~Graduation at CHEO~

First of all, I want to thank the most important person, God. I want to thank Him, for bringing me this far. I want to thank Him for helping us to find such a wonderful Christian home school group for me to graduate with. I thank Him for giving me such wonderful parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles cousins and friends all across the world. I thank Him for how he has helped me to grow physically, and spiritually. In the Bible, Peter started to walk on the water towards Jesus, yet he started to notice the stormy waves and the problems at at the time, and he started to sink. Like that example, I don't ever want to get so focused on this world and it's problems, that I loose sight of Jesus. I love Him so much, want to live for Him no matter what, and I want His will for my life.

To my wonderful parents~ Thank you so much for all the sacrifices that you have made over the years. Thank you for being wonderful, godly parents and examples to me. Thank you for loving God, and for doing His will. Thank you for being there for us, no matter where, when or what time of day. I love you so much.
Daddy, thank you so much for the wonderful father you have been for the past 18 years. Thank you for all you have done as "principal". Thank you for helping me with all the math over the past 7 years, from algebra, and business math to geometry. I am sure that you got all your gray hairs from trying to help me understand the proofs of geometry! ;) Love you so much.

Mommy, thank you ever so much for being such a wonderful home school mom! Thank you for the many hours you helped me study for tests...English, Economics, History, and the ever dreaded Chemistry! Thank you for all you have done for the past seven years in homeschooling us. I love you.

Brittany, Darla, and Bryan, Thanks for being such great siblings (on occasion ;) I love you all so much, and am glad that I get to be your older sister! Thanks for putting up with me! ;) (I didn't get a decent picture with Brittany, for the "great sibling on occasion" was playing a part there with Bryan pulling my hair out at a weird angle.)

Gram and Gramp, thank you for making the special effort to drive over on a Saturday night, and then having to rush back for your Sun. service. Thank you for being the best Gram and Gramp a girl could want. Thank you for letting us always come and see you, and mess up your always perfect house, and causing you many gray hairs wrecking havoc with your antiques! Love you all.

Grandma and Pop-pop, thank you for driving out to spend the weekend with us. Thanks for all the goodies that you brought, and all the memorable times together! Thank you for all the many miles you have driven/flew to come and see us): FL, TN, NY, OH, and Romania. Thank you for letting us come "home" to visit you both. You are the best Grandma and Pop-pop in the world! Love you all so much.
p.s. Pop-pop, you can thank me for not putting on the silly picture of you. I was looking out for your P.R. ;) thanks for all the laughs!

Thank you U. Frank, A. Doreen, and my dear cousin Sara for coming out for the weekend. Sara, thank you for being the wonderful photographer that you are! You are such a great and fun person to be around. We have had fun over the years, playing with your American girl dolls, swimming, and playing the infamous "blueberry", oh and don't forget the yearly Christmas tradition! ;) It has been wonderful having you as a cousin! U. Frank, A. Doreen, thank you for being just two of the best aunts and uncles I have. I couldn't say that you are the best, or there would be war between the rest! ;) Love you all.

Thank you all for the fun times we had together: spending the nights when we were little, and playing kickball in your yard, and the spontaneous times of having Sunday dinner together! We loved it. Thank you Budensieks so much, for making the long drive up from FL., to be at my graduation.

My dear friends Tiffany and Crystal. We have had some great times together from playing with dolls in the "covered red wagon" to jumping on a soaped trampoline and playing with water balloons or just talking and laughing. Thank you all so much for your friendship, it means a lot!

Christian Home Educators of Ohio~ The Graduating Class of 2011!

Our family~ Daddy (Masters in TESOL) and I (high school) graduates of 2011.

