Thursday, September 25, 2008

You Light Up My Life

My sister, Jenny, and I have the best relationship now....but it wasn't always so. She is my one and only sibling. We are two years apart...I am the oldest. When we were little I was so mean to her. I used to tell her that she wasn't really my sister, that the mailman left her at our house. We have this funny private joke...."I'm gonna tell what the cat did"....we both don't remember why this worked for so long.....I used to say this to her when I wanted her to do something and she would always do it...It always worked. I know the cat pooped behind our couch, but I have no idea why this would of been her fault??? Probably the worst thing I did was to sing "You Light Up My Life" at the top of my lungs ALL THE TIME.....just to bug her. Whenever we were going to go somewhere my parents would send Jenny and I out to the car (now that I'm a parent I realize they did this to get rid of us so they could finish getting ready to go in peace)....anyway, we would get in the car and I would immediately start singing You Light Up My Life, I knew all of the words (I still do). She HATED it!!! She would start screaming for me to stop and this would just egg me on. I have to admit that it's still fun to call her up and sing it to her...and I put the song on my playlist just for her.....I guess, once an older sister, always an older sister.... We didn't always fight...sometimes we played together. We used to draw fashion shows. We would draw pictures of girls in pretty dresses and then judge each others drawings. Every night when it was time to go to bed we would summersault up the stairs...we did this by putting our heads on a step and then rolling up, coming back down and then doing the next step the same way....it was a stall tactic..to keep from going to bed. (I once tried to summersault down the stairs...it hurt). On car trips (we took many car trips) we would sit in the back and take turns squeezing each other cheeks together while we told each other to say things. "say mama"..."say daddy"...."say pickle"...then we would laugh and laugh at how funny it sounded. I have many fond memories of my sister....I also have many things I regret....I wish we'd been closer through our early teens....I wish I'd been nicer to her and been friends with her through some really hard times. I try and tell my kids to be nice to their siblings because when they grow up they will feel bad for being so mean....I guess it's just something you have to learn on your own. I love you Jenny...you are the best sister ever! Thanks for forgiving me for peeing on you in the tub when we were little...I promise I'll never do it again!

10 comments:

Jacque said...

You are a great sister, it was fun to read all your memories. No regrets, just being the best now makes up for all of that. I'm sure Jenny still loves you despite the pee, etc. Big sisters are supposed to be mean.

Greg and/or Angie said...

Never say never, Kim. ha ha. Sounds like the same regrets I have with my sister. We are really good friends now but that is only recently. A lot of missed opportunities there. Angie

Michelle said...

Kim, you are so funny! I think of you and your sister every time my girls fight. I hope they grow up to be friends. You are such a great sister and a true friend.

Lia said...

POOR JENNY!! Just kidding. I'm sure it ran both ways. It's great though when you can get to that point in life when you appreciate and love each other. My sister is one of the soft spots of my heart. I have almost maturnal feelings for her (I'm 6 years older).

This was a nice blog, thanks.

Cindy said...

I think almost all sisters feel what you do! I am a big sister and although I don't remember being mean to my younger sisters, I never was that close to them growing up. Now we are the best of friends!!
I like your story because it is real and it is from the heart!!

Julie said...

We give my older sister a hard time about how mean she was to us, but like everyone said, I think it's normal. The great thing is being able to become friends when you're older. The fights and meanness(is that a word?) give you something to laugh about.

Alisa said...

Ok, Kim. You are so funny. I really did LOL! I remember my sister and I fighting all of the time. Even physical fighting more common among boys. Now we're good friends, thank heavens! Isn't it great to have a support system! I wonder why we couldn't have figured that out when we were younger! It really must be something that we have to go through to get to be friends by choice!

Kristi Amasio said...

Kim you are so funny! Your posts always crack me up. I know what your saying. I have a younger brother that we used to fight like cats and dogs and now I adore him! He is my favorite! I try to explain that to my 2 oldest that one day they are going to be best friends. They have a hard time grasping it.

Christy said...

You crack me up! Thanks for the link!

Alison W. said...

This was fun to read. I love the part about how you irritated your sister by singing. The song I loathed was "Love at home" I know it has good words in it, but I would be happy if I never heard it again. You are wonderful Kim!