I have a really confusing issue with checkboxes - forms

Question

I have a problem with the value that checkboxes returns to me:
first of all i start with that 2 variables:
$blabla_severity_levels =
variable_get('blabla_severity_levels', array());
$blabla_severity_options = array();
then i make a for each for the watchdogs:
foreach (watchdog_severity_levels() as $severity_numbers => $severity) {
$blabla_severity_options[$severity_numbers] = check_plain(drupal_ucfirst($severity));
}
then i generate the form:
$blabla_form['blabla_severity_levels'] = array(
'#type' => 'checkboxes',
'#title' => t('Type of log messages'),
'#options' => $blabla_severity_options,
'#default_value' => array_values($blabla_severity_levels),
'#required' => TRUE,
);
return system_settings_form($blabla_form);
and in my function i call it like:
$severity_levels = variable_get('blabla_severity_levels', array());
now if i make a dpm($severity_levels)
it gets me out an array with
error (String, 5 characters ) error
warning (String, 7 characters ) warning
emergency (Integer) 0
alert (Integer) 0
critical (Integer) 0
notice (Integer) 0
info (Integer) 0
debug (Integer) 0
but i am really needing is the blabla_severity_options which is:
error (String, 5 characters ) 3
warning (String, 7 characters ) 4
emergency (Integer) 0
alert (Integer) 0
critical (Integer) 0
notice (Integer) 0
info (Integer) 0
debug (Integer) 0
I want to save the values...... any ideas plz?? i really need help