Summer Thursdays

This summer we put Brookie in Mother's Day Out just on Thursdays so that Jack, Claire, and I could do some activities that we can't do when she is with us. On our first Thursday, we did papier mache projects; Claire made her pinata and Jack made a mask.


Last Thursday was the best so far! We went to see a performance of Stellaluna by the StoneLion Puppet Theatre. It was incredible! After lunch, we went back and the kids participated in a puppet-making workshop where they made sock puppet caterpillars that turn into butterflies. It was an amazingly simple craft, but quite a novelty for Jack and Claire.


Today, we made flower presses and then collected wild flowers to press. Jack and Claire really enjoyed themselves and so did their science geek mom! Jack is planning to get online to try to identify the flowers that we found -- a worthy exercise since he has decided (at least for now) that he wants to be a landscape architect when he grows up. Plus, studying God's creation is a wonderful way for them to learn about our Creator!

Footer Dug: June 24, 2008

On Claire's birthday, we closed on our new home! They began working again immediately the next day. Here, the trenches are for the footer and they were putting in the Re-Bar.

Final Thoughts

To follow-up on a few of my other posts:

1. Not only did Jack decide to quit sleeping with his lovies and to refuse good night kisses, now he has decided to call me "mom" instead of "mommy" and David is "dad" instead of "daddy". Every time he says "mom" it actually annoys me because it sounds so WRONG. It feels wrong the way it would feel if someone repeatedly called me Sondra instead of Sonja. I am trying to get used to it, but it makes me sad (and did I say it annoys me?).

2. Several people asked me what was under the swinging bridge that made it so frightening. In the picture, it looks like it is just hanging over a grassy area, but it actually crossed a very swollen, swiftly-moving river.

3. I ended my post about Billy Miller saying that his death seemed like such a waste. Even when I wrote that I felt something was wrong about that statement and after praying (for his family, etc.), I came to recognize what was wrong. In God's sovereignty, nothing is a waste -- and pain especially is often useful to turn hearts toward God and to change lives. (I am a Christian today because of the death of another classmate when I was 10.) That became my prayer for Billy's family and closest friends -- that good things would come from his death.

Happy Birthday, Claire!

Yesterday, June 23, 2008 was Claire's 6th birthday. In lieu of a "regular" birthday party, Claire chose to take her best friend, Amelia, to Build-A-Bear Workshop in Tulsa.

David took the afternoon off and we started the celebration at our house, with a bear cake, presents and a pinata. Claire made the pinata almost completely by herself and she chose the candy she wanted in it -- actual packages of Orbit cinnamint gum, Worther's Original candies, and candy bracelets. (Unique choices, I thought, but that is my Claire Bear!)

Then we left for Tulsa for Build-A-Bear, which was so much fun for them. Being a Monday afternoon, we were the only people in there when we arrived! It was awesome! Claire made a stuffed dog, which she named Ashley. She dressed Ashley in a High School Musical shirt and a denim skort with a sequined belt. Jack made a dog, which he named Rex and dressed him in a police uniform. Amelia made a sweet bear which she named Carrie; she dressed Carrie in a little tank top that was red with white polka dots and white leggings. Brooke probably did not know what in the world we were doing, but we helped her make a little bear which we named Cutie because we dressed it in a little shirt with the word "cutie" sequined on it.

After Build-A-Bear we went to IHOP for dinner -- what kid doesn't like having breakfast foods for dinner?! Although Claire was excited about having pancakes for dinner, she was probably more excited about getting to have a real, caffeinated, coke since it was her birthday. (Their birthdays are the only time that we let Jack and Claire have cokes.) Amelia and Claire were pretending that they were "mommies" since they were drinking real cokes -- very telling, I am sad to say!!

Aside from having to pull over on the way home to move Claire so she would quit kicking Jack's seatbelt, it was a very pleasant day!

