The people I look up to

I remember babysitting them when mom and dad would go out. I remember playing swamp monster with them on the trampoline on hot Sunday afternoons. I remember going to Disneyland with them and screaming in the Haunted Mansion and running around with the Mad Hatter. But that was a long time ago and now they're all taller than me.

Here's the latest from one of my little sisters in Japan:

So, I went to Nasu on P-day which is why I didn`t write this on Thursday. You`ll have to forgive me if my punctuation is a bit off. Somebody rearranged some of the keys on me. . . but I guess all the letters are in the same place.
Yeah, so my comp is awesome! She is a go-getting, hard-working, Japanese-speaking, fun-loving, hula-dancing, dendo(missionary work) machine!!!! This is her last transfer, so I get to kill her off.
Man, I lucked out! Oyama is the Mecca of sister missionaries in the TOKN mission. Everyone wants to be here and I can see why. The members are loving, concerned member-missionaries in the best way. So great! And they LOVE missionaries, so we are well fed and looked-after. Too well-fed, actually.

She's serving her mission in Japan right now and is "on fire" as we say. I think she's the smartest person I've met, or at least has the best English grammar. I used to be really jealous of her because she was the second child and stole my fire, and now I'm really jealous of her because she gets full-ride scholarships and goes to Japan on her mission. Or maybe it's more like "holy envy."

My next little sister is an artist. Not just a visual artist (that's all I can show here), but an artist of words and music and life. I remember sitting with her at the old piano downstairs in the Cooley house and teaching her the theme song to Jurassic Park, and wondering how she could learn it so fast when she couldn't even read the music. Now she creates her own music and her own life and both are uniquely hers.

My little brother is tough. I hope he doesn't remember this, but I used to push him around a little bit more than everyone else during swamp monster because I wanted him to be the "man" of the siblings - I was more of the "brain" or the "lego-master" or something puny like that. Now he could beat the crap out of me if he wanted to, but he wouldn't because I hear from everyone that he has a heart of gold. (my bro's in black - he might not have the technique yet, but he's sure got the strength, at least to crush this guy's head in):

If it doesn't work, click here

I love these guys. I don't see them often enough anymore to really express that, but I think about them all the time. I don't think they know that. They don't know that I pray for them by name, but I do. They don't know I check their myspaces to see what life is doing to them, but I do. They don't know I would do anything to help them avoid the stupid mistakes I made at that age, but I would. And it's funny because I'm kind of stuck between the "big brother" and "little brother" stage. I've watched out for them my whole life, but I think the time is coming (or already here, or long gone) that they don't need it anymore. So now what do I do? I guess just see them for who they are now, not 10 years ago. Siblings? Yes. Little? No. Friends? Definitely.