Thank you to all who helped us celebrate!
~NMH~

Happy Anniversary, Sweets! (this photo taken in Austria 4 years back)
How glad I am that Jesus had you choose me! :) Thank you for all the wonderful years of following you! You are so wonderful, caring, ever loving, unselfish, and most of all such a God-fearing and loving Man! We are so blessed to have you to lead our home! And it is a JOY to follow you anywhere! I've never had to live in a "cardboard box" as I've jokingly told you that I would over the years! It has always been exciting to follow you wherever the Lord has led you and I WILL DO IT, by God's help as long as I live! God has been sooooo good to us and then to bless our home with four beautiful children, blessings are ours beyond counting and many wonderful friends the world over, too! How glad I am to be Mrs. Daryl Hausman! Happy Anniversary! All my love, Laura

"Going for a Masters or Phd is a sacrifice not just for you, but for the entire family. You must decide if the sacrifice is worth it." These were the words of a man at a teachers convention discussing the positives and negatives of going on for more education. His statement is absolutely correct. My family has sacrificed so that I could pursue what I believed God was leading me to do. My children have had their father gone many hours and home - but not home - for many hours. Many times family night took a back seat because I was busy working on school projects - or I was there for family time, but mentally I was miles away. I am so blessed to have a family who has supported me in this endeavor. I have no doubt God has led me all the way, and when He opens the doors, we must walk. Thank you Laura, Natasha, Brittany, Darla, and Bryan for being so wonderful. Daddy's home again!
Here's a picture of about 1/4 of the graduates. Black gowns represent Phd and Masters graduates and Green gowns represent Bachelors degrees. There were about 1300 graduates that marched. I believe there were over 2000 that actually graduated but many choose not to march.

To God be the Glory!
Here are few shots of my exciting day today! Yes, I was/am pretty pumped about it! I graduated with a Masters in TESOL. The whole process was intense! I'm thankful for the opportunity I have had. God has blessed and helped me all the way. Yes, I had to work hard, harder than I have ever worked. God expects us to give it our best and not be a slacker.

A wonderful delight to have friends and family members there to support me.

The graduation was held at the "Nutter Center." Someone asked, "Who was Ervin Nutter?" My reply: "Someone who donated a lot of money so this building could be built!"

My wonderful wife of soon-to-be 22 years.
Picture below: I'm the one on the far right of the pic.

Goodbye Brace, Goodbye!And Natasha would add... "Good riddance and with Pleasure!" :) She has finally finished wearing her brace. They weaned her from it slowly since her body was so dependent upon it from the 1st 6 full weeks of wearing it 24/7! She goes in two weeks for her followup check-up!
Until then we have school to CRUNCH!!!! Desperately trying to be finished by June 18th, her Graduation Day!

God IS SO Awesome! Daryl got "unofficial word" that all of his final projects INCLUDING HIS PAPER that had to pass in order for him to graduate HAVE ALL PASSED! PTL!
Now this week is "crunch time" for Natasha especially! Please pray with us for her, for since her surgery her concentration level just isn't what she'd like it to be in order to finish up her tough subjects. But Jesus cares and we are trusting him!!!!
"Bless the Lord, Oh my soul, and All that is within me BLESS HIS HOLY NAME!!!"
(this is a year old pic... and my family won't love me when they see what I posted... :) But we did have a wonderful time with family in TN... another blessing from Jesus in our lives!)

Just got a text from my man and his final project was just turned in! YEA!!!
This isn't the one he asked you to pray about... so keep praying with us about that one!!!
School's Out!!!!!!!!! Yes!Well, to be exact, Natasha has a few more things to finish, for obvious reasons, called a recent Spinal Surgery! She is plowing away learning about "Thingamajigs, and Whatchamacallit's" If you are confused, just contact her! :) In "back news" she has less than one week left to wear her brace and she can't wait to have that GONE! God is helping her with her healing and we praise Him sooooo much!


Brittany's done except for a few loose ends in her Speech class and Geometry! So close! She's goofing off with Natasha in this pic!
Darla and Bryan finished their work today and I'm one-happy-home-school Moma! :) this cowpoke pic was taken by some dear friends of ours... he was patiently (well maybe NOT) waiting on his sisters to finish visiting and they snapped this shot! Thanks Laura! We love it!
Some fun pics the girls took near our Haus!

