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  1. <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><rss xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/" xmlns:blogger="http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008" xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" version="2.0"><channel><atom:id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532</atom:id><lastBuildDate>Thu, 14 Mar 2024 05:09:34 +0000</lastBuildDate><category>About Me</category><category>Twins</category><category>Prologue to a Twins Blog</category><category>Books</category><category>Double Up Books</category><category>Blog Party</category><category>Contests</category><category>Food</category><category>Movies</category><category>Awards</category><category>Blog Awards</category><category>Interviews</category><category>Reading</category><category>Travel</category><title>Prologue to a Twins Blog</title><description></description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/</link><managingEditor>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</managingEditor><generator>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>35</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-4688522370671347976</guid><pubDate>Sun, 10 Feb 2013 20:33:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-02-10T16:09:23.112-05:00</atom:updated><title>I Can&#39;t Believe My Family Forgot My Birthday!</title><description>To say that I am a HUGE fan of John Hughes&#39; teenage classic movie Sixteen Candles is a complete understatement.&amp;nbsp; In my teenage years, I watched the movie religiously on my birthday every year from 14 until I left for college.&amp;nbsp; I have countless memoribilia including an original script and re-invented myself in high school to BE Samantha Baker.&amp;nbsp; I&#39;ve seen the movie well over 40 times and can run along with the dialogue as I&#39;m watching the movie.&lt;br /&gt;
  2. &lt;br /&gt;
  3. I assume that you&#39;ve seen Sixteen Candles, but if you haven&#39;t it&#39;s about a girl, Samantha (not Sam!) Baker, who is celebrating her sixteenth birthday, but her family is preocupied with her sister&#39;s wedding and totally forgets about it.&amp;nbsp; Meanwhile, she loves a popular boy, Jake Ryan, who she thinks doesn&#39;t knows that she even exists.&lt;br /&gt;
  4. &lt;br /&gt;
  5. Sadly though as I got older&amp;nbsp;the movie became less important to me, but I never forgot Molly Ringwald and Samantha Baker.&amp;nbsp; About a year ago, I picked up Jen Lancaster&#39;s new book, at the time, &lt;em&gt;If You Were Here.&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp; The title is a&amp;nbsp;hat tip to the song at the end of the movie when Samantha&amp;nbsp;and Jake are&amp;nbsp;sitting on the dining room table over the birthday cake.&amp;nbsp; The book is about a couple who by complete&amp;nbsp;luck purchase Jake Ryan&#39;s&amp;nbsp;gorgeous home (it actually exists as you&#39;ll see below in a moment!).&lt;br /&gt;
  6. &lt;br /&gt;
  7. The memories of the movie that this book brought back was wonderful!&amp;nbsp; I picked up a copy of the movie on&amp;nbsp;DVD and had to watch it after years of not seeing it.&amp;nbsp; Let me warn you though, watching it as an adult was very different from watching it as a teen.&amp;nbsp; Oh my goodness - swearing, drinking, sex, heavy partying, hazing, nudity - it has it all.&amp;nbsp; I don&#39;t think I&#39;ll be allowing my kids to see it until they are 50.&amp;nbsp; I was horrified that I loved such a movie so I put it away and was disappointed with myself for liking it in the first place.&lt;br /&gt;
  8. &lt;br /&gt;
  9. Fast forward a year and we had an opportunity to visit&amp;nbsp;Chicago in January.&amp;nbsp; I&#39;ve never visited Chicago before but the weather was going to be ZERO degrees while we were there so no walking around downtown for us.&amp;nbsp; I suggested that in our free time we take a drive out to the suburbs and &quot;OH, while we&#39;re there let&#39;s go visit all of the famous places in Sixteen Candles.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
  10. &lt;br /&gt;
  11. In preparation for seeing these iconic locations, I pulled out the movie again to watch before we left.&amp;nbsp; I have to say seeing it a second time as an adult/mom reminded me of why I loved the movie to begin with.&amp;nbsp; Samantha is just picture perfect cute, but still a little edgy.&amp;nbsp; Here she is trying to have a fantastic birthday and all of this crazy stuff is going on around her.&amp;nbsp; That&#39;s exactly how I felt as a teenager - just being a good girl and trying to get through all of that junk.&amp;nbsp; Always feeling like &quot;I&#39;m a good kid, when was it going to be my turn?&quot;&amp;nbsp; I&#39;m happy to report that I became&amp;nbsp;endeared to the movie once again - the message was loud and clear...good wins all in the end.&amp;nbsp; And the best part is my very own Jake Ryan watched the movie with me this time!&lt;br /&gt;
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  13. The first stop on our Sixteen Candles tour was to the beautiful town of Glencoe.&amp;nbsp; This town was gorgeous and I immediately fell in love with it.&amp;nbsp; Glencoe is home to the church used at the end of the movie where Ginny, Samantha&#39;s sister, is getting married.&amp;nbsp; It is also the location where Jake stands next to his red Porche 944 waiting for Samantha.&amp;nbsp; We parked and I jumped out running over to the spot where Samantha saw Jake for the first time.&amp;nbsp; That&#39;s me - the blue blob on the stairs!&lt;br /&gt;
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  17. &lt;a href=&quot;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8l1F7pqV0c8/URf8zJBZZcI/AAAAAAAAALY/iddeQicc2Zo/s1600/Waiting-for-Jake-Web.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;245&quot; jea=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8l1F7pqV0c8/URf8zJBZZcI/AAAAAAAAALY/iddeQicc2Zo/s320/Waiting-for-Jake-Web.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  18. I assume the church understands when a 40-something woman comes to the church jumping up and down and has her husband park in &quot;Jake Ryan&#39;s Spot&quot; that she is a Sixteen Candles fan!&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;
  19. &lt;br /&gt;
  20. Isn&#39;t the street pretty?&amp;nbsp; Here&#39;s where Jake parked.&lt;br /&gt;
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  24. &lt;a href=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5qp4HArZdHw/URf-aFdulHI/AAAAAAAAALw/ZncF2Rz2G8E/s1600/Jake-Was-Here-Web.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; jea=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5qp4HArZdHw/URf-aFdulHI/AAAAAAAAALw/ZncF2Rz2G8E/s320/Jake-Was-Here-Web.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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  26. At the end of the street that the church is on is Lake Michigan.&amp;nbsp; I was amazed&amp;nbsp;with how beautiful it was.&amp;nbsp; The skies in Chicago are so blue and it reflects off the partially frozen water.&lt;br /&gt;
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  29. &lt;a href=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y4cS017IVko/URf9L5rIxqI/AAAAAAAAALg/1BZcQvAPAvw/s1600/Lake-2-adj-Web.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;293&quot; jea=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y4cS017IVko/URf9L5rIxqI/AAAAAAAAALg/1BZcQvAPAvw/s320/Lake-2-adj-Web.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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  35. The next stop on our tour was Samantha Baker&#39;s house.&amp;nbsp; John Hughes used the outside and the inside to film Sixteen Candles.&amp;nbsp; I didn&#39;t get to see the inside, but here is the outside.&amp;nbsp; It looks exactly the same as it did in the movie.&lt;/div&gt;
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  41. &lt;a href=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fXu6LDor32M/URf-GADPKAI/AAAAAAAAALo/M-2ryqimIMw/s1600/Samantha-House-Web.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;280&quot; jea=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fXu6LDor32M/URf-GADPKAI/AAAAAAAAALo/M-2ryqimIMw/s320/Samantha-House-Web.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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  47. Finally, we went to see &quot;My Boy Jake&#39;s&quot; house.&amp;nbsp; The house is a million dollar home right next to Lake Michigan in Highland Park.&amp;nbsp; Here is his garage that Farmer Ted pulled out of when driving Carolyn home in the Rolls.&lt;/div&gt;
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  53. &lt;a href=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XulNx3g67TY/URf_aaeMhkI/AAAAAAAAAL4/zsajgFYDruY/s1600/Taking-Carolyn-Home-Web.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;237&quot; jea=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XulNx3g67TY/URf_aaeMhkI/AAAAAAAAAL4/zsajgFYDruY/s320/Taking-Carolyn-Home-Web.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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  55. Again, from what I understand John Hughes&#39; used the outside and inside of the house for filming.&amp;nbsp; Here is Jake&#39;s&amp;nbsp;house below.&amp;nbsp; It&#39;s actually set back further from the street than it looks.&amp;nbsp; I had to zoom in.&lt;br /&gt;
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  58. &lt;a href=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AFw4d3hNrMI/URf_oLI4kNI/AAAAAAAAAMA/Sg4uUX6pGN8/s1600/Jake+House.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; jea=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AFw4d3hNrMI/URf_oLI4kNI/AAAAAAAAAMA/Sg4uUX6pGN8/s320/Jake+House.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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  62. I&#39;ve got to say, quite embarrassingly, that our Sixteen Candles tour was much more magical than I had ever expected.&amp;nbsp; I loved every minute of it (although my twins were &quot;bored!&quot;) and my husband was a good sport driving me all around the suburbs.&amp;nbsp; It was a dream come true for me.&lt;/div&gt;
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  66. Can&#39;t make it to Chicago?&amp;nbsp; No worries... all of these locations can be seen on the web using Google Maps.&amp;nbsp; How cool is that?!&lt;/div&gt;
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  70. Let me know below if you are a Sixteen Candles fan too!&amp;nbsp; Or, if you haven&#39;t seen it as an adult, watch it and let me know what you think of it now!&lt;/div&gt;
  71. &lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/i-cant-believe-my-family-forgot-my.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8l1F7pqV0c8/URf8zJBZZcI/AAAAAAAAALY/iddeQicc2Zo/s72-c/Waiting-for-Jake-Web.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-6391482478586186805</guid><pubDate>Tue, 01 Jan 2013 22:31:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-01-01T17:38:45.498-05:00</atom:updated><title>Top Things I&#39;ve Said in 2012 as a Twins Mom</title><description>Happy New Year!&amp;nbsp; I usually prepare this post in November or December, but 2012 got the best of me so this is the first opportunity I&#39;ve had lately to sit down for some creative writing.&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;
  72. &lt;br /&gt;
  73. Every year I put together this list of the things I&#39;ve repeatedly said through the year.&amp;nbsp; I have been doing this for a few years now and I have to say that it&#39;s really fun to look back at previous years and compare verbage.&amp;nbsp; There are a lot of similiarities - that&#39;s for sure!&lt;br /&gt;
  74. &lt;br /&gt;
  75. &lt;strong&gt;Top Things I&#39;ve Said in 2012 as a Twins Mom&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  76. &lt;br /&gt;
  77. 1.&amp;nbsp; That&#39;s for sure! Followed by my daughter&#39;s &quot;You know what?&quot; and &quot;pretty much.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
  78. &lt;br /&gt;
  79. 2.&amp;nbsp; Can you all go to the bathroom?&amp;nbsp; It&#39;s time to leave.&lt;br /&gt;
  80. &lt;br /&gt;
  81. 3.&amp;nbsp; Please sit down while you&#39;re eating - you should know this by now.&lt;br /&gt;
  82. &lt;br /&gt;
  83. 4.&amp;nbsp; It&#39;s time to get ready for school!&amp;nbsp; I feel like with each new day it&#39;s like you&#39;ve never gotten ready for school before.&lt;br /&gt;
  84. &lt;br /&gt;
  85. 5.&amp;nbsp; Hold on to the railing when you&#39;re on the stairs - you should know this by now.&lt;br /&gt;
  86. &lt;br /&gt;
  87. 6.&amp;nbsp; Oh, there&#39;s a good sale going on at the Vera Bradley outlet.&lt;br /&gt;
  88. &lt;br /&gt;
  89. 7.&amp;nbsp; I don&#39;t know why I bother talking, no one listens to me anyway.&amp;nbsp; Perfect example... I said to my husband &quot;hold the box from the bottom, the handle is broken.&amp;nbsp; Hold the box from the bottom, the handle is broken.&quot; What does he do?&amp;nbsp; He holds the box from the handle and drops it!&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;
  90. &lt;br /&gt;
  91. 8.&amp;nbsp; My 5 year old flip phone is great and I&#39;m beating the system.&lt;br /&gt;
  92. &lt;br /&gt;
  93. 9.&amp;nbsp; I&#39;m not going to worry about it.&lt;br /&gt;
  94. &lt;br /&gt;
  95. 10.&amp;nbsp; Well, I cleaned the kitchen!&amp;nbsp; This was a big year for my husband&#39;s career and personal achievement.&amp;nbsp; Whenever he came home with a fantastic announcement about some award or recognition, after the appropriate congrats I would say &quot;Well, I cleaned the kitchen.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
  96. &lt;br /&gt;
  97. Enjoy 2013!&amp;nbsp; And, may this be the best year yet for all!&amp;nbsp; What things do you hope to say the most in 2013?&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/top-things-ive-said-in-2012.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-7970820082186953726</guid><pubDate>Sat, 30 Jun 2012 19:08:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-06-30T15:08:32.173-04:00</atom:updated><title>Fun with Raw Foods</title><description>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
  98. &lt;a href=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-et8COwIQ9Bc/T-9Lll9ZuaI/AAAAAAAAALA/UCnROiCbE6o/s1600/Raw-Foods.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; src=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-et8COwIQ9Bc/T-9Lll9ZuaI/AAAAAAAAALA/UCnROiCbE6o/s320/Raw-Foods.jpg&quot; vca=&quot;true&quot; width=&quot;181&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  99. The first time I ever heard about people eating only raw foods was a few years ago and I thought it was Crazy! That’s crazy with a capital C. How can one go through life without eating foods that have been toasted, warmed or cooked? No soups, no cereal, no bread, no crackers, no junk food for sure, no steak, chicken, pork, turkey – not even the fake stuff or garden burgers. No more popcorn or French fries – my two favorite foods on earth. I thought for sure it was impossible.&lt;br /&gt;
  100. &lt;br /&gt;
  101. &lt;br /&gt;
  102. About a month ago I was flipping through my book catalogs scoping out new books for the bookstore and came across &lt;em&gt;Ani&#39;s 15-Day Fat Blast&lt;/em&gt; by Ani Phyo which focused on losing weight by eating raw foods. It peaked my interest so I bought the book and was just WOWED! She lays out a raw food plan which encourages your body to lose weight in&amp;nbsp;15 days.&lt;br /&gt;
  103. &lt;br /&gt;
  104. Sounded good to me and there have been a few things that I’ve been tired of lately – eating the same old foods over and over again – basically I was tired of eating junk. I was also tired of letting the twins get the best of me and not finishing projects that I start. I thought if I tried this plan for 15 days it would accomplish two things for me – it would give me the sense of accomplishment and completion and also force me to eat new foods that I wasn’t normally eating. It was a win-win for me. Of course, there was also that 20 extra pounds that’s been with me since the twins were born. It would be nice to finally lose the extra weight.&lt;br /&gt;
  105. &lt;br /&gt;
  106. Most people become a raw foodist after going through the “food continuum” of eating everything, changing over to vegetarian, then becoming vegan, and then going to raw. I skipped over all that and went right to raw foods. As a junk food junkie, it was a drastic step, but as Ani said it’s only for 15 days. Of course, at the end of 15 days she is convinced that you will enjoy eating this way all the time and that you will remain a raw foodist either 100% or as much as possible.&lt;br /&gt;
