New car!

So, some of you might know that we were on the hunt for a used Jeep Commander, but we just couldn't find the right one, in the right color, with the right mileage.  We even drove 5 hours down to Ohio to take a look at one that we thought was a great deal, and the man assured us that it was in good condition, just as he described it.  Well, yeah, to make a long story short, it was a turd and we wasted 10 hours of our lives driving down there.  But, the other night at work, Alex had to pick me up because we had a vehicle in the shop, and as he called me to ask what door to pick me up at the conversation went a little something like this:

"Where do you want me to pick you up at, babe?"
-"The same door you dropped me off at."
"Oh, ok, I'm here, but I don't see you..."
-"Hmm.....weird, because I'm sitting right here, but I don't see you either....but I do see a sweet Commander."
"Huh, strange, what's Bow doing in the Commander??"
-(as he pulls up in a black Jeep Commander) "What!?"

Well, if you couldn't follow that conversation Alex drove all the way to Detroit with our friend Miles, with cash in hand to buy this Commander that he had found.  He knew it was exactly what we wanted, so he set up the whole plan to have his truck in the shop (which it didn't really need to be) so that he could pick me up from work in the new car.  He loves his surprises. :)

But, as my old Sunday School teacher would say, the kicker of the story is that on our way home, less than 2 minutes into the ride we lose power, electricity, everything just shuts down!  I couldn't help but laugh, and when we opened the hood we discovered that Alex had driven all the way from Detroit with a bad positive cable for the battery....the connection was completely melted off because of a bad repair that the previous owner probably did.  Thank God that it didn't happen hundreds of miles away from home, and also that it was a pretty cheap fix.  But, all in all, we are very happy with our new vehicle now!  Thanks for the awesome surprise, Alex!

This isn't our actual Jeep--but you get the picture :)

New addition and Brohman trip

Well, we have made a new addition to our family, we welcomed another little kitty from the pound a few weeks ago.  We got our first kitty, Birdie from there and we decided she needed a sister to play with while we were at work (Bow just wasn't into playing with the kitty).  So, here are a few pictures of Bea, she's about 2 months old and spunky as ever.  How we managed to get two incredibly spunky cats I don't know, but I guess it was bound to happen since we got the world's most well-behaved dog. :)

Bea's a lil sun worshiper :)

Bow tuckered out after a weekend up north with Diesel

So here is Macy, a kitty we found while up at the cabin this weekend.  Bow went chasing after her one night and she ran up a tree but we were able to get her out of it and she was so happy to be petted and fed.  Naturally we couldn't just leave her there, because she was so skinny she would not have lasted through the winter.  So, Matt and Jennie decided to make an addition to their growing family and get a sister for Bufous!  She is the most loving kitty and purrs nonstop!

Bowfishing 2011

Here are just a few pictures documenting one night out of many with Miles and Alli going carp shooting, or in Alex's case, bass shooting. ;) I was usually the designated driver, and by driver I mean paddler, because we're too cheap to use a motor.  And when I would need a break Alli would stand in as the backup rower. :)

Stalking their prey

Isn't he cute??

I think this was the only fish of the night, but it was still fun being out there!

New Bike!

So big news with us lately is that Alex's Uncle Brock, who lives out in AZ and loaned him enough money to finish out his senior year at Bob Jones gave us a break on the last $5,000 that we owed him, which was just an amazing blessing and gesture on his part.....so now we have all of Alex's student loan paid off!!  To celebrate we decided to spend a little money! lol, I have been wanting a bike that I can cruise around town with, nothing fancy, just something comfortable and not too expensive.  So, we started looking on Ebay and Craigslist and probably within a day or two had found a pretty sweet bike up in Holland.  It is a 1972 Schwinn Breeze, which is a cruiser bike that this man had restored, so it's in pretty good shape.  Needless to say, I love it, the look, how comfortable it is, and that it's somewhat vintage.  So, anyways, here are a few pictures of it...oh, and I added the basket to the back.  (Thank you Diane Fisher, who gave us that basket for our wedding, it was filled with some goodies and it fit the bike perfectly!)

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!