Limeades for Learning

Each year, teachers spend nearly $1,200 of their own money to effectively teach their students, and Sonic wants to help. They’ve partnered with DonorsChoose.org, a national leading non-profit Web site to fulfill projects requested by teachers. Projects range from soccer balls needed for gym class to ESL materials to help children read to computers needed for a science lab. If a teacher needs specific materials or resources, they can sign up as a SONIC Teacher at LimeadesForLearning.com and register their project online.

One of the unique benefits of DonorsChoose.org is that every day people become citizen philanthropists by donating to their favorite teacher’s project. Limeades for Learning is similar in that it empowers Sonic customers to take part and direct which teacher projects receive funding. From Aug. 31 to Oct. 1, customers are encouraged to purchase any frozen or fountain drink at Sonic and participate in the program. When you order a drink, each cup will be specially marked with a sticker that contains a unique code used to vote for a teacher project on LimeadesForLearning.com. Each week for five weeks, teacher projects with the most votes will be funded by SONIC up to $500,000.00. If customers want to continue to give, they will have an additional opportunity to donate money to their favorite teacher’s projects.



I have both a $25 MySonic gift card AND a $25 DonorsChoose.org card for 2 winners! Just leave me a comment here with your favorite Sonic drink and I'll choose a winner on Friday, the 18th. Good luck!

It's a Heart Attack (or indigestion)

So, last night, as I was working on my blog, I got these awful chest pains. My chest, my jaw, and my back between my shoulder blades hurt. Oh great, my kids have finally given me a heart attack, I thought. This was the fourth time I'd experienced pain like this in the past month. Now I'm the kind of person who generally says, "I don't need a doctor. If I ignore it long enough, it'll go away." And that theory mostly works for me. However, there's just something inherently scary about chest pain. After talking to some friends who urged me to go the ER, I decided - nah, I don't need medical attention. But my EMT friend made me promise to at least call my doctor in the morning.

Whoever heard of jaw pain being a symptom of a heart attack? When I think of heart attacks, I picture an old guy, clutching his chest and dramatically staggering around the room before collapsing. Apparently women tend to do things weird when it comes to heart attacks. We get nausea, or back pain, or pain in our jaws, or other weirdo symptoms that don't scream heart attack. The problem with that is too many of us fail to seek medical attention in a timely manner because we don't even realize we're having symptoms to a potentially life-threatening situation. Now you know. Anyway...


So I called the doctor's office this morning and talked to a mean, nasty nurse.

"I had some chest pain last night. It was the fourth time I've had such pain in the past month. My back and jaw also hurt."

"What's your name?"

"Dawn Meehan. M-E-E-H..."

She cut me off with, "Spell your last name!"

"As I was saying, M-E-E-H-A-N"

"In what area was the pain located?"

"In the middle."

"There is no middle jaw! It's either your LEFT or your RIGHT!"

Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed! "Oh sorry. I thought you meant my chest which hurt in the middle. Both sides of my jaw hurt."

"Where did your chest hurt?"

Were you not listening to me at all??? "For real?" sigh "In the middle."

Did you have shortness of breath?"

"Not really."

"It's either YES or NO. Did you have shortness of breath?"

What is up your butt, lady? "Ummm, no."

I answered a few more questions for Miss I Haven't Had My Coffee And I'm Terribly Constipated Nurse. She told me someone would call me back and hung up.

A few minutes later, my doctor himself called me. (He's awesome and makes up for his nasty, mean nurse.) Long story short - sounds like I have cardiac symptoms and even though I don't meet the profile, he's gotta rule out heart attack. You know, because if I keeled over tomorrow, I'd have at least 20 disappointed readers. Although, after going over more symptoms I've experienced this summer like nausea, heartburn, and waking up in the middle of the night to throw up, he's thinking it may be reflux or something gallbladder related. The whole throwing up thing is my biggest concern because unlike most people, I don't think, "Oh if I could just throw up, I'd feel so much better." Oh noooo. I'm the kind of person who says, "Oh please God, I'll do anything, ANYTHING, just keep me from throwing up! I'd rather die than throw up! PLEASE!!"

