Heat Wave Insanity

I'm not quite sure where to start with the top three favorite moments of this past week.  I guess I'll start with highlighting what a great job Joe and I are doing instilling character and compassion to our children.  While I ran into Target to return something, Joe and the kids had a few minutes circling the parking lot.  Joe realized Gabe was snickering at something, and when he inquired Gabe said he was laughing at a lady who had a funny body.  Joe quickly and sharply corrected this behavior and told Gabe that God made us all special and loves everybody and we are to show that love to others.  Gabe just as sharply retorted that he does not love everybody, but that "I only love Luke, Jackson, and MYSELF".  In reaching for a positive spin I've decided that it's at least a step in a positive direction that there were other people on his list; he could have said that he only loves himself.

And when my belly is as big as this:

Do you really think I want to be dealing with messes like this?:

Why oh Why did they think that the hobby of acrylic body painting was a good idea to try minutes before we had to leave for swim lessons?  

I hope others can appreciate Makena's imitation of a smurf imitating Braveheart and Gabe emphasizing his love of all things black much more than I could appreciate their artistic impressions in this moment.

I have written before that one of my favorite times of the day is getting up earlier than everyone else and slowly waking up in a quiet house.  However, on this day, instead of enjoying a nice cup of coffee I ended up cleaning up dog sh** that was all over kitchen floor.  Not the way I like to start my day.  Our dogs are already on the very bottom of the food chain in our house and having the nerve to get sick doesn't help their cause.  It's a good thing they are good at eating the food crumbs that the kids drop on the floor.  After having to clean up what I did this morning it's about all that's keeping them around.  And as if that wasn't totally gross enough, just as I was finishing disinfecting the kitchen, Gabe (who had been playing outside) shows up at the back door with something on his hands.  

Me- "Gabe, what is on your fingers?!"

Gabe- "Dog poop that looked like a muddy puddle."  

He said he wanted to see what the runny dog poop that looked like a mud puddle felt like.  In his words, "this poop is ooey, gooey!"  As if i already didn't want to vomit.