Just a Quick Hello & A Tip (Teri)

We have been so far out of the blogging loop lately that I almost forgot our password! We are missing all of you and wish we were better at keeping up. During May and through the summer we are reminded often of those brave men and women serving our country in the Armed Forces. I stumbled on this on one of my friends blogs, and thought I would share it. Did you know you can share your expired coupons with overseas military families? You can mail them to them and they can use them up to 6 months after they expire. How cool is that!?! Here's the post with more info. If anyone has any actual experience with this, please share, we'd love to hear about it.

Happy Mother's Day!

I have been feeling sorry for myself a lot lately because I haven't been able to make time to do the things that I want to (including blog). I ran acrossed this video on a friends blog and it really touched me, so I want to share it with you. My trials are nothing and yet my faith is so shakey. I hope this video touches you the way it did me. I am so grateful that I have been blessed to be a mother and I pray I can find the joy in it the way this courageous woman has. Teri

Birthday Prezzie

Hey remember me? If not, I’m Teri the older of the 2 sisters (hey those are a long 4 minutes). I just thought that I would throw that in there since it’s been not weeks, but months since I blogged. It’s been a little crazy around here, with a trip to visit Micki in March and a birthday in the family in March and 3 family birthdays in April. A layoff for my hubby last month and subsequently my return to full time work (I have been part time for the last almost 2 years). That’s my life in a nutshell. So, on to the fun stuff!!!

For our birthday Micki made me a very cute prezzie (not to mention the other gifts she showered me with). I promised her I would blog about it, because she forgot to take pictures of it before she mailed it to me. So here is the darling bag she made for me for our birthday!

Isn’t it darling?!? Plus unless your name is the same as me you won’t be able to steal it (or maybe she thought we were getting so old that I might need to remember what my name is).

See the inside is a cute as the outside and see how much it can hold (and yes those are graham crackers and there is frosting in the fridge to go with them).

And I won’t even lose my cell phone or keys!

Now don’t you all wish that Micki was your twin sister too?

Hair Flowers (Micki)

When Teri was here for craft day and her daughters birthday we wanted to make her daughter some flowers to go in her hair. My daughter wouldn't be caught dead with something as girly as that (she is a tom boy). I had learned how to make them at a church activty. They are super easy. Here is a tutorial I found since we forgot to take pictures of the steps. Instead of sewing ours together we just stuck a scrapbooking brad through the center and used hot glue to glue them on aligator clips. Here's our finished products. The green ones in the middle are the leaves off some of the flowers. Our mom came up with that idea. Thanks mom....they are supere cute!!

Mystery Monday: Answer to Tulip Palooza (Micki)

Remember when we posted about tulip palooza here. We finally are going to reveal the answer. We couldn't do it before because it was a craft day project. We made this beautiful tulip wreath. It looks so cute on my door. It's so big and beautiful. I have never had any spring decorations so I was excited.


Here it was on my door:
We got some beautiful butterflys from Michaels:
And some bumblebees too:

Weekend Surprise: Craft Day

Yesterday was craft day at Laurel's. It's our second one. If you don't remember or weren't reading you can read about our first one here. It was so much fun!! We always have a blast and learn a lot about how to make the next one even better. We made lots of cute stuff of course. Tried new things. And just had fun. And ate of course. Micki's two aunts-in-law came down from Utah and were a huge help getting ready. We couldn't have done it without them!!! And our mom got to come to this one (since she lives by Micki now)!! Of course Teri drove the eight hours down for the occassion (but this time she planned on staying a few days instead of a few hours). Mom didn't think she would get her stuff done but she did and helped us!!! Here is some picture (only sneek peeks though cuz we are going to feature the crafts)

Who thought sewing with this many people was a good idea? But just wait until you see the cute project!!!


Teri and Mom

Are you jealous we could craft outside?

Smile...you *ARE* having fun!

Only part of the herd....

