Sunday, October 7, 2012

...I Will Give You Rest...

Come Unto Me All Ye That Labor and Are Heavy Laden..


..and I Will Give You Rest....
Mathew 11:28

As I walked the streets and deserted roads of Tucson I imagined a temple on the hill. A temple,
a holy place for all to come and rest from life's burdens and biggest challenges. 

For everyone who has ever served a mission, and those who soon will, your mission will be one that is most memorable.

 You will find humor in your service!

You learn to love the land...no matter how hot or dry it might be!
 And LOVE all who you are privileged to teach!




 You learn to serve where the Lord needs you at any given moment and that blessings come 
as you follow the Lord's will.
"My brothers and sisters, temples are more than stone and mortar.
 They are filled with faith and fasting. They are built of trials and testimonies. 
They are sanctified by sacrifice and service."-President Thomas S. Monson

(Gila Valley Temple-Served here for 3 weeks)
 You learn how important temple work and covenants are to not only converts 
but to every soul who has ever lived!

You learn to bond with those you serve with.

You find God's power of creation to be more beautiful than you may have
ever noticed. 
(Love ya Em!)
 You learn that missions are unpredictable...especially when you find odd things out 
in the middle of the desert on your way home from meetings.

Enjoy humor even more...as you serve!
And when the time comes to say goodbye...you smile for the camera striving to hide
the tears that come knowing the Lord needs you home. 
 

Bittersweet moments fill your heart...you want to turn and go back to the Lord's work
but you know that your family has been waiting...what seems a short time to you!
YOU MISS YOUR MISSION 24/7!!!!

Then a new chapter begins..but with a navigation system more complete!

You find yourself in clothing that seems foreign and you curl your hair again...

You find the boy who you know the Lord approves of and who loves you
for who you are inside and out.
(And this happens in the Lord's timing!)

You fall deeper in love...
But you never forget those you taught and the spirit you felt as you 
do the Lord's work...and you may even get to go back and visit!





When President Monson announced that a temple will be built in Tucson, AZ....
my husband and I about drove off the road while driving on the interstate. 
My husband served in Tucson as well.  It has touched our hearts. We are excited to 
travel to Tuscon when we can walk through the temple that I dreamed would be built
one day.  The journey continues...

Service truly is the greatest feeling known to God's children. If you are thinking of serving a mission, especially now that the age limits are different, please visit the LDS church website (lds.org) 
and you will find information on the call the Lord has in store for you! 
Call your bishop or stake president and share your desire of why you want to serve a mission!

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Highlights from
the
Baker's
2012

 Our summer started with Trevor winning the "Overall Man Winner" award at the Springville Nestle 5k in June.  I was so proud of my sweetheart! He didn't even have to try which made me kind of ill when he came back for me and I was only 2/3 of the way done! ha!
Our First Race Together! 
We want to do many more whenever we make the time and get the opportunity!
 On the fourth of July we went to Rupert where we did another 5K-5.5K. 
Rupert takes things a little serious and they make you run past the 5K mark. 
It was so fun to run with my sister Ashley and my sister in law Hanni.  Hanni did really great coming from her 1/2 marathon in Alaska. She was so great. Ashley and I stuck together and finished with a great time for not having trained a whole lot.

In mid July, my friend Clara and her husband Grant came through Utah and stayed with us for a couple of days. In an attempt to keep them entertained we ended up at the Kennecott Copper mine just west of where we live in South Jordan. It was actually really neat to see how big the trucks where in the open mining pit. If you look close you will see a normal size truck behind the mining truck that looks like a pea in comparison! This open mine is actually visible from space as well as the Great Wall of China.
 Clara and Grant and their daughter Lydia by a old tire from one of the mining trucks. Each tire costs $25,000.00 dollars and is good for about a year. There are six tires on one truck! Little boys would love this place. Lydia even liked it and she's just under two years old!
 OUR ANNIVERSARY!!! JULY 14TH

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner and live piano music at 
The Roof in the Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg 
downtown SLC! 

ONE AMAZING YEAR!  
 MANY MORE TO COME!
 The view from our seat in the restaurant.
The next day we went to Lagoon. It was fun! We just love doing just about anything together!

Trevor's parents came to visit in mid-August. It was so much fun to have them nearby. 
They had not seen the movie, "Up"-Disney, so we watched it with them and then the next day
we took them to the Up house near our home here in UT. Trevor and I had previously scoped 
out where it was for FHE. We fell in love with it. Disney actually had to approve the plans
and then these homeowners had to mail the house plans to the Disney Corporation in order for 
the house to be built! There is only one "Up" house legally built in the world!

Bob and Kristen, Trevor's mother and step-father! We just love them so much!
 Trevor and I in front of the "Up" house.


HOME FOR TWO YEARS

I returned from an LDS mission in Tucson, AZ two years ago in August. 
I still miss my mission everyday and often find that many things remind 
me of serving in the mission field. Did you know that Temple Square has cacti? Little Ceasars has 
a pepperoni pizza with roasted green chili's on it? And sometimes when Trevor and I go running in the evening at the lake nearby, I get a small glimpse of the Tucson sunsets.  It doesn't compare but I like to pretend! Trevor got me a Arizona flag as a surprise for my two year anniversary!
  I've always wanted one!
 We enjoyed some baseball games this summer! 
We have loved the warm summer nights and summer activities. We loved the fireworks that came with several of these activities.

