William decided to "help" his sister bake bread today.   Ignore his outfit, he decided this is what he wanted to wear today LOL.

Back Row: Danny 16,  Melissa 18, Dad, Mike 14

Middle row: Ricky Jr 17,  me,  Alisha 13 holding William 2 1/2

Front: Seth 11,  Nathan 8,  Andrew 9 and Hannah 4 right in front.

We had a GREAT first week of school!  We started with just a few subjects and will add in history and science this week. So far the kids favorite is Latin using Latina Christiana. They ask to do more each day than what I have planned.

We also went to our first co-op classes with our home school group. The kids has a blast! They made some friends already, too! It was such a blessing for me to see them have fun and meet people. They have been wanting to meet friends for a long time.

I ordered a new digital camera yesterday and it should be in on Wednesday. I can't wait to get it and start taking pictures again! We had a family picture taken at church today and I will post it as soon as I can.

I found this link off a another blog and thought it was worth reposting. Interesting!

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2007/08/14/russian_governor_sponsors_conception_day/

 Russian governor sponsors Conception Day

By Liza Kuznetsova, Associated Press Writer  |  August 14, 2007

Things have been crazy here!  In July I  started working 25 hours a week at a large Animal Hospital nearby. I am revamping their inventory and getting their inventory software system in place. They are very flexible with my hours which is a huge blessing. Right now I work 12 or 1 till  5 or 6 PM. Once we start school I will work 2-7 or 2 till whenever. They pretty much have allowed me to choose what time and day I want to work.I can work more than 25 or less if I need too. This job has been a blessing although it's a bit much getting used to being out an about during the day. The kids are managine well with me gone and my teens have been a HUGE blessing in making this all work. I couldn't do it with out their help!

Melissa and Ricky both start their classes August 20th. They are excited to be starting and a little nervous, too. I am happy for them but still can't believe I have college age kids. I can't be THAT old

We will start with some classes on the 20th and ease intot hings slowly. I need to see how things are going to work with our new schedule and with me working. I still have some books to buy too, but we should be in full swing by Labor Day. The kids are looking forward to starting, but I am not so sure I am ready. This summer has just been insane so far.

Our house in Maine has been under contract and should be finalized next week. We had two closing dates already which fell through, so I am hoping this is IT. I will really miss our house though. I enjoyed our land and the privacy we had, but we feel this is where the Lord wants us for now. 

We have found a neat little church just minutes from our house. We all have learned alot since joining and I feel I have really grown closer to the Lord. It's so wonderful to have a church again after being churchless for the whole time we were in Maine. Well, we home churched, but I didn't realize just how much I missed fellowship with other Christians until we found this church!

Well thats it for new news for now. I hope to update more as we start school and post more of our day to day life with school.

Zookeeperof10 has tagged me. I have to post the rules:

1. All right, here are the rules.

2. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.

3. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

4. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight
things and post these rules.

5. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged
and list their names.

Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re
tagged, and to read your blog

So here it goes.....my 8 facts:

1)I love chocolate

2)I got married at 18 to my highschool sweetie Rick

3) I love to yard sale

4) I love to buy books

5) I am terrorfied of bees of any kind

6) I dye my hair

7) My favorite actor is Mel Gibson

8) I am working on becoming healtier by losing weight.

So I have pick my 8 taggees:

twinacres, teena6 , tiredmom , hrlabonte , dawilli , ElCloud , JoyB , QuiverfullMom

I have been working on our schedule for next year and so far this is what I have. The # by the kid's names are their grade level. Hannah is our 4 year old who wants to " do school" with her siblings.

I have Nathan doing R&S English at the same time the older ones are doing CW and I am not sure if this is going to work or not. I will have to see how it goes and maybe move him to another time slot.

The time for each class is an estimate and I am sure it wont run exactly as scheduled, but I like a time frame to keep up on track somewhat.

Also, we have co-op classes the first and 3rd Thursdays from 12:45 PM till 4 PM. So, those days we will have to shorten school and finish up the following day.

My oldest is offcially graduated from high school! We had a small graduation ceremony and party for her on Sunday at our church. Here is a picture of her dad reading some words he wrote for her:

And her getting her diploma:

and her cake:

It was a really nice ceremony! We made her a slide show of her life with the song " Raging Storm" by Michael W. Smith playing in the background. It was beautiful and not a dry eye in the place! I saw it 8-9 times while making it and I still cried.

