A support person at my host dogbark actually resolved this for me since I don't know my way around php.
Here's what he sent back to me:
"I changed the site to PHP 5.3 and it had the same problem
* I downloaded and installed the sktest script at kenziewellsart.com/sktest and it shows no problems
* There is no server side caching
I went through the code in index.php and basically that temporary homepage shows UNLESS a page that meets all of these requirements is found:
1) Has 'show nav'
2) Is *not* a link
3) Has no parent
None of the pages in your gallery met that so the temporary page showed. I updated the gallery page and enabled the 'show in navigation' link and the site shows normally now."
I"m not sure how I got it tangled up in the beginning, but I thought this resolution might be of interest.
Thanks