... i want to be able to go back where the two
spreadsheets were in two different instances of the excel program
where it would open one spreadsheet up in excel and open the other
spreadsheet up in another excel instance where i can toggle between
both apps or spreadsheets on the task bar?

With Windows 98 and Office 97, I'm aware of two different ways.

#1. From the Windows "Start" menu, use the cascaded menu to open Excel.
Once Excel is running, use "File Open" to open an Excel file. Repeat the
steps for the second file.

#2. Point to an Excel file on the desktop or in a folder. With the right
mouse button, click "Send To Excel". Repeat the steps for the second
file.

For #2, you might not see "Excel" in the "Send To" menu at first. To add it
there, put a shortcut to the Excel program into the folder
C:\Windows\SendTo\

By the way, if you have two files of the same name in different folders,
this allows you to have both open at the same time.