Yummy homemade lasagna! Thanks Laurel!!!

Takin' a lunch break...

More outdoor crafts...just to taunt you....sorry!

Who says you have to move the crafts while setting up the buffet?

2sisters 2gether!

Mom & Laurel....Micki's other mom.

This project was Teri's test!

*CHEESE*

Laurel (right) and her sister Kay (who was enjoying not being in the snow).

We can't wait to get some of the projects posted. We have missed all you guys and can't wait to get our craft on again!!!

Mystery Monday: Produce Palooza (Teri)

One of the nurses at work told me about this local co-op called Bountiful Baskets. For $15 you can get a produce basket full of grocery store/restaurant quality produce. I’m not talking a puny basket here….there was one small laundry basket of veges and one of fruit. There is a $3 sign up fee, but after that, it’s just $15 each time you order. You don’t have to order every week (some places it’s only available every other week), you can order however many times you want. I ordered this week for the first time, it took me a bit to understand it, but I figured it out eventually. Every time you order you make a $15 “contribution” and you’re good to go. They also ask that you volunteer to help sort the produce when it arrives whenever you can.

They also have different other things you can order each time, since it was my first time, I only ordered the basket. They had a special Mexican produce basket this time, as well as tortillas, bread and sweet bread. When we picked up our stuff, I was really sad I hadn’t ordered the tortillas, they looked wonderful.

Take a look at what we received:

Here’s the breakdown:

1 basketball sized head of leaf lettuce (gigantic)

1 large cabbage

2 bundles of spinach

2 bundles of asparagus

6 small cucumbers

6 small zucchini

5 concorde pears

1 box strawberries

2 boxes blueberries

16 tangelos

9 small braeburn apples

9 bananas

How’d we make out? I was so excited to see what we received! It's always a surprise what you get, they try to do seasonal things when available. I would recommend this to anyone. There are locations all over Utah as well as Arizona, Nevada, Idaho and Washington. We are so excited!!!

The mystery: Has anyone else participated in a local co-op? How did you like it? How did it work?

Feature Friday: A Book Review (Teri)

Percy Jackson 5C Prepack by Rick Riordan


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
For any of you out there who have pre-teen or teenage children (or for anyone who, like me, loves to read a really fun book), I would highly recommend this series. The first book Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Theif has been made into a movie that is currently in theaters. What started me reading these was taking my kids to see the movie. I enjoyed it so much, and my daughter already had the books and had read and loved them, so I picked up the first one and was instantly sucked into Percy Jackson's world of demigods and monsters. Okay, I'll admit, I AM easily entertained, as anyone who knows me will tell you. You have to take any recommendation from me with a grain of salt. I have had friends tell me that I like everything I read, and I do like ALMOST everything I read. There is a simple reason for that, I don't read genres that I know I don't like. I don't read horror, spy novels, murder mysteries, graphically sexual books, books with a lot of swearing (if I start one that has a lot of swearing, I don't finish it). I'm sure there are other genres out there that I don't read, but you get the idea. Call me a prude, closed minded, whatever you like, but I love that I lead a somewhat sheltered life, and I don't need my mind clouded with images and ideas that don't fit my morals. Whew! Who put that soap box there...I didn't mean to get on it. Anywho, I was saying, I LOVE these books. They are highly entertaining, imaginative, educational (at least for me, I know little to nothing about Greek mythology), clean, and just plain fun to read. I wouldn't hesistate to recommend them to anyone, because they are just good reading. They are not free of sadness and death, but they do encompass the ever constant battle of good and evil, in a way that is engaging and entertaining. I hope you will let me know if you read these books, as I would love to know what you think.

View all my reviews >>

Just a quick note to let you know, we will hopefully be posting a Tales of A Shared Womb next week, Micki had a funeral (her grandfather-in-law) to attend, so we weren't able to get anything up this week. Micki - tell your family my heart is with them, wish I could be there to support all of them (and you). Love ya!!!