I had an exam and a chest xray today and I even refrained from dumping a box of laxatives in nasty nurse's coffee cup while I was there. Tomorrow I go for a stress - echo. Oh yay, people will get to see me attempt to walk on a treadmill without falling over. (Not because I have heart problems, mind you, but because I'm so darn out of shape.) Maybe I should bring my video camera so I can capture myself on film as I fly off the back of the treadmill. I'm sure to acquire footage worthy of America's Funniest Home Videos.

How to Expand Your Wardrobe

Hi Brooklyn. Hey, what are you wearing? Where did you get those shorts? Are those your shorts? I thought I put you in denim shorts today. Where on earth did you get those?


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So, you stripped Mickey Mouse and stole his shorts? Of course. Silly me. Why didn't I think of that.

Sunday Sound Out

After slacking off being really busy for 3 weeks, I'm back to answer viewer mail. This is the part of the show when I answer YOUR questions. Now, without further ado...
live from Chicago, the city made entirely out of Play-Doh, it's Dawn Meehan with the ever-awesome Sunday Sound Out!

You may have been asked this before and I missed it, but... I have 4 children and we are trying for another. When I am out with my kids I almost always get some sort of negative remark from someone, like " they have ways of preventing that". It makes me so mad...do you ever get those comments and how do you respond?
Oh yeah! I get those every time I leave the house with my kids. I guess my response depends on my mood and how many times I've heard the question that day.
HERE's an awesome list of responses! Check it out!

Well I, too, was going to give you MAJOR crap for not knowing who Tim Gunn was but I'm still laughing from the idea of you homeschooling so it will have to wait another day. Sorry, not trying to be judgemental but from reading your blog I'm thinking that would be like me homeschooling my kids. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Hey now! I could totally homeschool! I'd be good at it. I'm sure I could teach my kids all kinds of...oh who am I kidding? I can't even pretend I'd be good at it. The mere thought is ridiculous.

You have GOT to share how you make that cookie. I have always wanted to make giant cookies but can't figure it out properly.
OK, here's how I do it. One time when Savannah was making cookies, she didn't follow a recipe correctly and her mistake turned out better than the original so this is what we use now.

THICK & CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

5 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 c. butter
1 c. vegetable shortening
3 c. brown sugar
4 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1 bag chocolate chips

Cream butter and shortening together. Add brown sugar. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Sift dry ingredients together and add to bowl. Finally, add chocolate chips. Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes.

When I make a giant cookie, I press approximately half the dough (or a little less) into a 15 inch round cake pan. If you don't own such a pan, you can probably get a disposable foil one about that size. I bake it at 325 until it looks done. Sorry, I'm not good with a timer.

You're *SO* close to having everyone out of the house for at least part of the day. What would you do with yourself?
I'll probably pay bills, clean, do laundry, go to the grocery store, write, cook meals... you know, the usual. Only I'll spend my time wondering how on earth I was ever able to accomplish anything with 6 kids at home.

This is kinda school related, maybe a SSO question. What books do your boys recommend for someone that is 6, but already reading at a 2nd-3rd grade reading level (he just got Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but I am still concerned it's not age appropriate)
Ummm, let me put on my librarian hat... when Jackson was in 1st-2nd grade, he loved The Magic Tree House books. The cool thing is that it's a series of more than 30 books, so if he likes them, there are plenty to read. They're fiction books, but they're filled with non-fiction material about different places and time periods. My non-fiction loving son really liked these.

I wouldn't be impressed with the school either for that...but I think the real question here is why did it take your son A WEEK AND A HALF to tell you he was in the wrong classes, and in such a roundabout way?? :)
I know! He thought that they had made a mistake when they assigned the honors classes to him and that they had corrected it by moving him into regular classes. Oh well. It's fixed now and he's about caught up.

question for sunday shout out....where do you guys go camping..looks like one of the 'jellystone parks'..maybe? just curious...
We did actually camp at a Jellystone over Labor Day weekend. We almost never camp at Jellystones ordinarily though. We have a few favorite places we like to visit every year, but we also like to try out new ones now and then. I don't know if we'll be returning to this Jellystone in Millbrook, IL though. The bathrooms were always dirty, locks on bathroom doors were missing, sinks didn't work, the air smelled alternately like horse manure and raw sewage, and check out the light fixture in the pool...


