Sisters

Before Christmas my sister and I found some old slides in my parents basement.  Well, okay, more like THOUSANDS!  We found a stack in a plastic sandwich bag and decided to get them scanned.  Oh, are there ever some goodies in that short stack of slides.  Sorry, little brother, this post has to be about sisters.  Mom and Dad had done away with the slides by the time you came around.

Sisters are wonderful things.

When you are really little, a big sister will help you know what it feels like to have your entire face licked by the family dog.

She'll also lay with you on the ground and let you stare at her for hours at a time.

She also teaches you the fine art of balancing just right on the end of a lawn chair so that it doesn't tip over on you.

A big sister won't kill you when you post a picture of your glory days as former "Golden Girls" dancers.
Oh, the good old days.
Gotta love that frizzy, pink roller hair!

I always looked up to my big sister.  She was pretty cool.  She did her own thing and never cared what others thought.  I thought she was totally awesome because she would wear a neon green shoelace in one shoe and a neon pink one in the other.  She also had this totally sweet nickname.  I was super jealous of that!  

When we were little we used to catch tadpoles in the ditch by our house.

We tried so hard to grow them into frogs, but it never worked.

We would play basketball with the kids across the street and she could hold her own against those boys. I was awful at basketball.  One day one of the boys passed the ball to me and it hit me so hard in the stomach that it knocked the wind out of me.  My sister walked me across the street and helped me lay down until I could catch my breath.

My big sister was always watching out for me.

She was really smart and got accepted to universities all across the country and was offered scholarships to several.  When it came my time to apply to college I just wasn't that into it.  Being the big sister, one might accuse her of being "bossy" sometimes.  Well, in January of my senior year in high school she pulled "boss" on me and sat me down at the kitchen table and helped me fill out all of my college applications.

See?  She's pretty cool.

As for little sisters, well, they are pretty cool too.
Who else would let you squeeze their cheeks all day every day for five years?

Or wear the same type of outfit as you for years on end?

Or hold your hand after Primary?

My little sister and I shared a room for many a year.

I am not sure what got into me, but I got on a kick where I really liked scaring my little sister...BADLY!

It started out innocent enough.  Jumping out from under the bed, or behind the door.  I am not sure what other things I did, but there must have been a bunch of them because it led up to a night I still have not lived down (22 years later).

I was about 10 and my little sister went to the bathroom.  I decided to hide in the closet.  She came in and started to look for me.  She even looked in the closet, RIGHT AT ME, but didn't see me.  I could hear the panic in her voice but I didn't want to jump out at her and really scare her, so I did what any good big sister would do and I stayed hidden in the closet hoping that she would leave the room for 30 seconds so that I could hurry and hop in my bed.  Would she leave the room?  Not on your life.  She sat on her bed, totally worried, with a wobbly little voice saying over and over, "Karen?  Where are you?  I'm scared!"  I think I finally just  jumped out and scared her to half to death, made her cry, and apologized like crazy. She settled down and I went to my bed to go to sleep.  

I was laying on my back, just drifting off to sleep, when suddenly...WHAM!!!!! A fist landed perfectly in the center of my stomach forcing my back through the bed and onto the floor.  (Okay, so not really, but it was really, really hard!)  I thought I was going to die.  My sister didn't say a word.  She just turned around and got back in her bed and went to sleep.  She would like to tell you that that was the only time she gut punched me, but that would be a lie.  I remember getting gut punched suh-everal other times.  I'm sure I deserved it
{wink wink}

little sister, big sister, me

I love my sisters.  I really don't know what I would do without them.  They are my best friends.