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday: Homemade Twix (Teri)

I found this yummy recipe on one of our followers blogs and HAD to make it. Click here to go to that original post (and see how much prettier hers are).

Homemade Twix Bars

Crust:
2 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 c. butter; room temp
Caramel:
1 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar
4 Tbsp. corn syrup
1 c. sweetened condensed milk
Crumble crust ingredients together. Pack into 13x9 inch pan that has been sprayed, lined with foil and sprayed again. Bake on 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
Combine caramel ingredients in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly as it burns easily. Remove from heat. Stir with spoon slowly until it shows signs of thickening. Pour over crust and let cool a little.
Top layer:

Melt approximately 2 c. chocolate chips with 2 tbsp. shortening over low heat or in the microwave. Pour over caramel layer and spread carefully. (I didn’t have quite enough chocolate chips, so I just sprinkled them on the caramel and let them melt then spread them out with a spatula) Chill. Cut into bars.

Tadpole Tuesday: Seamless Gift (Teri)

My darling daughter loves to create with fabric. She has made Barbie clothes ribbon and fabric as well as out of toilet paper.I need to get her involved in 4H or something, but I digress. For her brother’s birthday she wanted to make him something, she had learned at Activity Days how to tie a fleece blanket, so she decided she wanted to do that. She raided my fabric stash, and found some fabric with sports balls on it, perfect for my son! I didn’t have the heart to tell her (especially after I yelled at her for using my fabric without permission), that because the fabric was flannel (some yardage that was destined to be pj pants that never happened), it would fray and not stand up to well in the wash. She was so proud of this project, that after I apologized for being momzilla, that I just complimented her on it. She really did do a great job, her ties are pretty even and tied well, I just wish it was out of fleece. So far it is doing fine, but it’s only a month old, and hasn’t been washed yet. Maybe she has developed a new type of rag quilt, who knows. Only time will tell, but I AM proud of her ingenuity, and it didn’t take her much time at all.

She also made a darling pillow sham for my nephew the same way, but somehow the pictures got deleted and it’s already been given. If I can get a picture at a later date, I will post it.

Mystery Monday: Blogger P’s and Q’s

We are finally back (hopefully) for the long haul. We just had a lot of catching up to do at home, and not projects were getting done to speak of, so there was nothing to post. We are glad to be back in the saddle again, it feels good!

Okay, how many of you are old enough that you have been told to mind your p’s & q’s. We certainly have. Our grandma (that we miss a lot) and our mom both have told us that. (On a side note: do you know how that saying came about? In the “olden days” in a pub when they would get rowdy they would be told to mind their pints and quarts, thus p’s and q’s) Well, we want to know if there is any such think as blogger etiquette?

We have set some standards for ourselves, but that’s about it. There are no hard and fast rules for blogger etiquette that we know of, so we are asking you to share with us.

The couple of “rules” we have set for ourselves are these. Be polite, if you don’t agree with something, or you don’t like a project someone has posted, just mind your mom and “when you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. We wouldn’t want someone posting hurtful things on our blog, so we aren’t going to post them on yours. If we do disagree with you, and we leave a comment, know that we NEVER mean to hurt feelings, EVER. Secondly, if we join a bloggy party, it’s to network with other bloggers, and see what else is out there. Therefore, if we join a party, we only do so if we have time to visit at least 3 of the links and COMMENT on them, thus if we don’t leave a comment we visit another link. We feel that if we don’t have time right then to do this, we wait to join or don’t join at all. The last thing you will never see on this blog is swear words or vulgarity. If you do find something we believe offensive, we are sorry, that’s who we are. But, we will never offend your eyeballs with abbreviations or slang for swear words (ie. texting lingo), or with any vulgar thoughts. If you find anything like that on this blog, please let us know, we want to fix it. Last but not least, if you follow us or comment, we try to return the favor. Okay, so we don’t follow everyone who follows us….maybe that’s a “rule” we don’t know about, but anyway. If you follow us, we try to link to a blog you may have through your profile, and visit some of your posts and comment. If you comment, same thing, we try and visit your blog and comment. We have missed some of you, so if you have a blog and we haven’t commented on it, we probably don’t know about it, leave us a link in the comments section or email it to us at 2sisters2gether@gmail.com and we will be sure to visit.