Here are Claire's 6-year-old stats:

Favorite color: Blue
Favorite food: Peanut butter and jelly -- since we can't have this at home because of Jack's allergy, she eats it at friends' houses. I think the forbidden nature of PB its status in her eye! However, she is my daughter, and I loved peanut butter and jelly so much that I ate it probably every day as a kid (for a meal or a snack).
Favorite activity: swimming at the pool
Favorite book(s): Junie B. Jones books
Favorite toy: Paints
Favorite song: Rhyme and Move (a song they did at school)
Number of children she wants when she grows up: 6
Best thing about being 6: Getting presents
Favorite presents: Jack's and Amelia's. Jack bought her a Hannah Montana watch with his allowance. Amelia gave Claire a little stuffed puppy in a carrier.
What she wants to be when she grows up: Doesn't know

My observations of Claire right now are:

She likes to mix things up and have variety. She is the only person I know who likes to mix her cereal in the morning -- it is typical for her to have LIFE, yogurt burst cheerios, and Oh's in the same bowl. She changed all of the lids on her markers, so for instance, the green lid is on the blue marker and she likes to wear a black flip flop on one foot and a white one on the other foot.

She is very bright and insightful -- both academically and socially. She is developing a sense of propriety and what it means to be a lady. I have been impressed a few times when we have talked about different social experiences to hear the maturity of her interpretation of inappropriate versus appropriate behaviors.

She is athletic -- although we have not found the right outlet for that athleticism yet. Right now, I am just trying to keep Brooke safe as Claire knocks around the house attempting different feats.

Claire is very compassionate, considerate, and generous. She wants things to be fair and everyone to be taken care of, even if that means sharing her last bite of brownie.

Happy Birthday, Claire Bear!

(I am so frustrated because I can't get the photos to upload. I will try again later! Also, is anyone else having trouble getting your vertical photos to upload without being rotated sideways?)

settles gone wild?

As in, wild bird. Wild bird stuck in our fireplace all day. Wild bird with a very long, pointy, sharp beak crashing against the glass doors of our fireplace and pooping in our fireplace all day.

I was really concerned about the poor thing, because I did not know how long birds can go without food or water. So, at one point, I decided I would try to catch it in a mesh bag and then take it outside and let it go.

Then I thought better of that idea. I had a picture in my mind where it did not end up in my mesh bag, but instead ended up flying around the rest of my house, pooping, breaking my decorative plates, and terrorizing me and the kids.

I waited until David got home. Which was after 10, so you can bet that he was overjoyed at the prospect of fishing a bird out of our fireplace.

He had a better idea than my mesh bag. We took a long since forgotten stroller mosquito net (I think it was purchased when Jack was a baby during a West Nile virus scare -- I think it was actually the first time West Nile had been in Oklahoma) and draped it over the opening to the fireplace. Then we slowly opened the fireplace doors. And waited. And waited. The bird was hiding behind the gas logs.

Then David got a mop handle and tried to scare it/ shoo it out of the back of fireplace. No good. David was tired, I was tired and we did not want to wait hours for this bird to decide to come out. We, tongue-in-cheek, briefly discusssed poisoning it or turning the fireplace on, but we finally decided to see if we could lure it with some bird seed. It was past 10pm, and I found myself seriously discussing whether or not birds can smell the seeds. I did not know, but at that point, I NEEDED that bird to be able to smell the seeds (because he would not be able to see them) -- and I really wanted him to come out already!

Well, to make this long story shorter, it seems that birds can indeed smell bird seed because he came and started eating it pretty quickly and then noticed the doors were open and then flew into our mosquito net, and then flew out of the mosquito net, which prompted me to duck and run and scream like a crazy person! It flew onto the kitchen light fixture, then eventually into the laundry room, then eventually into the garage and finally, FINALLY out of the garage. A couple of our neighbors drove by while we were standing outside just staring into our garage (waiting for the bird to leave) and I am sure that we looked rather odd!

