July: laundry soap, salsa & bread

July flew by!
















































We made salsa. Garrett, Gavin and Josh took care of the salsa making! We ground wheat and made bread. Gracie and Jared were our bread makers for the day. We also took time to make home made laundry soap. Jacob and Losha were in charge of making sure that was accomplished.

Welcome July

The kids are elated about the 4th of July! The excitement is building, as this is Jacob and Losha's 1st Independence Day with our family, in America! The boys keep talking fireworks and really want to blow something up :-)! Their Aunt brought them smoke grenades and less harmful things that they set off today and a box of night works, that we'll save for the 4th. On the 3rd, We'll watch a rural town 4th of July parade and go to a cook out. Nana and Papa have planned a BBQ and night works for the 4th

Ending June

Wow! This month has been hectic!!!
I write all this not for sympathy or to be negative, but to show we all will have difficulties and must get through them.
Within the past week, we've had: a 3 day Classical Conversation practicum, Garrett broke down on Hwy 169, our post-placement adoption papers were messed up, and our upstairs central air unit quit!
Even more heartbreaking to deal with is our friend Julie is having surgery to remove a lump from her throat (thyroid cancer). They have 5 children, 3 from Russia.
But..... we enjoyed the practicum. I would have enjoyed it even more, if I had not been so distracted by the adoption paper mess up.
Garrett's car was an easy fix, thanks to my brother!
As of last night at 9:30, the adoption papers should get to where they need to be in order to get back to Russia in time!
A/C problem: So thankful, it was not our downstairs a/c, we were able to have a good night sleep and the repairman is here now.
Welcome July!
This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.

May was chaos

The day after Gavin had his hospital visit, we had to go to the ear specialist, the next day Jacky cut the end of his left index finger off! He cut it off diagonally, so the surgeon had to amputate more evenly. So....May 3rd-6th we were either at the hospital or a specialist of some sort. Jacky has adjusted well with the loss of his left finger tip, with the exception of playing guitar and bass. It hasn't affected his drumming at all!
We had a blow out on the way to Garrett's graduation, the boys had to change the tire since Jacky couldn't, due to his finger. We bought new tires the next day.
The following weekend on the way to camp, we had a blow out on a new tire. We found out they put the wrong tires on our vehicle and we received a whole new set of tires. Wow! CHAOS!!!

Closing ceremonies

Classical Conversations is one tremendous homeschool community! I'm so proud of our entire community! I'm so sad to be moving on from this marvelous group of awesome people!
With Gavin's accident, I was so blessed to be able to attend our closing ceremonies Tuesday evening. Gavin played "the prince" in the Latin play! I almost made him stay home, he fell asleep on the way and I decided to turn around to take him home, he didn't want to. He went, played his part, and took tylenol when we got home.
I had a difficult time, presenting the awards to my class. I made it short and to the point to keep the emotions under control. I'm excited about being the director for the Skiatook group this fall, but sad to be leaving this amazing community of friends, we've been with the past 3 years!
We had 21 memory masters! Our son Losha was one of them. We are so proud of his perseverance, of overcoming the language barrier and reciting everything in English! The tested subjects include: History timeline, history facts, science, math, grammar, geography, and Latin. The children must know and be able to recite all the facts from the entire school year, not just the past few weeks. Losha did it!!! He even wore his metal to the breakfast table Wednesday morning!

Hospital visit

I never thought we would have a hospital visit over a tire swing! I thought - horse, four wheeler, snake bite, not a tire swing! The kids had finished lunch and went outside for a bit. The next thing I know, our 14 year old son needs to go to the hospital. His ears are hurting, and he can't hear properly from his right ear. When we arrive, they cut his shirt off, put a neck brace on and begin examining him. Blood begins to run out of his right ear and he begins to hear. They perform chest x-rays and a CT scan. Nothing! The Dr. is unsure of why his ears are bleeding and refers us to an ear specialist. The ear specialist decides that even though it didn't show up on the CT, Gavin has a displaced, hairline, temporal skull fracture. There is NO hearing loss and the eardrums and skull will heal on their own! We have the wonderful responsibility to make sure Gavin doesn't get on a skateboard, bicycle, etc. for the next 4-6 weeks. How hard it will be for him, to be still, with 5 brothers and 1 sister to live with! We are so very thankful, that our awesome, active, teen son will be fine!

Our new addition

It's okay Mom, it's just a puppy! Sunday evening we were outside and our tough lil' rat terrier ran a dog off, away from our driveway. The kids kept saying "Mom, it's a puppy and it's so cute." Jacky and I replied, "it probably belongs to someone." Monday morning, when we wake up, it's at the boys window and the kids are begging to keep it. Jacky and I still have not laid eyes on it, we're looking at each other, thinking "oh, we really only want one dog and Schroeder will be jealous!" The kids open the door to check on it, Schroeder and the puppy come in the house. We see it. I look at Jacky and plead to keep her. She walks to Jacky, he looks at her, and the rest is history! Now we have Schroeder and Suzie! Suzie is not a puppy, the kids refer to both of them as puppies, since they're both small dogs. Schroeder is our black and white rat terrier and Suzie is the lil' reddish brown dog.

Wow

We moved (partially)over spring break. We lived semi-camping style for a few weeks, in the house. We are close to Church, soccer, and Classical school!
I did go a couple of weeks without internet and then the computer messed up. I think we have it all worked out now!
More family time is a blessing!