  107. &lt;br /&gt;
  108. I was never a good cook so for me a raw food diet made sense. I immediately realized how easy it was to be on a raw food diet – throw 3 – 6 ingredients into a blender and done. I’ve made all sorts of foods this way. I’ve also prepared salads, snacks, and dessert in literally minutes. The blender I use is the Ninja system which I bought at Kohls on sale.&amp;nbsp; I&#39;ve even used it to chop nuts with no problem.&amp;nbsp; It pulverizes everything and is really easy to clean.&lt;br /&gt;
  109. &lt;br /&gt;
  110. I am now eating foods that I love and being introduced to eating them in a whole new way. Dates and celery were never high up on my food list, but I’m finding that I actually enjoy eating them. I’m also enjoying eating coconut, nuts, raisins, avocado, homemade salad dressing, kombucha (a fermented tea beverage), carob, coconut oil, kefir (a non-dairy based probiotic drink similar to yogurt), and kale (a type of lettuce that I had never knowingly tried before), and many other foods.&lt;br /&gt;
  111. &lt;br /&gt;
  112. Some of these foods on the list you may think are fattening like nuts, coconut and avocado, but according to the raw food experts these are nutrient dense and healthy foods. I had been avoiding them all these years even though I enjoyed them because I thought they were fattening and unhealthy. I remember when the movie industry switched from popping their popcorn in coconut oil because they said it clogged your arteries and, in my opinion, movie theater popcorn was all downhill from there. Now they don’t even pop their own popcorn at many places.&lt;br /&gt;
  113. &lt;br /&gt;
  114. The first day trying raw foods was in a lot of ways easier than I thought, but it was also very difficult. Ani’s plan had me making smoothies 4 – 5 times a day the first 3 days as a detox and break from chewing – that’s a lot of smoothies to drink. I had strawberry smoothies, blueberry smoothies, pear smoothies, pineapple and kale smoothies. I also had vegetables as smoothies (which she calls “soups” in her book although they aren’t heated). I had to pull out my blender and learn a new way to prepare foods.&lt;br /&gt;
  115. &lt;br /&gt;
  116. I was also really hungry the first few days and ate a lot of food (Ani says that quantity doesn’t matter, only quality on a raw food diet). Within a few days, I found my way and built a routine that I could stick with – smoothie and a banana in the morning, smoothie in the late morning, big salad for lunch, fruit or veggies in early afternoon, salad for dinner. I also started making yummy treats like raw trail cookies, raw brownies, and other desserts. Recently I picked up a few additional raw cookbooks and will add more recipes and foods to the routine. It really is a whole cuisine experience with so many options.&lt;br /&gt;
  117. &lt;br /&gt;
  118. I have noticed that I have more energy, my brain fog is cleared up, and I’ve lost weight (at my last weigh in I lost 3 lbs in a week and that’s without exercising and still eating a TON of food including many of the so-called “fattening foods” listed above). I suffer from heartburn and acid reflux (started when I was pregnant with twins) and while I haven’t noticed an improvement in my symptoms I know that once I lose weight these will get better.&lt;br /&gt;
  119. &lt;br /&gt;
  120. The only downside that I’ve found with eating raw is that is it expensive to buy so much produce – For example, I go through 2 bunches of bananas every 2 days. I once watched a YouTube video of a person who had a whole 4-shelf shelfing system and it was completely full of bananas. She would rotate her bananas depending on how the sun was coming into the room. That kind of commitment scared me to be honest. I couldn’t imagine going through all those bananas or tending to them so lovingly. Another YouTube video showed me what one person bought for a week of eating raw – she had beautiful arm muscles and now I know why… from carrying all that heavy produce.&lt;br /&gt;
  121. &lt;br /&gt;
  122. Also, what worries me is that come winter in New England, I won’t be able to afford eating this way when the prices of produce skyrocket and it isn&#39;t so readily available. I’m also making about 3 trips to the store every week buying fresh produce compared to just once a week before. Come winter I like to hibernate – a raw food lifestyle is going to be harder to keep up, but we’ll see what happens. Even if I can maintain a 50% raw food diet in winter, I’ll be happy as long as the dark forces of Doritos don’t catch up with me and I&amp;nbsp;am eating healthy food.&lt;br /&gt;
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  124. The other issue I’ve found is that my refrigerator is an avalanche waiting to happen. That’s my fridge at the top – it is chockfull and there is no room for anything else. I know I’m not supposed to store fruits and veggies in the same compartment, but I have no other option.&lt;br /&gt;
  125. &lt;br /&gt;
  126. But regardless, the positives outweigh the negatives right now and it’s definitely been fun. Now I just have to get the rest of the&amp;nbsp;family aka “the chicken nugget twins” on the same path. I’ll keep you all posted on how I’m doing (accountability is good!) and will post more information for those interested in trying out a raw food diet even if it&#39;s just for a few days.&lt;br /&gt;
  127. &lt;br /&gt;
  128. Thanks for reading about my raw food journey! Let me know your comments, questions, or thoughts below. I love hearing from you.&amp;nbsp; Cheers!&lt;br /&gt;
  129. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/fun-with-raw-foods.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-et8COwIQ9Bc/T-9Lll9ZuaI/AAAAAAAAALA/UCnROiCbE6o/s72-c/Raw-Foods.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-5229889148331622492</guid><pubDate>Sat, 07 Apr 2012 01:58:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-04-06T22:02:52.640-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">About Me</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Double Up Books</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Twins</category><title>Call for Contributors - Two Little Time: Twins Advice for the Hurried Mom and Dad</title><description>As a bookstore owner, it was bound to happen sooner or later – I would get the itch to publish a book. That time has come and I need your help!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just because I’m a mom of twins doesn’t mean that I’m &lt;em&gt;the expert&lt;/em&gt; on how to raise them, &lt;strong&gt;collectively we ALL are the experts&lt;/strong&gt;, but we’re so short on time aren’t we?! That’s where the idea for my e-book came in. &lt;em&gt;Two Little Time: Twins Advice for the Hurried Mom and Dad&lt;/em&gt; will be a collection of 5 bulleted “must know” tips and advice for raising twins from all of us.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is a chance for you to get published, gain exposure as a “twins expert,” help other moms and dads by sharing your knowledge, and market your blog/website/business to the twins community. In addition, contributors can post &lt;em&gt;Two Little Time&lt;/em&gt; on their website or blog to make available to their readers for FREE.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color:#ff9900;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Interested in submitting an article?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;It’s easy! Just come up with 5 bulleted tips/advice for raising twins/multiples; write a bio about yourself; read and sign the book agreement. Submissions accepted until June 30, 2012. All the juicy details are below in our Submissions Guideline and Book Agreement downloads (in PDF format).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.doubleupbook.com/twolittletimeguideline.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Download our Submission Guidelines here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.doubleupbook.com/twolittletimeagreement.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Download our Book Agreement here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Want to see the original blog post I wrote where I came up with this idea – &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/just-in-time-twins-advice.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;visit my personal blog Prologue to a Twins Blog.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thanks so much for your interest! Together we can make a difference… quickly.&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/call-for-contributors-two-little-time.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-2185512087694966180</guid><pubDate>Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:41:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-03-25T16:57:39.276-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">About Me</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Prologue to a Twins Blog</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Twins</category><title>Just in Time Twins Advice</title><description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y3epbUYY9sQ/T2-DydNEHGI/AAAAAAAAAK4/wGOF7nky3lY/s1600/iStock_000001198326XXLarge.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 186px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5723938554267311202&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y3epbUYY9sQ/T2-DydNEHGI/AAAAAAAAAK4/wGOF7nky3lY/s320/iStock_000001198326XXLarge.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;I&#39;ve been super short on time lately. I&#39;m sure a lot of you are feeling the same way - never having enough time on your side.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;However, my lack of time gave me a great idea for this blog post - quick tips to pass along to any hurried twin moms and dads-to-be. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Here are my top 5 quick twins advice for moms and dads expecting twins/multiples:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;1. &lt;strong&gt;Read everything you can about raising twins&lt;/strong&gt; (of course!) - Read books, magazine articles, blogs, and talk to as many people in the twins community as you can. Once you&#39;ve built up a pretty good knowledge base, use what you&#39;ve learned to form your own thoughts and ideas about how to best care for your twins.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;2. &lt;strong&gt;Try to find the humor in all situations&lt;/strong&gt; - This is especially important during the very stressful first year. My husband once came home to find me in my bra and underwear standing in the kitchen wearing one slipper while trying to clean up two simultaneous blow-out diapers.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;3. &lt;strong&gt;Trust that you&#39;ll know what&#39;s best for your family at any given moment and follow your gut.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;4. &lt;strong&gt;Keep your twins on the same schedule or don&#39;t&lt;/strong&gt; - You will find what works for you and your situation. I didn&#39;t keep my twins on the same schedule because to me it was easier dealing with one baby at at time based on their needs at that moment.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;5. &lt;strong&gt;The first year is the hardest, but it goes by quickly&lt;/strong&gt; - Cherish is special time with your twins and try to sneak in as much sleep as you can.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What quick tips can you share? Please post below!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FK8XkU-v1go/T2-DeLIWxtI/AAAAAAAAAKs/fkapZgiexe8/s1600/iStock_000001198326XXLarge.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/just-in-time-twins-advice.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y3epbUYY9sQ/T2-DydNEHGI/AAAAAAAAAK4/wGOF7nky3lY/s72-c/iStock_000001198326XXLarge.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-8274187136358497456</guid><pubDate>Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:03:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-02-16T17:37:58.100-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">About Me</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Prologue to a Twins Blog</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Reading</category><title>My Magazine Addiction</title><description>I am a magazine junkie and have been since I was a kid. My magazine tastes have changed over time, but the excitement that I hold for magazines has not.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are so many factors as to why I love magazines as much as I do - the fun of opening my mailbox and finding something other than bills, the distraction it gives me from the daily grind, learning about new things and getting inspired, the glossy photos that make everything look perfect, and with each issue there is something new and exciting to read. I also especially love international magazines although subscribing to them is pricey so I tend to pick these up when I travel.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I found a fellow magazine junkie in &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/#!/tracizeller&quot;&gt;@tracizeller&lt;/a&gt; over on Twitter. I love hearing about people&#39;s favorite magazines so I asked her if she had a list of the magazines that she reads posted on her blog. She didn&#39;t, but then I realized that I didn&#39;t either!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here is a list of the magazines I subscribe to:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color:#3366ff;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Just for Fun&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;People *&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;US Weekly&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Entertainment Weekly&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color:#3366ff;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fashion &amp;amp; Beauty&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;People Stylewatch&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Allure&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;New Beauty *&lt;br /&gt;(I get this through the Beauty Test Tube on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.qvc.com/&quot;&gt;http://www.qvc.com/&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color:#3366ff;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Home&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;Unique Homes&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Canada&#39;s Style at Home&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;HGTV Home *&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color:#3366ff;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Women&#39;s Mag&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Woman&#39;s Day *&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ladies Home Journal &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Working Mother - Didn&#39;t know I subscribed to this, but it started showing up one day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color:#3366ff;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Health &amp;amp; Cooking&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Women&#39;s Health&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Taste of Home Healthy Cooking&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Wegman&#39;s Menu&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color:#3366ff;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Travel&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Travel + Leisure *&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Conde Nast Traveler&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Britain&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color:#3366ff;&quot;&gt;Business&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Inc. *&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Internet Retailer&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Website Magazine&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* I starred my favorite magazine in each category.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Buying Magazines and Saving $$$&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In my opinion the BEST place to buy magazines is through eBates.com. If you&#39;re not familiar with eBates, when you&#39;re ready to shop for something you first go to their website and look for the store that you want to shop online at.