When it was all said and done, I felt good about getting him out of our home alive. But, the whole experience left me with a question -- why is a flying bird so beautiful, cute, interesting when it is outside -- but when it inside, it is terrifying? And I mean, crazy, frenzy, terrifying. Not swinging bridge scary -- I could still think and reason on the bridge. This was heart pounding, run-for-your-life-or-the-door-craziness. Now that it is over, it is really funny. Actually, David and I were laughing most of the way through because the entire scenario was ridiculous. But, I KNOW without a doubt, that if I ever have a bird flying around in my house again, that I did not "learn" anything today that would help me calmly handle the situation. I would turn into the crazy person I was tonight -- in essence, a Settle gone wild . . .crazy, hysterical, you can insert your choice adjective . . .

Chronicles of Father's Day 2008

A few of the Newbery books that I have read recently were historical fiction. I particularly have enjoyed reading about how people in the past have celebrated certain holidays -- what they ate, what kind of gifts they gave to each other, and their traditions. Therefore, I have decided to chronicle this most recent Father's Day. If it is boring for you, I apologize in advance, but I do think it will be interesting to my children someday and who knows -- maybe my grandchildren and great-grandchildren! So here it is . . . how the Settles spent Father's Day 2008.

Ever since the fish eluded him at camp, Jack has been pining to go fishing again. David decided to play "hooky" from church on Father's Day to give Jack another chance to catch the big one. The night before, David bought Jack a "real" fishing rod and reel (to replace the Mickey Mouse one that he is obviously too old for now) and a little tackle box kit. In spite of all of the anticipation and preparation, poor Jack still did not catch anything. They fished for about three hours though and then finally came home.

While they had lunch, I had business to take care of -- getting Brookie's stitches removed. I had been dreading it because getting the stitches was so tramatic. By the way, Dr. Doyle told me that if Brooke was screaming everytime they stuck the needle in, that she was not numb. She said that with wounds on the face, there is so much blood that it removes the anesthesia too quickly. She showed me where part of her nose (Dr. Doyle's nose) was missing and how when she was sewn up as a child, she felt every single thing that they did. Anyway, the five days had passed and it was time to get the stitches out. The people at Physician's Immediate Care told me to not let Brooke eat anything for an hour before because she was likely to be so upset that she might make herself sick if she had food in her tummy. Nice, huh? Well, it actually turned out just fine. Brooke did not cry at all and was very cooperative. What an amazing little baby!

When we got back, David took Claire to play tennis. Claire is our little athlete. She has such a strong, healthy little body. Since she was about three, friends have asked me if she was in gymnastics or anything because she is so muscular. The main answer to that is that God just made her that way, but ballet did help too, I am sure. She was so excited to have her time alone with her Daddy.

While she and David were out sweating in the hot sun, Brooke and I took a nap. Jack played on Millsberry.com.

I cut my nap short to start our special Father's Day dinner. I decided to try two new recipes, both of which turned out relatively okay. Here was our menu: Grilled Steak (marinated overnight mainly in A-1 sauce and balsamic vinegar: a recipe I got from the A-1 website), potatoes au gratin (from food network website), green salad with basil balsalmic vinegar and grilled vidalia onions (Oprah's 12-year-old cookbook), french bread with rosemary (Wal-Mart) and chocolate chunk brownies (mix).

After I started preparing dinner, David got home from playing tennis and decided to take all three of the children swimming. This was great because it meant that I was able to finish dinner without any interruptions. It is amazing how enjoyable cooking can be when I don't have to be referee and entertain three busy little bodies at the same time!

While the potatoes were baking and the steak was grilling, I decided to make the table look pretty. I put 18 votive candles in a circle in the center of the table as a pseudo-centerpience and got out the table linens that I have had for 13 years -- it is amazing how pretty it can still look with the candles. (I think in our new house, it will be time to get something new though!)

