I just can't STAND it!!

I have a question for everyone:

What's you're pet peeve? That thing you can't stand! The thing that when it happens there's fingernails going down the blackboard of your soul and your hair stands on end and you want to scream and throw a mattress across the room. (Wow, what great imagery. I should be a writer. ;) ) 

Answer in the comments just below this blog. You don't have to register to comment. (Although, if you want to keep up with my blog by all means sign up as a follower! I'm leaving facebook so if you want to keep in touch with me and see pics and what not, this is the place to do it!)

I'll post one of my pet peeves here to get the ball rolling. 

I'd have to say, philosophically speaking, I'm my biggest pet peeve. When I prevent myself from doing something I have every right to do because I want to avoid the reaction of other people. Instead of taking an example from my own life I'll take one from my dad's. He won't eat in front of people at work because he hates to have people question what he's eating. (Although, seeing as he's been clogging his arteries, maybe they were just trying to save his life. J/K dad!) I talked this over with my husband the other day, this not wanting to be questioned pet peeve. He told me that people just want a reason. Once they have one they're satisfied and back off. 

But you see, I borrow a jack, as my mom says. I think "but what if I give them a reason and they don't like my reason. Then they tell me I should be doing this or that different and I have to back up my reason, even though it's none of their business and it's no skin off their back if I'm eating italian sausages with raman noodles and hot sauce and a side of boiled pickled eggs. Why can't they just accept it and move on?!" When really, people are more laid back that I tend to give them credit for. It's the "what if--" that will kill ya, you know. You can't live on what if's. You just have to live your life. If you're always afraid of a vague what if you won't live, you'll be hiding. Which is what I keep having to tell myself and it's what I keep not listening to and so I become my own pet peeve.

Oh, and I can't stand Celine Dion. Look, hun, if it hurts that bad to sing, do yourself (and us) a favor and stop doing it. 

What's your pet peeve?

Baby Signs!

So when you walk into someone's house and there's a play pen and you trip over a rubber ducky, that's a sure sign there's a baby in the house!

Also if you open and close your fist while you hand is by the side of your face, you've just made the sign for milk. (think of the milking a cow action)

That's what I'm talking about today, milking cows-- i mean baby signing. I'm finally getting serious about it. Oh, I'll sign their names once in a while (After all, we pick the name Bob in part because it's so fun to sign!!) and an I love you sign here and there. I can sign the words to Red, Red, Robin. But it's time to get with it so they can sign back. 

I found this website: http://www.signingbaby.com/main/

as well as this fantastic ASL dictionary: http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro.cgi

The first sight has a great article on getting started, and guess what age they recommend starting? 6 months!! I'm so excited!! I'm sure you can start sooner or later, but hey! I'm right on with something! Yea for me!

Ok, so they said to start with 3 to 12 signs in the categories of Needs and Fun. Every time you say the word, do the sign. Every time. EVERY TIME. Sign and say! (Did I emphasize that enough for ya? ;) )

Here's my lists:

Needs:

Milk

Sleep

Diaper

Fun!:

More/ Finished

Laptop

Dog

I'm also throwing in family names and words I already use all the time with them:

(Twin) Brother

Mommy/Daddy

Grandma Joyce/ Grandpa Doug

Grandma Karen/ Grandpa Sam

Uncle/ Aunt

This is going to be so much fun!! Looking at the ASl dictionary, I got really excited. I forgot how much fun I have with ASL. So if you see me around, don't be surprised if I'm talking my hands off!

=^.,.^= 

Ghost of the Navigator

Ever see a movie title, thought it was about something, then when you watched it, it was about something completely different? 

So if I tell you I want to write a short story called "Ghost of the Navigator" what would you expect it to be about? What images come to mind? Would you expect a sci-fi thriller? Literary fiction? Comedy? Romance? Something else? 

I'm putting up a poll, so you tell me! What is this story about? 

Hmmm...?

I've blogged about this before, and I'll probably get my knickers in a bunch someday and blog about it again. Despite that, I'm going to blog about fwd's now. 

In their very nature they are thoughtless. But the one I just received was even more so IMHO. The thing is, this is one of those rare cases where the story is true, to a point. There was a letter to the editor complaining about a fly-by of F-16's one morning. There followed two responses on the matter explaining that the fly-by was part of a memorial service. What the fwd fails to do, is also tell the end of the story. The apology that followed. I'd cut and paste it, but to avoid any copyright that may be in place I'll post the link to the site and hope my readers will go read it.  http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/wakeup.asp 

I don't take issue with the story, it's a good story, and I think Tom McRae showed a lot of class in apologizing. Personally, I think he ought to be forgiven and not have this story circulate as it does for everyone to ridicule him, even if his name doesn't appear on the email.  It's a pretty crumby thing to rub someone's nose in something after they offered a heart felt apology. 

