My head hurts...

I came down to my "fortress of solitude" aka my home office, to get some work done. The past few work days have been insane with meetings, kid appointments, and computer battles. Tonight's plan was to get busy on all the backed up emails, grant requests, stats, etc. I've been down here for almost an hour and very little has actually been accomplished and I'm getting very very frustrated.

First of all, my computer seems to be taking it's own sweet time in processing things and despite my internet connection saying "signal strength excellent", it's in s-l-o-w m-o-t-i-o-n.

Secondly, my son and my daughter are battling in the tv room and I keep hearing shouts of "shut up!" and "Stupid".

Then my son comes in to my office nearly in tears until he stubs his toe on a metal picture frame that was laying on the floor and was then officially in tears. While I waited for him to recover and tried to access the internet via my email, he then starts going on about how he wants to play video games and his sister won't let him. "What can you do?", I ask. He comes up with various solutions that include his pathetic attempt to make me feel sorry for him that he doesn't have any new games to play on his own DS so he is forced to play video games on the Wii that is attached to the tv that his sister insists on watching yet another re-run of Suite Life on Deck or Wizards of Waverly Place. (Are you getting tears in your eyes as you feel his pain?) Pluuuhese.

Finally out of frustration I told him that he could ask her if she wants to finish watching the show that's on now and when it's over he gets his turn for half an hour to play his game, or he could play now for half an hour and then she gets to choose the show. He seemed happy with that. Problem solved, right?

Wrong! She then stomps into her bedroom which is next door to my office and proceeds to rant about why she can't watch any tv. I repeat (through the wall cause I don't want to get up) what I said to him, and then she yells at her brother "You're such a liar, that's not what mom said!" So he comes running out of the tv room almost in tears (again/still) "You said I could play it for 30 minutes." In my less-than-patient-mom voice I say, "Half an hour is 30 minutes." (And I refrained from adding the sarcastic thought I really wanted to say).

I just get focused on work again and my daughter calls me to help her with something. Silly me, I thought it was homework. No, it was how to save a new photo of herself on her Facebook page. (For that I got up out of my chair??).

And now, as I sit here typing this, the two of them are actually getting along playing a video game together. I give up.