That’s our version of blogger etiquette, what’s yours? We want to know how to improve our relations with other bloggers and enjoy our stay here in bloggerville!

Feature Friday Part Deux: Teri’s Valentine Door Decor

This is one of two, yes count them, two Valentine decorations in my home. The other one I posted about here. I had a lot of fun making this though. I again used the *cringe* pages from my old reading book. This is a project that I just used stuff I had on hand with the exception of I bought a small bottle of blue acrylic paint. I picked up the wooden letters at a sidewalk sale at Ben Franklin during the summer, with this kind of project in mind. The letters cost me 25 cents each, what a steal! My favorite funny thing about this project is that the O’s started out life as Q’s, and Mr. H. did some plastic surgery on them for me. What do ya think? Didn’t she turn out cute? (And yes, I really do have depressing dark brown doors, all I can say is *rental*).

I was so excited…..my Mod Podged paper didn’t bubble at all!!! My very first Mod Podge project that didn’t bubble at all. It was a bit of a challenge to get the extra paper sanded off the edges of the X’s because I couldn’t get my sanding block in there, I ended up using a emery board for most of it. Here’s a close up of how the letters look.

(okay, so maybe they bubbled a little, but hardly at all). I just wanted to do something that wasn’t traditional Valentine colors, and I am pleased with this project.

Linked to: Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous; Craft Party @ Crafts In Bloom; Get Your Craft on Thursday @ Life as Lori; Weekend Wrap-Up Party @ Tatertots and Jello

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday: Easy Chocolate Pudding Cake (Teri)

My hubby decided he wanted to make this for our Super Bowl Feast. It was delicious. There were two definite plusses for me: 1-hubby made it, not me; 2- it was made in the crock pot! How cool is that!?! Who knew you could bake in a crock pot, certainly not me. Doesn’t it look yummy? It was! All that pudding goodness in the middle!

The recipe is from Crock-Pot Recipe Collection.

1 pkg (6 serving size) instant chocolate pudding and pie filling mix

3 cups milk

1 package (about 18 oz) chocolate fudge cake mix, plus ingredients to prepare mix

Crushed peppermint candies (optional)

Whipped topping or ice cream (optional – but ice cream is recommended by me anyway)

1-Coat 4 1/2 quart Crock-Pot slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. Place pudding mix in Crock-Pot slow cooker. Whisk in milk.

2-Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Carefully pour cake mix into Crock-Pot slow cooker. Do not stir. Cover; cook on High 1 to 1 1/2 hours our until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean (note: don’t stick it all the way down or you will just get pudding).

3-Spoon into cup or onto plate; serve warm with crushed peppermint candies and whipped topping or ice cream if desired. Tip: let cool at least 5 minutes before removing from Crock-Pot slow cooker.

(just fyi I don’t have a Crock-Pot brand slow cooker, I just copied the recipe verbatim, so take it for what it’s worth)

Tadpole Tuesday: Valentine Cards (Teri)

While we were “watching” the Superbowl on Sunday we pulled out stuff we had at home to make some Valentine cards to send to our out of town family (that would be all of our family). We used everything we had on hand with the exception of buying a package of cards to decorate. This whole project to make 20 cards for my son’s class, 10 for my daughter’s friends, and 15 to send away cost us less than $3 because we had everything else on hand.

This is one made by my son, he wanted a picture of a ship from the old reading book I was using. He’s still little, but he loves to be creative.

