a lovely one, my sister

Today is my sister Kyra's birthday. She's turning 24 which happens to be one of my favorite numbers, so she is very lucky. Kyra is my best friend so I thought I'd do a 24-picture montage of our life together, which has been 24 years long. Conveniently, I could only find 24 pictures of just the two of us at such short notice, so this is great. (No particular order.)

I feel like I can't caption all of these or I'll run out of cute things to say, because a lot of these are cute.

We had been hiding! Then we were found. She was short.

Sweet serenade

fun times on the deck with a Pooh bear and 90's bows

According to my sister, when she dressed like this I sang at her, "Here comes the bride, all dressed in pink. Open the window, cuz she really stinks!" And she cried.

She continues to just be so short!

Matching.

So pink! I'm hoping it's the reflection and not our imminent sunburns.

This is it. This is the only exception to "just the two of us".

We had lots of fun in the unfinished basement, and on that trike. And with each other.

A lot of our dress-up clothes didn't even fit us until we got bigger. (She was still short.)

She was a baby once.

Inexplicable fun times

She was much, much braver at this than me.

We call this picture "Ventriloquism" because she is the brains of the operation and I am the empty-headed blatherer

There's us as grownups. She was 17. I was 19. Hahaha that is not a grownup

Endless fun with my sister

There's another person in this picture but you can't even see her face. You can see Kyra though. We loved roadtrips

I can't remember the original picture that said "Dramatic tendencies." So here, a year later, a different one! We matched.

Let it never be said that we didn't eat dinner together

Let it also never be said that we never played a game together

We also went out to the west desert together, in our matching white hats

Also we went to this desert together. (She's short.)

Okay, but see, she grew! Look how not-short she is!

We don't get as many pictures of us taken nowadays. Just some nice g+ hangout ones with flattering webcam lighting. But I don't think she wants me to put those in public. We talk almost every day and have lots of fun and I am glad she's my sister.

Bonus pic. The most recent I could find and it's still almost 2 years old.

followers of my faith [Mormon Monday 38]

I've been pondering about this principle lately:

source

Hope is such a nebulous thing. It's hard for me to get my head around it sometimes. But here's one thing I do know: any virtue, talent, idea, or spirit comes alive in Christ. He'll sanctify and beautify everything if we let it go through Him first.

sacred simplicity of you at my side [Scripture Mastery Times: Genesis 2:24]

The night before Christmas Eve, my family came down to tour downtown Salt Lake with me. I had had the worst day ever at work and was not in the most sanguine mood. As we wandered Temple Square we passed the statue of Joseph and Emma that I can see from the office window and I informed my family, bitterly, "I call that the forever-alone bench. I sit there and stare at the statue and think about how I will never be happy."

There's the statue and the bench. (source)

It was so not true, guys. I have sat on that bench maybe twice in the two years I've worked here, and I don't sit there and think about how I will never have a love like Joseph and Emma. I mostly choose that bench because it's not usually very busy, even on nice days.

Not to say I don't sometimes wonder when I'll get married. I think most of my friends wonder that. It's so emphasized in our Church, and that emphasis is highlighted even more in this new scripture mastery verse that seminary students will learn:

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

There are a few reasons I can think of why this doctrine is being brought more to the forefront in our Church. With same-sex relationships becoming normalized in society, helping students learn the Lord's doctrine of marriage earlier is more important. Also if the expanded creation of mid-singles wards is any guide, young single adults aren't getting married nearly at the rate they could be.

I am not necessarily saying that if you're not married you don't have enough of a testimony of marriage, because I'm pretty sure that's not true. (Also that reminds me of something that happened a few weeks ago. I got in the elevator to leave work and someone in the elevator said, "Going home is the best part of the day." I smiled in agreement but abruptly stopped when she continued, "If you're living righteously and have someone to go home to." Thanks a lot.)

I even believe it'll happen for me, someday. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy the springtime sitting on that bench. By myself.

followers of my faith [Mormon Monday 37]

At work we just got a Monthly Health Tip business card. HR wants us to be healthy, I guess. We're probably better employees if we're not sick, or something.

Here's what it says:

Health Benefits of Prayer—Scientifically Proven

• Positive prayers of faith focusing on gratitude and guidance have been shown to reduce anger, stress, and hostility.

• Positive prayer can reduce heart disease, depression, headaches, obesity, asthma, diabetes, dementia, and hypertension.

"We are commanded to 'pray always' (2 Nephi 32:9; D&C 10:5; 90:24)—'vocally as well as in [our] heart[s]' (D&C 19:28). I testify that prayer becomes more meaningful as we counsel with the Lord in all of our doings, as we express heartfelt gratitude and as we pray for others with real intent and a sincere heart." David A. Bednar, "Pray Always," Ensign, Nov. 2008, 44

If anyone wants one of these cards, let me know. I have many.

followers of my faith [Mormon Monday 36]

Check out this neat wordle of the April General Conference!

source

It is a nice way to visually see what was emphasized. Here's an interesting thing I just noticed: missionaries isn't on there.

and the words, they're everything [03]

Some bot-generated statuses are more surreal than others.

This one is about feminism

This one's my favorite:

Part 1
Part 2

followers of my faith [Mormon Monday 35]

General Conference was this past weekend. There are already many beautiful graphics with quotations from what we learned! (They are not memes. They are graphics.)

Like this one:

source

So many things I need to try to internalize.

for I have made her [Scripture Mastery Times: Genesis 1:26-27]

April is going to be Anatomy month. I took March off but I need to start studying for the final so I can get my money's worth out of the class I decided to take on my own (which is never a good plan for Human Anatomy, I think; too much information to try to teach myself).

I have enjoyed learning more about what our body is made up of, though. I will always prefer the physiology to just knowing what bones are named, but it is neat to know what bones are named.

We are amazing creations. Every living thing is a fascinating complex being, but humans are special. To think that a bunch of wiring and minerals can lead to us! God really knew what He was doing.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

I think it's important to remember that we're made in God's image. I know the biology of embryology but I still believe our individual makeup is guided by God. Let us not hate too much the gift of our bodies, even if they're broken or not working quite right.