When Jack came in after swimming and saw the table, he said, "Wow! It looks like Christmas or Thanksgiving!", which made me feel great. I said, "Well, it's Father's Day!" Then he said, "Why didn't we do this for Mother's Day?" I had to smile at that -- and then I told him that Mommies don't like to cook on Mother's Day and that is why we went out to eat instead.


After dinner, we gave David some gifts. Nothing big or expensive -- I got him a few t-shirts and Brooke had made him a little potholder at Mother's Day Out, and Jack and Claire had spent a long time making special cards for him. The "big" present was a new black swim bag to put sunscreen and beach towels in to take to the pool. The reason this was the "big" present is because prior to receiving this new bag, when David took the kids swimming without me, he was toting everything in my hot pink bag -- which he hate, hate, hated! (The picture of Brooke with multiple purses and a cell phone is how she came to us when we called her to watch Daddy open presents.)

Well, that was our Father's Day. I think it was a good one.

3 Stitches

When Brooke woke from her nap yesterday, it was time for Jack and Claire and their two friends, John and Amelia to clean-up and then I was going to drive John and Amelia to their homes. We were about two minutes into clean-up time in the upstairs hall when an accident happened.

I was right there (within an arm's reach of Brooke) but I saw nothing. In fact, I can guess that I was only looking away from Brooke for a second or two at the most. Then I heard the bang of something into the wall. When I looked I saw a blur go into Claire's room and Brooke was looking at me in pain but not yet screaming. I could only guess that the large sound I heard was Brooke's head hitting the wall -- it was horrific to think about her head making that sound! Within a second she was screaming. I picked her up and saw a bruise quickly forming on her forehead. When I looked again, it was gushing blood. Jack started yelling, "I saw you push her! I saw you push her!" to Claire and Claire was shouting, "I didn't mean to, I didn't mean to!" At that point, I did not have time to investigate what had happened.

Brooke probably screamed for a solid 4-5 minutes and the whole time I kept trying to see the wound through all of the blood. Thankfully it started to slow down and I could see that it was not deep but rather wide -- what you think of when you hear that someone "busted their head open".

We got her to Physician's Immediate Care where they gave her 3 stitches -- which was not pleasant, to say the least. I don't care what they say, she was not numb. She could not see what they were doing but she started screaming and crying every time they stuck the needle in her forehead. I am not sure I could have handled more than three stitches with her so obviously being able to feel everything that they were doing to her.

They told me to watch her for signs of concussion -- but I was not really worried about that at the time. Later when we got home, I heard Jack upstairs having Claire re-inact the accident. He was just like a real investigator -- stopping her and clarifying and finally having her show him exactly what happened. Then he called me upstairs so that they could show me.

Evidently, Claire had been standing on a stool that was upside down. She was balancing on its sides and then fell (or jumped) off but lost her balance and basically landed with her full body weight, and whatever speed she was traveling at, right on top of Brooke, thrusting Brooke forward and causing her to crash with alot of force into the corner of the wall. When they re-enacted it, I felt queasy because Brooke is so tiny and is so floppy anyway because of her hypotonia; she might as well have been thrown into the wall. I will definitely be watching her for signs of a head injury. I am praising God, though, because although she is hurting (she says "hurwt" [hurt] and "oach" [ouch]), so far she seems fine. (Again, I am having problems uploading her picture but I will keep trying)

Thank you Jennifer and Mitzi for taking Jack and Claire off of my hands while I was getting Brooke stitched up!

I have been tagged!

I have been "tagged" and so here is my response. First . . .

The inquisition...

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves
3. At the end of the post, the player tags 5-6 people, posts their names, then leaves a comment in their respective blogs to let them know they've been tagged.
4. Let the person who tagged you know that you posted your answers.

Questions...

