Two 3yr olds and a paint store.

Do I really need to say anything more? Be forewarned--vent session about to begin! So, the 3's are really taking hold of my girls these days...either that or it's the fact our lives have been in total chaos with our quick sale of our home and rush to find another one. We move in to the new house in 5 days. Boxes and laundry are all over our current house--oh yeah along with every toy my girls own! I've packed tons of their toys and the fewer toys they have available to play with, the more they seem to spread them throughout the house. Behavior later has been challenging. Lots of direct defiance going on. It's different than a few months ago. It's almost like I can see them doing something wrong...while being warned to stop, and then taking a few seconds to think about it, and choosing to do it anyway. What's with that? Then, when they get in trouble they cry and act as if the world has ended. I keep telling them to do what I say and they still get fun things, choose to not to do what I say and get things taken away. It hasn't made much of a difference. I do simplify it and reword it and the result is always the same.

So, today I took the girls to a paint store to pick out paint colors for their rooms and bathroom. What did they do while I was speaking with a staff person? Run wildly all over the store! They took out over 40 paint color chips and scattered them all over the shelves and floor. When I told them to stop they would just look at me and then take another chip. I would then take away the chip and they'd get mad and sit on the floor. Then I would go back to talking with the staff person about paint colors--all while trying to juggle 3 pillow cases and a bath towel and shower curtain. The chaos resumes...I tried sitting them in chairs so I could finish up choosing my colors. No good. The girls then were standing in the chairs, crawling under the chairs and under the tables...and yes more running in the store. I was getting so embarrassed! My kids were totally disobeying me and I felt I had no control, nor any respect from them. I hate that feeling. When it was time to pay for the paint, Emily and Savannah were playing tag in the store. I pulled Savannah aside to stand next to me. She stayed, Emily on the other hand, just grinned and ran away from me.

I repeatedly apologized to the paint store staff and then tried to leave, hands full of paint can, and pillow cases, etc. and my girls decide to run out into the parking lot! AAAAAHHHH! Scary! I yelled at them to stop, Savannah stopped, Emily took it as a challenge, paused, and kept going. I got the van door open and almost tossed them both into their seats. Then the struggle began. They both tried to fight me on getting into their car seats. Emily even jumped out of the van! Argh! I was getting so mad by then. All during this process I took TV watching away, no listening to music, and put a stuffed toy in time-out. I was fuming at this point. I finally got the girls buckled in. I was practically shaking I was so frustrated. I cannot believe they were acting so badly!

I have no idea what to do. Nothing seems to make them listen and obey. Spanking even doesn't always work, unless it's a really hard spanking, but I don't like to do that because I'm usually spanking out of anger. What am I supposed to do? Stay home-bound during the day until Seth comes home? I'm sorry, I just don't feel like that's realistic. My kids have to learn how to behave in public. Suggestions?