On the way home my DD said that it was better than any public high school graduation could have been and she was thankful to have been home schooled.

There has been a lot of discussion recently on the WTM highschool message board regarding Apologia Science and whether it's rigorous enough. I found this blog entery http://www.jeanniesjournal.com/ by Jeannie Fulbright very encouraging!

I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

God has really blessed us this week!  First, the two oldest get the jobs they had been hoping for and then today our real estate agent called and our house is now officially under contract! If all goes as planned we should be closing mid-July. It feels great to have it under contract! I will miss our place there, but I look forward to moving on with our life here.

Today Ricky,  our 17 year old, got hired at Wal-Mart, too. He is looking forward to having some exra cash and is going to work towards saving for a car. Tomorow he gets his driver's permit and he hopes to have his license and car before the summer is over.

Our 17 yo son Ricky is taking the ACT test today for the first time. He has taken the SAT before so I think he is comfortable with the test.  He will retake the SAT come fall, but we wanted to do the ACT this year in order to be able to apply early for college and scholarships.

I know he will do well, but the mom in me is nervous for him

Melissa got hired at a small grocery store yesterday working in the deli. She is pretty excited and looking forward to saving some money for college. She has orientation at the college next week and her and I will be going there for 2 days I am looking forward to spending time with her.

We bought her graduation announcements and diploma from www.hslda.com and we will be mailing the announcements out this week.

It's so weird to have my oldest going off to college already. It seems like just yesterday she was toddling around the house. I am very happy for her and look forward to the next miliestones, but it's also sad to see them grow and go.

My oldest goes off to college this fall. She is majoring in pre-vet and is going to school 30 minutes from here and will be living at home PTL!

This is what the rest are doing...

Ricky (12th)
Community College classes for everything except government and economics ( CLE) and Fine Art study, which I make up my own.

Danny (11th)
Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2 and Aleks.com
Rod & Staff English 8
Vocab for the College Bound Student
Lightening Literatire Mid-Late American lit
Writing-online class & Put That In Writing 1
Apologia Advanced Chemistry
Government and Economics-Christian Light Education
SOS Spanish 1

Mike (9th)
Bible-TOG
Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2 and Aleks.com
Rod & Staff English 8
Vocab For the Highschool Student
Latin 2-Henle
Writing-Classical Writing
TOG-Year 1 redesign: Literature, History,Writing & geography
Apologia Biology
SOS Spanish 1

Alisha (7th)
Bible-TOG
Teaching textbooks 7
Rod & Staff English 7
Spelling-SWR
Vocab-Vocab from the Classical Roots Book A
Classical Writing Aesop B
Latin for Children OR Henle 1
TOG-Year 1 redesign: Literature, History,Writing & geography
Noeo Chemistry 2
Logic-Fallacy Detective

Seth (6th)
Bible-TOG
Teaching textbooks 7
Rod & Staff English 6
Spelling-SWR
Copy work & HWT Cursive
Classical Writing Aesop B
Latin for Children
TOG-Year 1 redesign: Literature, History,Writing & geography
Noeo Chemistry 2

Andrew (4th)
Bible-TOG
Teaching textbooks 5
Rod & Staff English 4
Spelling-SWR
Copy work & HWT Cursive
Classical Writing Aesop B
Latin for Children
TOG-Year 1 redesign: Literature, History,Writing & geography
Noeo Chemistry 2

Nathan (2nd)
Bible-TOG
Abeka Math 2
Rod & Staff English 2
Spelling-SWR
ETC Book 2 & 3
Copy work & HWT Manuscript
Latin for Children
TOG-Year 1 redesign: Literature, History, Writing & geography
Noeo Chemistry 2

Hannah (P-K)
ETC Get Ready For the Code books A, B, C
HWT Get Set for School book
Either Abeka math or Kumon math book
Abeka Art projects or Rod & Staff preschool books for fun

William ( 2 yo)
Continue to be cute  :D

Well we are just about finished with our school year. The younger ones are finished most of thier subjects and the older ones have just math and science left. We should be done by the end of June. It will be nice to take a break before starting back up in August!

We were having a thunder storm here and it was getting pretty bad. I was online and we lost power for a minute. I got back online, told my friend via IM that I will talk to her later ( we had been chatting when the power went off)

SO I shut down the computer, kids had shut thiers down already and I got up, walked to the kitchen and started stirring some veggies I had cooking.