My final project for graduation was a "provisional pass." The committee "admired my argument but wanted me to edit the paper because I had a few recurring grammatical errors. This final project is above and beyond our normal coursework. If you don't get the green light on the Independent paper and final portfolio - You don't graduate. Yes, a little bit of stress. So, I met with one of the readers to discuss the errors which was very helpful. So, now I must re-submit the final paper and wait to hear about the results of it and the final portfolio. The professor that I met with told me she really likes my argument and that it was solid. Thank the Lord - I worked hard to try to make the argument solid. The topic was "Effective Teacher Talk in the Second Language Writing Conference." Basically, I focused on the use of scaffolding and negotiation (and its benefits) as we try to assist our students in their writing. I should know by next week if it's passes.

The Cincinnati Zoo!!
It had rained/ rather poured, down raining, just as it was about time for us to leave for the zoo and we had some SAD kids. But we prayed then I called the zoo and the man said it was open, rain or shine and that the rain was supposed to stop soon. So we dawned rain jackets and ran! We had a grand time and didn't even have to get wet! This pic was taken as we were ready to leave the zoo, so that's why it was so dark, for the zoo had special hours that night til 9 pm.We had asked the kids over a year ago to make a list of things they would like to do for Family Night. Which is something we try VERY hard to keep up. One of the things that made the list was going to the zoo. Due to lots of things on our "to-do list" that were FREE... this one hadn't happened yet. Plus it's NO fun unless Daddy can go along too! Well, thanks to Jesus, He made that possible for us last weekend. (This was the 1st time we were able to go to the zoo as a family since we had gone in Romania with Sally years ago!)We had a dear friend ask us if we would be interested in going to the zoo and we could hardly contain our excitement while saying Yes! In fact, SOME of us DIDN'T hold our excitement but squealed right out loud!!! Here are a few of the fun shots that we got and thanks a million Ginger, for making that happen for us! You're a dear!
Fun do-it-ourselves shots while riding the train.
With Natasha's recent surgery and my doing a dumb thing and twisting my left ankle REALLY good, (or should that be "bad") we were VERY glad that our tickets INCLUDED the zoo train for no extra charge! :)

This is what Natasha and I did often, with my bummed ankle and her weariness walking all through the zoo was a chore at times, so we found any available bench and promptly occupied it!
These two enjoyed the zoo beyond words... as you might be able to tell from their expressions! This Carousel pic is blurry... but this was something that delighted them too!
The night before we were to go to the zoo, Bryan told me, "Mommy, if I can't get up quick in the morning, just remind me that we are going to the zoo, and I'll hop right up!" So being the "mean Moma" that I am, I called him early the next morning by saying, "Bryan the Orangutan said he can't wait to see you tonight!" He rolled over and groggily asked, "WHO?" To which I howled laughing and said, "The monkey" and with that he was up!!! Kids, you gotta love them!
This was the "animal" that their Daddy spotted 1st! See if you can find it?
Bryan and Darla were "crazy" enough to want to hold this creature! These pics are out-of-order however, for Bryan wouldn't hold it 1st, but after Darla did, he wasn't about to be out-done by a girl!!! Even if she is his sister and closest play mate!!! :)
What you can't see in this pic... is the HUGE shudder that couldn't help but come after she had safely given this guy "Mickey" back to the zoo keeper!!!
These animals Daryl and Natasha saw while in Colombia, S. America, only this guy had just had a scalping haircut. Darla enjoyed getting to pet it!

Recent Update!
It's hard to believe it's already been 6 wks since Natasha's surgery!! God has been SO good to us! She had her 6 wks check-up today and received a good report. Dr. Crawford has decided to slowly take her brace away from her bit by bit. He felt this was best for her to slowly strengthen her neck muscles and has ordered physical therapy as well. She is allowed to have a break from her brace for 8 hrs each day! Those will be some HAPPY hours for her indeed! She is very grateful for all the help that the Lord has given her! Thank you for your continued prayers!

