The Joy of Sisterhood

My bedazzled girls!

From the time she was very little, Isabel has asked for a baby sister...actually, she demanded to know where her twin was at the age of 2! It took a while for her to understand that not all babies come as sets. She totally did not appreciate that her brothers are twins and she is not. That was very poor planning on our part! I'm just kidding...you can't plan that. But, I did spend 20 years praying that I would have a set....I'm just sayin' . Anyway, it was with great expectation that Isabel agreed with our plan to adopt a child. She went between wanting us to get a baby and wanting a sister her age.

Needless to say, Isabel was thrilled when we found Claire....or she found us. But, there are days now when she thinks Claire is too young to play right and days when she wishes Claire were an infant so she could "help" care for her more than Claire lets her now. Other times it just clicks and all is right in "the-world-according-to-Isabel". Yeah, well........I have two sisters, so I know it doesn't matter if they play right or not, if they let you baby them or not, 'cause at the end of the day you mostly forget about the fights and love each other again....mostly!

A few months back, my bloggy friend Significant Source did a Sister blog all about her sister that I thought was really cool. So here is my rendition of The Sister Blog.

Parker and Brenda's girls....me in the middle (if you didn't know). I am 21 months older than the blonde to my right, Jennifer, and 5 years older than Amy on my left. We are all very, very different from each other....in looks and in thoughts.....so much so that I sometimes wonder how we were born into the same family...... with the same parents!

Then of course, my college biology teacher told the entire auditorium that I couldn't be my parent's birth child because I have green eyes and they both have blue, so... No really, he did. And, I paid for that education *eyeroll*!

Sister Blogging

1. When Jennifer was still in a crib I used to climb in it on Saturday mornings so I could play with her while I waited for Mom and Dad to get up. It's a wonder the child survived to get to her big girl bed! Plus also, she rolled backwards down our stairs after crawling up them and hit her head on the concrete floor. Hmmmm.......maybe that's why she has migraines!

2. When Amy was a baby I thought she was positively horrid. She was loud and she smelled funny and I was 5 and she was UPSTAGING me, people....Jennifer had been quiet and so did not steal my thunder....Amy was a force to be reckoned with! Still is. Oh, I love her, I just don't want to be on the wrong side of her wrath......I'm just saying. My Aunt says after they brought Amy home from the hospital they couldn't find me. She looked around and found me on the back stairs saying "just sut up Amy, just sut up".....that was 5 year old for shut-up that baby is too loud and it's hurting my ears. I wasn't dramatic at all. Nope! Maybe that is why I'm loosing my hearing! No seriously, I had a hearing check a year ago....lost all my high frequency hearing. Now I hear buzzing all the time....or maybe it's crying....

3. I wanted Amy to be a boy.

4. Jennifer is Daddy's favorite...always has been....and she pretty much knows it. Right Amy? Right?

5. When I was about nine I made an old fashion phone out of toilet paper rolls, construction paper and yarn. One morning I found that THE CORD HAD BEEN CUT on this prized possession. I blamed Amy....you know, 'cause she was the baby and always breaking my stuff! So Daddy, being the legalistic man that he is, decided to "hold court". He was the judge. I had to plead my case. My sister got to have Jennifer as her attorney. Half way through the trial, Jennifer started laughing and wound. not. stop! I was serious! She finally admitted that she couldn't go through with the trial because she had cut the cord and she just laughed and laughed about the whole thing. So did my Dad. I was serious! See, she's his favorite.

6. When we were little my mom would sit me and Jennifer down and pretend to play cards with us. She kept us distracted but what she was doing was showing one of us cards and asking the other which one it was......we usually knew...freaky, I know. That's not all. When we were older, I would think things and Jennifer would DO them. I would even ask her why she did them and she would say it was because I'd told her to. We seriously freak my husband out with our stories about this sort of thing....really it kinda freaks me out too.

7. When I was about 13, I heard my sisters talking in Jennifer's bedroom. So, I got a flashlight and a mask and snuck out the backdoor. I came around to Jennifer's window and popped up with the mask on and the flashlight under my face............oh boy, I never heard so much screaming. Yeah, not one of my better choices...got in trouble for that one! Still funny!

8. When we were teenagers Jennifer talked me into letting her double pierce ONE of my ears. I had my ears pierced, but she wanted me to have the left one double pierced because she was nutty enough to let some girl at her art camp do it to her. So, I let her......with an earring....and an ice cube....NO, that didn't hurt at all, Jennifer! The back of my ear was one giant blood blister for weeks. The worst part, I can still hear the crunch as it went through my ear when I think about it. Ewwwwww. There's other stuff I could tell from our teen years...but I'm not allowed....on penalty of death.

9. I was totally jealous of Amy. I thought she got all the attention...plus she was cute....plus she totally ruined everything because until she came along Jennifer didn't have anyone to play with but me.....but once she could walk and talk, if Jennifer didn't want to play what I wanted to play, she'd just go find AMY! *huff*

10. I tried to beat up a boy 5 years younger than me, because he made Amy cry. He pushed me back and the chicken butt that I am, I ran back in the house. But, I pretended that I'd put the pounding on him....you know, 'cause I rail on my little sister, but no one else better!

11. After tucking us in bed, my parents would go down to the den in our basement to watch T.V. Jennifer and I had rooms across a wide hall from each other. We would get out of bed and sit in our doorways to play charades. If we heard them on the stairs we high-tailed to our beds!

12. We always woke up way too early on Christmas morning so all three of us would sit in my room and quietly play cards until we figured it was safe to wake Mom and Dad. We were usually up by 4AM....we waited until at least 6 to try getting the folks up!

13. One Sunday afternoon when she was 5, unbeknown-st to anyone in the house, Amy packed a suitcase, grabbed a plastic toy rifle and left home! She walked down our street, turned right onto a major highway (well as major as you could get in North Augusta in 1975) and walked about 4 blocks, then turned right and CROSSED the road to get to my grandmother's neighborhood. We got a phone call from grandma that afternoon. "Brenda, do you know where Amy is?" Can you imagine the looks she got on the highway with that gun!

14. The only thing I really remember EVER playing with Amy was school. She would let me be the teacher. She was really smart though and that kept me on my toes. After a while I think I got scared she was going to be smarter than me so I had to quit teaching her. :)

15. I used to read Bible Stories to them from a big book of my Moms. I have that book now. I took it with me when I left home...I think because it reminded me of a time when we could all three get along.....'cause there were some times when we couldn't be in the same hemisphere. "she's touching me! Stop touching me!"

16. To cut down on the number of things three girls could argue about, my parent's wisely came up with "The day" system. "The day" system was quite simple and worked like this: each of us had assigned days, mine were Monday and Thursday. Jennifer was Tuesday and Friday. Amy was Wednesday and Saturday. On your day, you could sit in the front seat of the car, sit in the chair closest to the T.V., pick the T. V. show, and say the Blessing at the table. All Mom had to do was ask, "who's day is it?" and that was that.

17. Jennifer was with me the first time I wrecked my car. She was indirectly the reason I wrecked it a second time!

18. Jennifer was in trouble more than I was.... but, Amy was in trouble more than Jennifer was!

19. I remember climbing trees, catching fireflies, playing red light-green light, crab apple fights, and jumping in the giant leaf pile every fall!

20. I also remember fighting over the bathroom, the hairspray, the telephone.......and everything else teenage girls can fight over!

I'd like to end The Sister Blog with this cute quote I saw a while back....don't know who said it.

"I smile because you are my sister, I laugh because you can't do anything about it!"

I love you, Jennifer and Amy!