It's also pretty crumby to miss quote someone, or, as in this case, put words in someone's mouth. The tag line "Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you....Jesus Christ and the American Soldier. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom." was no where in the original letters to the editor. No one said it. Well, I suppose some well meaning person thought it sounded good and would raise emotion in the readers, so they slipped it in, but what right had they to do so? 

The real thing that bothered me was that the fwd I received also had tagged on to the end some pictures and it said the way phones should be answered in the USA is press one for english, or hung up until you learn to speak english. I know it's a sentiment shared by many people in the US. But it was followed by a picture of Christ. Now you tell me, would that be Christ's attitude? Sorry, I won't talk to you, because you don't speak english in America. (I wonder if the Brits find it truly ironic that we harp on people to speak a language that was theirs before it was ours.) I don't think we should jump to the conclusion that just because we may be offended by someone's presence in our country that God would be also. 

As a writer I know that there are tricks writers use to invoke the response they want from their readers. One of them is the old propaganda ploy of God and Country. It does cause a big stir in people. But a writer who is using this, also has a reason to do so. So what was the reason behind this particular quote in this particular fwd?

To keep is going. Keep fwding it. "Wow, everyone should see this!" That's what they want. Did you ever stop and think what these fwd's are really for? They're actually quite malicious. They are a form of virus. Not the kind that infests your computer, but the kind that clog up servers. As they get passed along they get bigger and bigger and take up more and more space. Some started just to see how long they would circulate. Now I'm not saying some malicious person start THIS email, but any that followed in the same pattern achieves the same malicious goal.

Also there has been some speculation that spamers will harvest the lists of email addresses from fwds. This would mean if you get a fwd from someone, your email addy is on it, you're at risk for spam. I haven't been able to confirm this, but I will soon and let you know what I find out. Still the idea that my email address is floating out there makes me uneasy. I really am trying to avoid a past that was pretty scary for me. 

So here's a few tips when fwding. 

1) Delete all lists of previous receivers. This will make the message smaller.

2) Instead of putting the email address of those you want to fwd the message to in the "To:" field, put them in the BCC field. This is blind carbon copy, which means I'll know you sent it to other people when I receive it, but I won't know who. This respects the privacy of your friends. 

=^.,.^=

Pooped

I mean that in the "boy am I pooped!" since and not the "boy you should have seen the size of that thing I just pooped!" The day seem to start later than it should, and even though there is next to no traffic in Page, when I went out with my dad to run some errands, I managed to get stuck in traffic. So it was about 5 pm when we finally got back, having only complete a fistful of our tasks. Now I am, once again, stuck under babies and my cell phone is dead. Who knew all this technology around us that was designed to give us more time (to do heaven only knows what!) would suck away half our day. 

It's like that book "Momo" by Michael Ende (same man that wrote The Neverending Story). It's not like all this time we save can be stored in some time bank somewhere and withdrawn later. He compares each hour to a flower that is different than any other hour and will only exists once, therefore must be cherished. Good stuff. "More speed, less haste." Splendid work!

I mean, save time for what? Seems like people use had time to darn socks. I never have time to find socks, let alone darn them! I guess if I don't know what I'm going to use the extra time for, I may as well spend it now on visiting with a friend, or doing one of those "I always wanted to do that!" things. 

Since I'm stuck, I'm going to write a short story that's been rattling in my skull.

Luv ya!

=^.,.^=

A sad day for us all...

I know it's going to be hard, but on this day we must all pull together for support. As we eat the last of the pies for breakfast, and put away our calculators, and set aside the debates of wether or not the thousandths place digit is 1 or 5 so you can get the banner just right for when the guests arrive, we let another Pi day come to a close. 

It's the hardest time of the year, after all the waiting and preparation and anticipation, then *bam! It's the next day and it's all over and it feels as though we have nothing to show for it but some left over pie. And all you have to look forward to is dieting. 

I can't help but ask, Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we let all the commercialism crowd in on Pi day? Have we forgotten the true meaning of March 14th? A celebration of Pi, the coolest constant of them all? Next year as we decided wither or not to bake the pie from scratch or just go to the bakery 'cause who has time to bake pies, let us take a moment and reflect on 3.14159265358979323846….

Asimov

Ever since I can remember there have been two household names in my parents house that it seemed three days didn't go by without a mention. One was Robert Heinlein, the other Isaac Asimov. This is because my dad is a hard core sci-fi nut. My brothers and I became sci-fi nuts too, but I have this little rebellious spark in me. Even though I love sci-fi I refused for years to touch anything by Heinlein or Asimov. My dad just got me an anthology called Nightfall and Other Short Stories. All of them by Asimov. 

As I said before, I've mellowed out since I had the twins. 

