With some time constraints pressuring my husband and me, we thought hard, weighed the costs, and made a surprising decision.  Yes, we decided to get satellite TV.

Not what you were thinking, was it? ;-)

The time pressure was the digital conversion (not my age).  Since we are the King and Queen of Booneyville (or at least minor royalty like dukes and duchesses), we have only ever gotten about 8 channels and cable was not available.  NBC hardly ever came in.  Fox was usually the best, but not always.  Even though we have a digital-capable TV, the digital channels came in even worse or not at all.  So we were facing the prospect of no TV.

I've read all the arguments against TV and why families should get rid of it, but I don't agree with that for our family.  I have never really limited TV for my children and they all love to read, go outside, and are very good at entertaining themselves.  I remember laughing at the idea that children viewed TV passively back when Robert and I used to watch Power Rangers.  Every time there was a fight scene, he'd be flying around the room, punching and kicking and pretending to be a Power Ranger!

So while we don't watch huge amounts of TV, we didn't want to not have it.  I of course would die without football (well, maybe it just feels like it - is it football season yet????), and my husband loves 24.  The girls had just started watching "Nature" on PBS and were loving it.  And none of us really like watching TV on the computer.

We got an offer from our phone company to bundle together phone, Internet, and satellite TV, and it seemed like a good deal.  We had cancelled our long distance a long time ago and only used a calling card.  We live in a weird pocket where some numbers are local and some long distance.  For example, one friend living half an hour away is considered local, while another who lives a half hour away in a slightly different direction is considered long distance.  My husband's work number is long distance.  And at the time we cancelled it, the phone company was charging more for in-state long distance.

However, recently they started adding a fee for recharging the phone card, which made it less economical, and using the calling card is very complicated for our children, who are starting to want to make phone calls.  It requires dialing an 800 number, entering a 10 digit PIN, choosing options, and then dialing the number you're calling.  There are many ways to mess it up, and with our daughter's dyslexia, it just wasn't feasible anymore.

My husband called the phone company to confirm the price of the bundle, and we realized that altogether it wasn't much more than what we currently paid for phone, Internet, and long distance (like less than 20 dollars).  Plus I won't ever miss another Panthers game, I'll be able to watch Monday Night Football again, and I'll be able to watch a lot more college sports (including women's basketball, which they never show on regular TV)!

So for two weeks now, we have been in the world of twenty-first century TV!  My husband has been overdosing on WW2 military history, while I have been fascinated by HGTV.  I absolutely love using the DVR too! It's so easy to record shows and then there is always something on you want to watch.  And now I finally get to see all these shows that I have been hearing about for years.

Which brings me to my latest pet peeve.  FYI, total strangers who might run into me or some other person who has more than 2.2 children:  when I tell you how many children I have, I don't want to hear any mention of the Duggar family.  Seriously, for several years now, EVERYONE who meets me and finds out I have a lot of children starts talking about the Duggars.  I suppose it's better than complete and total shock and disgust that I have seven children.  I guess seven doesn't seem like so many compared to 18 (and counting).

I finally caught a glimpse of their show the other night.  It was St. Patrick's Day and they were having an entirely green (not to mention disgusting-looking) breakfast.  The father made a vulgar comment about the future color of his children's waste (I don't do vulgarity.)  The mom read some facts about St. Patrick to the family while they ate (shouting down the length of the table, it seemed).  I was a little bit shocked at their level of ignorance about him, but was happy that they didn't say anything disparaging of Catholicism.  And then, I really couldn't take it anymore.

I really don't understand why anyone would agree to have their lives videotaped like that, day after day.  And I also can't really understand why anyone would watch day after day.  So, honestly, I'm ready for the fascination with the Duggars to end.  And Jon and Kate as well!