Landon's Personalized Graduation

On Monday, May 23, we hosted a graduation/reception for Landon at the Hampton Inn & Suites where Greg works. We began by showing the slide show I previously blogged. Then I had asked 6 different people who've been instrumental in Landon's life to speak about him and give him a vision for the future. All I can say is that this was incredible!

I started and managed not to get too choked up.


Next was the commander of his CAP squadron, Major Keith Shewbart.


Doug Dodd, who was Landon's Sunday School teacher for a year and taught him in the Sheriff's Citizen Academy, went next. His oldest daughter and Landon are 19 days apart, and he grew up with Greg as well.


Next, Bob Ayton spoke. Bob is an AP Chemistry and Physics teacher at Dunnellon High School. He and Landon struck up a friendship at church and had long conversations about science topics. Bob wrote a letter of recommendation for Landon when he was applying to be a National Merit Scholarship finalist.


Kim Lacognata, the Preschool Director at the Church@ the Springs, went next. Landon worked in the 3-year-old class there for more than a year.


AJ, Landon's cousin, spoke next. AJ and Landon spent a lot of time driving back and forth to the community college this year and had a few classes together as well.


Finally, Kevin Spiddle spoke. Kevin and his wife Linda are our "Plan B" parents and have spent a lot of time with our kids over the past 10 years.


Greg summed it up, but he got choked up while trying to thank me for the hard work and commitment that helped Landon get to where he is. It was overwhelming since Greg is usually the jokester.


Finally, we asked the men in the room to join us as we prayed over Landon. Joe Lacognata was so gracious to pray, and it was a really incredible time!


We had a great time socializing after that.

These two boys (Marl and my #2 son, Gerren) were born on the same day when we were living across the street from each other.


These Lacognata girls are our favorites!


Carys always has a silly face!


I think she gets it from her sister. :)


Here's the happy graduate.


On the following Sunday, May 29th, Landon went through a formal graduation ceremony at the FPEA convention. I will do a post on that when I get the pictures back!

Congratulations, Landon!

This is the slide show I made for Landon's graduation!



We had a reception/ceremony for him Monday, May 23, at the Hampton where Greg works. I started to type all about that, but I think I'll wait until I get the pictures uploaded. We are leaving tonight for the FPEA convention in Orlando, which starts tomorrow morning. We're all going as Landon will participate in the graduation ceremony Sunday morning. More info on all that later!

Blog Design Change

I've changed my blog background in honor of Landon's upcoming graduation. I can hardly believe that we're here already. He could have graduated in the ceremony with our local community college on May 6. However, we didn't know he'd be eligible to walk (he applied late) until I'd already planned the Passport for Purity weekend for that same weekend. So, we skipped that. One ceremony a year is enough anyway, right?

On Monday, May 23, we will have a reception/ceremony for him at the Hampton where Greg works. Then, on Sunday, May 29, at 10:00am, he will participate in the graduation ceremony with our state homeschool group. We decided to do the reception separately from this because the ceremony is on a Sunday morning (I HATE that!) and is at the resort where the convention is held (which requires attendees to drive to Orlando and pay $10 to park at the resort). We hated to put anyone to that much trouble and expense, so we did it this way. We'll see how it goes and make changes when Gerren graduates.

Please pray for me to not be a sobbing mess at either of these events!

Happy Birthday, Chase!

I'm finally getting Chase's birthday pictures posted. On Thursday, May 5, I became the mother of THREE teenagers! Thankfully, I still have Carys to keep me young. :)

Here's Chase with MOST of her presents.


Here are her two best girlfriends: Sarah and Carys.


Chase's surprise gift was a full-size guitar.


Here are the girls posing.


We always have Mexican food for dinner since Chase's birthday is on Cinco de Mayo. This year we tried a new restaurant: Pepe's. It was FABULOUS! Really authentic Mexican food and inexpensive as well!

We had to sit at two tables, so here's the girls' table.