 President Monson's 80th Birthday Celebration

It was so nice to go to the conference center one Friday evening and reflect on President Monson's life. What a dedicated man. So prepared to do what he has been called to do.  I reflected on the blessings of marrying my sweet husband who has lived under this same honor. So lucky to be married to the best person out their for me!

WORK, WORK, and MORE WORK!
The end of July was filled with long days at my school getting ready for my second graders. 
I changed my classroom theme to an owl theme so I basically had to start over with my
most everything in my classroom. But it needed a face lift!

I am our school "webmaster" so I upkeep and help design the school website.
 http://schools.jordandistrict.org/sjes/
I'm still in that process daily but it's getting better and better.  I had a previous online job which prepared me to do this job now and I can clearly see how things come together not by coincidence but for many reasons of which we don't really comprehend at the beginning of a new experience.

The vinyl tree I placed on the wall is our "race reading" tree. Students owls move up the tree branches when students read certain hour goals in reading. 

This was a picture of the tree before school started. Now the owls are up on the tree as students have been excited to read! I wanted the tree to go along with my teacher blog theme. See our 2nd grade blog!

Trevor and I worked so hard to level new books for my classroom. Trevor did all the leveling of the books and I worked on the other decor in my classroom!  Other teachers often comment of how 
great of a husband he must be to be willing to serve my students and I. He's amazing!
 We started the "Leader in Me"leadership program at our school this year by Stephen Covey. 
In our faculty training one day we learned that Stephen Covey had passed away due to 
complications from an earlier bike accident. It was a time to reflect on this individual who inspired others until he was nearly 80. One of the training video segments we watched was his video about what others would say about you if they were attending your 80th birthday. Watch the one minute segment here!  For a man who deserved to reach his 80th birthday, I would say his family
would have had numerous great things to say about his inspiration, faith and the way he lived.


The 7 Habits tree poster to inspire students to stay on their Green cards everyday! 
Green =Great Behavior!

THE LAST SUMMER HURRAH!

Trevor and I enjoyed Labor Day hiking in our neck of the woods. We visited Doughnut Falls up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was a three mile hike round trip which wasn't too bad!
Fall Leaves.....Yikes!
The waterfall goes through a "doughnut" hole in the rock and comes out the bottom several feet below. Pretty neat! We didn't hike all the way to the top because there were literally about 150 people trying to inch their way past each other and we decided to go back later this fall when not as many people are in for the hike!
I love small bridges like this when hiking over stream and small rivers!
Trevor and I and my cheesy face as we ended our hike! It was a nice cool day!
Here's to many more adventure's throughout the next year! Who knows what time will bring? Whatever it does bring, we will be having more adventures as we strive to serve, work and live Christlike lives. Happy days are ahead!
The end of my really long blog! Hopefully I can update it more often from now on! I kinda forgot about our blog this summer!  :)

Sunday, April 1, 2012

The Newest Member of Our Family!

We recently purchased a new vehicle. Buying a vehicle is more stressful than we thought it would be. Hours and hours of searching, test driving, budgeting, and praying. It's not like picking out your favorite candy bar at the store yet it's still fun. Trevor and I decided it was time to add to the family tree with a car! We purchased it as our first family car and realized it probably costs more than it will cost for the birth of all of our future children combined! We wanted something safe and reliable for children and something that would last us a few years!
Nissan Murano

We decided on either the Tan or White color and we found a Tan Murano!

 We're hoping leather will be easy to take care of with children...hope it will be ok!

 We like the spacious cargo area with the removable cover so nobody can peek into it!


 We sit much higher in this vehicle and still getting use to that feeling! 

We have enjoyed this adventure and hope that as more "Baker's" come along there will be many fun family adventures while traveling in our family SUV! Well...if you happen to be into looking into a new vehicle we wish you the best of luck! It will be worth it in the end when you finally find the vehicle for you!














Monday, March 19, 2012

Thanks Pinterest!

If your like me...you get on Facebook, maybe a few blogs, and of course PINTEREST! 
It's my new favorite kind of "shopping". You can look but come up with a new creation
of your own to make fun, festive pretty little things! 

Here's a couple of projects I have done the past three months.
For Christmas Trevor (I mean Santa) delivered a sewing machine! 
I usually get REALLY frustrated with sewing machines 
because I always get the bobbin and needle messed up...but not 
this time! I finished three pillows in just a few hours!
Sewing is not as hard as you might imagine!
I also decided to make a short table runner for our home.  
The "Ten Minute" table runner turned into an "60 minute" runner...

but it was worth it!

I recently did centerpieces for our relief society birthday luncheon.
I decided to do accordion paper flowers with spring colors! 
Let me tell you...they are not as quick as they seem to make. Eight flowers
took me one hour. In total, the flowers alone were a about a three hours project! 
I painted dowels to add a bit more "green" to our spring getaway!
Here they are~they have an Easter theme to them.

I couldn't find a decent tutorial on how to make the flowers so I just tried it out. 
I recommend two-sided scrapbook paper because if not, they are not the most
attractive on the backside. Just a hint from my learning curve!

I dedicate this to "Pinterest"...the website that has inpsired me to do something
for decorating the home, my family and serving others! Three things I love!

Thanks for lookin'...that's all folks!