Yeah, that looks safe. @@ Every time we told employees about the light, they totally brushed it off. It's probably been like that all summer.

Hidden Valley in Wisconsin is probably the nicest campground we've ever been to. It's super-clean, well-maintained, quiet, and wooded. They have nice firepits, a beautiful pool, hayrides, nice sites, laundry, etc. And they don't charge you extra to use their pool, or if you have more than 2.5 kids.

What's Brooklyn going to do when she outgrows those pink boots??
I think I'm going to have to find ones in a larger size! Maybe I could take a trip to Texas on a pink boot quest and visit Mimi while I'm there.

Shouldn't that be, "to the pain?" [my kids fighting "to the seriously injured"]
I love anyone who can quote The Princess Bride!

I was just looking at Disney backdrops for parites. Now if I can find an icerink Dawn, I could throw my own little Disney on Ice hehe.
Just do what my kids did. Pour water all over the kitchen floor and leave the freezer door hanging open to freeze the water. Voila! Big water mess than makes you scream Ice rink!

Question for SSO, is Brooklyn still sleeping in your bed or are you still trying to get her to stay in her own "big girl bed"? Just curious if your ever going to get your own bed back!
About that... Actually, we're redoing both the boys' room and the girls' room right now. Soon, very soon, Brooklyn will finally have a bed of her own! Savannah and Lexi had bunk beds in their room. They weren't your typical bunks. The bottom bunk sat upon some dresser drawers and the top one was bolted into the wall. It's hard to explain. I wish I had a before picture. Anyway, because of the way the bunks were configured, I haven't been able to move them away from the wall for years. About a year or so ago, I tore up the carpet in the girls' room because it was gross. I couldn't move the bunks so I just cut the carpet around where the beds sat. Joe dismantled the beds today in preparation of painting and laying a new floor. This is what we found behind them...


pens, papers, dust galore, and 50,000 Cheezit crackers


a candy bar wrapper from Brooklyn's first birthday party - yeah, she's 3 1/2 now


total disgustingness on the wall - in fact, it's so disgusting that a plastic ring actually STUCK to it!


a patch of carpet that was left


Yep, that's a baby sock stuck to the mold on the wall. Nice, huh?


another missing sock and a princess bracelet


the lovely (and by lovely, I mean completely NOT lovely) floor in the boys' room


Joe told Clay this was a bucket of mayonnaise. I'm surprised Clay didn't try to eat the glue.


half done


new tile - yeah, I know it looks like a hospital floor. That's the point. Indestructible. Or as indestructible as can be with my boys.


I found this darling artwork on the boys' dresser. I wonder who could have drawn this?

At the Park

I picked Clay up from school yesterday, cruised through McDonald's drive-thru and headed to a park where I met my friend Gin. We had a little picnic with Clay and Brooklyn. I learned a few things yesterday. Well, actually I learned these lessons some time ago, but they were reinforced yesterday.

1. There's no reason to buy the kids food or make them lunch when going to a park for a picnic. They are physically incapable of sitting sit long enough to eat more than a half a fry.

2. In any given hour at a park, a child will say, "Watch me! Look what I can do!" at least 43,000 times.

3. 5 year old boys have no fear. None.

4. My butt has gotten significantly bigger since the last time I tried to swing.

5. Boys and girls play with toys completely differently. Brooklyn played with her little McDonald's American Girl paper dolls set. She sat there on the bench, gave a doll to my friend Ginny and held a doll herself. She "talked" for the doll. "Hi. What's your name? My name is Lala. Do you want to come to my house and play?"

Clay, on the other hand, took his Bionicle toy and said, "Look Mom!" as he threw it in the air as high as he could. The toy landed with a thud in a pile of woodchips. Clay ran after it and whipped it across the park again. After retrieving it for the 8th time, he ran to me and said, "I'm going to chop your arm off because he has swords here." He proceeded to give me little, plastic toy karate chops.

