gophers and juicy fruit

did you know that apparently gophers can not digest gum. and their favorite to 'not digest' is juicy fruit. no? well me either. til yesterday.

we've seen gophers. oscar (our dog) has caught and killed gophers. and it's been all good. because they've been outside. til sunday. sunday shaun saw one in our basement. monday. i saw it in our kitchen. i was officially disgusted. i actually left the house. mainly because i am a big baby. lol. plus then the kids got to spend the day at grandma's house. and it was SO hot yesterday it was nice to sit in some central air.

i then looked up how to kill gophers. yes. i'm mean. i want them dead. if they'd stay out of my house and my yard and our fields...i'd be fine with them. but since they aren't. the must leave. and since they can't read my eviction notice on facebook...well...death becomes them. apparently they like gum. til the realize they can't digest it. so i went to wally world and bought the biggest multi pack of juicy fruit my money could buy. and the also don't the the human smell ((i'm thinking my house smells humanly...but they got in and the realize YIKES! i need to get out. they better.)) and apparently they don't like the smell of ammonia, or it kills them...the writer wasn't sure. so i bought three jugs of ammonia. the stuff is only a buck a jug. so with that and the gum...we're hopefully getting rid of the gophers for around 10 bucks. (and i figured the gum the gophers don't eat, my kids will.)

breigh keeps calling the gophers goats. or wolves. neither of which i'd like in my house. but a goat could work to our advantage in the yard. so at any rate i'm praying they leave...pronto.

in other news...shaun was off of work for five days. he ended up getting an infection called cellulitis. we're not sure how he got it. but it started a few days before we went in, and then we went in because shaun was in a bit of pain. and it was spreading. i'm so thankful we went in and that God protected him from it getting worse. he's on anti-biotics yet, but other than that doing well. the ER doctor took him off of work, so that's why he was home. it was so nice to have him home for five days. it's the first time he's been off for awhile without us having a planned vacation or something. so it was nice. i honestly missed him yesterday when he had to go to work. (who created bills and stuff..i'd love to have him home everyday!) ((i also missed him even more after seeing the gopher. :) lol))

evaleigh turned one month old saturday! i can't believe it's been an entire month. she's the most perfectest (no that's probably NOT a word) newborn. she's been sleeping through the night for weeks. and since this weekend sleeping til about seven AM. (from between 9-10 the night before) i LOVE it. it's nice to get the sleep i need to function caring for the other four kiddos. i know i thank God for that everyday. i thank God each day for the kiddos we've been blessed with. even though it gets crazy at times...i am so blessed. and so thankful for them. and the opportunity i have to raise them. but i have to admit, it's crazier when shaun is home! i don't know why. but i think it's because the kids are so excited to see him then they all go crazy..shaun included! it blesses me so much to see shaun be a daddy. i'll admit that my relationship with my dad wasn't very close growing up. mainly because he worked super hard to support our family. which meant he wasn't home a lot. so i'm glad that my kids have the opportunity to be close to their dad growing up from little on. and he takes advantage of every moment he's home to be with them...even if it's being crazy ten minutes before bedtime. but i give them all the 'mom' look and they settle down. lol.

caitlyn wanted to wear underwear the other week. woo hoo. but she didn't quite 'get' it. so we went back to diapers. i don't like cleaning up pee messes all the time. plus she clearly wasn't 'getting' it. she didn't have 'accidents' where she didn't make it in time. she just peed while playing. so maybe in a few weeks we'll try again. i'm not a big pusher when it comes to training. but mr. dustin...i don't know. he's been telling me right after he goes that he went. and told me the other day he had to poop. although i didn't realize he told me that until later (after it was in his diaper). SO out of the ordinary for me to have him showing/telling me things like that! the girls never did.. so who knows maybe we'll go from three to one in diapers. ((which hasn't happened since amelya was 15 months old!!))

we're using cloth diapers. so to me it doesn't matter if i have one or three. i just wash them and am not constantly buying more. evaleigh's been in cloth since being home from the hospital. i have to say, it's so nice to not have to buy the diapers for a newborn. they go through them like crazy. i am however washing more diapers. :) but it's all good. and i know how much money i'm saving. and they're so darn cute!!

breigh and amelya will be starting 'school' soon. it seems so weird. amelya will be finishing up kindergarten. (we started in february with K) and breigh will continue to work through pre-k type stuff. in december/january when we finish up the K program amelya will move right into 1st grade. but i'm unsure what i'll do with breigh right now. technically she doesn't turn 5 til next june. which means starting K then. amelya was 5 when we started K with her. so i'm just going to see what breigh is doing and where to go. which is a huge advantage to homeschooling. she needs a bit more one on one than amelya does, so i'm blessed to be able to get that time with her. amelya is super independent. it is amazing and a blessing to me to see her reading books and doing math problems. we're using my father's world again. and we add in singapore math for...you guessed it math. :) they also will take some classes through a local homeschooling group. i'm so glad there's an outlet for us to join with other homeschooling families. you can connect with them and bounce ideas off each other. and to just know that they're going through the same stuff you are. it's a great thing! and i'm excited to be a part of it. i also think it'll be a great outlet for the kiddos to make some friends and connect with other kiddos of all ages. it's nice that it's not just seperated by grades, but mulitiple grades take classes together.

and because a picure is always fun. here's one of amelya from last week. :)

anyways. i think i've updated what's been going on. :) i'm going to be back hopefully later for more blog time. so i can catch YOUR blogs! :)