Four "Reason's I Can Celebrate Mother's Day! (And the great husband who makes it all possible!) ( This is a behind the scenes of the post below!)Thanks, Sweets for the many projects that you do around our "Haus" to make us all happy! Daryl lovingly calls me his 95% Proverbs 31 woman! (I'm not too good at the whole "Real Estate" thing!:)

Natasha got everyone busy helping do what they could do in preparation for our Mother's Day meal... and she is here helping chop the Tomatoes that would go on top the chicken. She is telling me here... "Oh NO, this is going on the blog... my whole life is being blogged right now!" :) But this was another glimpse of our Natasha coming back to us.

Brittany's adding good sticky sweet stuff to our Strawberries!

Darla washed the dishes up for me. One of the good things that has come about because of her big sister having to have surgery. Darla and Bryan have stepped up to the plate... (or rather set up on the stool so they can reach our sink) and have mastered the "doing dishes" thing pretty well. I needed a dessert for our Saturday meal, Natasha isn't quite up to baking for me yet, Brittany was faithfully running errands with her Daddy (and that included Goodwill, much to her delight!!) so I asked Darla if she would like to "help me" bake a cake! She was delighted, of course. Here is a pic of her 1st cake!! It was a big HIT with her family too! Good Job, Darla! Here she is doing the dishes... for I reminded her that is a BIG part of the joy of baking, is a cleaned up kitchen afterward! Good "reverse" psychology! :)

Bryan is cutting up the green onions that will also top the chicken on Sunday's meal. He often asks me if I have a "Man's Job" for him to do! :)

Thank God for this Moment!Mother's Day 2011! God has been so good to me and allowed me so many pleasures. One of which is the privilege of being a Momma! What a great responsibility, but what a great Joy!

Natasha told her Daddy early on what she wanted him to make for me for Mother's Day! She has fond memories of this meal from when she was just a child. Daryl has had a good time teasing her that she's gotten a by with a LOT, since her surgery! She got her way and here's our menu: Monterrey Grilled Chicken, Baked Potatoes, with topping, yummy corn from Yerians Garden, and Macaroni Salad. For Dessert we opted for Strawberry Shortcake... blueberries were add for color too! And they enjoyed setting our table in the China which was given to us as a wedding gift over 20 years ago. The table cloth is a gift from a dear Christian lady in Ukraine, and the napkin rings came from Russia. Our life has been SO richly blessed... all because of Jesus and His calling for our lives!

To the Best Mommy in the world!
Thank you for all that you have done through the years as a mother. Thank you for putting your kids needs in front of your own. Thank you for being such a wonderful Christian example to us. Thank you for your example to us in your marriage and in loving Daddy. We know that your priorities are Jesus, Daddy and us. And even though we may "complain" about being sent out of the living room for y'all's "couch time". I think that inside we are really pleased because we know that you really love Daddy and you both want what is best for us.
Thank you for being there to talk to or have fun with even when you are exhausted! :) Thank you for loving us. We love you so very much! Happy Mother's Day!
Love,
Bryan, Darla, Brittany, and Natasha~

Each day we see little glimpses of our Natasha coming back to us. Saturday p.m. Darla was practicing for her upcoming recital and was having some troubles. So here is another glimpse of Natasha as she helped Darla with her practice. Natasha later said, "Mommy, I didn't realize how much I missed playing the violin."



This knock-out Rose bush was a gift from the girls violin teacher for Natasha following her surgery. She also gave her a delightful card that we have all enjoyed and thought you all might enjoy it as well!
The wording of this card she once received from a friend and thought Natasha might enjoy it. (outside) "Your doctor tells me you are doing better and will be able to play the violin soon!" (inside) "Which is quite remarkable because you never could play one before!" :)
We howled laughing!!! Thank you, Mrs. Collins for your very generous gift, your understanding spirit, and most of all your prayers for Natasha through this healing process! You are a dear, and we believe GOD helped us find you to teach our girls!