Makes you all warm and fuzzy, doesn't it?

This is pretty much any given moment in their lives. No two children love to makes each other's lives as irritating as they possibly can. And I mean that. Sincerely. If they even get the HINT that something will bug the crap out of the other, they will be sure to go out of their way to do it. Again. And again. And again. Oh, and AGAIN. Until I hit my breaking point which comes right after the following few sentences, "Guys? Mom is about to lose it. Mom is about to get LOUD. You don't like me when I get loud, do you?"

And pretty much that ends the current battle with one of them getting one last smack, kick, bump before they run away. But sometimes? Every once in a while they simply CANNOT help themselves getting high off of the irritation they are causing the other and despite the ominous third person warning from mom, they continue. Now, in general, I am a pretty calm person. I don't raise my voice that often. But when I lose it? It is like a movie and the room gets dark, my eyes turn red my skin turns green and my voice gets deep and scary and I BELLOW. The dogs hide. The sun goes dark. The boyfriend finds somewhere else to be. The children shudder.

And as quick as it came, it is over. The kids stop fighting. They scurry upstairs to their rooms to which they have been banished until I say they can come back down. The sun comes back out, the dogs peer tentatively around the corner and the boyfriend returns. I usually I make them stay up there for half an hour, they have to apologize to each other, they have to hear me lecture them about listening to me the FIRST time for the eleventy-billionth time and then all is good.

But seriously, if I say in a calm sweet voice that I am about to get angry? You best stop what is annoying me or run and hide. Cause you won't like me when I'm angry.