IBM Career Day

Previously, I had posted about our Business Leadership Series at INTI.  That has been a project that I find very satisfying and yet somewhat exhausting.  This last week we held an event that was a mix between a Business Leadership Series event (see this website for more info) and a career fair.  It was called IBM Career Day.


We had IBM's HR department come to INTI and spend the day doing career talks for different fields, mock interviews, and administer a pre-employment exam.  We had a great turn out and overall it was a success, especially for being the first event of it's kind, but man, it sure took a lot of my energy!  I was again asked to help manage this event, and while I did not do all the work, I did end up being the one who everyone went to when there was a problem.  The whole week leading up to this event I was working overtime to get things ready.  Thursday was the event and I was so busy that day, I barely managed to take 20 minutes for lunch.  I was so wiped out that I took Friday off, which was good because my feet were still sore and my shoulders were still tense.


I was really proud of this event and how well things went, but I am definitely feeling the effects of working so hard...Trip and I are just getting old I guess.  Anyway, this isn't a very interesting post, but it does give you an idea of what I have been doing this week and why I haven't posted recently.  Trip has also been super busy since school is in it's final month.  He has work projects that are moving forward, school projects that will be due soon, and he is keeping busy with the Young Men in church.  He is constantly sprinting to keep up with everything and will appreciate the Christmas break when it comes!  We will post more when we have had a moment to catch our breath.

Hong Kong - Day 1

I have had such a hard time getting posts up about the family visit to Malaysia because there are just sooo many pictures that I want to share, not enough time to sort through them all, and not enough space to work with.

So, I have been sorting through and narrowing down and I finally decided that I will just have to create a web album to share everything.  For now, here are a few snippets from our first day in Hong Kong.

I can't get over this face!

While I was going through the pictures I noticed that we seem to have a lot of pictures of Preston making eyes at Trip (who was behind the camera).  Hmm...should I be worried?  :P
 

Brayden loves being held in the air.  He open mouth smiles and squeals...it is so cute!

 

Monkey boy!

Something that Trip and I learned about Brayden while he was here is that he loves water.  He is fascinated by it.  Combine that with his love for being held up in the air and he is in heaven!  I know there are a ton of Brayden pictures, but I can't help it.  He is my only nephew, after all!

I love Brayden's fascination with Trip's hair.  He is so cute when he is checking it out.

This was a restaurant that I never thought I would see.  It is toilet themed...need I say more?

The entrance

This is just a cool picture...all done with mirrors!  Trip is the only one taking a picture here.

The table and chairs

The awesome dishes...

There was a picture of Brayden being held in front of one of the little drink urinals, but I can't find it...maybe that's a good thing?

We had a great time walking around the city and spending time together.  We had some laughs at this crazy restaurant and got some beautiful pictures of the city.  I tried to capture all of that in the few pictures that are up here (there are more than a few, I know).  

There is so much more to catch up on that I will try to work double time to get everything up here!

Friends, Family & The Far-East

The title of this post is a little bit restrictive. Between the two of us, Kimberlee and I have lived in 6 timezones, visited every US state, and have traveled to dozens of countries. In all that time we have been blessed to make so many wonderful friends. 

We are also both so lucky to come from amazing families. Our brothers and sisters are awesome. Our parents are loving, supportive, inspiring, and generally cool (yeah Dad, as you say, "It's like riding a bike."). We have a great time with aunts, uncles, and cousins. While we have spent the majority of our married lives closer to Kim's family, we love the Baker side just as much and hope to make our way back to the Northeast in the not too distant future. 

Our lives have been extremely blessed to know so many wonderful people. Couples like Kortney & Rustin, Leslie & Evan, Sandi & Travis, or Hailey & Jeff; that we could spend a lifetime as neighbors, having weekend barbeques and playing games. It seems that everywhere we go, we meet friends like that.

Here in KL we have gotten to know so many great people like Scott & Tobi, who have claimed the right to be a third set of grandparents for our future children. Kim and I love all of the hours we've spent with them enjoying food, fun, and especially Mexican Train together.

Back home in NJ/ OH we'd love to spend more time with Kathy & Chris, Tim & Megan, and especially my Mom & Dad. Which brings me to the point of this post, and the real meaning of the title. Where ever we go in this world we seem to expand our circle of friends & family, but as we continue our trek, we leave behind so many that we wish we could spend more time with. There is never enough time to see everyone. 

I guess the only thing we can do is to take advantage of the opportunities we have and treasure the memories that are made. 

Anniversary Lovin'

This year our wedding anniversary was about as perfect as our wedding, and to me, our wedding was perfect!  We had a lovely anniversary and appreciated all the congratulations received from family and friends.

My original plan for our anniversary was foiled due to unforeseen circumstances, and needless to say, I was pretty disappointed about this the night before our anniversary.  Trip told me not to worry and that he would take me out to dinner and we would still have a good time, so I was satisfied with that.  I had no idea what was coming next!  Here is a list of reasons why my earlier disappointment was turned into blissful satisfaction:

• Just before Trip was leaving to pick me up from work, he told me to look at our blog, and I was surprised by the sweet post he had put up here.  I loved it!
• When he arrived, he not only opened my door for me (which is fairly normal with him), but he also surprised me with a bouquet of purple and white flowers!  The flowers came with such a sweet card; his cards always make me teary.