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When you find the store, you&#39;ll notice a % next to their name - that&#39;s the % cash back you&#39;ll get if you shop at that online store by using the link provided on eBates. Each quarter eBates sends you a check of your earnings.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I typically use Magazines.com through eBates which depending on the time of year can save me 26 - 52% off magazines (between Thanksgiving and New Years is the highest % back). If you want to sign up for eBates and give me a perk in the process, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=F%2F8pRddiuXOrHFArTE8O4Q%3D%3D&quot;&gt;I&#39;ve posted my Tell-A-Friend link&lt;/a&gt;. No pressure.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=F%2F8pRddiuXOrHFArTE8O4Q%3D%3D&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;http://www.ebates.com/referral/2010/taf-dashboard/images/ebates_logo.png&quot; width=&quot;171&quot; height=&quot;31&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Post in the comments section what magazines you like to read and why you like to read them - I&#39;m always on the prowl for new magazines to read!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-magazine-addiction.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><thr:total>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-2371097219687173329</guid><pubDate>Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:48:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-12-30T20:18:35.456-05:00</atom:updated><title>The Best of 2011</title><description>Every year I put together a list of the best books that I&#39;ve read that year, but I&#39;m doing things differently this year since I&#39;m getting bored of routine. This year I&#39;ve put together a list of the best things I&#39;ve enjoyed this year entertainment-wise, but I&#39;ll start with the best books as a tribute to what I usually do.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Best Books&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dangerous to Know (Lady Emily #5)&lt;/em&gt; by Tasha Alexander&lt;br /&gt;This is the 5th installment of the Lady Emily series and I think it&#39;s the best one yet. The 6th book was recently published and although I purchased it the day it came out, I haven&#39;t had a chance to read it yet. I&#39;m really excited to and hope it&#39;s even better.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rules of Civility&lt;/em&gt; by Amor Towles&lt;br /&gt;A fun romp through 1930&#39;s New York City high society.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Dark Fields&lt;/em&gt; by Alan Glynn&lt;br /&gt;This is the book that the movie Limitless with Bradley Cooper was based on. The movie wasn&#39;t very good in my opinion, but the book was awesome! I read the book before I saw the movie.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Shadowy Horses&lt;/em&gt; by Susanna Kearsley&lt;br /&gt;I really enjoyed this older book by Susanna Kearsely and while I&#39;m not one for romantic themes I thought the author handled it perfectly. Great flirting descriptions!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Violets of March&lt;/em&gt; by Sarah Jio&lt;br /&gt;The cover of this book instantly attracted me (see you can judge a book by it&#39;s cover) and I bought it on the spot. I really liked this story of a heartbroken woman who travels to Bainbridge Island in Washington state to visit her aging aunt. Full of heartfelt moments and family secrets - loved it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Sweet Life in Paris: A Recipe for Living in the World&#39;s Most Delicious City&lt;/em&gt; by David Lebovitz&lt;br /&gt;Even though I don&#39;t cook and I&#39;m on the opposite end of the foodie spectrum, I&#39;m attracted to books written about eating or cooking in Paris (&lt;em&gt;My Life in France&lt;/em&gt; by Julia Child made my list last year). This book does not disappoint in any way. Incredible recipes which one day I hope to try and I love David Lebovitz&#39;s breakdown of the french/Parisian culture. Who knew a pastry chef could be so funny!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Best Movies&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The absolute best movie I saw all year was &lt;em&gt;Crazy, Stupid Love&lt;/em&gt; - if you haven&#39;t seen, just see it already!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Midnight in Paris&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;It&#39;s Kind of a Funny Story&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Prestige &lt;/em&gt;- this one is my all time favorite movie and I did watch it again this year. You can&#39;t go wrong with a cast of Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Cain, David Bowie, and the guy who plays Niles on The Nanny, Daniel Davis.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cutest On-Screen Couple&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Best TV Shows&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hot in Cleveland on TV Land&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;White Collar on USA Network&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Good Luck, Charlie on Disney&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Melissa and Joey on ABC Family&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;House Hunters on HGTV&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Usually Burn Notice on USA Network would be on this list, but I gotta say it&#39;s getting a little repetitive. When you&#39;re a spy, there are only so many things you can do and say that&#39;s new I guess.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Best TV Series&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lark Rise to Candleford from BBC on PBS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Downton Abbey from BBC on PBS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Actors this Year&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ryan Gosling&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Emma Stone&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Bruce Campbell - he&#39;s on my list every year since 1988 except for his work in Bubba Ho-Tep (Sorry, Bruce!)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Matt Bomer&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Kevin Spacey&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ed O&#39;Neill&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So, what were your favorite things in 2011? Let me know below I&#39;d love to know.&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/best-of-2011.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-5051862520376387896</guid><pubDate>Thu, 24 Nov 2011 23:19:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-11-24T18:38:33.086-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">About Me</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Prologue to a Twins Blog</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Twins</category><title>Top Things I&#39;ve Said in 2011 as a Twins Mom</title><description>I don&#39;t know about you, but I&#39;m ready to declare 2011 o-v-e-r and start fresh in 2012.&lt;a href=&quot;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T3zkMMoAmvE/Ts7RkfdLZdI/AAAAAAAAAKU/HmbeGrkBCUw/s1600/Blah.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 143px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678706605010150866&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T3zkMMoAmvE/Ts7RkfdLZdI/AAAAAAAAAKU/HmbeGrkBCUw/s320/Blah.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T3zkMMoAmvE/Ts7RkfdLZdI/AAAAAAAAAKU/HmbeGrkBCUw/s1600/Blah.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This was not the easiest year for many reasons and I feel like I&#39;ve aged quite a bit during it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In honor of trying to push this year along, I&#39;m putting together my annual list of the Top Things I&#39;ve Said This Year a little early.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As a twins mom, I get to repeat myself a lot and it was definitely true this year. Here is a list of the top 12 things I&#39;ve said the most this year (in no order).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;12. Guys, can you stop leaving your things on the floor!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;11. Can you hold on to the railing when you&#39;re on the stairs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;10. Do not wake me up before seven zero zero.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;9. Can you please put some socks and slippers on?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;8. I&#39;ll pay you $1 if you brush my hair.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;7. Time for your homework.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;6. Is Good Luck Charlie on yet?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;5. It&#39;s time to leave. Can everyone go to the bathroom please?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4. This year kind of stunk.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. Please put your PJs on, you cannot walk around the house in your underwear.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. Can you go the pharmacy and pick up ____ , the kids have strep, pinkeye, stomach bug, pneumonia, a collapsed lung, ear infection, cold.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. Will you PLE-ASE hang out with the kids so I can get some sleep????&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That last one is always directed at my husband in the most annoying voice.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So, this is pretty much what I&#39;ve said this year. Add a comment below and tell me what top things you&#39;ve said this year.&lt;a href=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oM5E0mcYnzI/Ts7T3z3_rFI/AAAAAAAAAKg/KGODEz0Fs18/s1600/Shelby-Siggie120.gif&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 120px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 56px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678709135932107858&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oM5E0mcYnzI/Ts7T3z3_rFI/AAAAAAAAAKg/KGODEz0Fs18/s200/Shelby-Siggie120.gif&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/top-things-ive-said-in-2011-as-twins.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T3zkMMoAmvE/Ts7RkfdLZdI/AAAAAAAAAKU/HmbeGrkBCUw/s72-c/Blah.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-8395838699753763303</guid><pubDate>Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:24:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-03-27T22:26:20.203-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">About Me</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Food</category><title>Why Americans Don&#39;t Like Flakes</title><description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i4v3FfqHT-M/TYaeo53A8dI/AAAAAAAAAKI/pYysXtdcIHc/s1600/Cadbury%2BFlake2.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 25px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5586326813363204562&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i4v3FfqHT-M/TYaeo53A8dI/AAAAAAAAAKI/pYysXtdcIHc/s200/Cadbury%2BFlake2.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Today&#39;s post is a story I&#39;m going to share about British chocolates, in this case the Cadbury Flake. Did you know that Cadbury and Nestle (and maybe other chocolatiers) sell completely different candy in other parts of the world? Whenever we travel internationally one of our favorite things to do is to go candy shopping for items that we can&#39;t find in the US. I guess some chocolates don&#39;t translate well to the American crowd and we may have figured out why.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;We&#39;ve discovered some awesome candy by doing this, but sadly Cadbury&#39;s Flake is not one of them and here&#39;s why. The Cadbury Flake is described as having &quot;a delicate, crumbly texture.&quot; Picture a chocolate candy bar that&#39;s long and thin like a hot dog and made in such a way that when you bite into it, the whole thing collapses into tiny flakes of chocolate. Sounds exciting, right? Who wouldn&#39;t like a mouthful of tiny flakes of milky, creamy chocolate. Except that it doesn&#39;t quite work out that way.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;On our summer vacation to Toronto this past year, I was so excited when I found a Cadbury Flake - a chocolate bar that I have never tried before. I watch a lot of British TV and there is always reference to this chocolate. As soon as we got back to the hotel room, I had to try my sweet treat.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;I sat on the edge of the bed and opened up my Flake. As soon as I took the first bite, the entire thing broke apart sending tiny pieces of chocolate all over my lap, the floor, the bed, and my son who was sitting next to me on the floor. I scooped up as much as I could into a pouch I made out of my shirt and carried it into the bathroom where I proceeded to fling the flakes into the toilet.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Except that the Flake knows how to travel and not only did it end up in the toilet, but all over the floor and the tub too. I cleaned up what I could, but honestly I knew that the next time that someone flushed the toilet (with 5 year old twins -and a husband that drinks diet Coke by the gallons that would be in about 5 minutes) and took a shower that &lt;em&gt;most&lt;/em&gt; of it would be cleaned up so I didn&#39;t really do a good job. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;I washed my hands, shut the light off, and went back to the bedroom area to watch TV. In two minutes I had completely forgotten about the incident. About 15 minutes later, my husband walks into the bathroom, flicks on the light switch and SCREAMS &quot;How did all this sh*t get everywhere in the bathroom?&quot;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Well, it&#39;s true that anything is possible with twins, luckily that day all I needed to say in response was &quot;no hon, it&#39;s not poop, it&#39;s chocolate!&quot; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/why-americans-dont-like-flakes.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i4v3FfqHT-M/TYaeo53A8dI/AAAAAAAAAKI/pYysXtdcIHc/s72-c/Cadbury%2BFlake2.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-6111252330950031349</guid><pubDate>Sat, 29 Jan 2011 23:24:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-01-29T18:24:49.964-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">About Me</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Books</category><title>Best Books I Read in 2010</title><description>At the start of every year, I compile a list of the best books that I&#39;ve read in the previous year. I read about 50 books a year, but there are only a handful that make this list - I&#39;m picky!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here are the best books I&#39;ve read in 2010 (in no order):&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;I Can Make You Thin&lt;/em&gt; by Paul McKenna (Self-Help)&lt;br /&gt;I kind of got this book as a joke - I really didn&#39;t think that it was going to be anything special and possibly even laughable, but it was truly awesome. It helped me to lose 10 lbs by helping me to realize my bad eating habits and how to correct them. It&#39;s a quick read filled with a lot of practical information about how to lose weight without dieting.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;I&#39;ll Never Be French (no matter what I do)&lt;/em&gt; by Marc Greenside (Non-Fiction)&lt;br /&gt;How many countless books can be published about silly Americans buying a house in a foreign country only to find that he/she is in over their head? This one is priceless though. I laughed outloud many many times and really like the author - he gets himself into the funniest circumstances.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Opposite of Me&lt;/em&gt; by Sarah Pekkanen (Fiction)&lt;br /&gt;This was just a good fun &quot;chick lit&quot; type of book that has twins as characters. Very enjoyable and a fun book to read. I loved the main character and could relate with her a lot.