Well ...I know why TV's are such a cool thing

and it isn't because they are great to watch.... it is because the kids think they are great to watch...

kids+TV=SANE
kids-TV=please shoot me

mental break down!!!!! my shift key still is broken. BROKEN...BROKEN it drives me nutso... nutso... NuTSO I tell you!!!

On a side note my interesting un"deep" thought for the day... I find it interesting that sometimes they use twins to play one part on a tv series and sometimes they use individuals to play twins... why?? Who knows but it was a pointless thought that I pondered on for a couple of minutes (that I will never get back... nor will you).

You know some days when you have had a bad week and maybe spent too much time reading and living another life in your head and then your kids just do something really stupid and your mood just snaps (in a bad way). SUNDAY MORNING all the way for me. James whined about how he didn't feel good and he couldn't go to church because he had thrown up all night (total lie...mommy radar knows). Then when you try to make him feel bad about not going he tries to make you feel bad for not believing him and then you give up and say "fine, stay home". And they always do because they are naughty little children.... well, anyway that is how Sunday was going and then something really bad happened. His sick little body went downstairs and slapped his brother. Sick bodies are suppose to be in bed whining about how they want another Gatorade because the one they have doesn't taste right. They are NOT suppose to be wandering around the house slapping people and making them cry while mommy is getting ready for church. Therefore, mommy totally snapped! i didn't try to hurt him like physically or anything... but I have this bad habit of grounding kids for a ridiculous amount of time and threatening bunches of stuff that I torture myself trying to follow through with. Well, that is what i did. i really should just walk around with duct tape over my mouth all the time for the amount of time i get in trouble for opening my mouth.

I told him that if he was sick enough to walk around the house hitting people he had about 5 minutes to get ready for church. AND... (here comes the part where i needed duct tape)... if he wasn't ready he was going to be grounded from friends, AND all electronics (fun ones anyway) for a month. yeah that is right A MONTH... I hate when I do that!!! There is NO WAY I can live with that child bothering me for a whole month to be his sole entertainment (which he does if I don't let him have anything else). I totally was grounding myself the second those words came out of my mouth! Why do I say stuff like that? Of course, my children are the stubbornest children ever. They always would rather take the punishment when i give it to them because they instinctively react to my bad mood and then they are in a bad mood and two people in a bad mood shouldn't threaten the other because it never works out in the favor of the one threatening (at least not unless you have a gun pointed at them.. though I haven't really tried this so I wouldn't REALLY know if it works).

Truthfully, they would rather take the punishment because i am a pushover 98% of the time and they know it. I'm typing it so I know it too!

He still claimed he was too sick to go to church so he was going to go hang himself in his room because nobody liked him and every body hated him so he wanted to die (this phrase is used to an extreme at our house). this meant Nate had to stay home for suicide watch (and also he had to make sure the kid stuck to the grounding rules of no electronics). Nate's "disappointment" at having to stay home was a little to, well, un-dissapointed to make my mood any better. I almost felt like he needed to be grounded too, but he is 29... and I tried that once before and it didn't go over to well... so lets just say Nate is a big boy and gets to do what he wants (because he can throw a tantrum bigger and better than all the kids combined...shhh).

Most my kids can sense when i am in a really bad mood and they try to behave (yeah right). Ashlee on the other hand really loves to push me to the limits of my mental capacity. she watches to many cartoons and i think her goal is to see if my head really will explode when i get mad enough. she was wondering around the house in her underwear with her hair a little rats nest... whining that she couldn't find the ONLY dress, out of like a cazillion, that she will wear. I told her she was going to have to wear a different one then and i proceeded to put a pretty green one on her, which she screamed about and tried to rip off herself. I then proceeded to tell her (because I was on a roll) that she could have the same punishment as James if she didn't get her socks and shoes on and get in the car. She proceeded to take of her dress and put a pair of pants on (because to her i basically told her she didn't have to go to church which is something she is always hoping to hear come out of my mouth). I figured i was in a bad enough mood that i had better take the two kids that i hadn't grounded yet and put them in the car and get to church. that is what i did!

Church wasn't bad... usually trying to teach the 10 year old boys is a challenge all in itself... but Heavenly Father knew that I didn't have any more patience in me to deal with my FAVORITES in my class and surprisingly even though they are usually the ones that are there EVERY week neither of them were there. In fact only the two mellowest kids were there plus it wasn't my week to teach the lesson so i just go to sit there and think about how screwed I was at home.

when I got home the house was relatively clean. Nate had bribed Ashlee to clean it by telling her that maybe I would go easy on her. Instead I made her wear around the green dress for an hour. She was less than pleased which made it all the more enjoyable for me!
then we had the dreaded "everyone sit on the couch while mommy goes on about how she just wants to send everyone up to their beds for the rest of their lives" talk. they hate those!

James said he was going to take his punishment like a man in hopes that good behavior would cut down his months worth of grounding... Ashlee said she was going to rip off the green dress and cut it up into little pieces while I was sleeping. My head just really hurt and i wished I could go to bed for the rest of MY life.

We decided that everyone had been "over using" the electronics (TV, Game consoles, computer). We set a 4 hour time period in the middle of the day that they could use them (except for James because he is grounded... Ashlee seemed to get off for good behavior... I don't know how that happened).

It was a good idea until we started doing it. now they seem follow me around everywhere i go and they drive me absolutely CraZy. And i mean it... I am not sure if i can handle another day of this. They NEVER leave me alone. we've played board games and cooked and all sorts of stuff... but they are still bored and expect me to be their entertainment. James has decided if he can't do anything he is going to play MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE all day. he spends his time making sure that EVERYONE follows every rule that has been ever made. The kids have been crying and screaming all day because he is enforcing these rules with force. Apparently he doesn't realize what good behavior is and he would prefer to be grounded FOREVER!
Seth on the other hand has taken to the extreme begging. The kind where "N-O" is never an answer and he asks over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again the same questions and then he tries to get you to contradict what you said and then he tries to make deals that will allow him to get what he wants and then when none of that works he starts getting pushy and mean about it.
i am sick. My throat is swollen, my head is hurting. i am having myself a dandy pity party... but i am in the mood where nObOdy is invited but me...ME! And i am also in the mood to not try to fix every time my shift key decides not to work, this blog is going to look so purty. Actually i feel like taking my keyboard and throwing it down some cement stairs... really hard. Destruction sounds stress relieving!
All this because I took away the TV. I can see that it was the right thing to do because my kids are obviously totally lost without it, but maybe after a couple of weeks they'll decide that they have a life again and try to do something with it....i can always hope.
Just think only another 2 1/2 weeks until they go back to school.
...Wow, after the past two days that sounds really really far away... If I die before then from a brain aneurysm blame it on the kids!