“WOW!” Stickers, Zippers, and Closets

   

 Do you have certain memories of when you were really little?  Leah and I were just remembering last night how we used to fight over the “Wow!” stickers. 

 “Wow stickers?!”, you say, “What’s so neat about that?!”

   We had these “school books” from WalMart (or something of the sort) that had a bunch of stickers in the middle that said, “Great Job!”, “Way to Go!”, and  among many other things, “Wow!”.  Some of them said, “WOW!”.  With capitals.  And I can remember that they were the kind of stickers that you had to punch out and lick.  Well, there were about three of these special “Wow!” stickers, and I remember Leah and I going around and around as to who should get which “Wow!” sticker.  Not only were there three (meaning we each couldn’t have an even number) but there was one “Wow!” sticker that topped all “Wow!” stickers.  I don’t remember why, or really even what it looked like.  Maybe it was the one with capitals 😀  I don’t know, but I do remember that we especially fought over that one!  I don’t know if we EVER used those “Wow!” stickers…they were too special!

And then there were the many wonderful rows of zippers at JoAnn fabrics.  Mommy has been sewing ever since Leah and I were little, and there are quite a few stories of some things I did while in JoAnn’s with Mommy.  Like them time one of the employees told Mommy that her daughter was using Magic Wand (a stain removing stick) for chapstick.  I can remember wearing one of those harness things that mommy’s use for containing curious toddlers while shopping.  I was a naughty little girl!  But those  zippers in there little packages were to die for!  How I wished that I could have that many zippers of my own, just to see them all lined up like that in my room!  I don’t think I even knew what they were, or how they were used, but I sure thought that those packages were the neatest things!

 Out in Daddy’s shop he had one of those little chest of drawers…the kind that have a bunch of tiny little clear drawers.  In one of thoselittle drawers there was a bunch of little sticks, about 1/2″x 2″, and I also wished that I could keep them all.  I remember sitting on his workbench, taking them all out, and putting them all back in again.  They were just so neat in my little girl mind!

 

A couple of nights ago, we older girls were “reminicing” about the fights we used to get into 😀  Oh my!  Like the times when I got so mad at Cassia, so I’d pin her to the floor or to my bed until she calmed down (only, she didn’t ususally calm down until Mommy came onto the scene…I don’t know why…).   She and I used to go around and around all the time.  She loved pushing my buttons, and I was silly enough to let her!

  I clearly remember one time she said, “I’m going to go break your porcelain doll!” and proceeded to run up the stairs.  I ran after her and pinned her to the bed, hollering at her, “That is NOT NICE! You are NOT BEING NICE!” and anything you might say during a time like that.  Leah says that she remembers thinking, “Jessica, she’s not really going to do that!”   

 One time I finally got smart.  Cassia started running up the stairs yelling, “I’m going to break your tea cups!”  I replied, “Okay,” and kept on doing what I was doing. But inwardly I was tense.  She kind of stopped, and then repeated, “I’m going to break your tea cups Jessica!”  “Alright” I said.  She ran upstairs, only not as fast as if I would have been chasing her, and I spent a few minutes in trepidation of whether she would follow through with it or not.  After a little bit, she came down, and when she wasn’t looking I ran upstairs to check on my tea cups,  and found out that she hadn’t even touched them 😀  So take a lesson if you have a sibling who likes to push buttons.  Don’t let  them push them (or at least don’t let them see that they do!).  And do not worry…I have Cassia’s permission to tell you these stories 😀  And I promise that was when she was a very little girl…she hasn’t threatened to break anything of mine for a very long time 😀

Also, if you have a sibling like this, do your best to keep forgiving them (even if they don’t ask for your forgiveness) and to keep working on your relationship with that sibling.  Also keep forgiving them when they are repeatedly asking for your forgiveness, and then seemingly going right back and doing what they did to offend you before  😀   There’s a reason Jesus said to forgive our brothers 70 times 7!  We certainly didn’t do it perfectly, but Mommy wanted to make sure that we kept working on our relationship, and I can say that it has REALLY paid off!  Now Cassia is one of my bestest friends, and all that ENERGY she had in her fights is now directed toward good things and she is absolutely wonderful 😀

  We were also reminicing about the times we remember being disciplined.  We sure didn’t like it then, but I am so glad that I was spanked as often as I needed it!  I used to have the record for the most spankings, but Cassia beat me.  I declare!  Doesn’t an older sister have the right to the higher record?!  My little sister had to show me up! 😀 

Leah says that of all the spankings she remembers, she always remembers me getting one right beside her. The idea!  😀  But actually, Leah was more compliant and a better behaved little girl than I was, and I have a feeling that while I didn’t get her into ALL the trouble, I certainly helped get her into a lot!

There was the time that I convinced Leah that we should explore the walk-through closet that connected our room to the sewing room.  It was a walk-through closet, but you couldn’t actually walk through it because, of course, what do you put in closets?!  Stuff!  There was our stuff on our end of the closet, and then out of season clothes and boxes of other stuff on the sewing room side of the closet.  So I convinced Leah, and we began to explore.  Only Leah decided not to go as far as me, and stayed in our part of the closet.  I kept going, crawling over everything, until I got to the door on the sewing room side.  But lo, and behold, that door was locked on the outside!  Not only that, but Susannah (who was a toddler at that time) shut the door on Leah on our side of the closet, and when you shut it, for anyone on the inside, it is locked.  We both started to panic and were beating on the doors, hollering and crying, until Mommy came up and found us.  I don’t think we were spanked for that one, because we had already had our fright, but Mommy gave us a good talking to.  She told us that her wedding things were in there, and some other special things that we could have broken, and she made it very clear that we were not to do that again!  I remember being tempted to, a few times after that, but we never did do it again!

There were also the times that I convinced Leah to try dog food, or dirt, or any other thing I could possibly think of.  We had this saying when we tried something yucky but wanted to convince the other one to think that it was really tasty.  We’d say, “It tastes like grapes!” but that got so overused that it soon became a warning to not try the thing that your sister said supposedly tasted like grapes!  It’s like people who say every kind of meat tastes like chicken.  I don’t think so!

 So now you know what we were like when we were little…or at least a few of the stories!  There are SO MANY MORE!

I just can’t remember them right now 😀

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