Settle Family Open House

If you are reading this, you are invited to the Settle Family Open House.

When: Saturday, November 8 from 4-7 pm (come and go)
Where: 610 S. Hickory, Bartlesville
(corner of Adams and Hickory, 3 blocks west of downtown)

Your presence is requested, but no presents please.


We do not want to inadvertently leave someone out, so if you know of someone who might be interested in walking through our new home, please feel free to extend this invitation to them as well.

Princess Leia and Yoda

Tonight is the Fall Festival at Jane Phillips Elementary. Princess Leia and Yoda are going to make an appearance but Luke Skywalker will be noticeably absent from their entourage. He is having phase two of whatever has plagued our family since two Sundays ago. I am very sympathetic because 7Up, saltine crackers, and pepto-bismol have been my three best friends today. Hopefully, by Friday all will be well again just in time for everyone to chow down Aunt Dawn's chili and give themselves a tummyache the old-fashioned way -- from eating too much Halloween candy.

High School Musical 3 & Trailers

Jack and Claire and I went to see HSM 3 and we all loved it! I loved the first one; I thought the second one was forgettable and have no desire to see it again; and I can't wait to see the third again even though I just saw it yesterday! The choreography was awesome! There were a few times that "I felt a song coming on" and was a little annoyed because it seemed there had only been a few lines of dialogue since the last song had ended -- but then the sets and costumes were so dazzling and fantastic and the choreography was awesome (did I already say that?) that I quickly forgot about being annoyed and was swept away with the glitz or the grit, depending on the song.

I was really upset about two movie trailers that came on before the movie. First, was a trailer for Twilight. If you are not aware, Twilight is a book series about teenage vampires. It was a really scary trailer and I was upset that they would show a trailer for a PG-13 horror movie to an audience of primarily children who were there to see a rated G movie. And it was tucked in between some more appropriate trailers so it hits you by surprise.

Second, and I am so sad to say this, but we saw the trailer for The Tale of Despereaux. It is a highly anticipated movie at our house because we love, love, love the Newbery Award winning book of the same name. We think the artists did a good job rendering what Despereaux would look like (so, so adorable) but the first few seconds of the preview were the only thing true to the book. It was so obviously different that my children were puzzled. I guess I can't give a true review of the movie until I see it all, but I would highly recommend reading the book before you see the movie.

We finally have color!

They finally started painting the walls in the house last week. Thank you to Jennifer Keener and Tracie Newcomb for helping me pick out colors that I love!

This is the upstairs rec room. The color is the main color for the house -- it is called "Blonde".


This is the blue that Jack chose for his room and bathroom.



This is Brooke's room. She and Claire both have this pink in their bedrooms.

Unbelievable!

The other day I cleaned out the floor in the MDX and this is what I had when I was finished.

What makes it so unbelievable is that we accumulated that much junk in my car in just FIVE days. Five. Days. Now I am making the kids get everything out of the car every time we get out of the car. In spite of some whining, it seems to be working well.

Dirty Mouth? Clean it up!

Brooke has definitely broken the "Settle" mold -- she is just her own little person, who does things that my other two NEVER did. Like eating poop. Of unknown origin. Being the daughter of a nurse who used to talk about surgeries in detail at the dinner table, and now, the mother of three children -- it takes a LOT to gross me out, but this did it:

We were in line ordering ice cream at Braum's and Jack said, "Mom, Brooke has something in her mouth". I looked to see Brooke spitting and sputtering, and so I bent down to just try to take out whatever was in her mouth. Out of her mouth came the undeniable stench of well, feces. She had actually chewed it because it was in the grooves of her teeth on the top and the bottom. I took her to the bathroom and tried to wash her mouth out with soap, which made her cry. Then I tried to clean her teeth with a toothpick. The whole time I was giving her a lecture about not eating stuff off of the floor because it could make her sick. She came out of the bathroom saying, "Poop, nassy" [nasty].

When we got home, I brushed her teeth and threw away the toothbrush. And then I waited to see if she would get sick. She didn't, but I was still worried -- what about hepatitis? or worms? -- so I called our pediatrician who told me that as long as she wasn't showing any signs of sickness that she was probably okay. "It's not much different than when children play in the dirt and then put their hands in their mouths and get traces of feces." It made me feel better, but in my book, chewing up a mouthful of poop is different than traces of feces!

Jack's evaluation of the situation was funny and probably accurate. He said, "Mom, I think she thought it was chocolate."