Here are some pics of the bathroom redo's. I'm still not done with them. I need to frame the mirrors and put up some decor in the kids bath and also repaint their cabinets. I still love how the grey brings out the color in our slate tile. Pictures just don't do the room justice..

before  and   after  

before  and  after

kids bath in progress - LOVE the color! New dark tile with white rugs :)

Josh is back home after another whirlwind European tour of London, Norway and Sweden. While he was away I redid our bathroom as a surprise. He was definitely surprised! When he left it was a red cluttered mess. It is now decluttered, painted grey, with black and white photos from our Paris trip hung up, chrome accessories and bright white trim and white linens and rugs everywhere. It really brings out the color of our slate tile in there. It looks great. I was very happy with the transformation and was therefor motivated to do the kids bathroom as well. Theirs is now Tiffany blue and white with some dark flooring. It looks absolutely adorable.  Next project on the list is redoing the entire upstairs flooring. Ripping out the 12 year old carpet and putting down some wood laminate.

I think it really just occurred to me that my last child is a senior. This is the last year of their "home" education. Next year I will not be a homeschool mom. It is absolutely unbelievable. I never thought it would go this far and there were years I never thought we'd make it this far. But we did it. I can't believe this adventure is on its last year. It all happened so fast. Especially these teen years. Wasn't I just yesterday worried about how to get them through high school? How does time get away from us like that? The thought of them both being gone sometime soon took my breath away. I don't think I want that. I'm still not ready. I would miss them too much.

Josh got back in town late friday night from yet another business trip.
My friend Rene gave us her box seats so we could attend the Saturday part of the Le Mans race weekend. Josh and I had a blast. I didn't know that Patrick Dempsey was a race car driver! I saw him up close, then watched him race later. It was a very cool experience spending the day out there and touring the pit area between races.

"these are the best of times, these are the worst of times.."  Isn't it funny how they can be at exactly the same time? Things going along just swell in our non profit and out of nowhere we are hit with extreme cruelty from an ex member. I'm sure she's just bitter, but to try and take down a non profit who is only trying to help save people? Who does that? Just evil I tell ya...
Other than that, things are moving along rapidly. Yesterday we met with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Texas office. That was very informative and they gave us a TON of contacts for introductions moving forward. So beyond cool.

We're all very excited to be headed to Washington D.C. in November for a national trafficking conference. The head of that organization wants us to get introduced to some high level people in our field. Very exciting stuff.
Gotta get ready for Bunco tonight - looking forward to some downtime with friends.

wow

There are so many exciting things happening at KTF. I so wish I could tell you about all the amazing things God is doing and the things He has given us. I hope that one day we can tell the story of all that He has done these last 4 months. It will be such a testimony. But for now, I guess it's just for our faith building. It seems all we can do now when we share the newest drop jaw moment is just say, wow. That is the most prevalent word in our vocabulary at the moment. If anyone ever doubted that this is a move of God, they do not now. Our work has already begun. We have jumped in all the way. Not by our choosing, but God just keeps dropping things at our door. We said we wanted to rescue these victims and now we're putting our feet in the fire. As James said last night, if you're not ready and not sure if this is where you want to be, then get out now, cause it's about to get crazy. The people we keep "coincidentally" meeting who just happen to be exactly the person we needed to meet, the directors of places we need to get in, just "happen" to sit next to us in a meeting.. The list goes on and on people.
God is so cool. So beyond cool. I can honestly say I've never seen anything like it. I don't know why He chose me to come along for this ride..

-s 
Blessed Beyond all Reason

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Hannah and Ashley about to rock the 80's head mics

Hannah sang a special at Anderson Mill Campus today. It was an acapella quartet doing the "Cups" song that's popular right now. They bang their cups in rhythm on the table while they're singing. You should watch it, they were AMAZING!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=l_BApFVBoVQ

I love this. 

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