 

• Dinner wasn't really a surprise, but it was fantastic!  We went to the same restaurant that we went to last year and the food was perfect.  We had Caprese Salad, handmade Gnocchi, Margarita Pizza, and Creme Brulee.  Mmm, makes me hungry just thinking about it! 
• After dinner we came home, and after putting my flowers in a vase, I found a box of chocolates on my pillow with yet another sweet card from my loving husband!  Wow, what did I do to deserve all of this?! 
• I was also treated to a massage, which was awesome and very much needed.

Trip really knows how to treat a lady and I am so lucky to be married to such a thoughtful and caring person!  I love you babe!  You make me smile and I am so happy to be with you!

Three Years of Marital Bliss

Three years ago today, Kim walked down the aisle, tripped on her dress, recovered gracefully and said yes to marrying an awestruck red head. Since then we have had a lot of good times (living at the cabin; adopting Jack & Tigger), a couple of bad times (me being unemployed), countless adventures traveling the world and enjoying life with friends and family.

Three years ago I never imagined that we would be where we are today. I won't pretend to know where we will be in another three years. But I do know that I'll always have my best friend with me no matter what. 

Kimberlee, marrying you is the best thing I have ever done and I am so thankful to have you as my eternal companion. Happy Anniversary! I love you. 

Young Women's Camp

We did Young Women's camp in September this year.  I always enjoy camping with the young women and even though I wasn't looking forward to being away from Trip for a whole week (Young Men's camp was immediately after), I was still looking forward to spending time with the girls.


So far, I have camped in the jungle twice, both times with the young women, and both times very different than any kind of camping I have ever done before!  I think this year takes the cake when it comes to memorable experiences.  There were only 4 YW leaders at the camp this year, and we were short on priesthood support as well.  We didn't have too many girls, so this wasn't really an issue, until it came time for the jungle trek.  With only 1 priesthood leader available, I volunteered to stay back and keep an eye on camp.  This was my crafty plan to try to avoid all the leeches that were sure to be on the trail...it had been raining a lot and leeches were in abundance this year.  If you have never seen a leeche crawling towards your bare flesh, count yourself lucky!


Anyway, our camp was divided into 2 parts; the area with the tents and a concrete bunker where we could lock up our food.  I was in the bunker cleaning up from the morning activities when I noticed a troop of monkeys coming towards the door.  I have heard stories about monkeys getting aggressive around food, so this made me kind of nervous.  I quickly shut and locked the door to prevent any trouble and then watched them leave from the window. 


Not too long after this, I decided that I should go up to check on our tents and make sure everything was okay.  I wasn't really worried about it since we were in a fairly remote location and there were park rangers at the base of the trail leading to the tents.  When I got there, I was completely caught off guard.  There were at least 20 monkeys running around our camp, trash was strewn everywhere and everything was a mess!  I even saw one monkey who had opened a water jug filled with Milo and was sticking his hand in, then licking it off.  I felt like I had walked into a scene from a movie.  I marched right into camp to chase the monkeys away, when I realized that they weren't scared...and they weren't going anywhere!  Instead they were circling around me.  Yikes!  Having pretty much no experience when it comes to monkeys, I decided to retreat before anything happened and call the first person I think of when it comes to monkeys, President Renner, my branch president.  I told him about my predicament and asked him what he thought I should do.  This is pretty much how the conversation went:

• Pres. Renner:  Just grab a stick and start hitting monkeys.  They will get the idea.

• Me:  But won't they charge me or something?

• Pres. Renner:  Oh yeah, they will probably bear their teeth and run at you, but that's why you have the stick.

At this point I'm thinking he is pretty much insane.  20 monkeys + 1 of me = sure disaster, even if I have a stick!

• Me:  What about a Plan B?

• Pres. Renner:  Well, I guess the other thing you could do is get the park rangers to help you.  I will be there in 40 minutes with a slingshot and a bag of marbles.

In case it isn't obvious, I went with plan B.  It seemed safer.  As soon as I hung up with Pres. Renner, I went over to the ranger station.  It was 4:45pm and there was only 1 park ranger left.  I told him about the monkeys being in our camp and he just looked at me for a minute before giving this response:

• Park Ranger:  Where is the rest of your group?

• Me:  They are still trekking.

• Park Ranger:  (silence)

• Me:  So can you help me?

• Park Ranger:  Oh no.  I can't go up there, they will attack me.  I am going home now, have a good night!  (Followed by a hasty drive into the sunset on his scooter)

• Me:  (speechless, and in shock)

This response did not change my opinion of the "stick plan".  Luckily, the rest of the camp returned right about then and we were able to chase the monkeys away.  There is definitely strength in numbers!  Also, the slingshot and marbles helped to keep them away for the rest of camp.  

I don't think I will ever look at monkeys, or park rangers the same again.  This was definitely an experience that I NEVER would have seen coming...how interesting life can be!

