree to go camping again...

...Hi Ho the Dairy-O...

Happy Fourth of July!

Well, we spent the day hanging around the campsite and swimming. Even though it was a chlorinated pool, the water somehow tasted salty. Still, it was ok until Chris pointed out that we were swimming in everyone else's butt sweat. Pretty gross when you think about it. That ended the swimming for me thankyouverymuch.

We went out to see fireworks in Peoria tonight. I have never seen such a crowd for fireworks before. I mean, where I live every town has fireworks. You have a dozen places to choose from - all within 10 miles of your house. We walked in to Walmart to kill time before the fireworks and I asked the cashier, "Is this the only place around that does fireworks?" She said, "No, Chicago does them and St. Louis does them." (For those of you who don't know, both Chicago and St. Louis are a good 3 hours away.) In other words, I guess if you live in central Illinois, this is pretty much it.

The cool thing about our optimal viewing spot is that we were parked between Buffalo Wild Wings and Culvers. Hot wings and frozen custard anyone?

...A-Camping We Will Go...

We're camping with friends and there are 14 of us total. We've been noticing a strange phenomenon. A camper pulled up at the site adjacent to ours. The people got out of their RV, saw all of us, promptly got back in their vehicle and drove off.

Another camper pulled up, the folks got out, plugged their camper into the electrical outlet, then quickly disappeared inside, not to be seen again.

When we went to the pool this afternoon, within 15 minutes, the entire place was empty except for us. Not another soul in sight.

Do you think it has anything to do with the fact that we've got 10 kids running around like howler monkeys hopped up on caffeine and crack?


ME: Are you sure the kids can eat those? Where did you find them? How do you know what kind of berries they are?

JOE: They're boysenberries.

ME: Since when do you know what boysenberries are?

JOE: I just know.

ME: Oh give me a break. You just find some berries growing along the lake and you start eating them without knowing what they are?

JOE: I told you - they're mulberries!

ME: You said they were boysenberries! Now they're mulberries?

JOE: Yes, they're huckleberries.

ME: Admit that you're clueless.

JOE: I am not clueless. I'm an Eagle Scout!

ME: Do Eagle Scouts usually pour lighter fluid on the fire to get it going?

Yes, camping brings out the best in us.


Ooooo prettiful

Now I'm off to sit around the campfire with Andy and make some hot delicious schmoes!

A-Camping We Will Go...

Guess where I had dinner tonight!



Right here in the middle of a corn field in Peoria.



We made it here relatively uneventfully. I say "relatively" because we do not have good luck camping. One time our truck burst into flames. Once the whole wheel fell off. Not the tire - the wheel. More times than I can count, something has broken on the truck. One of those times, while Joe went to a nearby junk yard and fixed it, Jen, Chris, all our kids, and I walked around a K-Mart for like 5 hours. It was 5000 degrees outside and I was 100 months pregnant. It was not fun. I'm pretty sure there's a K-Mart in Wisconsin that has our pictures posted near the entrance with a warning, "If you see these people, call the police immediately."

Then there was the time, we got stuck on a hill in the Kentucky mud and the time that our carbon monoxide detector went off in the middle of the night. Another time the truck overheated and we had to drive home from Michigan in rush hour traffic through the city with the heater full blast. The only problem is it was 90-some degrees at the time. On a different trip, something broke and we couldn't drive over 35 mph all the way home. That was fun. I think the worst trip was when our truck and camper flipped over. Needless to say, we had a little detour to the emergency room and never made it to our destination.

Anyway, Joe spent the last couple days working on his truck to ensure it was in good working condition and would indeed safely transport us to Peoria. Yesterday evening Joe got some metal shavings in his eye while working on his truck. He finally broke down and went to the ER when I threatened to divorce him his eye was still in pain several hours later. Much like Clay, a couple weeks ago, he has a corneal abrasion and needs antibiotic drops. Because the ER was so busy last night, he didn't get home until 2:00am.

We only had to stop once on the way here today because the floor beneath my feet on the passenger side of the truck was so hot it was burning my feet. In fact, it was burning the carpet and the rubber floor mat. The smell of burning plastic filled the truck and steam circled around the cabin. Given our glorious history, however, this goes down in the Most Awesome Times Driving to a Campground Ever book.

I'm sure there'll be more adventures tomorrow. Meanwhile, here's a giant ice cream cone and a giant rooster. Where else can you go for blurry pictures of giant dairy products and farm fowl? For any of you who happen to live in Peoria, yes I was the weirdo with my head hanging out the car window taking pictures of these things.