The Good Old Days

Sometimes I miss the good old days. The days when our little feet scampered around in the backyard catching fireflies at night, and playing capture the flag and freeze-tag during the day. I even miss the cold days when we built huge snow forts late into the night, and sledded until we were practically numb.
Where did those little kids go anyway?

Growing up with two brothers, I was roped into some interesting and kind of quirky games. Like playing basketball without a hoop in our basement (please don't ask). Or, playing Star Wars (just guess who I got to be). 

Or... 

Playing pranks on each other. 

With age comes maturity — for this, I am very grateful.

This story takes place several years ago, back when there were just three, little Snavely kids. 

When we were young, Jon, Matt, and I all shared a bathroom. For the most part, it was good. 

Well, except it wasn't good if you forget to put away your toothbrush...

Yeah. 

You read correctly. We would hide our toothbrushes out of self-defense. 

See, if your toothbrush was left on the bathroom counter, it was very susceptible. 

Susceptible to what?

To have liquid soap put on it (the nasty kind that just happens to be nearly invisible). 

And, if you didn't realize this, you would have a very soapy, bubbly, gross tasting mouth. 

I like to call this particular event The Toothbrush Wars. 

Of course, being the girl, I was usually the unsuspecting victim. Figures.  

This is often how it went down:

6 year-old Christine walked into the bathroom to get ready for bed. She picked up her toothbrush and...

"EWWWWW!!! *gags*"

4 year-old Matthew and 9 year-old Jonathan scurried away and hid as fast as they possibly could. 

I didn't usually run after them (I have learned that two against one is not such a great thing -- I'd like to think of this as maturity... I'd like to).

But being obligated to return the favor, I, of course plotted how/when I could soap their toothbrushes.

Looking back upon this now, I have realized I could have ended it by not returning the favor. But oh well. Thankfully I am a little smarter [almost ten years later]...

No one ever got hurt in doing this (we would spit and rinse really well and then throughly clean our toothbrushes), but still,  I wouldn't recommend doing this. at. all. Sibling rivalry is overrated.
And if a sibling has started The Toothbrush War with you, please, for your sake, end it as soon as possible.

I would also like to take this opportunity to say that I love my siblings — all of them (now I have four siblings).
I look back upon some of these weird little memories with fondness (and we are able to laugh about it).

That being said, I guess I do miss the good old days - even the obscure moments.