This one was made by my daughter, she was very much into making unique cards this year (and about using her paper trimmer). My daughter had a good eye for different ways to put things together. She had a lot of fun slicing up the paper for the front of this card.

I wanted to include more of my kids cards, but I wasn’t up to editing their names out of the pictures (and of course I didn't think to take a picture BEFORE they signed their cards). Trust me though, they were darling!

Here are my three favorite cards that I made using an old reading book and some aged sheet music.

No this picture isn’t sideways, I put a piece of the pronunciation guide from the back of the reading book on sideways on purpose. (I keep telling myself it’s okay to tear this already falling apart book up to use creatively, but I’m telling you it goes against every fiber of my being. I am a true book lover, and it feels like murder to tear and cut pieces of a book). I love the way that the “onion skin copy paper” curls up around the edges of the book page.

It’s a toss up between this one and the next one which is my favorite. I thought that the title of this song was perfect! I loved that I was able to turn the card so that the lines go diagonal down it, I covered the front and back of this card.

I loved the picture on this card. I also loved the texture I was able to add with the ric rack and the fabric patch letters. It was also fun to use the juxtaposition of the misspelled letters on top of the page from the reading book! I know, it’s silly, but I am easily entertained.

Linked to:

Talented Tuesday @ My Frugal Family; Market Yourself Monday @ Sumo's Sweet Stuff; Met Monday @ BNOTP; Show and Tell @ Blue Cricket Design; Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog; Craft Party @ Crafts In Bloom; Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous; Get Your Craft on Thursaday @ Live as Lori; Weekend Wrap-Up Party @ Tatertots and Jello

Mystery Monday: Coupon Organization (Teri)

If any of you visited us clear back in October, you may remember this post, where I talked about saving money on groceries. If not, go back and read it, see if any of the tips would work for you, or if you have any more for us. Today I’m going to share with you how I organize my coupons.

In this post I shared with you that I use a website called Pinching Your Pennies to help find the “deals”. There are many sites out there to help you know where to find the best deal on things you buy, but I like this one the best for a couple of reasons, first off, it’s FREE and who doesn’t like that price. Secondly, they have teamed with Grocery Smarts to make a customizable printable grocery list of deals. With this system I also get multiple Sunday papers, thus getting multiple sets of ads (I get 3). This requires that I organize them so that I can find them. Thus my coupon crate.

I know you are wondering why you would need an entire crate to organize your coupons. The reason being is because I don’t clip them, at least not until I’m ready to use them. The way the PYP website works is that it tells you what is on sale, how good of a deal it is, and where to find the coupon you need for this item. I save my coupons for 5 months (If you count, you’ll know I don’t have 5 months worth, my dh threw about 3 weeks worth away because they were causing clutter….I could have throttled him), then I toss them, by this point they will all be expired. As you can see I have multiple categories.

Everything behind the Smart Source tab is that type of insert, ditto for Red Plum, General Mills and Proctor and Gamble, these are your “brands” of inserts. I also use printed coupons, and I print the ones I will use when I see them, and them I save them for when I need them. If you want a good tutorial about how to use your coupons, how to read the website, etc, go to the Utah Forum on PYP and they have some great tutorials (not sure if the other states do or not, but the same general principles that apply in Utah will apply elsewhere as well). It’s great for beginners (and seasoned couponers as well). Each week of coupons is put in it’s own sheet protector to make it easy to pull out all 3 inserts together.

I write the date the insert came in sharpie on the upper right hand corner of each insert so that I easily spot what weeks coupons I’m looking at.

After I have made up my shopping list and printed it out, I clip/print the coupons I need and fold them inside the list and put them in an envelope to take with me. It may not be a perfect solution, but it works for me (I pretty much copied my friends organization, so it’s not even an original idea……THANKS SUNNIE!!!) If you want more tips on saving on your groceries, click here to take you to my post from October.

