Tales of Sisterhood

Looking back on my childhood, there are a lot of things I miss: the innocence; the simplicity; the fun.  Some of the memories that stand out to me most include starting my first day at Kindergarten and learning to ride a bike.  But I think my MOST favorite part of my childhood was growing up with two older sisters.

I am the youngest of three girls.  My older sisters names are Mandi, she's now 32, and Erin, who is 30.  Growing up, my family consisted of my dad, my mom, my two sisters and I.  Mandi and Erin are technically my half sisters: same mom, different dad....but in my eyes, they are my true biological sisters.  They helped raise me; they looked after me; they changed my dirty diapers.  We fought together, cried together, laughed together....everything that sisters do.  They didn't go back and forth between parents on a regular basis, so my father was virtually theirs too.  He coached their softball teams, took them hiking, fishing, dancing; everything a father should do. So my sisters were my SISTERS. 

I enjoyed being the youngest.  Now that I'm an adult though, sometimes I wish my parents had been a little more strict on me...(the only chore I had was to clean my room....they had to clean the entire house top to bottom)...because, as much as I hate to admit it, I'm not sure I know how to hold a broom correctly, even at age 21! But nevertheless, growing up in household of 4 older people to take care of me was pretty cool.  Needless to say I was spoiled rotten....and I usually always got my way.....which, has probably damaged me now.  But I always knew (know) that I was (am) LOVED!

My mom was very spontaneous.  She would pile us all in the car and we would take random roadtrips to Alexander City Alabama, Atlanta, Gatlinburg Tennessee to go to Dollywood, Daytona Beach...it was always a BLAST!  I come from a musical family, and we all sing or play some sort of instrument, or both.  So, on those road trips, we would crank up the radio to Dixie Chicks and the three of us girls would sit in the back and sing our hearts out.  Our favorite song to sing was "Wide Open Spaces".  My mom would usually harmonize with us, so it always sounded beautiful!  My sister, Erin and I would usually have some sort of fight (haha we never got along) but it was still always fun. 

I was always getting in some sort of trouble.  I swear I got my butt whooped every day!  I liked to test the limits....and I always got caught.  Well, being the youngest, I looked up to my sisters a great deal.  Since they were 10 years older than me, and beautiful, and since they KNEW EVERYTHING, I wanted to do everything exactly like them.  I remember one night, I believe I was about 6 years old, which would have made my sisters 14 and 16, I decided I wanted to shave my legs.  Just like they did.  So, I got out a razor and started going at it.  Well, I forgot to wet the thing, first of all, and I didn't use shaving cream.  And I pressed too hard and went too fast.  I cut myself from the top of my ankle to the bottom of my knee in one continuous cut!  And it was DEEP! I remember sitting on the toilet in the bathroom just staring at it, wondering how in the world it happened, what to do to fix it, and WHY did my mom and sisters insist on doing this all the time and HOW they never cut themselves like this.  If I recall, Mandi came in the bathroom and started freaking out! Of course, she called Erin in, who started freaking out as well.  Then they started to try and come up with a plan to get a bandaid without letting Mama know what I had done.  They were trying to keep me out of trouble as best they could, and it worked.  Almost.  Mandi was a HORRIBLE liar (haha) so when she had to go to the kitchen to get 10 bandaids, of course my mother wondered what the heck she needed 10 bandaids for.  Long story short, mom found out, I got a spanking, and a big scar on my leg.  I NEVER tried shaving my legs again! (Until I was old enough, that is)

Another instance when I wanted to be exactly like them was in the boy department.  They always had the cutest boyfriends.  Well, except for one of Erin's. I wasn't too crazy about him.  But one year, Mandi went to prom with Bill Bentley.  O boy, did I love Bill!  I wanted to go to prom too! But of course, I couldn't.  I remember crying and crying....and Bill picked me up and promised me he would take me to prom one day!  That made my year!  About 11 years later, when it was MY turn to go to prom, Bill and I happened to be going to the same church.  I walked right up to him one Sunday after church and reminded him of his promise! By that time, he was married and had two kids of his own, but he remembered =) He didn't get to take me because there was age limit for escorts, but it still meant a lot that he had remembered!

I remember one period of time where my mother went to work with my dad for a little while.  They worked the night shift, so they would leave late at night and not be home til the next morning.  My sisters would have to take care of me.  That was always fun!  One night, we cranked up the radio to "Rollin On A River" and danced around the living room like nobody's business!  I got to have the BEST dinners during that time as well.  We made lots of brownies (I always got to like the bowl) and always stayed up too late.

I also remember the day we got our new house.  We had been living, a family of 5, two adults, two teenagers, and one baby, in a two bedroom, single wide trailer.  THAT was crazy.  But I never knew it was crazy because we had everything we needed.  The trailer had been my dad's and his first wife's and it had been enough for them.  So when he married my mother, they moved right into that one and didn't buy a newer, bigger one until 6 years later.  But, like I said, I didn't know that two teenage girls sharing a very small bedroom, sleeping on those little foam chairs-that-turn-into-beds (whatever you call them) and that my  mom never slept with my dad because she was sleeping with me (the baby) on the hide-a-bed in the living room wasn't exactly "normal".  So when we went "shopping" for new homes, and we found one with 5 bedrooms.....we thought we had found the TAJ MAHAL!  We would have our own room, and we would get to decorate it the way we wanted!  It was going to be the BEST thing EVER!  Mandi did her bedroom in black and white; Erin did hers in Ivy; I did mine in blue and yellow sunflowers.  All those choices matched our personalities.

The day the house was going to be delivered, we were so excited!  I was in Kindergarten.  My sisters came to pick me up from school early.  It was nap time and I remember my teacher coming over to wake me up.  When I looked up, I saw both my sisters standing in the doorway, smiling and giggling like no other!  I was half asleep so when I went to greet them, Mandi picked me up and said "You ready to go see our NEW HOUSE?!?!?!" Of course, THAT woke me up!

The house was going to be put in the same place as our other house.  (Dad refused to leave the spot, since he was right next door to his mother and grandmother.  To this day, he hasn't left). When we got to our driveway, the house was coming down the road.  They decided to come down the side of our neighborhood with the steep hill, with the sharp curve at the bottom.  So when they came to that sharp curve....they got stuck.  The house started to tip over, and my family started FLIPPING OUT!  Long story short, they finally got it back in line and into our driveway and onto our spot.  But, we couldn't move in right away.  My mom wanted to build porches: a big back porch and a big front porch, both of which she designed herself.  We had our cousins helping us, and it took us a couple months to finish, and in the meantime, we stayed next door at my grandmothers house.  That was nice because we got to wake up every morning to her homemade buscuits =) But when we finally got to move in, the house was BEAUTIFUL!  We moved in on Erin's 15th birthday.  I still live in this house, 15 years later, even though my stepmother has changed a lot of the way it looks, both outside and inside.  It's still the same house I grew up in!

My childhood was pretty darn good.  I usually got what I wanted, and if I didn't get what I wanted, it wasn't the end of the world.  I rarely pitched fits when I was told "no" and I had all the love in the world.  I will always be the baby...I will always be the princess, even when I'm 60 years old.  But I love my sisters.  Growing up with two older sisters was a blessing.  It was unfortunate when they were both grown and gone by the time I started middle school...so in the most important years of my life, I grew up as an only child.  But they made my childhood special and I am forever grateful!

I love you, Mandi and Erin!  The best sisters in the world!