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.

Soviet Babies

I heard this story the other day about an over crowded, under staffed orphanage in the Soviet Union where a lot of babies died due to the lack of human contact.  Only the babies closest to the door got touched when the rooms were being checked. The further they were from the door the less contact they got and the less chance they had at staying alive. 

Every time I open my email inbox and see a FWD I feel like one of those babies in the back. It's like the leaving of cookies on someone's door step. Sure it's cute and fun, and brings a warm fuzzy into someone's heart for a moment. But isn't it possible that it would mean much more to open the door and find a friend standing there. Just like it might be nice to open one's inbox and find a real email, sent just to them. 

Where is the human contact? The real contact? The "Reach out and touch someone"?

Ever hear the biblical story of Mary and Martha. I'll paraphrase. The Savior came to visit them and Martha ran around trying to make sure everything was just right for their guest, while Mary stayed with him. Martha chided Mary, telling the Savior Mary needed to be helping her out with the dishes or whatever it was. The Savior pointed out that Mary was in the right. 

Do we really understand what this story is trying to teach us? The message can be summed up very easily: "People are more important." They are more important than the dishes, than nap time, than a t.v. show, than homework. Whatever it is, you name it, people are more important. Are we really making time for the people we care about when we point and click 20 some odd email address's into the "Send To" box and pass along a funny picture or an uplifting story? Would it really take that much more time to point and click on "Compose Mail" and send a little note of "How are you? Here's what's new with me."? 

Reach into the back of that orphanage that is your email address book and make a real connection with a person who may be withering away from the lack of human contact.