I also have folders for restaurants, stores and services (things in here range from Children’s Place % off coupons to ones for oil changes), and one for clipped coupons which doesn’t have anything in it right now.

So I guess today’s mystery is:

Do you have a coupon organization system that works for you?

Linked to:

Favorites Linky Party @ They Byrd Nest; Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous

Tales of a Shared Womb: Honored Guests!

It certainly is an exciting week here at 2sisters! We have gotten an award (incidentally we received it from the two lovely ladies you are about to meet), posted our 100th post, and now we are having our second guest blogger (okay really second and third)!

We are beyond excited to welcome our guest bloggers today, we will let them introduce themselves. We love to read both their blogs, and hope you will enjoy them as well!

Hello and Howdy !!!

Let us begin by saying that is a complete honor to be guest bloggers!!

We are Angelique and Misty and we are identical twin sisters.

Angelique is the proud blogger of Six in One Hand

and

Misty is the bloggy diva of Six Divided By Two

known together as the Six Sisters.

Angelique: " Why do I just get to be a proud blogger and you the diva? No mam.."

Misty : I said PROUD blogger....

This is us all the time..

We love being twins . Would not change it for anything but we know the downside and (always) funny side of being a twin. So we thought it would be funny to share with you what we call,

"The Six Perils of Being a Twin"

1.Your children do not know who is who.

Angelique: " A common phrase in our family is, " I am not your mother.."

Misty: " So true. Once when my oldest was small she came up to me at church and said, " Hi Angelique!"

Angelique: " Do you remember when our kids were small? We would press our faces together and they would cry because they could not tell who was who..!"

2. Jilted Boyfriends!!

Misty: (laughing so hard she is in tears) Oh yes.. I almost forgot! The guy I never called back..

Angelique: I will never forget it!! He came up to me in the grocery store ranting about why you never called.

I told him I was your twin and he got mad. " Don't give me the old I have a twin routine!"

After I showed him my driver's license he apologized.

Misty: Never did call him back lol!!!

3. The infamous affairs

Misty: Whoa Baby!! I thought I was going to have to get a divorce behind that one!! My husband and I go out to dinner one night. He had been out of town for a few days. The waiter comes over and is telling me how busy of a woman I must be. He tells my husband that I was there last night with another man! OK I am pissed! I swear up and down it's not true - because it was NOT!!

Angelique: I had to explain to my brother in law that I had been on a date at that restaurant the night before!!

Misty: I wanted to kill that waiter. I had no idea what he was talking about!! We laughed about it later but I was not amused.

Angelique: That is why we always told each other where the other was going to be or had been. lol

4. Girlfriends you know nothing about

Misty: How many times has this happened? But the best one was your friend screaming,"Angelique !!" from the third level of the mall. Mind you I am on the first level. That would have been okay but even after I told her I was your sister she was screaming her conversation and phone number from the third level

Angelique: Yes, I know. I have mastered the art of playing you and never saying the person's name!!

5. Being accused of abandoning your newborn at the hospital!!

Angelique: I still can't believe that one!! The nurses thought you were me when Alex was born.

Misty: They personally escorted me to your room... I was waiting to see the looks on their faces!! All I wanted was a soda.

6. The Questions

Misty: What is the question that you get asked the most?

Angelique: "Where is your sister?"

Misty: "Who is the good twin and who is the bad twin?" or mean vs. nice-

Angelique: " How many minutes are you apart?

Misty: That's my fav. Do you always rank strangers this on a regular basis? I'm just wondering....

Angelique: "If I hit you will your sister feel it?"

Misty: No, but you will if you hit my sister. Once again, back to that rank strangers thing.

But there are sooo many things that we love about being twins..

The bond that we share is uncanny. Being a twin, to be so close to a person, is truly a gift from God. A friendship/sisterhood that could never be broken or explained.