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Gilded: How Newport Became America&#39;s Richest Resort&lt;/em&gt; by Deborah Davis (Non-Fiction)&lt;br /&gt;I live about 1.5 hours away from Newport, RI so I&#39;ve been there and seen the beautiful &quot;summer cottages&quot; (aka huge mansions of the rich) many times. This book goes beyond the glitz and glimmer of the beautiful facades and gives us the nitty gritty details about the houses and the families (as wacky as they were) that lived there. I loved learning about New York and Newport high society.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Glass of Time&lt;/em&gt; by Michael Cox (Fiction)&lt;br /&gt;If I had to pick the best book out of the lot, this would be it for 2010! This is a book that kept me up late at night reading. I would try to steal a few pages while the twins were busy doing something during the day and I would carry it around the house with me. It was un-put-downable. There aren&#39;t a lot of fiction books that have this effect on me so this is huge in my opinion. I loved this story about a family secrets in Victorian England. The author reveals the plot layer by layer in brilliant fashion. You won&#39;t be disappointed!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Did you have a favorite book that you read in 2010? If so, post it here... I&#39;d love to know.&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-books-i-read-in-2010.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-7955700919323631075</guid><pubDate>Thu, 14 Oct 2010 14:25:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-10-14T10:57:13.427-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Books</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Twins</category><title>The Joy of Being a Bookseller</title><description>&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;a title=&quot;Share photos on twitter with Twitpic&quot; href=&quot;http://twitpic.com/2tz95o&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Share photos on twitter with Twitpic&quot; src=&quot;http://twitpic.com/show/thumb/2tz95o.jpg&quot; width=&quot;150&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of the great benefits of being a bookseller (see our bookstore at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.doubleupbooks.com/&quot;&gt;http://www.doubleupbooks.com/&lt;/a&gt;) is to be able to attend booksellers conventions. There are two conventions that I attend regularly - NEIBA, the New England Independent Booksellers Association (of which Double Up Books is a member bookstore) and BEA, BookExpo America.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At these conventions, I get to talk to other booksellers, meet authors and publishers, and get the latest scoop on all of the upcoming books including receiving free copies (yes, you read that right free copies! They are called &quot;galley&quot; or &quot;advance reading copy&quot; because they aren&#39;t the final published copy of the book.). I usually come home with anywhere from 10 - 30 books and about 25 lbs of book catalogs (and yes, I carry all of this on my back in a backpack and various bags! See what carrying around twins has helped me with.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I just got back from the NEIBA convention a few weeks ago and wanted to give you a glimpse at some upcoming books that I think are really exciting. Some will be published as early as November and some won&#39;t be published until spring 2011 so keep your eyes out for them if a book interests you. Of course, if you want to know the exact date for the book release, email me and I&#39;ll be happy to get that info for you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Rescue - Anita Shreve&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cleopatra - Stacy Schiff (this is the book that the movie with Angelina Jolie will be based on.  And, did you know that Cleopatra had twins?)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Pursuit of Happiness - Douglas Kennedy&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Distant Hours - Kate Morton (she wrote the House at Riverton which was great.  This book has twins as characters.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As Always, Julia - letters between Julia Child and Avis Desoto&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Brain Rules for Babies - John Medina&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Sherlockian - Graham Moore&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Lake of Dreams - Kim Edwards&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Moonwalking with Einstein - Joshua Foer (my husband loved this book and that&#39;s saying a lot)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Elizabeth I - Margaret George&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sweet Valley Confidential - Francine Pascal (if you liked the Sweet Valley series as a teen then you&#39;ll like this book as an adult which picks up the twin characters 10 years later.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cool, huh? I&#39;m excited for these books especially, but there are many others that are going to be published over the next few months. Stay tuned. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are there any books that you are looking forward to being published in the next few months?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/joy-of-being-bookseller.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><thr:total>2</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-770357239006336734</guid><pubDate>Wed, 11 Aug 2010 23:47:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-08-11T20:48:44.443-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">About Me</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Double Up Books</category><title>My Favorite Book</title><description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/TGM3MVj_bdI/AAAAAAAAAJw/xHAh2WmnPgE/s1600/Copy+of+iStock_000003477578Medium.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 197px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 194px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5504303854662938066&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/TGM3MVj_bdI/AAAAAAAAAJw/xHAh2WmnPgE/s320/Copy+of+iStock_000003477578Medium.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; There is no way that I could pick &lt;em&gt;just one&lt;/em&gt; book for the illustrious honor of being my favorite book! Could you? I read over 100 books a year times that by many, many years and you&#39;ve got a lot of books.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But, I like to keep track of these things so that when people ask me what my favorite books are I have them on hand and ready to share (and also that I can remember them in old age or when my twins kill off some more of my brain cells).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here is a list of my all time favorite books. To be fair to authors, I didn&#39;t include any of the books that I sell on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.doubleupbooks.com/&quot;&gt;www.DoubleUpBooks.com&lt;/a&gt;.   So, on with the show...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Chick-Lit Book of All Time&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Alice K&#39;s Guide to Life&lt;/em&gt; - Caroline Knapp&lt;br /&gt;This is the book that started the genre.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book as a Middle Schooler&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Luuvy and the Girls&lt;/em&gt; - Natalie Savage Carlson&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Play&lt;/strong&gt; (tie)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Heidi Chronicals&lt;/em&gt; - Wendy Wasserstein&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shirley Valentine&lt;/em&gt; - Willy Russell&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book of my Husband&#39;s That I Would Like To Throw Out&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Private Parts&lt;/em&gt; - Howard Stern&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book from the 50s&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Gentleman Prefer Blondes&lt;/em&gt; - Anita Loos&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book about Breaking Up&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Heartburn&lt;/em&gt; - Nora Ephron&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book Translated into English&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Like Water for Chocolate&lt;/em&gt; - Laura Esquivel&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Funny Book&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;I Love Everybody and Other Atrocious Lies&lt;/em&gt; - Laurie Notaro&lt;br /&gt;Seriously pee in your pants kind of funny.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book I Use as a Flyswater That Belongs to My Husband&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Miss America&lt;/em&gt; - Howard Stern&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book about an Australian Expat&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Almost French&lt;/em&gt; - Sarah Turnbull&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book about Australia&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;In a Sunburned Country&lt;/em&gt; - Bill Bryson&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book About a Woman on a Boat and Favorite Book I Read in 2009&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Motion of the Ocean&lt;/em&gt; - Janna Cawrse Esarey (um, that&#39;s pronounced JAN-nuh Course ES-uh-ree)&lt;br /&gt;Hilarious and heartfelt.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book About Buying a House in Another Country&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;I&#39;ll Never Be French&lt;/em&gt; - Marc Greenside&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book that Changed My Attitude&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Forget Perfect&lt;/em&gt; - Lisa Earle McLeod&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book That Made Me Rethink Things&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Secret&lt;/em&gt; - Rhonda Byrnes&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book Turned into a Movie&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Prestige&lt;/em&gt; - Christopher Priest&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book by an Author Who I&#39;ve Had a Crush on for 22 Years&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;If Chins Could Kill:  Confessions of a B Movie Actor&lt;/em&gt; - Bruce Campbell&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book Series&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shopaholic&lt;/em&gt; - Sophie Kinsella&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book with Plot Twists&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Glass of Time&lt;/em&gt; - Michael Cox&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Self Help Book in the Marriage Department&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work&lt;/em&gt; - John M. Gottman, PhD&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Autobiography of a Chef&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;My Life in France&lt;/em&gt; - Julia Child&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Autobiography of a Swimming Movie Star&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Million Dollar Mermaid&lt;/em&gt; - Esther Williams&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book Written Like an Autobiography&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Memoirs of Cleopatra&lt;/em&gt; - Margaret George&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book about the Fate of Marie Antoinette&#39;s Daughter&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Marie-Therese, Child of Terror&lt;/em&gt; - Susan Nagel&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Biography&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bess of Hardwick:  Empire Builder&lt;/em&gt; - Mary S. Lovell&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Historical Fiction about Catherine de Medici&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Devil&#39;s Queen&lt;/em&gt; - Jeanne Kalogridis&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book That Made Me Thin&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;I Can Make You Thin&lt;/em&gt; - Paul McKenna&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book about the History of Chinese Food in America&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Fortune Cookie Chronicals&lt;/em&gt; - Jennifer 8 Lee&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Classic&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Great Gatsby&lt;/em&gt; - F. Scott Fitzgerald&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Gothic Classic&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rebecca&lt;/em&gt; - Daphne du Maurier&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book Based on a TV Show&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Burn Notice - Tod Goldberg&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favorite Book of All Time&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Queen&#39;s Necklace&lt;/em&gt; - Frances Mossiker&lt;br /&gt;This book has it all... love, scandal, fine jewelry, history, murder, deception, the guillotine, and it&#39;s 100% true!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What are your favorite books??&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-favorite-book.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/TGM3MVj_bdI/AAAAAAAAAJw/xHAh2WmnPgE/s72-c/Copy+of+iStock_000003477578Medium.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-44444014515243521</guid><pubDate>Sat, 03 Jul 2010 22:33:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-07-03T18:44:34.138-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">About Me</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Twins</category><title>Having Fun with Twins&#39; Language</title><description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/TC-7BElRwGI/AAAAAAAAAJo/XI8SDtPcP90/s1600/Right-Words.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 162px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 238px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5489812097872281698&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/TC-7BElRwGI/AAAAAAAAAJo/XI8SDtPcP90/s320/Right-Words.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; I&#39;ve learned the hard way with my twins that it isn&#39;t always how I say something, it&#39;s about the exact words I use. Here are some examples...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. When asking my twins to &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color:#cc0000;&quot;&gt;clean&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; their room, they fight me tooth and nail on this request. However, if I ask them to &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color:#009900;&quot;&gt;organize&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; their room they are only too happy to comply.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. When at the dentist, if they are asked if they want &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color:#cc0000;&quot;&gt;sparkly&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; teeth, they cry hysterically and try to get out of the chair. But, if they are asked if they want &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color:#009900;&quot;&gt;clean&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; teeth, well, then that&#39;s okay. For some reason clean works for teeth, but not for rooms.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. My daughter likes &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color:#006600;&quot;&gt;sandwiches&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; which the main ingredient is a hamburger patty, but if I ask her if she wants a &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color:#cc0000;&quot;&gt;burger&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, she crosses her arms and says &quot;no!&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4. My twins do not want to take &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color:#cc0000;&quot;&gt;art lessons&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, but it&#39;s very acceptable and even fun to go to &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color:#006600;&quot;&gt;art school&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Do you have any similar examples where using the &quot;wrong&quot; words get you into trouble?