Carys had to sit by Sarah at every opportunity. Poor Chase!


Carys always has to pose for the camera!

Mother's Day

This blog is a family record, so I get to be brutally honest, right? My husband had the misfortune of marrying someone whose love language is gift giving. Unfortunately, his main character "flaw" (if you would call it that) is procrastination. The two do not go well together!

Chase and I were gone this weekend doing the Passport to Purity program while the boys stayed at home and went through Mark Gungor's Sex, Dating & Relating Teen Edition. Chase tends to have giving as her love language as well, but she wasn't home to do anything about it, I guess. So, Mother's Day consisted of the rest of the family stopping at Kohl's on the way home and buying a gift card and a Hoops and YoYo talking card (which THEY like) and coming home to find Chase and me already home from our weekend. So, no one tells me Happy Mother's Day because they have to sneak in Landon's bedroom to sign the card they just bought. No one writes anything special on it; they just sign their names. I start complaining about the lack of love the kids have for me, so they go and get the card and hand it to me. That's it. Whoohoo! What a great Mother's Day! I think I'll quit. Let them all mother themselves!

Crazy Busy!

I've been furiously busy over the past month or so trying to get everything ready for Landon to graduate as well as go off to college next year. When you're the parent, the teacher, the principal, and the guidance counselor, there is a lot to do! We had Landon's senior pictures taken on April 1. They turned out so good other than fighting with the glare off his glasses!








This is my favorite!


We took a final trip to UCF in mid-April to meet with a physics professor. It clinched Landon's decision to go there next year. Although he loved MST, he can't pass up the opportunity to get a degree with no debt. There are lots of other great things about UCF as well, of course.

The weekend we had Landon's pictures done, he told me he wanted to go through the graduation ceremony at our state homeschool group's convention. That had me scrambling with two weeks to get everything sent in that they needed, but I did it! It's hard to invite people to that graduation, though, as: 1) it's on Sunday morning at 11:00am, 2) it's at the resort where the convention is located and costs $10 to park, 3) we're unavailable both before and after due to the convention and luncheon. So, we're having a reception/presentation for him on the Monday before the convention. Well, I wanted to make a slide show for the reception. However, all my film from his birth (1993) through 2004 was in negatives (pre-digital cameras). I had asked for and received an Epson V300 Photo Scanner for my birthday in order to transfer all my negatives and old pictures into digital, but I hadn't started the process yet. It took me two weeks to transfer the 12 years I needed! I worked every spare second. Instead of reading to the kids in the living room, we did it in the school room so I could switch out negative strips every 2-3 minutes. (I'm doing everything pre-1993 now, but at a much slower pace!)

I think we've turned in everything he needs for UCF now. Even though he won't owe them any money, we had to make deposits to reserve his space in the class and in the honors tower where he'll be living. We had to send his immunization records as well. I think I have to send a final transcript from our homeschool as well as from the College of Central Florida where he has managed to earn his AA at the same time! :)

Two weekends ago, the kids and I went to the Florida Wing Cadet Conference for Civil Air Patrol. Next weekend (May 6-8), Chase and I are headed to Orlando for our Passport for Purity weekend. Then, the last weekend in May is the convention. We're doing school through June 6 because of moving twice this year. Then, June 9-10 is orientation at UCF. On the 11th, I plan to collapse!

Reminded of Why I Homeschool

Well, this weekend I've been reminded of one of the reasons we chose homeschooling--to pass on our values to our children. And I guess, I've determined that I am a total prude of a parent. Prom was this weekend for some of our local schools, and I've been looking at pictures on Facebook.

I honestly cannot believe the dresses Christian girls wear. Strapless, low-cut, sequence everywhere, beauty pageant dresses. I've seen girls wearing garters. Really? I think garters and limos should be for weddings. Why are we sexualizing our daughters and then expecting them to remain pure?

I'm a total prude. Sigh!