my philosophy :)

 Our girls know how to shoot. Thankful for this.

Our pastor saw a man from our church at the airport who recently lost his pregnant wife and his 2 sons in an auto accident. He asked him how he was and how he was able to move on and live. His answer was simply - They were never mine anyway. They are God's.
That man gets it. I don't know that I would be able to grasp that concept in his situation. Our kids are His. We are here to love them, guide them, raise them, until He has other plans for them. Same goes for our lives in general. We may think we have a plan for where we should go, who we should be. But our lives are His. He can take us in a different direction merely by changing what's around us.
Every relationship I've had in the past, every mistake I've made, every seemingly insignificant decision has led me to this spot in time, right now, surrounded by these people, and has made me who I am, right now.

Ok, that was a really great week. This will be an annual event for us for sure. We met soo many amazing people and made some great connections that were just dropped in our lap. It was so great to meet so many in law enforcement and hear things from their perspective. They were so kind and generous in sharing with us.
Not only did we learn a ton, but we had fun too. The last night especially. We attended a dinner/dance party and got to get out on the floor with all of our new friends and just have a good time. Very refreshing after the many stresses of the week.
I am so grateful for what we get to do. Making a difference with your life makes all the difference.

Conference time

I'm at the Crimes Against Children Conference in Dallas this week with some of my partners. Not a fun topic, but we are learning a lot and making great connections. There are about 10 different workshops happening at the same time every time slot for an entire week. Every hour presents a dozen new options. While all the information is wonderful to help each other combat this problem, it is a real shame that there is such a huge problem out there that it takes this long, this many speakers to talk about it. That's the part that's so overwhelming.

For example, this photo is tomorrow's schedule. Two pages of depressing classes to attend.

We have so much work to do..

Train concert

Michael bought us all tickets to the train concert last night. Gavin Degraw and The Script were the opening acts. It was a really great show. I have loved Train for years and this is the first time I've gotten to see them live. 

nice faces Hannah and Eamonn

terrible phone pic, don't bother zooming in

Gavin Degraw getting up close with his audience

oh yeah, my hair is brown now

Ok, so maybe not COMPLETELY normal results.. But obviously not a big deal based on the fact that I can wait 5-10 YEARS! Wow. Glad I did it now.

Wow, I am really falling down on this blogging thing this summer. I just keep forgetting it's here.
This last week, let's see... I had an annual exam, mammogram and a colonoscopy ( all with normal results, don't worry mom ).. I've learned a ton about marketing.. created a brochure for our org... and  helped a friend paint. That covers the highlights. See, nothing to blog about. The girls are each taking summer classes at ACC. Hannah just got a perfect score on her first college paper. Proud mama :) She really is an exceptional writer. Jordan is working hard trying to catch up to her new major. After switching, she needs some different classes to get into the teaching program at Texas State. Not a relaxing summer for either of them, but hey, such is life. And they did get to go to Paris.
Hannah played acoustic guitar for the first time at church. She actually sang and played at the same time. She's done it plenty on piano, but never on guitar. I didn't get to see, but she said it went well.

This is Miles playing a duet with Hannah. He loves doing this.

 

 We recently went to Krause Springs for the day and I was very impressed with this place. The grounds were absolutely beautiful.
Plus, it's only an hour away!

On the way home I grabbed a shot of our disappearing lake. For those not from here, that island isn't supposed to be there..

Home again

Trip was great, we learned a ton. But I could never live in Louisiana. SO STINKING HUMID! You walk outside and start sweating immediately. And the bugs! Yuck. I was so glad to be back in dry Texas.

Hopefully our store will be up and running next week. 

I can't believe it's already July.. 

On the road

Headed to Baton Rouge with some other members of our team to visit Trafficking Hope. They are a few years ahead of us in this process and we'll be able to ask a ton of questions and hopefully learn alot more.
Our shirts are being printed this week while we're gone and will be available for purchase next week! This is a great fundraiser for us as well as an awareness tool.

Gotta quit typing, it gives me motion sickness while riding in the car..

Sorry I've been so absent. We've been working hard getting our non-profit up and running. I've tried to find ways to avoid bringing our names into it for safety reasons, but it just doesn't work. There's publicity, photos, marketing, promoting. All of it is word of mouth, sharing with your friends, etc.. Impossible to do while remaining anonymous. It's hard enough when your friends who know you won't reply, impossible when it's coming from a stranger.

This is us praying before sending out our announcement this morning. We're very excited and expecting big things.

Yay for no surgery!

Car 4

We are a four car family once again! We are all quite happy about this. Jordan got an old Audi A4. It is SO nice. The body is in near perfect condition, and so is the leather interior. We got quite a bargain on it too.

 Josh replaced his engine and his car is running great. So hopefully the car drama is over for a while.

I still have tons of Paris pictures to go through, so you aren't done looking at those yet. :)

pt 6

view from the top of the Arch De Triumph

opera house

us on top of the Eiffel Tower

on top of a department store