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.