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?
Ten years ago was pre-parenthood. Can I even remember life, pre-parenthood? I was busy working on the ninth floor of the Bartlesville hospital in the fitness center called the Wellness Connection. I was probably in the best shape of my life because I regularly exercised 3-4 hours a day between my job and my personal workouts (and somehow, like with Bible studies or spending quality time with my kids -- I felt like I should exercise more. Now I would love to have just one solid hour per day to do it!) David and I were three years into our marriage and two years into paying off our student loans. My spending allowance each week was only $10 and I used that to buy birthday and Christmas presents -- how, I don't know!!

2. What are 5 things on your to-do list today? 1. Laundry 2. Sweep 3. Order one last thing for Claire's birthday. 4. Plan out the rest of the summer (that has been on my list for the last two weeks!). 5. Play with the children.

3. What are some snacks you enjoy? Well, if I did not have to worry about health and calories, my snack choice would be a candy bar and a coke! Other snacks I like right now are watermelon and hard-boiled eggs (they are my "it" food right now because they are only 75 calories and are loaded with protein and nutrients. I learned in nutrition in college that eating cholesterol does not raise your cholesterol level. Eating fat (especially saturated fat) DOES raise your blood cholesterol, so I am okay with eating eggs).

4. What would you do if you were a billionaire? Like Marci, I would share a lot of the money. I see things on the West side of town where I wish we had more money so that I could help. But aside from charitable uses, I would love to have the financial ability to travel with the children so that they could learn history and see the places firsthand where things happened. I would also love to visit my dear friend Caroline in France and meet her family and introduce her to mine.

5. What are 3 of your bad habits? 1. Saying yes, when I should say no. 2. Second-guessing myself. 3. Not making my exercise time sacred.

6. What are 5 places you have lived? 1. Bartlesville, OK 2. Oklahoma City, OK 3. Norman, OK 4. Tulsa, OK 5. Ardmore, OK (hometown)

7. What are 5 jobs you've had? 1. YMCA Camp Counselor 2. YMCA Concession stand worker (at the basketball games) 3. Greenhouse worker (at University of Tulsa) 4. Wal-Mart cashier and customer service 5. Personal Fitness Trainer/Aerobic Instructor

8. What is currently playing on your IPOD? I don't have an iPod yet.

9. What are the last 5-6 books you've read? I am working through the Newbery Award winners (the award for outstanding fiction for children) so a lot of these are going to be children's books. 1. The Tale of Despereaux (I HIGHLY recommend this as a read-aloud book -- it has a princess, her rescuer, the dichotomies of good/evil, light/dark, revenge/forgiveness and it is just beautifully written, short chapters and a cliff-hanger at the end of each chapter --it is a delight for kids and adults.) 2. All the King's Men (about politics, power, corruption) 3. A Gathering of Days 4. The Witch of Blackbird Pond (historical fiction -- also one of my FAVORITES) 5. Bridges Out of Poverty

10. Who do you want to tag?
Sorry, ladies, but I am tagging . . .
1. Kylie
2. Becky
3. Nat
4. Ruth

Cub Scout Camp Week

Well, I know this is going to be a long post, so grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable!

Last week was a busy, but really fun week. Jack had his cub scout day camp on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. David took off work to be home with the girls so that I could go with Jack to camp all three days.

Wednesday was hotter than a jalepeno. We got a break from the heat on Thursday because the wind cooled things off. However, there were wind gusts of 40-50 miles per hour so that creates new problems. Drinks being spilled, tents being blown down, and people’s voices being drowned out so that even if they are shouting you might not be able to make out everything. At camp there is also a unique issue – the SWINGING BRIDGE! (You can see the bridge behind the boy holding the large bass.) In order to go fishing, we had to cross the bridge.

There is a sign at the entrance of the bridge that says do not use in high wind. If Thursday’s winds were not high winds, I do not know what would be. I am usually more cautious than other people and so I second-guessed myself and just thought I was being over-cautious like normal. I thought that surely the camp directors (many of whom have worked out there for 12-15 years) would make a decision not to go on the bridge if it were really dangerous. Well, the trip across to the pond was bad, but I was terrified on the way back. It felt as if someone was jumping up and down on it and making it shake and ripple. If fact, I thought one of the dads was doing just that, and when I turned around and saw that there was no one doing that, I felt like I was going to be sick.

