This means war

So I have been waging a war against fleas for the better part of this summer.  First it started with Bow getting them, then the kitty, and then our house. :(  After a fleeting attempt at just putting Frontline on the animals it only caused the fleas to become agitated and declare war on me.  So, I decided to fight back and doused our carpets with a spray that was supposed to kill them....well, we got back from the campout and let me just say that if Alex stood still for any length of time on the carpet he had about 5 fleas in his leg hair.  Yeah.....didn't work.  So, the next day (after a cozy night on the twin bed in our spare bedroom because our room was taken over by tiny pests) I bought a fogger to treat the whole house.  The jury is still out on this treatment, but it definitely seemed to work better than the spray because Bow hasn't been itching as much.  I still found a few fleas on him and the kitty, though, and my last ditch effort will be to just throw out the area rug in our living room.  Here are some pretty entertaining pictures of the kitty enjoying her flea bath.

Looking less-than-thrilled  :)

Oh, and on a completely different note, I came home from work yesterday to find a hearfelt letter from my loving husband with a gift certificate for a day spa!  For no particular reason, just to say that he loved me and appreciates all that I do!  I was blown away, and I'll admit I got a little misty-eyed :)  So, now I'm off to run some errands and push on in the raging battle of the fleas.

Youth Group Camping Trip 2011

So by now I'm sure you all know that this years camping trip wasn't as smooth as it was last year.  It managed to rain everyday and was rather cold at some points.  But I was so impressed with how all the kids handled it.  They never complained or lashed out at eachother, in fact I think they were forced to grow closer because we were not able to be spread out and running all over outside.  We also had one girl get saved, which was a HUGE answer to prayer, and was definitely the highlight of the trip.  Other highlights were our service project cleaning up the grounds of a local christian school, paintballing, Matthew breaking his hand paintballing, going to Sleeping Bear Dunes, Ryder smashing his head falling down the dune, many, many, many games of Nuke 'Em down at the beach, and lots of other memorable moments.  Here are a few of the highlights in pictures:

Bow trying to blend in as one of the girls and maintain his good seat

Paintball

More paintball

Mr. Paintball Extraordinaire

Casualty #1 Matthew Kaufield breaks his hand after falling on it in paintball

Injury #2 Ryder gains too much speed going down the dune and has an epic wipeout that has his face and back taking the brunt of it.  Ryder's chief concern: "Am I gonna get to keep camping??"

8 wornout teenagers and 1 wornout Bowdog makes for a pretty quiet trip home :)

New Paint!

So, I recently gave our spare bedroom a lil facelift with some new paint and a little rearranging/decluttering.  Here are some pics of before and after:


Before #1




Before #2




After #1




After #2

 So, it doesn't look like much of a difference, but I'm really happy with it and it's a lot more roomy and inviting for when we have a few guests over, mainly Cora!  Also, Alex finally let me get a new set of knives that actually cut, and I'm sooooo happy with these Kitchen Aid ones!  And, I got a really good deal on them, so that always makes you feel good, too!