Tired

Just let me begin this post by saying that it is not a great idea to stay up until after 1 am reading a book, no matter how good the book is, when you have to get up at a little after 6 am. Ugh, boy am I tired. LOL

Rachel decided to head back to college this morning in time for her first class. I was wrong by the way, the ice cream place does not open on April 1st like I stated in a another post, I think it is the 18th. Anyway, Rachel won't be home this weekend because she has to work at Old Navy. I think she got some hours at the day care this week too.

I got an interesting e-mail this morning from someone who has a virtual, magazine publication devoted to recycling. She wanted to know if she could have my permission to put one of my creations in her magazine. I told her I would be honored to have the "Spring Break" bag viewed in her publication.

Nick had quite a few melt downs yesterday. I sure wish we could figure out why he goes off the deep end so easily. Today is the second day in a row that Brad has not earned Game Boy time. Some days he can keep it together and other days he just doesn't. I am looking forward to starting "The Ticket Game", with the boys. We are still working out the details plus we forgot to buy a roll of tickets when we were at Walmart. Other families who have used this game have said it is the best behavior modification tool they have ever used and how well it works. We have to pick about three target areas that each boy needs to work on. We decide ahead of time how many tickets each skill is worth. If Bradly gets 5 tickets for instance on Monday for bringing home his agenda from school with the correct signatures and assignments and he forgets on Tues., then he owes us 5 tickets. We will have a chart featuring what can be purchased with the tickets they will be saving. It can be things like so many tickets to pick and watch a movie, or so much time on a video game, or a trip to the dollar store to make 1 puchase or even an hour at the park, ect. Each child will have a contract to sign and have imput into what behaviors we chose to target. As they achieve control in some areas we can add another. Steve and I have to be totally dedicated to this plan too and be sure to carry through. We are hoping the tickets and prizes will be enough to get some of the negative behavior under control.

As I mentioned yesterday, we were shopping around for a game system so we could get a Guitar Hero" game for the kids to play (maybe us too). We got a great deal on Ebay yesterday and purchased a brand new Wii which comes with 2 controllerS and 2 numchucks which normally only comes with one of each. This bundle has the console, plus the 5 sports games (bowling, tennis ect), as well as the 9 game disc and the Wii fit package. It also has a Mario game with 2 wheels. We are quite excited about getting this and plan on setting it up in our spare downstairs bedroom. We are hoping that earning tickets to play on the Wii will be a very positive incentive for the boys. Rachel is quite psyched about the Wii fit program and I am going to try to do some of the exercises too. I think this will be something nice for the whole family. When everyone is home for holidays and such, they will have a lot of fun playing "Guitar Hero" I am sure. :o)