The kids were at the windows looking at the lghtning and all of a sudden I saw and felt this bright blue flash from the pan or maybe the coils? and it hit me in the arm! At the same time I yelled that I had been shocked they yelled for me to come see the lightning.

The light post across the street got struck and the kids said they saw lighting go down the lines and the tree across from it. It was so fast it's hard to explain, but lightning was everywhere LOL.

I am second guessing myself now as to whether I just saw the flash from the stove or actually felt it? It felt like I had been slapped in that spot and I jumped back, but now I don't know kwim? Wouldn't I have been hurt if I actually got shocked? It was so quick.

Im glad we unplugged the computers, but we forgot @ DH's which was in the office. It's fine TG, but we didn't think to unplug the cable from the cable internet to the hub so that is toast. We have a second, junky hub but hey I can get online so I'm happy LOL

What a morning!

I just went and joined the local home school co-op here. They have a big group compared to what I am used too. There were 50 moms and 113 children! The group meets the first and 3rd Thursday thoughout the school year and they offer an assortment of classes.

I volunteered to teach finances to the grade 9-12 group using the book Money Matter for Teens by Larry Burkett .

and the accompanying work book:

I think it will be a fun class and I am looking forward to teaching it.

Today Melissa, Ricky and I drove the the local university to take a tour and meet with some advisors. We were very impressed wit hthe school and she has decided to attend there this fall. She is going to major in pre-vet and hopes to go to vet school in 4 years..

It was a nice day, but I am glad to be home.

Today we are all driving to MO to visit some very dear to us friends! I met Tracey online almost 12 years ago. We soon became friends and have chatted via IM on a daily basis for years. We have met in person a few times when they traveled to the east coast, but now that we live in Arkansas we are only less than 2 hours away from them! I can't wait to see them!

I spent some time this week listing books for sale and sold a large chunk of them. It feels good to have cleaned shelves to make room for next year's books

We got a lot of stuff organized and unpacked. I still have to tackle the garage, yikes, but will deal with it next week.

Right before Christmas my husband was informed that his department within the company he was working for was being eliminated. He was given another position with a different department, but he was told it was probably wise to look for a new job. Rumors had been flying that the company was closing its Maine office after it was sold to a company from down south.

My hubby posted his resume on Monster.com and within a few days had some calls coming in. He ended up with two interviews the same week; One in Arkansas and one in New Hampshire. He was gone the week of December 18-23rd, but by the time his plane landed in Boston on December 23rd he had an offer for the job in Arkansas.

He left on January 8th for the long drive to Arkansas and the children and I stayed behind to wait for our house to sell. Not much was happening with the house and we had few showings. Hubby came home mid February for a visit, which was wonderful!

The day after he left though, I became sick. Very sick. I had eaten some fried chicken and drank some soda which threw me into a gall bladder attack. I, however, didn't know at the time it was my GB. I waited almost two days before seeking medical treatment. By that time I was still in a lot of pain and was very nauseous, dizzy and it was hard to keep my eyes focused. I was eliminating dark brown urine.

The ER said I had "reflux" and a UTI and sent me home with a RX for the UTI. I was still in a lot of pain and very sick and so I went to my regular DR the next morning, who did blood work and sent me for an U/S of my abdomen and I was diagnosed formally with gallstones. I was sent the same day, Wednesday, to a surgeon who said I needed it removed ASAP.

So, surgery was scheduled for Friday morning. Thursday we had a blizzard and I wasn't able to go in for pre-surgery testing, but the nurse and I did all the questions and answer over the phone. I arrived at the day surgery at 8 AM with my 18 year ld daughter. Meanwhile, my husband is trying to get a flight home from Arkansas.

I get undressed into the lovely "gown" provided and the nurse does he thing and I am hooked up to an IV to await the anesthesia Dr. He comes in and we talk and all is well. I am told the surgeon would be in soon to talk to me and that I should be wheeled in within 20 minutes.

The doctor came in and noticed I was very yellow. He said this could be jaundice and I mentioned the dark brown urine and he said that yes, it was most likely jaundice. He got my blood test results from Wednesday and said my liver function was very off. He said I most likely had a gall stone stuck in the tubes connecting the GB and liver and that’s why I was still in pain and very sick and jaundice etc.

So, I was sent home without having my GB removed. He said it would be dangerous to remove it before the stone was removed from the tubes. I was to go to the big hospital 3 hours away and have a procedure called an ERCP and then back to him for the GB surgery.  With an ERCP basically, you are put to sleep and a catheter is snaked down your throat and the stone is crushed and removed.