&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/having-fun-with-twins-language.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/TC-7BElRwGI/AAAAAAAAAJo/XI8SDtPcP90/s72-c/Right-Words.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-2358491162813500914</guid><pubDate>Tue, 18 May 2010 01:34:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-05-17T22:23:42.755-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">About Me</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Movies</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Twins</category><title>Like a Broken Record</title><description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S_H1k1bbwRI/AAAAAAAAAJg/DSii9D6GzyU/s1600/turntable_1a.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 250px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 166px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472425035398103314&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S_H1k1bbwRI/AAAAAAAAAJg/DSii9D6GzyU/s320/turntable_1a.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=987&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:78%;&quot;&gt;Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;My 4 year old daughter loves to listen to the same song over and over and over again. Her favorite song eventually changes to a new favorite song that we&#39;ll have to listen to many, many times, but until that happens we&#39;re all stuck listening to this one song.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Where does she get this from? I wince when I tell you that it&#39;s from &lt;em&gt;me&lt;/em&gt;! Where did I get this from? Definitely my mother. Do you see a trend here? I&#39;m pretty sure it&#39;s genetic although my taste in music is totally different from my mom&#39;s taste. I grew up with her listening to Rod Stewart over and over, ELO over and over, David Bowie over and over, and Meatloaf over and over (probably why I don&#39;t listen to this musicians today).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The very 1st song that I can remember playing over and over was &lt;em&gt;I Feel Love - The Benji Theme Song.&lt;/em&gt; I was about 4 or 5 and my parents bought me the soundtrack from the movie. I would sit on the couch in our living room and play the song over and over carefully lifting the record needle back to the beginning after each song.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here is the song from the movie...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;object width=&quot;445&quot; height=&quot;364&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;movie&quot; value=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/ZZW5LKyfzmU&amp;amp;hl=en_US&amp;amp;fs=1&amp;amp;color1=0x2b405b&amp;amp;color2=0x6b8ab6&amp;amp;border=1&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;allowFullScreen&quot; value=&quot;true&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;allowscriptaccess&quot; value=&quot;always&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;embed src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/ZZW5LKyfzmU&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x2b405b&amp;color2=0x6b8ab6&amp;border=1&quot; type=&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash&quot; allowscriptaccess=&quot;always&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;true&quot; width=&quot;445&quot; height=&quot;364&quot;&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&#39;s good, huh? You&#39;ll be singing it all day now. Feel free to play it over and over.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What&#39;s my daughter&#39;s favorite song right now? Well, I&#39;ve been hooked on Bollywood movies lately (more on that in another upcoming post) and have been listening to the music from it in the car. Here is the one that she likes - it&#39;s a little different from my favorite song at her age.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;object width=&quot;445&quot; height=&quot;364&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;movie&quot; value=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/BwT_b61ef8U&amp;amp;hl=en_US&amp;amp;fs=1&amp;amp;color1=0x2b405b&amp;amp;color2=0x6b8ab6&amp;amp;border=1&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;allowFullScreen&quot; value=&quot;true&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;allowscriptaccess&quot; value=&quot;always&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;embed src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/BwT_b61ef8U&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x2b405b&amp;color2=0x6b8ab6&amp;border=1&quot; type=&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash&quot; allowscriptaccess=&quot;always&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;true&quot; width=&quot;445&quot; height=&quot;364&quot;&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Dard e Disco - &quot;Pain of Disco&quot; from the Bollywood movie Om Shanti Om&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;(with photos of Shah Rukh Khan, the Indian actor in the movie)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m officially dard-e-discoed out.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&#39;s funny because I guess the thing we have in common is that both of our favorite songs as a kid are from movies (although I will never let her watch Shah Rukh Khan dance this scene in Om Shanti Om - look it up on YouTube if you want to see why).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do you or your children have a favorite song that you like to listen to repeatedly? If so, share it in the comments section. I&#39;d love to hear from you.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/like-broken-record.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S_H1k1bbwRI/AAAAAAAAAJg/DSii9D6GzyU/s72-c/turntable_1a.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>3</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-6490121699610693631</guid><pubDate>Sun, 18 Apr 2010 17:26:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-04-18T19:14:53.796-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">About Me</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Books</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Prologue to a Twins Blog</category><title>Finding Time to Read</title><description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S8tA5r93QGI/AAAAAAAAAJY/ertmzwsuzVE/s1600/TimeToRead.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 250px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 188px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461530332915777634&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S8tA5r93QGI/AAAAAAAAAJY/ertmzwsuzVE/s320/TimeToRead.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;People ask me all the time &quot;How do you find the time to read?&quot; so I thought I&#39;d devote a blog post about this very topic.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;div&gt;It&#39;s true that I read a lot because I love to read. I read a full book cover to cover about once a week in addition to many magazines. I once had subscriptions to 15 different magazines. I also start another 150 - 250 books a year, but don&#39;t end up finishing them (I don&#39;t finish it if I don&#39;t like it). I also read books concurrently at the same time. I&#39;m usually reading between 3 - 5 books at any given time. &lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;For pleasure outside of my bookstore reading, I read mostly non-fiction and historical fiction. Books about the kings and queens of Europe are my favorites. I&#39;m a nut for Tudor history, French history, and biographies of people living during then. My favorite all-time book is &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=G-oM2V6nsDIC&amp;amp;dq=Frances+Mossiker&amp;amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;amp;source=an&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;ei=MUPLS_CZIoHM9gSo7ZTPBA&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;oi=book_result&amp;amp;ct=result&amp;amp;resnum=6&amp;amp;ved=0CBsQ6AEwBQ&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Queen&#39;s Necklace&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; by Frances Mossiker. It has everything ... history, drama, comedy, romance, and a plot that is absolutely true.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now that you know a little of my story, let&#39;s go back to how I find time to read when I have a lot going on (I&#39;m a mom of preschool-age twins, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.doubleupbooks.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;bookstore owner&lt;/a&gt;, managing editor for &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.howtoraisetwins.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;How To Raise Twins&lt;/a&gt;, and volunteer for the Friends of my local library.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;First and foremost it&#39;s important to make reading a priority for yourself. It&#39;s so easy to get through the day and forget to take a moment to yourself. &lt;a href=&quot;http://twins-books.com/2009/03/the-best-way-to-help-your-children-become-readers/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;It&#39;s also important that your children see you reading if you expect them to love to read.&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Throughout the day I find short moments to read. It might be while I&#39;m waiting for something to cook in the microwave or while I&#39;m on hold talking on the phone. I carry a book with me everywhere I go and keep different books in different rooms of the house so I always have a book available.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;I also read when I eat. My twins have a 10 minute eating attention span so that leaves me sitting alone at the table &lt;em&gt;a lot&lt;/em&gt;. I find it much more enjoyable to read and eat at the same time if I&#39;m eating alone.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;At night after the kids and husband go to sleep, I climb into bed with my handy booklight and spend about 30 - 60 mins reading. This is my favorite time to read. The house is quiet, it&#39;s dark, and I&#39;m cozy. It&#39;s perfect reading time.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do you have any tips or tricks to share about how you find the time to read? If so, share them below in the comments section.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/finding-time-to-read.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S8tA5r93QGI/AAAAAAAAAJY/ertmzwsuzVE/s72-c/TimeToRead.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>4</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-6310515069328576256</guid><pubDate>Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:50:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-04-09T15:26:12.812-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Blog Party</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Contests</category><title>Ultimate Blog Party!</title><description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.5minutesformom.com/19667/ultimate-blog-party-2010/&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 161px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458212200163004098&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S793E8NrTsI/AAAAAAAAAJA/QdU-kXn6fb4/s200/blog_party_banner_310x250.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S793AKPKiUI/AAAAAAAAAI4/AMcg3HluI48/s1600/blog_party_banner_310x250.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;The 5 minutes you&#39;ve been waiting for all year is here! It&#39;s the 5MinutesforMom&#39;s &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.5minutesformom.com/19667/ultimate-blog-party-2010/&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ultimate Blog Party!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Here is my official party post! Thanks for swinging by my blog.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Hi! I&#39;m Shelby - mom to preschool-aged boy/girl twins and I&#39;m the founder of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.doubleupbooks.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Double Up Books - The Premier Bookstore for Twins, Triplets &amp;amp; More...&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Double Up Books is one of the sponsors of this year&#39;s blog party (but more about that later).&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;As a bookstore owner, you would be correct to think that I love to read. I&#39;m also a travel geek, crafting fanatic, movie lover, and wanna-be bilinguist. I&#39;m not the world&#39;s best cook and doing laundry is completely uninteresting for me. I&#39;ve been married almost 10 years to a man that I met in graduate school that used to totally annoy me.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Onto the prizes! Double Up Books is proud to participate in this year&#39;s blog party with 2 different prizes.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.doubleupbooks.com/?page=shop/flypage&amp;amp;product_id=21&amp;amp;keyword=forget+perfect&amp;amp;searchby=keyword&amp;amp;offset=0&amp;amp;fs=1&amp;amp;CLSN_2646=1270840341264616a22276873958bb91&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Forget Perfect&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; by Lisa Earle McLeod&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.doubleupbooks.com/?page=shop/flypage&amp;amp;product_id=21&amp;amp;keyword=forget+perfect&amp;amp;searchby=keyword&amp;amp;offset=0&amp;amp;fs=1&amp;amp;CLSN_2646=1270840341264616a22276873958bb91&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 105px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 145px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458216991878234450&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S797b2vnQVI/AAAAAAAAAJI/ffsWbmWi2zg/s320/Forget+Perfect.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is one of my favorite books! I read it about 4 years ago and it literally changed my life. &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.doubleupbooks.com/?page=shop/flypage&amp;amp;product_id=21&amp;amp;keyword=forget+perfect&amp;amp;searchby=keyword&amp;amp;offset=0&amp;amp;fs=1&amp;amp;CLSN_2646=1270840341264616a22276873958bb91&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Forget Perfect&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; is a smart and funny look at how trying to be perfect actually gets in the way of happiness, and how letting go of being perfect means raising standards to live life to the fullest and appreciate the things that really matter.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.doubleupbooks.com/?page=shop/disp&amp;amp;pid=page_babyclothes&amp;amp;CLSN_2646=1270840341264616a22276873958bb91&quot;&gt;A &lt;strong&gt;Gaga for Mama&lt;/strong&gt; Baby Outfit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.doubleupbooks.com/?page=shop/disp&amp;amp;pid=page_babyclothes&amp;amp;CLSN_2646=1270840341264616a22276873958bb91&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 192px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458219293818674082&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S799h2I-26I/AAAAAAAAAJQ/zk074gyfcy8/s320/Gagaformamaad.gif&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Gaga for Mama is our exclusive line of babywear that lets moms know how much they are loved and appreciated.  Each one of our hand designed baby bodysuits feature an inspiring message for moms.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also available are coordinating pants, bibs, and hats in our super-soft cotton.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you&#39;re the winner of this prize, you&#39;ll receive a bodysuit, pants, bib and hat in your choose of design, color and size.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Good luck!  You can &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.5minutesformom.com/ultimate-blog-party-2010-prizes/&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;view all of the prizes by following this link&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Again, thanks for stopping by.  If you leave a comment or add yourself to Google Friend Connect to let me know that you were here, I&#39;ll be sure to stop by your blog too.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/ultimate-blog-party.