6. Bees are especially attracted to people who are allergic to them. (OK, so maybe that last one isn't actually scientific fact, but let me tell ya, they were swarming around me!)

7. A swing is a rocketship that can transport any child to the stars.

8. A child can find a stick at any given park. Sticks do not make good toys. Weapons, yes. Toys, no.

9. A kid can whine a million times about how hot and thirsty they are, but they'll still complain when it's time to go.

10. A cut or scrape doesn't hurt until the child sees blood, then excruciating pain sets in.

I hope we have a few more weeks of park weather before winter hits. :)

Disney on Ice

I had the chance to take my family to Disney on Ice tonight. I had never taken my kids to any show like this before. Actually, I remember checking out how much tickets cost several years ago. At the time, I decided it was too expensive to take my family there. But Disney on Ice is at The United Center in Chicago through September 13 and you can get a 4 pack of tickets for only $44 now! All you have to do is log onto ticketmaster.com and use coupon code: MOM
You can get additional tickets for $11 each.

I have to admit that my older kids weren't exactly thrilled about going. I knew the young kids would love it, but thought my teenagers might be bored. Not! They may not admit it, but they enjoyed it as much as the little kids. It's Disney, therefore it's magical. It's like Disney World. On ice. They even played Disney music in the bathrooms!

Thank you Meghan and everyone from Feld Entertainment! All 8 of us had a wonderful time!

Before we left, I had to get Brooklyn to change her shoes.


She changed into her pink cowboy boots, of course.


taking a ride on a monster truck


carpenter jeans: the original scabbard


What on earth are you two doing?
We're fighting to the death, Mom!
Don't fight to the death.
OK, we'll just fight to the seriously injured then.


Me and the mice. Man, have I really gotten that fat? Ugh, I hate seeing pictures of myself.


the gang


Who knew coloring could be so much fun.




















You think this is a lot of pictures? I took over 200! Be thankful I'm not putting them all on here.


Dreaming of skating princesses) Yeah, I think it's safe to say we all had a great time.


***** I did receive free tickets for this event, but I have not been paid to write about it. The opinions are mine alone.

Camping

We're camping. You know, because we never learn from our past camping trips. So, just as we pulled up to our site, the truck died. I videotaped it because I figured no one would believe me otherwise. Let's see now...the truck has burst into flames, the wheel has fallen off the truck, the fuel pump has gone out, a bracket broke, the air has gone out, once we could only drive 15 mph the whole way home, and once we crashed and both the camper and the truck flipped over. Yet, we continue to go! WHY??? I guess we keep doing it because of this stuff...

Ways to Brighten up a Boring Day

I was going through some old blog drafts and found this one. I got this in a forwarded email and thought it was hilarious. I have no idea who the author is, but thought I'd share it with you since it made me laugh out loud (and made me want to work in an office!)


WAYS TO BRIGHTEN UP A BORING DAY
in the office...
Run one lap around the office at top speed.
Ignore the first five people who say “good morning” to you.
Phone someone in the office that you barely know, leave your name and say “Just called to say I can’t talk right now, Bye.”
To signal the end of a conversation, clamp your hands over your ears and grimace.
Leave your zipper open for an hour. If anyone points it out, say “Sorry, but I really prefer it this way.”
In the middle of a meeting, suddenly yell out “YAHTZEE!”
Walk sideways to the photocopier.
While riding in the elevator, gasp dramatically every time the doors open.
Say to your boss, “I like your style”, and shoot him/her with double-barreled fingers
Babble incoherently at a fellow employee, then ask “Did you get all that?, I don’t want to have to repeat it.”
Page yourself over the intercom (do NOT disguise your voice).
Kneel in front of the water cooler and drink directly from the nozzle.
Shout random numbers while someone is counting.
At the end of a meeting, suggest that, for once, it would be nice to conclude with the singing of the national anthem. (Extra points if you actually launch into it yourself.)
Walk into a very busy person’s office and while they watch you with growing irritation, turn the light switch off/on 10 times.
For an hour, refer to everyone as “Bob.”
Announce to everyone in a meeting that you “really have to go do a number two!”
While an officemate is out, move their chair to the elevator.
In a meeting or crowded situation, slap your forehead repeatedly and mutter “Shut up, damn it, all of you just shut up!”
At lunchtime, get down on your knees and announce “With God as my witness, I’ll never go hungry again!”
In a colleague’s daytimer, write in 10am: “See how I look in tights.”
Carry your keyboard over to your colleague and ask “Do you wanna swap?”
Repeat the following conversation 10 times to the same person: “Do you hear that?
“What?”
“Never mind, it’s gone now.”
Come to work in army fatigues and when asked why, say, “I can’t talk about it.”
Speak in an accent (French, German, Porky Pig, etc.) during a very important conference call.
Hang a two-foot long piece of toilet paper from the back of your pants and act genuinely surprised when someone points it out.