Thank you so much girls, we can totally relate to so many of those things. We have gotten good at either playing each other, in fact we answer to each others names more often than to our own. It makes it hazardous when you work with someone with your sister's name. We long ago decided though, that Micki IS the evil twin (she even has a shirt that says "I am the evil twin". It's all good.

Being a twin is truly a gift from God. We don't know how we would ever survive without each other. One cannot truly understand the bond that you share as a twin unless you are one, it's just impossible.

Celebration!!! Woohoo!!!!

There was much screaming and dancing going on when we found out we got a bloggy award!!! It was given to us by (as we call) them the Six girls :) (sorry to lump you two together, but.....). Misty @ Six Divided by Two and Angelique at Six In One Hand Madness In The Other bestowed upon us the first ever Not A Stepford Blog award! What an honor! We love both these girls blogs and are beyone thrilled and humbled to receive an award from them. Thanks girls!!! You guys rock!!! (p.s. This is our first award:)

p.s. (again) We will be passing this along, we just haven't decided how to narrow it down yet. We'll let you know :)

Tadpole Tuesday: Birdhouses (Teri)

Apparently my family has a bird affinity lately. Our city has an annual winter bird festival. It has bird watching walks and a couple of activities for kids. Home Depot always sponsors a free activity where the kids can make their own birdhouses. We did this last year, and it was really fun! They also received a recycled bottle that had been turned into a birdfeeder (you saw last years here). It was a chilly morning, but really fun. Here are some highlights.

I love this picture because it was my attempt to pose my kids and them just wanting to be who they are. I think they’re pretty dang cute! Apparently I didn’t get a great picture of the finished product. My cute daughter decided that she had enough bird houses and feeders at home, so she gave hers both to my nephew for his birthday. He was excited to get something his cousin made!

Have any of you taken your kids to Home Depot for their Kids Workshops or Lowe’s for their Build and Grow Workshops? My kids love them, and the best part? They’re free! It’s so much fun. They each do them once or twice a month. If you call your local store or go online, you can sign your kids up for the next one. My kids have done some really fun projects.

Mystery Monday: What IS That? (Teri)

If you read this post, you know I have some crazy round things outside on my bird feeder station. I promised you that I would reveal what they are today. So, today’s mystery is what the heck IS that round thing on the bird feeing station? Here’s a close up picture that hopefully you might get a better view of what they are (there are 4 of them hanging up, one from each arm).

They are natural bird feeders that my husband and kids made. My husband sliced up a spaghetti squash that we hadn’t eaten, they then spread chunky peanut butter on it and stuck bird food and oatmeal to them. The birds have eaten some of it. They are just hung up with wire. It was a fun project and we like having a variety of things to feed the birds, so we can attract different birds. Here are a couple of little House Finches that were visiting us (the male is the one with red, see him checking out the girl?).

Do any of you have birdfeeders? What kind of birds do you attract? Have you made any “natural” birdfeeders?

Tales of a Shared Womb: A Guest

Today we have a guest for Tales of a Shared Womb! Rozanna is one of our friends, and we asked her to share her story! We hope you enjoy her guest post.

Hi everyone! My name is Rozanna and I am not a twin but I am mother of (almost) 14 year old identical twin girls "A" and "B". Let me start by answering all of the questions right off the bat..... No they were not fertility treatment babies, I was 17 when they were conceived. Yes they are identical. Yes I had them naturally and not cesarean section. NO I don't have any identical twins in my family, fraternal yes, identical no. There are twins on my husband side but we don't know if they were identical or not. And finally yes, for the most part I can tell them apart and always have.

Lets just start with the basics here for starters. When they were born we kept baby “A”’s bracelet on from the hospital until she was about 6 weeks so everyone else could tell them apart. After she out grew her bracelet we had her ears pierced so we could tell them apart. We did try to paint her toes but It was very hard in pics to tell them apart and their toes were not visible. They did everything at the same time, teethed at the same time, got sick at the same time, even potty trained at the same time. They have always had this weird twin language that none of us understood. For instance, they would be sitting at the table eating their food and one would eat all the meat and the other all the potatoes and jabber some language and switch plates. Or while playing with a toy they would jabber something and both go off and pick up the same thing.