Again, I thought I was just being a wimp because no one said anything. However, when I got home and told David about it, he could not believe that we had crossed the bridge in the windy conditions and told me not to do it on Friday if it was still so windy.

Thankfully, Friday was not as windy but it was so muggy and humid that we felt like we had to move the air out of our way just to walk through it – we were wishing for a breeze. Friday was especially fun for the boys, though, because a fire truck came out and sprayed them with the water hose. Jack said it was beautiful because there was a rainbow in the mist that was in the shape of a complete circle, not just an arc. He said he and the other boys were having fun running around and watching it because appeared to move with them.

The boys went from looking up to the rainbow to looking down at the mud puddles that were quickly forming in the grass. Boys being boys, they could not resist the mud. Several of them started running and splashing in them and then some boys had to top that by doing “mud angels”. I was sitting back, confident that my son who has a history of hating to get dirty, would stay clear of the mud. But, my son is now a real cub scout because when I saw him next he was covered in mud. I am not sure why you can’t see it very much in the pictures but he had mud from his head to his toes. At least it was not in his ears and mouth like the other little boy in the picture!



Some highlights of camp:
*Jack made a shot in the innermost ring of the bulls eye on the BB gun range.
*Jack popped two balloons at the archery range (I never hit one balloon the entire week).
*Jack never caught a fish although he got bites every time he put his line in the pond. He was very frustrated, especially because once he reeled his line in and the fish was on it, but it let go.
*Seeing a film about the Blue Angels (the theme this year was “Take Flight”). Jack was watching so intently and later I realized that he was paying close attention to the engineering details of the planes so that he could know how to draw his airplanes and space ships.
*Learning “I'm A Little Teapot” to the tune of “We Will Rock You”. (What will they think of next?!)
*Seeing a real centipede!


While we were out at camp, David was playing Mr. Mom at home. He took Claire and Brooke to visit one of his sweet elderly patients who fed them ice cream and chocolates, he took them swimming, and on bike rides and he and Claire tried to play tennis on Thursday but the wind prevented them from doing so. By Saturday, Brooke was very attached to her Daddy and it was really sweet for me to see her cling to his leg and say, “Daddy, Daddy” when she wanted something.

On Friday night, Jack and David camped out in a tent at the scout campgrounds. When they were putting up the tent, Brooke kept saying, “Brella? Brella?’ She thought all the tents were big umbrellas.

Billy Miller

Today my sister Natalie called to tell me that Billy Miller had been killed in a boat accident last night.

It is hard for someone who went to a huge high school (ie, Nat's husband and mine :) ) to understand why the news of the death of a person whom you have not seen for the last 15 years (in my case, probably less time for Nat) can be so devastating. But Plainview was a small school where the elementary, middle school and high school campuses were all within walking distance of each other. I had 65 people in my graduating class and many of those I graduated with, I had started out in class with in kindergarten.

Billy Miller was in Nat's grade (two years behind me) and we grew up with him -- from elementary all the way through high school. He went on all of the Young Astronaut trips with us in middle school (you get to know a guy pretty well when you travel via bus from Oklahoma to Florida). He was at almost every social gathering that I can remember in high school (school dances, "parties" at the Coach Thompson's house after the home football games, and parties at friends' houses). The thing that I remember most about Billy is that he was SO nice -- just one of the nicest guys that you would ever meet. He was gentle and calm but had a great sense of humor -- like a comedian, you could look in his eyes and look at the little smirk on his face and see that there was a lot of mischief going on inside his head.

The hardest thing about his death for me is that it was so pointless and ridiculous -- an inexperienced 21-year-old girl tried to drive the boat he was in and was going about 80 miles per hour when she hit an enbankment and flipped the boat. It is such a waste.