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???