When they were getting their exams for their braces the orthodontist was completely shocked that they had the exact same mouths! The same craniofacial measurements, the same odd shaped tooth, and were missing the same adult teeth! At each and every dental appt, if they have cavities they have the same ones in the same teeth! Twin "B" has always been the sicker of the two with asthma and many nights was rushed to the er for steroids and breathing treatments. Whenever we had to go in the middle of the night “A” got to stay with grandma and as soon as they would give “B” steroids, instead of her getting wild and crazy like expected, her sister would at home with Grandma. Or when one acted sick and would pull on her ear we would take them to the Dr. Most of the time the twin that was symptomatic wasn't the one that was sick, the other one was!

Since they have been in school it has been brought to my attention many times (at the beginning of the year) that some teachers thought a little cheating was going on. They would have essay tests where they could pick the topic and both many times picked the same topic and wrote essays very similar to each other. Or would have a math test and miss the same answers. After the teachers got to know then and their "twiness" we haven't had any nasty grams about cheating but I am sure next year when they start High school they will start again.

We did have two cribs when they were born, bunk beds as they were small kids and now they each have their own rooms, but they still slept together. And by sleep together I don't mean in the same room, imagine two teenagers sleeping head to feet together in a twin sized day bed. I don't know how they get any sleep but they sure do!

Now that they are older they don't have twin language anymore but they do speak to each other telepathically (I swear)! For instance, this summer we were all outside (which is hard to do where we live) sweating our you know whats off when one of them out of no where started singing jingle bells. They just looked at each other and started cracking up! Everyone around them were very confused as to what was so funny when they told us that one of them was thinking about the song and the other one started singing it! They also constantly are finishing each other's sentences and talking at the same time.

Teri asked me a few questions so here we go...

How did you feel when you found out you were having twins?

Let me just say shocked! Like I said before I was 17 when I got pregnant which was a shock to my family in itself. I had lost so much weight from being sick no one at school really believed I was pregnant. My mom and I prayed so hard for a girl since I only had 2 brothers. We went in for my regular ultrasound at 20 weeks and when they put the us on my stomach my mom said "look at your twins!" We both started laughing and my Dr said "your right!" I said "Shut up that is not funny!!" He said he would never joke about something like that and showed me both of their heads. I just started crying and said just please tell me they are girls! My husband (who was in the room and we were broken up at that time) almost passed out and his mom was just in complete shock also! I just had gotten used to the idea of having one baby and now found out I was having 2! Big shocker!!

What is your favorite thing about having twins?

I never had a sister and even though my brothers and I are very close it is still not the same as having a sister so I would say that seeing the relationship between them is my favorite thing. It is a relationship that not everyone can understand.

What is the most difficult thing about having twins?

Honestly they were my first kids and they were so easy going that it was hard but I really had nothing to compare it too! I would say overall though The hardest thing is that we have two more children, another girl age 7 and a boy almost 5. The girls have each other and are very close so I think sometimes they pick on their sister and brother. The reason we actually went for baby #4 was not to try for a boy (as most people think), but because I wanted Hannah (My 7 year old) to have a sibling close to her age that she could grow up with since we waited 7 years between the twins and her. Also they would never betray each other which is a good thing but sometimes I worry that they would keep secrets from me that I need to know about just because they are so close.

Thanks so much Roz! We are laughing about the sleeping together part, because we totally did that. We each had our own room, and one of us had a full sized bed, so that’s where we always slept, clear up until Teri got married and left the house. We agree with you, unless you are a twin or have a close personal relationship with them (like being their mom), you can’t don’t fully realized how closely connected they are! How did you like hearing about other twins? We are looking forward to more guests soon!