I called my husband and told him to not fly home yet. We were able to cancel his tickets and had a credit we could use to get new tickets for the next surgery. My poor husband was a wreck being so far from home with everything going on.

Amazingly, within the next few days I began to feel better. I was no longer in pain, but I had a lot of pressure/sensitivity in my liver area. I was able to start eating again. I did a lot of research on diet and realized my GB issues were my own fault. I had been eating terrible for years and my weight was an issue.

So, I changed my eating completely. It was easy because I had no choice. If I didn't, I'd be in serious pain. I switched to organic fruit and veggies, whole grains, no sugar, no white anything and only lean protein. I gave up coffee which was the hardest part of my new way of eating.

I got a call a week later for my appointment for the ERCP. By now I really felt good and was getting back to normal. I still was very tender in my liver but otherwise doing well. I continued the eating plan and losing weight. I was down over 14#'s within 2 weeks of my "attack:

We got new tickets for my husband and he headed home on Saturday. He got to NC and they were having an ice storm. They bumped him a few times and the earliest he would arrive in Maine was Tuesday. My surgery would be well over, so he finally just went back to Arkansas.

Monday arrives and my oldest daughter and son came with me to the big hospital for this procedure.  I was brought in and started doing the pre-op stuff when I mentioned to the nurse how good I felt and all. We got talking and she told me she would have the Dr. come in and talk to me. I was seriously wondering if I even needed this procedure anymore. The Dr came in and we talked and he recommended I have an MRI to see if I still had a stone stuck before taking a risk and having surgery. I got dressed and we headed home.

I had the MRI two days later and there was NO stone! It apparently moved and I was no longer in danger. I decided I was going to continue eating well and see if I can avoid surgery through diet and life style changes.

It is 2 ½ months later and I am pain free, still have my gallbladder and down 26#s! Will I be able to keep my GB forever? I don’t’ know. But I know that at least I tried to change and that I did what I could before submitting to surgery.

Meanwhile, we still haven’t sold our house and hubby is missing us A LOT. So we decided to rent a house in Arkansas, close the Maine house and wait for God’s timing. The kids and I got busy packing and cleaning. Hubby arrived home on April 11^th and the moving truck got here April 14^th.  We got the truck loaded in 2 hours!! We cleaned up the floors and locked up the house. Off we went on our new adventure!  

We took our time and went through Canada and came down via Ontario so we could see Niagara Falls, which were amazing! We stayed over night in New York and woke to a Nor’easter. We left before 7 AM and outran the weather all the ay through New York!

We took another hotel in Illinois and arrived in Arkansas Monday April16th. The children and I fell in love with the house my hubby chose for us. We slept on the floor for 2 nights and the movers arrived Wednesday. It took a bit longer to unpack as the truck couldn’t make it up our road so we had to rent a small U-haul and unload the big truck into the U-Haul and then to the house.

We got everything in and started unpacking. Within a few days basically everything was in somewhat an order and I planned to the kids to restart school.

Then we ran out of water.

Called the land lord who admits the well isn’t great but that he wasn’t able to dig a new one or anything and we would have to deal with it ourselves. After a few days or trying to be water frugal we decided this wasn’t going to work for us. My hubby called the real estate office he had dealt with and they had another house for us to look at. It was big enough, but in a sub-division, which I didn’t want.

We looked at the house and it was definitely big enough plus had a garage and plenty of storage. So we took this house and spent the weekend, exactly 14 days after moving into the old house, moving into the new house.

We have a lot unpacked and put away, but still many boxes to go through in the garage. I am taking today as a mental health day *smile* and will deal with the garage tomorrow. At least the house itself is somewhat organized. I can live with that.

We plan to get back into school on Monday and I don’t know when we will break for summer. Most of the kids are finished with their books, but my 11^th grader has a few things to catch up on.

The house in Maine is still for sale. We have had a few showing, but no offers yet. Hopefully soon. I am looking forward to selling it and moving on. I feel like I can’t move on with my life until the Maine house is gone.

Ricky decided to come with us and leave MSSM early. He didn’t want to miss out on the trip and wanted to be with. I am very glad he is here but part of me wishes he would have finished the year. He is planning on taking classes at the local CC next year.

So, that’s what is up with us. I hope to update my blog more often now that life is settling down.