Rock the Lord

So today was another wonderful Sunday. I got to talk about General Conference with the Young Men today and share my conversion story with some family of our friend's the Sanders. It got me thinking about my testimony, the decisions I have made to bring me to this point in my life, and my love of the Gospel.

I am so happy about the decision I made almost four years ago to join Christ's restored church. I am amazed at the difference that the Gospel has made in my life and continues to make as I live its principles. I've been blessed to have the opportunity to share this Gospel along side our missionaries and will even be performing my first baptism this upcoming Saturday! Every time I get the chance to teach eternal truthes or bear my testimony of Jesus Christ, I catch a glimpse of a better version of me. Someone who I am not yet, but have faith I can be in the future. With that I'd like to leave you with my testimony. 

I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that he died for each one of us so that we can have the opportunity to return to live in the presence of God, our Heavenly Father. I know that we are led by living prophets of God and that Thomas Monson is the man that has been called to serve as His prophet today. I know that Joseph Smith was called to be the prophet to usher in the restoration of the church that Christ originally established over 2000 years ago. Finally, I have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true, that it testifies of Christ and that by living according to its teachings has blessed my life in more ways than I am aware of. 

If you want to read a bit more about my beliefs or how I became a Mormon, then take a look at this.

Caught in the act!

Jack in a box

Captain Jack Sparrow got his name for many reasons.  One is that he is devilishly handsome and scraggly looking all at the same time.  Another reason is that he is also a sneaky little scallywag who tries to get away with anything and everything!

Example #1:  When we first got Jack and Tigger we were living in Salt Lake City.  Our trash can was the kind with the swinging lid, but we had lost the lid in the move, so it was open.  The can was one of the tall kinds though, so Jack and Tigger couldn't get into it.  Neither Trip nor I ever really thought much of it, until we started coming home to the can knocked over, trash all over the floor, and both animals acting guilty.  We couldn't be sure which one was doing it and it just kept happening more and more often.  

Well, one weekend we were at home and upstairs in our room when we heard a dull 'thud'.  Trip and I exchanged a look and without a word, started to sneak downstairs to catch the culprit.  It is important to note that our kitchen was the kind with 2 entrances, one from the hallway and one from the dining room, both of which connect to the stairs.  We quietly went down the hall and peeked around the door into the kitchen to see Tigger sitting in the other doorway looking very concerned and Jack nose deep in the trash with his back to us.  As soon as Tigger saw us she took off, which caught Jack's attention for a moment, but not hearing anything (I think we were both holding our breath at this point) he went right back to what he was chewing.  Trip stepped into the kitchen and was only about a foot away when Jack realized something was wrong.  He looked over his shoulder, got HUGE eyes when he saw us, and took off running out the other doorway.  Unfortunately for Jack, we also had tile floors in the kitchen and he didn't really move anywhere even though his legs were pumping at 100 miles an hour.  

Trip swooped in and caught him before he was able to move more than a few inches and it was all we could do act serious and not laugh right then.  Later, we laughed until we cried at the look on Captain Jack's face.  I wish I had this moment caught on video!  From that day on Jack never knocked over a single garbage can, though he will still grab anything within his reach.  Who says "shock" therapy doesn't work?

Example #2:  Trip and I got Captain Jack and Tigger just after Thanksgiving in 2008.  Since it was the holiday season there was a lot of activity at our place...food, games, and fun.  This also usually means some crumbs and "treats" left on the floor for Jack.  The Captain is shameless when it comes to food and begging...you would think we never feed him!

One evening that winter, Trip and I were sitting in front of the fireplace eating popcorn and reading (how I miss the cool weather now!).  I had dropped a piece of popcorn on the floor and didn't get to it before Tigger pounced.  She wasn't interested in eating it, only in batting it around, so I let her have it and figured Jack would eat it when she was done.  However, Jack didn't know that it was okay for him to eat the popcorn because I didn't think to tell him so.  A few minutes passed, Tigger had moved on to something else, and I had completely forgotten about the popcorn until something caught my eye.

Jack was standing with his back to me and chewing in the weirdest way...it was quiet, and almost like he had peanut butter in his mouth.  I knew it was the popcorn and thought that it was kind of funny for him to be chewing it like that.  I called Trip's attention to him so he could be amused as well, but as soon as I spoke Jack stopped chewing and I thought he might be done.  We called him over to see if he still had the popcorn, and he came walking over as if nothing had happened so we figured he was done and started to return to our books.  As soon as our attention was diverted, we heard a crunching sound and looked just in time to see Jack chew and swallow the popcorn.  The little sneak had been hiding it from us in his mouth because he thought it was a forbidden treat!

We learned that when Jack acts like nothing is wrong, and won't open his mouth, it means he is hiding something.  I have retrieved game pieces, the foot from a chair, and used tissues from the little rascal's mouth.  We have learned to "child proof" our house thanks to Captain Jack.

Who can resist this begging face?!

The Beginning of the End

Today marks the first day of the last semester of Trip's Master's program.  Yay!!  We are pretty excited at how soon he will be finished!  We are also excited because this means that our trip home is coming up.  It has been too long since we saw our friends and family and we can't wait!  Congrats luv!!  Hope this quarter is nice and easy for you  :)