The School Drama Continues...

OK, so Clayton seems to be settling into a routine at school. I hope. He had another good day today. For those of you who commented that I should tell the teacher to leave me alone unless Clay lands on red, I don't agree. I want to know when he's acting up so I can help nip it in the bud before it gets out of hand. His teacher is very nice and she didn't come up to me in an angry or accusatory way at all. She was letting me know what went on in class and I appreciate it. Clay is bright and busy and thinks a little differently than the norm and I'd like to encourage that. I want him to keep his individuality; it's what makes him him. However, there's a time and place to explore that creativity and there's a time and place to conform and sit and listen to the teacher respectfully and keep one's hands to oneself. They're both important skills to develop.

Sooo, hopefully his teacher will challenge him and let him show his creativity in positive ways (and I think she will), and hopefully Clay will learn when it's time to settle down and behave in a classroom setting with a different authority figure and classmates who may sometimes annoy him.

In other school news, however....

Austin was put in all honors classes for his freshman year. Honors biology, honors reading, honors writing, the highest level honors math, and AP human geography. Because of his classload, when we met with his counselor earlier this year, Austin, his counselor, and I all agreed he should take a study hall.

Well, Austin has been coming home with no homework thus far. He complained about the study hall and said he didn't need it and would rather take Japanese.

"See what I do in study hall when I finish all my work?" He showed me his notebook which was full of drawings.





"Uh huh. I see. Time well spent. Perhaps, instead of Japanese, you should consider, oh, say ART?!"

We talked for a while and I decided to call his counselor. I agreed that if he really didn't need the study hall, it would be better for him to take a different class. However, I expressed my concern to Austin that I was having a hard time believing that he didn't have homework to do and that his classes were easy.

"I just can't understand how you don't have more work with all honors classes," I told him.

"I'm not in honors classes," he said.

"Uhh yes you are," I said.

"Uhh no I'm not!" he insisted. "I'm not in honors reading or writing and I'm not in AP geography," he continued.

"I saw your schedule, Austin. Yes, you are," I said trying to decide if he was pulling my leg or if he really believed he was in regular classes. "Why do you think you're in regular classes?" I asked.

"I don't think; I know." He was adamant.

"OK, I'll call your counselor and find out. If they switched your classes, I want to know why. Maybe they made a mistake and you weren't supposed to be in honors in the first place. But I saw your test scores that indicated honors.... Hmmm, well, I'll talk to her and if you're in the correct classes and they're really that easy, then I'll see if you can drop the study hall and take a language instead.

So I spoke with his counselor today.

"I have a question about Austin's classes. Austin seems to think that he's in regular reading and writing and regular geography."

"Yes, he is," the counselor said.

"When we met with you, he was scheduled for all honors classes. Why was he switched?"

I'm pretty sure she was thinking - all these parents are the same. They think their kid is so smart. Sigh. Why can't they just accept their kid's class schedules?

Before she could voice those thoughts, I quickly interjected, "I'm not saying he has to be in all honors. I just want him placed where he belongs so he's appropriately challenged, and I'm wondering why it changed."

She checked her papers and was surprised to see that Austin indeed had been placed in honors classes. "You're right. He is supposed to be in honors. I have no idea what happened. I'll work on this right now. Have Austin come see me as soon as he gets to school tomorrow so we can get him to the right classes."