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S793E8NrTsI/AAAAAAAAAJA/QdU-kXn6fb4/s72-c/blog_party_banner_310x250.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>18</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-5263094450123835249</guid><pubDate>Wed, 07 Apr 2010 22:50:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-04-07T19:06:53.570-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">About Me</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Prologue to a Twins Blog</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Twins</category><title>Consolation Prizes</title><description>&lt;div align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S70MdNz_ieI/AAAAAAAAAIw/TyAcAN7vKbM/s1600/Mom-Jenn-and-Me2.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 221px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 212px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457532019506383330&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S70MdNz_ieI/AAAAAAAAAIw/TyAcAN7vKbM/s320/Mom-Jenn-and-Me2.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-size:85%;&quot;&gt;My sister, me and my Mom - 1973&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is one childhood memory of mine that stands out pretty clearly in my mind. I was about 5 years old and my older sister, who was 8 at the time, had a family friend’s son over for a visit.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;The two of them were in my sister’s room playing and I thought it would be funny if I went in and sang the infamous kid song &lt;em&gt;“Jennifer and Richard sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes Jenny Jr. in the baby carriage.”&lt;/em&gt; My tomboy sister did not like that one bit so she and her friend chased me out of the house, onto our bicycles, and up the street to the park (this was the 70s when children were allowed to roam free helmet-less on their bikes).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;I was a fast bicyclist and made it to the park before Jennifer did. I don’t know what I thought I was going to do when I got there, but whatever it was didn’t go quite as planned. I made a sharp turn into the park and fell right into a Pricker Bush – you know that plant with the sharp thorns on them. What made matters worse is that I fell right in front of the boy that I had a serious crush on. I was so embarrassed and afraid at what my sister was going to do when she caught up to me.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;Although my sister was a tomboy back then, she was always extremely protective of me. She would beat kids up if they even looked at me funny. Once in middle school, a girl “dumped” my books. My sister saw it and chased the girl down the hall, down the stairs, and pushed her. So, when my sister saw me in the Pricker Bush, she jumped off her bike, raced towards me, and helped me home without giving a second thought as to what I did to her to get there in the first place.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;When I got home, it was another story from my mother. As she was pulling out the thorns and bandaging me she yelled at me about how I shouldn’t have teased Jennifer. I couldn’t understand why she wasn’t yelling at Jennifer for chasing me. I was mad too that instead of consoling me like a mother should, she was yelling at me instead. For years I’ve carried this with me.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;Fast forward, 35, ahem, 25 years and having twins and now I understand why my mother was yelling at me. It is so easy when our children get hurt from doing something that they shouldn’t have done to first yell at them, and then console.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;I have tried my hardest to always do the opposite and console my injured twin before trying to correct their behavior for whatever it was that they did. It’s hard though, I’ll be honest. Emotions are high and motherhood protection runs deep.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;Just the other day my son was jumping around doing his boy thing when he slipped and fell. I’ve told him countless times not to dance around in socks because the floor is slippery, but sure enough he fell and mildly hurt his arm. It was my first instinct to pull an “I told you so” for not listening to me, but my mind gave me a glimpse of that fateful day years earlier and I gave him a hug instead. Maybe he’ll remember that as he grows up.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;What do you do first when your child gets injured doing something that they shouldn’t be doing? Do you console or discipline first? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/consolation-prizes.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S70MdNz_ieI/AAAAAAAAAIw/TyAcAN7vKbM/s72-c/Mom-Jenn-and-Me2.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>3</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-6569031108983251810</guid><pubDate>Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:34:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-03-21T19:53:51.288-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Interviews</category><title>Interview with Multiples and More Founders</title><description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S6atuYDkr4I/AAAAAAAAAIo/n6xRddy2B6w/s1600-h/Multiples-and-More2.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 250px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 304px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451235411221589890&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S6atuYDkr4I/AAAAAAAAAIo/n6xRddy2B6w/s320/Multiples-and-More2.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;Lani Lyons (left, center) and Amanda Nethero (right, center)&lt;br /&gt;founders of Multiples and More Blog Network with their families.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S6atZS-H9uI/AAAAAAAAAIY/g7Kj-0Xjh2Q/s1600-h/Multiples-and-More2.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In celebration of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.multiplesandmore.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;Multiples and More’s &lt;/a&gt;1 year anniversary in March and the tremendous success of the blog, I had the opportunity to interview its founders, Amanda Nethero and Lani Lyons.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I’ve been a fan of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.multiplesandmore.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;Multiples and More&lt;/a&gt; since it’s early, early days and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.doubleupbooks.com/&quot;&gt;Double Up Books&lt;/a&gt; has even been a sponsor for some of their blog events throughout the year. Multiples and More was actually one of the reasons that I started this personal blog. Everyone was having so much fun and connecting with each other that I wanted to be a part of that on a personal level.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Me: Tell us about yourselves and your families. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;A: I’m originally from Chicago Heights, Illinois and meet my husband Scott in 2003 while working for Walt Disney World. Scott was actually my manager, and we didn’t start dating until after he transferred to a different department. We got married in May of 2006 at Walt Disney World since it was the place we met and built our relationship. On May 5th, 2008 we welcomed our twins, Aaron and Jillian into the world and it has been a beautifully crazy ride ever since! &lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;L: My husband Todd, and I are both from N.Y., but met here in Florida at the golf course we both worked at. Our triplets, Lily, Ben, and Cameron were born in November 2007. I stayed home with them for their first two years, and just recently returned to work. These days I am trying hard to balance work, motherhood, relationships, and of course, my online projects.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Me: How did you both meet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;A: We met through our MoMs group, actually at a MoMs night out. Lani spilled wine on one of the other mothers and I knew a friendship would blossom. Ha ha!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;L: Leave it to Amanda to make me sound like a drunk! It should be noted that it was not my wine that was spilled.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A: It was the MoM next to her, and was seriously hilarious.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Me: Were you bloggers before starting the Multiples and More blog network? If so, tell us about your blogs and how long have you been writing for them?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A: I had only been blogging for a few months before we started Multiples and More, so I was still pretty new to the whole thing. I actually have two other blogs in addition to Multiples and More (I drink a lot of caffeine, that’s how I get everything done). Twice the love…half the sleep (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.netherotwins.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;http://www.netherotwins.blogspot.com/&lt;/a&gt;) is my main blog that is basically a slice of life. I cover everything from playdates to recipes, it’s really fun. Twice the love reviews (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.twicethelovereviews.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;http://www.twicethelovereviews.blogspot.com/&lt;/a&gt;) is my review blog, it’s still pretty new, but if I ever get a product to try I like to share my experience.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;L: I have had my personal blog Triplets: Who Knew? (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lyonstriplets.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;http://www.lyonstriplets.blogspot.com/&lt;/a&gt;) for two years now. It started out as simply a way to keep family members updated with the kids pictures, etc, but has become so much more. I have made great friends, and learned so many wonderful things from fellow bloggers. I was even able to raise over 2,400 dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society by hosting a blog party on my blog. Blogging has been a great way for me to connect with other MoMs!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Me: What is Multiples and More and what is a blog network?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;div&gt;A: Multiples and More is basically an online place where families/friends of multiples can come and hang out. We really wanted to create a community, or network, where everyone could come to learn about the latest trends in parenting multiples, the latest products, and each other. There really is no better place to gain support than a community of people that know exactly what you are going through. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;L: My favorite thing about our network is seeing other parents of multiples connecting through it. Commenting on each other’s blogs, helping each other out with support and advice- that’s what it’s all about for me.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Me: Where did you come up with the idea for a multiples related blog network?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;A: Specifically, World Showcase at EPCOT. Seriously, we were walking around one day and bam it hit us. We would always walk around talking about how there really isn’t one place you can go to get all of this information, and how frustrating it was to spend countless hours looking for this information. We decided we would just grab the bull by the horns, so to speak, and make this place happen.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;L: We have done a lot of brainstorming while pushing our 5 kids around Disney World in strollers, and we have the leg muscles to prove it.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Me: Having gained over 1,000 followers in a year, what do you attribute your success to?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;A: Honestly, word of mouth from our great community!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;L: Exactly!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Me: Do you have anything exciting planned for your 1 year anniversary that you’d like to share with us?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;A: We have a weeklong celebration planned including a ton of giveaways from our previous sponsors and some new sponsors. We’re also going to feature everyone’s favorite posts.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;L:It’s going to be a great way to win some prizes, meet new MoM bloggers, and gain new readers for your own blog as well!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Me: What advice and tips can you share to help new bloggers such as myself?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;A: Most importantly you have to believe in what you are writing. If you don’t believe it, nobody else will. It’s also important to network. Comment on other blogs, become active on Facebook and Twitter.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;L: Be original, and be honest in your blogging. Joining networks like ours, and SITS (www.thesitsgirls.com) is a great way to make new connections and gain readers as well.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Me: If someone would like to contact you, how can they get a hold of you?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;A: You can contact us at multiplesandmoreblog{AT}yahoo.com or you can contact me personally at twicetheloveblog{AT}hotmail.com.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Thanks Amanda and Lani for such a great interview! I&#39;m certainly looking forward to your 2nd year and all the fun things you have in store for everyone. Continued success to you both. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/interview-with-multiples-and-more.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S6atuYDkr4I/AAAAAAAAAIo/n6xRddy2B6w/s72-c/Multiples-and-More2.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-2233484062879236854</guid><pubDate>Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:59:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-03-01T21:24:51.148-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">About Me</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Prologue to a Twins Blog</category><title>Married to a Real Comedian</title><description>&lt;a class=&quot;APCTitleAnchor&quot; title=&quot;Comedian Jerry Seinfeld at Golden Globe Awards&quot; href=&quot;http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=5318134&amp;amp;AID=96949060&amp;amp;PSTID=1&amp;amp;LTID=2&amp;amp;lang=1&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;Comedian Jerry Seinfeld at Golden Globe Awards&quot; src=&quot;http://imagecache6.allposters.com//LRG///37/3798/B1XIF00Z.jpg&quot; width=&quot;238&quot; height=&quot;350&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;http://tracking.allposters.com/allposters.gif?AID=96949060&amp;amp;PSTID=1&amp;amp;LTID=2&amp;amp;lang=1&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica;&quot;&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;APCTitleAnchor&quot; title=&quot;Comedian Jerry Seinfeld at Golden Globe Awards&quot; href=&quot;http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=5318134&amp;amp;AID=96949060&amp;amp;PSTID=1&amp;amp;LTID=2&amp;amp;lang=1&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:85%;&quot;&gt;Buy at AllPosters.com&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:85%;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For a short amount of time pre-twins, my husband was a real life, part-time stand-up comic. He had taken a comedy class in Boston and as part of the &quot;final exam,&quot; he had to perform at a comedy club in front of a live audience. The manager of the club loved his act so much that he asked Michael to perform on a regular basis.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That regular basis lasted until one day, right before his performance, Michael came down with a kidney stone and had to cancel his appearance last minute. Unfortunately, Michael never returned to comedy after that, but he sure would have had enough material to fill hours after living through having a kidney stone!