Anyway, before each story Asamov wrote and intro telling about how each story came about. In the intro to "It's Such a Beautiful Day..." he sounded just like my dad! But that's not the point of this blog, that's just an intresting tid bit I thought I'd throw in there. 

It's the intro to "Hostess" that caught my eye, and as Weird Al said "You all know how painful that can be!"

In it he talks about how his wife came up with a little scheme to be more involved in her husband's writing. He'd dictate the stories and she'd type them up. And he was a bit surprised to find it actually worked! So my writer brain kicked into high gear and I thought "That is a great idea!!" Ok, so I don't know anyway who can type for me, but I could type for me and I can dictate into a little tape player or something. Maybe it would speed things up for me.

Or and an extra step that holds everything up.

Anyway, I figured out why I'm not finished with my story yet. It's all down to where I do my best writing. Unfortunately it's the worst place for it. Yep, the shower. The paper gets all soggy and the ink runs and then all that soggy paper clogs up the drain as bits of it fall off. The bath isn't any better 'cause it's not a shower, and as we all know our talents spike while we're in the shower. That's why we sing and do our best thinking in there. 

I even tried writing on the wall, but then I put off taking my computer into the bathroom to type it up and Jeff rinsed it off next time he took a shower. A whole chapter down the drain! Hmmm....

Maybe Asimov did so great as a writer because he used a typewriter. You can't get distracted by facebook or LOLcats, and you can see the stack of paper growing and growing as you write. A typo sucks to fix, but maybe it would be worth it....

Any one got a typewriter they don't want?

=^.,.^=

Cuteness

Miles sticks his tongue out now. Just a little bit, sticks his lips together and you see just the tip of his tongue and he smiles and it's just so darn cute you could just cry.

Bob crawls for trouble when ever he can. When you ask him what he's doing he stops to give you a very good argument as to why he needs to be playing with the computer cords, or why he really doesn't need a diaper and these things are just the shackles of a flawed society that is designed to hold back his potential.

If you think that's impressive you should see their joint dissertation on quantum physics. 

They're such cute smart little guys.

This is them putting their heads together to disprove Schrodinger

Too much?

My mom saw the new title of my blog and said a daily dose might be too much Viv. I don't know what she means, I've had a daily dose of me everyday of my life and I'm only mildly insane. But if you find yourself O.D.ing, just take a laxative and call me in the morning. Or you can just skip the laxative and just call me. I really like human contact. 

Anyway, that's all just a side note, I really wanted to type about what's been on my mind lately. I love being a mom! Babies are so awesome. I've been letting go a lot lately. Maybe I just need more sleep (ha! as I type this at 11:00 pm when I could be sleeping!) or maybe I'm hitting that 6 month point where things get easier, or maybe the postpartum depression is easing up. At any rate, I feel great! 

However...

I couldn't sleep last night, my mind kept racing :P 

Can I tell you a little about Jeff? (yes, I know I'm rambling. I'm allowed to, I have a bad case of twins.) He really is a wonderful man. I think I married him on pure instinct and I keep learning why we're so perfect for each other. We got married on my parent's anniversary, and had our first kids on his parent's anniversary. The sealing room in the St. George Temple where we got married was the same one my great-grandmother, whom I'm named after, was sealed to her husband in. There's so much past around us, and so much ahead of us. I did find someone who makes me want to be better. He may not realize it, and I probably wouldn't ever tell him, but he's changing me. (He doesn't read my blogs. It's just not him.) There's so many good things he wants, and I want them too, but I tend to be lazy. We're both like that I guess! :D My mom was saying the other day that the character Emma in Jane Austin's novel Emma, never wanted to pay the price. She wanted to play the piano as well as Jane, but didn't want to practice, she had a trunk full of unfinished drawings and embroideries and such. So much that she wanted to do, but never wanted to pay the price that went along with them. I get the feeling from a number of people that me being in Page right now and Jeff staying in Salt Lake is some sort of red flag in our marriage. It's not it at all. I'm restless and need a change of pace every once in a while. Well, and I did need to get over the breast infections, which I was finally able to do! Yea! But I thrive on change and new things. I didn't come here to avoid Jeff. That's not to say our marriage doesn't have its fair share of bumps and rocks, but it's a good marriage, we're a good match and we love each other. We are willing to pay the price to keep our marriage going strong. But since he is who he is and I am who I am and our marriage is what it is, we need to find out how to pay that price on our own. I've never doubted him and I've never doubted us.

Well, maybe I should get a little nap before those little blessing wake up.

Vivian 

=^.,.^=

Fun, for a change!

