Seeing Double

Growing up, my mom (just like any other mom, I'm sure, who would stay at home all day raising her three children) would sometimes get confused and call me "Tawnee" and my sister "Renee." But, who could blame her? 90% of the time we looked identical with matching outfits, or the same exact outfits, but one in pink and one in purple. The one thing that I didn't understand was when my mom would call me "Aaron" (my brother's name) or "Shadow" (our dog's name). Sometimes one of us kids would just stand there for a few minutes while my mom would say, "Aaron. I mean Tawnee. I mean Shadow. I mean RENEE." She probably was trying to correct us for doing something wrong, but by the time she figured out which kid she was yelling at, we were all laughing because it took her so long. (Mom, I'm really not laughingg AT you right now....I know that you are laughing with me, too. It's just the "Mimi Jr." inside you!)

I'm two years older than my sis, Tawn, so I had the "joy" of going through everything first. I was the first one to go through Jr. High School, the first one to move away to college, the first one to go through mom and dad's discipline as we grew up...I was the first at everything. Some may find this a privilege, but most of the time it was frightening! I would "test the waters" for Tawnee, so she had less surprises growing up. I always wanted to have an older sister to test the waters for me, but God was calling me to play this role....and I'm glad I had the chance to. I can't say that I was always the "model" sister (far from it, huh Tawn?), but it is nice to have someone look up to you.

I miss the good 'ole days of growing up next to my sister and having all of those fun sister moments together (remember the time we painted Aaron's fingernails pink...haha!!). Now my sister lives four hours away with her husband (and new dog...haha), so we don't get to play much together anymore. Maybe someday we'll have kids of our own and dress them like their cousins, so they can experience the "twin effect" like we did. Hopefully we'll get their names straight.

Love ya, sis!