NEVER say never

Okay, I may have learned my lesson to NEVER say never??? Two things I've said I would never do are: move during the school year and have our living and kitchen upstairs again! You guessed it, I'm swallowing my words! We've found a home (thanks to some wonderful homeschool friends),18 miles from Jacky's place of employment and it's only 11 miles from where we will hold Classical Conversation classes next fall! It will make a beautiful home for our family! Sure will be nice to have my husband home more, plus he is really tired of driving a little over 110 miles per day!
I'm finding the older I get, the more words I have to eat! Please pray our current home can be a huge blessing to another large family!

Farm items for sale

Please spread the word!
For sale on craigslist:
Horses http://tulsa.craigslist.org/grd/1575326341.html

Tractor http://tulsa.craigslist.org/grd/1575282144.html

This is what's left.

Needing to move

Wow! Have we had changes lately!!!! I am officially the director for Classical Conversations Skiatook Campus (a homeschool community that promotes academic excellence and centers itself on Christ). We would love to move to Skiatook! Moving would save Jacky over 1,000 miles per month. We feel that we need to live in the community that we will serve. We already have a wonderful, supportive Church family at Riveted Church in Skiatook, now I will be serving through Classical Conversations in the same community.
We will sell our beautiful home and acreage to help us get to where we need to be.
All the pictures are of our home in Pawhuska (a wonderful friend took the pics, I can not take credit for the beautiful work she did), which is 1 hour and 15 min. from Tulsa. If you know someone looking please point them in our direction. paytonshope@sbcglobal.net
We will sell our 4,000 sq ft home and 5 acres with the option to purchase 28.43 additional acres.

Oklahoma snow

Beautiful sights: Oklahoma wintery landscape, ponds, snow drifts, snow knee deep to a 7 year old, sunset, and sunrise.

Not a perfect family

I'm writing this post not to be negative, but to demonstrate no one has a perfect life!
Wednesday I had decided enough! We've been couped up long enough, the washer flooded the floor, only 2 burners consistently work on our 6 burner cook top, the dryer is squealing, we need to get away! It was the last day for Silver Dollar City to be opened and my parents had purchased us season passes. That's it.... we'll use them! We begin our journey, we make a quick stop at the home of a friend, or oldest decides- "I'm 18, I'm not going". He gets out of the van and begins to walk! We gathered him and told him he could stay at Nana & Papa's while the rest of the family enjoys some family fun. This broke my heart, I prefer my family to stay together and have fun together. We could not allow his actions to destroy the fun for the rest of the family. We begin again, the van would barely go, I'm talking 30 miles per hour. We get it to the mechanic in Bartlesville and decide to go to lunch. We're sitting in the restaurant, I'm fighting back tears, and a gentleman whispers something to Jacky and places something on the table. The man wanted to pay for the lunch of our children. I look out the window, as I could fight the tears no longer. A God reminder- He is in control and whatever happens, happens for a reason. We return to the mechanic and it was not a major repair. We decided it was too late to travel to Branson, so we headed to Tulsa, got a hotel where the kids could swim indoor, enjoy pizza and video games. The next morning they swam more, had an amazing breakfast, went ice skating and a late lunch at Ted's before heading home.
Just a reminder: whether it be a rebellious teen (that has always been one amazing, compassionate, wonderful guy), several things falling apart at the same time or a big change of plans - God is in control! He can fix all the problems, in time!
Hebrew Chapter 11 "By Faith"
You see... there are no perfect people, therefore we have imperfect lives.

Christmas Day 2009

We videoed the boy's first Christmas here, since my camera was in the van that was in the neighbors drive 2 miles away. It was an exciting morning! I had to make a cake from scratch since the cake mix I was going to use to make the "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake was, you guessd it...in the van. I continued to hear "it's okay Mom"!...
It's a wonderful, adventurous day! I will rejoice and be glad in it!
I have an awesome husband! The xbox was hidden in the van, that's approximately 2 miles from our house. He walked with Gavin and Losha to the van (hoping to be able to drive it home), so they could play their new game today. The van could not leave the spot. It's still ice under the snow. He had to walk back the 2 miles, carrying the xbox. He's such an amazing Dad!!!!!
My amazing Dad came that evening and helped get it unstuck and home, but it was stuck in our drive for several days after that. Our plans for other Christmas gatherings didn't happen, but the kids seemed to have a blast!

Christmas Eve 2009

Our family is blessed enough to have both of my Grandmother's still alive!!! The photo of my children and "Granny-great", is my Dad's mom. The one with my children and many cousins is "Grandma White", my Mom's mom. We love both of them so much and we're so glad they're still with us!
It was snowing and icy! We almost made it home without incident, 2 miles from home and we couldn't make it up our hill, slid in a ditch, but thanks to God, a tow truck and neighbors we made it home safely!

Christmas decorations

As I begin this post, I just want to say: I hope no one is offended by the picture of Jacob with no shirt. He was in his sleep shorts and so excited about untangling the lights!





































Decorating for Christmas this year was a whole new experience! Thank you to all those that prayed, donated and help raise funds in order to get us to Russia and make this new experience possible! Jacob and Losha were so excited about the lights and the nativity scene! They said "America really good!" We take so much for granted! We heard so many "wows" and "really goods" while getting the decorations out, it was unbelievable!

Geography fair 2009

Guess what country we chose for the Geography fair.... You got it....Russia!

18 and 10

November 2009 brought a sad, yet joyous time for us. Our oldest turned 18! Josh turned 10 (double digits, are always sad for Mom). Garrett is a wonderful, compassionate guy ready to spread his wings. So, he needs much prayer in making wonderful, right choices for his future. Josh is a quiet now 10 year old who loves the color orange and really likes the OSU cowboys. He will need prayer to speak up when needed. They both continue to need prayer to be able to grow spiritualy, mentally, physically and emotionally in the path God wants them to go, as do we all.