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Michael&#39;s entire act consisted of roasting me - his wife, his best friend, his love. He talked about what it was like being married to me, the apparently hysterical things that I&#39;ve been known to do, my harebrained schemes, and everything else in between. It was a no holds barred performance and he made me sound like he was Ricky living with a real Lucy Ricardo. I have to admit that I did think it was funny (so did the audience) and I enjoyed being the butt of his loving-in-a-way jokes, but now that I have an audience of my own through this blog, it&#39;s PAYBACK time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;His Love of Cleaning&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;My husband is a clean freak. Remember Bob Saget on Full House? Remember how he would line up all his shirts in a row and make sure everything was orderly. My husband has him beat. Two times a year, Michael arranges for us to participate in the &quot;BIG CLEAN.&quot; Unfortunately, the big clean always falls around a holiday - Christmas and July 4th. I no longer associate these holidays with joy and happiness like I&#39;m supposed to. All I can do is to dread the big clean. The big clean involves doing things like vacuuming out the refrigerator, moving furniture around to get behind things, cleaning drying vents with a long brush, and sponging down doorknobs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It&#39;s TV Time&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;When Michael and I first started dating, he told me that he didn&#39;t watch much TV. Now, let me set the record that I only watch about 1 - 2 hours of TV a &lt;em&gt;week. &lt;/em&gt;When someone tells me that they don&#39;t watch a lot of TV, I&#39;m thinking that they watch TV about the same amount as me. Well, I fell right into the trap and didn&#39;t know that he actually watches a lot more TV than that until I was already well in love with him.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That’s it, Time for Bed&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When Michael is ready to go to sleep, that&#39;s it, end of story. I am given 1 minute&#39;s notice that he is going to bed and off he goes. I barely have time to say &quot;good night&quot; before he is asleep. His mother says that her side of the family could fall asleep on a picket fence if they had to and from what I&#39;ve seen with Michael, I certainly don&#39;t deny it. The problem is that it takes me forever to fall asleep and I like to chit-chat a little bit to give closure to the day. This never goes over well though. If you don&#39;t let Michael fall asleep when he wants to, he gets very grumpy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When people find out that Michael was an aspiring comedian, they always want to know if he is really funny at home. &lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;, he is &lt;em&gt;really&lt;/em&gt; funny at home. It&#39;s not so much what he does that&#39;s funny (that&#39;s my department), it&#39;s what he says that&#39;s so funny. He has snappy comebacks for everything and he is always making me and the kids laugh. I do have a blast with him.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It&#39;s not always fun and games in our household though - especially when Michael remembers that it&#39;s time for the big clean. Then, we&#39;re not laughing at all!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Take a moment below and feel free to give us a playful roast of your significant other.&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/married-to-real-comedian.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><thr:total>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-5862529687354276828</guid><pubDate>Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:53:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-02-23T09:30:20.202-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">About Me</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Travel</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Twins</category><title>Traveling with Twins</title><description>This week&#39;s question on the Multiples and More blog is all about travel.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are your best tips for traveling with multiples?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.multiplesandmore.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i585.photobucket.com/albums/ss293/lanik58/Mulitples%20and%20More/button.jpg&quot; width=&quot;125&quot; height=&quot;125&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S4LvVlLmm3I/AAAAAAAAAH4/J1pcMHpJckg/s1600-h/DSC00729.JPG&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441174453854051186&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S4LvVlLmm3I/AAAAAAAAAH4/J1pcMHpJckg/s320/DSC00729.JPG&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My #1 fun thing to do ever is to travel (Yes, it wins over reading!). Pre-twins, my husband and I traveled quite a bit both home and abroad. There is nothing that gets me as jazzed up about life as planning trips and taking that journey.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But now that the twins have arrived, I&#39;m sad to say that we haven&#39;t done much travel and have limited our vacations to driving trips once a year. The thought of bringing all of our twin gear on a plane seriously scared me as I&#39;m the type of person to pack everything. That&#39;s all about to change though now that the twins are getting older. I have our travel plans planned out for the next 10 years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For our first trip with the twins, when they turned 2, we drove an hour away from our home and vacationed in Western Massachusetts. We figured we were far enough away from home to feel like vacation and close enough in case anything went wrong or we forgot something and had to go back. Luckily, we did not have to come home although the first day was rough because our hotel room wasn&#39;t ready until 5pm!! My cranky toddlers were not happy to have to skip their nap. We like to keep them on the same schedule on vacation and home.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since then we&#39;ve taken 2 more trips and although I packed well the first time I learned a few tricks along the way that I&#39;ll share. If nothing else, I&#39;m a list maker and that especially includes when I&#39;m getting ready for a trip. My lists have come in handy over the years and keeps me on schedule. Here are some important items from my travel list.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;#1. Bring GARBAGE BAGS. If you&#39;ve got two kids in diapers, you will quickly fill up whatever trash receptacle is available in your room. Even if your twins are older, you&#39;ll still be amazed at how much trash accumulates while on vacation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;#2. Bring disposable sippy cups if your twins use them. I found some great disposable cups at our supermarket for our last trip. Use once and toss them. For the previous trips, I brought a small bucket, dish soap, and a towel so I could rinse out their cups for the next day. Trust me, that&#39;s the last thing you want to be doing at the end of a long vacation day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;#3. Bring a book light. We usually just get 1 hotel room so when our kids go to sleep at 7:30 that means lights out for everyone. My husband is happy as a clam to go to bed at 7:30 with them, but I like to stay up with my book light and read.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;#4. The first year I brought the pack and plays, but the twins didn&#39;t want to sleep in them. So, one of them slept with me and the other slept with daddy. I squeezed the open pack and play in between the two queen beds to act as a bed guard rail. In later years, I took the suitcase rack and put it next to the bed with a suitcase on it (covered with a sheet so they wouldn&#39;t be up next to a dirty suitcase) which keeps them from rolling out of the bed. We also bring a huge cooler (remember we&#39;ve always driven to our destination) and put a suitcase on that too next to the other bed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;#5. Bring breakfast with you. We pack a huge cooler filled with juice and milk. We also go to the supermarket and I let them pick out those individual cereal bowls for breakfast. We pack some yogurt in the cooler too. We eat breakfast in the room and then we buy lunch and dinner out. Don&#39;t forget the plastic spoons!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;#6. I bring extra tote bags so that I can pack just things that I need for day trips on vacation. And, I pack everything in ziplock plastic bags - like makeup, any liquids, etc... I &lt;em&gt;love&lt;/em&gt; the jumbo sized bags and use them for everything. I also bring a smaller cooler to bring with us for the day so that we can leave our large cooler in the hotel room.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Every year I take a photo of what I&#39;ve packed for the trip. I think it looks less year after year, but I may just be fooling myself.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2007&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S4LwoTo--uI/AAAAAAAAAIA/WVAPIGGAAdc/s1600-h/DSC00726.JPG&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;WIDTH: 200px; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441175875074587362&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S4LwoTo--uI/AAAAAAAAAIA/WVAPIGGAAdc/s200/DSC00726.JPG&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2008&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S4LxOl7ChLI/AAAAAAAAAII/jG4sjNJ-9ig/s1600-h/DSC01594.JPG&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;WIDTH: 200px; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441176532817183922&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S4LxOl7ChLI/AAAAAAAAAII/jG4sjNJ-9ig/s200/DSC01594.JPG&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2009&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S4Lxn6yloRI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/Ny3e1ZI8fnU/s1600-h/DSC02712.JPG&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;WIDTH: 200px; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441176967915610386&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S4Lxn6yloRI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/Ny3e1ZI8fnU/s200/DSC02712.JPG&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This year we&#39;re taking a big trip to Canada, but still driving (everyone on Twitter convinced us to drive). It&#39;s going to be 9 hours of driving to get us there. The most I&#39;ve ever driven anywhere with or without kids is 4 hours so this will definitely be interesting. I&#39;ll be happy to post any tips about driving long distances with twins once I&#39;ve lived it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What travel tips with kids would you like to share?&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/traveling-with-twins.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://i585.photobucket.com/albums/ss293/lanik58/Mulitples%20and%20More/th_button.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>5</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-6158969868691667127</guid><pubDate>Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:04:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-02-09T14:28:24.088-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Blog Awards</category><title>Beautiful Blogger Award</title><description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S3DCyY1SkyI/AAAAAAAAAHw/WAqdwD_vOb0/s1600-h/beautifulbloggeraward.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436058921151402786&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S3DCyY1SkyI/AAAAAAAAAHw/WAqdwD_vOb0/s320/beautifulbloggeraward.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; I was honored yesterday by receiving a blogger award from a new reader of my blog! I was so excited to receive the award, but also get introduced to one of my readers. Thanks to Kandi at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.twin-spiration.com/&quot;&gt;http://www.twin-spiration.com/&lt;/a&gt;, a fellow twins mom, for giving me this award. Be sure to check her blog out - it looks so fun.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If I nominated you, congrats and here are the instructions:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award and insert a link to their blog.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. Pass on the award to about 15 other bloggers who you recently discovered and think are great!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. Contact the other bloggers and let them know they have been chosen for this award.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4. Say 7 things about yourself.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7 Things About Myself &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. I absolutely, positively love to travel. Although I haven&#39;t done much of it since the twins came along - we&#39;re going to fix that soon though. I&#39;ve been as far as Australia and all over Europe. My favorite places are London, Toronto, and Sydney. Next favorite is Rome and Athens. The next place that I&#39;d like to travel to is Scotland.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. There are only two shows I watch on TV, otherwise it&#39;s off for me. As a bookstore owner, you can probably guess that I spend a lot of time reading. My favorite shows, in case you&#39;re interested, are Burn Notice and Modern Family.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. I like salty things, not sweet things.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4. Being pregnant with, delivering and raising twins are the single most important accomplishment that I have ever had and that I&#39;m really proud about.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;5. Okay, this isn&#39;t about me, but I have to share that my husband is a die-hard Bachelor fan. He&#39;s all about romantic comedies too. I&#39;m more of an action, martial arts, foreign film type of gal myself.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;6. I love QVC. You can read why here &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.doubleupbooks.com/?page=shop/disp&amp;amp;pid=page_boredroomarchiv&amp;amp;CLSN_2646=11919484842646e2eec51c92eddaa6ce&quot;&gt;September 18, 2007: Feeling Connected While Alone in the Middle of the Night While on Bedrest.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;7. I&#39;m a tea drinker.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Blogs that I nominate for the Beautiful Blogger Award are:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mamiofmultiples.com/&quot;&gt;http://www.mamiofmultiples.com/&lt;/a&gt; Mami of Multiples&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://3kidsin2yrs.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;http://3kidsin2yrs.blogspot.com/&lt;/a&gt; Binkies &amp;amp; Bandaids Life with Irish Triplets&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thefivefish.com/&quot;&gt;http://www.thefivefish.com/&lt;/a&gt; The Fish Five&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://doublethelove08.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;http://doublethelove08.blogspot.com/&lt;/a&gt; Double the Love&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://myordinarymiraclesblog.com/&quot;&gt;http://myordinarymiraclesblog.com/&lt;/a&gt; My Ordinary Miracles&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://2setsoftwins-helene.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;http://2setsoftwins-helene.blogspot.com/&lt;/a&gt; I&#39;m Living Proof that God Has a Sense of Humor&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ourspriggsfamily.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;http://ourspriggsfamily.blogspot.com/&lt;/a&gt; The Spriggs Family&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.itstwinsanity.com/&quot;&gt;http://www.itstwinsanity.com/&lt;/a&gt; It&#39;s Twinsanity&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://twinspirationalrunner.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;http://twinspirationalrunner.blogspot.com/&lt;/a&gt; Twinspirational Runner&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://2setsoftwinsforme.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;http://2setsoftwinsforme.blogspot.com/&lt;/a&gt; Life with Two Sets of Twin Boys&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/beautiful-blogger-award.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S3DCyY1SkyI/AAAAAAAAAHw/WAqdwD_vOb0/s72-c/beautifulbloggeraward.