I want to have fun. You know, the kind of gay abandon you see in engagement pictures. I guess having kids has mellowed me out, which is odd 'cause I was already pretty mellow. Like I was mellow enough to let Jeff wear skate shoes at our wedding. Now I'm mellow enough to let him wear his sunglasses in most of the wedding pictures. Maybe even keep his goatee for the wedding too. Maybe. ;) And can you believe it, I'm using my real name online instead of hiding behind my Mione Beast character. (I wasn't using my name so I could hide from the un-dead, but let 'em find me! I won't put up with their nonsense!)

So even though this blog has taken on a new air of less silly, it will be more fun. Or funner. However you like to say it. Oh, and everyone, check out LOL Cats! It's really great today! http://icanhascheezburger.com/

Have a fun today!

Viv

New blog, new pics

Don't you just love the picture I picked to head up my blog? It was a great little spot on Lake Powell a few years ago, that probably isn't there anymore due to the changes in the water level.  Jeff, Ivan, Mandy and myself went there one summer. 

Anyway, here's the new look and feel of my blog. I mean it when I say Jeff/Me/Miles/Bob of the Day. I change the pictures everyday. Well, except on the days I don't. I do have twins after all. 

I love March. It's my fave month I decided. There's just something about the sun shine and the air. I'm glad I get to spend this March in Page, because there is something about it here that's different from anywhere else.  

I deleted some of my blogs, so check to see if your faves are still there. ;) Anyway, come back often, vote on the polls and leave a comment! 

Love from

Viv

Another great pic from that same day on the lake. 

I need sunscreen just looking at it!

Says who?

Remember that great word, "so"? Here's another great response to nonsense:

"Says Who?"

I've been thinking a lot on the things that are driving me nuts about motherhood, the main stress factors, the things that are keeping me from enjoying my babies. They all go away with a good resounding angry* "Says who?" 

For example:

I breast feed my twins.  It's how they get their food, and it's also how I put them to sleep. Someone said to me "They're using you as a pacifier," like that's a bad thing. I thought about it a great deal and came to the conclusion "Who said it's a bad thing?" Is it a bad thing? A lot of people say it, "Don't let him use you as a pacifier!" but no one ever says why that would be so horrible. So instead of sitting around chewing my nails and fretting that I'm being so ill used, I let it go. I still put them to sleep by nursing them and see nothing wrong with it. 

This brings up some other bits of child rearing advice: "They need to learn to put themselves to sleep." Says who? Ask yourself how you put yourself to sleep. Do you read a book? Watch an hour or two of tv? Have a glass of wine? Take a pill? Why do we expect a baby to do what we can't seem to manage? After all, we tell older kids bed time stories to help them sleep. This advice would call that practice into question. If a baby must learn to fall asleep on their own what business does a child, or an adult for that matter, have using any form sleep aid? 

Here's the parenting breakthrough that just might cure my post postpartum depression. It's not so much advice as it is an assumption, a myth, that a lot of advice stems from. A myth that puts a lot of pressure on mothers who have enough on their plate already: 

Sleeping through the night. 

I can hear some of you now saying, "Hold up Miss MioneBeast. My babies slept through the night at X number of months!" To you I say, congrats. That's very peachy for you and I'm sure that was lovely. But let's get real. I'd like to know "who said?" Who said babies should sleep through the night? I was getting so frustrated with my babies, until it hit me, I don't sleep through the night. I haven't for years before I got pregnant. I'd have to pee, or finish the next chapter in that good book I'm reading, or been stressed out about something, or had a bad dream, and I won't even get into all the new nighttime fun that came into my life when I got married (like a snoring husband ;) ). Sure, we'd all love a nice 7, 8 or 9 hours of uninterrupted blessed deep sleep. But when does that ever happen? After you take a sleep aid? So, I had to ask myself once again, "why do I expect my babies to master something at 5 months that I haven't mastered at 27 years?" I don't dread nights now that I know I'm not doing anything wrong and neither are my babies. 

I have a theory on who said, when it comes to baby advice that only stresses us out and makes us feel like bad moms. A man. That's who. Some man who's never been pregnant, never given birth and has no mother's instinct said it. It may have even been the same man in the 1890's that first said "Children should be seen, not heard." To him I say, "Then look at a picture, mister smarty-pants." Clearly he never had to see a set of twin boys through learning to crawl, teething and a growth spurt all at once. And do you know why he thinks it's so easy to dole out his great wonderful advice? Because while his wife was doing all the hard work, he was at work. Then when he got home, he left her to do more hard work while he went to the bar and smoked cigars with his buddies. 

So I say, a nice resounding angry* "No" to all nonsense.

*We don't use anger enough. We repress it when we really should use it, smile politely when we should take a stand and lay down as a door matt for people to wipe their feet on when we should stand up for ourselves. We do not have to tolerate rudeness, or take anyone's nonsense. Christ didn't smile nicely and tolerate the money changers in the temple.