OK, now I know mistakes happen, but really? Three wrong classes? He's missed a week and a half of his correct classes and now he's going to have to play catch-up in 3 difficult courses. I just hope his teachers take this into consideration and cut him slack and/or let him come in early or stay late to help him to get caught up.

I'm not overly impressed with this high school right now. I think my negative impression started with all their, "Your child must do well so we can get money from the state they can get into college speeches I heard at the various orientations I went to this year. If you missed it, you can read it HERE.

C is for Clayton (and Crazy!)

Introducing the proud recipient of some M&Ms...

That's right! Clay had a good day at school today. Maybe it was the promise of M&Ms. Perhaps it was the 48,000 reminders I gave him this morning. Or, more likely, it was a fluke. We'll see how he does the rest of the week.

In related news, he was bored before dinner, so while I was out running errands, he decided to go for a bike ride by himself without telling anyone. Yeah. My FIVE year old. After we all spread out and searched high and low and came darn close to calling the police (not to mention the fact he took another 5 years off my life!), Jackson found him several blocks away playing with some kid he found. Just great, huh?

This is the one who is driving me to drink.

Disney on Ice

Just a note to say that Disney on Ice 100 Years of Magic is coming to the United Center in Chicago, September 8-13. You can get tickets now. Just go here! We've never taken the kids to anything like this and I'm so excited to go this year! Pictures will definitely follow!


A SPECIAL OFFER FOR YOU!
Purchase a 4-pack of tickets for only $44 by logging onto www.ticketmaster.com and entering the coupon code: MOM.**
CHICAGO SHOW DATES:
Tuesday, September 8th @ 7:00pm
Wednesday, September 9th @ 7:00pm
Thursday, September 10th @ 7:00pm
Friday, September 11th @ 7:00pm
Saturday, September 12th @ 11:30am, 3:30pm, 7:00pm
Sunday, September 13th @ 1:00pm, 5:00pm (Spanish-speaking show)

**Get 4 tickets for $44 by entering the code “MOM” at select ticketing channels. Minimum purchase of 4 tickets required; additional tickets above 4 can be purchased at $11 each. Offer not valid on Front Row or VIP seating. Cannot be combined with other offers. Service Charges and handling fees will apply.

And it Continues...

As I picked Clay up from school today, I saw his teacher approach my car again. I floored it and burned rubber out of the parking lot I looked forward to her thanking me for talking to Clay because he had been wonderful today.

"Was he ok today?" I asked.

"No, he got moved to yellow," she responded. They have a behavior system where the kids all start off on green. If they misbehave or the teacher has to tell them to stop doing something, they're moved to yellow. If the behaviors continue, they're moved to red and a parent is notified.

"Ugh. What did he do today?" I asked resignedly.

"He couldn't keep his hands to himself. He's very touchy, isn't he?"

"Hands on, yep, he's a hands on, into everything, kinda guy."

"When I warned him that I was going to have to give you a call, he told me that I couldn't call you because you were at Sea World."

"Sea World???" Where does he come up with this stuff? sigh "OK, I'll talk to him again," I promised.

On the way home, I asked him what was going on. He told me, "Well, the kids at school just bug me."

"Honey, people bug me too, but I don't walk around touching them or hitting them. And it didn't sound like kids were bugging you today. It sounded like you were bugging them."

silence

"Why did you tell your teacher that I was at Sea World?" I wondered.

"So she wouldn't call you," duh came his answer.

"Lying is NEVER a good idea. NEVER. Your teacher still told me what you did at school and now she knows that you lied about me being at Sea World. Lies ALWAYS make things worse. ALWAYS."

So this year I'm the parent of one of those kids. Clay has always been a busy kid. As long as he's got something to keep his interest, he's great. When he gets bored, watch out. I'm resorting to bribery right now. I told him he'd get a treat if he stayed on green and his teacher told me that he behaved well tomorrow. I'm off to Costco to buy a giant thing of M&Ms. Hopefully he'll earn a handful tomorrow. We'll see.