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>3</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-4002409441378878366</guid><pubDate>Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:20:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-02-06T13:27:59.133-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">About Me</category><title>Problems I Wish I Had</title><description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S22yb4eh-ZI/AAAAAAAAAHo/ddQut_ZBGs8/s1600-h/snow.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435196517392710034&quot; style=&quot;FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 224px&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S22yb4eh-ZI/AAAAAAAAAHo/ddQut_ZBGs8/s320/snow.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;It&#39;s true... I&#39;ve been a little blue and cranky lately. This happens to me every year during this time of year as I deal with the miseries of winter in New England. I am not a cold weather person, I don&#39;t like snow, and outdoor winter activities turn me into a popsicle.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My hands from November until May are like ice cubes so every year I start searching online for homes in warmer climates. However, by the time I&#39;m done looking the weather has turned a corner here and I wonder why I ever wanted to leave in the first place.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#39;ve also been dealing with a few minorly stressful things (in the grand scheme of things - keeping it in perspective) which hasn&#39;t helped my mood any. Although I&#39;m grateful that my issues are minor, it got me thinking about problems I wish I had. That sounds funny, doesn&#39;t it? When you read my list below, you&#39;ll understand where I&#39;m coming from.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:130%;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Problems I Wish I Had&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;I can&#39;t decide whether to get my nails manicured on a Tuesday or a Wednesday or what color I want them polished.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;I have so much money in my bank account that I&#39;ve passed the limit for being FDIC insured.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;My passport is so filled with stamps from wonderful vacations that I need a new one.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;My personal chef always arrives 10 minutes early just as the massage therapist is wrapping up and I can&#39;t answer the door.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;The smell of popcorn in my home theater drifts over to our bowling area.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;The private school my twins attend called to say that my twins have completed the entire curriculum for the year in only 3 months and they have nothing left to teach them.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Figure out how will I get my personal assistant, chef, and two nannies to my winter home in Arizona.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;My mailbox is overflowing every day with letters from children whose lives were saved by a very generous donation I made to the research foundation.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Should I wear my Louis Vuitton or Prada purse when I go shopping.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;My husband keeps buying me red roses when I told him that I wanted white ones.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;The credit card company called to say that they made a mistake on my last bill and they owe me $10,000.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;The new wing of the library that&#39;s named after me is completely filled with books and they don&#39;t know where they are going to put the new books I sent over and want my suggestions. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;My twins complain that my $35 lipstick leaves stains on their cheeks when I kiss them.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What problems do you wish you had?&lt;/strong&gt; Leave a comment below and add to the fun. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Photo credit: Jennifer (on twitter as @Jamiain) at &lt;a href=&quot;http://bloggingtwinmomma.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;http://bloggingtwinmomma.blogspot.com/&lt;/a&gt;. Blizzard of 2010. To view original photo, go to &lt;a href=&quot;http://twitpic.com/show/thumb/11peeh.jpg&quot;&gt;TwitPic Photos&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/problems-i-wish-i-had.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/S22yb4eh-ZI/AAAAAAAAAHo/ddQut_ZBGs8/s72-c/snow.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-2452349500165689241</guid><pubDate>Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:35:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-12-31T14:55:38.236-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">About Me</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Twins</category><title>Top Things I&#39;ve Said in 2009</title><description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/Szz-rPT76mI/AAAAAAAAAHg/ASDIwY3yo0c/s1600-h/Blah.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421488070245214818&quot; style=&quot;FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 143px&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/Szz-rPT76mI/AAAAAAAAAHg/ASDIwY3yo0c/s320/Blah.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Happy New Year!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I always like to close out my year by putting together a top 10 list (although in this year&#39;s case it&#39;s a top 12 list).  Here is my list for 2009.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a mom of twins, I have the opportunity to repeat myself... a lot.  This year was no exception and I found myself repeating the below phases many, many times throughout the year.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Listed below are the top 12 phases, ranked in order of importance and repetition, that I&#39;ve said this year.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;#12:  I really want an iPod Touch.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;#11:  If there&#39;s one thing that I am, it&#39;s prepared.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;#10: Okay everyone, it&#39;s time to get dressed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;#9:  Please stop doing that.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;#8:  Guys, it&#39;s time to clean up now.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;#7:  Don&#39;t jump on the couch cushions please.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;#6:  Hold onto the railing when you&#39;re coming down the stairs.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;#5:  If you&#39;re eating, where are you suppose to be sitting?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;#4:  Time for bed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;#3:  Say you&#39;re sorry, please.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;#2:  I love you.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;#1:  You&#39;ve got to bold the gazebo to the deck or it&#39;s going to blow away.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That last one is in honor of my husband who didn&#39;t believe that a heavy metal gazebo could be taken out by wind.  Needless to say, he learned the hard way shortly after putting up the gazebo. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What were the phases that you&#39;ve repeated throughout the year this year?  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/top-things-ive-said-in-2009.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/Szz-rPT76mI/AAAAAAAAAHg/ASDIwY3yo0c/s72-c/Blah.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-5246927680962186834</guid><pubDate>Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:27:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-11-25T16:40:27.151-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">About Me</category><title>What Did I Do Good Today?</title><description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/Sw2iOWxIDDI/AAAAAAAAAHY/gl4Sa4LnSmc/s1600/Heart.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 218px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 208px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408157095055330354&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/Sw2iOWxIDDI/AAAAAAAAAHY/gl4Sa4LnSmc/s320/Heart.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Once the dust settled after my husband and I got engaged, married and moved into our new home, we found that we had fallen into a relationship slump. It was about a year into our marriage by this time and we had settled into an unsettling routine.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There were no big fights, yelling or arguments, we had just found that we didn&#39;t enjoy each other&#39;s company as much as we had. We pretty much stayed in different rooms whenever we were home at the same time and our conversations were reduced to discussing what was for dinner or if the mail had came. In a weird way, we had drifted apart. We were newlyweds, this wasn&#39;t suppose to happen.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One day it just hit me how awful things had gotten so I talked with him about it. He was feeling the same way, not really even enjoying my company either.  So, we decided to work together to improve our relationship.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One thing that I invented during this time was the game &quot;What did I do good today?&quot; Right before going to sleep, we had to tell each other one thing that the other person did good during the day that we are thankful for. I attached two rules to the game:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;What the other person did good had to be something that wasn&#39;t so obvious. For him, that meant he couldn&#39;t tell me that he enjoyed dinner or that he appreciated me cleaning. It had to be deeper and more thoughtful than the obvious things I had done during the day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;We also couldn&#39;t use the same &quot;good thing&quot; two nights in a row.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Over time, things returned to normal with us, and I attribute a lot of it to this &quot;game&quot; which put us both into a more positive frame of mind. The funny thing is that even now, almost 10 years into our marriage, we continue to have our nightly ritual of &quot;What did I do good today?&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Last night&#39;s was that I appreciated that he took the initiative to get the twins ready for bed without me having to shout &quot;It&#39;s time for bed!&quot; And for me, he said that he appreciated that I called to say that I was running a few minutes late.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#39;m looking forward to starting What Did I Do Good Today with the twins when they get a little older.  It&#39;s a great way to remember to tell someone every day how much you appreciate him or her.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Is there something special that you and your spouse/family do to let each other know how special he/she/they are?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/Sw2h1dQaumI/AAAAAAAAAHI/YauT08L58R8/s1600/Shelby-Siggie100.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 100px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 47px; CURSOR: hand&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408156667300461154&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/Sw2h1dQaumI/AAAAAAAAAHI/YauT08L58R8/s320/Shelby-Siggie100.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-did-i-do-good-today.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/Sw2iOWxIDDI/AAAAAAAAAHY/gl4Sa4LnSmc/s72-c/Heart.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>6</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7544717020303364532.post-624902193194639164</guid><pubDate>Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:28:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-10-27T20:07:22.261-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">About Me</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Twins</category><title>Not Telling the Truth to my Twins</title><description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/SueD7HFlvII/AAAAAAAAAGw/nvku7k1FA8Q/s1600-h/Peanut.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397427729964842114&quot; style=&quot;FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 214px&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/SueD7HFlvII/AAAAAAAAAGw/nvku7k1FA8Q/s320/Peanut.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I&#39;m ashamed to admit this, but there&#39;s a lie that I told my twins for quite some time. The lie that I told them is &quot;Sorry guys, you can&#39;t eat this, it has nuts in it.&quot;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;I used this lie whenever I was about to eat something that I didn&#39;t want them to eat even though it didn&#39;t have nuts in it (heck, I probably shouldn&#39;t be eating it either I know) or when I&#39;m about to eat something before dinner, but didn&#39;t want them to eat before dinner. And, maybe I would say it sometimes when I didn&#39;t want to share whatever yummy goody I was eating.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thankfully, my twins do not have a nut allergy, but I couldn&#39;t let them eat nuts until they turned 4 years old which was the pediatrician&#39;s recommendation when they were born (due to a history of food allergies on both sides of the family). I quickly learned that &quot;sorry guys, this has nuts in it.&quot; became an easy way out of sharing my naughty food with the twins. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;If you have kids, you probably know what I&#39;m talking about. Eating food alone, quietly has become a luxury in a way. Since now that they are 4 and can eat nuts, I had to come up with another way to scarf down a quick goody or two without having them ask me &quot;can I have one?&quot; My latest defense in keeping the &quot;good stuff&quot; away from the twins? I open up the kitchen cabinet door and hide behind it. It&#39;s my dirty little secret in my &lt;span class=&quot;blsp-spelling-corrected&quot; id=&quot;SPELLING_ERROR_0&quot;&gt;arsenal&lt;/span&gt; of not getting into the &quot;can I have one?&quot; &quot;no&quot; back-and-forth routine.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/SueDixWOItI/AAAAAAAAAGo/kC-HmSP1dHo/s1600-h/DSC03187cr.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/SueDixWOItI/AAAAAAAAAGo/kC-HmSP1dHo/s1600-h/DSC03187cr.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397428416738239234&quot; style=&quot;DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 144px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/SueEjFhIIwI/AAAAAAAAAG4/QfYIM6qheb4/s320/DSC03187cr.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/SueDixWOItI/AAAAAAAAAGo/kC-HmSP1dHo/s1600-h/DSC03187cr.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;It&#39;s Halloween this week and my cabinet is now filled with all sorts of tempting candy that is calling out to me. I&#39;ve been spending a lot of time behind that cabinet door. &lt;a href=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/SueDbUF1ZcI/AAAAAAAAAGg/4y3vTg5u3vQ/s1600-h/DSC03189cr.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397427183699715522&quot; style=&quot;FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 166px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/SueDbUF1ZcI/AAAAAAAAAGg/4y3vTg5u3vQ/s320/DSC03189cr.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Do you have a secret place you go to enjoy a quick goody in your house?&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;© 2010 Audalas Incorporated.  All Rights Reserved&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/not-telling-truth-to-my-twins.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Shelby at DoubleUpBooks.com - The Twins and Multiples Bookstore)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qTP3CBQl70U/SueD7HFlvII/AAAAAAAAAGw/nvku7k1FA8Q/s72-c/Peanut.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total></item></channel></rss>

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